The MTG card Nantuko Shrine is suddenly spiking in price. This green enchantment has gone from just $1.40 a week ago (according to MTG Goldfish) to a much more considerable $8.00 today. That’s a hefty increase of 470%, and the price rise shows no signs of slowing down just yet.
Nantuko Shrine is an old card that’s only ever been printed in one MTG set – 2002’s Odyssey. With fewer copies in supply, that makes it the sort of card that’s particularly susceptible to sudden price rises, when exactly the right combo comes along. MTG Murders at Karlov Manor has brought that combo, with the ooze-making sorcery card Slime Against Humanity.
Nantuko Shrine is a card that creates squirrel tokens each time anyone casts a card, at a rate of one squirrel for each card with the same name in any graveyard.
Slime Against Humanity is a green card that, like Rat Colony or Persistent Petitioners, you can have any number of in your deck. The obvious play is to make an ooze tribal MTG Commander deck, stuff it full of Slime Against Humanity, and then use Nantuko Shrine to create dozens of squirrel tokens each and every turn.
We’ve been keeping an eye on ooze cards to see if they’ll skyrocket in price, when it turns out we should have been watching the squirrels. Slime Against Humanity produces ooze tokens and gets stronger with ooze creatures, so we thought this MTG creature type was going to see some spikes.
A few cards like Biogenic Ooze, have gotten a few dollars pricier, but the impact has been low up to now. Just when we were thinking Slime Against Humanity had failed to move the needle, Nantuko Shrine blasts through the ceiling.
For more Magic: The Gathering price stories, take a look at the most expensive MTG cards of all time. Or you can check out our list of the best MTG Commanders to find the next leader of your EDH deck. Sadly, no oozes on there.