The Magic: The Gathering card Ink-Treader Nephilim is spiking in price. From a cheap and cheerful $1.50 in early August, it has ratcheted up and up and presently sits at $8.20.
Released in the 2006 Ravnica-block MTG set Guildpact, the Nephilim are bizarre monstrosities, worshipped on the metropolis plane as gods before the creation of the Guildpact. There are five of these multi-colored creatures in total, each with a very bizarre appearance, and they’re each notable for missing a single color of mana. In fact, a deck with every color except black might be called an ‘Ink’ deck by a Magic fan with a certain amount of experience.
Ink-Treader Nephilim has an interesting effect – copying any instant or sorcery spell that targets it so that it targets every legal target instead. This means little cantripping combat tricks become absurd card draw spells, while any spot removal is transformed into a board wipe.
There’s a very obvious reason why this card is spiking. Mystery Booster Commander Edition has a new legendary card, Nephilim Epochal, which encourages you to play all the Nephilim in the same deck, buffs your board based on how many Nephilim you have, and lets you tutor one of them up when it enters the battlefield.
So it’s not that surprising that Ink-Treader Nephilim is spiking. What’s perhaps a little more puzzling is why it’s the only one. Ink-Treader Nephilim actually isn’t the most widely played overall in Commander (that’s Yore-Tiller), and although EDHREC lists it as the most popular card in this new Nephilim tribal strategy, the others really aren’t far behind.
But Ink-Treader Nephilim is the least reprinted. The others have had a card on The List, and Glint-Eye Nephilim even had a recent reprint in the Dominaria United Commander deck led by Jared Carthalion. So that’s one clear reason why this card is moving up in price more than its brethren.
Nephilim Epochal is quite an interesting commander, actually, because on the face of it it seems rubbish. Since there are only five Nephilim in total and their effects don’t synergize, I think you’re not actually supposed to try and jam them all together and run a bunch of changelings, as much as Epochal supports that approach.
Instead, I believe the most effective way to build this deck is by picking just one of the Nephilim to be your ‘secret commander’ and using the Epochal to summon it. In which case, Ink-Treader is probably the most fun and powerful option.
Whether you’re using Act of Treason to steal every creature on the board, Angelic Intervention followed by Murder to make a one-sided board wipe, or just drawing dozens of cards with a Wisps spell, there’s lots of hijinks to be had. This is a high-risk strategy though, since your opponents’ single-target spells can also be powered up, and if you lose the Ink-Treader, it doesn’t have a command zone to go to.
What’s your favorite Mystery Booster commander? Let us know over on the Wargamer Discord.
Source: Wargamer
