Weekly Winners (44)

This past week was the slowest week in months. Just a few cards were rising enough to make it into the weekly winners.  But, like every week, just in time for FNM, this morning I'm bringing you up to speed on the cards that will be the talk of the town tonight!

 

Want to help me out? Pitch me a tweet when you see something interesting @MTGPeter

 

#1 Mesmeric Orb +59.6% ($4.15) 

 
This card is a mystery to me. I skimmed Reddit, several webforums and chatboxes but to no result. I can't find a plausible reason as of yet why Mesmeric Orb is up +-60% in price. Mesmerizing to say the least. (see edit below).

There are no recent decks on file that run the card. I do know that Mesmeric Orb is played in a Modern Mill deck, but that deck has not netted any good tournament results in the past few months. Neither is it a format defining archetype. And also: not all of those mill decks even run Mesmeric Orb. But maybe someone is experimenting with it, or a certain brew popped up somewhere. 

Mesmeric Orb has casual appeal, it's fun in multiplayer, since it's an effect that will hit all of your opponents, making it a very efficient card to play. But casual has no big effect on the markets.

My last hunch would be a spoiled card from Commander 2014. But nope, I haven't seen a card that forces enough permanents to untap for Mesmeric Orb to be efficient enough. Maybe, just maybe, the new planeswalker Teferi, Temporal Archmage is causing the spike. It can force your opponent to mill 4 cards. Teferi can be your commander, but still, is this powerful enough? A web/ forum search on Teferi this came out inconclusive as well. 

So, if anyone knows why, please let me know! Pitch a tweet!

Edit: SirZapdos commented on Reddit showing this article on a deck that had good results in the Dailies. One important sidenote: the article is dated October 30th. The first price spike was on October 28th. So this article might not be the initial cause of the spike, but it is still pointing out a good reason why the card is up in price! Thanks SirZapdos!

 

#2 Young Pyromancer +16.1% ($2.31)  

Young Pyromancer is my personal favorite M14 card. And for good reason: it's a versatile and low mana costed card that gives you a lot of advantages. It sees play in 3 different formats and over a wide range of different archetypes. 

But legacy is the driving force behind this week's price increase. The Legacy UR Burn deck (or UR delver) is gaining popularity. It even entered the top 8 of most played decks in the metagame! Kevin Jones won the Eternal Weekend 2014 with his UR deck. When a established deck like UR Burn seems to become a 'deck to beat', it attracts attention. Check out the deck's graph:

 

Since Young Pyromancer is one of the most played and most versatile cards in the deck, it's no surprise it is gaining value. Even for an uncommon its current price is quite low, considering it's wide use. Expect the price to increase more if UR Burn keeps on rising.

 

#3 Aggravated Assault +7.1% ($4.23)  

Aggravated Assault is up, and that's no surprise. In last week's weekly winners, Waves of Aggression was the #1 winner. And that card has great synergy with Narset, Enlightened Master. Interestingly, Aggravated Assault is not modern legal, so this might be because people want to experiment with the combo in EDH. 

Also, please note that Waves of Aggression is bottoming out around the $5.50 mark. That's $1.50 below its original spike. Also, Narset, Enlightened Master is down in price. So are all the other pieces in Woo's Brew from last week. We might be able to draw the conclusion that the spike of Waves of Aggression is not (yet) causing other cards to move in price.

 

Loser of the week:  Mantis Rider -16.1%  ($4.99)  

The #2 winner in week 40 is now down 16.1%. Mantis Rider is slowly but surely losing value. The card is not versatile enough to keep its high value over a longer period of time. It's mana cost is so prohibitive that it can only see play in Jeskai decks. 

Because Khans of Tarkir is a very popular set, the newest set and boosters are being cracked while you are reading this sentence, 'new' Mantis Riders are added to the market every day. When you play or want to play Jeskai you have a good pull. If you are not interested in playing the deck, you can trade away the card for something you need, or just buylist it. When a card is played in several decks (of formats) less people will trade it in for cash. And, like said before, that's not the case with Mantis Rider.

On a sidenote Surrak Dragonclaw is still going down ;-)

 

Cheap pickup of the week: Engineered Explosives ($7.22) ALL TIME LOW  

Engineered Explosives is on it's all time low this week! It's a card that was a popular sideboard card in both Modern and Legacy, but has now fallen from grace. But still, quite a few decks play the card, including Legacy's Miracle Control, which is a very popular deck at the moment. Beside Miracles, Engineered Explosives doesn't see that much play and its not a sideboard card everyone chooses to run.

Keep an eye out for this one, changes in the metagame can cause Engineered Explosives to increase in price again. 

 

Want to help me out? Pitch me a tweet when you see something interesting @MTGPeter