Weekly Winners 2022 - 08

This week we keep seeing cards move because of cards printed in either Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty or Commander: Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. We see prices moving, not only because of commander, but also because of Modern and Legacy. These weeks with a mix like that generally are my favorite ones!

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.

 

Giveaway: Kamigawa Neon Dynasty Boosterbox + one year of Premium

Just want to remind you all that we currently have a giveaway going on where you can win a boosterbox of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty and get one year of MTGStocks Premium. Go over to this article to see how you can win!

 

#1 Hallowed Haunting $23.68 (+229%)

 

For anyone who plays some Standard this definitely is not the first time they heard of Hallowed Haunting. It is showing up in various enchantment builds there. There are variations in Naya, Selesnya and also 4-color builds. The synergy with enchantments is not hard to spot. Hallowed Haunting will give you a white Spirit Cleric creature with power and toughness equal to the number of spirits you control. Meaning with each enchantment, and each spirit, your spirits will grow larger. But as icing on the cake, your creatures will also have flying and vigilance as long as you control seven or more enchantments. The card itself is very strong and in the right build can be difficult to beat. The decks have, in my opinion, a bit of a slow start. But as soon as it gets going it is often hard to stop (unless you run into Farewell.dec).

But in commander this card also is a welcome addition. It is showing up in, of course, Sythis, Harvest's Hand, Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr, Go-Shintai of Life's Origin, and Satsuki, the Living Lore decks amongst others. Every commander deck that revolves around enchantments and can support would probably have this card as an auto-include.

We however also see the card being tinkered with in Modern and even Legacy. Don't forget that putting up a wall of flying, vigilant, and growing creatures is a good strategy and with the cardpool available to these formats the "slow start" from Standard can be mitigated.

 

#2 Unwinding Clock $24.97 (+145%)

 

A rare from New Phyrexia is making waves this week. Unwinding Clock can make you untap all your artifacts during each player's untap step, and I'm honestly a bit surprised this card wasn't more expensive to begin with. The reprint from Commander 2018 is a bit cheaper ($20) at this moment, but has also spiked this past week.

Untapping your mana rocks and artifact lands each untap step is a Seedborn Muse-like effect but for artifacts only. But if you hear "artifact" your mind obviously quickly goes to Urza. When you play Urza, Lord High Artificer, all your artifacts can generate mana, meaning every turn all your artifacts are now untapped and able to be used for your spells and abilities to activate. Urza even provides you with a manasink to use all that mana in and you get to try your luck with the top of your deck (after shuffling).

The thing is, Urza, Lord High Artificer is not a new card, and neither is Unwinding Clock. The only good reason I could find at this time is that Unwinding Clock may have found a new home in Shorikai, Genesis Engine commander decks. Being able to draw two cards each turn, create a creature and being able to crew your vehicles seems pretty good. In any artifact deck I suspect Unwinding Clock can amass you a big advantage to go over the top. Maybe not coincidentally we also see the Shorikai, Genesis Engine (Extended Art) version go up by 137% to $9.64 this week.

But what may also very well help the spike of this card is that it appeared on the last episode of Game Knights. Video can be found here and the card is played around 01h03m.

Shorikai, Genesis Engine	CardKingdom $1.99	TCGPlayer $1.50
Unwinding Clock	CardKingdom $12.99	TCGPlayer $19.86
Urza, Lord High Artificer	CardKingdom $54.99	TCGPlayer $53.03
Unwinding Clock	CardKingdom $14.99	TCGPlayer $24.97

 

#3 Kappa Cannoneer (Extended Art) $24.97 (+145%)

 

Wasn't really sure whether to discuss Kappa Cannoneer or not. It is mainly the Extended Art version shooting up, and the regular version "only" going up with 27% this week up to $19. But then I dug into the card and noticed that it is actually not commander driven, which we mainly see nowadays, but Legacy and Vintage. So it felt like a fun card to look into and to briefly discuss. Just to prove at how bad I am in estimating card power when they are spoiled, when I saw this card, I shrugged and kept scrolling. Probably should have given it a second look.

Kappa Cannoneer is a 4/4 artifact creature with Improvise, which means you can pay each generic mana by tapping an untapped artifact you control. In the Legacy 8 Cast decks and Artifact Aggro decks this means you can slam this card down pretty quickly. Now when we read on, the card also has Ward 4, meaning it is hard to get rid of. Legacy and Vintage mostly have a bunch of cheap removal like Swords to Plowshares, but now that will cost you 5 mana, meaning you probably can't get rid of it without a sweeper anytime soon. And if you are able to remove it with targeted removal, your turn is most likely over. But there's more text on Kappa Cannoneer: whenever an artifact enters the battlefield under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on it and it can't be blocked. Meaning you can just swing every turn with it making it bigger and bigger and there's barely anything your opponent can do about it. Keep in mind that Kappa Cannoneer sees itself entering the battlefield and will thus be 5/5 most of the time when it comes in play.

While looking around about this card I came across a video from Thraben University where Phil is not showing the card itself, but is getting demolished by Kappa Cannoneer in several match ups. It really shows the power of this artifact creature. This creature is so powerful that there's a massive shortage on it on MTGO. A single copy will currently cost you about 110 tix.

 

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.

 

Cryptic Command $17.85 - Trending down

 

Brazen Borrower $10.91 - Slowly trending down

 

Imperial Recruiter $8.80 - Slowly trending down

 

Imperial Recruiter	CardKingdom $9.49	TCGPlayer $8.80
Brazen Borrower	CardKingdom $14.99	TCGPlayer $10.91
Cryptic Command	CardKingdom $16.99	TCGPlayer $17.85