Weekly Winners 2023 - 43

Movement this week from Modern and Commander, plus speculations about upcoming sets.

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

• Dive into the world of card variants as Max breaks down the Phyrexian Praetors, helping you determine the best variant for your collection based on price and rarity. Read Max's first MTGStocks article Which Phyrexian Praetor Variants Should You Buy?
• Deven shares his insights on potential card spikes with limited risk, highlighting the value of Arclight Phoenix and the synergy of Triumph of Saint Katherine with a popular enchantment in his first edition of the Safe Bets series.
• Jason introduces you to overlooked cards that can offer fresh interactions or budget-friendly alternatives, discussing the potential of AFR Ampersand Promos and the game-changing power of Timesifter in his series Inconspicuous Scoops.
• In Modern Times, Corey takes a closer look at the impact of "special appearances" and reprints in supplemental products on the Modern format, discussing how these unique printings can influence the market value and playability of certain cards. Dive into the intricate dynamics of reprints and their ripple effects on the Modern landscape.

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Onto the Weekly Winners!

#1 Questing Druid $12.99 (+371%)

Just six short weeks ago we mentioned this card in our Weekly Winners - 37. Questing Druid is a 1/1 creature for that grows whenever you play a spell of any color other than green. It can however be sent on an Adventure when casting the "Seek the Beast" part of the spell, which is an instant speed Reckless Impulse or a Wrenn's Resolve (both of which see or have seen play in several formats). When bound to a creature that can grow pretty quickly in the right deck, this seems like a pretty big deal!

Questing Druid was one of the cards that quickly had most people's attention when the cards from Wilds of Eldraine were previewed. Being a cheap creature that grows and can provide card advantage will often find a home in constructed formats like Modern. And while Murktide Regent has the better stats, Questing Druid only costs two mana and doesn't need the graveyard to be cast reliably. It may not close out the game in the same speed, but it certainly gets the job done.

Two days ago Andrea Mengucci, who arguably is one of the main drivers and ambassadors behind Murktide Regent decks and has slowly been replacing copies of the Regent for Questing Druid, also finished 21st in a major Modern tournament in Sofia last weekend playing Questing Druid in Temur Adventures.

The hype around Questing Druid in Modern has really driven the price up this week. While it started only around $3, it's now selling for about $15 a piece. But also keep in mind that this card has not only been making waves in Modern, it's also found a home in Legacy Temur Tempo decks alongside Murktide Regent, and also in Pioneer Gruul aggro decks.

Questing Druid	CardKingdom $8.99	TCGPlayer $12.99
Questing Druid (Showcase)	CardKingdom $8.99	TCGPlayer $9.68
Questing Druid	CardKingdom	TCGPlayer $15.00
Murktide Regent	CardKingdom $19.99	TCGPlayer $16.91

#2 Their Name Is Death $4.81 (+93%)

Here's a card I didn't expect to spike. But cards from Universes Beyond: Warhammer 40,000 tend to be rather strong and find a home in all kinds of Commander decks that can support them. Their Name Is Death fits that bill, but the spike comes a bit later then than you'd expect. Let's first quickly glance over the card, since there's not a lot of text on there. For six mana you get to wipe the board, except for artifact creatures. There are plenty of cheaper boardwipes, but having one that's asymmetrical in your advantage is allowed to be a little bit more expensive.

Now the question we need to answer is, what's changed recently that made the card go up in price? Previews from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan are happening as we speak, but as far as I can tell, I haven't seen noteworthy artifact creatures that support this card. Also, Their Name Is Death's price started moving around four days ago, and has been on a slight uptrend even before that.

The first cards from Universes Beyond: Fallout have been previewed as well. Here we can find Mr. House, President and CEO, which may impact the price of this card. I mean, it's an artifact creature that creates artifact creatures, and it includes the black color identity. And frankly, I don't think that it's too farfetched to be the reason for Their Name Is Death to move up.

$5.34$4.99

But before Fallout became all the hype in the Universes Beyond, don't forget we also recently had the Universes Beyond: Doctor Who set. The set has been released and is now slowly finding its way into players' hands. This will also lead to people wanting to upgrade their decks. And notable artifact creatures in these sets are Cybermen Squadron and Cyberman Patrol in the Masters of Evil precon deck with Davros, Dalek Creator as Commander. You guessed it, an artifact creature.

