The Magic: The Gathering card Painter’s Servant has jumped up in price over the past few weeks. The card cost $57.30 in early March, but now it’s shot up to $90 and is flirting with the idea of becoming a $100 card.
Printed in the 2008 MTG set Shadowmoor, the first set of the Shadowmoor block which brought us Lorwyn’s more sinister sibling, Painter’s Servant is a scarecrow creature card with a really weird effect. When it enters the battlefield you pick a color, and then all cards, spells, and permanents – both yours and your opponents – become that color for as long as the Servant is in play.
Why is that useful? Is it to stop your creatures from dying to Doom Blade? Of course not – there’s actually a weird combo using this card that has made it one of the best decks in Legacy: one of the most high-powered MTG formats in existence.
That deck relies on a two-card infinite combo: Painter’s Servant and Grindstone. It’s pretty straightforward: Painter’s Servant makes every card the same color, even cards that usually lack a color identity like lands, and then Grindstone mills your opponent out in one go.
The deck has become significantly stronger in the last few months thanks to the arrival of the blue sorcery spell Stock Up. Probably the number one uncommon card of the year so far, this innocuous three-cost sorcery speed blue spell is extremely useful despite its limitations. The handiness of its ability to dig five cards deep and draw two cannot be overstated – especially for a deck like this where you need to look for combo pieces.
The Painter’s Servant deck has gotten increasingly more popular over the last couple of months, to the point where it’s now the second hottest deck in the format, besides Dimir. Since it needs to run four copies of its titular card, and since Painter’s Servant is a rare that has never had a proper reprint, this has been more than sufficient to boost this card’s price by more than 30 bucks.
For more stories on expensive Magic: The Gathering cards, check out the Doctor Who creature that’s seen a price explosion out of nowhere. You should also come visit our Discord, both to hang out, and for the chance to win a box of Tarkir Dragonstorm boosters.
Source: Wargamer
