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Hello, everyone and welcome to a new edition of the Daily Stock Watch! Our venture into the world of investing in Magic continues today with a card that I have given very little attention to for its entire existence. It is by far something that I don't see as a strong threat in Modern or Legacy based on its attributes and competitive exposure, but it has slowly climbed the financial ranks because of casual and Commander appeal. Talks about cards like this one are made during Fridays, but the market is slowly running out of supply of the card and I felt that I needed to let you know about it.
I once pegged this card as the ultimate sideboard for Scapeshift decks but reality just kind of reminded me that I could be dead before this even hits play. I don't see any scenario where this could also be a problem for Lands in Legacy, so what that tells us is that Commander is the reason why this card is worth above $5. Just a week ago, it was able to hit its all-time high of $12.84 and we have buyouts to thank for it. But is this card really investing into?
This portion of my usual segment is where you'd see a decklist that highlights our featured card, but I'd leave this space for today as there is no particular deck where you could slot this in and it will make a massive difference. Don't get me wrong when I say this, but for as good as a card this is based on what it could potentially do, it's equally just as bad because of its high casting cost. If you are going to punish big mana decks for playing too many lands or trying to turn the tides against Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle variants, there are just a hundred of other ways to do so in competitive formats.
People ain't dumb when it comes to buying, so I'm quite sure that CardKingdom isn't paying $7.30 for a mint copy of this card for no apparent reason (although StarCityGames is at a distant $5 for its buylist price). We could make a case for law of supply and demand on this one, as Shadowmoor was printed quite some time ago and this card hasn't been reprinted in any other set after it. This is where the fear of keeping "Commander lovable" cards like Polluted Bonds comes in to play as one reprint could just wreck your pockets financially. Just ask Death Baron owners how much it stings to see your $20 card turn into a sub-$4 one. Just imagine how this would delve into near bulk territory in case something like that happens.
Punish them Better
There are lots of ways to punish opposing mages if you hate lands, and I don't really see Polluted Bonds making this list unless you're playing a multiplayer game of Commander. I've once played a Grixis Griever deck built around land destruction, mass removal and hand disruption, and I enjoyed every bit of it just as much as my opponents loathed my play style. I'm not out here to spoil your fun if you think that it's awesome to slowly torture your opponents for playing lands, but I'm actually here to tell you that there are better ways to do it. I'm not paying $10 for something like Polluted Bonds and neither should you. Time to move it around if you still can.
At the moment, StarCityGames only has foreign copies of Polluted Bonds left in its stock. CardKingdom is dry, while TCGPlayer still have various vendors that have it for anywhere between $6.19 up to $10.22. Foil copies of the card are priced more than double of the normal ones, and I'd gladly sell them for that price if I ever get the chance to do so. This should be your window to move your copies around before its price starts decreasing. Its ceiling shouldn't go past $15 in any case that it dodges a reprint.
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!
