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The Most Expensive Dragons

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By Guo Heng

Today’s article is going to start off by picking up where last week’s article left off before delving into this article’s main topic – the most expensive dragons in Magic’s history – which was inspired by the first segment of this article. I wrote in-depth about Ugin, the Spirit Dragon‘s financial fate last week, and a reader wanted to know more about the future of the Ugin’s Fate alternate art Ugin, which I left out.

Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, by Chris Rahn.
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, by Chris Rahn.

I did not discuss the alternate art Ugin in my analysis last week as the article was already approaching 3,600 words and I thought there would not be too many people interested in reading about the finance of an extremely rare card. After all, how many people out there owns one?  Turns out I was wrong. There were indeed readers interested in the financial fate of the coveted Ugin’s Fate promo alternate art Ugin, which we shall refer to as ‘Blue Ugin’ from now on, as Ugin looks like he was in cahoots with Heisenberg in Chris Rahn’s art.

Let me start by saying that I had the chance to buy Blue Ugin for $50, but I passed it on. I thought $50 was the ceiling for Blue Ugin. Its not even foil, which lowered its collectibility and price in my eyes. I thought Commander players would prefer to run shiny Ugins in their decks (back then, I assumed Ugin’s eternal play demand – foils- would solely come from the Commander crowd).

I was so wrong.

Apparently a card’s scarcity was a more powerful price driver than I had imagined. Blue Ugin shot up all the way to $200 on eBay following Fate Reforged’s prerelease weekend. In retrospect, it was resoundingly obvious: Blue Ugin was a rare combination of an iconic card and extreme scarcity, and players and collectors were willing to pay Tarmogoyf price for it. Blue Ugin has now settled at $180 on StarCityGames, and around $130 to $150 on eBay as of writing.

I guess I overlooked the fact that the supply of Blue Ugins in the world would be capped at the number of Blue Ugins that were opened over the prerelease weekend.

Or is it?

Judge Foil Blue Ugin?

Here comes the wild card in determining the long-term potential of Blue Ugin. In my previous article, I established that the price of Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is unlikely to tank much as he is one of those rare few cards that has appeal in every single format except for Vintage (for now). Check out the article for my explanation and supporting evidence on how I arrived at that conclusion.

Which means the price of Blue Ugins can only go upward from here, assuming the assumption that the last Blue Ugin was opened on Fate Reforged’s prerelease weekend. However, I am beginning to think it may not be so.

To reiterate what I’ve touched on last week, it makes business sense for Wizards to reuse Chris Rahn’s art for another printing of Ugin, but I doubt Wizards would recycle Chris Rahn’s art for a Duel Deck reprint. Wizards are well aware of the secondary market and they do respect the fact that players and collectors paid a hefty sum for their cards (Good guy Wizards).

I am of opinion that the biggest risk to the price of Blue Ugins is a judge foil reprint. I proposed last week that we would most likely see Blue Ugin as a judge foil within the next few years, rather than a widely accessible reprint. Judge foils have always been used as an avenue to release highly sought after Commander and eternal staples in alternate art form and Ugin definitely fits the bill for a Judge foil reprint. Plus I can’t be the only one who thinks Chris Rahn’s art would look absolutely impressive in foil.

What would a judge foil reprint do to Blue Ugin’s price? I think the current non-foil version would definitely lose some of its allure and price. Blue Ugin commands a higher price than set foil Ugin as Blue Ugin is currently the rarer version. A judge foil reprint would eclipse that and it would garner aesthetic points for being in foil. You know, from Metalworker players who want to foil out their Ugins.

How much would the price of Blue Ugin drop? It’s hard to say for sure, but we can make a deduction based on a few assumptions. First off, we know that the supply of non-foil Blue Ugin from Ugin’s Fate packs would remain the same. There will be a small number of new Blue Ugins entering the market from unopened Ugin’s Fate booster packs being opened some time in the future. For the purpose of our deduction, we can consider that very sight bump in supply to be insignificant.

Secondly, we can assume that the supply of Blue Ugin is likely to be lower than that of the set foil Ugin. Fate Reforged is being drafted for half-a-year, and foil sets are being redeemed off Magic Online. Putting those two assumptions together, it is safe to conclude that the price of Blue Ugin would unlikely drop any lower than set foil Ugin, which is currently at $97, even in the scenario where Blue Ugin is reprinted as a judge foil, based on the merit that Blue Ugins are scarcer.

