Bloomburrow has been out for two weeks, and there’s been some impressive price changes already. Some have rocketed up, and others have fallen hard. Usually there’s only one or two cards that jump this early, but this set has some unusual things going on, so let’s talk about the gainers and losers so far.
Big winners:
Caretaker’s Talent (up to $7 from $1.50) – Even before you level it up, having the ‘make a token, draw a card once a turn’ effect is something a boatload of decks can use. There’s a lot of ways to make sure it triggers on your opponents’ turns as well, so this is an engine just at level one. Bumping to level 2 is good, one mana to draw a card, and then bam, you get a mega-anthem at level 3.
This started out far too cheap for its appeal, and right now I’d be a seller if I had any. I’ll be curious to see where the price drifts down to over time, as this is a must-include in basically all token decks from here to infinity. Please note that you can draw from any token, not just a creature. So if you make a Food, a Treasure, anything, you can go wild.
Patchwork Banner (up to $4 from $1) – I’m not surprised that this is a popular card, it goes right into any number of kindred decks and does two very useful things for the chosen group. I thought we’d have a little longer for this to be cheap before it went up, though, and while I want to believe that this will go back down, I’m aware that we have all of Duskmourn to get to in just six weeks. This started cheap, has gone up, and might never have a chance to go back down. The fast turnaround time means that we might not get the big supply needed to push this back to a cheaper price.
The foils being available in the $6 range are tempting, and even if that drifts down by a dollar or two it should pick back up. I fully expect this card to be in a Secret Lair sometime soon, it’s really the perfect card for that.
Innkeeper’s Talent (up to $20 from $6) – Having lost to this card a whole lot in draft already, I don’t need to be told how good it is. Adding +1/+1 counters is a deck in and of itself, and this gives that deck access to another Doubling Season-esque effect. Magic players love redundancy in their overkill, and this does exactly that. This is easily the least mana for adding a counter every turn, and in a color that goes from Atraxa to Halana and Alena.
Also, this says ‘permanents’ and that makes the Doubling Season comparison relevant. It’s six mana total, but on an installment plan, and does something on its own, even the turn you play it. And then it’s enabling Sagas to go wild, or instant ultimate on planeswalkers. Choose your own busted adventure.
That being said, it’s quite unusual for an in-print rare to hold a price tag this high for long, and if you have or open spare copies, I would sell. This card alone is adding serious EV to opening boxes, and I would not want to be caught holding as I hoped for $25 or $30. Take your profit and move on before it dips back down.
Every Raised Foil – As I explained in The Mana Math of Bloomburrow, it takes 573.77 Collector Booster packs to get one specific raised foil. This is exacerbated by them being cute animals, and that there’s no other version of the foil. It’s the regular frame, the foil regular frame, and then this anime raised foil. No nonfoil anime, no regular foil anime, no Extended Art or other Showcase, just straight to the most premium version.
As a result, none of these can be had under $50 and several are $200+ in price. I’m hesitant to say that the cheap ones are a buy because they are cheap, but it won’t take many purchases to get it up there. Right now, on TCGPlayer, Finneas, Ace Archer is available for $49 plus shipping in a NM raised foil. If that sells, and 14 more sell, then we’re looking at $150 copies.
This is the time when supply should be near to maximum, especially with Duskmourn being released in six weeks the Bloomburrow cards are going to get forgot about fast.
Big losses:
The Infamous Cruelclaw (down to $5 from $9) – I imagined there would be all sorts of silly Commander decks trying to build this plus one devastating spell, but such decks are glass cannons and you literally can’t add other interaction to it. It’s a powerful card, and I’ve seen it do good things, but it is not the end of the world. Do note that it’s a Mercenary, though, and as such, we might see it add into other Outlaw decks in fun ways.
Iridescent Vinelasher (down to $3.50 from $6) – Again, this is an Outlaw so it works very well with Double Down and those sorts of things. Long-term, I wouldn’t mind having a few of this card as it seems like an easy way to deal a lot of damage to opponents in decks built to do this. It would be a stronger Commander card if it said ‘each opponent’ but there are a lot of 100-card decks out there that can add five-to-ten lands in a turn without anything too bananas going on.
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.