Lord of the Rings keeps shaking up prices! The set is proving to be powerful, and we're seeing plenty of interactions with a lot of other cards.
Like every week, just in time for FNM, I'll tell you about the Magic: the Gathering cards that'll be the talk of the town tonight! Come discuss this week's price movements with us on Discord.
Articles
The past few months we've been focusing on putting out more quality content, and I'd love to share the next few articles with you, since they're worth a read:
- Ryan talks about the Penny Stocks market, a Premium feature of MTGStocks, in his article A Penny Saved, A Bauble Earner.
- In the Weekly Winners you read about why a card went up, but that shouldn't be the end of the discussion. Check out Jason's article to see what to do next, in Why'd That Go Up?
- Corey writes some high quality content about Modern and the cards from new sets that he feels are bound to be played there, in his Modern Times series. This week he's revisiting his March of the Machine predictions in MOM Revisited.
- In Hidden Gems, Adam talks about the cards you should pay attention to when it comes to Commander. Make sure you get those staples before they become expensive.
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Onto the Weekly Winners!
In the Weekly Winners of last week we talked about Sagas, so this week let's talk about Sagas again! Sagas are very popular right now, and the obvious reason for this is the printing of Tom Bombadil, which was previewed very early on in the The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth preview season. When you read the card text of Tom, it's not hard to spot the synergy with Sagas. Once the final chapter of a Saga resolves, you get to reveal cards from the top of your library and put the first Saga you find onto the battlefield.
The past few weeks we've seen an uptrend in Sagas, especially the more powerful ones. But In the Darkness Bind Them may have another reason for it going up. And for that we have to go back to the Weekly Winners of two weeks ago. Back then we were looking at Ringwraiths moving up because of Wraith typal decks becoming more popular in Commander. With the new Lord of the Rings commanders that care about Wraiths, like Witch-king of Angmar and Sauron, the Necromancer, these are becoming more popular. When we look at the first two chapters of In the Darkness Bind Them we can see that you get to create Wraiths. However, as you may have noticed, In the Darkness Bind Them is in the Grixis colors, while the commanders I mentioned are both mono black. This means we most likely have to look at Sauron, Lord of the Rings or Sauron, the Dark Lord as the decks where this is most likely played in.
In the same colors this week, we see The Horus Heresy shooting up with 637% to over $7, and since this is a Saga as well, let's discuss it here too. This card has nothing to do with Wraiths, and seems to only be going up because of Tom decks.
| In the Darkness Bind Them | | |
| The Horus Heresy | | |
Here we have a creature from Commander: Dominaria United that technically isn't multicolored, but still is. Its color identity is green, but it still counts as multicolored, and the card clearly cares about multicolored spells, giving them Convoke. It seems to be going up because of Commander play, where Fallaji Wayfarer isn't necessarily new. It already saw play in Jared Carthalion and Jenson Carthalion, Druid Exile decks, which isn't suprising since they all appeared in the same Painbow precon, but also occasionally in decks around Rienne, Angel of Rebirth or Niv-Mizzet, Supreme.
Again the uptick is because of Lord of the Rings cards, specifically Aragorn, the Uniter. Aragorn is a four-color commander that works best whenever you play a multicolored spell, since it can then trigger multiple times on a single spell. With Fallaji Wayfarer in the mix, you can churn out these spells a lot faster.
| Aragorn, the Uniter | | |
| Fallaji Wayfarer | | |
| Fallaji Wayfarer (Extended Art) | | |
| Rienne, Angel of Rebirth | | |
| Niv-Mizzet, Supreme | | |
Let's close off with a card that spiked for a different reason than Commander. Living End is not new to the Modern scene! It's one of these odd cards from Time Spiral that you cannot simply cast, it can only be Suspended. In this case, you can Suspend it for and then you have to wait three turns for it to be cast, giving your opponents sufficient time to find an answer, or at least see it coming and prepare. However, this wouldn't be Magic if there wasn't some way to play it without the Suspend restriction. When you cast a spell with Cascade, and flip into Living End, you immediately get to cast it. If you play Violent Outburst, for instance, and you have no other spells in your deck that have a mana value of two or less, then you are bound to run into Living End and get to cast it.
You do however need something to bring back with Living End. Usually these are large creatures that can be Cycled onto the graveyard. That's exactly what Modern Living End decks try to do. This strategy is far from new, and has put up results in the past. The metagame has however shifted from back then. But some new cards have been printed that have sparked renewed interest in the deck and made it a lot better. These cards are Generous Ent and Oliphaunt from the Lord of the Rings sets. For you get to Cycle these creatures away into your graveyard and search for a Forest or Mountain card, depending on which one you cycle. These are both huge creatures that you have to be able to deal with when brought back.
Two weeks ago Andrea Mengucci also posted the Modern power rankings giving Living End decks the Tier A status.
We also see Grief shooting up the past week. This is a popular disruption card in these Living End decks as well, and this may very well be the reason for this card to also go up. But besides that it's a staple as well in Legacy and Vintage.
| Living End | | |
| Grief | | |
| Living End | | |
| Generous Ent | | |
| Oliphaunt | | |
Cheap Pickups
Please note: for our 'record low' we consider the price of the card over the past 7 years. Many cards were even cheaper (a) decade(s) ago. Also note: some cards are still going down, and might be even cheaper pickups next week.
Breach the Multiverse has been identified by the MTGStocks Premium Penny Stocks feature as a card that has reached its bottom and is starting a consistent uptrend.
This Extended Art version seems to be only half the price of its regular printing.
| Breach the Multiverse | | |
| Rootpath Purifier (Extended Art) | | |
| Avabruck Caretaker | | |
That's it for this week. Make sure to check back next week for more Weekly Winners!