If we do indeed see a Blue Ugin judge foil in the future, we can assume that the non-foil Blue Ugin would still be more expensive than a set foil Ugin, but at a lower margin than the extra $30 – $50 it is currently enjoying. I am confident that the price of set foil Ugins would go on a gradual upward trajectory like that of the foil Eldrazis. Which means by the time we see a Blue Ugin judge foil, a set foil Ugin could be worth $120 – $130 and even if a non-foil Blue Ugin were to be worth a mere $10 – $20 more, Blue Ugins would probably still command a price range of $130 – $150. Which is it’s current price.

If you happen to own a Blue Ugin, I don’t think they will drop in price, even in the scenario of a judge foil reprint, due to Ugin’s long-term appreciation making up for lost value from reprint. However, if the judge foil reprint does not happen, congratulations, you have just bought a piece of Magic history that could very well have no ceiling in the long-run.

Magic history? While writing about the price of Blue Ugin, being a dragon aficionado and collector, I pondered about where Blue Ugin would rank among the most expensive dragons in Magic’s twenty-two year history. Which led me to dig through the price of all the dragons ever printed in Magic.

Here are the seven most expensive dragons in Magic.

7. Nicol Bolas From the Vaults: Dragons Foil, $46.40

Back in the old days.
Back in the old days.

It is slightly ironic that Ugin’s archnemesis, Nicol Bolas follows Ugin on the list of most expensive dragons, although here we see Nicol Bolas in his younger, svelter, pre-planeswalker-spark Elder Dragon body.

Nicol Bolas is the only dragon on this list whose price I am unable to explain. All his other printings, including the Time Spiral foil are not worth much. Nicol Bolas  has been hovering around $50 for years and he is not exactly popular as a commander. Maybe it’s D. Alexander Gregory’s new art in which Bolas was described as one who looks like he works out at the gym after a hard day of charring souls and crushing cities.

6. Scion of the Ur-Dragon Foil, $74.01

It’s the Scion of Err… Dragon.

Scion of the Ur-Dragon has always enjoyed a high foil multiplier, being the sole go-to commander for five-color dragons. Scion foils were hovering around the $30s for years on the back of Commander demand. Foil Scion spiked to $50 at the end of last year in anticipation of the influx of dragons from Dragons of Tarkir and once more to $70 in the middle of March this year.

Scion of Ur-Dragon is pretty insane with the addition of the young versions of the Dragonlords from Fate Reforged that grant your dragons a trigger when they attack. An alpha strike with Ojutai, Soul of Winter and a Scion mimicking Nicol Bolas is good times. Don’t get me started on Atarka, World Render.

5. Foil Scourge of the Throne, $91.97

Scourge of Commander

Scourge of the Throne spiked in early March from $7 to $15 and its foil went from $60 to $90. As with Scion of the Ur-Dragon, Scourge of the Throne’s price was driven solely by Commander demand, explaining its high foil price.

Scourge seems to be designed with Commander in mind. It has a splashy effect that is viable in no other format but Commander, and Scourge allows you to dabble in the politics of Commander games (unlike say, Thundermaw Hellkite who just Hulk smashes an unfortunate opponent).

Conspiracy is a set chock-full of Commander and eternal-playable cards, as is prevalent from the huge foil multiplier the set’s most expensive cards command. While the set’s print run was not limited, it is fading further and further away into the recesses of time. Conspiracy was well received and there are rumors about the possibility of Conspiracy 2 next year.

4. Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind 2006 Champs Foil, $129.99

Wizards have a thing with promos. Players love them, and Wizards loves handing them out as event prizes or participation promos.  Most of the time they are worth little, but they are some the most beautiful cards to see the light of day. Sometimes they are worth quite a little. Occasionally we stumble upon one that is worth a fortune.

The full art foil Champs promo Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind is in the later category.

The most fabulous dragon in Ravnica.
The most fabulous dragon in Ravnica.

Foil full art Niv-Mizzet was given out to the winners of Champs in 2006. It’s easy to see why Niz-Mizzet is worth so much. Todd Lockwood’s art is drop-dead gorgeous, Niv-Mizzet is a fun (or broken) commander, and Niv-Mizzet is one of the coolest dragons in Magic lore.

The only downside is the removal of Niz-Mizzet’s flavor text. The Guildpact version of Niv-Mizzet had one of the coolest flavor text in any Magic card. The one from the From the Vaults: Dragons version is pretty witty too.

