For better or worse, the recent Standard rotation hasn’t completely overturned the format. Due to being preceded by a major ban wave, the actual impact of rotation has been surprisingly small. That said, there are a few notable changes that MTG players are grappling with.
For starters, the mana distribution in Standard is now slightly skewed, leaving some colors worse off than others. On top of this, there has also been a big shift in which creature types are playable. With the metagame slowing down, many Outlaw creatures aren’t nearly as popular as they used to be.
This shift has allowed Shoot the Sheriff to become a surprisingly viable piece of removal. Thanks to this newfound viability, prices have quickly shot up, leading to one hell of a price spike.
Shoot the Sheriff
At its core, Shoot the Sheriff is a very simple MTG card. Most of the time, this is an instant speed two mana removal spell, which is about as good as it gets. While there are a few cards like this legal in Standard, they all come with catches in one way or another.
Bitter Triumph, for instance, either hurts your hand or your life, while Feed the Cycle makes you Forage unless you pay an additional cost. If you want a no-strings-attached removal like Murder, you’ll have to pay three mana. Technically, Shoot the Sheriff does come with a downside too; however, it barely matters at the moment.
While Shoot the Sheriff can’t hit Outlaw creatures, these aren’t hugely prevalent post-rotation. Out of the four best decks in Standard, there are only five creatures that Shoot the Sheriff can’t hit. Arguably, none of these are even must-kill targets, although not hitting Marauding Mako and Nurturing Pixie is unfortunate.
Even though it can’t hit everything, Shoot the Sheriff does more than enough to be viable at the moment. Thanks to this, the card is seeing a rising amount of play in Dimir and Golgari Midrange decks. Even Esper Pixie has joined in on the action recently, further driving demand.
Outside of Standard, Shoot the Sheriff also sees a fair amount of play in Modern Dimir Frog lists. This card even gets played in Legacy, so there’s no doubting it can be useful. That said, it’s surprisingly unpopular in Commander, as it has the potential to be a dead card against some decks. Removal generally needs to be more flexible in that format since threats come in all shapes and sizes.
The Spike
Despite not being the best card in Commander, Shoot the Sheriff is still seeing a significant spike in popularity. Sales for the card have been significantly ramping up since June 30th, following the recent Standard bans. This demand has only increased further after rotation, as its viability has been solidified.
Prior to the sales of Shoot the Sheriff increasing, copies were selling for around $0.27 on average. This uncommon was little more than Draft chaff that had no use in an Outlaw-dominated metagame, after all. Now, however, this humble spell has shot up by over 1300% in price.
Currently, near-mint copies of Shoot the Sheriff are selling for $3.94. The market price may still be around the $2.50 mark, but we’re sadly long past that point. As near-mint supply dwindled in the past week, sellers didn’t wait around to capitalize on the ever-increasing demand.
Sadly, while a few cheaper copies do occasionally pop up, there aren’t really any deals to be had anymore. Even if you don’t care about quality, you’ll still be shelling out over $4 for a single copy at the moment. Curiously, even foil copies, which aren’t preferred for competitive play, are selling at over $5 right now.
The Future
At the moment, Shoot the Sheriff is hardly the most expensive MTG card in existence. At $4 a piece, getting a playset of this card is hardly the worst; however, it is a fair bit for an uncommon. That said, this current price might just be the start for Shoot the Sheriff.
If Stock Up is anything to go by, uncommon MTG cards can get very expensive, as it’s currently $11.50. Notably, part of this high price is due to true multiformat demand, which far exceeds the amount Shoot the Sheriff is played. That said, both these cards are unusually rare given their rarity.
Nowadays, uncommon MTG cards can be weirdly difficult to get ahold of. These cards rarely get showcase treatments, so they can often only be found in Play Boosters. In Shoot the Sheriff’s case, this card also appears in the Most Wanted Commander precon and in promo packs, but that doesn’t massively up the available supply.
While it’s surprisingly not uncommon for in-demand uncommons to end up becoming expensive, it remains to be seen if this will last. Should Outlaws return to power, or new threats be printed, Shoot the Sheriff may fall out of favor once again. This card is ultimately rather situational, so it’ll depend on the state of the metagame.
Sadly, we can’t predict what the Standard meta is going to look like in the next few months. While things have stabilized for the time being, Spider-Man and Avatar: The Last Airbender are launching before the year ends. Potentially, both these sets could mix up the metagame, for better or worse, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
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