The new set is out, and prices are on the move. Mostly they are falling from the highest highs that a preorder can get to, but there are some surprising risers in this list too. Today I’m just looking at some of the biggest movers so far, and if they are done moving.
Chimil, the Inner Sun ($16 from $21) – It’s hard to argue with two things that Commander players love: ‘don’t counter my stuff’ and ‘give me free stuff’ are a pair of guiding principles I can get along with. It’s colorless, so you can put this into any deck you want, and you get the first Discover trigger at the end step that turn. Don’t even have to wait!
That said, this is neat but not terribly powerful. I expect a lot of players to try this and then take it out for something more impactful, more predictable. We have something similar in The Prismatic Bridge, but that’s five colors and makes you wait.
I believe this price will drop a lot farther, and if you want it, just wait. Lots of copies are coming into the market.
Ojer Pakpatiq, Deepest Epoch ($6 from $11) – Rebound is a fun ability, and this land is one of the easiest to flip back into a creature–just gotta be patient with it.
I am not expecting great things from this, but it’s cheaply costed enough to play it and immediately cast something for value. If it stays in play, I would expect the blue player to go absolutely bonkers, which is 100% what I would do.
Roaming Throne ($14 from $9) – I can see how people really want this card for their Commander decks. I’ve got three in my cart as we speak. However, people need to calm down. This is too high, and as the set gets opened, there’s going to be a whole lot of these around. I’m expecting this to settle in around $5.
The last rares to break $10 and stay there, for context, are mega-staples in Commander and constructed. Fable, Ledger Shredder, that sort of thing. Roaming Throne is neat, and most Commander players will want one, but be patient here.
Cavern of Souls ($30 from $35) – I’m not ready to buy in and I might never. Cavern is in the main set, and has the Cosmium Ink treatment, in addition to the LOTR versions we got in the summer and now in the Holiday version. The 2X2 printing hadn’t yet recovered from the summer versions, so adding these in will keep the price quite low for some time. It’ll probably get to $25, maybe even $20, because there’s not really a big typal deck that wants four of these in Constructed.
It’s a mega-staple in Commander, and rightfully so, but you should get your personal copies in a few months if you can stand the wait.
Bonehoard Dracosaur ($17 from $14) – I’ve already bought a borderless foil copy for my Ur-Dragon deck, and while I know the price is high right now, I want it. Commander players agree, as this hasn’t made a splash in 60-card formats yet, so it’s the casual players who are drawn to this icon of draconic card advantage.
If you get to untap with this card, it’s quite difficult to go wrong. You get two things you can play immediately, and bonuses for what they are, either a Treasure or a 3/1 creature. It’s also an overlap between a hot new creature type and one of the most popular decks in Magic.
I will be surprised if this goes much below $10, but even a smattering of play in Constructed will see this climbing pretty high.
Jadelight Spelunker ($0.50 from $3) – The Jadelight Ranger was at one point over $15. Granted that was a different era of Magic five years ago, but the core concept of value creature is still good, just not as good. This is one point of power weaker than the Ranger, which is real, but it is a powerhouse at every other point on the curve. I expect this card to be a weathervane for Standard paper play in the coming years, as it’s hard to imagine a Standard where this is unplayable.
Echoing Deeps ($3 from $6) – This isn’t as good with Dark Depths as Thespian’s Stage is. Stage can copy the card in play, and avoids the ‘enters with ten ice counters’ text. Deeps has that problem of coming in as a copy, so you still need a Vampire Hexmage to get the job done.
Otherwise, this is a super-niche card. It might see play in a Lands deck, or some Lotus Field backup, or some folks might play this in Commander, but this will be very close to bulk until the combo pops up.
Saheeli, the Sun’s Brilliance ($3.50 from $7.50) – There’s a lot to like about this Saheeli. She fits into Breya decks quite well, as well as Brudiclad and any other UR artifact commander. I don’t think that’s enough to keep her price from getting lower still, but the long-term demand for her in artifact decs should keep her out of the bulk bin.
Molten Collapse ($3 from $5.50) – This is an upgrade over Dreadbore, a card that has has some success over the years.
Right now, BR decks are more popular in formats other than Standard, but with the mana bases that exist, and three years’ worth of cards to choose from, this sort of card might become very popular. This will be in Standard for a very long time, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it went down to the $1 range now and bounced back up to $5 at some point in its lifetime.
If Fable and Invoke Despair were still legal, this would be a very popular card.
The Skullspore Nexus ($13 from $18) – This is not the card draw and counters engine that is The Great Henge, but it does have a lot of appeal in decks where creatures die, populate decks want this, and the always popular “Ghalta’s power is now 128 trample” sort of deck.
The abilities synthesize well together, and there’s going to undoubtedly be some ridiculous combos, but this is going to fall a whole lot farther, probably to $5 or less. Commander players will look at this as Wrath insurance, but you’ll just get one huge token that doesn’t have trample. I don’t think it’ll play out as well as people hope.
Cliff (@WordOfCommander) has been writing for MTGPrice since 2013, and is an eager Commander player, Draft enthusiast, and Cube fanatic. A high school science teacher by day, he’s also the official substitute teacher of the MTG Fast Finance podcast. If you’re ever at a GP and you see a giant flashing ‘CUBE DRAFT’ sign, go over, say hi, and be ready to draft.