If you’ve been playing Standard recently, you’ll be very familiar with Nowhere to Run. Not only has this card long been a staple piece of removal, but now it’s core to a brand new deck. As a result, this card is all over the Standard metagame, the only surprise is that it’s been so cheap for so long.
For better or worse, that time has come to an end, as Nowhere to Run has now spiked in price. Thanks to the emergence of those aforementioned new decks, even more strain has been placed on this card’s supply. Considering the strength of this card, the only real surprise is that a price spike like this hasn’t happened sooner.
Nowhere to Run
- Mana Value: 1B
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Creature Type: Enchantment
- Card Text: Flash
When Nowhere to Run enters, target creature an opponent controls gets -3/-3 until end of turn.
Creatures your opponents control can be the targets of spells and abilities as though they didn’t have hexproof. Ward abilities of those creatures don’t trigger.
Nowhere to Run is the answer to a problem that Wizards of the Coast created. Since its debut in Strixhaven: School of Mages, Ward has become increasingly prevalent, much to many players’ chagrin. Even if you can pay your way through it, unlike Hexproof, it’s nonetheless become far too pervasive.
On its own, the ability to completely turn off not just Ward, but Hexproof too, makes Nowhere to Run worth running. The fact this card is also a decent removal spell, one with Flash no less, is the real icing on the cake here. Either ability on this card makes it good, so when combined together it’s an absolute monster.
Unsurprisingly, Nowhere to Run is all over Standard right now. Dimir Midrange, Golgari Midrange, and even Simic, or Sultai, Terror decks have long been running this card. Efficient removal that also counters a pervasive ability, will always be popular. With this in mind, it’s little wonder that Nowhere to Run also sees Pioneer and Commander play too.
More recently, Nowhere to Run has become one of the core cards in Esper Pixie and Dimir Enchantment decks. These lists revolve around bouncing and recasting cheap enchantments by using Fear of Isolation and This Town Ain’t Big Enough. The latter of these cards has also seen a monumental price spike this week.
Within these somewhat similar decks, Nowhere to Run is only really there to provide the -3/-3 removal. Of course, this effect benefits from punching through Ward. However, it doesn’t need to stick around to be useful. Instead, using it as a readily available and repeatable source of removal is more than enough to get the job done.
The Spike
In terms of value, Nowhere to Run has seen quite a spectacular price increase over recent weeks. For the past few months, the card’s price has remained consistent, routinely selling for around $0.55. Considering this card is an uncommon, this seemed about the right price to pay, even for such a powerful card.
As you can see on the graph above, Nowhere to Run has had a decent volume of sales since its release. Once again, this is absolutely no surprise considering that the card has been so good for so long. Once Esper Pixie came along, however, there’s been a clear spike in sales activity, and subsequently the card’s price.
As we covered, Esper Pixie started hitting the big leagues in late December, around the 22nd. At this point, the price of Nowhere to Run had already almost doubled, increasing up to $0.90 on average. This significant price jump, however, would obviously just be the start of an even more spectacular rise.
Once Esper Pixie secured its metagame spot, the price of Nowhere to Run really started to soar. At its peak, this uncommon reached an average price of $2.96; however, this has since dropped slightly. Currently, a single copy of Nowhere to Run will set you back $2.65 which is still a 409% price rise over the past month.
Notably, since it’s an uncommon, there aren’t any borderless or showcase variants of Nowhere to Run to collect. This might not seem like a big deal, but it actually significantly affects the supply of the card. Since non-foil copies can’t be found in Collector Boosters the price of Nowhere to Run may be slightly more volatile.
The Fall?
Recently, all of the Standard-focused price spikes we’ve been seeing have been on the up and up. Impressive tournament results have driven immense interest in fresh and exciting decks like Selesnya Cage, for example. In comparison, Dimir Midrange, and even Esper Pixie, are a little bit old hot, as they’re established strategies already.
With this in mind, it seems that we’ve caught Nowhere to Run in a bit of a slump. As mentioned, over the past few days, the price of this card has actually been dropping a little bit. Potentially, this trend could continue, especially as players flock to new decks. Personally, I’d be surprised if this card drops off the map entirely. The more likely answer is that the initial demand for building Standard strategies with Nowhere to Run has, more or less, been satiated.
Even if Esper Pixie and Dimir Enchantments aren’t the best decks in Standard right now, they’re still powerful. As a result, it’s more likely that the price of Nowhere to Run is simply stabilizing at the moment. Sure, the price may drop, but it’ll likely only waver a bit before holding firm at a new level.
Considering Nowhere to Run is an uncommon from Duskmourn, which was relatively well opened, a $1 would be the bare minimum I’d expect. Should the card continue to perform in Standard, a $2 price tag seems a lot more reasonable. Ultimately, we’re just going to have to wait and see what happens, as sadly, we can’t predict the future.
