The MTG card Archangel Elspeth has seen a price spike of 228%. On August 10, the card was priced at $4 according to MTG Goldfish’s tracker. Three weeks later, it’s up to $13.10. The reason for the spike is a fresh new deck that’s shaken up the Standard meta.
Released in the recent ‘Avenger’s End Game’ MTG set March of the Multiverse, Archangel Elspeth is a super classic take on a white planeswalker. She can make tokens, buff them up into flying angels, and resurrect low-cost permanents with her ultimate ability. A limited bomb, this version of Elspeth didn’t do much for other formats, however, which is why it’s remained a pretty cheap card up to now.
What’s changed is that token decks are far stronger than they used to be thanks to Bloomburrow. This set of cute woodland critters gave us the class card Caretaker’s Talent, a ridiculously powerful source of card draw which saw its own big price jump. This card, paired with the reliable token-maker Urabrask’s Forge (another spiking card), has enabled a brand new archetype: Boros Token Control.
Yes, that’s right. The most aggressive MTG color combination is now a control deck – built around drawing extra cards each turn and fending off attacks with tiny blockers and removal until the time comes to win the game with a massive Phyrexian or an army of tokens all buffed up by the level 3 ability of Caretaker’s Talent.
In this deck, Elspeth is valuable, as she’s another repeatable source of token generation like Forge. This MTG planeswalker can also give one of your big tokens flying, helping you land a fatal attack when blockers bar your way. Her -6 effect probably doesn’t come up often, but it would be pretty handy if all your Talents and Forges ended up in the graveyard.
Some people are now playing a mono white version of this deck too, with Sanguine Evangelist and Virtue of Loyalty.
For more Magic stories, check out our guides to the MTG release schedule, and the best MTG Arena decks.
Source: Wargamer
