Despite no paper Magic being played at the moment, the Standard metagame is still churning away at a reasonable rate, both on MTGO and Arena. With the release of Ikoria we’ve seen new archetypes pushed to the forefront of Standard, most notably the Yorion Lukka deck and Jeskai Cycling. Lukka has been the (perhaps unexpected) breakout mythic so far, so congrats if you were in on that ahead of the crowd.

Interestingly, one common card across a lot of these decks seems to be Agent of Treachery, and being able to power out an early one can often be the name of the game, be it via Lukka, Winota or simply ramping with Uro and Growth Spiral. This week I’ll be talking about some of the other top contenders in Standard at the moment, and which cards look like they’ll be solid holds with a view to rotation later in the year.

Shatter the Sky

Price today: 0.1 tix
Possible Price: 1 tix

Shatter the Sky is a four mana unconditional wrath in Standard, which is always going to be inherently powerful. We saw Kaya’s Wrath put work in before Shatter was printed, but the mana constraints on that card meant that it couldn’t be played as much as it might have been if it were less heavy on the mana symbols. Shatter is twice as easy to cast, and although it does sometimes let your opponent draw a card, that’s a reasonable price to pay for being able to wrath the board on turn 4 instead of turn 5.

If we take a look at the metagame staples in Standard at the moment, Shatter the Sky comes out as the 9th most played card overall (not just the 9th most played spell). There are a few different Yorion variants that take up a huge proportion of the metagame at the moment, and most of them are playing three to four Shatters in the maindeck.

Kaya’s Wrath is a similar card that we’ve seen spend a decent amount of time over 1 tix on MTGO, and so as we look towards rotation in the fall I think that Shatter the Sky could be lined up to follow a similar path. Standard has been a grindy midrange-fest for a little while now, and could well continue in that direction for the foreseeable future. That means that efficient and well-timed wraths will always be necessary, and Shatter does a great job in that respect.

Elspeth Conquers Death

Price today: 0.2 tix
Possible price: 0.5 tix

Another Theros card we’ve been seeing all over Standard is Elspeth Conquers Death. It’s another powerful midrange tool that can swing games around quickly, and is actually played a lot more than Shatter the Sky, coming out at the fourth most played card in Standard at the moment. Another rare from Theros Beyond Death, this is a card that will still be legal post-rotation and thus probably start to climb as supply dwindles and popularity stays high.

Elspeth Conquers Death did recently ascend to around 0.5 tix on MTGO due to its ubiquity in both Standard and Pioneer, but has since dropped back to 0.2 tix. This is another play that, bought in great enough quantity, could make a lot of money moving back up to 0.5 tix or even more.

Fabled Passage

Price today: 13 tix
Possible price: 20 tix

I called Fabled Passage a few weeks ago when it bottomed out at 9 tix, saying it could hit 15, and after some steady growth we’re pretty close to being there. But here I am talking about it again, and not just to say “told you so” – I think that this card has even more potential going forwards, and could even hit 20 tix at some point.

I may just be repeating myself from a few weeks ago, but Fabled Passage is played in almost every deck in Standard, and pretty much always as a four-of when it’s there. Especially with all the new Yorion decks running around, colour fixing and a consistent manabase is more important than ever, and so demand for Fabled Passage isn’t going anywhere.

These were obviously a lot better at 9 tix, but I think they’re still pretty decent at 13. We’ve seen the card at 18 before so there is a precedent, and coupled with the not insignificant use the card sees in Pioneer (it’s actually the most popular non-basic land in the format), 20 tix isn’t too much of a stretch.

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 and a new writer for MTGPrice in 2020, he’s an active MTG finance speculator specialising in cross-border arbitrage.

I usually try to base each of these articles loosely around a theme of sorts, or at least make something up that tenuously links the cards I talk about – but this week I’m afraid to say I was stuck. So alas, it’s an unthematic week, and I’ve just talked about some cards that I think are worth taking a good look at buying on MTGO.

Having said that, I still think that these are all some solid picks (otherwise I really shouldn’t be wasting time writing about them), so have a read and let me know what you think!

