Final Fantasy MTG looks like an absolute blast for Commander fans. Both the main set and the Commander precons feature some extremely cool legendary build-arounds.
As expected, some potent upgrades for the Commander precons have already risen in price significantly. Following some notable spikes to synergistic cards for the Counter Blitz deck, it seems like the Scions & Spellcraft deck is now in the spotlight. Yesterday, we reported on a major spike to Sigil of Sleep. Today, we have yet another old Enchantment that pairs well with Y’shtola, Night’s Blessed.
Vile Consumption
Vile of Consumption is an old enchantment that punishes players symmetrically for having lots of creatures in play. Go-wide decks centered around token production run the risk of getting absolutely hosed by this card. Whether your opponents are sacrificing their creatures or paying lots of life, you’re happy in either exchange.
All that being said, Vile Consumption is a pretty narrow effect in a Commander setting. In order to maximize the card, you need to be playing a deck with a small number of creatures in it. On top of that, you ideally want to be getting some extra value out of your opponents, either by forcing them to pay life each turn or by sacrificing their creatures.
One common place Vile Consumption shows up is in Sygg, River Cutthroat EDH shells. Most creature decks will be interested in paying life rather than sacrificing board presence, giving you the opportunity to trigger Sygg even outside of your turn.
Now, with Y’shtola, Night’s Blessed receiving tons of hype, it makes sense why Vile Consumption is climbing in value. Similar to Sygg, Y’shtola can draw you extra cards whenever your opponents pay four or more life on their turns to keep their creatures around. This trigger will even activate off yourself, in case you’ve got a fair few creatures in play.
Y’shtola has the added bonus of gaining you life whenever you cast a noncreature spell with mana value three or less, including Vile Consumption. This only makes it easier for you to pay life to keep your creatures around.
Vile Consumption Spike
Roughly one month ago, near mint, non-foil copies of Vile Consumption were selling for $1.25, according to TCGplayer’s market price history. While this number would creep up slightly for the next few weeks, it wasn’t until after the Final Fantasy MTG Commander decklists were revealed that Vile Consumption’s market price would skyrocket.
Currently, the market price for near-mint, non-foil copies of Vile Consumption sits at $7.55. This represents a 504% price spike over the course of the last month.
Furthermore, a significant number of sales in the last few days have exceeded the $10 mark. The cheapest near-mint, non-foil sales listing available right now is just over $13. Vile Consumption’s price has shown no signs of dipping back down in the short term.
Moving Forward
Despite Vile Consumption’s continuous rise in value, it’s quite common for Commander-based spikes to come down to Earth over time. Final Fantasy is the new hotness right now, but as more Precons are revealed in the future, players are bound to be interested in different Commanders. New cards will then spike, old spikes will settle, and the cycle will continue.
Right now, Vile Consumption is far from a Commander staple. According to EDHREC, outside of Y’shtola and Sygg, there are no other Commanders that routinely utilize Vile Consumption. While some Oloro, Ageless Ascetic or Zur, the Enchanter players will choose to put Vile Consumption in their decks, the enchantment appears in less than 2% of decks built around any Commanders besides Y’shtola and Sygg.
With this in mind, as hype for the Final Fantasy MTG set dies down, the demand for Vile Consumption almost certainly will, too. The one thing Vile Consumption has going for it is its lack of printings.
This card has only been printed in Invasion, which was released all the way back in 2000. This means that there isn’t an enormous supply available. This is especially true for foils, which have typically sold on TCGplayer for over $20 this month, and usually in worse conditions.
With no reprint in sight, Vile Consumption may at least hold some of its value for quite a while. It’s hard to know exactly what will happen, just don’t expect Vile Consumption to keep rising in price forever.
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