Jason Alt, Unlocked ProTrader

Unlocked Pro Trader: Time Marches On

Readers !

We have more cards and I have more picks. Last year at the end of the year was hectic and while it still feels too soon to have cards to write about and I literally haven’t busted all of my packs of the last set (by “last set” I mean “last set I’m going to buy collector booster boxes of”) but we have cards so cards we must discuss. Here are the quick hits on the new stuff.

There are a LOT of decks here for the relatively few spoilers we have. Part of that is that people are building a lot and the game is popular, and part of is that EDHREC spent the last year trying to get the daily scraping routine to finish faster, resulting in data days and sometimes weeks earlier than before. We have a clear winner and some clear other favorites, so let’s do quick hits before everyone else figures out how much data we have.

I mean, yeah. It’s fairly crazy that staples like Ramunap Excavator and Tireless Provisioner have such high synergy given their ubiquity across various formats, but there hasn’t really been a good landfall commander in the last 2 years that would lower these scores at all, so high synergy and high inclusion are basically the same in this case.

This card which warped other formats is not only legal in EDH, most people forget that it’s an option. Deathrite is very good in this deck and since it’s demonstrated that it can hit $12 repeatedly in the past and its one actual reprint was in Eternal Masters, I think this is a good buy under $7.

Eventually this card will stop cycling and go up more or down more. The buylist seems to be following the curves which makes me think that automated processes are buying these at a certain buylist number and driving retail up for a bit. If you’re asking me to bet whether this hits $15 or $5 next, my money is on $12 and if it hits $15, buy me a beer or something.

I was so pleased with myself for grabbing cheap foils of Retreat to Coralhelm, the one they had no trouble reprinting in foil, and ignored $0.30 foils like this one. I thought it was too easy to see Coralhelm coming, turns out I played myself and missed big on this one. In a world full of different kinds of Lords Windgrace and Obs Nixilis, it would have been nice to grab a brick of these at literal dirt. Sometimes you just have to give a foil uncommon 7 years to really establish itself.

Pop quiz, hot shot. You see an erstwhile $30 card on the Reserved List that is going to be popular in a new deck based on a character from the deck that made this go up from $0.25 making it one of the first huge hits from this article series. What do you do? Bonus points if you can answer after shooting Jeff Daniels in the leg. Like in Speed. That one is for some of you.

Lol, OK, wow.

This would be a great time for Villainous Wealth to go way up but it’s been printed way more times than it needed to have been. Still, the foils are cheap and have never been cheaper. Opportunity knocking?

The regular foil keeps getting tanked, but there is one version I don’t hate financially.

The etched foil has hovered between $3 and $4 since the card came out and this huge bump from Omnath could be a very big bump in price. There are lots of versions and another foil, but the etched foil is barely more than the regular foil and is the only version of this card with a positive price trend in the last 3 months.

This is already on its way back to $5, but if you don’t think it will hit $10 again, you’re still doing great buying in around $3. This whole cycle seems great in general, and insane in Omnath. Even the garbage Jeskai one could see play! Also, the garbage Jeskai one is better than I remember.

And now my riskiest call of the article. High risk high reward here – hitting $35 again on a $17 buy-in feels like cheating. I hope this gets there, but it’s also super cheap just in general for what the card does and I can’t think of an Omnath player who won’t want to try and cheese with this.

We can go deeper into the lineup of popular commanders next time – I didn’t expect to find so many hits in cards that are basically the abilities of Thalia and Gitrog Monster and an all-color Omnath with no landfall abilities. Omnath has a ton of ways to be built, so make sure you use the filters to look at the full pages for each build. Here, I’ll show you.

Each of those themes will give you a separate page, and the high synergy cards will be different. Unbound Flourishing isn’t breaking any records in general, but with that a nice, easy way to play the deck (and a fun one), all kinds of cards from Sphinx’s Revelation to Aurelia’s Fury are in play. There’s a lot happening, and we’ll get to more next week. Until next time!

Casual Fridays

Previews, Teasers, And Hints

This week, we got our first preview of some of the products coming down the line this summer, and while there’s a lot to unpack from March of the Machine, its Aftermath, or the Lord of the Rings set, I want to talk about what we’ve been shown for Commander Masters, due out in early August.

We got previews of three cards: Capture of Jingzhou, Jeweled Lotus, and The Ur-Dragon! Additionally, the themes for the four preconstructed decks are Eldrazi, Planeswalkers, Enchantments, and Slivers!

Given that information, there’s some things we can think about and make plans for, while exercising some caution about what is still unknown.

First of all, I think that The Ur-Dragon is going to lead to a whole bunch of Dragon cards going wild. We’re going to be getting cards designed for Commander! We’re getting the first booster pack printing ever for the king of all Dragons. Until now, you were stuck with the Commander 2017 version (five and a half years old) or the Secret Lair drop version, which was in the very first round of cards and is three years old.

We’ve had some notable jumps, generally when Dragons are given attention. The five mythic Dragons and Tiamat from Adventures in the Forgotten Realms started it, and the more recent combinations of Dragon goodness in Battle for Baldur’s Gate that included Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm has really pushed it up lately. 

