With Reality Fracture featuring tons of Planeswalkers and an entire mechanic revolving around the card type, Superfriends decks were bound to receive a ton of support. Now, players are scrambling to build their legion of Planeswalkers in Commander, causing some cards to spike in price. Alongside Commodore Guff, the face Commander of the Planeswalker Party Precon, some other exclusive cards from the same deck are spiking.
MTG Onakke Oathkeeper
While cards like Ghostly Prison and Propaganda may seem like good ideas for your Superfriends decks, they don’t actually tax opponents for attacking your Planeswalkers. Onakke Oathkeeper instead offers the effect you’re looking for, bottlenecking the number of creatures that can attack your Planeswalkers. With a 0/4 body to support it, this creature goes a long way toward boosting your Walkers’ survivability.
Once Onakke Oathkeeper has served its purpose, the card provides even more value from the graveyard by resurrecting a Planeswalker for six mana. While this is best used to resurrect behemoths like Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, or Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, even returning The Theorist, Jace Beleren, is well worth the extra utility.
With all these uses, Onakke Oathkeeper is literally created to boost the power of your Superfriends Commander decks. Given that, it’s no surprise Onakke Oathkeeper has appeared in over 1,100 Tam, the Possibility decks, as well as another 422 Jace, Multiverse Architect
Jace, Multiverse ArchitectAt the beginning of combat on each opponent's turn, they may pay {2}. If they don't, creatures they control can't attack Jaces you control this turn.
+1: Draw two cards, then put a card from your hand on the bottom of your library.
−3: Exile another target planeswalker or creature you control. Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a creature or planeswalker card. Put that card onto the battlefield and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Jace, Multiverse Architect can be your commander. decks, according to EDHREC. While this Reality Fracture-related demand gives Oathkeeper a serious spike in playability, it also appears in some MB3 Commander decks, including Worzel, the Protector, Arzakon, and Feroz, Ulgrotha’s Warden.
Altogether, MTG’s two newest sets give Onakke Oathkeeper more than 2,200 new homes, creating a massive surge in demand for the Ogre Spirit. With this in mind, it’s no wonder that the card’s price has suddenly spiked.
The Spike
While most of Onakke Oathkeeper’s spike occurred after the reveal of Reality Fracture’s Multiverse Reforged Precon, it started spiking even earlier. Things kicked off right at the beginning of July, when the Mystery Booster: Commander Edition cards were revealed. Back then, Onakke Oathkeeper was basically draft chaff, available for $1.17 in near-mint.
Fast forward to September 18th, just a few days after Multiverse Reforged was revealed, and demand for Onakke Oathkeeper skyrocketed. 145 near-mint copies sold that day alone, surpassing the number sold in the previous two months. Now, the cheapest near-mint copy of Onakke Oathkeeper’s base variant on TCGplayer retails for $5.24 after shipping, representing a 347% price spike.
While this is the cheapest copy of Onakke Oathkeeper’s base variant currently available, TCGplayer also lists cheaper copies of the card’s extended art variant. Starting at $3.69, you can save a little cash by going with this copy. That said, since this variant is also seeing a price spike, this might not last long.
A Temporary Spike?
While Onakke Oathkeeper seems like a decent addition to Superfriends decks, it doesn’t do much outside that. With that in mind, this card’s price spike depends entirely on heightened demand around the Superfriends archetype, which is likely temporary.
Like most Commander-inspired spikes, a rise in interest caused by new cards only tends to last until new MTG product is released. With lots of new support for various Commander themes, players tend to move on pretty quickly to the new material.
If that weren’t enough, as far as Superfriends goes, Onakke Oathkeeper isn’t a must-include card. It does give your Planeswalkers a lot of protection from opposing creatures, but I think your early turns are better spent ramping into Planeswalkers and getting multiple threats out at once. Most Planeswalkers have ways to protect themselves, which makes Onakke Oathkeeper’s value a little worse.
Despite my own thoughts on Onakke Oathkeeper, however, the card could prove itself as a great asset to Superfriends decks everywhere. The archetype could also continue to receive support in the future.
Of course, even with all that said, predicting the future in MTG is as impossible as ever. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see how Onakke Oathkeeper’s price develops.
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