One of the most popular strategies in EDH is undeniably life gain. From Karlov of the Ghost Council to Oloro, Ageless Ascetic, there are plenty of sweet life gain-themed legends that players enjoy crafting around.
Interestingly, a neat payoff for life gain decks recently saw a major price spike. While this creature has served as a reasonable inclusion in plenty of life gain decks in the past, a couple of new designs have increased its demand.
The Gaffer
The Gaffer, from The Lord of the Rings, is extremely simple. It has one ability: gain three life during a turn, and you’ll be rewarded with an extra card for your efforts.
Despite being a legend, The Gaffer isn’t actually that great as a Commander. According to EDHREC, The Gaffer doesn’t even crack the top 1,000 Commanders in terms of popularity.
Despite this, it’s an excellent support card for life gain decks as part of the 99. Many of these shells naturally lack sources of card advantage, especially if you don’t have access to blue. The fact that The Gaffer triggers on every end step means that in a four-player game, you can draw upwards of four extra cards in a given turn cycle.
Life gain as an archetype saw a bit of a surge with the release of Hope Estheim in Final Fantasy. Now, Ragost, Deft Gastronaut has helped The Gaffer garner even more attention.
Ragost pairs perfectly with The Gaffer. Chances are, you’re going to be flooding the board with Food tokens, which conveniently gain three life when you sacrifice them. As long as you have the mana to spare, you can sacrifice Food tokens at your leisure and trigger The Gaffer consistently.
The Spike
Ragost quickly became a fan favorite that sparked a ton of discussion when it was spoiled, as who doesn’t love Lobsters? It didn’t take long for players to begin speculating financially on some powerful but cheap support elements, including The Gaffer.
While demand for The Gaffer did increase in general following Ragost getting spoiled on July 8th, the card continued to rise in price due to the lack of supply following buyouts. On July 12th, one player purchased 140 near-mint, traditional, non-foil copies of The Gaffer in one sale from TCGplayer. On July 16th, another transaction for a whopping 253 copies went through, followed by a sale of 50 copies the next day.
Since July 8th, prices have risen from just over $2 to $7.53. The Gaffer has shown no signs of slowing down. Multiple sales have even reached $11.99, representing a 581% price spike since The Gaffer sat at $1.76 near the beginning of the month.
The extended art version has followed a similar pattern. From consistently selling for under $4 at the start of the month, multiple extended art copies are now being purchased for over $14 apiece.
It’s worth noting that the Showcase Scrolls variant experienced a smaller spike and has yet to sell for over $10 in non-foil form. However, because this iteration is the only foil option for players, the foils have jumped significantly in price. The lowest near mint foil listing as of right now is $24.25.
An Interesting Case
While The Gaffer’s price has continued to climb over time, it’s a bit difficult to predict exactly how long this trend will keep going. On one hand, it’s common for EDH support cards to balloon in value prior to the release of a new set. Once the hype dies down, demand tends to drop, and the price of the support cards follows suit.
That being said, The Gaffer is in a bit of a different situation. As good as it is with Ragost, it fits into a lot of life gain strategies. Its popularity isn’t solely tied to new Edge of Eternities releases. On top of that, The Gaffer is exclusive to a Universes Beyond set, meaning there likely won’t be a reprint anytime soon.
It’s impossible to predict exactly how things will shake out. Nonetheless, with these factors in mind, it wouldn’t be too surprising if The Gaffer maintains a hefty price tag for many months. Supply is low at the moment, with 23 traditional near mint listings available, and only seven foil listings total. It’ll be worth monitoring if prices start to settle in the coming weeks.
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