Since the ban announcement back in December, the Modern metagame has been dominated by a small number of decks. At the top of that list, we have Boros Energy and Grinding Breach. If you’re looking to succeed in the format, it’s in your best interest to be prepared for these matchups.
Given how dominant these two archetypes are, we’ve seen a rise in specific hate cards that are designed to keep these decks off-balance. Today, we’re going to highlight one such card that has seen a significant price spike over the last couple weeks. If you’re playing white, there’s a good chance you’ll want access to this card in some capacity.
Stony Silence
The card we’re discussing is none other than Stony Silence. Stony Silence has been in Modern for quite some time, first appearing back in Innistrad. For years, Stony Silence was a go-to hate piece, especially when traditional Affinity decks with Steel Overseer and such dominated the land.
Once Mox Opal got the axe, though, Stony Silence was much less important of an inclusion for most decks. Without dedicated artifact decks in the mix, Stony Silence loses a lot of its luster compared to more versatile answers.
Now that Mox Opal is unbanned and Grinding Breach is an elite deck choice, Stony Silence is back on the menu. The powerful enchantment has become one of Boros Energy’s best outs to the combo menace.
When Mox Opal was first unbanned, many players expected Meltdown to be the best option. Being able to answer anything cheap from Mox Opal to Urza’s Saga tokens is quite appealing, after all.
Unfortunately, Meltdown being a sorcery hurt its stock quite a bit. The Grinding Breach deck is fully capable of going off in one turn and sandbagging some of the important pieces to play around Meltdown, especially when you factor in Emry, Lurker of the Loch and the ability to return artifacts to play.
Stony Silence doesn’t care. As long as Stony is in play, Mox Opal, Mox Amber, Mishra’s Bauble, and Grinding Station are ineffective tools. With Energy decks sometimes playing a full playset of Stony Silence and other strategies like Orzhov midrange joining in, it’s no wonder the enchantment has risen in price due to increased demand.
The Spike
Over the past few weeks, Stony Silence has steadily increased in price nearly every day. Back on January 13, Modern Masters 2017 non-foil versions of Stony Silence could be picked up for $2.30 according to TCGplayer market price. That number was up over $5 by the end of the month.
Since then, the card has risen all the way to $8.26. This alone is a 259% price spike. On top of that though, current sales listings suggest that the card is still going up. The lowest near mint, non-foil listing is just over $10.
Meanwhile, Innistrad copies are worth a little less, boasting a market price of $7.54. There are also a few sales listings under $10 there.
If you’re looking to pick up copies of Stony Silence for as little as possible, though, your best bet is to purchase white-bordered variants from Mystery Booster 2. This version has been consistently selling for under $8 in the last 24 hours.
In every case, though, the card has shown no signs of slowing down. Conveniently, neither has Energy (the main deck to use Stony Silence) nor Grinding Breach, as Energy variants and Grinding Breach made up over 43% of the room at the massive Champions Cup Final in Chiba this weekend.
Even with its multiple reprints, Stony Silence is a highly desirable piece of hate that isn’t going away anytime soon. Aetherdrift bringing potent Affinity cards like Voyage Home could potentially make Stony Silence’s stock rise even further. So, if you’re debating whether to wait to pick up Stony Silences until the price goes down, you may want to just bite the bullet and pick them up now.