MTG Fast Finance: Episode 7

by Travis Allen (@wizardbumpin) & James Chillcott (@mtgcritic)

MTG Fast Finance is a weekly podcast that tries to break down the flurry of financial activity in the world of Magic: The Gathering into a fast, fun and useful thirty minute format. Follow along with our seasoned hosts as they walk you through this week’s big price movements, their picks of the week, metagame analysis and a rotating weekly topic.

Show Notes: Feb 26th

Segment 1: Top Movers of the Week

Chandra, Flamecaller (Oath of the Gatewatch)
Start: $9.00
Finish: $19.00
Gain: +$10.00 (+111%)

Petrified Field (Odyssey)
Start: $4.5.00
Finish: $12.25
Gain: +$7.75 (+172%)

Hall of the Bandit Lord (Foil) (Champions of Kamigawa)
Start: $33.00
Finish: $100.00
Gain: +$67.00 (+200%)

Thorn of Amethyst (Both) (Lorwyn)
Start: $4.00
Finish: $15.00
Gain: +$11.00 (+275%)

Peacekeeper (Weatherlight)
Start: $3.00
Finish: $13.00
Gain: +$10.00 (+333%)

Shatterstorm (10th Edition)
Start: $32.00
Finish: $200.00
Gain: +$168.00 (+525%)

Oubliette (Arabian Nights)
Start: $15.00
Finish: $100.00
Gain: +$85.00 (+566%)

Brindle Shoat (Planechase)
Start: $0.50
Finish: $4.00
Gain: +$3.50 (+700%)

Segment 2: Cards to Watch

James Picks:

  1. Shambling Vents Foil, Battle for Zendikar, Confidence Level 7: $10 to $20+ (+100%, 6-12+ months)
  2. Assorted Battle for Zendikar Mythics, Confidence Level 6: $2 to $8 (+60%, 6-12+ months)
  3. Sanctum of Ugin, Battle for Zendikar, Confidence Level 7: $1 to $5 (400%, 12+ months)

Travis Picks:

  1. Kozilek, the Great Distortion, Oath of the Gatewatch, Confidence Level 9: $7 to $15 (+115%, 0-12+ months)
  2. Oath of the Gatewatch product, Confidence Level 6: $80 to $120 (+50%, 6-12 months)

Disclosure: Travis and James may own speculative copies of the above cards.

Segment 3: Metagame Week in Review

Even Legacy isn’t immune to the Eldrazi menace. Two copies made it into the top eight of SCG Philadelphia, alongside three Delver decks. What’s this event tell us about Legacy, Eldrazi, and the Reserve List?

Segment 4: Topic of the Week – MTGO 101

James manages a portfolio of roughly 10,000 tickets on MTGO. Travis takes some time to ask him basic questions about basic MTGO investing principles, the difference between online and paper, and where to look for profits.

James Chillcott is the CEO of ShelfLife.net, The Future of Collecting, Senior Partner at Advoca, a designer, adventurer, toy fanatic and an avid Magic player and collector since 1994.

25 thoughts on “MTG Fast Finance: Episode 7”

  1. Lols.

    You specifically say “THIRTY MINUTE” format, and then nearly triple the time count.

    Well played, MTGP. Well played.

    1. We really thought 15-30m was a reachable target at the beginning, but we simply can’t get all the information we want to share packed into that time frame. It’s not for lack of trying though! I even interrupted James during his MTGO discussion at one point and had him re-record because he had gone on too long.

    2. Feedback on this certainly welcome. Do you prefer shorter format at the cost of skimming across deep topics, or would you prefer us to front load the critical information so you can check out at your leisure as we’re doing now?

      1. I’m not OP, but I’ll chime in here anyway. I actually like this format quite a bit. It hits all the new/pertinent information for the week, and then there’s a grab bag topic at the end. My personal attention span is about 45-60 minutes, but I don’t do much with MTGO anyway, so I was able to skip the last segment this week without too much remorse.

      2. around the hour mark is good. 30 feels too short. there isn’t much audio on mtgfinance so depth is a priority for me as a listener.

  2. Why did foil Hall of the Bandit Lord get to $100, what pushed it up to $33 in the first place?

  3. Worldbreaker will eventually crush Kalitas in price. If the text/abilities on Kozilek and Worldbreaker were switched Worldbreaker would be near $30 right now IMO. I still see Kalitas as too slow but I could be wrong.

    Also, I think Oath of Jace is a card to keep an eye on for Standard. I’ve used it to fuel delve and that’s leaving standard, but it helps Origins Jace flip very quickly and enables madness. Oath of Gideon is much better in a slower format and/or a format without Siege Rhino (a trampling threat) although Managorger Hydra and the converge 3G trampler (sorry forget the name) would make Oath of Gideon terrible. Also, Oath of Nissa is too good, there’s less and less good 1 drops in Standard.

