The stage is set for an epic Top 8 bound to be remembered fondly both for the innovative deck lists and the quality of the talent.

Coming out of the Swiss rounds, here is where our Top 8 competitors ended up:

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

Based on those results, here’s our Top 8 bracket:

• Hendricks (GR Atarka) vs. Sullivan (UB Control)
• Dang (RG Aggro) vs. Cammilluzzi (Abzan Control)
• Strasky (Atakra Unwritten) vs Ohischwanger (Esper Dragon Control)
• Shota  (UB Dragon Control) vs. Jason Chung (RG Dragons)

Here’s a list of notable cards that made Top 8 this weekend with the number of copies on display:

• Whisperwood Elemental 8
• Xenagos the Reveler 8
• Goblin Rabblemaster 8
• Dig Through Time 8
• Nissa Worldwaker 7
• Dragonlord Atarka 7
• Ugin, Spirit Dragon 5
• Surrak, Caller of the Hunt 5
• Dragonlord Silumgar 4
• See the Unwritten 4

To summarize, the potential MTGFinance implications of this Top 8 as follows:

• If UB Control wins and it has dragons in it, expect Dragonlord Silumgar, Silumgar, the Drifting Death, Perilous Vault and/or Dig Through Time to potentially gain some ground.
• If Strasky manages to make Top 2, it would seem inevitable that See the Unwritten will dodge a price spike, especially given that the Eldrazi are inbound this fall to make the card even more alluring.
• If Hendricks pulls off a kill with Shaman of the Forgotten Way against Sullivan, look for that card to add some value.
• Dang and Hendricks are running a combined eight copies of Goblin Rabblemaster, so their success could lead to some renewed interest there. The Dang decks runs three copies of Zurgo, Bellstriker, so that could be a thing, and Atarka’s Command should gain $1-3 if Dang gets to the finals.
• Hendricks and Strasky are both running the full four copies of Whisperwood Elemental, so expect a boost if the card proves out to have enough power to win a major tournament in a completely different deck than in prior appearances.

 Hendricks (GR Atarka) vs. Sullivan (UB Control)

Game 1: Under pressure and facing multiple threats, Sullivan gets off a key Crux of Fate to clear the deck in the mid-game. Whisperwood Elemental is countered on the next turn, and Sullivan starts in with a flurry of card draw spells to get back into control of the game. A main deck Ashiok starts claiming green creatures off the top of Hendricks deck and puts things away within a few more turns.

Game 2: Sullivan hastily mulligans a terrible hand. His next hand is 5 lands and a Silence the Believers, putting him on the back foot. Hendricks curves out nicely into Mystic, Caryatid and Courser into Genesis Hydra to get another Caryatid onto the table and starts generating constant pressure in the form of a steady stream of Coursers, Xenagos and a back pocket Nissa, Worldwaker. Sullivan tries to bluff an Aetherspouts to fend off a lethal attack, and does indeed manage to buy a turn to find a better answer. The top deck is a Perilous Vault, and without enough mana to play and activate it, Sullivan is forced to use a Silence the Believers with Strive to hold on through a 2nd turn of bluffing Aetherspouts. The next turn however only gives him an Ashiok and Hendriks takes Game 2 with a large attack force on the next turn.

Game 3: Hendriks decides to keep a hand with just a land and a Mystic, but draws land off the top to stay on pace. Hendriks runs out a Whisperwood Elemental on Turn 4, which catches an Hero’s Downfall immediately. Sullivan plays Thoughtseize on the next turn gaining valuable hand information and getting rid of Reclamation Sage to ensure his future Vaults do good work. A 2nd Whisperwood for Hendriks catches a Dissolve, and on the next turn cycle Hendriks offers a Course of Kruphix as counter/kill bait. It too catches a Dissolve with Sullivan sitting on Disdainful Stroke, Dragonlord’s Perogative and a Vault. A Dig Through Time puts Sullivan into the driver’s seat as he allows a Xenagos to resolve, only to follow it up with Perilous Vault on his turn. Sensing his doom, Hendriks casts a Genesis Hydra for 9 and puts Nissa, Worldwaker into play in order to ensure a Nissa generated land will be left behind after a Vault activation to clear the board. Sullivan bites and clears the board, aiming to Aetherspouts the 4/4 land a turn later as needed. A Stroke handles a top decked Xenagos, and Aetherspouts does indeed remove the last remaining threat from the GR mage. Perogative once again helps Sullivan take control, and Ugin drops into play to put our first UB player into the Top 4 within a few quick turns.

