Nerds,

This week I have decided I can’t ignore the stupid Pauper craze. Will it stick around? I mean, let’s not compare Pauper to something like Tiny Leaders which was a dumb idea or Frontier which was a pretty good idea about 7 years too early. Pauper was already a thing, people played it online for years and the poors even played it once at my LGS a few years ago. How the poors are going to afford $8 Gush and $10 Chainer’s Edict in a few months, I’ll never figure out.

In order for me to care about a pauper card, I’m going to have to see a good chance of it getting some play and therefore being worth buying and in order for me to want to write about it in my EDH column, I’m going to have to see some EDH appeal. I decided that cards which cross over into both formats are perfect since both formats will push up prices, help soak up supply and probably a third thing, which is so psychologically-satisfying for people reading lists. (I had a third thing but my kid came downstairs, shrieking like a little demon and I picked her up and shrieked back at her and she gave me like one of those “respect” nods like she was testing me and I passed and then she ran back upstairs and left me alone but I forgot the third thing I was going to say that crossover cards do so you’re just going to have to trust me that I put thought into this).

I think we can find some cards that cross over between formats and are therefore about to experience a steeper incline than either format alone is capable of producing, which is great for us.

Temur Battle Rage

Pauper Deck – Izzet Blitz

2,483 decks is not too shabby on EDHREC for a card like this and it gets the nod over the cheaper (mana-wise) Assault Strobe due to the Ferocious ability. Giving a creature Double-Strike in Pauper means you only need to buff it up to 10 power which is pretty easy with Kiln Fiends and Mutagenic Growths. The trample is usually enough to seal the deal.

The EDH applications similarly won’t shock you.

Apparently it’s also in 81 Lord Tresserhorn decks, also known as “every Lord Tresserhorn deck.” Zada is a particularly great place to play this card since it’s basically an Overrun for 2 mana in Mono-Red which is saucy.

The foils are on their way up and I don’t think $10 is 100% unreasonable for them. I don’t know if 2,400 EDHREC decks is enough to couple with pauper demand to move a non-foil on a card this recent, but the foils probably have some upside. If I were going to play a poor format like Pauper I would for sure foil the deck, which would make it awkward since foil Gush is like a million dollars. I think if you find Battle Rage in bulk, it will probably buylist for 25 cents or more in a year, so avoid buying the non-foils at retail but avoid shipping them out in bulk, too. You can make a lot of money in MTG finance just knowing which nickels to sit on until they’re quarters.

Relic of Progenitus

Pauper Deck – Several Sideboards

In twice as many EDHREC decks (though the rationale for some of them doesn’t make a ton of sense to me) Relic is popping up in some sideboards.

In general, anything that’s powerful enough to be at uncommon but is pauper legal because of which set it’s in online (and Vintage Masters was great for making a card like Battle Screech look like a common next to cards like Mox Pearl) is worth a look. Relic has some obsolescence issues in EDH but there’s no card better in that slot for Pauper and that’s likely to drive prices.

Wizards has demonstrated a willingness to print Relic in sets like Modern Masters where they have foils, so the foil copies aren’t as safe as they are for other cards. I think we can wait for this to get reprinted again, pick these out of bulk or buy them for a buck or so and wait for the inevitable ascent back to $2 or $3. These were common in Shards of Alara which means they were common in Shards block foil packs which means foils aren’t that rare, anyway (not that that stopped them from flirting with $20).

Rancor

Pauper Decks – Stompy, Bogles

Every green Voltron deck likes this for the trample and the fact that it’s not a 2-for-1 if they kill the creature. You won’t be surprised to see that the decks running it in EDH are Voltron builds.

The first four are, anyway. Rancor is spicy in Shattergang brothers, though – letting you destroy any enchantment on the field for 2GG.

Rancor is another one of those “good enough to be uncommon but still legal in Pauper” cards that are such good value for us. The fact that they’re mostly uncommon in the wild means there aren’t as many copies floating around as there would be for “true” commons and that helps the prices quite a bit.

