After weeks of mostly speculative spikes, this week feels pretty good as I can report on some real, organic demand driven spikes. GP Seattle stirred the market as surprising decks did well, and Dominaria is about to drop, which gives EDH players many new toys to play with.
Once again, just in time for FNM, I will now tell you what cards will be the talk of the town tonight!
Finally! A real, organic, demand and results driven Weekly Winner! Combat Celebrant spiked this week in the wake of good results during GP Seattle. The card didn't spike the day after, but during the coverage of the Grand Prix. Those who F5'd through TCGPlayer and Ebay saw the supply quickly dwindling on Sunday.
Combat Celebrant was a showpiece in the breakout deck during the GP. The new deck is a variation of the normally God-Pharaoh's Gift deck that tries to win by getting that mana artifact on the table as quickly as possible by activating a Gate to the Afterlife. By using one-drops like Fanatical Firebrand the graveyard is filled with potential zombies that will come after your opponent once you land God-Pharaoh's Gift. Combat Celebrant will accelerate your victory as it grants you an extra combat phase, allowing you to swing twice with those 4/4 zombies.
To put it in perspective, this is Charles Wong's Red-Blue God-Pharaoh's Gift deck that came in second.
Combat Celebrant's price is quickly falling back to more reasonable prices but will likely be able to hold a $5 or even $6 price tag, up until rotation. But only if the release of Dominaria doesn't change the meta in such a way that this build is rendered less powerful.
#2 Command Beacon $39.49 (+238.10%) ALL TIME HIGH
Command Beacon's spike this week shows that EDH is alive and kicking. Last week, almost no copies of Command Beacon were left in web stores and Ebay. Command Beacon sees play in a wide range of EDH decks that are Commander-centered (not all decks are) and decks that use their commander to cut down on mana costs. It is also useful for decks that run really hated Commanders (that get destroyed all the time) or decks that use high-costed Commanders that are hard to get into play, especially when it dies and you need to pay extra for it to get it into play again.
For every time your commander dies, Command Beacon becomes better. First it will function like a Wastes, after that it will be a City of Traitors and after that it becomes even better. But since you have to sacrifice Command Beacon itself for its ability you'll need to choose wisely when to use it (or get it back in to play from your graveyard).
Since Command Beacon has only one printing (and a Judge Promo) supply is low, all the while it is a card that is good in a range of decks. Top that off with the anticipated new Commander Muldrotha, the Gravetide, with which you can exploit Command Beacon to the max, since for every time you cast Muldrotha, the Gravetide you can put Command Beacon back into play. That means that you will be able to keep playing Muldrotha, the Gravetide for , no matter how many times it dies. But remember: you only have one land drop per turn, even when you play it from your graveyard with Muldrotha, the Gravetide
When a $170 Legacy (and Vintage) staple grows 50% in value in a week, someting really interesting is going on. City of Traitors
has seen a fair share of spikes over the past years, but this is the biggest one yet. Its spike is driven both by speculation and by organic demand. During GP Seattle (which had both a Legacy and a Standard main event), there were many decks (in stream) that run Chalice of the Void. Putting down a turn 1 Chalice of the Void on slows down a big part of the other Legacy decks, since so many use cheap creatures like Delver of Secrets and all those other staples that cost just 1 mana like: Ponder, Brainstorm, Deathrite Shaman, Lightning Bolt, Dark Ritual, Gitaxian Probe and Thoughtseize. And since a large portion of the metagame consists out of decks that use those 1 mana spells to win, like Delver and Storm decks, running a deck that uses Chalice of the Void
can get you ahead.
Also, City of Traitors sees consistent play in Show and Tell and Eldrazi decks as well. In Vintage, the card is a piece in MUD and Eldrazi.
And that's just the organic demand. City of Traitors is particularly interesting for speculators as well. Since every speculator (and trader) loves cards that are:
- On the reserved list
2a. Seeing play as mainboard 4-ofs in competitive decks
2b. or see play as 2 or 3-ofs in many different competitive decks
City of Traitors fits this category and that makes it a safe investment, even when the demand is low. And remember: demand is high right now. But bear with me. It is hard to untangle organic and speculative demand with City of Traitors. The card has been featured many times on 'good investment' lists on sites that attract speculators. The supply of the card is so low, that a concerted effort can drive of the price, even when the demand is low. In this case it seems to be a bit of both, but it is hard to tell what weighs more: the organic or speculative demand.
