MTG cards Thada Adel, Acquisitor, and Xanathar, Guild Kingpin, have both doubled in price in the last week. The source of the rising demand seems to be fans building or upgrading decks for new MTG Thunder Junction commanders: Gonti, Canny Acquisitor and Felix Five Boots from the Grand Larceny precon; and Obeka, Splitter of Seconds from the main set.
Thada Adel, Acquisitor, is a fairly scarce card which has only ever been printed in the MTG set Worldwake in 2010. A week ago it was priced around $14 on MTG Goldfish – that has now risen to $28.
Adel is a blue 2/2 with Islandwalk that costs one generic and two blue mana. Whenever she deals combat damage to a player, you get to search that player’s library for an artifact card and exile it – until end of turn you’re able to cast it.
That’s a neat ability in the MTG Commander format as most opponents will have at least a Sol Ring you can steal, but it synergises beautifully with two MTG Thunder Junction commanders. Sultai commander Felix Five-Boots has a triggered ability that effectively doubles Adel’s card-stealing ability, letting you nab two artifacts from the unlucky opponent’s library and cast either or both.
Meanwhile, fellow Sultai commander Gonti, Canny Acquisitor has two relevant abilities. He has a static ability that reduces the cost to cast spells you don’t own by one, letting you put a stolen Sol Ring or Shadowspear into play for free.
The new Gonti grants all your creatures a similar effect to Adel; whenever one or more creatures you control deal combat damage to a player, you can exile the top card of that player’s library, and may cast it for as long as it remains exiled using mana of any color. If Jada connects with an opponent while Gonti is in play, you’ll steal two cards.
Gonti also likes the other card we’ve seen spike in price, Xanathar, Guild King Pin, which has risen from around $2.50 to $5.00. Printed in 2021’s Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, Xanathar is a 5/6 black and blue Beholder that costs five generic, one blue and one black mana to cast.
At the start of your upkeep, Xanathar lets you pick an opponent. They can’t cast spells during your turn, and you can look at and cast spells from the top of that player’s library using mana of any color – at a discount, if Gonti is in play.
Xanathar is also popular with the new Grixis commander Obeka, Splitter of Seconds. Whenever Obeka deals combat damage to a player, you get that many additional upkeep steps after this phase. This will let you use Xanathar’s ability at least two more times, targeting multiple opponents, letting you steal from their library and shut down their spells.
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