Foils are pretty stable, at least for Urza’s Legacy.

M13 suffered from not being as cool as Modern Masters.

It’s way down but with a demonstrated ability to flirt with $8, the foils from older sets could see a resurgence. I don’t like buying into M13 at $2 as much as I like buying into that Legacy one on eBay from $14, but I think a rising tide will raise all boats and you could see $6 or $7 foil Rancors again. The prices would inevitably recovered after Modern Masters anyway and increase Pauper demand will be reflected in the prices.

Artifact Lands

Pauper decks – Affinity

Joining Gush in our “Banned in other formats but somehow still legal here” file, we have the artifact lands, which have various degrees of EDH adoption and various numbers of reprintings, hence the price swings. What’s clear is that they are pretty good in Pauper and people will continue to explore the flexibility given to them by these cards.

Breya wants all of these, Daretti wants the red one, Arcum wants the blue one – it’s complicated. What is clear is that I sometimes get these in bulk, they’re worth picking out and since their current price is predicated on EDH demand alone, Pauper demand could drive the prices of the ones used in Pauper up.

We’re seeing a trend where a Modern Masters printing will tank the price of the M set foil but mostly leave the original set foil intact. That’s worth noting because it could mean original set foils are insulated from reprinting in future sets while the Modern Masters and M set foils are not. That makes original set foils even more attractive, and it makes them more equal in growth potential since the number of reprints can vary between the different colors but shouldn’t affect the original set foils all growing together. Darksteel Citadel has the most utility since it’s indestructible. If Ensoul Artifact ever gets printed in an online set at common, watch out.

That does it for me this week. I am sure there are a few more cards I missed just because they didn’t do well in tournament decks recently but as the Pauper field continues to evolve, I’m sure we will find some Pauper gems with hidden growth potential. Identifying which cards might grow twice as fast as cards that are used by either format but not both can help us make better buying decisions. That does it for me this week; leave me something in the comments section. Until next time!

 

I think it can be pretty tough to predict which cards are going to go up on merit. I’ve shifted my articles to being about that solely for the past few years and it’s gone pretty well for me. I have had to work hard to get good at this but I feel like it was worth it. The problem is, my focus is on sustainability and that’s not really doing me any favors. I’ve discussed in the past how it’s intellectually lazy to target foils of cards that could get reprinted in future Commander products because you want to save yourself the extra mental steps of analyzing reprint risk. I’ve talked about how it’s lazy to target Reserved List cards for the same reason. That said, I found a pretty juicy target this week and if I’m going to be lazy and write about a Reserved List card, I might as well write about any Reserved List card I think is a good target. I’ll get it out of my system in one article.

What is the Reserved List?

You know what the Reserved List is. Everyone does. That said, I’ve found the more loud and vocal someone is in opposition to the Reserved List, the less they actually know in general, but I am done arguing about it. Buncha Sea Lions on Twitter anyhow. The only thing you really need to know is that there are some cards that are never, ever getting reprinted and that’s never going to change. It’s not. Don’t @ me. The Reserved List is never going away and I promise you don’t have a better argument than I’ve already heard. Deal with it. Instead of whining that you’ve been playing Magic for 6 months and you think Vintage looks kinda cool but you can’t play it, which is total BS, let’s focus on how we can use the Reserved List to our advantage.

 

What I’m NOT Advocating

I’m not advocating a targeted buyout. You won’t get that advice from an article – you’ll need to hit up YouTube if you want advice on that. Picking a card with low supply and getting a ton of money or a ton of people together to try and corner the market on something that can’t be reprinted is not something I advocate. I realize you and I are greedy speculators out here manipulating the market or whatever but I think there’s money to be made sustainably. I make 90% of the money I make in MTG Finance from flipping collections anyway, so there’s no need to sell my soul to make that 10% of my business a little better. If you advocate or participate in a targeted buyout, I hope you develop tinnitus that’s so bad you need to sleep with a fan on to drown out the noise from your tinnitus and then you’re cold all night from the fan and it makes you have bad dreams.

