Weekly Winners 2021 - Modern Horizons 2 Special

This week we were forced to do a Modern Horizons 2 special edition because all major spikes relate to cards printed in this new set. Modern Horizons 2 sure seems to have an insanely high power level with also a lot of cards reprinted into Modern for the first time. It's no surprise that we see this kind of fluctuations because of these powerful cards with unique abilities.

Like every week, just in time for (digital) FNM, I'll now tell you about the cards that will be the talk of the (digital) town tonight!

 

#1 Nix $8.88 (+508%)

 

Always fun to see a card from Future Sight on the move. This was a set where Wizards experimented, not only with the card frame, but also with some new mechanics. Nowadays that's just every Modern Horizons set, and that's also where I already gave away the reason for this card to go up rapidly in price.

Several cards that will enter Modern because of Modern Horizons 2 can be played without paying their mana cost. Not only do we see the Cascade mechanic return where players can cascade into spells they can cast for free, but we also see a bunch of Suspend spells. When a suspended card's last time counter is removed, the owner of the spell casts it without paying its mana cost. That's where Nix comes in, being able to counter these spells that come off of suspend.

But that's not all. We also have a new cycle of cards entering Modern. These cards are the five Elemental Incarnation creatures that can be flashed in by paying their mana cost, but also by paying their Evoke cost. In this particular cycle, the evoke cost never has a mana cost, but always revolves around exiling a card from your hand. Nix can counter these cards as well when cast for their evoke cost.

This Mythic cycle consists of:

 

Fury	CardKingdom $14.99	TCGPlayer $19.24
Grief	CardKingdom $69.99	TCGPlayer $59.94
Endurance	CardKingdom $27.99	TCGPlayer $23.00
Solitude	CardKingdom $49.99	TCGPlayer $41.41
Subtlety	CardKingdom $69.99	TCGPlayer $69.94
Nix	CardKingdom $1.99	TCGPlayer $8.88

 

#2 Crashing Footfalls $3.99 (+338%)

 

We already touched the Suspend mechanic in the previous winner, but Crashing Footfalls is no stranger to Modern. It already sees play in Balance Foretold decks where you can cast the card for free with As Foretold without having to suspend it.

People expect this deck to possible become better in Modern with new cards being printed in Modern Horizons 2, but that's not the only reason. The highly anticipated reprint of Shardless Agent in MH2 makes this 3 mana cascade creature (finally?) Modern legal. That card may play very nicely with Crashing Footfalls somewhere down the line.

Crashing Footfalls	CardKingdom $2.49	TCGPlayer $3.99
Shardless Agent	CardKingdom $3.99	TCGPlayer $4.99

 

 

#3 Footsteps of the Goryo $12.99 (+137%)

 

Personally I mostly play Legacy, and to be more precise, I almost always play either Reanimator, Reanimator or Tinfins. Because of my love of these graveyard style decks trying to cheat out a big fatty on turn two, I obviously know about Footsteps of the Goryo and was pretty excited to see it getting some love! Obviously there are better versions of this card available in formats like Legacy and Vintage, but being able to reanimate a creature for still seems pretty good, since there are plenty of ways to get around the sacrifice restriction or use it to your advantage, especially if you are able to kill your opponent before the end of the turn with whatever you are reanimating.

The card has very occasionally seen some fringe appearance in Modern reanimator decks, like Meryn played here earlier this year. But that's not the reason for the spike now. Once again we are talking Modern Horizons 2! The set seems to open a door for reanimate decks with cards like Persist and Unmarked Grave. But we also see Protean Hulk appearing in these decks for a nice little combo finish.

If this trend continues I may have to build a Modern Reanimator deck...

Persist	CardKingdom $8.99	TCGPlayer $15.00
Unmarked Grave	CardKingdom $6.99	TCGPlayer $7.25
Footsteps of the Goryo	CardKingdom $6.99	TCGPlayer $12.99

 

 

#4 Vindicate $32.12 (+149%)

 

We saw the same kind of spike last week with Upheaval where the card itself isn't that expensive, but the only printing in the old card frame went up because it became Modern legal. Vindicate is no different. The printing from Apocalypse is the only one in the old card frame, and thus went up because some people expect this card to be more popular than the other (non-premium) prints. Mind you that the market price has barely moved.

The cheapest print of Vindicate from Masters 25 also went up somewhat, but not nearly as much as the fore-mentioned print, which can be bought for about $10.

 

Cheap Pickups

Please note: for our 'record low' we consider the price of the card over the past 7 years. Many cards have been even cheaper (a) decade(s) ago. Also note: some cards are still going down, and might be even cheaper pickups next week.

 

Professor Onyx $13.85 - Trending down slowly

 

Rhys the Redeemed $5.92 - Trending down

 

Teferi, Master of Time $9.99 - Stable

 

Professor Onyx	CardKingdom $17.99	TCGPlayer $13.85
Teferi, Master of Time	CardKingdom $13.99	TCGPlayer $9.99
Rhys the Redeemed	CardKingdom $5.49	TCGPlayer $5.92