The spoilers for Kaldheim are upon us! And the markets are already responding. For the first time in many weeks, we have a #1 winner that spiked more than 1000%.
Like every week, just in time for (digital) FNM, I'll now tell you about the cards that will be the talk of the (digital) town tonight!
See something interesting in the world of card prices?
Be sure to pitch me a tweet: @MTGPeter
Ah yes! It's not like we have a shortage of new products coming out, I mean: the sheer amount of sets, lairs and stuff that Wizards is producing is hard to keep track of. But still: I'm happy that it is spoiler season again. Over the past weeks, I had the luxury of writing about cards that would typically never end up in the Weekly Winners; because they did not spike a lot. But this week we can steam full ahead with a +1700% price spike as our #1. It feels like the old days.
Dwarven Bloodboiler spiked to an insane $8.98 after the entire Magic community rushed to webstores to buy anything related to dwarves; after Magda, Brazen Outlaw was spoiled for the new set Kaldheim. If you still wonder why, you didn't bother to read the text on the new Legend, that is prone to be a new hot commander for EDH.
With Dwarven Bloodboiler you can tap any dwarf you control. And by doing that you can give any creature +2/+0; which is by itself a nice thing to have in a Dwarven deck. Make one of your creatures unblockable; tap your other dudes/dudettes/duders/el duderino's (if you are not into that brevity thing) and swing for lethal. Not very creative, but it can sure be effective. Well, with Magda, Brazen Outlaw in play; tapping those creatures gives you treasure tokens; and by sacrificing 5 of those you can put any dragon or artifact into play from your library. There are already plenty Dragons out there that can wreak some serious havoc, but expect some other dragons to be printed in Kaldheim too.
With Magda, Brazen Outlaw, Dwarves could become the hottest tribe in EDH, and wth this third Dwarven Commander, one to recon with. With a mana cost of only , you can land your commander in your second or even your first turn (if you think that it would be an extra benefit). Attacking with 0/1 dwarves will get you the tresure tokens you need to unleash Smaug, Alduin or any other northern folkorish dragon that might be in the new set.
A quick search reveals that there are only 35 dwarf creatures out there (up until today) in the Red color identity for EDH. Of those 35; five are costed 4 mana or more; and 11 have a CMC of three. To build a viable tribal deck in EDH, choosing from just 35 creatures is a small pond to fish from; and you are not in the luxury of being able to select based on quality. Compare that to the 301 different Elf creatures or the 311 Goblin creatures printed. But, on the bright side, the 35 dwarves beat the 24 available Crab creatures, so building Crab tribal is still a bigger challenge.
We can of course expect that Kaldheim contains a good amount of Dwarves. If only to make it a tribe for limited. They printed a "lord", so there should be enough Dwarves to make it worthwhile. But even then, getting enough quality dwarves in your hand can be quite a challenge in an EDH deck. And that is where Dwarven Recruiter can come in handy.
Everyone who is familiar with playing (against) Goblins knows how good it can be to search your top 4 cards for any Goblins and put all you find in your hand. You know you are doomed when your opponent is already ahead and lands a Goblin Ringleader. In the past 8 years of writing this article, I almost never give advice to buy or sell cards; but in this case I will make an exception. If you don't already own a playset of Goblin Ringleader, you are really missing out. It should be an auto-include for any competitive Goblin deck you build. With a reprint in Core Set 2020 and the card at an all time low of $0.33 you can't make any mistakes here.
Back to our #2 winner. Be aware! Dwarven Recruiter is much, much better than Goblin Ringleader. I should have compared it to Goblin Recruiter. A card that is so good that it is banned in Legacy. It is legal in EDH and you might be familiar with it because of that. Well to be short, Dwarven Recruiter is that card, but for dwarves. Especially when you don't have much to choose from for your Dwarven tribal deck, Dwarven Recruiter lets you stack your deck, favoring the best creatures you have, compensating for a possible lack in quality.
We stay in the world of Core Set 2020 for our third and final winner. But, the set has more to offer than just Dwarves. Looking at the spoilers, it becomes clear that berserkers are a creature subtype that is getting attention in the set. Probably because there will be a limited strategy around it, we have seen a Dwarf Berserker, an Angel Berserker and a Giant Berserker up until now.
But the main thing remains that Magda, Brazen Outlaw is that Dwarf Berserker in question, and with that Lovisa Coldeyes could fit the same EDH strategy. But outside of that, any Lord that gives not +1/+1 but +2/+2 is a fine lord to include into a tribal deck. And with new Berserker seeing print; it might be attractive to buy it for that reason too. But Magda, Brazen Outlaw really is the main reason for the spike. Lovisa Coldeyes has been around for quite some time now. And there are other good Berserkers already in print. For instance: Bloodbraid Elf, Warren Instigator and Vial Smasher the Fierce. Even with those Berserkers in print, Lovisa Coldeyes is only seen in 131 EDH decks as a Commander on EDHRec.com; and in 1199 decks as a card.
Also: Lovisa Coldeyes really reminds me of actrice Gates McFadden; famous for her role as Doctor Beverly Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation. And "Beverly Crusher" seems like a fitting nickname for a Barbarian Lord that gives your creatures +2/+2.
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.
Lithoform Engine $12.33 - Record low, trending down
Dark Depths $18.11 - Record low, bottoming out
