All posts by Ross Lennon

I've been gaming MtG finance since artifacts were brown. Longtime magic player and TO. Loving husband and father. Cube > Commander.
Accumulated Knowledge

PROTRADER: A Game of Crowns, Part I

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Spoilers for Conspiracy 2 have begun, and the early results are… concerning. I enjoyed Conspiracy 1 the few times I found people who were willing to play it, and the new mechanics so far seem to do a good job of addressing the inherent flaws in multiplayer Magic. On the other hand, there is a lot to be really nervous about from a financial perspective. Let’s start with the most obvious issue, one that we actually first broached when EMA was released.

EVERYTHING IN ITS RIGHT PLACE: When Mark Rosewater and company “discovered” the Magic psychographics (Timmy/Tammy, Johnny/Jenny, Spike/…Faye Valentine?), they were used as a means of explaining the various subgroups of players that particular types of cards appealed to. What has happened since then, however, is that we’ve seen a rise in smaller supplementary products which are geared more largely towards alternative types of play. In the big picture, this is a pretty good solution- too many big green idiots in a Standard set (an appeal to Timmy/Tammy) just makes green less playable in Standard. But printing a green Commander deck full of hydras and elves and ramp spells or whatever gives that type of player EXACTLY what they want (and all in one box!), without having to compromise standard for several months.

The system isn’t perfect, however. Some cards don’t fit neatly into one category or the other. Even though things like Lightning Bolt and Bloodbraid Elf look rather tame in Commander, things like Jace, the Mind Sculptor are still good enough to make the team. Additionally, and this is what we talked about with Eternal Masters, WotC wants to make sure that there are cards in these ancillary products for other types of players/formats. That’s where things start to get complicated. It’s easy to put a few splashy and interesting rares or “build-around-me!” uncommons in a normal set and keep people happy. For players who aren’t deeply entrenched in Magic or playing in sanctioned events regularly, it’s often enough to keep them interested. With things like Commander decks, supply-side factors like “making sure we print enough of them” and “maybe don’t make things like True-Name Nemesis anymore” have solved the problems that come with putting Legacy-defining cards in otherwise casual products. Ultimately, Conspiracy is neither of these things.

You need your insulin!
You need your insulin!

Let’s assume that there are three roughly equal markets for a product like Conspiracy: Constructed Magic1 players who want saucy reprints, Commander players who just want new stuff (and different flavors of saucy reprints), and people who play things like Cube or other casual formats. Because WotC can now direct entire product lines (in this case, an entire draftable set) at a subset of players that AREN’T tournament-oriented, they need to include cards that appeal to these other markets as a means of buoying interest among the underserved populations. Plainly, we want to make sure this sells, so some of the cards are not going to be for the people this product is meant for. In the first Conspiracy set, that was made obvious by things like this:

This card is awful in a 4-player game.
This card is awful in a 4-player game.

Only to be followed up by this:

This card is roughly as awful as Stifle (in this context).
This card is roughly as awful as Stifle (in this context).

This(!):

At least this kills a guy?
At least this kills a guy?

And (BREAKING NEWS!) potentially this:

Honestly, this one makes the MOST sense.
Honestly, this one makes the MOST sense.

If all of these spoilers are true, then it’s going to be interesting to see what percentage of rares/mythics are playable in Constructed. Why? Because (and this is not a sleight against casual players) the demand for tournament-level cards is stronger. Not necessarily “higher” (although we can’t know for sure), but you definitely need four REAL copies of Berserk to play Legacy Infect. Because there is no true pull to make sure that there are no proxies or worse versions of a card in your Kitchen Table Commander League, there is no pressure to get them at a time or price outside of your existing comfort level.

SUPPLY: If we can expect the majority of the remaining rares/mythics to be Conspiracy (the alternative play format) centric, then it’s very likely that this set holds a tremendous amount of value in a very narrow percentage of cards. Show and Tell is currently sitting around $65 on SCG, and they sold out of new Berserks at $50. Inquisitions are available around $13 in their previous printings, and Burning Wish is available for about $8. Ignoring foil prices, there are only two cards in the first Conspiracy set above $10. The majority of the rares/mythics in the bottom half of the price spectrum are multiplayer-oriented and essentially unplayable in Legacy. There is still some CNS available in most stores that I pop in to, but it’s largely because there’s not a huge drive towards getting it.

