The Magic: The Gathering card Scrapheap has leapt up in price. Valued at only one dollar before the latest set came out, according to MTG Goldfish, it has since seen a steady increase to $10.10, a 910% rise. Foils are apparently going for as much as $60.
Released in the 1999 MTG set Urza's Legacy, Scrapheap is an artifact with a fairly straightforward effect. You gain life whenever an artifact or enchantment you control is destroyed. It's a cool ability, which has surely only gotten better over time with all the artifact tokens floating about, but since it's printed on a three mana artifact that does nothing when it hits the board, it's no wonder this card has remained obscure until now.
This ability is a great fit for one of the most popular, and perhaps most unique MTG commanders in Edge of Eternities, however: Ragost, Deft Gastronaut. This cosmic culinarian crustacean has caused a number of price spikes over the last few weeks, and this looks to be the latest.
The reason these cards pair so nicely is very simple. Ragost wants to sacrifice artifacts to zap every opponent, but this ability causes him to tap. (Sad.) However, he gets to untap on each end step if you gained life in the turn. (Hurrah!)
Scrapheap ensures that each time you lose an artifact, you gain life, guaranteeing that you'll be able to untap with Ragost every single time you use his ability. In other words, it makes your commander much more consistent.
While not placed on the Reserved List alongside other Urza's Legacy cards like Grim Monolith and Memory Jar, Scrapheap has never seen a reprint. Considering how much larger Magic print runs are today than they were in the 90s, that means there'll be relatively few copies in circulation, and fewer still will have survived in decent condition. A card like this is always susceptible to blow up when the right synergy comes along.
As I mentioned, this isn't the first Ragost-related price spike I've covered. Other cards raised up by Ragost include Astrid Peth and Legion Extruder.
For more Magic price stories, check out our list of the most expensive MTG cards ever. And if you can't get enough talk of Magic and every other tabletop game under the sun, check out the Wargamer Discord.