3. Blue Ugin, $165.00 – $179.99

Give me all your money, said Ugin.
Give me all your money, said Ugin.

Near-mint copies of Blue Ugin could be found on TCGPlayer from $165 and StarCityGames is doing him for $179.99. eBay listings were closing at $130 – $150 as of writing. I’ve ranked Blue Ugin based on his retail price here as the other dragons were ranked similarly.

2. Zodiac Dragon, $263.99

The only Zodiac that was worth anything. Well, a lot.

Zodiac Dragon comes from the extremely difficult to find Portal Three Kingdoms set which was sold only in the Asian market. Home to inordinately expensive Legacy key pieces like Imperial Recruiter and Imperial Seal, and Commander high-end cards like Ravages of War and Capture of Jingzhou, Portal Three Kingdoms boasts one of the highest total set price among all Magic sets. Zodiac Dragon was one of the 12 Zodiac creature cycle, all of which are worth nought except for Zodiac Dragon.

Zodiac Dragon sees no play in any format, and the dragon’s stats are considered disappointing in this age of Magic. Zodiac Dragon nevertheless commands a price tag higher than that of Tarmogoyf courtesy of being one of the rarest dragons in Magic. And that art. Is the dragon flying or running?

1. Alpha Shivan Dragon, $1599.99

The mintiest of them all.
The mintiest of them all.

I was surprised that the most expensive dragon you could buy was not Zodiac Dragon, but rather a near-mint BGS 9 Alpha Shivan Dragon from StarCityGames.

An Alpha Shivan Dragon is veritable piece of Magic history. It was the first dragon in Magic. It shaped the way red turned out to be in the color pie, as Richard Garfield recalled in booklet found in From the Vaults: Dragons:

The biggest effect of Shivan Dragon on how the Magic game turned out may be that it’s the biggest reason red has flying. Of course, Magic had to have a dragon, and what with the fire and the destruction and the traditional mountain home, it was a shoo-in for red. But it also had to fly, and red was the magic of earth – the least likely element to get airborne. This was wrestled with for a while, and eventually we decided that big fliers in red were okay. But without Shivan Dragon leading the way, perhaps fliers in red would be as rare as direct damage in blue!

And Shivan Dragon was one of the first chase rares in Magic. It was rumoured to be worth as much as a Black Lotus during the early days of Magic ($25). A big portion of the price of the Shivan Dragon above stems from the fact that it is a BGS-graded Alpha card. An near-mint ungraded one is just $999.99, and would still top the table of most expensive dragons in Magic.

The Priceless One

One more thing.

It’s a challenge both to cast, and pronounce the dragon’s name.

Shichifukujin Dragon was not on the most expensive list because it is one of a kind. As in there is only one Shichifukujin Dragon in the world, and as with unique object like these, they are priceless.

Shichifukujin Dragon was created to commemorate the opening of the DCI Tournament Centre in Tokyo and I believe it is still hanging there. Mark Rosewater regaled the story of how Shichifukujin Dragon came into existence in an article written ten years ago. Below is an excerpt from Mark’s article:

To commemorate the opening of the DCI Tournament Center, Wizards was asked if they could design and draw (just as I designed both cards, Chris Rush illustrated both of them – back then he was a full-time Wizards employee) a card called Shichifukujin Dragon. Shichifukujin is the name of the Seven Deities of Good Fortune in Japanese mythology. The card was very symbolic as it was supposed to bring good luck to the DCI Tournament Center. Chris Rush drew a lovely picture. And just as it was about to go off to press, it occurred to someone, “Hmm, perhaps it might be cool to put actual rules text on the card.”

So they came to me. They needed a cool mechanic that matched the name and art. Oh, and I had an hour. As the art had to be a seven-headed dragon, I looked for a mechanic that played into the card’s seven-headedness. That is where I came up with the idea of the seven +1/+1 counters. Somehow seven heads got me thinking of hydras and I came up with the idea that it could grow new heads. But to do so it had to make itself more vulnerable for some duration of time. As I played around with the card I came up with the idea of losing two +1/+1 counters to get three… at the end of the turn. I quickly had the rules text templated (by a trained professional – I know better than to get involved in templating) and handed off the card.

There you go. The most expensive dragons in Magic’s history. If you know of any dragons I’ve missed after painstakingly browsing through every card in Gatherer with ‘dragon’ in its name or text and checking its price, do share with me in the comments below, or catch me on Twitter @theguoheng. Do drop a comment below too, or tweet to me if you just want to share you love of dragons.

