Weekly Winners 2020 - 48

This week is again a seamless continuation of the past weeks. It's all EDH that drives the markets. The Commander Legends spoilers are sinking in and people are busy brewing new decks.

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 Sedris, the Traitor King $27.99 (+460.92%)

 

This is the first time in many weeks that our #1 winner spiked because of a buyout. In the pre-pandemic times, this happened far more often than it does today. But this week we've seen Sedris, the Traitor King spike to incredible heights.

You can recognize a buyout by checking the market price of a card. If you see that the market price lags (far) behind the average price, this is a telltale sign. The shape of a spike is another indication. The more vertical it is, the higher the chance that you are dealing with a speculative buyout, instead of an organic buyout. The latter is a buyout that happens because many people suddenly want a certain card. For instance when a good new card is spoiled, that combos with an existing card. Most of the time, organic spikes are preceded by a short time in which a card is up in demand and then after a few days spike as they are completely bought out.

Speculative buyouts are almost always 'vertical' and go from almost nothing to extremely high in one day. But there are exceptions. Maralen of the Mornsong is a good one. It spiked out of nowhere, but because of organic demand. Please not that the market price of this card jumped up as well, and that's something we only see with organic spikes, since they have real demand behind them.

Now compare this to Sedris, the Traitor King. The card did trend up, but suddenly spiked; leaving the market price far behind. Also: the card is completely sold out everywhere. All telltale signs of a speculative buyout.

And now why the card was bought out. The reason is simple: Obeka, Brute Chronologist. This commander is hot right now, and so are the card that are in a deck commanded by it. One of those cards is Sedris, the Traitor King. By ending the turn, you can cheat your way out of the 'remove from the game', part of the unearth ability. Which means that you can reanimate any of your creatures for just .

Seeing that the commander and Sedris, the Traitor King were new EDH tech, speculators probably pulled the trigger on this one, driving up the price. This is easier with sets that have a more limited print run than with cards that are recent. Obeka, Brute Chronologist itself is only $1!

 

Sedris, the Traitor King	CardKingdom $14.99	TCGPlayer $27.99
Obeka, Brute Chronologist	CardKingdom $0.99	TCGPlayer $1.00

 

#2 Tectonic Instability $6.44 (+133.33%)

 

Our second winner is trending up due to new brews around Yurlok of Scorch Thrash. With that commander, the old rule of mana burn is reintroduced. Back in the day, if you tapped a permanent for mana and did not spend it all, you would lose life for every unspent mana. With mana burn gone, some cards really got a lot better. Two prime examples are: Spur Grappler and Priest of Titania. The first is still totally underwhelming, even without mana burn; but the latter got even better. When it was printed, you could really run into risky situations when tapping it without having something to spend your mana on.

Tectonic Instability might seem a tad counterintuitive at first. Why tap all your opponents' lands when you want them to tap the lands and not use the mana? The reason is simple: color matters. If you can keep your opponents from getting the colors of mana they need by keeping their lands tapped, all the while flooding their mana pool with . Outside of this, Tectonic Instability is used to put a lock on opponents, preventing them to play anything useful.

Also note that the same decks tend to run Citadel of Pain, a card that is quite opposite from Tectonic Instability. End of the day, you'll punish your opponent either way. Whether they have tapped or untapped lands.

Tectonic Instability is a card that did not see a ton of play yet and can probably be found in dusty binders and shoeboxes under beds. I have one copy, fresh from the booster and it has never been out of my binder. All I need to do now is to find that exact binder. What I mean to say is: the supply of previously unpopular cards tends to dry out quickly. Although Tectonic Instability did see an uptick in popularity already, around the time of War of the Spark, but it did not stick.

 

Citadel of Pain	CardKingdom $4.49	TCGPlayer $4.29
Tectonic Instability	CardKingdom $3.99	TCGPlayer $6.44

 

#3 Stitch in Time $5.65 (+78.23%)

 

Stitch in Time is up this week, as are its regular print counterparts! The reason is again EDH related. Another commander is getting a lot of love lately: Krark, the Thumbless.

With that commander in play, Stitch in Time gets a lot better. If you lose the flip, you get to try again! And if you take the time to reunite Krark with his thumb, your chances increase some more!

Looking at Stitch in Time's price development, you'll notice that this card has the profile of an organic spike. You see the AVG and Market price increasing with the same percentages and then suddenly a spike. The card got sold out. And now we need to see if the market price will move up!

 

Stitch in Time	CardKingdom $3.99	TCGPlayer $5.65
Krark, the Thumbless	CardKingdom $0.99	TCGPlayer $1.06

 

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.

 

Sneak Attack $17.29 - Record low, trending down

 

Karn, Scion of Urza $7.14 - Record low, bottoming out

 

Ugin, the Spirit Dragon $22.00 - Record low, bottoming out

 

Ugin, the Spirit Dragon	CardKingdom $27.99	TCGPlayer $22.00
Sneak Attack	CardKingdom $14.99	TCGPlayer $17.29
Karn, Scion of Urza	CardKingdom $6.49	TCGPlayer $7.14