While the tide may slowly be turning, there’s no question that Vivi Cauldron is the deck to beat right now. In Standard, this archetype has been tearing up the metagame, consistently dominating events and warping the rest of the field. Since this archetype emerged, MTG players have been pleading for bans; however, recent innovations have mixed things up.
After winning Magic Spotlight: Planetary Rotation, Mono-Red Aggro has been on the rise. Utilizing a tweaked strategy, this deck is finally able to get a foothold against the might of Vivi Cauldron. In particular, Razorkin Needlehead has been a major boost to this strategy, and now it’s starting to rise in price.
Razorkin Needlehead
Originally released in Duskmourn: House of Horror, it took some time for Razorkin Needlehead to reach the spotlight. Originally, a 2/2 for two with conditional First Strike and an occasional ping ability really wasn’t that impressive. Sure, there was potential if your opponent was drawing a ton of cards, but few formats needed this tool.
Once Final Fantasy was released, and Standard rotation happened; however, Razorkin Needlehead quickly became invaluable. This card is essentially the perfect tool against Vivi Cauldron decks, as they draw an obscene number of cards. Between Proft’s Eidetic Memory, Steamcore Scholar, Winternight Stories, and more, this deck rarely ever runs out of gas.
While this is bad news for Standard overall, it’s great if you’re playing Razorkin Needlehead. If it doesn’t get removed, this Assassin can keep pinging your opponent over and over, dishing out a surprising amount of hurt. This additional damage is enough to give Mono Red Aggro the edge against Vivi Cauldron, making it a meta breaker.
Sadly, while Razorkin Needlehead is amazing against Vivi Cauldron, the card isn’t perfect against every archetype. Sure, it might escape Shoot the Sheriff, but Dimir Midrange still has tons of removal against it. Other archetypes, meanwhile, aren’t as focused on card draw, which dramatically reduces Razorkin’s effectiveness.
Thankfully, while it’s not a silver bullet against every Standard deck, Razorkin Needlehead is rather popular in Commander. According to EDHREC, this card is played in over 78,000 decks already, which isn’t surprising given the format’s love of card draw. With this in mind, it seems Razorkin could keep some of its current popularity, even if Standard shifts direction.
The Spike
While Razorkin Needlehead has been effective against Vivi Cauldron for some time, it’s only hit its true stride recently. Now, it looks like Mono-Red Aggro is finally the meta breaker that people have been looking for. As such, there’s been a steep rush in demand as players capitalize on this latest trend.
Unsurprisingly, this rush for copies of Razorkin Needlehead surrounded Mono-Red’s win at Magic Spotlight: Planetary Rotation. Since August 25th, over 715 near-mint copies of Razorkin have been sold, which is undeniably impressive. For better or worse, these sales are bound to slow down soon, as prices have shot up considerably.
Even during the recent sales rush, copies of Razorkin Needlehead were selling for around $3-$5. Considering copies were only priced at $2.39 in early August, this is hardly an immense price spike. For better or worse, this spike was just the start, as low supply has caused current prices to balloon dramatically.
Right now, on TCGplayer, a near-mint copy of Razorkin Needlehead will cost you at least $9. While this is a steep increase, TCGplayer Direct sales have already reached $12.59, so it’s clear there’s a good deal of demand. This, again, might seem like a lot, but MTG players might not have much choice but to buy.
If you’re not playing Vivi Cauldron and you value your chances, you basically need Razorkin Needlehead right now. Unfortunately, this means there’s no cap on its price, and it could easily surpass the $10 or $15 mark. Whether or not this happens, however, remains to be seen, as it largely depends on the state of Standard.
The Future
Looking ahead, while it seems likely that Razorkin Needlehead will continue to climb in price, it’s unknown how long it’ll last. In theory, Razorkin could be on the up and up until November, which is when the next MTG bans are set to happen. Currently, it’s expected that Vivi Cauldron will get the ban hammer in this announcement, but even that isn’t guaranteed.
Notably, before the next ban window happens, two Standard-legal MTG sets will be released. Spider-Man becomes legal on September 19th, and Avatar: The Last Airbender is available on November 14th. In theory, either of these sets could mix up the metagame, which makes predicting the future especially difficult.
Should Wizards hold off on banning everything due to these set releases, Razorkin Needlehead may continue to be needed. Should Vivi Cauldron be banned or fall out of favor, however, then Razorkin would likely fall off. If this happens, the card’s price would likely crash back down to past lows of around $2.50.
Ultimately, as always, we’re just going to have to wait and see what happens. Don’t be surprised if Razorkin gets more expensive in the short term, but after that, anything could happen.
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