What a week! Iconic Masters dropped at Hascon, and pictures were flooding in at the same time more spoilers for Ixalan were getting dropped. It was an insane Friday and while we got some great cards, the market didn’t really shift too much. Let’s breakdown all the madness, this week in Magic!
My favorite dragon of all time, and the best dragon Commander (in my opinion) has risen to meet a new demand from dragon Commander players. With a whole mess of people moving into dragon decks, it’s no wonder that both fans and enemies of the sky lizards want to control them all. Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund does just that. This wasn’t a buyout so much as it was just supply and demand, and while this may settle a bit, I don’t see this dropping substantially in price anytime soon.
I’ve talked about Psionic Blast in the past as a great removal spell in mono blue Commander decks. Thanks to yet another SaffronOlive post, Psi blast was bought out on all fronts and unfortunately doesn’t exist in many prints. Hopefully these trickle back into the market quickly so the price doesn’t keep it out of reach.
Thanks to being from Portal Three Kingdoms, Preemptive Strike has seen some weird movement in the past. This is basically Remove Soul, but it says sorcery speed and has a ton of text. I’m not sure specifically why this is spiking, but P3K cards are scarce compared to normal sets, so normal market rules don’t really apply here.
Dragon Arch has been a great way to cheat in cards for a long time, but much like Elvish Piper, it hasn’t seen as much Commander play as it should. Commander 2017 introduced a ton of great multicolor creatures to cheat into play and players quickly realized how powerful the arch can be.
The group hug, mana for all card has returned to the list! Rainbow Vale is very popular among players who like to do things for their own reasons. There aren’t many cards that bounce around from player to player, so effects like these on cards like this are bound to get love at some point. This is also a reserved list card, but I don’t think that plays into account too much this time around.
It wouldn’t be a complete week without at least one cool legend from Legends. Boris Devilboon does something very strange. It puts a 1/1 red and black demon into play called Minor. It’s not a legendary token, but it has a name. Other than the rad art and being R/B, this creepy zombie wizard doesn’t do much for you. Still, in the theme of having cool Commanders in your command zone, this guy is right up near the top!
Finally, just because it’s a cool card and gained so much value, I present to you Serendib Efreet . It’s not a reserved list card, but it is from Arabian Nights. If they printed this today, it would see play in Standard and possibly Modern. A 3/4 flyer for 3 is nothing to scoff at and the damage can be mitigated pretty well when your clock is slower than the one it gives your opponent. I’m not sure why this specific set decided to get bought out, but as with older sets like Arabian Nights, people like old school cool.
Foils of the Week!
Foil Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund took the cake this week as players moved to buy any copy they could find. Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund was bought out fully and completely, and that included foils. Hateflayer comes from a small group of cards that has wither and a really cool untap mechanic. The foil version has been pushed very high this week. Glacial Fortress sees various Modern play, so the foil spike might be attributed to that. Foil Necropolis Regent shows that people are still moving into various shiny tribal pieces, and foil Brainstorm shows us that, well, people are nuts.
Cheap pickups of the Week!
Head over here for a list of the notable cards coming to Iconic Masters. Many of these cards will drop in price in the coming days and weeks. If you’ve wanted any of these “Iconic” cards, now’s the time to hit the web because these will be flooding the market as people try to salvage what they can from the prices.
MTGStocks Mystery Chart of the Week!
Last week’s mystery chart was Gamble. Not terribly difficult, so this week is a bit of a stumper.
Conversation of the Week!
While there was and still is much hype over Iconic Masters, some people (myself included) were felt lefting…conflicted. While the art on some of the reprints are beautiful, the set as a whole doesn’t feel very cohesive. I’m not certain that Iconic Masters was the best name for this set, but I understand what they were going for. Drafting this seems almost like drafting in a chaos draft: random cards with no real synergy. I’m fairly certain this won’t be anywhere near as good as EMA or MM3 to draft, but I do appreciate all the reprints.
The best Commander card you’re not playing!
The best card this week is really a vanilla card. Ludevic's Test Subject doesn’t really do much but smash faces in, and it’s really good at it. Opponents will usually sleep on this as it just sits there, but out of nowhere it can go hard as a diamond in an ice storm.
