Weekly Winners 2022 - 11

It is a bit of a slow week, but I managed to pick the cards from the Interests list this week that I feel were worth discussing. And this week we also included a piece about the famous Black Lotus. No, not that one, the other one!

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 Dark Sphere $9.32 (+79%)

 

Maybe it's me, but I have never heard of this card before. It is an uncommon from The Dark and that should immediately give you some indication on why it may be going up. The past few weeks we have seen multiple cards from this set move in price, especially the ones that haven't been reprinted (yet). The Dark isn't the only older set where we have seen these movements, but also sets like Mercadian Masques and Invasion.

This card does see some play in commander and recently got a little bit more attention by the printing of The Reality Chip, but personally I don't really see the appeal yet. However, Dark Sphere has also been mentioned at The Commander's Quarters where Mitch discusses a deck that uses Sickening Dreams to finish the game where you discard sufficient cards to kill everyone, except yourself since you have Dark Sphere that can be activated. The mentioning of this combo may have spiked additional interest in the card.

Dark Sphere
The Dark	CardKingdom $7.49	TCGPlayer $9.32

 

#2 Ancestral Knowledge $11.59 (+46%)

 

I guess this card sort of falls in the same category as the previous winner. It is an older card from Weatherlight that hasn't been reprinted. The difference however is that this card will never be reprinted since it is on the reserved list. It has been going up the past week, but isn't near its all time high when it briefly spiked to $50 in August 2020.

To be fair I do kind of like this card. For only 2 mana you get to stack the top 10 cards of your library. Sure you'll have to pay the cumulative upkeep next turn or maybe the turn after, but it will guarantee you to draw that card that you wanted. If there's nothing good in your top 10 cards, you just don't pay the upkeep cost and get to shuffle and draw a fresh card. I do realise there are better ways to find cards in your deck like tutors, but I also know that there are "Rule 0"s in certain groups that frown upon a deck with tutors in them. This seems like a fine alternative.

According to EDHREC this enchantment also sees some minor play along with the new commander Tameshi, Reality Architect, but is more popular in decks surrounding Chisei, Heart of Oceans where you can use Ancestral Knowledge to remove an age counter from every turn to keep Chisei alive.

Chisei, Heart of Oceans	CardKingdom $1.49	TCGPlayer $0.74
Ancestral Knowledge	CardKingdom $8.49	TCGPlayer $11.59

 

#3 Ranger-Captain of Eos $36.00 (+42%)

 

With the banning of Lurrus of the Dream-Den in Modern this card may see a bunch more play in Modern. This mythic shows up in cards like Boros Midrange, Mardu Midrange, and Selesnya Lifegain decks. For only three mana you get to search your library for a creature card with mana value 1 or less and put it into your hand. The rest of the deck has plenty of targets to find, so in Boros Midrange you may have Giver of Runes or Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer. But also being able to sacrifice the Ranger in your opponent's upkeep may be a "timewalk" against certain decks.

 

"Black Lotus" on the cheap

Recently I have seen the following picture show up more and more on social media, but didn't really pay a lot of attention to it, which perhaps I should have.

I am going to try to explain this part with my limited knowledge around this, so bear with me. This card originates from a game called Duel Masters, a two-player or two vs. two team collectible card game jointly developed by Wizards of the Coast and Takara Tomy (itself an affiliate of Hasbro). The game was released in Japan in May 2002 and is apparently pretty popular over there. This year the game already has its 20 year anniversary and released the "“DMEX 18 20th Anniversary Huge Thanks" set that includes new and old cards from Duel Masters, but also cards in the classic Magic old border with crossovers. One of these cards is the well-known Black Lotus.

This card has been selling now on eBay between the $40 and $50, since it is a foil high quality print with a new art of this iconic card. Especially since the printing of Garth One-Eye it is a sought-after proxy to use for these decks. So is this legal in Magic? Definitely not, but it is probably one of the best proxies you can get. Even Black Lotus cards from the Collector's Edition or International Edition are worth over thousands of dollars. Since this card is printed in an anniversary set by Wizards for Duel Masters, I feel this card may be very well worth something more down the line, but if not I would be happy to at least own one and perhaps even frame it to still feel I own a little bit of Magic history without having to drop thousands of dollars.

 

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.

 

Splendid Reclamation $0.64 - Slowly trending up!

 

Splendid Reclamation has been identified by the MTGStocks Premium Penny Stocks feature as a card that has bottomed for a bit but is now starting a slow uptrend.

 

Tainted Pact $7.99 - Stable

 

This Mystical Archives version is the cheapest version of the card.

 

Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God $8.72 - Slowly trending down

 

Tainted Pact		TCGPlayer $7.99
Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God	CardKingdom $9.49	TCGPlayer $8.72
Splendid Reclamation	CardKingdom $0.79	TCGPlayer $0.64