21 year old MTG artifact card spikes 360% thanks to upcoming Avatar set

Fist of Suns, an MTG artifact card first printed in 2004, has spiked in price from a stable $4 on June 20, to $18.50 as of Sunday, July 6, according to the Magic market tracker on MTG Goldfish. The price rise started with the reveal of Avatar Aang, a five color commander which – when paired with Fist of Suns – has the potential to cast any card in your deck for free.

Fist of Suns was originally printed in Fifth Dawn, set on the artifact rich plane of Mirrodin, and since then it hasn’t been reprinted in any mainline MTG sets – though it has reappeared in Commander 2017, one of the Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander Precons, and The List.

Every printing has seen price rises, with The List copies being cheapest at $11 on MTG Goldfish’s market tracker – though we’ve seen copies on sale for less on TCGPlayer.

Fist of Suns costs three generic mana for a colorless MTG artifact. Once in play, it lets you cast your spells for an alternate cost – WUBRG, one of every mana. That pairs beautifully with the recently revealed Avatar Aang card, which – on its flip side, ‘Aang, Master of Elements’ – reduces the cost of all spells you cast by WUBRG.

And yes, the interaction works like you hope it does. When casting spells via an alternate cost and with a cost reduction effect, you apply the alternate cost first, and then the cost reduction. In this case, that makes all your spells free. So if you can flip Avatar Aang, Fist of Suns is pretty much a three mana Omniscience.

This is the second time that a WUBRG cost reduction effect has caused Fist of Suns to suddenly spike in price. Changeling commander Morophon the Boundless was revealed on May 20 2019, and the next day Fist of Suns rocketed from $3.60 to $22.10.

The MTG Avatar the Last Airbender release date is still four months away, and we don’t even know how to transform Avatar Aang to his flip side. Doing so requires that you “waterbend, earthbend, firebend, and airbend” all in the same turn, and so far Wizards of the Coast hasn’t revealed what those MTG keywords even do. If ‘bending’ is a parasitic mechanic, it might be harder to make a full deck than deck brewers are hoping for.

Are eagerly waiting for the Avatar set? Or is this a Universes Beyond set you could happily skip? Come and let us know in the Wargamer Discord community.

To keep up to date with everything else that’s coming before Avatar, check out Wargamer’s guide to the MTG release schedule.