The MTG card Enduring Innocence has seen a pretty sudden price spike, leaping from $2.80 a fortnight ago, to $10 today. This Duskmourn card is outperforming the rest of the ‘Enduring’ cycle, as its card draw ability is helping it see play in a load of different decks. If you have a white deck that plays lots of little creatures, it could probably use this card.
Enduring Innocence is a white card draw engine that’s very annoying for an opponent to get rid of. It’s a creature, so it can chump block to soak up damage and gain you a little bit of life. Then when it dies it becomes an enchantment that’s harder for your opponent to interact with. The result? You basically need an exile effect to feel good about taking out this little lamb.
Looking at Enduring Innocence, I’m immediately reminded of Caretaker’s Talent, another white card draw spell, and one that absolutely shot up in price shortly after Bloomburrow released. Enduring Innocence doesn’t do quite as much as the fantastic Talent cards, but the lifelinking body and the resilience to removal should not be underrated: I know which card I’d rather have when facing down aggro.
So we’ve established it’s a good spell, but what’s caused Enduring Innocence to spike? It seems like instead of one clear archetype, there are a range of different decks that are using this card.
For instance, in Standard there’s a new Azorius enchantment deck seeing a little bit of play, and the card is also getting run in mono white token control (which has won out over the Boros version, much to my personal disappointment).
In Pioneer, there’s an Azorius spirits deck which can flash in creatures to trigger Enduring Innocence twice per turn cycle. The card is also needed by a Selesnya strategy running loads of little creatures and Collected Company.
Finally, Magic’s most popular format, Commander, is also getting plenty of use out of Enduring Innocence. Notably, the card works great with two of the most played MTG commanders in Duskmourn, Arabella and the Jolly Balloon Man. The first wants you to play as many creatures with two power or less as possible, the second creates its own 1/1s to trigger Enduring Innocence.
No doubt the players of these decks have chipped away at supply, creating the conditions where a price spike was more likely. As an aside, wow this was a good set for the Boros MTG color combination!
For more Magic: The Gathering content, check out our guides to the best MTG Arena decks and the MTG release schedule.
Source: Wargamer
