Despite its aesthetic rubbing many players the wrong way, there’s no denying that Duskmourn: House of Horror is an impactful MTG set. The sheer volume of new archetypes and staples this set produced makes it fittingly scary. Even four months after release, Duskmourn cards are still making major waves and reinvigorating archetypes.
Most recently, Overlord of the Balemurk is the latest Duskmourn: House of Horror card to cause a stir. While it’s not typically part of the Zur Overlords strategy in Standard, the card is seeing plenty of play elsewhere. Recently breaking out of its home in Pioneer, Balemurk is now seeing play in Modern and even Legacy!
With this dramatic expansion in mind, it’s little wonder that Overlord of the Balemurk has seen a substantial price spike recently. Should things continue as they have been, this card may soon become the most expensive card in all of Duskmourn!
Overlord of the Balemurk
In decks like Pioneer’s Mardu/Abzan Greasefang, Overlord of the Balemurk’s typically weak card advantage effect becomes significantly stronger. While putting one of four cards into your hand is useful, the real draw is putting three cards in the ‘yard. This is exactly what this archetype wants, since Greasefang, Okiba Boss can reanimate vehicles.
Thanks to this synergy, Greasefang decks were quick to adopt Overlord of the Balemurk. Now, this Overlord is proving that it’s more than just Pioneer playable thanks to an impressive run in Modern. Appearing in Orzhov Blink lists, this harkens back to the bad ol’ days when Scam dominated Modern.
Within this newly remerged archetype, Overlord of the Balemurk synergizes heavily with Emperor of Bones for plenty of reanimation shenanigans. Beyond this, however, Balemurk can also be flickered with cards like Flickerwisp for added value. When returning to the battlefield Balemurk will be their proper 5/5 self, which makes them a serious threat. This is the most effective when combined with Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd. That pup is also seeing play in Mardu Energy, which has allowed Overlord of the Balemurk to transcend archetypes.
This same flicker synergy is what has Overlord of the Balemurk performing in Legacy too. Found in Death & Taxes lists, Balemurk offers a devastating finisher at a minimal cost. Even though the graveyard-focused card advantage it offers isn’t quite as relevant here, it’s nonetheless a hugely powerful card.
Unsurprisingly, Overlord of the Balemurk is also fairly popular in Commander. The slow nature of this format means flickering isn’t nearly as essential and the reanimation is even more useful. Even if the competitive hype of this Overlord dies down, there’s bound to be plenty of causal Commander demand.
The Spike
Right now, demand for Overlord of the Balemurk is at an all-time high. The expansion into Modern has offered an exciting new opportunity that many players have been quick to capitalize on. People are so excited, in fact, that the surge in demand has almost completely drained the available supply of this card.
Currently, on TCGplayer, there are only around 20 near-mint copies of the card left available for purchase. While this seems incredibly volatile and exciting, prices haven’t soared to the moon just yet. At the moment, you’ll only have to pay around $24, including shipping, if you want to pick up a copy.
While Overlord of the Balemurk isn’t the most expensive Duskmourn card, its price has nonetheless been climbing. This time in December, you’d only have to pay just under $9 per near-mint copy. Since then, prices have risen by around 160%. While this isn’t the most impressive price spike we’ve seen recently, it’s nonetheless fairly significant.
As usual, the normal variant of Overlord of the Balemurk isn’t the only one that has been increasing in price. The Extended Art variant, for example, has seen a significant 176% price spike. Starting out the month at around $10, this card variant is now selling for $27!
Curiously, despite being in far shorter supply than other versions, the Showcase variant of Balemurk hasn’t exploded in price. Selling for around $34, this variant is the most expensive at the time of writing, but that’s not thanks to a price spike. Over the past month, this variant has only increased by around 17%, likely due to the fact this card is only found in foil.
The Plateau
At the tail end of last week, it seemed like the writing was on the wall for Overlord of the Balemurk. Low supply across TCGplayer made this card look primed for a second explosive price spike. Given all the new interest in this card from Modern players, such a spike seemed pretty much guaranteed.
Obviously, and somewhat surprisingly, this didn’t end up happening. Instead, over the weekend the price of Overlord of the Balemurk seemed to plateau, only fluctuating a little. While prices have still gone up slightly it’s nowhere near the immense spike that we were expecting.
Ultimately, this stagnation likely comes down to the fact that Overlord of the Balemurk is hardly a proven meta-breaker. Despite some early, rather hyperbolic, comparisons to The One Ring, this card is hardly being played everywhere. Outside of some experimentation in Mardu Energy and Dimir Cauldron, Orzhov Blink is this card’s primary home.
Right now, this archetype is hardly the strongest competitor in Modern. Boros Energy, Temur Breach, and Dimir Oculus are very much still leagues ahead of the competition. Until a new archetype shakes up this established order, there will always be a limit on how much people will pay for cards like Overlord of the Balemurk.
For now, that maximum agreeable price seems to be set at around the $25 mark. Until another new deck using it emerges, or the metagame shifts, I wouldn’t expect to see much more from it. This may be somewhat disappointing for investors hoping for another super stale, but it’s nice things aren’t ultra expensive for a change.
