Category Archives: Jim Casale

Grinder Finance – The Ages of Magic Supply

Have you ever wondered how some cards, despite their rarity, are so out of line with cards from recent sets of the same rarity?  Some of Modern’s biggest offenders are below.

serum visions no pts

simian spirit guide

smash to smithereens

The Pre-Mythic Age (Mirrodin through Shadowmoor)

These cards are from the earliest stages of Modern’s history.  I would refer to this as the “Pre-Mythic Age.” Mirrodin through Shadowmoor has the lowest print amounts of any Modern-legal Magic cards.  Despite this fact, the absence of Mythic rares means there are generally more rares than you would expect from that set.  This means that even despite Vedelkan Shackles being reprinted as a Mythic in Modern Masters, it is still relatively easy to find.

What happens to these types of cards when they get reprinted?  Well look at Smash to Smithereens.  It was strictly a sideboard card that cost over $5.50 as a common!  What happens when it’s reprinted twice in one calendar year?  Well it’s worth basically nothing.  Despite the fact that Modern Masters 2015 was a very limited print run, more copies of Smash to Smithereens were printed in that set than probably in all of Shadowmoor.

Another issue we have with older cards is they’re just lost.  There are probably people that have 20-30 copies of smash to smithereens in some box they never look in.  If a card goes up gradually over the course of a year (Smash went from ~ $1.50 to $4 in 12 months), people don’t notice it.  This is a reason why sometimes, spikes in price are good.  Quick price corrections cause people to dig up “lost supply” and reintroduce it to the market.  This helps undo some of the damage from a spike if the supply is high enough.

The First Post-Mythic Golden Age (Shards of Alara through Rise of the Eldrazi)

There have been a few sets that are heralded as the start of “Golden Ages” in Magic.  There were a few in particular that brought Magic back from the brink of extinction but usually did not last long.  Rather ironically, the short Golden age periods were during gold themed sets.  Invasion and Ravnica blocks are often pointed as significant to bring players back into the fold.  Finally, we’ve reached a kind of equilibrium that brings players back into the game for good.  Shards of Alara starts this first post-mythic Golden Age.  As players return to the game after a rather unpopular block, much more product is opened than usual.  As you might expect, cards from these sets (which were printed up to 7 years ago) are much easier to find and cost less.  There are still some standouts because the player base has had 7 years to grow!

relic of progenitus

terminate

 

Terminate is a recent example of a card that was obscure but once demand increases it can very quickly out strip supply, even of a common. But still, as you can see, reprinting a card can still end up bringing it out of the stratosphere.  Relic of Progenitus was reprinted at a higher rarity in Modern Masters and yet still lost 60% of it’s value.  Cards from these sets can usually support casual play but strong Modern demand sends them through the roof.

As we get toward the end of this Golden Age, it becomes a lot harder for most commons to keep up large price tags.  Worldwake‘s Dispel has never been more than $0.50 despite it’s popularity.

New Age Design (Scars of Mirrodin through Avacyn Restored)

These two blocks dictate a lot of the trends that would follow into more recent sets.  With Scars of Mirrodin players are now expecting to return to previous planes and get reprints from that block.  Scars of Mirrodin, despite only having 1 reprint at rare or mythic (Mind Slaver), showed that nostalgia fueled sets were coming and reprints could happen.  This was later a cause of the huge suppression of the prices of Zendikar fetch lands.  People now expect to return to old planes and they expect some new and some old of what they know.  These two blocks also prove the theory that later sets are opened much less than fall sets.  There is only 1 common in Scars of Mirrodin worth more than $1 (Ichor Claw Myr), none in Mirrodin Besieged, and 1 in New Phyrexia (Gitaxian Probe).  Once we go to higher rarities, New Phyrexia is by far the most expensive set despite the reprints.  Avacyn Restored similarly beats out Innistrad and Dark Ascension.

The Second Golden Age (Return to Ravnica through Battle for Zendikar)

You know, Mirrodin left a bad taste in some people’s mouths.  It wasn’t received well the first time and the 2nd time it brought together one of the worst marriages in recent standard (Jace, the Mindsculptor, Stoneforge Mystic, Sword of Feast and Famine, and later Batterskull).  But you know what really get’s people’s gears going? Ravnica.  You know what people love? Guilds.  Do you know how much they love them? Enough to explain them in terms of cows.  Return to Ravnica had 10 high profile reprints in the most precious Modern shock lands.  This leads people to bust insane numbers of booster packs for these expensive reprints.  People are a lot more likely to boosters when they know good cards are in them.

