MTG Pro Tour March of the Machine has just ended! We’re still seeing how this massive event impacts the secondary market, but the story going into the Pro Tour is more or less how the event ended, with Rakdos, in its various flavors, dominating the event. Paper Standard play hasn’t traditionally affected the secondary market too much, but that may change with Wizards of the Coast’s recent announcement regarding the format’s restructuring. For now, however, we continue to see the same trends over the past few weeks continue to dominate the secondary market, with Norn’s Choirmaster seeing a particularly interesting price increase because of how well it synergizes with a new mechanic from March of the Machine. Let’s take a look!
Norn’s Choirmaster
A recent Commander card from Phyrexia: All Will Be One, Norn’s Choirmaster was worth about $2 when it was released in February. It only gained about 75 cents worth of value until the end of April, where it suddenly exploded. You can now find the Choirmaster for approximately $14.30.
What caused this Commander card to explode in price over the last week? Well, Norn’s Choirmaster, among other things, synergizes quite well with the new Incubate mechanic from March of the Machine. The card also fits into the color identity of Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos, making it a fantastic upgrade to that preconstructed deck. The card is also a Phyrexian, meaning it will easily trigger Brimaz.
Outside of that, Proliferate is a strong mechanic in Commander in general. This card is limited to Commander decks that want their Commander attacking a lot, but Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice, also known as the most popular Commander period, fits this like a glove. There may also be some interest in the second creature type featured by Norn’s Choirmaster: an Angel. This makes it a compelling inclusion in Giada, Font of Hope – the most popular Angel Commander right now.
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Chandra, Hope’s Beacon
This spike is relatively new in comparison to some of the other cards we will cover in this article, but Chandra has had an absolutely fantastic weekend. The card showed up all over the March of the Machine Pro Tour. Chandra is capable of cleaning up problematic board states, but the card synergizes quite well with Invoke Despair in the Standard format.
The card is also a powerful tool for Commander decks that can consistently take advantage of the Chandra’s static ability. Chandra is capable of providing ramp and card advantage, and is expensive removal, making it very adaptable to casual Commander. It is, admittedly, quite overpriced mana value-wise for cEDH. We also wrote an article about this card’s limited applications in the Pioneer format, but that is probably not the reason Chandra is seeing attention over the past few weeks.
At the end of April, Chandra’s price tag hovered around $2.50. The card is beginning to sell for $7 at the higher end of things, but is consistently selling for between $5 to $7 one day after the Pro Tour and shows strong signs of going up further.
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Nalfeshnee
Nalfeshnee has seen an incredible amount of attention lately. Another one of Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate’s potential sleeper cards, Nalfeshnee was only worth about 30 cents at the beginning of April. Since then, the card has exploded in popularity, increasing to about $3 to $4 in price (not including a few of the outlier sales for $12.50ish seen below).
It should probably be mentioned when talking about this price spike that there is some serious speculation going on. Over the past few days, as of the writing of this article, there have been multiple purchases buying Nalfeshnee in droves. One particular buyer bought 99 copies of the card in one purchase. While this does raise the question of a potential artificial buyout, this is likely speculation. A similar thing happened when another Baldur’s Gate rare (Wyll, Blade of Frontiers) was highlighted as a result of the introduction of the new Attraction card type in Unfinity. The buyouts were much more severe for that card. Still, they didn’t end up affecting prices for the card at all – partially because Attractions did not have a considerable impact anywhere, but also because there are a lot of copies of this card available.
Unlike Wyll, Nalfeshnee is actually seeing a very substantial rise in price. This is because the card has been quite popular with recent Commander additions from March of the Machine, but plays well in any red deck that wants to cast cards from exile. Etali, Primal Conqueror, is the obvious Commander that this card points to. Still, it’s also a decent card when used alongside Edgin, Larcenist Lutenist from the D&D Honor Among Thieves Secret Lair. Notably, you can find Nalfeshnee in the Exit from Exile Commander deck, where the card also performs incredibly well.
More Dandan Cards
This seems like a topic we’ve been revisiting weekly since MTG personality Rhystic Studies showed it off in a video. We’ve written about the format extensively, but, long story short, Dandan requires a fixed deck of 80 cards to play. Many of those cards are quite old and have a very limited availability. Therefore, a spike in interest, whether it be speculation or not, will impact the price of those cards quite heavily.
Metamorphose seems to be the latest candidate for a sudden price bump. The card was worth less than a dollar until last week, where the card suddenly jumped to around $3-5 in price and $20 or more for its foil variants. The card currently only has one printing from Scourge, a set that has been out of print for decades.
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Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
Sheoldred is in a really weird place following the Pro Tour financially. This card has been expensive for quite some time, demanding between $60 and $80, but the card is in a lot of flux in terms of a solid price after a spike. Coming into Pro Tour March of the Machine, Sheoldred saw a dip in its secondary market average to about $64.30, according to TCGplayer at the end of April. The card has since bounced back to about a $72 market average, but it is selling for some really inconsistent prices right now.
Today alone, excluding foil sales, the card, in its original Dominaria United iteration, has sold for between $68 and $88. Overall trends suggest Sheoldred will likely increase a bit in price once again, but it’s really difficult to pinpoint a solid price point for this. Generally, the $72 market average is probably what you should be looking for at the moment, but don’t be surprised if this does increase to $80 in the following weeks.
As for why Sheoldred is seeing an increase in interest, a look at the Pro Tour top eight reveals that half of the field ran these in their maindecks. The card has been a Standard staple since its release, and has also found consistent homes in Pioneer and Commander. It is really difficult to play a Pioneer or Standard event and not run into this card right now.
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