 

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MTGFinance: What We’re Buying/Selling This Week (April 26/15)

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By James Chillcott (@MTGCritic)

One of the most common misconceptions about folks involved in MTGFinance is that we are constantly manipulating the market and feeding players misinformation to help fuel achievement of our personal goals.

It recently occurred to us here that though we dole out a good deal of advice, most of you ultimately have very little insight into when we actually put our money where our collective mouths are pointing. As such we’ve decided to run a weekly series simply breaking down what we’ve been buying and selling each week and why. These lists are meant to be both complete and transparent, leaving off only cards we bought without hope of profit, where appropriate. We’ll also try to provide some insight into our thinking behind the specs, and whether we are aiming for a short (<1 month), mid (1-12 month), or long (1 year+) term flip. Here’s what we were up to this week:

Buying Period: April 20 – April 26, 2015

Note: All cards NM unless otherwise noted. All sell prices are net of fees unless noted.

James Chillcott (@MTGCritic)

BOUGHT

SOLD (Pucatrade)

Most of my purchase activity again this week was dedicated to locking down a couple of cases of Modern Masters 2 on pre-order at a very solid price that helps ensure value regardless of the final set list. I moved in a bit on Risen Executioner as a potential answer to point removal and counterspell strategies dominating the Standard metagame, chiefly in the form of Esper Dragons. Executioner, played in a shell with enough Delve or recursion to selectively remove other creatures from the graveyard, has the potential to force through a lot of damage against the relatively ponderous control decks. The card is performing for me in my Abzan Final Form deck so far, so I’m happy to pick up a few sets of a small set mythic at $2.50 that could easily find upside during it’s tenure in the format while enjoying long term casual upside. If the card doesn’t break out soon, I’ll be looking to snag more copies around $2 in early summer. Similarly, Flamewake Phoenix is something I’m working on reinvigorating in a tempo based U/R/w shell using Frost Walker, Stratus Dancer, Ashcloud Phoenix, Rabblemaster, Ojutai and Dromoka to pressure Esper Dragons. $1.25 is a nice price for a good rare with some decent chance at upside. The rest of my paper buys were just opportunistic price snags.

Over on PucaTrade I continue to dump cards I expect are either peaking or likely to decline due to imminent reprint, with an eye to trading up into a $500-1000 card within a month or two of frequent trading.

Jared Yost

Jared says:

“Based on the thoughts I had about Commander 2014 targets, I thought I would pick up Teferi based on casual popularity. Along with Freyalise, he is one of the most desired Commanders from the set. Most players agree that the blue deck is the weakest, and my thinking is that many sealed copies of the deck are probably still sitting on shelves across various stores. This makes picking up the singles from the deck a good play and I found a nice deal on Teferi.

I picked up Retract due to seeing this crazy Modern deck called Cheerios, featuring Retract as one of the combo enablers for the equipment drawing engine that Puresteel Paladin creates. I’m not sure if the deck is powerful enough to rise above the hate of the format but for near bulk rare prices I couldn’t pass it up as a speculation target.”

Travis Allen (@wizardbumpin)

Travis says:

“Retract is in that funky Puresteel deck Gerry Thompson featured. It’s a Darksteel rare, 1 mana, powerful but niche effect, complete price floor currently at $.40 each.”

Danny Brown

BOUGHT (Pucatrade)

SOLD (Pucatrade)
“I missed the boat on See the Unwritten at 300 points, and I believe it jumped as high as 600 points after Battle for Zendikar was announced. Now I’m getting them for an acceptable price of 410 points. 
 
The other three cards are for my cube. The Thirst for Knowledge was not at all near mint, but I chose not to report it because it’s 49 cents. I don’t know if that makes me nice or part of the problem.
 