And while I did expect this spike to happen a little bit earlier, with regards to the cards in the Doctor Who sets, it kind of makes sense that people start upgrading their decks once they've gotten their hands on the actual cards. Also, with the immense amount of product being put out nowadays, it's hard to keep track of all cards that have been coming out. I have no evidence to support the claim, but I feel that it's happening more often that cards get discovered a little behind the curve.

Their Name Is Death	CardKingdom	TCGPlayer $4.81
Mr. House, President and CEO	CardKingdom	TCGPlayer
Davros, Dalek Creator	CardKingdom	TCGPlayer $0.50

#3 Cyber Conversion $8.69 (+54%)

As you may know, the blue color in Magic doesn't usually have clean ways to remove threats from the board. Those are mostly restricted to the black color identity that has destroy effects on cards. When we look at blue ways to get rid of threats in Commander, we have cards like Pongify or Reality Shift. But in Universes Beyond: Doctor Who, a new card has been printed that can join the options in blue to get rid of problematic creatures.

$0.70$0.49

Cyber Conversion doesn't necessarily remove a creature, but puts it face down, making it a 2/2 Cyberman artifact creature. And to be straightforward about this card, it may be one of the best, if not the best, blue removal spells in Commander. If you play Commander, you know that when your Commander gets removed from the board, you can opt into letting it go into your Command Zone, from which you can easily cast it again (for a higher cost). So when your Commander gets destroyed, it's relatively easy to get it back. However, when it's targeted by Cyber Conversion, it technically won't be removed from the board, but awkwardly just turned into a 2/2 Cyberman where it's stuck. Sure, they can attack into opponents hoping they will block it to death so it can be re-cast, but opponents can also opt to just let it go through, or chump-block it, making sure you won't see your Commander again in the forseeable future.

Cyber Conversion is printed in the Masters of Evil precon in the Universes Beyond: Doctor Who set. And frankly, I'm a bit surprised it took this long for the card to start moving up. It was long speculated by others before me to be one of the better blue removal spells, but maybe here as well, the price started moving now that the supply is actually going.

Cyber Conversion	CardKingdom $6.49	TCGPlayer $8.69
Cyber Conversion (Extended Art)	CardKingdom $7.99	TCGPlayer $8.34
Pongify	CardKingdom $7.49	TCGPlayer $4.49
Reality Shift	CardKingdom $0.49	TCGPlayer $0.70

#4 Gonti's Aether Heart $5.87 (+150%)

As a last extra Winner, I'll very briefly discuss Gonti's Aether Heart, but more to let you know that I didn't miss this spike. The thing is that there's not necessarily a lot to tell about this card yet, and we basically already discussed the reason for this spike in last week's article, although it wasn't Gonti's Aether Heart that went up last week, it was Aetherworks Marvel. The reason for these spikes is that the previews have started for Universes Beyond: Fallout. The names and commanders of the decks are now known, and among them is the Science! deck. The commander of this deck is Dr. Madison Li, and another known card in the deck is be Rex, Cyber-Hound.

As you can see, this deck seems to revolve around Energy counters. And both Gonti's Aether Heart and Aetherworks Marvel care about those! It seems that the price of these are currently speculative, since we don't know yet what other cards are in the deck. In the case of both, they are bound by name to a specific theme that doesn't fit the Fallout universe, so a reprint isn't necessarily likely.

Gonti's Aether Heart	CardKingdom $2.99	TCGPlayer $5.87
Gonti's Aether Heart	CardKingdom $10.99	TCGPlayer $21.95
Dr. Madison Li	CardKingdom	TCGPlayer
Rex, Cyber-Hound	CardKingdom	TCGPlayer

Cheap Pickups

Please note: for our 'record low' we consider the price of the card over the past seven 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.

Altar of Dementia $5.00 - Moving up!

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

Timeless Lotus $12.25 - Moving down

Urza, Lord High Artificer $8.76 - Slowly moving down

Altar of Dementia	CardKingdom $6.49	TCGPlayer $4.97
Timeless Lotus	CardKingdom $12.99	TCGPlayer $12.25
Urza, Lord High Artificer	CardKingdom	TCGPlayer $8.76

 

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