by James Chillcott (@MTGCritic)

Hey all,

While many of you are gnawing on a turkey leg, there are some pretty sweet deals going down on Magic: The Gathering cards, sealed product and accessories as part of the growing madness that is Black Friday.

Here’s a quick overview of some of the deals to keep an eye out for, including sales already available and some items that go on sale Thursday at midnight. Not surprisingly all of this action is online so fire up your Paypal accounts and get your credit cards ready to go Aggressive Mining for value. (Don’t be surprised if these are sold out by the time you get there….after all, the race is on!)

TrollandToad

TrollandToad.com has added some solid deals to their Black Friday selection today:

• Born of the Gods Booster Box: $69.95
• Born of the Gods Fat Pack: $17.95
• Conspiracy Booster Box: $74.99
• Force of Will Judge Foil: $629.99
• Heroes vs. Monsters Duel Deck: $12.95
• Jace vs. Vraska Duel Deck: $14.95
• Journey Into Nyx Booster Box: $69.95
• Journey Into Nyx Fat Pack: $17.95
• Journey Into Nyx Wrath of Mortals Event Deck: $7.95
• Khans of Tarkir Event Deck: $9.95
• Holiday Gift Box 2014 (KTK): $11.95
• Return to Ravnica Booster Box: $79.95
• Theros Booster Box: $74.99

StarCityGames.com

SCG is supposedly going to be offering 15-50% off a wide array of products starting on the 29th. Here are some sample offers currently up for sale:

• Journey Into Nyx Booster Box: $79.99
• Khans of Tarkir Booster Box: $89.99
• Holiday Gift Box (KTK): $12.49
• Commander 2013 (Set of all 5 decks): $79.99
• Jace vs. Vraska Duel Deck: $14.99
• Journey Into Nyx Event Deck: $9.99

Miniature Market

You might not have these guys on your radar since they don’t sell singles, but this site has some great deal so sealed product worth jumping on, all of which are already live:

• Magic 2013 English Booster Box: $64.00
• Magic 2014 “Rush of the Wild” Event Deck: $12.00
• Theros Holiday Gift Box: $12.00
• Journey Into Nyx “Wrath of the Mortals” Event Deck: $8.00
• Conspiracy Booster Box: $72.00
• Modern Event Deck: $40
• Magic 2015 Clash Pack: $20

At just $1.78/pack, the Magic 2013 booster box is cheap draft fodder and the 2014 Event Deck is basically free when you consider it has a Stomping Grounds in it. The Theros Holiday Gift Box is nothing special, but it’s a solid box for holding your collection for free given that it comes with 4 packs.

The Wrath of Mortals Event Deck was widely panned but with 3x Young Pyromancer, Anger of the Gods, Aetherling, Battlefield Thaumaturge, Mizzium Mortars, Steam Augury and Chandra’s Pheonix, the value is there at just $8. Conspiracy was all the rage for four weeks last summer and then forgotten, but it’s a pretty excellent multi-player draft format and the chance at some very pricy foils makes these boxes one of the better long term holds in booster land at $72.

The Modern Event Deck was a huge disappointment to the people hoping for some truly serious reprints like Bitterblossom or Lilianna, but in truth, the set boasts at least $80-90 in easy value and at $40 it’s a snap buy IMHO. Here’s a rundown of just some of the relevant cards totaling $85 in case you’re still on the fence:

• 1 Sword of Feast and Famine: $10
• 1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant: $10
• 3 Path to Exile: $15 total
• 3 Kataki, War’s Wage: $6 total
• 2 Dismember: $4 total
• 4 Windbrisk Heights: $8 total
• 2 Inquisition of Kozilek: $10 total
• 2 City of Brass: $6 total
• 4 Caves of Koilos: $10 total
• 4 Isolated Chapel: $6 total

As for the Magic 2015 Clash pack I’ve been milking those at $20 for months, selling the included Courser of Kruphix for $15 and holding Foil Alternate Art Prophet of Kruphix, Prognostic Sphinx and Temple of Mystery, and a Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx along with a bunch of solid uncommons for future value/causal deck fodder.

ABUGames

ABUGames has just a handful of deals going down starting Thursday at midnight, and the most tempting are these two:

• Commander 2013 Case (Set of all 5 Decks): $89.99
• Jace vs. Chandra Duel Deck (Japanese): $19.99

Those of us who bought up sets of C13 around $125-150 last year are looking pretty silly right about now. Plenty of places are dumping them now around $120-125, and this $89.99 deal is sure to sell out given that this puts the decks at just $18 each and gives you immediate access to copies of Toxic Deluge and True-Name Nemesis, while providing some decent long term gain potential in the Prosh and Olora decks should you choose not to bust ’em.

