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 this 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 5 – April 11, 2015

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

James Chillcott (@MTGCritic)

BOUGHT

• 5x Eidolon of the Great Revel @ $6 per: Mid to Long
• 3x Deathmist Raptor @ $15 per: Short to Mid
• 1x Japanese Scavenging Ooze @ $6: Mid to Long
• 1x Japanese Wooded Foothills @ $13: Long
• 1x Flooded Strand (KTK) @ $11: Long
• 12x Den Protector @ $1.25 per: Short

Pucatrade SOLD

• 4x Den Protector @ $3.00 ($1.50 cost)
• 1x Blood Moon (Chronicles) @  $21 ($11 cost)
• 1x Sword of War & Peace (New Phyrexia) @ $19 ($7 cost)

Trades

• 1x Dragonlord Ojutai (Out) for 1x Bloodstained Mire + 1x Thunderbreak Regent (In)
• 1x Grove of the Burnwillows (Out) for 3x Stormbreath Dragon
• 2x Haven of the Spirit Dragon (Out) for Dig Through Time + 4x FNM Squadron Hawk (In)

The Den Protectors were an opportunistic play after my early identification of the card as a major force in the early rounds of Standard at Pro Tour Dragons of Tarkir yesterday. The card spiked hard towards $5 from $1.50 and I’ve already managed to flip most of the copies through Pucatrade. The rest of my purchases were just cards on my acquisition list that I snag whenever the opportunity arises.

Most of the rest of my activity was just a few minor value trades, as I am ramping up funds to jump in on some boxes of MM2.

 Guo Heng (@guoheng)

Bought (MTGO)

• 4x Dragonlord Silumgar on MTGO for 4.39 tix per.
• 7x Atarka’s Command. 3x for 2.59 tickets per, 4x for 2.69 per.

Bought (Paper)

• 1x Dragonlord Silumgar for $4.64 from player.

Trades

• Traded 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier (Out) for 1x Dragonlord Silumgar (In)

• 36 packs of Khans of Tarkir (MTGO) at 1.3 tix each.

Travis Allen (@wizardbumpin)

Bought

• 20x See the Unwritten @ $3

“Card is looking good after taking the top slot in the rounds leading to Top 8, and should be good in the fall.”

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. 

By James Chillcott (@MTGCritic)

Top 8 (in order)

1. Ondrej Strasky (GR Unwritten Atarka)
2. Adrian Sullivan (UB Control)
3. Martin Dang (RG Aggro)
4. Jason Chung (UB Control?)
5. Shota Yasooka (UB Control)
6. Marco Cammilluzzi (Abzan Control)
7. Thomas Hendriks (GR Atarka)
8. Andrew Ohischwanger (?)

Heading into the Top 8 the cards to watch are See The Unwritten, Dragonlord Silumgar, Silumgar, The Drifting Death, Whisperwood Elemental, and Dragonlord Atarka as cards that can see further gains if they reach the Finals.

Round 16 (Standard Round 10)

12:30 pm: Seth Manfield (Atarka Abzan) vs. Shota Yasooka (UB Control). Yasooka easily establishes control and takes Game 1. In Game 2 Dragonlord Silumgar steals an important Siege Rhino. Manfield tries get it back with Atarka, but runs up against a Silumgar’s Scorn cast as Counterspell and Yasooka takes over again to put himself into the Top 8 with our 2nd UB Control deck.

Round 15 (Standard Round 9)

11:35 am: Strasky closes out his match putting See the Unwritten into the Top 8 for sure. Expecting a bump on this card toward $5 if he wins with it Sunday.

11:16 am: Eric Froelich (Jeskai Tokens) vs. Adrian Sullivan (U/B Control). I’m really liking Jeskai Ascendancy as a pickup later this summer under $2. Sullivan uses Ugin to clean up Game 1. Froelich has trouble with land flood, allowing Sullivan to take Game 2 and qualify for his first Pro Tour Top 8 in a 20 year career in the game.

Round 14 (Standard Round 8)

11:13 am: Willy Edel breaks down his Sultai whip deck splashing Dragonlord Atarka, a card that seems likely to push up towards $20 exiting this weekend.

10:22 am: Martin Dang (RG Aggro) vs. Ondrej Strasky (Atarka Unwritten). Dang puts the slower deck away in quick order Game 1. Strasky stabilizes in Game 2 with Whisperwood Elemental. Strasky wins the match off of a strong See the Unwritten to put him out of range of the low casting cost aggro deck.

