Weekly Recs - 08/12/24
Get these powerful staples before they creep back up in price!
Lands matter!
Weekly Recs
Highlighting five cards that could be worth picking up. (Note: These are sent to subscribers first and then posted a week later)
Cephalid Coliseum
1 year ago - $12.27
Today: $0.16
Cephalid Colosseum has never seen much play in EDH as dredge is not an widely played archetype in the format. Even so, the massive drop in price warrants picking one up just to test out in any graveyard based strategy. It allows you to easily get three cards into your graveyard, so any graveyard based commander could get some use out of it.
Types of decks to put it in
- Graveyard/Dredge
Growing Rites of Itlimoc
1 year ago - $14.78
Today: $3.40
This is likely the closest most players will ever get to playing a Gaea's Cradle, famously one of the most powerful and expensive cards in all of Magic. Being able to add a green mana for each creature you control can get nutty. Also, do not underestimate the front side. Growing Rites of Itlimoc more or less replaces itself with the best creature spell in the top 4 cards of your library, and creature based decks will reliably get something good.
Types of decks to put it in
- Creature heavy strategies
Vesuva
1 year ago - $9.57
Today: $5.97
Imagine copying a Gaea's Cradle (or Growing Rights of Itlimoc in our case), a Cabal Coffers (ok still too expensive), a Dark Depths, the Urza-tron lands, or even in the most basic case a Command Tower to help with color fixing. Vesuva's versatility is what makes it so enticing to play. I would not run this card in just any deck, rather it should go into decks where there are specific other lands you want to copy and have a consistent way of getting those other lands. Vesuva is likely a "win more" card, where if you have it giving you extra value, great! But the land you copy with Vesuva should be the thing you focus on getting onto the field first.
Types of decks to put it in
- Lands matter
Dark Depths
1 year ago - $4.50
Today: $3.21
While Dark Depths may not have seen its price drop that significantly compared to others on this list from 1 year ago, one only has to look beyond that to when it was regularly above $20. Due to multiple reprints, seeing it at around $3 is pretty cool. It combos with Thespian's Stage to make a 20/20 indestructible flying creature where, by the time you can pull it off in EDH, can be a one shot kill late in the game.
Types of decks to put it in
- Lands matter (alongside Thespians Stage)
Fabled Passage
1 year ago - $4.76
Today: $2.67
Back when Throne of Eldraine was released, everyone was floored at the new Standard playable fetchland it introduced. Fable Passage allowed you to fetch any basic and put it into play untapped as long as you had 4 four lands. It provides both color fixing and deck thinning. In EDH, deck thinning has statistically less of an impact than in Standard due to the deck size difference, but fixing your colors reliably is amazing value. Fabled Passage is especially good because actual fetch lands (those recently reprinted in Modern Horizons 2 and 3, typically have been above $10 each, so having a budget option is great. Buy in now after the Bloomburrow reprint, as it will probably climb back to above $5.
Types of decks to put it in
- Any
- Landfall
End step
Lands are often not the focus of a Magic player's wallet when they look at their LGS's singles. They are not super sexy, but they play such a vital role in taking an EDH deck to the next power level. Thankfully, many such powerful lands are getting cheaper due to much needed reprints. If you don't already have these lands, pick up the cheapest version for your decks before they go back up!