Forgotten Modern Horizons 3 Rare Doubles in Price Thanks to Spirit Dragon Commanders

Last updated on April 16, 2025

Ripples of Undeath – illus. Ben Wootten

Modern Horizons 3 was a set full of busted cards that went on to have a huge impact on multiple tournament metas. The rare we'll be discussing today is not one of those, however, as Ripples of Undeath has hardly seen any tournament play. Despite that, this innocuous black enchantment is seeing a substantial price increase recently. What's driving this, and what is Ripples of Undeath all about?

Evaluating the Card

Ripples of Undeath is a two mana black enchantment that offers a ton of self mill and potential card advantage, for a heavy price. If you need to bin some cards and your opponent isn't pressuring your life total, this could generate quite a bit of value over several turns. On the other hand, if your life total is being pressured, you can safely ignore the “pay 3” bonus. Given that this is a card from a set aimed at Modern play, the competition for cards like this is incredibly fierce, which has led to Ripples seeing just fringe sideboard play in the format.

Where the card fares much better is EDH. Not only are life totals higher (and games longer), libraries themselves are larger too, letting you mill yourself over and over without worrying about decking. This is important to note because there's Ripples of Undeath first line is not a “may” ability; if the enchantment stays in play, you must mill.

Let's go Back to the Beginning

Initial impressions of the card were fairly positive, with players noting its immediate potential in Commander. “It’s like.. black “fixed” sylvan library..? Kinda…?” said redditor u/jktsub, an apt comparison for sure. Some also speculated on its potential in Modern, as redditor u/jackson4213 noted, “Mill engine and card selection. Could see play in reanimator decks”. Price data from TCGplayer shows Ripples of Undeath‘s price on release was barely over $1:

source: TCGplayer

Though it's doubtless that some EDH players were happy to pick up their copies, it hasn't been a hit in Modern.

Modern is generally just too fast for a card like this, and decks that want to fill their graveyard have stronger options like Faithless Looting, Psychic Frog, and Malevolent Rumble. This kept it's price fairly low up until very recently, as one of it's highest points then was in October (just over $4).

Anatomy of a Spike

source: TCGplayer

Real interest in Ripples of Undeath began during Tarkir: Dragonstorm spoiler season, and hit a near peak after the set was released. This is due to a pair of Spirit Dragons from the set: Betor, Ancestor's Voice and Teval, Arbiter of Virtue.

Ripples + Betor

Ripples of Undeath looks excellent in Betor, Ancestor's Voice for EDH, as it plays well with both aspects of the Abzan spirit dragon. The repeated self mill will give you more options for creatures to recur, and the constant self damage fulfills Betor's condition for said recursion. That's quite impressive for just a two mana enchantment, so it's no surprise to see Betor players driving a spike in the card's price.

A Tale of Two Tevals

Teval, Arbiter of Virtue was mentioned above, but there are actually two Tevals, both of which would thrive with Ripples of Undeath:

Both iterations of the powerful Dragon very much care about self-mill, and also don't mind drawing some extra cards. Teval, Arbiter of Virtue players may have to be careful paying 3 life too many times though, as they'll already be losing a ton to their commander. Teval, the Balanced Scale has an easier time paying 3, but also has other more targeted options for self mill like Entomb and Realms Uncharted. Ripples can definitely go into either's 99, but isn't quite as impressive there as it is in Betor, Ancestor's Voice.

Future Ripples

source: TCGplayer

Ripples of Undeath is still around its peak all time price, even at the time of this article. Precon hype won't last forever though, so it's fully possible the card may return to the single digit range eventually. We'll know soon enough, so keep an eye on this unsung black enchantment, especially if you've been enjoying Abzan in Tarkir: Dragonstorm!