 Dang (RG Aggro) vs. Cammilluzzi (Abzan Control)

Game 1: Dang leads off with his usual plan of low slung threats, with 3 creatures attacking for 5 on Turn 2. Our Abzan pilot Thoughtseize’s away Dragon Fodder on his second turn, but is down to 4 by Turn 3, and Dang steals the first game despite the presence of a Siege Rhino on curve. This is not the kind of start the UB Control players will want to face off against if Dang pushes through to further rounds!

Game 2: After sideboarding, Dang brings in 9 cards including four copies of Roast in exchange for Wild Slash to handle Siege Rhino and Whisperwood. Marco brings in 10 cards, including Bile Blight, three copies of Drown in Sorrow and three Fleecemane Lion as well as two copies of Duress to get token spells or Atarka’s Command. He boards out Ugin, Vess and Thoughtseize to speed up the deck.

After a fast curve out from Dang, Marco is facing elimination when he finds a land off the top and manages to clear the board with Drown in Sorrow and follow up on his next turn with a Siege Rhino. Dang however top decks Become Immense and kills his opponent in another game that took less than five minutes to play out.

Strasky (Atakra Unwritten) vs Ohischwanger (Esper Dragon Control)

Game 1: Strasky kicks off with an Elvish Mystic to start curving out after a mulligan from both players. Andrew takes Courser of Kruphix with Thoughtseize to slow things down. Strasky then offers up a Surrak, the Hunt Caller. A Foul Tongue Invocation from Andrew forces him to choose between his mana base vs. his only threat. He lets the Mystic die, and exposes himself to further removal. Sure enough a Downfall takes out Surrak and Strasky is left with a Morph and a Mystic, with a Boon Satyr in hand. Smart play with the Satyr on a Rattleclaw takes Andrew to 3, and he plays out Ojutai to attempt to stabilize. Strasky keeps the pressure on by forcing Ojutai to trade with his Mystic, leaving behind Polukranos, Boon Satyr and an Elvish Mystic against an empty board. It all comes down to an Anticipate looking for Crux of Fate, and failing to find it puts Atarka Unwritten up a game.

Game 2: Strasky brings in Nissa, Xenagos and Arbor Colossus. Atarka comes out. For Andrew, he brings in Ashiok and a small pile of singleton removal spells and the fourth copy of Thoughtseize. Strasky draws a great curve. Andrew gets a land heavy hand with very little action and fails to leave up a potentially key Silumgar’s Scorn to answer a Turn 2 Courser of Kruphix on Strasky’s second turn. On Turn 3, Scorn is held up, and Strasky opts to play Rattleclaw Mystic as a morph to avoid losing the turn to a counterspell. Perilous Vault comes out from Andrew, threatening to clear the board on turn five. With the UB mage tapped out Strasky drops Surrak and gets in for ten damage, putting Andrew to 9. The overwhelming board presence draws a Vault activation and Strasky gets to play Polukranos without worrying about it being countered. Ohlschwager uses Ultimate Price to keep the board clean. Strasky follows up with Elvish Mystic and a morph which are met by a Crux of Fate. Strasky declines to walk a Whisperwood Elemental into a potential counter, but drops Boon Satyr in at the end of his opponent’s turn.  He then plays out Surrak, threatening 9 more hasty damage. Surrak catches a Hero’s Downfall, but Satyr gets in as Andrew casts Dig Through Time to try and set up a comeback. On his turn he casts Dragonlord Silumgar, steals the Satyr, and Ondrej is forced to try for Whisperwood into a Scorn. Silumgar and Satyr swing in, and Andrew then counters a responsive Arbor Colossus. Strasky top decks a Nissa at just one life and steals the game out from under his opponent despite tight play from Andrew!

