Steward of the Harvest is undeniably one of the most unique cards released as part of Tarkir: Dragonstorm. Granting land abilities to your creatures is absurdly unique, giving this creature far more potential than just being an interesting Commander card.
It’s no shock to us that this card is now rising in price since Steward of the Harvest can easily see play all over the place. Not only that, but Steward fits like a glove into the current popular Commander from Tarkir: Dragonstorm.
Steward of the Harvest
The only downside to Steward of the Harvest is its mana value. Four mana is a fair trade to grant all of your creatures land abilities from three different lands exiled from your graveyard but it does stifle the potential players thought this card had at release.
If Steward of the Harvest were even one mana cheaper, it could become a new Legacy staple. Granting all of your creatures Wasteland effects is terrifying. That said, to make this work, you would need creatures to sacrifice and a Wasteland in your graveyard. It’s a lot to ask for in a lightning fast format, but Commander gives you all the time you need to excel with Steward of the Harvest.
Steward of the Harvest has obvious synergies with Teval, the Balanced Scale. That’s why its one of the other exclusive cards that appear in the Sultai Arisen precon. In addition to synergizing with moving lands out of the graveyard, Steward goes in almost any landfall Commander deck. Capable of creating scary amounts of ramping potential when exiling Sol lands like Ancient Tomb, Steward of the Harvest can make even more mana with some sneaky setups. Exiling Cabal Coffers with an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in play, for example, can grant more mana than you’ll ever need.
Unlike most Commander spikes nowadays, Steward of the Harvest doesn’t really seem to be spiking for a reason outside of just being a good card. Yes, Teval is the month’s flavor, and this card is perfect in it, but since they both come in the same precon, it shouldn’t create much demand outside of players building it from scratch.
The most likely reason for this card’s sudden spike is actually a result of a larger drop it recently suffered.
The Price
Steward of the Harvest appears to be finding its price point. This card has a very flashy ability that many players expected to have Legacy potential at release, so speculation was through the roof. The card didn’t end up finding a foothold in Legacy, which may have contributed to a massive price drop that Steward of the Harvest suffered after release. The card still seems like an auto-include in many Commander decks with lands matter subthemes.
Steward of the Harvest has spiked from about $1.70 to $6.35 over about a week. Listings are drying up fast on TCGplayer, with only about 14 copies left across variants. People seriously bought the dip on Steward of the Harvest’s price. Over 420 copies were sold during the 3-day nadir period. This quickly drove the card’s price upwards.
Once supply meets demand, Steward of the Harvest’s price should flatline. It’s clear from buying patterns that players valued this card over the $1.70 market average during its lowest point, but now that the card is spiking again, very few copies are selling. This, however, will also be related to the current lack of supply in the market.
The extended art Steward of the Harvest is technically the cheaper variant, but that is unlikely to last long. That card is currently selling for about $5.50 in its nonfoil form. A foil variant doesn’t appear to exist. Like the traditional Steward of the Harvest, this card’s price is bouncing back after a massive dip.
Hard to Predict
The most likely outcome for Steward of the Harvest’s future is that it will spike to a point and flatline afterwards. A relationship between price and demand seems to be the sole driver for Steward of the Harvest’s current price patterns.
That said, once players move on from Teval, the Balanced Scale to newer pastures, there is a chance that Steward of the Harvest’s price could dip a bit. It’s difficult to know how much of the current demand is being driven by that card for the Steward and how much is simply a result of the card being generically good in land decks. While Teval may decrease the interest of Steward of the Harvest, it could also decrease supply since both cards come from the same product.
Steward of the Harvest’s current spike doesn’t look quite over, but we expect things to slow down in the coming days. Thanks to a lack of supply, demand will continue to outweigh supply for now, but as Steward spikes further and players start selling their copies, things should find a balance.
At the end of the day, it’s impossible to predict the future, but Steward of the Harvest seems a bit less risky to buy compared to other current Commander fads in the long run. This card will likely always be worth something thanks to its explosive potential in a ton of different Commander decks.