Weekly Winners 2021 - 34

Finance wise it has been a really slow week, but Magic wise there is plenty to talk about. Wizards has done their annual Showcase stream where they confirmed that we are indeed returning to Kamigawa and Dominaria, but also other sets planned for 2022 and some controversial Secret Lair crossovers. This week I have tried to find the cards in the Interests that I feel are noteworthy to mention, but especially in a slow week like this, I felt that I had to cherry pick my favorites rather than going for the cards with the largest price increases. That being said, I still had fun writing, and I hope you'll enjoy reading!

Come discuss this week's price movements with us on Reddit.

 

#1 Flusterstorm $30.00 (+33%)

 

Ah, yes, Flusterstorm. This card was originally printed in the first Commander set and quickly found its way into Legacy and Vintage. Especially in these formats where storm decks are being played regularly, and where the stack can sometimes contain multiple spells waiting to resolve. Before its reprint in Iconic Masters this instant has almost been $100 for a copy in June 2017. But after the reprint it fortunately fell quickly and you could get a Commander print for as low as $8 and the Iconic Masters for around $5. Did you get your copies back then? Good! But now we see the card quickly going up again.

When it was printed as Buy-a-Box promo in Modern Horizons, Flusterstorm also become Modern legal. The upward price trend has everything to do with the popularity the card still has in older formats like Vintage and Legacy, but now also sees more play in Modern. On our Most Played lists we see Flusterstorm as the #3 card in Vintage and the #40 card in Modern.

Recently there was a Playing with Power cEDH tournament where we see Flusterstorm in two top 4 decks, and if I understood correctly, we see the card show up in more decklists within the top 16 as well. This is an indicator that (c)EDH may be driving the price as well.

 

Flusterstorm
Buy-A-Box Promos	CardKingdom $19.99
Iconic Masters	CardKingdom $21.99	TCGPlayer $24.73
Commander	CardKingdom $24.99	TCGPlayer $30.00

 

#2 Sigarda's Aid $12.00 (+22%)

 

The last couple of weeks I have noticed Sigarda's Aid more often on the Interests lists, but she kept going up without making a jump large enough to being mentioned in the Weekly Winners. This week I decided to put some more eyes on it and make people aware of this current price point.

The main reason for it going up obviously are the Hammer Time decks that have been showing up Modern for some time now. For one puny you can put this enchantment unto the battlefield, giving all your Auras and Equipments flash ("as though they had flash"). But that's not all, when an Equipment is put onto the battlefield under your control, you may attach it to one of your creatures! Now this is especially funny with a Colossus Hammer, which is very cheap to cast, but very expensive to equip. When a creature is equipped with such a massive hammer, it doesn't have to connect often to win you the game.

But I also suspect that equipment decks are becoming more popular amongst the casual crowd, driving the price up. We also see cards like Armored Skyhunter on the interests this week creeping up with 66% to a whopping $2.79.

 

Sigarda's Aid	CardKingdom $8.99	TCGPlayer $12.00
Sigarda's Aid	CardKingdom $17.99
Armored Skyhunter	CardKingdom $2.99	TCGPlayer $2.79
Sigarda's Aid	CardKingdom $8.49	TCGPlayer $11.74
Colossus Hammer		TCGPlayer $1.74

 

 

#3 Nature's Will $38.16 (+25%)

 

Do you remember the Playing with Power cEDH tournament I mentioned earlier? Since that tournament we also see Nature's Will make a move. The card shows up in two decks of the top 4, which both are Najeela, the Blade-Blossom decks. Being able to untap your lands is obviously a powerful effect. We also saw that last week with the spike of Aggravated Assault which also often is used alongside of a land-untap ability like Bear Umbra. And since we are mentioning Aggravated Assault here, lets quickly glance over its price later in this article.

This week we also saw an announcement that in 2022 we will get Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty as set in Q1. This could mean we will see some reprints of cards originally printed in the Kamigawa sets, to which Nature's Will belongs. Since it hasn't been reprinted since, and demand seems to be high enough, there is an argument to be made that it will be reprinted there.

 

#4 Archon of Cruelty $8.22 (+37%)

 

Oh, look! A Mythic from Modern Horizons 2 finding a home somewhere! Archon of Cruelty was already quite quickly adopted into Modern reanimator decks. The set has opened a door for these decks with cards like Persist and Unmarked Grave. We do not see big fat creatures like Griselbrand in Modern reanimator decks because the cards that can find and/or exhume him are specifically targeting non-legendary creatures and that's probably for the best. I can imagine that the power level of this deck would be through the roof then.

But when we look at Legacy reanimator decks, where Griselbrand often is the creature of choice, we see that Archon of Cruelty is good enough to earn a single mainboard spot in the deck. In my opinion this does say something about the power level of the Archon. If you can get it into play turn 1 or 2 against a creature deck, it is going to have a hard time to keep up. Every turn they have to sacrifice a creature, discard a card, lose 3 life, and get hit in the face with a 6/6 while you are drawing extra cards trying to disrupt their hand even more or trying to cheat other big fatties out.

 

 

#5 Aggravated Assault $49.99 (+38%)

 

We already discussed this card last week, so more of adding this one as a little extra this week because again it is quite high again on the Interests list. It still is a popular card for Commander and sees more play as upgrade to the Draconic Rage commander deck. Last week I mentioned that it combo's quite nicely with Bear Umbra, but it was pointed out to me that it also has found a new ally in Old Gnawbone which can also enable infinite combat phases.

 

Aggravated Assault	CardKingdom $37.99	TCGPlayer $49.99
Old Gnawbone	CardKingdom $29.99	TCGPlayer $26.30
Aggravated Assault	CardKingdom $27.99	TCGPlayer $34.82

Cheap Pickups

Please note: for our 'record low' we consider the price of the card over the past 7 years. Many cards have been even cheaper (a) decade(s) ago. Also note: some cards are still going down, and might be even cheaper pickups next week.

 

Various multiplayer lands $6-8 - Trending down slowly

 

Phantasmal Image $6.08 - Stable

 

Sliver Legion $24.00 - Trending down

 

Vault of Champions	CardKingdom $7.49	TCGPlayer $6.13
Training Center	CardKingdom $6.99	TCGPlayer $6.51
Undergrowth Stadium	CardKingdom $8.99	TCGPlayer $7.77
Sliver Legion	CardKingdom $19.99	TCGPlayer $24.00
Phantasmal Image		TCGPlayer $6.08