The Magic: The Gathering card Arwen, Mortal Queen is ramping up in value. This Lord of the Rings mythic rare was pretty darn cheap 10 days ago, costing only $2.20 for the basic version by MTG Goldfish’s reckoning. But in that time its price has more than doubled, and a copy now goes for $5.50.
Like the majority of spikes in the past month, this is once again a consequence of the huge number of MTG Final Fantasy spoilers Wizards has been pumping out recently. Specifically, Arwen works really well with one of the MTG commanders leading a Final Fantasy precon deck: Tidus, Yuna’s Guardian.
That’s because Tidus’ ability is all about making counters and moving them around, and Arwen can provide some really unusual counter types.
For starters, Arwen enters with an indestructible counter, making her immune to combat damage and many a kill spell. This is a super rare counter type, and at three mana, Arwen is probably the easiest way to get it onto the board.
Other cards that have indestructible counters, like the Dominus or Myogins, for instance, are pretty mana-intensive, and even Tyrite Sanctum (incidentally, a pretty darn good utility land for the Tidus deck) asks you to jump through some hoops. But with Arwen, you just have to cast a three-mana spell.
And once you have an indestructible counter in play, Tidus can do wonders with it. As soon as combat begins, he can move the counter to a more valuable creature, perhaps protecting Tidus himself or a more dangerous threat on the board. After that, his cheer ability lets you proliferate, making another indestructible counter that you can move to someone else.
Given enough turns, you’ll eventually be able to make your whole board indestructible, and it’s going to be hard for your opponents to do much about it. Having a battlefield full of indestructible creatures is a pretty amazing spot to be in. You can play board wipes with impunity, and have loads of options when it comes to combat.
Of course, since the Final Fantasy precons aren’t out yet, we can’t ignore the fact that this spike is purely based on speculation – we don’t know for sure how well Arwen will play in the deck. And just like the Artificer’s Intuition spike we posted yesterday, Arwen, Mortal Queen seems to have started rising in price as a result of social media drawing attention to it.
The spike started 10 days ago, and 10 days ago, Reddit user LouisDinosaure made a post on the MTG Finance Reddit, shouting out Arwen as a good possible spec. But while this may have had a big impact, it probably isn’t just Reddit users buying the card: Arwen, Mortal Queen also features in over 60% of Tidus decks posted to EDHREC.
Which is your favorite of the Final Fantasy Commander precon decks? Tidus is really cool, but it’s hard to beat the life-draining effect of Y’shtola – tell us which you prefer at our Discord. Or, for more on the TCG, here’s all you need to know about MTG Arena codes and this year’s MTG release schedule.
Source: Wargamer
