Weekly Winners 2019 - 52

In the Netherlands we celebrate Christmas on both the 25th and 26th, so we needed an extra day to recover. So a bit later, but hopefully not less welcome, we present this week's instalment of Weekly Winners. With the spoilers from Theros: Beyond Death slowly dripping in, we have not really seen a spike based on these, but we have no doubt that it will come soon.

Make sure you keep an eye out on MTGStocks on December 31st, when we will do our annual Yearly Interests.

 

#1 The Scarab God $33.95 (+70%)

 

Another spike in Pioneer because of a spice new brew. AspiringSpike revealed his spicy brew on Twitter, showing that The Scarab God is insane with Wilderness Reclamation. When you can untap your mana at the end of your turn, or even multiple times when you have more than one Wilderness Reclamation in play, you can active The Scarab God's ability. Also when your mana untapps, you can tap out on your turn, while still having mana up for your counterspells during your opponent's turn.

Stealing your opponent's creatures from the graveyard is fun, but also being able to recur your own is amazing. Also having a 5/5 on board that will come back to your hand seems pretty good.

The deck's results, along with buyouts, have driven the price up. See the decklist below.

The Scarab God
Hour of Devastation	CardKingdom $29.99	TCGPlayer $33.95
Masterpiece Series: Amonkhet Invocations	CardKingdom $109.99	TCGPlayer $105.75
Prerelease Cards	CardKingdom $49.99	TCGPlayer $49.95

 

#2 Nicol Bolas, the Ravager $29.42 (+34%)

 

We mentioned this card in our Weekly Winners 38 and Weekly Winners 41 as a Cheap Pickup, when it reached its lowest price point around $11. Today you're going to have to pay almost triple that to get your hands on a copy.

The fearsome dragon has also found some love in Pioneer Grixis builds, along with our nummer #1 winner The Scarab God. But also before people started playing The Scarab God we saw Nicol Bolas appear in some decklists. Several cards that used to be good in Standard are appearing now in Pioneer builds. Nicol Bolas is no exception to this. It's almost always a 2-for-1 in the sense that the opponent has to discard a card when it comes down, and probably has to spend a card to get rid of it.

Being a 4/4 flyer for means it can come down early enough to be a serious threat, and when left alone can transform into Nicol Bolas, the Arisen in the late game, swinging the odds in your favor.

Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
Core Set 2019	CardKingdom $27.99	TCGPlayer $29.42
Prerelease Cards	CardKingdom $54.99	TCGPlayer $58.00

 

#3 Morophon, the Boundless $8.99 (+39%)

 

I'm personally having somewhat of a hard time grasping what's going on with Morophon, but I simply like the design of the card. It's basically a(n expensive) lord for a tribal of your choosing. However, there is a certain tribal that has several pretty strong creatures that cost exactly , making them free to cast. What tribal could that be? Well, slivers of course.

Morophon, the Boundless works pretty well with the Sliver tribal, making cards like Sliver Hivelord, Sliver Legion, The First Sliver, and my personal favorite, Sliver Queen, free to cast. Slivers have always been a casual favorite tribal, and has made some appearances in Legacy and Modern, but not really as T1 decks.

The fact still remains that Morophon costs . To make it worthwhile, we have to find a way to sneak it into play way earlier. Since Morophon is a Changeling, we can use Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord with its -3 ability to get him into play in turn 3. When we use a bit of mana ramping we can do it even faster. Now why would I bring this strategy up? Because it seems like people are brewing with it in Modern, which is the only reason I can think of for it to spike now.

Sliver Legion	CardKingdom $89.99	TCGPlayer $79.47
Sliver Queen	CardKingdom $119.99	TCGPlayer $114.90
Sliver Hivelord	CardKingdom $34.99	TCGPlayer $31.74
Morophon, the Boundless	CardKingdom $6.99	TCGPlayer $8.99
The First Sliver	CardKingdom $10.99	TCGPlayer $9.49
Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord	CardKingdom $15.99	TCGPlayer $12.90

 

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.

 

Gideon Blackblade $6.09 - Record low and going down

 

Back to Basics $6.93 - Record low and going down

 

Once Upon a Time $7.59 - Record low and going down

 

Glimmervoid $6.63 - Record low and going down

 

Glimmervoid	CardKingdom $6.99	TCGPlayer $6.63
Back to Basics	CardKingdom $6.99	TCGPlayer $6.96
Gideon Blackblade	CardKingdom $6.99	TCGPlayer $6.11
Once Upon a Time	CardKingdom $5.99	TCGPlayer $7.59