Fate Reforged continues to make its’ presence felt across Standard, Modern and even Legacy this week, with plenty of hits and misses arising from the latest set. Standard is awash with new and innovative deck ideas, resulting in plenty of card movement, and new format Tiny Leaders is also riding a hype wave, generating a handful of significant price spikes. Here’s the down low on the major price shifts in the world of paper Magic: The Gathering this week.
There are few things more fun in the world of Magic: The Gathering than having a jank rare come out of nowhere late in the Standard season as the centerpiece in a brand new combo deck. If you haven’t heard, the deck is mono-green, leveraging Nykthos, Karametra’s Acolyte and Voyaging Satyr to generate infinite mana with Temur Sabertooth. Basically you need to be able to generate 1 more mana with whatever you’re tapping, bouncing and replaying than it’s costing you to bounce (1G) and play it (1G-3G). Temur Ascendancy gives the mana dork haste, enabling the whole combo, along with providing random cards off your big guys when you need to dig to go off. As a bulk rare, there is some upside still be to be had here if the deck continues to do well, but unlike Jeskai Ascendancy it isn’t likely to find a home in other decks, and it would be hard pressed to break $3 as a previously unloved and heavily opened rare. That being said, there may be locals who aren’t turned on to the card and will throw some into trades to add value to your trade binder.
Format(s): Standard
Verdict: Acquire in Trades
2. Valorous Stance (Fate Reforged, Uncommon): $0.89 to $1.39 (+56%)
Many pros are saying that this flexible spell is the most important card in Fate Reforged for Standard purposes. That gives it an outside chance of achieving Stoke the Flames status as an overpriced uncommon from a small set, especially given the easy casting cost and plethora of decks in the format with access to a single white mana and the need to kill big guys and protect their own threats. It’s more likely that we see this settle around $2, but heading into the fall, I could see it boosting again because of the relatively scarcity of Fate Reforged (driven by the short period before the appearance of Dragons of Tarkir and then Modern Masters 2). I like this one as a throw-in target, but I won’t be buying any for now.
Format(s): Standard
Verdict: Acquire in Trades
3. Yavimaya Coast (10th Edition, Rare): $4.72 to $6.03 (+28%)
With Sultai control/mid-range builds looking like the deck to beat in post-Fate Reforged Standard, plenty of players are looking to pick up lands that work in the deck. You should be selling or trading into this pricing, along with Shivan Reef, as the fall rotation of M15 will send painlands crashing back to $1-2.
In mid-December during the usual fall set price lulls, I was picking up copies of Anafenza around $2 in the hopes of long range Modern play and possible Tiny Leaders play. Both of these scenarios have become real, and sooner than expected, and this goat loving mythic dame is also looking pretty useful in Abzan decks increasingly interested in reducing graveyard card counts to hamper opponents delve strategies. Foils especially are on the rise, with a cresting wave of Tiny Leaders hype over the last 2 weeks, and I think you want to be snapping up any copies you can find locally at last week’s prices wherever possible and looking for options to cash out at $5-10+/copy, or just hold for mid-term gains. Non-foils may have a couple of dollars left in them, but if you got in around Nov/Dec, you may just want to out them and move into something overlooked for Tiny Leaders or Modern play.
Format: Standard/Modern/Tiny Leaders
Verdict: Sell/Trade (Buy/Trade For Foils At Lagging Prices)
I’m sitting on about 60 copies of this powerful mana generator so I’m always happy to see it’s prospects rise, even if they’re unlikely to impact the long term game I’m playing. In Standard, the increased interest is sourced from the sudden feasibility of both Red and Green devotion strategies, based on new cards in Fate Reforged that help get more mana symbols on the table in a hurry. Even so, both of those decks will need to put up results for this card to break $5-6, and I’m much more interested in continuing to acquire for a future $10+ sell point 2-3 years down the road, when the supply has dried up. There’s always the possibility of a reprint on this card, but it isn’t easily slapped into most supplemental products and won’t find a home in any main set releases for several years yet, so I like the odds that this finds a peak before a post-rotation trough.