Fiend Artisan

Price today: 14 tix
Possible price: 20 tix

There were a lot of mixed opinions on Fiend Artisan in the run-up to Ikoria’s release, with a lot of people comparing it to Tarmogoyf or calling it Green Sun’s Zenith on a stick, but others saying that it was trying to do two different things but did neither of them very well. The recent results, however, have shown us that this card can definitely put some work in in a Standard environment.

Lurrus of the Dream-Den Companion decks are all over the place, and the Orzhov Aristocrats deck in Standard plays a suite of Fiend Artisans along with Lurrus as the Companion. It’s able to tutor up key pieces like Priest of Forgotten Gods, as well as being a big beatstick later in the game. The Artisan has also been showing up in Pioneer, most recently making the finals of the Team Lotus Box Pioneer tournament over the weekend in an Abzan Rally shell. It’s reminiscent of the Rally the Ancestors deck from BFZ Standard, but the wider card pool of Pioneer has made for a much more streamlined, powerful deck.

After peaking at 30 tix around Ikoria’s release, Fiend Artisan has been hovering between 12 and 15 tix since then. It’s sitting around 14 at the moment, and I think that this is a powerful card that can find multiple homes in multiple formats. I think there’s a lot to do with the card that hasn’t been explored yet, and I expect the Rally deck to gain some more traction in Pioneer over the next couple of weeks.

Jace, Wielder of Mysteries

Price today: 4.5 tix
Possible price: 10 tix

Speaking of Pioneer, and more specifically Team Lotus Box’s Pioneer tournament this past weekend, the Lotus Breach combo deck is being pushed back down after having had a week or so back in the sun. The Damping Spheres are back in the sideboards for now, but give it another month or so and people will slowly remove them again and we’ll see Breach do well again, and then rinse and repeat…

Anyway, I’m not supposed to be talking about Breach here. Dimir Inverter was by far the most represented deck on the weekend, with over double the metagame share of the next deck (Lurrus Burn). A new flavour of Inverter has appeared on the scene – can you guess what’s different? That’s right, the deck can play a Companion now. Yorion is the ally of choice here, expanding the deck up to 80 cards and filling the slots with more interaction and cantrips. As well as just being a 4/5 flier that’s a free card in your opening hand, Yorion can actually help you win by flickering your Inverter of Truth and flipping over your library again.

So what’s the pick here? Jace, Wielder of Mysteries has been trending down online since mid March, after its spike when Dig Through Time didn’t get banned. But see that little turnaround at the bottom of the graph there? I think we’ve reached the bottom and the price is going to be headed back up now. Jace has been 18 tix before and so I think that 10 is a pretty reasonable target for this play. This Yorion version of the deck has great potential, and I expect to see more of it in the MTGO leagues over the next couple of weeks.

Sunbaked Canyon

Price today: 13 tix
Possible price: 20 tix

See how I mentioned Lurrus Burn in the previous section? Well, now I’m segueing into talking about another card from the deck – but in Modern. That was a smooth transition, right?…

Anyway, Sunbaked Canyon has been a staple in Modern Burn decks since it was printed, and now that Lurrus has given the deck an extra boost it’s really putting up results in Modern. Due to the Modern Horizons flashback draft on MTGO a couple of weeks ago, the Horizon lands (along with most other MH cards) took a dip in price online. A lot of staples have recovered since then, but the Horizon lands have, for the most part, stayed down. I don’t think that they’re going to stay that way for too much longer though.

I’m calling out Sunbaked Canyon because it’s the most widely played, but this logic roughly applies to the other four lands as well. Canyon was up at 21 tix before the flashback draft, and I think it can get there again, especially with the heavier-than-usual representation of Burn in the Modern metagame.

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 and a new writer for MTGPrice in 2020, he’s an active MTG finance speculator specialising in cross-border arbitrage.

We all know that Wizards have been pushing the power level of new Standard sets in the past 12 months, but Throne of Eldraine has arguably been the most pushed of the lot so far. Sure, T3feri and Narset from War of the Spark are obnoxious, and Uro out of Theros has seen an incredible amount of play…but remind me how many formats Oko is banned from now? And Once Upon a Time?

