The asking price for the MTG card Mana Vault has surged overnight, with multiple printings now up over $150. On Monday, the MTG Commander rules committee banned three powerful ‘fast-mana’ cards that were ubiquitous throughout the format, making the already-rare Mana Crypt a must-have replacement for certain strategies.
According to Magic the Gathering market website MTG Goldfish, the value of Mana Vault has floated up to the region of $150 to $300 dollars depending on printing, roughly tripling in price. It was already one of the most expensive MTG cards that isn’t on the reserve list, and this has pushed it even higher.
The unexpected MTG commander banlist update which the Commander Rules committee revealed on Monday is almost certainly the culprit. Dockside Extortionist, Jeweled Lotus, and Mana Crypt were all banned, cutting out three highly efficient mana accelerators that were ubiquitous in competitive Commander.
While the Mana Vault isn’t a perfect substitute for any of them, it has a similar role in a first-turn hand to Jeweled Lotus and Mana Crypt, and players are presumably placing bids to grab replacements.
Mana Vault is a one mana artifact that can be tapped to add three generic mana to your mana pool, netting you two mana. It doesn’t untap during your untap step, can be untapped for four generic mana, and deals one damage to you if it’s tapped during your upkeep.
Fast-mana strategies might only care about tapping it once, though it is also possible to create loops that repeatedly untap it, or sacrifice it and return it to the battlefield, to generate infinite mana.
The absolute rarest printings haven’t moved in price: the market value hasn’t budged for the Alpha, Beta, Foil Kaladesh Masterwork, Ultimate Masters Foil, and Double Masters 2022 Ultimate Box Topper variants. These are all extremely rare card variants, with prices determined by very few auction listings.
With the surprise banning of so many fast-mana cards in one go, the question for Commander players and collectors becomes: what’s next, and when might it happen? The Mana Vault itself is a likely candidate for the chop. Gaea’s Cradle is another possible candidate, a land which taps to generate one green mana for each creature you control.
We’re used to the MTG release schedule driving Magic price spikes, but it seems that cards being banned can have just as much influence. If you want to play in a format where there’s no secondary market (for better or worse), why not build an MTG Arena deck? Our guide to the MTG Arena codes that are still working will help you grab some free boosters to get started.
Source: Wargamer
