Magic: The Gathering is in a strange spot right now. With so many ‘Universes Beyond’ products, plus Secret Lairs for third-party IP mounting up, it’s becoming the Super Smash Bros. of card games, and that’s leading to some fun synergies.
As spotted by Wargamer, one Tyranid card from the Warhammer 40k Commander Decks has climbed some serious value in recent weeks thanks to a surprise team-up with, uh, Sonic the Hedgehog.
Winged Hive Tyrant, from the 40K Commander deck Tyranid Swarm, is a 4/4 with flying and haste, as well as text for ‘The Will of the Hive Mind’. It reads “Other creatures you control with counters on them have flying and haste.”
Meanwhile, Sonic the Hedgehog from the recent Secret Lair drop is a 2/4 with haste and ‘Gotta Go Fast’.
“Whenever Sonic the Hedgehog attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control with flash or haste,” the text reads, while also creating a Treasure token (tapped) when one of those creatures is dealt damage."
Put this unlikely (some may say unholy) duo together, and you have Sonic dishing out counters, and then the Winged Hive Tyrant giving everything haste and flying.
The best part? Each of these cards is really pretty affordable, despite the limited printing of Warhammer decks and Secret Lair drops.
At the time of writing, Winged Hive Tyrant has spiked on TCGPlayer, but only as far as $4-$5, while Sonic—despite being a Secret Lair card—is around $3 for the non-foil.
So, if you’ve ever wanted to see what happens when a Tyranid teams up with a hedgehog, you can find out for less than $10.
Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He's a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife's dismay.