UNLOCKED: The Watchtower 3/19/18

By: Travis Allen
@wizardbumpin


Don’t miss this week’s installment of the MTG Fast Finance podcast, an on-topic, no-nonsense tour through the week’s most important changes in the Magic economy. And if you enjoy playing Magic, make sure to visit https://scry.land to find PPTQs, SCG Opens, and more events on an interactive map with worldwide coverage. Find Magic near you today.


After an exciting few weeks with Masters 25 spoilers coming in fast and furious, and Dominaria spoilers immediately after, the past seven days have been a bit more quiet. Nothing new was released today on the Dominaria front, so we don’t know anything now that we didn’t a week ago.

Over on Tumblr Rosewater said that Unstable has been through three printings so far, and if it’s clear there’s enough demand, they’ll fire up a fourth, which got fans of the quirky set jazzed up. If there is such a printing, it’s likely to be the last. There will not be a better chance to get foil basics than the fourth run.

Masters 25 is finally in players hands, and aside from a suspect collation error, there doesn’t appear to be a “priceless treasures” set gimmick. No bonus’ or perks or anything exciting that we didn’t know prior to release. Which means what differentiates Masters 25 from every other masters set is a decrease in card quality, I guess. Happy 25th anniversary, Magic! Your cards are of worse quality today than they were in 1993.

 

As Foretold (Foil & Non-Foil)

Price Today: $7/20
Possible Price: $15/50

Without a doubt I’ve mentioned As Foretold in the past. Yet I still feel compelled to bring your attention to it today, because I want to make sure you’re aware of what’s going on.

192 players showed up in Rome for an MKM event, and a Living End deck landed in the 3/4th place spot. What’s cool about this is that it wasn’t your typical Living End build. Rather than the Jund lists we’re familiar with, this was (basically) a mono-blue version. It’s got an Urborg, and some Collective Brutalities in the board, and of course Living End, but other than that, basically every spell the deck is going to cast is blue. It uses Street Wraith and 10 other Amonkhet block cycling creatures as the horde, and then uses As Foretold to cast the eponymous spell (and Ancestral Visions as well).

I’ve been a fan of As Foretold for awhile, and this is yet another use case. Is mono-blue Living End set to take over Modern? Who knows. Probably not. But it reinforces how good As Foretold is looking. Non-foils are hanging around $7, and supply is certainly moving downwards. I’ve no idea how long it will take to get into the sub-20 copy range, but it’s headed in that direction. Foils meanwhile are nearly gone, with scant few available at $20. They’re likely to pop first, possibly up to $50, with non-foils set to at least double up a few months later.

Desert Cerodon (Foil)

Price Today: $.75
Possible Price: $4

I’m talking about Living End a lot today. I’m allowed to.

Not only did a new mono-blue version pop up, but I’m seeing the standard version on mtgtop8.com here and there as well. I suspect that being able to cascade into Living End at instant speed will always be at least semi-relevant.

After Amonkhet, the deck went through some changes, particularly to its creature suite. Three of the cycling bodies are now from Amonkhet; Archfiend of Ifnir, Horror of the Broken Lands, and Desert Cerodon. Archfiend of Ifnir was a Buy-A-Box and also had prerelease foils, so supply is higher there than it would be on a normal rare. Horror was also just printed in Masters 25, so there’s an additional glut of supply. Now only two creatures remain unreprinted: Monstrous Carabid, which I’ve discussed here before, and Desert Cerodon. Which I’m discussing now.

At maybe $.50 to $.75 each, it wouldn’t take too much to triple or even quadruple. Normally I’m not a fan of $1 to $4 spikes, since so much of your profits is eaten by overhead (price of a stamp, the time, etc.). What’s nice here is that you get to sell playsets if you sell any at all. Paying $2 for a set that you then ship for $15 is much, much more appealing. “The Dream,” as they say.

Legion’s Landing

Price Today: $6
Possible Price: $13

And now for something I do quite rarely — discuss Standard cards.

Recently it came to my attention that Dan Fournier brewed up his own Wescoe Check, making use of Sram’s Expertise and Legion’s Landing. He’s put the deck through at least two versions now, with a 5-0 in his first league, and those two cards have remained a steadfast playset in each.

Several of the cards in the list are set to rotate, such as Angel of Invention, but Legion’s Landing obviously won’t be. Rotation would kill the deck, of course, but that’s not actually a barrier to prices on Landing spiking. People recognize that the deck won’t make it past October, but Landing will, and if it’s good here and now, it will still probably be good (and importantly, Legal) later this fall.

If Dan’s got white lightning on his hands here, people could begin flocking to a cool token-based Standard strategy with Legion’s Landing at its core, with the hope that it will pivot to a new strategy in the Fall.

I promise nothing, nor am I telling you this is a home run. It’s an interesting card in an interesting deck, and worth keeping an eye on.


Travis Allen has  been playing Magic: The Gathering since 1994, mostly in upstate New York. Ever since his first FNM he’s been trying to make playing Magic cheaper, and he first brought his perspective to MTGPrice in 2012. You can find his articles there weekly, as well as on the podcast MTG Fast Finance.

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