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Crucial MTG card for Equipment decks doubles in price after Final Fantasy launch

Sigarda’s Aid, a powerhouse card for Equipment decks in several Magic the Gathering formats, has spiked 100% since Final Fantasy dropped.

MTG card Sigarda's Aid

Since Magic the Gathering's Final Fantasy set hit store shelves on June 13, the market price for copies of the powerful Enchantment card Sigarda's Aid has risen by 100%, going from $8.50 on June 12 to $17 on June 25. The card is an excellent enabler for Equipment strategies that bypasses equip costs, and already has a home in Modern Hammer Time decks - but Final Fantasy has added such a slew of new cards that support Equipment that not only is it seeing extra play in Commander, it may be part of an up and coming Pioneer deck.

Sigarda's Aid is a rare white enchantment, first printed in the 2016 MTG set Eldritch Moon. It costs just one white mana, and has a static ability that allows you to cast Auras and Equipment as though they had flash. Then it has a triggered ability: whenever an Equipment enters the battlefield under your control, you may attach it to a creature you control.

MTG card Colossus Hammer

The normal use for this is in the Modern format's Hammer Time deck, as one of a variety of ways for you to attach Colossus Hammer to a creature at instant speed. The Hammer is a ludicrous piece of Equipment, costing just one mana to cast, and giving the equipped creature +10/+10 (and stripping it of the Flying keyword, if it has it). Equipping it normally costs eight mana, which is why Hammer Time loves Sigarda's Aid so much.

Sigarda's Aid is also great in any Commander deck that cares about Equipment. That makes it a natural upgrade for the Equipment themed 'Limit Break' MTG Commander Precon that came out alongside the main MTG Final Fantasy set.

MTG Card Codsworth, Handy Helper

It's not the only card to be driven up in price by the Precon. Codsworth, Handy Helper has also (almost) doubled in price, according to the market tracker on MTG Goldfish, reaching $16 at the time of writing. Codsworth is a white artifact creature from the Fallout precon decks, who has two activated abilities: one to generate white mana that can only be spent on Aura or Equipment spells, and one that attaches an Equipment or Aura to a creature you control for free, at sorcery speed.

It's also possible that Sigarda's Aid is being picked up for Pioneer decks. Sigarda's Aid and the Colossus Hammer are both legal in the format, but Pioneer doesn't have Modern's amazing Equipment tutors Steelshaper's Gift and Stoneforge Mystic. But the gap in card quality between the two formats closed a bit when Final Fantasy hit the MTG release schedule, bringing with it loads more support for Equipment strategies.

MTG card - Cloud, Midgar Mercenary

Most notable is Cloud, Midgar Mercenary. For two white mana this 2/1 legendary creature tutors an Equipment card into your hand when he enters. While he's equipped, any triggered abilities that he or his Equipment have will trigger an additional time. The second part is nice, but Hammer Time decks mostly care about the fact that this is a two mana tutor that finds your Colossus Hammer and can then hit your opponent with it. Maybe Cloud is what Pioneer Hammer Time needs to make it to the top tables.

Are you brewing any new decks with cards from Final Fantasy? Are you just enjoying doing ridiculous things in draft, like reanimating your opponent's Ancient Adamantoise using the Darkness Crystal? Come and join us in the Wargamer Discord community, we'd love to hear your stories!

Sigarda's Aid isn't the only price spike we've seen as a result of Final Fantasy - check out what happened to Harmonic Prodigy!