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Weekly Update (Jun 07): Core Set 2021 Previews Begin

by mtggoldfish // Jun 8, 2020

Core Set 2021 Previews

Core Set 2021 previews have begun with some sweet new planeswalkers. Each planeswalker will have two different promo versions (showcase and full art), and Teferi himself will have nine versions (!). Mill is now a keyword and all Hounds are now Dogs! Oh, and Containment Priest is now in Standard. Be sure to check out the latest musings from SaffronOlive:

Banned and Restricted Update, June 1, 2020: Agent, Fires Banned, Companion Mechanic Change

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Budget Magic: 12-Rare Tempered Steel (Historic)

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Finance Update w/ Saffron Olive

Even though this week marks the beginning of Core Set 2021 spoilers, the biggest finance new this week is related to yesterday's announcement of a rule change in Commander: when a commander with a death trigger (like Child of Alara) dies and is put back into the command zone, its death trigger will still happen. This means that cards like Child of Alara (which shot up from $4 to $40 in the last 24 hours) and Elenda, the Dusk Rose (which jumped from $18 to $44) become way more playable as Commanders since you can more easily reuse their death triggers multiple times in a game. In the past, if you wanted to use the death trigger of something like Child of Alara, you'd have to let it go to the graveyard rather than the command zone, making it much more difficult to recast. While Child of Alara and Elenda are the two most popular death trigger Commanders, it's also worth keeping an eye on the Kamigawa cycle of Dragons (Keiga, the Tide Star, Kokusho, the Evening Star and friends), Iname as One, Tuktuk the Explorer and Roalesk, Apex Hybrid, all of which benefit from the rules change.

Meanwhile, in the world of Core Set 2021, presale prices are currently extremely high. Perhaps the best example of this is Grim Tutor which is currently selling for around $60. While it is true that the original printing of Grim Tutor is over $200, this is because the only printing of Grim Tutor (before Core Set 2021) was Starter 1999, a set with almost no supply. Meanwhile, demand for Grim Tutor is small outside of Commander. It will be interesting to see if any Modern or Pioneer decks can take advantage of Grim Tutor), and even in Commander Grim Tutor is currently played in 1% of decks (while Demonic Tutor is in 30% of decks). The lack of Commander play is likely, at least in part, due to the cost of Grim Tutor. More players will probably add it to decks as the price drops, but there are so many cheap tutors that are almost as good (Diabolic Tutor for example) that it's hard for me to imagine Grim Tutor staying above $20 and I think it's possible it will drop below $10 as Core Set 2021 is opened. You'll save a ton of money if you can wait a few weeks to pick up your copies.

The other big Core Set 2021 new is the addition of Dog as a supported creature type and the announcement that all Hounds from Magic's history will have their creature type updated to Dog. Based on our experience with Cats — with the tribe going from basically unsupported to one of the most popular creature types in Commander in just a few years once Wizards started printing a bunch of Cat cards — it seems likely that Dog will be an extremely popular creature type, at least for casual play. While there aren't a ton of great (or even playable) Hounds in Magic's history, cards like Elven Warhounds, Blood Hound, Underworld Cerberus, Mongrel Pack, and Isamaru, Hound of Konda could be in line to see more play in Commander as players wait for Wizards to print more good tribe members to fill out their Commander decks. Most of these cards are cheap now and from old sets with low supply; if you're planning on playing Dog tribal it can't hurt to pick up a copy, just in case the buyout brigade gets to them at some point in the future.

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Pinball Karona | Political Combat | $50, $100, $200 | Budget Commander

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Commander Clash S8 E7: Jumbo Commander w/ DJ \| Golos vs. Ishai & Tana vs. Selvala vs. Tasigur	The Fish Tank: Sweet and Spicy User Decks (May 31-June 6, 2020)

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New White Card Draw! Mangara, the Diplomat \| Commander Quickie	Podcast 279: Bannings, Companion Changes and Arena Open

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Instant Deck Techs

Each day we'll be posting a short, three minute deck tech featuring some of the coolest decks that come across the site. The most popular deck will be made into videos the following week based on your views, likes and comments in the videos. Here's this week's Instant Deck Techs: