The effects of Dominaria are visible in our interests! It has brought a new modern deck into life and peaked the interest of casual players that want to use little green dudes in their decks. And sadly, the Reserved List buyouts are continuing.
Once again, just in time for FNM, I will now tell you what cards will be the talk of the town tonight!
#1 Fecundity $5.90 (+1,013.21%) ALL TIME HIGH
A 1000%+ spike does not happen every week, and when it concerns a card that is printed as an uncommon in multiple sets that occurrence is even more rare. But Fecundity did the trick this week. This week Jim Davis posted a video on his new take on an old 2006 deck called Dirty Kitty. Skirk Prospector is now legal in modern, due to its reprinting in Dominaria. That enables a new archetype to be built that is based on that 2006 deck.
Last week, SaffronOlive also posted an article on the same deck idea but this time called Goblin Storm.
Both builds use the same idea, but the actual deckslists are different from each other. Both run Fecundity as a draw engine for the deck. With Skirk Prospector you can sacrifice a goblin to add , and by doing so Fecundity lets you draw a card for that. Goblins like Mogg War Marshal gives you two goblins for and if you control Goblin Warchief this means only . You can easily draw three or more cards, giving you more Goblins and spells that make red mana. Chain them up and finish it off by playing Empty the Warrens.
Expect Fecundity to drop in price in the coming days, as people start digging out their collections to find their copies of the card and buylist them. The print runs of the sets Fecundity was printed in were not huge, but since it is an uncommon and in three sets, there are probably enough copies to satisfy the needs of people that want to run the deck. Depending on the results of the deck in competitive play Fecundity and other key cards in the deck might increase in price over time.
Saprolings are hot! Dominaria has given us new tools to play with, and as people discovered the new set in the past week, and playing decks that create saprolings ended up being the most popular mechanic. Anytime when a new set is released people are eager to incorporate the new cards in existing (or new) strategies. Not only for Standard, but also for casual and EDH.
Nemata, Grove Guardian is a Commander that allows you to make use of a saproling strategy in EDH. This commander has a built in game ending finish, since it allows you to sacrifice some saprolings to give all others +1/+1. But not only Nemata, Grove Guardian spiked because of the Saproling Hype this week, other cards have popped into our interests as well: Fungal Bloom, Psychotrope Thallid and Elvish Farmer to name a few.
Prices of cards on the Legacy reserved list are really getting out of hand. A playset of Mox Diamond now costs you $1450 more than last week. I could spend time to explain in what decks Mox Diamond sees play, how good the card is and what the future might bring for the price of the card.
But that all does not really matter. Mox Diamond was bought out by speculators, just like many other Legacy and Vintage staples have been bought out or driven up in price over the last weeks and months. Duals have increased in price significantly, just like many, many other reserved list cards that see competitive play.
Cards like Mox Diamond are considered to be safe investments. Although you will need to dig out your savings to profit from a buyout, if you make it happen it gives you quite the payout. And all the while the accessibility of Legacy decreases. Just take a look at The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, a card that used to be one of the more expensive pieces in the Legacy Lands deck with a $300 price tag. Now it will cost you $3000. And no, that is not a typo.
Spikes and buyouts like these really make me sad. There is no other motive for buying these cards out than just personal gain. Speculating is not illegal, but it does have many effects that hurt the game. If you are a player like me, you buy Magic cards to play with, to fuel your hobby and make fun with other players. And sure, everyone likes a sweet deal, and everyone likes to brag about great trades or flea market finds.
This level of speculation just hurts the game. With every card that is being bought out it less and less players can find their way into a format (Legacy) that has the best (and worst) Magic has to offer.