Bird Commander From Final Fantasy x MTG Causes 254% Price Spike

Last updated on June 16, 2025

Derevi, Empyrial Tactician – art by Nathaniel Himawan

The long-awaited Universes Beyond Final Fantasy x MTG set landed last June 13th. And besides the high-profile characters like Cloud, Tifa or Y'shtola, players are flocking to Choco, Seeker of Paradise to finally play what was, until now, a struggling archetype: Bird typal.

This Bant bird commander itself is a bulk rare. TCGplayer shows more than 300 listings, starting at $0.90 and a market price of $1.30, and it has had a huge drop in price since it was revealed (as most prerelease prices tend to do as soon as a set is officially released). But cheap doesn't mean unpopular: Choco has nearly 4,000 decks uploaded to EDHREC, and its impact on scarce, older support pieces has been anything but cheap.

In fact, the market had already reacted positively two weeks ago, when Choco decks started to get traction…

… and now the trend has increased sharply in the last few days, as more and more players go from theorycrafting to playing with the real cards after getting their hands on Final Fantasy packs.

Keeper of the Nine Gales — Legions Rare Triples In Price

Legions-era Keeper of the Nine Gales went from forgotten bulk to finance headline in two weeks.

It had already gained a bit of traction by the end of May, and MTGStocks' price graph clearly shows the spike of interest in this blue control piece since a week ago, climbing non-stop since then.

Source: MTGStocks

Supply is thin: TCGplayer lists around 50 copies across all conditions, with the near-mint floor already pushing $9-$10. A single printing in Legions plus a token appearance on The List means no automatic re-stock is coming.

Soulcatchers’ Aerie — Judgment Uncommon Finds New Wings

Judgment enchantment Soulcatcher's Aerie has followed a similar pattern: It started gaining traction about two weeks ago, as players realized that Choco, Seeker of Paradise has potential.

And since about a week it started climbing even faster, now sitting at about $10 in US markets.

Source: MTGStocks

Again like  Keeper of the Nine Gales, Soulcatchers' Aerie is an old card with a single reprint in The List outside of its original version. There are around 40 copies of the original printing on TCGplayer, with less than half of that number being in near-mint condition — numbers that would look reasonable for a mythic, not an old uncommon.

Perch Protection — Bloomburrow Rare Rockets 2.5× Overnight

From the Bloomburrow precon Peace Offering, Perch Protection is a sort of Teferi's Protection at home for bird pilots.

MTGStocks’ Interests page now shows an average price of $4.50, up 246 % from $1.30 by the end of last week.

Source: MTGStocks

Perch Protection has thus far only seen a bit of competitive play in Ms. Bumbleflower decks, but now it's going into the type of decks it was meant for: birds!

The spike makes sense with Choco, Seeker of Paradise in mind: the card produces four 2/2 bird tokens at instant speed and then phases out your entire board. EDHREC already clocks around 27,000 deck inclusions, and Perch now shows up in a higher percentage of Choco lists than in bird-lord Kastral, the Windcrested — strongly suggesting there's a new Bird Boss in town.

Derevi, Empyrial Tactician (Borderless) — A Quieter Double

The borderless reprint of Derevi, Empyrial Tactician is also moving, nearly doubling in price from about $4.50 to over $8.

Derevi’s tap-and-untap tricks dovetail neatly with Choco’s token-heavy boards, and the borderless frame is the only premium treatment the legend has received since 2013 — another recipe for a fast-bleeding inventory.

Choco, Landfall Bird

Choco, Seeker of Paradise – art by Miho Midorikawa

Choco’s text cares about the number of birds that attack, but its ability converts that tally into card draw and massive land ramp. That makes the commander effectively a Bant lands-matter commander that just happens to want a bird body count. Many brewers are leaning on the bird line for novelty, but we may end up seeing Choco more as a landfall commander in the end.

Our new bird boss may be worth just a buck – but the rest of its toys, tricks, and tools are getting pricier!