Not a lot of spikes happening this week. We do see a bunch of 30th Anniversary Edition cards on the Interests this week, but these seem to be prices finding a point to settle. The supply is still so low that it can go anywhere. This week we found a few cards to discuss that moved because of Commander and Pioneer. With The Brothers' War being released next week and being available on Arena soon, I expect that more may happen the upcoming weeks while new brews are being tested in the wild and we see which cards truly pull their weight.

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! Come discuss this week's price movements with us on Reddit.

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30th Anniversary Edition update

Last week we talked about the first prices of 30th Anniversary Edition that came in. I clearly stated that these were just preliminary listing prices and that there barely was any market price available. We are now one week in, and maybe it's interesting to see how that has progressed. The top five has barely moved since last week though and when we look at the market prices, still barely anything has happened so far. There are only very few listings, and nobody actually seem to be buying these cards, at least, not on TCGplayer. We all know however that the official sale for these packs has not begun yet, and it may take until those are shipped that we see more cards being listed. I will not talk about the 30th Anniversary Edition again until that has happened and we can actually make some conclusions about it. The new top 5 as of this week is:

1. Wheel of Fortune (Retro Frame): $4999.00
2. Mox Ruby: $999.99
3. Chaos Orb (Retro Frame): $499.99
4. Farmstead (Retro Frame): $199.99
5. Karma: $99.99

 

#1 Cavalier of Flame $4.53 (+29%)

 

M20 brought us the Cavaliers-cycle that features five mythic Elemental Knight creatures, each costing plus three mana of their color identity. Each has a powerful enters the battlefield, a synergistic dies trigger, and a keyword (or can gain a keyword) ability. When this cycle was Standard legal, all of these Cavaliers saw at least some play, but especially Cavalier of Flame and Cavalier of Thorns. This particular Cavalier costs and gets you a 6/5 that can give all creates +1/+0 and haste for . Keep in mind that you can activate this ability multiple times and can do it at instant speed. When Cavalier of Flame enters the battlefield it allows you to cycle any number of cards, and when it dies, it deals X damage to each opponent and each planeswalker they control, where X is the number of land cards in your graveyard.

I think Cavalier of Flame saw the most play in Standard when Fires of Invention came out in Throne of Eldraine. When you had Fires of Invention in play and 5 lands you could cast the Cavalier for free. And since you did not pay any mana to cast it, you could activate its ability to give everything haste and swing with it. We often saw these cards in combination with Kenrith, the Returned King and Bonecrusher Giant. However, both the Cavalier and Fires of Invention have rotated out of Standard for some time now. So why do we see Cavalier of Flame go up?

Well, it is seeing play in Pioneer along with Fires of Invention, Kenrith, the Returned King, and Bonecrusher Giant. It has been putting up some results, and it looks like Cavalier is the card with the least supply and thus will go up faster.

 

Cavalier of Flame	CardKingdom $3.99	TCGPlayer $4.53
Cavalier of Thorns	CardKingdom $19.99	TCGPlayer $17.75
Fires of Invention	CardKingdom $0.35	TCGPlayer $0.50
Cavalier of Flame	CardKingdom $6.99	TCGPlayer $4.32

 

#2 Charisma $15.24 (+24%)

 

This is one of those older cards that is not on the reserved list, but also has not received a reprint yet. For you get an Aura where whenever enchanted creature deals damage to a creature, gain control of the other creature for as long as Charisma remains on the battlefield. So when the enchanted creature deals damage to an opponent's creature, you gain control of it. What is important to note here is that it says "damage" rather than "combat damage". Hello, Prodigal Sorcerer, anyone?!

It seems to be picked up to upgrade the Warhammer 40K Tyranid Swarm deck. It is also found in builds around Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph that we can find in that same commander deck. However the card is not new to Commander and has already seen play in builds around Reveka, Wizard Savant and Tibor and Lumia. You can imagine it sees play in decks that revolve around pinging your opponent's creatures to gain control of them.

Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph	CardKingdom $59.99	TCGPlayer $13.28
Tibor and Lumia	CardKingdom $0.35	TCGPlayer $0.40
Charisma	CardKingdom $8.49	TCGPlayer $15.24
Reveka, Wizard Savant	CardKingdom $0.69	TCGPlayer $1.48

 

#3 Biotransference $10.35 (+17%)

 

And yet another card going up because of Commander. Biotransference is a new card found in the Necron Dynasties Warhammer 40K deck. It is an enchantment for that gives creatures you control are artifacts in addition to their other types. The same is true for creature spells you control and creature cards you own that aren't on the battlefield and whenever you cast an artifact spell, you lose 1 life and create a 2/2 black Necron Warrior artifact creature token.

The card seems to be an immediate include in several decks with a commander from that same 40K commander deck. Examples of these cards are Szarekh, the Silent King, Anrakyr the Traveller, and Imotekh the Stormlord. These are all black commander that do something, or care about, artifacts. However, we also know that The Brothers' War set is about to be released and this is a set that also cares deeply about artifacts. Players seem to be picking up Biotransference to play in fresh builds around Mishra, Tamer of Mak Fawa, Urza, Chief Artificer, and Ashnod the Uncaring.

But what is also important to note is that the card was mentioned on the The Command Zone as a good upgrade to the Urza's Iron Alliance deck.

Biotransference	CardKingdom $29.99	TCGPlayer $10.35
Anrakyr the Traveller	CardKingdom $12.99	TCGPlayer $1.37
Mishra, Tamer of Mak Fawa		TCGPlayer $0.86
Ashnod the Uncaring		TCGPlayer $5.00

 

#4 Temporal Trespass $22.93 (+8%)

 

You know what? Let's do one more! Temporal Trespass is a Mythic from Fate Reforged. It is a Sorcery for that lets you take an extra turn, and then you have to exile the spell. So why is this card seeing play? Isn't Nexus of Fate or simply Time Warp better? Well, yes and no. Because Temporal Trespass has Delve meaning the card can become a whole lot cheaper if you are able to fill your graveyard efficiently. You can take an extra turn for (potentially) the low cost of . Take another turn spells always see some play, at least casually, and has some appeal to certain players meaning usually they will be worth something.

But lately it has been showing up in Izzet Phoenix Pioneer decks as a 2-off. These decks generally are very good at filling their graveyard because well, they try to get Arclight Phoenix in there, but then they want to cast at least three spells to make them come back. In the meantime they use Ledger Shredder to loot through their deck finding the pieces they want while growing them. Taking another turn for just a few mana seems like a great way to finish the game.

Ledger Shredder	CardKingdom $21.99	TCGPlayer $19.04
Arclight Phoenix	CardKingdom $6.99	TCGPlayer $7.00
Temporal Trespass	CardKingdom $22.99	TCGPlayer $22.93

 

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.

 

Anguished Unmaking $4.71 - Moving up!

 

Anguished Unmaking has been identified by the MTGStocks Premium Penny Stocks feature as a card that has reached its bottom and is starting a consistent uptrend.

 

Primeval Titan $5.71 - Slowly moving down

 

Comet, Stellar Pup $5.58 - Slowly moving down

 

Comet, Stellar Pup	CardKingdom $6.99	TCGPlayer $5.58
Anguished Unmaking	CardKingdom $5.49	TCGPlayer $4.71
Primeval Titan	CardKingdom $6.99	TCGPlayer $5.71