While the experimentation phase has been given a hard reboot with Ravensburger’s recent ban decision, it looks like Steel-focused players are doing what they can to stay with their chosen ink color, and it looks to be inflating a very specific card.
The Story So Far
Earlier this week, Ravensburger made history for Disney Lorcana by creating the game's first banlist. Hiram Flaversham - Toymaker for Sapphire and Fortisphere for Steel are the first casualties of this decision.
Of course, something as momentous as this was not without some pushback. Some community members agreed with Ravensburger’s wisdom, others called out Ravensburger for killing off a particular ink color in its entirety, and a few were left wondering in confusion despite Ravensburger’s explanations.
A Steady Climb Up
Following the recent bans, it appears there has been a surge of interest in Doc - Bold Knight. Following a steady climb in price over the past few months, Doc - Bold Knight is now selling for 570% of their original market value.
Released back in 2024 in the Shimmering Skies expansion, Doc - Bold Knight commanded a humble average market cost of about $2 back in October. As the months have passed, we've seen a steady increase in this card’s market value as its popularity was at an all-time high.
As each month passed, Doc’s price only accumulated in small proportions. Just last week, copies of Doc - Bold Knight had a market average of about $6-9, depending on the seller. Afterwards, following the first Lorcana bans, Doc started selling for about $13 practically overnight.
It doesn’t end there, as some cold foil copies of Doc are easily pushing into the $40 mark per piece. With only so much data to go on, it looks like Steel players are hedging their bets and are using Doc - Bold Knight as the next best thing to Fortisphere as their early game consistency tool.
We can only surmise that players are taking full advantage of Doc’s particular design to discard cards first before drawing new ones. After all, if your hand is already empty before you play Doc - Bold Knight, then you’re really not losing anything in terms of resources but gaining a whole lot more with that +2 to your hand.
Ravensburger’s decision to ban Fortisphere despite its rather innocuous presence in Steel has certainly thrown a wrench into the design of a lot of Steel decks.
Come what may in the next few weeks, there will definitely be a shift in the meta. The throne for the most dominant ink combination is now up for grabs once again. It will be interesting to see how things will turn out once the next Regional tournament concludes.