Category Archives: Casual Fridays

Still Trying To Solve The Mysteries

We’ve had some interesting growth in a set of cards that I’ve written about before, and the time has come to revisit this particular edition: the Mystery Booster Retail Edition Foils. We’ve seen some spikes in cards like Intruder Alarm, Minamo, School at Water’s Edge, and Aurelia’s Fury. All of these have gone up for different reasons, different commanders, but the most important detail is that something cheap is now something expensive. 

Aurelia’s Fury spiked due to the interaction with Hinata, Dawn-Crowned. Sure it’s cute, you get to tap every creature on the board and make every opponent unable to cast noncreature spells this turn. Hard to go wrong!

We saw all the versions of Fury go up at the same time, which is excellent news for the long-term appeal of MYB foils. Mystery Booster foils are often underpriced or similarly priced to their regular versions, and these are mythic rarity (1 for every 121 packs) for a set that wasn’t able to get drafted very much. We’re long past the time where there’s a few pallets worth of product waiting to be opened, so let’s dig in and find what’s undervalued in comparison.

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expensive cards ProTrader: Magic doesn’t have to be expensive.

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.

Secret Lair: Single Drop

The Street Fighter Secret Lair has come to an end, and I hope you picked up a few. The IP is good, the value will be there, these are sweet cards, and now that we’re getting reprints of the Universes Beyond in The List, I’m all aboard new cards.

One thing I’ve been noticing about Secret Lairs is how the singles are acting. Especially right after people get their drops, they are in a huge hurry to crack it and sell those individual pieces of cardboard. My guess is that there’s two groups doing the early selling: speculators who are trying to get their 20-30% gains locked in and move on, and then the people who wanted just some of the Secret Lair cards and are selling off the rest.

As a result, there’s some Secret Lair cards with impressive singles prices, especially when compared to the set prices. Part of this is that the bonus cards are often in high demand, like the Hadouken Lightning Bolt or the mirror-image Viscera Seer. They’ve added a chase/gamble aspect to these drops, and those cards can soak up some of the value. Let’s talk about some Secret Lair singles we can buy for a great price and get some value.

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.

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.

What We Can Learn From Bad Purchases

I’ve been playing the finance side of Magic for a long time now, and while I’ve had my share of big hits, I’m also someone with a spec box full of misses.

There’s lessons in these misses, though, and for most of them, it’s not bad luck, it’s bad timing. I can’t do anything about unexpected reprints or bannings, but I do have power over when I buy in on a card. Today’s lesson is about good picks made at bad times, and what can be done to prevent doing that, plus how to adjust if you’ve done it.

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.

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.

Kaldheim Callbacks

With six months to go until rotation, I want to think about sets that are going to rotate, and which cards I want to get now or get later. I’m looking for the right intersection of Commander use, declining Standard usage, and current prices vs. where the prices will be. 

I’m not going to focus on which edition I want to buy right now, but there will be a case to be made for any of the versions involved. For Commander-focused cards, the more ornate or shinier versions are good, but there’s also profit to be made in snagging the cheapest version and selling it after the right increase. Let’s dive in!

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.

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.