Weekly Winners 2024 - 01

Happy New Year, and welcome to the first Weekly Winners of 2024. The market is slowly picking up pace again after the holidays, and we have some interesting cards lined up to discuss.

Like every week, just in time for FNM, I'll tell you about the Magic: the Gathering cards that'll be the talk of the town tonight! Come discuss this week's price movements with us on Discord.

Articles

• Discover the nostalgic journey through Ravnica in Matt's latest article, New Horizons - Ravnica Remastered. Explore the blend of nostalgia and high-quality cards, the intrigue of serialized Retro Framed rares, and the strategic inclusions within Collector Boosters. Dive into this captivating set that appeals to a diverse range of players and collectors.
• In Eriette, and Why Art Matters, Max delves into the fascinating world of card art and its impact on value and collectability. Focusing on the card Eriette of the Charmed Apple, he reveals how art by different artists influences the market and player preferences, especially highlighting Magali Villeneuve's highly sought-after work. This insightful article is a must-read for collectors and enthusiasts intrigued by the intersection of art and gameplay.

Yearly Winners

On January 1st and 2nd we posted our Yearly Winner articles, detailing what cards moved the most last year. If you haven't seen them yet, check out the articles below. But... We also posted these articles to social media and received feedback in what you also wanted to see. So about an hour ago, we posted a fourth article where we show you the top winners and losers of 2023 where we only consider the cheapest print of a card. Make sure you see that one as well!

• Yearly Winners 2023: Top Winners and Losers (Part 1)
• Yearly Winners 2023: The Reserved List (Part 2)
• Yearly Winners 2023: Absolute Value (Part 3)
• Yearly Winners 2023: Cheapest Prints (Part 4)

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Onto the Weekly Winners!

#1 Cursed Totem $23.49 (+92%)

This week isn't the first time we are discussing Cursed Totem. It already spiked a few weeks ago, but for some reason it's once again grabbing people's interest. Now this spike has a lot of hallmarks from a targeted buyout; there doesn't seem to be any news that would make Cursed Totem jump in price at this time. Not only that, we're only seeing the prints from Mirage and Classic Sixth Edition spiking.

This last part is not that uncommon. When players build a deck, they often try to get cards in the old cardframe, and preferably in black border. In this case there's also the fact that these two older prints have a different art than the newer print from Modern Horizons 2, which usually also makes it more appealing for a lot of people.

There are plenty of reasons why Cursed Totem is desirable. Let's first go back to the initial spike a few weeks back. Wizards put out a statement announcing they would be making a few terminology changes. One of these changes is that "Umbra Armor" will replace "Totem Armor" as a keyword ability. So people bought Cursed Totem because they wanted to make sure they have their copies, since Wizards may no longer want to use the word "totem" on its cards. This effectively means that the card may never be reprinted. At least, not under this name.

$2.13$2.29

But putting the perceived future scarcity aside, Cursed Totem is generally a good card. Being colorless, it can be added to any type of deck, and that shows. It's found in a plethora of Modern sideboards. It can be sideboarded against, for example, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician and Hardened Scales decks. But it also shuts down the Agatha's Soul Cauldron combo, which we discussed in Weekly Winners 2023 - 37.

Maybe more fringe, but not something to easily skip over, is that Cursed Totem is also played in Premodern decks as an answer to Survival Elves.

Cursed Totem	CardKingdom $5.99	TCGPlayer $23.49
Cursed Totem	CardKingdom $19.99	TCGPlayer $38.48
Cursed Totem	CardKingdom $5.99	TCGPlayer $4.49

#2 Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor $11.73 (+74%)

This Phyrexian Praetor from The Brothers' War is moving up, and it seems to be that it's being played in both Standard and Pioneer. More interestingly, it doesn't limit itself to a single archetype. It's played in various builds like mono-black, Rakdos, Dimir, and Esper.

