Standard is driving the prices this week, but also still movement from the Marvel drop and Commander.
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.
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Articles
Check out our other great content from this week.
Do Serialized Cards Impact the Value of Collector Boosters? by Harvey McGuinness
Power Creep and The One Ring by Corey Williams
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Onto the Weekly Winners!
Now why would I make a card with "only" a 25% increase our first winner? Well, mainly because I noticed the Showcase variant of the card spiking 187% to almost $16. This card is a rare from the March of the Machine: The Aftermath set and this particular Dinosaur is pretty versatile since it can blow up an artifact or enchantment, exile a player's graveyard, or gain four life. Or you can do all of them, depending on the mana you want to invest.
When we evaluate a card like this, sometimes the set where it was printed in really matters. In this case, the March of the Machine: The Aftermath set is important since it wasn't a normal expansion. It's a micro set of 50 cards following up on March of the Machine, of which it's considered an extension of. It was sold in Epilogue Boosters which are supposed to be lore-packed boosters that continue the story in between sets. But the concept was far from a success and not too many packs were opened, meaning a low supply and thus resulting in the good cards from the set being relatively expensive.
The Dinosaur has done pretty well lately in Standard. Its versatility is so good and worst case it's a 3/3. It can be found in Golgari Midrange decks for instance. Currently in Standard we also see Urabrask's Forge show up a lot. And being able to get rid of it is pretty important, since this artifact can get out of hand pretty quickly and is generally hard to deal with.
| Tranquil Frillback | | |
| Tranquil Frillback (Showcase) | | |
| Urabrask's Forge | | |
I'm old enough to actively remember the release of Gatecrash which is already 11 years ago. In that set there was a Minotaur theme going on and Boros Reckoner was absolutely the most notable one. It saw quite a bit of play in Standard and it was absolutely brutal. When you had it on the battlefield, people generally wouldn't attack you, afraid for the blowout that may happen.
It was, for example, played in Jeskai builds. Since Reckoner deals damage whenever it's dealt damage, blocking it was pretty bad. But there were also multiple combos that you could pull off with it like with Boros Charm and Azorius Charm to gain infinite life. Another trick was to use Harvest Pyre and target your Reckoner to deal the damage to your opponent as finisher. But the card also showed up in Aristocrats decks and Naya decks.
As mentioned earlier, that was about 11 years ago and we now have Screaming Nemesis that's basically Boros Reckoner with haste. Doesn't matter who or what deals damage to it, the player controlling this Spirit will generally come out on top. Not only will you damage your opponent, but will then also shut down any life gain that your opponent may have. The card sees play in Standard, but you can imagine that Commander players are also very interested in these types of effects. We see it included in decks around Wayta, Trainer Prodigy and Ashling the Pilgrim, for instance.
Since it's a mythic rare from Duskmourn: House of Horror, and the demand from both Standard and Commander, the card currently carries quite a high price that will not fall soon unless it's reprinted.
| Screaming Nemesis | | |
| Screaming Nemesis (Borderless) | | |
| Wayta, Trainer Prodigy | | |
| Ashling the Pilgrim | | |
| Boros Reckoner | | |
We've seen quite the increase in Equipment strategies going up lately. This week it's Hexplate Wallbreaker's turn to go up. Hexplate Wallbreaker comes into play attached to a 2/2 Rebel creatures through the For Mirrodin! ability and can grant additional combat phases. The reason for these Equipment cards being extra popular is due to Captain America, First Avenger who likes to fling them towards your opponent or their creatures and planeswalkers. We saw cards moving up last week for this very same reason.
This week we can add another Marvel character to that list since this particular Equipment is also included in decks around Iron Man, Titan of Innovation. Iron Man wants to attack, and if we can get more extra combat phases then we can get more value out of him.
That all said, the main reason for the spike of Hexplate Wallbreaker seems to come from a Commander deck that was featured on an episode of Game Knights. This deck around Nahiri, Forged in Fury was quite the eye-catcher. The deck seemed to have also had an impact on other prices, like the Showcase version of Pre-War Formalwear and Nahiri herself.
| Hexplate Wallbreaker | | |
| Hexplate Wallbreaker (Extended Art) | | |
| Nahiri, Forged in Fury | | |
Cheap Pickups
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.
Chandra's Ignition has been identified by the MTGStocks Premium Penny Stocks feature as a card that has reached its bottom and is starting a consistent uptrend.
| Chandra's Ignition | | |
| Twilight Mire | | |
| Progenitus | | |
