The Magic: The Gathering card Harmonic Prodigy has seen a pretty significant price spike over the past month. In mid-May it was worth about $3.80, according to MTG Goldfish, but now this creature card goes for $9.10 a pop. Foils have seen an even more dramatic rise, selling on TCGPlayer for as much as $20 – $30, up from $5.
Released in Modern Horizons 2, Harmonic Prodigy is a human wizard with prowess which powers up other wizards and shamans, doubling their triggers. This card, like so many we’ve seen spiking over the last month, is rising thanks to the new MTG set Final Fantasy. Specifically it’s due to one of the most popular MTG commanders from the set: Vivi Ornitier.
Vivi Ornitier’s power lies mainly in his activated ability, which can make a ton of mana to power up some really big turns. Harmonic Prodigy does nothing for this; since it’s not a triggered ability, it doesn’t get doubled.
However, Vivi’s ability to make mana is dependent on his power, and that’s where the other half of his rules text comes in. The commander gets bigger whenever you play a non-creature spell, so if you chain some small spells together you quickly reach a point where he can be activated to pay for a big one.
By doubling up this triggered ability, Harmonic Prodigy effectively halves the time it takes for Vivi to reach that sweet spot where you can make enough mana to go off and take control of the game. Getting twice as many damage pings isn’t bad either.
An EDH deck led by Vivi probably isn’t going to want too many creature spells, but it’s fairly likely that if you play this card, you’ll also throw a few wizards or shamans in there, which will synergize nicely with all the non-creature spells you’re throwing around.
Ornitier is looking like a pretty high-power commander. He’s payoff and engine both for the popular spell-slinging archetype and even has a few easy infinite combos – and he’s not the only Final Fantasy card that can be broken this way. As a result, and thanks to the draw of the character, it’s no surprise that he’s been ridiculously popular, with 7,500 decks logged on EDHREC in the first week of release.
We don’t blame you for building an Ornitier deck – let us know how it plays or share your list on our Discord – but if you’re looking for something less obvious to build, here are five underrated commanders from the Final Fantasy set.
You should also check out our MTG release schedule guide and list of the most expensive Magic: The Gathering cards in history.
Source: Wargamer
