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.

Dominaria was officially legal as of Friday, and it certainly made its presence known across all formats. Standard saw considerable card additions, with Tereferi, Karn, Lyra, Seal Away, and Blink of an Eye, among others, finding their way into main decks. Of course there were still five red aggro decks in the top eight of the SCG team constructed open, but it’s opening weekend, so that’s to be expected.

Modern and Legacy saw pips of Dominaria as well, with Karn especially making waves in Legacy. Pair all of this with Dominaria having the largest prerelease of all time and the set looks like it’s a smashing success by most metrics.

Jadelight Ranger

Price Today: $9
Possible Price: $20

Two deck archetypes stole the show in Standard this weekend; UW control and red-based aggro strategies. UW control was roughly what you would expect; a few copies of a planeswalker, a top end creature to close out games, and a pile of removal and permission. Red strategies were either vehicle-heavy or not, but all had the same general goal of using Mountains to get ‘em dead quick.

Outside those two, there was a fair bit of green midrange at SCG. We also had a Standard MODO PTQ fire Sunday, which contained a lot of green decks, with varying levels of aggressiveness (although all were certainly trying to punch you hard.) An important factor here, and one of those tweaks that can spell a world of difference between our universe and alternate-universe Standard, is the presence of Llanowar Elves. We haven’t seen these guys since their doppleganger Elvish Mystic in Magic 2015. The presence of a unconditional one mana dork has many ripple effects.

One of those is how easy it is to play three drops, especially YGG cards. Elvish Mystic was powering out Courser of Kruphix constantly in Theros Standard, and I suspect we’ll see him slamming Jadelight Rangers constantly as well. On turn two you’re putting down a 4/3 that scrys one, or a 3/2 that draws a card and probably scrys one, or a 2/1 that draws two cards. A turn two 2/1 that draws two lands when it comes into play? I’m getting sweaty over here.

Clocking in at $9 or so, Jadelight Ranger is hardly an unknown quantity. Still, there’s room to grow there. Remember that Ixalan is missing the Masterpieces series, which means singles prices will be inflating in a way we didn’t see with Kaladesh or Amonkhet. If Jadelight Ranger becomes a pillar of the format as a backbone for all Gx decks, we could see a legitimate $15 to $20 rare in Standard again.

Karn, Scion of Urza

Price Today: $35
Possible Price: $50

Not one, but two Standard cards? What world are we living in? It’s amazing but Karn had one hell of a weekend, both at the SCG Open and on MTGO. Most of the spectrum found a use for Karn, from midrange to Standard, colors be damned. We shouldn’t be too surprised; he’s a colorless four mana planeswalker. Even if he were weak to average on the power level scale every deck could decide if they could make use of his abilities. Karn isn’t weak though, which means not only does every strategy get to consider him, many will find use.

Perhaps even more remarkable is that Karn wasn’t just showing up in Standard. Both Mono-Red Prison (third) and Colorless Eldrazi (sixth) were casting copies in Legacy. Seeing Karn hit the tables in Legacy the very first weekend he’s available is definitely worth paying attention to. You know who else did that? Liliana of the Veil. Is Karn as good as LotV? Almost definitely not. But there’s a lot of room for him to be worse than LotV and still an absurd card. And while I haven’t seen him in Modern yet (not that he hasn’t shown up at all), I suspect he’ll make the journey. After all, if Legacy Eldrazi is making good use of him, I’d expect the Modern version to do the same.

Considering all of this, does that make Karn a buy at $35? That’s a tough sell. I don’t think you can spec on him here. Maybe at $25. $35 is too rich, too fraught with risk, to spec on. At least, too rich to buy twenty copies of. What about your personal playset? What about trading away your other brand new Dominaria cards for a copy? Those are much better ways to approach this. It appears there’s room for Karn to flex up to $50 in a set without anything approaching Masterpieces, though fair warning, it’s far from guaranteed.

Mystic Remora

Price Today: $2
Possible Price: $8

I would be irresponsible if I didn’t find room for at least one new card for all the commanders Dominaria has bequeathed unto us. A set packed with legendary creatures is going to put a lot of new builds on the table, and build EDH players will. Keep in mind too that we’ve seen EDH players lag behind the rest of the world when it comes to purchasing cards. When Vampire Hexmage was spoiled in Zendikar, competitive players jumped on Dark Depths before the set was legal. EDH players are snap buying Spore Frog when they see Muldrotha spoiled though. They’re waiting until they end up with a Muldrotha in hand, then going through their binders to see what they’ve got for the deck, and then deciding if the want to add anything to the list. It takes time, and as such, there’s a slower ramp up for new commander staples. (Except for the ones speculators pounce on, like foil Secrets of the Dead.)

