Another week, another Weekly Winners. War of the Spark will be officially released today and the cards from this set keep stirring up prices as new combo's get discovered. We see spikes from both the Modern format and Commander, so get ready to read all about why these prices have changed this drastically!
One of Peter's favorite rule of thumb is that when a card has an alternative cost, make sure you own a playset, and Allosaurus Rider is no different. The last time we reported about Allosaurus Rider was on July 1st 2016. This was because an exciting new card was printed: Eldritch Evolution. You could play Eldritch Evolution and Allosaurus Rider as soon as turn 2, sacrifice the Rider and find your fat creature. The combo didn't really pan out and the card went back to about $1.50 (still twice as high as before the spike).
Now with the printing of Neoform in War of the Spark, we see a similar effect like on Eldritch Evolution spiking the card once again. The deck his made some commotion by showing a Turn 0 kill in Modern by using the pre-game effect on Chancellor of the Tangle, searching up Griselbrand and use it with Nourishing Shoal to draw your deck. Then finish it off with either Laboratory Maniac or Conflagrate (depending on the build). Because of this deck, we also see the combo pieces themselves go up. For example, Chancellor of the Tangle has gone up to $6.31 meaning an increase of 856%.
With the introduction of the London Mulligan rule on MTGO, it's clear that combo decks are the big winner of this rule change, and the Allosaurus Rider is no exception. It's easier to find the necessary combo pieces on your first turn, and when you're on the play there's little your opponent can do in Modern.
This is getting a bit old, but Veilstone Amulet has gone up because of the printing of, well... Feather, the Redeemed. Every week since its been spoiled, we see a card that interacts with Feather go up. When you keep returning your instants to your hand, it's easy to have a spell always ready to cast in response to removal. Veilstone Amulet will protect your creatures. Besides the interaction with Feather, the Redeemed, I feel Veilstone Amulet is a decent EDH card to begin with.
Several cards from War of the Spark are creeping up. The metagame has far from settled, but based on prices we can draw some conclusions about which cards we may see end up in Tier 1 decks.
Big winners are the powerful planeswalkers Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God (+15.43%), Tamiyo, Collector of Tales (+58.29%), Gideon Blackblade (+24.77) and Liliana, Dreadhorde General (+39.4%). It can't come as a surprise that these cards may have found a home in Standard, and these rising prices may indicate that they are indeed seeing play. Of course there's also still a chance they go up because of Commander play.
Also cards that we should keep a close eye on are the zombie Gods God-Eternal Kefnet (+41.77%), God-Eternal Oketra (+15.62%), and God-Eternal Rhonas (+18.09%). Personally I've been playing an Izzet deck on Arena with God-Eternal Kefnet and feels very powerful, especially for only 4 mana.
Another card we saw showing up in our Interests the past week was Dreadhorde Invasion (+29.08%), and I've played against it on Arena quite a few times. The comparison to Bitterblossom is easy to make: every turn you lose one life and you get a token. At least... If you don't have one, else you'll just make the current token more powerful. For only two mana it can come down early and the pressure can build up real quick, especially in combination with other cards with Amass.
Cheap Pickups
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.
Ok, Karn may go lower, but note that this is the lowest it has ever been and remember it used to be a $70 card not too long ago!
Multiple Ultimate Masters Box Toppers
Seems like several Ultimate Masters: Box Toppers cards are bottoming out, so if you still want to own this piece of Magic history, you may consider picking them up now. Personally I think they may very well can only go up in the long term.
