It's actually been awhile since WoTC printed a commander I was personally excited for. Hinata, Dawn-Crowned looks to be a fun "build around me" commander, as opposed to an overtly powerful one, which fits perfectly with my play style. Its ability reduces the cost of targeting spells by 1 for each target they have, which can get crazy with a few older cards.

To be 100% honest, I hadn't really followed the new Kamigawa set spoilers that much, so I was surprised when some cards I had listed for sale were suddenly bought out. That card was my foil Aurelia's Fury, which were a failed spec back from the days of Gatecrash. Fury had been targeted as a potential spec thanks to the spoiling of Hinata. Luckily, I hadn't listed all my copies and found one more to list at a higher price. I also started pulling the non-foils I had accumulated as bulk mythics, and they have been selling somewhat steadily for me.

Then I saw Reality Spasm pop up on MTGStocks and started looking into possible causes, which is what eventually led me to want to build around Hinata. With Hinata in play, the costly X spell enjoys a drastic turnaround, tapping down every opposing permanent while untapping each of yours for a paltry UU!

Hinata has the potential to set off a few more cards that work well with it, which we'll cover today. Don't be caught with your pants down if you're looking to sleeve up the Spirit.

The Specs

It amazes me that we can see Reality Spasm, an uncommon from Rise of the Eldrazi, hit $4, yet this rare from Invasion whose only reprint was in Commander 2014 is sitting at half the price. Cyclonic Rift is a Commander staple, and its effect is so powerful that it often wins games upon resolution.

Distorting Wake does the same thing but for 3 blue mana (as long as Hinata is out). This is the first card I am putting in my Hinata deck and it just feels like this card is due for a price correction, as it is easily a $7+ card. Foils are already $38+, which given how rare they were at the time isn't that crazy of a price. Looking at the price graph you can see that it has already been trending upward since February, and I would expect that to continue for the foreseeable future.

This one is a bit tougher of a call. It was printed recently and is still an expensive play. That being said, the fact that it steals both creatures and planeswalkers en masse is extremely powerful. Hinata essentially changes the CMC to UUUUX, which is substantial in a format where 10 mana to cast a spell isn't out of the ordinary.

Despite having a recent reprint in Time Spiral Remastered, this card still has significant potential. The ability to mana leak a spell, bounce a creature, and draw a card for Cancel mana seems absurd. While the other cards on this list have already seen at least a small rise in price since Hinata was spoiled, Mystic Confluence has remained stagnant. I will admit that due to having multiple printings I believe the ceiling for this card is lower than the others mentioned; still, $5-$6 seems attainable and represents a double up from its current price.

This is my bulk-to-bucks pick. Copies were only available in the Strixhaven commander deck Prismari Performance, and it provides repeated bonuses with Hinata. It is very important to understand that Hinata's cost reduction does not reduce the mana value of the spell, thus you are likely to get a lot of benefits from Zaffai very cheaply. I honestly like Zaffai as an overall fun card that is powerful, but not so much that it demands an immediate answer like some other creatures in the format. As a fun aside, if you hadn't noticed, Zaffai looks exactly like Samuel L. Jackson.

I picked up a good number of these as standard specs and things never panned out. The requiring a legendary creature to cast was enough of a hinderance to keep the card from dominating standard like A-Alrund's Epiphany did. That being said, taking an extra turn is extremely powerful in Commander and the fact that you target both a player and a nonland permanent means that you can cast it for 4 mana with Hinata out.

Looking over the typical Hinata decks on EDHREC, one will see a lot of X-cost spells. While 3 mana for a mana rock isn't anything to write home about, the fact that each X spell you cast will help every future X spell. The fact that it utilizes charge counters also means that numerous other cards in Magics history work well with it.

Crowning Achievement

While this list is by no means exhaustive, it covers the cards I feel have the most confidence in regarding financial growth with regards to Hinata, Dawn-Crowned. I want to note that I have seen time and time again random cards printed exclusively in a Commander deck series pop off simply due to people overestimating the supply. As you only ever get 1 in a deck, a good many Commander players will keep the first copy they get for personal use, meaning fewer copies of these cards enter the marketplace. If you can think of any more great pickups for Hinata fans, drop them below or reach out on the QS Discord!