Obscure Ramp Piece Spikes 450% Following New Wave of Theft Commanders

Last updated on November 6, 2025

Thieving Varmint | Illustration by Nestor Ossandon Leal

Yeah, slamming down your best Magic card and winning with it is nice, for sure. But have you tried beating your opponents with their best cards, after you politely “borrow” them?

That feeling of going “What's yours is mine now!” and stealing your foe's best spells is just priceless… although it still has a cost: You usually still need mana to cast those stolen spells.

And this week, one of the ways in which you can get extra mana for your stolen goodies is getting a lot of attention:

Thieving Varmint, a card from Outlaws of Thunder Junction Commander, has seen its price rise by more than 400% in the last few weeks, as it has found new homes with not just one, or two, but three (or four!) different card thieves.

Thieving Varmint's Price Spike

Gonti, Canny Acquisitor – Illustration by Anna Podedworna

Released in Outlaws of Thunder Junction Commander last year, Thieving Varmint was sitting at less than $1 in early October. But there was a spike in traded volume on October 30th, pushing the price to $1.80, and since then it has climbed all the way up to $4.75: A 160% increase since last week, for a whopping 375% rally in 30 days in the US markets.

Source: TCGplayer (11/05)

In fact, some near-mint copies were traded for as high as $15 a couple of days ago, according to MTGStocks. And, at the time of writing, most of the listed near-mint copies for the regular version are priced at $12 or lower.

But there's an interesting caveat for those who may want to get Thieving Varmint for cheap: There are a few copies of the borderless variant at less than 50 cents, and several for less than $1 on TCGplayer. Buyers are clearly grabbing the regular version right now and skipping the borderless print, but for the moment it remains a lot cheaper.

A Tale of Three Thieves

Thieving Varmint‘s role in a deck is pretty clear: This black creature is a City of Brass on steroids for any deck that can “borrow” spells from other players.

Casting what's not yours is a very old strategy in Magic, but what's pushing Thieving Varmint‘s price up is that it has found a home with three (or four, depending how you're counting!) different card-stealing commanders – and two of them very new.

Gonti's Thieves Guild

By and large, Thieving Varmint sees the most play with two different versions of Gonti.e

Overall, roughly 3 out of 4 decks with either Gonti, Canny Acquisitor or Gonti, Night Minister in the command zone include a copy of Thieving Varmint.

Of course, it helps that Gonti, Canny Acquisitor is the face commander of the Grand Larceny Commander precon, which is also where Thieving Varmint is from!

But, as of late, Gonti's got competition, coming from different universes.

Nathan Drake, Treasure Hunter

Fresh off the PlayStation Secret Lair, Nathan Drake, Treasure Hunter (the protagonist of the Uncharted franchise) has joined the “Let's steal our way through this boardstate” team of MTG commanders.

Judging by current numbers, it looks like Nathan is no match for Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima as far as popularity is concerned…

… but he has nevertheless found a lot of use in Thieving Varmint, and nearly 2/3rds of Nathan Drake decks include a copy of our varmint. They also play Gonti, Night Minister very frequently. And, as it turns out, half of Nathan's decks also include today's third thief in the 99 – and a thief that can hold her own in the command zone: Black Cat, Cunning Thief.

Black Cat, Cunning Thief

Magic thieves are eating well these days: besides Nathan, there's another card-stealing commander that has recently joined the game: Spider-Man‘s Black Cat, Cunning Thief

Here's another commander that is happy to have Thieving Varmint in their crew, with half of Black Cat's decks including a copy.

It's also interesting that all these thieves don't seem to hog the lead: Gonti often shows up when Black Cat, Cunning Thief is in the command zone, and Black Cat returns the favor showing up in Nathan and Gonti decks.

What Will Happen With Thieving Varmint's Price's?

Divination – Illustration by Matt Stewart

The first thing to highlight (after our usual caveat that this is not investment advice!), is what we noted earlier about the borderless version still being a lot cheaper than the regular version at the time of writing.

That being said, the increased demand seems real: Gonti decks are already popular and play Thieving Varmint more often than not; a couple of them have found some cEDH success; and while neither Nathan nor Black Cat are the most popular commanders, they add choices for a very popular play style and both play Varmint.