Another week, another batch of winners in the MTG Finance world. We’re right on the cusp of the official Modern Horizons 3 preview season now, and players are starting to buy into cards that could come back into the fold once it hits. This time around, these predictions aren’t completely baseless speculation as we’ve seen many, many leaks.
Alongside Modern Horizons 3’s market movements, Outlaws of Thunder Junction continues to grow its multi-format influence. This is especially true for our headline MTG card today,
Freestrider Lookout
Freestrider Lookout
Reach
Whenever you commit a crime, look at the top five cards of your library. You may put a land card from among them onto the battlefield tapped. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. This ability triggers only once each turn. (Targeting opponents, anything they control, and/or cards in their graveyards is a crime.)
. Despite being dismissed initially, this card is proving to be more than a flash in the MTG pan.
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Freestrider Lookout MTG
You’ve probably seen Freestrider Lookout around a fair bit by now. The card is seeing play in a range of decks, including Midrange lists in Standard and Pioneer. It even helped give lesser-seen Modern Valakut decks a new power piece. It’s simply a very efficient way of ramping and stacking Landfall triggers, on a body that’s not embarrassing in combat.
As a result, the card has been picking up a head of financial steam over the past week. The card has gone from around $0.80 to around $4 on average: a roughly 500% spike. Some sales have even taken place at the $7-8 mark, though these are outliers for now.
It’s not too often that decks like Modern Valakut pick up new pieces, particularly pieces that also play well in Standard. For this reason, Lookout’s price could climb higher yet, though I wouldn’t expect to see much movement above $10. It’s a great card, but Thunder Junction is also a very popular set.
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Nerd Rage
Freestrider Lookout isn’t the only MTG card spiking this week. From a spike most players were expecting to one I doubt many were at all, let’s look at
Nerd Rage
Nerd Rage
Enchant creature
When this Aura enters, draw two cards.
Enchanted creature has "You have no maximum hand size" and "Whenever this creature attacks, if you have ten or more cards in hand, it gets +10/+10 until end of turn."
. This Fallout Aura has gone from around $0.50 to around $4, which is a jump of around 800%. Foil and Surge Foil versions of the card are spiking even harder, up into the $12-16 range.
Despite the dramatic increase, the reason behind this spike is a bit of a mystery. What we do know is that the card is seeing a lot of play in Commander. In Enchantment-focused decks ranging from
Eriette, the Beguiler
Eriette, the Beguiler
Lifelink
Whenever an Aura you control becomes attached to a nonland permanent an opponent controls with mana value less than or equal to that Aura's mana value, gain control of that permanent for as long as that Aura is attached to it.
to
Zur the Enchanter
Zur the Enchanter
Flying
Whenever Zur attacks, you may search your library for an enchantment card with mana value 3 or less, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
, Nerd Rage is undeniably useful.
By getting to draw two cards right off the bat, Nerd Rage helps to avoid the usual pitfalls of Aura-based decks. In addition, ramping up your maximum hand size is very desirable in the format. Just look at the enduring popularity of
Reliquary Tower
Reliquary Tower
You have no maximum hand size.
{T}: Add {C}.
if you want proof.
That said, it’s still quite a large jump for a Commander-only card. Other factors, like the very specific name, which makes reprinting the card difficult, and the fact that it’s from the Fallout Commander decks, which many are speculating on at present, are likely driving it.
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Leyline Dowser
Back into the realm of constructed play,
Leyline Dowser
Leyline Dowser
{1}, {T}: Mill a card. You may put an instant or sorcery card milled this way into your hand.
Tap an untapped legendary creature you control: Untap this artifact.
has had a hell of a week. The card has been climbing for around a month now, and it’s still going strong. Driven by play in various Legacy lists, including some Delver variants, the card has gone from a bulk rare to a rare with a bulky price tag.
The card has gone from around $2 to around $4 over the past week, doubling its already-inflated price. There are sales all the way up to $6 as well, hinting at more growth still to come. Any card good enough to see play in Legacy is worth keeping an eye on, and Dowser has found a few homes in the format so far.
It’s worth noting that ‘Leyline’ is a fairly generic MTG term, which means that this card could be reprinted in a future set fairly easily. For now, though, the card has just one printing and some serious playability behind it. The result? An expensive rare that no one saw coming.
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Eldrazi Temple
Finally, let’s take a look at a card that’s been steadily climbing for the past month. We’ve known that Eldrazi will be a core theme of Modern Horizons 3 for a while now. We’ve seen a lot of the new Eldrazi, too, thanks to the leaks. It’s no surprise, then, that
Eldrazi Temple
Eldrazi Temple
{T}: Add {C}.
{T}: Add {C}{C}. Spend this mana only to cast colorless Eldrazi spells or activate abilities of colorless Eldrazi.
, a Sol Land for the type, is seeing some serious spikes.
There are actually quite a few printings of this card, but even the cheapest one has still doubled in price, from $1 to $2, since the start of May. Some editions, like the original Rise of the Eldrazi printing or the Commander Masters version, are going for $6-8. With the reveal of
Ugin’s Labyrinth
Ugin’s Labyrinth
Imprint — When this land enters, you may exile a colorless card with mana value 7 or greater from your hand.
{T}: Add {C}. If a card is exiled with this land, add {C}{C} instead.
{T}: Return the exiled card to its owner's hand.
, a new colorless Sol land that rewards you for playing Eldrazi-sized creatures, Eldrazi Winter may be coming to Modern once again.
This spike isn’t surprising, then, but it is one to be cautious about. Eldrazi decks are getting so many new pieces in Modern Horizons 3 that there’s a very real chance the archetype takes off. And last time that happened,
Eye of Ugin
Eye of Ugin
Colorless Eldrazi spells you cast cost {2} less to cast.
{7}, {T}: Search your library for a colorless creature card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
, one of the lands that enabled it, caught the ban hammer. Grab some Eldrazi Temples if you’re an Eldrazi loyal, but don’t be surprised if they’re banished from the format before long.
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