By: Jim Marsh

Every week, some cards from Magic the Gathering increase and decease in value based upon a number of factors.

Let’s take a look at some of the cards whose values have changed the most and the factors behind why those changes have occurred.

10 Big Winners of the Week

10. Slaughter Pact (Modern Masters)
From $5.87 to $6.83 (16.35%)

Slaughter Pack is a modern darling. This past weekend was an excellent example of that.

The SCG Modern tournament in Dallas on 8/3/2014 winner was a Golgari Midrange deck that ran two copies of Slaughter Pact in the main deck.

Six of the Top 8 decks had Slaughter Pact either in the main deck or sideboard. There were a total of nine copies played in those six decks so most were using one or two. That still means that a sizeable chunk of the metagame wants a have a few copies handy.

This can take the form of Jund, Pack Rat Black, and Junk (Abzan) decks that utilize it.

The reprint in Modern Masters made it take a hit last year but I see these continuing to rise over the long term. Free removal is something we do not see very often after all.

9. Avenger of Zendikar (Worldwake)
From $5.42 to $6.37 (17.53%)

Avenger of Zendikar was around $10 before it was reprinted in the Jund Power Hungry Commander 2013 decks.

It is a casual favorite that creates a swarm of chump blockers that turn into game ending threats fairly quickly.

It is starting to creep back up but the recent flood of copies in a deck you can still pick up at a local Target or Walmart near you makes me think this has a ceiling of around $8. It will take a long time to recover if it ever does.

If you just want to move them, you can purchase these as low as $4.01 and sell them for $4.39.

8. Fauna Shaman (M11)
From $6.86 to $8.07 (17.64%)

Fauna Shaman is a fixture of Commander decks, Cubes and casual decks that run forests and creatures. There are an endless supply of creatures to tutor or reanimate.

It sees some play in Modern Kiki-Pod variants and has a nearly unique effect. It is certainly easier to pick up a few shamans than a few copies of Survival of the Fittest.

I see this one continuing to grow over the long term.

7. Porphyry Nodes (Planar Chaos)
From $4.24 to $5.35 (26.18%)

It is still astounding that only six months ago this was a bulk rare.

Control decks use it to keep a leash on Zoo and other aggressive decks. If it kills a single creature it has paid for itself.

Modern UWR (Jeskai) Control and UWR Delver both have a pair in the sideboard. The deck consistently appears in Top 8s.

However a sideboard card out of a single deck is no place to park your money.

I would trade for Keranos, God of Storms out of the same deck. You can buy them for $5.00 and sell them for $5.23.

There is also the possibility that UWR or RUG (Temur) standard decks will be using them soon.

6. Pithing Needle (Saviors of Kamigawa)
From $2.50 to $3.48 (39.20%)

You may recognize Pithing Needle from half the sideboards in legacy.

Just this last week at the SCG Legacy Open in Dallas half the Top 8 had a copy in their seventy five.

That may sound like a ringing endorsement but it is a trap. There have been four printings of the card. The most recent version was Return to Ravnica. In a few months all of the standard players that have held onto a few copies to use in their sideboards will be unloading them. Most decks only need a single copy.

I would get out before the market gets flooded.

You can still buy these as low as $1.79 and sell them for up to $2.25.

5. Legion Loyalist (Gatecrash)
From $2.92 to $4.18 (43.15%)

Rabble Red received quite a bit of attention this past week. It was a quick and aggressive deck which is usually a pretty safe game plan right after a shakeup in the metagame.

It got a lot of attention on day 1 but failed to Top 8 on day two. Twenty two of the cards in the deck are rotating soon.

The amount of buzz will cause other players to want to put this deck together and try it out. I would take this price bump and run.

4. Galerider Sliver (M14)
From $2.92 to $4.94 (69.18%)

Speaking of rotating rare cards next we have Galerider Sliver. This is sometimes used as a flying one drop in Mono-Blue Devotion but that is it so far as the competitive scene goes.

Modern Slivers still does not appear to be a thing and standard slivers is now definitely not a thing.

Get out. Sell your Galerider Sliver and buy Galerider Sliver.

The regular copies are $4.94 but the foils are only $5.31.

You can even find the foils for as low as $4.94!

These are the copies that people will want in their sliver commander decks so I say upgrade to foil and wait for slow steady growth.

