Weekly Winners 2024 - 09

We have Pioneer and we have Commander. Come look at what the top decks in the Pro Tour have done to the prices!

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

• Jason's Speculating on the Commander Banlist offers an intriguing perspective on investing in banned Commander cards, analyzing their speculative potential and discussing the Commander format's evolving banlist. He navigates through categories like ante, power level, and "unfun" cards, providing insights into the Commander community's dynamics and the possible future unbannings.
• In The History and Future of Cascade in Modern Corey delves into the mechanic's origins, its transformative role in Modern gameplay, and speculative insights on future directions, particularly focusing on key Cascade spells like Violent Outburst and Shardless Agent. This comprehensive analysis is essential for players intrigued by the strategic depth and financial implications of Cascade in the Modern format.
• Deven's Waifus, Stickers, and a Faerie explores the investment potential in Magic cards featuring popular anime-style art, the competitive edge of sticker mechanics in Legacy formats, and the strategic versatility of specific Faerie cards in Commander. This guide offers a unique blend of art appreciation and strategic gameplay for collectors and competitive players alike, highlighting opportunities in both the collectible and competitive aspects of the game.

If you want to receive an e-mail in your inbox when a new article is published, you can enable it in your e-mail preferences and/or join the Discord.

Onto the Weekly Winners!

#1 Vein Ripper $27.04 (+239%)

It's only been two weeks since we discussed an undervalued card from Karlov Manor. Cryptic Coat shot up back then after seeing play a bunch in Standard. This week we have a flying 6/5 Vampire Assassin that seems to have been undervalued since the release of the set. Not only is it a big beater, but it can also drain an opponent for two whenever a creature dies. And it has a rather expensive Ward cost: sacrifice a creature. Before the spike this card would have set you back about $8. I mean, it wasn't by all means a cheap card to get your hands on, but it definitely wasn't the most expensive card from the set. Well... Now it is, leaving Delney, Streetwise Lookout behind it in second place.

The reason for the spike is Pioneer, where it's being played in Rakdos decks, where it obviously functions as finisher. For six mana, it means it will come in near the end game, which is most likely very late. But fortunately we can also play Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord which we can use to cheat it into play on turn three. Besides these two, we find all kinds of good cards in the deck like Preacher of the Schism, which we discussed earlier this year. We also find cards like Fable of the Mirror-Breaker and recently unbanned Smuggler's Copter in the list. This new archetype broke into Pioneer during the Pro Tour Karlov Manor, which was ultimately won by Seth Manfield with a Rakdos Vampires deck.

And speaking of spikes in this deck, Sorin himself has been going up quickly because of the deck's success as well.

Vein Ripper	CardKingdom $24.99	TCGPlayer $27.04
Vein Ripper (Showcase)	CardKingdom $24.99	TCGPlayer $25.27
Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord	CardKingdom $27.99	TCGPlayer $46.49
Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord (Borderless)	CardKingdom	TCGPlayer $32.51

#2 Damning Verdict $17.39 (+65%)

We all love our sweepers, don't we? I've seen some heated discussions online from people who passionally hate on cards like Sunfall or Farewell. The white color pie has had a long history of sweepers, of which Wrath of God probably is the one that's most famous. But where Wrath of God is the most symmetrical and straight forward one (just destroy them all!), there have been numerous sweepers with addendums. The aformentioned Sunfall is one mana more expensive, but it exiles all creatures and gets you an incubation token. Farewell is another mana extra, and just answers almost anything.

And while I could go on with multiple more sweepers, Damning Verdict is a little bit different since it makes distinctions between the creatures to destroy. For that one mana extra compared to Wrath, in the right deck, the effect can be made asymmetrical. And people did not just discover that. This sorcery already sees play in decks around Perrie, the Pulverizer or Reyhan, Last of the Abzan. Any commander deck that cares about counters may want to play Damning Verdict.

But in Karlov Manor we saw a new commander being printed that we also discussed two weeks ago. But again it seems like to be a popular commander to build around, and people are looking to create decks around it. Voja, Jaws of the Conclave has been one of the more popular commanders from the Karlov Manor set. Since Voja cares about counters, you can see why it would like to have this sweeper. But not only that, we also have Sophia, Dogged Detective that may have led to the spike of this card to a lesser extend.

Damning Verdict	CardKingdom $13.99	TCGPlayer $17.39
Damning Verdict (Extended Art)	CardKingdom $14.99	TCGPlayer $28.99
Voja, Jaws of the Conclave	CardKingdom	TCGPlayer $13.59
Sophia, Dogged Detective	CardKingdom	TCGPlayer

#3 Gonti's Aether Heart $11.06 (+107%)

"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." This quote (although a bit paraphrased) is attributed to writer and philosopher George Santayana. So why am I quoting philosophers? Because this really seems like a repetition from not too long ago actually. Last October we discussed the spike of Aetherworks Marvel, and just one week later we talked about... Gonti's Aether Heart. Just like last week when we talked about Aetherworks Marvel spiking, and now one week later, we're once again discussing Gonti's Aether Heart. But I hear you thinking that it stands to reason that these two cards often spike close to each other or simultaneously. They fit the same theme. But in this particular case, they are both spiking once again for the exact same reason as back in October.

The reason is once again Universes Beyond: Fallout, where the Science! precon deck revolves around Energy tokens. The commander of the deck is Dr. Madison Li, and another card in the deck is Rex, Cyber-Hound. Both of these cards were previewed back in October, making the two artifacts spike in price. And now that we know the full deck lists, we also know that cards like the T-45 Power Armor and Liberty Prime, Recharged are in the set as well.

Nevertheless, the reason for the spike hasn't changed, and I'm frankly a bit surprised that these two cards once again spike because of it. I wouldn't have expected the prices of them to dwindle so much in between. That being said, I really love the Fallout set so far. I'm pretty sure one of the reasons I didn't have higher grades in high school because of how much I played Fallout 1. You know, besides my constant procrastinating and unwillingness to put in more effort. 

Gonti's Aether Heart	CardKingdom $6.49	TCGPlayer $11.06
Rex, Cyber-Hound	CardKingdom $0.79	TCGPlayer $7.45
Dr. Madison Li	CardKingdom	TCGPlayer $16.14
Liberty Prime, Recharged	CardKingdom	TCGPlayer $27.94

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.

Stalactite Stalker $2.10 - Moving up!

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

Rishadan Port $8.49 - Slowly moving down

Horizon Canopy $2.25 - Slowly moving down

Stalactite Stalker	CardKingdom $2.29	TCGPlayer $2.09
Rishadan Port	CardKingdom $12.99	TCGPlayer $8.50
Horizon Canopy	CardKingdom $3.99	TCGPlayer $2.25