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Weekly Update (May 02): How We'd Fix the Commander Banlist

by mtggoldfish // May 3, 2021

Commander Clash Podcast 006: How We'd Fix the Banlist

The crew gives their takes on the official Commander ban list, including the RC's reasoning behind them. Then we discuss what additional ...Read more

Budget Magic: $58 / 10 Rares | UW Magecraft (Standard)

Clever Lumimancer is a messed-up Magic card, but is it messed up enough to power a $58 / 10-rare deck in Strixhaven Standard? Let's see!Read more

Finance Update w/ Saffron Olive

This week in the world of finance most of the bigger winners are cards that have newfound popularity thanks to the impact of Strixhaven and Commander 2021 on the Commander format. Beacon of Creation jumped from $7 to $28 thanks to the token theme of Quandrix. The card has never seen heavy play in Commander, with the relatively unpopular Baru, Fist of Krosa being the only deck where it could be considered a staple, but now it is showing up in a lot of Ruxa, Patient Professor, Blex, Vexing Pest, and Esix, Fractal Bloom decks. Considering that Beacon of Creation has only been printed once, back in 2003 in Fifth Dawn, this new demand is enough to send the price skyrocketing. If you have copies sitting around that you aren't using, I'd consider selling or trading them now. Once Beacon of Creation is reprinted it should fall towards bulk. Its current price is more a product of the card's low supply than its high demand.

Meanwhile, Commander 2014's Scrap Mastery spiked from around $2 to $15 over the past few days for many of the same reasons as Beacon of Creation. The Living Death works really well in Osgir, the Reconstructor and Alibou, Ancient Witness decks - two of the most popular new legends from Commander 2021 - while also showing up in older artifact-based decks like Daretti, Scrap Savant and Bosh, Iron Golem. It might be worth keeping an eye on other older Commander precon cards. Commander is massively more popular today than it was even 5 years ago, and as the player base continues to grow, it wouldn't be a surprise to see more of these cards start to increase in price.

Finally, an expected value update. A couple of weeks ago Strixhaven Collector Boosters offered a ton of value, with the average box containing over $600 in cards. Well, things have started to normalize and the expected value of a box is now down to $325, which is still solid, but not earth-shattering considering the high cost of a box. Foil and etched foil Japanese Mystical Archives are still holding their value, otherwise, prices have dropped more or less across the board. The good news is you can pick up some really powerful cards from the main set on the cheap, with most of the mythics down under $5 and every non-Wandering Archaic rare $3 or less.

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Tomer can't be that bad at Magic. Or ... can he? Read more	Joe Dyer assembles the Round Table for the first time in 2021! Read more

Single Scoop: Lorehold Aggro (Standard, Magic Arena)

Does Lorehold have what it takes to survive the best of one ladder?Read more

10 Upgrades For Silverquill Statement Precon \| $20 \| Breena \| Politics \| Counters \| Commander 2021	Historic 101: Selesnya Hatebears

Tomer analyzes the precon, highlights its strengths and weaknesses, and uses that information to give you 10 optimized and impactful card upgrades! Read more	Remember when everyone joked about Mana Tithe? Well now we have access to it and Crim is going to try it out in a Selesnya Hatebears shell! Read more

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Commander Clash: Strixhaven Commanders | S10 E13

The crew tests out the new commanders from Strixhaven!Read more

Meme or Dream? No Dragons Approach (Standard)	The Fish Tank: Strixhaven Edition (April 25 - May 1, 2021)

Dragon's Approach without any Dragons? Let's give one of the least logical decks I've ever seen a try and then upgrade it into something sweet! Read more	What sweet decks did viewers submit this week? Let's find out! Read more

Historic 101: Ponza	Podcast 326: Andrew Cuneo Talks MPL and Organized Play

Historic has been long overdue for some land destruction and now it might actually be decent! Read more	Special guest Andrew Cuneo joins the crew to discusses organized play and the MPL. Read more