The MTG card Kill Switch has seen a massive boost in value in the past week. This artifact card has been creeping up in price since Bloomburrow came out, but that gradual ascent has become jet-propelled over the last couple of days. One month ago, the card cost just $1.20, according to MTG Goldfish. But since then an incredible 2258% price spike has seen its value hit $28.30 – and there’s no sign it’s stopping there.
Released in the MTG set Nemesis all the way back in 2000, Kill Switch is an unusual card that, until recently, wasn’t really played in any decks. You can pay two and tap it to keep all other artifacts tapped down while it remains tapped – essentially keeping all artifact creatures and mana rocks out of the game, if you’re willing to pay that cost each turn.
Perhaps that could have some niche use in Commander, but the problem is it’s a symmetrical effect – as likely to impact your own Sol Ring as your neighbor’s. If you’re in a green deck that relies on other forms of MTG mana ramp and doesn’t have artifacts, maybe you’d play this, but I don’t see it. Why spend three mana and then two each turn to tap all artifacts, when there are plenty of five mana ways simply to blow them all up?
But Bloomburrow brought in one new MTG commander that can make use of Kill Switch: the highly popular Ygra, Eater of All. The thing this elemental cat does that’s relevant here is turn every other creature into an artifact. In conjunction with Kill Switch, that means you can keep all other creatures tapped permanently, freeing you up to attack with impunity (provided nothing with haste comes at you).
The trouble with this strategy is it’ll tap your guys too. You might think you get to untap them alongside Kill Switch and attack into an open board, but that’s now how it works. In the untap step, everything untaps at the same time, so the check happens while Kill Switch is tapped, preventing your artifact creatures from coming online.
In other words, your only attacker will be Ygra. If you’re making a deck that wants to win with commander damage, or drain with death triggers, that’s fine and dandy, but it is a significant downside to the strategy.
That’s probably why Kill Switch is only found in 17% of Ygra decks logged on EDHREC – which is only 716 decks in total. That may not sound like enough recent play to cause such a significant price spike, but in fact Kill Switch is only found in 1,244 EDHREC decks total, so demand for the card must have more than doubled in a very short span of time.
With an old, rare card like this one that has never seen a reprint and hasn’t ever been valuable before, the number of copies in circulation is likely to be very low. That has made Kill Switch particularly susceptible to a big price spike like this.
For more news about expensive Magic: The Gathering cards, check out this Commander card that was boosted by a podcaster’s compelling argument, or this latest Bloomburrow enchantment to gain value fast.
And for other MTG content, you might enjoy our MTG release schedule guide or our list of every MTG Arena code that still works today.
Source: Wargamer
