MTG Weekly Price Spikes: 6/27 – 7/3

Last updated on July 3, 2026

Doctor Octopus, Master Planner | Illustration by Xabi Gaztelua

Last week, the Magic card market was all about the new Marvel Super Heroes cards. But things have changed quite a bit this week: the latest Universes Beyond crossover is still doing plenty of work, but it’s not the only story anymore.

In fact, competitive Standard brings one of the biggest movers this week. Let's check what's running hot!

Tablet of Discovery

Tablet of Discovery is red hot this week! Recently released in Secrets of Strixhaven, it quickly became a top-tier card in competitive Standard. A couple of Jeskai Control decks packing a full playset of this red artifact made it to top 32 at the Pro Tour Secrets of Strixhaven in Las Vegas. And is nowadays part of both Izzet Lesson decks, and 4/5C Control decks (again as a four-of in both cases), with those decks now being at the very top of the Standard metagame.

Source: MTGTop8

And it may not be confined to Standard: Tablet of Discovery has claimed some top cuts in cEDH with Rowan, Scion of War or Mizzix of the Izmagnus as commanders.

As it's often the case with Magic cards, price follows performance, and Tablet of Discovery has gone from about 50-80 cents to trading over $2 in the last couple of weeks:

Source: MTGStocks

The big caveat here is that we're talking about an uncommon from a very recent MTG set. Even if demand is very high (more than a thousand near-mint copies traded last month on TCGplayer), so is supply, and prices could drop quite a bit in the coming weeks.

On the other hand, if you drafted Secrets of Strixhaven a bunch and have a few extras, it may be the time to turn them into a few bucks!

Geier Reach Sanitarium

Drawing extra cards is one of the best things in life, and Geier Reach Sanitarium lets you do that during your opponents' turns. That's good enough to make this legendary land a staple among commanders like Nekusar, the Mindrazer or Sheoldred, the Apocalypse… and also Zhulodok, Void Gorger, who likes the discard part of Geier Reach Sanitarium‘s deal.

And those two effects are in increased demand from two Marvel Super Heroes commanders, which is driving up prices across all printings of Geier Reach Sanitarium this week.

Source: MTGStocks

For starters, Geier Reach Sanitarium lets Doctor Doom, King of Latveria burn the whole table whenever you discard a land. And Molecule Man is very interested in effects that let you draw cards when it's not your turn (since miracle only works for the first card you draw each turn).

Doctor Octopus, Master Planner

In spite of his brilliant schemes, Doctor Octopus, Master Planner never managed to make too many waves as a Dimir Commander: It's certainly not unplayable, but very far from being either popular or competitive.

But with the arrival of new Villains in Marvel Super Heroes, interest in Doc Oc has spiked, and so has its price in the last couple of weeks: It went up from about $3 to nearly $6 in the last week alone, and has roughly quadrupled in price in the last 30 days.

Source: MTGStocks

The reason is pretty straightforward: Doctor Octopus, Master Planner mass-pumps your villains into Big Bads, something that commanders like Doctor Doom, King of Latveria and especially Loki, the Deceiver are very much in the market for.

Essence Warden

Essence Warden has been on a gradual climb since the start of the year, going from less than $3 to around $6–$8 depending the printing. And has picked up even more steam in the last couple of weeks.

Source: MTGStocks

For starters, this is what peak multi-format performance looks like: Essence Warden sees a good bit of competitive play in cEDH, Modern, and above all in Pauper, usually in Walls Combo decks. Thus far, this competitive potential has been enough to keep Essence Warden‘s price well over $2, even when it is a common. 

But what seems to have pushed this elf shaman well past the $5 mark is that, as of late, is seeing play in The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl decks (herself one of the most popular commanders from Marvel Super Heroes), and also with Lucky the Pizza Dog in the command zone.