We don’t know the print run size yet, but it’s safe to assume that because this is a smaller market product (aimed at a narrower band of players, is not going to be in mass retailers like Wal-Mart) that it won’t be produced as heavily as Eldritch Moon. I expect a little bit of the product (10% or so) to stay on distributor shelves in case the product sells really well so that it can act as a proverbial carrot to move something less exciting (those new intro planeswalker decks?). A lot of it will get opened by players trying to get a set of Berserks and/or S&Ts, meaning that most of the cards in the set will bottom out right away. I don’t know how many copies of Adriana, Captain of the Guard YOU need, but they will certainly be available. Because things like Berserk are (nearly) impossible to print, expect these marquee cards to not show up again for several years. This is going to buoy the price once printing stops, and they’ll slowly creep back up after that. Also, because all the cards people REALLY want are mythics, don’t expect your local environment to be flooded with them overnight. You’re still going to have to work to finish out your Sneak & Show list.

But hey, cheap birds.
But hey, cheap birds.

Tune in next week for the shocking conclusion of my Conspiracy 2 analysis. That is, if the GOVERNMENT doesn’t get to me first. Or is it just a shadowy cabal of people who work in the government? And who does that alien bounty hunter guy work for? Them, right? You know, the one played by that actor who was essentially TV Schwarzenegger in the 90s? And Alex Krycek died, right? Man, that show was crazy.

The truth is out there,

Ross

1Bearing in mind that this set doesn’t affect Standard at all, and has, currently, one high-profile Modern reprint (at a higher rarity!). Constructed here really just means “Legacy and Vintage”.

Accumulated Knowledge

PROTRADER: PT:EMN Lessons

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So I’m not going to say that the Pro Tour went as planned, because quite frankly I was a little too vague in my expectations (other than me saying that this wouldn’t be Pro Tour: Bant Company, which was both somewhat obvious and correct). The question that we should be asking right now is not necessarily “okay, so the Pro Tour happened, now what do I play?”, rather it’s “how will this information influence the existing environment?”. We’ve talked before about some of the things that make PT weekends aberrant to other weekend-long events, but that information is still going to color the format for the next three months. How do we make sense of it, and more importantly, how do we do so before everyone else?

I want to clarify at the top that I don’t think Bant Company is a bad deck. In fact, it is probably still one of the absolute best decks in the format. In fact, what we’ve seen from PT:EMN (and a little bit at SCG Baltimore, if you knew where to look) suggests that even when Bant Company isn’t performing well, it is having a profound effect on the metagame. What we are seeing in response to Spell Queller is a prioritizing of cards that cost [2] or [5], the latter for its natural “immunity”, and the former for the gained versatility of casting multiple spells a turn. One of the best “answers” at [5] seems to be Tragic Arrogance, a card that may be able to have a final bump in price (it’s less than a dollar currently), although I’m not sure that it would be sustainable. If you have these in your binder, try to leverage them into something equally low in price but with a slightly higher upside (my personal favorite targets are Planar Outburst and Epiphany! at the Drownyard1).

The environment going into the Pro Tour was probably not a stable one, just because weird things like card availability have more of an impact one or two weeks in versus as many months. At the same time, I don’t think that the Pro Tour really solved anything, just because so many people were already aiming to take out Bant Company just as everyone else was noticing it. I genuinely expect Bant to have several more strong showings, just because the deck is proactive rather than reactive, and in tournaments with wide skill levels (Opens, GPs), being the player with a clearly defined plan of attack is going to be an instant source of percentage points. At the same time, the format only had to bend to accommodate it, not warp entirely (as was the case in Affinity-era Standard, where you essentially maindecked as much artifact removal as you could). Looking ahead, I expect Bant to be the deck that always has a presence in a tournament, but doesn’t ever really sweep an event. Most of the Bant decks in a Top 32 will be in that 9-16 range, just because they are always going to have to jockey against one another, and there doesn’t seem to be a true mirror-breaker sideboard strategy.

Collected Company isn't Squadron Hawk, but it does put two into play.
Collected Company isn’t Squadron Hawk, but it does put two into play.

