This One of a Kind Magic: The Gathering Card is Suddenly OP

Magic: The Gathering has several popular constructed formats where players are encouraged to build their decks with certain restrictions, including the rotation-based Standard, but one of the core aspects of the TCG is that it has plenty of combos to offer from over thirty years of history and set releases under its belt. As such, it happens quite frequently that cards from any point in time end up becoming the flavor of the month all of a sudden, possibly because modern Magic: The Gathering sets or single cards create powerful combos with them. This is also the case for an old, one-of-a-kind card from 2004, which is now a powerful tool in players' decks.

Magic: The Gathering's Avatar set made old cards spike in value even before it was revealed, as the simple fact that Avatar Aang // Aang, Master of Elements, existed was enough to justify a massive cost increase for cards like Searing Touch and Fist of Suns. Wizards of the Coast will soon release its Spider-Man set, less than two months after the launch of Edge of Eternities, which is still shaping the meta in multiple formats. A card called Masako the Humorless from Champions of Kamigawa is now valued as a great addition to Commander decks revolving around Edge of Eternities' spacecrafts, but there's more to it than meets the eye.

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By Andrea Trama

Magic: The Gathering's Edge of Eternities Made Masako the Humorless Spike in Value

Masako the Humorless is a 3-CMC creature (2 generic, 1 White) with 2 power and 1 toughness, and it has the equivalent of flash (it can be played any time one could play an instant) and an ability that can't be found on other cards. This allows the user's tapped creatures to be able to block as if they were untapped, which can be great to protect oneself from incoming attacks or act as a way to discourage opponents from attacking in the first place. MTG's Commander format is a great place for Masako, as the release of Edge of Eternities highlights.

With the reveal of multiple great cards with the station mechanic in MTG's Edge of Eternities set, which can turn some spacecrafts into powerful creatures, Masako the Humorless went from a measly $4.80 to almost $19 between July and August, eventually stabilizing there. In fact, players can turn spacecraft cards like Dawnsire into a 20/20 creature with flying and then block with it after attacking, which also procs its 100-damage ability.

Back when Kamigawa Neon Dynasty was released in 2022, Masako saw another price increase thanks to vehicle cards, but interestingly, the same didn't happen with Aetherdrift.

Masako's Price Spike in MTG May Not Be Due to Edge of Eternities Exclusively

However, there may be more culprits to the surge in price of Masako the Humorless, or at least factors that made its $19 pricetag on TCGPlayer unchanged for a couple of weeks. In fact, Magic: The Gathering's Sonic the Hedgehog combos perfectly with it thanks to Masako's flash, which means that Sonic can put counters on it and power it up, all while empowering the board state with more blockers.

Not only that, but MTG's Spider-Man set features web-slinging, a mechanic that allows players to return a tapped creature under their control to its owner's hand in order to cast spells for a cheaper cost. One of the best Spider-Man cards in Magic: The Gathering is Spider-Sense, which is a 1-mana counterspell when used with web-slinging. What follows is that players can attack with a creature they control by tapping it, then block with it thanks to Masako, and finally return that creature to the hand with a web-slinging card.

This is just an example of a loop where Masako the Humorless shines, and while its $19 price may be too high compared to its usage rate in Commander decks, it reflects several potential combos it can enable with its ability. The card hasn't been reprinted in 21 years, though, so Magic: The Gathering Commander decks that don't include a copy of it may need to stay that way unless players are willing to fork out around $20 for this old card.

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