Weekly Winners 2022 - 16

Plenty of movement this week and hard to pick the card I would enjoy talking about most. Pioneer is becoming a more driving factor behind card prices, but also we see some spikes because of the Baldur's Gate leaks. Another interesting week and plenty to talk about!

Like every week, just in time for FNM, I'll now tell you about the cards that will be the talk of the town tonight!

Come discuss this week's price movements with us on Reddit.

 

#1 Collective Defiance $7.74 (+666%)

 

This week we see Collective Defiance shoot up with a whopping 666% (😈). It seems like this spike is related to Pioneer where it can be included in Izzet control lists where it can be used as a replacement for, or additional, Day's Undoing. Being able to wheel even a single player with Narset, Parter of Veils in play can be devastating and if you don't have Narset in play you have additional modes on it as well making the card live more often.

It pays off to pay attention to cards with multiple modes. Cards that are versatile in what they do and can answer multiple kinds of threats are valuable. Not only in competitive play, but also casual commander decks usually like cards that have a wider range of abilities. Collective Defiance is not different in this. You can let a single player wheel (discard hand and draw that many cards), meaning you could also target yourself if you are mana flooded or, as discussed earlier, with Narset in play target your opponent and nearly empty their hand. But Collective Defiance can also take care of a creature or deal those final points of damage.

With Pioneer becoming more and more popular lately, and now also slowly coming to Arena, we already saw last week that staples in this format are becoming more expensive.

Narset, Parter of Veils	CardKingdom $1.49	TCGPlayer $1.86
Collective Defiance	CardKingdom $2.99	TCGPlayer $7.74
Day's Undoing	CardKingdom $24.99	TCGPlayer $33.00

 

#2 Maze's End $10.97 (+355%)

 

Congratulations to Maze's End for now being the most expensive card in Dragon's Maze! This card occasionally sees play in Pioneer Gates decks. It also sees a little bit of play in Commander, for example, in Child of Alara decks.

However, this is not why the card shot up this week. It has to do with several cards being leaked from the upcoming Commander: Baldur's Gate set. As I usually do I will not show these cards in this article, but I will link to them, mention the names, and discuss why these cards have made Maze's End go up. Since there are plenty of people who do not want to know about these cards until they are officially spoiled, I suggest you skip to the next winner this week.

SPOILER ALERT: I AM NOW GOING TO DISCUSS THE LEAKED CARDS. IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW I SUGGEST YOU SKIP TO THE NEXT WINNER

In the leaks we see cards like Citadel Gate that is one of the new gates. There are supposedly nine new Gate cards in Commander: Baldur's Gate. These gates are a bit different than the gates we already know. Instead of generation mana in one of two fixed colors, it creatures mana of a single color and one color of mana of your own choosing. These are definitely upgrades to the existing gates.

When there are more gates printed, with more different names, it means it will be easier to activate Maze's End's win-condition. This will spike more interest in the card. But in the leaks we also see a new Gates commander in Nine-Fingers Keene. This is a new sultai commander that whenever it deals combat damage to a player, you can look at your top nine cards of your library and put a Gate card from among them onto the battlefield. Then if you control nine or more Gates, you can put the other cards in your hand.

With a new commander that can be used to build around gates it makes sense Maze's End will be an automatic include and thus going up. Some people have started number crunching the new set and have reason to believe that Maze's End will not be reprinted in the upcoming commander set only driving the price up.

 

#3 Disorder in the Court $5.98 (+99%)

 

This card has been going up because of commander. It already saw play in, for example, Hinata, Dawn-Crowned builds, but has gotten some new toys to play with in Commander: Streets of New Capenna. The three most prominent cards are: Boss's Chauffeur, Denry Klin, Editor in Chief, and Resourceful Defense.

You can imagine there is a lot of value to be gained when flickering these cards with Disorder in the Court, getting Clue tokens in the process to facilitate some extra card draw later.

Disorder in the Court		TCGPlayer $5.98
Boss's Chauffeur		TCGPlayer $5.99
Denry Klin, Editor in Chief		TCGPlayer $1.99
Resourceful Defense		TCGPlayer $9.99

 

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.

 

Sterling Grove $5.00 - Moving up!

 

Sterling Grove has been identified by the MTGStocks Premium Penny Stocks feature as a card that has bottomed for a bit but is now starting an uptrend. Keep in mind that you can get this card cheaper in the Modern Horizons reprint, but if you want to have the old border and old art then this may be a good time.

 

Lithoform Engine $9.34 - Slowly trending down

 

Gauntlet of Power $7.34 - Slowly trending down

 

Gauntlet of Power	CardKingdom $7.99	TCGPlayer $7.34
Lithoform Engine	CardKingdom $10.99	TCGPlayer $9.34
Sterling Grove	CardKingdom $4.99	TCGPlayer $5.00