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Daily Stock Watch: Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

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Hello, everyone and welcome to a new week of The Daily Stock Watch! There should be quite a number of Modern tournaments in the coming weeks, and winning lists from the said events should dictate how the metagame will look like once the new year enters. Just this past weekend, one interesting card that caught my eye was in action during the finals of Star City Games' Season Two Invitational.

There was an error retrieving a chart for Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

When a card gets some much needed exposure in a major event, there's a tendency for players to buy in to the hype. There has been quite a longing for control decks in Modern, and Sam Black might have just started a revolution of sorts for its kin. He finished second, losing only to Gifts Storm, using this Lantern Control deck:

Lantern Control

Instants and Sorceries

1 Abrupt Decay
4 Whir of Invention
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize

Other Spells

4 Codex Shredder
3 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Grafdigger's Cage
4 Lantern of Insight
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Mox Opal
2 Pithing Needle
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
2 Pyxis of Pandemonium
1 Witchbane Orb

Lands

1 Academy Ruins
3 Botanical Sanctum
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Glimmervoid
2 Island
4 Spire of Industry

Sideboard

2 Abrupt Decay
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Nature's Claim
1 Pithing Needle
1 Porphyry Nodes
1 Pyroclasm
1 Search for Azcanta
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
2 Welding Jar

Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas comes off the board of this deck to assist it in midrange and other control matchups, and quite possibly in the mirror match as well. It is the perfect stalemate breaker when the board gets clogged, and your opponents are trapped via Ensnaring Bridge. I don't think there's enough reason for it to be included in the main deck, but as a vital part of the sideboard plan, this card could definitely go up in price if the deck gets more popular.

The Toys of Tezzeret

These are just some of the deck's components that Tezzeret could turn into a big, nasty 5/5 artifact creature when needed. I don't think that this Tezzeret was ever considered to be part of any Affinity lists (correct me if I'm wrong), as it could slow down the deck in a big way, so finding it in a deck like Lantern Control just suits it right. It is an unsuspecting threat that will be hard to answer, and majority of decks that are packed with creature removal usually side them out when playing against Lantern Control, which makes the Tezzeret inclusion a brilliant choice all the more.

I personally don't think that a lot of players can play this deck that well, and I'm not sure if we'll see new brews featuring Tezzeret. However, a few more decent finishes for any Lantern Control deck that uses it could cause some surge in its price. So far, the Utility Checker is telling us that only 0.3% of winning decks for the year have used an average of 2.9 copies of Tezzeret, but it has still stayed in the $15-$20 range because of its rarity. Bear in mind that this is the only printing of the card, but I wouldn't be surprised if it will be part of any future Duel Decks or From the Vault sets. The all-time highest price of this card was $44.50 sometime in April last year, and even though I don't expect that to happen again anytime soon, I think we have some room to gain something here.

Keep an eye on this card for the coming weeks. At the moment, there should be lots of stocks from online shops such as TCGPlayer, Star City Games, and Channel Fireball from anywhere between $12.99 up to $20.15. As soon as the card spikes up, get rid of your copies. Now might be the best time to let go of them while it's hot. I also wouldn't mind trading them away, especially if they've been sitting long enough in your trade binders. I'm not a fan of this card, and I don't think it'll be that good going forward.

And that’s it for the Monday edition of the Daily Stock Watch! See you again tomorrow, as we check out a new card that should be on the go, or good enough for speculating. 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!

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