Zirilian of the Claw searches Dragons out of your library for 5-mana, an effect that is only ever going to see play at kitchen tables by Dragon-happy EDH players and little kids. Given that we’re headed into a heavily hyped set called Dragons of Tarkir however, it was perhaps inevitable that someone would try to spike this card by buying out the limited supply across the Internet. At the time of this writing there are a mere 9 copies left on TCGPlayer, with prices ranging from $10 to $18. This card going to $6 would have been reasonable on casual demand, but this price is bonkers, so dig up any copies you have in your bulk box and out them immediately to buylists or via Ebay/TCG to reap the rewards from the hype train, that is, assuming there are even buyers to milk.
Time Walk sounds so sexy. In fact, some folks thought it sounded so sexy they were pre-ordering this card over $20. This is a sad time for those people, because the consensus is that this card is as unplayable as the last few similar cards. I fully expect this to show up in a Woo Brew in a few years, but until then, you should be dropping these like they’re hot.
He’s not as good as we hoped, now get over it. Though he is seeing some play in Abzan decks, he’s not greatly improving those decks, they aren’t expanding in the format, and I fully expect this card to hit $3-4 within the month. Get out however you can and into something with more upside.
This card was on my “sleepers” list a couple of weeks back when there were whispers that it would find a home in Sultai lists. That premise has come to pass, but even the decks that are playing it aren’t running more than a single copy typically, and many builds aren’t even bothering since those decks already have plenty to do each turn. I think this settles back around $3-4 for now, but watch for a breakout performance to pump it back up.
Format(s): Standard
Verdict: Sell
Quick Hits:
Rings of Brighthearth is also spiking from a likely buyout, possibly related to Tiny Leaders hype. Time to sell.
Tiny Leaders is well into hype engine mode, with a plethora of new #mtgfinance and strategy articles written by pros and finance writers over the last 2 weeks. Finding overlooked cards that are good in the format and stockpiling foils is looking like a solid play, even if the hype dies out longer term. Cards like Unearth, Varolz, the Scar-Striped and Doran, the Siege Tower have already spiked hard. Find a target.
Tasigur did damage on camera in Legacy this weekend, attacking alongside Tarmogoyf and further increasing the likelihood that foils are a good buy. Remember Snapcaster Mage is a big set staple that hit $100+ on strong Modern/Legacy play. Tasigur is from a small set, but not quite as powerful, and also a legend. Even still, I can see his foils hitting $40 this year, from the current $21-$23. I’m buying.
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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I’ve always wondered how it felt like to be an early adopter of bitcoins. To be one of those who got in when bitcoins were $0.20 each (bitcoin is now trading at $257.09 per bitcoin). To be a member of the bitcoin millionaire club just for the virtue of being an early adopter of a technology most initially shrugged off as a passing fad.
Ah, the perks of being an early adopter.
While I was drawn into Commander when the format first broke into the mainstream with the release of the first Commander products in 2011, I paid little attention to the financial aspects of Commander cards. It was a fun, casual format of singleton cards and my logic (flawed in retrospect) told me the demand for Commander cards would not be sufficient to drive the price of Commander staples.
Fast forward to 2015. I am now writing a Magic finance column and one of my area of focus is undervalued Commander foils. While most Commander staple foils have already spiked, there are still some undervalued Commander foils lurking beneath the bush, but they are hard to find. It feels a bit like foraging for truffles. I hate to admit it, but the treasure cruise for speccing on Commander foils had left the port a while ago and we are trawling the waters for any gold that fell off the barge.
Magic, fortunately is an ever-changing landscape, and once in a while we get something new brewing on the horizon. Sometimes it’s an innovative supplementary product like Conspiracy. Sometimes it’s an exciting new format.
The Littlest Giants
Tiny Leaders seemed to be the talk of Magic town lately. Tiny Leaders is a new take on the Commander format where players play with 50 card decks including their commander, and a defining caveat that only cards with three or less casting cost can be played. Designed by Bramwell Tackaberry in 2013, the format spread quickly among his local community and in the past few months, began to gain traction in the Magic community as a whole.
