Magic: The Gathering Hot/Cold List for the Week of May 11, 2026
Welcome back to our weekly look at the movers and shakers in the Magic: The Gathering secondary market.
Secrets of Strixhaven is pulling old cards out of bulk bins and turning them into genuine chase cards, the Pro Tour shook up Standard prices, and we have one anticipated reprint that is not living up to the hype.
The Hot List
Diabolic Revelation
Diabolic Revelation has been the biggest market story of the past month, and it is still running hot. This black X-spell tutor from Magic 2013 climbed from roughly $2 to over $16 at its peak.
The catalyst is Witherbloom, the Balancer, the most popular Commander from Secrets of Strixhaven by a wide margin.
Witherbloom reduces the cost of your instants and sorceries based on the number of creatures you control, and Diabolic Revelation plugs directly into that engine.
With 10 creatures on the board, you can tap just a couple of mana and tutor up a fistful of cards.
Nearly half of all Witherbloom decklists online currently include a copy. There has been a slight pullback this week, with near-mint copies settling closer to $13, but demand remains strong.
Timely Ward
Timely Ward is riding the wave of Killian, Decisive Mentor, the face commander of the new Silverquill Influence Commander precon.
Before Secrets of Strixhaven was even released, Timely Ward was already appearing in quite a few Commander decklists across Voltron and Aura-focused builds.
Killian has sent demand through the roof, and the card is now as high as $15 depending on the printing.
The appeal is simple, Timely Ward is a cheap Aura that grants indestructible to the enchanted creature until end of turn.
In a Killian deck, which rewards you every time an Aura enters attached to a creature, it pulls double duty, protecting your commander while triggering Killian’s ability at instant speed.
What makes this spike more interesting than most is that Timely Ward’s usefulness extends well beyond Killian, making a full price correction less likely than you might expect.
Blex, Vexing Pest
Blex, Vexing Pest is a mythic rare from the original Strixhaven: School of Mages set in 2021.
For most of its life it sat in the $2 to $3 range. This week it has climbed to $11 a copy thanks entirely to Blech, Loafing Pest, a new Commander from Secrets of Strixhaven.
Blech and Blex care about the same exact creature types, Blex is itself a Pest, and there is obvious lifegain overlap between the two cards.
It is a natural fit in any Blech build, and players are not just looking for good Pest cards, they want Blex specifically.
Demand has outstripped supply, and as long as Blech remains a popular Commander choice, this card should hold its elevated price.
Professor Dellian Fel
Every Pro Tour produces a card the community underestimated, and at Pro Tour Secrets of Strixhaven, that card was Professor Dellian Fel.
When this planeswalker was first spoiled, the skepticism was real. It has no flashy gimmick, it just does sensible things at a fair rate, which felt underwhelming by current design standards.
The price reflected it, dropping to around $7 at release.
Then the Pro Tour happened. Professor Dellian Fel showed up across multiple Golgari Midrange lists that made serious runs at the Top 8.
It can enter the battlefield, remove a creature, and immediately sit at 7 loyalty, a nightmare to deal with without direct removal.
The price has since doubled to around $15. With more Standard events on the calendar, this one has room to keep climbing.
The Cold List
Force of Will (Secrets of Strixhaven Mystical Archive)
When Wizards announced that Force of Will would appear on the Secrets of Strixhaven Mystical Archive bonus sheet, the excitement was immediate.
A gorgeous new art printing of a Legacy staple in a widely opened set seemed like a sure thing.
The problem is that Wizards pre-banned it in Historic on MTG Arena before a single game was played in the format, wiping out a significant wave of anticipated digital demand before it could materialize.
The Mystical Archive version is now only legal in Timeless, a much smaller and more niche format.
Without Historic driving demand, copies are sitting longer than expected, and the flood of supply from cracked collector boosters is making things worse.
Force of Will is still a powerful card with a home in Legacy, but this particular version is a cold investment right now.
Continued TCG Reading:
- Top Five Budget Alternatives to Cavern of Souls After Pro Tour Moment in Las Vegas
- The Top Five Breakout Cards Under $5 From the Pro Tour Secrets of Strixhaven
- New Magic: The Gathering Secret Lair Commander Deck Goblin Storm
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Hello! I’m kind of confused about a statement in your article with regards to Force of Will:
“Without Historic driving demand, copies are sitting longer than expected”
How does a banning of the digital Force of Will card in Historic – which is a digital only format in Arena – change demand for the physical version of that card where Historic doesn’t exist?
In MTG Arena there is no supply/demand market. To buy four Mythic wildcards to craft a play set of four digital copies of Force of Will it’s always $19.99 whether draft chaff or ubiquitous to the format. You can’t sell or trade your cards. And on MTG Online, the other digital format, Force of Will isn’t banned.
Anyway, long way of saying that I thought it was an odd statement.