We have a healthy mix of Commander and constructed this week. Check out this week's winners!
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
Adam delves into lesser-known cards that can enhance your Omo, Queen of Vesuva deck, highlighting unique interactions and synergies that might not be on your radar. These hidden gems can add a fresh twist to your gameplay, making your deck more versatile and powerful. For an in-depth look at these underappreciated cards and how they can elevate your strategy, explore Hidden Gems for Omo, Queen of Vesuva.
In What's Good in Assassin's Creed, Matt dives into the latest crossover set, Universes Beyond: Assassin's Creed, evaluating the viability of its cards for Commander and Modern play. He discusses the potential impact of key cards, the value proposition of Beyond Boosters, and the set's financial outlook. For a comprehensive analysis of how Assassin's Creed integrates into the game and which cards to watch, check out Matt's article.
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This mythic is fairly new, since it was printed in Commander: Outlaws of Thunder Junction. And when I say fairly new, I mean it's only three months old and yet we've already seen two newer sets released and another is currently in preview season. Olivia is a Vampire Assassin that can generate you Treasure tokens whenever an outlaw deals combat damage. She can also sacrifice two Treasures in exchange for putting two +1/+1 counters on each creature you control. This actually seems like a fun Commander to build around to be honest. And while she was previously selling for about two dollars, this week she went up by... a lot!
The reason seems to be support coming for her in the upcoming set Bloomburrow. Like I mentioned, we're in the preview season of this set and several outlaw creatures have already been revealed. One of these creatures is Iridescent Vinelasher. This Assassin does one damage to target opponent whenever you put a land onto the battlefield, and it has Offspring , meaning that if you spend two more mana, you get a copy of that creature, but it's a 1/1 instead. Yesterday it was already pre-selling at around $6, but today that also shot up to $23. I'm aware that pre-selling prices are often wildly inaccurate for where the cards will settle after release, but it's interesting to note.
There's also movement in the price of Mari, the Killing Quill. Mari fits well within Olivia's color identity and also cares about a subset of outlaw creatures. Mari even helps drawing cards and creating Treasure tokens that you can use for casting spells or Olivia's ability. Also keep in mind that in Universes Beyond: Assassin's Creed there are also plenty of outlaw creatures available!
Let's talk about this mythic from Eldritch Moon a little bit. It was reprinted in Jumpstart 2022, but that didn't seem to have added a whole lot of supply. For you get a 0/13 Plant with Defender. Yes, that's 13 toughness! Sounds like a pretty good blocker, but it has another ability too. You can tap the Tree and exchange target opponent's life total with its toughness. That's a pretty unique ability.
I'm not really knowledgable about the Pioneer format, and was surprised to find out that Tree of Perdition actually gets played in that format. But even I know better than to think that a four mana 0/13 Defender is good enough to see regular play as a blocker in that format. And while I'm not really versed in the Rakdos Aggro decks, it seems to me that the Tree is mainly fodder to be discarded to the various outlets to Blood tokens, Demand Answers, or Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. But when the Plant is in the graveyard, it can be exiled with Agatha's Soul Cauldron, and thus creatures with a +1/+1 counter will gain the same abilities as Tree of Perdition. If you're able to give that ability to a creature with toughness one (and thus toughness two because of the counter), it may be pretty easy to swing for the win.
However, this deck doesn't seem to be the reason for the spike this week. The reason appears to be a Commander that is gaining popularity, Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Ezio wants opponents to be at ten or less life. In Commander where you start at 40 life, that's a little bit harder to pull off. But with Tree of Perdition you can immediately put them to 13 life. And once you attack with a, I don't know, three power legendary creature with menace, you put them to exactly ten life.
Our third winner this week is Basim Ibn Ishaq from the Universes Beyond: Assassin's Creed set. Basim lets you draw a card whenever you cast a historic spell (legendary spells, artifacts, and sagas are all historic). Basim also gets stronger whenever it deals combat damage to a player.
And the reason for this Human Assassin to spike seems pretty straightforward. It was being brewed with by Aspiringspike who did pretty well with it on his stream. He played Basim in a Dimir shell with, obviously, a lot of historic spells, making sure that almost every first spell he plays will be replaced by a new card. And drawing these extra cards is extra valuable when you play Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, since you get to flip Tamiyo whenever you've drawn your third card in a turn.
Thraximundar is $25! Do I have your attention yet? Now let's put your mind at ease a little bit, because only the Secret Lair Series print shot up since yesterday. If you want to get a copy from a different set, you can still pay below fifty cents. This Zombie Assassin is quite expensive to cast with its prohibitive mana value of seven, but for that price you get a 6/6 with haste that makes the defending player sacrifice a creature. And not only that, Thraximundar will grow whenever a player sacrifices a creature.
The important part about Thraximundar is the creature type Assassin. We've already talked about this type in this article, and thus it's no surprise that it went up. Ezio Auditore da Firenze, gives all Assassin creatures Freerunning , meaning you can play Assassin creatures for that cost as long as you've done combat damage with an Assassin or commander this turn. Thraxi for two mana? Yes please!
It seems like someone, or someones, decided to buy out the Secret Lair version of this card since it's basically the only special art available for this creature. But if you don't really care about that, you can still get a regular version. We do see price movement on the others as well, but it's pretty minor.
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.
Rampaging Yao Guai has been identified by the MTGStocks Premium Penny Stocks feature as a card that has reached its bottom and is starting a consistent uptrend.
Arjen has been playing Magic since Ice Age and has mostly played the Legacy format. Ten years ago he founded MTGStocks because he and his friends wanted to buy Magic singles at the right time to play with.
We're not done with spikes because of Modern Horizons 3 just yet! A lot of constructed play things going on, but fortunately we also have a Commander spike.
