Duskmourn: House of Horror hasn’t been out long, but it’s already made huge competitive waves. The set appears to be absolutely loaded with fantastic cards for multiple formats. Whether you’re playing Commander, Modern, Pioneer, or Standard, Duskmourn has plenty of spice to enjoy.
While the set contains a range of powerful cards, one cycle has stood out head and shoulders above the rest. Boasting impressive power across the board, and their own unique mechanic, Duskmourn’s Overlords are undoubtedly the cream of the crop. Unsurprisingly, each of these five cards is rather expensive as a result.
Currently, Overlord of the Hauntwoods is sitting pretty as the most expensive Overlord from the set. This title may soon be stripped from Hauntwoods, however, as Overlord of the Balemurk is on the up and up. Thanks to promising competitive appeal, the price of Overlord of the Balemurk has been spiking hard recently.
Overlord of the Balemurk
- Mana Value: 3BB
- Rarity: Mythic
- Card Type: Enchantment Creature – Avatar Horror
- Stats: 5/5
- Card Text: Impending 5 – {1}{B} (If you cast this spell for its impending cost, it enters with five time counters and isn’t a creature until the last is removed. At the beginning of your end step, remove a time counter from it.)
Whenever Overlord of the Balemurk enters or attacks, mill four cards, then you may return a non-Avatar creature card or a planeswalker card from your graveyard to your hand.
During spoiler season, Overlord of the Balemurk looked interesting but not all too powerful in a competitive setting. Thanks to offering self-mill and reanimation to your hand, the card seemed peak Duskmourn, but somewhat ineffective elsewhere. Outside of Commander, it was suspected only Standard may utilize its weak two mana reanimation effect.
Following the release of Duskmourn, however, Overlord of the Balemurk has really been proving itself in multiple formats. In Standard, Balemurk has seen some appearances in Esper Zur decks, as well as Golgari Midrange. Meanwhile, in Modern, Overlord of the Balemurk has even appeared in some Dimir Murktide lists to fill the graveyard.
While Overlord of the Balemurk is still proving itself in those formats, it’s already become a staple in Pioneer. In the Abzan Greasefang deck, Balemurk is an exceptional value engine that does everything the deck wants. Capable of filling your graveyard with vehicles and bringing back Greasefang, Okiba Boss too, it’s an all-in-one value engine.
While Abzan Greasefang already made Balemurk popular, it recently got a massive boost thanks to new synergy. Appearing in Enigmatic Incarnation decks, Overlord of the Balemurk has insane synergy with Kroxa and Kunoros. When sacrificing an Impending Balemurk to the titular Enigmatic Incarnation you can find Kroxa and immediately resurrect Balemurk as a creature.
Not only does this vicious combo put 11 power on the board, but you also get reanimation every turn. With Balemurk filling the bin and Kroxa bringing something back, this is a truly deadly pair. It’s little wonder this combo has qualified for the Pro Tour after a top 64 finish at the latest Regional Championships.
The Spike
Since the release of Duskmourn: House of Horror, Overlord of the Balemurk has been a popular card to buy. Looking at sales data on TCGplayer, we can see at least 100 sales taking place every few days. Remarkably, despite being widely considered the better card, Overlord of the Hauntwoods hasn’t nearly been selling this much.
Thanks to Overlord of the Balemurk’s remarkable sales success it’s now in rather short supply. Each of the other Overlords has at least a hundred copies available for purchase, but Balemurk only has 28 regular copies available. Thanks to this short supply, we’ve seen the price of Overlord of the Balemurk jump significantly over the past few days.
At the start of October, Overlord of the Balemurk was selling for just $6.77. Fast forward just one week, however, and copies of Balemurk are now starting at around the $25 mark. This marks an impressive increase of around 269% which is no small feat. Technically, copies of Balemurk have sold for upwards of $32, but these sales seem to be outliers.
Unsurprisingly, given the card’s popularity, the other variants of Overlord of the Balemurk have been selling out fast too. Currently, extended art versions of the card are also selling for around $25. Technically, foil copies can be picked up for slightly cheaper, however these are risky for competitive play.
Ultimately, it’s unclear where the ceiling lies for Overlord of the Balemurk. In theory, it’s a popular card with proven competitive prowess, but this demand is somewhat unexpected. There’s a chance players are deliberately buying out copies to drive the price up, but that remains to be seen. For now, Overlord of the Balemurk is definitely one to watch.
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