The Wandering Emperor is the first planeswalker to ever be printed with the flash. She has an overall strong toolkit of abilities, but the unprecedented potential to be played at instant speed really pushes her over the edge.
Consequently, The Wandering Emperor has become popular in multiple Magic formats. Now she’s rising in price!
The Wandering Emperor
The regular art printing of The Wandering Emperor reached as low as $11.00 after the release of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. But as you can see in the graph below, the card is on the rise. This week it reached $15.00-$16.00.
The other versions of The Wandering Emperor followed similar price trajectories. The borderless copy rose to about $16.00. The showcase Emperor is up from $34.00 on Neon Dynasty‘s release weekend to about $60.00 today. And the foil-etched printing is currently one of the most expensive cards from the set, coming in at about $180.00 at the time of writing.
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What Caused The Wandering Emperor’s Price Increase?
The Wandering Emperor is rising in price because of its rising prevalence in multiple Magic: the Gathering formats. The card is good. It sees extensive play in Standard. And its powerful enough to see Pioneer play.
Standard
My favorite strategy that incorporates The Wandering Emperor is Azorius or Esper Control. I just love the idea of holding up four mana on your opponent’s turn and leaving them guessing as to whether you’ll play Memory Deluge
Memory DelugeLook at the top X cards of your library, where X is the amount of mana spent to cast this spell. Put two of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Flashback {5}{U}{U} (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.), a counterspell, or a planeswalker at flash speed.
There are many decks adopting The Wandering Emperor. Aggressive decks like Mono-White and Boros can leverage The Wandering Emperor’s +1 ability to apply pressure better than control decks can.
Lastly, there are midrange decks like Orzhov that play The Wandering Emperor alongside other planeswalkers like Lolth, Spider Queen
Lolth, Spider QueenWhenever a creature you control dies, put a loyalty counter on Lolth.
0: You draw a card and you lose 1 life.
−3: Create two 2/1 black Spider creature tokens with reach and menace.
−8: You get an emblem with "Whenever an opponent is dealt combat damage by one or more creatures you control, if that player lost less than 8 life this turn, they lose life equal to the difference." and occasionally Sorin, the Mirthless.
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Pioneer
The Wandering Emperor fills the same unpredictable role in Pioneer’s version of Azorius Control as it does in Standard. You’ll leave your opponents whether you have Absorb, Memory DelugeMemory DelugeLook at the top X cards of your library, where X is the amount of mana spent to cast this spell. Put two of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Flashback {5}{U}{U} (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.), or March of Otherworldly Light at the ready.
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