Magic: The Gathering, as a trading card game, has a lot of perks, especially for those who have been collecting cards for a long time. This is because the market for cards is always shifting, and it's easy to get great cards for cheap or make a few bucks when cards that were once cheap spike in value all of a sudden, but one has to keep an eye on prices to achieve this. Still, there are better times to do this, like when a new set is announced or about to be released, and this is the case for Magic: The Gathering's Avatar and Spider-Man sets alike.
An old mythic rare from Wilds of Eldraine is now getting a lot of traction because of one of Avatar: The Last Airbender's best commanders, but there could be other reasons and uses for this card that go unnoticed. While the Spider-Man set has been fully revealed and is being released in just two weeks, Avatar will take a little longer, with its launch planned for November 21. Yet, Toph, the First Metalbender, is already one of the most hyped commanders of the set, and its existence is making Wilds of Eldraine's Blossoming Tortoise surge in value by around 200%.
This One of a Kind Magic: The Gathering Card is Suddenly OP
A Magic: The Gathering card from 2004 is currently going for almost four times its original price, and it's being eyed by players as a powerful tool.
Why MTG's Blossoming Tortoise is Spiking in Value
Blossoming Tortoise is a 4-CMC 3/3 creature (2 generic and 2 Green) that allows players to mill three cards whenever it enters or attacks and return a land card from the graveyard to the battlefield tapped. This is a pretty powerful effect on its own because it says "return" rather than "play," meaning that lands returned from the graveyard can exceed the normal limit of how many one can play per turn. For this reason alone, Blossoming Tortoise is already great in any landfall or lands matter deck in the game, and it's pretty much perfect for Edge of Eternities' World Shaper Commander deck.
Blossoming Toirtoise was $2.07 on TCGPlayer until the middle of August, after which it started increasing in price to around $4.74, currently, which totals $6 with shipping fees in most cases.
It also has two more abilities. One makes all activated abilities of lands one controls cost 1 fewer mana to use, and the other gives land creatures +1/+1. While it's not very common for lands to be creatures, MTG's Toph, the First Metalbender, can make any land a creature with its earthbend 2, which can be done at least once per turn with Toph alone, but a dedicated deck can do this repeatedly.
For example, MTG's Spider-Man set has Peter Parker's Camera, an artifact that allows triggered or activated abilities to be used multiple times, which combos very well with Toph. This matters even more when considering that Toph makes nontoken artifacts, so one can potentially make infinite combos with cards like Staff of Domination, Mycosynth Lattice, Basalt Monolith, Strionic Resonator, and more. Basalt Monolith, in particular, is OP with Toph and Blossoming Tortoise, as it can create a self-sustained, endless mana loop. This is because it taps for 3 colorless mana and untaps for 3 mana, but Blossoming Tortoise makes this effect cost 2 since it's an activated ability of a land, thanks to Toph.
Magic: The Gathering's Blossoming Tortoise is Pricier, But You Can Double-Dip It
Yet, for those on the fence about purchasing a copy of Blossoming Tortoise now that it's spiked in value, it is a great Commander card that can find multiple applications. First and foremost, it makes perfect sense as an upgrade to MTG's World Shaper deck from Edge of Eternities, but it can be great with other Commander staples, like Lumra, Bellow of the Woods, The Gitrog Monster, and The Necrobloom. With this in mind, Blossoming Tortoise can be worth the investment even now that it's pricey, especially with more Avatar cards with earthbend to be revealed in the near future.
Magic: The Gathering
- Original Release Date
- August 5, 1993
- Publisher
- Wizards of the Coast
- Designer
- Richard Garfield
- Player Count
- 2+
- Age Recommendation
- 13+