3. Flames of the Blood Hand (Betrayers of Kamigawa)
From $2.44 to $4.11 (68.44%)

Flames of the Blood Hand is played in every flavor of modern Burn decks.

Boros Burn has become popular as well as Rakdos Burn which recently got in the Top 16 in the 8/3/2014 SCG Modern tournament.

I do not think that an uncommon is going to get much higher than $4. I think it is time to cash out of them.

2. Boom // Bust (Planar Chaos)
From $1.25 to $2.16 (72.80%)

This card is essentially a bulk rare.

It does see play in a fringe Modern Restore Balance deck as a play set in the sideboard but that is about it.

I really cannot find much reason to recommend it but you can buy these as low as $0.66 and sell them for up to $1.10.

That should make someone happy.

1. Goblin Rabblemaster (M15)
From $0.94 to $3.41 (262.77%)

Here is the biggest swing this week. Everyone was talking about Rabble Red but it did not put up the results to justify its spike.

A lot of standard players are going to want to get their hands on it to brew and I say let them have it. M15 is still being drafted and so move them as quickly as you can.

You can buy them for as little as $0.89 and sell them for up to $1.01. If you were able to get a lot of them cheaply then I say now is your time to strike.

5 Big Losers of the Week

5. Blood Baron of Vizkopa (Dragon’s Maze)
From $5.11 to $4.37 (-14.48%)

Standard Orzhov Control performed admirably at Pro Tour Magic 2015. Two of the Top 8 decks were Orzhov Control.

That is the only thing keeping this about $3 right now. It will be $2 come September.

Rotation is looming and no other format cares for the Blood Baron. You may have a friend who wants one for their commander deck or lifegain deck but that will be it.

Get these out of your bind and trade them while someone still wants them.

4. Commandeer (Coldsnap)
From $3.26 to $2.74 (-15.95%)

90% of the time Commandeer is just a much worse Misdirection. It is legal but not playable in modern. Most spells you want to redirect probably have a single target.

This used to be the budget card you played in Commander because you did not want to spend $20 on Misdirection.

Now you can pick one up for $5 thanks for Conspiracy so who needs Commandeer?

3. Extirpate (Modern Masters)
From $3.69 to $3.08 (-16.53%)

Extirpate is a sideboard card in several fringe legacy and vintage decks.

It is not the kind of effect that most casual players are interested in.

The reprint in Modern Masters increased the supply but the demand remained stale. This is a recipe for price deflation.

You can still turn this around if you are stuck with a few copies.

Vendors are selling them for $1.46 and some are buying them for $1.82. That is probably the best deal you are going to.

2. Battlefield Forge (10^th Edition)
From $5.06 to $4.06 (-19.76%)

Battlefield Forge is going to be used a lot over the next year. Any Boros, Naya, WUR (Jeskai) or RWB (Mardu) decks will want to run a few copies.

It has been reprinted a lot though so I expect these to drop over the next few months while triple M15 is the draft format of choice. I would trade away or sell any you get in the short term.

You should be able to pick them up even cheaper right before rotation hits.

1. Spirit Mantle
From $2.56 to $2.00 (-21.88%)

I really enjoy Modern Bogles but it is in a strange spot. It has a strong presence in online dailies but not in paper tournaments. You never see it even make Top 16.

Without results the prices are not going to have much movement.

If you are tired of sitting on Spirit Mantle you can still sell them for $1.50.

The Planechase 2012 version is even better. It was printed in smaller quantities for you can purchase them for $1.50 and sell them for $1.80.

By: Jim Marsh

Every week, some cards from Magic the Gathering increase and decease in value based upon a number of factors.

Let’s take a look at some of the cards whose values have changed the most and the factors behind why those changes have occurred.

10 Big Winners of the Week

10. Dictate of Kruphix (Journey into Nyx)
From $0.89 to $0.98 (10.11%)

Dictate of Kruphix has seen a little bit of play in block but standard does not quite have enough pieces to put together a competitive Turbo Fog deck at the moment.

Its true home is with casual players. Who does not love a Howling Mine with flash? I think this will be a casual staple for years to come and at under a dollar the opportunity cost is minimal.

Keep in mind that Journey into Nyx sales were cannibalized by Conspiracy.

I like these as long term holds with the possibility of short term gains if they see adoption post rotation.

