A red control MTG card that players love or love to hate, Magus of the Moon is spiking in price right now. Original Future Sight copies of the card have gone from $11 to $25 in the last month, but even the cheaper version released in Time Spiral Remastered has more than doubled in price, going for $11.60 when at Christmas 2023 it was only worth $5.60.
We’re going by MTG Goldfish prices here, but on the TCGPlayer store we see a similar increase of 100% or more.
Often, these price spikes occur when a previously insignificant card suddenly becomes much more popular, but that doesn’t apply here. This is no hidden gem rising to the fore: Magus of the Moon is a known entity, and has been a premium sideboard card for red MTG Modern decks for years.
In case you’re not aware, the Magus is basically Blood Moon on a stick. It turns all non-basic lands into mountains, essentially shutting players with greedy mana bases out of the game (unless they were playing mono-red).
For a long time, Magus of the Moon has generally been considered a worse option than regular Blood Moon, since it dies to a lot of removal, including the popular (and red) card Lightning Bolt. But that seems to have been changing in recent years, hence the recent price spike.
The reasons for this are twofold. Firstly, Modern decks got access to better enchantment answers. Two of the decks that were hurt worst by Blood Moon, Tron and Amulet Titan, got Force of Vigor in Modern Horizons (2019) and then Boseiju, Who Endures in Kamigawa Neon Dynasty (2021).
Then more recently, the most popular removal card in Modern, the evoke elemental Fury, got hit with a ban. This is our best bet for why Magus is spiking in price and popularity right now – with creature removal temporarily weaker, the way is cleared for Magus to make a splash.
Currently, copies of Magus of the Moon are showing up on the sideboard of any deck playing red, alongside its friend Blood Moon. So we see some of the most popular decks in the meta: Crashing Footfalls, Rakdos Scam, (still going strong despite the bans), and now Murktide Regent, all snapping up copies.
While it’s never been one of the most expensive MTG cards on the market, Magus of the Moon has an interesting price history. It’s shot up in price after a number of different MTG set releases, spiking and then falling again and again.