This week in the world of Magic finance the biggest winner was the new March of the Machine: Aftermath mythic Nissa, Resurgent Animist which saw a massive 147% increase to settle at just below $40 after managing to win last weekend's MTGO Modern Preliminary in a Four-Color Elementals shell. In a deck full of fetchlands, Nissa, Resurgent Animist can be pretty strong, potentially letting you draw an Omnath, Locus of Creation (showcase) or an evoke Elemental like Solitude, Fury, or Endurance each turn. The question is whether this new tech actually sticks. The three-drop slot in Omnath decks is all over the place. Some people play Risen Reef, others Eternal Witness (borderless), and some Seasoned Pyromancer. Is Nissa, Resurgent Animist the new best option for this slot? Only time will tell. For now I'd lean towards selling Nissa while prices are high. Even if it does end up an archetype staple in Modern, it's hard for me to imagine it sticking anywhere near $40, although it's also possible the unpopularity of Aftermath restricts supply enough for it to happen. 

Speaking of Aftermath, I'm starting to come around to the idea that some of the singles from the set could be a good buy. Here's the reasoning: Aftermath is unpopular and we've heard stories of both players and stores going out of their way to avoid cracking sealed product as a result. As I mentioned a moment ago, this could limit the supply of cards in the set. We've seen in the past that unpopular sets (original Kamigawa block, Dragon's Maze) often end up having some very expensive cards in the long run since there simply aren't that many cards from those sets in the wild. When you toss in that pretty much all the rares in Aftermath are already bulk, picking up cards that could end up popular in Commander seems wise. Can you really go wrong snagging The Kenriths' Royal Funeral for $0.50? Nahiri's Resolve for $0.60 or Open the Way for $1? From a financial perspective the worst case is the cards stay bulk and there's a small opportunity cost. Best case they slowly climb up to $5 or $10 over the next few years thanks to their lacking supply and you end up thankful that you snagged your copies while they were cheap. 

Finally, last week we talked about Magma Opus (planeswalker stamp) doubling in price thanks to a new Indomitable Creativity deck in Pioneer that looks to use the mythic to make a Treasure and then turn that Treasure into a Torrential Gearhulk with Indomitable Creativity to flashback Magma Opus (planeswalker stamp). Well, Magma Opus (planeswalker stamp) doubled up again this week. After being as low as $3 just two weeks ago, it is now up to $13 after gaining another 162% in the past seven days, making it the most expensive card from the underwhelming Strixhaven set. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the peak for Magma Opus (planeswalker stamp). It really only sees play in a single deck, and while the deck is popular right now, who knows how popular it will be a month from now or a year from now. More importantly, if you look at underlying sales data you'll see that pretty much no one is actually buying copies of Magma Opus (planeswalker stamp) for $13, with recent sales being completed in the $6-$8 range. My guess is that we'll see Magma Opus (planeswalker stamp) start to fall back into this price range over the coming days and weeks.