9. Slaughter Pact (Future Sight)
From $5.39 to $5.96 (10.64%)

Every competitive deck wants to run the best removal available to it. It is no wonder that Slaughter Pact is run in nearly every Modern deck with access to black mana.

In the SCG Modern tournaments on both 7/25 and 7/27 the winning decks ran two copies of Slaughter Pact main deck. One of them even had another copy in the sideboard.

Slaughter pact is used in several competitive and fringe modern decks including the Rock, Golgari Midrange, Melira Pod, Junk (Abzan,) Jund, Ad Nauseam and Amulet of Vigor.

It is even used in Omnishow in Legacy.

This card took a hit when it was reprinted in Modern Masters last year but it is on its way back. I think these are great pickups as they continue to recover.

It is simply used in too many decks to not continue to increase over time.

8. Aetherling (Dragon’s Maze)
From $0.93 to $1.03 (10.75%)

Aetherling has been the finisher of choice for control decks in every variation.

We have seen Azorius, Esper, Bant and Jeskai (WUR) Control deck bide their time until this evasive and difficult creature was able to close out the game.

Its time in standard is nearly at an end though.

You really should have traded these away a long time ago. They are already near bulk and within a few months that is exactly what they will be.

Aetherling has not seen any adoption in any other format.

Get rid of them while you can.

7. Brain Maggot (Journey into Nyx)
From $0.82 to $0.91 (10.98%)

Brain Maggot is part of standard and block Golgari and Junk (Abzan) Constellation decks. This is a good indicator that the deck can be good enough to pick up steam at rotation.

Unfortunately Back to Nature was reprinted in M15. This would seem to put a wrench in things. I have yet to see any copies of the hoser in any sideboards so this may not be a bad thing.

This makes me cautiously optimistic for the deck. You could probably get these as toss-ins on a trade.

6. Demonic Tutor (Unlimited)
From $20.34 to $22.85 (12.34%)

You may recognize Demonic Tutor from pretty much every vintage deck that has any access to black mana.

It is also used in every black commander deck by anyone that owns a copy.

It is one of the most powerful tutors ever printed.

It is also being reprinted as part of the Divine vs. Demonic Duel Deck later this year.

It is not often that you see a negative spread on a vintage staple but you can buy them for as low as $17.89 and sell them for $18.91.

There may be a price dip later this year after the Duel Decks are re-released. We still do not have a lot of information on them but I think this will be the high price for next couple years.

5. In the Web of War (Betrayers of Kamigawa)
From $1.93 to $2.18 (12.95%)

This rare from Betrayers of Kamigawa is a little pricey at five mana.

I’d rather run Ogre Battledriver in pretty much every case. It is cheaper and gives you an extra body.

I do like that you can buy them for a little as $1.09 and sell them for up to $1.35.

4. Oona’s Prowler (Lorwyn)
From $2.07 to $2.38 (14.98%)

I see the price bump but I cannot find anything to attribute it to.

It is a rare from Lorwyn and part of the powerful faeries tribe. I cannot find any results indicating even fringe modern play.

Maybe someone is trying to make Waste Not work?

If you have any buylists are now offering $1.50 for them so I say take the money and run.

3. Crystalline Sliver (Friday Night Magic)
From $8.45 to $9.93 (17.51%)

The new slivers have yet to have any impact in standard but they are always popular in casual games.

Sliver Hivelord is a great new commander for slivers. There are only so many ways do deal with indestructible slivers and Crystalline Sliver makes it even tougher.

If you are going all out on a sliver commander deck you will want the nicest version which is why the Friday Night Magic copy is the one that is growing the most.

There are still some vendors selling them for as little as $3.49 and you can sell them for as much as $4.32.

2. Terra Stomper (Zendikar)
From $1.41 to $1.66 (17.73%)

Terra Stomper is legal in standard thanks to the green planeswalker deck that is used to demonstrate the game newer players.

This means old Zendikar copies of the uncounterable fattie are now getting some attention. It practically calls out for Monogreen Devotion to give it a try.

The most interesting thing is that the M15 version of the Stomper is valued at $3.46. This is odd since the deck it comes in is free. It is also included in the M15 Deckbuilder’s Toolkit. It is scarce enough though that it is virtually a mythic rare.

I would trade them while you can. You can even help out some new players by offering a replacement Terra Stomper along with other cards they need to build their collection for their M15 copies.

