By James Chillcott (@MTGCritic)

5 Winners of the Week

Most of the movement this week is coming from the ever-shifting Theros/Khans standard format, with new cards ascending and some old favorites slowly falling from grace. Let’s have a look at what’s up:

1. Bosium Strip (Weatherlight, Rare): $0.75 to $7.98 (964%)

This card is long forgotten by most of the older players and utterly off the radar for most new players, largely due to it’s one and only printing back in Weatherlight. Someone decided to make a move on it last week because it ostensibly has potential in the Tiny Leaders format. Rares from fifteen years ago are like super-mythics today so it wasn’t hard to corner the market here. As an utterly unproven card with largely casual appeal you should be digging copies out of your bulk box and posting them for sale immediately.

Format(s): Tiny Leaders/EDH/Casual

Verdict: Sell

2. Sapling of Colfenor (Eventide, Rare): $4.08 to $8.40 (106%)

This card is also a casual play speculation target, though this time EDH duty as a sweet general is the motivation. I’ve actually been fooling around with this card in Modern lately as well, as the power level is higher than it looks with the right build. Even so, this is another slam dunk chance to sell into the hype, holding back a copy for personal use.

Format(s): EDH/Casual

Verdict: Sell

3. Obelisk of Urd (M15, Rare): $1.89 to $2.76 (46%)

Both mono-red and mono-black aggro decks are trying to breath new life into this super-anthem in Standard, but its impending rotation this fall makes me want to wait until they drop back to $.50 to acquire any. If you aren’t using your copies, trade away now and max your value as they’re unlikely to rise much beyond $3.50 between now and October.

Format(s): Standard/Casual

Verdict: Sell/Trade

4. Thunderbreak Regent (Dragons of Tarkir, Rare): $7.82 to $10.98 (40%)

This is one of those cards that we all saw in the spoilers and said “yep, that’s good, moving on”. Sometimes though, it’s the deceptively simple cards that are the ones to watch, as proven by the appearance of this flying beat-stick in multiple mid-range GR and Temur builds, including 15 copies in the Top 8 of the SCG Open this weekend. Play that heavy, in a set with lower than usual EV (Estimated Value), can lead to some expensive rare cards, and this one is pushing past $10. My gut says this falls back to $5-6 during the summer doldrums, shortly after the release of MM2, so if you popped some, I’d trade them out now and reacquire later on for max value.

Format(s): Standard

Verdict: Sell/Trade

5. Dragonlord Ojutai (Dragons of Tarkir, Mythic Rare): $11.49 to $15.65 (36%)

My top pick from the DTK edition of Digging for Dollars continues to produce, up over 300% since I recommended snagging him for $4-5 just a few weeks back. There’s no doubt the card is powerful, but it earned 3 copies in the Top 32 decks at the SCG Open, so there is some doubt that we have further to climb. With returns like this locked in, I recommend selling. Sadly, this creates a conflict for me on at least 3 copies, since my new Standard deck is URw Ojutai Control.  If the card does fall back towards $5 at some point, I’ll be buying all over again, since it still has 18 months to find a proper home and a bright future in EDH/Casual circles regardless.

Format(s): Standard/EDH

Verdict: Hold

3 Top Losers of the Week

1. Congregation at Dawn: $3.41 to $2.00 (-41%)

The idea was that this card would be amazing with Collected Company in Modern to pull combo pieces to the top of your deck and go off. There’s a decent chance someone brings the deck into the spotlight soon as it’s already put up some results in Europe, but for now the hype has fallen back. If you had a stack of these in your bulk box, perhaps you had the chance to ship a few. If not, I think you may yet get another opportunity.

Verdict: Hold

2. Tooth and Nail: $11.00 to $9.02 (-18%)

I have no idea why this card is falling off, but it’s not particularly relevant in any format these days, so I’d ignore the movement if you aren’t holding, and ship if you are.

Verdict: Sell

3. Ojutai’s Command: $4.32 to $3.56 (-18%)

This card was on my list of overrated cards for Standard coming out of spoiler season, so I’m hardly surprised to see it falling back to a natural price in the $2-3 range. The decks that will play it will only want 2-3 copies max, and they haven’t shown up at top tables yet, so I’m staying well clear. The card isn’t good enough for older formats either.

Verdict: Sell

James Chillcott is the CEO of ShelfLife.net, The Future of Collecting, Senior Partner at Advoca, a designer, adventurer, toy fanatic and an avid Magic player and collector since 1994.

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