The Magic: The Gathering card Reaper King has spiked in price. This classic artifact creature from Shadowmoor cost $12.70 on the secondary market one week ago, but now the card is sitting at a much heftier $28.
Despite being a pretty famous card, Reaper King has never had a serious reprint. It's been a List card, appeared in Mystery Booster, and shown up on multiple Secret Lairs, but never had a shot at a second MTG set after Shadowmoor. This has no doubt left it pretty susceptible to spiking.
In case you're unfamiliar, Reaper King is an interesting MTG commander that makes an almost impossibly bad creature type fairly playable. Its ability lets you destroy any permanent when one of your scarecrows enters the battlefield.
Get enough copy effects, changelings, or blink cards going and you can clear the board entirely, or even start going after players' lands if you're feeling really sadistic. It's still more of a casual deck - when Field Creeper is in one-third of lists, you know you're not dealing with next-level power - but it can certainly win games.
It's sort of surprising to see the card spike now, since no new combo or synergy has shown up. Part of me wonders if the October Secret Lair drop has anything to do with it. Perhaps people saw the Dwight from The Office version, remembered that this card existed, and wanted to pick up a (less awful) copy.
But the more likely explanation is that Magic will soon be returning to the plane Reaper King hails from in the first place: Lorwyn-Shadowmoor, and folks are banking on some scarecrow synergies showing up.
Or is it changelings with all creature types they're hoping for? No scarecrows have been shown off in Lorwyn Eclipsed spoilers or artwork, and they only get a brief mention in the new Planeswalker's Guide article. But the new changeling card that appeared in the first brief look at this release has serious power. Mutable Explorer is a green three-drop that ramps you, creating a token land.
Perhaps fans are banking on this being one of many busted changelings in the set. Reaper King is, after all, one of the most popular changeling commanders, thanks to its mighty effect but rubbish tribe.
I'm sold, I think. That's the best explanation you're getting from me, anyway!
It's interesting, though, that Reaper King's price didn't go up by even a little bit around Duskmourn last year. That set actually had some real scarecrows, and pretty decent ones for that matter!
After Lorwyn Eclipsed, comes the Ninja Turtles and after that we're off to Strixhaven. Check out the MTG release schedule for what comes next. And if you have a Reaper King deck, I'd love to hear how it plays - let me know on the Wargamer Discord.