It looks like the most significant factors influencing financial changes in the MTG secondary market lately are finally starting to change! The flavor of all the new March of the Machine Commander things is started to cool off, replaced instead by breakout cards in various formats. This was evidently seen with a major spike that occurred in the middle of the week, but Nissa’s sudden rise to fame isn’t the only breakout card due to some competitive formats. Let’s take a look at the hottest secondary market trends this week, starting with Magma Opus!
Magma Opus
Magma Opus has seen a substantial financial increase over the past few weeks thanks to its sudden explosion in popularity in the Pioneer format. Indomitable Creativity decks have been, more or less, a core part of the metagame ever since Reid Duke won Pro Tour Phyrexia: All Will Be One with the combo deck, but Magma Opus’s rise to fame is thanks to yet another flavor on the Pioneer archetype.
A few weeks back, an Izzet Creativity deck utilizing Torrential Gearhulk as the top-end threat did incredibly well in some larger Pioneer tournaments. The main threat that the Gearhulk can cast for free with its ETB ability is Magma Opus. Not only does this allow the Creativity player to ramp at instant speed when in hand, but Magma Opus will also create a massive tempo swing, threatening to end the game incredibly quickly alongside a Gearhulk.
Of course, this particular combo is not a new one. Magma Opus and Torrential Gearhulk have been explored since the card was initially released as a part of Strixhaven: School of Mages two years ago. Either way, the resurfacing of this card in the format, alongside the previously banned uncommon Divide by Zero, has forced players to take notice, and Magma Opus’s price tag has reflected early musings.
Magma Opus was worth about $2 at the beginning of May before this spike started driving the price upwards. According to TCGplayer, depending on the condition of this card, Magma Opus is currently selling for between $4 and $9, with the average price nearing the $6-7 mark. It also appears that the rise in price for this card has put a major dampener on interested parties – also important to note is that this deck did not perform very well this past weekend. As a result, I would not be surprised if this card starts to move back down.
Partner in Crime
Since Magma Opus needs a partner-in-crime to function efficiently, we are also seeing a slight increase in Torrential Gearhulk’s secondary market price. Worth less than a dollar in the middle of March, Torrential Gearhulk has seen a slow increase in price since then. This jumped a bit recently, thanks to Pioneer. The card is now selling for between $2 to $4 rather consistently. Market average suggests that this could be the sign of a spike, but that is not yet confirmed.
Nissa, Resurgent Animist
Nissa, Resurgent Animist is definitely the financial story of the week, month, and maybe even year-to-date. This, alongside many other March of the Machine: The Aftermath cards were written off as Commander add-ons that may have a limited impact on the Standard format. Turns out that this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Nissa, Resurgent Animist is definitely the Commander star that everyone thought she would be, but Nissa has also made a massive impact in the Modern format, causing her to spike from $20 to $40 overnight! As a result of this unexpected boon, we covered Nissa extensively earlier this week. You can read more about how the card is impacting various formats there, including price fluctuations. These factors, combined with Mythic Rare cards being surprisingly difficult to open in MTG Aftermath, have given this card a huge price tag.
Instead, we will simply cover Nissa’s price changes up to the point where we talked about her last week. She looked to be drifting down in price last week, but today’s prices completely abolish that trend. Nissa is selling for about $40 on average at the moment.
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Chandra, Hope’s Beacon
Chandra, Hope’s Beacon has players likening the Planeswalker’s utility to the control archetype staple Teferi, Hero of Dominaria. Chandra, can’t untap mana on your endstep to represent counterspells, but there are a lot of things that this card can do. Ever since Chandra got a spotlight from her performance during the Standard Pro Tour March of the Machine, she has begun appearing everywhere. The card has popped up in turns combo decks in Pioneer and Modern and has become a common inclusion in the Lotus Field combo archetype. Otherwise, the card is still significant in Standard and is an obvious threat for Commander decks that can make use of her static ability.
Chandra has been seeing financial upticks ever since the card appeared at the March of the Machine Pro Tour. Bottoming out at around $2.50 at the end of April, Chandra is now selling for between $8-9 on average. Notably, there are multiple outlier cards selling for $15.
Knight-Errant of Eos
A more personal financial flag, Knight-Errant of Eos is making a very sudden, and very impactful appearance as the top-end of multiple aggressive strategies in multiple formats. Appearing in Humans decks in both Pioneer and Modern, and the new meta-breakout Boros Convoke deck in Pioneer, Knight-Errant of Eos went from being draft chaff to a meta staple over a week’s worth of time!
Of course, results regarding this card are still fresh, which means stirrings of a potential financial increase are only surfacing. Up to this point, the Knight-Errant of Eos wasn’t even worth a dollar. Now, it has begun to sell for between $1 to $2 at large frequencies. Occasionally, the card even has outliers going for higher prices. We will be covering this card’s impact on various metagames more soon. At this point, however, the Knight-Errant of Eos is more of a speculation, with this being a message to watch it in the coming days.
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A lot of Smaller Movements on Bigger Cards
Outside of the cards mentioned, there aren’t a lot of massive movements in the secondary market this week. There are a lot of financial increases on cards that already have massive price tags, but not a lot in terms of substantial price increases, or price increases to cards that were previously draft chaff. Expect to see a lot of fluctuations from cards affecting the Pioneer format thanks to the Regional Championship series starting two weeks from now. With the Lord of the Rings spoiler season starting next week, expect those cards to impact secondary market prices a lot in the near future.
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