It’s no secret that Final Fantasy has some seriously strong MTG cards. Vivi Ornitier, in particular, is currently proving powerful in multiple formats and is arguably a ban-worthy threat. We’ve also got plenty of great new Commanders like Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER and Kefka, Court Mage.
On top of these main set cards, the new Final Fantasy Commander decks have also given players lots of fun tools. Unsurprisingly, the new precon Commanders are getting a lot of love; however, many new Commander cards are also seriously strong. Summon: Yojimbo, for instance, is quickly proving to be a powerhouse that’s worth a pretty penny.
Summon: Yojimbo
Unlike many of the price spikes that we talk about, Summon: Yojimbo isn’t surging because of some stellar synergy. As much as there is a lot of attention on Sagas and Summons right now, this card is just good. Offering decent stats, four chapters, and a trio of powerful effects, this Summon is useful in a great deal of decks.
To start at the end, Summon: Yojimbo can cost as little as one mana if it reaches its fourth chapter. While it will take a while for you to get this mana back, the conditions it’s looking for are trivial. Given the nature of Commander, it’s highly likely each opponent will have a robust board when you reach this chapter.
Should we consider Summon: Yojimbo a one mana MTG card, the effects it offers are absolutely nuts. Somewhat choose-y removal, and two turns of Propaganda is already insane for that low cost. Getting a 5/5 body with Vigilance, even if temporary, on top of that, makes this Summon a slam dunk.
Admittedly, while the long-term cost of Summon: Yojimbo might be one mana, you’re obviously paying four for it. Even then, however, this card still provides a great deal of value. If you want to get even more out of it, you can exploit it, like other Summons, using flicker and counter-removing effects.
Notably, despite offering a ton of value for relatively little cost, Summon: Yojimbo isn’t a cEDH powerhouse. It might have a Stax-y effect, but this card doesn’t cut it in that cutthroat format. Still, on more casual tables around Bracket 3 and below, this card will work wonders.
The Spike
Given the general power of Summon: Yojimbo, it’s no wonder that this card has gotten expensive. Since the official release of the Final Fantasy set, there has been a consistently high volume of sales taking place. So far, there have only been two days that didn’t have over 50 copies of Summon: Yojimbo changing hands.
Notably, this recent decrease in sales activity likely has more to do with supply, rather than actual demand. Currently, TCGplayer only has 21 non-variant copies of Summon: Yojimbo left available for purchase. Naturally, this low supply has caused a significant price increase recently.
When the Final Fantasy MTG set was released on June 13th, Summon: Yojimbo was selling for just $2.90 on average. Over the past couple of weeks, this price has steadily ticked up to around the $5 mark, before exploding recently. After a huge surge of sales on June 21st, the price of Yojimbo has shot up to $18.40 on average.
While new listings start at a similar price point, around $19 including shipping, TCGplayer Direct has played a role here. Past sales have been for as much as $29.98, which likely caused this spike to occur faster than expected. Unfortunately, this spike is happening across all variants of Yojimbo, so there aren’t any sneaky deals to be had.
Currently, Borderless copies of Summon: Yojimbo are selling for around $21 on average. Surge Foil variants, meanwhile, are going for $25. While sales have slowed at this higher price point, there’s still a surprising amount of supply of Borderless copies.
The Future
As much as there is no denying that Summon: Yojimbo is a good card, it’s not exactly broken. Creature-based removal will stop this card in its tracks and leave you overpaying for removal. That said, Yojimbo isn’t really a must-remove threat, so it may manage to skirt under the radar somewhat.
Even with this in mind, however, its current price seems obscenely high. Even if Yojimbo is seeing play in over 10,000 Commander decks, Final Fantasy’s print run should meet that demand. As such, there’s a non-zero chance that current prices are inflated by the buyout on June 21st.
For this reason, some MTG players suspect that the price of Summon: Yojimbo will end up falling before too long. Should the precons be reprinted to meet demand as expected, it seems inevitable that this would happen. Ultimately, while strong, it’s unlikely this card is going to be a true staple in all white Commander decks.
At the end of the day, Summon: Yojimbo is still a very good Saga, and will likely retain some of its value. Exactly how expensive it’ll be, however, remains to be seen. Since we can’t predict the future, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens in the long run.
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