Weekly Winners 2024 - 27

The Pro Tour was last weekend and is the center of the price spikes this week. The bird is the word!

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

• Harvey offers a comprehensive guide on how to navigate the upcoming Standard rotation, detailing strategies for identifying which cards to keep or trade based on their future viability. He highlights key trends and provides actionable advice to ensure you make the most of your current collection while preparing for new set releases. For expert insights on staying ahead during this transition, check out How to Prepare for Standard Rotation.
• In Checking in on the Modern Meta After Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3, Corey reviews the latest shifts in the Modern meta post-Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3, analyzing the rise of decks like Nadu and Ruby Storm, and their impact on card prices and strategies. He highlights key movers in the market and offers insights into the evolving meta landscape.

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#1 Suncleanser $4.25 (+325%)

Let's talk about this rare from Core Set 2019 a little bit. As you might know, last weekend was MagicCon Amsterdam, which hosted the Pro Tour. One of the decks that performed best, ultimately won the Pro Tour, and has been the target of the most controversy, was Bant Nadu, Winged Wisdom. 

Most of these Nadu decks include two copies of Suncleanser in the sideboard - Samuel Pardee even included it in his mainboard. With Modern Horizons 3 we saw a lot of new cards utilizing energy counters, leading to the emergence of Jeskai Energy Control. Cards like Galvanic Discharge, Wrath of the Skies, and Unstable Amulet were bound to be found within the ranks of the Pro Tour, and thus sideboard tech was needed. Suncleanser only costs and gives you a 1/4 that can make your opponent lose all counters they have. And not just that, it will lock your opponent out of ever having counters as long as Suncleanser is on the battlefield.

$6.69$7.99

$0.40$0.39

As long as decks that rely on energy counters are a prominent part of Modern, Suncleanser is bound to keep this price tag. As soon as the meta shifts and energy counters fall out of favor, I expect the price to come crashing down again. Assuming it doesn't get reprinted before then, obviously.

Suncleanser	CardKingdom $5.49	TCGPlayer $4.25
Nadu, Winged Wisdom	CardKingdom $8.99	TCGPlayer $7.49
Galvanic Discharge	CardKingdom $0.99	TCGPlayer $0.25
Wrath of the Skies	CardKingdom $7.99	TCGPlayer $6.69
Unstable Amulet	CardKingdom $0.39	TCGPlayer $0.40

#2 Harsh Mentor $2.50 (+285%)

Somewhat related to our previous winner, we have Harsh Mentor moving up, especially the print from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth and the foil version from Amonkhet. For you get a 2/2 Human Cleric hatebear. Whenever an opponent activates an ability of an artifact, creature, or land on the battlefield that isn't a mana ability it deals two damage to that opponent.

Now reflecting back on our previous winner, we talked about the Pro Tour last weekend and the abundance of Nadu, Winged Wisdom decks. With Nadu doing so well in the Pro Tour and people probably trying to build the #1 deck in Modern, it's only fair that the metagame adjusts and people actively sideboard against this deck. Harsh Mentor is one of those cards. The Nadu decks try to win by triggering the ability on creatures that was granted them by Nadu to "draw" cards and find the win condition. With Harsh Mentor in play, that's going to be an painful endeavour. 

In the same vein we've seen the foil version of Tunnel Ignus jump. When we inspect Nadu closer, it reads that when its ability is triggered, a land has to be put onto the battlefield. This is not a "may" trigger and thus lands have to be put into play when revealed. With Tunnel Ignus in play, that means that every time your opponent puts a land onto the battlefield from Nadu, they will get three damage. Better not reveal too many lands!

Harsh Mentor	CardKingdom $1.29	TCGPlayer $1.98
Harsh Mentor	CardKingdom $1.29	TCGPlayer $1.19
Tunnel Ignus	CardKingdom $0.99	TCGPlayer $1.36

#3 Aven Courier $3.17 (+282%)

Tired of talking about Birds yet? Well, here's another one for you! Aven Courier has been moving up quickly this past week. This 1/1 Bird for will copy a counter from another permanent if it doesn't already have one when it attacks. 

The reason for this card moving up is the same as a different card we saw spiking last week. This Bird works very well in Commander decks around newly printed commander Omo, Queen of Vesuva. Omo can distribute everything counters to creatuers and lands, which means that a creature with such a counter has every creature type and a land with these counters is every land type. But once Omo has distributed one of these counters, we can put them on different permanents with Aven Courier.

Aven Courier	CardKingdom $1.49	TCGPlayer $3.17
Aven Courier (Extended Art)	CardKingdom $1.49	TCGPlayer $3.99
Omo, Queen of Vesuva	CardKingdom $0.99	TCGPlayer $0.66

#4 Soul Spike $57.00 (+77%)

Now let's move on to a card that has spiked before and perhaps should have had a place in the previous Weekly Winners. While I did notice the card spiking before, it was drowned out by other cards that either spiked more or were more interesting at the time. However, with a $50 price tag there is no way around Soul Spike, and thus it deserves a spot this week. It's is a rare from Coldsnap and is part of a cycle where you get to pitch two cards of the same color rather than pay the card's mana cost. Two more famous cards from this cycle are Fury of the Horde and Allosaurus Rider.

$1.61$1.79

Soul Spike deals four damage to any target and you gain four life. Back in March 2023 we discussed this instant when it spiked to $7. Since then it hasn't been reprinted, which leads to a relatively low supply since the card is now almost 18 years old. 

So let's talk about why the card spiked. Just like our previous winners, the reason is that it does well in Modern. And not just doing regularely well, it does top 8 Modern Pro Tour well! Mono-black aggro decks play four copies of Soul Spike in the mainboard. Seth Manfield and Noah Ma both got into the Top 8 of the Pro Tour with this archetype.

Soul Spike

CardKingdom $59.99

TCGPlayer $57.00

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.

Koma, Cosmos Serpent $4.45 - Moving up!

Koma, Cosmos Serpent has been identified by the MTGStocks Premium Penny Stocks feature as a card that has reached its bottom and is starting a consistent uptrend.

Delney, Streetwise Lookout $12.72 - Moving down

Carnage Tyrant $4.99 - Moving down

Koma, Cosmos Serpent	CardKingdom $5.49	TCGPlayer $4.44
Delney, Streetwise Lookout	CardKingdom $16.99	TCGPlayer $12.69
Carnage Tyrant	CardKingdom $5.99	TCGPlayer $4.99