Weekly Winners 2023 - 07

Another week, another Phyrexia: All Will Be One party! It's pretty clear that the cards from this set are strong and effecting the market as people find more interactions and ways to support them. This happens in both Commander and casual play, but also in constructed formats we see the cards showing up more and more.

Like every week, just in time for FNM, I'll tell you about the cards that will be the talk of the town tonight! Come discuss this week's price movements with us on Discord.

Articles

Ryan talks about cards found in Premium features in his latest article from the A Penny Saved series. There are some good cards there which you may want to pick up. Matt also published his newest article from the New Horizons series which looks into the new Commander product from All Will Be One.

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Onto the Weekly Winners!

#1 Atraxa, Grand Unifier $49.95 (+385%)

 

Oh boy, here we go! Atraxa has shot up this past week. On one hand this was kinda surprising, on the other hand I'm personally not really that surprised. The surprising part is that it was clear from the start that Atraxa would be a powerhouse, and yet she seems to be wildly underestimated. Atraxa is quite an expensive creature being seven mana in four colors, but it does net you a flying, vigilant, deathtoucher with lifelink. But the most overpowered ability comes from being able to look at the ten top cards of your library and getting to pick the best ones from them.

The most talked about thing when Atraxa was spoiled was the mentioning of "Battle" cards. Maybe that shifted the focus when she was revealed rather than looking closely at the rest of the abilities. Atraxa was quickly compared to Griselbrand power level-wise, with some people saying that she is even better. And Griselbrand is a high bar. Sure, you don't get to draw 7 cards multiple times with Atraxa, but you also don't have to pay 7 life and usually picking the best cards from the top ten of your library should be sufficient to either protect her or do something powerful again next turn.

So now that we have talked about Atraxa in general, let's look up what led up to her spike. The past weeks we have seen her show up in basically every constructed format; Standard, Legacy, Vintage, Modern, and Pioneer all have seen her being played. And I can already tell you that what all these decks do not want to do is pay her actual casting cost. They all find a way of cheating her out ahead of curve and ending the game quickly.

• In Standard we see her in builds that try to reanimate her with cards like No One Left Behind and Invoke Justice or in builds that use her as a top-end
• Legacy (shockingly) uses her as a reanimation target in both UB and BR builds or try to cheat her out using Natural Order
• In Vintage, decks are using Oath of Druids
• Pioneer sacrifice decks use Vat of Rebirth to try to sneak Atraxa out and end the game
• And in Modern there is now a new target for Indomitable Creativity decks

Natural Order	CardKingdom $18.99	TCGPlayer $13.99
No One Left Behind	CardKingdom $0.25	TCGPlayer $0.21
Atraxa, Grand Unifier	CardKingdom $9.99	TCGPlayer $49.95
Atraxa, Grand Unifier (Showcase)	CardKingdom $29.99	TCGPlayer $54.99
Vat of Rebirth	CardKingdom $0.25	TCGPlayer $0.25

 

#2 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon $43.79 (+56%)

 

Since last week, sales of all versions of Skithiryx, The Blight Dragon have surged. This surge can be attributed to it being a good upgrade to the Corrupting Influence Commander precon, along with its enduring appeal to both casual and poison-focused players. With the release of Phyrexia: All Will Be One we have seen many cards shooting up that have something to do with Infect and poison counters.

Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon has been a casual favorite for quite some time now and is being played both as commander and has also found its way into decks around Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa or Vishgraz, the Doomhive. It is not shocking to see this card becoming more popular among all the Phyrexia: All Will Be One cards.

What also could have helped launching the price of this card is that is was mentioned by the Professor in his Tolarian Community College video where he talks about the best Commanders from Phyrexia: All Will Be One and making an appearance in the last Game Knights video. Both of these channels are popular Commander resources for a lot of people.

Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
Scars of Mirrodin	CardKingdom $27.99	TCGPlayer $43.79
Double Masters	CardKingdom $27.99	TCGPlayer $38.49

 

#3 Ground Rift $4.99 (+65%)

 

A new deck which revolves around Venerated Rotpriest is becoming more popular in Modern. This new creature from Phyrexia: All Will Be One gives target opponent a poison counter whenever a creature you control becomes the target of a spell. As you may have noticed, Ground Rift is a spell that can target! The strategy of the deck is to play a bunch of spells together with popular combo enabler Underworld Breach.

When you have a Venerated Rotpriest in play, you can try to build up a storm count of 9 and then cast Ground Rift targeting the priest to kill your opponent. This can happen as soon as turn 2. That same deck also plays Grapeshot that you can use to target your Rotpriest(s). It does not matter whether the priest dies in the process, since the poison triggers are already on the stack and there's not much your opponent can do from there once they let you target the priest with all the copies.

The deck still has to prove how viable it is in the metagame, but that does not stop players and speculators from snagging up copies they need to build the deck. If you want to see the deck in action you can look at Bryant Cook playing the deck on his channel The Epic Storm.

Underworld Breach	CardKingdom $23.99	TCGPlayer $21.78
Venerated Rotpriest	CardKingdom $15.99	TCGPlayer $13.99
Ground Rift	CardKingdom $2.49	TCGPlayer $4.99

 

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.

 

Altar of Dementia $4.81 - Moving up!

 

Altar of Dementia has been identified by the MTGStocks Premium Penny Stocks feature as a card that has reached its bottom and is starting a consistent uptrend.

 

Questing Beast $5.74 - Slowly moving down

 

Klothys, God of Destiny $5.00 - Slowly moving down

 

Klothys, God of Destiny	CardKingdom $5.49	TCGPlayer $5.00
Altar of Dementia		TCGPlayer $4.81
Questing Beast	CardKingdom $7.49	TCGPlayer $5.74

 

That's it for this week. Make sure to check back next week for more Weekly Winners!