Weekly Winners 2020 - 39

25 Sep
by Arjen

We see some interesting spikes because of Zendikar Rising, the landfall ability, modern, and EDH. Really fun to see these fluctuations because of real demand and play. 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!

 

MTGStocks update

Before we get started I'd like to mention that the maintenance we had last week, where we moved to a new infrastructure, seems to have gone alright and all systems on our end seem to be holding up just fine. We had to deploy some minor patches over the last few days, but nothing major. However, we noticed that users occasionally seem to have some issues. Most of these issues boil down to assets being cached in the browsers.

In the implementation of MTGStocks we have used pretty heavy caching strategies. Meaning that if a user loads the website we try to store as many assets and code as possible for as long as possible within the browser of the user. This has two advantages: faster loading times for you when you return and less heavy server load for us. It seems like we couldn't bust these caches for some users. So please try a hard refresh in your browser if you experience problems. This should resolve most issues.

If you really end up running into an issue, we love to hear about it. Please mail us at website@mtgstocks.com and let us know. It's the fastest way for us to know about these things. We'll continue to closely monitor the logs and apply fixes when something comes up.

 

#1 Scute Swarm $6.48 (+369.57%)

Scute Swarm

 

I usually enjoy it when a card from a new set spikes. It means that the card was underestimated during spoiler season and seems more playable and viable than initially thought. Scute Swarm is a 1/1 for with a Landfall trigger. When a land enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 insect token. Unless you have 6 or more lands, in that case create a copy of Scute Swarm.

It doesn't take a mathematician to see that this can get exponentially out of hand. Every time you put a land onto the battlefield, if you have 6 or more lands, you'll double the amount of Scute Swarms you have. When played in a ramping strategy this could lead to lots and lots of triggers and insects in a single turn. Well, turns out ramp is still good in Standard.

Decks with Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, Lotus Cobra and Omnath, Locus of Creation are quite popular, and can net you insane amounts of mana and landdrops in a single turn. When combined with Scute Swarm this can quickly overpower the board and only a sweeper can (potentially) save your opponent. Also because of this we have seen a spike last week from Omnath, Locus of Creation making it $31.64 (+111%).

It becomes even more funny in Mutate strategies. People have been mutating stuff onto Scute Swarm like Auspicious Starrix. Now, every time you play a land, you'll get a copy of a 6/6. Not bad, eh? Also it is a great way to crash your Magic Arena client!

 

 

Auspicious Starrix CardKingdom $0.25 TCGPlayer $0.25
Scute Swarm CardKingdom $6.99 TCGPlayer $6.48
Lotus Cobra CardKingdom $7.99 TCGPlayer $8.30
Omnath, Locus of Creation CardKingdom $29.99 TCGPlayer $31.64
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath CardKingdom $49.99 TCGPlayer $44.99

 

#2 Flagstones of Trokair $14.99 (+163%)

Flagstones of Trokair

 

Good old Flagstones of Trokair spiked because, you guessed it, landfall. When you have one on the battlefield, and you play a second one you get one landfall trigger because you played a land. Then you have to sacrifice one of the two because of the Legendary rule and you get to find a plains and put it onto the battlefield. Of course this will net you another landfall trigger.

But there's more! It sees play in Modern Titan Field decks. Together with Elvish Reclaimer it can fill up your graveyard with land cards pretty quickly and enables you to ramp. You can sacrifice your Flagstones, find a new land with the ability and get a plains back with the Flagstones trigger.

 

Titan Field by Yprincipe

 

#3 Archfiend of Despair $20.82 (+31%)

Archfiend of Despair

 

Maybe not one of the biggest risers, but I think a combo interesting enough to point out. Together with Scourge of the Skyclaves ($13.53 +24%) you can kill all your opponents at once. Archfiend of Despair makes sure that whenever your opponents have lost life, they will lose that same sound again at the end of your turn.

When you cast Scourge of the Skyclaves with kicker, all your opponents will lose half their life rounded up, meaning that when cast with Archfiend of Despair on the battlefield, everyone will lose that amount of life again at the end of turn.

Because of this little interaction, which we'll only see in EDH, both cards went up this week.

 

Scourge of the Skyclaves CardKingdom $10.99 TCGPlayer $13.53
Archfiend of Despair CardKingdom $16.99 TCGPlayer $20.82

 

Reserved list cards update

In the three winners discussed I have left all reserved list cards out on purpose, because it seems like most of these movements are only because the cards are on the reserved list rather than organic demand. So here are the top three reserved list spikes. It seems like people have now aimed their crosshairs at the cheaper reserved list cards in the hope the prices will go up. So we see some cards going up over 200%, which nets to about a $3 difference.

Crovax the Cursed $4.57 (+241%)
Crovax the Cursed

 

Rashida Scalebane $4.72 (+205%)
Rashida Scalebane

 

Diamond Valley $847.49 (+183%)
Diamond Valley

 

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.

 

Lightning Greaves $3.62 - Record low bottomed out
Lightning Greaves

 

Academy Ruins $8.00 - Record low and trending down slowly
Academy Ruins

 

The Locust God $3.99 - Record low and trending down slowly
The Locust God

 

The Locust God CardKingdom $3.99 TCGPlayer $3.99
Academy Ruins CardKingdom $7.49 TCGPlayer $8.00
Arjen
Arjen

Arjen has been playing Magic since Ice Age and has mostly played the Legacy format. Ten years ago he founded MTGStocks because he and his friends wanted to buy Magic singles at the right time to play with.


More from Arjen:

Weekly Winners 2024 - 45

The Marvel cards are making prices move. But this week we also have two other unexpected cards on the list!

Weekly Winners 2024 - 44

Card prices are moving in Standard, Modern, and Commander this week. Also the Marvel cards are making an impact!

Weekly Winners 2024 - 43

Modern, Legacy, and Commander are responsible for this week's winners. These are the good weeks!

Weekly Winners 2024 - 42

Commander and Pioneer are doing the heavy lifting this week. The recent Pioneer Regional Championship seems to have spiked interest in the format.

Weekly Winners 2024 - 41

Pioneer, Modern and Commander are the reasons for the spikes this week. We also have a special GAMBL report!

Weekly Winners 2024 - 40

The changes around the Commander format are really having an interesting effect on the market. Fortunately, Pioneer and Modern are also making sure that things are moving.

Weekly Winners 2024 - 39

The recent bannings in Commander have had quite the impact on prices. And we're seeing a new archetype in Modern!

Weekly Winners 2024 - 38

Legacy and Modern are shaking up the Lhurgoyf stocks. And Duskmourn is also making sure the prices are moving.

Weekly Winners 2024 - 37

Duskmourn is starting to move prices, and we have a pretty interesting mix of cards this week. Come check it out!

Weekly Winners 2024 - 36

I hope you like old cards, because our winners are all from a long, long time ago in a set far, far away.