  4. Hello guys,

    First of all I’d like to say that I’ve been recently introduced to your Website by a friend, as I was getting back little by little into Magic after a few years break, as work and other life stuff came up.
    Just wanted to start by telling you how great your Blog is!

    As I said before, I recently got back into Magic, mostly because a friend of mine.
    As I got back little by little into Magic, I realized that things, and prices, act differently than a few years ago.

    My question is here simple : considering the recent announcements, such as Eternal Masters, and rumors such as a potential new format, the death of Legacy, etc, what would you do?
    Would you for example sell your dual lands, or hold them? (FYI I mostly own some Legacy/Modern stuff)

    The fact is, I am currently in no financial need, and would not, in case of a sale, re-invest the money into Magic. I will unfortunately likely never play in Tournaments again, therefore I was wondering what to do.
    I am no expext in Magic and finance, and it seems that this is really your area of expertise. Thus I was wondering if you could advise me.

    Hoping that such a request is not too intrusive, thanks in advance for your input!

    Jeff

    1. Same here, have a lot of older stuff. I am interested in play casually, but not competitively in large tournaments.

      Should I sell all my legacy/vintage cards? I have a full set of dual lands, some alpha and beta cards, and a couple of mox. Should I sell or keep them?

      Thanks!

    2. I’d advise that, especially as excitement around duals rises with Eternal Masters, it’s about time to sell any Revised duals you don’t plan on using in EDH/casual decks.

      As for power, even Unlimited Mox Pearl has done quite well over the last few years. These are more collector’s items than cards you play with, and as such, are fairly bulletproof.

      I wrote late last year all about some cards and whether you should hold or sell them: https://blog.mtgprice.com/2015/11/18/unlocked-tough-calls/

    3. I also suggest becoming a Pro Trader on MTGPrice. The real value of this isn’t access to Pro Trader articles (although, those are great!). The real value comes from the Forums where you can ask questions like this and start a discussion. The MTGPrice Article writers are regulars on the forums and there are a lot of us on there asking questions, talking about specs and general MTG Finance all the time.

      A TON of Pro Traders on MTGPrice are actually small to mid level vendors too. So you can get the opinion of players, speculators, vendors and people from all levels of the MTG Finance game. You can network with the right people and find good deals on cards as well, posting in the Marketplace forums.

      Anyone considering getting a Pro Trader membership, just realize that what you put into the Forums is where the REAL value is. Even if you are just browsing what others are talking about and buying. These articles are GREAT… But just remember to take advantage of the Forums too. Many times the cards that pop up in these Articles are talked about on the Forums for 2 weeks before the “public” reads about them or sees them spike. Its a great way to gauge movement and trends before they happen.

  5. Fyi
    About Oubliette :
    Oubliette is a Pauper staple in a common deck : Mono Black Control. It functions like a black Oblivion Ring on creatures.

  6. Jeff and Tao, Sigmund who posts on Mondays or Tuesdays is very good about answering these questions. Sometimes Travis answers questions on his ProTrader blog which costs money to read. I’ll give you a little info and my opinion if you are interested.

    There has been a large spike in Reserved List cards thanks to the announcement of Eternal Masters. A good number of people believe this set (and future Eternal Masters sets) will make Legacy more accessible to newer players and increase the player pool. Since Reserve List cards (per Wizards’ promise) can’t/won’t be reprinted speculators are betting on demand for these cards to increase and supply obviously to stay the same. There also is an Old School 93/94 format which is very popular among players and this also has lead to some significant card spikes for the much older cards you might have.

    In my opinion if you need money now is a good time to sell older cards as many are spiking. However, Reserve List cards aren’t going to be reprinted so unless something happens to Magic the Gathering these cards shouldn’t lose value and if there is increased player interest in Legacy and/or Vintage some of these cards will really skyrocket. You really have a win-win situation again as long as nothing happens to the game of Magic.

    I obviously can’t answer “should I sell XYZ cards?” because that’s up to you and your situation in life. It might also depend on how many of certain cards you have…like having one of each Beta dual is amazing but if you don’t have multiple copies you would need to trade into more dual lands (which would be pretty simple but would take some effort). Now is a fine time to sell, if you have those really really old cards and Reserved List cards I see no reason to rush to sell them; but it does seem like a good time to sell as dual lands and Legacy cards had be on the decline the last few months. With Eternal Masters reprinting AT LEAST Force of Will and Wasteland I feel like waiting at least a few months makes a lot of sense.

  7. hi all im very new to all this mtg stuff I’ve really been getting into it i don’t play i just love to open packs and boxes i collect so as a collector do you think its worth holding on to my cards i mainly have cards from the new sets.
    cheers 🙂

    1. Most cards from new sets will lose more value than they’ll gain, at least for a year or two. If you want to collect with the intention that your cards will rise in price over time, you’ll need to go after very specific cards that are older and more expensive.

