This Underrated MTG Multi-Format Staple Skyrockets in Price!

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 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, Soul-Guide Lantern, and Relic of Progenitus all need to be sacrificed in exchange for impacting an opponent’s graveyard. Unlicensed Hearse 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 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 triggers (which also saw a significant uptick in price, by the way). Most Izzet decks run Arclight Phoenix or Delve strategies. Dimir generally has Torrential Gearhulk 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 that they can Escape, and sometimes uses a Dreadhorde Arcanist 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 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.