Congratulations to Andrew Jessup! He piloted Mardu vehicles to the top spot of Star City Games Standard open in Atlanta. Mardu vehicles took five spots in top 8, but most people expected it thanks to a short notice emergency ban on kitty. With brand new cards on display, people rushed to the market to buy what they thought looked good on camera. We have a large list of cards with big gains, so let's get into this week in Magic!

 

Taking the top spot this week, Blowfly Infestation proved that -1/-1 counters still matter. Combined with Nest of Scarabs, you can go infinite and kill your opponent with something like Zulaport Cutthroat or Blood Artist. It's a cute Modern combo, but I think it has too many moving parts to be reliable. You have to have two 3 drop enchantments in play, your draining creature AND put a -1/-1 counter on a creature to start the combo. Both Zulaport Cutthroat and Blood Artist have a toughness of 1, so this is no small task in Modern. Still, it's a neat interaction and not a bad backup plan in Commander. 

 

Out of the darkness, Dakmor Ghoul got bought out into oblivion. The art is amazingly creepy and Starter 1999 cards have always been weird to me. That being said, I can't find a single reason why this card was targeted with a buy out. It's a cool card and solid effect, but far from broken. It is a Zombie, so there's that, but I expect this to slide back down in price quickly.

 

Shining Shoal has been a very corner case Modern card for a while, but it's finally taken off. A few copies were bought out which probably caused a chain reaction. It doesn't see any regular play and is more than likely a worse version of Deflecting Palm, which sees some Burn play in their sideboard. I don't think this spike will stick, as there really isn't a demand for a worse Deflecting Palm. 

 

Unified Will has started to catch on as a solid counterspell in Modern. It is sad to see Remand not seeing any play, as Remand used to be one of THE defining cards in Modern. Unified Will is a better Counterspell in the decks that play it. Granted it can be dead at any point of the game, it has a very high upside. I remember when people used to think Countersquall was a bad counter, now it's fairly popular. Let's also not forget Delay is a card!

 

Cut // Ribbons performed very well in Standard Mardu decks this weekend, as well as any deck that was playing B/R. 4 damage to a creature is already strong, but being able to cast Ribbons late game can close out games in a heartbeat. It gives reach to decks that only deal damage via combat, and is really a pain to deal with. It's only one of two Aftermath cards that saw widespread play, with Commit // Memory being popular among control decks. Let's not forget that this is a rare, not an uncommon. I think even at the current price it's a great deal!

 

While the top 8 wasn't that diverse, the top 32 was VERY diverse, proving that while the cat is away, the home brew decks will play. Cryptbreaker was fairly popular this weekend and is great in Zombie/graveyard decks. I've been telling people to buy their Cryptbreakers since it came out, as it's a 1 drop Zombie that makes tokens, enables discard AND draws you cards. I think it's a great card in both constructed and casual. 

 

And the winner for the most awkward art goes to Flash! This Mirage special is quite the sight to behold. It's not on the Reserved List and isn't really playable, so I'm not really sure what gives here. It's like a Elvish Piper or Savage Summoning, except…worse? I mean it works with things like Protean Hulk to get your triggered abilities, but there are much more efficient ways to do it. That being said, it's a very cool way to cheat a creature into play. 

 

Well Quillspike didn't go away this week. It made the list two weeks ago, and doubled the previous price. I'm still not sold on the combo in Modern, but it does exist, so naturally the pieces will go up in price. This is also an uncommon, so it will probably fall down to around the $4 mark, but maybe, just maybe the Quillspike is here to stay. 

 

Seshiro the Anointed, spiked this week, which is cool to see! As THE snake lord, Seshiro is a ton of fun to both play and include in your 99. There are a whole slew of Snake token outlets, and you're probably best playing Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons as your Commander. Before people played Pharika, God of Affliction. Honestly either of them would work, so get out there and start building your snake tribal deck!

 

Thanks to SaffronOlive, Gideon Jura has spiked this week. He brewed and tested a Modern Gideon tribal deck that was very entertaining to watch. Gideon Jura is a great Modern card for control decks and has seen play in various W/U, W/R or W/U/R decks. The Gideon tribal list is here, so go check it out and enjoy the hilarity!

Foils of the Week!

Foil Heartbeat of Spring went up over 200%. Foil Unified Will followed its non-foil counterpart and saw a large increase in price. Arcum Dagsson foil doubled in price, for some reason, and is now over astronomical. Foil Gideon Jura also spiked along with the non-foil. Simian Spirit Guide foil is now over $75. 

Cheap pickups of the Week!

Show and Tell has hit an all-time low. If you ever wanted your own for Commander or casual, now is the time. Vindicate, possibly the best removal spell printed, got a reprint in invocation form, and is on the downward trend. Since 1v1 Commander is now upon us, I expect a large portion of people to move into building paper versions of MTGO decks that are soon to come. Partner Commanders would be a solid investment as they provide a ton of flexibility. 

Mtgstocks mystery chart of the Week!

Last week's chart was Skullclamp. Some people saw through my subtle hints. This week, a truly angelic chart. Terrestrial, even!

Conversation of the Week!

Wizard's announced the 1v1 Commander banned list here. Personally, I like the direction that Wizard's is going. Granted there are many cards that probably will end up on the list in the future, they have to prove themselves ban worthy. With competitive 1v1 Commander leagues coming to MTGO, we will finally have good data on which cards win and how often. It is interesting to have basically three ban lists for Commander: french, normal and Wizard's. We will have to see how game stores adopt this new ban list for the events they host. 

The best Commander card you're not playing!

Combustible Gearhulk is a card I love, but doesn't see any play. In multiplayer games, there's a good chance that you'll just draw three cards if you pick the right player. Let's not forget that a 6/6 first strike will dominate the battlefield as well.