On top of being the cutest set to release in 2024, Bloomburrow is also up there in terms of power. They might be adorable on the surface, but cards like Emberheart Challenger have been dominant in Standard and Pioneer since release. Between the multitudes of Class cards, Mice, and Calamity Beasts, it’s hard to understate the strength of Bloomburrow.
As usual, the best and most competitive cards in Bloomburrow are largely the sets rares or mythics. As time has gone on, however, a few unassuming uncommon cards have steadily been making their presence known. Pawpatch Formation, for example, has recently become a true Standard staple and is seeing some Pioneer play too.
As usual, now that Pawpatch Formation is seeing a great deal of play, its price has increased fairly significantly. While this isn’t unheard of in the grand scheme of MTG, it’s not every day that a humble uncommon spikes almost 1000% in price.
Pawpatch Formation
- Mana Value: 1G
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Card Type: Instant
- Card Text: Choose one —
Destroy target creature with flying.
Destroy target enchantment.
Draw a card. Create a Food token. (It’s an artifact with “2, T, Sacrifice this artifact: You gain 3 life.”)
Unlike many MTG cards released in 2024, Pawpatch Formation is mercifully simple. Sure, it might be a three-trick pony, but each of its three modes is straightforward. For two mana, you can choose between removal, removal, or a tasty cantrip; that’s it. This might not seem like much compared to most modern MTG cards, but the utility is undeniably useful.
Following the release of Duskmourn: House of Horror, the effectiveness of Pawpatch Formation was supercharged in Standard. With Glimmers and Overlords running amok, enchantment removal became near mandatory. It’s little wonder, therefore, that many decks started eyeing up Pawpatch Formation as a useful bit of sideboard tech.
Currently, Pawpatch Formation sees the most play in the sideboard of Gruul Aggro decks. The card is also fairly popular in Temur Prowess and Domain Overlords, but it has seen play and experimentation all over. Right now, in Standard, there are no end of enchantments to remove, many of which aggressive decks can’t otherwise punch through.
Alongside also being a fantastic tool to deal with Talents and Rooms that could run away with games, Pawpatch Formation is never bad. At worst this card is a two mana can trip in green that leaves you with a Food token. Unless you’ve been Screaming Nemesis-ed, this could be a handy extra boost of life in the mirror to keep you in the game.
At the end of the day, while it’s very rare to see this card in the main board, it’s a perfect sideboard tool. A great deal of decks run four copies of this card in the sideboard for good reason. It has even become popular in Pioneer, where it’s seeing play in Jund Sacrifice and Creativity lists. Considering Jund Creativity is a fairly new innovation, this has surely given the price of Pawpatch Formation some extra oomph.
The Spike
Despite being an uncommon from a beloved set, there are surprisingly few copies of Pawpatch Formation still available for sale. On TCGplayer, there are only 99 listings for the normal variant of this card remaining. Prices for these remaining copies start at $1, which is already quite an impressive price increase.
Back in late October, you could pick up copies of Pawpatch Formation for as low as $0.20. As time has gone on, this price has steadily ticked up, hitting around $0.50 last week. Since then, the price of Pawpatch Formation has exploded as the limited supply pushed prices up dramatically.
Notably, while the dwindling supply is causing an opportunity within the market, the market price of Pawpatch Formation has been inflated. On TCGplayer, there are multiple sales for the card for as much as $4.95, which is obviously obscene. These higher sales, however, aren’t necessarily textbook market manipulation.
For those who value convenience, the TCGplayer Direct program offers a variety of welcome benefits, albeit at an extra cost. Sometimes, this cost can be rather obscene, as evidenced above, but some are willing to pay it. For Pawpatch Formation, it seems that quite a lot of players didn’t mind forking over the extra cash. Currently, no TCGplayer Direct copies of Pawpatch Formation are left available on the market.
From this, it seems that the demand for, and spike we’ve seen to, Pawpatch Formation is very much real. Even if copies of this card are still available for less than the market price right now, it may not stay that way for long.
What Comes Next
Right now, it’s very unclear which way the price of Pawpatch Formation will go in the coming weeks. Should supply continue to drain, prices may soar even more than they have done already. Should players have gotten their fill, however, then the existing supply may just about meet the market’s demand.
Given how useful this card is in Standard, I’d be surprised if the demand dries up completely just because it’s getting expensive. That said, while Pawpatch Formation is everywhere in Standard and appearing in Pioneer too, it’s no multiformat staple. Considering that the Regional Championship Qualifier seasons for the foreseeable future will largely be Standard-focused, this may not be a big issue.
Ultimately, we’re just going to have to wait and see which way the price of Pawpatch Formation ends up going. Those who invested earlier in this card’s lifespan could be in for quite the payday. Jumping aboard the gravy train now, however, might be a little too late.
