Hello Patrons!
We have a new Simic commander, and whoo-boy is it a unique design for the color pairing! Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief could end up being among the more popular new commander options from Dominaria United, and it should have a shot at moving at least a few cards up in price. The strategies Ivy can employ are very flexible, including: enchantress/auras (search: Eutropia on EDHREC), mutate, and combat-tricks to name a few.
SEASON OF GROWTH
The first alert to draw attention to is Season of Growth, a single-print uncommon from Core Set 2020. This card is already an arbitrage play from Europe to the US, especially if you’re a TCG Direct seller (you can find these sub-$1 in EU and sell for $2.99 on TCG Direct).
Ivy is going to push this one further, or at a minimum it will close that arbitrage very quickly. I expect the foils to pop a bit higher as well (currently around $4 in the US but they could reach $6+ on the heels of this new demand). This one is as safe a spec as they come, 10/10 purchase if you can get it from Europe for $1 or less.
I just bought about 50 more copies (already own 50) for roughly $0.75/ea. off of CardTrader Zero. I’ve actually been arbitraging this one already, and I am excited that the demand will see a boost.
If you’re paying retail from TCGPlayer, there’s a much lower likelihood of this hitting profitability, so please keep in mind the target price is no more than $1 for non-foils and no more than $3 for foils.
SPELLWILD OUPHE
This is a longer shot play as it is a call specific to foils, however you can find LP foils of these in random places for sub-$1. They’re unfortunately behind forced shipping on TCGPlayer, so realistically the market price is close to $1.50, but I still feel that’s a perfectly fine price to buy at. I have one foil copy listed for $9.99 currently (LP also), and have not picked any of these up yet largely because I focused on Season of Growth then writing this up first. I think the LP foil jumps to $5 on Ivy’s back and the NM foil (currently around $4-5 on TCGPlayer) pops to $8-10.
Note: this one is a narrow pick, so I’d recommend this only if you are either 1) a player who wants to own a foil or 2) can get an LP foil for $1.50 with shipping and taxes included.
SIMIC MUTATE CARDS
There are several rare and uncommon mutate cards worth a look. In the interest of my time, I’d just suggest doing a quick search for “Mutate” keyword and pick the color pairing of Blue and/or Green. You should see things like Migratory Greathorn popping up (the three in my head worth a potential spec that I have to research further are Gemrazer, Auspicious Starrix, and Sea-Dasher Octopus).
WRAPPING UP
As usual, I aim to be the very first source of information on cards that will make for a great fit in a potentially popular commander deck. And as always, there will likely be more identified by the community as time passes which Conviction Gaming will make sure to alert you all about.
Hope you have a wonderful rest of your day!
Chris