PROTRADER: First Set of the Rest of Your Life

By: Travis Allen
@wizardbumpin

Originally I had planned on attending Grand Prix Detroit. I love Modern, I had a place to stay, and it’s only a four hour drive. Howsever, as it became clear that the format would be overrun by Eldrazi, I ended up deciding to bow out. I haven’t played against the deck once yet, and without a clear idea of what I wanted to bring myself, it simply wasn’t worth the time investment. I didn’t want to play Eldrazi, and I didn’t know what to bring that would beat Eldrazi, so what was the point?

If you didn’t catch it, during the top 8 they got Aaron Forsythe on camera and BDM asked some surprisingly pointed questions about the Eldrazi. Aaron, for all intents and purposes (not intensive purposes!), confirmed that something would be banned at the next B&R update. It sounds like they’re not sure what they want to get rid of yet, but he did make a point of saying that he doesn’t want to get rid of the deck entirely. It is, after all, just an efficient creature deck, something which doesn’t really exist in the format otherwise right now. That sounds to me like they’re going to hit either Eye of Ugin or Eldrazi Temple, but not both, and if I had to pick which one would be better at controlling the menace, it would be Temple. Eye can make a lot of mana very quickly, but the drawbacks are real. Temple is a land with absolutely no drawbacks that is just a straight sol land for Eldrazi spells. Eye still leads to the double Eldrazi Mimics on turn one, but without Temple, you can’t get the turn two Thought-Knot Seer or Reality Smasher.

Anyways, had I known there was going to be an Innistrad-themed puzzle room, I may have reconsidered. It’s a shame Wizards hadn’t made that known ahead of time, because that definitely would have pushed me back into the “it’s worth going” camp, and I bet it would have changed the minds of others that decided to hang back as well.

Puzzle rooms at each GP acted as a vehicle for spoiling new cards. We got some spicy ones, such as Relentless Dead and Archangel Avacyn/Avacyn the Purifier. I’m not going to get into those today, even though they’re clearly both intended to be constructed playable.

What I want to look at today is not what we’re gaining, but what we’re losing. It’s a short four weeks until Shadows Over Innistrad lands. It’s easy to overlook with all the other excitement in Magic right now, but this is the first new block of it’s kind. SOI is the first block to launch in the spring, rather than the fall, and it brings with it the first non-fall rotation. Given how unintuitive this is at this point, I expect it to catch a lot of people with their pants down. Standard will be dramatically impacted. Are you ready?

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ProTrader: Magic doesn’t have to be expensive.

PROTRADER: What You Can and Can’t Get on PucaTrade

I get just about all of my cards on PucaTrade these days. The service isn’t perfect, but it has powered up my collection and helped me get rid of tons of hard-to-move-but-technically-valuable stuff. I am unequivocally a fan, and think that PucaTrade rightfully plays a significant role in today’s MTG finance landscape.

One of the biggest criticisms of PucaTrade I see  is that it is difficult to get desirable cards, especially without paying out a bonus. While this is true to an extent, I have personally received a number of cards that I would not have sent out without receiving a bonus myself. It does happen, and I’ll be sharing some of those nice pickups with you in a bit, but first let’s go over the currency.

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Grinder Finance – Preparing for the Rotation

So Shadows over Innistrad Preview Weeks haven’t officially started but we’ve already got some tasty tidbits flowing in from last weekend’s Grands Prix.  Aaron Forsythe basically stated that the Eldrazi will be put into a more reasonably place (although not abolished) in April.  All Modern fans rejoice in unison!

But let’s talk about Standard.  How do I prepare for the upcoming rotation?  Analyze the new cards and the leaving cards and make some playability predictions.

Oath of the Gatewatch

Right now with mana being so unreasonably good a lot of cards are being pushed to the sidelines because they’re just not better than playing a 4 color deck.  There will probably be a bigger emphasis on two color decks which is a big boon for double-casting cost cards.  My Oath of the Gatewatch picks are:

Linvala

Right now most decks can’t get to turn 6 reasonably but this card is primed to be a house.  It has a relevant tribal creature type for Innistrad and with the rotation of a lot of it’s biggest enemies gives Linvala, the Preserver a chance to spread her wings.  At under $3 per copy, I can’t see a world where you have much to lose.  Linvala also holds a good amount of casual value being a giant mythic angel.  I foresee the rotation of Abzan Charm, Crackling Doom, and Murderous Cut as a big reason more expensive threats will become better.

hissingquagmirewanderingfumaroleneedlespires

With the rotation of the best lands in the game, our fixing gets a lot less and people will likely need to play a lot more copies of newer duals.  With all 3 of these lands comfortably under $3, I think it’s a pretty great pickup now because the best ones will get very expensive very quickly.

sylvanadvocate

This guy I think will be one of the sleepers of the new standard.  It has a reasonably priced body with a good defensive ability.  It incidentally pumps the creature lands (that are likely to get more popular) while providing some flood insurance. At a few bucks this one may not really move in price but it’s already proven to be solid.

