A Penny Saved, an Instant or Sorcery Earned

Hello again MTGStocks! Ryan here, and I hope you’re all ready to eat up some more free data from our Premium Membership Penny Stocks page, because I’ve got three more cards to get you all interested in this barrel scraper's favorite pastime: buying low in hopes of selling high! The Penny Stocks page is a members-only section of MTGStocks, but I’ve always been a bit of a rule-breaker and I don’t mind sharing with you all just a few glimpses into what’s hiding at the other side of this site. Normally my card preferences are geared toward either collectible cards from Magic’s legacy era past, or those cards that are new to my favorite format (Standard - I know, I’m a monster and should be chased out of town with pitchforks). But I've also recently started playing more Modern and I’ve noticed some trends that I see reflected in this iteration of our Penny Stocks page, so I chose these three cards as proper investments for the enjoyer of either format. So without further delay, I present to you my top three Penny Picks!

Haughty Djinn - Dominaria United

 

Blue is definitely at the top of my list of color choices. I find the all-around versatility of the color to be appealing, and the fact that the best instant and sorceries are (arguably) in blue makes me always want to put at least a small splash of the color into every deck I make. For three mana, Haughty Djinn not only has an increasing power, but also the added nicety of allowing you to cast your instant and sorcery spells for one less mana. It’s also one of only about four cards (this is sarcasm) that isn’t legendary from our most recent MTG sets, so you're not stuck with only one on the field at a time. Other blue cards have done the same cost reduction for instants and sorceries, such as Baral, Chief of Compliance and Font of Magic, as well as non-blue cards like Cemetery Prowler and Cloud Key, but that little bit extra of having its power equal to the number of instants and sorceries in your graveyard means that when you counter that win-con your opponent tried to dish out on their turn, you get to move back to your turn with a creature that bulked up by just a little bit more. Coming in at just over $2 USD at the time of this writing, I see Haughty Djinn as not only an extremely valuable card for gameplay but also as a card that can grow in value over time due to its multiple positive traits.

My second pick jumps colors, but don’t worry. I’ll tie my thesis together at the end for extra credit for anyone keeping score.

Scourglass - Shards of Alara

 

While it's a bit expensive to cast, this card's worth considering for artifact decks in white, or for your investment portfolio. With the resurgence of artifacts of all sorts being printed in several recent sets, Scourglass's tap, sack, destroy ability is a nice addition to have in a deck, or to have to sell to those who want it in a deck. Yes, there are timing restrictions, but if you properly plan out your gameplay, you'll either slow down your opponent(s) or completely devastate their ability to recover. This card can save your rear end in the same way that a full Wrath can, but with the upside of saving all of your artifacts for just one extra mana, and that makes it one of my favorites on our Penny Stocks page. Sitting right around $5 at this moment, our graphs show that it sees pretty steady growth with easy recoverability from its losses. If you think, as I do, that artifacts won’t be set to the wayside any time soon, then this one clearly has a spot at the table for both the player and the investor.

I just wish I could make an effective deck using both Haughty Djinn and Scourglass… which was obviously and obnoxiously a segue into my third and final Penny Pick, which is…

Adarkar Wastes (Borderless) - Dominaria United

 

Each of us has a different preference in artwork, but no one can deny that the borderless version of Adarkar Wastes printed in Dominaria United is a beautiful card. Azorius builds are the fourth most common decks in Standard, and second in Modern, so the monetary value of this card has maintained a pretty steady pace across our graphs for each printing. And we all know people who “bling out” their deck with all the prettiest versions of the cards they use and love, so collecting this printing as an investment is a reasonable thing to do, given that it's the first and only borderless printing. And the fact that you can play it untapped and simply drain yourself 1 life to get the mana you need instantly, as opposed to waiting out the proper color draw or sitting and waiting a turn for your tapland to actually open up for you, makes Adarkar Wastes (Borderless) a valuable option for the Azorius player. Not to mention the fact that one of the things that white does best is gain life, so the damage for colored mana is recoupable in the right Azorius build.

With each of these three cards it’s easy to see why both the player and the investor can get behind them and be happy with their purchase. I often find myself having a hard time deciding whether I'm buying a card to play, or for having a portfolio that will one day build me the "Ultimate Deck!" But with these choices I have no doubt in my mind that I would buy them for both purposes and be happy to have done so.

Now remember, I show you a little piece of the Penny Stocks page because I have the privilege to do so, but if you wanna know what the other cards are on that list you’re going to have to get together with MTGStocks and create a Premium Membership of your own. Arjen is busting his - expletive deleted - to bring in new and exciting features to the Premium Member experience every day and I can tell you that I haven’t been disappointed in any of them. If you think you need it, you do, and it is 100 percent worth it.

I have another article I hope to see restarted and published this month with Arjen’s permission, so I’ll have to leave you all here so I can lock myself in my office and make my wife concerned I’ve lost my mind when she hears me mumbling about prices and figures all day and night, which I’m happy to do for all you readers! Until next time remember: be a good winner, a good loser, and always, ALWAYS ask before you pick up someone else's extremely expensive Commander. Sorry Steve, I promise I’ll buy you a new Sheoldred, I swear I didn’t know I had frosting on my thumb. See you all again soon!