This week was fairly quiet in the world of Magic finance, although expect that to change shortly as we enter New Capenna spoiler season on Thursday. The big news this week was the return of paper Organized Play and Pro Tours, with the first qualifier season and Pro Tour featuring Pioneer. This, in turn, has driven up the prices of Pioneer staples, headlined by Winota, Joiner of Forces (planeswalker stamp), which increased a masssive 202% to $29, with Arclight Phoenix (planeswalker stamp) and Mana Confluence also on the rise. It will be interesting to see just how big of an impact the return of Organized Play has on the paper market. In the past card prices would move up and down based on the format of the qualifier season. It seems possible this could start happening again as players rush out to buy Pioneer cards to try to qualify for the Pro Tour. Either way, Pioneer is a format to keep an eye on moving foward as players now have a real reason to invest in the staples of the format.

Meanwhile in Standard, The Meathook Massacre is up to a shocking $70. To put this in perspective, Oko, Thief of Crowns topped out at $67. While I might be forgetting something, I think this makes The Meathook Massacre the most expensive Standard-legal card since Jace, Vryn's Prodigy hit $90 back in 2016. Of course, becoming the most expensive recent Standard card requires more than Standard play and The Meathook Massacre has been aided by becoming a Commander staple in sacrifice decks and go-wide black decks. Even with the price increase, the EV of Innistrad: Midnight Hunt sealed product isn't great in a vacuum, with a draft booster box coming in at just $82, although boxes are selling for as little as $80 with free shipping on Ebay. This might make them worth the gamble, especially if you need other cards from the set or have a good way to sell or trade your cards for near retail prices. Otherwise, expect to pay a lot for your The Meathook Massacres. There's little reason to expect a big decline in price in the near future. Mythics that end up staples in both 60 and 100 card formats tend to be pretty expensive.

Finally, a word of warning about spoiler season: don't buy cards at inflated presale prices! Last week we got an early sneak speak at three New Capenna mythics: Jetmir, Nexus of Revels, Lord Xander, the Collector and Raffine, Scheming Seer, all of which are listed at between $15 and $30 at the moment. To put this in perspective, there are currently 140 mythics in Standard and just 10 of the cost $15 or more, which means overall just 7% of Standard mythics are worth as much as the three New Capenna mythics. Wait for the set to release to pick up the cards you need and you should be able to pick up cards like Jetmir, Xander and Raffine for at least half of their current price.