A little bit later than expected, but not less welcome, this weeks Weekly Winners. It seemed like a quiet week finance wise, but we managed to find some interesting cards for this instance.

 

#1 Brightling $19.79 (+226%)

 

A card from Battlebond all of the sudden went up. Because it's from a supplemental set, this price increase can't be explained by Standard or Modern demand, so it must come from either Vintage, Legacy or EDH. So what's the deal here? We have already seen cards similar to Brightling, like Morphling and AEtherling, which don't uphold these prices.

Apparently being printed in white and only costing is a big deal. People predict it is going to be a Legacy staple in Death & Taxes decks. With an Aether Vial on 3 and this card, it's really hard to get rid of this 3/3. In response to removal you can pay , bring it back to your hand, and then simply re-deploy it for free with Vial. Also being able to use your mana in the late game to pump and inflict some extra damage is nothing to sneeze at. Together with it getting lifelink and/or vigilance, Brightling is a very versatile card.

Phil Gallagher came up with the following decklist for Death & Taxes with Brightling.

Also in EDH I can imagine that the versatility of the card has not gone unnoticed. Since it's also printed as Mythic in a set that will probably not be opened a lot anymore, the increase in price may be warranted.

 

#2 Karakas $76.21 (+8.3%)

 

Karakas may not be the biggest riser of the week with an absurd buyout, but it seems that Karakas has slowly been creeping up. The most likely cause for this is the banning of Deathrite Shaman and Gitaxian Probe in Legacy last week.

Because of these banning it's likely that we'll see a resurgence of Reanimator, Sneak Attack and Dredge decks which all have a bad matchup against Death & Taxes. Since Grixis Delver is arguably no longer viable, D&T may be again one of the strongest decks in the format.

Karakas plays a vital role in these decks, so it's not a surprise that it's slowly going up. It can be used to protect Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and to bounce (big) creatures from the opponent. My suggestion is, that if you need Karakas for your deck, to finish your playset now. I don't see it coming down until a next reprint, so if you want to play with them, get them.

Fun fact: Archetype of Endurance's Market price went up with over 200%. This card is played in Legacy Reanimator sideboards against Death & Taxes. Seems like people are gearing up for this matchup!

 

#3 Tropical Island $398.04 (+10.5%)

 

Time for another update on a dual land. Tropical Island is going up again. It's no secret that the blue dual lands have been the most expensive from this cycle, but compared to Underground Sea and Volcanic Island, it seems like Tropical Island is still somewhat lagging behind.

Now with Grixis Delver out of the picture in Legacy, it seems that RUG Delver and Infect might get some love again, and thus increasing demand for Tropical Islands.

 

The Weekly Loser

Stoneforge Mystic $49.97 (-31%)

 

Last week I talked about Stoneforge Mystic, which tripled overnight, all in anticipation of the B&R Announcement last week. Fortunately for the players (from a financial perspective), Stoneforge Mystic did not get unbanned, and the price quickly fell again. Sure, it's still higher than it was before the spike, but it can still drop a little bit.