One of the cards that I like coming out of this weekend is Distended Mindbender. DMB (although his fans just say ‘Dave’) works at a really interesting axis, and he has been on my modern workbench for a week or so now. In Standard the opposing clock is slower and there is more diversity in casting costs, so he is theoretically better. It’s also worth mentioning that even though we don’t have things like Eldrazi Temple or Noble Hierarch (which serve as pure accelerants), all of the best three drops in the Eldrazi decks are also in Standard (with [3] being the casting cost where you are able to Emerge on curve as a virtual [4]). My testing so far has indicated that Elder Deep-Fiend may end up being the better option, at least in the more aggressive Eldrazi builds, but I definitely think DMB has the talent to crash… into top tier standard decks. At under $3, these seem like a solid buy. It’s also possible that Emerge is still being “solved”, and that the mechanic gets more popular.

This doesn't make Emerge, it only makes it better.
This doesn’t make Emerge, it only makes it better.

In terms of price movement following the PT, we’ve seen Liliana, the Last Hope begin to level off and begin her descent back to reality, while Emrakul, the Promised End (a card that is precisely as rare as Lili!) sits at under 2/3rds as much. While Liliana almost demands to be played in heavy multiples (partially because she’s so easy to kill off), Emrakul is pretty well spread-out as a 1-2x. Perhaps the best card to pair Emrakul with, Traverse the Ulvenwald2, also saw a considerable bounce, while Den Protector (maybe the best single card to pair with Liliana) is just coasting on her way out of Standard. I still haven’t personally played with Lili yet (and I recommend avoiding buying in still), but all of the people I’ve talked to have had mediocre reviews or worse. Staying in GB, Grim Flayer has had a slight uptick, which ended up preventing what looked to be a slide heading into the PT. I’ve heard mixed results here also, and it sounds like Sylvan Advocate is probably the preferred play at [2] in green. Gisela, the Broken Blade is down about $10 since release, and I think that once she slides to around $8 I’ll buy in. I don’t expect Gisela to see any meaningful play until Collected Company (and the inherent reward for playing creatures that cost three or less) cycles out.

Some off-hand stuff to close: Selfless Spirit seems like it is probably strong enough to stay above average for a rare, but I don’t know how long that translates to “above $6”. Eldritch Evolution seems appealing at around $5, just because it feels like the kind of card that is very close to breakable. Mausoleum Wanderer really seems like a card that’s almost as good as Selfless Spirit, especially if Spirits end up really making it in Modern. If that deck does have legs, Eldritch Moon as a set is going to hold value in 5+ years. In the mean time, standard sets seem to just be cratering in value once they get a few months out, so be very picky in anything you are buying now that isn’t to play with right away. And lastly, Prized Amalgam had a healthy increase off the success of the UB Zombie deck, which I can confirm is very fun to play. We don’t have any serious graveyard hate (a la Tormod’s Crypt) right now, so enjoy filling up your ‘yard while you can.

Best,

Ross

1I never really got into this band.

2The beauty here is that the card serves as virtual copies while not requiring you to actually OWN multiple Emrakuls, while also fudging some of your other numbers. It also reduces the likelihood of actually drawing Emrakul, which is not great.

Accumulated Knowledge

PROTRADER: PT:EMN Odds & Ends

Okay, so the timetable for this weekend is a little… wonky. Because the Pro Tour is being held on the lawless, marsupial-infested island of Australia, coverage is going to be starting Thursday night (in the US), with the constructed rounds happening while many of us are asleep. I’m going to include my brief thoughts on what I suspect we might see, while also touching on a (semi-related) point that may offer more long-term action. Then, if I need to pad my word count, we’ll talk about The Bachelorette or something.

I really wanted this guy to show up at Jordan's final rose ceremony.
I really wanted this guy to show up at Jordan’s final rose ceremony.

PT: EMN: Even though we have had some pretty major changes to set releases and rotations, the timeline for Pro Tour technology has sneakily stayed pretty consistent since the adoption of the SCG Tour. Prior to having SCGLive on screen the day after a set release, there weren’t major Standard events before the Pro Tour. Now, however, we have two weeks worth of decklists to inform our decisions on the weekend ahead- but how reliable is that data? In this particular instance, I would guess that Bant Company will be an influencial archetype on the weekend metagame, but not in the way you might expect.

