Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths has finally been previewed, and I’d like to take a moment to say thank you to Wizards for waiting until after April 1. If they had started on Mondays as usual, and then we’d seen Godzilla stuff, we might not have believed it.

I’m pretty over April Fools stuff, especially as most of the whole world is trying to stay safe from a worldwide pandemic, but that’s me shaking my fist at a cloud again. 

Let’s dive into what we’ve been given with Ikoria, and where things might be going.

First of all, if you haven’t looked at it, take a moment and read the preview article. Then you should go see the Mechanics article.

The main thing from Mechanics is at the end: There’s going to be ten different Companions, cards that can exist outside of the game and can be cast from the Command zone as long as a condition is satisfied. 

Those conditions are going to restrict deckbuilding, but also empower Commander decks to be 101 cards. Let’s all pause for the poor Elemental Otter, named Lutri, the Spellchaser, who has been preemptively banned from Commander games as it would be too universal and incur no cost, and always give a free card to those decks. Amazingly, this is the first time a card has been banned before its release. Not Griselbrand, not Worldfire, no other card has earned this distinction.

I do think these nine other cards are going to have a small amount of demand going forward. Having access to an additional Commander-type card is pretty great, and the ones that have been revealed are worthy effects. Lutri copied a spell, Keruga, the Macrosage makes you build with things that cost 3+ and then rewards you for exactly that. I can see a lot of UGx decks giving up on two-drops in order to have Keruga starting out ready to go alongside their commander.

We are getting one for each color pair, and the four revealed so far impose a lot of restriction on decks, but time will tell if that’s problematic. They are all capable of being Commanders on their own, or in the 99. 

The much bigger deal is the Showcase versions we’re getting this time around. There’s two categories: 19 cards get a Godzilla treatment, and the common/uncommon cards with Mutate get a comic-book-like treatment. The Godzilla variants go down to uncommon this time, and having two different Showcase styles, plus the Extended Art, means a whole lot to keep track of. 

For example, we’re getting three versions of the UB Companion, Gyruda, Doom of Depths:

I like that the Godzilla variants have a totally different name but then a reminder of the name there at the header, and even if this frame/art style isn’t your cup of tea, this is a crossover. Godzilla collectors are going to want this, as what happened with the My Little Pony set, which was offered for $50 but is now going for $75+. 

Magic collectors and Godzilla collectors are going to intersect here, and on top of that, we’re going to be looking at a severely restricted market due to the virus’s impact on local stores and major online retailers.

There are going to be less copies in circulation, and weigh that against the lower number of people who are able to play. I can’t predict what that ratio will be exactly, but I do feel confident that the most premium versions of cards will command even higher multipliers than the previous Showcase versions.

Additionally, the Theros: Beyond Death gods were a bit underpowered. These are not. The mythics are demanding on a manabase, but holy wow. There’s a 3/5 double strike for four mana. There’s more than one 6/6 for five mana, one of them has flying! All of them can mutate onto/with other creatures and give bonuses when that happens.

Will all of this unseat the dominance of Ramp or the Mono-Red menace? Likely not right away, but I’ll be a big fan of picking these up at the end of Ikoria season in preparation for October’s rotation.

What I really want to buy right now is Ikoria sealed product. I wrote about the appeal of the Prerelease packs, especially early on when no one else has cards in hand, but the Collector Boosters ought to be highly sought after. The low prices on Theros Collector Booster boxes compared to Throne of Eldraine is simply a reflection of Theros’s relatively low power level. Ikoria has a stronger theme (two art styles, actually) and more powerful creatures. Buying the boxes and selling the pieces should be profitable early on, but again, a lot depends on the timing. If you’re getting the boxes in mid-to-late May, when the set has gone on for a while, the premiums won’t be as high.

The ratio of cards made didn’t change much from Theros Collector Boosters, according to the article, and that means the extended-art nonfoils are going to offer some impressive gains when they get adopted into some Constructed formats. These are my new favorite targets, as they tend to be a bit more in price but much much lower in number compared to originals or foils.

