Grand Prix Oakland has come and gone, and in its wake we've seen a fair number of cards moving around in price. A few new archetypes have emerged, and while they are as of yet unproven, decks that reach the elimination rounds at a Grand Prix almost always have a leg to stand on. While there were no sudden all-stars, a fair number of cards have been creeping up in value as a result.

Elves! They're baa-aack! Taking down the top prize, the Little Green Guys proved that it is sometimes quite easy to be green. Powered by Cloudstone Curio as a replacement for Wirewood Symbiote, the deck remains insanely fast. Twelve 1-drop mana elves give the deck some blisteringly fast starts, and Curio's lack of a power or toughness makes the engine that much harder to stop. Elves are at their best when a format's unprepared, so it's entirely possible that we never hear from the deck again this season. It's also possible, and quite probable, that tons upon tons of players will snap up Curios to fill out their Elf decks, both online in paper. As such, the price is already trending up.

Thopter-Sword has been all the rage, and it continued flexing its muscles by taking 2nd place. In anticipation of a Thopter Combo field, Damping Matrix was a big mover over the weekend. Matrix shuts down quite a lot of powerful cards in the format; Hexmage, Explosives, Knight of the Reliquary, Ghost Quarter and Thopter Foundry to name a few. Mirrodin cards are not too hard to come by, so its upper price limit is probably $5. The block also leaves Extended in the Fall, so they're not a long-term investment.

Much to my delight, a Boros deck cracked the top 8 as well! The deck looked like a clone of a Standard Boros deck and used Flagstones of Trokair to trigger more landfall. The extra damage that Flagstones added was enough to push the deck over the edge and turn Steppe Lynx into an absolute monster in the early game. Flagstones were expensive once upon a time, and it seems they've returned to relevance in a big way. They've already seen a large price spike, as the news broke quickly via Twitter.

In case you hadn't heard, there's a Pro Tour tomorrow down in San Diego! Worldwake is sure to have a dramatic impact on the metagame, enabling many new strategies and bolstering some of the top decks of the format. Rumors are circulating, and there's talk of a Japanese deck using Finest Hour and Bant-colored Allies. Having tested Allies and being underwhelmed, I am dubious of the deck's quality but leave it to far superior players to generate a quality list. The deck would likely use Turntimber Ranger, Harabaz Druid and Jwari Shapeshifter as its main rare allies, so securing these while they're still cheap is a risky but potentially high-upside play. Prices will adjust quickly once the news breaks, especially if the deck performs on day 1. Players love Tribal themes, and Allies have that in spades.

Jace, the Wallet Slayer, has already cracked a Top 8 in his first weeks of existence. Extended is not the format for the Planeswalker, yet he still managed to help Conley Woods to third place. Standard seems much more conducive to such a card, and a great number of pro players have been gushing about Jace's power level. At $60, Jace has almost no room to grow, and such growth would be unprecedented. The odds are more likely that he'll drop. For those who haven't got any, now is not the time to be buying. If you have a few, it might be safe to hold on to them, since he likely won't drop too far unless he's completely absent at the Pro Tour.

Abyssal Persecutor is Worldwake's other hot commodity, and he seems to be worth every cent. It would be a surprise not to see him in Pro Tour decks. Don't expect any cute tricks. Expect decks that run tons of removal to use him as an insanely aggressive beater. He's quite good at that. Were he a Vampire, he'd easily be the best creature in Standard, but the Demon type line knocks a few points off. Similarly to Jace, Persecutor's price is already colossally high, but it may be justified. He's really that good.

A note for Legacy players: Keep your eyes on Lim-Dul's Vault. The card is reasonably cheap for an Uncommon-2 with such a high power level. For those confused by the Uncommon-2 notation, I'll briefly explain: Alliances, and some other older sets, had a variety of rarities. Rather than use the simple Common, Uncommon, Rare scheme, Wizards split up the rarities into sub-rarities. The number notated next to the rarity indicates how many of that card were printed on an uncut sheet. Alliances had R2 and R6, U2 and U3, and C1 and C2. The relationship between the numbers indicates the proportionate rarity of one versus the other. An R2 was 3 times less common than an R6, for example. This is relevant because a U2 is not indicative of an especially common card. Factor in the age of the set, and the fact that many Lim-Dul's Vaults are sitting unknown in old collections. It will never reach Force of Will level (which is also a U2, for reference), but it can easily hit the price of a Standard tournament-caliber rare. They can be had for under $2 almost everywhere.

That's all for this week! Keep an eye on Twitter during the Pro Tour so you don't miss out on the next hot cards, and make sure to follow the coverage closely. See you next week!