10:18am: Manfield (Abzan Atarka) vs. Andrea Mengucci (Abzan Control): Manfield continues his quest to conquer the Italian players this weekend.

10:10am: Samuel Black (RG Bees) vs. PVD (Esper Dragon Control): This is a key matchup this weekend with the control deck favored. An early Ojutai from Da Rosa is backed up by Silumgar’s Scorn and Silumgar the Drifting Death to dominate Game 1. PVD gets Ojutai and both Silumgars in play in Game 2 to totally destroy Sam Black.

Round 13 (Standard Round 7)

9:53am: Patrick Dickmann on Deck Tech #2 today. Jeskai Dragons!  Anger of the Gods (2), Valorous Stance, Aether Spouts (1) main deck. Leverages Draconic Roar, Silumgar’s Scorn and Haven of the Spirit Dragon with Thunderbreak Regent (4), Dragonlord Ojuatai (3), Icefall Regent (2) and Stormbreath Dragon (1). This is special to me since I built this deck 2 weeks ago and am running it in Standard. Dickmann is undefeated with the deck so far.

9:11am: Seth Manfield (Abzan Atarka) vs Marco Cammilluzzi (Abzan Control): 2 copies of Atarka define the Manfield deck. The card is everywhere this weekend and selling briskly. Elspeth once again doing work on camera here in Game 3. Manfield advances to 10-2-1 winning the match with his unique Abzan build.

9:04 am: Joel Larsson (RG Dragons) vs. Rick Lee (Abzan Aggro). Deathmist Raptor showing up again here, this time in the Abzan Aggro deck. Players head to Game 3 with one game a piece.  Dromoka’s Command doing good work against Larsson in Game 3 and Lee takes the game for the match win.

Round 12 (Standard Round 6) 

8:37 am: Dech Tech: Ondrej Strasky is featuring Atarka Combo (G/R Devotion). Deck starts with the Elvish Mystic, Sylvan Caryatid, Rattleclaw Mystic and Courser of Kruphix.  Mid-range threats include Polukranos, Whisperwood Elemental as 4-ofs, and Surrak, Hunt Caller and Boon Satyr as 2-ofs. See the Unwritten and Dragonlord Atarka as 4-ofs at the top end. Deck is 5-1 so far, and Ondrej is 10-2 so far.

8:15 am: Marco Cammilluzzi (Abzan Control) vs. Andrea Mengucci (Abzan Control): The Italian players take a game each off camera and we join them in a tight Game 3. This game likely to be decided based on who can stick an Ugin to trump any Elspeth, Sun’s Champion that might make it into play.

8:08 am: In Game 2 Cuneo gets down a Dragonlord Ojutai and throws off the danger of a Rending Volley from Cohen using Valorous Stance. Cuneo manages to fend off all further threat with control answers and puts Cohen down with ease and takes the match.

8:01 am: PVD (U/B Control) vs. Makihito Mihara (GB Constellation): PVD steal a Polukranos from Mihara with Dragonlord Silumgar to easily take control of Game 1.

7:46 am: Justin Cohen (Red-Green Bees) vs Andrew Cuneo (White-Blue Control): Cohen’s tech includes the ability to use Roast or Chandra, Pyromaster against his own Hornet Nest to create a pile of early bees. Stormbreath Dragon, Whisperwood Elemental, Courser of Kruphix and Chord of Calling are additional notables. The Cuneo control deck is running many of the usual suspects including a host of counterspells, End Hostilities and Dig Through Time, as well as Secure the Wastes to hold off aggro decks in the early turns. Elspeth, Sun’s Champion is running the game for Cuneo, further proving her continued value in Standard.

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Day 2 Set-Up

Pro Tour Dragons of Tarkir has thus far been everything we could want in a pro level tournament, with a plethora of interesting new decks and a ton of drama. The metagame on Day 1 in Standard has advanced the possibilities for new and renewed strategies including Red/Green Bees, Bant Dragons, Jeskai Ascendancy Combo and Strength of the Fallen Devotion. Here’s our coverage of Day 1 so you can get caught up.

So far the stand out spec has been the run up of multi-purpose Dragons of Tarkir rare Den Protector. which has spiked from $1.50 to $4.00 within the last 24 hours.

Now after 3 rounds of Khans block draft, the stage is set for 5 more rounds of Standard to figure out our Top 8 players and decks.

