Weekly Winners 2022 - 04

The spoilers for Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty have finally started! And even though we don't see that much effect yet on the prices of cards today, we probably will see them next week. But fortunately we still have the leaks that mess with some prices. And of course the B&R announcement of last week is showing some effects on Legacy staples.

Like every week, just in time for FNM, I'll now tell you about the cards that will be the talk of the town tonight!

Come discuss this week's price movements with us on Reddit.

 

#1 Obscuring Haze $11.08 (+451%)

 

Obscuring Haze comes from a cycle from Commander 2020 that all have the "If you control a commander, you may cast this spell without paying its mana cost" oracle text. The other cards from that same cycle are Deadly Rollick ($31), Deflecting Swat ($44), Fierce Guardianship ($50), and Flawless Maneuver ($17). So how was it possible that Obscuring Haze only still costed around $2? When you compare it to the entire rest of the cycle it was by far the cheapest and free spells are the best spells (arguably)!

It sees play in (obviously) commander decks revolving around, for example, Thantis, the Warweaver and Fynn, the Fangbearer and can be considered to be the best fog spell around since it could cast nothing. But on the other hand... It could cost making it one of the worst fog spells... The card itself is spiking now because it was brought to people's attention by the Nitpicking Nerds and to be honest, I see their name associate more and more often with spikes. It seems clear by now that at least someone is paying attention to their channel and just buy out whatever cards they mention.

 

 

Obscuring Haze	CardKingdom $9.99	TCGPlayer $11.08
Flawless Maneuver	CardKingdom $20.99	TCGPlayer $16.41
Deflecting Swat	CardKingdom $49.99	TCGPlayer $44.50
Fierce Guardianship	CardKingdom $59.99	TCGPlayer $49.99
Deadly Rollick	CardKingdom $34.99	TCGPlayer $31.35

 

#2 Kusari-Gama $11.99 (+125%)

 

The Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty spoilers are in full swing, but we have already seen quite some price movement because of this new set. To start we saw spikes because of people anticipating certain tribes like Samurai and Ninja, then because of hints of returning abilities like ninjutsu, and before the real spoilers started we of course had the abundance of leaks. Kusari-Gama is another victim of this last instance where leaked cards dictate the price.

Kusari-Gama is actually a pretty funny card in my opinion. If you can attach it to a big creature, or an indestructible creature with mana open, and swing you are basically telling your opponent: "Up to you! Wanna take this damage or would you rather have a one-sided board wipe?" I am not saying this is a necessarily good card or amazing strategy, but I can see the fun in that.

So I mentioned this card may be spiking due to some leaked cards from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty that also have not been officially spoiled yet. I will not show the leaked cards in the article, because some people don't want to know until the official spoiling. I will however link the card, mention the names, and discuss the abilities in the next paragraph. So if you don't want to know, skip it.

SPOILER ALERT: I AM NOW GOING TO DISCUSS THESE LEAKED CARDS. IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW I SUGGEST YOU SKIP TO THE NEXT WINNER

In the previous paragraphs I already mentioned the benefit of attaching Kusari-Gama to an indestructible creature and there are two creatures in the leaks that have to do with exactly that. I am talking about Risona, Asari Commander and Kyodai, Soul of Kamigawa. These creatures can either give a different creature indestructible or have indestructible themselves.

Kusari-Gama
Champions of Kamigawa	CardKingdom $5.49	TCGPlayer $11.99

 

#3 Entomb $80 (+80%)

 

Legacy is back on the menu, girls and boys! After a (in my opinion) dreadful and awful couple of months in Legacy it finally happened: Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer was banned. This monkey single handedly pushed UR Delver decks over the top and made the format just far less fun. When dropped on turn 1, and not answered immediately, it would simply take over the care at an alarming rate. Being able to just steal cards from the top of your opponent's library in addition to making Treasure tokens in a format where spells are quite cheap to begin with, is bonkers.

I may be completely off-base here, and if there are better reasons for Entomb to spike the day after the ban-announcement then I would love to hear it. But certain strategies are becoming more playable again. As another example we also see Day's Undoing moving up again this week to $8.54 (+46%).

Entomb is one of those Legacy cards that we mainly see as a tutor in reanimator decks. Being able to fetch the creature of your choosing from your deck on turn one and put it in your graveyard to be able to Exhume it out of there on turn two is a very powerful strategy. And to put all cards on the table, I am one of those filthy reanimator players, so as you can imagine I love that this archetypes can maybe get a more viable place once again in Legacy.

 

Cheap Pickups

Please note: for our 'record low' we consider the price of the card over the past 7 years. Many cards have been even cheaper (a) decade(s) ago. Also note: some cards are still going down, and might be even cheaper pickups next week.

 

Demilich $5.50 - Slowly trending down

 

Arid Mesa $19.75 - Stable

 

Ignoble Hierarch $5.98 - Trending down

 

Ignoble Hierarch	CardKingdom $6.49	TCGPlayer $5.98
Arid Mesa	CardKingdom $19.99	TCGPlayer $19.75
Demilich	CardKingdom $7.99	TCGPlayer $5.50