Congratulations to Gerry Thompson and his mono black zombies taking down Pro Tour Amonkhet! It was a very exciting top 8 and missing from the party was Mardu. As per usual, several cards from top decks spiked this week, along with a few other…interesting cards. Let’s find out what happened this week in Magic!

Liliana's Mastery is one of the most powerful things zombies can do. It not only pumps your squad, but it also brings friends to the party. At 5 mana, it’s a great top of the curve for the zombies. No doubt scores of people went out and bought their playsets as soon as they saw the deck lists. It is still a new card, so prices are fairly reasonable even after the spike.

Out of left field, Duelist's Heritage made the cut, and once again it was a card I wanted to feature, but I felt it was too new. It makes for some hilarious politics in a multiplayer game, as you can play king of the castle with all creatures. It’s a great way to make friends, or just wipe people out. It’s a shame that it’s in white and not red though.

Another beat down of a card for zombies is Dark Salvation. Sometimes it’s a 1 mana removal spell, sometimes it makes a ton of dudes, and sometimes it kills Ulamog. It is the perfect flexible interactive card for the deck, but it’s also great for zombie tribal commander decks. Make a ton of mana and turn that mana into zombies. What could possibly go wrong?

Storm Seeker was a card I fell in love with a long time ago. It was a great way to punish people that played draw/go decks. The art is awesome, but I just wish it had flavor text. Such an epic sword should have a story. That aside, I’ve been seeing a lot of Legends cards spike, but many of them haven’t been reserved list. It’s quite interesting.

One of the cards most people forgot was in Standard, Chandra, Flamecaller, made a huge impact during PT Amonkhet. Some Marvel decks ran 4x of her to handle all the zombies, and she did not disappoint. All of her abilities were relevant, especially the 0 ability that allowed players to discard the dead Ulamogs in their hand. It was a meta call, and I don’t anticipate decks to be running 4x of her for too much long, but I definitely won’t complain if they do.

Metallic Mimic also made the list this week, and guess what? It’s played in Zombies! This is a different take on artifacts that pump tribes like Adaptive Automaton, Brass Herald and Door of Destinies. At 2/1, it’s also a fairly aggressive creature that can curve into some brutal starts. Outside of Standard, I like this card for any tribal Commander deck. Heck, I’d play this with dragons.

Sphinx of the Final Word may not have seen as much play as other cards, it was a pretty good 1x or 2x in some lists. It turns out an uncounterable 5/5 flying hexproof creature is pretty hard to answer. It sees play in various blue based control decks, and occasionally finds itself in Marvel decks. Part of me wishes it was Legendary, as it would make a pretty sweet commander!

Foils of the Week!

Foil Contagion Clasp shot up this week, and I’m super glad I already have a handful of them. Foil New Perspectives shot up, as it’s been the subject of many streamers and deck builders. It’s time to dig out your foil box, because foil Architects of Will sky rocketed, and it’s a common! Foil Condemn saw some healthy gains across a few printings, and foil Lantern of Insight also received a large gain. I hope this doesn’t mean Lantern control is coming back to Modern…

Cheap pickups of the Week!

Dakkon Blackblade is such an iconic card, the art is featured at Wizard’s headquarters. It’s also super cheap right now! Standard proved that it wasn’t figured out this weekend, and plenty of decks finished in the top 32 that looked very interesting. Sam Black had a super sweet tokens deck that looked very fun, and also somewhat cheap.

Mtgstocks mystery chart of the Week!

Last week I guess I was a little heavy handed with the clues. This week, no such luck! You have just a chart and your knowledge.

Conversation of the Week!

This week, I want to talk about event coverage from Wizards. While it has gotten better, I still feel that it needs some work. There is far too much downtime, and when you're basically on in prime time, I think they would be better served having other things like deck techs playing in between the rounds. Or even show previous events like Star City Games. Wizards has a wealth of footage at their disposal, and I just wish they put something together to fill all the downtime.

The best Commander card you’re not playing!

While it’s a newer card, I feel that Fiery Confluence doesn’t see enough play. It spiked recently, but still tends to get omitted from many lists I've seen.