‘Ello ladles and jellyspoons! ‘Tis a silly week in the wild wild world of Magic. Recently, whenever a Core Set comes out a strange anomaly occurs. Bizarre price spikes associated with cards only found in the Welcome Decks (those mono-color decks that are designed to introduce new players to the game and that are given out at LGSs for free…). With that let’s dive into this week’s MTGStocks analysis:
[scryimg] Woodland Mystic [/scryimg]
Woodland Mystic from M20 [Welcome Decks] up 1,498% now 7.99$ from 0.50$ (Start us off with the first of the Welcome Deck cards to spike this week. Again, only available in the Welcome Decks that are handed out for free at LGSs thus making these particular cards “rare” and “desirable” to collectors for that reason… Silly what a stranglehold on the supply of a seemingly unplayable card will do.)
[scryimg] Lifeblood Hydra [/scryimg]
Lifeblood Hydra from C14 up 684% now 18.99$ from 2.42$ (Yay! A Commander influenced price spike (never thought I’d be typing those words…) but finally after weeks of Hogaak shenanigans, we get a good ol’ Commander price spike. People are building hydra tribal with Gargos and the recipe calls for 1x Lifeblood Hydra in 96% of those decks according to EDHREC.)
[scryimg] Mana Maze [/scryimg]
Mana Maze from Invasion up 358% now 5.59$ from 1.22$ (Combos with Painter’s Servant and has only one printing from an old set. 😿)
[scryimg] Prized Unicorn [/scryimg]
Prized Unicorn from M20 [WD] up 300% now 2.00$ from 0.50$ (Another card only from M20 that cannot be obtained from opening booster packs and can only be acquired from Welcome Decks. Does have new art for the first time tho?…)
[scryimg] Phantom Warrior [/scryimg]
Phantom Warrior from M20 [WD] up 272% now 3.50$ from 0.94$ (Welcome Deck card and new art…)
[scryimg] Nightpack Ambusher [/scryimg]
Nightpack Ambusher from M20 up 165% now 3.00$ from 1.13$ (This card is actually seeing play in Standard right now in the Simic Flash deck.
[scryimg] Pawn of Ulamog [/scryimg]
Pawn of Ulamog from C17 up 102% now 4.15$ from 2.05$ (This particular printing is from a supplemental set making the price more susceptible to demand thus why we see the price spiking so hard. The two other printings have seen a spike in price as well so there is a genuine demand for the card across the board. But from the looks of it: the demand is generated by Yawgmoth decks in Commander according to EDHREC.)
[scryimg] Hexdrinker [/scryimg]
Hexdrinker from Modern Horizons up 83% now 21.96$ from 11.99$ (Twenty bucks for Hexdrinker feels about right for what you’re able to do with it. The mini Progenitus proves a mana sink while still being a perfectly serviceable Savannah Lions on turn 1 even if you don’t pump mana into it and tap out to play Bob instead. Theoretical plays aside, it’s a mythic rare from a set that I feel is being short lived because it only had a couple of weeks on the shelf before M20 dropped right on top of it. Modern Horizons, even if it wasn’t a traditional Standard set, wasn’t given enough time to mature and sell boxes. As a result, not as many cards were able to enter circulation and we are already starting to see the impact of demand on the relatively low supply. Had M20 come out four weeks later I could see cards like Hexdrinker still hovering around the 5-10$ range. The snek currently sees play in a slew of decks all over Modern: Jund, Naya, Sultai, Mono-Green Stompy (pet deck of mine 🥰), Abzan, and The Rock. The card is just good.)
[scryimg] Cabal Coffers [/scryimg]
And lastly, Cabal Coffers from Planechase up 26% now 60$ from 47.70$ (WHEN WILL THIS CARD GET A REPRINT?!?! For Pete’s peppers man… I don’t play a whole lot of Commander but I feel ya’ll’s pain. Just one of those low supply high demand scenarios that keeps driving the price up and up over the years until it gets a reprint.)
Welp, that’s all the stock talk for today folks!
[scryimg] Mist-Cloaked Herald [/scryimg] [scryimg] Grasping Scoundrel [/scryimg] [scryimg] Llanowar Elves [/scryimg]
I just wanted to take a second to discuss rant about something I find funny and that is the Welcome Deck cards that seem to spike every time a Core Set comes out. So last year about this same time I remembered seeing Mist-Cloaked Herald from M19 topple 5$ after Mono-Blue Tempo took down a Pro Tour. Well even before then it spiked to 1.99$ for some unseen reason other than it being “rare” because it could only be found in Welcome Decks. Grasping Scoundrel also hit 5.74$ and that card saw zero play (at that time). Lastly, Llanowar Elves hit 89.99$. Now, this could be a possible listing mistake where a TCG vendor meant to list their copies for 8.99 and accidentally tacked on an additional “9” on the end. They may have been the only vendor listing at the time thus making them the new price average because they’re 89.99$ was the only point of reference to use for price calculations. Now to be fair, with Llanowar Elves there are legitimate collectors who are willing to shell out 190$ on Alpha copies of the card so it’s not too crazy to think that people are willing to pay a premium to collect a rare printing of one of Magic’s most iconic cards.
Thanks for reading! And as always, if you’re in the market for some snazzy new sleeves be sure to cruise on over to the shop and use my discount code MADMAGIC for 15% off on your next purchase.
*All prices non-foil avg (not mkt) USD. Percentages based on price changes in the last week. Source: MTGStocks.com*