Of all the shock lands, I’m deepest in Steam Vents (thankfully). Every once in a while, I ship a few out to restock my Pucapoint stores. I’m a little surprised the Tectonic Edge promo isn’t higher, but with a potential reprint in Modern Masters 2015, I figured it couldn’t hurt too much to send it now. I’m pretty much out of Modern now, so I kept the one Deceiver Exarch in my cube and shipped the other three, because again, a reprint at common or uncommon would just kill the nearly $1 price. Finally, I lost value with the Blackcleave Cliffs by putting the stamp and the PucaTrade number on the envelope before noticing that it was a local who wanted the card. I probably could have salvaged the situation, but laziness won out when I could have saved myself the stamp and just met the dude at the LGS. Oh, well. In any case, I got this card for a dollar at Scars rotation, and I’m sick of waiting for it to go higher, so I shipped one out. I can’t imagine it will get a slot in MM15, but anything’s possible, I guess.”
Douglas Johnson (@roseofthorns)

 BOUGHT

  • 13x copies of Daretti, Scrap Savant @ $2.89/per
Douglas says:
“How many Planeswalkers in this game have an average cost of less than $5 and aren’t named Tibalt? Go ahead. Check. Daretti is an extremely powerful Commander in his own right, and fills a unique niche in the mono red Planeswalkers by having an artifact theme. I bought these from Troll and Toad, who also ships singles orders for free that total over $25. Even though this will likely be a long term hold if I’m aiming to sell for anything near $10, I have no doubt that these will be extremely easy to liquidate in my display case or trade out to local casual players for at least $5-6. “

So there you have it. Now what were you guys buying and selling this week and why?

James Chillcott is the CEO of ShelfLife.net, The Future of Collecting, Senior Partner at Advoca, a designer, adventurer, toy fanatic and an avid Magic player and collector since 1994.

ADVERTISEMENT: Get the Cube Starter Bundle with the 3rd Edition Grimoire Deck Box, the brand new Grimoire Deck Box designed specifically for the red mage in you. 

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Tiny Thursdays: Shu Yun’s Tempest

By Guo Heng

Welcome to the first instalment of Tiny Thursdays, a column dedicated to exploring Tiny Leaders decks, with an emphasis on the financial side of the cards used in the deck.

Tiny Leaders is a fledging format. After the Cambrian-like explosion the format experienced early this year, the hype for the Tiny Leaders simmered down. However that does not mean the format was a flash in a pan. While the incredible momentum that propelled the format during the early part of the year died down, the format is still growing.

The Tiny Leaders subreddit and Facebook group today has double the number of subscribers compared to when I first wrote about them. Tiny Leaders even have their own official forum which launched early this month, but it has yet to achieve the activity level found in the subreddit and Facebook group.

More importantly, Tiny Leaders is still driving card prices, with the latest Tiny Leaders-related increase being Blasting Station. Tiny Thursdays aims to the contribute to the growing Tiny Leaders content out there, and explore the format from a financial perspective. This column will feature a Tiny Leaders brew each week and discuss financially relevant cards in the deck.

If there are any decks you would like to see featured, feel free to leave a comment below or catch me at Twitter @theguoheng. This week, we shall start with a leader I’ve always wanted to build around: Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest.

Shu Yun Goes to Value Town

Shu Yun Tempo by Guo Heng
Decklist generated using TappedOut.net

Shu Yun is most often compared to Geist of Saint Traft, one of the undisputed top tier decks in the format, with some arguing that it would be better to just cut the red and go Geist if you are gunning for a highly competitive build. After all, Geist decks are more streamlined and the majority of their card pool overlaps with those used in Shu Yun.

There are two reasons why I gravitated to Shu Yun rather than Geist. First off, having Red gives you more options for efficient removals like Lightning Bolt, Flame Slash, Fire/Ice and Lighting Helix rather than having to lean on enchantment-based removals like Oblivion Ring and Banishing Light to bolster the number of answers in the list.

Board presence king in Tiny Leaders and Red gives you a removal suite that does compromise your tempo, on top of access to much needed sweepers in the sideboard like Anger of the Gods and Pyroclasm to shore up the matchup against swarm decks like Ezuri Elfball, and the increasingly popular Grenzo Goblins.

The other impetus to run tricolor Shu Yun over bicolor Geist of Saint Traft is Dack Fayden. Dack Fayden is probably the best planeswalker you can run in Tiny Leaders due to the ubiquity of Swords in the format.  An unanswered Sword steals games and nothing turns the tide like stealing an opponent’s Sword and bashing him or her with it. From the playtesting I did with Shu Yun, I don’t think I have lost a game in which I stole opposing Swords.

Dack’s +1 was surprisingly useful even though it does not generates card advantage. Dack’s Faithless Looting filters away those late game Mana Leak and unwanted lands. Dack’s only downside is that he is already $27, and I could not list him as one of the pick-up targets in the next segment.

