The Magic: The Gathering card Nest of Scarabs has shot up in value by 840%. This Amonkhet card was priced at just $1 until January 6, but now copies are selling for as much as $9.40.
This uncommon enchantment card from the 2017 MTG set has a straightforward effect. When you put -1/-1 counters on a creature, you get to make an equal number of 1/1 Scarab tokens. It's a great addition alongside Hapatra, who already wants you to be making tokens, and just generally a good card for yer -1/-1 counter decks.
There's a very simple reason Nest of Scarabs is spiking now: it wasn't reprinted in the Lorwyn Eclipsed Commander deck Blight Curse. What's more, many fans presumably felt that it would be, since unlike many other cards that utilize this theme, Nest of Scarabs was not bought up and did not spike in the run up to the deck's release.
Based on how card prices have fluctuated on the secondary market over the past few weeks we can see collectors made bad bets on cards like The Scorpion God, Necroskitter, and Flourishing Defenses. Many ended up paying a premium for cards that - unbeknownst to them - were about to receive a reprint and would be tanking not spiking once the Lorwyn set released.
Others went for safer specs, Reserved list or Jurassic World licensed cards that would certainly not be in the deck. But Nest of Scarabs went fairly under the radar up to now.
With the full decklist revealed, however, fans are swiftly buying up copies. There's an obvious logic: it's one of the few strong -1/-1 counters card that isn't in the box. Now there'll be a group of fans picking up copies to upgrade their decks, and another trying to snap up copies at a low price to sell to the first group at a higher price.
I suppose the fact Auntie Ool rewards you for putting counters on your own creatures instead of just your opponents' could also be a factor behind the sudden spike. There are slightly more payoff cards for afflicting an enemy critter with counters than sticking them on your own, so a card like Nest of Scarabs which doesn't care who's being counters-ed is more valuable in this deck.
But mostly it's a simple case of an obviously synergistic card which hadn't yet spiked and was missing from the now-revealed Commander precon.