menu

Daily Stock Watch – Grove of the Burnwillows

Are you a Quiet Speculation member?

If not, now is a perfect time to join up! Our powerful tools, breaking-news analysis, and exclusive Discord channel will make sure you stay up to date and ahead of the curve.

Hello, everybody and welcome to the this week's last edition of the Daily Stock Watch! Today will be the last day of our Iconic Masters special and I'm going to feature my craziest pick from the set. I'm a betting man, and I'll bet all my marbles on this one.


"Wait.. Are you serious? Punishing Fire's not even..."

Yes, I am completely aware that Grove of the Burnwillows' graveyard-loving buddy isn't legal in Modern, and that Punishing-Zoo isn't even a tier 1 deck in Legacy. But there are a lot of things to consider on why I'd love to hoard copies of Grove of the Burnwillows (as soon as the price becomes favorable for doing so, of course).

First, check out these cards:

Cards that might return to Modern next year

This isn't an article about what I think will be unbanned next year after Pro Tour Rivals of Ixalan, but is more of why I'd like to go all in on Grove. Above are the eight cards (in my opinion) with the highest probability of being released from the banned list if WotC stays true to their word. I analyzed each and everyone of them and I trimmed down my choices to three: Punishing Fire, Bloodbraid Elf, and Jace, the Mindsculptor.

Despite of Todd Stevens' claims that control is a tier 1 deck in Modern, I'd beg to disagree. I think that Jeskai and Lantern Control are the only legit decks in the format, so giving blue mages the gift of JtMS should only be fitting enough to make control an actual threat again; Jund hasn't been the same since Deathrite Shaman and BBE left Modern, so getting one of them back (BBE in this case) should make Jund relevant again; and in a world filled with Merfolks backed by lords, giant Eldrazi creatures running around, and decks being built around Death's Shadow, some Punishing Fire and Grove decks shouldn't hurt.

Second, take a look at these decks:

These are competitive Modern decks that utilize Grove of the Burnwillows and doesn't consider its "gain life" mechanic as a drawback. In the scenario that Punishing Fire isn't unbanned in Modern, your copies will still find its way to new owners who will be making these decks (and who knows what other cards might come along from Rivals of Ixalan that might make Grove insane again). Based on my Utility Checker, 6.2% of top performing Legacy decks use an average of 3.5 copies of Grove, while 1.7% of top Modern decks use 3.2 copies of it. There's a very high upside for this card going forward.

At the moment, you could find Future Sight copies of Grove from stores like Star City Games, TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom, and Channel Fireball from anywhere between $22-$39, while the foil FS copies are in the $110-$180 range. If you have normal copies of these, just keep it, although I'm not so sure about the ceiling of the foil ones. It should easily be a $75 card once Punishing Fire gets unbanned from Modern. I suggest that you do the same for your From the Vault: Realms copies.

The IMA version of this card is pre-selling for as low as $14.95, and as high as $19.99 from the same stores I mentioned. I'm not sure how low this could still get but I'd definitely start buying as soon as it hits $10-$12, which I think will be the rock bottom price before it rebounds. I don't actually mind buying just the IMA version as it has the most potential for maximum profit, but you could always do the same for the other versions. I'd love to keep at least three sets of these and wait how it turns out next year.

And that’s it for this week's special edition of the Daily Stock Watch! See you again next week, as we return to our normal segment. As always, feel free to share your opinion in the comments section below. And if you want to keep up with all the market movement, be sure to check in with the QS Discord Channel for real time market information, and stay ahead of the hottest specs!

 

2 thoughts on “Daily Stock Watch – Grove of the Burnwillows

  1. I thought it was crazy when I saw this reprinted. As a card that definitely sees Modern and Legacy play, I really like this card going forward. Iconic Masters copies, especially foils, are going to be great pickups!

Leave a Reply to ElspethFTW Cancel reply

Want Prices?

Browse thousands of prices with the first and most comprehensive MTG Finance tool around.


Trader Tools lists both buylist and retail prices for every MTG card, going back a decade.

Quiet Speculation