This Week in Magic - Week 45

11 Nov
by Jeremy Lichtenberger

Oh what a beautiful time to play magic. Commander 2016 is being released today, and mono red is viable in Standard AND Modern? Sign me up! We had a few major tournaments last weekend that caused a few shifts. So just in time for FNM and any PPTQ's you may be playing in, let's see which cards we're talking about this week in Magic.

 

Scrying Sheets

GP Dallas (Modern) was last weekend and what is probably the best iteration of a Blood Moon deck rose to the top. Kevin Mackie and his mono red, or Skred Red deck summited the Snow-Covered Mountain and climbed over everyone in his way. (Deck list found here.) Over the weekend, Scrying Sheets was the big winner from the deck as it more than doubled in price. Other cards did see a price rise like Stormbreath Dragon, Koth of the Hammer and Skred. This deck does everything that I want to do in magic, in that, it's a mono red control deck that can turn on the burners and switch to a beatdown deck. While it remains to be seen if anyone can break mono red in Standard (I'm working on it,) it would seem that Modern has just been lit on fire. All hail mono red!

 

Statecraft

On the very opposite end of the spectrum, Statecraft had a weird spike this week. It isn't seeing any competitive play that I can determine, and appears to be a 'subpar' version of Dolmen Gate. This isn't the first time that this card has spiked either. Maybe someone out there can let me know the reasoning behind this. I mean, I could find a home for it in a commander deck if I absolutely had to, but really, this is even jankier than I usually play.

 

Living Plane

Living Plane has gone up again, and with it many cards on the reserved list. If you look at the peaks and valleys of most unplayed reserved cards, you can see that they tend to spike and settle at the same time. Cards are being scooped up off the market in mini buyouts, then the market resupplies and the price settles. Just how much supply of reserved list cards is yet to be seen, but my guess is there is FAR more available than most of us think. Several private individuals and companies have boxes and boxes of older sealed product, in addition to loose cards. Slowly but surely, the list is being chipped away. Inevitably that whole section of the market will be in the hands of just a few people.

I want to switch 'gears' and talk about our beloved gearhulks. It's been a few weeks since they have descended upon us, the best one still isn't quite clear. What is clear is that there are two gearhulk that sees no love. Combustible Gearhulk and Cataclysmic Gearhulk. While on paper, all 5 gearhulks have similar power levels, the meta dictates what sees play. Both of these cards are very cheap buys right now, and with an ever changing Standard meta, I wouldn't be surprised if these were the next to see play. It's starting to get close to the time when Aether Revolt spoilers trickle in, and that means buying Kaladesh cards at their lowest right now will pay off if they spike in the near future.

A quick note about Commander 2016. I think Wizards hit a homerun when it comes to how this set was built and marketed. There is a little bit of everything for everyone. They even managed to get people who don't normally buy more than one deck hooked on all of them. I can't wait to crack mine open, play each a few times stock, then tear them apart to incorporate into new decks.

Foil time!! Braids, Conjurer Adept, a fantastically fun card, doubled in price. I haven't gotten a chance to build a Braids type deck, but I'm bummed that my chances of finding a cheap foil have definitely dwindled. Lord of the Undead, yet another Zombie lord has jumped, and it's really not surprising given the prices of cards like Death Baron. For whatever insane reason, foil Brushland (9th ed.) is a $100 card. Like, more expensive than a foil Khans fetch $100! On the topic of foils, I am excited to see the next batch of inventions, but honestly hope that it's the last. Printing lottery cards that often seems like a very good way to dilute the product and the prices.


More from Jeremy Lichtenberger:

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