Weekly Winners (11-2016)

After a break, Weekly Winners is back this week. Compared to a month ago, financial markets are a lot less volatile at this time. But, we do see some interesting movement. So, once again, I present you the cards that will be the talk of the town tonight.

 

#1 Hall of Gemstone +2074% ($28.49)

It has been a while since we have see a spike so hard. With a baffling +2074%, Hall of Gemstone is now almost a $30 card. The reason is simple: speculation. Hall of Gemstone has a fairly unique ability, cutting off your opponent from producing more than just one color with their lands. Next to some mana producing elves, this card can give you a serious edge in EDH and Casual games. But to be honest, that's in no way powerful enough to warrant such a huge spike. Many, many other obscure cards like this exist, and they never break the $2 mark.

One other reason for this spike is the fact that Hall of Gemstone is on the reserved list. With the hype around the reserved list that has been going on lately, this spike just seems like another buyout in a long line of strange buyouts. In this case: where is the real demand for this card? Who really needs it? And more important: who is willing to pay almost $30 for a copy?

Well, there is one thing about this card that makes it a tad more interesting. Read the text. Since 'colorless' is not a color, it can't be chosen as a color by your opponents, meaning that you cut them off from producing colorless (waste) mana. They can kiss their Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher goodbye. In other words: Hall of Gemstone is a potential sideboard card. But, in what format? You can't play it in Modern, only in EDH and Legacy. It could be good in EDH, but not $30 good. And legacy, well, what deck would play it? Elves maybe, but even then, you'd be better off boarding in removal. 

It's a spike with a story, but in the end, we probably have to conclude that it is a buyout on a card on the reserved list that has become more interesting now colorless mana is a thing. Making it an interesting speculation target.

 

#2 Drana, Liberator of Malakir +100.3% ($15.40)

Drana, Liberator of Malakir sees some play in Standard, and that was the reason it was picking up some value before it spiked. The reason behind the spike that followed is the upcoming rotation in Standard and the speculation of players (and traders) on what deck might be strong in the new meta. Drana, Liberator of Malakir is an Ally, but also a Vampire. In Shadows over Innistrad, Vampires are back and it seems logical that the cards might be stacked in favor of Drana, Liberator of Malakir in the post-rotation meta. 

The price of Drana, Liberator of Malakir is driven up because of real demand in the first place, but was picked up later by speculators. 

 

#3 Infernal Tutor +5.7% ($18.98)

The #3 of this week might surprise you a bit. Infernal Tutor has been creeping up over the past month and a half. And while there are enough other cards out there that have bigger percentual price gains, Infernal Tutor is the most expensive card, played in a competitive format that shows substantial growth over the past week.

Infernal Tutor sees play in Legacy and in Modern. In both formats it is of course played in combo decks. In Legacy, ANT (a storm deck) increased in popularity over the past five months and is now the second most played deck in legacy. Check out the graph below.

 

The future of Cheap Pickups

In my previous article, I added the Cheap Pickups, mainly because a lot of people asked me to. I did not expect that this would lead to a lot of discussion about what the definition of a cheap pickup is. The name implies that the cards discussed are in fact cheap. All cards that I discuss are cheap, in relation to the past. But, some people commented that the cards I discussed might (or will) become even cheaper in the future, and are therefore not cheap at this time,  and could even be considered expensive. Some commenters added that because of that, I was giving bad advice.

My aim in the Weekly Winners is to explain what is happening on the financial markets. I'm not writing this article to give advice on what to buy and what to sell. One of the big reasons MTGStocks.com was created, was to make card prices transparent, in relation to their price in the past.

So that got me thinking about the Cheap Pickups as a part of the Weekly Winners. I've got a few interesting ideas on how to cover cards that are losing value. But I have ideas for other sections as well. When I'm done brainstorming I will let you know. Either way, it will be focused on either showing you what is going on with card prices, or explaining the price change.

Do you have a good or cool idea? Send me a tweet: @MTGPeter, or an e-mail.