This past week was a pretty exciting one for Magic, and since last week’s article, both the competitive and finance worlds have been shaken up considerably.

Modern has been turned on its head by new a new breed of combo deck that abuses Jeskai Ascendancy as a degenerate engine. The Standard metagame has moved forward dramatically with two separate SCG Open tournaments and a TCGplayer 5k MaxPoint Diamond Open.

These metagame changes have had dramatic impacts on the finance world as well. Today I’ll share my thoughts on what’s happened and what to expect going forward.

Glittering Wish and Jeskai Ascendancy

Jeskai Ascendancy can be paired with cheap spells as a card draw engine, and it doubles as a way to win the game by pumping a team of creatures. It becomes degenerate when paired with mana creatures like Birds of Paradise, Noble Hierarch, and even Sylvan Caryatid. The draw engine is hypercharged by free cantrips like Gitaxian Probe, Manamorphose and Cerulean Wisps, while Serum Visions and Sleight of Hand dig for combo pieces and keep the engine going. This deck takes full advantage of Treasure Cruise with a suite of fetchlands.

This deck broke through to the public with Sam Black’s article “The Return of the Turn 2 Kill” on 9/24. I first took serious note of the deck in the mid afternoon of Saturday 9/27 after seeing Travis Woo’s Facebook post sharing some knowledge dropped by Pascal Maynard. I took special note of the end, “PS : Glittering Wish is out of stock on every online store.”

I had been eyeing Glittering Wish for a long time; as a rare from Future Sight, the third set of a block and the same set as Tarmogoyf, it seemed criminally underpriced. While I regretted not moving in months ago, upon seeing the post I quickly took to action and scoured the internet for cheap copies of Glittering Wish.

With my eyes on a quick flip, from various websites I was able to order 17 copies and four foil copies, paying $3-4 for the normals and $10 for the foils, and as of this writing I have all in hand except three nonfoil copies I ordered from out of the country.

Glittering Wish cost somewhere around $2.5 this entire calendar year. Following a Saturday buyout, copies were relisted for $8. Talk in social media on Saturday night and Sunday revealed more information:

Tyler Longo finished 2nd in the Modern Manadeprived Super Series Toronto tournament with the Jeskai Ascendancy combo deck. Impressed by the deck, Noah Long, who has connections to Pascal Maynard, took the deck to win outright the SOMS Invitational tournament the next day. Check out this article for a recap of that event and Noah’s updated decklist.

This news pushed the price of Glittering Wish towards $12 by Monday morning, and $20 by Tuesday. The price seems to have tempered off a bit, but at this time the card sits somewhere in the mid-teens.

I’ll keep a playset to use, I have a set listed for sale, and I’m aiming to trade away a playset locally. If the price seems to fall I may try to get out ASAP, but I don’t think it will, and I also don’t mind the idea of holding these as a long-term spec. If there is a banning it would be Jeskai Ascendancy, and in that case Glittering Wish has plenty of potential in other decks. It was simply underpriced, and while it may or may not be overhyped at the moment, it’s never going to see the pre-buyout low again.

The cheapest foil copies of Glittering Wish are currently selling for over $50 on tcgplayer. I have listed mine for sale in various places and I aim to sell ASAP.

Initial Standard Results

Starcitygames held two Standard Opens last weekend, one in New Jersey, and one in Indianapolis, and posted a ton of decklists. TCGplayer hosted a $5k event in Texas. With that chunk of data we have a great idea of what the Standard metagame will look like going forward until Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir, beginning October 10th, likely warps if not remolds the metagame. The New Jersey Open was dominated by two Jeskai Tempo decks in the Top 8 and one winning the event, while a graveyard-focused Abzan deck took the trophy in Indianapolis.

These events had a tremendous impact on finance.

Mantis Rider, a cornerstone of the Jeskai deck, which was selling just over $2 on Friday, skyrocketed towards a $7 pricetag by the following Monday.

Stoke the Flames, which sold for around a dollar last week, has spiked to $4. It’s an extreme price for an uncommon, and for me it brings to light the realities of how dry the market is in Magic 2015 cards relative to the high demand for Standard.

Goblin Rabblemaster, which began trading at $11 Monday before reaching $14 by the end of the weekend, skyrocketed to $20 on Wednesday. There really aren’t many more of these being opened, and it’s not going to become any less good anytime soon, so I don’t see this card falling in value. Although I think it’s unlikely it will go very much higher, I would not discount the idea.

Hornet Queen was a key card in the Abzan graveyard strategy that won Indianapolis because of the interaction with Whip of Erebos. The version that made Top 4 in the TCG event also employed Endless Obedience. Hornet Queen was also a part of the two Green Devotion decks that reached the Top 8 in New Jersey.

Hornet Queen traded at $1 in August before slowly creeping up over the past three weeks to over $1.5. From there the price curve moves up sharply, beginning with nearly a $0.25 gain from Tuesday to Wednesday. As of Thursday morning the price is at $2 on tcgplayer.

Given Hornet Queen’s positive Standard prospects and the recent price trends of M15 cards, I believe the card is still underpriced and poised to double, and with a breakout PT performance it may rise further still. I studied the price trends of Tidebinder Mage, which spiked from $1 to $5 after Pro Tour Theros, and Lifebane Zombie, which went from around $5 up toward $9--Hornet Queen should have similar potential.

There are Commander 2011 copies out there, but I don’t think that limited printing three years ago will dramatically impact Standard prices. I’d be interested in hearing others' thoughts on this.

I luckily traded into some copies of Hornet Queen over the weekend, but I decided to purchase a few playsets under $2/card with the aim of moving after the Pro Tour at a premium. They currently buylist for around $1, which I expect will rise, and I am relying on that as my ripcord option, though it may also be a reasonable play to hold until winter and perhaps the next set release.

The rise of Jeskai Tempo and the success of various Gruul Monsters decks had a positive impact on the price of Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker. It rose to $35 by Thursday morning, up over 40% from its presale price under $25.

Real Estate

Steadily rising is the stock of the painland cycle, particularly Battlefield Forge. The Apocalypse versions of all seemed to rise first, but other printings from 8th, 9th, and M15 are following suit. M15 Battlefield Forge hit $7 on Wednesday. Much of the ship has sailed on these lands, but I believe there is still upside.

Another place to look are the scrylands like Temple of Abandon, which may still be underpriced. SCG moved its buylist on that land up to $3, and it’s expected to rise further. The sell price has rose to $4 on TCGplayer and may hit upwards of $5-6, but as a Theros rare it is in more supply than say, Temple of Epiphany from Journey Into Nyx, which went from $5 last week to $7. It’s currently nearly $8, and I could see it hitting $12, similar to the peak of the most desirable shocklands last season.

What do you make of what's going on the #mtgfinance world? Share in the comments!

-Adam