We’re in week two of Murders at Karlov Manor spoiler season, which means everything and anything MTG-related has been dunked with a flavor of Murder Mystery. Some spoilers have drawn immediate hype across the community, causing some new infinite combo pieces to increase in price drastically.
Spoiler season for Magic’s newest offering persists until this Wednesday, but players have already received a good amount of time to get comfy with some of the cards spoiled earlier this week. Some made a bigger splash than others, including new Merfolk infinite combos and a gigantic 8/4 Mole God for four mana that threatens infinite combats under the right conditions.
Obviously, this has caused some MTG cards to become more valuable really quickly, jostling the secondary market a bit. Here are some cards to watch for.
Greater Good
Greater Good’s price spike actually began back in December, but interest in this card seems to have reignited thanks to a recent spoiler: Gruul’s lord and savior: the Mole God.
Players looking to build Anzrag, the Quake Mole in Commander have already had their eyes on Greater Good. While abusing combat mechanics is the obvious route that players want to take advantage of with Anzrag, exile effects like Swords to Plowshares
Swords to PlowsharesExile target creature. Its controller gains life equal to its power. and Path to Exile
Path to ExileExile target creature. Its controller may search their library for a basic land card, put that card onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle., which are extremely popular in Commander, can shut down a lot of the obvious ways to abuse Anzrag. Because of this, having different ways to generate value is incredibly important. Greater Good can essentially turn Anzrag into a ‘draw eight, discard three’ effect, which is insane. Combine this with other high-powered creatures with lower mana values, and Greater Good becomes an absurd engine piece.
While all of Greater Good’s copies have been seeing price spikes over the past month, the card’s cheapest variant is starting to see consistent sales above its market average, putting it in line with other copies. Sales of the 9th Edition version of Greater Good have ranged from between $4 and $10 (with a lot of sales erring closer to the higher value) despite the card’s current market value of $6.71 on TCGplayer. Otherwise, other copies of Greater Good’s market averages have spiked from about $6 to $9 over the month of December.
Animation Module
Animation Module was already mentioned by us this past week. This card saw an explosive secondary market shift thanks to the new Karlov Manor uncommon Crime Novelist. Animation Module, Crime Novelist, and a sacrifice outlet create an infinite combo, creating and sacrificing infinite tokens to make Crime Novelist infinitely big. This could be a very real combo in the Pioneer format, which has caused some excitement.
Animation Module has continued to spike over the weekend, raising the market average to about $4.50, which is a good representation of its current sales price. This represents a massive spike from just 79 cents earlier this week.
Foils, however, are why we wanted to bring Animation Module back up. Sales for foil Animation Modules have been far and few between, but as of late, they’ve all been near $20, which is far greater than the secondary market average for the foil treatment of the card, currently sitting at $8.16.
Notably, Animation Module only has one printing from Kaladesh, which can be amplifying price spikes further.
Songbirds’ Blessing
This Commander Masters exclusive has been seeing a price spike this past week. Songbirds’ Blessing is particularly powerful in Voltron strategies, allowing an attacking creature to continually rip Auras off the top of your deck and attach them to things. Interestingly, because of how these Auras are entering play, you can get around Hexproof effects since you don’t have to cast and subsequentially target anything. You can simply attach the Aura to any legal source, which means that no targeting is involved.
Songbirds’ Blessing has spiked from a market average of $2.45 to a market average of $9.65 last week before starting to level out. This suggests that Songbirds’ Blessing’s spike may not be related to Murders at Karlov Manor, as it is simply a strong Aura card with limited availability. You can only find this card in the Enduring Enchantments Commander deck from Commander Masters.
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Venerated Rotpriest
Venerated Rotpriest is seeing a smaller price spike this week, and the reason for it is pretty obvious. As we’ve currently suggested with the price spikes seen in the past few weeks, paper Standard is getting popular. Gix, Yawgmoth’s Praetor, Priest of the Schism, and more are seeing gigantic price spikes in the past few weeks.
Not only are Bant Poison strategies becoming more popular as of late, but a new exciting Murders at Karlov Manor spoiler threatens to make Venerated Rotpriest much more deadly; Delney, Streetwise Lookout
Delney, Streetwise LookoutCreatures you control with power 2 or less can't be blocked by creatures with power 3 or greater.
If a triggered ability of a creature you control with power 2 or less triggers, that ability triggers an additional time.. This Panharmonicon-esque effect both makes Venerated Rotpriest very difficult to block, making its Toxic ability a lot better, and causes its activated ability to trigger multiple times. This makes targeting creatures with effects very dangerous for opponents, skyrocketing their Poison counter count. Throw in effects like March of the Swirling Mist, and it’s not unrealistic for one spell to cause 10 Poison Counters to hit your opponent in one go.
Since January, Venerated Rotpriest has begun seeing big spikes in its market value. Rotpriest’s base variant spiked from $2.50 at the beginning of January to $4.50 before settling down a bit. That said, recent sales suggest that Venerated Rotpriest may spike again. While many sales are within an acceptable range for the card’s current market average, there is a bizarre set of sales of the card selling for $8 or more.
One Card to Watch
Magus of the Moon has seen a smaller price spike already, but the move into the Modern Regional Championship season does suggest that this card is one to watch. Magus of the Moon is really good in the Modern metagame right now. Amulet Titan is a big contender in Modern at the moment, and Magus of the Moon is much more difficult to remove for the deck than a Blood Moon
Blood MoonNonbasic lands are Mountains. – for now, at least. Dismember
Dismember({B/P} can be paid with either {B} or 2 life.)
Target creature gets -5/-5 until end of turn. is the general option used to stop Magus, and Force of Vigor
Force of VigorIf it's not your turn, you may exile a green card from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Destroy up to two target artifacts and/or enchantments. is an incredibly efficient answer that can deal with Blood Moon. This comparison does suggest that Magus of the Moon is a better card to hose the deck, but that could change if it becomes the norm.
For now, a lot more successful decklists in the Modern metagame feature the Magus, which means a lot of players could be looking to pick this up for the big tournament season. This card will be one you want to keep an eye on.
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