Superstar Tarkir: Dragonstorm Mana Rock Jumps 200% in Price

Last updated on April 23, 2025

Eerie Ultimatum | Illustration by Adam A. Engle

Have you herd the news? Tarkir: Dragonstorm has delivered yet another banger artifact to Magic, and while it's not as ubiquitous as Cori-Steel Cutter, Herd Heirloom has finally grabbed people's attention after two weeks in circulation.

After quickly plummeting from a presale price of around $12, Herd Heirloom is finally back on the climb, making a pretty big jump this week back up into the $5 range.

Mind Your Manas

If you've been playing a steady amount of Tarkir: Dragonstorm Limited, odds are you've encountered this green mana rock, or perhaps even played it yourself. It's a 2-mana accelerant for creatures only, but comes with an alternative card advantage mode that grants trample to larger creatures and rewards you when they connect in combat. That's a pretty sweet secondary mode on what's already a great way to turbo out your most threatening creatures.

The immediate comparison from the Eternal lens is Mind Stone, a classic that still finds its way into plenty of Commander decks. Mind Stone's greatest advantage over Heirloom is that its mana can be used on any spell, not just creatures, and it can always be cashed in for a card regardless of boardstate. Heirloom limits you on where you can spend the mana, but it does produce any color, so it covers colored mana costs of creatures. And the trample/card draw ability is more akin to a card advantage engine than Mind Stone, which is more in the realm of cantrips.

Two-mana rocks are a bit of an oddity in MTG these days. Early sets are littered with Signets, Talismans, and cards like Star Compass, Coldsteel Heart, and Guardian Idol, but modern card design is very stingy with 2-mana accelerants that aren't interactable creatures.

We've seen the likes of Planar Atlas, The Irencrag, and Obsidian Obelisk within recent years, but these all have restrictions or fairly negligible upsides beyond tapping for mana. Herd Heirloom puts them to shame, though it's not as universally playable as any of the colorless mana rocks are.

Ramping Up

MTGStocks (April 22, 2025)

Quick recap: Tarkir: Dragonstorm released on April 11, when Herd Heirloom had already dwindle to near-bulk status at about $1-2 a piece. The next 10 days showed minor, steady growth, up until April 22, the first day that Heirloom would jump by more than $1. It's unlikely to hit its $12 presale peak, but it's clearly on the up-and-up after bottoming out.

But is there anything in particular causing people's change of heart? There have been mutterings of Herd Heirloom having a place in Pioneer dino decks, or even mono-green Standard decks featuring all of the beefiest, cheapest creatures in the format (Spinner of Souls, Outcaster Trailblazer, Axebane Ferox, etc.), but this really has Commander written all over it. After all, which format do you think of when you hear “2-mana rock?”

It might seem obvious, but Herd Heirloom fits into just about any green-based creature deck. Whether that's a typal deck like beasts or dragons, or decks with an actual 4+ power matters theme, it's pretty obvious that decks can make good use of an early-game accelerant that becomes a draw engine later on. After all, games of Commander are won on the backs of mana production and card draw, the two things on full display with the Heirloom. Don't undersell trample here either; odds are if you're interested in casting expensive creatures, you're probably also keen on getting them into the red zone.

If you want specific culprits, it seems Eshki, Temur's Roar players have grown fond of the mana rock, which makes sense given the proximity of the card to the Temur Roar precon. The Ur-Dragon has also adopted the newcomer quite well, with just under 10% of decks on EDHREC already running the card. That's a quick pick-up for such a new card in such a well-established deck.

Looming on the Horizon

Midnight Clock | Illustration by Alexander Forssberg

Herd Heirloom certainly has the potential to be a long-term player in Commander, and it's a great sign of Wizards' willingness to push mana rocks in the modern age. Adding colored pips to the mana costs of cards like this really help, since the color restriction means the power can be pushed ever-so-slightly.

Heirloom's not even the first time this has happened in recent years. The Lost Caverns of Ixalan featured Ore-Rich Stalactite and Fabrication Foundry, both of which are similarly designed.

There are plenty of 3-mana rocks that have used colored pips to their advantage. Cards like Midnight Clock, Cursed Mirror, and Crowded Crypt stand out from traditional rocks by having alternative utility beyond just tapping for mana, and it seems Wizards is interested in experimenting with this at the 2-mana level a bit more. Hopefully Herd Heirloom is a sign of more powerful, colorful mana rocks to come.