These Foundations Jumpstart Magic: The Gathering cards are reaching ridiculous figures, with significant price spikes after the set’s launch. Rev, Tithe Extractor and Scythecat Cub are the two most expensive creatures in the set, and both have defied expectations by shooting up in value after launch. Scythecat Cub has gone from $35 to $65 since November 15, while Rev, Tithe Extractor has risen from an already high $70 to an astounding $91.
In Scythecat Cub’s case, this 85% increase can be attributed to the popularity of landfall EDH decks. Scythecat’s effect, placing a +1/+1 counter on a creature when a land enters and then doubling the number of counters on a second trigger, is pretty strong. It’s good in literally any deck with a lands theme, turning simple cards like Evolving Wilds into useful tools.
It’s a very similar effect to another card that came out in a Magic: The Gathering set earlier this year: Bristly Bill Spine Sower. That card has slowly risen in value to about $30, so we might expect Scythecat Cub to eventually settle at a similar figure, though obviously it’s going to depend on the relative supply of the two cards.
Rev, Tithe Extractor, meanwhile is a mono-black Gonti, Canny Acquisitor, who can steal your opponent’s cards and provide you treasure to help pay for them. She also gives one of your creatures deathtouch when you attack, making it much easier to land a hit. The most likely place for Rev to see play is a Gonti or Prosper deck, but no doubt some fans will make her their MTG commander.
Rev has a powerful ability, but given that it’s not particularly unique – we had an example earlier this year – it’s quite surprising to see her reach such a high price. But don’t overlook the waifu tax: the fact that Rev is a cute anime girl is almost certainly driving sales here, just like it is for some of the other top cards from the set, Evereth and Aphelia ($30 and $55 respectively).
Not all the anime cards have shot up in value, though. It seems no one has time for poor Brigone, Soldier of Meletis, who costs less than 30 cents right now. This suggests that the anime art also needs to be paired with an interesting or powerful effect to be a real draw. Or maybe, compared to the black cards, Brigone is just too goody-goody to capture nerds’ hearts.
It’s worth noting that rarity in Jumpstart sets works a bit differently to other sets. Not every Rare or Mythic Rare card is as scarce as every other. Instead, each Jumpstart theme has an individual rarity. Among the 121 different pack configurations, each Common theme shows up four times, each Rare theme twice, and each Mythic theme just once.
This unusual rarity distribution could be having some impact on early values. We’ve seen plenty of Foundations cards with high prices in the past, like Ashcoat and Bruvac the Grandiloquent. It’s worth noting, though, that usually these high values do eventually drop, whether or not the cards actually receive a reprint.
It seems likely that the same will happen for Foundations Jumpstart cards, though we can’t be sure, as we can’t make concrete guesses yet about how many copies of these cards will end up in circulation. If these Jumpstart boosters are kept in print the entire five years that Foundations is legal, we would expect all but the highest value cards to come crashing down.
For more Magic: The Gathering content, check out the MTG release schedule to see what 2025 holds.
Source: Wargamer