The Jace vs. Chandra deck is several years old and typically sought after in the $30-40 range due to the anime inspired art for the Planeswalkers, so it’s likely a snap buy even if just as trade fodder.

CoolStuffInc.

CoolStuffInc. isn’t typically known for their sweet sales, but they’ve got some solid deals on both singles and sealed product this year for Black Friday.

 

Here’s a sampler of the better deals:

Singles

• Abrupt Decay (NM): $8.99
• Abrupt Decay (NM/Foil): $69.99
• Courser of Kruphix (NM): $10.99
• Geist of Saint Traft (NM): $9.99
• Goblin Guide (NM): $22.99
• Mutavault (M14, NM): $12.99
• Scrublands (Played): $64.99
• Sidisi, Brood Tyrant: $2.99
• Underground Sea (Revised, SP/MP): $239.99 
• Volcanic Island (Revised, SP/MP): 214.99

Sealed Product

• Commander 2013 (Mind Seize): $21.99
• Jace vs. Vraska Duel Deck: $14.99
• Khans of Tarkir Fat Pack: $27.99
• Modern Event Deck: $44.99

ChannelFireball.com

This sale is live as the “End of the Year Sale”. The sealed product doesn’t boast much in the way of excitement, but there are some fairly tasty mid/long range specs at good prices in the KTK singles section, including:

• Anafenza, the Foremost: $2.99
• Clever Impersonator: $3.49
• Butcher of the Horde: $1.49
• Crackling Doom: $0.99
• Dig Through Time: $7.99
• Ghostfire Blade: $0.25
• Hardened Scales: $0.25
• Hooded Hydra: $0.99
• Jeskai Ascendancy: $1.99
• Mantis Rider: $1.99
• Narset, Enlightened Master: $1.49
• Sagu Mauler: $0.49
• Savage Knuckleblade: $1.49
• See The Unwritten: $1.99
• Seeker of the Way: $0.49
• Sidisi, Brood Tyrant: $2.99
• Villainous Wealth: $0.25
• Wingmate Roc: $10.99

Of these options, I love Villainous Wealth at a quarter, Narset at $1.25 and See the Unwritten at $1.99 as cards that could easily double or triple in price on new cards and/or metagame shifts, not to mention long term casual appeal to set the floor. Clever Impersonator and Hooded Hydra are both undervalued mythics, with Hydra having the biggest upside so far. There’s also a good chance that both Wingmate Roc and Seeker of the Way can be buylisted for more than this price before they rotate out.

TCGPlayer.com

Though TCGPlayer claims to have a Black Friday sale going on, it’s unclear what facts justify their advertising exclaiming “the year’s lowest prices on Magic!”. I was unable to uncover pricing that was anything but ordinary, but ping me if any of you know different.

CapeFearGames

Though there’s nothing specific on their site to confirm it, CapeFearGames apparantly has a 15% off coupon usable all week. Try using “cyberweek”.

Face2Face Games

Canadian stalwart MTG retailer Face2Face Games is running a 15% off sale Thurs at midnight through Sunday. With the fact that most Canadian sites price to match US pricing, this boosts your potential discount from the US to as much as 30%. With $2.50 shipping to the US, this may be one of the better options. Coupon code should be: “BLACKFRIDAY2014”.

 

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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By Guo Heng Chin

Today we will be taking a look at popular red Commander foils that are criminally underpriced. I have been tinkering with the new Daretti, Scrap Savant deck which was an absolute blast to play with, and has about the best combination of Vorthos appeal to me Wizards could ever conjure up in a deck. I have an affinity for artifact decks and I love dragons but I never once imagined the day where a preconstructed deck would combine my favorite kind of deck with my favorite creature type. Thank you Wizards.

So I spent the last week or so looking for cards to bolster my Daretti deck, and at the same time kept an eye out for any potential foil Commander specs in red.

The most obvious one was a card already in the Daretti preconstructed deck :

Foil Innistrad: $3.74

No. of Foil Printings: 1

The price of foil copies of Blasphemous Act in relation to the amount of play the card sees in Commander is sacrilegious. Blasphemous Act is the third most played red card in scoeri’s database of most popular cards in Commander (compiled from all the Commander decklists posted or updated on mtgsalvation.com within the previous 365 days), and was also highlighted as a Commander staple in other lists of Commander staples here and here.