1. Ensoul Artifact (M15 Foil)
From $5.68 to $20.78 (265.85%)

There really is no competition for the biggest winner of the week.

Early testing with Ensoul Artifact in Modern Affinity has been promising.

Sure you can make your Darksteel Citadel an indestructible 5/5 but why stop there?

How about Inkmoth Nexus? Either they have an answer or they are on a two turn clock. It would even dodge Creeping Corrosion or Supreme Verdict. Unlike Steel Overseer Ensoul Artifact does not force you into overextending.

Vault Skirge and Ornithopter are also impressive with the aura.

That does not even take into account flexibility to turn a creatureless battlefield into a slaughter when you enchant a Mox Opal or Springleaf Drum into a 5/5 with virtual haste after mass removal.

It does not matter whether you think this is good enough or not. What is important is that other people do. These people play eternal formats and want the foils.

Keep your eyes open. You will have a chance to trade some Standard playable cards into the hottest new thing in Modern. I just would not let them rot in my binder too long.

5 Big Losers of the Week

5. Satyr Firedancer (Born of the Gods)
From $1.52 to $1.33 (-12.50%)

This does not feel like a $1 card to me. It has not had the impact that Eidolon of the Great Revel had but it is still being used in multiple formats.

Modern and standard are using it in Boros Burn and Red Deck Wins variants.

Even Legacy Burn decks sometimes run it.

If you are bullish on this card then I would sit on at least a play set. It is as low as it is going to get.

If you are bearish on it you can still make a little money.

You can buy these for as little as $0.35 and sell them for $0.75.

That should make everybody happy.

4. Hokori, Dust Drinker (Betrayers of Kamigawa)
From $2.33 to $2.02 (-13.30%)

Hokori, Dust Drinker is used in Modern GW Hatebears.

It is also one of the most trollish commanders imaginable. It is a Rising Waters on legs.

I expect we will see more Hatebears with the recent printing of Hushwing Gryff.

Hokori is a pretty safe pick up. You can get him for as little as $0.99 and sell him for $1.07.

3. Battlefield Forge (9^th Edition)
From $5.59 to $4.70 (-15.92%)

Standard Boros Burn,  Boros Midrange and Naya Aggro all want Forges to help fix their mana.

We now have confirmation Khans will include wedges so I expect these will also see play in Mardu (RWB) and Jeskai (WUR) decks.

However the multiple printings of the painlands and the amount flooding the market from M15 will drive all of their prices down.

I would move these quickly.

2. Elbrus, the Binding Blade (Dark Ascension)
From $2.68 to $2.25 (-16.04%)

I really enjoy the flavor of this card. It is a double sided legendary equipment that turns into a 13/13 demon.

It is not going to be reprinted any time soon if ever. It has a lot of casual appeal but outside of commander it is pretty unrealistic.

I like it as a long term spec just due to sheer novelty but realistically your Magic dollars are probably better served elsewhere.

1. Flames of the Blood Hand (Betrayers of Kamigawa)
From $3.00 to $2.34 (-22.00%)

Burn has been getting a lot of attention in Modern recently.

You have Kitchen Finks, Spike Feeders and Daybreak Coronets pushing players out of burn range.

That is part of why Flames of the Blood Hand is essential in those matchups. It keeps the game plan progressing while shutting off escape routes.

Monored Burn, Boros Burn and even Rakdos Burn have been appearing in Top 8s and Top 16s. I would look at this as a fire sale (pun intended) on Flames of the Bloodhand and pick some up.

By: Travis Allen

San Diego Comic-Con carried with it a slew of new Magic information as well as the return of the mixed-reception black-on-black Planeswalkers. Today we’re going to look at what came out of the event and see what we can piece together about the near future.

Jared spoke at length about this Monday, so I’ll keep this short. Wizards stepped it up a bit this year, as it comes with six walkers instead of five (due to multicolor Garruk’s presence). They even tossed in a Nerf Garruk’s Axe as well. Last year these promos mostly flew under the radar until it started leaking from the con floor that nearly all had been sold on Friday and that they may be unavailable Saturday and Sunday. Prices doubled and tripled on eBay within a few hours. This time around the set of walkers was a known quantity though, and the market was prepared. Sets hit eBay for $500-$700 initially in an attempt to cash in on the fervor of last year. The prices have since settled and it looks like they’re finishing under $400 right now on eBay. I’d expect we’ll see the floor on these within one to three weeks before a very gradual rise. If you want a set(s), start keeping an eye on completed eBay listings now. Like most of this type of product, it will be guaranteed to rise over the long term, but I can’t promise there aren’t faster ways to make money. I’ll personally probably grab a set so that I have it, but that may be about it. It is worth considering that this year’s crop of Planeswalkers is much better than last years. Liliana Vess has had strong casual demand for years, Nissa and to a lesser extent Jace could end up being Standard playable, and Garruk will definitely be popular in the long term.

