‘Waste Not’, a black MTG enchantment card first printed in 2014, has jumped from under $3 to around $7 in under a week, according to prices on MTG Goldfish. The cause of the hike seems to be the newly printed Thunder Junction commander ‘Tinybones, the Pickpocket’.
Waste Not was first printed in 2014, as part of the (confusingly named) 2015 core set. It’s that version of the card that’s seen the biggest surge in price, with the reprinted version from the Thrones of Eldraine MTG Set increasing by less than a dollar. When interest is focused on just one printing of a card it’s a good sign that demand is being driven by EDH players who want copies to accompany a shiny new MTG Commander.
Waste Not is a classic payoff for forcing your opponent to discard cards. It costs one generic and one black mana and has three static abilities, each one triggered when an opponent discards a certain type of card. Whenever they discard a creature, you create a 2/2 black zombie creature token. If they discard a land, you add two black mana. If they discard anything else, you draw a card.
We’re singling out Tinybones, The Pickpocket, as the most likely source of the new interest in Waste Not. This MTG Thunder Junction Commander costs one black mana for a 1/1 with Deathtouch. Whenever Tinybones deals combat damage to an opponent, you may cast target nonland permanent card from that player’s graveyard, using any color of mana to cast it.
Tinybones wants your opponents to put cards into their graveyards, and Waste Not gives you value when your opponents discard cards. Putting them in the same deck simply unlocks extra value.
This is far from the highest price that Waste Not has reached; it almost hit $25 in mid 2021. That spike was driven by the original ‘Tinybones, Trinket Thief’, and ‘Tergrid, God of Fright’, both monoblack discard Commanders. The Commander’s Quarters has a great budget build for the original Tinybones, embedded below:
Waste Not is also a reliable player in the mono-black discard Pioneer deck, which plays exactly the way you expect it to, and which seems to be driving some interest in the card on MTGO.
Outlaws of Thunder Junction has been driving price spikes aplenty: earlier this week we reported on two cards doubling in price thanks to Thunder Junction commanders, and a card from the precons unlocked an infinite combo that sent Cerulean Whisps up by over 500%.
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