For better or worse, 2025 has long been hailed as a boundary-pushing year for Magic: The Gathering. Between the expansion of Universes Beyond, and the strong aesthetics of the in-universe sets, things may be getting rather weird. That’s not to say, however, that Magic wasn’t already plenty weird and wonderful in its own right.
One of the best ways Magic has to express its weirdness is with its countless creature types. Wizards have created so many types, from Aetherborn to Zombies that very little is surprising anymore. That said, we’re nonetheless taken aback by the fact that MTG has Starfish. What’s even more surprising is that Starfish have existed in Magic since 1996!
Our befuddlement aside, it seems there’s some strong love for Starfish at the moment. Recently, Magic’s latest Starfish has been seeing a fairly significant spike in price. It seems MTG players just can’t get enough of Plagon, Lord of the Beach at the moment.
Plagon, Lord of the Beach
Hailing from Foundations Jumpstart, Plagon, Lord of the Beach isn’t exactly the most well-known MTG Card. According to EDHREC, Plagon is neither popular as a Commander nor as a card within the 99. These lackluster play numbers may make Plagon seem weak, however, that would be doing the card a disservice.
Despite their adorable anime face, Plagon, Lord of the Beach has the potential to be an absolute monster. Within cEDH especially, this card can generate obscene amounts of card draw thanks to the typical construction of decks. Usually in MTG creatures with powerful abilities have fairly weak stats with higher toughness as Drannith Magistrate demonstrates.
A typical cEDH deck will tend to run tons of these creatures already, making Plagon provide essentially free value. Spellskite, Soulless Jailer, and Giver of Runes are all cEDH staples that can now be a source of card advantage too. To amp things up even more, you can toss in free high-toughness cards like Ornithopter, Phyrexian Walker, and Ornithopter of Paradise.
With these cards in play Plagon, Lord of the Beach can feasibly draw your half a dozen cards without much trouble. While this alone would be enough to turn the tide of battle, Plagon decks tend to run plenty of bounce effects too. When things go to plan, Plagon provides practically endless resources for a surprisingly minimal cost.
As if all that wasn’t enough, Plagon, Lord of the Beach can even provide half of a High Alert-esque effect for just one mana. Admittedly this isn’t super relevant in cEDH all of the time, but it’s nonetheless nice to make Shield Sphere a surprise 6/6 blocker.
The Spike
Admittedly, while they’re far from weak, Plagon, Lord of the Beach is hardly setting the cEDH world on fire. Competitive results with this deck are fairly few and far between but it does make an impressive appearance on occasion. All this is to say that Plagon’s price spike almost certainly isn’t due to competitive demand.
Instead, the reason behind this price spike seems to be scarcity and a little bit of a buyout. Hailing from Jumpstart Foundations, it’s safe to say that Plagon isn’t the most opened card in existence. While they’re not as rare as mythics like Aphelia, Viper Whisperer, they’re not exactly common either. Plagon only appears in two out of the 46 possible themes.
With this rarity in mind, it only takes a little bit of attention to make the price of Plagon, Lord of the Beach increase significantly. We’ve been seeing this slowly happen over the past few weeks, as even a low volume of sales has brought the price up. On top of this steady climb, a recent massive order has given the price of Plagon another significant bump.
Right now, it’s difficult to find a copy of Plagon, Lord of the Beach, for less than $5.99, including shipping. These current listed prices are a fairly significant bump over the current $5.15 market price, so this may increase soon. Winding the clocks back, Plagon used to only cost $1.83 back in mid-December, so it’s safe to say they’ve come a long way.
Currently, on TCGplayer, only 51 copies of Plagon are left available for purchase, which isn’t much at all. Notably, only non-foil version of Plagon exist, since it is a Jumpstart Foundations card. For better or worse, this card is also only available with Anime art.
The Future
The future of Plagon, Lord of the Beach is a bit of a weird one. On the one hand, this card can put in great work and generate an obscene amount of value. On the other hand, however, there seems to be very little love for this unique anime-art starfish. As a result, the price of this card could go either way long-term.
Should MTG players pick up on Plagon as an interesting and viable Commander option, its price may skyrocket. We’ve already seen how expensive Jumpstart cards can be, so there’s no reason to think this wouldn’t happen again. If this doesn’t happen, however, and Plagon only remains cEDH viable, then it might not move much.
Even if Plagon, Lord of the Beach is just a cEDH card, it’s likely to still retain quite a bit of its value. As mentioned, Plagon is fairly rare and it’s unlikely they’ll be reprinted any time soon. Past Jumpstart bombs like Bruvac the Grandiloquent took four years to get a proper reprint, so I wouldn’t hold your breath.
While it can be annoying for players, this lack of Jumpstart reprints could be good news for investors. If Wizards doesn’t plan on reprinting Plagon, then the limited available supply will be rather volatile potentially leading to high prices. That said, reprints of the Jumpstar Foundations product itself could massively shake the price of this card and other staples.
Ultimately, Plagon, Lord of the Beach is just an interesting card that is well worth keeping an eye on. Even if they’re not the most exciting toughness-matters Commander, they’re arguably one of the best.