Originally Liliana of the Veil was slated for M15, but they pulled her for power level concerns. Can you imagine what the SDCC version of that would have gone for in a few years?

The Magic panel was mostly about Khans of Tarkir and its prerelease, with additional info FTV:Annihilation, a new Duel Decks anthology, the Speed vs Cunning Duel deck, and Commander 2014. Let’s start small.

FTV:Annihilation is confirmed to have Armageddon, Wrath of God, Living Death, Rolling Earthquake and Cataclysm. Armageddon, Wrath and Living Death are mostly uninteresting. This will be the first foil printing of Cataclysm, so it should do pretty well. It may end up being the 2nd or 3rd most valuable card in the box.

Rolling Earthquake is the big ticket item here. English P3K versions are going for $150 at the moment. The printing here will probably pull that down a fair bit. We have two good prior comparisons: Loyal Retainers and Imperial Recruiter. Loyal Retainers used to be nearly $150 just two years ago when Commander’s Arsenal was released. Today, P3K versions can easily be found for $50. Imperial Recruiter hung around $280-$350 prior to the judge printing, and it seems like it’s still in that territory. The judge copy is a bit under $200 right now.

Why did Loyal Retainers drop so much when Imperial Recruiter held most of it’s value? I would guess it’s mostly due to playability. Retainers are only barely played in Legacy and not much elsewhere. Recruiters continue to show up in Legacy, albeit in more fringe lists. I’d also hazard a guess that Retainers show up in EDH and Cube a fair bit more, but that’s purely speculative. Regardless, the demand for Imperial Recruiters has prevented the P3K price from crashing like it did for Recruiters.

The question is whether Rolling Earthquake is an Imperial Recruiter or a Loyal Retainer. My guess is that it will behave much more like Loyal Retainer. The only people looking for Rolling Earthquake are guys with cubes and maybe a few EDH players here and there. Overall, there just aren’t that many people who need the card. This influx of copies won’t completely decimate the price, but I’m guessing that it will drop a fair bit, although it won’t happen overnight. If you’ve got copies you don’t especially need at the moment I’d probably ship them. If the price does drop you can reacquire for much cheaper in a year. If it doesn’t drop, you can just rebuy at the same price you sold it for down the road.

Moving on, we’re getting a Duel Deck Anthology in December. It will be a reprint of the four original Duel Decks: Elves vs Goblins, Jace vs Chandra, Divine vs Demonic and Garruk vs Liliana. This is an overall win for most players and shouldn’t harm holders of the original sealed product much at all. It specifically says the reprints are in new frames, so the original sets will clearly be different. People holding the original sealed product won’t be harmed because those will still be the original run, while these will be a re-release that just won’t be the same. Imagine if they reprinted Superman #1. Even if they printed hundreds of thousands of them, the original’s price wouldn’t be touched. It will be no different here. As far as singles go, it’s hard to say. We don’t know what the distribution on these is going to be. I’d guess it will have a mild impact on the best singles, but it shouldn’t be too severe. I doubt these anthologies are going to be print-on-demand the way the latest Commander batch has been.

Commander 2014 has some exciting new Planeswalkers for us. The one spoiled is Teferi, Temporal Archmage. I’ve long talked/hoped to see old characters reprinted as Planeswalkers in additional product, and it’s great to see it come to fruition. The two big twists for Teferi are that he (and his cycle) can be your commander, and Teferi specifically grants you an emblem that allows Planeswalker abilities to be used as instants. This idea certainly isn’t new. It’s definitely cool to see, although I don’t see it Teferi specifically making a splash in any formats. If he let you use the abilities as instants right out of the box it would be one thing, but given that you only receive that privilege with the emblem, I think Teferi will be relegated to the 99 card realm.

