Right now, a lot of MTG formats are looking surprisingly healthy. Control is finally back on the menu in Standard and Pioneer is doing its thing, despite being a bit demon-dominated. Even Commander is more balanced than ever nowadays thanks to the newfangled bracket system Wizards is rolling out. Unfortunately, Modern is one format that we can’t exactly call balanced.
Since the controversial unbans back in December, Modern has been dominated by Grinding Breach decks. Empowered by the addition of Mox Opal, this deck is now offering lightning-fast and surprisingly resilient kills. Many MTG players are seriously tired of this archetype ruling the roost, as it’s a true competitive juggernaut.
Thankfully, there’s a new wave of bans on the horizon, which will be hitting in late March. While this should help settle the meta, we’re still a few weeks until then. In that time, Grinding Breach seems poised to get even more powerful, as its streak of results is nothing short of obscene. With this in mind, it’s little wonder that MTG players are turning to disruptive effects like Doorkeeper Thrull.
Doorkeeper Thrull
First printed in Murders at Karlov Manor, Doorkeeper Thrull initially appeared to have serious multiformat potential. Being a new Hushbringer variant, this card undoubtedly had potential, especially in cEDH, of all places. Thanks to the immense strength of this format, often games depend on disrupting an opponent’s plans, rather than your own splashy bombs.
Outside of this core home, it seemed that Doorkeeper Thrull could see play in pretty much every competitive format. When Doorkeeper was released, could shut down the problematic Amalia Benavides Aguirre combo before that was banned. In Standard, meanwhile, Doorkeeper seemed poised to shake up the meta, thanks to the reliance on enters effects.
While Doorkeeper did have some legs, the competitive landscape has changed quite a bit in the past few months. As a result, this card sees nowhere near the amount of play it once did. It does see some use in cEDH, but it’s hardly the multiformat staple that many players were expecting. That being said, it’s still capable of doing a lot of work, as its current stint in Modern is now proving.
As mentioned, Grinding Breach is the top dog in Modern right now and Doorkeeper Thrull is a great tool against it. Essentially, Doorkeeper Thrull completely stops the enters ability on Grinding Station, massively limiting the deck’s potential. Usually, this deck continually casts cheap artifacts to untap Grinding Station, but now that’s not possible.
While Doorkeeper Thrull is capable of stopping Grinding Breach in its tracks, not every Modern deck is using it. Right now, only Domain Aggro and Jeskai Energy Control have gravitated toward this card. While Doorkeeper Thrull can shut down this Breach’s main engine, sadly the archetype has so many lines available, that it’s no silver bullet solution.
The Spike
Despite not being the perfect solution to balance the modern metagame, Doorkeeper Thrull is still a good card. Thanks to the dominance of Grinding Breach, it’s also rather popular now, since players need all the answers they can get. As always, this extra popularity has pushed this card’s price up fairly significantly.
Winding the clocks back roughly one month, Doorkeeper Thrull used to be worth just $0.55. This price is nearly an all-time low for the card, as it’s only recently fallen out of favor. Now, however, its price and popularity have both shot back up. At the moment, the market price for a normal copy of Doorkeeper Thrull sits at $2.36.
Notably, while prices have gone up across the board, much of this price appears to be driven by TCGplayer Direct. As always, this convenience-oriented service comes at a premium, which drives up the market price quicker than usual. Currently, copies of Doorkeeper Thrull are still available for as little as $1.43, which isn’t too bad.
If this isn’t cheap enough for your liking, the card’s Showcase variant is even cheaper right now. Currently, listings for this card start at $0.25 and the market price has only hit $1.39. While the Showcase Dossier style clearly isn’t to everyone’s tastes, it’s nonetheless a great bargain option.
The Future
For better or worse, it seems that the writing is on the wall for the price and popularity of Doorkeeper Thrull. While this card certainly has its uses, it shouldn’t be required in Modern before too long. On March 31st, Wizards will announce the next MTG bans, and it’s expected that Grinding Breach will be hit.
While MTG players are unsure exactly which card will see the axe, there’s no doubt something needs to be done. When this inevitably happens, the strength of Grinding Breach is bound to fall off a cliff. As such, MTG players will no longer need to play around it in Modern, so Doorkeeper Thrull should fall in price.
While Doorkeeper Thrull does see some Legacy and slight Commander play, these sources won’t prop up the price. As such, we may soon see Doorkeeper Thrull drop back down to just being worth $0.50. That is, at least, provided that Grinding Breach actually gets dealt with, as players hope.
Technically, there’s a non-zero chance that Grinding Breach will dodge any upcoming bans. If this happens, demand for Doorkeeper Thrull could hit an all-time high, as players will need all the answers they can get. Admittedly, while this is technically a possibility, the chances of this actually happening feel incredibly low.
Ultimately, as always, we’re just going to have to wait and see what happens, since we can’t predict the future. Thankfully, the future isn’t too far away now, at least, as it’s only a few weeks until March 31st.