All posts by Cliff Daigle

I am a father, teacher, cuber and EDH fanatic. My joy is in Casual and Limited formats, though I dip a toe into Constructed when I find something fun to play. I play less than I want to and more than my schedule should really allow. I can easily be reached on Twitter @WordOfCommander. Try out my Busted Uncommons cube at http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/76330
Casual Fridays

Lessons Learned

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One of the things that I like to do when I’m reviewing how the year went is to look for patterns in the spikes throughout the year. This can clue me in about what might be coming next, or the things I want to pick up in anticipation of future growth.

I’m going to look at the last three months, and see what stands out to me. First, some of the spikes that I or others mentioned ahead of time, some spikes I don’t think people predicted at some point, and then what I want to have going forward.

December:

The Chain Veil – The theme this month is going to be counters and proliferate, thanks to Atraxa. The Chain Veil is a card that many picked to eventually be awesome when it was spoiled, and a lovely target at $1. A new spike, especially in foils, is reminiscent of how Nekusar, the Mindrazer caused many cards to spike.

Contagion Engine – If activating planeswalkers twice is good, tapping six mana to +2 all of them is pretty great too. This dodged being in Atraxa’s deck, and should have been on your radar immediately as a result.

Bloodspore Thrinax – If you called this one, then you really do play a lot of counters with your creatures. I’ve got this in my Experiment Kraj deck, and frankly, I feel silly that I didn’t see this spike coming. It’s a fantastic way to power up everything you’re bringing into play, and now Atraxa can grow it! The synergy of Atraxa proliferating this, which will make everything else better,

Doubling Season – I felt silly when I saw this starting to climb. Sure, it’s had two printings plus a Judge edition, but this card defines the casual player’s experience. It’s ready to be printed again, and don’t overlook how hard it is to take this card out of a deck. The supply is low on this because the copies are seeing play, not waiting in storage.

Next up: Asceticism

Sure, it’s $10 right now, but if we are spiking creatures that have to stay in play to get better and better, we need protection for them, and this is a totally unfair card. As a bonus, the foils are not that much more than the nonfoils, and I always prefer speculating on casual foils.

November

Angus Mackenzie – This year, we’ve seen a huge part of the Reserved List go through spikes, and while some of those are pure speculation from individuals or groups, Angus is a group hug commander who can’t be replaced. Throwing a Fog every turn requires a lot more setup, and all he needs is three mana.

Koth of the Hammer – Skred Red strikes! This was a cheap planeswalker, especially with a Duel Deck printing, but it’s reflective of the relatively small supply, since that was four years ago.

Pact of the Titan – Maybe we should have seen this. The other Pacts, aside from the white one, have all seen some tournament play. Free spells are good!

Silas Renn, Seeker Adept – I love that this was less than fifty cents and then was up to $3 at one point. Cheap, powerful, and recursive. How did we not see that this would always be good?

Next up: Mind’s Dilation – Cheap mythic with a game-breaking effect, from a small set, and demands an immediate answer. This is a lot like Lurking Predators, and that’s one of the cards that really jumped me into the MTGFinance game.

October

Selfless Spirit – I played back in the day when Dauntless Escort was a thing. Picking this to be an expensive card wasn’t too tricky.

Foil Leyline of the Void – The rise of Dredge decks should have clued us in about picking up good sideboard options. This has always been a good sideboard option for graveyard decks, but this is powerful from the opening turn.

Torrential Gearhulk – We didn’t say that this would be a $30 card, which is what it spiked to. Six mana is a lot, but I dismissed it for only copying instants. The Pro Tour taught us different.

Next up: Metallurgic Summonings – It’s a fringe deck right now but it’s such an engine that I want to have lots of these. I’m trading for them in foil and not foil, because I don’t want to miss out on the next deck that will make it big.

ProTrader, Uncategorized

PROTRADER: PucaPicks for 12/8/16

One of the things I like best about PucaTrade is how easily I can mine my collection for value. I’ve been playing a long time, and while I have more valuable things to send out, there’s not much that feels better than sending out a stack of commons for full value. Some of these buylist for decent money, but I really like getting bonuses for the simple effort of rifling through old draft chaff.

So I’m going to get through Scars of Mirrodin block today, and there’s some surprising stuff in there. If you find it relaxing to sort through a thousand-count box and pluck out twenty bucks in value, this is how to get that feeling.