Chas Andres briefly discussed Tiny Leaders in his article last November. Jimi Brady at GatheringMagic.com put up a piece on Tiny Leaders with some sweet decklists the same month. Eric Levine, Commander-in-Residence at Channel Fireball wrote an article about it in December, so did Matt Higgs at StarCityGames. I first heard about the format myself from Brainstorm Brewery’s mid-January 2015 Fate Reforged set review podcast, where Jason E Alt was talking about the viability of two of the Fate Reforged khans as Tiny Leader commanders. My fellow finance writer at MTGPrice, Cliff Daigle also wrote an article about the format last week. Even people at The Mothership started paying attention to the format recently:
The Tiny Leader community is still growing, with the Facebook group and subreddit both boasting a membership of around 1,500 members each as of writing. I highly recommend checking out both groups if you are interested to delve more into the format. And I definitely recommend giving Tiny Leaders a try if you have yet to do so.
Tiny Leaders, Big Potential
Why do I think Tiny Leaders has the potential to be the next big format in Magic? It shares a characteristic found in a lot of successful startups: it caters to an unfulfilled niche.
Tiny Leaders is a cross between Commander and Legacy, a singleton Legacy. The majority of the mana curve in Legacy lies at three or less anyway, so cards that are good in Legacy are bound to be good in Tiny Leaders as Jimi Brady pointed out in his article. Jimi also mentioned a very valid point on why the format has the potential to catch on like wildfire: it has a relatively low entry barrier. A Tiny Leaders deck requires less cards than the usual 60-card deck and only one-of rather than a playset-of expensive staples.
I can’t get into Legacy with the single Tarmogoyf and Dark Confidant I opened from my two boxes of Modern Masters, and they are not exactly optimal cards for Commander. However they fit snugly into my Anafenza, the Foremost Tiny Leaders brew. To be honest, the virtue of being a singleton format is that players could get away with missing a few expensive pieces and still have a relatively competitive deck. This list by redditor /u/darkflame1o1 performed pretty well at a tournament despite missing Dark Confidant and Tarmogoyf.
Tiny Leaders appeals to players too spikey to play Commander, or players who are weary of long Commander games and all the politicking which are integral to Commander games. Even Brainstorm Brewery’s ‘I’m-never-gonna-touch-Commander’ Marcel professed an interest in Tiny Leaders in their recent podcast.Tiny Leaders has the competitive lure of Duel Commander, and is better designed for competitive play.
I feel I ought to include arguments against Tiny Leaders taking off to provide an objective view of the format’s future. While Chas Andres mentioned a few good ones in his article, he nevertheless gave the format a moderate to high chance of future success. I think those drawbacks mentioned in Chas’ article – potential power-level imbalance and small number of players – are issues that confronted every new format as it made the leap from niche to mainstream.
Power-level imbalances could be ironed out with astute management of the banlist. The banlist is currently managed by Steven Harmonic and Matthew Turnbull with input from the community (Steven and Matthew are highly active on the Tiny Leaders subreddit and Bram manages the Tiny Leaders Facebook group).
The issue with the format’s small player base is temporary and is remedied as format hits a tipping point in momentum, something which I think is Tiny Leaders is heading towards right now with the amount of interest and attention it is getting from the community. Besides the increasing number of articles being written about the format, and the number of times Brainstorm Brewery mentioned it in their podcast, Cedric Phillips and Patrick Sullivan briefly discussed Tiny Leaders during the commentary of StarCityGames’ Washington DC Open last weekend, all good signs of the format breaching through into the mainstream.
Tiny Investments
Tiny Leaders cards are in an interesting spot financially – the format’s three mana and below casting cost restriction meant that a swath of the format’s staple overlap with Legacy and Modern staples, which are already pricey. On the other hand, the restriction led to cards with casting cost-specific effects to be more powerful in the context of Tiny Leaders. Unearth becomes a Reanimate without a drawback. Smother becomes an unconditional removal. Three CMC and under spells with X as part of their casting cost is a way to circumvent the figurative power level of the format, as spells with an X in their casting cost scales according to the amount of mana channelled into X.
Today, we are going to go through a few of these cards that could potentially spike if Tiny Leaders takes off. First off, we have the heads of the states decks.
The Leaders
Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
Fifty Shades of Grenzo.