Battle for Zendikar

Sunken Hollowshamblingvent

Sunken Hollow and friends are due for their “first printing” tick up as fetches leave and 2 Sunken Hollow is no longer enough for your blue/black deck.  There is no guarantee we get a new or a reprint dual land cycle in Shadows over Innistrad so I would recommend buying into the ones we know are good.  They last for another 12 months so spending about $60 to get a playset of all of 5 is an easy investment.  The creature lands here are the same as above.

obnixilisreignited2

I am still amazed at how cheap this planeswalker is.  A standard legal planeswalker that isn’t a joke (you know, like Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded) is only $6 is a real shame.  I could see him tag teaming with Chandra, Flamecaller to form a good barrier against big and little creatures (similar to Jace, Architect of Thought and Tamiyo, the Moon Sage did a few years ago).

dranaliberatorofmalakir

Another black mythic that can be played as a 4 of is a paltry $7.50 on TCGPlayer.   She has a relevant tribal creature type and is aggressively costed.  With it’s brick wall nemesis, Mantis Rider leaving Standard, she is primed to shine.

Dragons of Tarkir and Magic Origins

These sets have less time in Standard but I will focus quickly on some cards that could become format staples for the next 6 months.

Deathmist Raptorden protector

These guys have seen a little resurgence lately in the Bant Collected Company deck but you might remember when Deathmist Raptor  commanded a premium price tag for mythics.  Their abilities have good synergies with self mill (an important theme in the previous Innistrad block) and discard.  At $7 I think it’s a good time to get Deathmist Raptor and Den Protector if that’s your jam.

cmds

With the rotation of the most powerful gold cards in Standard, these extremely versatile instants will need to pick up more slack. Ojutai’s Command and Kolaghan’s Command synergize well with graveyard strategies which can’t be understated.

thingintheiceawokenhorror

Amusingly enough, Ojutai’s Command can return this “thing” people are really excited about.  It’s already up to a $12 pre-order on SCG in it’s first day so I have to assume this card is 100% hype.  It is a lot of investment for something that at the end of the day can get Reflector Mage‘d.

Jacerisenexecutioner1

I want to quickly talk about these two.  I wouldn’t advocate buying into them now if you’re not totally sure you’re going to play them.  Risen Executioner has already seen a sizable jump from his bulk mythic price after a “good” mythic zombie was spoiled.  Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy is very close to closing on the Jace, the Mind Sculptor levels of pricey.  I don’t think he will be banned but I also am not sure how much longer he can sustain such enormous prices.  Theoretically Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy will hit his peak at Pro Tour Shadows over Innistrad as Standard cards tend to peak approximately 6 months before rotating. Where will he go? I’m not sure but this 7 year old photoshop might be relevant again.

100 jace

Standard on a Budget

I will take a quick second to discuss some spoilers and probably not the most exciting ones.

ravenousbloodseekerheiroffalkenrathincorrigibleyouths

These three cards tell me there will probably be a pretty powerful and very budget friendly deck available to newer Standard players.  These cards remind me a lot of these few from 15 years ago.

wild mongrelaquamoebaarrogant wurm

These cards were part of the insanely inexpensive U/G Madness deck.  While it’s unlikely to be nearly as competitive (due to the nature of powerful Mythic Rares), it is sufficient to beat down at your local FNM.  My suggestion if you’re short some cash is to invest in Smoldering Marsh, Avaricious Dragon, Exquisite Firecraft, Zurgo Bellstriker, and Thunderbreak Regent.  There is probably a deck somewhere in there and all of the cards are cheap now.

PROTRADER: Investing on the Classics

This week many writers will touch upon the latest spoilers from Shadows Over Innistrad. They’ll talk about how Angels and Zombies will gain more popularity amongst casual players. The most savvy writers will even predict what implications these new additions to Standard will have on prices once the format rotates.

I like Zombie cards – lately Corbin convinced me that Endless Ranks of the Dead is a good pickup, so I started there.

Endless

That’s all I got.

Other writers will probably cover the three Modern Grand Prix from this weekend, discussing the metagame and surprising breakout cards. All I can say is that it’s Sunday morning right now and Kai Budde’s tweet sums up my attitude towards the format.

Tweet

At those odds, I would have taken that deck. Which brings me to my advice: sell Eldrazi cards. That’s all I got for Modern.

With those out of the way, I can shift my attention to more steady, consistent investment areas – ones which I have been actively buying into for months now. I believe these bets will pay off handsomely in the long term while at the same time minimizing downside risk. Low risk high reward…these are my favorite types of investments! Allow me to explain.

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MAGIC: THE GATHERING FINANCE ARTICLES AND COMMUNITY