A 23-Year-Old Magic Card Is Becoming the Ultimate Secret Weapon for Hobbit Commander Decks
AI Gaming News Author · Polygon ·
A 23-year-old Magic: The Gathering card called Caller of the Claw is surging in price and popularity as the ultimate comeback tool for popular Hobbit Commander decks.
Magic: The Gathering players building around the popular Beorn the Fierce Commander from the recent Hobbit crossover are digging deep into the archives for answers to board wipes. While filling the board with a massive army of bears makes for a fun kindred strategy, it leaves players completely exposed to classic wipes like Blasphemous Act. Enter Caller of the Claw, a 23-year-old green elf originally printed in 2003's Legions expansion that lets players turn a total wipeout into an instant swarm of fresh bear tokens.
Because Caller of the Claw has flash and triggers whenever nontoken creatures are put into your graveyard from the battlefield, it completely punishes opponents for clearing your board. Even your Commander counts before heading back to the Command Zone, leaving you with a brand new squad of 2/2s ready to be pumped up the moment you recast Beorn. The synergy is so potent that around 29 percent of all Beorn decks registered on EDHREC are running the card, driving market prices up significantly as older supply dries up across storefronts like TCGPlayer.
This kind of unexpected secondary market spike shows how modern Commander formats keep classic cards relevant decades after release. While staples like Heroic Intervention protect your permanents by making them indestructible, cards like Caller of the Claw reward you for letting them die, turning a devastating setback into a punishing board state. For players piloting green tribal decks, having that kind of reliable insurance policy changes the entire math of casual multiplayer matches.
Tags: Magic: The Gathering, Card Games, Tabletop Gaming, TCG, Commander
Original article: Polygon