Weekly Winners 2020 - 23

After weeks with only buyouts and Reserved List cards spiking, this week is much more interesting, as cards trend up due to organic demand! Like every week, just in time for (digital) FNM, I'll now tell you about the cards that will be the talk of the (digital) town tonight!

 

#1 Daxos the Returned $5.50 (130.13%)

 

Every once in a while a card spikes, but there seems to be no obvious reason why. And it seems that our #1 winner this week fits that category. Daxos the Returned is trending up and is out of stock in most large online stores. But it does not see more play, M21 spoilers have not shown a card (yet?!) that works well with it, and I could find no chatter on socials that indicate a speculative buyout. The newest decktech video on YouTube about it is 2 months old and from a barely watched youtuber.

But still, I might have missed something! Maybe I've missed a specific article, podcast or spoiler that explains Daxos the Returned's spike. Please let me know and I will edit this article accordingly.

What I did find is that Daxos the Returned sees a bit of more play in combination with Kelsien, the Plague, since both make use of experience counters. But it seems unlikely that the small uptick in demand leads to such a big spike.

I hope I missed something, that way I'll be able to explain the spike in the coming hours. If I did not miss something, the mystery remains! I have two possible explanations in that case.

First, this could simply be an (uneducated) buyout by some person. Or darker: someone has knowledge about M21 our other future products and is tempted to speculate on that.

Second, it seems that the bigger card stores (f.i. SCG) have a small amount of available stock of popular cards left. Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, people will have more logistical trouble selling their collections at LGS's but also at MagicFests and other venues. This could result in a lower supply of secondary market cards. The demand for popular cards could surpass the supply much faster than during normal circumstances. This causes the stock to dry up and prices to rise due to organic demand. Not because cards are in higher demand, but in lower supply. Do note that this is speculation on my part, based on what I see and hear on the socials.

 

#2 Praetor's Grasp $10.37 (+112.07%)

 

Praetor's Grasp has gotten some attention in a EDHREC.com podcast recently and is a good card in EDH to begin with. It sees play in Sen Triplets and Mishra, Artificer Prodigy decks, amongst others.

The card has seen a gradual increase in price since January 2018 up until this week when the card spiked from $5 to $14 and fell back to the $10 range. Since foils were not bought out before but after the regular copy spiked, a speculative buyout seems less likely. Still possible of course, but in that case not well executed.

Just like with our #1 winner, I think that the height of Praetor's Grasp's spike could be partly caused by the stock of cards drying up because the supply is not as big as usual.

 

#3 Badlands $280.76 (+8.83%)

 

A new all-time high record for Badlands this week! The Dual Lands are in higher demand and most of them have been trending up. We've seen this before, but certain duals always lag behind in price. Badlands is one of those.

Badlands does not see as much play in competitive formats as other duals do. In Legacy and Vintage, the color blue is the most powerful of all 5 colors. It gives you access to the best counterspells and cantrips, enabling you to gain card advantage, hinder your opponent and increasing the chances you draw what you need. Grixis decks use duals too, but favor Volcanic Island and Underground Sea above Badlands.

But in these times Badlands trends up, where Underground Sea seems to really have found the ceiling in price at $500 currently. Even COVID-19 and government cheques don't change that.

 

Whatever happened to...

This week I will not report on Cheap Pickups (there are very few to report on), but try out a new segment. But don't be alarmed, Cheap Pickups will remain the go-to segment in this article! But sometimes it's good to try new stuff!

This segment will feature a card that was a weekly winner before, and looks back on the price development of that card. Did the price hold? Did it increase or decrease. And why?

 

Teferi's Puzzle Box $8.75

In our Weekly Winners from 1 year ago (also week 23), Teferi's Puzzle Box was the #2 winner. It spiked to $22.45 and even higher in the days after. The reason: its possible synergy with Thopter decks and more importantly: Narset, Parter of Veils

What happened? Teferi's Puzzle Box spiked from $22.45 to $35.10 and started its free fall that continues until today. Exactly 1 year later, the card is about $2 more expensive than it's pre-spike price but it is still trending down.

A year later, we see that Teferi's Puzzle Box did not get included in decks with Narset, Parter of Veils and what seemed to be good tech, turned out to be underwhelming.

But there might be light at the end of the tunnel for all of you that spent top dollar on Teferi's Puzzle Box last year. The card sees play in decks commanded by Xyris, the Writhing Storm. 56% of decks with that commander include Teferi's Puzzle Box.