Welcome back everyone to another week of budget goodness! We are continuing where we left off last week, and depending on how I feel at the end of this article we might be moving off Innistrad: Midnight Hunt and Adventures in the Forgotten Realms next week! Before we get started here are some more cards of intrigue out of the last two sets I am not doing a deep dive on.
- Wight
- Devour Intellect
- Ray of Enfeeblement
- Minion of the Mighty
- Smoldering Egg // Ashmouth Dragon
- Wizard Class
- You See a Guard Approach
- Necrosynthesis
- Adeline, Resplendent Cathar
- Reaper's Talisman
- Portable Hole
- Faithful Mending
Siphon Insight is the first card we'll discuss. It comes in with a price of $0.92 for the non-foil, $1.00 for the foil, $1.71 for the alternate art, $3.23 for the alternate art foil, $2.00 for the prerelease foil, $4.00 for the promo pack, and $18.00 for the promo pack foil version (mtgstocks.com). This card is a hand control players dream, as we not only control their draws, but we can cast a spell from exile! The icing on the cake is that it has flashback! The mana cost of both two and three for the flashback is ridiculously low given what it can do, and if someone plays a tutor, they must put the card on top of their library where Siphon Insight can swipe it to either cast put it on the bottom of their library! Of course, the other upside is the card we exiled to cast later has potential to win us a game! The non-foil is a bargain and for the players that just want to play the game, I suggest picking them up!
Next up is Paladin Class, and this has a whole lot of potential in both Pioneer and Commander. The price comes in at $2.77 for non-foil, $3.46 for foil, $4.82 for prerelease foil, $5.30 for promo pack, and $8.99 for promo pack foil (mtgstocks.com). As a creature-minded player, the first thing of note is the Level 1 ability. The idea of having two of these on the board is intriguing. Taxing "nope" players is just music to my ears, as I know I will have some time to play certain spells and seeing two open islands may no longer be a threat to me! This is just the beginning, as we get to level this up! In the Pioneer Mono-White decks, I do not see many situations where we will get to utilize the Level 3 ability; however, in Selesnya (Green/White) decks we can easily ramp enough or have mana dorks available to pay into this. In almost any White build we should be able to make use of the Level 2 ability at the very least! In Commander this immediately goes into a Edgar Markov (Red/White/Black Vampires) deck! We have plenty of time to get the mana to eventually get to that bottom ability in a late game situation. If you have trades available, I would snag four of these up as soon as possible!
Instrument of the Bards is next, and this has the potential to be a control players new pet card. The price for this is $0.50 for non-foil, $0.60 for foil, $0.79 for alternate art copy, $1.02 for alternat art foil, $0.93 for prerelease foil, $1.66 the promo pack copy, and $6.38 for foil promo pack (mtgstocks.com). This has potential in both Commander and Pioneer. Starting with Pioneer, control players could use this as an early play, let it sit, accumulate counters, and tutor for their win con when necessary. I know that seems straight forward, but that is exactly what control players love. Being able to keep you thinking about "what are they going to tutor?" is going to potentially influence plays. The other thing control players love is keeping mana available to make you think they are going to counter your spells at any given time. Keeping the mana available on their opponents' turns and then using the ability on their end step is exactly what they want. In Commander, this is just going to be yet another option to add for a tutor card. There are better options than this, but it serves its purpose to us budget minded players!
Curse of Shaken Faith is a burn players new favorite card against control! The price comes in at $0.49 for non-foils, $0.63 for foils, $0.80 for prerelease foils, $0.75 for alternate art copies, $2.10 for foil alternate arts, $1.25 for promo pack versions, and $1.38 for foil promo pack copies (mtgstocks.com). Right away, Pioneer looks to be the front runner for this, but it has potential for Modern "Red Deck Wins" on paper. As Burn players, we want to be able to not only continuously damage our opponent, but we want to do it as inexpensively as possible. Curse of Shaken Faith gives us that ability. The realistic scenario of hitting our opponents with two of these would be huge. Pinging them for four damage without lifting a finger is exactly what we want to do. There is a pet artifact card of mine, Strionic Resonator, that we could use to hit for another two damage. Of course, that would be an optimal scenario but it's not unreasonable by any stretch. Control players would loathe seeing this come into play, as they are all about playing multiple cards per turn through the mid and later stages of a game. They would have to figure out a way to either return the card or remove it to do what they want to. In Commander this could be utilized in a budget friendly deck that wants to help ping an opponent down that they feel is a threat.
Finally, we have Ranger Class, and this is going to be abused across Pioneer and Commander. The price is currently on an upward trend at $10.99 for non-foils, $13.21 for foils, $8.11 for prerelease foils, and $8.00 for promo pack copies (mtgstocks.com). I should have talked about this card a few weeks ago, when it was cheaper. Sorry guys, I did not expect it to pop so soon! It's for a good reason, though. It's a must have in all collections. The Level 3 ability is easy to get to in any Green build, and it'll be abused to the fullest! This is not something a control or burn player wants to see on the board. It'll be difficult to race once it is activated. In Commander this is useful in almost any deck using Green. Being able to play creatures from your deck instead of your hand is every player's dream. Comboing this with Augur of Autumn is not something to scoff at whatsoever! Although the price is going up, I would recommend trading into this if possible! We have two years for it to rotate out, and it this point I feel it is going to do nothing but go up until then!
That is all for today, I hope you enjoyed the read and I will see you in the next one!
Locations