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.

I’m pretty excited by Zurgo Bellstriker. My first deck was mono-red, and back in those days, Ironclaw Orcs was considered one of the better red creatures for RDW. Don’t believe me? Check out Jon Finkel’s list for Worlds 1998.

Of course, Ironclaw Orcs wouldn’t be remotely playable these days. Zurgo Bellstriker hits a nice balance between power level and nostalgia, which is a great way to call back to now-obsolete-but-still-classic creatures.

I don’t just like Zurgo Bellstriker for the nostalgia factor, though. I actually think this is a powerful card, and it seems like tournament results so far agree with me. And a 2/2 for one will definitely see play in Modern and Legacy, right?

On second thought, it seems like Modern and Legacy Burn decks have all the one-drops they need. Zurgo obviously isn’t going to see play in Commander, and I’m not about to say that Tiny Leaders will have a huge impact on his price, given that we’re still in the early stages of that format.

So it’s a Standard-only card, right?

You’re forgetting about the most important format: and Zurgo is pretty darn good in Cube.

In Modern, Zurgo would have to be better than one of the two one-drops that Burn wants, and he’s just not. In Cube, though, Zurgo only has to be better than the worst card in the color. The fact that Goblin Guide is still the undisputed king of RDW doesn’t matter. What matters is that Zurgo is a pretty nice upgrade over something like Frenzied Goblin.

What Does This Mean Financially?

Maybe nothing! At the time of this writing, copies of Zurgo are $3.47 for non-foils and $8.61 for foils. Realistically, Cube will not drive the price of non-foils much if at all, meaning that cards only playable in Cube generally don’t have a huge non-foil cost.

Let’s take Gideon Jura as an example. This card was bonkers good in Standard, but at five mana, hasn’t really broken in to Modern. It’s also nowhere near as good in a multiplayer format as in one-on-one play, which is probably why I have never seen it cast in Commander (not to say it’s never happened—I just don’t play a ton of EDH).  Given these facts, Gideon is basically at the floor price for a good planeswalker:

But as you can see, the foil prices are about four times those of the non-foil copies, despite the card really having no demand from any established format other than Cube.

I’m not one of them (as I stated pretty emphatically last week), but many Cube owners like to foil out their lists. This means that, much like a Legacy- or Vintage-playable, if a card is good in Cube, the foils of that card are likely to increase sharply compared to their non-foil counterparts. This is especially true because not every player needs a Cube, and those that do have them only need one copy of each card. Foils are significantly rarer than non-foils, and that shows up in Cube demand.

It’s hard to find cards that are only good in Cube. A lot of the non-eternal playables are Commanders staples and vice-versa. Gideon Jura was a pretty good example, but here’s a few others that fit the bill to varying degrees (thanks, in some cases, to being banned in Commander):

Brain Freeze: $1.17 non-foil versus $5.83 foil
Upheaval: $1.99 non-foil versus $17.49 foil
Opposition: $2.76/$3.17 non-foils versus $31.24/$34.89 foils
Braids, Cabal Minion: $3.09 non-foil versus $32.77 foil
Reckless Waif: $0.08 non-foil versus $0.99 foil

You can see that cards deriving demand primarily from Cube (and I think the above apply, but feel free to prove me wrong in the comments) generally have a five- to ten-time multiplier on foil copies.

Granted, cards that are only good in Cube are few and far between, but adding additional demands to a card can only make its price go up. Thus, finding cards playable in Cube plus other formats that have a foil price only about double of the non-foil price may be good opportunities.

Zurgo fits that bill, but don’t buy Zurgo. This card was just released, and unless RDW just completely takes over Standard and stays top-tier, I don’t see it doing anything but going down for some time now. Zurgo foils at $2 compared to $1 non-foils? That’s when it might look like a tempting buy.

Speaking of red one-drops that are good in Cube and basically nowhere else, Firedrinker Satyr non-foils and foils are currently available for $0.79 and $1.81, respectively. I’m more inclined to wait until after rotation, especially since Satyr isn’t exactly a premium one-drop, but this looks like one with potential to at least double up.

Understanding Cube’s Weak Points

If you don’t play Cube, you may not realize what cards Cube players are most aching to see released. If you do know this information, that makes you better prepared to make moves for cards fitting in a particular category.

