When it was first released, some players speculated that The Meathook Massacre would follow in the footsteps of The Great Henge, a card that reached $50.00 during its legality in Standard. Well, those players were right. The Meathook Massacre is currently the most expensive card legal in Standard today (excluding fancy foil treatments). And it keeps rising in price!
The Meathook Massacre
As seen in the graph below, the regular art version of The Meathook Massacre recently jumped to about $53.00. The extended border copy is a staggering $70.00. And the Double Feature printing is $80.00 at the time of writing.
Considering what Meathook cost at the release of Innistrad: Midnight Hunt ($16.00), these current prices are astounding.
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Why Did The Meathook Massacre Rise in Price?
The Meathook Massacre’s high prices are due to its playability in both Commander and Standard.
In Commander, Meathook is commonly used in decks like Toxrill, the Corrosive, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, and Tatsunari, Toad Rider.
But the majority of The Meathook Massacre’s recent demand can be attributed to Standard, where it has become a bit of a format staple. Let’s take a look at a few Standard decks featuring The Meathook Massacre:
Orzhov Control
This black and white control deck uses The Meathook Massacre to clear the way for powerful planeswalkers like
The Wandering Emperor
The Wandering Emperor
Flash
As long as The Wandering Emperor entered this turn, you may activate her loyalty abilities any time you could cast an instant.
+1: Put a +1/+1 counter on up to one target creature. It gains first strike until end of turn.
−1: Create a 2/2 white Samurai creature token with vigilance.
−2: Exile target tapped creature. You gain 2 life.
and
Lolth, Spider Queen
Lolth, Spider Queen
Whenever 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."
, to sit on the battlefield and accumulate card advantage.
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Rakdos Artifacts
Rakdos Artifact decks can actually use Meathook as a finisher. Once you make enough Construct tokens with Oni-Cult Anvil, The Meathook Massacre can sweep the field and deal your opponent damage equal to the number of your creatures that were killed.
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Golgari Control
This deck makes sure the board is always clear of creatures. In addition to The Meathook Massacre, Sarulf, Realm Eater, and Culling Ritual sweep the board of creatures, while Binding of the Old Gods and Boseiju, Who Endures, take care of trickier permanents.
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