Magic: The Gathering Hot/Cold List for the Week of December 8, 2025
We knew Avatar: The Last Airbender was going to be big, but I don’t think anyone predicted that a pile of uncommons would completely outperform the mythic rares. The Izzet Lessons deck has completely dominated.
As a result, we are seeing a pauper-king economy this week where utility cards are spiking harder than the chase rares.
Let’s dive into the winners and losers for Magic: The Gathering this week.
Hot List
Accumulate Wisdom
A week ago, Accumulate Wisdom was just another uncommon you’d pass in a draft pack. Today, it’s trading around $5, nearly an 800 percent increase.
Why? Because the pros at the World Championship figured out how to turn it into Ancestral Recall.
The card lets you look at the top three cards of your library and put one in your hand. That’s fine, but the kicker is the Lesson mechanic.
If you have three Lesson cards in your graveyard, you get to keep all three cards instead. In the Izzet Lessons deck piloted by Seth Manfield and others in the Top 8, getting three lessons in the graveyard is trivial thanks to cards like Gran-Gran.
Suddenly, you are drawing three cards for two mana, or even one mana if you have cost reducers out. That is a rate that breaks competitive Magic.
Boomerang Basics
Right on the heels of Accumulate Wisdom is another Avatar uncommon, Boomerang Basics. This card jumped from about $0.30 to over $3 this week.
While it plays a supporting role in the Standard Izzet deck, its price is being bolstered by a massive amount of interest in eternal formats like Legacy.
The card reads, “Return target nonland permanent to its owner’s hand. If you controlled that permanent, draw a card.” It sounds simple, but in older formats, players are using it to bounce their own 0-mana artifacts like Mox Opal or Lion’s Eye Diamond.
This lets them replay the artifact for more mana and storm count while drawing a card for a single blue mana.
It is rare to see a Standard-legal uncommon make waves in Legacy, but the synergy with cards like Artist’s Talent has turned this into a multi-format staple overnight.
Cold List
Badgermole Cub
Before the World Championship, Badgermole Cub was the card to beat. It was preselling for upwards of $85, with players convinced its ability to ramp mana and animate lands through Earthbending would define the format.
It’s still a powerful card, but it hit a brick wall this weekend named Clarion Conqueror and now you can snag a copy for around $50.
The market is currently in correction mode. The data from Worlds showed that Badgermole Cub decks struggled mightily against white-based control decks running Clarion Conqueror, which shuts down activated abilities of creatures.
Because the Cub relies on tapping creatures for that extra green mana, the Conqueror effectively turns off its engine.
Players who bought in at the peak are exiting their positions now that the card has proven to be beatable. It’s down about 17 percent this week. While it will likely remain a staple in Commander thanks to its cute factor and raw power, the competitive premium is evaporating.
If you were looking to pick one up for your Earth Kingdom EDH deck, I’d wait a few more weeks for the price to find its floor.
Wan Shi Tong, Librarian
Another Avatar mythic coming down to earth is Wan Shi Tong, Librarian. It dropped roughly 26 percent this week, settling around the $36 mark.
During the pre-sale period, this card was hyped as a potential crossover hit for both Standard and Modern, but the World Championship results have painted a different picture.
The competitive meta has proven to be too fast for the Librarian. While the card offers incredible value in a vacuum, it simply didn’t show up in the top performing decks, which favored the leaner, faster Izzet spells package.
As a result, the Standard premium is falling off the price tag. However, unlike other cards that crash and burn, Wan Shi Tong has a safety net, Commander.
It is still a fantastic card for multiplayer formats, so while the price is dipping now, I expect it to stabilize in the $25–$30 range as EDH players pick up the slack.
