In the land of MTG finance, the Final Fantasy set is a bit of an oddity. Given that this set is expected to be the most popular of all time, you’d expect to see constant incredible price spikes. There are tons of exciting new cards and build around Commanders in the set, after all. Despite this, only a handful of cards like Y’shtola, Tidus, and Vivi have been causing spikes.
Now, we can add another name to that exclusive roster, as it seems Choco, Seeker of Paradise is now causing spikes too. While Bird Typal did get some love back in Bloomburrow, Final Fantasy is unsurprisingly on a different level. Hype for this set is strong enough that we’re now seeing forgotten 23-year-old cards from Judgment spike in price!
Soulcatchers’ Aerie
Soulcatchers’ Aerie hasn’t been a popular MTG card for a long while, but the same is true of birds in general. As mentioned, this archetype did get a boost in Bloomburrow, but it has hardly been a fan favorite for long. According to EDHREC, only 7318 Commander players have put a Bird-based list together.
Within a Bird Typal deck, Soulcatchers’ Aerie is an obvious and easy inclusion, provided it’s in color. It’s easy to see why this is the case, too, since this enchantment is fairly simple, all things considered. Whenever a Bird dies, you get a Feather Counter on the Aerie, which buffs your birds in turn.
If you go wide with Bird tokens, this effect can be especially useful since Soulcatchers’ Aerie could quickly get huge. Even without a flood of tokens, however, this card should provide some compelling value throughout the course of a game. With this in mind, it’s little wonder that Aerie is a staple alongside Kastral, the Windcrested and Derevi, Empyrial Tactician.
While both of these Commanders are popular, neither has a massive amount of synergy with Soulcatchers’ Aerie. The same is true for Choco, Seeker of Paradise, as this Bird is hardly a go-wide powerhouse. While Choco can help keep your hand stocked, any go-wide token generation will be all on you.
Even the other new Chocobo/Bird cards from Final Fantasy won’t help you out. Bartz and Boko, Sazh Katzroy, and Traveling Chocobo are great, but they don’t automatically create a wide board. Nevertheless, all these cards are certainly stirring up a lot of interest in Bird-based decks, and Choco is the natural new Commander choice.
The Spike
While the market price history graph above doesn’t look all that impressive, Soulcatchers’ Aerie has spiked a lot recently. Over the past few weeks, supply for this card has been massively depleted, especially for near-mint condition copies. As usual, as supply stretched thin, near-mint listings became rather expensive, but that hasn’t stopped them from selling.
This time last month, near mint copies of Soulcatchers’ Aerie from Judgment were selling for $1.22. While very few copies were actually sold at this price due to the card’s lack of popularity, that changed on May 14th. Once Choco, Seeker of Paradise was revealed, there was a massive surge in sales, with over 41 copies being sold.
Given some of the other spikes we’ve seen recently, 41 copies being sold in one day might not seem like a huge amount. Since this printing of Soulcatchers’ Aerie is 23 years old, however, there’s not much supply to go around. Not only did sets have shorter print runs back in 2002, but not many near-mint copies have survived.
Thankfully, to combat this scarcity, Soulcatchers’ Aerie does have a single reprint, which arrived via The List. Curiously, this variant has actually seen a bigger price spike, largely due to its lower starting price. Back in late April, this printing was selling for around $1.09, but it’s now selling for $6.69.
Currently, the original copies of Soulcatchers’ Aerie from Judgment are selling for slightly less, as listings begin at $6.59. Thankfully, if this price is a little too dear, worse condition copies are available for cheaper. Heavily played copies, for example, are just $3.99 at the moment.
The Flock
As always, we sadly can’t predict the future of Soulcatchers’ Aerie’s price with any degree of certainty. Past trends would indicate an eventual dip as tastes change, however, Birds being more popular should keep the price up a little. Ultimately, even though this feels like a safe assumption, the MTG financial markets are nothing if not fickle. Subsequently, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
With this in mind, instead of harping on about what might be, it’s worth looking at other birds that might be about to rise. We’re already starting to see this happen with Keeper of the Nine Gales from Legions. Much like Aerie, the market price for this card hasn’t increased too much, but recent sales have spiked up $5+.
Looking ahead, there’s a good chance that there could be plenty more spikes like this, especially to older cards. Airborne Aid, for example, could potentially become rather expensive if you’re dead set on going wide with birds. Even Flurry of Wings could end up being lucrative if go-wide is the go-to game plan.
While these cards are very cheap at the moment, $0.34 and $0.76, respectively, near-mint copies of both are rather rare. Should investors target either of these cards for a buyout, we could see their prices quickly increase. Whether or not this will happen, however, remains to be seen.
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