Because so much MTG product is released in short order, it only makes sense that some sets perform better than others. While Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth had an unquestionably warm welcome from the MTG community, Commander Masters did not.
While Commander Masters’ reprints were strong and the draft environment incredibly engaging, one major fault turned a lot of players off of MTG’s premium reprint set: the price. Packs were simply too expensive to justify the means. It’s not uncommon to find some untouched Commander Masters product at your LGS as a result.
That said, the value of some Commander Masters singles is starting to increase because of Wilds of Eldraine. Virtue and Valor appears to be rather popular but is a weaker preconstructed Commander product overall. As a result, upgrades are getting rather pricy! Here are some of the most noteworthy financial spikes for this week!
Ondu Spiritdancer
Ondu Spiritdancer is a five mana card that appears in the Enduring Enchantments Commander deck. This is not a reprinted card – but one of the ten new cards that come with that deck.
Ondu Spiritdancer synergizes quite well with any deck that cares about enchantments. Once per turn, when an enchantment enters the battlefield under your control, Ondu Spiritdancer makes a copy of it. Pretty simple and powerful.
Wilds of Eldraine also happened to push an enchantments matter strategy in Commander. Ondu Spiritdancer fits like a glove into the new Virtue and Valor aura-based EDH deck. As such, the card has become a popular upgrade for the deck and is increasing in price.
In prerelease season for Commander Masters, Ondu Spiritdancer started out at around $30 according to TCGplayer. The card dropped off significantly after release down to $3.75. After a massive rebound, the Spiritdancer currently retails for about $15, but has sales for anywhere between $13 and $21.
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Ghoulish Impetus
Unlike Ondu Spiritdancer, Ghoulish Impetus was never expected to do much. Similarly to Ondu Spiritdancer, Ghoulish Impetus is a new card released as part of the 40 new cards introduced with the Commander Masters preconstructed decks. This card can also be found in the Enduring Enchantments deck.
Ghoulish Impetus is a rather frustrating enchantment that will Goad your opponent’s creatures over and over… at least that’s how it’s meant to be used. You could always use it to buff your own creature and push damage, but using it was a way to offer opponents opportunities to remove problematic creatures at the cost of their own is much more interesting.
This doesn’t function as a direct upgrade to the Aura-centric Virtue and Valor deck thanks to its color identity, but it can inspire similar strategies that may branch off the two new preconstructed decks. Ghoulish Impetus, at the end of the day, is a brutal recurring threat that offers opponents the opportunity to remove opposing creatures at a high cost. The card could also just incentivize your opponents to throw damage at each other as well. Low floor, high ceiling.
Either way, Ghoulish Impetus has increased in price! Bottoming out a little over a dollar at the beginning of September, Ghoulish Impetus is now worth about $7!
Virtue of Loyalty
One of the new stars of Standard thanks to the World Championship has seen a price spike this week! Virtue of Loyalty was the second-most played card from Wilds of Eldraine in the recent Standard World Championship, and the most played card, Virtue of Persistence, already saw a price spike from the previous week.
This card plays to the Esper Midrange tempo game that did well in the World Championship while offering a powerful payoff that can get your board out of control rather quickly. Standard may have put this card on players’ radar, but Virtue of Loyalty is fantastic in a wide range of Commander decks as well. Admittedly, the card may be a bit too slow for other competitive formats.
Virtue of Loyalty bottomed out around the beginning of September at $4.50ish. The card gradually spiked up as the month continued, and is now selling for about $10-12 at the end of September.
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Xenk, Unbroken Paladin
This Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Secret Lair card has been going up in price once again. The cards from this Secret Lair are mechanically unique instead of being reskins of other cards like most crossovers. This means that, like Rick Steadfast before it got reprinted in Wilds of Eldraine, should these cards have any demand, a really tight supply means that they will be quite expensive.
Xenk is, once again, gaining popularity because it slots into the Virtue and Valor EDH deck really well. The strategy revolves around Auras and Role tokens, and Xenk giving all of those cards Exalted means that your Commander can generally end a player in one swing.
Like all the other cards talked about today, Xenk started seeing a spike in price at the beginning of September. Back then, Xenk still held a pretty high price tag, sitting around $20. In a month’s time, Xenk appears to have doubled in price, selling for $40 while pushing towards higher prices.
Strong Upgrades for a Mediocre Deck
At the end of the day, as we reviewed, Virtue and Valor offers a clunky play experience. Regardless, it appears that players are enjoying this deck since some of the more obviously powerful upgrades are rising in price. If you’re willing to put in some time and turn this deck into your own, you could have an incredibly powerful aura-based combo deck on your hands. Just make sure to find the right mix of power and protection, lest one removal spell send your entire gameplan back to square one.
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