Weekly Winners 2018 - 21

This week the spoilers have started for Modern Horizons and the set is showing many cards that can easily stir up the Legacy, Vintage and Modern metagame as we know it. Not only do we see cards reprinted to be Modern legal, but also see more balanced versions of popular Legacy staples. And not only that, we actually see a return of Slivers. This definitely has its impact on prices, so lets discuss the major spikes!

 

#1 Bearscape $1.99 (+1565%)

 

On the top of our list we have Bearscape going up by over 1.500%. There have been a lot of spikes this week that should be clear why they went up, but I found it a little bit harder for Bearscape. The obvious reason is that new bears will come in Modern Horizons. For example, the bear with the saddest flavor text, Mother Bear. But most importantly we will get Ayula, Queen Among Bears. But to be honest, I don't see the real power yet.

Ayula, Queen Among Bears and Bearscape have some synergy: for each bear you create with Bearscape, you can either buff a bear or let one fight an opponent's creature, and thus letting it double as removal. That's some value right there! The same interaction exists for Ayula's Influence.

I personally don't see the price of Bearscape stick. I think the interaction is fun for casual and certainly is cute, but don't really see it take off and this price is more based on hype than actual power level. However, it does get EDH players closer to a Bear tribal deck!

 

Bearscape

CardKingdom $0.79

TCGPlayer $11.99

 

#2 Trash for Treasure $6.00 (+551%)

 

Another spike because of a new card in Modern Horizons. This time it is because of Goblin Engineer, a balanced version of Goblin Welder which we used to see in Legacy when Imperial Painter decks were quite popular. The differences between the two cards are:

• One extra mana ( rather than )
• Can only use artifacts you control and are in your graveyard
• Goblin Engineer restricts the CMC of artifacts you can get back from your graveyard
• Goblin Engineer can tutor an artifact to your graveyard

The third point makes it so you can no longer have shenanigans where you return a super overpriced artifact to the battlefield, but it can still return Ensnaring Bridge, Grindstone or Painter's Servant to the battlefield.

The fourth point is actually why Trash for Treasure spiked. Goblin Engineer can be played on turn 2 to find an artifact, which can be returned to the battlefield on turn 3 by Trash for Treasure and is beautifully on curve. Remember that any artifact can be tutored with the Goblin, so having an Inkwell Leviathan or Bolas's Citadel on turn 3 seems pretty good.

Because of Goblin Engineer we also saw other cards go up. Most notably Sword of the Meek, which is a well-known combo with Thopter Foundry. Goblin Engineer can find both pieces of the combo and return them to the battlefield. Seeing as Sword of the Meek only has one print and also found a new toy in Urza, Lord High Artificer, the spike didn't come as a surprise. If you have the sword, the foundry and Urza in play, you have infinite life, mana and tokens. Seems pretty good!

 

Painter's Servant	CardKingdom $14.99	TCGPlayer $11.23
Sword of the Meek	CardKingdom $11.99	TCGPlayer $18.00
Trash for Treasure	CardKingdom $0.79	TCGPlayer $6.09
Grindstone	CardKingdom $12.99	TCGPlayer $9.00
Trash for Treasure	CardKingdom $0.99	TCGPlayer $5.73

 

#3 Fist of Suns $15.99 (+338%)

 

Since Morophon, the Boundless has been spoiled it didn't take long for Fist of Suns to get bought out. The interaction is pretty clear: with both in play all spells (not just creatures) of the chosen creature type are free! Not much more to tell than that.

But because of Morophon, the Boundless we also saw Reaper King spike ($34.99, +325%).

 

Fist of Suns
Fifth Dawn	CardKingdom $14.99	TCGPlayer $15.99
Commander 2017	CardKingdom $14.99	TCGPlayer $14.00

 

#4 Slivers

I was really happy to see Slivers return, and more powerful than ever. Several slivers have been spoiled so far, but the most notable is The First Sliver. With this sliver in play you can cascade in to your next sliver, which can cascade in the next one, etc. filling up your board pretty quickly.

Because of these new slivers, we're seeing several other slivers pop up in our interests, like Sliver Overlord ($44.99, +182%), Sliver Queen ($225, +58%), and Sliver Legion ($120, +74%). Remember that all of these 5-color slivers play along nicely with Morophon, the Boundless as well.

Also several non-legendary slivers have shown up in the interests, which are all slivers that are legal in Modern. What surprises me a little bit is that Crystalline Sliver is not one of them. I understand that it's not legal in Modern, but for casual play it seems to be one of the more powerful slivers amongst them.

I've seen some discussion since Sliver Queen has been spiking a lot the past week, even before these slivers were spoiled. It gave people the impression that there has been some insider knowledge about these slivers coming in Modern Horizons. Even though I wouldn't be surprised at all if there are people with insider knowledge buying magic cards, I think when it comes to Sliver Queen it's not evident that's the case.

I also mentioned Sliver Queen in the Brainstorm Brewery podcast from May 10th that I can only see her go higher. She's an iconic creature on the reserved list, and the price has nowhere else to go but up, especially with MaRo hinting at more slivers being printed.

 

Sliver Legion	CardKingdom $74.99	TCGPlayer $120.00
Sliver Overlord	CardKingdom $17.99	TCGPlayer $44.99
Crystalline Sliver	CardKingdom $2.79	TCGPlayer $3.95
Sliver Queen	CardKingdom $99.99	TCGPlayer $225.00

 

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.

 

Karn, Scion of Urza $19 - Record low and going down

 

Vengevine $12.74 - Record low and bottomed

 

Overgrown Tomb $5.99 - Record low and bottomed

 

Back to Basics $8.99 - Record low and bottomed

 

Through the Breach $10.48 - Record low and bottomed

 

Overgrown Tomb	CardKingdom $6.99	TCGPlayer $6.94
Karn, Scion of Urza	CardKingdom $20.99	TCGPlayer $19.03
Through the Breach	CardKingdom $8.99	TCGPlayer $10.62
Vengevine	CardKingdom $12.99	TCGPlayer $13.10
Back to Basics	CardKingdom $8.99	TCGPlayer $9.12