A 2002 Onslaught Rare Is at the Top of Our 180-Day Price Window Today
Words of Worship has climbed from $1.90 to $19.90 on Harlequins Market's own price mirror as of October 1 — and today's snapshot is the peak of the window, not a crash in progress.
On our own price mirror, the Onslaught rare Words of Worship closed October 1, 2026 — today — at $19.90, which is both its last recorded price and the peak of our tracked window. That's up from $1.90 when our 180-day series begins on April 4, 2026, a trough-to-peak move of 947.4% across 173 daily snapshots. Unlike a lot of spike stories, this one isn't reporting a number that already cooled off four days ago — our mirror's most recent snapshot is today's, and today's is the high.
The Combo Driving It
Words of Worship is a three-mana enchantment whose printed text reads: "{1}: The next time you would draw a card this turn, you gain 5 life instead." On its own, that's a card nobody wants. Paired with Niv-Mizzet, Ghost Counsel — a new legendary creature from the Reality Fracture Commander precons — it's a card-draw engine. Niv-Mizzet's printed text reads: "Whenever you gain life, you may pay that much life. If you do, draw that many cards." Chain them together: pay {1} to skip a draw and gain 5 life, then pay 5 life back to Niv-Mizzet to draw 5 cards. Net cost is one mana and the replaced draw, for five cards.
Words of Worship has only ever been printed once, in Onslaught in October 2002, which is why a relatively small jump in demand is enough to move its price sharply — there's very little supply to absorb new buying.
Why Our Number Differs From the One Going Around
MTGRocks covered this spike on September 21 under the figure 379%, and that number is measuring something different from ours: it compares the cheapest near-mint copy then listed on TCGplayer, $10.99, against a pre-reveal sale price of $2.29. Ours compares our mirror's own daily market reference across its full tracked window, $1.90 up to $19.90. Different baselines, different instruments, ten days apart — not a contradiction so much as two different questions. The number we stand behind is our own, and we have said exactly which window it covers.
The same reporting flags why both figures should be held loosely: only 17 near-mint copies had sold on TCGplayer since the Niv-Mizzet reveal, against four still listed. That's a thin market — a handful of sales swings a price quickly in either direction, so today's high is a snapshot, not a forecast.
Key Facts
- Card: Words of Worship, Onslaught #61, rare, single printing
- Price today (Oct 1, 2026): $19.90 — our mirror's recorded peak and most recent snapshot
- Price April 4, 2026 (our mirror's trough): $1.90
- Move: +947.4% trough to peak, per our own 173-snapshot series
- Combo piece: Niv-Mizzet, Ghost Counsel, from the Reality Fracture Commander precons
We checked our shelves before filing this one too: neither Words of Worship nor Niv-Mizzet, Ghost Counsel is currently in our resale stock, so there's no tie-in to offer beyond the numbers above.
Filed by the Harlequins Market newsroom.