This Shu Yun list was designed based on the same philosophy Modern Jeskai ascribes to, that is to out-tempo and out-value your opponent. The deck switches gears at ease, depending on the matchup and draw and utilizes a suite of cheap, efficient removals to allow you to mount your offensive and control the board at the same time.

Young Pyromancer and Monastery Mentor fortify your board position while you cast answers to control the board, pulling you ahead both in the tempo and card advantage race. Stoneforge Mystic digs you the Sword for the occasion. Mantis Rider is a good tempo creature that plays the role of attacker and defender.

The removal suite consists of the usual Jeskai fare, a.k.a. the best one mana removals in the format. I’ve added a Condemn as an extra one mana answer because I realised that one mana removals were something I always love drawing while I was playtesting the deck. They always trade up and as a tempo deck, it’s exactly what I want. The more expensive removals, Fire/Ice and Electrolyze usually net card advantage. Detention Sphere and Council’s Judgment are necessary evils to answer opposing Swords.

Feel free to trade one-for-one in the early game. We have the ability to refuel with Ancestral Vision and to some extent, Dack Fayden. This build guns for the midrange game, which is why I’ve included Ancestral Visions in the list.

Now that let’s take a look at the cards in the deck that are financially relevant.

The Boss Himself

Shu Yun Price

The graph above depicts Shu Yun’s foil price. I’ve always preferred to invest in foils for cards that are used as commanders or leaders. They tend to generate a larger return and more importantly, buffer better against reprints.

Shu Yun foils at $7.64 denotes a 13.6x multiplier on non-foil copies, which are going for a paltry $0.46, signifying his popularity both as a commander and leader. Shu Yun has been getting a lot of attention as a commander since he was spoiled, and rightfully so. Shu Yun is one of the most fun to build around commanders to come out from recent sets. There are multiple ways to build Shu Yun: you can either go voltron, or thread down the combo route. And Shu Yun is allegedly quite sick in 1v1.

Shu Yun is the only Jeskai leader in Tiny Leaders, which explains his tremendous popularity in the format. Jeskai has always been a competitive color combination in eternal formats and prior to the printing of Shu Yun, Tiny Leaders players have to resort to a generic 2/2 ‘legendary creature with a UWR casting cost’ to play Jeskai.

Does Shu Yun’s popularity in Commander and Tiny Leaders make foil copies a good pick-up? Certainly. Just not right now. For two reasons. First off there is something peculiar going on with Shu Yun’s price.  Shu Yun’s foil buylist price dropped 24% from $3.12 to $2.51 two weeks back. However, two days ago Shu Yun saw his foil price hike as one major vendor increased their price for foil Shu Yun.

Whatever happens, it would be safer to wait until Fate Reforged hits peak supply at the end of May when DTK-DTK-FRF drafts are displaced by Modern Masters 2015.

The Loothouse

Desolate Lightouse Price

Desolate Lighthouse, which also sees play in Modern Scapeshift and Modern Splinter Twin, besides being a good utility land in Commander and Tiny Leaders, is just a $0.54 card. And Desolate Lighthouse would not be reprinted in Modern Masters 2015.

I think non-foil Desolate Lighthouse is a great pick-up at its current price. Foils are at $6.08, which is a whooping 11.2x multiplier from the non-foils. Either the foil is overpriced, or the non-foil is underpriced, and with the Modern and Commander play it is seeing, I am compelled to think that it is the non-foil that is underpriced.

The Catchall

Detention Sphere Price

Detention Sphere is another card in the Shu Yun list above which I think is underpriced. Detention Sphere is also a mainstay in Geist of Saint Traft Tiny Leaders and is a strict upgrade to Oblivion Ring as it catches those pesky tokens on top of everything else. Token strategies are not insignificant in the format. There are spirit tokens from Teysa and Lingering Souls, Grenzo’s goblin tokens, Thopter Foundry tokens, Bitterblossom tokens and the list goes on.

Detention Sphere is a decent buy in at under $1, but I would not go in too deep. It is a popular enchantment in Commander and could well be reprinted in the next Commander set.

That is all for this week’s Tiny Leaders segment. If there are any decks you would like to see featured, let me know in the comments below or beam me at Twitter @theguoheng.

