The Magic: The Gathering card Recruiter of the Guard has spiked 300% over the past month, going from about $5 at the start of January 2025 to $20 today, according to MTG Goldfish’s price tracker.
This creature, released in the recent MTG set Modern Horizons 3 is – funnily enough – seeing plenty of play in Modern of late, as part of the intriguing new Orzhov Blink deck that’s become super popular in the past couple of months.
Recruiter of the Guard has a great enter the battlefield (ETB) effect, allowing you to search your library for any creature with two or less toughness and pop it into your hand. It’s a good inclusion for this Modern deck, since that’s basically all your creatures except Overlord of the Balemurk.
Recruiter of the Guard is excellent because it can fetch whatever’s missing from your hand in the early game, from a Phelia to a Solitude, but then also be a great creature to blink for extra value later on in a match.
It’s undoubtedly the MTG format Modern that has caused this card’s rise in price, but it’s also worth noting that Recruiter is also seeing play in the little-known format Duel Commander. In this format, where players build 99-card decks to fight against a single opponent starting at 20 life, Phelia Exuberant Shepherd is one of the most popular MTG commanders, and Phelia decks regularly come near the top in tournaments.
Of course, these decks almost always run Recruiter of the Guard because being able to fetch up whatever mono-white creature you need, from a huge possible selection, whenever you like is really powerful.
It seems like Recruiter of the Guard may have already reached its peak price, however. Initially, people rushed to try out Orzhov Blink, as it was the hot new thing. But it appears other Modern decks like Grinding Station and Boros Energy see more consistent success, and unless something drastic happens, I’d expect the Blink deck to remain a second tier archetype, below the very best decks.
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Source: Wargamer
