A card spiking because of Modern, Commander, and potentially Pioneer. This week has been pretty interesting. And not only that, I get to brag about my own top 8 finish from years and years ago!
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.
Articles
In The Big Things Harvey talks about the Magic Collector's Edition which has become more relevant than ever since the printing of 30th Anniversary Edition.
In the latest instalment of Modern Times Corey looks at the Legendary Lands of the original Kamigawa block and their impact on Modern. It's a very interesting read for anyone interested in Modern or Magic finance.
Also, you can read about the Alpha Black Lotus signed by Christopher Rush that is up for auction.
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Onto the Weekly Winners!
Goryo's Vengeance is one of those cards that tends to spike every few years. Being able to reanimate a Legendary creature on instant speed for only is powerful, and definitely playable in multiple formats. The first recorded spike of this card was in 2013 when it was included in the Tin Fins archetype in Legacy. It was during this time that I actually managed to get a top 8 finish at the Legacy event at GP Utrecht! Resurrecting Griselbrand, drawing a bunch of cards, and getting your life back with Children of Korlis is pretty good.
The power of Goryo's Vengeance, along with Shallow Grave, was pretty obvious back then with Griselbrand, and is now popular again since the printing of Atraxa, Grand Unifier. But this time the spike doesn't seem to come from Legacy, but mainly from Modern. An interesting piece of tech in these decks is the inclusion of Ephemerate. If you reanimate a creature with Goryo's Vengeance you are supposed to exile it at the end of turn. But if you manage to resolve Ephemerate on it, it will return to the battlefield as a new entity, and thus does not need to be exiled. Reanimate decks are not new to Modern, but these usually revolved around Archon of Cruelty with Persist as the reanimation card of choice.
A few days ago Andrea Mengucci played a different version of the deck in his video. He also includes Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and Through the Breach from the sideboard. Since Goryo's Vengeance can be played on instant speed, you can get Emrakul onto the battlefield in response to its trigger to shuffle the graveyard back into the library.
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| Goryo's Vengeance |
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| Griselbrand |
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| Goryo's Vengeance |
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Let's discuss a rare enchantment from the Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate set. Want to end the game quickly? Make sure everyone has plenty of Treasure tokens early, and throw some extra damage around at the beginning of your upkeep. This card costs , but can quickly pay for itself in Treasure tokens, although your opponents will also benefit from this.
The card has become more popular in Commander since the printing of Solphim, Mayhem Dominus in Phyrexia: All Will Be One. Solphim will make sure that the symmetry of Descent into Avernus is lessened since it doubles the damage dealt to your opponents. And since Solphim is able to protect itself with an indestructable counter, it's much harder to remove. So as long as your opponents cannot interact too much with Solphim and Descent into Avernus, you could potentially win with these two cards.
| Solphim, Mayhem Dominus |
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| Descent into Avernus |
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| Descent into Avernus (Extended Art) |
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Now here is an interesting card, since it's mainly the Extended Art version that's spiking. And while the regular version of the card has a clear uptrend it hasn't really spiked (yet). Gwenna is a rare elf from The Brothers' War with combo potential. An elf generating mana that can untap itself, as long as you cast a creature with power 5 or greater, seems pretty good.
But one card is not enough to make a combo. We need another piece to the puzzle, and in this case we have Acererak the Archlich. You can play Acerak for , and as long as you haven't completed Tomb of Annihilation it gets bounced to your hand. Meaning that you can potentially play it again. But Gwenna only makes two mana! So if you can get something like Relic of Legends or Bontu's Monument into play as well, you can now infinitely cast Acerak. So now we have a loop where we can play Acerak an infinite amount of times, and also making Gwenna infinitely large at the same time. Now what? Well, if we give Acerak a good read, you see we also venture into the dungeon every time it enters the battlefield. If we venture into The Undercity for instance, we see the Trap! room where a player loses 5 life. So if we complete this dungeon a few times you can win the game. Or keep venturing into the Lost Mine of Phandelver going through the Dark Pool room draining your opponents for 1 life (Bontu's Monument will also drain opponents).
Edit: Acerak cannot venture into The Undercity. Lost Mine of Phandelver does work
It's rumored that it may be, or may become, a good combo to play in Pioneer, but it has yet to put up some real results. Nevertheless, I think the card may find its way into Commander decks as well.
| Bontu's Monument |
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| Acererak the Archlich |
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| Relic of Legends |
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| Gwenna, Eyes of Gaea |
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| Gwenna, Eyes of Gaea (Extended Art) |
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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.
Tocasia's Welcome has been identified by the MTGStocks Premium Penny Stocks feature as a card that has reached its bottom and is starting a consistent uptrend.
Tiller Engine $5.33 - Slowly moving down
| Tiller Engine |
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| Cultivator Colossus | |
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| Tocasia's Welcome |
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That's it for this week. Make sure to check back next week for more Weekly Winners!
