Weekly Winners 2023 - 05

In exactly one week Phyrexia: All Will Be One will release on paper, and unsurprisingly it's the main reason for cards moving this week. The set's fun new cards are proving to be impactful, and will benefit multiple formats.

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.

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Do you like these Weekly Winners? Because Ryan evaluates cards that were discussed in the Weekly Winners a year prior to see where they are now. Read the Where Are They Now? update to see what cards retained their value or dropped again.

Matt wrote about the upcoming Phyrexia: All Will Be One, which has been making some waves in Magic prices. This week's Weekly Winners proves that once again. Check out his New Horizons article to see what cards are important to keep track of.

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Onto the Weekly Winners!

#1 War Elemental $3.99 (+198%)

 

Now here is a rare card from Mirrodin that I didn't expect to see spike. For you get a mere 1/1 that only sticks around as long as an opponent was dealt damage. But it can grow whenever an opponent is dealt damage. And it can grow pretty quickly at that, since you get to put +1/+1 counter on it equal to the amount of damage dealt.

Last week we talked about the spike of Quest for Pure Flame when it went up because of the preview of All Will Be One from Phyrexia: All Will Be One. We're seeing War Elemental spiking for the exact same reason, and the exact same combo. If you have All Will Be One on the battlefield along with War Elemental, all you need is a source to damage one of your opponents. Once you do, you get to put one or more counters on War Elemental. This will trigger All Will Be One to do that much damage to an opponent, which in turn will trigger War Elemental again. Time to go infinite and kill all of your opponents.

As you can see this works with War Elemental, Quest for Pure Flame, and also The Red Terror. But there are obviously more options like Talon of Pain or Night Dealings. Both of these cards have barely moved in price so far. Night Dealings is not in the same color as All Will Be One, but Talon of Pain should fit right in there.

Quest for Pure Flame	CardKingdom $2.49	TCGPlayer $3.49
Night Dealings	CardKingdom $1.49	TCGPlayer $1.65
Talon of Pain	CardKingdom $0.35	TCGPlayer $0.25
War Elemental	CardKingdom $1.79	TCGPlayer $3.99
The Red Terror	CardKingdom $5.99	TCGPlayer $4.78

 

#2 Melira, Sylvok Outcast $14.48 (+107%)

 

In case you haven't heard yet: poison counters are a thing in Phyrexia: All Will Be One. This is why Melira, Sylvok Outcast is going up, and for that exact same reason we have also seen Leeches moving to a $18 pricetag. Fun fact: Leeches now is the most expensive card in Homelands, dethroning Didgeridoo.

Melira is a rare from the 2011 set New Phyrexia and hasn't been reprinted since. It sees a little bit of commander play, as it combos with Phyrexian Unlife and works well in decks that revolve around Persist creatures like Woodfall Primus. When you play Woodfall Primus with Melira, Sylvok Outcast and a repeatable sacrifice outlet you can even destroy any number of noncreature permanents. While Melira is a $15 card now, I kind of feel it was undervalued at $5.

Melira, Sylvok Outcast	CardKingdom $8.99	TCGPlayer $14.48
Leeches	CardKingdom $6.49	TCGPlayer $17.98

 

#3 Artificer Class $10.44 (+73%)

 

This is a rare from Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate that we find in the Draconic Descent preconstructed deck. The card has been popular already in Commander decks for some time and especially has gotten some extra love since The Brothers' War because of its artifact-centric themes. The card has not seen a reprint yet and has steadily been climbing up the past week.

The reasons for this upward trend seems to be yet another card from Phyrexia: All Will Be One, or actually its Commander counterpart. Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch, the first Myr commander, was making waves two weeks ago when it was leaked, as well other cards that revolve around Myrs. Since there are not that many Myr cards, and we need to fill up the 100 in some way, Artificer Class makes sense to include in these decks. It makes your first artifact spell each turn cheaper, it can get you the next artifact card in your deck, and you get to make copies of artifacts you control. That seems pretty reasonable.

Artificer Class	CardKingdom $8.99	TCGPlayer $10.44
Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch		TCGPlayer $29.51

 

#4 Aphetto Alchemist $8.00 (+35%)

 

Let's do a bonus fourth winner! This week we see an older card from Onslaught go up in value to $8, and the foils nearing $50. This card has not seen a reprint and with it you can untap an artifact or creature. It already sees some play in commander in decks around Reveka, Wizard Savant for its Wizards theme, or Ixidor, Reality Sculptor for its Morph ability.

But there's a new card in Phyrexia: All Will Be One that it combos with: Unctus, Grand Metatect. You can tap Aphetto Alchemist targeting itself to untap it again, meaning you get to tap and untap this Wizard an unlimited amount of times. Unctus' ability gives Aphetto Alchemist the ability to loot (draw then discard) whenever it becomes tapped, meaning you get to loot an unlimited amount of times and dig through your deck. From there you should be able to dig up a win condition with, of course, Thassa's Oracle being one of the most prominent ones that come to mind.

Aphetto Alchemist	CardKingdom $6.49	TCGPlayer $8.00
Unctus, Grand Metatect	CardKingdom $0.99	TCGPlayer $0.81

 

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.

 

And They Shall Know No Fear $4.82 - Moving up!

 

And They Shall Know No Fear has been identified by the MTGStocks Premium Penny Stocks feature as a card that has reached its bottom and is starting a consistent uptrend.

 

Garruk, Apex Predator $7.71 - Moving down

 

Bootleggers' Stash $6.50 - Slowly moving down

 

Bootleggers' Stash	CardKingdom $8.99	TCGPlayer $6.50
And They Shall Know No Fear	CardKingdom $11.99	TCGPlayer $4.82
Garruk, Apex Predator	CardKingdom $9.49	TCGPlayer $7.71

 

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