One more collector target, and one more link. Wizards sent this set off to the printers months ago, before the current pandemic conditions, and one of the special Godzilla versions was named with a ‘Death Corona.’

They’ve announced that these copies are in circulation, but as reprints happen, they will switch over to the Void Invader naming.

Macabre as it may be, the Death Corona cards are going to fetch higher prices than most other cards with misprints. Too many people will want one of these, and I’d expect the foils to really break the bank. You don’t have to agree, or think it’s appropriate, but the provenance and the cultural significance will make these a lot more sought after, and while we’ll never know exactly how many are out there, it’ll be a reduced number as they switch over. My hunch is that the first few cards will be super overpriced, and then will settle down some. If you’re someone that craves to own a Death Corona card, be a little patient so you don’t pay top dollar.

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.

Wizards has decided to delay nearly everything about Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths due to the worldwide pandemic. There’s a lot to unpack, including the optimism that in May we’ll all be back to normal.

This is an unprecedented time for us as Magic players, and there’s some financial pitfalls to avoid, and opportunities to be had here. Let’s dive in!

First of all, we need to unpack what a delay in Ikoria means. We know that Wizards had previously allowed stores to plan for and to sell kits that allow players to prerelease at home. That’s pretty unusual, but so is just about all of this situation. 

As one of our members pointed out to me on the MTGPrice Discord, that’s no longer a possibility, with at least one store telling me that they aren’t going to get these kits till May, if they are lucky and other factors don’t pop up. Most of the big stores have slowed or even stopped their operations, and TCG Direct is shutting down until April 17.

That is a lot of cards and merchants being taken out of the loop, and that means a lot less cards in circulation. Granted, demand has tailed off too, given the demands on our income and the job insecurities we face.

The week after a prerelease has always been the time for cards to be at their highest, but now we’re going to have a month, or more, where the amount of Ikoria in circulation is severely curtailed. I fully expect to see a ton of prerelease kits on eBay, but I also expect that market to be scorchingly hot.  Some overseas markets are getting their stuff on time, and some sellers of English kits will pop up, but the demand is going to be pretty high compared to the relatively small supply.

Let’s look at some examples of where cards were in that first week, shall we? Please keep in mind that we chart cards at release, not when they are spoiled/preordered.

Calix, Destiny’s Hand was more than $10 before the set was released. Elspeth, Sun’s Nemesis was also that high. Nightmare Shepherd was $4+. 

It’s true that some cards are worth more now than they were at the time of prereleasing. I can’t anticipate shifts in the meta and if I’d foreseen Heliod’s Intervention as a top EDH pick I’d have bought a brick of them at under $1. I’m not going to worry about missing $10 from a mythic that gets hot if it means I get to sell five rares at $3 each that will be bulk in three weeks.

My goal had been to buy a few prerelease kits from my local store and crack them. Even the rares that will be bulk should go for a few dollars, and the foils should go for a good price too. Because the only available sources for these cards will be this prerelease for that first week, the premiums should be quite high.

With the delay, I’m still trying to get product from my store but I’m also looking online for the kits at a reasonable price. $30 for six packs and a guaranteed foil rare/mythic was solid, but if it’s at $45+ I will decline. In between…we’ll have to see what the previews bring us.

Something I especially appreciate in this time is how I can get the warm feeling of buying from a store that I really want to still be in existence when we’re past the pandemic conditions, and you should help out in that regard as you can. I won’t be surprised to see some stores doing special sales when the American stimulus hits, as those who are stable financially will have the money to spend. In a lot of ways, this is going to mimic what happens during tax return season, a time when duals and other higher-end cards sell a little bit easier when folks are flush with extra cash.

I know that phrase sounds a little absurd, ‘extra cash’ in a time when an unprecedented number of people are filing for unemployment, but that’s how some will react and stores will want to help them spend that money.

