Weekly Winners 2023 - 26

This week is all about Lord of the Rings. So like a Hobbit with a second breakfast, you're getting an extra helping! 

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

Articles

The past few months we've been focusing on putting out more quality content, and I'd love to share the next few articles with you, since they're worth a read:

• Ryan focuses on cards from the Weekly Winners of a year ago, and talks about what happened to their prices since, in Where Are They Now?
• In How I Read a Top Commander Page Jason discusses how to interpret the tools he uses on EDHREC to identify cards to pick up.
• Corey gets technical in discussing the prices of the nine Nazgul arts in Modern Times. Definitely worth a read! 

If you want to receive an e-mail in your inbox when a new article is published, you can enable it in your e-mail preferences and/or join the Discord.

Onto the Weekly Winners!

#1 Ringwraiths $4.99 (+532%)

I have kinda been breaking my head about this card spiking as much as it is. It doesn't really strike me as a really powerful card and I'm struggling to find the interaction with other decks and cards. The only thing I can think of is the theme of this card. Because theme-wise it would fit perfectly well in the The Hosts of Mordor precon deck. Or in Commander decks around Witch-king of Angmar or Sauron, the Necromancer.

When we don't consider deck building, we can also make a case that people may be trying to get their hands on a single card of each Lord of the Rings print, especially the ones with a strong binding to the storyline.

When you look at Corey's article, Modern Times, from two days ago, he talks about the Nazgul (0332) cards of which nine different arts exist. Those are more rare than any other uncommon in the set because of the different prints, but also people are likely to want to have all nine arts in their collection, which drives up the price. I can see something similar happening here. However, this is mostly speculation from my side, so if you feel there's a more compelling reason, then reach out to me through Discord or Twitter, because I'd love to know! 

Ringwraiths	CardKingdom $0.79	TCGPlayer $0.80
Ringwraiths (Extended Art)	CardKingdom $3.49	TCGPlayer $4.00
Witch-king of Angmar	CardKingdom $5.49	TCGPlayer $5.08
Sauron, the Necromancer	CardKingdom $0.49	TCGPlayer $0.43

#2 Forth Eorlingas! $19.95 (+196%)

This sorcery seems to be one of those cards that no one expected to be good enough to be played a lot. The contrary seems to be true, since it's finding playability in Legacy and is being tinkered with in Vintage as well. Around February and March we were talking about Initiative decks doing well in Legacy. Venturing into The Undercity seemed to be a pretty strong strategy. But now with Forth Eorlingas! you can make some 2/2 creatures with haste and become the Monarch whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to an opponent.

Lets refresh our memories a bit on what the Monarch ability is again. Whenever a player is the Monarch, that player gains the ability to draw a card at their end step. And they'll remain the Monarch until an opponent deals combat damage to them, after which that opponent becomes the Monarch. So if you are the Monarch and stay that as long as possible, it will net you an additional card each turn, and as we all know, Magic games are often won by the player with the most resources, which often revolves around the amount of cards you draw.

In Legacy we now see decks showing up that try to become the Monarch, but also take the Initiative. Interestingly, this is not the first time we've seen the Monarch ability show up in Legacy. For some time now we have seen Palace Jailer show up in Legacy Death & Taxes decks. Especially in Legacy the extra cards are going to matter, and if you manage to stay the Monarch long enough, you will most likely outdraw your opponent and bury them in value.

Forth Eorlingas!	CardKingdom $27.99	TCGPlayer $26.88
Forth Eorlingas! (Extended Art)	CardKingdom $29.99	TCGPlayer $29.87
Palace Jailer	CardKingdom $0.69	TCGPlayer $1.05

#3 Elanor Gardner $5.70 (+299%)

And yet another rare from the The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth set. Elanor Gardner is a new legendary creature that cares about Food tokens. When she enters the battlefield you get to create a Food token, and whenever you sacrifice a Food token you get to search your library for a basic land and put it onto the battlefield tapped at the end of your turn. In decks that care more about Food tokens, this is a very viable ramp strategy and a powerful card.

There obviously are people who have created decks that care about Food tokens after Throne of Eldraine, but there's also a Food deck ready to go! The Food and Fellowship deck with Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit and Sam, Loyal Attendant as commanders care a lot about Food already. Sam's ability reduces the cost of activiting your Food tokens as well. This means that Elanor Gardner is considered a good upgrade to this precon deck, meaning this card is being picked up.

This Food strategy may also be a good reason for Blossoming Bogbeast going up 122% this past week, from $4 to $9. Food tokens can provide you with life, and with Sam's discount you can buff your creatures with +3/+3 for each mana spent to activate Food tokens and give them trample as well.

Elanor Gardner	CardKingdom $2.49	TCGPlayer $1.99
Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit	CardKingdom $0.99	TCGPlayer $0.50
Sam, Loyal Attendant	CardKingdom $1.29	TCGPlayer $0.95
Blossoming Bogbeast	CardKingdom $6.99	TCGPlayer $5.00
Blossoming Bogbeast (Extended Art)	CardKingdom $10.99	TCGPlayer $7.00

#4 Raise the Palisade $10.99 (+268%)

You know what? There's a lot going on with these Lord of the Rings sets, and we don't want to leave any winners behind. So you get an extra card this week! Raise the Palisade is a sorcery from Commander: The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth that may have been slept on during previews. For you get to do an asymmetrical board wipe, meaning you may set back your opponents multiple turns to rebuild, while you get to advance or prepare for an attack on the same turn you play this card.

In decks that care about a certain creature type, and that can support , this feels like an automatic include. For example, it can find an easy home in Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca or Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir decks. Obviously don't include this card in your deck if you know your playgroup happens to play similar decks revolving around the same creature type.

It doesn't seem like a big coincidence though since Tomer from Budget Commander tweeted about this card being slept on and it spiking the very same day.

Raise the Palisade	CardKingdom $15.99	TCGPlayer $16.58
Raise the Palisade (Extended Art)	CardKingdom $17.99	TCGPlayer $15.90

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.

Skyhunter Strike Force $2.94 - Moving up again!

Skyhunter Strike Force has been identified by the MTGStocks Premium Penny Stocks feature as a card that has reached its bottom and is starting a consistent uptrend.

Treasure Vault $5.49 - Slowly moving down

Dack Fayden $8.07 - Slowly moving down

Skyhunter Strike Force	CardKingdom $2.79	TCGPlayer $3.02
Treasure Vault	CardKingdom $8.49	TCGPlayer $6.02
Dack Fayden	CardKingdom $10.99	TCGPlayer $10.04

 

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