Weekly Winners 2019 - 01

Happy new year everyone! And 2019 has an interesting start, after weeks of finance dullness we now have more than enough cards to choose from for this week's weekly winners!

Year Review For those of you that were out partying on New Year's Eve (and you should have ;) ) you might have missed our 2018 Year Review. Want to know what cards went up and down in price over the year? Check it out!

 

#1 Postmortem Lunge $5.48 (+813.33%)

 

Our first winner of 2019 underlines an important rule for every magic player that want to buy their playsets as cheap as possible. Always buy a playset of cards with an alternative mana cost. Does it have phyrexian mana? Can you remove a card instead of paying the mana cost? Can the card put creatures into play without paying their casting cost? But.. don't go overboard on this, the rule only works for cards that don't need some elaborate combo to work. Dream Halls is a good example, just like Force of Will and Surgical Extraction. Remember the Delve keyword? That's another good example. Time will tell if this rule will also be true for cards like Thundering Tanadon

Postmortem Lunge is one of those cards you should already own a playset of. Someday someone will build a deck that can maximize its use or a new card gets printed that combos with it. This time, it is not really clear which of those two it turns out to be. But I can already tell you that the spike of Postmortem Lunge is caused by a speculative buyout. That means some person (or group) bought all the available cards everywhere, gambling that the card will rise in price and they will be able to sell the card for profit. Sometimes cards are sold out because of an organic buyout; meaning many different players/ collectors suddenly want to own a particular card. For instance when a new deck with a new strategy performs well on a big tournament.

With Postmortem Lunge we have a large buyout that even had an effect on European markets. Our euro price does not yet reflect that, but on MagicCardMarket.eu most copies of the card will cost you at least €3,- and English copies are sparse.

Some speculate that somebody has knowledge of what is in the new set Ravnica Allegiance and that, amongst the unspoiled cards, there is a card that combos with Postmortem Lunge. That person stacked up on the card everywhere to turn a profit. The buyout is so large that some see this as proof for this explanation. Maybe a card that needs haste? Or has a good come into play ability?

Others explain this buyout because of recent developments in the Modern deck with Devoted Druid. Others coin it as an inclusion in an infect strategy. A recent Modern list:

 

#2 Intruder Alarm $26.87 (+265.08%)

 

I'm glad that I've just explained both buyout terms, because the #2 winner is an organic buyout. In Ravnica Allegiance a new card is spoiled: Prime Speaker Vannifar. Intruder Alarm is a great combo with that. Remember Birthing Pod (yes, another good example of an alternative costed card, although it would have been good without it)? And do you remember that it was banned in Modern? Well, its alternative is here!

Activating Prime Speaker Vannifar is cheaper as you just need to tap instead of spending 4 mana on it and with the same CMC as Birthing Pod. Well, getting one creature is nice and all, and getting a bigger one each turn is great; but what if you could untap Prime Speaker Vannifar so you can just combo into that big fatty you need in the same turn? Meet Intruder Alarm; it lets you untap all creatures, and since all includes Prime Speaker Vannifar; you can activate it again and again. Well if that doesn't make an Elf Wizard ooze out of her chair in excitement, I don't know what will!

But, since Prime Speaker Vannifar does not have haste, you will need to wait a turn to activate it (unless you give it haste; ? with Postmortem Lunge maybe ? ). And being a 2/4 it is out of the range of cards like Lightning Bolt. But Modern has plenty of tricks up its sleeve to destroy it before its controller can combo out.

Intruder Alarm is part of that combo and people seem to have caught onto this!

 

Intruder Alarm
Stronghold	Buy on CardKingdom $12.99
8th Edition	Buy on CardKingdom $12.99

 

#3 Thornbite Staff $12.97 (+259.28%)

 

See what I've written above? Well, same story here! Thornbite Staff is another way to untap Prime Speaker Vannifar. It is not a Shaman, so it won't profit from the free equip ability but it will still make it combo, and that's what counts.

The big question will be: what card combos better? Thornbite Staff or Intruder Alarm? Both cards have the advantage that when Prime Speaker Vannifar dies, they remain on the battlefield. Thornbite Staff will cost you a total of to play and equip, whereas Intruder Alarm will just cost you .

Anyway, it is now the most expensive uncommon from Morningtide. Who would have thought when that set came out?

Thornbite Staff
Morningtide	Buy on CardKingdom $4.99

 

Cheap Pickups

 

GRN Shocks - On (some record) low, bottoming out

As the other set of shock lands was spoiled this week (as expected) it's good to look at the ones from Guilds of Ravnica. All of the copies seem to have bottomed out and now a new set is coming, we have a good fix on their prices. They probably won't go much lower than this, so if you were waiting to buy them, this might be your time.

 

Faithless Looting $0.64 - Record low & bottoming out

$0.64 is not bad for the #2 most played card in Modern! After yet another reprint, this version is the cheapest you can get!

 

Assassin's Trophy $12.79 - Record low and still going down

Surprised? Well I am, to be frank! The card sees play in at least 20 different archetypes covering Standard, Modern and Legacy. On top of that its in the #50 most played cards in Standard and Modern. But it is still on a record low and still going down. But be aware, when it rotates out the price will get another hit. So.. if you need it now for Modern, it's a good price. But if you can wait, it might be cheaper in a few months.

Overgrown Tomb	Buy on  CardKingdom $8.49
Sacred Foundry	Buy on  CardKingdom $6.99
Steam Vents	Buy on  CardKingdom $13.99
Temple Garden	Buy on  CardKingdom $6.49
Watery Grave	Buy on  CardKingdom $9.49
Assassin's Trophy	Buy on  CardKingdom $13.99
Faithless Looting	Buy on  CardKingdom $0.79