As for Mystery Boosters, I’m quite sad that we aren’t’ getting to draft with these in stores. The draft experience is a very fun one, with the right mix of ‘could be anything’ and ‘curated list of cards’ plus ‘some really expensive cards are possible!’ that leads to marathon drafting days if you’re lucky.

Retail edition of Mystery Booster had just started to happen when the shutdowns started, so not a lot is in circulation at this point. I strongly advise you not to buy in on anything Mystery Booster: not foils, not regular, not playtest cards. This current condition is a seller’s market. If you have copies, if you have leftovers, sell, sell, sell! Eventually, stores will be able to open the boxes they have and get the singles price pushed downwards. 

We know from experience that one chase card can cause a whole lot of boxes to be opened. We saw this effect with the Inventions and the Invocation series of Masterpieces during Kaladesh block and Amonkhet block: singles prices were at their lowest due to the chase for the super-premium cards. Mana Crypt isn’t quite there but it’s pretty close, especially given that these are 24 packs to a box, not 36. 

I completely expect the Mystery prices to fall for the foils and the nonfoils alike once stores regain some normalcy. Right now stuff is starting to fall but it hasn’t hit bottom yet. If you’re buying Mystery cards, it’s because you want it for a deck or you’re buying sealed product to draft with. 

Do not attempt to keep sealed product with hopes of reselling for profit. You’re going to be competing with distributor price for quite some time, and there’s better places to park your money. Sealed product hasn’t been a good investment for a while, and Mystery isn’t in short supply. Everything Magic is in short supply right now, and that’s a situation that will eventually change.

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.

I know it’s a crazy time in the world, and one of the things that gives me comfort is knowing that there will always be Magic in some form. People are playing Commander games with Discord’s help, trading via mail remains a lot of fun, and it’s always enjoyable to pick up undervalued cards.

We are about two weeks away from the previews for Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, and this is when we want to examine the set that’s closing down for the good buys at max supply. Traditionally, this means cards are at their cheapest, and any bit of play they see from here, especially in Standard, means an uptick. I like knowing that I have about a year to unload Theros: Beyond Death cards before they are in danger of losing value due to rotation.

To the cards!

First things first: I’m going to be talking about the regular nonfoils mostly, except for one or two specific cards. Foil prices at this point are remarkably in line with the nonfoil prices, because the players who want unique versions are going for the special version (extended art, frameless, constellation) or the foil version thereof. 

These are picks with an eye towards Standard, but if a card has uses in other formats, all the better!

Thassa’s Intervention ($1) – There’s two decks in Standard that are giving this some love: Temur Reclamation and Azorius Control, and it fills a similar role in each. The modes here are either to prevent your opponent from doing something good, or if they decline to play things into your open blue mana, you get to dig for two good cards. That’s wonderfully flexible and this is going to go up. Three bucks is quite doable, but I’m hoping for $5+, so I could buy at $1 or less and buylist them for $3 plus store credit bonus.

Phoenix of Ash (75 cents) – Another card at near-bulk prices, it’s a good, recursive threat for whatever flavor of aggressive red deck you want to use. The core of such decks is pretty intact for the next 15 months, with just about all the best cards being from Throne of Eldraine, aside from Runaway Steam-Kin and Light up the Stage. The good news here is that decks want to play lots of copies, as extras are fine in play together or fuel escape for one another. You can get playsets for $3 or less, a price that turns around quite nicely when this sees more play.

Shatter the Sky

Calix, Destiny’s Hand (Showcase Foil) ($5) – Calix is a long-term pickup, because he’s absurd in Commander decks that are enchantment-based. That’s a relatively popular subtheme, and as time passes, better and better enchantments will be printed. His price can’t really get any lower, and while you can get the original for near-bulk prices, go for the Showcase foil and really drive some wonderful returns. There’s currently 158 vendors on TCG, and yes, that’s a lot of copies. This is for the long-term and doesn’t cost much. If you like this theme of deck, definitely get your Commander copies now. 