The rest of the product should be nifty, and I’m curious to see who they release as the Planeswalker commanders and the cycle of old legendary creatures that never saw a card. The sealed product itself shouldn’t be brutally expensive, as Wizards has learned their lesson on distribution caps for casual product. However be aware that this release is probably too soon after last year’s Commander product for them to have fixed any True-Name Nemeses.

As for Khans, we got a decent sized dump of information. Khans is indeed the counterpart to Alara, being a shard set with official names for combinations like RUG and BUG. (The new names are not nearly as good as the Alara ones, by the way.) They made a point to say that Khans is a shard set, not a shard block though. If only a single set in the block is a sharded, I’m left wondering if we will see a tri-color land at all. It’s entirely possible we finish the Alara triland cycle at uncommon and see a more normal set of dual lands. I’m thinking that whatever they are, they won’t be come-into-play-tapped (CIPT) lands. The temples already force you to play the land tapped, and if the Khans land cycle does it as well, that has implications for the Standard format. I’d guess we may see something that gives you an option, akin to the Ravnica duals or the M10 checklands. Maybe we’ll finally get part of the Future Sight cycle? A Grove of the Burnwillows cycle would be an interesting complement to the painlands of M15.

Two things I do see this does ruling out is manlands and fetchlands. The manlands because of the CIPT, and the fetchlands because there is simply not going to be enough support for them. Each clan has it’s own mechanic, with morph being the sixth mechanic. (We’ll get to morph in a minute.) The last time we had fetchlands landfall was the predominant mechanic in the set. With five clan-specific mechanics, how are they going to make fetchlands matter as much as they should? The answer is that they can’t. When fetches come back they’re probably going to be alongside landfall, and there simply isn’t enough room for it here.

Speaking of mechanics, what are we getting? First of all, morph is confirmed to be returning. That’s a bit surprising, as I get the impression morph wasn’t all that popular the first time around. I’ve heard tales of how much Zombie Cutthroat ruined draft, so don’t expect any free morphing to show up. Most of the morph cards from days past are tribal, as a good majority of them showed up in Onslaught block. That limits how many reprints we’ll see. Flipping through all cards with morph, there are two that catch my eye.

The first, and potentially more lucrative reprint, is Birchlore Ranger. It’s a relatively unassuming common elf. A 1/1 for one that gives you a mana if you tap two elves. Seems unimpressive, right? The hook here is that Modern elves would kill for this card. Having access to Birchlore Ranger means Modern elves can play things like Beck without bending over backwards to accommodate it with mana. It also gives them access to all sorts of important off-color spells that will fill holes from other missing Legacy cards. If Birchlore is reprinted, expect Modern elves to become a lot more relevant. In this scenario Beck is a good choice, but we can go deeper. Cloudstone Curio may be what we want, perhaps Craterhoof Behemoth, or quite possibly something I’m not even aware of. In the event that Birchlore shows up again, start watching Modern elves lists like a hawk.

A second, less exciting reprint would be Exalted Angel. Exalted Angel won a Pro Tour I believe, and even if she didn’t, she definitely made her mark on Standard back in the day. A reprint would jack up the pack foil for sure, and possibly the judge foil if the art is different this time around.

What else will we see out of Khans mechanics? Delve is a reasonable safe bet. According to this tweet from the panel, the Sultai (BUG) is a resource manipulation mechanic. That can mean a lot of things, but one of them is certainly delve. There are only three cards in Magic’s history with the keyword already, and only one relevant one: Tombstalker. If Tombstalker is reprinted, does he rocket in value?

Not necessarily. The Modern Masters edition would certainly take a hit, as the any new printing will have the same border. Only the Future Sight edition would stand to gain. It may jump a bit if he’s spoiled, but I’m not convinced he’ll make enough of a mark on Standard to matter. He’s already legal in Modern and sees no play there, so the only place this reprint will matter is Standard. Once Ravnica rotates we are not going to have much left in the way of graveyard support. Sure he can be a 2 mana 5/5, but does that matter enough on turn six or seven? It’s possible that the rest of the Sultai cards will have some graveyard support, but I’m hesitant to say that Tombstalker will be strong enough. Considering the FUT foils are $20+ already, this seems easy to stay away from.

