Last updated on June 19, 2025
Lightning Bolt – Illustration by Christopher Moeller
Step aside, Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph! There's a new King of Pings in town.
And don't worry about your ol' crew. Our new kingpin says he'll take good care of them.
Coruscation Mage, Firebrand Archer, Erebor Flamesmith… our new Mayor of Burn Town, Vivi Ornitier, he has plans for them all.
Even a place for good ol' Guttersnipe. If it pings with instants or sorceries, Vivi's got a job for 'em.
Above all if they got pings for any noncreature spells.
Like that bright kid from Innistrad: Crimson Vow. You know which one: Kessig Flamebreather.
Boss Vivi says he's got plans for that kid…
Source: MTGStocks
… says he's gonna make him a fiery star.
He's tripling his pay, even! Before boss Vivi, everybody saw Kessig Flamebreather as a sub-dollar common at best.
Feeling the Burn: Why Flamebreather’s Setting Wallets Ablaze
Vivi Ornitier – Illustration by Toni Infante
For starters, Kessig Flamebreather is following the same playbook as many other cards we've seen these in the past few days or weeks: If it works well with a popular Commander from the new Final Fantasy MTG set – and above all if it works well with either Vivi Ornitier or Y'shtola, Night's Blessed – chances are that its demand will go up.
And it's not the Commander boat that they're rocking. Vivi Ornitier really is the hottest card Final Fantasy x MTG: He’s torching Standard, Pioneer, cEDH and now even dipping a toe into Modern. So anybody who goes to bat for this Izzet Wizard has a shot at hitting the next home run.
In today's case, Kessig Flamebreather went up by 100% in a noticeable spike since last week, from about $1.40 to $2.80, as Final Fantasy x MTG was finally released. And the red creature has gained more than 300% in the last 30 days, when it was sitting at about $0.80 – $0.90.
But Vivi's hot popularity as a Burn commander is not the whole story.
When you look at the rest of the Ping Crew, it turns out that all of them save have remained flat. The prices for other renowned pingers like Coruscation Mage, Firebrand Archer, Erebor Flamesmith, and Guttersnipe have not changed. They all cost less than fifty cents, sometimes less than a quarter – in other words, Kessig Flamebreather costs 5-10 times more than any of them.
And some of these pingers even see a lot more play in Vivi EDH decks than Kessig Flamebreather. For example, you find Guttersnipe in more than a third of Vivi Ornitier brews, which is twice the inclusion rate for Kessig Flamebreather.
Yet only Kessig Flamebreather went parabolic, leaving the rest of the crew way behind. So… What else's going on with this kid?
The Scarcity of Common Stars
One reason for why Kessig Flamebreather has broken out of the Ping Pack is scarcity. Guttersnipe and Firebrand Archer have been reprinted to death, including their induction into Foundations, while Coruscation Mage has a single printing but comes from a very recent, very successful Magic set: Bloomburrow. In other words, they are all cards from last year.
Kessig Flamebreather, on the contrary, was printed four years ago in Innistrad: Crimson Vow, and was only reprinted in Innistrad: Double Feature in 2022 (which was a fairly big flop).
And Kessig Flamebreather is a common, while several of the other pingers are uncommons. That should usually push a card's price down (there are a lot more commons than uncommons, let alone rares or mythic, so supply is larger). But, as it turns out, our bright kid happens to be a star in a format that is only accessible to commons: Pauper.
Burn and Red Deck Wins are having a really good time in Pauper right now, and Kessig Flamebreather is a staple in both:
Source: MTGTop8
Uncommon pingers like Guttersnipe and Coruscation Mage can't even participate in this format. And from among common pingers, like Firebrand Archer, Kessig Flamebreather proves to be the most resilient in the Pauper meta.
That's why our new Mayor of Burn Town, Vivi Ornitier, is willing to pay this kid nearly 10 times more than the rest of the Ping Pack.
What Will Happen With Kessig Flamebreather's Price?
Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph – Illustration by Aaron J. Riley
With the usual caveat that this is not investment advice (doing your own research is priceless, folks!), this is a very clear, “Who knows?”
The majority of the cards that Vivi has been spiking as of late are pretty specific effects, and from very old sets. If you want Quicksilver Elemental‘s effect, you need exactly that card, which was printed decades ago, so they are really rare cards.
On the contrary, for the (current) price of one Kessig Flamebreather you can buy the rest of the Ping Pack if you want them for a Vivi Commander deck. And while it hasn't been reprinted in recent years, Kessig Flamebreather was released less than five years ago.
And then you have this kid's Pauper stardom to consider, which certainly pushes its price upwards.
It would seem that Kessig Flamebreather could very well stay above $1-$2, with such high demand.
At any rate, what's pretty clear is that burn's hot, and ping's stocks are up!
Follow Draftsim for awesome articles and set updates:
Add Comment