The spectrum of skill on the Pro Tour has traditionally been pretty wide (although I suspect the new qualifier system will raise the floor), but the top end is always “the best active players in the world”. Those participants at the high end have been working on Standard for a while, and probably “discovered” Spell Queller as early as anyone else. As a result, it is not crazy to suspect that these players have found the best decks for beating things like Bant Company (what I suspect is probably the best Spell Queller deck, just because it makes the best use of its other resources). Furthermore, these players are disincentivized from playing in early events like Opens because the maximum payout is so severely less than at the Pro Tour, while simultaneously giving all the other PT participants valuable information a week early.

All that holding true, it’s safe to say that the best players at the Pro Tour will only be playing a deck like Bant Company if either of the following are correct:

  • Bant Company is literally the best deck in the format to the extent that there are NO other decks. Like, we are talking CawBlade/Ravager Affinity level good. I suspect that this is not true.
  • There is a version of Bant Company that beats all of the other versions AND operates on a significantly different axis that it is able to either ignore or counter the traditional answers to Bant Company. This would be a scenario where it’s “Well, the decks playing [CARDNAME] Bant are performing at X%, while all of the non-[CARDNAME] versions are only performing at Y%!”. I don’t suspect this is the case either, just because Collected Company doesn’t have any other modes, and it’s unlikely that this is a yet-to-be-discovered package of cards that are good in Company decks. The best thing I could come up with on my own would be some number of Force Spike effects as a means of blanking Languish? But that lowers your critical mass of Company creatures, and yeah, I just don’t think this happens.

It’s important to remember that that’s only regarding a very narrow band of the PT participants. There are still going to be people there who are not on world-class teams or have spent a month in a beach house tuning various strategies. There was a sentiment once that you had to be able to beat the Red Deck at a Pro Tour, but only on Day 1- I suspect that the players who would otherwise be playing Red will bring Bant Company this time. The players with the least preparation and connections will play what they deem to be the de facto best deck, since it is proactive and offers a clear and coherent strategy (whether they realize that or not). Then, there is the larger contingent of players in the middle (the “Jimmy Eat World” subset, if you will). These are the players who would be more likely to bring a deck like Bant Company in the first place. Some of them will likely hit on the next level strategy (“what beats Bant?”), but without quality team infrastructure, likely won’t get much higher on the archetype chain than that.

Unless a lot of really famous Magic players have ugly Day 1 Drafts, expect to see a lot of Languish on Day 2. Remember that the “breakout” GB strategy of the last format premiered in the hands of Jon Finkel (a deck that was never quite as good after that weekend, but for Jon it didn’t really have to be).

The only other strategy that I’m keeping my eyes peeled for is some form of Cryptolith Rite.dec. That’s another deck that didn’t show up until PT:SOI, but had much stronger legs going into the rest of the Standard season. The reason I suspect we didn’t see it any yet is that the Rites strategies all require a significant amount of tuning in the deck construction process (especially in the versions with multiple other colors). While most people playing in the Opens didn’t have the time to commit to developing a new Rites deck, people like Matt Nass (the deck’s originator) certainly did. It’s possible that some version of the deck shows up and plays spoiler this weekend, but I suspect that most of what is good against Bant Company is also good against any of the Rite decks.

Look for GB and UB control to be popular on Day 2.

The Left Behind: If I asked you to name the five most expensive cards in Khans of Tarkir, you’d probably settle pretty quickly on the five fetchlands (you’d be correct). Now, assuming we lumped that cycle together as one card, could you name the rest of the top three? The answer stunned me when I saw it. Sorin, Solemn Visitor at ~$6.50, followed by Clever Impersonator at ~$3.25. Beyond Clever Impersonator, every remaining rare or mythic in KTK costs less than $3. In fact, the majority of the rares in the set can be obtained for fewer than 100 Puca Points.

Fate Reforged hasn’t fared much better. The only two cards that clear the $3 mark are Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and Monastery Mentor. Soulfire Grand Master and Tasigur, the Golden Fang (in that order) hover just below $3, while every other rare and mythic are half as much or less.

My immediate thought is that you should look to get your Monastery Mentors right now. Ugin is good in situational spots, but Mentor is a named strategy in Legacy and Vintage. Now that these sets are out of Standard, their pricing models are beginning to resemble Dragon’s Maze- making Mentor the closest corollary to Voice of Resurgence. My second thought is that the heavy supply, matched with a lack of overall larger application, is going to be crushing a lot of card values after rotation. This is a good chance to buy in if you think something has a good shot long term, but know that pretty much anything that doesn’t have a home will crash.