Another Khans piece of info is that the prerelease will not have five promos, but forty. Each color will have eight options. For example, if you’re playing green at the prerelease, you get to choose between Overcosted Hydra, Weak Hydra, Situationally Relevant Hydra, Giant Growth Hydra, and four other hydras. Assuming distribution is similar to past prerelease promos, this will serve to suppress the price on forty different rares instead of five. There were fifty-three rares in Theros, which means only about thirteen Khans rares will be potentially financially relevant. This doesn’t feel like too much of a departure from the norm, but now the cards we should care about are much more clear. If 75% of the rares in the set are promos, only 25% have a chance to really climb.

What’s most interesting about this is if this is a plan they intend to continue implementing. Born of the Gods and Journey Into Nyx only have thirty-five rares. Are they adding five rares to the small sets to keep up with the forty promos? Does that mean every rare will have a promo? They can’t all have alternate art, right? This will be pretty important down the road, but for now we simply don’t have much info.

One point that sort of slipped under the radar of most coverage is that the winter and spring set’s release dates have been moved. Apparently, the winter set will hit in January and the spring set will be releasing in March. For reference, Journey into Nyx was released May 2nd. Even if “Louie” hits the last Friday in March, the 27th, it’s still a solid five weeks earlier than JOU, and there will only be six or seven weeks between the winter and spring sets. That’s a rather breakneck release schedule after the first of the year. My guess is that the reasoning behind this is to put a little room between the “Louie” and a large announcement next summer; possibly Modern Masters 2. There was only a month between the original Modern Masters and Dragon’s Maze. MM stole most of DGM’s thunder, especially since the Modern reprints were so much more exciting than most of what DGM had in store. I’m not exactly sure what impact this will have on Khans block singles at this point. We’ll figure that out at a later date.

Moving the spring set back a month and a half really sets up a big product in early summer. If it’s not another Modern Masters, it’s sure to be something exciting.

There certainly was a lot to cover this year, and I don’t doubt that I missed parts of it too. If I missed something you want to discuss, plop it in the comments.

By: Jared Yost

It’s that time of year again! Comic-Con International: San Diego (SDCC) has come and gone and with it Magic players had the chance of purchasing the Axe Pack of SDCC planeswalkers that are an exclusive of the 2014 SDCC. If you were able to attend in person and buy the set for the retail price of $110.99, or even buying at double markup, then you made out like a bandit. This planeswalker set is currently being sold anywhere from $350 to $475 on eBay and $450 (with axe) on Starcitygames. Even the axe is being sold individually for $65 on eBay.

The difference this year is that we now have six planeswalkers in the set rather than five. Since the core set this year had six planeswalkers, the promos had to mirror this setup in order to coincide with the walkers in the core set. The art also looks exactly the same as last year’s SDCC set. A black background is outlined in the planeswalker’s respective color in order to add a more dramatic effect to the card.

If you’re interested in picking up either the whole set of SDCC planeswalkers or an individual one, I think it would be best to take a look at the past SDCC planeswalker prices to determine if it is better to purchase them as a whole set or to buy them on an individual basis. Since the previous set has been in the market for a year, I want to see if purchasing the original set as a bundle or as individual planeswalkers was better.

Based on sold ebay listings, if you shop savvy you could have yourself the first run of SDCC planeswalkers for around $500 to $520. Several of the sold listings have gone over $600, so being able to get one close to $500 is a great price but realistically expect to pay anywhere from $550 to $600 for a sealed box of the original planeswalkers.

If we turn back the clock to SDCC 2013, you could pick up this product on eBay for $475 BIN. I couldn’t find any listings closer to the date of the comic con, however if I recall correctly people were selling them for the first week or so after the event for around $250 per set. A few months later, once people realized how rare the set was, the price doubled and the rest is history.

Even more interesting was that Starcitygames was buying the 2013 sealed packs for $500 per set a few months after they came out. Unfortunately they aren’t being nearly as generous this soon after the convention for 2014. They are buying the 2013 set for $450 and the 2014 set for $275. This takes SCG out of the picture as an easy way to sell the 2014 set because you are losing some money selling the pack to their buylist if you managed to pick one up at SDCC. Instead, you should take your time selling the set on eBay or another outlet to try and get the most bang for your buck.

