The Magic: The Gathering card Thrumming Stone is spiking in price. This artifact cost just $9.30 when the latest set, MTG Foundations, came out, but it has since taken a big skip and a jump all the way up to $25.90, according to MTG Goldfish’s price tracker. That’s the current value of original Coldsnap copies; reprints from Double Masters are less costly, but have still risen from $7 to $11.
First appearing in an MTG set in 2006, Thrumming Stone is a five mana artifact that gives your spells the very unusual ability Ripple. This means that after you cast a spell, you can reveal the top four cards of your library and cast any that have the same name as it for free. This is obviously pretty hard to set up in Constructed decks, where you’re limited to four copies per card, and it’s even more useless in singleton formats like Commander… with a few obvious exceptions.
Where Thrumming Stone really performs is when it’s played with cards like Rat Colony, which you can include any number of in a deck. These have been around for quite a while, but Wizards of the Coast has really ramped up the rate it releases them of late: this year alone we got Slime Against Humanity, Templar Knight, and most recently, Hare Apparent.
So it’s obviously the MTG Foundations card Hare Apparent that’s to blame for this price spike. This little two drop makes 1/1 rabbit tokens, producing more for each copy of it you have on the field. With Thrumming Stone, you can easily generate a game-ending army in a single turn. It’s worth pointing out that Thrumming Stone also gives the free spells you cast Ripple as well, meaning in a dedicated Hare Apparent deck, it’s not unrealistic to expect hundreds of tokens.
Players are pairing Hare Apparent with the MTG commander Baylen the Haymaker, and it’s not just for the rabbit flavor. Baylen can turn your tokens into near endless mana, buff himself up to deal lethal damage, and draw you as many additional cards as you need. With the Naya color identity, cards like Impact Tremors are available, which will instantly win you the game.
We’re calling it now: this price spike will probably not last. As interest in the new gimmick drops to a more normal level, the price of Thrumming Stone will likewise dip. However, it will probably remain at least a $10-15 card now. Earlier in the year we saw Thrumming Stone’s price soar after Murders at Karlov Manor released. Though costs soon came back down, the new baseline price for all variants of the card got significantly higher.
For more Magic: The Gathering content, we recommend checking out the MTG release schedule for next year, to find out what’s currently know about sets like Aetherdrift and Edge of Eternities.