Weekly Winners 2021 - 25

This week a few more winners than usual, but there has been quite some movement in several formats, for several reasons. At least... That's what I thought! It still all comes down to Modern Horizons 2 stirring the pot in all formats where its legal, but that doesn't make this week not interesting!

Like every week, just in time for (digital) FNM, I'll now tell you about the cards that will be the talk of the (digital) town tonight!

Come discuss this week's price movements with us on Reddit.

 

#1 Ashes of the Fallen $7.20 (+390%)

 

Always down for some Kamigawa action! Ashes of the Fallen is going up rapidly. Since Patriarch's Bidding was reprinted in Modern Horizons 2 this powerful sorcery could be bought for only $3 rather than the $50 it was before the reprint, and thus becoming more accessible for more players. This seems to have led to more people wanting to get a copy of Ashes of the Fallen as well, since it combos so nicely!

There is also another combo that can explain its rise. In MH2 we also got a new planeswalker, with quite the unique passive ability, in Grist, the Hunger Tide. If you have Ashes of the Fallen on the battlefield, you can mill quite a bunch of your library with Grist's +1 ability as long as you don't hit a non-creature, having the ultimate ready for the next turn. There are probably ways to abuse this interaction even more.

 

Patriarch's Bidding	CardKingdom $2.99	TCGPlayer $3.45
Grist, the Hunger Tide	CardKingdom $12.99	TCGPlayer $13.45
Ashes of the Fallen	CardKingdom $1.79	TCGPlayer $7.20

 

 

#2 Acorn Catapult $20.97 (+217%)

 

Hard to really type a large explanation around this card, because we all know Squirrels have gotten some new cards to play with in commander and thus all cards that have something to do with squirrels tend to go up. This largely has to do because of new commander decks with Chatterfang, Squirrel General as the commander. The next victim in this hype is Acorn Catapult.

I can see the price coming down when the hype dies down a bit, but keep in mind that Squirrels seem to be hyped a lot of the time since it's a very popular tribal. When the card is reprinted it will also definitely come down.

 

Chatterfang, Squirrel General	CardKingdom $15.99	TCGPlayer $16.00
Acorn Catapult	CardKingdom $9.99	TCGPlayer $20.97
Acorn Catapult	CardKingdom $7.99	TCGPlayer $21.07

 

 

#3 Meltdown $6.67 (+196%)

 

Lets discuss Meltdown. Not only because it went up with almost 200%, but also because the reason is Legacy, and I love me some Legacy! We see the card show up in Izzet Delver lists as sideboard card.

The sideboarding of Meltdown is needed because... you guessed it... Modern Horizons 2. Legacy Affinity is running rampant and some sideboard tech is needed to deal with these decks. Meltdown is one of the better mass-artifact destruction and thus is no surprise that this is the chosen solution along with Null Rod.

Since Meltdown was only printed once in Urza's Saga it doesn't take that much extra attention for the price to go up.

 

Meltdown	CardKingdom $1.49	TCGPlayer $6.67
Null Rod	CardKingdom $129.99	TCGPlayer $178.13

 

 

#4 Mishra's Bauble $19.99 (+88%)

 

Mishra's Bauble is not near the top of the Interests of past week, but it felt like a good card to discuss. In 2012 this uncommon from Coldsnap was barely worth a dollar, but reached its peak in April 2017 of $50 due to a lot of play in Modern. When it became clear that it would be reprinted in Iconic Masters the price came down to around $5 or $6, and after the reprint in Double Masters you could get them for as low as $2.

So now its back up at $20 again, even with all these reprints. The reason is that it sees a lot of play again in Modern deck, and obviously mainly in the new archetypes that have risen since Modern Horizons 2 came out. We see it showing up in Urza decks, Grixis Deathshadow, and more. The price is definitely going up because players are buying (additional) playsets of this card to build new Modern decks.

But besides Modern play we also see this card often show up in Commander decks like Osgir, the Reconstructor and Galazeth Prismari.

 

Mishra's Bauble
Mystery Booster Cards	CardKingdom $11.99	TCGPlayer $19.99
Double Masters	CardKingdom $9.99	TCGPlayer $19.99
Iconic Masters	CardKingdom $11.99	TCGPlayer $20.00
Coldsnap	CardKingdom $11.99	TCGPlayer $33.55

 

 

#5 Geralf's Messenger $35 (+168%)

 

Another spike because of new Modern archetypes in Modern Horizons 2. Geralf's Messenger shot up to $35 because of new Golgari (or BGx) and even mono-black sacrifice decks. In these decks a lot of Undying creatures are played along with Yawgmoth, Thran Physician.

When you have two creatures with Undying on the battlefield along with Yawgmoth you can create a little combo, and for the sake of argument, lets say one of them is Geralf's Messenger and the other one is Strangleroot Geist.

1. Activate Yawgmoth's ability without a target and sacrifice Geralf's Messenger, which returns as 4/3 and you draw a card.
2. Activate Yawgmoth's ability, targeting the Geralf's Messenger, sacrifice the Strangleroot Geist, which returns as a 3/3, remove the +1/+1 counter from Geralf's Messenger, and draw a card.
3. Activate Yawhmoth's ability, targeting the Strangleroot Geist, sacrifice Geralf's Messenger, remove the +1/+1 counter from Strangleroot Geist, return Geralf's Messenger to the battlefield and draw a card!

Rinse and repeat steps 2 and 3. Also note that every time Geralf's Messenger enters the battlefield, you can have target opponent lose 2 life.

 

 

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician	CardKingdom $19.99	TCGPlayer $18.90
Strangleroot Geist	CardKingdom $0.35	TCGPlayer $0.48
Geralf's Messenger	CardKingdom $27.99	TCGPlayer $35.00

 

 

 

Cheap Pickups

Please note: for our 'record low' we consider the price of the card over the past 7 years. Many cards have been even cheaper (a) decade(s) ago. Also note: some cards are still going down, and might be even cheaper pickups next week.

 

Tyvar Kell $6.65 - Trending down

 

Imperial Recruiter $14.99 - Trending down

 

Glenn, the Voice of Calm $6.00 - Slowly trending down

 

Imperial Recruiter	CardKingdom $16.99	TCGPlayer $14.99
Glenn, the Voice of Calm	CardKingdom $6.99	TCGPlayer $6.00
Tyvar Kell	CardKingdom $7.99	TCGPlayer $6.65