A creature from Magic: The Gathering’s Commander Masters set has seen a significant price increase, driven by its utility in protecting planeswalkers within the new Reality Fracture Commander deck, particularly its Jace, Multiverse Architect commander. Onakke Oathkeeper, originally released in 2023, has spiked nearly 350%, climbing from just over $1 in July to a price surge in late September, according to MTGStocks.
The surge in demand appears to be closely tied to the reveal of the Multiverse Reforged Commander deck from the Reality Fracture set, which features Jace, Multiverse Architect as its commander. While Onakke Oathkeeper is not included in the preconstructed deck, it is considered a natural and powerful upgrade for players aiming to protect their planeswalkers.
Onakke Oathkeeper Provides Essential Protection
Onakke Oathkeeper functions as a defensive tool by requiring opponents to pay one mana for each creature attacking a planeswalker under your control. This effect complements the abilities of Jace, Multiverse Architect, who already imposes a mana cost on opponents attempting to attack his planeswalkers. This dual layer of protection can make attacking Jace and his associated planeswalkers a costly endeavor for opponents.
The Reality Fracture set has introduced a variety of new planeswalkers and planeswalker tokens, increasing the strategic importance of protecting these powerful permanents. This environment makes cards like Onakke Oathkeeper, which offer specific planeswalker defense, more valuable.
Beyond Defense: Oathkeeper's Graveyard Synergy
In addition to its defensive capabilities, Onakke Oathkeeper offers an offensive option from the graveyard. For six mana, it can exile itself from the graveyard to return a planeswalker directly from the graveyard to the battlefield. This ability can be particularly impactful with high-cost planeswalkers such as Ugin, the Spirit Dragon or Karn Liberated, as well as those that benefit from additional loyalty counters.
Cards like Doubling Season can allow planeswalkers to enter with enough loyalty to immediately use their ultimate abilities, while proliferate effects from cards such as Evolution Sage or Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus can accelerate this process. Synergies with Superfriends staples like The Chain Veil can also be amplified by Oathkeeper's ability to bring back crucial planeswalkers, ensuring they remain on the battlefield long enough to enact their strategies.
The price spike for Onakke Oathkeeper highlights its specialized role within the Commander format. Its availability is somewhat limited due to its printing exclusively in Commander Masters, making it susceptible to rapid price changes when identified as a valuable upgrade for new commander products. This phenomenon has also been observed with other cards, such as Words of Worship, which saw an even more dramatic surge due to a different interaction within the Reality Fracture set.