Stock Up: Lessons from an sleeper card that became a staple

In the last few weeks, a card from Aetherdrift has been standing out in almost all competitive Magic formats in which it is legal. Its price has skyrocketed, more and more archetypes are running it, and it has already reached the level of being considered a future staple of Legacy and even Vintage - Stock Up.

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In addition to the eternal formats, Stock Up has also revitalized Azorius Control in Standard, and more players have adopted some copies of the spell in Bounce lists, while in Modern, its appearance is more timid, but occurs mainly in combo lists, with copies in Underworld Breach lists or in other minor archetypes.

But how did a card that, for most, was evaluated as a Divination with benefits become one of the best staples of Aetherdrift alongside the mythic Ketramose, the New Dawn, and what does this teach us about evaluating cards in competitive formats?

During the Cards Realm review season, there were two situations where I evaluated Stock Up and in neither of them did I even consider the card valid for inclusion in the Pioneer and Modern articles. The main reason, initially, was that both formats “have better stuff”, and the second is that my direct comparisons were to the various Divination variants that have already come out in Magic.

By Pioneer standards, it's difficult to imagine that even Mulldrifter - once a Pauper and Standard staple - would do enough, and its clearest competitor was Quick Study and whether it was worth it for Blue-Based Decks to trade the versatility of playing spells on the opponent's turn for digging a little deeper into the deck.

I misjudged this card when I limited myself to thinking of it as a competitor to Quick Study and Mulldrifter instead of making the more assertive comparison and securing its place as one of the biggest highlights of the year's first expansion for competitive Magic.

Stock Up is to competitive Magic what cards like Dig Through Time were for a long time - it's no surprise that some call it a "Mini-Dig" and it's also no surprise that the only format where the card hasn't excelled is one where Dig itself and Treasure Cruise are legal - and it often becomes the glue for Control and Combo archetypes in competitive formats. After all, looking at five and going for two is more important than drawing two - or even three - off the top without any filtering or selection.

Dig Through Time was notoriously powerful in Modern and Legacy. The ability to play it for a very low cost with the interactions of Fetch Lands and other cheap spells made it much easier for combos and other archetypes to find the pieces they needed - Stock Up, while only looking at five, has a mana value comparable to the common casting cost of Dig Through Time.

This is why it is so successful in competitive formats, while Drawn from Dreams, which digs deeper but for a higher cost, saw no sign of play even during its Standard cycle.

In addition, Stock Up is unconditional and does not require any extra information or concessions to be played, a point where it differs from Pieces of the Puzzle - another direct comparison - and Narset, Parter of Veils, still considered today a role player in all formats in which she is legal.

In essence, this card is a Mini-Dig Through Time in every conceivable circumstance, and should remain the best three-mana card selection in many competitive formats until more efficient options emerge.

The hype around Stock Up officially began at Pro Tour Aetherdrift with the “rebirth” of Azorius Control in Standard, but the card was already making waves in eternal formats long before that.

In Vintage, a format where players can play the famous Power 9 cycle, Stock Up has become a 4-of in almost all combo lists that have a good core of blue cards in the format, and the reason is obvious: efficient card selection is usually restricted in the format, and the new spell dig deep in an environment where many lists include one-ofs and/or require only the right pieces to close the game in a combo turn.

Combined with the abundance of efficient mana rocks, it is not difficult for players to start extracting value from the card from the first turn, and the increased consistency that digging the top five while generating card advantage guarantees can easily lead to Stock Up making it onto the Vintage restricted list for the same reasons that other efficient cantrips and card selections are there.

In the neighboring format, Legacy, Stock Up initially started appearing in Show and Tell lists, but it didn't take long for it to establish and/or revive combos that had previously been forgotten in the format, such as Mono Blue Painter.

More recently, the card has been showing up in fair decklists like Stoneblade or the many Blue-Based Tempo variants, with or without Delver of Secrets. An inherent advantage of this card compared to cantrips in Legacy is the fact that it does not draw and therefore does not trigger Orcish Bowmasters, a creature that has considerably changed the way these spells are played in the format.

In addition, due to its higher mana value, Stock Up bypasses common hates like Chalice of the Void.

Its presence in Modern has been more timid. Some Underworld Breach lists have started to include a copy of it in the maindeck, but the main archetype where Stock Up stands out in the format today is in Through the Breach lists, where, as with Show and Tell, the player only needs to find the right two pieces for the combo-kill.

And, of course, Standard has been one of the biggest movers of this card in recent weeks, starting with the aforementioned rise of Azorius Control back into the Metagame, with a respectable win rate at Pro Tour Aetherdrift, which has translated positively into results in Challenges.

Omniscience combo lists have ostensibly adopted the card for reasons similar to Legacy: just find the right pieces and the game is guaranteed.

And speaking of guaranteed matches, we can't forget that it was a Stock Up from the Sideboard that gave Matt Nass the Negate he needed to secure his Pro Tour victory even when faced with an opponent's topdeck that could turn the match around, like Nissa, Ascended Animist or Doppelgang.

Finally, there are reports of RCQs where players are winning events including Stock Up in the Esper Bounce's maindeck, which also happened in Challenges this week.

The main lesson learned from an under-the-radar card that becomes an instant staple is that we need to evaluate new cards better.

It's common for Magic fans to fall into logical fallacies when it comes to new features, with arguments like "this dies for Doom Blade" or "a Lightning Bolt kills it" or, in this case, "being a sorcery ruins this card." The card game is much more extensive than we collectively recognize, and these arguments only show that our theories about the viability of things are still very limited.

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse took every efficient removal from every format and still became a staple that reached stratospheric prices. Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer died to Lightning Bolt and Fatal Push, but did considerable damage when that answer wasn't in the opponent's hand, Modern Horizons 3's Energy package, which seemed too limited to its own mechanics, proved too strong for the format, and now an “improved Divination” has become a staple in multiple formats because it's closer to a Dig Through Time than a “draw 2” of any kind.

As a writer and content creator, I also have to take the mea culpa of having underestimated some of these new features and overestimated others based on preconceptions of how a Magic match or format works. The reality of one of the most complex card games in the world is much more comprehensive than just the theory shows.

Finally, it's up to us to expand our horizons of what Magic means as a game and how competitive formats behave, and learn from our mistakes.