For example, I’ve talked a lot about red one-drops so far, and for a very good reason. Assuming a cube is supporting aggressive red decks (which I guess means assuming it’s not the Legacy Cube),  you simply can’t have enough good one-drops in your list. The same is true for white, as evidenced by the five-times multiplier between Soldier of the Pantheon‘s price points ($0.75/$3.78).  In the most recent set, Dragon Hunter might be a foil worth keeping an eye out for, although it’s uncommon and already at $2. Still, it’s new and will likely go down, which is why I’m saying keep an eye on it rather than to go buy out the internet.

Most of the two-color combinations are very deep, and most cubes don’t have a ton of slots for two-color cards. In particular, Boros, Izzet, Selesnya, and Azorius cards are going to be hard-pressed to fight their way into cube lists, since these colors already have so many great options.

The two-color pairs with the least depth are Dimir, Orzhov, and Simic. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any new Orzhov or Simic cards in Dragons of Tarkir, but we did get a couple tasty Dimir dishes:

There are a lot of factors that differ between Dragonlord Silumgar and Sower of Temptation, not the least of which are print run and age, but I just can’t help looking at Sower’s $17.44 price tag as a rare (from the pre-mythic era, yes) versus Silumgar’s $7 price point right now. Again, I’m advocating keeping a close eye here, as if this sees no Standard play (and I don’t expect it to see much, if any) it should drop sharply and present real opportunities. The foils are already over $20, which just goes to show the cube owners are already prioritizing the blue-black card to help shore up a weakness in their lists.

Silumgar’s Command received high praise on the Joy of Cubing podcast, but virtually nobody expects it to be a player in Standard or other competitive formats. Foils are already $7.88 compared to the $1.53 of the non-foils, but I expect at least the non-foils to drop below a dollar. Could this be one of those cards that’s only good in Cube? If so, keep an eye on that foil price to see if you can jump in at a reasonable floor.

There are other things that cube owners are always on the lookout for, especially good mana rocks (meaning they cost two or less, or produce more than one mana) and good equipment (few and far between these days). There’s nothing like that in Dragons, but it’s something to be aware of moving forward.

Cube Makes the World Go ‘Round

At least that’s what enthusiasts of the format want you to think.

In reality, Cube is important to MTG finance because it lets us all play awesome cards that aren’t really good in multiplayer or competitive eternal formats (or are so good they’re banned, as is the case with a few of the cards I listed above). Many of these cards were Standard staples in their days, and are thus important to Magic history, but are in danger of being forgotten because nobody’s playing with them.

Besides people collecting for the sake of collecting, who else is going to want a copy of Eureka?  What about Old Man of the Sea? How about just Savannah Lions, which used to be considered overpowered but is now getting close to outclassed in Cube? Once we do reach the point of the Lions no longer being good enough, the card’s only demand will be from collectors and maybe kitchen-table players. That’s kind of sad, right?

Cube doesn’t generally cause huge spikes in non-foils, although it can certainly cause certain foils to get rather expensive. But Cube does keep cards like Upheaval and Opposition relevant, even as they’re banned or outclassed in every other format in which they’re legal. To me, the more relevant cards out there, the easier it is to make money with Magic. And isn’t that why we’re here?

So just like Jason exhorting you to try out Commander, I’m telling you that learning the ins and outs of why Cube is Literally the Best Format Ever™ will help you to better appreciate yet another aspect of Magic finance that can make you money. Happy cubing!

Day 1 Wrap-up: After 5 rounds of Standard, a few things are crystal clear. Firstly, the format has NOT been solved and remains extremely diverse. Secondly, if there’s a new card that is present in a ton of different decks, and often as a 4-of, that card is Deathmist Raptor. I missed this card entirely during preview season, but I’m now thinking it can hit $25-$30 and make buy-in at the current price on sets worthwhile. Den Protector is also making moves today, and to a lesser extent the cards from the ‘Flayer deck, but my money is on Raptor to jump if it makes Top 8 in multiple decks.

Standard Round 5 (Round 8)

12:59pm: PVD (Esper Control) vs. Craig Wescoe (Ojutai Bant)

Wescoe is running an entirely new archtype in Ojutai Bant, with 2 copies of the Dragonlord Ojutai. Also features Haven of the Spirit Dragon, Surrak, the Hunt Caller and Mastery of the Unsee. Um, I’m in love. Wescoe took first game with deck engine running hot. Won 2nd game too. Awesome.

