Stocks are up on Stock Up!

What’s good, Spirit Squad!

Today we’re going to talk about an unassuming Uncommon that’s been quietly revitalizing Blue decks in every format: Stock Up!

On paper, Stock Up is a card that has zero business being talked about in any format that isn’t Standard. Three mana to get two cards at Sorcery speed, that’s just Divination. Divination isn’t a card that sees play in even the most casual of Commander tables. Heck, even the upgraded versions of Divination that have been printed recently don’t see Standard play (just look at Quick Study!).

So why in the world is Stock Up $15.90 CDN ($11.69 USD)?!?

Stock Up provides a surprisingly decent amount of value for a card that’s “just a Divination”. It also happens to provide a specific upside that happens to be relevant in each format, leading to the perfect mix of “this card is REALLY good” without approaching the “we should ban this thing” part of a conversation. Check this out:

• In Standard, the other 3-mana options are all worse in some way than Stock Up. Quick Study is Instant-speed, but only looks at two cards. When you’re playing a Control deck, you’re generally looking for specific answers so you want to see more cards. Confounding Riddle gives players more versatility, but only looks at four cards and only puts one in hand so you can never use it for card advantage; only selection.
• In Pioneer, Sheoldred the Apocalypse and Narset, Parter of Veils are some of the most commonly-played cards in a couple of very popular decks (Rakdos Midrange and Azorius Control). Both cards actively punish players who are looking to draw cards, so Control decks in Pioneer have been playing cards like Memory Deluge, Dig Through Time, and now Stock Up to get their card advantage. Stock Up has been replacing Dig Through Time in these lists because Control decks find themselves needing copies of Rest in Peace against decks like Izzet Phoenix and Mardu/Abzan Greasefang, both of which are popular meta decks.
• In Modern and Legacy, Control pilots have the same problem with card draw being punished as they do in Pioneer. Except this time it’s Orcish Bowmasters that’s punishing you at 2 mana! Another huge upside to Stock Up is that it looks at 5 cards instead of 4, which doesn’t sound like much but ends up being pretty incredible in formats that include free interaction. I’ll do the math in the next section.
• Vintage is the format in which being able to find specific cards matters the most, since it’s both the format with the most powerful cards and the only format with a Restricted list rather than a banned list. There are certainly cards in Vintage that are better at generating card advantage (Ancestral Recall, Treasure Cruise, Dig Through Time), but you can only play one of each of those. Stock Up does a “Dig Through Time at home” impression decently enough as a card you can play four of, and is seeing play in both Combo and Control decks.

Ugh. You mentioned math, didn’t you…

Of course! The most exciting part of any article!

On a serious note, Stock Up gives players a much higher chance at finding specific cards than just about any of the other options we’ve seen printed at 3 mana. Assuming you’re playing a 60-card deck, each individual card is 1.66% of your deck.

• Cards like Divination look at 2 cards, so when you cast one you see 3.32% of your deck.
• “Cantrips” like Preordain and Ponder look at 3 cards, so they allow you to see 5% of your deck.
• Narset, Parter of Veils sees 4 cards per activation, which is 6.64% of your deck.
• Stock Up sees a whole 8.3% of your deck, a full 2-and-a-half TIMES the amount of deck you’d get to see with a card like Divination or Quick Study!

This already makes Stock Up the best option for card advantage/selection in formats like Standard and Pioneer, but when you consider the formats that include free interaction the value gets ramped up to 11. These formats both require specific answers to questions AND don’t really allow players to just tap 3 mana at Sorcery speed and expect to live.

Take Legacy, for example. Right now, the most popular deck that uses Stock Up is Simic Omni-Show. This deck needs to be able to both find cards like Force of Will to protect itself and both halves of its signature combo, Show and Tell + Omniscience (pronounced “Omni Science”). Normally a generic draw-2 wouldn’t even be close to playable in this type of deck, but specifically Stock Up gives you a whopping 33% chance to see any card in your deck that you’re playing 4 of. Because of this (and a couple of key bans), it’s now the 5th most popular deck in all of Legacy!

OK, that’s enough numbers for now.

Hopefully that breakdown of why Stock Up is relevant and just how much it helps decks across every format provides some insight into just why everyone’s talking about it (and why a Standard-legal Uncommon is more than $15 CDN!).

With the combination of exciting cards like Stock Up, the recent updates to the Banned & Restricted List, and the recent release of Tarkir: Dragonstorm, Magic: the Gathering players have a lot to be excited about right now. I hope you’re all just as excited as I am about the state of the game, and I’ll see y’all on the next one!