An interesting week, with a lot of winners, a lot of changes and also a hand full of weekly losers. Once again, I present you the cards that will be the talk of the town tonight.

 

#1 Crucible of Worlds +24.3% ($55.47)

Crucible of Worlds has been popping up in our interests and Weekly Winners over the past months. And this week, the card has reached a new all time high of $55.47. Crucible of Worlds sees play in Modern, Vintage and Legacy. When a card sees play in all three 'eternal' formats, and has a powerful and unique ability you can count on a high price tag. 

But interestingly, Crucible of Worlds has a price tag usually reserved for cards that see allround play (as a 3 of 4-off) in different archetypes. Especially because the card we are discussing here is the Tenth Edition reprint of the card. Crucible of Worlds does not see that much play. It was a 1-off in the deck that won GP Pittsburgh, piloted by Zachary Sewall. 

In Legacy, the card is sometimes used in the lands deck, but not as often as you would expect, and in most decks it is not played. The lands archetype did get a lot of airtime in last weekend's SCG Live tournament, which could interest people to look into the card, but since it sees little play, it should not be the first card to invest in when you consider to play lands.

In the Vintage MUD decks, Crucible of Worlds does see mainboard play in some decks, as a 3 of 4-off. But mostly as a sideboard card as well. 

 

#2 Command Beacon +35.5% ($4.04)

Command Beacon is back as a Weekly Winner. Last week it continued to grow, and two weeks ago it was the #3 winner.

Like I stated in the article from week 47, Command Beacon is a card that can fit in any EDH deck, and it allows you to get access to your higher mana costed commanders.

But what could be better than to re-use Command Beacon every time your commander is sent back to your command zone? What you would need to really turn a profit is to play Command Beacon next to cards that allow you to fetch your lands from your graveyard. And why not put it directly into play with, I don't know, Crucible of Worlds maybe? 

 

#3 Sphere of Resistance +20.6% ($9.89)

Sphere of Resistance is just a few cents away from breaking its all time high. In all formats you have those cards that don't attract many attention to themselves, that just sneak their way into play. But once they are there, you'll notice how powerful they can be, if the conditions are right. Sphere of Resistance is one of those cards. 

There are many cards that 'tax' your opponent (and in this case, yourself), forcing them to pay more and more for their spells. Sphere of Resistance does not have a unique ability, but it does have the characteristic that it is an artifact, making it an option for any deck that has a mana denial plan. Sphere of Resistance is not an overly powerful card. It is decent, and it can be good in certain decks.

But, in the case of Sphere of Resistance one thing needs to be said: it is from Exodus, and older set with a (compared to today's sets) limited print run. Which makes the card more rare than its rarity implies. Combine that with a decent ability and the fact that it sees (limited) play in both Legacy and Vintage and you have the parts that come together in the (almost) $10 price tag.

Although the 'hard facts' suggest otherwise, Legacy's lands archetype seems/feels to be on a rise.  I know, Yarvis Yu recently won a Grand Prix with a Lands deck, but up until now, that seems to be a statistical outlier. Since not many people play Vintage, changes in the Legacy format should be the driving force behind the rise of Sphere of Resistance. Check out the graph below:

 

As you can see, the Lands archetype is not as popular as it was a few months ago. We do see a slight increase in its metagame share (currently 2.9%). But, in a format like Legacy, good tournament results are not the only driving force of price changes. The format changes slowly (aside from the printing of incredible format warping cards that get banned after a few months), and dedicated Legacy players are always on the lookout for the new kid on the block, or the 'old friend' that suddenly becomes famous. 

 

Weekly Losers

Since there are very little cheap pickups to report, I will bring you the old weekly losers, since I have some interesting cards you should look out for:

Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker -10,5%

 

Protean Hulk -10,5%

Last week it was in the Winners, and it loses more than 10% of its value this week.

Anafenza, the Foremost -11,3%

 

Wingmate Roc -15,1%

 

Martyr's Bond -15,7%

 

City of Brass -41,5%