Gix has quite a bit of text in the box, but the most important part is definitely the first bit. Whenever a creature deals combat damage to one of your opponents, its controller may pay 1 life. If they do, they draw a card. Like I mentioned the card sees play in various builds, but all of them have something in common: they're quite aggresive. And they need to be if they want to make Gix work. You want to play a creature on turn one and/or two, play Gix on turn three and make sure your creatures connect.

$0.38$0.59

$0.50$0.99

In Pioneer we see it being played with creatures like Bloodsoaked Champion, Deep-Cavern Bat, and Misery's Shadow. In Standard we also see similar creatures that want to achieve this. Regardless of whether you want to play Gix in Standard or Pioneer, you play , which means that you have to play at least three copies of Sheoldred, the Apocalypse as well.

Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor	CardKingdom $9.99	TCGPlayer $11.73
Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor (Extended Art)	CardKingdom $11.99	TCGPlayer $17.72
Bloodsoaked Champion	CardKingdom $0.49	TCGPlayer $0.26
Deep-Cavern Bat	CardKingdom $0.59	TCGPlayer $0.38
Misery's Shadow	CardKingdom $0.99	TCGPlayer $0.50

#3 Skullclamp $12.98 (+76%)

I almost skipped this card when I saw it on the Interests lists, because I figured it would be a random print of this card going up. It's had so many reprints at uncommon rarity, that I couldn't imagine there being a trend. But being intrigued about why it shot up to above $10, I clicked anyway and noticed most versions of this card being at least $7. Then I noticed that almost all versions are moving up. In the chart above I only included four different prints of this card to illustrate the trend, but it's been moving up for most of them.

It's undeniable that Skullclamp is a freakishly good card. It's even been banned in both Modern and Legacy, and probably for good reason. Its transformation from an overlooked card to a dominant force is a remarkable tale in Magic's history. Aaron Forsythe shared insights into its development, which ultimately made it one of the game's most powerful Equipment cards. Initially a mediocre three mana equipment with a two mana equip cost, it underwent several adjustments during the design process. The final version, costing only one mana to play and equip, and altering creature stats to +1/-1, turned out to be unexpectedly potent. This change, particularly the -1 toughness, proved strategically advantageous, allowing players to sacrifice a 1/1 creature for two card draws at a minimal cost.

$0.43$0.99

$1.00$0.69

Do you know a format where Skullclamp isn't banned? Commander! And it's no wonder that it sees quite some play there. In decks around strategies that play a lot of 1/1s or, even better, that creates expendable 1/1 tokens, having a Skullclamp on the battlefield can make sure you get to draw two cards repeatably for . Popular commanders that like to play it are The Locust God, Kasla, the Broken Halo, and Teysa Karlov. But there's a long list of decks where it can slot in nicely.

Skullclamp	CardKingdom $9.99	TCGPlayer $12.98
Skullclamp	CardKingdom $9.99	TCGPlayer $10.20
Skullclamp	CardKingdom	TCGPlayer $8.09
Skullclamp	CardKingdom $9.99	TCGPlayer $7.98
The Locust God	CardKingdom $3.99	TCGPlayer $3.99
Kasla, the Broken Halo	CardKingdom $0.99	TCGPlayer $0.43
Teysa Karlov	CardKingdom $0.69	TCGPlayer $1.00

Cheap Pickups

Please note: for our 'record low' we consider the price of the card over the past seven years. Many cards were even cheaper (a) decade(s) ago. Also note: some cards are still going down, and might be even cheaper pickups next week.

Intruder Alarm $2.21 - Moving up!

Intruder Alarm has been identified by the MTGStocks Premium Penny Stocks feature as a card that has reached its bottom and is starting a consistent uptrend.

Bloodghast $4.30 - Moving down

Sword of War and Peace $6.34 - Stabilizing

Intruder Alarm	CardKingdom $2.29	TCGPlayer $2.18
Bloodghast	CardKingdom $5.49	TCGPlayer $4.25
Sword of War and Peace	CardKingdom $7.49	TCGPlayer $6.39