Following the release of Lorwyn Eclipsed, MTG players have had tons of new Commanders to enjoy. Between the main set legends and the precon Commanders, multiple typal archetypes have been on the up and up. Between Elementals, Elves, Faeries, and even Kithkin, there’s been tons of demand for typal staples.
On top of demand increasing for these classic typal cards, there’s also been some major competitive action recently. Breakout decks at Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed have enshrined a handful of new Standard staples, pushing their prices up. Curiously, at the same time, it seems that Jaws, Relentless Predator has been quietly putting in work. Over the past few months, this Universes Beyond Shark has steadily been getting seriously expensive.
MTG Jaws, Relentless Predator
Released back in October, as part of the Secret Scare Superdrop, Jaws, Relentless Predator is a surprisingly deadly MTG card. This is all thanks to its second ability, which pings each opponent whenever any artifact gets sacrificed. Thanks to his ability to create Blood tokens when hitting a player, Jaws even feeds into this ability himself.
While Jaws is more than capable of dishing out the hurt himself thanks to these synergistic abilities, opponents will typically chip in too. Since Jaws doesn’t care about who sacrifices or destroys an artifact, it’s sneakily a great disruption piece. With Jaws on the board, suddenly cracking Treasures, Clues, and even Food isn’t that appealing anymore.
Combining this innate strength with an aggressive mono-red strategy makes Jaws, Relentless Predator a real force to be reckoned with. Despite this, according to EDHREC, the play rate for Jaws is remarkably low. Helming only 3,669 decks, and appearing in the 99 of 2,326 more, Jaws is by no means a Commander staple.
Notably, this low play rate likely has more to do with the card’s supply, rather than its potential. Recently, Jaws has been providing itself in cEDH, managing to put up some seriously impressive results. While these recent results have bolstered Jaws’ popularity, sadly, there are only so many copies to go around.
Due to being a mechanically unique Secret Lair card, Jaws, Relentless Predator is unfortunately incredibly scarce. While Secret Lair sales have been getting better recently, Jaws was not available for long at all. Sadly, this means Jaws is incredibly susceptible to demand increases, which resulted in it becoming obscenely expensive.
The Spike
Unlike many of the Commander-driven price spikes we’ve seen recently, Jaws, Relentless Predator hasn’t exploded overnight. Instead, this card has slowly been creeping up over the past few months as supply naturally dwindled. This movement didn’t take much, either, as in the past three months, only 151 near-mint non-foil copies of Jaws have been sold.
Due to the low supply, this slow and steady demand has been enough to push prices up by over 190%. Previously, back in mid-November, copies of Jaws were selling for around $42 a pop. Already, this isn’t cheap, but we’re a long way past that point, as now copies are going for $124 on average.
Thankfully, new listings for near-mint copies of Jaws are slightly cheaper right now, selling for just $115.98, including shipping. Sadly, while this $9 saving is better than nothing, there aren’t any cheaper variants available. Worse condition copies aren’t any cheaper currently, and the Rainbow Foil variant sells for $126 at minimum.
Notably, following this recent spike, Jaws, Relentless Predator is now the most expensive mechanically unique Universes Beyond MTG card. Previously, this title was held by The Fourteenth Doctor, which is only selling for $114 right now. Thankfully, while prices are incredibly high for the time being, they shouldn’t be that way forever.
The Future
When the Jaws: Terror of Amity Island Secret Lair drop was announced, Wizards revealed they’d be handling it differently from usual. Typically, mechanically unique Secret Lair cards will also be given to WPN stores to marginally increase supply. For Jaws, however, Wizards has a different, more mysterious, solution in store.
During the Secret Lair Reveal Party at MagicCon: Atlanta, Lindsey Bartell revealed that Jaws would be part of a “future Magic product, that’s a great Universes Within fit.” On top of this, Bartell revealed this product would be released “sometime next year.” This means we’ll be getting a Universes Within reprint of Jaws, Relentless Predator sometime in 2026.
Sadly, there’s no telling when Jaws will reappear; however, there aren’t many Universes Within options left. Secrets of Strixhaven and Reality Fracture are the only two Universes Within sets left on the calendar, after all. In theory, Reality Fracture would make the perfect fit; however, Wizards has already assured players that multiverse mixing won’t happen.
Personally, this makes me think that Reality Fracture could have a bonus sheet of Universes Beyond reprints. If this happens, these cards would be given Universes Within reskins, so the multiverses stay separate. While this is just a theory, it would be a godsend given the number of ultra-expensive Universes Beyond cards.
Ultimately, while Jaws, Relentless Predator is very expensive right now, we can rest assured that it shouldn’t be forever. When the mysterious reprint does finally appear, the supply issue should be solved, and Jaws’ price should crash hard. Sadly, for now, there’s no telling when exactly this will happen, so we’ll just have to wait patiently.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage.