I’ve found that most of our MTG secondary market takes seem to pan out. Sometimes it takes a little while for it to become more apparent. In all honesty, anyone playing competitive MTG shouldn’t be too shocked about this. Unlicensed Hearse is seeing a massive uptick in price this week.
What is Unlicensed Hearse?
Unlicensed Hearse
Unlicensed Hearse
{T}: Exile up to two target cards from a single graveyard.
Unlicensed Hearse's power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards exiled with it.
Crew 2
is a two mana vehicle that can tap to exile two cards from either player’s graveyard. It can also Crew for two and has power and toughness equal to however many cards it has exiled. While the Crew ability can be an excellent tool to close games out, the real reason why this card is skyrocketing in price is because of its versatility as a graveyard hate option.
Most cheap graveyard hate pieces have a sort of ‘one and done’ nature. Things like
Tormod’s Crypt
Tormod’s Crypt
{T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Exile target player's graveyard.
,
Soul-Guide Lantern
Soul-Guide Lantern
When this artifact enters, exile target card from a graveyard.
{T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Exile each opponent's graveyard.
{1}, {T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.
, and
Relic of Progenitus
Relic of Progenitus
{T}: Target player exiles a card from their graveyard.
{1}, Exile this artifact: Exile all graveyards. Draw a card.
all need to be sacrificed in exchange for impacting an opponent’s graveyard.
Unlicensed Hearse
Unlicensed Hearse
{T}: Exile up to two target cards from a single graveyard.
Unlicensed Hearse's power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards exiled with it.
Crew 2
doesn’t have that issue. It costs a little more in exchange, but the Hearse threatens to shut down graveyard synergies for the rest of the game if it’s not dealt with.
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Why is it Going Up?
There are some obvious and some less obvious reasons why
Unlicensed Hearse
Unlicensed Hearse
{T}: Exile up to two target cards from a single graveyard.
Unlicensed Hearse's power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards exiled with it.
Crew 2
is seeing a significant bump in price. The apparent reason is how powerful graveyard strategies are right now. In Pioneer particularly, most of the format’s behemoths care about their graveyard in some capacity. Mono-Green has Flashback spells and
Cavalier of Thorns
Cavalier of Thorns
Reach
When this creature enters, reveal the top five cards of your library. Put a land card from among them onto the battlefield and the rest into your graveyard.
When this creature dies, you may exile it. If you do, put another target card from your graveyard on top of your library.
triggers (which also saw a significant uptick in price, by the way). Most Izzet decks run
Arclight Phoenix
Arclight Phoenix
Flying, haste
At the beginning of combat on your turn, if you've cast three or more instant and sorcery spells this turn, return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
or Delve strategies. Dimir generally has
Torrential Gearhulk
Torrential Gearhulk
Flash
When this creature enters, you may cast target instant card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. If that spell would be put into your graveyard, exile it instead.
as a win condition, which interacts with the graveyard (not sure if it’s a good enough reason to board in a Hearse, though). Rakdos has
Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger
Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger
When Kroxa enters, sacrifice it unless it escaped.
Whenever Kroxa enters or attacks, each opponent discards a card, then each opponent who didn't discard a nonland card this way loses 3 life.
Escape—{B}{B}{R}{R}, Exile five other cards from your graveyard. (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its escape cost.)
that they can Escape, and sometimes uses a
Dreadhorde Arcanist
Dreadhorde Arcanist
Trample
Whenever this creature attacks, you may cast target instant or sorcery card with mana value less than or equal to this creature's power from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. If that spell would be put into your graveyard, exile it instead.
engine.
The less apparent reason for Hearse’s increase in price is that Streets of New Capenna is being opened a lot less than it used to. Unfortunately, SNC’s limited format was a bit lacking. Most stores, as a result, have been switching off to different limited formats. With this being the most common way to open SNC products at this point, it’s clear that Hearse will see an uptick because fewer copies of it are being introduced into the secondary market.
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What Insights does this Provide?
As Streets of New Capenna slowly fades into the distance, other popular singles from this set may also start to see spikes.
Ledger Shredder
Ledger Shredder
Flying
Whenever a player casts their second spell each turn, this creature connives. (Draw a card, then discard a card. If you discarded a nonland card, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.)
is the most likely candidate for this since it sees a ton of competitive play. The Triomes present in New Capenna will likely take longer to follow this trend. Still, they will probably reflect what we saw with Ikoria’s Triomes as time passes (a gradual price increase over time). Stating that New Capenna’s Set Booster Box is one of MTG’s best Sealed investments to date may become even more accurate if this trend continues.