Weekly Winners 2024 - 11

There's a lot going on around Modern, and each of our winners at least mention the format. But there are two winners that seem to be directly linked to it.

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

• Corey's article Pick Up These Modern Outliers Before Modern Horizons 3 delves into strategic investments in the Modern format, focusing on cards with financial upside from second-tier competitive builds. Highlighting the evolving meta and potential shifts with Modern Horizons 3, Corey offers insights on cards suggesting they're undervalued and poised for gains. This guide is a must-read for players looking to make savvy investments in the Modern landscape.

• Adam's article Hidden Gems for Judith, Carnage Connoisseur explores underutilized cards for enhancing Judith-themed Commander decks. He focuses on cards that offer unique synergies and tactical advantages, including unexpected picks that could significantly bolster gameplay. Adam's recommendations aim to fill strategic gaps, ensuring Judith's deck is as competitive and fun to play as possible.

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Onto the Weekly Winners!

#1 Ardent Plea $15.06 (+432%)

Where is this love for Ardent Plea coming from all of the sudden? Is it because people decided that Exalted was all the rage right now? No. It's definitely the second ability: Cascade. As you may or may not know, in Modern there is a very popular archetype that tries to play spells with a Cascade trigger. When this happens, it will always hit Crashing Footfalls, since that's the only non-land card in the deck with a mana value less than three. When that happens, your opponent now has to deal with two 4/4 trampling Rhinos.

We actually talked about this deck quite recently when Scion of Draco spiked because of the printing of Leyline of the Guildpact. With the Guildpact in play, which you can do for free if you have it in your opening hand, it means you can cast Scion of Draco for just , and because Draco (and your other creatures) now are each color, Draco will buff them all, including itself. This combo is most notably found in the Modern Crashing Footfalls deck.

However, last week Wizards figured enough is enough, and decided to take matters into their own hands. Last Monday they decided to ban Violent Outburst, which was always played as a four-off in the deck and made you able to cheat out the Rhinos at instant speed. With Violent Outburst out of the picture, people were flocking to a replacement, and that was found immediately in Ardent Plea. Sure, it's not instant speed anymore, and the colors are different, but it still works since the enchantment is in blue and white, both colors already in the deck anyway.

Once the banhammer came down, people immediately scrambled to get their Ardent Plea copies. In the MTGStocks Premium Discord channel, we saw the price go up live 45% within two minutes of the ban being announced. And while Cascade Rhinos may be the driving factor behind this, don't forget that in Modern we also have Living End decks that want to Cascade into it!

Ardent Plea	CardKingdom $7.99	TCGPlayer $15.06
Ardent Plea	CardKingdom $7.99	TCGPlayer $14.99

#2 Mesmeric Orb $24.66 (+126%)

This artifact bottomed out around $4 not too long ago, and has been creeping up to $10 before exploding to new heights. This two mana artifact has a symmetrical effect where a player has to mill a card whenever a permanent they control becomes untapped. This can really add up, since people tend to cast spells sooner or later, and when they do they have to mill when their lands become untapped. In Modern we see this card being played in mill decks, and while this is not a significant part of the meta, it does see some play.

But the more likely reason for this card to go up is The Wise Mothman which has been printed in the Universes Beyond: Fallout set. When the Mothman enters the battlefield or attacks, each player gets a Rad counter. Let's pull up some oracle text for that: At the beginning of the precombat main phase of a player with Rad counters, that player mills cards equal to the number of Rad counters they have. For each nonland card milled this way, that player loses one life and removes one Rad counter from themselves.

$0.32

As you can see, The Wise Mothman cares about cards being milled, and Mesmeric Orb is a great way to do that, and is a great upgrade to the Mutant Menace precon deck. For likely the same reason, we see some movement in cards like Altar of the Brood, Ripples of Potential, and Bloodchief Ascension.

Mesmeric Orb	CardKingdom	TCGPlayer $24.66
Mesmeric Orb (Schematic)	CardKingdom	TCGPlayer $28.99
Mesmeric Orb	CardKingdom $15.99	TCGPlayer $30.19
Mesmeric Orb	CardKingdom $15.99	TCGPlayer $28.49
The Wise Mothman	CardKingdom	TCGPlayer $0.74
Altar of the Brood	CardKingdom $9.99	TCGPlayer $12.39
Bloodchief Ascension	CardKingdom $7.99	TCGPlayer $14.55

#3 Goryo's Vengeance $17.89 (+158%)

Quickly after the ban announcement last Monday, the Ultimate Masters print of Goryo's Vengeance quickly tried to catch up to its original print from Betrayers of Kamigawa. While there was a difference between them of about $6, it immediately shot up to close the gap. Goryo's Vengeance is an interesting card where you can reanimate a legendary creature card from your graveyard at instant speed, giving it haste. But there's a catch: it needs to be exiled at the beginning of the next end step.

But spending two mana on your turn to get an attack out of Atraxa, Grand Unifier or Griselbrand is pretty good, especially with the card advantage that comes with them. But it's even better to get to keep them around. That's where cards like Ephemerate and Touch the Spirit Realm come around. After you reanimated a fatty with Goryo's Vengeance, you can target it with a flicker spell, making sure it stays around.

Since this archetype dodged being banned out of the format, and with Rhinos probably becoming less powerful, there may be more room for this deck in the meta. It still remains to be seen how the new meta is going to shape up, but it seems people have been putting their bets on Reanimator. And in the same way we also see movement in the foil version of Yawgmoth, Thran Physician and in the borderless print from Dominaria Remastered.

Goryo's Vengeance	CardKingdom $9.99	TCGPlayer $17.89
Goryo's Vengeance	CardKingdom $11.99	TCGPlayer $15.00

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.

Warg Rider $3.15 - Moving up!

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

Sliver Gravemother $8.66 - Slowly moving down

Shark Typhoon $6.80 - Stabilizing

Warg Rider	CardKingdom $4.99	TCGPlayer $4.49
Warg Rider (Extended Art)	CardKingdom $2.79	TCGPlayer $1.86
Sliver Gravemother	CardKingdom	TCGPlayer $8.66
Shark Typhoon	CardKingdom $9.99	TCGPlayer $6.87