Barbara Wright, an obscure and very rarely used Magic: The Gathering card from the Doctor Who set has shot up in value. It's more than tripled in price in the past couple weeks, hitting $5. Going back a month, its rise is even more striking, as before Final Fantasy previews began it was valued at just 30 cents, according to MTG Goldfish.
A mono white legendary creature representing one of the first doctor's companions, on the face of it Barbara has got to be one of the least impressive cards in the Doctor Who MTG set. A nod to her occupation as a teacher, she gives all your sagas the ability 'Read Ahead', letting you set them off from whatever lore chapter you choose.
She's obviously pretty useless as a standalone MTG commander, and judging by EDHREC, few people have bothered to try her out alongside a Doctor either. That's because while some sagas have a very strong final ability, many dish out incremental value over time, and skipping right to the end of a saga means you miss out on lots of useful effects.
Ultimately, read ahead is a better ability in a 1v1 match where speed is more important, than in the often slower-paced gameplay of Commander, where you've three opponents with 40 life each to chip away at.
However, it seems Barbara Wright is getting some attention finally, thanks to all the Sagas in the MTG Final Fantasy set.
At first glance, you might think that there's little reason to use Barbara with FF's saga creatures. After all, they go to the graveyard once you've hit the final chapter, so if you read ahead you're not only skipping some effects but hastening your creatures' demises.
But the fact that the set's sagas are creatures also makes them a lot more fragile and easier for other players to remove. And some of the higher mana value sagas in the set have very strong final chapters and a very long build-up to them.
Take Knights of the Round, for instance. Sure, getting three knight tokens each turn for four turns is pretty damn good, but it also means the ultimate ability, where you buff your whole board and make it indestructible, is heavily telegraphed. Your foes have plenty of time to find a board wipe and save it until you've used chapter four. So if you already have a wide board, Barbara becomes really strong here.
Another good example is Bahamut. All of its abilities are very strong, but its final 'Mega Flare' ,where it deals a ton of damage to opposing players, can often win you the game on the spot. Or it could, if you could skip straight to it. Without Barbara Wright, the rest of the table will scramble to kill it off before it can zap everyone.
Barb plays really well alongside some Final Fantasy commanders too. She helps Garnet, Princess of Alexandria, ensuring she always has plenty of tasty lore counters to devour, and with Terra, Magical Adept she can form an infinite combo.
Here's how that works. You need Barbara Wright, Terra, and a haste enabler like Rhythm of the Wild. All you have to do is flip Terra, Magical Adept and skip straight to her fifth chapter. This gives you 10 mana and flips her back to her non-saga side, milling you for five and possibly finding you an enchantment. If you can give her haste, you can then use six of that mana to reactivate her ability and rinse and repeat.
When you finish comboing off you'll have as much mana as you need, a bunch of enchantments on the board, and probably not many cards left in your library. Or you can just play this combo with Thassa's Oracle, if you're boring.
This isn't the only Terra combo we've seen - you should check out our Final Fantasy combos guide to find one that works in a Standard deck. It's also not the only saga-related card spiking off the back of Final Fantasy.
If you plan on slotting this Doctor Who card in a deck, come tell us on our Discord. Otherwise we have more great Magic reads, like these guides to the most expensive MTG cards ever, the best MTG Arena decks, and the MTG release schedule.