Non-foil: $1.33
Foil: $18.03
Two reasons why Grenzo, Dungeon Warden is sweet in Tiny Leaders: He has an X in his casting cost and he could generate a swarm all by himself. Tristan Gregson pointed out on Twitter that Grenzo could be a good Tiny Leaders pick-up and I wholly agree. Non-foil copies are unlikely to stay at $1.33 as the demand for Grenzo increases and being flavor-tied to Conspiracy, Grenzo is unlikely to see a reprint. Foils are already expensive as Grenzo is also a decent Commander general and I am not a fan of speccing on those.
Ezuri, Renegade Leader
Leading the Elfball revolution.
Non-foil: $1.67
Foil: $5.78
Ezuri Elfball is one of the tier one decks in Tiny Leaders. $5.78 is a good buy-in for foil copies of a tier one leader from an old set. Non-foils at $1.67 have room to grow but being reprinted Commander 2014 means a longer lag in appreciation. I would rather snag up foil copies.
Varolz, the Scar-Striped
Varolz, the Scar-Striped troll.
Non-foil: $0.59
Foil: $3.05
Another tier one leader, foil Varolz, the Scar-Striped is only $3, courtesy of being from a recently rotated set. I would pick up foils rather than non-foils at this price. Varolz is also playable as part of the 49.
Ambassador Laquatus
He was not a great ambassador. Milling your opponent to death is not very diplomatic.
Non-foil: $1.09 (Tenth Edition); $0.70 (Torment)
Foil: $3.51 (Tenth Edition); $3.68 (Torment)
Ambassador Laquatus is a good example of cards that are crap everywhere except in the context of Tiny Leaders. Against a 50-card deck, milling becomes a viable competitive strategy. Sword of Body and Mind was banned for the exact reason. Laquatus is a tier one leader and both foil and non-foil copies are good pick-ups at those prices.
Contextually Good Cards
As mentioned above, some cards are just better in a format with an imposed maximum casting cost of three.
Unearth
It’s all about the context.
Non-foil: $0.72
Foil: $7.02
Unearth is a unconditional and drawback-free Animate Dead in Tiny Leaders. Cheating-into-play may not be necessary for most creatures costing three or less, but Entomb is legal in this young format and there is potential for graveyard shenanigans. Non-foil copies look like good pickups at under $1.
Sunforger
Not exactly forged by the Sun God, they belong on different planes after all.
Spells with X in their casting cost circumvent the imposed three casting cost ceiling and there is a lot of potential for powerful effects the power of those spells scale according to the amount of mana sinked into them. White Sun’s Zenith has the potential to be a late game finisher not just for control decks, but also for midrange decks looking for a card to close out games fast in the mid-to-late game. Foils for $2.39 could be a good investment.
Tiny Leaders’ three casting cost ceiling rendered a lot of sweepers illegal in deckbuilding. Black Sun’s Zenith is one of few black sweepers available as pointed out by Chaz from BoltSnapBolt. Although the Game Day full art foils just increased in price, the Mirrodin Besieged foils at $5 is not a a shabby pick-up.
Ratchet Bomb
Literally a ticking bomb.
Non-foil: $0.48 (M14); $0.51 (Scars of Mirrodin)
Foil: $1.70 (M14); $3.24 (Scars of Mirrodin)
Speaking of sweepers, Ratchet Bomb is a colorless sweeper that could become a staple in the Tiny Leaders besides Engineered Explosives. Ratchet Bomb may be too slow for other formats, but is efficient in Tiny Leaders. Foils at $1.70 have room to grow if the format takes off.
The Big Picture
Tiny Leaders is a format in its infancy. The format is a brewer’s paradise, brimming with unexplored deckbuilding space. There has yet to be a repository for Tiny Leaders decklists or tournament results. The two places to find Tiny Leaders decklists currently are the Tiny Leaders Facebook group and subreddit. I would definitely recommend checking out those forums. There are a lot of innovation and ideas being bounced around, but there has yet to be highly-tuned lists of respective archetypes, which means an abundance of opportunity for deck brewers to get brewing.
The metagame is still young and evolving. The addition of Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest and Alesha, Who Smiles at Death injected a lot new design space in the format as previously Tiny Leaders does not have a Jeskai or Mardu leader and resorted to a placeholder ‘leader’ with no abilities.
