Three Cards to Watch In Modern Right Now

Happy Wednesday folks! Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen the Modern meta evolve, and as such, we have some pretty interesting market movers worthy of discussion. 

Let’s dig in!

Slickshot Show-Off

While Cori-Steel Cutter may have gotten the axe in Standard, it’s alive and well in Modern. Complementing Cutter is Slickshot Show-Off, which is seeing considerably more play as Izzet Prowess finds itself on the rise. 

Slickshot is, in fact, arguably the single card that pushed this deck into the space of viability in the meta. How good is it? Well, consider the following (surprisingly common) scenario:

Turn 1: Monastery Swiftspear, swing. Turn 2: cast Slickshot, then cast Mutagenic Growth, Gut Shot, and Mishra's Bauble, giving Slickshot +6/+0 and Swiftspear +3/3 just off the prowess triggers alone. Gut Shot deals 1 damage to an opponent, and Mutagenic adds two more power to Slickshot. Turn the board sideways, and your opponent has taken 14 damage in one single turn. 

This is a shockingly common play pattern, and the large appeal that Izzet Prowess offers: explosiveness. It’s fast enough to beat down Amulet Titan before they have an opportunity to combo off, and generally cuts through most decks in the meta very well, especially if they’re on the play. Having said that, once players have access to sideboards, the matchups start to teeter in a much different direction. 

So where does this leave us with Slickshot?

Interestingly, Slickshot seems to be hovering around $9 and looks to be bottoming-out. In my mind, this is actually somewhat low for a deck that’s gaining traction as fast as Izzet Prowess. 

Beyond the traction it's gaining, it’s also an incredibly friendly entry point into the Modern format, further solidifying some financial potential lying in its key pieces. I could easily see a world where this single breaks the $10 threshold and potentially settles between $13-$15. Keep an eye on this!

Slickshot Show-Off	CardKingdom $17.99	TCGPlayer $8.87
Slickshot Show-Off (Extended Art)	CardKingdom $21.99	TCGPlayer $13.97

Allosaurus Rider

Technically, Allosaurus Rider is a “free” creature spell. For the low-cost of exiling two green cards from your hand, you can cast Allosaurus Rider for free. However, what’s most important about this creature (in the context of Modern, that is) is that it has a mana value of seven, which means it can be Neoformed into Griselbrand. That’s right! Neobrand lives to see another day in Modern. 

Many years ago, “Grishoalbrand” was a fringe Modern deck revolving around Nourishing Shoal as a means to gain a plethora of life that could be sunk into Griselbrand activations, while Griselbrand was typically a reanimation target. 

Today, Griselbrand decks in the Modern meta are a little bit more elegant in the execution of their combo lines. A key component of the evolution of this oddity of a deck is using Neoform as a means to “cheat” Griselbrand into play with Allosaurus Rider as your sacrifice fodder for Neoform. Beyond Griselbrand, Ureni, the Song Unending is another fresh-to-the-scene eight-mana Dragon with a whopping 10/10 that can be cheated into play, functionally wipe the board, and put an immediate clock on the game. Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant also generates a cascading amount of value and can be similarly cheated into play by Neoforming Allosaurus Rider. 

The uptick in the popularity of this archetype is reflected in the recent spike in Allosaurus Rider’s price, which now sits around $8-$10, which is considerably above the bulk status it was at previously. Is this sustainable? Possibly. Neoform is a “cute” combo piece that often turns out to be precarious if interacted with, but Neoforming Allosaurus Rider on turn two into Griselbrand is pretty much game-ending on its own. 

On top of that, this archetype has significantly higher card quality than it did back when it was Grishoalbrand. Access to cards like Atraxa, Grand Unifier, Ghalta, Hooting Mandrills, and so on has made this deck considerably more potent. Leaning into Neoform and Eldritch Evolution over reanimation spells also is much, much cleaner by comparison to the original iterations of this build. 

Overall, I think Allosaurus Rider is likely to settle around $5 or so, but its potential to go higher certainly is real depending on how big of a slice of the meta this deck can continue to carve out.

Allosaurus Rider	CardKingdom $5.99	TCGPlayer $10.73
Allosaurus Rider	CardKingdom $4.99	TCGPlayer $12.50
Allosaurus Rider	CardKingdom $5.99	TCGPlayer $11.95

Blade of the Bloodchief

Eldrazi Ramp, for a long time at this point, has established itself as a mainstay in the Modern Meta, but recently it has begun to take on a slightly different shape: one that leans more into an explicit combo than just high-value Eldrazi and rampant mana acceleration. That combo revolves around the Modern Horizons 3 common Basking Broodscale. 

How does the most basic version of this combo work? Simple:

1. Equip Basking Broodscale with Blade of the Bloodchief

2. Put a +1/+1 counter on Broodscale (adapt will do the trick) and make an Eldrazi Spawn

3. Sacrifice the Eldrazi Spawn for one colorless mana, which will trigger Blade of the Bloodchief, and put a +1/+1 counter on Broodscale, thereby making another Eldrazi Spawn

4. Repeat the previous three steps

At the end of all of this, you’ll make infinite colorless, have infinite enter, leave, sacrifice, and death triggers, and put infinite +1/+1 counters on Broodscale. How you win from here matters a lot less than the compactness of this combo in a shell that otherwise was not combo-centric, although Glaring Fleshraker is an easy way to close out the game with the infinite enter triggers. 

At the heart of this combo is the lovely one-mana Equipment, Blade of the Bloodchief. It’s colorless, it can be tutored off Urza's Saga, and easily enables this infinite mana line with Broodscale. 

All this is to say, the innovation of Blade of the Bloodchief in Eldrazi shells has led to a sharp tick up in its price in recent weeks, peaking at around $8 or so. Will this stick? Generically, Blade seems like a $4-$5 card at most, but with very few reprint events, it’s possible that the supply-side of the market might be the sticking point for this card’s recent spike even with renewed interest on the demand side. I could see a world where, depending on the popularity of Eldrazi, this card could actually rise higher and maybe even crack $10 or so, but that’s all dependent on Eldrazi growing in representation with the supply-side of the market remaining as-is. 

Blade of the Bloodchief	CardKingdom $11.99	TCGPlayer $7.28
Blade of the Bloodchief	CardKingdom $8.49	TCGPlayer $5.92

Closing Things Out

Modern is slowly growing into a combo-centric format, which shouldn’t be too surprising given the power creep of the card pool accessible to format players. As it turns out, the best way to beat a combo is with a combo (or just beat your opponent really fast). 

The evolution of the format and the change in the play patterns of the top decks are moving the market considerably with the three cards today just being a few that scratch the surface. 

Speculate safely!

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