Innistrad Crimson Vow, the latest set for Magic: The Gathering, is the first standard set to be released during the holiday season. This makes market evaluation completely unpredictable.
Currently, it is projected that Crimson Vow will have a lower expected value than Innistrad Midnight Hunt. The cause is the lack of really impactful cards for standard and modern formats, the lack of one truly strong new planeswalker, and the general niche nature of the Crimson Vow product.
With all that said, check out this list of the most expensive MtG cards from Innistrad Crimson Vow and make your own conclusions.
Note that the listed prices correspond to the date of this article's publishing: November 10, 2021.
Avabruck Caretaker
- Regular art price: $14.50
- Extended art price: $24.62
Werewolf decks have been on the rise since the release of Innistrad Midnight Hunt a couple of months ago in many formats. The new Innistrad Crimson Vow set brought a few support cards for wolf and werewolf tribal decks as well.
Avabruck Caretaker is a great card, but it's a bit too expensive for competitive formats except commander. That's where it fits right into the Tovolar, Dire Overlord decks and that's the main reason why this card is being pushed in price.
Obviously, the price will be reduced after the initial spike, so expect it to fall to about $3-5 a piece.
Toxrill, the Corrosive
- Regular art price: $14.57
- Showcase art price: $21.80
Toxrill is another case of commander hype. It's a really powerful card, albeit a bit too slow and expensive. Still the EDH crowd loves it and will try to push it in the format.
The price will be determined by its performance and nothing else. Many predict that it will be removed instantly as soon as it lands on the battlefield, which will make many players ultimately remove it from their decks and thus tank the price.
The future of this card on the market will most likely look the same as for Avabruck Caretaker.
Cemetery Illuminator
- Regular art price: $15.31
- Extended art price: $22.50
Spirits are getting a huge support in Crimson Vow set, and Cemetery Illuminator is one of the most interesting new spirit mythics.
Besides the obvious choice for commander format, it is being viewed by modern players as a potential addition to the Azorius Spirits deck in the format.
The pre-release price for Cemetery Illuminator started at $25 and eventually dropped to $15. This means that the confidence in the card's value on the market has been decreasing.
It's really hard to say where the price will go, but it just looks like another case of a $5 card.
Cemetery Desecrator
- Regular art price: $15.79
Dimir Zombies archetype in commander has got a new utility card in the form of Cemetery Desecrator.
Other formats seem to ignore this rather expensive creature, which makes its application on the market pretty limited. As it looks right now, Cemetery Desecrator will fall in price, as is the case with a few other commander-friendly cards listed above.
It may find its way into casual play and become a real star there, but once the price drops, it will not be able to reinstate its initial price of $15. So expect it to stay at around the $3-5 mark at best.
Cemetery Gatekeeper
- Regular art price: $19.00
- Showcase art price: $14.83
Here is another cemetery card from Crimson Vow, but this one is much more interesting than Cemetery Desecrator or even Cemetery Illuminator.
It's already making rounds in Mono-Red lists in pioneer, Mardu Vampire decks in modern, Boros and Rakdos aggro decks in standard, and a bunch of similar archetypes in commander.
This opens up huge possibilities for this card on the market. Its presale price was higher than usual at $30, and now it went down to around $20. It should go down even further, but the bottom price could be somewhere around $7-10, and that's something one should not overlook.
Kaya, Geist Hunter
- Regular art price: $19.53
- Borderless art price: $32.51
Kaya, Geist Hunter is the most underwhelming new planeswalker from the Crimson Vow set.
It has no power of its own and it must be supported by tokens to be able to do anything useful. Every other format except commander has been ignoring Kaya, and the price has been steadily falling since the reveal.
Some traders sell this one for least than $10, which means that the bottom price will be really low at around $2-3.
Manaform Hellkite
- Regular art price: $21.30
- Extended art price: $34.40
Now, here's a dragon that's worth every penny. This hasty tokens producer has caught an eye of players in all competitive formats.
It's currently being viewed as the best partner for Alrund's Epiphany decks in standard. But it also has room in Izzet and Jeskai lists in modern and commander.
This one should really spike in price to about $30 a piece, and if suddenly Alrund's Epiphany gets banned in standard because of their interaction, then expect it to level down to about $15-20 range.
Chandra, Dressed to Kill
- Regular art price: $22.60
- Borderless art price: $35.40
Many players had high hopes for the new Chandra planeswalker. While it's pretty god in Mono-Red decks, it won't be even considered for any other archetype.
This, of course, makes her a very unreliable source of investment, and currently everyone is predicting its fall from grace to a $5-7 range.
Since Mono-Red decks don't perform too well in standard these days, it will be mostly carried by commander players. But that's just not enough to guarantee a solid performance on the market.
Sorin the Mirthless
- Regular art price: $21.43
- Borderless art price: $32.93
- Showcase art price: $50.28
The new Sorin planeswalker is fine, but not great. It has some useful abilities that are mostly going to be ignored in all formats except commander, and this doesn't look too good for investors.
The plus one ability is probably the most valuable one here and reminds of Dark Confidant But why would players choose Sorin the Mirthless, when they can play Dark Confidant for a lot less mana?
So the only option left is the standard format where Dark Confidant is illegal, but even then Sorin shouldn't go any higher than $7-10 a card.
Necroduality
- Regular art price: $21.70
- Extended art price: $35.55
This is another highly specific card that will only see play in Dimir Zombies archetype in commander and maybe standard.
It has a fantastic effect but since it's limited to zombies tribe, it will not be able to turn into an investment darling anytime soon. For all its worth, expect it to fall to $8-12 a piece.
If it finds home in some unexpected standard brew, then it may go above that but not by much. It's just too niche to make any difference in any format whatsoever.
Cultivator Colossus
- Regular art price: $29.45
- Extended art price: $34.56
The most expensive card in Innistrad Crimson Vow is Cultivator Colossus, a giant trampler that has a massive potential in commander format. But unfortunately, it doesn't look too promising anywhere else.
EDH people love these types of effects and they will invest in this card as soon as the price drops to a more level-headed $20 a card. It will probably go even lower than that, but who knows just how well it will perform in all those commander ramp decks?
Those are the most expensive cards in Innistrad: Crimson Vow. For more Magic: The Gathering content, card lists, and guides, head over to our MtG hub page here.
Published: Nov 10, 2021 11:43 am