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Hello, readers and welcome to a new edition of the Daily Stock Watch! We've seen lots of movements in cards on the Reserved List lately and it would be nice to stray away from some pricey spec buying by doing some minor penny stocks (well, of sorts) for today's segment. This card is one of the main reasons why Ponza became a thing in Modern again, and why players have been in love with the idea of disrupting the opposing player's mana base on their way to victory.
Bloodbraid Elf made some new friends when it returned to the Modern scene and one deck that resurfaced is the classic land destruction scheme we call Ponza. There has never been a shortage of one-mana dorks in Modern, as well as that of three-mana land destruction spells in the format, but what pushed it over the top is BBE's ability to consistently produce a relentless assault on the opponent's lands by cascading into a Stone Rain, Blood Moon, or the now $2.76 uncommon Molten Rain. The deck returned to prominence since Andrew Wolbers steered it to a championship finish at SCG Modern Open Dallas, and it hasn't turned its back since.
Gruul Ponza
This deck has somehow evolved since this finish by Andrew, but it has stayed true to its concept of trying to win by suffocating your opponent's resources. On the front end of this approach has been the consistent beatdown by threats such as Tireless Tracker and BBE, while it just tries to go big at one go with the arrival of a colossal Inferno Titan. Molten Rain does a handy job of softening the opponent's life total with that pesky two damage that it packs upon resolution, therefore making it the preferred weapon of choice for the Ponza player.
Valuable Modern Masters 2017 Uncommons
Only these four uncommons are priced at $2 and above among majority of online sellers, considering how good the rares and mythic rares of that set has been throughout the past two years. The rise in the value of Molten Rain doesn't really mean that the rest of the uncommons from this set will start to move, but it could be attributed to the fact that it became a vital cog of a winning deck that has been used consistently by players who are performing well in tournaments. If you were able to crack lots of MM3 boxes and store a majority of your hauls, now might be the best time to start digging for your copies of this card. The format has been shaky, but players have been open to the idea of switching decks every now and then. There will always be a market nowadays for cards that are ticking upwards in Modern, so start moving your Molten Rains now.
At the moment, you could find copies of Molten Rain for anywhere between $1.49 up to $1.81 via TCGPlayer and Card Kingdom. StarCityGames is out of stock at $1.99, and they should refill soon at above $2 once the other sites are dry of supply. There's still a hefty amount of them in the open market, so don't be fooled by its new price tag. Try to acquire copies at a dollar if that's possible, and move them around at $2 in places where you could afford to do it. Don't stock up too much and try to move them around if it's possible. This is one of those cards that are moving upwards because of exposure, and should go down in price once the hype dies down and the decks in the format are trimmed down.
And that’s it for today's edition of the Daily Stock Watch! See you again next time, as we continue to speculate on cards that might be on the rise, or try to get rid of the ones that are at risk of losing value. 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!
