This week in the world of Magic finance most of the big news is driven by the release of Dominaria United and Standard rotation. While the biggest gainer this week was Defiler of Vigor which climbed 56% to over $13, perhaps the bigger news is that black is on the rise in Standard. The first Magic Online challenge results are out, and black-based decks are dominating the early days of our new format, with every single deck in the top 16 being some version of black, often splashing one or two colors. As a result, our list of bigger winners in Standard this week is full of cards played in black midrange decks like Graveyard Trespasser, Wedding Announcement, and Takenuma, Abandoned Mire. While black is on top at the moment in Standard, it's also important to point out that we shouldn't over-reach to early results because what happens during the first days of a new format isn't always indicative of where the format ends up. This said, if your planning to play black midrange in Dominaria United Standard, it probably wouldn't hurt to snag the cards you need now, because if the color remains dominant prices could continue to rise.

In one of the weirder bits of MTG finance new ever, Dandan was saw a huge price spike these week with the Timeshifted version increasing nearly 800% to almost $10. Why is this janky old card that is unplayed in every format (including Commander, outside of flavor or meme purposes) suddenly $10? Apparently there is a weird, fan-made format built around the card that has gotten some press recently. The interesting part of the two-player format is that both players share a deck, which means if you build a Dandan deck you'll be able to play with a friend even if they don't have one. If you're interested in trying out the format, the good news is that you don't need a $10 Dandan. The Chronicles and 5th Edition printings are still somewhere around $0.25 and if you aren't interested in playing the Dandan format, you can ignore the price spike all together, because no one else needs a copy of Dandan. 

Lastly Mystic Forge (planeswalker stamp) has been ticking up in recent weeks, going from around $6 at the beginning of August to nearly $11 today. This is partly because of Meria, Scholar of Antiquity Commander decks, but it's also likely due to the fact that we'll be getting a lot of new artifacts in Brothers War and the return to Phyrexia in the coming months. It wouldn't be a surprise to see cards that work especially well in artifact-themed Commander decks creep up a bit in the meantime as players (and speculators) prepare for the sets to release.