Hello, everyone and welcome to a new edition of the Daily Stock Watch! Core 2019 wasn't able to do much in changing the meta, as the format is still dominated by Rakdos Aggro and looks positioned to do so until the rest of the old Standard expansions have rotated out. There have been promising cards from the set, and definitely some sleepers that could explode out of the gates come October, so I'm going to talk about one of my personal picks as early as now before it becomes a legitimate star. It started decently at around $3, started bottoming out and has now continued to pick up pace to trend upwards again.

With so many red decks running around, it was tough for green to find its footing in the meta despite of the presence of very big creatures such as Steel Leaf Champion, Greenbelt Rampager, and Rhonas the Indomitable. Brute force couldn't hold the fort long enough before it succumbs to burn spells, removals, and the persistent aggression from powerful reds cards in the mold of Rekindling Phoenix, Glorybringer, Chandra, Torch of Defiance, and Hazoret the Fervent. For obvious reasons, it lacked a good turn two play outside of its turn three big creatures that wouldn't hit the board if your Llanowar Elves already ate a Magma Spray or Fatal Push, and that's where Thorn Lieutenant comes in.

It's been a while since we've seen a Red Green deck in action, and this one looks promising right from the get go. The big problem I have with this deck is that I'd rather go with a conventional Mono Red Beats, or a Blue Green / Black Green variant of Stompy rather than this one. I don't think that Merfolk Branchwalker or Thorn Lieutenant is better than Scrapheap Scrounger or Kari Zev, Skyship Raider right now, but they will eventually be the default two drops of choice if something like this list does pop out and become popular in the near future. A solid 2/3 body that gives you a 1/1 critter in the event that it dies to removal is value, and having a mana sink ability for mid games is gold. It's kinda hard to go wrong on this one for such a cheap investment.

These are all good cards to begin with, but M19 has been delivering poor numbers as far as finances are concerned. There are lots of good cards from the rotating expansions that are hurting its stock, and Dominaria was well-opened among the public for obvious reasons. It's hard to find value for rares in the set as the set's true value lies in its mythics, so investing on a $2 rare with obvious potential to become a staple is low risk, high reward play that we could bet on. I'm a buyer at this point in time.

At the moment, the market is running low on Thorn Lieutenant as StarCityGames is almost out of stock as we speak, while Card Kingdom and ChannelFireball is out of supply at $2. Multiple vendors are still selling via TCGPlayer for anywhere between $0.99 up to $2.55, and the foil copies are selling at a shade above $4. I was able to sell my copies over the weekend for $3, and my foils for $7, so I like the idea of buying them once supplies are replenished. This should be a major player in Standard going forward. Foil copies are also good investments if you could get them cheap.

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!