This week we managed to get something in here from Modern, Legacy, and Commander. A good mix of reasons why cards are moving, which are (in my opinion) the most fun weeks to write about. But to be honest, it was hard to pick the best cards, since a lot of moving currently for various reasons. So keep an eye on the Interests yourself as well.
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.
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This isn't the first time in the Weekly Winners series we have mentioned Orvar, the All-Form. In 2021 we discussed this card multiple times. When it was spoiled it was the reason for several cards going up like Tempt with Reflections that shot up to $15 (and now costs around $2). In April 2021 we actually mentioned Orvar, the All-Form as a cheap pickup and even though it went even lower back then, it is now a $15 card.
Orvar has been a popular card in Commander. Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell you get to create copies, and who doesn't want to be doing that? If Orvar isn't your commander, then you can find the card in decks around Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief or Magnus the Red. This latter one is a new card printed in the Warhammer Ruinous Powers commander deck that we will mention several times throughout this article.
However, not too long ago Yorion, Sky Nomad was banned in Modern, which is shaking up the metagame. One of the first things that happened was that decks revolving around Archon of Cruelty got a bigger chunk of the metagame. And what happens when strategies become more prominent? People will start including sideboard cards to battle these decks. In this case we find 2 or 3 copies of Orvar, the All-Form in Modern sideboards, driving up the price. When we look at the last ability of Orvar, we see that when a spell or ability an opponent controls causes you to discard this card, create a token that's a copy of target permanent. When Archon of Cruelty hits the battlefield, you can discard Orvar to it, and create a token copy of target permanent. When you then copy your opponent's Archon of Cruelty they have to sacrifice a creature and discard a card. And hopefully the Archon was their only creature in play by then.
But in Modern we also see Grinding Station moving up quite a bit since the banning of Yorion, Sky Nomad. It went up with 22% to $30. The card is included in Modern decks around Underworld Breach. It seems like this deck is also claiming a larger share of the metagame now.
This card was printed in the Ruinous Powers commander deck from Warhammer 40K and seems to be a card popular in commander. For you get a big demon with flying and trample that can grant you additional combat steps. This last part usually is a popular mechanic in Commander. Look at cards like Aggravated Assault, Godo, Bandit Warlord, or Hellkite Charger. All cards that have spiked not too long ago or have a steady uptrend.
And here we see another card from the Warhammer 40K Ruinous Powers commander deck. It is a 3/1 Deathtouch Zombie creature for . And whenever you cast a spell from anywhere other than your hand, you get to return Poxwalkers from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped. Zombies are always a popular archetype in commander, and getting zombies for free is one of the better things you can do. Sacrificing these kind of zombies for advantage, and then returning it later, is a very viable strategy.
For example, this card works very well with Gravecrawler. If you have both in your graveyard, and another zombie on the battlefield, you get to return them both to the battlefield for a single . If you combine this with, for example, Phyrexian Altar you have infinite mana. In Commander we see Poxwalkers show up in decks around Abaddon the Despoiler and Be'lakor, the Dark Master.
But when this card was spoiled, immediately people from the Legacy community picked up on the card. It is not entirely dissimilar to Ichorid, being a 3/1 creature that comes into play from the graveyard. And where do we find Ichorid? In Dredge decks. And that's exactly where we now see people tinkering with Poxwalkers where 3 or 4 copies of it are included. The Lion's Eye Diamond version of these dredge decks play plenty of spells that can be cast from the graveyard and thus returning Poxwalkers. If the inclusion makes the deck better remains to be seen, but it certainly is a good card to experiment with.
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.
Godo, Bandit Warlord has been identified by the MTGStocks Premium Penny Stocks feature as a card that has reached its bottom and is starting a consistent uptrend.
Arjen has been playing Magic since Ice Age and has mostly played the Legacy format. Ten years ago he founded MTGStocks because he and his friends wanted to buy Magic singles at the right time to play with.
