Magic: The Gathering Hot/Cold List for the Week of January 5, 2026

Sakashima the Impostor

We all knew Clones were good. But did anyone have Sakashima the Impostor becoming a $40 commodity on their 2026 Bingo card?

This Saviors of Kamigawa rare has surged from $8 to $42.

This spike is a classic case of old card breaks coupled with new rules, and it is all thanks to a certain Waterbending Avatar.

The new Avatar: The Last Airbender set introduced The Legend of Kuruk, a Saga that transforms into Avatar Kuruk.

This creature has a powerful Exhaust ability that lets you take an extra turn, but it’s gated by a strict activate only once clause.

Enter Sakashima. Because Sakashima copies a creature but retains its own name, the Legend Rule doesn’t force you to sacrifice either. You get two Avatars.

More importantly, players have realized that by linking Sakashima, with cards like Soulherder, it re-enters as a new object, resetting the activate once restriction.

Doubling Cube

If you’re a Red mage, you’ve spent years watching Green players have all the mana ramp fun. Well, the Avatar set has fundamentally changed the color pie, and Doubling Cube is the big winner.

The price has tripled from $20 to $60.

This artifact from Fifth Dawn has always been niche, but the new Firebending mechanic, which allows Red mana to persist through phases, has broken it. Suddenly, Red decks aren’t just generating impulsive, temporary mana, they’re keeping it.

And when you can keep mana, Doubling Cube becomes the most dangerous card in the 99.

Players are using this to generate exponential mana with Fire Lord Ozai, casting game ending Crackle with Powers for X=10.  

Phyrexian Devourer

Okay, we need to talk about Premodern. This is a community format using cards from Fourth Edition through Scourge. Usually, prices are stable, but this week Phyrexian Devourer skyrocketed, jumping from around $20 to around $100.  

Why? Two words: Reserved List. A Devourer Combo deck, using Sutured Ghoul, has been putting up results, and FOMO hit hard.

Since this Alliances rare will never be reprinted, the supply is finite. When a card on the Reserved List becomes a 4 of staple in a popular format, the price ceiling doesn’t exist.

Crumbling Ashes

Nostalgia is a powerful drug. With Lorwyn Eclipsed spoilers looming, players are betting big on -1/-1 counters making a comeback.

Crumbling Ashes, an enchantment from Eventide that destroys creatures with -1/-1 counters, has been bought out almost everywhere, leaping from $5 to around $15.

This is pure speculation. We don’t even have the full spoiler list yet, but the market is assuming that the new Lorwyn set will support the archetype heavily. If they are right, this $20 price tag will look cheap.

Earthbender Ascension

Let’s cleanse our palate with something affordable. Earthbender Ascension is making waves, jumping from $1 to over $5.

This spike is driven by two factors, gameplay and art.

On the battlefield, it’s a powerhouse in Landfall decks, acting as a mini Craterhoof for Earthbending strategies.

But the real driver is collectors. The card features polyptych art, meaning if you put it in a binder next to other specific cards, it forms a larger image of the Earth Kingdom. 

Incinerator of the Guilty

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. When Murders at Karlov Manor dropped, Incinerator of the Guilty looked like the real deal, a 6/6 flying trample Dragon that board-wipes your opponent? Yes, please.

However, the card has officially hit bulk Mythic status, dropping to $0.36.  

The Collect Evidence mechanic proved too clunky for competitive play; exiling high mana value cards from your graveyard is a steep cost when you could just cast Balefire Dragon instead. It’s a classic case of a card reading better than it plays.