So what does this all mean?  Cards that have been reprinted infinity-million times are still worth money.  That is true, there is one other factor to consider, playability.

Graph courtesy of MTGGoldFish - http://www.mtggoldfish.com/format-staples/modern/full/all
Graph courtesy of MTGGoldFish – http://www.mtggoldfish.com/format-staples/modern/full/all

This graph is skewed a bit by Magic Online but should be a good jumping off point to make my point.  Lightning Bolt has been printed 13 times.  13 times and it’s still $2!

lightning bolt

Yeah, some of the printings really don’t count.  The combined number of sleeve playable Alpha, Beta, and promo Lightning Bolts is so small they don’t have an effect on other printing’s prices.  What is notable is Lightning Bolt was a common in both M10 and M11 and an uncommon in Modern Masters 2015 but still commands a $2 price tag.  When 4 copies of a card is played in 42% of decks it doesn’t matter how many times it has been printed as much.  Serum Visions is only present in 21% of decks and commands a price point six times higher despite being half as popular.

But Lightning Bolt can’t be the only card like that, right?

path to exile

 

Path to Exile’s first printing was during Conflux, the first post-mythic golden age.  Since then it has been reprinted in a booster set once (Modern Masters) as well as available in 3 supplementary products and 2 promo printings.  That should be a lot of copies, right?  Path to Exile still commands a $9 price tag.  But we can see from this graph that it didn’t always exist like that.  After it’s reprint in Modern Masters it was available for almost half as much as it costs now.  When cards are reprinted in limited runs, it is imperative you buy in quickly because prices are often suppressed by players worried about a reprint.

With this information I hope you can figure out why a card is expensive.  It might be due to scarcity (Smash to Smithereens), playability (Lightning Bolt), or a combination of both (Serum Visions) and knowing how a reprint will affect it’s price accordingly.

Grinder Finance – The Battle for Zendikar… Expeditions

steam vents big
Steam Vents by Noah Bradley – http://www.noahbradley.com/

So you’ve seen this beauty right?  Noah Bradley (one of my personal favorite artists) has some new lands in the next set… and a half?  This Steam Vents art is being used for the “full” art lands in Zendikar Expeditions.  

What is Zendikar Expeditions?

Let’s start out and dispel anything myths about this set.  I see too much misinformation being passed around.

  • Zendikar Expeditions (henceforth abbreviated as ZE), is a set of 45 cards that is not part of Battle for Zendikar or Oath of the Gatewatch sets but will be found in their booster packs.
  • There you can open 25 of the ZE cards in Battle for Zendikar.  These 25 cards are the 10 shock lands (Steam Vents, Godless Shrine, Overgrown Tomb, etc), the 10 fetch lands (Scalding Tarn, Marsh Flats, Polluted Delta, etc), and the 5 new Battle for Zendikar dual lands.
  • We do not have any confirmation on what the next 20 cards, available in Oath of the Gatewatch, will be.  They may not even be lands.  There is no information available about them outside of the fact that there are 20. (Note: This is incorrect, Matt Tilling in the comments linked the correction – here – They are all lands)
  • The rarity of a ZE card is approximately slightly lower than the rate of opening a foil Mythic rare.  This is very roughly approximately 1 per case (6 boxes) of Battle for Zendikar.
  • ZE cards are NOT legal in Standard.  They ARE legal in limited if you open them in a draft or a sealed pool.
  • ZE cards are not able to be redeemed on Magic Online, but they will be available to be opened.
  • ZE cards will be available throughout the entire print cycle of Battle for Zendikar.  This is unlike the treasures found in original Zendikar packs which were supposedly only available in the first print run.
  • ZE cards will be expensive.

Well now that we got that out of the way, what does that mean for players?  Well, a lot.  It means pre-ordering almost any card in Battle for Zendikar is a losing proposition.  It’s clear people will open obscene amounts of this product and have far more copies of most cards than they will ever need.  It also means that the price of cards from this set will quickly bottom out.  If you read my article a few weeks ago, Grinder Finance – Winter is Coming, you will know how I feel about card prices for the fall set.  Battle for Zendikar is going to continue the tradition of the fall set being the “most opened set of all time” and more because of Zendikar Expeditions.  If people are really hyped to buy cases of product to ensure opening a Zendikar Expedition card then it will drive the price of opened product down.

