The market price for a copy of Enduring Tenacity, a popular black rare MTG card from 2024's Duskmourn, has hit $16.40, a $10 increase in the last month and 200% higher than its price at the start of the year. Enduring Tenacity has the powerful ability to force your opponents to lose life whenever you gain life, and copies are being snapped up by brewers building decks around Blech, Loafing Pest, a new Golgari commander from Secrets of Strixhaven.
Costing two generic and two black mana for a 4/3 snake glimmer enchantment creature, Enduring Tenacity has some board presence, but for the most part it's considered purely for its triggered ability: whenever you gain life, target opponent loses that much life. It's part of a cycle of rare enchantment creatures from the Duskmourn MTG set which all return to the battlefield as non-creature enchantments after they're killed, making it a nightmare to remove.
In most cases it's a functional reprint of the powerful enchantment Sanguine Bond, for one mana less. Enduring Tenacity was hotly anticipated prior to its release, with pre-orders going for around $15 a card - not the most expensive MTG card in the set, but clearly in demand.
That value collapsed as soon as it was available - MTG Goldfish's market tracker shows the price dropping to $3 - but it bounced up to $5 after Foundations came out and Bloodthirsty Conqueror entered Standard. This five mana vampire causes you to gain life whenever an opponent loses life, and creates a two card win condition with Enduring Tenacity.
Though that combo isn't quick enough to make Enduring Tenacity more than a bit player in Standard, it's the kind of card that life-gain and life-drain decks in EDH love to play with, as it's effectively a second copy of Sanguine Bond (albeit cheaper and slightly more vulnerable to exile-based removal). It's such an effective finisher that the price of the card was always likely to creep up steadily, at least until there's a reprint.
Enter Blech, Loafing Pest, a 3/4 legendary Pest creature that costs one generic, one green, and one black mana. Blech has the triggered ability that whenever you gain life, you put a +1/+1 counter onto each Pest, Bat, Insect, Snake, and Spider you control.
Blech is easy to cast, easy to understand, and can support +1/+1, life gain, and typal strategies - plus he's a cutie! He was always going to be a popular pick for commander, and Enduring Tenacity works beautifully as a win condition in his deck. And thanks to Enduring Tenacity's Snake creature subtype, it's also a body that can pick up +1/+1 tokens.
Are you running Blech? Do you have some other tech for Enduring Tenacity? Or are you battling on with the snake and its vampire friend in Standard? Come and let us know about it in the Wargamer Discord community.