Standard Round 4 (Round 7)

12:35 pm: Den Protector run is real. It’s jumped from $1.50 to $4 already today.

12:18 pm: Metagame for the tournament breaks down as follows:

• Red Aggro: 47 (11.5%)
• Abzan Aggro: 41 (10.0%)
• Red-Green Dragons: 36 (8.8%)
• Blue-Black Control: 32 (7.8%)
• Abzan Control: 28 (6.9%)
• Green-White Devotion: 22 (5.4%)
• Jeskai Aggro: 21 (5.1%)
• Jeskai Tokens: 21 (5.1%)
• Sidisi-Whip: 19 (4.7%)
• Abzan Midrange: 16 (3.9%)
• Green Devotion with Red: 15 (3.7%)

12:15 pm: Narset Transcendent on camera in Valdivias’ Esper Control, facing Ancona (Abzan Control). Dragonlord Ojutai joins the board and Valdivia takes the game.

12:13 pm: Rade plays a Thunderbreak Regent on camera for the first time today. Wook combos off again to put in doubt the possibility that R/G dominates the event.

11:45 am: Olle Rade (!) on Red/Green Dragons vs. Nam Sung Wook on Jeskai Combo. Wook takes Game 1, comboing off from the razors edge of doom.

Standard Round 3 (Round 6)

11:05am: Strength of the Fallen just took down Turtenwald and earned a Deck Tech as a result.

11:01am: Elspeth featuring prominently in the Chapin/Ancona Abzan mirror match as well. Chapin loses on a technicality, dulling the presence of Ajani, Mentor of Heroes on board.

10:55 am: Madden scoops to Elspeth in Game 2, demonstrating amply that the Iron Lady is not done ruling Standard quite yet.

10:47 am: Froelich goes to 6-0 on the back of Jeskai Ascendancy. Why is this busted card still just $2? Could easily be $6 in the fall as new combo pieces appear, though losing Caryatid could hurt at least one build.

10:21 am: Owen Turtenwald (Abzan Control) vs. Steve Madden (Strength Devotion). Madden is running the full 4 copies of Strength of the Fallen. As an uncommon with narrow applications, steer clear of this as a spec, but yeah, this Standard season should go down in MTG history as the best one ever. Chord of Calling just made an appearance pulling out Nylea to win Game 1 for Madden over the former Player of the Year.

Standard Round 2 (Round 5)

10:18 am: 5-0 players include Froelich, Chapin, Floch, Rubin and Sullivan.

9:46 am: Parke puts Torrent Elemental into play in game 2 to complete his presentation of outsider mythics and rares. Den Protector comes out from Parke again to good effect. I’m in for 12 copies at $1.25 in case this goes somewhere as the tournament progresses. (This is not wise behavior btw.) Elspeth pushes through to put Manfield on top for Game 2. This match ended in a draw.

9:31 am: Osooka (sp?) is 2-0 in Standard over Josh McClane with U/B control.

9:26 am: Chapin on Abzan mid-range drops his first game.

9:23 am: Abzan Aggro piloted by Nakumura takes Game 1 from Willy Edel on Whip. Nakumuras’ deck was designed by Brian Kibler, and includes Dromoka’s Command, God’s Willing and Boon Satyr. Edel is also using Sidisi, Undead Vizier in his Whip deck.

9:13 am: Seth Manfield (Atarka Abzan) vs. Jamie Parke (Chromantiflayer). Parkes’ deck notably features Deathmist Raptor, Soulflayer, Pharika, God of Affliction and Chromanticore. Manfield build is mid-range Abzan with Dragonlord Atarka at the top end where Hornet Queen used to reside. Were you expecting a deck with Atarka and Elspeth? Sidisi, Undead Vizier demonstrates synergies with Elspeth, Sun’s Champion in the Abzan control shell.

Parke makes effective use of 2 copies of Den Protector to return Raptor and kill spells to his advantage. Parke then causally throws down a Silumar, the Drifting Death to hold off Elspeth from dominating the board. As a follow up Chromanticore gets bestowed on to Soulflayer to create an absolutely insane multi-talented attacker and take Game 1 from Manfield.

Standard Round 1

8:35 am: Tian fails to go off fast enough in Game 3 and loses to Floch after a very slick play with Bile Blight on Floch’s own Caryatid to clear away the firebreathing tree on Tian’s side of the table.