But even setting aside the bannings, this is a suite of cards that have achieved a deep penetration of pretty much every format Magic has to offer – and it’s also going to be the oldest set legal in Standard once rotation hits later this year. Those factors all seem like an excellent recipe for some juicy MTGO specs, so let’s take a look!

Brazen Borrower

Price today: 27 tix
Possible price: 40 tix

Brazen Borrower continues to be one of the most popular cards in Standard, as well as seeing play in Pioneer, Modern and Legacy as well. Side note: although Legacy might not really drive paper prices much any more, it’s a different story online where dual lands and other Legacy staples have had numerous promo printings (like Vintage Masters), and so are WAY more affordable. My point here is that Brazen Borrower being played a bit in Legacy does actually have an impact on its price online, unlike in paper.

I don’t really need to talk much about how good this card is; the results speak for themselves. A lot of the Adventure cards from Throne of Eldraine have proven themselves to be powerful and flexible in multiple formats, and Borrower is probably the best of all of them. Also, it’s one of only two Mythic Rare Adventure cards, the other of which sees so little play it’s not even worth naming.

We’ve seen this card at highs of over 50 tix, but it’s been on a steady downswing for a couple of months now. We might not have hit the floor yet, so keep an eye over the next few days/weeks, and maybe try to buy copies down the ladder. Demand for Brazen Borrower isn’t going to be significantly decreasing any time soon, and so once it turns around I think we’ll see it head back up over 40 tix without too much trouble.

Embercleave

Price today: 2.6 tix
Possible price: 6 tix

Embercleave has seen a lot of price volatility over its time in Standard, but most recently has somewhat fallen off a cliff. Maybe someone threw their sword out of the pram? (Not gonna lie, this is the first time I’ve actually properly looked at the Embercleave art and up until now I sort of assumed it was an axe…the more you know, I guess).

True burn decks haven’t been good in Standard for quite a while, and it doesn’t look like that’s a direction Wizards want to be going at the moment. This means that the majority of aggressive red decks are creature-based, which is great news for our friend Embercleave. It’s a powerful weapon (hah) for the deck, especially when combined with Anax, Hardened in the Forge, making it much easier to push those last point of damage through. It’s so powerful, in fact, that it’s made its way into Modern and Pioneer decks as well, so it could even have some legs once its standard days are over.

As I alluded to earlier, after peaking at around 9 tix a couple of months ago, Embercleave has been trending down since then and taken a sharp downturn in the past couple of weeks. Same as with Brazen Borrower, we might see this go down a little further before it reverses, but even if you buy now I think you’ll be in for a good time eventually.

Murderous Rider // Swift End

Price today: 2.3 tix
Possible price: 5 tix

I kind of wanted to do a triple-mythic article today, but I think that Murderous Rider is a better option here than any of the other ELD mythics. Although it’s hard not to include this card in your black decks in Standard, I think that Murderous Rider has found its best home in Pioneer. Mono-black used to be the top dog in the format, and although it takes up a smaller share of the metagame now, Murderous Rider is still seeing play in that and in Sultai Delirium.

I’m going to try not to repeat myself too much, but these Adventure cards are great, and I think they’ll have applications in a lot of formats for years to come. Murderous Rider has seen prices of up to around 6 tix online – not as pricey as the mythics or auto-playsets but I don’t think it’ll have too much trouble doubling up from its current price. Bear in mind I see this as a longer hold (probably at least a few months), but it should be a steady gainer.

A final note on these cards from Throne of Eldraine – the set is outside of the MTGO redemption window now which means that there’s a little less demand for some of the rares and mythics that people needed to complete their sets. This means that we may well see ELD cards continue on a slight downtrend for a bit, so this will require a bit of effort on your part if you want to maximise your gains. Look out for the floor/turning point, and buy in then. If you’re happy to buy now for slightly lesser gains and save time keeping track of prices, then that’s also an entirely valid option.

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 and a new writer for MTGPrice in 2020, he’s an active MTG finance speculator specialising in cross-border arbitrage.