MTG Weekly Price Spikes: 9/12-9/18

Last updated on September 18, 2026

Sphinx Ambassador | Illustration by Jim Murray

Reality Fracture previews are having a pretty big impact in the Magic card market. Jace shenanigans have sent a couple of planeswalker support cards way up, while it looks like Wednesday’s full reveal of the Commander precon has started the Season of Sphinxes.

But, stubbornly enough, The Hobbit is still moving bears.

Let's find out what's moving up this week!

Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign

While Bear Season isn't exactly over yet (more about this in a bit!), Sphinx Season had an abrupt start this week.

Leading the charge we have Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign, which on TCGplayer traded more than 200 near-mint copies in a single day earlier this week. Near-mint copies went from trading for around $1 (where it had been for ages) to almost $15.

Source: MTGStocks

The reason is The Ur-Sphinx, one of the new legends revealed this week in the Reality Fracture Commander precon. Which is pretty much FRA's version of The Ur-Dragon. But, of course, for sphinxes.

The big sphinx has an eminence ability that works from the command zone or battlefield, making your other sphinx spells cost less. And whenever your sphinxes attack, it also mills each player and lets you cast one of the cards each player milled for free. 

Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign fits great here: once its on the battlefield, it reduces another off the generic cost of every Sphinx spell you cast (on top of a nice triggered ability when a sphinx enters).

Current EDHREC data currently has Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign in more than 90% of The Ur-Sphinx decks, making it an auto-include and the single most-played nonland card in those lists.

Supply is the other half of this sphinx story. Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign debuted as a mythic in 2017’s Hour of Devastation and has never received a meaningful reprint.

Sphinx Ambassador

Sphinx Ambassador looked at Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign‘s price spike and said, “Here, kid… hold my riddle.”

Unlike Unesh, Sphinx Ambassador has never been a cheap card, with near-mint copies of the regular version never falling below $5 in the last couple of years. But Sphinx Season has pushed copies way over $25, and at the time of writing near-mint copies currently in stock are listed at well over a hundred bucks.

Source: MTGStocks

This huge spike does look a bit too speculative, though. The increased demand seems organic, with Sphinx Ambassador is currently showing up in roughly 50% of early The Ur-Sphinx decks, but that's far from must-have-this-sphinx territory. Cards like Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign, Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign, Magister Sphinx, Medomai the Ageless, and Sphinx of the Second Sun currently have much higher inclusion rates.

Like Unesh, a big part of the story is supply: Sphinx Ambassador was printed once, as a mythic rare in Magic 2010, and that's it.

Other sphinxes are following the trend, by the way; Sphinx of the Second Sun, for example, has more than doubled its price when compared with a month ago, and it's far from its all-time high.

Ichormoon Gauntlet

Ichormoon Gauntlet was already moving earlier last week, then plateaued. The synergy with the new empower Jace mechanic is pretty clear: Whenever you empower Jace, you either add loyalty counters to a Jace planeswalker token you already control or create a new Jace token and load the counters onto it. And Ichormoon Gauntlet gives every planeswalker you control two extra abilities: [0] to proliferate and [-12] to take an extra turn.

Thing is, last week there was still a risk that the Gauntlet could be reprinted, either in the main set or as part of the Commander precon.

This week, with the precon fully revealed (and no Gauntlet reprint in sight!) Ichormoon Gauntlet got another huge push upward, going from about $10 to almost $20.

Source: MTGStocks

And there's another source of demand here. Ichormoon Gauntlet is showing up in a good chunk of early Feroz, Ulgrotha's Warden lists and Arzakon decks.

These are two new planeswalkers from Mystery Booster Commander Edition that can sit in the command zone, giving Superfriends players two more places to use the Gauntlet.

Kasmina, Enigma Sage

Kasmina, Enigma Sage has kept running hot! We covered her last week after she jumped from roughly $1 to over $2.50. Turns out she was just warming up, and now near-mint copies are trading for three times as much, roughly at $7.50.

Source: MTGStocks

Empower Jace normally gives you a planeswalker token whose only abilities are -1 to surveil and -3 to draw a card. Kasmina, Enigma Sage gives those tokens (and each other planeswalker you control) all of Kasmina's loyalty abilities.

If you throw Jace's Machinations into the mix, that leaves you with a Jace token with eight loyalty counters. With Kasmina on the battlefield, your eight-loyalty Jace can immediately cash itself in for a gigantic blue spell.

Argoth, Sanctum of Nature

Argoth, Sanctum of Nature is also up big time this week, which at first glance is a bit of a surprise considering that Argoth, Sanctum of Nature exists partly to meld with Titania and form Titania, Gaea Incarnate… but Titania herself isn't moving.

But, yeah: if you've been following the MTG card market during the last few weeks, you know it's still Bear Season!

Source: MTGStocks

Argoth, Sanctum of Nature can pay and tap to create a 2/2 green bear token while milling three cards…

… and Beorn the Fierce has spent the last month making every bear-shaped piece of cardboard more expensive.