Journey into Nyx actually did pretty well, with 8 cards clearing the $3 threshold (including Godsend?!), and the gods pretty much ended up propping up that entire block. I suspect KTK, Origins, and the Battle for Zendikar block won’t do as well. This really could just be another aspect of the new world we are living in.

UPDATE: So Standard at PT:EMN started around 1am EST. James has a great write-up of what’s happened so far, so make sure you follow him for the rest of the event. Looks like Emrakul is back!

Best,

Ross

Accumulated Knowledge

PROTRADER: Format Review, DTK-EMN Edition

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So I realized two things recently: I didn’t do a set review for EMN; and the world did not end as a result1. When I was finishing up my last piece however, I got an idea for something similar but not quite so well-worn. Welcome to the first ever Format Review!

Okay, so be aware that when I say ‘format’, I mean Standard. The bar for getting into anything larger than that is much more nebulous, to say nothing of financial impacts in more niche situations. Standard is also the format that is going to drive the lion’s share of demand between now and the next format review- unless a card is obviously a multi-format all-star, it usually takes a while for existing lists to figure out what they want to cut. Also, while this article is intended to inform financial decision-making, be aware that it’s not a list of cards to go out and buy. Some of the biggest impacts on a format can made by monetarily inconsequential commons and uncommons. Let’s dive in!

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Spell Queller: Okay, so I’m writing this blurb as the Columbus Open is finishing up, and the results for EMN’s first weekend look about like what I expected. Spell Queller’s presence in the Top 64 was undeniable, featuring 127 of a possible 256 copies. That there were only 12 copies in the Top 8 (albeit 4 in the winner’s circle) is pretty surprising, although the lists that weren’t Bant Company all seem like good decks AGAINST Bant Company. Spell Queller feels like the type of card that will bend decks towards light splashes for the missing color (GW making sure it has just enough U, etc) because Spell Queller is independently powerful.

Here’s how I see it- Spell Queller is the new king of “small ball.” While older, sports-inclined players are often referring metaphorically to this, the term has sort of adopted its own meaning in Magic. If tight, technical deck construction focused on manageable curves and prioritizing things like castability and tempo can be referred to as “small ball”, and it’s theoretical inverse is an EDH deck full of 7 casting cost sorceries and guildgates, then you can see toward which pole Standard players gravitate. In this line of thinking, Spell Queller succeeds at either delaying or blanking entirely anything else in this category. Simultaneously, a 2/3 flier at 3 is certainly respectable, and can therefore play offense AND defense in some situations.

Spell-Queller-Eldritch-Moon-MtG-Art

Since Spell Queller is a rare, there are some concerns with regard to price trajectory. If some combination of Tamiyo, Emrakul, and/or Gisela are long-term players (more on each of these later) can maintain a certain percentage of market share, then EMN is likely to be opened in such quantity that Spell Queller sufficiently saturates the market. If the mythics in this set are ALL terrible (which seems highly unlikely), then this time next year Spell Queller could be pretty pricy (although this is predicated on it being the ONLY good card in the set). I can see the current price of ~$11 going up this week fueled by hype following the Columbus results, but I think the weight of its rarity will ultimately cut that price tag by about half. I’m holding off on getting my personal set until I absolutely need them, although I know that I will undoubtedly be playing a strictly worse deck without them. The possibility of this price maintaining or increasing is based entirely on this card being played at the Pro Tour to such a degree that we see a rare 32 copies in the Top 8. It’s worth mentioning, though, that given the unique demographics of the Pro Tour, this is more likely than at something like an SCG Open.

Collected Company: This was one of the best cards in Standard BEFORE it got access to Spell Queller. I can tell you from personal testing experience that firing off a Collected Company hitting a Spell Queller and a Reflector Mage is one of the best feelings in Magic- and I played Gifts Ungiven in Extended. Unfortunately, Collected Company already has an established place in Modern, so copies aren’t likely to drop dramatically in price, even though the card only has a few months left on the main stage. From the look of things so far though, it’s safe to say Collected Company is going to go out on top.

