The Magic: The Gathering card Worship has started to move upward in price. The Lord of the Rings version of this enchantment cost a dollar or less at the start of the year, but now copies are going for more than $5.
It also seems like someone is making a concerted effort to buy up as many copies of this specific version of the card as possible. 57 copies were purchased on March 5, 2025 – way more than were sold in the days prior or after.
Normally, I’d now examine the effect and history of the spiking card, but in this case it doesn’t seem like anyone is purchasing it based on the rules text. The card hasn’t started seeing play in any new decks, and there aren’t any freshly popular MTG commanders it plays well with. Instead, this seems to be a novel case of the artwork driving a card’s price movements.
The Lord of the Rings version of Worship has art by Greg and Tim Hildebrant, known as The Brothers Hildebrandt. These legendary sci-fi and fantasy artists are famous for their Lord of the Rings and Star Wars art, as well as comic book illustrations, and more.
It seems like multiple Lord of the Rings cards with art by the Hildebrandts, including River Keplie, Abyssal Persecutor, and Seasons Past, have all become much more costly in the last month or so. Seasons Past is up from $4.30 to $17.60 and Abyssal Persecutor has gone from $11.40 to $36.20.
Part of the reason for this could be that Greg Hildebrandt died in late 2024 (his brother Tim passed away in 2006), leading to a renewed interest in the artists’ legacy.
But it’s also highly relevant that the Hildebrandt cards were only distributed in the Lord of the Rings Special Edition Collector Boosters. This holiday release seems to have had a much lower print run than the regular Tales of Middle Earth MTG set, and now a single pack can easily sell for $150.
Whatever the reason, it certainly seems like this collection of cards has become highly desirable, and we’ll be keeping an eye on how their prices shift going forward.
For more Magic: The Gathering price stories you should check out this popular vampire tribal card moving up in value, or the new Standard deck that’s caused a bunch of spikes. You might also enjoy our list of the most expensive MTG cards of all time, or our guide to the MTG release schedule.