The Magic: The Gathering card Demilich has shot up in price. In the past couple of days it’s gone from just $1.00 to an impressive $19.40, a whopping price spike of 1840%. That’s for regular copies of the card: there are slightly cheaper versions available in foil, but even these now sit at about $14.
There’s one simple reason why this card has risen so precipitously in value: it’s because the Modern meta is in serious flux, with new builds rising to the fore in the wake of major Magic: The Gathering banlist changes. The One Ring is out, and a bunch of previously banned cards like Mox Opal and Splinter Twin are back in.
Released in the Adventures in the Forgotten Realms MTG set in 2021, Demilich is a blue creature that’s perfect for spellslinging decks. It gets cheaper for each instant and sorcery you cast the same turn, can be cast from your graveyard by exiling instants and sorceries, and can consume and copy spells from your graveyard when it attacks.
It’s rising in price because it could be a key player in an Izzet deck based around Arclight Phoenix. An old deck that fell out of favor, it’s just become viable again now that Faithless Looting, a very strong draw and discard spell that was once a pillar of the deck, is unbanned.
Notably, Izzet Phoenix is also a popular archetype in Pioneer right now, but in that MTG format, the deck doesn’t run Demilich. That’s not because Demilich is no good, however, it’s simply that without access to Faithless Looting, stocking the graveyard with instants and sorceries becomes far more difficult.
While Izzet Phoenix may have the chops to become a popular Modern deck once more, it should be noted that it’s yet to perform well in the first few MTG Online Modern Leagues and Challenges. Faithless Looting, like the other unbanned cards, is seeing plenty of play, but mainly seeing success in reanimator decks or modified energy builds. Time will tell whether Demilich decks can become competitive. If they can’t, this might be a rather short-lived price rise.
The next week should be an interesting one for price spikes, however. Obviously, all the unbanned cards have shot up in value, but now we’re starting to see the effects on cards that synergize with them. Expect to see lots of shifts in the coming weeks – we’ve got our eyes on Kethis of the Hidden Hand, thanks to a surprise combo deck that had a strong competitive showing.
For more great stories and advice, check out our lists of the most expensive MTG cards and the best MTG Arena decks. And if you want to know more about what’s on the way in 2025, take a look at the upcoming MTG release schedule.
Source: Wargamer
