Good news for fans of chiroptera! The MTG card Deep-Cavern Bat has seen a major price spike in the past month, rising from $0.60 to $4.50 since Bloomburrow released, according to MTG Goldfish’s price tracker.
A two-mana flying lifelinker that can disrupt your opponent’s hand by stealing a card, Deep-Cavern Bat has seen plenty of play ever since it was released in last winter’s MTG set Lost Caverns of Ixalan. However, the last few weeks have really kicked that up a notch.
Two MTG formats are to blame for this card’s new position as a highly expensive uncommon: Standard and Pioneer.
In Standard, Golgari Midrange and Orzhov Midrange are two of the most powerful decks in the post-rotation meta. Both are easily in the top four, and both run copies of this tricksy little bat. In Golgari, it can mess with the enemy’s plans in the early game, and be a great target for Innkeeper’s Talent in the late game. In Orzhov, it plays very well indeed with Zoraline.
But we also shouldn’t overlook the importance of Pioneer, where Deep-Cavern Bat also sees consistent play in one of the strongest decks available.
In this case, it’s Amalia Combo, the deck that looks to trigger an exploration/lifegain loop with Amalia and Wildgrowth Walker, then wipe the board and win in one swing. This deck plays Deep-Cavern Bat both to protect your key creatures through disruption, and as a lifelink creature that can swiftly kickstart the combo.
While it hasn’t changed all that much since its conception, Amalia Combo has nonetheless become a lot more dominant within the last two months. It’s able to deal well with beatdown or aggro decks thanks to all that lifegain, and can suddenly pull off a win out of nowhere.
Right now, Rakdos Vampires and Izzet Phoenix vie for dominance with this deck, but players in particular seem to be struggling to curb the strength of the Abzan list, and there aren’t really any strong control decks around to keep it in check.
For more Magic: The Gathering content, check out our guides to the best MTG Arena decks, and the most expensive MTG cards of all time.
Source: Wargamer
