Weekly Winners 2025 - 06

I can't believe Modern is still changing as much as it is. Two of our winners are because of Modern and one Reserved List spike.

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.

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Articles

Check out our other great content from this week.

Checking in with the Lord of the Rings Holiday Edition by Harvey McGuinness

Hidden Gems for Hashaton, Scarab's Fist by Adam Berg

The Rise of Temur Breach in Modern by Corey Williams

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Onto the Weekly Winners!

#1 Sands of Time $15.00 (+273%)

Definitely didn't expect Sands of Time to be on here this week. Let's talk about the important part first: it's a rare from Visions and thus is on the Reserved List. It makes each player skip their untap step and then does something really weird. You have to simultaneously tap everything that's untapped and untap everything that's tapped. Since untapping now is a triggered ability, this has always been sort of a combo with Strionic Resonator and you can potentially win on the spot with infinite mana. 

$7.98 $6.99

$0.51 $0.49

In Aetherdrift a new card was printed that works with Sands of Time and that is Unstoppable Plan. An enchantment that looks a lot like the dreaded Wilderness Reclamation, but this time you get to untap everything but your lands. Having both of these in play makes Sands of Time less symmetrical and let's you avoid most of the downsides of Sands of Time. Besides that Aetherdrift has also given us Veteran Beastrider which could provide extra redundancy.

To be fair, I feel this is mostly a buyout of a Reserved lLst card. The synergy with the aformentioned cards is undeniable, but I seriously doubt this is actually going to get played a lot. And if you do decide to play this in your Commander deck, be prepared to lose some friends, as these strategies generally (depending on your playgroup) do not contribute to a fun game.

Sands of Time	CardKingdom $3.99	TCGPlayer $15.00
Unstoppable Plan	CardKingdom $6.99	TCGPlayer $7.98
Strionic Resonator	CardKingdom $6.49	TCGPlayer $4.20
Veteran Beastrider	CardKingdom $0.49	TCGPlayer $0.51

#2 Kozilek's Return $6.90 (+130%)

The Eldrazi variant of Pyroclasm is on the move. Originally printed as mythic in Oath of the Gatewatch it received a reprint in Commander: Modern Horizons 3 not too long after it spiked because of Eldrazi becoming popular in Modern. And now it's going up again, and once again, you guessed it, because of popularity in Modern.

The Modern bans that were shaking up the format happened on December 16th, over one and a half months ago, and I truly enjoy seeing that the meta is still shifting and hasn't been solved yet. Eldrazi have been popular before and will probably stay for the foreseeable future, however, it seems that Gruul Eldrazi now is the build of choice.

Kozilek's Return	CardKingdom $3.99	TCGPlayer $6.90
Kozilek's Return	CardKingdom $3.49	TCGPlayer $5.45
Kozilek's Return (Ripple Foil)	CardKingdom	TCGPlayer $29.95

#3 Emperor of Bones $4.62 (+56%)

I have a soft spot for Reanimator cards. I've played several versions of Reanimator in Legacy for a long time and when I first saw Emperor of Bones I liked it for being a card that can abuse the graveyard, but didn't really consider it for constructed play. Boy, was I wrong. This Skeleton Noble is seeing play in Legacy, but even more so in Modern.

And not just any Modern deck, it's the Orzhov Blink deck that's been popping up in the Weekly Winners a lot lately. Last week we talked about this deck because of Recruiter of the Guard and three weeks ago it was because of Overlord of the Balemurk. And in the meantime we've also seen Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd going up because of this deck.

Emperor of Bones makes sure that creatures that have died, or creatures that have been put into the graveyard with Overlord of the Balemurk find their way back onto the battlefield - even if just for a little while. Being able to activate the Adapt ability at any time, so you can get a flicker creature back, can get you some extra enters triggers, or protect a creature from removal, or pull some semi-counter shenanigans with Aven Interrupter.

But besides the use it already has in the blink deck, the Emperor also has some obvious synergy with newly previewed card Ketramose, the New Dawn from Aetherdrift as draw engine. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if this is one of the big reasons the card is also getting a boost.

Emperor of Bones	CardKingdom $3.49	TCGPlayer $4.62
Emperor of Bones (Borderless)	CardKingdom $3.99	TCGPlayer $7.24

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.

Swarmyard Massacre $4.85 - Bottoming out!

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

Final Showdown $5.89 - Moving down

Massacre Girl, Known Killer $8.09 - Slowly moving down

Swarmyard Massacre	CardKingdom $7.99	TCGPlayer $4.57
Final Showdown	CardKingdom $8.49	TCGPlayer $5.89
Massacre Girl, Known Killer	CardKingdom $10.99	TCGPlayer $8.06