Ashiok, Nightmare Muse (Showcase) ($7) – I think Ashiok’s newest version is really underplayed, given the synergies involved. Currently they are only seeing play as a fun-of, but I like the inevitability and the speed of milling you can get with the Nightmare tokens. This is a less sure spec, but given the power of the card and how perfectly this fits into the average UB control deck, it’s hard not to love. I like getting the Showcase nonfoils in hopes of Standard players wanting to rebuy these for $15+ sometime in the next 12 months.

Shadowspear ($5.50/$7/$11/$36) – Whatever version you want to buy, there’s a case to be made. For a card that’s only been out three months, this is already in nearly 3000 decks on EDHREC, and it deals quite effectively with the two qualities that are most annoying in Commander. I could see this being played in any deck that wants to get around these protective qualities, and even though it’s seeing zero Standard play, the price has stayed constant for nearly two months. It hasn’t had a chance to go down in price. Copies aren’t being sold to vendors, players are keeping the ones they get and trading/using them. Since we are at max supply, it’s time to get your copies and a couple extra besides.

The Temples (between fifty cents and $2) – I strongly advocate that you get your playset of each Temple right now if you’re a Standard player. These are good lands with a notable bonus to make up for the lack of speed, as scrying away something you don’t want is quite a lovely feeling. The UW one is the most expensive, as that color combination lends itself naturally to slow control builds, but UB is not far behind. The other three are noticeably cheaper, but the supply that already existed from each of these isn’t really a consideration. Once the shocklands rotate, these will be a strong contender for the must-have lands. If you play Standard, get them while they’re cheap and you won’t have to pay $3 or $4 each in a couple months. As specs, you’re hoping they get to the $6 range.

Storm Herald (a quarter) – This is pure speculation but when it’s so cheap, it can really give you some amazing returns. Mark Rosewater told us this week that Ikoria has the biggest power/toughness boosting aura ever. Eldrazi Conscription gave +10/+10 and while it’s possible that as a troll they give us an Aura which grants +0/+21, that seems pretty far out there. What’s going to happen is that people will immediately try to build around something obscenely powerful, and Storm Herald is a natural fit, there to clean up and get one more hit in after something happens to the original plan. You goal here is very simple: Buy these cheap now, and when this new aura is spoiled, sell into the hype, hopefully getting $2 or $3 each. You’re more likely to make sales on eBay or TCG, so price aggressively and get your profits locked in.

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.

Look, I’ve been there. Most people who’ve been playing Magic for a long time have.

You need money. Stuff happens. Job problems, car problems, unexpected expenses.

You look at your mostly-foil EDH deck and think, “This is the solution!”

And you’d be right to think that. I’ve certainly sold large parts of a deck/my collection, and done so for the following reasons: 

-To pay for a new Tempurpedic mattress

-To pay for the moving expenses, including the security deposit on the new place

-To get through the month when a payroll error cut my check by 75%

-To pay for a new transmission

-To pay for a Hawaii trip

-To pay for a bounce house for my daughter’s sixth birthday

And so on.

With the world being in the shambles that it’s in, I want to walk you through the steps that have worked out for me, and then you can use these if needed. Magic is that rarity among hobbies: you can get a lot of the money you put in as cash back if it’s needed. 

Before I get into how to sell, I want to nudge you in the direction of not being a seller, but a buyer. Being able to purchase cards during a time of economic problems is going to be very good for your collection’s long-term health. Real estate investors know this well: when everything gets cheap and people are desperate, offer the lowest prices you can and just be patient. 

Problem is, if you’re secure enough to be buying cards during a time like this, you’re not stuck as many of us are. I’m not judging one way or the other; I’ve been the desperate seller and I’ve been the buyer paying cash for 60% of the retail prices.

Step one: Separate your cards into tiers

I mean price tiers. You’ve likely seen assorted buylist playmats, like these:

I don’t need you to sort your entire collection on one of these, merely sort out that which is $50+, $20+, $10+, and then the rest. 

