The Magic: The Gathering card Ashling the Extinguisher has tripled in price in the past month, going from roughly $5 in mid-October to about $15 today.
This black elemental shaman was released in Eventide, the second and last MTG set of the Shadowmoor block. It's a 4/4 with a nasty combat damage trigger. When you hit an opponent with Ashling, you pick a creature they control and they have to sacrifice it.
That's a super strong removal effect, and it can even get through indestructible (though not hexproof) but the tricky part is getting Ashling to connect. That's where a new card comes in: Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima.
Recently revealed as part of the PlayStation batch of Secret Lairs, Jin Sakai is the culprit behind this price spike, and he's an Esper commander that helps your creatures land hits. His effect lets you send one creature at each player and then either give them double strike or unblockable.
For Ashling, you're probably choosing unblockable most of the time. If your opponent doesn't have anything to block with and you can get in a double strike hit, then they probably don't have anything worth targeting with Ashling's ability, meaning you should have sent something else at that player.
Ashling is by no means the only creature that's been boosted by Jin Sakai. This is a really unique and cool MTG commander, which is usually a recipe for a bunch of price movements.
Another card that's been shifted by it is Fallen Shinobi. This is a Zombie Ninja that lets you pick a card from the two on top of your opponent's library whenever you hit them and cast it for free. Give this thing double strike with Jin Sakai and point it at an opponent who's wide open, and you'll probably get to cast something good.
Fallen Shinobi's price movement has been far less dramatic than Ashling's, it's only gone from $2 to $4.50, but that's still quite surprising for a card that's had two reprints in Commander precon products in the last couple of years.
What's your favorite of the new, unique PlayStation SL cards? Let us know over in the Wargamer Discord. And check out this guide to the MTG release schedule to see what's coming next for Magic.