Still a bit of a slow week, but we still see some effects of Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate on prices. Mainly when we look at Dragons we see some movement, just like last week. Usually I don't often discuss a lot of Reserved List cards, but this week I happened to have chosen two. With the spoilers of Double Masters 2022 being in full swing I mainly expect prices to move down because of reprints. So far the reprints look pretty promising with some hard-needed reprints.
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.
This card seems to be going up because of commander. There's a new card printed in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate that is driving up this price. That card is planeswalker Elminster. Elminster has an ability that reads: whenever you scry, the next instant or sorcery spell you cast this turn costs less to cast, where is the number of cards looked at while scrying this way.
You can probably see the interaction here. Mystic Speculation is a repeatable way to scry 3 for 3 mana and does exactly what Elminster decks wants to be doing. When we look at EDHRec, we see that this card is already included in over 75% of the Elminster decks, but we also see that Mystic Speculation definitely isn't new to commander. We also see it as a popular include in any deck that uses Eligeth, Crossroads Augur as one of their commanders.
| Elminster |
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| Mystic Speculation |
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| Eligeth, Crossroads Augur |
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In last week's article we talked about The Ur-Dragon moving up because of the added support for Dragons in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate. We have seen several new Dragons printed into that set. Dragons have always been a popular archetype to build around in casual decks, and especially in Commander, but when a new set comes out with some extra support we always see prices move up.
Zirilan of the Claw isn't a Dragon however, but is a Viashino Shaman. But it does support the Dragon archetype. For 3 mana you get to search your library for a Dragon card, put it into the battlefield giving it haste. You do however have to exile it at the beginning of your next end step. But attacking with a big expensive Dragon early on in the game can really be beneficial, or a Dragon with a really powerful enter-the-battlefield ability.
When we look at EDHRec we see Zirilan of the Claw being played in a new commander Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm builds. The exact commander that Jimmy played in the last episode of Game Knights, meaning more people will have seen this card. Possibly spiking interest in cards like Zirilan of the Claw.
Keep in mind that Zirilan of the Claw is on the reserved list, meaning there will not be any more copies on the market ever, and it is a bit easier to manipulate these prices.
| Zirilan of the Claw |
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| Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm |
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And another push from a card because of the additional Dragon support. Although this time it is an anti-Dragon card where you can get rid of Dragons whenever they attack of block. This card tends to spike as well when Dragons become more popular, but I cannot imagine people actually including it in their 100 as a "sideboard" card against Dragons.
It led me to think that maybe there is a strategy where you can search your dragon with, for example, Zirilan of the Claw and then sacrifice it at the end of combat to no longer having to exile the Dragon, keeping it "safe" in your graveyard, and getting some life in the process. Or maybe include it in a Dragon deck to be able to get some life when needed.
However, just like our previous winner, this is a card on the reserved list and sometimes spikes of these cards do not need to be perfectly logical.
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.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth has been identified by the MTGStocks Premium Trends feature as a card that has a strong uptrend. This card is by no means a real cheap pickup at the moment, but it's interesting to notice that this card keeps going up despite having had multiple reprints. I thought it is interesting to focus some attention on this card by the way its price trajectory seems to be going.
Ophiomancer $7.92 - Slowly trending down
| Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth |
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| Go-Shintai of Life's Origin |
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| Ophiomancer |
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