The disgustingly named Magic: The Gathering card Rain of Gore has seen a 156% price spike over the last few weeks. Valued at just $6 in the final week of August, the card has since risen to a much more substantial $15.40. Foil copies, meanwhile, are selling for between $30-40 if they’re in near mint condition.
Released in the MTG set Dissension during the first Ravnica block back in those halcyon days of 2006, Rain of Gore has a very simple effect: it reverses life gain. While this enchantment is down on the battlefield, any spell or ability that would cause a player to gain life, makes them lose that much life instead.
Mainly right now, this card is seeing play as sideboard tech in Hollow One decks. A Modern strategy which has been around for years, Hollow One is an aggressive beatdown deck, which takes advantage of random discard to run out free Hollow Ones and other threats.
The deck was significantly weakened when Faithless Looting was added to the MTG banlist in 2019, and cards like Orcish Bowmasters which punish card draw are very bad for it too.
However, the deck seems to have made a bit of a comeback after recent key bans in the format like Grief and Nadu. It’s had a decent showing on Magic Online in Modern Leagues, though players are yet to see great results in the more prestigious Modern Challenges.
Rain of Gore doesn’t see play in the main deck – it’s purely a sideboard card, which players can swap in if they come up against decks which seek to stabilize with lifegain.
Incidental lifegain in loads of Modern decks, from Dimir Midrange to Domain. This card can make lifelink tokens into a liability, and it makes Sheoldred symmetrical – which is really good when Hollow One also has forced card draw in the form of Burning Inquiry.
Apart from that neat little interaction, Rain of Gore doesn’t have much to make it fit Hollow One’s gameplan, so it’s interesting that this card is only found here, and not in the other top Rakdos deck, Lizards. I suppose the fact it’s unlikely to deal damage to your opponent on your turn makes it a bit of non-bo with the other cards in that deck.
It’s worth mentioning that a recently revealed MTG commander for the Duskmourn precons is a group-slug demon that wants to damage opponents on their own turns. However, while it would be a fine inclusion, I’ve not seen any evidence that players are picking Rain of Gore up to play it in that deck.
For more Magic: The Gathering content, check out the MTG release schedule and our list of every MTG set ever released.
Source: Wargamer
