This week in the world of Magic finance, the biggest winner was Infernal Genesis with the enchantment climbing from bulk rare prices to near $10. The reason seems to be Toxrill, the Corrosive (showcase) Commander decks where you can force your opponent to make a bunch of 1/1 Minion tokens each turn (assuming they have a non-land card on the top of their deck) and then wipe them all away with Toxrill, the Corrosive (showcase) on your opponent's end step, making a bunch of Slug tokens in the process. At this same time, such a fast, sudden spike suggests a buyout, which would mean the price is likely to trend back down soon. While the days of Infernal Genesis being a bulk rare are likely over, you should be able to save a few bucks by waiting to pick up your copies. Settling at $5 or less seems likely since there isn't much demand for the Prophecy rare outside of Toxrill decks.
While Innistrad: Double Feature doesn't release until the end of January, presales are going up, and boxes are selling for between $220 and $250, which is insane. While you do get two rares/mythics in a pack, which is a nice bonus, when you consider there are only 24 booster packs in a box and the only other real difference between Double Feature and Midnight Hunt/Crimson Vow is that you'll get one of the black and white foils each pack, paying Masters set prices seems absurd. A box of Crimson Vow costs $100 and gives you 36 rares or mythics. A box of Double Feature costs $220-$250 and offers 48 rares/mythics. Are 12 more rares/mythics and 24 of the black and white foils worth an extra $150? I think the answer is pretty clearly no for most players. This said, it is possible that because Double Feature is so expensive very few people buy it, which could lead to the silver screen foils being rare and expensive, which could make a box a good buy from an expected value perspective. Still, my advice would be to buy 2.5 boxes of Midnight Hunt or Crimson Vow rather than one of Double Feature, or just save your money for Kamigawa in a couple of months.
Finally this week, Hunted Horror nearly doubled in price from $9 to $18. There seems to be a couple of reasons for this increase. For one, there was a janky Modern deck featured at MTG Vegas a couple of weeks ago built around using Torpor Orb to avoid Hunted Horror's drawback, effectively making it a two mana 7/7 trampler. More importantly, the card is another fairly popular addition to Toxrill, the Corrosive (showcase) decks as a way to give an opponent creatures you can eat with Toxrill to turn into Slugs. It's also showing up in Umbris, Fear Manifest decks since it's a Horror, giving it even more demand. Much like Infernal Genesis, I expect the short term trend of Hunted Horror will be down, but as Wizards continue to print more unique legends, it wouldn't be a surprise for another legend that synergizes with Hunted Horror to show up in the future, causing another price spike.
Speaking of Toxrill, the Corrosive (showcase), it also ticked up a few%age points this week, and as the most popular commander from Innistrad: Crimson Vow, could continue to increase. It might be worth snagging your copy now if you are planning to build Toxrill in Commander