Blasphemous Act is the best red sweeper in Commander, in terms of damage to mana cost ratio. While most red sweepers scale in damage with the amount of mana spent to cast it, in Commander games Blasphemous Act is often a one mana spell that deals thirteen damage to everything, taking out even Eldrazis (at least those that are legal).

I am fairly surprised to find foil Blasphemous Acts sitting at just $3.74, with a stagnant price since the beginning of this year. Non-foil copies dipped in price slightly when Blasphemous Act was reprinted in the Commander 2014 Daretti deck, but the price of foil copies remained static.

Blasphemous Act is a very flavorful card and is not easy to fit into any block set. It could be included in Modern Masters II where there would be foil reprints, but I doubt Wizards would want to spend a rare slot on a card that was just reprinted in a supplemental product. Even if Blasphemous Act is in Modern Masters II and they significantly increase the print run of Modern Masters II compared to that of Modern Masters, the set will probably still be a limited print run product and I doubt that will tank the price of foil Blasphemous Acts by a large margin, if any at all.

At $3.74, I am bullish on foil copies of the best red board wipe in Commander.

Red has always been weak in the card selection and advantage department, which explains why some of the most popular red cards in Commander are Windfall-style cards.

It’s a Miracle!

Foil Avacyn Restored: $5.43

No. of Foil Printings: 1

Wheel of Fortune, the second most played red card in the list is a bit pricey, with the cheapest copy going for $20.80, but you can pick up foil copies of a functionally similar card at $5.43. Reforge the Soul has a near to nil chance of being reprinted in foil form with the highly polarised reception of the miracle mechanic. Furthermore, miracle cards have a special card frame, a point which I will return to in a bit. Reforge the Soul is currently the sixth most popular red card in Commander according to scoeri’s list.

Food for Thought:

I am going to delve into the realms of speculation here and argue that the unique card frame of a foil Reforge the Soul grants the card extra value in terms of collectibility. I would not say that a non-foil copy of a miracle card looks significantly better than cards with normal frames, but if you have seen a foil miracle card in real life, you would understand what I am trying to say:

Tell me the foil miracle card above does not have a sweet, shiny border. I think many would agree that the miracle border design brings out the shine in the foil.

While aesthetic appeal is a subjective issue, collectibility can be roughly defined as being correlated with the rarity and uniqueness of a card. Magic is a trading card game, and a card’s collectibility affects its price. Reprints with different frames (pre-Eight Edition frame versus the Modern card frame) or art are valued differently and I have an inkling that Commander-playable cards with a miracle border would possess a higher collector’s appeal based on the merit of being printed with a border found only in Avacyn Restored.

My argument is extremely speculative; discounting Judge Foil reprints in old borders, playable foils in miracle and Nyx-ified borders are relatively new and there has yet to be data to validate my point.

It’s a food for thought though.

Red Smashes Better than The Hulk

One of the reason I play Commander is that besides the camaraderie and insanely fun interactions, the format allows me to indulge in my sadistic tendencies in a socially acceptable manner. Back when Commander 2013 was just released, my pet Commander deck was a griefer Bant build that abuses the power of Derevi, Empyrial Tactician. I did not made many friends in the local 1v1 Commander scene with that deck. Thankfully Derevi got banned in 1v1 Commander before I alienated the whole community.

In my search for ways to spice Daretti up with a little grief, I stumbled upon the next card:

Foil Return to Ravnica: $3.64

Number of Foil Printings: 1

Cheat in a Mycosynth Lattice with Daretti’s second ability. Overload a Vandalblast for a one-sided Obliterate and the ultimate schadenfreude moment, combo courtesy of Reddit user smokedoor5.

Destructive revelries aside, Vandalblast is the fifth most played red card in Commander as detailed by scoeri’s list above, and it is easy to see why: the power level of overload cards increase by magnitudes in Commander games. And they are asymmetrical, which is nice.

Vandalblast also sees play as a two-of in the sideboard of Modern Blue Moon and UR-based decks as a flexible Shatterstorm. Foil price alert there. Check out the price for another popular Modern sideboard card from the same block.

Foil Vandalblast is $3.64 as of writing, double its price from a month ago but if foil Wear//Tear broke $10, I am confident about the prospects of foil Vandalblast, which is a also a Commander staple on top of its Modern playability.

Talking about Commander staples that are also played in Modern brings me to the next card, a creature whom I have lost countless Modern games to.

