Meta-Breaking Board Wipe Nearly Triples In Value Overnight

Last updated on January 29, 2025

Pest Control | Illustration by Nino Vecia

These pests are out of control, if only there were some way to deal with that! As it happens, Pest Control has been a part of the Standard metagame since Outlaws of Thunder Junction released in April of last year, but it’s just now that someone somewhere’s cracked the code on this card, causing it to rocket up in price last weekend.

Pest Control in Constructed

Pest Control went from a paltry $8 card on Saturday to a $20 banger on Sunday. Notable, this Big Score mythic rare saw a steady decline after its early pre-order pricing, landing around the $6-8 range for a few months, and dropping below $5 for the better half of 2024. It wasn’t until just about the start of the new year that the price starting seeing signs of growth, before exploding around January 25.

Source: MTGGoldfish

There are two largely viable reasons Pest Control became a money card in the span of a day. Odds are, someone proved the card’s worth in a Constructed format. Remember, cards from The Big Score were designed to impact Standard, so it’d make sense that some of them would see play eventually.

Turns out Pest Control stacks up pretty well in the current Standard meta. It’s a clean answer to Stormchaser's Talent and any residual Otter tokens it’s already spit out, and it can work its way around some of the Nurturing Pixie + Hopeless Nightmare combos that are prevalent in the format. It also kills Llanowar Elves, which is always relevant.

But wait, there’s more! As @PiemontiAndrea recently pointed out on Twitter/X, just two days before the price spike, Pest Control actually lines up very well against a lot of the Modern meta right now, which consists heavily of low-to-the-ground energy decks playing 1-drops like Ocelot Pride and Guide of Souls, as well as Temur Underworld Breach decks relying on the power of Mox Opal and Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student to power out a win with Grinding Station and Underworld Breach.

Even in match-ups where Pest Control theoretically isn’t all that great, like a Dimir/Esper mirror, it can always be cycled to power up a Psychic Frog or turbo out a Murktide Regent or Abhorrent Oculus. In other words, it’s a highly effective answer to the meta with a safety valve in case it’s dead in the match-up.

Notably, a recent Regional Championship in Prague resulted in three RW Energy decks and three Temur Breach decks making Top-8, so if the Pest Control tech is to be believed, odds are it’ll become something of a mainstay in the format, at least in sideboards moving forward.

Pest Control After Aetherdrift

Astral Drift | Illustration by Svetlin Velinov

There’s a second speculative reason that Pest Control might’ve seen a jump in price, and that has to do with an upcoming theme from Aetherdrift: cycling! With cycling confirmed as a supported mechanic in the latest Standard release, players might be re-evaluating existing cycling cards in the format.

However, this is unlikely to be a significant factor in the card’s movement, mainly because there aren’t actually that many Constructed-level payoffs for cycling in Aetherdrift. The best one revealed so far, Monument to Endurance, wasn’t revealed until a couple days after the price spike, so there’s likely no correlation there.

Odds are that this card’s rise to stardom, even if it ends up being temporary, is likely due to a perfect storm between the card’s currently standing in the Modern metagame, plus its potential to combat some of the best decks in the current Standard meta.