The format’s future is by no way certain. For all we know, the hype and interest that is building up a momentum right now could dissipate before the end of the year. However, judging by the overwhelmingly positive response from those who dipped their toes in the format, I am confident that Tiny Leaders would grow into the next big format.
In Retrospect
I guess I am not hopelessly bad in spotting the next big thing. I was an early fan of Modern and I completed my playset of blue-based staples back in 2011, shortly after the inception of Modern. I was confident that Modern would grow into the next big thing as it filled a niche that many players, myself included felt was missing from the competitive scene.
I wanted to play in a competitive non-rotating format where I could run my favorite pet deck all the time, but I could not afford to buy into Legacy. Modern filled that niche in that it served as an intermediary between Standard and Legacy, a non-rotating format with a lower barrier of entry. Gavin Verhey’s Overextended has been garnering a lot of interest, so there must have been plenty of other players in similar positions as I was.
I had my hipster moment with Modern. I acquired my Scalding Tarns and Misty Rainforests at $15 each, Vendilion Cliques at $8 each, Player Rewards Cryptic Commands at $10 each, among many others. I ran Storm in the first Modern PTQ season in 2012 and crashed badly, but it was fun. Storm was my pet deck for one whole year. It won me my first Grand Prix Trial and performed okay for me on Magic Online daily events. Eventually Jeskai (UWR back in those days) Geist took over and it has been my go-to deck up till Ancestral Recall became Modern legal (sort of).
My excitement for Tiny Leaders reminded me of how I felt about Modern in 2011. I am excited for Tiny Leaders because the format is an opportunity for me to play a fast-paced Duel Commander game with a touch of Legacy’s power level but only a fraction of Legacy’s buy-in fee. And I am excited that my enthusiasm for the format is shared by many other players and writers.
Bonus: My Anafenza, the Foremost Tiny Leaders
Seeing that there is a dearth of Tiny Leaders decklists at the moment, let me share with you my Anafenza brew that I am taking with me to what seems to be Malaysia’s first Tiny Leaders tournament this weekend.
Commander: Anafenza, the Foremost
First and foremost, let me sing you the song of my +1/+1 counters.
Creatures
Avacyn’s Pilgrim
Bird of Paradise
Deathrite Shaman
Llanowar Elves
Cartel Aristocrat
Dark Confidant
Melira, Sylvok Outcast
Scavenging Ooze
Tarmogoyf
Tidehollow Sculler
Eternal Witness
Knight of the Reliquary
Kitchen Finks
Loxodon Smiter
Varolz, the Scar-Striped
Planeswalkers
Liliana of the Veil
Instants
Enlightened Tutor
Worldly Tutor
Sword to Plowshares
Abrupt Decay
Smother
Chord of Calling
Dismember
Midnight Haunting
Sorceries
Green Sun’s Zenith
Lingering Souls
Thoughtseize (I don’t own Inquisition of Kozilek)
Artifacts
Sensei’s Divining Top
Sword of Feast and Famine
Sword of Fire and Ice
Lands
Gavony Township
Windswept Heath
Wooded Foothills
Flooded Strand
Polluted Delta
Bloodstained Mire
Arid Mesa
Marsh Flats
Godless Shrine
Overgrown Tomb
Temple Garden
Woodland Cemetery
Sunpetal Grove
City of Brass
Cavern of Souls
Command Tower
Plains
Swamp
Forest
The deck attacks on multiple angles, in the spirit of one of the best Magic strategy articles in recent time. There are four one-drop mana dorks to ‘ramp’ into the three drops on turn two for a fast start. One of the perks of having a leader is having access to a three drop to ramp into all the time. The deck is also quite mana-hungry as the mid-game plan hinges on Gavony Township and tutoring out value creatures.
The mana dorks help fuel the deck’s mid game, besides providing an extra layer of consistency to ensure that we hit our ‘land drops’ every turn. Those mana dorks could be conscripted to the frontline during the mid-to-late game as they get jacked up with Anafenza’s counters or Gavony Township.
