It's time for Amonkhet! I hope you're all as excited as I am. I've been traveling a ton lately, so I apologize for the lateness of the article. For now, I'll try to leave Amonkhet cards off of the weekly winners this week, as prices are by no means set yet. That being said, we are seeing some crazy market movement with new Standard right around the corner. Without further ado, let's see what made the list, this week in Magic!
Devoted Druid went from a semi expensive common to an insanely expensive common. If you didn't know, combining Devoted Druid with Vizier of Remedies gives you infinite mana. Modern Chord of Calling decks are flirting with running this combo as a way to kill your opponent dead, and quick! You can do things like Chord for Eternal Witness, getting your Chord back, then Chord for Restoration Angel, bouncing your E. Wit, getting Chord back again, then Chord for Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and win. Also you can cast an infinitely huge Walking Ballista and machinegun your opponent dead. All in all, it's a pretty cool combo and hope to see it played.
Quillspike is another piece to the combo puzzle as mentioned above. You make your Quillspike massive by putting a -1/-1 counter on your Devoted Druid, adding a G, then using that G to take a -1/-1 off of the druid with Quillspike, pumping him in the process. Do this 1,000,000 times and profit. I think it's a little too cute, as any type of removal shuts the combo down hard.
Arabian Nights' Sindbad (why is he blue??) spiked again this week, and it seems more like a secondary buy out. Oddly enough, he's NOT on the reserved list. He spiked hard, bit the dust and climbed back up again. I love Sinbad but he just should have been red. Yes, he loots. Yes, he's a pirate. I still want him to be red.
C16 Propaganda spiked briefly, but quickly fell. All printings are around the same, but most people can never have enough prison type effects like this. Propaganda is definitely the best of the bunch, and would make for some very, very interesting Modern decks, if it were legal in Modern. I don't think it's anything Wizards ever wants in Standard, so it's basically a 0% chance of finding its way to Modern. Still, it's a staple for anyone building a Commander deck that doesn't want people attacking them.
Surgical Extraction has seen another massive upswing this week. Unsurprisingly, people are finally catching on to just how good this free spell is. I mean, Phyrexian mana was a slight blunder in the way of power levels (Mental Misstep, Gitaxian Probe, Surgical Extraction, Dismember, etc.) It sees play all across Modern and Legacy, as it can fit into any deck. There's really no reason to not have at least two copies in your 75, unless your deck is super uninteractive.
Maelstrom Pulse also sees play across Modern and Legacy, but as a way to answer just about anything. With B/G/X decks taking the lion's share of the meta for Modern, it's no wonder the price is climbing. I think it's also a perfectly fine card to run in your Commander deck. At its worst, it's a downgraded Vindicate. At its best, it can wipe the board of some pesky clones, copies or tokens. It may not be an all-star for every play group, but it is rarely a dead card.
Foils of the Week!
Most of the foil versions of the cards featured this week had their foils also go up as well. Through the Breach foil took a massive climb, and is well over $200. Foil Hokori, Dust Drinker doubled for an unknown reason, but I love the card! Arcum Dagsson is a very competitive Commander, and has gradually spiked, settled, and spiked again over the last few months. Foil Crystal Quarry is very pretty and quite useful in five color Commander.
Cheap pickups of the Week!
As always when a new set comes out, now is THE best time to score new cards before they spike. Vizier of the Menagerie is an incredible card and has a ton of upside. I'm not sure how big it will become in Standard, but I think $6.50 is a pretty fair price to pay for these. Modern Masters 2017 cards are basically bottomed out right now, so cards like Damnation and Blood Moon are affordable. I think all the gods are pretty cheap as of this writing, given that no one really knows their impact yet. That being said, I got my Hazoret's right away because I love mono red!
Mtgstocks mystery chart of the Week!
Last week's card was All Is Dust. This week's mystery chart is of a card there has been an outpouring for. If you understand the format of which it's played in, you may understand the chart. If not, you may find yourself annoyed or even bugged!
Conversation of the Week!
Wizards announced (here) the following: “Iconic Masters offers players a tour through some of the most powerful cards in over 23 years of Magic history. Featuring new artwork on many cards, the set brings an array of massive Angels, Sphinxes, Demons, Dragons, and Hydras alongside some of our favorite and most memorable spells. Every box of Iconic Masters contains 24 booster packs—each with fifteen randomly inserted game cards, including one premium card in every pack. Get your friends together to embark on one of the most iconic and power-packed Draft experiences yet!”
Basically, we have a mystery set ahead of us to be released in November 2017, and we don't know a single thing about it! The MSRP is $9.99, so we can expect value similar to Modern Masters and Eternal Masters. I think it's awesome to have no knowledge of a new Masters set, especially considering the amount of information floating around the internet. I'm definitely looking forward to it!
The best Commander card you're not playing!
Explorer's Scope may seem pretty lackluster, but it's actually a great way to ramp yourself when you're struggling to make land drops. Granted this won't be seeing play in any competitive decks, it's a great casual card that doesn't see enough use.