As formats evolve, it’s very common for cards that never really had a home to find their place in a specific environment. This is especially true in Standard. With such a small card pool to work with, the arrival of new sets can create a whole different metagame.
As such, even if a card looks a bit mediocre on the surface, it can still potentially have an impact over the long run. One example of a card that fits this description is Soul Partition. At first glance, Soul Partition may look like just a bad removal spell. After all, the opponent can always recast whatever you target on a later turn, making it poor in resource battles.
Yet, the card has emerged as a staple in both Standard and Pioneer over the past couple months. Recently, the card even began to spike in price by a pretty significant margin. If its price is any indication, the card certainly deserves more respect.
Soul Partition Sees Lots of Competitive Play
- Mana Value: 1W
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Type: Instant
- MTG Sets: the Brother’s War
- Card Text: Exile target nonland permanent. For as long as that card remains exiled, its owner may play it. A spell cast by an opponent costs 2 more to cast.
Soul Partition may not be the best card for grindy midrange decks that are looking to keep opposing threats off the table forever, but it makes up for that with its efficiency and versatility.
In Standard, the card has become a staple for mono-white token control decks, and often shows up in Azorius Abhorrent Oculus shells, too. In Pioneer, some Lotus Field combo decks also abuse Soul Partition. The card has two main things going for it that help explain why it’s seeing increased play.
First, the flexibility of being able to hit your own cards comes up surprisingly often. Getting to blink out Enduring Innocence or Caretaker’s Talent in response to opposing answers is a nice luxury to have.
Second, Soul Partition can exile any non-land permanent. For Lotus Field, this means you can pick off a large Heartfire Hero without taking damage or remove a hate piece and then proceed to go off on your turn. Sure, the opponent can play these cards later in the game, but that doesn’t matter if they never get the chance.
The Spike
Thanks to this increased demand, Soul Partition has climbed to $3.53 according to TCGPlayer market price. This may not sound like much for a rare, but the card held very little value for quite a while.
Back in September, it was easy to get near mint copies of Soul Partition for 30 cents. That value increased a little over time, though it was still selling for well under $1 just a few weeks ago.
Since November 9 where Soul Partition sat at 69 cents, the card has been growing in price consistently. At this point, the card is up approximately 412%. Not to mention, there haven’t been any real signs that the card’s increasing price will taper off soon.
The good news for players that are looking to pick up copies, at least, is that it appears as though you may be able get lightly played copies on a discount. There have been multiple sales over the past week where lightly played versions have gone for under $1.
Still, this may be a short-term solution if the card continues to be in high demand moving forward. Don’t sleep on Soul Partition; the card plays out much better than it reads.