The tutors are also present for the deck’s second angle of attack: the classic Melira infinite life combo. The combo pieces are Melira, Sylvok Outcast, Kitchen Finks and either Cartel Aristocrat or Varolz, the Scar-Striped to loop for infinite life. The initial blueprint had a Blood Artist to enable a combo kill, but I’ve found that Blood Artist was a dead card outside the combo. With the exception of Melira, all the other components of the combo are creatures that can provide exceptional value by themselves. Kitchen Finks sort of combos with Anafenza to reset its -1/-1 persist counters. Varolz and Cartel Aristocrat are two hard to remove creatures, ideal targets for Anafenza to bestow +1/+1 counters on.
The game plan is resoundingly similar to Birthing Pod decks (RIP): grind your opponent out with value creatures and develop a superior board position with Gavony Township. If and when the opportunity arises, execute the infinite life combo by tutoring out the pieces on instant speed. Tidehollow Sculler is there to give us a tutorable hand disruption if we find the need to ensure that the coast is clear before we execute the Melira combo.
Thanks for reading through all 3,000 words of this article. I hope the article has provided you with an insight into this wonderful new format called Tiny Leaders and cards which price could take off together with the format. Comments are most welcomed and you either leave a comment below or at engage me on Twitter at @theguoheng.
This weekend Fate Reforged made a huge and immediate impact on both Standard and Modern, with cards from the set showing up at top tables of major tournaments immediately upon going legal. Most of our other gainers come as the result of the recent Banned & Restricted announcements which have shaken up both Modern and Legacy. Here’s the down low on the major price shifts in the world of paper Magic: The Gathering this week.
When a combo card of relatively high power gets unbanned, the Legacy folks start brewing and trying to figure out if the card can take a deck into a Top 8. Worldgorger Dragon figures into multiple combos, many of which revolve around it coming in and out of play under the effect of Animate Dead while setting off infinite triggers of one sort or another. The card is certainly breakable, but no more powerful than the stuff that Sneak & Show and Reanimator decks already do in Legacy. Nevertheless, going from useless to potentially playable was enough to send this ancient rare skyrocketing on the price charts. Without a doubt this is a sell if you had a bunch sitting around. It’s hard to beat 500% in a week more than a few times a year, and this is definitely time to take your money and run it into some new action.
Format(s): Legacy
Verdict: Sell
2. Golgari Grave Troll (Ravnica: City of Guilds, Rare): $1.45 to $7.00 (+383%)
Here we have another card that was unbanned, this time in Modern, and in this case because the odds of it breaking format are low without some of the older cards it would need to be truly degenerate. Nevertheless, enterprising souls are a-brewing, so the getting is good if you’d like to get out on your sets up 300%+. I wouldn’t wait on results here, the card’s already been reprinted once (in the Izzet vs. Golgari Duel Deck) and could easily be so again this summer in MM2.
A couple of factors are pushing this previously overlooked Dragon up on the charts. Firstly, it’s the only 5-color commander available for the Dragon clan in EDH/Commander. Secondly, we’re just 6 weeks away from a set list for Dragons of Tarkir, a set that promises to, well, provide us with a ton of new dragons to get excited about. I’d put the odds that they either reprint Scion or provide an even better Dragon commander at 2 to 1, so it’s up to you to decide if you feel like trying to ride this card further north into $10-15 range on dragon hype. Me, I like to pocket cash on anything north of 50%, so I’ve already sold the handful of stray copies I found lying around.
Format: Casual/EDH
Verdict: Sell/Speculative Buy
4. Frontier Siege(Fate Reforged, Rare): 1.25 to 2.55 (+104%)
This bad boy mana ramp enchantment was #2 on my list of underrated Fate Reforged specs, so I was hardly surprised to see it make top 8 appearances in Standard at two separate major tournaments. With the potential to double your total mana output in the early to mid game OR to turn your hornets and other flying beasties into a virtual wrath of god, the power here is undeniable. The card has so far found good homes with both R/G Monsters and BUG Delve/Whip builds, and I strongly suspect these won’t be the last decks to run the card in the next 18 months. As a rare from a small set that will be drafted 5-2-2 vs. the rest of the block, I think this card can hit $4-6 on heavy play and/or further top table appearances, so there is still some room to set up some profitable trades if you’re local store hasn’t sold out or boosted the price yet Monday morning. Move quick though, because I wouldn’t be surprised to see this settle closer to $4 before the end of the week, at which point your upside is significantly more limited. Foils may also be solid targets for future EDH play, but there isn’t likely to be any Legacy or Modern action here.
