Psychic Possession is one of those weird Magic: the Gathering cards that only makes sense in Commander – a four mana blue enchantment that attaches to another player, makes you skip your draw step, but lets you draw a card every time the enchanted opponent does. It’s not as janky as it sounds, and a new rabbit commander from Bloomburrow has driven the price of this card up from $3.20 to $8.20 in a week.
Psychic Possession’s first and only printing was in the MTG set Dissension, way way back in 2006. It’s actually a powerful card draw spell in the MTG Commander format: attach it to whichever player is reliably drawing the most cards each turn, and you’ll draw exactly as many cards as they do.
You can also manipulate things in your favor. Cast a Wheel of Fortune-style effect that makes everyone discard their hand and draw, and you’ll get to draw twice as many cards as anyone else. Effects that make your opponent draw and discard cards will give them card selection, but you’ll get card advantage. It works very well with the new ‘gift’ mechanic coming with Bloomburrow, where you can promise an opponent a benefit (like drawing a card) to power up a spell.
Psychic Possession’s price on MTG Goldfish has been stable at $3.00 for years, and its only in the last week before Bloomburrow hits the MTG release schedule that the price has started to rise. We’re putting good money down that it’s all because of Ms. Bumbleflower, the face commander for the new Bloomburrow Commander deck ‘Peace Offering’.
Ms. Bumbleflower is a Rabbit Citizen with one power, five toughness, and the MTG keyword vigilance. She costs one generic, one green, one white, and one blue mana to cast. Whenever you cast a spell while Ms. Bumbleflower is in play, target opponent draws a card, you put a +1/+1 counter on a creature you control, and that creature gains flying for the turn. Then, if that’s the second time this ability has resolved in a turn, you draw two cards.
There’s nothing clever about the interaction between Bumbleflower and Psychic Possession. With Psychic Possession in play, the free card Bumbleflower gives to an opponent whenever you cast a spell also gives you a free card. Nice and tidy.
And without many copies of Psychic Possession on the market, players pre-emptively buying upgrades for their Peace Offering precons have driven up the card’s price.
We don’t expect Bloomburrow to affect Magic prices the same way that Modern Horizons 3 did, but we’re very excited for it to release. Three quarters of team Wargamer spent yesterday evening playing Bloomburrow sealed on MTG Arena, and theory-crafting new MTG Arena decks based around mice, rats, and bats.
Love weird old cards and the Historic, Timeless, or Brawl formats? Check out our guide to all the MTG Arena codes that still work to grab some free boosters now!
Source: Wargamer
