As spoiler season continues for MTG’s newest set, we are beginning to see some speculations go entirely out of hand. Buyouts are normal when we see new spoilers, and Unfinity, in particular, fueled some insane speculations on a level we’ve never seen before. That said, it seems like any card that even gets a little attention regarding synergies with things from Brothers’ War is experiencing a massive increase in interest. Here are some of the cards affected by the Brothers’ War Buyouts.
Ghost Ark
Whether it’s because Halloween just passed, or a Reddit post hyped this card up to ridiculous levels, this seemingly bulk Warhammer Commander card is seeing a surge in interest. For those who haven’t been keeping up with The Brothers’ War spoiler season, Unearth was a recently announced mechanic that will be returning in a big way. This, combined with all the artifact support we are getting in the set, made some speculators very excited to jump in on Ghost Ark. A big selling point was also the limited run that this card is currently a part of.
Buyouts for this card only started hitting marketplaces the day before the writing of this article, so we have not seen a reflection in the price of this card yet. That said, as showcased by the picture above, players were very enthusiastically buying this card up. To highlight just how absurd this buyout was, only two copies of Ghost Ark sold on October 30th. On October 31st, TCGplayer recorded 195 sales for the regular version of Ghost Ark. Do not be surprised if you see this card pop up on a price guide article in the near future. If you’re interested in purchasing a Ghost Ark, I would highly recommend getting them ASAP.
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Release to the Wind
Here we have another Reddit-based buyout that is honestly kind of baffling. Release to the Wind is seeing an increased interest because of an interaction outlined with Prototype. If you want to learn more about The Brothers’ War’s most exciting new mechanic, you can do so here.
Essentially, the idea behind this card is to play a card for its Prototype cost. Then, you can use Release to the Wind to recast the card for its full cost for free. This card also saw a period of experimentation on MTG Arena when players were trying to use it to turn their turn two Valki, God of Lies into the seven-mana Tibalt on the flip side of the card.
What confuses me about this increase in demand is that there are better ways to go about doing this. Theoretically, the same thing can be achieved by flickering the card with a blink spell like Ephemerate. The only difference between these cards is that you can recast the Prototype card and get any benefits directly tied to the card’s casting. At this point, however, those benefits remain to be seen.
Either way, the increase in interest is apparent. Only 11 of these were purchased on the 29th, while about 45 of them were purchased the next day. This interest further increased on the 31st, where 64 copies of the card were purchased. This shows how far some social media attention can increase the interest in an MTG card, even if there is a strong potential of there being A LOT of cheap and strictly better options available. If flickering works, for example, Touch the Spirit Realm from Kamigawa, Neon Dynasty, is a card that already sees Modern play that blows Release to the Wind out of the water.
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Valiant Veteran
Valiant Veteran has seen a massive increase in interest as a result of the soldier support previewed in The Brothers’ War. While February’s Regional Championship may spark a revival in paper Standard play, it seems like speculators are more interested in cashing on the soldier tribal hype coming from Commander players.
Following the spoilers of the recent soldier support over the weekend, this card seemed to be selling about 10-15 copies on average per day. Following the release of the new soldier land Fortified Beachhead, 68 copies of this card sold on October 30th, and a little under 300 copies sold on the 31st! This is another card I would keep a watch on for a slight price increase in the coming weeks.
Guardian of New Benalia
Following along with this, Guardian of New Benalia is another strong Standard-legal soldier that has seen a massive uptick in interest after recent previews. While this uptick was not as significant as other cards on this list, approximately 150 cards were sold on October 31st. This is quite the uptick in comparison to the 15(ish) copies sold only two days before.
There Should be More Out There
If you’re looking to build a soldier tribal deck for EDH, you may want to get on that ASAP. The interest for this archetype seems to be there with the recent uptick in interest indicated by the explosive increase in interest for Valiant Veteran. This also showcases the disturbing amount of power that social media can have over increased interest in an MTG card, even if there seem to be strictly better options out there in terms of both gameplay and budget. It will be interesting to see if these explosions in interest affect the MTG secondary market in the coming days.
