Weekly Winners 2019 - 45 | Pioneer Special

08 Nov

by Peter

It's all Pioneer this week! Brewing has started and the meta of this new format is taking shape. Brace yourselves for a Pioneer Special. I'll show you the biggest winners and the hottest decklists those cards see play in.

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!

#1 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar $10.74 (+88.42%)

Pioneer is all new and fresh, and many people are playing their first (online) tournaments. Over the last two weeks, decklists have come pouring in, granting us a first decent look at the Pioneer metagame.

Nissa, Voice of Zendikar seems to take a firm position in several Pioneer builds. According to a recent Reddit list it is on #187 in a list of the most played cards in decks that went 5-0 on MTGO. Seeing play in 4 out 50 decks, Nissa, Voice of Zendikar certainly is not the most played card in the format. But enough to drive up the price of this card.

Nissa, Voice of Zendikar sees play in these three archetypes:

Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
Oath of the Gatewatch	CardKingdom $6.49	TCGPlayer $10.74

#2 Sphinx's Revelation $8.10 (+151.55%)

With a 151.51% gain, Sphinx's Revelation is the biggest winner. But those of you wondering why it is in spot #2 on this Weekly Winners, check out the graphs and prices on the other three printings. Sphinx's Revelation's other printings have already spiked and Sphinx's Revelation is actually more pricey than its Guild Kits counterpart.

The reason for Sphinx's Revelation's organic price increase is Pioneer (just like so many other cards). It is on place #48 in the before mentioned list, being included in 13 of the 5-0 decklists.

Sphinx's Revelation can give you a deciding edge in the mid- to lategame. The combination of lifegain and card draw can be especially powerful against fast, aggressive decks that have the risk to run out of steam in the midgame. is by all means not the fastest color combination. Sphinx's Revelation could raise your life out of the danger zone and feed you cards to take over dominance on the battlefield.

As you can see in two of the three decklists below, Sphinx's Revelation sees use in buying time and drawing cards to support a slow, control & counter strategy. The WU list actually has no creatures at all, but uses Elspeth, Sun's Champion and Castle Ardenvale to make creature tokens.

Guild Feud	CardKingdom $0.25	TCGPlayer $0.34
Elspeth, Sun's Champion	CardKingdom $12.99	TCGPlayer $9.74
Sphinx's Revelation	CardKingdom $6.99	TCGPlayer $10.25
Sphinx's Revelation	CardKingdom $6.99	TCGPlayer $8.10
Castle Ardenvale	CardKingdom $1.49	TCGPlayer $0.75

#3 Thing in the Ice $19.24 (+58.88%)

Thing in the Ice is one of those fascinating cards that just tempt to be broken and put to good use in competitive play. The card has been going up every day starting on October 14th.

Before Pioneer, Thing in the Ice only saw competitive play in the Modern Blue Moon deck (see list below). But cards like these have great potential to keep (and gain) value. Thing in the Ice is a one of a kind card, that is hard to easily reprint in other sets. A gain in competitive play almost immediately causes a gain in price.

Thing in the Ice
Shadows over Innistrad	CardKingdom $13.99	TCGPlayer $19.24

On the Mystery Booster Packs

The new MagicFest Mystery Boosters have been all the hype in the past days. These boosters contain a new reprint set consisting of between 1.000 and 2.000 different cards. Making it by far the biggest set ever to be printed in boosters.

Due to the mystique-marketing approach Wizards uses, we actually know very little about the set. We don't know the print run, availability or even what cards can be in the boosters. And that's kind of the point too, since it allows players to compete in chaos drafts and sealed tournaments.

Unless the print run is extremely small, the Mystery Boosters will have an effect on card prices. Not so much for cards like Gift of Paradise or Imperial Mask -both spotted-, since they see little play and were bulk cards to begin with.

But things get a lot more interesting with cards like Night's Whisper $2.54, Sliver Hivelord $27.49, Mana Crypt $201.87 or Lotus Petal $9.20. All have been found in the boosters. These cards are not Standard legal, and there are no new cards. That means that the supply increases, but the demand will stay exactly the same. There is no better recipe for decreasing card prices.

It is still too early to say if prices will fall or not. Everything comes down to the size of the print run. How many booster packs are produced? And how many cards are in the set? We simply don't know (yet). We will keep you posted!

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.