Legacy is one of Magic: the Gathering‘s strangest formats. Since almost nothing is off the table, all manner of chaotic strategies run rampant. There are Doomsday decks that exile themselves, reanimator decks that resurrect the strongest creatures in the game’s history, and some decks that don’t even bother to run lands. At the North America Eternal Weekend in Pittsburgh, Jacob Murray earned fourth place by utilizing the recent Edge of Eternities card Eumidian Hatchery. The hatchery perfectly complements “loam pox” a brutal graveyard-focused game plan that destroys the lands controlled by both players. Murray’s performance put the previously underappreciated card on the radar of many Legacy fans, causing its value to shoot up dramatically.
The North America Eternal Weekend ran from October 11th to 12th. On the tenth, the day prior to the start of the tournament, according to data from MTGStocks, the card was valued at only $0.81. A week later, on the 17th, its price rapidly rose to $4.65, an increase of 474%. TCGplayer, meanwhile, shows a more modest rise of 140% from $0.98 to $2.36. Despite this, at the time of writing, there are no copies of Eumidian Hatchery listed on TCGplayer for less than $8.86.
Loam pox strategies rely on resource denial to win the game. Cards like Smallpox are used to get rid of creatures and lands belonging to both players. This loads up the graveyard, enabling the infamous finisher Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis to delve its way into play. Eumidian Hatchery synergizes with this strategy amazingly since it’s a land that wants to be destroyed, generating 1/1 insect tokens when it goes to the graveyard. These pesky bugs can then be tapped down to help pay Hogaak’s convoke cost.
What’s the most cursed Magic: the Gathering deck that you’ve ever crafted? Let us know in the Wargamer Discord.
If you’re a Legacy or Vintage player yourself, then you might just be familiar with some of the inclusions on our list of the 16 rarest and most expensive MTG cards in the world.