The last few weeks of secondary market spikes have been pretty competitive driven. This week looks slightly different, partially because the week was dominated by some not-so-sincere market movements. Otherwise, popular Commander cards with some significant scarcity are really starting to take the spotlight over the past few weeks. Let’s take a look!
Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
The new Cute to Brute art featured on MTG’s newest Nicol Bolas, the Ravager has proven to be incredibly popular. So much so that the thick stock display Commander is seeing significant price spikes alongside the real thing. We discussed this a bit alongside the problematic price spikes that came up over the weekend. For that reason, we won’t go further into this.
The financial snapshot for these cards is as follows: the Thick Stock version that cannot be put into your Commander deck (but could be used as a Commander) is up to about $4 from less than $2, and the real version of the card is up to $50 from what was $25 just a few weeks ago.
Doric, Nature’s Warden
Players familiar with recent financial movements may be familiar with the above card. Doric, Nature’s Warden has been becoming a more popular Commander option as the weeks pass by. The card offers some incredibly unique effects that can make for quite an entertaining game plan.
In terms of competitive usage for this card – there doesn’t appear to be any, which pretty much confirms this card’s price spikes are due to Commander usage in combination with supply and demand. Doric, currently, is only available as a part of the Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Secret Lair, which makes the card incredibly difficult to acquire. Should there be some interest, the card’s financial value will increase significantly as a result.
While some financial outlets have this card at $50, according to TCGplayer, Doric, Nature’s Warden has quickly approached the $45 mark from just $25ish over the past weekend.
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Kodama’s Reach
Kodama’s Reach is one of the signature spells many see while playing Commander. The card has a ton of reprints, is relatively cheap on the bottom-end of prices, and essentially functions as a second Cultivate. Yet, this version of the card saw a massive price spike, rising to $70.
As you may imagine, the above version of Kodama’s Reach is rather rare. Available as a part of the Hasbro Pulse Secret Lair named Purrfection, released in 2021, this was an incredibly limited edition release, meaning the card is rather scarce. Commander players who want to bling out their decks may put a target on this EDHREC top 100 card’s back.
This iteration of Kodama’s Reach has had some bizarre pricing history. The card seemed to spike a bit in March, but has since dropped and been slowly rising. The card was worth $50ish in the past months. The foil version has quite the multiplier for those interested, commonly selling for $125+!
Temporary Lockdown
Temporary Lockdown was a rather popular choice for the Regional Championships this past weekend. Capable of absolutely demolishing aggressive strategies like Mono White Aggro and Boros Convoke, this card is capable of clearing a number of complicated board states for a relatively low cost. The fact that it grabs artifact tokens commonly used for Gleeful Demolition is just icing on the cake.
After a promising weekend, Temporary Lockdown is beginning to see a small price increase. The card is up from $1.20 at the end of May and is beginning to push towards $4 on the higher end of things.
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Xenk, Paladin Unbroken
The Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Secret Lair has become a goldmine of value. Each of these cards seems to have some relevant secondary market value, and Xenk is no different. Offering a really bizarre ability that grants Auras Exalted, Xenk is the epitome of a mono white Voltron Commander.
For reference, Exalted refers to a triggered ability that occurs whenever only one of your creatures attack. Exalted will give that attacking creature +1/+1. Since Xenk can give this to every Aura you control, multiple Auras mean multiple Exalted triggers. The obvious way to use this is simply to stack a bunch of Auras onto Xenk, especially since he has Double Strike, but the enchanted creature doesn’t necessarily need to be the one attacking to get the Exalted triggers.
In terms of price, Xenk has increased from about $9 at the end of April to a whopping $21 now. This is largely because of how difficult the Secret Lair exclusive cards are to track down.
Spec: Metamorphic Alteration
Have you been keeping up with Pioneer? Word on the block is there’s a new two-card midrange combo deck out there! Considering Dimir Inverter was an absolute menace when legal, a combo that involves another two-mana spell and a 6/6 flier for four mana may start to ring alarm bells.
Don’t worry! The new Metamorphic Alteration and Archfiend of the Dross combo does not appear to be the second coming of Dimir Inverter. That said, the combo does appear to be competitive enough to be a serious consideration in the Pioneer format for the future.
Before this combo broke out onto the scene, Metamorphic Alteration was a bulk rare. For the time being, it still kind of is, but the card has seen a price hike as well as a huge demand hike following this weekend, much like Knight-Errant of Eos did when Boros Convoke hit the scene.
Now, players are not reacting to this deck like it’s the new apocalypse like they did for Boros Convoke, so the hype driving secondary market pricing for this card is going to be a lot lower than the breakout Boros Convoke cards were. That said, I find it tough to believe that this is going to remain a bulk rare if the new take on Inverter is going to be popular, which I think it will be.
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