Incendiary Flow: This is pretty obviously one of those things that isn’t a “must buy”, but it represents a crucial element in evaluating other cards. Every standard environment has a key toughness number, typically either 3 or 4, where that number can be viewed as overall safe. With the printing of Incendiary Flow, we can expect creatures with three toughness to be much less resilient than they were a few short weeks ago. This is perhaps the biggest knock against Gisela (who also gets hit by some of the other popular conditional removal spells, like Ultimate Price). Despite being a sorcery, Flow is quite versatile, being able to target players (and therefore also Planeswalkers), exile creatures like Relentless Dead, AND get recast by Goblin Dark-Dwellers. Expect the inherent value of 4 toughness creatures to increase (although Languish is still a very big deal). This card also makes a timely Dromoka’s Command even more of a blowout, since you can either prevent the damage entirely or scale up a three toughness creature to survive it. Incendiary Flow is also the name of my mixtape.

Emrakul, the Promised End: I’m pretty sure that the is the ceiling in terms of finishers in this format. While Ulamog is probably about as good, I don’t think there is anything higher on the food chain than an Emrakul on the stack. Now, we will see if this card actually gets played (or rather, ‘when’), but not seeing it at all would be a very clear indicator that aggro and/or RDW is pulling an above-average amount of market-share in the format.

Murder: It’s strange that we are getting this card back, because I thought Development had issues with it before. It’s possible that I’m just remembering concerns from whatever M-set limited format that was, but it’s also a potential sign that we will see a lot of pushed artifact creatures on Kaladesh. It also reinforces the control decks being straight UB versus Ubx, by virtue of that BB in the mana cost.

Thalia, Heretical Cathar: This is a card that represents an interesting choke-point for the format, although at this point it is largely theoretical. The worst thing going for Thalia here is her mana cost- 3 is already really crowded, and her functionality is largely dependent on unknown information (what types of lands is your control opponent playing? Is your aggro opponent going to try and be the control in this matchup and just block your creatures?).  I think Thalia’s contributions to this format will take longer to become apparent, just because she breaks the fourth wall in a way that requires you to know the environment you expect to be playing in. Unfortunately, after that she STILL has to compete with Spell Queller, Reflector Mage, Eldrazi Displacer, and more for time on the field.

Nahiri, the Harbinger: It’s possible that this is the time where you want to reload on Nahiri. The reason why this card was so good before is because the numbers are (or at least feel) very raw. It’s as if design and development both signed off on the card without giving it the same kind of due diligence that planeswalkers get since the last time the both slacked off on one (Jace, the Mind Sculptor). The only thing that isn’t above average on her is the mana cost, which is in a very awkward WR (although only costing [4] is a great stat!). White and Red are both supporting colors in decks not running Thalia’s Lieutenant, so it’s very often going to feel like you are trying to hit both of your off-colors to get one of your best cards. If Eldritch Moon makes red good enough to not get laughed out of the room, it’s possible that we see a rise in Nahiri-focused control decks.

Dromoka’s Command: Still one of the best cards in Standard, and a shoe-in for the Abzan Hall of Fame when it retires this fall. It won’t be played in the necessary amount to “make the leap” to Modern, even if it sees occasional use. Start to move your extras.

Cryptolith Rite: I think this is a solid pickup at under $3, just because there will always be that critical mass of small creatures that you can dump out and then cast something insane. I suspect one of the big reveals at the Pro Tour will be some sort of Rite into Decimator of the Provinces deck.

Kolaghan’s Command: Speaking of pickups- this card is really cheap right now. I know it’s also about to rotate, but it has a much wider base in Modern than any of the other commands (besides Atarka’s, which I also love right now). Spend Puca Points on these!

Languish: Still disgusting and holding a lot of people back, while also not having an heir-apparent. The Roger Ailes of Magic cards.

In all seriousness, I’m not sure what replaces this in Standard in the fall. Planar Outburst seems like the best possible option, but that’s also giving up a lot of the remaining equity in black. Every aggressive card gets at least somewhat better this fall, even if the percentage isn’t very appreciable.

From all of this information, we can begin to build a frame of what the overall environment looks like. I expect the hyper-aggressive low casting cost decks to remain relatively swingy in terms of consistency, I expect various midrange strategies to comprise the majority of the format as a whole, and the control decks will be making deck-building concessions in favor of Emrakul in about a month. Let me know if you think I missed anything crucial to the format’s identity, and we will talk about more traditional finance stuff next week.

Best,

Ross

1Actual results pending.