The MTG card Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor has seen a solid price spike over the past month, rising from $5 mid-December to $10.70 right now – a none too shabby increase of just over 100%.
In case you’ve not heard of this Brother’s War card, it’s a black legendary Phyrexian who not only draws cards each time your creatures make contact with the enemy’s face, but has an expensive activated ability that lets you trade your own cards for some of your opponents’.
Undoubtedly, Gix’s long-awaited MTG card (he was a character in ye olden days) is a doozy, but what’s caused it to go up in price a year later? Perhaps a Phyrexian tribal build has finally broken free? Could there be some kind of weird Dimir theft deck in the meta? Oh no, it can’t be. Please no. Not Rakdos Midrange!
That’s right. Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the Standard Ranked queue, the red-black midrange deck is back on top. Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor is a popular card for the current variant doing the rounds.
Like a Christmas miracle, Rakdos midrange was resurrected over December. And this is no shambling zombie, it’s one of the best MTG Arena decks right now, doing well in competitive games according to MTG Goldfish’s tournament tracker.
Lost Caverns of Ixalan has provided plenty of tools for this archetype, such as the Discover package of Trumpeting Carnosaur and Geological Appraiser (banned in Pioneer, but not in Standard) and the hand disruption of Deep-Cavern Bat.
As for Gix himself, the Praetor works well in the deck alongside token generator Preacher of the Schism and, of course, with Sheoldred.
Magic card prices have been pretty stable in the last month or so, thanks to the absence of new MTG sets shaking things up. As for the 2024 MTG release schedule, there’s Ravnica Remastered coming soon – we’ll see if that moves the needle at all. Or for more content, check out the most expensive MTG cards of all time.