The Magic: The Gathering card Agatha of the Vile Cauldron has seen an absurd price spike. It’s hard to believe this card was only $1.10 back in the summer, when MTG Marvel came out. It’s now more than ten times that value, currently sitting at $13.19 according to the MTG Goldfish tracker tool.
Released in the 2023 MTG set Wilds of Eldraine, Agatha of the Vile Cauldron is a Gruul human warlock with a highly useful ability. She reduces the activated ability cost of creatures based on her power. This starts out as a discount of just one, but if you can find a way to buff her, it can get busted very quickly.
This ability has historically made her a good card for Kenrith, the Returned King. Agatha did have some use in MTG Marvel too, in the popular Super-Skrull deck, since this was basically a Fantastic-4-themed take on Kenrith. But while she was creeping up slowly beforehand, it’s a strong combo in MTG Reality Fracture that really caused her value to soar.
Agatha has always been a useful card in many different decks, but never really a must-have. But under the new sphinx commander Aerid Konstrari, that all changes. Here, she offers unbeatable value and so she’s found in 2,700 out of 4,500 Konstrari decks logged on EDHREC.
That is because Aerid’s ability makes mana rocks and – crucially – only requires generic mana. It’s useful to discount even by one, but if you can get Agatha to five power you can combo off. At this stage, you can make Aerid infinitely powerful, and make infinite tapped Heartwood tokens. If you can reach six power, it gets even better. The ability becomes completely free and you also get infinite mana.
In a set stuffed with legendary creatures, the Hexhaven sphinxes have really stood out as the top commanders going. While the Dimir (or Theorix) sphinx falls a little behind the others for having an ETB that doesn’t even work if you flicker him, Stringerquill, Konstrari, Vigorbloom, and Fatehold are all seeing a ton of play.
Source: Wargamer
