Unsurprisingly, given its heavy focus on typal themes, Bloomburrow has reinvigorated a number of typal decks in Commander. Where once support for certain types was scarce, or even non-existent, now said types are capable of fielding multiple Commanders and archetypes. Squirrels are high on this list. As a creature type, they’ve been around since Weatherlight in 1997. But now, with stellar support tools like Swarmyard Massacre, they’re ready to step into the MTG spotlight. This spicy new board wipe has spiked just under 300% over the last week. Clearly, the people yearn for the Squirrels.
Swarmyard Massacre (+289%)
- Mana Value: 3BB
- Rarity: Rare
- Expansion: Bloomburrow Commander
- Text: Create two 1/1 green Squirrel creature tokens. Then each creature that isn’t an Insect, Rat, Spider, or Squirrel gets -1/-1 until end of turn for each creature you control that’s an Insect, Rat, Spider, or Squirrel.
Swarmyard Massacre is a card with two distinct functions. It both expands your board presence, and removes that of your opponents. Symmetrical board wipes see plenty of play in Commander, and asymmetrical board wipes like this one are even more attractive. Of course, you will need to be playing a deck dedicated to one or more of its listed types to do so, but that’s easily done.
The card is clearly intended for Squirrel decks, since the tokens it produces are Squirrels. That said, it’s also a slam-dunk in Insect, Rat, and Spider decks. All three of those are viable typal strategies in their own right, which means Swarmyard Massacre isn’t just Squirrel support and nothing else. Even by itself, in a deck with none of the types it lists, getting two 1/1s and giving the rest of the board -2/-2 can be a huge swing.
As players experiment with the new cards, they’re discovering this flexibility for themselves. And the price is responding in turn. Over the last week, copies of Swarmyard Massacre have shot up from around $1.90 to around $7.30. That’s an increase of approximately 290%, which is significant in anyone’s book.
Is this spike just a flash in the pan? Possibly, but I wouldn’t bank on it. Right now Swarmyard Massacre is a card with just one printing, and one that easily slots into multiple MTG decks in Commander. The card is also very set-specific, in terms of the creature types it references. This will make it tricky to reprint in future, thus keeping its value up more than likely. I could easily see this one hitting $10 soon if its popularity holds up.
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