What’s the plan for this pre-order season?  Well it’s pretty simple.  Don’t buy anything you don’t plan on using in the first week of Battle for Zendikar Standard.  Don’t buy all of the lands.  Don’t buy the sweet new Omnath for your EDH deck.  Don’t buy bulk rares and hope they spike.  There will be cards that go up.  It’s inevitable that some things will spike the weekend of the Pro Tour.  However, the reality is if you can wait until late December, you will find that card prices absolutely plummet.  Right now most websites have the new Battle for Zendikar dual lands pre-ordering for about $40 for a playset.  These duals might be a little stronger than Theros block scry lands, but even the most expensive scry lands were only $8-10 at their peak.  The scry lands that were in Theros were always the least expensive because of the sheer number that were opened.

temple of abandon temple of deceit temple of mystery temple of triumph

 

All of the temples, regardless of how playable they were, exhibited the same dip at the end of December.  You could have saved 30% to 50% on these lands if you waited until their low points to buy them.  In fact, only one of the lands even went up from it’s pre-order price after release.  I expect a similar thing to happen with the Battle for Zendikar dual lands.

new lands

 

There will probably be one that increases a little in price as it is in top decks, but the rest will likely see a steady decrease in price until the new year.

Battle for Zendikar Mythic Rares

Don’t buy them now unless you absolutely need them.  I can’t imagine a world where Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger continues to stay at or above it’s current $20-25 price tag. Look at what happened to Khans of Tarkir mythic rares.

wingmate sarkhan sorin solemn

Pre-order prices were conservative.  Cards were then released.  The mythic rares that got played on the Pro Tour saw a huge spike and then ever since they have just been on a downward spiral.  Do you know what the top 10 most expensive cards are in Khans of Tarkir?  Polluted Delta, Flooded Strand, Wooded Foothills, Bloodstained Mire, Windswept Heath, See the Unwritten, Sorin Solemn Visitor, Dig Through Time, Anafenza the Foremost, and Sarkhan the Dragonspeaker.  You know what’s importantly missing from this list?  Cards that see a ton of play in Standard!  Siege Rhino isn’t even the 11th most expensive card!  Monastery Swiftspear beats out almost every Mythic and Rare in the set because of it’s eternal play.

With Battle for Zendikar looking to be the world heavy weight champion of the “most opened set in Magic history”, I don’t like pre-ordering any of the cards.  Right now, I think it is time to shore up your collection with cards from Magic Origins. 

hangfather jace

With these two cards seeing play in Legacy and Modern, there is likely not going to a reprieve for their price point.  Jace might not see a ton of Standard play but his pack foil is as of this writing, a minimum of $80 on TCG player.  That’s a sign there is strong eternal demand from players who intend to keep him in their deck long term.  I know I called him a sell a few weeks ago, but I did not see him becoming a force in Eternal formats.  Eventually it’s time to tap out and realize that this is clearly not a hype train.  Sustained growth for 2 months is a sign of a card poised to carry a lot of the weight of a set.

Hangarback Walker is the single most underrated card in the set on release.  It’s deceptively flexible and people were too worried about over paying for all of it’s effects.  What’s clear is this is no Chronomaton.  With it showing up in Vintage shops, Legacy Mud, and Modern’s Affinity, it’s hard to point to a reason this won’t be a twenty dollar bill for the foreseeable future.  With people scraping every penny they can find together for Battle for Zendikar, it is safe to say that supply on Magic Origins cards is near it’s peak.  I can’t see a reason to wait to buy in at this point.

languish

After coming down from it’s brief $11 price point, Languish is a card to keep an eye on.  If we see a lot of Allies that have less than 4 toughness, this may quickly find itself a home in many decks.  It also does a pretty decent job cleaning up Hangarback Walker scraps.  I don’t know if it will drop more before the release of Battle for Zendikar but it’s important to keep it on your radar.  If it starts to turn after the first week of post Zendikar SCG opens, you may want to buy in.

