Modern Combo Piece Reaches Highest Price in 17 Years

Last updated on February 17, 2025

Primeval Titan | Illustration by Aleksi Briclot

Scapeshift is a combo staple, and has been one-shotting people ever since Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle was printed over 15 years ago. Its price point never really hits bulk status, but has been seeing a steady climb since last December. In fact, due to the continued dominance of Amulet Titan decks in Modern, Scapeshift has now surged to its highest price ever.

Scapeshift? Haven’t heard of it…

In case you’ve been living under a Rockface Village for the last 15 years, here’s a quick recap. Scapeshift is a sorcery that lets you sac any number of lands and replace them with new lands from your deck. Those lands can of course be anything, though that anything tends to be Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle more often than not. Thanks to cards like Prismatic Omen and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove, it’s actually pretty easy to Valakut combo with 0 actual Mountains in your deck!

The card has three main printings, originally from Morningtide, and reprinted in Core Set 2019 and as a Special Guests card in Outlaws of Thunder Junction. According to MTGStocks, the original printing is sitting at a wild $85 as of Monday morning!

Scapeshift in Amulet Titan

Source

Scapeshift currently sees a reasonable amount of Modern play, though this is mostly tied to just one deck: Amulet Titan. This is the likely driver for the card’s spike, as the EDH news (i.e. Commander Brackets) doesn’t seem to line up well with this. Here’s the 1st place Amulet Titan list from the last RC in Portland, for reference:

There doesn’t seem to be a clear consensus on how many copies of Scapeshift to play though; perusing Amulet Titan lists shows splits between 1-3 copies. Either way, in this busted 30+ land combo deck, Scapeshift is more than capable of winning the game on the spot. It’s definitely not the deck’s plan A (Primeval Titan says “ahem”), but still an effective way to go off.

Speaking of Primeval Titan, that’s another card that has seen some price action! It’s not as pronounced a jump as Scapeshift, but the recent success of Amulet Titan has added about $6 to each copy. There could be some Commander hype adding to the Titan’s price though, since some players are speculating on the card becoming a Game Changer.

Will This Hold?

Scapeshift | Illustration by Daniel Ljunggren

That will largely depend on how Amulet Titan fares in Modern going forward. Grinding Breach with Mox Opal is definitely the new hotness, and has many players clamoring for a ban. Amulet Titan, on the other hand, has been silently busted for years now. Part of the reason the deck isn’t more popular is that it’s known for being pretty challenging to play; the deck is full of tutors, niche interactions, and it plays like no other deck. If you are a time-strapped grinder who plays lots of different formats, it’s much easier to just pick up Breach or Boros Energy than devote the time to mastering Primeval Titan.