Weekly Winners 2023 - 01

Happy New Year everyone! We're excited for the upcoming year and the new cards that will come with it. Some leaks from Phyrexia: All Will Be One yesterday, but so far we're not seeing this reflected in the interests. Of course, this could change in the next few days as more people see them. But for right now we're looking at some Commander cards that are trending up.

Like every week, just in time for FNM, I'll tell you about the cards that will be the talk of the town tonight! Come discuss this week's price movements with us on Discord and Reddit.

Articles

Last week on A Penny Saved, Ryan showed us three cards worth picking up and playing.

Also last week we released the Year in Review articles where we showed you which cards moved the most in 2022. There are three articles in total, with different tables in each of them, so make sure you check them out!

If you want to receive an e-mail in your inbox when a new article is published you can enable it in your e-mail preferences and/or join the Discord.

Onto the Weekly Winners!

#1 Benevolent Hydra $24.88 (+179%)

 

This rare from Jumpstart 2022 briefly spiked to $250 on the average price chart this week. This is clearly a fluke, but that doesn't mean that something isn't happening with the card. Similar to Hardened Scales, with this card in play, you get to put extra +1/+1 counters on your creatures. You can also use the Hydra to put these counters on different creatures as well.

The card obviously is easily included in Commander decks that also play Hardened Scales. Even if you don't have the spare mana to put into , it's worth it to just play in for for some extra value. The later you draw this card, the better it becomes when you do have the mana available to put a larger creature into play. And it's a Hydra, which is a popular creature type in Commander. Gargos, Vicious Watcher is one of the earlier, and more popular, commanders for Hydras, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it showing up in these decks, as well as newer commanders like The Swarmlord or Runadi, Behemoth Caller.

As I mentioned, the card spiked tremendously on the average price chart, but the price has since come down again to more normal levels. Currently the average price sits around $25, coming from $15 before the spike, and around $7 in early December. The market price however also went up the past week from about $8 to $20. So people are definitely buying into this card.

On the same note, we're seeing a rare from the first Jumpstart moving up slowly as well. This card is Branching Evolution, which has a similar effect: extra +1/+1 counters for your creatures.

Benevolent Hydra		TCGPlayer $24.88
Gargos, Vicious Watcher	CardKingdom $0.79	TCGPlayer $0.90
Branching Evolution	CardKingdom $22.99	TCGPlayer $17.99

 

#2 Klauth's Will $3.00 (+97%)

 

Klauth's Will is an instant from Commander: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, and I am frankly a bit surprised it doesn't see more play. It works perfectly in Dragon Commander decks where all your creatures are flying, and the artifact and enchantment hate seems pretty good as well. Even though you get to have 100 cards in your deck in Commander, players do love to have some versatility in their cards to limit the amount of dead draws in any stage of the game. And if you control your commander, you even get to play both modes.

Shockingly enough, we see this card being played in... Klauth, Unrivaled Ancient decks. Klauth can generate a bunch of mana when it attacks, and then you can pump that mana into Klauth's Will. Sounds like a fine interaction. We discussed Klauth in September as a winner because of the extra popularity of Dragons that came with Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm.

Klauth, Unrivaled Ancient	CardKingdom $39.99	TCGPlayer $12.49
Klauth's Will	CardKingdom $0.99	TCGPlayer $3.00

 

#3 Drannith Magistrate $14.18 (+29%)

 

Since we're only discussing commander cards, lets look at everyone's favorite Commander card! Drannith Magistrate is a card you usually play when you want to make friends, right? This Human Wizard can prevent your opponents from playing spells from anywhere other than their hands. Since commanders are played from the command zone, Drannith Magistrate simply prevents your opponents from being able to play them! Fun ensured!

In the last couple of weeks, many people on social media were asking for the card to be banned. So what happened? It went up in price because it drew a lot of extra attention to the card. According to some, Drannith Magistrate goes against the spirit of Commander, since the format revolves around being able to cast and re-cast your commander. If you do decide to play it in your decks, and to make sure you will have extra friends, pair it with either Omen Machine or Urabrask, Heretic Praetor. When you have Drannith Magistrate in play along with one of those two other cards, you effectively shut everyone down. They have to be able to get rid of one of these cards with a card in their hand, otherwise they won't be able to play anything except the cards they currently have in hand.

But Drannith Magistrate doesn't just see play in Commander. It's also showing up a bunch in Modern sideboards as a way to beat strategies around Underworld Breach, since it completely shuts down that card.

Urabrask, Heretic Praetor	CardKingdom $3.99	TCGPlayer $2.99
Omen Machine	CardKingdom $0.99	TCGPlayer $0.99
Drannith Magistrate	CardKingdom $12.99	TCGPlayer $14.18

 

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.

 

Living Death $4.81 - Moving up!

 

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

 

Liliana, the Last Hope $6.74 - Slowly moving down

 

Monastery Mentor $7.45 - Slowly moving down

 

Living Death	CardKingdom $6.99	TCGPlayer $4.81
Monastery Mentor	CardKingdom $8.49	TCGPlayer $7.45
Liliana, the Last Hope	CardKingdom $8.49	TCGPlayer $6.74

 

That's it for this week. Make sure to check back next week for more Weekly Winners!