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Daily Stock Watch – Griselbrand

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Hello, readers and welcome to a new edition of the Daily Stock Watch! We continue our search for the next best spec today by focusing on one familiar legend that has been on a pretty steady slide since it was first printed. Back in 2011 when Avacyn Restored was released, everyone pretty much knew that this was going to be a Reanimator staple for the existence of Magic, owing to its very powerful ability to let you draw seven cards at the expense of seven life. Such a payoff is very much appreciated in formats where it could easily win games just by its sheer power, but it doesn't reflect much in its monetary value nowadays. However, the recent Legacy banning has given a new lease of life on this demon, and I think that it's worth investing on today while it's still cheap and promising as ever.

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Just like what our new colleague Edward Eng is trying to tell you on his segment (and something that Brian DeMars originally talked about), now might be the best time to hold on to your copies of Griselbrand. He was specific in his piece that he'd like to wait it out longer with the Grand Prix version of this card, but I'm leaning towards keeping every possible copy you could. The card is still Modern playable despite its namesake deck's lack of success, and we could just be looking at the tip of the iceberg with the recent Sneak and Show lists that started popping out of nowhere.

Sneak and Show

Creatures

4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Griselbrand

Instants and Sorceries

1 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
2 Spell Pierce
4 Ponder
3 Preordain
4 Show and Tell
4 Brainstorm

Other Spells

4 Lotus Petal
2 Omniscience
4 Sneak Attack

Lands

3 Island
1 Mountain
3 Ancient Tomb
3 City of Traitors
1 Flooded Strand
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Volcanic Island

Sideboard

1 Defense Grid
4 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Arcane Artisan
2 Blood Moon
2 Abrade
2 Pyroclasm
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All

This list will show up a lot online and definitely in more paper tournaments now that its number one tormentor Deathrite Shaman has kissed the bucket. This also opens up the door for other strategies such as Dredge (hello Ichorid and Life from the Loam!) but that route's not so popular with a lot of players who prefer to win conveniently using a more direct approach that Reanimator offers. Griselbrand should rise in popularity with these developments, but I don't think that the price increase would be massive. There should be some minor gains depending on how drastic it will dictate the meta game, but history tells us that hating the graveyard is a much easier predicament than facing a one mana critter that chomps everything at the cost of one mana as well. The format should be able to adjust accordingly in that scenario, so the financial gains will be steady in my opinion.

What Could Be Trending

There are plenty of reasons as to why these cards will probably trend upwards in the coming months, and you should hear other people share their minds as to why they think so. Legacy just became a wide open field despite the recent dominance by Sneak and Show, and there should be more crazy ideas to come. I'm inclined to the idea that Griselbrand will move up to $12-$15 territory once more in the coming days. There should be a low risk for hopping on to this hype train.

At the moment, you could get copies of Griselbrand for anywhere between $6.93 up to $11.99 from Card Kingdom and TCGPlayer for various conditions. StarCityGames is out of stock for AVR and MM3 copies, and they left their price markers at somewhere between $9.99 up to $11.99. Foil copies of the card shouldn't be expensive, considering that there are GP foil copies out there and isn't really a good spec target because of that. I suggest that you get copies now while they're this cheap. There's a lot of room for growth on this one.

And that’s it for today’s edition of the Daily Stock Watch! See you again next time, as we check out a new card that should be on the go, or good enough for speculating. As always, feel free to share your opinion in the comments section below. And if you want to keep up with all the market movement, be sure to check in with the QS Discord Channel for real time market information, and stay ahead of the hottest specs!

5 thoughts on “Daily Stock Watch – Griselbrand

  1. Hey Jamie,

    I see you’re on the Griselbrand train too. Nice! I think Sneak and Show is only gonna get more popular in Legacy.

    My question is…what do you think it’ll take for a deck like Grishoalbrand to really do well in Modern? Another cheap reanimate spell? Something else?

    1. I think many card prints could make it more popular such as:

      – Cheap Reanimate Spell

      – Cheap effective method of digging for either reanimate spell or entomb like effect

      – Better payoff for the act of putting these giant creatures in the yard

      – Another creature a long the lines of Griselbrand/Emrakul/Tidespout

        1. Call me Rob, please!

          I think that the main reason why it’s not that successful in Modern is that the colors supporting the theme is not strong enough to back it up. Obviously, blue is too dominant in Legacy and the same cannot be said about it in Modern (although Jeskai is the new deck to beat in town). Trying to win games by abusing reanimation takes some serious synergy and support, and that’s what it lacks in Modern. I just don’t see it succeeding anytime soon outside of Legacy.

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