The MTG card Sage of Hours has seen a pretty sizable price spike, doubling in cost over the past few weeks. On May 15, the card was priced at just $4.20, according to MTG Goldfish, and now it’s up to $9.40.
A fairly old (or fairly new, depending on which side of the millennium you were born) creature from the MTG set Journey into Nyx, Sage of Hours is part of my most hated group of Magic cards: an extra turn spell. To be precise, it’s a creature who rewards you with extra turns if you can stack five +1/+1 counters on him.
If we look to the usual suspects for any price spike: Commander precon decks from the latest set, we immediately land upon a winner. The Tidus MTG Final Fantasy deck is all about +1/+1 counters, and Yuna, his co-commander, is just as popular – and similarly has a counter theme.
Both of these MTG commanders encourage you to pack proliferate effects in your decks and Tidus has the keyword himself. And Yuna can move loads of counters onto a creature at once when something dies, easily triggering Sage of Hours right away.
Since this card has never had a reprint, it’s understandably susceptible to a spike. So perhaps the question isn’t ‘why is this spiking’ but ‘why isn’t this spiking harder?’ One reason could be that many players aren’t a fan of infinite turn combos. Or perhaps even if they are, they know from experience that it doesn’t win them any friends on game night.
Or maybe it’s the new bracket system that has cramped Sage of Hours’ style. The Commander bracket system explicitly bans chaining together extra turns until bracket 4, and at that power level a slightly durdly card like Sage of Hours – which requires a good deal of set up to get going – just might not be good enough.
It’s also not as if Tidus and Yuna are the first +1/+1 focused commanders we’ve seen. If past releases like Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres haven’t lifted Sage of Hours to the stratosphere, I suppose it makes sense the new set – while very popular – wouldn’t either.
Nonetheless, now nearing the $10 mark makes this the highest Sage of Hours has ever sold for. The foils are rising too, going up by more than $6 in the past two weeks.
For more Magic spikes, check out this extremely weird, extremely old card that’s jumping up in price. You can also come discuss this and other price movements over at our Discord, or check out our guide to the MTG release schedule.
Source: Wargamer
