This week in the world of Magic finance the biggest winner was a seemingly random Ixalan uncommon: Reckless Rage. The one mana removal spell jumped more than 500%, from under $1 to near $5 on the back of increased Pioneer play. In recent weeks, Boros Heroic Aggro has risen up the metagame rankings and is currently on the cusp of being a tier one deck. Reckless Rage is a four-of in the deck and isn't especially replaceable since it offers not only incredibly efficient removal, but another way to target your own creatures with a spell to grow heroic threats like Favored Hoplite and Tenth District Legionnaire. The good news is that Reckless Rage seems very easy to reprint, with its generic name making it available for Standard sets and supplemental products. Dig whatever copies you have from your bulk and sell or trade them away now while prices are high, assuming you're not interested in playing the deck.

The Reckless Rage increase might also be a part of a bigger trend, considering that Curious Obsession (up 28% to $2.70) and Mausoleum Wanderer (up 14% to just under $6) also increased this week. What do these cards have in common with Reckless Rage? They are part of one of the cheapest competitive decks in the Pioneer format, in this case Mono-Blue Spirits, which costs just a bit over $100 to complete. If you're new to Pioneer on a tight budget and looking to play in Pro Tour qualifiers, the Boros Heroic deck and Mono-Blue Spirits are the two most likely choices. These price increases are likely the result of players picking these decks up as their intro to competitive Pioneer. If you're thinking of trying to play the format competitive on a budget, it might be worth locking in your deck now. It wouldn't be a surprise to see prices continue to slowly rise.

A few weeks ago we talked about how Ledger Shredder was on the rise, and at the time I thought it was unlikely to go much higher than $10 or $15 based on how unlikely it is for an in-print rare to command such a price. With Ledger Shredder increasing another 10% this week to a massive $25, I was pretty clearly wrong. So why has the Bird been able to break the mold and become the most expensive non-land Standard rare in a long time? Well, for one thing it has developed into a legitimate staple in every format from Standard back to Vintage, along with seeing a decent amount of Commander play, so the demand is huge. It's also possible that Ledger Shredder has benefited from the short release window for Streets of New Capenna. One thing we've seen happen in the past is that when a popular supplemental product comes out shortly after a Standard set, the Standard set is sometimes forgotten and under-opened as everyone spends their money on the supplemental product. I'd still say sell Ledger Shredder - especially now that it's $25 - but I also thought that was the best move when it was $10 or $15, so who knows at this point.