Commander Masters Decks Cause Multiple $40 Card Spikes!
Commander Masters spoiler season has finally concluded and, as was evident last week, despite the new Commander decks having some strong themes, there are some serious staples missing from each archetype. We’ve already seen some of the effects that the Sliver Swarm deck had on the secondary market, but the price changes don’t end there. Here are the biggest spikes on the MTG secondary market this week!
I’ll start by saying that, in terms of percentage spikes, we already discussed the biggest price spike this week in a previous article. Instead of talking about Sauron’s Ransom here, we’ll let you read about that if you haven’t done so already here.
Eye Of Ugin
Of the four new preconstructed Commander Masters decks, Eldrazi Unbound looks the most interesting. Featuring incredible gigantic colorless spells that threaten to warp Commander as a format, there is a lot of excitement for this deck in particular. The new cards are incredibly splashy, powerful and provide excellent support for the archetype being represented.
Now that players know the decklist for each preconstructed deck, it only makes sense that obvious staples that weren’t reprinted will rise in price. Many players are likely interested in upgrading these decks a bit, and the missing staples are the most obvious inclusions.
For the Eldrazi Unbound deck, that leaves us with the Eye of Ugin. This incredible card was super expensive back when Oath of the Gatewatch was released thanks to Eldrazi completely dominating the Modern metagame. Eye of Ugin simply sped up the strategy way too much, allowing the deck to easily assemble four mana on turn two between the Eye and Eldrazi Temple . As a result, Eye of Ugin was banned from Modern.
The card is still quite a powerhouse in Commander, however. Any land that can represent two mana is worth looking into. Sadly, the restrictions on Eye of Ugin are rather massive. You do get two mana from the card, but only for Eldrazi creatures. This will reduce every Eldrazi you cast by two so, theoretically, the Eye of Ugin can save you more than just two mana in a turn.
The real charm of the Eye of Ugin is its activated ability. You can use this land in the lategame to start searching up colorless threats to dominate the table with. Since the Eldrazi Unbound deck is entirely coloress, with a bunch of Eldrazi within, this seems like the perfect upgrade for the deck.
Thanks to Eldrazi Unbound, the Eye of Ugin, in its two non-premium versions, has risen from about $11 to $40! You can find copies of the card selling for a bit less than that but, generally, $37-50 seems to be the going rate for these cards, with NM copies trending towards the higher end of that range.
Emrakul, the Promised End
We recently wrote an article discussing how cyclic reprints can damage a reprint product like Commander Masters. In a strange fit of irony, the most valuable card in the second Eldrazi Titan cycle is the one being omitted from the Commander Masters set.
Its no secret that MTG needs an Emrakul, the Promised End reprint, and with the reveal of Kozilek the Great Distortion and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger , it seemed like a shoe-in for the Commander Masters set. Strangely, it was not reprinted.
Only available in Eldritch Moon, which is already a short printed set, Emrakul offers one of the biggest payoffs in all of Magic. For 13 mana, which can be reduced by the number of different card types in your graveyard, you get a gigantic win condition that allows you to take control of your opponent’s next turn. They get to take another turn after that one but, more often than not, you’ve done enough damage to their resources that it doesn’t matter.
Obviously, since this is a gigantic colorless haymaker, it could also be a pricy, yet powerful upgrade to the Eldrazi Unbound deck.
As such, Emrakul, the Promised End saw a massive $40 spike this week. Worth $30, the card is now selling for $70. Emrakul does see some occasional play in competitive formats, but is currently being overshadowed by the new Lord of the Rings cards.
Read More: Multiformat MTG Staple Hits $40 after Doubling in Price!
Sliver Updates
It could partially be because the Sliver Swarm preconstructed deck was the first of the four Commander masters decks to be previewed, but players were incredibly unhappy with what this deck has to offer. Since we already covered what’s missing from these decks, this Sliver section is more of a rapid-fire update as to where the missing staple cards are now financially.
Sliver Hive, the most egregious of the cards missing in this product, has risen from $10 to $40 at the peak of its spike. Since then, the card has come down a bit and is currently selling for between $25 and $35.
Sliver Legion is all over the place, but has spiked in all instances. The least popular version of this card has only spiked from about $10 to $15, but all other iterations of the card have spiked from about $18 to $30.
Sliver Overlord’s spike is odd. The Scourge version of this card hasn’t seen much of a price change, but is starting to push over $40. Other iterations of the card have seen massive spikes. Finding a near mint foil Premium Deck Slivers version of this card will run you about $70. The Secret Lair version of the card has also spiked from about $35 to $60.
Read More: Disappointing New MTG Deck Shamed During Its Reveal
Showdown of the Skalds
Here’s the one spike of the week that isn’t a result of anything Commander Masters related. Showdown of the Skalds is seeing a ton of Pioneer play thanks to the new Boros Pia Nalar, Consul of Revival deck in Pioneer. To summarize, this deck is a weird combination of aggressive creatures and Impulse draw effects that can both closes games quickly and grind them out. A big part of why this works is the explosive potential of the namesake card, capable of creating a Hasty Thopter every time you play a land or cast a spell from exile.
Showdown of the Skalds works perfectly with this strategy. Both exiling cards to trigger Pia and offering your aggressive creatures a massive buff, this is the perfect card to both grind longer games out and start foretelling the end for your opponents.
That said, Showdown of the Skalds also coincides with a massive Commander trend affecting the secondary market. Since this is a Saga that, essentially, can draw four cards, Tom Bombadil players may have the card on their radar.
As a result, Showdown of the Skalds has seen a large percentage increase this week. The card spiked from 50 cents to about $4 over the course of a few weeks.
Read More: Commander Masters List Additions Highlight Powerful Multiformat Staples!
Source: MTG Rocks
