This week has been full of commander demand related spikes, but I managed to find a few due to Modern. It has been a relatively slow week compared to the weeks before, so that may mean Modern is slowly settling down and most people have picked up the new cards they want to play with.
Like every week, just in time for FNM, I'll now tell you about the cards that will be the talk of the town tonight!
Come discuss this week's price movements with us on Reddit.
Kamigawa! I don't know why I have such a soft-spot for these sets, but I think its because I played a lot of Magic during that time. Uba Mask is spiking for the second time to record highs, and I am not surprised. It is a card with a unique ability and usually they will become good or at least better when the right combination presents itself. The first time it spiked (recently) was in April 2020. Back then the reason was the printing of Drannith Magistrate where you can use the two together to lock your opponents out of playing anything new that isn't in their hand yet.
This time however the reason is Prosper, Tome-Bound. People use Uba Mask as upgrade to the Planar Portal deck where Prosper is the commander. But people also buy Uba Mask when they build a Prosper deck from scratch. The two cards work really well together! With Uba Mask you exile cards from the top of your library whenever you draw a card, and you may play those until end of turn. Prosper will give you a Treasure each time you play a card from exile.
It was recently discovered that Wizards of the Coast seems to have registered a few new domain names, one of which is kamigawaneondynasty.gg, or Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. This could indicate that we will soon visit Kamigawa again in a future set. Some people have speculated that we may see a reprint of Uba Mask in that set, maybe even with a special border. So if you want to play with Uba Mask, get one, but otherwise know that there is a bit of risk.
I think this card can be described pretty briefly. With the printing of Adventures in the Forgotten Realms one of the beloved tribals, Dragons, have gotten several new toys to play with. One of the more notable of these is Tiamat which can be used to tutor up 5 dragons. You can imagine that Scalelord Reckoner could be a popular target to find since it punishes your opponents for trying to get rid of your dragons.
But I am kind of surprised that it is spiking now. We already saw a steady uptrend in price since December 2020 when we already knew Adventures in the Forgotten Realms was coming.
Turns out Goldspan Dragon is a good card! Who knew?! It is doing some heavy lifting in Standard, showing up in multiple decks like Jeskai Tempo, Prismari Midrage, and of course Izzet Dragons. But on Arena we also have the Standard 2022 format, giving us an early "sneak-peak" at future Standard. There we also see Goldspan Dragon show up in a bunch of decks, for example, with Kalain, Reclusive Painter.
But also as we discussed earlier in this article: Dragons, Dragons, Dragons. This card sees commander play in these tribal decks, often with Tiamat again. But also with, again, Kalain, Reclusive Painter. Goldspan Dragon also is a solid upgrade to both the Draconic Rage and Planar Portal decks.
In the previous winners we have mostly discussed commander spikes, but also wanted to address at least one card from a different format. So I have been Furyiously (spelling almost correct!) looking around and came up with this one!
We see Fury in a bunch of Modern decks, most notable being 5 color Elementals. But we also see it being played in Red Deck Wins and Gruul Midrange. In Legacy we also see it show up in Red Stompy Prison decks and Goblins.
Ok, fine! Last one. Recently we see fringe play again of mill decks in Modern which plays Darkness. The card only has two prints, one of these from Legends, so there is not that much supply. A fog effect in black is not common, and so there are no real alternatives.
But along with Darkness we also see Archive Trap spiking. Going up with 35% to $39.77 for the very same reason. I don't think the mill deck is particularly strong in Modern in any way, but it is a type of deck that always has a special place in a lot of people's hearts.
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.
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.
