Outlaws of Thunder Junction prerelease season has just ended. Players now have the chance to try the few cards they got access to in a paper environment. Sadly, the new set has not quite rolled out yet on digital clients, which restricts the timeliness of competitive breakthroughs. That said, Commander does not need to wait for a metabreaking tech. Cards that have some obvious synergies with powerful new tools are rising in price. We’ve seen some of these cards before, but more cards in this Wilds of Eldraine cycle continue to rise in price because of Obeka, Splitter of Seconds!
Obeka, Splitter of Seconds
Obeka, Splitter of Seconds is the Commander causing the secondary market to move. This Outlaws of Thunder Junction card isn’t the most appealing in Limited, but has an incredibly interesting effect for Commander.
Obeka likes to give you extra Upkeeps. Just one extra Upkeep is interesting for the right deck, but Obeka wants to give you multiple! For however much combat damage you deal to a player with Obeka, you get that many Upkeeps. Menace makes getting in that much easier.
Thanks to this, many powerful Upkeep cards in Grixis colors are seeing price spikes this week. Obeka herself is tanking in price following prerelease weekend which is, honestly, completely expected. Preorder prices for MTG cards are typically overinflated. What’s not tanking in price, however, is this cycle of Set Booster Rares from Wilds of Eldraine.
Courts Rise in Price
This isn’t the first time we’ve talked about the Courts from Wilds of Eldraine rising in price. These cards started spiking last week, but only the blue and red Courts were really seeing price spikes. The black court is now also following suit (which makes sense considering Obeka’s color identity) and is rising in price considerably.
Court of Locthwain
One thing about playing these Courts on your main phase one and following up with some Obeka damage is that you’ll immediately get to use the Upkeep effect that triggers when you are the Monarch. Each of these Courts grants Monarchy to its owner, and offers Upkeep effects afterwards that scale in power if you are still the Monarch. The challenge of keeping your crown through a rotation of the table is eliminated by Obeka.
In the case of Court of Locthwain, this card offers you card advantage. The Court exiles cards from your opponents library and allows you to cast them with mana of any colors. Should you have Monarch, you can cast a spell exiled this way for free. Notably, you can only target one opponent at a time. Still, exiling and casting multiple free spells from your opponents per turn is massive.
In terms of price, Court of Locthwain is seeing a massive spike. Just a week ago, Court of Locthwain was worth about $4.62 according to TCGplayer market price. The card is now selling somewhat consistently for $25, but also appears to be routinely available for about $15. I would try to aim for the cheaper price, but there are multiple copies of the card selling for $25 as well. Of course, these prices are subject to change as time passes.
Court of Vantress
Court of Vantress was the first of this Court cycle to start spiking in price thanks to Obeka. This Court is quite deadly, capable of either becoming a copy of an artifact or enchantment, or creating a copy depending on whether you still have Monarch. This Court could create copies of the other Courts alongside Obeka’s Upkeep trigger.
The artifacts and enchantments in question don’t even need to be yours. Court of Vantress could easily make copies of gigantic artifacts your opponents drop into play, easily allowing you to keep up with the advancing board state.
Court of Vantress started spiking from $3.72 at the end of March according to TCGplayer market prices. The card is now selling for around $14, with $18 being the higher end of sales.
Looking at the sales history of this card, Court of Vantress has had the $18 outliers for quite some time, but sales have become more streamlined and less chaotic in terms of price as time has passed, with sales creeping towards $18 slowly.
Read More: Outlaws of Thunder Junction: Release Date, Spoilers, Commander Decks
Court of Embereth
Of all the price spikes for Courts so far within Grixis colors, Court of Embereth’s is the least impressive. This effect, in my opinion, is also a bit lackluster in comparison to the other cards. Creating a single token isn’t that interesting, and unless you’re trying to go wide, the second effect isn’t all that great either.
That said, this card can still do quite a bit of work alongside Obeka, Splitter of Seconds. Since you’ll get multiple Upkeeps, that generally means that this card will be creating multiple tokens. Since Obeka can give you Upkeeps on the same turn you cast Court of Embereth, you can also get the damage effect rather easily. That doesn’t take away from the fact that the other Courts are even better with Obeka, but this Court is still strong enough to keep up.
Court of Embereth started spiking around the same time that Court of Vantress did. This card started around $4.43 after normalizing from another price spike likely caused by Caesar, Legion’s Emperor and now sells for between $9-10 on average.
More Upkeep Cards to Find?
As you may imagine, since Obeka, Splitter of Seconds seems to be such a hot topic, there are other Upkeep cards spiking on the secondary market. Extravagant Replication is a good example of a card doubling in price that goes absolutely bonkers with Obeka. Descent into Avernus can end games incredibly quick alongside Obeka as well.
If you find some powerful tech that plays well with Obeka, you may want to consider grabbing a few copies of it before prices start to rise. Players appear to be incredibly excited about this Commander, and any Upkeep payoff that the internet catches wind of may be in for a price spike.
Read More: Strange Mono-White Tron Deck Surprisingly Dazzles in Major Event!
