Category Archives: Danny Brown

Danny Brown, ProTrader

PROTRADER: Battle for Zendikar Set Review – Blue

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MTGPrice’s Travis Allen and Sigmund Ausfresser have both covered very well the common-sense idea that the Expeditions lands included in the rare Battle for Zendikar pack will lower prices, both by increasing the number of packs opened by gambling-minded players and adding pricey top-end cards that will put downward pressure on everything else in the set. I agree with their assessments, but you’ve already read all about those factors, so I’m not going to continue to harp on it. Cards in this set will be worth less than they would be should the Expeditions lands not exist. We get it.

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ProTrader: Magic doesn’t have to be expensive.

Danny Brown, ProTrader

PROTRADER: Rotation Picks for the Cheap-Ass Casual Player

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I don’t make any secret of my disdain for spending more than I have to for Magic cards. Immediate tournament needs aside, I am more than happy to wait a year or two to acquire a copy of a card for my cube or Commander deck if it will save me a few bucks.

cheapass

 

With everyone’s attention focused on Battle for Zendikar and Theros block prices at all-time lows, now is the time for casual-format acquisitions we’ve been putting off in the face of not-quite-bottomed-out prices. We’ll be touching mostly on Theros block today, but a few other cards and sets will get a call out, as well.

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expensive cards

ProTrader: Magic doesn’t have to be expensive.

Danny Brown, ProTrader

PROTRADER: The Mythics of Dragons of Tarkir

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After hitting Khans of Tarkir and Fate Reforged in the last two weeks, we have inevitably arrived here. There are a few reasons why Dragons of Tarkir looks like the shortest in supply of the three sets in this block. Let me explain.

No, there is too much. Let me sum up: in a world where the same number of drafts fired every day of a set’s life cycle, there would be the same amount of Fate Reforged and Dragons of Tarkir in existence, each with about 40 percent of what exists for Khans of Tarkir. In our world, though, Modern Masters 2015 was released while we were still in the honeymoon phase with Dragons. The cards are in the shortest supply of the block, which means buying in cheap could result in the largest percentage gains of the cards discussed in this series.

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expensive cards

ProTrader: Magic doesn’t have to be expensive.

Danny Brown, ProTrader

PROTRADER: The Mythics of Fate Reforged

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Last week, we went over the mythics of Khans of Tarkir. With depressed prices due to peak supply and fetches driving everything else in the set down, mythics are great, low-risk investments that have the potential to see exponential growth due their relatively short supply.

Although Fate Reforged and Dragons of Tarkir lack the downward pressure of fetch lands (apart from the rare FRF pack), they are both also at peak supply. Also keep in mind the huge effect that Draft has on card supply. Assuming equal number of drafts fired from last fall to now (which is almost certainly not accurate, but let’s roll with it), we have roughly this proportion of each of the sets in this block:

  • Khans of Tarkir: 55% (3x drafted in the fall, 2x drafted in the winter)
  • Fate Reforged: 22% (1x drafted in the winter, 1x drafted in the spring)
  • Dragons of Tarkir: 22% (2x drafted in the spring)

For context, that means that if one million Siege Rhinos were opened in drafts, there would only be 400,000 Tasigurs. And since Tasigur is a rare and mythics appear at a rate of one-in-eight, there would only be 50,000 mythics from FRK or DTK, compared to 125,000 of each mythics from KTK. Keep in mind that these numbers are all purely hypothetical—Wizards does not provide sales data to us plebs—but using these rough proportions can show you just how stark the difference in supply is from a fall-set rare compared to a spring-set mythic: in this case, a ration of 20 to one.

With all this in mind, let’s take a look at the mythics from Fate Reforged today. We’ll hit Dragons of Tarkir next week for you completionists out there.

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expensive cards

ProTrader: Magic doesn’t have to be expensive.