Namor and Hex Magic price spike: what's driving the MTG Movement?
- Greg Montique
- 5 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Two Marvel Super Heroes cards more than doubled in the last two weeks, and neither one is a mythic. Namor the Sub-Mariner jumped from around $5 to over $10. Hex Magic went from a buck to two bucks, with foils sitting near $8. Small dollar amounts, sure, but the percentage gains and the reason behind them matter more than the sticker price here. Both cards got picked up by real Modern decks that are winning real events, and that's the kind of demand that doesn't evaporate in a week.
Let's look at the how and why.
Namor and Hex Magic price sPike: What's happening?
Hex Magic
Starting value: ~$1 (early July)
Current value: ~$2, foils ~$8
For two mana and a red, this Sorcery exiles your entire hand, draws you that many cards, and lets you keep playing those exiled cards through the end of your next turn. You're not losing your hand. You're playing two hands at once for a full turn cycle, and that's a wild rate for an uncommon.
Modern's Ruby Storm decks grabbed it fast. Splice onto Arcane lets you tack Hex Magic's effect onto any other Arcane spell you cast, so you fire off a card like Desperate Ritual, generate the mana, and refill your hand in the same motion. Legacy Storm and Commander spellslinger decks have started running it too. I myself have thrown a copy into both Nekusar and Fire Lord Azula to great effect. With Pro Tour Marvel Super Heroes hosting Modern this weekend at MagicCon Amsterdam, an uncommon that's already a four-of in a competitive archetype is worth watching closely. Grab copies before a Top 8 finish pushes it past $2.
Namor the Sub-Mariner
Starting value: ~$5 (one week ago)
Current value: over $10
Namor flies, hits the battlefield with four toughness, and scales his power off your Merfolk count. The engine: every noncreature spell you cast that has a blue mana symbol in its cost makes that many 1/1 Merfolk tokens. Cast something with two blue pips, get two Merfolk, watch Namor get bigger on the spot.
The spike traces back to a specific Modern mono-blue deck. It's posted a Challenge Top 8 finish along with multiple League 5-0s, running cheap counterspells like Stern Scolding early, landing Namor on turn three, then protecting him with Disrupting Shoal, itself a free spell with a blue pip that makes another token. Every counterspell in the deck is doing double duty: protect the board and grow the army. That's an efficient tempo shell, and Modern players noticed within days of the results posting.
Loki, Lord of Misrule is cleaning up
Loki, Lord of Misrule
Recent value: climbing from $84 toward $95, more than doubled since Marvel Super Heroes released
Loki rewards you for targeting your own stuff. Whenever a permanent or player you control becomes the target of an ability you control, draw a card, once per turn. That once-per-turn cap is the only thing keeping this off the same shelf as Nadu, Winged Wisdom, a card that got banned in Modern and Legacy for doing almost the same thing without a limiter.
Loki was adopted fast. A mono-blue Modern list runs Shuko, a free Equipment, alongside Emry, Lurker of the Loch to recur it every turn, triggering Loki over and over without spending real mana. Legacy Cephalid Breakfast decks picked it up too, since Nomads en-Kor's activated ability can fire on every player's turn, not just yours, which means a full table of Loki triggers in one rotation. Modern, Legacy, and Commander are all pulling demand at once, which is exactly the kind of multiformat spike that tends to stick around instead of fading after one weekend.
What is driving the current Magic: The Gathering market
Marvel Super Heroes was released in late June, and the story since then has been the same one on repeat: real tournament results are turning role-players into format staples. Namor and Hex Magic both owe their spike to Modern Challenge and League finishes, not Commander hype or precon spoilers. Loki's climb has legs because it's not tied to one deck, and being a Jumpstart card increases scarcity. Three formats want the same card, and the print run isn't getting any bigger to meet that demand.
Pro Tour Marvel Super Heroes runs this weekend at MagicCon Amsterdam, with $500,000 on the line and a Modern Constructed portion built into the event. If any of these three decks show up on camera in a Top 8, expect another jump before Monday. Buying ahead of a Pro Tour spotlight is always a gamble, but the underlying demand here isn't hype. It's decks that are already winning.
FAQ
Why did Namor the Sub-Mariner's price go up? A Modern mono-blue tempo deck built around Namor posted a Challenge Top 8 finish and multiple League 5-0s, and the results pushed demand up fast, taking the price from around $5 to over $10 in about a week.
What does Hex Magic do in Magic: The Gathering? Hex Magic is a two-mana red Arcane sorcery from Marvel Super Heroes that exiles your hand, draws you that many cards, and lets you keep playing the exiled cards through the end of your next turn.
Why is Hex Magic good in Modern Ruby Storm? Its Arcane subtype lets Ruby Storm decks splice its effect onto other Arcane spells, refilling the hand for free while a ritual generates mana in the same cast.
Is Loki, Lord of Misrule banned in any format? No. Loki has a once-per-turn limit on its card draw trigger, which is what has kept it out of ban list conversations compared to Nadu, Winged Wisdom, a card with a similar effect that did get banned in Modern and Legacy.
What decks use Loki, Lord of Misrule? A mono-blue Modern deck pairs Loki with Shuko and Emry, Lurker of the Loch to trigger card draw repeatedly for cheap, and Legacy Cephalid Breakfast lists use Nomads en-Kor to activate Loki on every player's turn.
Will the Namor and Hex Magic price spike keep going? Both cards are tied to decks with actual tournament results rather than speculation, and Pro Tour Marvel Super Heroes runs this weekend with a Modern portion, so a strong finish for either deck could push prices higher before next week.
Where can I buy these Marvel Super Heroes cards? Namor the Sub-Mariner, Hex Magic, and Loki, Lord of Misrule are all available through TCGplayer, linked above in each card breakdown.
