The Magic: The Gathering card Orthion, Hero of Lavabrink has seen a 416% price spike. Copies were valued at $2.40 on April 1, and they’ve since shot up to $12.40 in double time. Actually, this card seems to have already reached its peak. It’s now come down significantly from the $18.40 high point it hit on Monday. Where it will eventually settle is anyone’s guess.
If you’ve been paying attention to Magic: The Gathering price movements over the past week, it’s pretty obvious what must be causing fluctuations for this card, which came out in 2023 in the March of the Machine MTG set.
Orthion has two activated abilities, and both create temporary copies of other creatures. For two mana, you get a single token copy of another creature, and for an enormous nine mana you get five copies.
A red card that clones creatures? Sounds familiar. It is of course the advent of Deadpool, Trading Card that has caused this price spike. Deadpool’s card swapping ability gets miles better if you find a way to create copies of him, which is why we’ve seen cards like The Master Multiplied, Determined Iteration, and Orthion go up in price.
Since Deadpool, Trading Card is legendary, unless you have a card that shuts down the legend rule like Mirror Box or the Master, all your Orthion copies will be immediately sacrificed. But that’s not the end of the world, since they’d be disposed of at the end of the turn anyhow.
And while you won’t get to keep copies of your opponents’ best creatures, you will effectively remove them. They’ll keep their stats, it’s true, but the text box they’re left with is detrimental enough to make them more of a hindrance than a help in many cases. You’ll also get to make use of any enter-the-battlefield or death triggers those creatures feature (note, as Deadpool’s ability is a replacement effect not a triggered ability, Deadpool enters with the text box he’s stealing, so can copy ETBs).
I have to say, I’m not super surprised to see that these cards, which spiked so dramatically over the past few days, are already dropping in value. I have a pretty strong sense that once the hype dies down, Deadpool will be a pretty niche MTG commander. My suspicion is, after the first time you try him, he won’t be enjoyable to play regularly.
The trouble is, his effect, while a good troll, is not that powerful, quite annoying to keep track of, and easily telegraphed. Players will keep the creatures that are most useful to steal off the battlefield until Deadpool’s no longer a threat, and can – with a bit of effort – easily shut you down before your copying shenanigans get too silly.
To me, Deadpool seems more fun (and less toxic) as a surprise card in the 99. In the command zone, he’s likely to have the same problem as my mono-black Sheoldred deck. Everyone hates its effect, so they target my commander hard. Kaya’s Ghostforms and Not Dead After Alls can only get you so far, and with the deck’s leader off the field, you’re left with a collection of cards that feel useless.
A good way to build a Deadpool, Trading Card deck would be to include a healthy mixture of copy effects, and creatures of your own that you’d like to copy. That way, you’ll still have something to do besides twiddle your thumbs when Deadpool costs 10 mana.
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Source: Wargamer