Come to the Infinite Side

Foil Avacyn Restored: $1.81

No. of Foil Printings: 1

A Threaten on a pair of hasty legs, Zealous Conscripts is a decent Commander card on its own. However, the bulk of Zealous Conscripts’ popularity stemmed from the fact that Zealous Conscripts comprised the other half of the infinite combo with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker which is popular in both multiplayer and 1v1 Commander, and is the centerpiece of Modern Kiki Pod.

Being the only mono-red creature that can go off with Kiki-Jiki, Zealous Conscripts’ popularity hinged on Kiki-Jiki, who is well-loved in Commander both as one of the ninety-nine or as a Commander for his ability to go to town on value and his ability to pull off infinite combos. Any deck that runs Kiki-Jiki would want to run Zealous Conscripts and vice versa. As of writing, Kiki-Jiki placed seventh on scoeri’s list of most played red cards in Commander, and Zealous Conscripts barely trailed the cloning goblin at ninth place.

Being the foil rare in one of the Avacyn Restored preconstructed deck depressed the price tag of foil Zealous Conscripts. However, I highly doubt foil Zealous Conscripts would stay under $2 in the long term with the amount of play it is currently seeing.

Blazing Ahead

Judging from comments on Reddit and Twitter, the Daretti deck seemed to be very well received. Both Daretti and Feldon of the Third Path allow you to cheat-in creatures (and artifacts for Daretti) at well below their casting cost, an ability that is immensely popular with the Commander crowd. Daretti and Feldon’s popularity could equate to an influx in demand for Commander staples that fit into  mono-red Commander decks, driving up the prices of currently undervalued red foil Commander staples.

We are beginning to see the effect Daretti has on cards that fit into the deck: foils of Kudoltha Forgemaster, an artifact that fits perfectly in Daretti decks just spiked to $15 the day before this article is written and published.

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By James Chillcott (@MTGCritic)

Here’s your weekly update on what’s been shifting around in price in the world of paper Magic: The Gathering this week. This week, we’ve got a mixed bag of winners and losers coming out of the 3-ring circus that was Grand Prix New Jersey last weekend:

5 Winners of the Week

1.  Black Lotus (Unlimited, Rare): $3500 to $5,000-8,000 (+40-120%)

Our algorithms can’t really get a handle on this one yet, because the data points are mostly hidden, but StarCityGames moved their Power 9 card prices up across the board the day after GPNJ finished, with NM Unlimited Black Lotus being pushed to $8000 retail, and $5200 buy-list. Alpha and Beta P9 were pushed up in similar fashion. This is the biggest jump we’ve seen on Magic’s most iconic cards in a while, but according to my interview with SCG acquisitions staff “they just can’t keep them in stock at the lower price.” Don’t assume that means that Vintage is growing in popularity. If anything less people will be able to afford to approach Vintage, despite the popular proxy rules at most unsanctioned tournaments, as the relevant cards continue to increase across the board to collector/speculator interest. A 9.5 graded version sold on Ebay late this week above $7K, so the new plateau may be real. In the meantime, if you’ve got the capital, be on the look out for nice looking copies in the sub-$5000 range while you still can. (Hint: there are some hiding out in Europe).

Format(s): Vintage

Verdict: Buy/Hold

2.  Forked Bolt (Rise of the Eldrazi, Uncommon): $5.32 to $3.14 (+144%)

One of our winners from two weeks ago is still moving up as it’s role in handling U/R Delvers, Pyromancer’s and anything else with a X/2 stat set comes to the forefront. It’s a great card, but could easily see a reprint in MM2 in June ’15, so I’m a seller into hype here, and looking for fresher ideas.

Format(s): Modern/Legacy

Verdict: Sell

3.  Mesmeric Orb (Mirrodin, Rare): $3.78 to $4.94 (+31%)

This oddball mill card is popping up on the radar because some pros have been fooling around with some Mill/Control decks. It’s highly unlikely to develop into a top tier deck, and I wouldn’t expect the card to get much above $7-8 even if it did, as the decks are not easy to play and the card and has virtually no other applications.

Format(s): Modern/Legacy

Verdict: Trade/Sell

4.  Battlefield Forge (9th, Rare): $8.33 to $9.62 (+15%)

In a Standard metagame where both Mardu and Jeskai decks are doing well, it should come as no surprise that a land that can fix mana for both is on the rise. The bump isn’t exclusive to the 9th edition copy either, and Shivan Reef has enjoyed similar increases recently. Heading into the spring, I’d be happy to unload painlands anywhere north of $8 in exchange for undervalued KTK standard staples. This will leave you set up to reacquire these lands for $1.50-$2.50 per, which is right about where we found them before they were reprinted back into relevance last summer.

