Sometimes, you just can’t help a title. Alliteration is just so much fun!
Ravnica Remastered is official today, and while the preordering has been fun, it’s also emblematic of the clobbering that prices are about to take. This is a reprint set, so everything exists already and the goal/expectation is that regular copies are going to end up notably cheaper than they were.
This reprint set is made up of lots of special versions too! Borderless, Anime, Retro-Frame, and even Serialized versions will be available too! In previous reprint sets like this, there tends to be a spread of prices for the different versions, with the more basic ones getting to a low price indeed.
The good news is, we can get those basic copies super cheap once these cards hit their lows. So today, I want to look at my favorite targets to drop low before reaching new highs in a few months. I don’t think the rebound will be faster than six months, and I also wouldn’t be shocked when it takes a couple of years.
These are mythics and rares, and as an additional complication, there might be a quick turnaround for profit on these if it looks like extra product is being destroyed rather than letting the set undersell.
Guardian Project (137k EDHREC decks)
As always, EDHREC is not the only data source we should refer to, but it’s very helpful data to have. It’s only the most online of Magic players, the most invested in the game, the ones who are eager to list a deck online. I still haven’t put even one on there.
Still, Guardian Project is a card that basically cantrips every creature spell. There’s some spells like Garruk’s Uprising that will allow you to draw a card for big tokens, but GP giving you a card no matter what in the Commander format is big game. It’s a staple now and will be a staple going forward.
It’s already down to the $8 range and $5 is in play. My usual habit is to wait a couple months, but this is one of the cards that I’ll be watching to see how cheap it is in a month, looking for the price to start rising.
Teferi, Time Raveler (46k decks)
Tef3ri (as he’s commonly labeled) was once a Modern staple, a key component to making sure that what you want to do, you get to do. Decks have moved away from the card, and being banned in Pioneer hasn’t helped his cause either.
Planeswalkers aren’t less good in Commander exactly, it’s just that you have to manage three people trying to kill it instead of just the one opponent. I would like to believe that he can make another comeback, but it’ll take a big shift in the metagame to pull that off. Those who like special versions have retro frames, stained glass, and the alternate anime art to choose from, so I don’t see myself getting in on this again unless some new combo shows up.
Bruvac the Grandiloquent (16k decks plus 3500 more as Commander)
Bruvac is about to be a case study in ‘why does low supply for a card result in a high price’ or what could also be called ‘how low can this go?’ Originally in the first Jumpstart set, and then given an appearance on The List, Bruvac has never had a large quantity of copies available, and the price shows that.
Copies are on TCG for preorder at $24 and that price is going to drop hard. Mill decks are neat in Commander, and even have a home in Modern for those who love their Crabs, but it’s hard to do consistently. The demand just isn’t there, and if it weren’t for some cards who were sub-$5 before RVR’s printing, I would expect this to be near the bottom. I suspect this will be available near $10 for a very long time.
Cyclonic Rift (registered in 500,000 EDHREC decks!!)
I probably don’t need to sell you on this card. It’s a poster child for a reason, the Gold-Chocobo-better-than-S-Rank staple. It’s cast, recast, copied, all in the name of being unfairly broken. Over the years, the regular version has made it to $40 at least once, because it’s just one of the best things you can do in blue.
Amazingly, we haven’t had a lot of special versions here. Double Masters had a borderless version in the VIP packs, and Commander Masters gave us a foil-etched a year ago. For one of the iconic spells of Magic’s premier format…that’s not a lot. Of course, now in RVR we get a Retro, and an Anime Borderless, and a serialized version if you want to have the rarest version of the most popular card.
I’m expecting regular copies to drift down a little, but the truth is, there’s a lot of regular copies out there and patience pays off very well. There won’t be a lot of undercutting, as you don’t need to be in a hurry to sell. This weathered the CMM printing quite well, the etched foils look especially tempting, and RVR should lower prices a little before they begin recovering. Should be $35 again before Christmas.
Crypt Ghast (84k decks) – Finally, let’s talk about a card that just doesn’t get played enough. So many decks are running Urborg and Coffers, why aren’t they using the third leg of the tripod? I think there’s some factors working against the card: people think Extort’s reminder text requires black and white in the identity, or they think only basic Swamps are eligible.
Happily, neither of those things is true, but this card is falling fast. Retro copies are down to $5 already, and strangely, that’s less expensive than the regular nonfoils are. That’s a reversal I don’t expect to stay true for long, but I also thing it will take people a while to change their prices on the older versions of the card.
There’s also never been a special printing, and with both a retro frame and an anime borderless coming out, these regulars are really going to take a dive. Be patient before buying, even when it comes to personal copies. There’s going to be a lot left over here, so don’t get in anytime soon.
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.