Grinder Finance – The Modern Masters Effect

Last week I talked about the seasons of weather and how they affect standard card prices over their life time.  There are a lot of other factors involved with some cards that don’t follow the weather pattern.  I had a lot of feedback asking why I didn’t use more cards.  The truth is it was really difficult to pick another card from Theros that fits the usual price pattern of cards from a fall set.  Some cards, like Thoughtseize and Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver see play in Modern.  Some cards, like Thassa, God of the Sea and Erebos, God of the Dead quickly fell out of favor.  And then the third group of cards, including Elspeth, Sun’s Champion and Hero’s Downfall saw big reprints despite never leaving decklists.  The card that follows Stormbreath Dragon the closest would be Xenagos, the Reveler.  He stayed relevant after his post-rotation high of about $20.  But he still was quickly phased out once people realized the decks he preyed on don’t exist anymore and less costly cards threatened him quickly and often.  While it is hard to truly predict what every card will do, there is a pattern to the rise and fall of most standard relevant cards.

But enough about Standard, let’s talk Modern!  It’s the glamorous format with some of the game’s most powerful creatures and spells and no rotation!  That means if you buy a deck it will always be good in Modern!  Forever!  That’s what no rotation means, right!?  Well not quite.  Your deck may not always be good, and your cards may not always be worth something.  That’s unfortunate nature of the beast that is Modern.  But there are some good patterns to notice that can cause card prices for Modern to quickly spiral out of control.

For this lecture I will need help from the audience.  Any Modern card out there want to volunteer?  No?  Nobody?  Well let me just look through my list of “Biggest misses of Modern Masters 2015″…  Ah yes, how about Serum Visions?  Everyone’s favorite $13 common!

serum visions

Well would you look a those beauts!  No, not these Beauts.  Those beautifully crafted number markers made by my exquisite MSPaint skills.  I decided this time to mark out some important events that influenced the cost of Serum Visions.  As you might notice, there are a lot of peaks followed by a mostly steady price.    The numbers here are important events in the price history of Serum Visions.

 

Event 1:

The date was March 7th, 2014.  It was probably a cool day in Richmond, Virginia.  I don’t know exactly; I wasn’t there.  StarCity Games was hosting Grand Prix Richmond.  This Grand Prix was one of the (if not the) largest Modern Grands Prix ever.  You know what happens when a ton of people gather in 1 place to play Magic?  They buy and sell a ton of cards!  Serum Visions had been on a steady upward trend but it was evident that stores couldn’t keep them in stock.  Boom, StarCity ups their buylist price and purchases Serum Visions from everyone in the X-3 bracket so they can go play other side events.  You can think of StarCity as the bad guy in this situation if you want, but eventually it was going to get there.  The real gritty truth of a buylist price is if it’s not high enough to keep a card in stock then players think it’s worth more than it costs.  We will see that is a common trend for eternal cards.  When supply is low, the best way to get them in stock is to buy them at large events where the card density is high.

You know what else happened at this event?

tarn

 

The spike of blue fetchlands also happened at this event.  You could buylist them to vendors for up to $75.  This overshadows a lot of other cards that also increased in price.  Obviously, we can see that the price point didn’t stick.  Khans of Tarkir fetch lands were announced later that year and eventually the Battle for Zendikar block which lowered consumer confidence in the prices of Zendikar fetch lands.

Event 2:

A lot of players expected Serum Visions to be in Modern Masters 2015.  The anticipation of a reprint can suppress the price of a card almost indefinitely.  It’s like a rubber band that is constantly being pulled back.  If people expect Wizards of the Coast to reprint the card and they don’t it snaps.  When the full spoiler for Modern Masters 2015 was released and didn’t include Serum Visions, people went crazy! Fifth Dawn  was released 11 years ago.  There is just not that many copies of the cards from that set.  Serum Visions, despite being a common, probably has less copies in circulation than Engineered Explosives, Vedalken Shackles, and Crucible of Worlds because they’ve all been reprinted.  Once again, the price stuck and people continued to fill out their blue deck lists with “4x Serum Visions”.

Event 2.5:

I didnt mark this on the graph but you can see it pretty well. The date was June 13th, 2015.  It probably wasn’t cool in Charlotte, North Carolina.  I also was not there, despite my love for the Modern format and my reasonable proximity to Charlotte.  Once again, StarCity games holds an enormous Modern Grand Prix.  As they often do, card prices increased after a weekend of increased buylists.  It was obvious that there was huge increase in the price of the card.  Consumer confidence was high it would not be reprinted.  This coupled with the fact that Modern PPTQ season was about to start caused another buying frenzy.