Format(s): Standard/Modern

Verdict: Sell/Trade

5. Omniscience (M13, Mythic): $9.61 to $10.30 (+9%)

This loopy M13 mythic has found a home in numerous combo decks, including Omni-Tell in Legacy and I like it even at these levels as a long term pickup, since it’s a bit too weird to be reprinted anytime soon and has upside if fresh decks are uncovered that can make use of it’s wacky rules text.

Format(s): Modern/Legacy

Verdict: Buy/Hold

 

5 Top Losers of the Week

1. Xenagos, the Reveler (Theros, Mythic): $10.29 to $8.40 (-18%)

Our villain without a home slides further away from his $20+ highs this week with G/R Monsters solidly established as one of the Tier 2 wannabes in Standard so far this season. With Mardu, Jeskai and Abzan decks stealing all the thunder, and the Temur builds not being interested in his specific abilities, Xenagos is back on the bench, waiting for cards from the winter sets to put him back in the game.

Format(s): Standard/Casual

Verdict: Buy

2. Temple of Plenty (Born of the Gods, Rare): $5.93 to $5.01 (-16%)

With Abzan decks popularity waning a bit, and no other decks really even considering the need for a W/G Scryland, it’s no surprise to see Temple of Plenty sliding down the value chain. Temples aren’t likely to have a big future beyond this year in Standard, but they’ll be great collection pickups for Casual and EDH deck use when they bottom out in advance of rotation during summer 2015.

Format(s): Standard/Casual

Verdict: Sell/Trade

3.  Kiora, the Crashing Wave (Born of the Gods, Mythic): $14.62 to $12.74 (-13%)

Kiora is another hero without a home, and the fact that she’s being reprinted alongside Elspeth, Sun’s Champion in a Duel Deck product this winter isn’t helping any. I’d be happily getting out of this card while you can above $10, trading into virtually any of the fantastic, yet price depressed rares (Mantis Rider, Siege Rhino, etc) in Khans of Tarkir that are being held down by the presence of fetch lands and the massive amount of KTK opened this fall.

Format(s): Standard/Casual/EDH

Verdict: Sell/Trade

4.  Polukranos, World Eater (Theros, Rare) 11.45 to 10.15 (-11%)

The baddest of the big dumb green creatures is still called up to play in several of the brews in Standard, but none of those decks are dominating top tables, and he’s only going to get a 3-6 months to prove himself again before he heads towards $5 permanently. If you need him or like to play him, keep him. Otherwise, I’d like to be out of this guy way early.

Verdict: Sell/Trade

5.  Mutavault (Morningtide, Rare) $21.49 to $19.12 (-11%)

A lack of focus on Modern and lack of Tribal decks in the Top 16 of Grand Prix New Jersey is likely contributing to the slide on what may be the best “man-land” of all time. This card performed extremely well in my Legacy Slivers build last weekend, and it has many present and future applications in practically every non-Standard format possible due to it’s inherent versatility alongside any and all creature types. As such, I’ve been targeting M14 copies around $15-16 as another reprint should now be a few years off at least.

Verdict: Buy

Quick Hits:

• I’m actively looking for under-priced P9 cards for the first time in ages. Plenty of people think the P9 price boosts are pure hype so price uncertainty is likely to leave the door wide open for negotiation. For someone who picked up an Unlimited mox below $500 years back, being able to cash out above $1K may be too tempting to pass up with Xmas bills looming.  Better yet, track one of the nay-sayers down and offer them cash for their P9 to test their certainty.
• Plenty of good Khans of Tarkir rares and mythics are at lows they are unlikely to dig below until the summer doldrums. I’m happily acquiring cards like See the Unwritten, Empty the Pits, Narset, Enlightened Master in the hopes that they will either a) find homes in Standard this winter or b) see reasonable gains in the mid-long term based on their inherent power levels and usefulness in casual/EDH play.
• Siege Rhino is showing up in Modern lists. I’ve been nabbing foils in the $15 range, expecting to one day find them at $30+. Remember, Khans won’t be drafted with the 3rd set this year, so Jan/Feb is likely the absolute lowest we’ll see most KTK cards until summer, right around the MM2 hype high point.
• StarCityGames announced today that only 3 of their 15+ weekend Open Series will be Legacy tournaments in 2015. The slots previously allocated to Legacy will be shifted to Modern, which should help Modern stage a bit of a comeback in 2015 while suppressing prices on Tier 2/Non-Reserved Legacy staples. Be on your toes as those trends start to play out and keep an eye out for folks dumping Legacy decks at bargain prices due to lack of local access from the Open series.

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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