A reminder that these are not the most valuable cards from their expansions. These are the ones higher on the want list, so these are the ones that will not linger long on your have list. Find them, send them, and profit.

The rest of this content is only visible to ProTrader members.

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expensive cards

ProTrader: Magic doesn’t have to be expensive.

ProTrader

PROTRADER: PucaPicks for 12/1/16

I have to admit, I’m really enjoying this series, as I delve into older and older sets looks for not the most valuable cards, but the cards that are in highest demand (as of this writing).

We are reaching the point at which power isn’t as much of a factor as availability is. Most of these are either printed once on a much smaller scale, or they have been printed several times and this is only one of the several versions available.

My goal remains the same: I want to find the cards that are both worth enough points to warrant picking out of bulk or binders, and also on enough want lists that I can send the card out relatively rapidly. These aren’t all the cards worth picking, these are just the ones easiest to get rid of–a prime consideration of mine at all times.

 

The rest of this content is only visible to ProTrader members.

To learn how ProTrader can benefit YOU, click here to watch our short video.

expensive cards

ProTrader: Magic doesn’t have to be expensive.

Casual Fridays

A Better Gifting Guide

So this week, Wizards came out with their official gift-giving guide for people that play Magic or people that know people who play Magic. It’s nice, right?

Gifts for the new player, the experienced, and everyone on a spectrum between.

However, it’s mostly bunk. It’s either preconstructed and at a rather fixed value (Planechase Anthology and Commander 2016) or it’s some form of booster pack buying. Buying someone boosters is exactly like giving them a stocking full of scratcher tickets, only they won’t feel the same need to sort and store all the losing tickets the way most of us sort and file the chaff that comes into our lives.

Last year, at Father’s Day, there was a single $25 (or so, I’m not certain) pack of Modern Masters 2013 for me from a friend. I had to stop and think about what the pack had cost, what it was likely to contain, and whether I wanted to open it.

While I considered all of this, he got impatient with me and told me to open it. So I did. Hello, $25 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV! Hello foil Mothdust Changeling! Hello, not-valuable-uncommons and commons!

So this week, I want to give you all some buying advice.

Gift #1: Store Credit

Not all local stores do this, and not everyone has a store they can go to. But you should look at it for the Magic player in your life. Maybe they want a draft. Or a sweet foil. Or twenty sodas. Who’s to say? But you’ll be getting them what they want, and that’s the best sort of gift.

Really, that’s the best advice anyone could give. You’re supporting a brick-and-mortar store, you’re enabling in-person, healthy gaming. Whatever they end up spending it on, godspeed.

This also applies to big online sites. Lots of them offer gift certificates, and while you can’t buy drafts with such a gift, you can still enable someone to make their own financial decision, instead of the crapshoot of opening packs.

Gift #2: Etsy

Have you seen the ridiculously sweet things you can buy on Etsy for people who play Magic? I don’t want to link them, for fear of favoritism, but here’s a sampling:

  • Five colors of shotglasses
  • Magic-themed wall art
  • Deck boxes, 60 cards up to a whole Cube
  • Bags/Binders/Carriers
  • Dice (oh that’s a rabbit hole, is custom dice)
  • Apparel
  • And so on!

My point is that rather than try to guess what sort of accessories someone would want, simply enable them to get the ones that they think are amazing.

Gift #3: Time

If you’re someone who has no responsibilities, then this gift won’t apply to you. Me, I appreciate when someone close to me says, “I’ve got the kids tonight. Go draft twice in a row and sprinkle in a Commander game and some trading.”

That’s a gift. Maybe you want to help someone travel to a GP or other big event, and you offer to feed the cat or something. You’re enabling someone to take longer and have an experience–something we remember for a longer time and with greather satisfaction than owning a thing.

Gift #4: Things they hesitate on for some reason

I’m donating to two different Patreon accounts these days. Both have episodic content that I enjoy a lot and I want to support. Took me a long while to come around to that, though. It’s worth the price and it’s a worthwhile goal to support people who make content that I enjoy. Help someone else do the same.

Buy someone a membership at a site that will help them track prices, organize collections, and read great articles from some of the best financial minds in the business. ProTrader is only five bucks a month! What a deal!

 

My goal here is to get you thinking about more than just crass packs. There’s endless things to gift someone, and that doesn’t even take into account things you might make them. But do them, and yourself, a favor: skip Wizards’ promotion of boosters and go after something more functional or personal.