Awesome New Edge of Eternities Landfall Card Spikes 300%

Last updated on July 29, 2025

Icetill Explorer | Illustration by Warren Mahy

Step aside, Tezzeret. There's a new bad boy bug in town.

Or, well, in space!

Tezzeret, Cruel Captain is indeed the most popular Edge of Eternities card right now, and the most expensive when you look at regular printings. But there's a green insect that's breathing down the Captain's neck when it comes to popularity, and has shot up in price in the last few days, becoming the most expensive rare from the upcoming MTG set: Icetill Explorer 

Icetill Explorer more than tripled in price since the end of last week, from about $6 to over $18 in US markets – and while we're still dealing with prerelease prices, which tend to vary (and, specifically, drop) a lot as soon as a set is officially released, there's several reasons for thinking Icetill Explorer is the real bug.

Icetill Explorer, Punching Up

Tifa Lockhart | Illustration by Laurel Austin

According to MTGStocks, Icetill Explorer‘s price reached a low of $6 last week; that's very normal for prerelease prices, which very often go down the closer a set gets to its official release.

But in this case, our insect scout refused to go quietly into the bulk bin, and reversed the trend quite spectacularly:

Source: MTGStocks

TCGplayer shows a clear spike in demand last Friday, when more than 200 copies were pre-sold on a single day:

Source: TCGplayer – Presale Prices

At the moment of writing, there are no offers on TCGplayer below $20.

Why Is Icetiller Explorer Spiking?

“Icetill Explorer combines a bunch of useful lands-matter effects on one card while fueling its own abilities with landfall,” wrote Draftsim's Tim Zaccagnino in our review of the best card from Edge of Eternities, where he ranked it as the #22 best card in the whole set. “This looks like the next big lands staple for Commander.” David Royale was equally impressed, placing it as the second-best in our ranking for the set's best green cards.

And it was not just Draftsim's crew. Reviewers from other MTG outlets were equally impressed: “This will see universal play in every flavor of Lands Matter out there,” wrote Zoe Ley when ranking the best nonlegendary creatures for EDHREC. “Be prepared to see this card everywhere.”

Initially, the card market agreed with these assessments, with Icetill Explorer reaching around $14-16 in its first prerelease sales. But as seen in TCGplayer's graph, interest and prices dropped like a stone at the start of last week, reaching a $6 floor. And the sentiment was reflected by financial-savvy players, who saw the card with cautious optimism at best. 

Yet on the weekend things changed, as the first competitive results started arriving.

Pre-Release, Post-Rotation Results

We're currently in a bit of a strange week for Edge of Eternities, and Magic's Standard format as a whole: post-rotation, but still in prerelease.

EOE will officially release next Friday. That's when packs will get cracked at warp speed, and why usually prices drop like asteroids at that point. But Standard rotation has already happened on tabletop (and happens today on MTGA).

EOE cards are legal since the prerelease events last weekend… and Icetill Explorer has been showing it may be more than just a bug.

Casual Commander: Taking Tezzie's Throne

Tezzeret, Cruel Captain | Illustration by Chris Rahn

As noted, Icetill Explorer is currently the second most-popular card from the whole set (that's to say, when considering both EOE and EOC cards), just an antennae behind and breathing down Tezzeret, Cruel Captain‘s neck for the #1 spot.

For starters, Icetill Explorer fits like a glove in the World Shaper Commander precon, which is all about “Insects… IN SPACE!” and a lands-matter theme:

That would be enough to push its price up, but what's interesting is how flexible it seems to be. While half of EDH decks with Hearthhull, the Worldseed in the command zone pack a copy of Icetill Explorer , they represent less than 10% of Icetill Explorer ‘s decks. Teval, the Balanced Scale, The Necrobloom, Lumra, Bellow of the Woods, and Lord Windgrace are all extremely welcome to our insect scout.

cEDH: Bugs of the Woods

“All the Lumra experts are telling me this one is a slam dunk, so I’m putting it here on the list,” wrote Callahan Jones for EDHREC when listing EOE's best cards for cEDH, also half-jokingly wondering if Icetill Explorer is a Lumra card. “Getting to play extra lands is always good, putting more cards in your graveyard is actually phenomenal.”

And that seems to be exactly what's going on, with Icetill Explorer topping some early cEDH tournaments with Lumra, Bellow of the Woods in the command zone.

Standard: It's Easy Being Gruul… or Naya

One of Standard's recent developments is that it's really easy being green:

Tifa Lockhart and her merry band of Mono Green tramplers have been doing great in the last couple of weeks.

They run very low to the ground and don't have much room for anything that costs more than 3 mana, but some early EOE brews include a copy of Icetill Explorer for extra landfall triggers, and to never run out of gas if paired with Traveling Chocobo.

But even though Standard has a dedicated landfall deck, Icetill Explorer ‘s heart may belong to Yuna rather than Tifa: Naya Yuna builds are experimenting with a few Icetill Explorer copies, for the ramp and self-mill they provide.

Bugging Out

Yuna, Hope of Spira | Illustration by NINNIN

What will happen with Icetill Explorer‘s price? The only serious answer here is “Nobody knows for sure.” Prerelease prices almost always go down, usually by a lot, as soon as packs get a-cracking.

Icetill Explorer is certainly a rarity in that it rebounded quite sharply before official release, which is not a pattern you see often. And early results are quite promising, across several MTG formats.

But the only solid advice before a set officially launches is: Be careful – this could be bugged!

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