If you locked on to Tasigur when he appeared at #4 on my list of Fate Reforged specs a couple weeks back you may have been lucky enough to pick up copies in the $2 range. If so, good for you. If not, your ship has likely sailed, as $11 is a very high price for a freshly released standard rare, even one that made such good showings at major tourneys in it’s first week of release. The Prince of Fruit was bananas most of the time he appeared on camera this weekend, pulling double duty as a cheap blocker for Siege Rhino etc, while providing long term card advantage when the board got grindy. It’s not a certainty he’ll make a big splash in older formats, but I wouldn’t bet against it at this point. All that being said, sell into this hype immediately, as he should come back down into the $6-8 range as more product is opened this month and I suspect you’ll be able to find him cheaper around the release of MM2 in June.
Format: Standard/Modern/Legacy/EDH
Verdict: Sell/Trade
3 Top Losers of the Week
1. Bloodbraid Elf(Alara Reborn, Uncommon): $8.00 to $3.50 (-56%)
Well, it’s a broken uncommon that some people thought might be unbanned, but instead it’s been relegated to the bench for the time being. Many pros think the card would be fine in Modern today given the general increase in power creep over the last few years, but that’s not enough to save the card’s price from crashing as disappointment sets in and the unfounded speculations are cashed in for losses. If you’re caught holding, you can ditch for (hopefully) close to what you paid, or just hold on to them hoping for an eventual unban within the year.
Format(s): Casual/Modern (one day?)
Verdict: Sell
2. Orzhov Pontiff (Guildpact, Rare): $16.00 to $12.50 (-22%)
Pontiff was on our list as a top gainer just a few short weeks ago, but the banning of Birthing Pod put it’s primary deck out of commission in Modern and significantly lessened short term demand. I’m holding my copies as I believe that the card has other applications in token and aggro based strategies in Modern. That being said, a reprinting this summer in MM2 isn’t totally out of the question, so be wary.
Format(s): Modern
Verdict: Hold
3. Birthing Pod (New Phyrexia, Rare): $8.15 to $7.07 to (-13%)
Birthing Pod peaked near $20 in March, 2014, right around the time I was snapping them up 2 copies at a time by acquiring the Spiraling Doom, Dark Ascension event deck. I was a bit stunned that Pod got the axe in Modern, since though it was certainly doing well consistently, the format seemed very healthy. This leaves me with about 20 Birthing Pods I’ll be slowly unloading at a small loss to EDH players out of the gutters of my trade binder for the next few years. It’s important to own your mistakes. This was one of my biggest of the year.
Format(s): Standard
Verdict: Sell
Quick Hits:
Japanese players have been scooping up foil Frost Walkers like crazy and they may know something others are missing. As a 4/1 for 1U in the best color in the game, there is potential for the the card to revive some kind of blue rush deck in Modern or Legacy.
Waste Not deserves an honorable mention this week, up 46% from $2.16 to $3.16.
Outpost Siege also made Top 8 tables this weekend, as a stackable card drawing engine and fallback for token strategies. It’s on the increase, but bargains can still be found if you’re quick.
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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We’ve almost hit our target and it’s been less than two days from launch!
First, a sincere thank you to everyone who backed us or shared the app on social media: you guys rock!
Since it looks likely that we will hit out target, it’s time to consider some “stretch goals” – extra things we can spend any funds above the $10,000 raised on.
We have five ideas. Most of the ideas will work on both the current website AND the mobile app so feel free to comment even if you don’t plan on using the smartphone version.
1. Add UK/Canada and EU prices and currency. Also add MTGO prices and currency (tix).
2. Add all/almost all foreign printings of cards, along with prices.
3. Support multiple conditions (played/ heavily played etc.)
4. Update prices every 15 to 30 minutes (recent sets only).
5. Add a “camera” option for bulk card upload (take a photo of a stack of card names, import them into your collection).
Your feedback will help us decide on the order in which we do these things to please comment below!
MAGIC: THE GATHERING FINANCE ARTICLES AND COMMUNITY
