This week is filled with casual Commander cards, but what better way to spend your Christmas than to play Magic with your friends and family!
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.
Live, Laugh, Lhurgoyf by Bill Bingham
Looking Back on Outlaws of Thunder Junction’s Underrated Gems by Jason Cominetto
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Onto the Weekly Winners!
This artifact from Commander: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms has jumped thanks to Iroh, Tea Master from the Avatar set. Bucknard's Everfull Purse lets you roll a d4, create that many Treasure tokens, then hand the artifact to the player on your right. Previously it found niche homes in group hug strategies built around Zedruu the Greathearted and political commanders like Vazi, Keen Negotiator, but demand stayed modest. Iroh changed that by turning the Purse into a value engine that rewards you for giving things away.
Iroh creates a 1/1 Ally token at the beginning of combat if you hand a permanent to an opponent, then loads that token with +1/+1 counters based on how many of your permanents opponents control. The interaction with Bucknard's Everfull Purse is fun. You activate the Purse in response to Iroh's trigger. When that ability resolves, it still passes control to the player on your right since you activated it, regardless of who controls the permanent at that moment. This means you get Treasures, an Ally token from Iroh, and opponents are incentivized to pass the Purse back around for more value. Each time you get it back, you can repeat the process. Cards like Hithlain Rope follow similar patterns, giving value to the table while fueling Iroh's strategy.
Supply was already thin on this uncommon since Commander: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms released during the pandemic when fewer physical products moved. The The List reprint helped slightly, but not enough to meet the sudden demand spike. Only so many copies exist in the wild, and Iroh players scooped them up fast. The artifact works well enough in other political decks and also started showing up in Zidane, Tantalus Thief lists, but Iroh pushed it further. Whether the price holds long-term depends on how popular Iroh remains, but for now this bag of tricks is carrying a much heavier price tag than anyone expected.
| Bucknard's Everfull Purse | | |
| Bucknard's Everfull Purse | | |
| Zedruu the Greathearted | | |
| Hithlain Rope | | |
Cipher spells don't often make waves in Commander, but this sorcery from the Grand Larceny precon from Outlaws of Thunder Junction now is. And we've talked about the following card a lot in the past few weeks. Of course I'm talking once again about Fire Lord Azula. Arcane Heist lets you cast an instant or sorcery from an opponent's graveyard for free, then encode it onto a creature so you can do it again whenever that creature deals combat damage to an opponent. While it does sound pretty fun, it's not necessarily strong, as not every opponent has juicy spells sitting in their graveyard, and spending four mana to copy a removal spell once simply isn't worth it.
But Fire Lord Azula changes that. Azula copies spells you cast during combat, and the cipher trigger resolves while Azula is still attacking. This means you cast Arcane Heist twice from the encoded ability, targeting two different spells, and Azula copies both of those free casts. One activation turns into four spells hitting the stack, which is more than enough value to justify the setup cost. Felix Five-Boots offers similar synergy by copying cipher triggers, and Don Andres, the Renegade rewards you for casting spells you don't own, but Azula provides the highest value by far.
| Arcane Heist | | |
| Arcane Heist (Extended Art) | | |
| Felix Five-Boots | | |
| Don Andres, the Renegade | | |
I wouldn't say this enchantment from Commander: Final Fantasy slipped under the radar at first, as it was selling for $7.50, but players are starting to realize how flexible it really is. It was released in the Final Fantasy Holiday product on December 5th, and was brought into the spotlight when an Instagram post from Deckedoutedh showed how good this card can really be. Campsite Cuisine generates a Food token whenever it, or a legendary creature enters, then lets you sacrifice any number of Foods on attack to give that many attacking creatures +3/+3, trample, and indestructible until end of turn.
Campsite Cuisine not only uses Food tokens for its Overrun effect, but also generates them. There are more legends than ever before, and in Commander decks you often find many, making the odds of triggering this enchantment significant. And each Food you have can be sacrificed to pump creatures and swing for lethal; the trample can be especially deadly.
Ygra, Eater of All is probably the best home for this card. Ygra's passive ability gives you plenty of Food, and Campsite Cuisine gives you an efficient sacrifice outlet to trigger Ygra's self-buff. Sacrificing just a handful of Foods can push Ygra into lethal commander damage, and being able to give it trample, will force opponents to be wary of dying on the spot. The Cabbage Merchant and other Food generators can really help out here to generate a lot of value quickly. But other Food strategies benefit from the extra sacrifice outlet too. For examle, Camellia, the Seedmiser triggers for tokens, Elanor Gardner ramps you, and triggers for Nuka-Cola Vending Machine and Trail of Crumbs come much easier.
While Campsite Cuisine shines in Food decks, it could also work as cheap artifact generation for commanders that enter repeatedly. Norin the Wary, who we also talked about recently, will generate a bunch of Food tokens. In turn that can be used alongside Reckless Fireweaver or Ingenious Artillerist. Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy can turn these Food tokens into cards, while Shattergang Brothers gets artifacs to sacrifice. The fact that it also doubles as a Craterhoof Behemoth-like finisher is what really makes it a good card.
| Campsite Cuisine | | |
| Reckless Fireweaver | | |
| Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy | | |
| Shattergang Brothers | | |
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.
Keep Watch has been identified by the MTGStocks Premium Penny Stocks feature as a card that has reached its bottom and is starting a consistent uptrend.
Mox Jasper $10.75 - Stabilizing
| Keep Watch | | |
| Mox Jasper | | |
| Casal, Lurkwood Pathfinder | | |
