Hello, everyone and welcome to the Tuesday edition of Daily Stock Watch! It's time for some crazy card spike update, and that is pretty much what our segment for today is about. I'll be talking about a card that's heavily used in Legacy but isn't exactly a part of the fabled Reserved List. This blue spell just skyrocketed to its all-time high of $90 today and this might be its benchmark price for the coming years, barring any sudden reprints.

Back to Basics

Urza's Saga

$8.5

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18%

Spread

$9.99

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Back to Basics is the more irritating version of Blood Moon because it just renders non-basic lands useless once it hits play. Blood Moon has the decency to allow you to use your lands as red mana producers but Back to Basics just shuts down everything that's non-basic until you could do something about it. It has been a staple in recent builds of Miracles, and Jim Davis just made it a very solid addition to an already potent list that he steered to third place at the recently concluded SCG Legacy Open Worcester. With the help of Monastery Mentor's tokens, a well-timed Back to Basics is basically the finishing touch in a matchup where your opponents are relying on their duals, colorless mana producers, and the rest of the crazy lands that are available in the format.

Check out how a pair of Back to Basics did the trick in that Miracles deck.

This deck could just secure its way to victory by planting a well-protected Monastery Mentor at any point of the game, and then slamming a Back to Basics after creating a mini platoon of prowess-wielding monks. Blue is arguably the most powerful color in the format and the comparisons with the Blue Moon deck in Modern is inevitable in this one. They are basically trying to take advantage of enchantments that negate the utility of non-basic lands (Blood Moon and Back to Basics) and would try to win games via sheer card advantage and board position. It's hard to see future Miracle players not adapting to this list by sticking to Counterbalance and its strength alongside Sensei's Divining Top, but they might have just found the trick with Back to Basics.

This card is not restricted to one deck in Legacy, as it is also a staple in other good decks such as Aluren, Blade Control, and even in Merfolks. It's quite hard to find Urza's Saga cards nowadays, and it won't get any easier in the future. I hope you were able to get your hands on this card before this price spike occurred. There's no going back from this point on financially for this card, in my opinion.

The Scary Future

Back to Basics just joined this elite list of cards that are over $50 individually, but are very much in the hunt to be reprinted anytime soon. Imperial Recruiter will be returning in Masters 25, and I won't be surprised if the rest of the cards on this list will follow shortly. It would have been easier to buy cards of this price if they are in the Reserved List or has just been recently reprinted (which is the case for most of the Modern staples that are in this price range) because they will hold some value over time if you're in it for financial gains. It's quite tricky how we would assess this card going forward.

At the moment, online stores such as StarCityGames, ChannelFireball, TCGPlayer, and Card Kingdom are all out of stock of this card. They should be refilling soon at $90 and there will be demand for it, so try snaring some copies if they are still lower from other people who don't need it. This price could actually just work if Legacy is the thing for the people in your LGS.

And that’s it for the Tuesday edition of the Daily Stock Watch! See you again tomorrow, as I preview new cards that should be on the go, or good enough for speculation purposes. 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!