After a bit of a lull post-Duskmourn: House of Horror, the MTG finance world is well and truly back in action. Between prerelease events for MTG Foundations kicking off and new Marvel Secret Lair drops, there’s a lot going on. Exciting new cards, incredible typal support, and soon-to-be staples are all getting released throughout this week.
With this in mind, it’s no wonder that many excited players have been preemptively buying what they need. Despite trying to get ahead of the curve this has already resulted in a fair few price spikes over the past week. These spikes have only become more explosive now that the new releases are looming on the horizon. Thickest in the Thicket, for example, is up over 1000% since October began!
Thickest in the Thicket
- Mana Value: 3GG
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Type: Enchantment
- Card Text: When Thickest in the Thicket enters, put X +1/+1 counters on target creature, where X is that creature’s power.
At the beginning of your end step, draw two cards if you control the creature with the greatest power or tied for the greatest power.
Released as part of Bloomburrow Commander Thickest in the Thicket can be found in the Animated Army Commander deck. The card itself is pretty weak when it enters, but it can provide incredible long-term value. Even if it’s a bit expensive, big green stompy decks can get insane value from this card.
For five mana, essentially doubling the power of one of your creatures with +1/+1 counters isn’t great. Sure, you can put this on an established threat and deliver a devastating swing, but it’ll only happen once. A card like Hydra’s Growth, however, keeps doubling turn after turn, although it does take more time to get going.
Thankfully, while the effect is useful, Thickest in the Thicket isn’t just a one-and-done power and toughness doubler. Instead, the real value of this card comes from potentially drawing you two cards during your end step. All you need to do to receive this effect is have the biggest creature on the board, which Thickest in the Thicket obviously helps with.
If you’re running a mono green deck that’s loaded with massive creatures, Thickest in the Thicket is a natural auto-include. Mono green rarely struggles to have the biggest creatures around, and with Thickest in the Thicket you’ll keep drawing more and more. It’s a simple and effective combination that will work wonders in the right archetype.
Speaking of the right archetype, Thickest in the Thicket should work best in the beloved +1/+1 counters archetype. While big stompy decks can pack a bunch, having creatures that grow exponentially larger is incredibly hard to match. On top of this detail, Thickest in the Thicket can provide counters too, furthering the archetype’s goals.
The Spike
While it is possible to argue cause and effect, the massive spike to Thickest in the Thicket is rather strange. In theory, it could have been prompted by Zimone, Paradox Sculptor, who is a fantastic addition to the archetype. Able to provide and double counters with ease, Zimone should ensure you always have the biggest creatures around.
As a fairly newly spoiled card from MTG Foundations, it’s no wonder that Zimone would spike interest in Thickest in the Thicket. After all, if you can ensure you have the biggest creature around, you get a steady stream of card draw. That being said, Zimone doesn’t appear the be the sole reason why Thickest in the Thicket is so expensive right now.
Currently, a normal copy of Thickest in the Thicket will set you back around $5.30 on TCGplayer, including shipping. This is a huge increase from the start of October when copies were $0.58 apiece. Unsurprisingly, much of the impressive price spike has come from a flurry of sales in the past week.
Curiously, a huge number of these sales have been for unusually high prices. On TCGplayer, there are dozens of recently recorded sales for just under $7. While high sales during price spikes aren’t unheard of, these sales are surrounded by many more in the sub $1 range. This has started our market manipulation bells ringing a little bit, but it has nonetheless made an impact.
While the price of Thickest in the Thicket has not reached or eclipsed the potentially inflated sale price, $5+ is the new baseline. As a result, this is technically a real price spike, even if the road there is somewhat dubious.
The Fall?
While Zimone, Paradox Sculptor is a fun new Commander, and the +1/+1 counter theme is popular, this spike looks too good to be true. Thickest in the Thicket might be a decently powerful card, but $5+ good might be a stretch. Adding another unusual element to this situation, Thickest in the Thicket proves this point itself.
Alongside the normal variant, found in Animated Army, there’s an extended art variant of Thickest in the Thicket found in Collector Boosters. On TCGplayer, there’s significantly more supply of this variant, and prices are subsequently lower. In fact, it’s seen an anti-price spike over the past few weeks.
At the start of October, this extended art variant was going for around $1. Now, the Market Price is only $0.87, showing the true demand for Thickest in the Thicket. While some recent sales have been slightly higher, there’s not a clear pattern, which indicates the normal variant has been manipulated.
Potentially, this could be one of the rare examples where the normal version of a card is the more expensive variant. Even if this is the case, however, that doesn’t mean you should go out and buy this expensive copy. The extended art variant of Thickest in the Thicket is literally the same card and arguably looks even better.
With this in mind, it seems very unlikely that the normal variant will keep its price for long. Even if it does remain as the expensive variant, this divide is bound to close over time. Once hype from MTG Foundations dies down, it may even disappear completely. Whether or not this will happen, however, remains to be seen.
