A technically still-unreleased MTG card is already spiking in value. Ral, Monsoon Mage has gone from $4.65 on prerelease weekend when it first became available, to $20.94 today. That’s a rise of 350% – pretty massive in such a short time.
That’s according to TCGPlayer’s price tracker anyhow, though we’re not seeing copies of this Magic: The Gathering card for sale for less than $29 at time of writing.
One of the exciting ‘flip walkers’ in this MTG set, Ral, Monsoon Mage is designed for Storm decks that want to play as many instants and sorceries in a turn as possible. He makes them all cheaper, and can transform into a powerful planeswalker at the flip of a coin.
The really interesting thing about this MTG planeswalker is that if you sequence things correctly, you have a very real shot of using Ral’s ultimate as soon as he turns into Ral, Leyline Prodigy. In most cases, that should give you the means to end the game with victory.
There’s a lot of hype building up around this card right now, and that’s in large part due to a video by YouTuber Aspiringspike, which shows off its power via Magic Online. This video has over 40,000 views, and in it the creator argues that Ral, Monsoon Mage turns Modern into a two-turn format.
Aspiringspike’s Storm deck is pretty simple – to explain, at any rate, if not to pilot. It uses Desperate/Pyretic Ritual and Manamorphose for extra mana and Wrenn’s Resolve and Glimpse the Impossible for card draw. It plans to ultimate Ral as early as possible and then use Grapeshot and Unstable Amulet to land a kill.
We’ll have to wait until the new Modern Horizons 3 cards are truly tested in the crucible of competitive play to see where this card ends up, and whether mono-red Storm ends up being a viable archetype in the format.
This higher price could stick, or it may well be a hype-driven flash in the pan – it remains to be seen.
For more content, check out the best MTG Arena decks, or take a look at our guide to the MTG release schedule.