8:09 am: Makihito Mihara vs. Shaun McLaren: Both players on Abzan control builds. Mihara notably running See the Unwritten. McLaren puts Elspeth back on stage to take control of the game and wins the match 2-0.

8:00 am: Lee Shi Tian vs. Ivan Floch: Tian is on Jeskai Ascendancy Combo. Floch is on Sidisi Whip. Tian combos off like it’s November 2014 to take Game 1 in under 5min. Thoughtseize puts Tian on the back foot in Game 2. Tian running Reviving Melody out of the sideboard but it doesn’t prevent him from failing to go off in Game 2.

7:54 am: Randy Beuhler calls our Zurgo, Dromoka’s Command and Thunderbreak Regent as the DTK money cards most likely to make an impact on the Standard format.

——————————————————————————-

Just two short months after Pro Tour: Fate Reforged and a lively Modern metagame, here we are at the doorstep of another epic battle between top Magic: The Gathering pros from across the globe. Over $250,000 USD is on the line, with the winner taking home a hefty $40,000.

As per usual, the Pro Tour weekends now feature a mix of booster draft (DTK-DTK-FRF) and constructed formats with 3 rounds of draft Friday morning, followed by 5 rounds of Standard starting around 3am EST.

For the MTG Finance community, the big question on all of our minds is whether any new cards from Dragons of Tarkir will break into the spotlight in Standard and push our recent specs into profitability. Will there be a chance to get in on something that shows early promise or will the hype train leave the bandwagon speculators out in the cold without buyers come Monday morning?

Many of the top teams have been in stealth mode for the last couple of weeks, furtively holed up in Belgian castles attempting to break a format open that has stubbornly refused to allow a single deck to dominate for the duration of an amazingly varied season.

Here are some early stories worth paying attention to:

Dance of Decks: Striving for Top 8

Perhaps a dozen decks are in play for possible dominance this weekend including all of the following to greater or lesser degrees:

• G/R Mid-Range Dragons
• U/B or U/W Control
• Bant Heroic
• Mono-Red Aggro
• Mono-Green Devotion/Mastery
• Mono-Blue Devotion
• Abzan Aggro
• Abzan Control
• Sultai Control/Whip
• UWR Tokens
• UR or URw Dragon Control
• WB or Mono-Black Warriors

With Standard starting around early Friday morning EST, the stage is set for first mover advantadge if an unexpected deck jumps out to an early lead in the hands of a reliable pilot. Which deck are you rooting for?

Dragonlord Ojutai: Prince or Pauper?

During the first week of Standard legality for Dragons of Tarkir, Dragonlord Ojutai showed up in a handful of promising control builds, but failed to make the Top 8 at any prominent events. PTDTK may well prove to be his defining moment, either establishing his role as a format defining threat or seeing him sidelined as a Tier 2 curiosity destined for occasional casual play. Most of the smart money that got in around $5 during pre-orders is already selling into the hype, as at $17 or so there isn’t much meat left on the bone. That being said, a great performance here could push this mythic rare into the $20-25 range.

Surrak, the Hunt Caller: Underrated Beatstick?

At the SCG tourney last weekend Surrak, the Hunt Caller was all over the Top 8 as an integral tool to push through damage in the Green/Red mid-range decks that seem poised to claim top spot in the evolving metagame. For those who snapped up copies around $2, a recent move to $5 could be the exit point they need, but if G/R dominates 20-50% of the top 8, there may be room to run up towards $8 for this hot legend.

Thunderbreak Regent: Free to Fly?

Stormbreath Dragon and Thunderbreak Regent are swinging through the skies more and more regularly as the G/R decks test their capacity for ascension in Standard.  Regularly put to work as a 4-of, the Regent is already sky high pricewise as a $12+ rare. I’d steer clear of this guy, but keep in mind that further success makes the DTK Event Deck (which includes Thunderbreak Regent, Surrak, Yasova, Outpost Siege and 2x Rending Volley) a total free roll.

Whisperwood Elemental: Fading Fast?

Peaking near $20 just a few weeks back, this central presence in the Master of the Unseen devotion archetype has fallen back towards $12 as the metagame shifts away from the only deck in the format capable of regularly generating hundreds of life. With another year left in the tank before rotation, a poor showing at this Pro Tour could be a good opportunity to get in on this guy, as his raw power level suggests fresh opportunities may arise to abuse him come the fall.

Stay tuned for Round by Round MTG Finance coverage of Pro Tour Dragons of Tarkir!

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.