Weekly Winners 2020 - 28

Just like last week, card were up and down this week due to several reasons. Some because of brewing with M21, others due to EDH, and meanwhile the reserved list is also still a driving factor!

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!

 

See something interesting in the world of card prices? Be sure to pitch me a tweet: @MTGPeter

 

#1 Honden of Seeing Winds $4.48 (+200.21%)

 

My first thought when I saw Honden of Seeing Winds on the top of our weekly interest list, was: "ah yes, many dogs were printed in M21, that's probably why it is trending up". Only Dutch people will understand this incredible brainfart without explanation. You see, in my native language, "Honden", means "Dogs". Allthough it gave me a good laugh, Honden of Seeing Winds is of course totally unrelated to the fact that there are Dog Creatures in M21.

 

Still, Honden of Seeing Winds's spike was caused by other cards getting printed in Core 2021. The set features a Shrine Enchantment cycle, that adds onto a cycle already printed in Champions of Kamigawa.

Gaining card advantage over your opponent by drawing cards is one of the most powerful effects in Magic. A shrine that does just that is an auto-add in any deck that wants to use shrines as a strategy.

Several EDH decks have a use for Honden of Seeing Winds and the new Shrines. But since Honden of Seeing Winds is also in Historic Anthology 3, it makes it Historic legal on MTGA as well. And that has motivated people to start brewing Honden decks for Historic.

But I don't know for sure if an MTGA format will affect paper prices at all. Only when people are building Historic decks for paper play it will increase paper demand. And I have no idea if that's happening. But seeing that Honden of Seeing Winds's spike is not that big, I believe that EDH is the biggest driving factor behind its uptrend.

And since we don't mention Historic as a format often (since it seems to have little effect on paper prices) I would like to take this opportunity to share a nice gameplay video, that shows how a 5c Honden Control deck performs in Historic.

 

#2 Splinter Twin $20.99 (+92.22%)

 

It is really becoming a tradition! Splinter Twin almost doubled in price this week in expectancy of next week's Banned and Restricted announcement from Wizards. And since Wizards pre-announced that there will be changes coming to modern, the Hype Train will start running, right on schedule.

The possible unbanning of Splinter Twin is always a bet people tend to make. Or, as some people have pointed out on the socials during past spikes, LGSs could have an influence on prices too: by increasing their prices, betting on an unbanning too. It is unclear if this is a widespread thing. But people betting on cards like Splinter Twin to get unbanned is something we do know happens and this week is another indicator of that.

 

#3 Serra's Sanctum $190 (+13.32%)

 

As the season of brewing is continuing, there are also movements on the other side of the MTG market: reserved list cards. Currently, we see less RL cards at the top of our charts, but many are still trending up.

Serra's Sanctum is a prime example that we have not covered before in any installment of Weekly Winners. And it is nearing its all time record of $199 with a steep uptrend over the past 7 weeks.

Being a land with a unique and powerful ability, it has always had a big price tag for a card that does not see much competitive play. In constructed, it sees a bit of play in Legacy Enchantress decks and some play in EDH decks. In EDH it is a trusted land for any deck that revolves around an enchantment/aura strategy.

But still, $199 is a very, very steep price tag for a card that sees little play in comparison to its price. And there you see the power of the Reserved List and the effect it has on the rarity and collectability of cards.

But that's not the only thing that matters! Compare Serra's Sanctum with Tolarian Academy - ($95, trending up from $42). The latter is blue and works with artifacts. Making it much more interesting for blue-powered formats like Legacy and Vintage. It being at $95 has only one reason: it is banned in Commander and Legacy; restricted in Vintage. So: the amount of play does matter and the price of a RL card entails more than just the asterisk next to its name!

 

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.

 

Fabled Passage $9.35 - Record low and trending down

 

Cruel Bargain $7.26 - Record low and trending down

 

True-Name Nemesis $8.00 - Record low and trending down

 

Cruel Bargain	CardKingdom $8.99	TCGPlayer $7.26
True-Name Nemesis	CardKingdom $8.99	TCGPlayer $8.00
Fabled Passage	CardKingdom $6.49	TCGPlayer $9.35