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Daily Stock Watch: Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

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Hello, everyone and welcome to the Tuesday edition of the Daily Stock Watch! A lot of cards are seeing some movement in the market lately, and this is something that usually happens during this part of the year. We could be in for some really fun stuff this 2018, and the coming weeks should help in giving us hints of what could be the best, and the worst as well, that Magic has in store for us in the coming year.

One particular card that has just rotated out of Standard this year just hit its all-time low of $9.16, and I'm very much interested in the upside of this card. Today, let's talk about Gideon, Ally of Zendikar.


This card made Mardu Vehicles a Standard superstar, and it sat nicely above $20 for the majority of its stay in the format. It only lost steam when people realized that Temur Energy is the best archetype in the field, but it has stayed relevant until it rotated out. We expected the price to drop significantly, considering how planeswalkers that have cost a lot during its Standard prime, were all reduced to the less than $10 as soon as it hit Modern. However, this card here has made some cameos in Legacy decks, specifically in this very popular deck that's considered as tier one in the format:

It's not everyday that you get to see a four casting cost planeswalker that's not named Jace, the Mind Sculptor in Legacy decks, so making it to the sideboard of a very stable deck is a step in the right direction for Gideon, AoZ. It is also getting some love from other respected Legacy decks such as Blade Control and Maverick, as it is a very potent threat that could dominate games if left unanswered, regardless of the format where it is seeing play.

Multi Format Planeswalker Superstars

Blue, black, and white planeswalkers have always been the most flexible and most powerful ones, in my opinion, across all formats. History dictates that Gideon, AoZ could make it to a lot of decent decks just like how Elspeth, Knight-Errant did it back in the day, although an argument could be made on which one is the better white walker. Elspeth made its appearance in control decks and soon disappeared in popular lists, so the same could be the case for Gideon, AoZ. According to the Utility Checker, a whopping 28% of winning decks have used an average of 3.4 copies of Gideon in 2016, while its usage rate increased further this year before rotating out, as 28.1% of top decks used 3.5 copies of this card to will its way to tournament top 8's. We're not expecting this number to appear in Modern or Legacy anywhere between now or the next ten years, but we could make a case for it to be included in tier one and two sideboards, which will help it stay relevant in the market for the years to come.

Right now,you could find lots of copies of Gideon, AoZ for $8.50 up to $9.99 from Star City Games, TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom, and Channel Fireball. Its price should continue dropping up to the $6 as more owners of the card clear their Standard collection of their copies, and start preparing for Rivals of Ixalan. This might go down to as low as $5, and I think that it would be a good idea to grab copies when it does. Stay away from the foils for now, as the unpredictability of Magic could always result to its inclusion in a possible Duel Deck appearance anytime soon. I have always played against this card in the past and I know how strong it could get. I'd like to think that it will still make sense in the coming years to hold on to copies of this card.

And that’s it for the Monday edition of the Daily Stock Watch! See you again tomorrow, as we check out new cards 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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