We’re truly through the looking glass now, with my first two cards this week being Standard driven, and my third hailing from Ice Age. Yes, ICE AGE. That Ice Age. The one that, pound for pound, is cheaper than firewood. The scourge of vendors and bulk managers everywhere, who buy 50,000 card collections and find 48,000 cards from Ice Age, Homelands, and Fallen Empires. One of the most feared set symbols out there for a subset of individuals.

And yet…Mystic Remora. Currently in 11,000 EDH decks on edhrec.com, putting it in the top 40 most popular blue cards in the format. (And that’s a competitive color, let me tell you.) It’s also a signature card in the most exciting, brand new commander of Dominaria. And finally, supply is…dwindling? There’s forty-ish vendors on TCG. SCG is out of NM copies, though they’ve got a pile of SP ones.

Floating at $1.50 to $2, these are cheap, but not free. If Muldrotha catches on as the next big thing, two things will happen. Every person that wants to play Muldrotha will add Mystic Remora (apparently). And everyone in the EDH scene who previously was mostly unaware of Mystic Remora will learn about it as they encounter it in the wild, and some of those players will be inspired to go pick up a copy for themselves, for whichever deck needs it. This is a double dip of demand that only particularly old cards get to enjoy. (Come on, Marton Stromgald.) Will Remoras hit $10? That definitely sounds like a stretch, but in a world with $2,000 Tabernacles, $8 Mystic Remoras don’t seem as absurd.

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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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.

Dominaria’s prerelease brought players out in droves, and while we’ve got no official numbers on attendance (and I doubt we ever will), anecdotally it was a smashing success. Not only does the set have plenty of juice for the average player who’s joined within the last few years, it’s also a massive dump of nostalgia for the long time player. Not only have you got most of the crew of the Weatherlight in Karn, Jhoira, and Teferi, but there’s mountains of incidental references waiting to be gobbled up. One that struck me was Bloodtallow Candle, which includes the skull from Profane Momento, a forgettable uncommon artifact from Magic 2015. Who the heck needed that throwback? Nobody. But it was cool!

Reality Smasher (Foil)

Price Today: $18
Possible Price: $30

Reality Smasher is the muscle and might of every Eldrazi build out there, whether you’re playing true colorless, blue and red, black and white, etc. Tap five (or realistcally, three) lands, slam this bad boy down, and shove it up the nose of the poor fool unlucky enough to be sitting across from you.

Demand for the Eldrazi is ever present at this point. You can’t check a Modern event standing without expecting to see a few hanging around. There’s no shortage of reality smashing in Legacy either. Eye of Ugin is still legal there, remember.

Prices on foils have begun ticking up since the start of the month, and it may be tough to find many under $20 at this point. I doubt it’s done moving yet either. As more people realize supply has gotten low, they’ll snag up their copies before it gets too high. Before long this is going to be a solidly $30 foil, and possibly even more as time moves on.

Eldrazi Temple

Price Today: $10
Possible Price: $20

As noted above, the Eldrazi are popular basically everywhere they’re able to be popular. Eldrazi Temple even moreso, since everywhere that Reality Smasher exists so too does Temple, but not every Temple comes with a Smasher. Hatebear is consistently a threat, and while it eschews Smasher for Displacer, it’s still packing Temples.

Eldrazi Temple comes with the caveat that supply is deep. Like, way deeper than anything I normally talk about. There’s something like 100 vendors for the MM2 copy. There’s also the original printing from Rise of the Eldrazi, as well as some Duel Deck copies just for good measure.

So why am I talking about Temple if there are so many copies on the market? Put simply, there’s way too much demand for prices to not keep moving. Virtually every person that plays Modern is going to get the itch to play something with Eldrazi at some point, and when they do, they’re going to need Temples. Several Eldrazi strategies exist too, so it’s not as if there’s a single way to build the deck.

Sol ring lands are strong, and there aren’t many legal in Modern. Eldrazi Temple is one of them, and despite a big supply today, I suspect that prices are going to continue moving towards $20.

Any Invention other than the Gearhulks, and also the Gearhulks

Price Today: $30
Possible Price: $??

I don’t want to sound like a broken record but it’s hard to ignore. People are going bananas for Inventions, and what’s most wild is that other people are still buying them. I’ve seen several Sol Rings sell at $300 now. Mana Vaults at $260. Crucible of Worlds at $175. Planar Bridge at $100. You can tell me until you’re blue in the face that it’s all speculators and there’s no real demand, but regardless of whether you’re right (you wouldn’t be), people are still paying those prices, so uh, all aboard.

Anything that hasn’t already spiked twice is still a viable target most likely. Even the “bargain bin” options like the gearhulks could double in price and nobody would bat an eye. What difference does it make if Cataclysmic Gearhulk is $25 or $50? Both of those sound like real, not insane numbers.

I’m not telling you to buy everything at every price. Don’t blame me if you’re paying $125 for Grindstone and then can’t find a buyer. But be aware that this is not over, and it’s not limited to Inventions either.

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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