Whatever amount of cash you need to raise, start by selling the big cards first. There’s two good reasons to start with the big ticket items. First is that you might be able to raise what you need while disrupting your cards the least. If all your sales are coming out of your trade binder, then that’s less relevant, but if you’re looking at the ten Revised duals you’ve spent forever trading for in your Reaper King deck…replacing those lands with something 75% as good is quite feasible.

The second reason to sell the priciest stuff first is that your fees will be minimized. I’m not going to break down TCGPlayer vs. eBay in terms of fees and costs, I have yet to sell on TCGPlayer and don’t feel I can make that call. If you’re selling online, you’re going to be charged a percentage of the value of the sold cards, and you want to do this in as few overall sales as possible.

Now, take a deep breath, and compare your cards to what’s on sale on assorted sites. What’s the retail? What’s the buylist? What’s the lowest price on TCGPlayer? 

Step 2: Ask your friends/playgroup what they’d like to buy.

This can be awkward but the truth is that most of us will sell cards at some point, and will be receptive to hearing you out. Please, for the love of everything, plan ahead with what’s for sale and what your asking price is. Don’t play coy, don’t try to heroically manipulate the situation. Look at TCG low, knock off 10 or 15 percent, and ask for that much in cash. Be open to negotiating, because you’ll make more selling in person than you will online. Handing cash over doesn’t incur fees, taxes, or shipping costs. A card you sell on Ebay for $150 will mean you profit about $125 after those costs, so if your pal counters your $150 ask with $140, you should accept. 

Be honest with these folks, too. Say you need X in cash, and ask if they’d like to pick cards that add up to that. Stay strong in your prices, as tax is real for buyers and being a bit under TCG low makes everyone feel like they are getting a deal. Selling a few cards together can go well and solve your problems with no extra work. 

Use every tool at your disposal. Start with the people you know in person, and then move online. Twitter, Discord, Facebook, all of these are ways to make a connection and sell some cards to get the cash you need. Ask others to promote it. 

This would also be the time to use Craigslist or Offerup or whatever selling methodology you like. The goal here is to make a sale without it requiring taxes or fees, but please be safe when meeting strangers with your valuable possessions.

Step 3: Sell on eBay/TCG

I much prefer the Buy It Now setting on eBay, but I always allow offers. Again, you’re motivated to get the cash. Accept that you are giving up some value in order to turn the cardboard into money, and accept offers that are within 5-10%. Giving up a little there can really speed up the process. I tend to set my prices around TCG low, because I can offer free shipping and TCGPlayer has to charge tax. You’re still coming out ahead.

Try to sell your cards as a lot, so you avoid the time, hassle, and costs of many smaller sales. I know that seems self-evident, but there’s a surprising number of complete decks for sale online. You can go that route, or sell five at a time…whatever you want. 

If you’re not able to make the sale here, then there’s one more step to go.

Step 4: Buylisting

There’s no shame in this, it’s just the method that yields the lowest % of your cards’ value into cash. On a buylist, you’re lucky to get 50% of the retail in cash, generally speaking. It’s better than nothing, and the advantage here is that you can hunt around a little and find the best prices. You can also ship off a whole bunch of cards in a buylist to a single vendor, if you live near to one, you can bring them to a store yourself. For large buylists, call ahead of time and tell them you’re interested in selling them X dollars worth of cards, so they can be prepared.

I want to have some positivity here, so let me leave you with two solid buys:

Fae of Wishes (Showcase nonfoil): You can get these around $2 and there are a couple of different decks in Standard and Pioneer that use them. I love that I can buy a nonfoil that is a bit special, because tournament players don’t like having just a few foils (pretty easy to pick out warped foils in a deck) and I especially love that this always gets played as the full playset.

Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath (pack nonfoil): Look, it’s rare that I think a $40 card is a good buy for future use, but Uro has fifteen months to make an impression on Standard. This is the price while we’re still opening Theros packs. Your store, as of today, can start holding Mystery events and in a month, we’re doing the prerelease for Ikoria.

Uro’s supply is near to maximum and it’s $40. If you play Standard, I’d get these now before it rises to $50 or even $60. These are the regular copies I’m talking about, nothing special.

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.