It's Toph week here at Wargamer, so Toph luck to anyone hoping to read about other Magic: The Gathering cards. The latest price spike caused by this enterprising young commander is for Ugin's Nexus. This artifact card has nearly doubled in value, going from $2.80 to $4.70 while foils leapt from $8 to $16.
It's easy to see why. This is one of those cards that exiles itself after unleashing a powerful effect (in this case giving its user another turn) and with Toph, The First Metalbender's power to save artifacts, you can bring Ugin's Nexus back to chain extra turn after extra turn.
There's just one teeny-weeny little problem. The combo with Toph and Nexus doesn't actually work. See, Ugin's Nexus grants you an extra turn when you sacrifice and then exile it, but while it's on the field it also has a static effect which reads: If a player would begin an extra turn, that player skips that turn instead.
That applies to you as well, so if you cash in your Ugin's Nexus to get another turn, then bring it back with Toph to try and start an infinite turn combo, you'll soon discover that you actually just skip your extra turn and pass to the next player.
There is still a way to use this card alongside Toph, and that's to sacrifice Ugin's Nexus, bring it back, and then immediately sacrifice it again. That will net you three turns in a row, which ought to be enough to pull you into a commanding position.
So there is still synergy between the two cards, but I have to wonder how many people are buying Ugin's Nexus copies thinking that they've got an infinite combo on their hands.
While this particular interaction isn't quite as explosive as it seems, Toph, The Last Metalbender does fuel plenty of funky interactions. Blossoming Tortoise for instance, provides an ability discount that's easy to leverage for infinite mana, while playing Caged Sun will have infinite triggers and cause the game to end in a draw, as soon as you tap a land. I guess that could be a useful eject button in some circumstances.
At any rate, this card seems practically designed to fuel price spikes, so you should get used to hearing people talk about it!
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