Building a Rat-themed Typal deck is proving to be a surprisingly expensive endeavor. Not only are Commanders such as Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm remarkably expensive, but Relentless Rats aren’t cheap either. That’s to say nothing of the Secret Lair variants of these cards which can sell for hundreds of dollars.
Despite their cost, Rats are undoubtedly the flavor of the month thanks to Bloomburrow. Following the release of new support cards, this archetype is more popular than ever before. This has pushed up the price of multiple rat-themed staples over the past week, and it hasn’t stopped there!
Hailing from all the way back in Shadowmoor, Plague of Vermin is the latest Rat Typal card to explode in price. Seeing a 145% price increase over the past month, this card is now selling for around $40.
Plague of Vermin
In Commander, Plague of Vermin can make you an awful lot of 1/1 Rat tokens. Admittedly, there are some catches with this card which makes it less than perfect. For starters, you have to pay life equal to the number of Rat tokens you create. As if that wasn’t bad enough, each opponent also gets the opportunity to do the same.
Thankfully, it’s rather unlikely your opponents will also be playing Rat Typal decks with all the relevant support cards. This allows Plague of Vermin to push you ahead considerably, depending on the state of your board. Should you have Ashcoat in play, for example, you can instantly create a massive army to overwhelm each opponent with.
While this synergy is very impressive, it’s not the reason that Plague of Vermin has been spiking recently. Instead, Bloomburrow is to blame for this recent spike. Specifically, new Rat cards like Vren, the Relentless and Wick, the Whorled Mind are driving demand like crazy.
Out of these two cards, Wick is definitely the better fit for Plague of Vermin. On top of getting all the Rat tokens, you’ll also get an absolutely massive snail as an extra threat. This can then be sacrificed to damage each opponent and draw you cards too. Should you manage to get this two-card combo going, you can potentially win the game outright if you have enough life to spend.
In addition to this new synergy, Rats are just in vogue at the moment. Thanks to this, plenty of players are picking up any relevant support card, driving prices up across the board. Considering PLague of Vermin is from Shadowmoor, copies of this card are hardly everywhere, so it’s rather susceptible to spikes.
A High Ceiling?
In theory, looking at other Rat Typal support cards, the sky is the limit for Plague of Vermin. That being said, this card is hardly perfect in every single situation. Without a synergistic board to take advantage of the tokens, your opponents can just match your efforts and block. In fact, if every opponent does this, you’ll be in a very difficult position indeed.
As a result of this, Plague of Vermin probably isn’t going to go to the moon. Current prices are high, but they’re by no means bought our, especially lower quality copies. If you want a near-mint card, you’ll have to spend around $45 at least at the moment. So long as you don’t mind a little wear and tear, however, you can pick it up for $33.
Looking at recent sales, the prices people are playing for Plague of Vermin are all over the place, but they’re definitely trending up. At the start of August, you could easily get ahold of this card for around $16. Now, however, you’ll have to pay at least $33 as mentioned. If you’re after a foil copy of Plague of Vermin, the average price is similarly around the $30 mark. That said, the only listing on TCGplayer is currently for over $100.
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