Continuing on from my article a couple of weeks ago, I’m back with more Modern content this week, and there have been some interesting decks popping up in the metagame that I want to take a look at. New and old decks in the metagame means new cards to spec on, and although this week’s picks might be a little more speculative than I usually go with, I like the look of them nonetheless.
Fractured Sanity (Foil)
Price today: $2.5
Possible price: $8
Mill has been picking back up in Modern over the past couple of weeks, having been gifted new tech both from Modern Horizons 2 and Adventures in the Forgotten Realms. The deck has gained resources in the form of Tasha’s Hideous Laughter and Fractured Sanity, both of which have been appearing as four-ofs in almost all current Mill lists. I talked a little bit about Tasha’s Hideous Laughter a few weeks ago and mentioned that I wanted to see it down towards $1-2 before grabbing a bunch of copies, and it’s gotten close to that but I’m not sure that it’ll quite hit that low any more – $3 might be your best entry at this point.
However, Fractured Sanity is looking like a much more enticing prospect right now, also a four-of in all the Mill decks and yet the foils have been somewhat languishing down at $2.50. I think that these are a prime target to head upwards pretty soon, and I can’t see it staying cheaper than Tasha’s Hideous Laughter for too much longer. With around 63 listings on TCGPlayer there are no major walls of copies; most listings are single or duo copies.
I want to mention the sketch versions quickly here – I think that these are another one that missed the mark in terms of the art, and that’s being reflected in prices – these are both cheaper and more readily available than the regular versions, and are probably worse targets than the regular copies for picking up at the moment.
Svyelun of Sea and Sky (Retro & Showcase Foil)
Price today: $7
Possible price: $20
Another deck making waves (pun fully intended) in Modern at the moment is Merfolk – an archetype that hasn’t seen much time in the sun for quite a while now, but might be back as a real player thanks to a couple of additions from Modern Horizons 2. Svyelun of Sea and Sky and Tide Shaper have both brought a lease of new life to the tribal deck, and could help push the old deck back to the forefront of the meta.
Tide Shaper acts as a replacement for Spreading Seas that hits for damage instead of drawing a card, and Svyelun giving Ward to all your Merfolk is pretty big game when cards like Solitude and Prismatic Ending have become so popular in Modern at the moment. On top of that Svyelun drawing cards and gaining indestructible really pushes it over the top, and as such has been showing up as a consistent three-of in the new Merfolk lists.
Prices for both the Retro frame and Showcase foils for Svyelun are both sat around $7 now, which I think could easily move up significantly if the Merfolk deck starts to gain some more traction in Modern. Aside from that, this is a card you can expect to see in almost all Merfolk EDH decks that get built, either as the commander or part of the 99, and being a Mythic form MH2 supply won’t last for too long once people start to pick copies up. Modern players will be grabbing them 3-4 at a time and certainly won’t mind paying $30-40 for a playset of premium copies, pushing the price up as they go.
Prismari Command
Price today: $6
Possible price: $15
I’ve spoken about Prismari Command before, when I called the FEA copies to go from $10 to $30 (and they’re currently sitting at $20 so well done if you bought some when I said to), but now that the more premium versions are getting expensive, I want to take a look at the regular copies. You can get them for around $6-7 in the US at the moment and they’re actually more expensive than that in Europe, although across the board foils and non-foils seem to be around the same price, so take your pick.
Prismari Command has been popping up here and there in Modern, seeing play across a few different kinds of decks – Crashing Footfalls, Indomitable Creativity and control variants. It’s also a relatively popular EDH card, in over 5000 decks listed on EDHREC, and in the top ten cards from Strixhaven. I think that this will continue to show up here and there in Modern, and that coupled with its EDH popularity should mean that it will keep climbing in price.
If you can get FEAs under $20 then I think they’re still a decent buy, certainly for personal use if not as a spec. I expect to see those crest $30 within a couple of months or so and could well continue up to $40.
David Sharman (@accidentprune on Twitter) has been playing Magic since 2013, dabbling in almost all formats but with a main focus on Modern, EDH and Pioneer. Based in the UK, he’s an active MTG finance speculator specialising in cross-border arbitrage.