Did you hear about how MTG Discover completely toppled multiple formats over the weekend?
Wizards of the Coast’s new mechanic was, more or less, received as a fixed version of Cascade, a mechanic so problematic that it had to receive an errata. Even after the errata, Cascade remains central to many of the best strategies in the Modern format.
It turns out that Discover may also be incredibly problematic. Two new combo decks popped up in Pioneer over the weekend that can consistently kill on turns 3-5, depending on what variant you’re playing. Speed appears to be traded off for a more well-rounded gameplan between variants.
Thanks to Pantlaza, Sun-Favored being a viable card in Historic, the combo is at its deadliest in that format, taking down the Historic Qualifier without losing a single set.
As a result, cards that fuel the combo, as well that cards that counter it from the new set, have been spiking in price overnight. While these spikes are still relatively small right now, expect them to balloon in the coming days as players prepare for a massive regional championship weekend.
Trumpeting Carnosaur
Introducing: the dino that had a big part in breaking Pioneer and Historic this weekend. Trumpeting Carnosaur does a lot more than what one line of text may suggest.
When lined up with the relevant combo cards, Discover 5 essentially translates to ‘win the game.’ Whether you’re creating a massive board of creatures to swing in with, or you’re draining your opponent with multiple Quintorius Kand triggers, the idea is to kill your opponent off a single Discover trigger.
Another massive strength of the Carnosaur is that this gigantic six-drop won’t get stuck in your hand. You can pitch the creature to deal with a threat if the game is getting away from you. This also makes creatures that stop the Discover combo a lot less effective, and grants an interactive piece to the mirror match.
At this point, Trumpeting Carnosaur is only beginning to spike, increasing from $2 to $8, and rapidly climbing, over the past two days. This spike, however, does not appear to be over. Expect this card to continue climbing.
Quintorius Kand
There are two Discover combo decks on the horizon. Quintorius Kand, while being a whole turn slower when deployed at max speed, plays a much stronger suite of other cards. This makes the combo a lot more dependent against various hate pieces at the cost of some speed.
While Geological Appraiser wants to create a swarm of deadly bodies with Haste, Quintorius combo wants to create multiple copies of Quintorius and drain your opponent’s life total. Like the Appraiser combo, all it takes is one instance of Quintorius’s Discover ability to end the game.
Both combos squared off in the grand finals of the 400+ player Pioneer Showcase challenge event over the weekend and, as such, are getting a lot of attention. Quintorius Kand’s secondary market price has shot up from $4 and is averaging around $9 over the course of two days. That said, there are multiple instances of Quintorius selling for more than $10, and the spike looks nowhere near over.
Tishana’s Tidebinder
Interestingly, one of the best ways to counter the new Discover menace is with Stifle effects. Tishana’s Tidebinder already looked like it had big potential in Modern before Discover was such a blatant issue. Now, it may become even more popular. Regardless of its potential to combat Discover, however, make no mistake. This card is spiking because of Modern.
Tishana’s Tidebinder has begun to pop up in Modern Crashing Footfalls lists. The deck has been putting up incredibly dominant performances, with many players citing that the mirror is the only problematic matchup.
Merfolks are also looking like a possibility in Pioneer, and the new appearance of Discover makes Tidebinder a lot more appealing.
Overall, Tishana’s Tidebinder has seen a massive spike, rising from $5 to $15 (with multiple copies being bought at this price) over the course of three days.
Ripples of Potential
Competitive Magic isn’t the only thing causing price shifts! We identified Ripples of Potential early-on as a high-ceiling Superfriends staple that protects your board from common board wipes in the Commander format like Cyclonic Rift that are more difficult to answer. Players are beginning to see the potential of the card, and prices are rising.
Ripples of Potential is also a powerful tool in any deck that cares about counters. While Superfriends come about these naturally, any +1/+1 counter decks would be thrilled to employ the card.
Ripples of Potential had a rather egregious preorder price in prerelease season. We aren’t quite back to that yet, but the card has increased from less than $1.89 to $11 on average over the past week.
Read More:
Roaming Throne
Roaming Throne is the card that a lot of Typal Commander decks have been waiting for. The card supports any sort of triggered ability, regardless of whether it triggers at the beginning of combat, on death, or on entry. As such, the Throne is a powerful addition to any Typal deck, and can even simply be used as a value piece alongside any Commander that has triggered abilities. The card is even seeing some competitive experimentation.
Roaming Throne has increased from $8 to $16 over about a week and a half’s time.
What About Jurassic World?
Last week, we wrote an article about some startling financial patterns regarding the Jurassic World cards. Hunting Velociraptor, in particular, showed a very concerning spike, temporarily hitting $70 and up.
Things have settled down a bit, but the Velociraptor remains an expensive card. Hunting Velociraptor will continue to cost Dino typal players about $40 per copy. Otherwise, the Emblem version of the card is pretty absurd, seeing listed prices (not sales) of $350 and higher.
Ravenous Tyrannosaurus, meanwhile, continues to maintain a price of about $30. Other mechanically unique Jurassic World cards seem to be hovering around $10. While the initial spike that may have been caused by unexpected scarcity may have middled a bit, a relevant price still remains.
Read More: MTG Jurassic World Card Temporarily Spikes to $75!?