Shota  (UB Dragon Control) vs. Jason Chung (RG Dragons)

Game 1: Chung curves out normally with Heir of the Wilds into Boon Satyr. On turn four, Chung forces Yasooka to choose between countering his Thunderbreak Regent or killing an attacker. Yasooka chooses the counter option, and drops to 11. Facing a potentially hasty Surrak, the Japanese master user Downfall on Satyr to slow things down, and uses Crux of Fate to mop up on his turn. Chung is able to immediately field a Stormbreath Dragon, but Yasooka has another Downfall to stave off more damage, sitting at a perilous three life. Board parity established, Yasooka starts drawing cards and then plays his first threat in Icefall Regent to lock down a Rattleclaw Mystic. Chung draws into Draconic Roar but has no dragon to partner with it for the win. A Boon Satyr trades with the Regent and Shota gets off another DTT taking Silumgar, the Drifting Death and another Silumgar’s Scorn. A new Boon Satyr in the end step draws a Bile Blight and leaves Yasooka with four cards in hand. Scorn takes care of the next Stormbreath Dragon and Yasooka finds time to get Silumgar into play. In top deck mode Chung is hard pressed to table enough threats and Yasooka pulls away with Game 1, using his dragons to finish off his foe.

Game 2: Yasooka is forced to mulligan with one land but gets lucky as Chung fails to open with acclerants, holding 3 red dragons. Silumgar’s Scorn proves it’s mettle yet again, killing of the first Thunderbreak Regent that pops its head up. Bile Blight then cleans up a Boon Satyr but Chung answers with another Regent that is answered by Dragonlord Silumgar briefly before Chung uses Plummet to get his Regent back and swings for the win!

Game 3: Yasooka manages to answer a bevy of early threats only to use Dragonlord Silumgar to steal Xenagos and stabilize fully at ten life. With Chung running low on fresh threats, Shota sets off down the draw-go path, gets a Silumgar, the Drifting Death into play alongside his alternate self, backed up by counterspells and kill spells aplenty. Much to the dismay of the Kiwis, Chung falls to a masterful play pattern by Yasooka.

Quaterfinal Wrap Up

We’re down to the following decks: UB Dragon Control, RG Aggro, UB Control and Atarka Unwritten. For finance purposes we should now be laser focused on potential price movement on Dragonlord Silumgar, Dragonlord Atarka, Zurgo and Atarka’s Command. It’s also possible that camera time for Silumgar’s Scorn could move it into the $1-2 range from $.50.

Semifinals

Shota vs. Strasky

UB  Dragons in the hands of Shota takes down Strasky to tear down the dream for See the Unwritten and Dragonlord Atarka just one round too soon. Again Dragonlord Silumgar has featured prominently and I’d be surprised for the card to not hit at least $8-10 despite only being a 1-2 of in most of the UB decks this weekend.

Finals: Dang vs. Yasooka 

Game 1: The RG Aggro deck takes another Game 1 super quickly as Shota mulliganed hard and nearly caught a game loss because he had forgotten to de-sideboard after his last match. My eye turns to Atarka’s Command and

Game 2: Early Drown in Sorrow from Shota clears the board of red attackers and he follows up with an Icefall Regent and starts swinging. Eidolon of the Great Revel comes down, but Dragonlord Silumgar again shows up to steal it away and punish the red mage harshly and Shota runs away with it. I’m having trouble finding copies of the UB Dragonlord under $9 at this point, up $3 or so since the start of the weekend.

Game 3: Shota has 2 Status Dancer in hand after sideboarding, and is quickly facing down two Monastery Swiftspears. Drown in Sorrow clears the board yet again, but Dang plays out more threats than Shota can handle and takes the game.

Game 4:  On the play Shota mulligans his first hand seeing too few answers to early plays. His next hand is 5 lands and Ultimate Price and Shota is easily in top deck mode. Ultimate Price takes out an early Eidolon, and Shota follows up with Virulent Plague, shutting down a ton of the token related cards in the red deck. Another Eidolon joins Swiftspear and Shota must take 2 more from the Eidolon while using Hero’s Downfall.  Goblin Rabblemaster creates a fresh threat. Shota gets down a morphed Stratus Dancer, which can potentially counter a burn spell. It gets forced into blocking before it can gain more value however, Yasooka is down to lands in hand. Dang uses Atarka’s Command to put it away.

RG Aggro has won Pro Tour Dragons of Tarkir! Take a look at Zurgo, Bellstriker, Eidolon of the Great Revel, Atarka’s Command and Goblin Rabblemaster as potential spiking cards folks!

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.

———————————————————————————

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!