Another week full of Avatar and Fire Lords. But mainly because I can, we'll discuss Magic's biggest coward as well.
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.
Articles
Check out our other great content from this week.
Checking in With Universes Within by Harvey McGuinness
The Modern Meta After RC Vegas by Corey Williams
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Onto the Weekly Winners!
This artifact from Odyssey has spiked hard recently, and it's all thanks to Iroh, Grand Lotus from the Avatar: The Last Airbender set. Catalyst Stone reduces your flashback costs by two and increases your opponents' flashback costs by two, which on its own is a decent but not an amazing effect. Pair it with Iroh though, and things get a lot more interesting. Iroh gives all non-Lesson instants and sorceries in your graveyard flashback, meaning Catalyst Stone helps reduce their costs.
The real synergy comes from Iroh's final ability, which gives Lesson spells flashback . Catalyst Stone reduces that cost to zero, letting you cast Lessons from your graveyard for free on your turn. Avatar: The Last Airbender introduced plenty of powerful Lessons to fill your deck with, so accessing this synergy is straightforward. Besides that, technically, you could argue that Catalyst Stone acts like a mini Stax piece by taxing your opponents' flashback spells, although this won't be relevant to a lot of decks you'll encounter.
According to EDHREC, Catalyst Stone shows up in 28% of Iroh decks right now, which might not seem like much but makes him the most popular home for the card by far. Catalyst Stone isn't a completely new card to Commander. Previously it had found its way into decks around other commanders that care about flashback like Lier, Disciple of the Drowned and Katilda and Lier.
Since Catalyst Stone is a 24 year-old card without any reprints since, it's quite scarce, making it easier for the price to move up. That said, with the renewed attention, usually people start digging through their boxes trying to find their copies and driving the price down again. The spike is also very dependant on the popularity of Iroh for now.
| Catalyst Stone | | |
| Iroh, Grand Lotus | | |
This Faerie Wizard from Foundations has been getting a lot of attention recently. And it's all because of a card we're about to discuss for a third week in a row: Fire Lord Azula. High Fae Trickster costs four mana for a 4/2 with flash and flying that lets you cast spells as though they had flash. That last ability is exactly what Azula decks want since she can only double spells while attacking. With High Fae Trickster in play, you can cast anything at instant speed during combat, letting you double every creature, enchantment, artifact, or sorcery without restrictions.
What makes High Fae Trickster particularly interesting is that it's essentially a strictly better version of Tidal Barracuda, which has also been spiking thanks to Azula. Tidal Barracuda gives all players flash and prevents opponents from casting spells on your turn, but that symmetry is not without its dangers since opponents still get to cast anything they want at instant speed except during your turn. High Fae Trickster gives you the same flash effect without any of the symmetrical downside.
Azula decks that really want to maximize flash effects will likely run both High Fae Trickster and Tidal Barracuda together. Having two cards for this strategy is better than one, especially when Azula's copying ability is so powerful.
| High Fae Trickster | | |
| High Fae Trickster (Extended Art) | | |
| Tidal Barracuda | | |
#3 Bulk Up $3.80 (+269%)
This red uncommon instant, which is also from Foundations, went up this past week. Bulk Up doubles target creature's power until end of turn and has flashback for six mana, which gives it some one-shot kill potential in the right deck. While the card saw some initial success in Leyline of Resonance decks after Foundations released, it hasn't seen a lot of play until Firebending Student.
The reason for the spike is a new turn three OTK (One-Turn-Kill) combo in Standard that pairs Bulk Up with Firebending Student. While the combo requires a few cards to execute, it seems powerful in Standard tournaments and has players scrambling to get copies. Beyond competitive play, Bulk Up has also been seeing increased interest from Commander players, particularly those building... Fire Lord Azula.
As the price is going up, we have to keep in mind that Bulk Up is a Foundations uncommon with a long print run ahead of it, which should solve the supply problem. The card also isn't a universal staple despite being good in Mono-Red Aggro, Leyline, and explosive Commander decks.
| Bulk Up | | |
| Leyline of Resonance | | |
| Firebending Student | | |
And now as bonus winner, and because you can't stop me, I'm going to talk about my favorite coward in the game: Norin the Wary. While technically not having the Coward creature type, I'm still going to call it that! Because this one-mana creature, originally printed in Time Spiral went up last week and it seems to be because of the other Fire Lord: Fire Lord Zuko who we also discussed last week. Norin the Wary exiles itself whenever a player casts a spell or a creature attacks, then returns at the beginning of the next end step. This seems absolutely terrible since you might never actually get to use him.
However, Norin's constant flickering makes him surprisingly useful in Commander decks that care about creatures entering or leaving play. Since he's basically guaranteed to exile and return on each turn, he provides a steady stream of triggers alongside commanders like Purphoros, God of the Forge or Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful. Fire Lord Zuko, who puts a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control whenever a creature enters from exile, really benefits from Norin as he reliably enters from exile several times per turn-cycle.
| Norin the Wary | | |
| Fire Lord Zuko | | |
| Purphoros, God of the Forge | | |
| Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful | | |
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.
Darksteel Plate has been identified by the MTGStocks Premium Penny Stocks feature as a card that has reached its bottom and is starting a consistent uptrend.
| Darksteel Plate | | |
| Dauthi Voidwalker | | |
| Teferi, Hero of Dominaria (White Border) | | |
