Financial fluctuations this week have generally come from one of two sources: an overlooked product release or the Pro Tour’s shocking conclusion.
Many MTG players were shocked when the Rakdos Vampires deck showed up on the metagame breakdown for Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor. Writing it off initially as a meme, players quickly realized that Rakdos Vampires was the real deal when everyone on the deck day two’d the event. MTG veteran Seth Manfield eventually won the whole tournament with it.
If you want to read more about Rakdos Vampires, we talk about it here.
Otherwise, a lot of cards from the Ravnica Clue game were seriously undervalued when the product released. Thanks to how severely the release was overshadowed by Magic Con Chicago, it seems like a lot of players ignored the new Clue cards until it was too late.
This article will provide some new cards seeing price spikes thanks to these two sources, as well as some updates in regards to how Monday’s big spikes have shaken out across the week.
Path of Peril
Path of Peril, thanks to Standard’s sudden adaptation of a three-year rotation, is a Standard legal board wipe that’s great for dealing with fast decks that pump out small creatures. Due to Boros Convoke’s popularity in both Standard and Pioneer, Path of Peril is commonly seen in many sideboards. The card also happens to be quite good against Amalia Combo in Pioneer.
Path of Peril’s usage has been skyrocketing in recent days, but Rakdos Vampires, the deck that won the Pro Tour, does utilize two of these in their sideboard. This has brought even more attention to the card.
While the entire spike across the last three months is not a result of just Rakdos Vampires, the deck definitely brought some extra attention and demand to the card.
If we back up to January, Path of Peril was only worth one dollar. At the end of February, the card has jumped to $4.44. that said, there are both some crazy outlier sales, with copies of the card selling for more than $11.
Of course, a premium version of this card is available in the form of the Silver Screen treatment. This iteration of the card has a much wider price range, but generally sells for around $7-10 in its nonfoil form, and $27 or more in its foil form.
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Amzu, Swarm’s Hunger
As mentioned on Monday, a lot of exclusive cards from the Ravnica Clue set appear to have been overlooked upon the product’s release. A ton of different cards are now spiking in price from that set. We covered two of them previously. Now, we have Amzu, Swarm’s Hunger.
Amzu may have an Insect Typal payoff, but it may not do its best work in Insect decks. Granting all Insects Menace is a big deal, but Amzu is most efficient in a deck that can trigger its triggered ability every turn, including on your opponent’s turns.
Offering a similar payoff to Insidious Roots, Amzu will create a 1/1 Black Insect whenever one or more cards leave your graveyard. The big payoff, however, is that the Insect will grow in size by the biggest mana value spell that left your grave. To limit the capabilities of Amzu, this ability can only trigger once a turn, which means you ideally want to trigger Amzu every turn.
As long as you can consistently trigger Amzu, you should be able to grow a gigantic bug army. For that reason, combined with potential scarcity, Amzu has increased in price drastically. All in all, Amzu has spiked from about $5 to $15 according to recent TCGplayer sales.
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Price Updates
While these cards follow the trend of spiking MTG cards from earlier this week, the cards reported upon previously are unarguably still the stars of the show. Vein Ripper’s interaction with Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord was what stole the show at the Pro Tour, and as such, these cards are spiking the hardest.
To give a price update on these cards, Vein Ripper has continued to increase in price, but the rate of increase has slowed down. For now, it appears to be sticking around $25-26.
Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord has now surpassed $40 and is starting to push towards $50. This is definitely going to be the most troublesome card to get ahold of for the Rakdos Vampires deck.
We also covered two MTG Clue cards earlier this week that were spiking in price. Lonis, Genetics Expert can go infinite easily, creating multiple two and three-card infinites. That card, similar to Vein Ripper, is still spiking in price, but has slowed down its rate of increase considerably, worth about $20 consistently now.
The other standout card from the Ravnica Clue Edition that was undervalued upon the set’s initial release is Suppressor Skyguard. That Human Knight is meant for Commander, able to prevent any combat damage coming your way unless your opponent attacks every player at the table. That card seems to have stabilized around $18 at the moment, but shows signs of potential increased growth.
Continue to Watch Energy Cards
As we mentioned earlier this week, cards that interact with Energy are seeing price increases in a big way. This is thanks to both the Science! Jeskai-colored Commander precon releasing as part of MTG Fallout, and thanks to another Jeskai-colored Commander precon focused around Energy being confirmed for Modern Horizons 3. With an immense amount of Energy support on the horizon, Magic’s biggest Energy payoffs are starting to see some price increases.
Aetherworks Marvel has already seen a small price increase recently, jumping from $2.44 to $7.50ish according to TCGplayer. Gonti’s Aether Heart is also beginning spike in price following a new infinite combo from the Science! Commander deck. That card increased from about $5 to $9 over the last week.
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