March of the Machine spoiler season is in full swing, but it may not be, currently, affecting the secondary market as much as players expected. A few cards are seeing massive price increases this week, but none of them really have to do with the new set. New metagame changes in competitive formats are instead to blame for the market changes. This is likely to change after players have some time to consume the full set coming out this month, but, for now, here are the cards making financial headlines this week!
Soul Spike
The name to follow in MTG finance for this week is Soul Spike. This bizarre MTG card doesn’t seem too good at a surface level. The card has an alternate casting cost that allows you to exile two other Black cards from your hand instead of paying seven mana to cast it, but the effect of Soul Spike may seem a bit underwhelming for either of its costs. Three cards, or seven mana, even when used as a removal option, does not seem like a great rate, especially in a format like Commander.
As many may expect, Commander is not the format that is moving Soul Spike’s price. Modern is instead to blame, thanks to a new Rakdos Burn deck that is running the tables. The deck uses a bunch of bizarre, underplayed MTG cards that, when all put together, create a very aggressive game plan that wants to nuke your opponent’s life total as quickly as possible. Lightning Bolt is the only non-land card in this list that sees consistent competitive play. Every other card in this deck has not seen a lot of competitive play in recent times, which could mean this is a treasure trove of cards that may see financial increases.
However, don’t get too ahead of yourselves. This deck hasn’t won any major MTGO challenges or paper tournaments this past weekend (as of Sunday morning, at least), so this may not be the next hot thing in Modern. That said, this bizarre combination of cards does create a working strategy that could catch people off-guard.
Soul Spike, as the title of this article suggests, has seen some incredible financial speculation as a result of this list. While it is not the most significant dollar increase of the week, it does host the most significant percentage increase.
Soul Spike wasn’t even worth a dollar a month ago and is suddenly going for $10! Prices are rather inconsistent for this card, with some financial outlets listing this for even higher prices. According to TCGplayer’s sales, near-mint copies of this card should fetch around a $10 premium, but other copies have been selling for much cheaper. This weekend’s results suggest that the card could see a downtick in price as well.
Read More: New March of the Machine Rares Create Two-Card Death Combo!
Other Rakdos Burn Cards
Soul Spike combos rather well with Chancellor of the Dross. The whole point of the Chancellor in this deck is to start impacting your opponent’s life total as soon as the game begins. Past that point, there’s a pretty good chance the Chancellor won’t be castable at the speed that your gameplan operates. This allows Soul Spike to shine by repurposing these cards as an extra four damage. If you open with two Chancellors and a Soul Spike, that can be ten damage as (basically) a pregame action!
As some may expect, Chancellor of the Dross has seen an uptick in price following this archetype’s appearance, but it’s nothing close to Soul Spike’s increase. The card has tripled in price, but the increase in price is an underwhelming 60 cents. At the recent apex of this card’s financial increase, it did increase to $2 temporarily. Right now, it’s worth about $1.
Sword Point Diplomacy has not seen a relevant price increase, but it has seen a huge increase in interest. Some interested parties were buying dozens of copies of the card just a few days ago. That said, the card’s sales have reverted to normal over the past few days, suggesting that this may not be something worth keeping track of.
Sleeper Agent has also seen a slight increase in price from about $1 to the $3-4 range following this archetype’s appearance, but the card’s foil variants have seen a much larger increase. Those prices have jumped from about $7 to as much as $20 over the past month.
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Soldevi Excavation
Soldevi Excavation has seen a significant increase in price over the past few weeks. This Reserved List card only sees a limited amount of Commander play – which is a combination that should fire off some warning signals. That said, the card does offer repeatable Scrys, which is very valuable in a grindy format like casual Commander.
The card has more than doubled in price, according to TCGplayer, increasing from $15 to selling for as much as $40 over the past month. These prices are reserved only for the Near Mint copies, with Lightly played versions selling for between $20-$30.
Other financial outlets have accredited this increase to, likely, being an easily identifiable buyout. This means that an invested party is buying as many copies of Soldevi Excavation as possible in the market place. Reserved List cards are already very scarce as a result of the inability to reprint them, which will drive the prices of the remaining cards in the market up. At this point, the interested party that caused the buyout may try to sell their copies of the card back into the market at higher prices, making a profit. This creates a false inflation on these buyout cards since the prices aren’t being affected by genuine interest from the MTG community.
Therefore, this is a risky card to purchase since there is a chance that the card will just revert to its original price should this be a buyout (and the group that bought the card out resells all their copies back into the market).
Read More: Absurd MTG Battle Cards Break These Bizarre Budget Options!
Marrow Gnawer
Marrow Gnawer has seen a substantial financial increase over the past few months. The card is particularly popular in the Commander format, where it synergizes exceptionally well with Rats. Notably, Jumpstart 2022 and Phyrexia: All Will Be One both offered some valuable support to the Rats tribal archetype in the Commander format in the forms of Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm and Karumonix, the Rat King.
In January, Marrow Gnawer was only worth about $13, but the card has since increased to as much as $50 in near-mint condition! Notably, the card is consistently going for about $30 nowadays, but expect a bit of a premium for minty variants. Notably, Marrow Gnawer’s spike shows signs of increasing further.
If you’re after a foil copy of the card specifically, try to find a Mystery Booster variant of the card. It doesn’t come cheap, but it is a bit more affordable than the Secret Lair variant and cheaper than the other foil variants.
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Mana Confluence
The last card we’ll cover in this article has recently seen an increase in play in the Pioneer format. Mana bases have been getting a bit greedier in exchange for an upgrade in consistency. Greasefang Combo is the primary deck to blame for this change, but this card sees play basically everywhere it’s legal. It’s a land that enters untapped and taps for all five colors – seeing an incredible amount of Commander play as a result.
Mana Confluence has seen a few stages in its increase since the beginning of January. The card climbed from about $20 to $28 near the end of February but climbed again through March to about $40 today. Near-mint copies can, once again, demand a small premium, as those tend to go for about $45.
Read More: New MTG Cards Causes Old Staple To Hit $80!