Event 3:

After a snapback from a brief $20 price point, people realized that it probably wasn’t worth that much.  The FNM promo Serum Visions coupled with the fact that Modern PPTQ season is winding down caused a small decay in the price.  It’s unknown if it will continue to drop through the summer but  I would be mindful of the price after Grand Prix Pittsburgh ( the last Modern Grand Prix of the year).  If it starts to keep a steady price, it’s likely it will stay there until a reprint or big event.

Summary:

Well, we can see here, that unlike Standard cards, the weather does not play a large factor into the price of a card.  Consumer confidence and large events have the biggest impact on card prices.  I would be mindful of GP Charlotte 2016 (May 21-22) and the summer supplementary product.  It’s unclear if we will see Modern Masters 2016 or something more like Conspiracy 2.  According to this annoucnement, Modern PPTQ season is from June 16th until October 9th.  I would recommend looking to finish up your Modern deck during the spoiler season of the 2nd set of the “Tears” Block (which is the un-announced block after Battle for Zendikar).

Although I didn’t go into a lot of detail, if you look at the price graph for Zendikar fetch lands you will see a similar slide as people think it’s going to be reprinted.  It is followed by a huge spike as it is confirmed to not be in Battle for Zendikar.

The Battle for Zendikar

But who wants to talk about spoilers?! I know I do!

omnath

I’m not gonna talk about everything, but this guy looks great! Yeah it’s only a 7 mana 5/5, but it’s got a lot of value going for it.  We will have Explosive Vegetation and Nissa’s Pilgrimage to help ramp out this bad boy.  He combos well with fellow elemental, Whisperwood Elemental.  To top it all off, he’s a great alternative beefy guy to hit off See the Unwritten.  I think Omnath will give Dragonlord Atarka decks another dimension that lines up pretty well against Ugin.  The fact that the original Omnath is a pretty popular character bodes well for his price point.  I don’t know what pre-order prices will look like when the article releases but anything $8 or less seems like a fine time to buy in if you want to play with this guy.

Grinder Finance – Winter is Coming

winter is coming

 

Yes, I realize it’s August.  I know it’s pretty much the middle of summer, and my article’s title makes little sense.  But give me a minute before you close the window to explain.  Winter is coming, and I don’t mean in the Stark way.

Note: Some of things I’m going to talk about are from the point of view of someone living in North America.  These examples may not be accurate to people living in Europe, Asia, and especially in the Southern Hemisphere.

So when people say “Oh yeah it’s Modern season,” what do they really mean?  Well there are two types of “seasons” in Magic.  One season has now become the Preliminary Pro Tour Qualifier (or PPTQ) season.  There have been many versions of the PPTQ seasons but now there is a specific format for each one.  There are 4 PPTQ seasons per year (one for each Pro Tour) and they can only be the constructed format that corresponds to the Pro Tour or Sealed Deck.  What that means is with 3 Standard Pro Tours per year and 1 Modern Pro Tour per year, we get 3 seasons of Standard and 1 season of Modern.  Basically,  it’s almost always Standard season.  Even during the Modern PPTQ season there are plenty of people playing Standard at FNM, Grands Prix, StarCity Games Opens, etc.  For this reason, Standard cards are not affected by the PPTQ Season.

Standard cards however, are susceptible to the changing of the 4 seasons of weather.  Let’s talk about the last year of season to explain how we got to where we are.

Fall / Autumn :

Theros

This is the season where the typical large Fall set is released.  Depending on the day of the week, most of these sets release in late September or early October (Magic products always release on a Friday).  In the previous rotation cycle, this is set entering Standard kicks an entire year of Magic out of Standard.  With the release of Theros, Innistrad block and M13 both rotated out.  The cards from this set are usually very powerful in order to shake up a lame duck standard format.  Typically cards from this set are also under very volatile conditions the first month as people figure out the “new” Standard.  This is generally a poor time to buy cards because prices are high due to lack of supply.

Winter:

Born of the Gods

The winter set was the middle set of a 3 set block but now will be the last set in 2  set block.  Born of the Gods, like many middle sets, was a small set that is supposed to greatly impact standard.  Unfortunately this time Born of the Gods was unable to be the big shakeup set that some middle sets, like Gatecrash, can be.  Currently there are only 2 cards in the set worth over $5 and this was true for most of it’s lifetime.  This set is usually released in early February.  It is critically timed right after the holiday break when most people will return to playing Magic.

