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Daily Stock Watch – Paradox Engine

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Hello, readers and welcome to a new edition of the Daily Stock Watch! The slow movement of card prices recently has continued and I've been looking at what could be good pickups for us from the current Standard sets before they rotate out completely. Currently enjoying its all-time high is our featured card for today and there's no question that it really is a powerful card regardless of the format where you'd like to use it. Even though no specific archetypes are able to abuse its power, it's just hard to ignore and not include in your Commander deck because of its absurd power level.


Paradox Engine hasn't enjoyed any success in its Standard life yet it has risen to prominence financially as a casual superstar because of its strong ability. Now a couple of months away from leaving the Standard spotlight, it's enjoying a price tag of $17.04 which is quite high for a mythic that's not exactly relevant in Modern or Standard. This could be attributed to the fact that people has stopped opening Aether Revolt packs even though there are Inventions in it, and that a lot of them are holding out on the good cards from the set. It's also amazing when you consider the fact that there is an MPS version of this card that a lot of Commander collectors might prefer, and the normal version is already inching in on the $20 threshold.

The Colorless Wonders of Commander

There's an awful lot of cards that we could put on the list above but I've chosen them for various reasons. So much variance is what you would encounter in a game of Commander at almost every other game, especially if you're playing the multiplayer version of it, and these cards could be really, really good at any given point of a match. The same could not be said in the game of Duel Commander, because you're either obliged to play something really quick (Saskia the Unyielding) or a deck that's going to combo out of nowhere (Kess, Dissident Mage). This almost automatically disqualifies Paradox Engine from being a beloved Duel Commander card but I could always be wrong. If you have a specific list that abuses Paradox Engine with so much ease, please feel free to hit me up in the comments section below. Who knows? I could just be building a deck like yours!

Aether Revolt Goodies

If you'd like to go shopping for sleepers from this set, this is pretty much the list that I could give you as this would be the same cards that I would be after. Don't forget to include Paradox Engine as this would be a hot commodity in one to two years time when more people have shifted or decided to play Commander to escape the competitive juices of Standard and Modern. I'd be against the idea of buying into normal or PR foils of this card but if it's something that tickles your fancy then by all means do so. I would be more inclined to get the MPS version of this card while it's cheaper but settling for plain, nonfoil copies would also suffice especially if you're into the speculation game. There should be a few hanging around out there and try trading for it at $8-$12 if possible so you could squeeze maximum value out of it once it spikes inevitably to $20 real soon.

At the moment, you could still purchase lots of copies of this card via StarCityGames, TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom, and ChannelFireball for anywhere between $16.38 up to $17.99 for normal copies. It seems that all online stores are firm in its stand to have it in that price range and this is normally a good sign for spec junkies if we are to invest in a card that has casual appeal. Get yours now or some time next month if you feel like the price could still drop before it rotates. I'd be happy to keep my copies now and cash out later on.

And that’s it for today’s edition of the Daily Stock Watch! See you again next time, 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!

2 thoughts on “Daily Stock Watch – Paradox Engine

  1. I loved this card back when it was $5 (though there was more fear of it getting banned back then). With it dodging multiple opportunities to get banned it does feel like it might be here to stay. I’m not a huge fan at its current price, but you are correct that if it dodges a reprint it will easily exceed $20-$25 in a year or two, though that’s a big if…

    1. There’s a masterpiece version out there and I don’t see the need to reprint it hastily in any Masters version but we’ve seen crazier things happen. We’ll see how this plays out by rotation time.

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