MTG Weekly Losers - July 1st, 2016

by Richard Rowell, Gaming Successfully Staff

This week on Weekly Losers, we take a look at three Modern playables, one of which is a card whose price seems to be driven by pure speculation. Notable price drops in Standard, however, are Pyromancer’s Goggles (-7.5%) and Deathmist Raptor (-6%). I wouldn’t expect either card to rebound with the upcoming October 2016 rotation, so if you want these cards, they probably may fall a bit further before they hit their all-time low.

Onto the Weekly Losers:

Sakura-Tribe Scout (-7%)

There’s pretty low supply on this common and it’s been over $1 for a bit. Besides being a decent card in EDH, the Scout has seen some play as a replacement for the banned Summer Bloom in Modern Amulet Bloom decks. I haven’t seen this strategy pay off, as one extra land versus three is quite a big difference. However, I wouldn’t mind picking these up under $1 in trade or if you happen to find them among bulk commons at your local game shop.

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Conspiracy (-7%)

This Enchantment is Modern Legal due to its Timeshifted printing in Time Spiral. The recent success of this card comes purely from EDH demand. In particular, Reaper King decks are rather fond of it, making every creature a Scarecrow. Reaper King makes each Scarecrow that comes into play destroy any permanent you like. There are other applications, too. Falling about 7 percent in TCGPlayer median price isn’t a concern. If you need a copy for EDH, now’s as good a time to get it.

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Hell’s Caretaker (-11%)

This 9th edition Horror has seen some serious peaks and valleys in his price chart. Years ago, he was part of a rather janky combo in the now defunct Extended format. But the interest in him now is due to the number of Horrors that exist now because of Shadows Over Innistrad and Eldritch Moon. It’s pretty much all speculative. Caretaker is also good in Old School Magic, a format that includes only cards printed in 1994 and before. But this would only affect the Legends printing, not the 9th edition one. This is one of those weird specs. I’m not sure I’d buy into it, but the demand is real. The market price on TCGPlayer is consistently beating the median, meaning the price will be trending upwards.

Like all of the Weekly Losers so far, these three cards seem safe to buy if you need them for any reason. While they don’t look like huge investments, Hell’s Caretaker is at least intriguing.

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