Weekly Winners 2024 - 50

Another week where Standard is moving prices. Placing +1/+1 counters on creatures also seems to be a hot strategy at the moment!

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

Check out our other great content from this week.

Should You Buy Magic Specialty Bundles? by Harvey McGuinness

Hidden Gems for Captain America, First Avenger by Adam Berg

New Horizons Year In Review by Matt Grzechnik

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Onto the Weekly Winners!

#1 Torch the Tower $2.06 (+142%)

Check your bulk! Torch the Tower, the common from Wilds of Eldraine, has gone up by quite a bit in the past few weeks, reaching it's high this past week when it went above $2. On the surface it looks like a better Shock, but it's actually so much better. And it isn't because it can be Bargained to do an additional damage; the main power comes from the ability to exile whatever it kills.

That this removal spell went up this much only shows how important it is in the current Standard metagame to exile your opponent's permanents. There's too much in the current metagame that can come back. We actually discussed this last week as well with Anoint with Affliction spiking.

Torch the Tower sees play in mono-red, for instance, and it's also really needed when playing the mirror. Heartfire Hero, for instance, will deal some additional damage to you when killed, but not when exiled. This can definitely be the difference between a win and a loss.

Torch the Tower

CardKingdom $2.29

TCGPlayer $2.01

#2 Kaito, Bane of Nightmares $23.90 (+27%)

This Kaito planeswalker is also doing really well in Standard. Not only is Kaito, Bane of Nightmares a planeswalker, but can also be a creature as long as it's your turn. And not only that, you can Ninjutsu him in when you have an unblocked attacker, making him a mana cheaper and also letting him connect. That makes his 0 ability immediately more interesting since it will also draw you a card.

Kaito sees play in Dimir Midrange decks where he can quickly take over the board. Being able to provide card advantage, pump the team (including himself), or tap down a creature for a few turns makes him pretty strong to have on the battlefield. Also don't forget that when Ninjutsuing a creature you get to take the attacking creature back to your hand, meaning the ETB abilities can be utilized again.

We also see Kaito showing in Legacy decks here and there. Since Psychic Frog already makes quite a bit of the metagame UBx, it's easy to include Kaito anyway. That said, Kaito only shows up as a one-of in a few decks and isn't widely played yet. But it does say something about the power level of this card. We also see it show up in Pioneer in Dimir aggro and sometimes in Dimir Midrange.

$29.95 $22.99

While the regular version of Kaito only went up about 27%, the bigger jumps can mostly be seen in the Showcase and Borderless versions. The first one shot up 109% to $25 and the Borderless did a 38% increase, making it about $30.

Kaito, Bane of Nightmares	CardKingdom $18.99	TCGPlayer $23.81
Kaito, Bane of Nightmares (Showcase)	CardKingdom $18.99	TCGPlayer $24.98
Kaito, Bane of Nightmares (Borderless)	CardKingdom $22.99	TCGPlayer $29.95
Kaito, Bane of Nightmares	CardKingdom $18.99	TCGPlayer $20.36

#3 Managorger Hydra $4.24 (+79%)

In this part about Managorger Hydra I feel there isn't one single reason for the card to spike, but rather a renewed interest in the theme. This Hydra will grow whenever a player casts a spell by putting a +1/+1 counter on it. And when we look further in the Interests we see more cards from this same strategy pop up. One of the other more interesting ones is Bristly Bill, Spine Sower.

Bristly Bill, Spine Sower can put +1/+1 counters on a creature whenever a land enters under your control, but can also double the number of +1/+1 counters on each creature you control. With the release of Foundations some cards have been (re)printed that make certain cards more affordable and puts some extra cards around the counter-strategy into the card pool. Examples of these cards are Doubling Season, Mossborn Hydra, and Scythecat Cub. Even a card like Loot, Exuberant Explorer could make these cards have an uptick since Loot can find them and put them out onto the battlefield while ramping.

$3.33 $4.49

$33.55 $42.99

We also recently received the Marvel Secret Lair cards, of which some popular commanders have arisen that also care about these counters. Wolverine, Best There Is and Black Panther, Wakandan King are both agressive strategies that want to put +1/+1 counters on creatures. So, like mentioned earlier, there are plenty of reasons for Managorger Hydra to go up at the moment. And with a common strategy around +1/+1 counters, they can only become stronger as more cards are being printed.

Managorger Hydra	CardKingdom $2.29	TCGPlayer $4.24
Doubling Season	CardKingdom $32.99	TCGPlayer $29.53
Mossborn Hydra	CardKingdom $4.49	TCGPlayer $3.33
Scythecat Cub	CardKingdom $42.99	TCGPlayer $33.55
Wolverine, Best There Is	CardKingdom $34.99	TCGPlayer $37.52
Black Panther, Wakandan King	CardKingdom $15.99	TCGPlayer $17.10

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.

Bello, Bard of the Brambles $2.63 - Moving up!

Bello, Bard of the Brambles has been identified by the MTGStocks Premium Penny Stocks feature as a card that has reached its bottom and is starting a consistent uptrend.

Aether Vial $5.00 - Moving down

Rise of the Dark Realms $3.97 - Stabilizing

Bello, Bard of the Brambles	CardKingdom $4.49	TCGPlayer $2.63
Aether Vial	CardKingdom $5.49	TCGPlayer $5.00
Rise of the Dark Realms	CardKingdom $5.99	TCGPlayer $3.97