Hotly Anticipated Esper Commander Drives Up 27-Year Old Uncommon

Last updated on May 29, 2025

Evil Reawakened | Illustration by Nino Is

Never underestimate the Magic community's ability to dig up lost relics from the bulk bins when a new commander makes them relevant again. Or new commanders, plural, given the way the secondary market has been responding to Final Fantasy previews.

So far we've seen bird support cards flying high, Noctis, Prince of Lucis gave people a reason to remember that Artificer's Intuition exists, and there's even movement on a bunch of old equipment support pieces. Not to be outdone, Slaughter has come out of hiding as a potential player for Y'shtola, Night's Blessed, more than tripling in price over the last week.

Esper Synergy

Y'shtola, Night's Blessed is an early frontrunner for Final Fantasy all-star commander. It's currently the most brewed commander from the set on EDHREC, and already at an astonishing #304 in terms of all-time commander rankings. The Scions & Spellcraft face commander has casual and competitive players excited for a fresh coat of paint on the tried and true spellslinger archetype, and they're excited to see how the strategy fits into Esper colors, as opposed to its usual Izzet identity.

Slaughter is one of many cards that people have latched on to as a synergy piece for this commander. The key here is that Y'shtola's end step trigger counts any player losing 4 or more life during a turn, not just your opponents. So dealing damage to yourself is a totally viable way to make sure the trigger pops, and therefore anything that loses 4 or more life is suddenly worth consideration. The buyback cost on Slaughter is actually more important than the effect itself, though playing board control while draining your opponents is welcome, and Y'shtola even recoups some of the life loss when you cast the spell.

There are other ways to go about a self-inflicted life loss plan. Snuff Out is in the same precon for a reason, and you can always stock up some fetch lands and shock lands to add up to 4 damage in one turn. Dismember and Black Market Connections fill this role too, while being great cards to begin with.

If you're looking to play in a higher Bracket, you might consider Game Changers like Necropotence, The One Ring, and Ancient Tomb, all busted cards that carry games on their own and just happen to synergize with Y'shtola. Of course, you could always focus on damaging opponents instead of yourself, but where's the fun in that?

Slaughter Spike

Source: MTGStocks

Slaughter‘s been a non-factor for decades, so reaching an all-time high of just under $4 is quite the achievement. That's the average price based on recent copies sold, though the market price is steadily climbing as well, sitting at a comfortable $2.35 as of Thursday morning. That's about a 250% increase over the last week, and a nearly 500% increase since the price started moving.

This is relatively niche tech for an incredibly hyped up commander, so there may still be room for growth, especially considering it's an obscure uncommon from the Clinton Administration years. It's a bit inflexible in terms of other homes outside specifically Y'shtola, and it's unlikely to be a top-tier card even there, so the price will likely taper off eventually. Exodus didn't have foil cards, so you're talking literal one version of the card too, so it should be easy to track.

It's not exactly slaughtering the competition, but the card represents a nice tech piece for an upcoming, hyped up commander. It's always nice to see cards from the olden days get some love and attention, even if people come around to Slaughter not being all that great after all.