This year's Magic: The Gathering World Championships took place over the weekend and they have caused a bunch of price spikes to ripple across the secondary market. When so many cards are soaring at once it's impossible to pick just one to focus on, though my eye was immediately drawn to Stormchaser's Talent.
Already a popular card in competitive Standard, this otter-making Bloomburrow card became even better since the Avatar MTG set's release. It can form an infinite combo with Badgermole in a surprisingly successful Temur build and is integral to several spell-heavy decks like Izzet Prowess or Looting.
As a result, this card has been steadily rising in value since Avatar came out, from $3 to $7 by December 4. But then Izzet Lessons emerged, made waves, and won Worlds, and Stormchaser's Talent blew up, jumping all the way to $30.
In Izzet Lessons, the gameplan is to get three Lesson spells in your graveyard so that Gran-Gran, the deck's one and only creature, can discount all your non-creature spells.
Once your graveyard is filled, your cards become horribly efficient. Combustion Technique can exile most threats for one mana, while Accumulate Wisdom does a good impression of Ancestral Recall, netting you three cards for one mana.
The aim is to keep the board clear with a never-ending barrage of spells, so you can chip in with your otters. Monument to Endurance is also a key threat, because as you're constantly looting you can drain your opponents into the dirt.
We've looked at Stormchaser's Talent, but here are a bunch of other key cards from this deck and how their prices have adjusted over the past week to the archetype's sudden, explosive success:
- Accumulate Wisdom: $0.50 to $4.15
- Artist's Talent: $8 to $35
- Monument to Endurance: $8.70 to $24
- Riverpyre Verge: $12 to $25
- Boomerang Basics: $0.70 to $3.80
That's a lot of price spikes! We'll have to see where these cards land over the next few days once things calm down a bit, but it certainly seems like red and blue are the colors to play, just as they have been for the entire gosh-darn year.
Check out the MTG release schedule guide to see what's coming up in Magic next year, or come join the conversation on the Wargamer Discord.