It’s the end of the year, and so it’s time to look at a year’s worth of written predictions and see how I did. 

I do this with grace and humility, because I have to be kind to myself when I do badly, and not overly celebrate when I get it right. 

I’m focusing just on the things I picked in my articles, because we’ve got a whole separate show on MTG Fast Finance where we talk about our picks this year. 

Let’s get into it!

On 1/12/24 I wrote about Ravnica Remastered, and some things I liked long-term. I did pick Guardian Project to go all the way down to $5, and the regular versions are up to $8. They would be higher, except for the Fallout reprint that I didn’t see coming. (One of my takeaways this year: All bets are off when it comes to reprints!) Brudivac almost got down to my pick of $10, but he did get to $13 and now he’s back up to $25, a solid profit. I would unload if you got in cheap. I was also right about Cyclonic Rift going under $35, it went all the way to $26, and there’s multiple versions between $30 and $40. Crypt Ghast got some borderless reprinting, but the base version did sink down to $5, and is now $8.

Then on 03/01/24 I put together a list of Assassin-related specs, and those have mostly done very well. I identified the SL version of Thraximundar (He Who Paints The Earth Red!!) to double up, Callidus Assassin surge foils to go higher ($3 up to $11) and Unliving Psychopath foils in NM condition were $2 and are now $10. Garza’s Assassin did not grow, that half your life is a whole lot, and Kiku, Night’s Flower has ticked up just a little to $8. If she gets reprinted she’s going to drop like a rock, so I’d be hesitant about holding on too long.

Next up, on 03/29/24, I wrote up a whole a bunch of Ghired, Mirror of the Wilds specs. Seemed like it would be a popular commander, because token themes are big and Naya likes doing stuff like that, but Ghired has only 2500 Commander decks on EDHREC, good enough for 12th place from OTJ. Obeka was the big winner of that set, people registered four times as many decks for her!

A similar pattern on 04/19/2024, where I thought Gonti, Canny Acquisitor would take ‘steal your deck’ decks to new heights, but nope, missed there too. Deck theft is a theme I enjoy, with Gonti and cards like Tasha, Witch Queen, but the greater public has no appetite for that as yet. 

The writeup for the first Miku Superdrop came along, and this was a mixed bag. I was right about the Miku drops, as the EN lairs are going for $90/$70, while the JP versions are near the original cost still. The rest of the drop I felt better about, but none of them have been solid growers in the time since.

When Modern Horizons 3 came out, I wrote up a list of early specs on 6/14/2024, most of which have shows growth since July but non better than Fanatic of Rhonas, which has doubled up since that writing. Things like Springheart Nantuko, Medallions, and Wight of the Reliquary have gone up by a dollar or two, forecasting good things for that set as time passes. 

The Summer Superdrop has a writeup I published on 06/21/2024, where the Miku drops have done the same (English go up, JP at cost) and the rest of the drops in that group have not had the same growth. I’m okay being patient with SLs at this point, I’m rarely in a hurry to resell at minor losses after taxes and shipping. 

On 7/12/24 I planned out what a Zinnia, Valley’s Voice deck would want, because copying value creatures sounds like every Commander player’s dream, but she’s turned out to be middling as these go, with only 6900 decks. Bello, Bumbleflower, and Baylen were all bigger hits, and Bumbleflower is the biggest surprise to me, as Commander players generally hate giving other players cards. 

After that, Monty Python was previewed, and on 07/26/24 I wrote up why you should buy. Hope you did, that’s done very well and it still might grow. If they make a vol. 3, 4, or more, this first one should go off like a rocket.

One of my biggest misses of the year was in the D&D Superdrop on 08/23/24, when I was middling on Astarion and Karlach. The other drops seemed more appealing, and I vastly underestimated what these two characters would do for a drop. 

I wrote up my thoughts for the third Miku drop on 9/27/24, and after the zeitgeist did so well for Monty Python, I was convinced that Ghostbusters and Chucky drops would sell like hotcakes. I was tremendously wrong about that. Miku’s planeswalker drop should grow over time, but in the three months since, it hasn’t done much. The other drops have really languished, but perhaps they will grow over time. I think my takeaway is that even if something is popular, it’s not always collectible. The Ghostbusters hit me in the nostalgia, and Chucky movies have always been marketed at the same group of people, over and over. 

Most recently, on 10/25/24, I wrote up the Marvel superdrop, and I’ve been right about those cards, the order the drops were in, and most of the picks for the decks have seen a little uptick as well. Marvel is also likely to keep paying off into the summer, as more MCU cards are released and people want to build The Avengers deck, or some variation thereof. 

Hits and misses, to be sure, but if I was perfect I’d retire from everything else. The things I’ve been right about were easily able to pay off the misses, and that’s why we diversify. 

Cliff (@WordOfCommander) has been writing for MTGPrice since 2013, and is an eager Commander player, Draft enthusiast, and Cube fanatic. A high school science teacher by day, he’s also the official substitute teacher of the MTG Fast Finance podcast. If you’re ever at a GP and you see a giant flashing ‘CUBE DRAFT’ sign, go over, say hi, and be ready to draft.