An interesting and very out of the ordinary set of three winners this week! One spike due to the test of a new Mulligan rule, one rare from a soon to rotate set and (again) a true Magic classic that has reached a new record high!

 

#1 Serum Powder $3.50 (+253.54%)

 

We start off good with our #1 winner this week because it has a totally unique reason to spike. Serum Powder raked up value this week because of the new London Mulligan rule that will be tested on the Mythic Championship in London. And if the test works out well, Wizards might change the way we take mulligans for ever. This is the idea:

The rule we'll be testing in London is as such: When you mulligan for the Nth time, you draw seven cards, then put N cards on the bottom of your library in any order.

So, for example, let's say you're taking your second mulligan of a game, what we often call a mulligan to five. You would draw seven cards, select two, and place those two on the bottom of your library in any order. Then you would decide whether to keep or mulligan again.

That new way of mulliganing would totally change the way you can use Serum Powder. The big change is that you draw 7 cards every time you mulligan. Under current rules, you draw 1 less card every time you mulligan. This means that under the London Mulligan Rule you see more cards, and thus have a bigger chance of happening upon a Serum Powder.

But wait, there is more! In the first draft of Wizards' announcement of the London Mulligan, the video and the text said different things about how to resolve the new mulligan. Some players coined the idea that you first choose to keep and then put the X cards on bottom of your library. The video seemed to indicate that. In that scenario you would be able to always draw 7 cards using Serum Powder; giving you the option to mulligan until you find either your perfect hand or resolve Serum Powder when you don't. But before you get your hopes up.. Wizards amended their original article, adding:

For example, if you mulligan twice, then the third set of 7 cards that you see contains a Serum Powder, you'll first have to put two cards from your hand on the bottom of your library. Then (assuming you still have the Serum Powder in your hand), you can choose to exile your hand and draw five new cards, mulligan again, or keep your hand.

This is consistent with how Serum Powder has always functioned and with what we believe to be the spirit and intent of the card. Serum Powder was printed after the adoption of the Paris mulligan, so successive mulligans have always reduced the number of cards Serum Powder lets you draw. The same will be true under the London mulligan.

That would mean that Serum Powder still gets better because the chances you draw into it increase because of the possible new London Mulligan. But much less of a loophole it was thought te be when the London Mulligan was first announced. But it still might make an interesting addition to decks that need players to sculpt their hands. But it really needs to turn out to be very good for combo players (like me) to cut other cards in favor of Serum Powder.

But besides that, Serum Powder sees play some tournament play in Vintage and Modern; so a price tag of around $3 seems fair for a card that gets better (and a lot of attention!) when the London Rule becomes law. But it is still completely speculative. We don't even know for sure that the London Rule will turn out to be what Wizards (and players) want.

 

#2 Entrancing Melody $4.49 (+164.12%)

 

Our second winner is also a tad out of the ordinary. Cards that are (getting) close to rotation don't tend to be particularly good candidates for spikes. The Standard meta is well known right now and new sets are coming out soon. That might change the meta and also tank demand for any card that is in a deck that is not a top tier deck then. On top of that Entrancing Melody is a sideboard card that fills a maximum of 2 or 3 slots.

Entrancing Melody does not seem a likely Weekly Winner, but still, here we are right? The card sees the most play in Mono Blue Tempo and Izzet Drakes decks. Both decks need to make tempo and benefit a lot from the absence of blockers that fly. How good is your */4 Drake or Djinn when your opponent can simply block it (dead)? Stealing a creature to join your tempo-army or getting rid of a pesky blocker can advance your board state and even win you the game.

But the card is especially good when you sideboard it in and steal your opponent's Hydroid Krasis. For you can steal a Hydroid Krasis of any size since X = 0 when cards with X in their mana cost are not on the stack.

Expect the ~$5 price to stick until this fall when the new meta still has a place for Izzet and Mono Blue after War of the Spark and Core Set 2020 make their entrance. And now would be a good time to trade or sell your unused copies!

 

Entrancing Melody	Buy on  CardKingdom $4.99
Serum Powder	Buy on  CardKingdom $4.99
Hydroid Krasis	Buy on  CardKingdom $32.99

 

#3 Scalding Tarn $94.99 (+10.94%)

 

One of the most popular Fetch lands saw a 10%+ uptick this week! Scalding Tarn's Modern Masters 2017 printing is on an all time high and nearing the $100 dollar mark. Currently, the card is just $15 shy of breaking the all time high of the original Zendikar printing. That card's top price was $110 before it was reprinted.

The card more than doubled in price since it was released in march 2017. With no reprint in sight and Modern and Legacy are continuing to be popular formats, the only way the prices can go is up! Same counts for Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Surgical Extraction. Just look at a combined graph of those three cards:

And Scalding Tarn, Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Surgical Extraction won't see a reprint in the freshly announced Modern Horizons set! I hoped they would be, since another reprint might lower prices and keep Modern affordable!

Surgical Extraction	Buy on  CardKingdom $59.99
Jace, the Mind Sculptor	Buy on  CardKingdom $129.99
Scalding Tarn	Buy on  CardKingdom $99.99

 

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.

 

Karakas $21.57 - Record low and bottomed out

 

Angel of Grace $5.11 - Record low and going down

 

Voice of Resurgence $9.00 - Record low and going down

 

Magus of the Moon $5.04 - Record low and bottomed out

 

Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh $5.99 - Record low and bottomed out

 

Voice of Resurgence	Buy on  CardKingdom $9.99
Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh	Buy on  CardKingdom $5.99
Magus of the Moon	Buy on  CardKingdom $6.99
Karakas	Buy on  CardKingdom $23.99
Angel of Grace	Buy on  CardKingdom $4.49