Looking at the prices now, the 2013 SDCC planeswalkers are priced as follows:

 

Card	Price (average)
Garruk, Caller of Beasts	$180
Chandra, Pyromaster	$236
Jace, Memory Adept	$140
Ajani, Caller of the Pride	$120
Liliana of the Dark Realms	$94
Total	$740

There is definitely a premium to buying the cards separately. From the averages, I can tell that players want the SDCC Chandra, Pyromaster the most and Liliana of the Dark Realms the least based on price. I would highly recommend that you buy the SDCC 2013 planeswalkers as a set if you get the chance because it is the cheapest way to pick up all the walkers for your collection if that is your goal. However, many players can’t afford or don’t want the whole set, so if you looking to try and get singles from this set I would recommend that you pick up either Liliana or Garruk.

Liliana is the cheapest of the bunch, yet she is still as rare as the rest of the planeswalkers. Her cost of entry is lower than the other Planeswalkers so I believe that she is the planeswalker to get in on if you want to own a piece of the 2013 exclusive set. Her price will only go up along with the rest of the 2013 walkers over time. I’ve heard that this first run was only 5,000 sets – which means that there are less copies of these singles of out there than any other Magic card barring test prints, Alpha / Beta rarities, and other Magic oddities (I’m not sure what the numbers are for media inserts like Mana Crypt, Jace, or Standstill). Wizards has created a way for new players to own a piece of Magic history. Who knows how much these sets or individual cards will be worth in 20+ years if the game is as strong then as it is now.

I’m also a believer in Garruk from the 2013 set. He isn’t as expensive as Chandra and I feel that he has the most to gain as the set ages if you can purchase him for $170 to $200. He is my favorite Planeswalker from this set because he is strong in Commander and casual formats, which will be the main driver of the price of these cards. I think the price of the SDCC promo will reflect this as players try to acquire him for Commander decks and cubes.

I admit, Chandra is definitely the best planeswalker from this set for cubes – I feel that many of the 2013 Chandras have made it into someone’s cube already. Realistically though, $240 is a lot for a single card out of this set especially since there is a SDCC 2014 version of her. Garruk is much more affordable and just as good without the reprint, so I feel that more players will be looking to pick him up as time goes on which in turn will drive the price up.

Back to the 2014 batch of walkers. Sealed sets on eBay seem to be selling anywhere from $350 to $475 – this is exactly in line with what the 2013 sealed sets were selling for last year once people realized what they had. Priced individually, the Planeswalkers are being offered at the following prices from Starcitygames:

Card	Price (based on SCG)
Nissa, Worldwaker	$100
Garruk, Apex Predator	$120
Ajani Steadfast	$80
Jace, the Living Guildpact	$80
Liliana Vess	$80
Chandra, Pyromaster	$80
Total	$540

Again, buying the singles individually over time is going to cost you more than the whole set. Many people are saying that this set is a good deal right now even at $500 because there are six planeswalkers which means there is a higher chance that any of them could break out and become very popular. In other words, as most premium products go the sooner you pick yours up the better. If you’re looking to buy singles out of the 2014 set, I would wait for the prices to settle a bit more before diving in even if that means that one of the Planeswalkers could spike higher than the rest. We don’t yet know which of the Planeswalkers will be the most sought after. At this stage in the game, purchasing singles means you’re gambling on what you think most players will want in the future. I’ve found that many times I’ve been mistaken about this, so I imagine many of you have as well. It especially hurts to be wrong on a product that doesn’t have a low cost of entry.

For example, I could argue that 2014 Liliana will be the most expensive in the future because Liliana Vess has a billion printings and still commands a price of $6 for the M15 version. Players seem to love Liliana Vess, and I’m not saying that if she only had one printing she would be the same price as Liliana of the Veil but I’m betting she would still be at least $30. I couldn’t even imagine what the foil price might be. This is all just a hypothetical yet I wanted to point out that anyone could give a valid argument for any of the planeswalkers from SDCC 2014.

All told, the SDCC 2014 promos seem to be history repeating itself again. If you want your set, any offer from $375 to $450 seems pretty fair to me depending on how quickly you want to sell them. I would only recommend buying the cards as a set at this point because I don’t know if there were more 2014 sets released than 2013 – 5,000 2013 sets seems pretty low for an extremely popular promotional product that I’m guessing sold out at Hasbro within a week, two weeks tops. If there was a much larger release of the 2014 walkers than some of the singles prices could be much higher than their actual demand, much like a presale price when a new set is released. I’m going to let the hype die down before I decide which planeswalkers are the best.