What I AM Advocating

Don’t wait on stuff you want, and if you notice something start to get a little bit better, buy now. Don’t panic, but take that pile of crap on your desk you’ll never use, send it to Card Kingdom, get that trade-in bonus and get copies of these Reserved List cards if you think you’ll need them. Buy extra so you have copies to play with and look like a genius when you can trade them back out after they go up. Do I think anything is getting more play now than it used to? I doooo.

How I Stumbled Upon This Card

I was at a loss for what to write about and almost settled on writing about Etali. Now, I think Etali is amazing. I think it’s stupid good and should go in every EDH deck that can reasonably ramp to it or cheat it out, no questions asked. However, I’m not super psyched to run it as my Commander. That puts you in Mono-Red and it’s difficult to ramp in Mono-Red. You have stuff like Braid of Fire but beyond that, you’re using one-shot spells like Seething Song to ramp. I wasn’t convinced, but then I remembered artifacts were a thing. THEN I remembered EDHREC had updated for the new cards and someone has probably already solved this problem. They have. All ingenious-like.

Do you see it?

Do you see it?

Do you see it?

METALWORKER.

There’s no reason not to run mostly artifacts in your Etali deck because Mono-Red sis both sort of trash in EDH but also sort of great as a support color for Artifact decks. If you’re mostly brown with a splash of red like the well-done steaks with ketchup the worst person on the planet eats, Metalworker is WORKWORKER doing all kinds of work in your deck and ramping you to Etali on like turn 3. Get some.

Down from a historic high predicated on it being unbanned in everything, there is no better time to get this card. It’s doing work in EDH, where it’s legal somehow, and it’s good in Vintage and it’s unplayed in Legacy, where it’s legal somehow.

If you think you’ll want Metalworker anytime soon, it’s demonstrated an ability to hit $50 on hype, and hype did us all a favor. It cleaned all of the sub-$30 copies out from all of the easy-to-reach places. If movement starts in again, the second spike will be harder because there will be no cheap copies to backfill demand. I think this makes a case for itself. What else do I like? I’m so glad you asked.

Lake of the Dead

Apart from a few cheap eBay copies, this is basically $30 everywhere or it’s sold out. The Gitrog Monster made this go up but it’s never going back down. This taps for a ton of mana in EDH and if your deck either doesn’t care about your dead swamps or it thrives off of them, you’re going to get a ton of use from this. I made a convincing case for this like 8 months ago or whenever the Gitrog Monster came out and since then it’s gone from $10 most places to $30 most places. I hope you bought in at the time. If not, I think the $20 copies on eBay are pretty tempting and apart from that, you’re stuck paying $30. This seems obvious, even though it just tripled.

Retribution of the Meek

A lot of stuff went up on principle a while back and while this is cooling off a bit, second spikes happen fast and supply of this card id drying up again. With EDH so often being such a dumb, durdly format and everyone building dinosaur decks, Retribution is a great choice for wide strategies than have a lot of lower-powered creatures and want to clear a bunch of big blockers out of the way or just be the only one with creatures. This is on my radar right now with all of the Dinosaur decks I see being built.

Mana Web

Either I’m running out of steam or these cards just really speak for themselves. This is a good card, it’s going to get more expensive. Buy it now if you need to.

Deranged Hermit 

The amount of overlap with EDH and casual is kind of small, but this bears mentioning because we just got new squirrel tokens with Unstable and with the foil tokens going for $7 online, SOMEONE is playing with Squirrels. This is an OG Squirrel master and it’s never getting reprinted. Take a look at Judge foils while you’re at it. They’re half the price of the $100 set foil and supply is dwindling as well.

That does it for me this week. If you have some Reserved List picks you think I should have discussed, hit me in the comments.* See you next time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Try to imagine what I wrote in the half a paragraph I just deleted. It involves opinions about the Reserved List and what readers can do with those opinions.