Weekly Winners 2019 - 08

Another week and another Weekly Winners. We've seen some interesting increases this week both because of competitive play and EDH demand.

 

#1 Pir, Imaginative Rascal $8.99 (+270%) & Toothy, Imaginary Friend $3.94 (+115%)

 

I figured we could do a double take on this one, since these two cards are obviously intertwined with each other. Pir, Imaginative Rascal went up somewhat more than Toothy, Imaginary Friend, but it's still interesting to see how these cards are not only functionally, but also financially connected. Personally, I was not really surprised when these cards spiked, since especially the ability on Pir, Imaginative Rascal is known to be particularly popular. Adding extra counters on your permanents is a strategy employed in lots of EDH decks (like Atraxa, Praetors' Voice), and also sees play in Modern (with Hardened Scales), but we also see high prices on cards like Doubling Season.

Except the adding of extra counters, both Pir and Toothy find each other, netting you card advantage which you can leverage even more when you have both on the battlefield. Pir will add extra counters on Toothy when you draw a card, making Toothy grow pretty fast. When Toothy gets removed you get to draw more cards. Also don't forget that these cards were printed in Battlebond, a unique set aimed for Two-Headed Giant play, making it not very likely these cards get a reprint any time soon.

What's new is that Pleasant Kenobi played a Legacy Nic Fit list with both Pir and Toothy in the mainboard. There already have been Nic Fit lists that play these two, but this article put it in the spotlight.

Toothy, Imaginary Friend	Buy on  CardKingdom $2.99
Pir, Imaginative Rascal	Buy on  CardKingdom $5.99

 

#2 Extirpate $14.44 (+113%)

 

It seems like the Modern Masters printing of Extirpate caught up with the Planar Chaos price. The latter one also went up, but the Modern Masters print was still slightly cheaper. Extirpate is not a new card or a card that wasn't on people's radar, and is a well known sideboard card in both Legacy and Modern. The card is extremely similar to Surgical Extraction, but is played far less because it requires instead of , so it can only be played in decks that can reliable provide black mana. However, it does have an additional advantage: Split Second. Little recap on this ability; the reminder text is as follows: As long as this spell is on the stack, players can't cast spells or activate abilities that aren't mana abilities.

This is important, since it means that Extirpate cannot be responded to with activated abilities or spells, making it very hard to interact with. So the spell can't be countered by regular counterspells. The only way to stop it, is to prevent it from happening with triggered abilities like Counterbalance. So when you put Extirpate on the stack, you can be pretty sure that it will resolve.

When I first saw that Extirpate went up, I figured it was because of SaffronOlive's Against the Odds: Kaya's Extraction deck which he descibes as basically Surgical Extraction tribal, with Kaya, Orzhov Usurper as finisher that also plays Extirpate and Unmoored Ego. It wouldn't be the first time Seth spiked a card with one of his amazing brews. However, this article only came out yesterday while Extirpate has started his ascend on the 17th.

The reason for it going up could be that Surgical Extraction is simply too expensive and people are playing Extirpate as budget option. It also seems that Legacy storm decks are choosing Extirpate over Surgical Extraction to have a better matchup against Miracles. In Legacy the worth of Split Second has already been proven with cards like Krosan Grip which we used to see a lot before Sensei's Divining Top got banned and it's one of the few cards Miracles has a hard time interacting with.

Extirpate
Planar Chaos	Buy on CardKingdom $12.99
Modern Masters	Buy on CardKingdom $11.99

 

#3 Semblance Anvil $8.45 (+212%)

 

Time to check your rares pile, because this card went from $1.50 to over $8. The reason for this spike is that since the banning of Krark-Clan Ironworks people are trying to make the deck work again. In combination with Grinding Station which also went significantly up this week for this very same reason.

Even though the deck has had a few good showings on MTGO, I feel Semblance Anvil spiked because it quickly got bought out, rather than real demand.

Semblance Anvil	Buy on  CardKingdom $12.99
Grinding Station	Buy on  CardKingdom $6.99

 

#4 Nullstone Gargoyle $3.50 (+253%)

 

An unexpected card to spike up and it seems that it's all due to EDH play. It seems that primarily Rakdos, Lord of Riots EDH decks play this card in the so-called Rakdos, Lord of Eldrazi decks. In combination with cards like Void Winnower it seems very hard to interact with your board.

On EDHRec it shows up in about 740 decks, where other popular commanders are Nikya of the Old Ways and Mishra, Artificer Prodigy.

Nullstone Gargoyle	Buy on  CardKingdom $3.49
Rakdos, Lord of Riots	Buy on  CardKingdom $4.49
Void Winnower	Buy on  CardKingdom $6.99

 

Cheap Pickups

Please note: for our 'record low' we consider the price of the card over the past 7 years. Many cards may have been even cheaper (a) decade(s) ago.

 

All Is Dust $6.35 - Record low and bottoming out

 

Phyrexian Tower $11.69 - Record low and bottoming out

 

Also needed if you want to play the Pir, Imaginative Rascal Nic Fit list described earlier.

 

Assassin's Trophy $11.32 - Record low

 

I'm really on the fence about this one whether I want to pick up a playset for myself around now, or if I should wait for Standard rotation.

 

All Is Dust	Buy on  CardKingdom $9.99
Phyrexian Tower	Buy on  CardKingdom $21.99
All Is Dust	Buy on  CardKingdom $5.99
Assassin's Trophy	Buy on  CardKingdom $13.99
All Is Dust	Buy on  CardKingdom $6.99
Phyrexian Tower	Buy on  CardKingdom $14.99