Weekly Winners 2019 - 28

EDH is the main driver behind the biggest spikes this week, following a B&R announcement. So, just in time for FNM, I'll now tell you about the cards that will be the talk of the town tonight!

 

#1 Storage Matrix $10.50 (+422.39%)

 

Some cards spike because of one very concrete and timing specific reason. A new card that gets spoiled for instance. Or an unbanning. But there are also cards that spike because of a trend in deckbuilding or finance. The best and most powerful example is the period of reserved list spikes, in which, month after month, random cards spiked simply because they were on the reserved list.

Storage Matrix is also part of a trend. Over the past weeks several cards have spiked that fit into EDH strategies with Urza, Lord High Artificer. But Urza has quickly become a force to recon with in Modern, Legacy and Vintage. Storage Matrix is one of the cards that has synergy with a Urza strategy.

With Storage Matrix, every player has to choose a type, and only permanents of the available types can be untapped. A drawback for everyone, including you. Unless you are able to tap Storage Matrix in the turn of the player before you, and the effect does not count for you. And how could you do that? Right: with Urza, Lord High Artificer.

Storage Matrix is both driven by organic and speculative demand. It is a card that's logical to play next to Urza, creating a logical demand from players. Speculators see this and try to jump the bandwagon, driving up the price even further. But be aware, the price of Storage Matrix will change in the coming days. Either the price of the Urza's Destiny printing will go up some more, or the white bordered printing will fall in price. The original printing is more scarce and black bordered, two main characteristics that determine card value. And at time of writing this article, the white-bordered version is almost $3 higher.

 

Storage Matrix	CardKingdom $9.99	TCGPlayer $10.50
Urza, Lord High Artificer	CardKingdom $44.99	TCGPlayer $37.79

 

#2 Painter's Servant $45.45 (+286.15%)

 

This week a major featured a major announcement for EDH: Painter's Servant was unbanned. Resulting in a huge spike of the card and spikes/ upticks for cards that (might) have synergy with Painter's Servant. See more on that below. For those that don't have time for Magic on weekdays, here is the announcement.

If you see the tweet, you might wonder why was this announcement was posted by someone who does not work for Wizards of the Coast? Why is he linking to a forum and not the Mothership? The reason is simple: EDH is a fan-made and fan popularised format. Yes, WotC has released products for the format, but it was not created by them. And therefore, the ban list is not in their hands, but in the hand of the dedicated people of mtgcommander.net. They control the banlist and they have unbanned Painter's Servant in Commander.

Or have they?

Wizards does have its own banlist for Commander/EDH and you can find it here. And as you can see, Painter's Servant is still banned. And on top of that: Paradox Engine and Iona, Shield of Emeria are still legal. And although there are many very competitive players in EDH, Wizards still classifies the format as 'Casual'.

Wizards' banlist is meant for Magic Online. So all of you logging into MTGO to brew a Painter's deck will soon see that you actually can't. But when you cast a Iona, Shield of Emeria on your friend's kitchentable, said friend might DQ you from said kitchentable. So beware when building your EDH deck and check out if it is banned in paper, online or both.

And that gives us at MTGStocks.com a dilemma. What banlist should we keep? Currently, we follow Wizards' banlist, like we do with all formats. You can always check the card legality in the 'card' tab when viewing the card page. But how to proceed? We show you paper prices, that are influenced by the paper ban list. But in principle, Commander does have an official ban list, and that is what the 'real' ban list is and we should reflect that. Right? An interesting discussion. We would like to hear what you think!

 

Iona, Shield of Emeria	CardKingdom $12.99	TCGPlayer $13.55
Painter's Servant	CardKingdom $34.99	TCGPlayer $45.45

 

#3 Grindstone $28.51 (+217.84%)

 

The combo with the recently unbanned Painter's Servant is Grindstone. No surprise that Grindstone spiked hard. If you play Legacy this combo is well known. But if you focus on EDH, it might be new for you. Check out this Legacy decklist to see how Painter's Servant and Grindstone are played in a list that can play 4-offs.

But there is a problem with Painter's Servant / Grindstone in Commander. The card targets a player. Which means that you can take out one opponent at a time. For your deck to work, you need your combo. The moment that Grindstone hits the table you might be able to take out one of your opponents, but the others see what fate awaits them. You will become the center of attention, and not in a positive way. There are ways to untap Grindstone and use it several times in a turn. But that makes your combo harder to assemble. Also, people in your playgroup have brains. And memories. They will see you building your combo that kills all of them and turn against you.

Luckily, there are many other ways to utilize Painter's Servant with (and without) Grindstone. Check out this interesting thread on the possibilities..

 

Painter's Servant	CardKingdom $34.99	TCGPlayer $45.45
Grindstone	CardKingdom $22.99	TCGPlayer $28.51

 

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.

 

Brushland $5.03 - Record low and bottoming out

 

Ilharg, the Raze-Boar $5.99 - Record low and going down

 

Leovold, Emissary of Trest $9 - Record low and bottoming out

 

Leovold, Emissary of Trest	CardKingdom $7.49	TCGPlayer $9.00
Ilharg, the Raze-Boar	CardKingdom $6.49	TCGPlayer $5.99