      Really though, unless you’re getting into this just to make money, collect what you like and sell what you don’t. Don’t worry about prices.

    2. Anything that you want to collect AND that other people are interested in collecting is always a good thing to collect. Many people collect specific “tribes” like Goblins, Elves, Angels, Demons, Vampires, Zombies, Demons, etc.

      Generally speaking, anything with a low mana cost and high power level that also fits into a theme are good things to collect, value wise. A random goblin or elf has the chance of “breaking-out” in Competitive formats and can quadruple the price. They are also popular in Commander and many people build “themed” decks using some fairly random cards, as long as it says: “goblin”.

      If you don’t want to pay too close attention to prices but you still want to collect, just collect cards that fit 3 of these rules and you should have a semi-valuable collection somewhere down the road:

      1. You Like the card (most important).
      2. The card is “good” (low mana cost to power ratio, unique)
      3. Other people seem interested in the card (demand)

      From the New sets I would hold onto cards that are “cheap” but powerful. Cards like Alesha, Who Smiles at Death are GREAT cards that should increase in value over time. Generally, hold onto any of these kinds of legendary creatures with low mana costs and cool abilities. Feel free to get rid of super generic cards and any cards that don’t have that “unique” feel to them. You might also want to hold onto your Dragons, Goblins, Elves etc. or cards like Abzan Falconer or Hardened Scales that have unique abilities and make other cards better. If you do end up playing, these are the “fun” cards to play with anyway.

      Commons and Uncommons usually don’t gain any value. A lot of “casual” rares or mythics have a chance of going from under $1 to $5+ though. Especially foils that might be used in Commander decks. A foil Alesha from FRF could be $6+ a few years from now, but is only $3 now, for example.

  8. Hello guys,

    thanks a lot for answering to my question !

    If I understood correctly, both of you would consider soft selling Revised Duals (I own several of them), maybe wait a few month to see what happens to these after Eternal Masters is out?

    I do own a fair amount of cards on the RL (such as LED, craddle, City, revised duals), but also own a few playsets of non-RL cards and/or Modern cards, like Fow, Wasteland, Bob, Tarmo, Vendilion Clique, SFM or Jace V2.

    The idea is to maximize profit out of these cards, as I have (like many people I guess) invested quite some money into them.

    At the end of the day, would you say that both of you would wait for a few months and see what happens? Or Travis, would you consider sell now? (I honestly have no idea about how easy/hard it can be to sell revised dual lands…).

    I will definitely consider becming pro trader on MTGPrice; if I get an offer on my revised dual, is there any way of discussing the fairness of it on the forums for example?

    Once again thanks a lot!

    Jeff

    1. I believe Revised duals to be modest gainers over time due to collector demand, but EMA won’t be enough to reboot Legacy without broader large tournament support. With the recent spikes, especially on blue duals, I’ve been selling my duals acquired over the last couple of years for solid profits, but that’s largely because I have more profitable targets in mind vs. the likely curve on duals for the rest of the year. On the other hand, I have been acquiring other Reserved List cards that are in very short supply, as their prices are likely to be buoyed simply by the attention the profit potential of the list has been getting across the community. If JTMS is reprinted in EMA, he drops like a stone, but with Force and Wasteland already included the set EV metrics may not accommodate it. If he isn’t reprinted lack of competitive play outside fading Legacy will mark him as a low priority spec target.

  9. Wow thanks a lot for your feedbacks guys!

    I’m actually meeting someone to discuss a potential sell of some of my duals next week.

    Question here : is it a problem to not sell revised duals in Playsets?
    Is it an issue to sell only 3 out of 4 for example?

    Thanks a lot !

    Jeff

    1. Hey Jeff,

      I’ve never had trouble moving blue duals regardless of their number. Plenty of people have different gaps to fill between 1-4 copies, depending on their needs. Non-blue duals that aren’t Bayou face lower demand in general however.

  10. Hi guys,

    sorry for posting here. I just wanted to bounce back on the Dual Revised selling.

    I Have an offer of 950€ for the underneath cards :

    (All revised NM/NM-) 1 Underground sea, 1 Tundra, 2 Tropical island, 1 Volcanic Island, 1 Bayou, 1 Savannah, 1 Scrubland

    Just wanted to know if you felt like I’m selling at a good price, meaning can I get more out of this?

    A lot of people are telling me to keep the duals, as they will likely steadily increase in price, and so on. But I must admit I am a bit sceptical, and selling a U sea that’s worth 350€ in a few years will most likely be way harder, will it not?

    FYI, the 950€ are the net price, as it’s a direct sell. Meaning no Paypal/shipping fees to deduce.

    Thanks a lot!!

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