The Magic: The Gathering card Zur, Eternal Schemer has undergone a major price spike in the past few weeks. Priced at just $1.40 at the beginning of September, the card’s value began to rise after the Duskmourn precon commanders were first previewed on September 1. It’s now shot up to $16.11 (according to the tracker on MTGGoldfish), an enormous increase of 1051%.
Still a Standard-legal card thanks to the new extended rotation calendar, Zur Eternal Schemer came out in the MTG set Dominaria United. One of those cards obviously intended for EDH rather than constructed formats, this human wizard can animate enchantments and gives enchantment creatures you control a bunch of buffs: hexproof, deathtouch, and lifelink.
As I’ve already hinted, the reason Zur’s shot up in price is its synergy with one of the MTG Commander precon decks released for Duskmourn. It works great with the new Miracle Worker precon, led by Aminatou, Veil Piercer. That’s because that deck is all about playing costly enchantment cards and reducing their mana cost with the Miracle ability.
When Zur Eternal Schemer turns an enchantment into a creature, that creature’s power and toughness is determined by the card’s mana cost. So it’s easy to see why this version of Zur is a good fit for the Aminatou deck: you can cheat out a bunch of high-cost enchantments for cheap, then use Zur to turn them into enormous beaters.
While this is the main reason there’s currently a bunch of extra demand for Zur, it’s not the only one. Players creating five-color Marina Vendrell decks and stuffing them full of Room cards are also in the market for this guy.
Which makes sense to me. While Room cards only have the properties of whatever side is currently unlocked, if you can unlock both their effects they get to enjoy enormous mana values – usually in the double digits – and Marina can help you pull this off with ease.
Finally, it seems like Zur is even seeing a little bit of play in Standard currently, where players are using him to turn the Duskmourn overlords into creatures ahead of schedule to benefit from their busted attack triggers.
Time will tell whether Zur remains at such a high price. For now, it’s worth nothing that if you’re desperate to get your hands on any version of this card there’s a slightly cheaper option available. The promo variant from the prerelease boxes, stamped with the 2022 date, can be picked up for just over ten dollars.
Find a few good cards for upgrading all of the Duskmourn precons in our handy guide. You might also enjoy our articles on the MTG release schedule and the best MTG Arena decks.
Source: Wargamer
