The controversial Magic: The Gathering card Dockside Extortionist has shot up in value. I know. Here we go again. The Goblin Pirate card which makes way too much treasure has been holding steady at about the $10 mark for the last half a year, but its price was just rapidly boosted by the announcement of a new reprint, and copies are now selling for up to $30.
That's because we just found out that this card is appearing in the Avatar: The Last Airbender release, as one of the ugly zoomed-in screenshots that are all this MTG set has by way of a bonus sheet. This Dockside Extortionist will almost certainly be the worst variant of the card ever printed. It's fugly, depicts a minor character from the show that doesn't have a name, and though they are a pirate, as our weekend writer Ben Macready correctly pointed out, they are not, in any sense, a goblin.
But it doesn't matter what the Avatar version looks like. Its very existence has got fans wondering if, this time, Wizards of the Coast might actually, totally for realsies, be about to take Dockside Extortionist off the MTG banlist.
In case you're unfamiliar with Dockside's recent history, the card was a Commander all-star, with a reserved seat in any red deck and a price tag of about $80. That is until September 23, 2024, when the now-retired rules committee stuck it on the Commander banlist. The backlash to this was immense and the vitriol caused the volunteer RC to throw in the towel. Wizards then took up the mantle of managing the format and gave the fanbase a much needed stern talking to.
Since then, Dockside Extortionist's value has predictably cratered, but every so often fans get a whiff of copium and it skyrockets right back up. This is the third time the card has spiked in 2025. It happened in February, when an article by designer Gavin Verhey teased that a banlist update would happen in April. And then it happened in April, just before the banlist article came out.
In the actual event, the MTG Commander banlist update did not affect the cards axed by the rules committee, but Verhey did confirm they were discussed. However, he also said Jeweled Lotus was the one that seemed most promising for an unban and said that "for this year, the book is closed on these three cards." That means if the new Dockside Extortionist does herald a potential unbanning, it won't be happening until April 2026.
Our preferred price tracker MTGGoldfish shows an even higher value for DE - suggesting its current value is closer to $60. That seems to be because it factors in listings that haven't yet sold though. It looks like a lot of collectors are pushing their luck and seeing if they can offload a copy for $100. I hope, for sanity's sake, that they can't.
For more Magic madness, check out our guide to the most expensive MTG cards. You should also come join the conversation on the Wargamer Discord.