Weekly Winners 2025 - 03

17 Jan
by Arjen

Another week where Standard is moving prices. And we love to see that the Modern metagame still hasn't settled yet with a new archetype.

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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Check out our other great content from this week.

Is Innistrad Remastered Worth Buying? by Matt Grzechnik

Underplayed Vehicles in Commander by Kaspar Renken

More Commander Staples From Foundations by Steve Heisler

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Onto the Weekly Winners!

#1 Overlord of the Balemurk $32.11 (+168%)

I don't think we need to have a discussion on the power level of the Overlord cycle in Duskmourn: House of Horror. Several of them are widespread in the Standard metagame and they also tend to show up in other constructed formats as well. All these Overlords have a somewhat high mana value, but can all be cast for lower costs through their Impending ability, which will grant you their enters ability, and it will become a creature later.

In the case of Overlord of the Balemurk it can get you some card advantage with a beater later in the game. Recently it's been showing up a lot in Modern Orzhov Blink decks. The thing is that when you flicker (or blink) these Overlord cards they will enter the battlefield as a regular creature without the time counters. So you can play this Avatar for on turn two, get the enters trigger, blink it during your turn three cycle, then get the enters trigger again plus a 5/5 creature.

The deck plays a bunch of spells that can blink a permanent, like Flickerwisp and Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd, and of course creatures that have a good enters ability. It seems to be performing really well in Modern at the moment, and I think it's good that after the bannings that Modern has gotten, the format still doesn't seem resolved yet. New strategies and tweaks are popping up.

Overlord of the Balemurk
Overlord of the Balemurk (Extended Art)

#2 Pest Control $4.65 (+30%)

Even though this sorcery has "only" been moving up 30% in the past week, it started its uptrend earlier and has doubled in price. It was printed only in the Outlaws of Thunder Junction: The Big Score supplemental set. As a refresher, The Big Score is a bonus sheet of 30 cards associated with the Outlaws of Thunder Junction set and was part of "The List" for this set and you could find them in one out of five Play Boosters. This means these cards have a far lower supply than most recently printed cards.

Pest Control is a board wipe for, as the name indicates, smaller pests with mana value one or less.  Not only creatures, mind you, but all nonland permanents!

If you're currently playing Standard there's a good chance you've played against the Esper Pixie deck that tries to bounce useful permanents. We actually touched upon the deck last week when discussing the spike of This Town Ain't Big Enough. When it comes to defeating this deck Pest Control destroys about six out of the eight creatures and enchantments found in the Esper Pixie deck. Funnily enough it's often included in the sideboard of that very same deck, but also sees some mainboard play in other archetypes.

Pest Control
This Town Ain't Big Enough

#3 Sandstorm Salvager $8.73 (+74%)

And another card from the Outlaws of Thunder Junction: The Big Score set. Again, with a relatively low supply for reasons we already discussed. And also, like the previous winner, the main reason is Standard - Selesnya Tokens or Midrange, in this case. And also just like the previous winner, we touched upon this deck last week while discussing the spike of Collector's Cage. Sandstorm Salvager comes with a friend when entering and can give all tokens +1/+1 counters and trample.

While this deck does well in Standard, this Human Artificer is also a wanted card in Commander in every token deck that can support it. Being able to pump the team is good, but giving all these tokens trample until end of turn can absolutely deliver you the win.

I do expect these Big Score cards to be reprinted at some point, but for now we're seeing a trend in recent weeks where they all get more expensive due to the low supply.

Sandstorm Salvager
Sandstorm Salvager (Extended Art)

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.

Muxus, Goblin Grandee $6.44 - Moving up!

Muxus, Goblin Grandee has been identified by the MTGStocks Premium Penny Stocks feature as a card that has reached its bottom and is starting a consistent uptrend.

Apex Devastator $6.60 - Slowly moving up

Selvala, Heart of the Wilds $5.50 - Slowly moving down

Muxus, Goblin Grandee
Apex Devastator
Selvala, Heart of the Wilds

Arjen

Arjen

Arjen has been playing Magic since the Ice Age set released. He primarily plays Legacy format and founded MTGStocks over a decade ago when he and his friends wanted to track card prices to purchase singles at optimal times.


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