Weekly Winners 2023 - 21

This week is mainly dominated by constructed eternal formats, including one card from cEDH!

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

Jason Alt is back again with a new article. How Do You Catch a Legendary Creature? is the latest installment in his Alt of the Deal series, where he discusses the value of underplayed cards in Commander.

Ryan focuses on cards from the Weekly Winners of a year ago, and talks about what happened to their prices since, in Where Are They Now?

In History, Restapled Steve examines the financial and gameplay value of several new cards from the set [set]March of the Machine[/set]. He provides detailed analysis on why some cards, despite initial hype, may not hold their value, while others, currently underappreciated, could become staples in the game due to their unique abilities and synergies.

In New Horizons: Spring 2023 Secret Lair, Matt analyzes the financial value and gameplay implications of the cards included in the upcoming Secret Lair Spring Superdrop. He provides an in-depth examination of several key cards, discussing their unique abilities, their price trajectories, and how they compare to similar cards, offering insights into the potential value of this new release for both collectors and players.

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 Knight-Errant of Eos $7.99 (+899%)

Lets start the Winners with a newer rare from March of the Machine. This Human Knight costs five mana, but is a lot cheaper to cast if you have some creatures on the battlefield that can help Convoke it. The Convoke is more important than just making Knight-Errant of Eos cheaper though, since it also affects the power of its enter-the-battlefield ability.

Last week the card went up almost 900% for both the regular and the extended art print. A spike like this usually indicates some hype from a content creator, and this card is no different. Maybe you've heard of this small-time content creator Aspiringspike. In April he was the reason for Dramatic Entrance spiking (article), in March it was both Emeria, the Sky Ruin (article) and Fiend Artisan (article), and in January it was Grinding Station (article). And that was just this year!

Knight-Errant of Eos was played in his Shining Humans decks in Modern.

However, there seems to be another reason for the card to go up as much as it is, and that's Pioneer. A new Convoke deck is putting up results that play both Knight-Errant of Eos and Venerated Loxodon.  This last card is also slowly moving up a bit in price, but since it has had reprints there are more in circulation.

The deck's main attraction is playing four Loxodon and four Knight-Errant, and churning out 14 power as early as turn two. With cheap creatures and token makers, it's possible to Convoke these five-drops as early as turn two. Knight-Errant of Eos is great in attrition-based matchups, digging deep for more threats. Venerated Loxodon enhances Convoked creatures, ensuring a swift victory. The deck maximizes Convoke with cards like Gleeful Demolition, Thraben Inspector, and Ornithopter. Additional creature generation comes from Forbidden Friendship and Resolute Reinforcements, leading to Reckless Bushwhacker plays for quick damage. 

This last card, Reckless Bushwhacker is also showing high up on our Interests list this week. It went from about $0.70 to $4, which is a 471% increase.

Knight-Errant of Eos	CardKingdom $2.29	TCGPlayer $1.10
Knight-Errant of Eos (Extended Art)	CardKingdom $2.29	TCGPlayer $1.41

#2 Nature's Chosen $11.99 (+574%)

Well, here's an older and less known uncommon from Alliances. Let's quickly go over the text on the card, since its pretty small on the image, and also in the "old" wording. It's an Aura for that enchants a creature you control. During your turn, and only once each turn, you can pay to untap the enchanted creature. You can also use its second ability where you can tap the enchanted creature to untap a target artifact, creature, or land. You can only activate this ability if the enchanted creature is white, and can only do this once per turn. Despite not being the best untap engine in the game, its price has surged from $1.20 to almost $12.

Two main factors have contributed to this rise. First, the card is from an old set, making good-condition copies quite rare. Second, the card was spotlighted by content creators ComedIan MTG and Pixelstore1 in a comprehensive cEDH deck breakdown video, during which Pixelstore1 praised Nature's Chosen as one of the best green cards they've discovered.

However, not all players share this enthusiasm, with some arguing it doesn't even deserve a spot in the top ten untap effects. This discrepancy between player opinion and the card's price surge is attributed to a buyout, where hundreds of copies were purchased at ever-increasing prices. However, it does seem to be just that: a buyout. The card doesn't seem to have direct synergy with the deck or the commander, Tayam, Luminous Enigma, but is merely in the deck to untap Gaea's Cradle to make a bunch of mana.

What does speak for the card is that its art was created by Rebecca Guay, a rather popular Magic artist that is also currently featured in a Secret Lair Artist Series.

Nature's Chosen	CardKingdom $3.49	TCGPlayer $2.93
Tayam, Luminous Enigma	CardKingdom $2.99	TCGPlayer $1.00
Gaea's Cradle	CardKingdom $849.99	TCGPlayer $799.99

#3 Invasion of Gobakhan $14.99 (+306%)

I think this is the first time a battle has made it into the Weekly Winners. Invasion of Gobakhan can be played to disrupt your opponent's hand a bit. It doesn't discard a card from their hand, but exiles it, from where it can still be cast for more. Once the battle has been defeated it transforms into Lightshield Array, which puts a +1/+1 counter on each creature that attacked this turn at the beginning of your end step. It can also be sacrificed to give your creatures hexproof and indestructible until end of turn.

We're seeing this card appear in multiple formats. It's found in Standard Soldiers and White Weenies, and in Pioneer we see it in both Azorius and Bant Spirits, and also in White Midrange builds. We're even seeing it show up in Legacy and Modern builds.

Invasion of Gobakhan

CardKingdom $6.99

TCGPlayer $4.25

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.

Skullclamp $4.86 - Moving up!

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

 

Vedalken Orrery $6.03 - Slowly moving down

 

Sneak Attack (Retro Frame) $8.00 - Stable

 

Skullclamp	CardKingdom $7.99	TCGPlayer $4.78
Vedalken Orrery	CardKingdom $6.49	TCGPlayer $5.75
Sneak Attack (Retro Frame)	CardKingdom $6.99	TCGPlayer $5.82

 

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