 

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WEEKLY MTGPRICE.COM MOVERS: April 21/15

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By James Chillcott (@MTGCritic)

5 Winners of the Week

With a bunch of the Dragons of Tarkir cards finally taking up their positions as dominant standard cards, we have now officially entered the age of the Elder Dragons. Let’s have a look at what’s up with Magic cards that are moving and shaking this week:

1. Blasting Station (Fifth Dawn, Rare): $2.44 to $3.91 (60%)

Fifth Dawn is certainly an aged set at this point, but the sudden motion on this card is almost certainly related to some Tiny Leaders speculation that is better off ignored. If you have these lying around, feel free to sell or trade into the hype.

Format(s): Casual/Tiny Leaders

Verdict: Sell

2. Icefall Regent (DTK, Rare): $3.00 to $4.75 (58%)

In a format where the metagame is constantly shifting between control, aggro and mid-tier archtypes at the top tables, a relatively cheap threat that can answer Siege Rhino and make removal more costly is proving to be a reasonable 1-2 of in a few different decks. The Esper Dragons build has the most momentum, but Jeskai Dragons, UB Dragons and even some weird Temur builds have been pushing this guy into the red zone lately. This is close to his natural limit as a rare seeing moderate play, so it’s time to unload if you are holding these.

Format(s): Standard

Verdict: Sell

3. Dragonlord Silumgar (DTK, Mythic): $8.75 to $13.04 (49%)

This Elder Dragon sees less play than Dragonlord Atarka, but has the tailwinds from being played in what many feel is the best deck in the format, aka Esper Dragons. At $13-15 I unloaded the copies I got in at around $5 during pre-order season this week, but if the deck stays popular, or the card enjoys a favorable metagame shift in the fall, it’s possible this card pushes past $20 at some point while legal. With the metagame being as unpredictable as it has been, my call was to exit, but you’ll need to decide for yourself what comes next.

Format(s): Standard/Casual/EDH

Verdict: Sell/Trade

4. Dragonlord Atarka (DTK, Mythic): $15.00 to $20.99 (40%)

Having gotten in on this king of the beat down at $6, I was likewise happy to exit around $18 this week, net of fees. That’s a truly great return, and you should be happy to exit in similar fashion even if this card could push $25-30 on steady play into the fall, since you should be able to find better returns on fresh specs around the time of Modern Masters 2 release events.  There is no denying the power of the card and foils are especially tasty as long term holds if you can snag some at good prices during the upcoming summer standard doldrums.

Format(s): Standard/Casual/EDH

Verdict: Sell/Trade

5. Wilt-Leaf Liege (Dragons of Tarkir, Mythic Rare): $23.26 to $27.84 (20%)

I’ve been seeing this card pop up more often in Modern lists lately, especially with Liliana back on the prowl. It’s in some danger of a reprint in Modern Masters 2015, in which case it falls back to $4-5 in a hurry, so I’d be taking profits here if I was holding any.

Format(s): Standard/EDH

Verdict: Hold

3 Top Losers of the Week

1. Shaman of the Great Hunt: $7.28 to $6.48 (-11%)

Originally hyped as a great finisher for RG and Temur brews, this guy has largely fallen off the radar in Standard and his price tag is suffering accordingly. If it falls into the $3-4 range, I may start considering an entry point, but so far I remain unconvinced on his potential for big gains regardless of what happens in the metagame.

Format(s): Standard

Verdict: Sell

2. Tasigur, the Golden Fang: $7.02 to $6.25 (-11%)

Tasigur is close to his natural supply peak, and as a card basically never played as a 4-of, he may have some more room to drop heading into the Modern Masters focused events of early summer. He doesn’t see play in most Esper Dragons builds, nor in RG Dragons or RG Aggro, so his Standard future largely hinges on the prospects for Abzan Control, a deck that is still well positioned against the field. I’ll be all over the card in the $4-5 range, because even if he doesn’t find a $10 price point this fall, he will eventually on Modern and Legacy play as a long term hold. Short term specs are a lot more interesting when you have a solid backup plan. The foils are also under-priced at $25, and I’ll be acquiring additional copies shortly.

Verdict: Hold

3. Sarkhan, Unbroken: $20.16 to $17.99 (-11%)

Temur focused Standard lists abound, but most of them aren’t winning tournaments. As a result, this objectively powerful planeswalker is testing new lows, and could get as far down as $10-12 if he doesn’t put up big results before summer. I like getting out of this card for now, looking to get back in later on when we hit rock bottom.

Verdict: Trade/Sell

James Chillcott is the CEO of ShelfLife.net, The Future of Collecting, Senior Partner at Advoca, a designer, adventurer, toy fanatic and an avid Magic player and collector since 1994.

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