Magic: The Gathering Hot/Cold List for the Week of December 15, 2025

Flourishing Defenses

Let’s start with a blast from the past that has absolutely exploded this week. Flourishing Defenses is an uncommon enchantment from 2008’s Shadowmoor set.

For the better part of two decades, you could pick this card up for about 30 cents. It lived in bulk bins. It was used as a coaster. Nobody cared about it. But in the last 48 hours, the price has skyrocketed to over $22.99.

The catalyst for this insanity is the newly spoiled spoiler season for January’s Lorwyn Eclipsed set.

Wizards revealed a new Commander named High Perfect Morcant, an Elf that utilizes the Blight mechanic. Morcant forces opponents to put -1/-1 counters on their creatures whenever an Elf enters the battlefield under your control.

Flourishing Defenses creates a 1/1 Elf token whenever a -1/-1 counter is placed on a creature.

Do you see the loop? You play Morcant, trigger a counter, make an Elf, trigger Morcant, make a counter, make an Elf.

It is an instant, infinite board wipe for your opponents and an infinite army for you.

This spike is a reminder that in Magic finance, bulk is just a state of mind. If you have old Shadowmoor or Lorwyn cards collecting dust, dig them out now.

Hansk, Slayer Zealot

Our second card takes us from the competitive tables of Standard to the political battlefields of Commander. Hansk, Slayer Zealot is the Universes Within version of Daryl from the Walking Dead Secret Lair.

For years, he was a bulk rare hovering around $1.00 because his ability, giving opponents Zombie tokens, seemed like a drawback. However, he has now jumped to $30.

The catalyst for this spike was the arrival of The Last of Us. With the release of the PlayStation Secret Lair Superdrop, players got their hands on Joel, Resolute Survivor and Ellie, Brick Master.

Players immediately realized that Hansk is the perfect engine for Joel. Hansk gives an opponent Zombies, and Joel triggers whenever you kill them, growing your team and gaining life.

This spike proves a key rule in Magic finance, specific mechanics are time bombs. Hansk was useless until he became the best card in the Zombie Hunter deck. At over $30, he is now a legitimate chase card.  

Glarb, Calamity’s Augur

Glarb, Calamity’s Augur is a fan-favorite legend from Bloomburrow. He’s a Frog Wizard Noble who lets you cast spells from the top of your library, and he even recently put up results in Legacy Domain Zoo decks.

You would think this pedigree would send his price to the moon. Instead, he finds himself on the loser’s list, dropping roughly 10 percent this week to settle around $4.49. 

The issue here is the Standard Squeeze. While Glarb is seeing play in older formats, the value of Bloomburrow boxes is currently being absorbed by the Talent cycle, specifically the recently spiking Artist’s Talent.

When a set has $20 rares that every Standard player needs, the fun commanders like Glarb get pushed down to bulk prices as more boxes are opened to find the competitive staples.

This is great news for you, if you want to build a Frog deck, but bad news if you were holding Glarb as an investment.

His pricing is correcting to reflect his status as a niche role-player rather than a multi-format star.  

Atsu, Ghost of Yotei

When you buy a Secret Lair, you hope the Bonus Card is a lottery ticket.

For the Ghost of Tsushima drop, the bonus was revealed to be Atsu, Ghost of Yotei, promoting the upcoming sequel game.

Unfortunately, the card is falling hard, dropping from an initial hype price of around $13.50 to a current market price of $5.64.  

On paper, a cross-IP exclusive sounds valuable. In reality, it’s a financial dud.

First, the card is just a reskin of Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive, an uncommon you can pick up for a quarter.

Second, collectors have criticized the art for looking like a cropped version of the video game’s box art rather than an original Magic illustration.

Add in the current turbulent news cycle surrounding the Ghost of Yotei game itself, and you have a recipe for a cold card.