Weekly Winners 2023 - 17

We have three winners for you this week all touching eternal formats, but they're all going up because of Commander. Knights are the new hot thing!

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

Articles

We have had an amazing week content-wise! Four new articles have been published since the last Weekly Winners! First we have Ryan's Where Are They Now? where he takes the winners of the Weekly Winners of a year ago and analyses how their price has progressed since then.

Adam talks about the cards you should pick up for your Commander decks in his Hidden Gems series. This week he talks about colorless cards that may be worth seeking.

In the New Horizons series, Matt looks at interesting cards from the new Commander: March of the Machine set.

Steve talks you through the cards that validates a newer card's status as a staple in Commander in his series History, Restapled. Make sure you pick up the cards for your decks cheaply before they become staples.

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Onto the Weekly Winners!

#1 Cavalier of Night $8.87 (+153%)

 

Just like last week we have a Cavalier as one of our winners. Cavalier of Night shot up with 153% to almost $9. The Cavalier cycle came out in Core Set 2020 and has one in every color. During their time in Standard, most of the Cavaliers saw at least some play, and others still see play in constructed formats. And while the winner of last week, Cavalier of Dawn, did actually see some play in Pioneer, it seems like Cavalier of Night is mainly popular because of Commander.

The card already saw some play in Commander around cards like Haakon, Stromgald Scourge and Moira, Urborg Haunt. But notably, Cavalier of Night is a Knight, and you may already know by now what that means. In Commander: March of the Machine the new Cavalry Charge precon deck is all about Knights. The deck and its commander, Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir, seem to have given quite some impulse to the popularity of the Knights creature type.

Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir	CardKingdom $0.79	TCGPlayer $0.93
Cavalier of Night	CardKingdom $3.99	TCGPlayer $8.87
Haakon, Stromgald Scourge	CardKingdom $2.79	TCGPlayer $2.89
Cavalier of Night		TCGPlayer $12.75

 

#2 Guardian of Faith $10.54 (+99%)

 

This creature from Adventures in the Forgotten Realms hasn't been popping up on the radar from nothing. It already sees some play in Pioneer in the sideboards of Elves and White Weenie decks. Phasing is an older mechanic that is proving to more and more players that it is quite useful. I remember when I started playing Magic I found it rather confusing, but nowadays there is plenty of reminder text on cards to explain somewhat what it does and how to treat these permanents. The main use of Guardian of Faith in these decks is to function as a way to phase your creatures out in case of a board wipe, saving your creatures from being destroyed and letting them phase back in on your next turn.

But that doesn't seems to be the reason for the spike. When we take a little closer look at the card, we notice that it is... a Knight! Just like our previous winner it seems like Guardian of Faith is a good upgrade to the Cavalry Charge deck. But also being a Spirit seems relevant, since there is plenty of tribal support for Spirits and it can easily fit in these kind of decks as well, like Celestial Kirin and Oyobi, Who Split the Heavens. But it also seems like it's found its way into Commander decks that revolve around a new card from March of the Machine: Errant and Giada.

 

Errant and Giada	CardKingdom $0.49	TCGPlayer $0.40
Celestial Kirin	CardKingdom $0.79	TCGPlayer $1.28
Guardian of Faith	CardKingdom $5.99	TCGPlayer $10.54

 

#3 Apex Altisaur $11.69 (+482%)

 

Here is a big, fat Dinosaur from Commander 2019. And as you can imagine from these big creatures that costs 9 mana, you can obviously find them in slow formats like Legacy. This creature has found its way in the occasional Legacy 4- or 5-color Zenith decks that revolve around cheating a fatty into play with Natural Order. And while I always like Legacy, and pretend to be at least somewhat up to date on its metagame, it was only today that I realized this card actually sees play there.

However, this doesn't seem to be the reason for the spike. The reason seems to be Commander. It already saw play in Gishath, Sun's Avatar and Slimefoot and Squee decks. But with the release of March of the Machine Dinosaurs received a little bit more support with cards like Etali, Primal Conqueror. But what's also important to remember is that Wizards has announced that we will return to Ixalan in the upcoming Lost Caverns of Ixalan set. This most likely means a bunch of new Dinosaurs will be printed, that will also spike the interest again in the creature type. This may very well be a good moment to pick up the most important Dinosaurs.

What definitely helped in this card shooting up is that it was played in the last episode of Game Knights from the Command Zone, where the aformentioned Slimefoot and Squee also makes an appearance.

Apex Altisaur	CardKingdom $6.99	TCGPlayer $12.34
Gishath, Sun's Avatar	CardKingdom $32.99	TCGPlayer $32.19
Slimefoot and Squee		TCGPlayer $3.71

 

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.

 

Crawlspace $2.45 - Moving up!

 

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

 

Tiamat $5.37 - Moving down

 

No Mercy (Retro Frame) $9.11 - Slowly moving down

No Mercy (Retro Frame)	CardKingdom $11.99	TCGPlayer $9.11
Tiamat	CardKingdom $8.49	TCGPlayer $5.37
Crawlspace	CardKingdom $2.99	TCGPlayer $2.45

 

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