Spring:

Journey into Nyx

The final set of 3 set blocks is released in the Spring.  It allows for the “final piece” of many decks to be assembled and become dominant.  Cards from this set have to push some boundaries to make a splash in an otherwise established format.  When this set is released, Standard’s card pool is almost at it’s largest.  It makes it a lot harder for cards to break into the spotlight.  In Journey into Nyx, Constellation was saved for this set to hopefully revitalize the enchantment theme.  It was not very successful but recent emergence of Starfield of Nyx and Herald of the Pantheon have completed the deck as Wizards may have initially wanted it.

Summer:

m15

All Magic blocks culminate into Summer Slam… Or maybe that’s wrestling.  I always get those two mixed up because they’re so alike…  Anyway, the summer set is usually released in July.  It usually has pretty poor sales compared to Fall sets and card scarcity is usually a big issue.  This set is not opened as much because a lot of people go on vacation or (in the case of college students) are out of school for the summer.

 

Now what does that all mean for a card?  Let’s take a look at Stormbreath Dragon for a historical analysis of how the seasons affect a card price.

Click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge

Stormbreath Dragon was released in October of 2013 in the fall set, Theros.  We can see it starts at pre-order price about $20.  Many people compared it to the much loved Thundermaw Hellkite but still many were skeptical of it’s smaller stats.  Then within a few weeks, peopled played with the card and realized it was insanely good! Boom, over night basically it was a $40 card.  That’s typical of popular fall set mythic rares.  And then afterwards, we see the slow decline into winter.  The peaks and valleys of this price graph is typical of cards from the fall set because of the seasons.  People play a lot less Magic during the month of December.  Wizards of the Coast Organized Play events go on break for usually the entire month of December and people frequently go home to visit family for the holidays.  This is by far the best time to buy into the fall set.  The best time to buy Battle for Zendikar will likely be during December and January.  Why?  Well because right after this dip back into reality, there is usually a spike around February after the 2nd set of the block is released.  Some decks become revitalized with new cards and people are excited to return to what they used at the beginning of the last set release.  Stormbreath Dragon again climbs up for a few months.

The second best time to buy the fall Standard-legal cards is the summer following it’s release.  This used to be the time for much maligned Core set releases.  Prices dip once again because some people want to go to the beach or do stuff outside.  Personally, I don’t know why anyone would want to go out into the sun and ruin their perfect pale complexion, but to each their own I suppose!  Summer is also another break for students.

The next peak for Stormbreath Dragon is… in the fall again?  Yep, traditionally rotation occurs with the new fall set.  This means anything that was keeping a card down from the previous block rotates out and it’s a brand new format!  The thing that really shakes up at rotation is how many cards are leaving and entering.  With the release of Khans of Tarkir in the fall of 2014, 269 new cards were entering the format.  The rotation of Return to Ravnica block and Magic 2014 removed 928 cards from the format!  Players are often not prepared for this amount of churn.  It’s been a while since anyone has drafted the previous years’ sets and people are excited to open new cards.  This causes the single prices for the previous block to increase due to no increased supply but greatly increased demand.

And then as soon as it happens, it’s winter again.  December and January see large drops in card prices across the board. This year was a little weird because two set releases were a little sooner than usual.  Fate Reforged was released almost two weeks earlier than usual (January 23rd vs Born of the Gods, which was released on February 7th).  Dragons of Tarkir was released a MONTH earlier than Journey into Nyx (March 27th vs May 2nd).  This was change was to accommodate the much-anticipated Modern Masters 2015 (released May 22nd).  The last hurrah for Stormbreath Dragon was a little later than usual because Dragons of Tarkir, as the name might imply, has many synergies with Dragons.

Side note: Dragon’s Maze continues to be one of the biggest disappointments because you can’t name a set “Dragon” and have none in it.

Notice how the last hurrah ended in May?  With the release of Modern Masters 2015, many people decided they were done with Theros block cards.  Grand Prix Las Vegas was largely responsible for the huge sell off of Theros block staples that cause the sharp decline in the Dragon’s Price.  From here on out we can see what lame duck cards do until the end of the format.  Stormbreath Dragon will be a great card for many years to come and pretty difficult to reprint due to Monstrosity.  If you were waiting to grab these for EDH your prime time is closing in.

Now for the feedback part of this article.  How do you like the structure? Would you like to see how seasons affect cards from the Winter, Spring, and Summer sets?  My next article will explain how play seasons affect Modern card prices.