GP Vegas is in the books, and what a wild and crazy week it has been. Spoilers for Hour of Devastation are rushing in, we got to see one of the largest Modern events ever with 3,264 players and some insane market moves. It was truly a great week for Magic. Let’s try to absorb as much as we can this week in Magic!
Why use the whole jar when just a drop will do? Drop of Honey spiked very hard this week, and it may be a super sweet reserved list card, it also sees play in Legacy Lands decks. Two copies were found in the sideboard of the 4th place deck, found here. That’s probably the reason for the spike, but also Lands may have found a new friend in Mirage Mirror. This is also a reserved list card, so really any or all of the above reasons could be true.
An obscure and rarely used Commander card, Reki, the History of Kamigawa hit the list this week and I had to investigate. If you saw the leaked sheet of Ixalan rares, it appeared that the new Jace planeswalker has legendary in his type. If that is true, that could mean that Planeswalkers will get an errata to have Legendary type, meaning they would trigger Reki, the History of Kamigawa. This would be huge for several reasons, which I will discuss later in the conversation of the week. For now, let’s see what else got picked up on the speculation train…
The captain has arrived! Captain Sisay used to be a fairly competitive Commander, but has faded in recent years thanks to a ton of Commander product being released. She has returned in strong fashion and it’s all thanks to the above mentioned leaked sheet of Ixalan cards. Wizards hasn’t confirmed it yet, but if Planeswalkers become legendary type, then El Capitan here will be able to tutor any of them out. Pretty sweet!
Mana Echoes was a long time staple for goblin Commander decks. Granted it could be found in other tribal decks, it’s usually most potent in goblin decks. I haven’t quite tracked down the exact reason for the buyout, but signs point to the incoming tribal Commander decks. Unfortunately for speculators, I can see this potentially being in a goblin commander precon deck, provided it is one of the tribes. Still, these will stay a super sweet combo enabler.
Spirit Link hasn’t really seen any play in any competitive format, except for some random inclusions in Bogles. It has been on the list recently, and I’m not really sure why it’s been off and on. It’s clearly not on the reserved list, as it has been printed several times, but that doesn’t stop the Legends version from taking the cake.
We got a cool spoiler in The Scorpion God and as if we didn’t have enough -1/-1 cards spike recent, we now get a Commander for them. Necroskitter spiked this week, and I think some of that can be attributed to Mr. Scorpion himself. Being able to kill your opponent’s creature, draw a card AND gain control of them? Sign me up!
Foils of the Week!
The foil version of Reki, the History of Kamigawa was also bought out and spiked pretty hard. Foil Caustic Caterpillar spiked this week, but the non-foil is still dirt cheap. Did someone say $50 version of Captain Sisay? The hideous looking FTV version was hit pretty hard as well, but there’s no way it’s a $50 card, even if the planeswalker errata is true. Finally, Celestial Convergence spiked and boy it brings back hilarious memories. This is a fun way to have a Commander game reach its conclusion.
Cheap pickups of the Week!
Nissa, Steward of Elements is cheap and underplayed right now. There’s a chance it could see play alongside the recently spoiled Reason // Believe. UB taking turns took Modern by storm during GP Vegas and it would appear many pros and streamers enjoying playing the deck. Pieces like Exhaustion and Gigadrowse are very cheap right now, so you can still find foils and non-foils very cheaply. Also, if you look below at the conversation of the week, I listed a ton of cards that could potentially spike. If you ever would like to play with them, it might be a good time to get the ones you want.
MTGStocks mystery chart of the Week!
Last week’s mystery chart was Bridge from Below. I may have been a little thick on the clues last week, so this week, you get a chart and the fact that this card is actively played in competitive Magic. Good luck!
Conversation of the Week!
As I talked about earlier, the speculation in some corners of the Magic community is that Wizards will errata planeswalkers to be legendary type. This would have some fairly massive implications. First of all and most notable, you would be able to control multiple Planeswalkers of the same walker with different names. Just like you can have Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Thalia, Heretic Cathar in play at the same time, you will be able to have a flipped Jace, Vryn's Prodigy and Jace, the Mind Sculptor in play at the same time, for example. Let that sink in. Cards like Yomiji, Who Bars the Way, Thalia's Lancers, Empress Galina and Honor-Worn Shaku get A LOT better if this change happens. I’m on the fence with how I feel about it. On one hand, it would be a really neat change for Magic, but on the other hand it could be pretty brutal.
The best Commander card you’re not playing!
I don’t typically include equipment cards in my decks, but one equipment that I’ve loved since it came out is Chariot of Victory. It doesn’t give hexproof or shroud, but it does give your creature the ability to throw beats indiscriminately. It includes some of my favorite creature keywords and only equips for 1. Let's ride!
