Weekly Winners 2020 - 11

The Banned and Restricted announcement had some unexpected influences on the market this week. Combo is not dead yet, and Pioneer is causing another card to break the $30 barrier!

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 Splinter Twin $17.98 (+115.07%)

 

Banned in Modern. Not legal in Pioneer. (Almost) no play in Legacy and Vintage. Some play in EDH. No new deck techs with it. It would seem that there are no clear reasons why Splinter Twin should spike, or be worth a $14.90 price tag.

But still... It spiked. Like people stacking up on toilet paper, players and speculators were betting for an unban of the card, leading up to the B&R announcement this week. Worried of getting beaten to it, talk of people planning to buy it set the hype train in motion. Or was there something else in play too?

These kinds of spikes happen more often in the days leading up to a B&R announcement. Sometimes they are caused by buyouts from large numbers of people. Sometimes a single speculator (or a small collective) make(s) a move on the card.

But there is one other thing that happens! Some stores unlist cards that are possibly getting unbanned, in preparation of a buyout or spike. They can cancel orders too, but unlisting the cards is a more customer-friendly thing to do. Waiting it out is a neat trick. You just wait for the price to go up, and re-list your stock.

To players and speculators that are watching the number of available cards online see the number of cards dwindling. And they assume people are buying it out. The fear of missing out kicks in and people start buying into the card. What exactly went down is hard to tell, but I did see some evidence myself that stores could have been unlisting the card.

Interestingly, Splinter Twin's price has not fallen yet. Normally spikes like this come down as hard as they went up. I have no explanation for why this is the case. Maybe it is just a matter of time. Also note that the market price has not moved much, a telltale sign that the AVG price is way too high to stay at that price level.

Splinter Twin
Rise of the Eldrazi	CardKingdom $7.99	TCGPlayer $13.48
Modern Masters 2015	CardKingdom $7.99	TCGPlayer $14.90

 

#2 Divining Witch $2.50 (+70.07%)

 

It is always fun to cover cards in the Weekly Winners that I thought I would never see again. A single copy of Divining Witch is hidden somewhere in my collection, I'm sure. Fresh from its original Nemesis booster.

Over the past weeks, I've written about two cards: Doomsday and Thassa's Oracle. There was quite some excitement about decks that revolved around those two cards and Underworld Breach. Well that ended quickly last monday, when Underworld Breach was banned in Legacy.

But combo is hard to kill! And Doomsday is not dead. A nother list was around, that could function without Underworld Breach. Check out the list:

As you can see. In this deck Divining Witch is 'just' a sideboard card. But it is interesting enough to warrant a spike. Outside Legacy, Divining Witch could be combined with a Thassa's Oracle too, for example in EDH. However, at this time we see it listed in only 126 decks on EDHRec.com

Divining Witch
Nemesis	CardKingdom $1.29	TCGPlayer $2.50

 

#3 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx $32.05 (+16.67%)

 

Some cards that are very interesting to the development of formats stay under the radar of our interests and Weekly Winners lists. Every week there are other stories to tell and bigger winners to cover. But this week is different!~

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx has been going up rapidly over the past months. Ever since the new Pioneer format was announced. The available mana base is an important factor in formats. But outside of lands that produce more than one color of mana, other supporting lands are interesting as well.

And Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is a land that works best in a mono-colored deck. And of the non-rotating formats, Pioneer has the biggest number of competitive mono-colored decks. No wonder that Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is popular and increasing in value. It even sees some play in Modern (Mono Green and Elves).

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is really a card to keep an eye on. Not only for Pioneer. But beware: it's popularity and price are tied into the popularity of mono-colored decks. When the Pioneer meta shifts towards more multicolored decks, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx's price will probably fall.

 

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.

 

True-Name Nemesis $9.99 - Record low and bottoming out

 

Silent Clearing $5.69 - Record low and going down slowly

 

Questing Beast $13.84 - Record low and going down

 

True-Name Nemesis	CardKingdom $9.49	TCGPlayer $9.99
Silent Clearing	CardKingdom $5.49	TCGPlayer $5.69
Questing Beast	CardKingdom $13.99	TCGPlayer $13.84