However, the price of The Ur-Dragon has really kept people from enjoying the broken mechanic that is Eminence. A mana rock that is always on, can’t be interacted with, and helps you cast your creatures is enormously powerful, especially when those creatures are generally the most powerful things on the board. 

I think we’re going to get a lot of new Ur-Dragon builds, and I’m in favor of this! I have the deck myself and it is a lot of fun to slam huge flying lizards and turn them sideways. Before I start buying cards like crazy, I have to keep in mind that this set is a mix of reprints and new cards, so there’s a strong chance of these specs being in the set. 

Hellkite Courser (FEA) – Available for $40, this is not only an amazing card for Dragon decks, it’s really good with Commanders in general. We’re getting plenty of new commanders in this set, and Courser is one of the only ways to cheat it out. I adore this card in my deck, and especially because it’s only five mana for me! I get card draw, cheating things into play, and smash for ten commander damage! Supply on this is extremely tight, since CML was the set where you were only 30% to get an EA card in that slot. I’m expecting this to be reprinted, because it synergizes with other huge commanders, but if it’s not then the sky is the limit on these.

Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm is at under $2 for the foil-etched version, which looks loads better than the Monster Manual art version. Players don’t seem to like that art style at all, going by the relative prices for such cards.  The only exception is the Beadle and Grimm Secret Lair with Dragons, those are going for good prices due to scarcity. 

Miirym is a terrifying card to see from a Dragon deck, and worthy of being the Commander too. I think that a rising tide lifts all the boats and so we’ll see versions of Miirym break $5.

I think there will be another printing for Path of Ancestry, though the FEA are tempting at under $5. With two tribal precon decks, and some more dragons coming, this is a card that will get more copies. What I want to watch out for is repeated reprints that drive it into the ground, like Fabled Passage. If Path isn’t in this set, I’ll feel good about buying some copies.

Scalelord Reckoner seems like a lock for a new printing, since it’s not available in foil and has a high price which is totally due to only being in one deck ever. Premium treatments here would be great, and if it’s a mythic, then I would give it a good shot to rise from mid-level preorder pricing. Definitely stay away from buying copies till after this set is fully previewed.

Klauth, Unrivaled Ancient is probably not going to get a reprint, but I’m not certain if we ought to target the EA nonfoil or the regular-frame foil. Klauth’s Will is a phenomenal card too, and EA versions are a solid pickup for the flexibility they offer. Your commander doesn’t need to be a Dragon, so if you want a wrath and mass artifact/enchantment removal in RG, here’s your card. 

I’m really hoping we get more foil versions or an EA foil for Rhythm of the Wild, but if that’s not reprinted here, it’ll have to be in a Secret Lair soon.

Sarkhan’s Unsealing seems positioned well to avoid a reprint, naming that planeswalker and fixating on big power. We don’t have anything special for it, just the foils that predate Booster Fun. It’s game-wreckingly powerful in the right deck though. 

Finally, let’s give it up for a 2X2 reprint that is tracking lower and will be in prime position when CMM releases: Urza’s Incubator.

I don’t want to buy it now. It’s only been a couple months and the price hasn’t finished falling. It’s listed in 45k Commander decks online, and that number has been kept down by the card’s very high price until this reprint. We’ve seen it tumble more than $20 from the opening, and I’m expecting to see it in the $15 range, maybe $13, in the next few months.

I’d go after the retro frame foils first, even if they were a little more expensive, because I like that frame more, but either of the special versions is where I’ll want to be.

Cliff (@WordOfCommander) has been writing for MTGPrice since 2013, and is an eager Commander player, Draft enthusiast, and Cube fanatic. A high school science teacher by day, he’s also the official substitute teacher of the MTG Fast Finance podcast. If you’re ever at a GP and you see a giant flashing ‘CUBE DRAFT’ sign, go over, say hi, and be ready to draft.

Jason Alt, Unlocked ProTrader

Unlocked Pro Trader: March Madness

Readers!

We have seen enough of the new cards to speculate baselessly which, thought I said differently last week, is the best way to speculate. I am going to semi-baselessly speculate because I’m too good at this not to have a basis even when there is no basis. Or something. Look, there are new commanders, I’m going to look at them and think about cards that go in the decks, OK? This is like my 12th year doing this, and writing what I am going to do right before I do it is kind of boring to me but I also know I really need to do it.

Let’s look at some cards and I’ll talk about some other cards and we’ll call it a day. Sound good? OK, here we go.

This is a strong one. Right away, landfall stuff, the way I would typically build an Omnath deck (I have 5, soon to be 6. Yes, I have 2 Locus of Creation decks. Sue me) but this one doesn’t care if the mana is from lands. In fact, is way more unfair if it isn’t. Here are 2 sources I think are superlative.

If they ever stop printing this card, it could go way up. Also, if they just stop printing foils, the foils can go up, so either way, we’re likely in bad shape here. I don’t trust them not to reprint this, and riding the wave back up from $3 to $6 isn’t my bag these days. It is free money for you, though, until it isn’t.

The foil thing was a joke, there’s 1 and it’s bonkers. Could this be $200 on CK again? Maybe! I don’t want to buy at $150 and try and find out, but that 99 Euro NM English copy on Card Market might find its way into my basket. If you want less risk, I have an idea.

This card once flirted with $30 and now it is worth less than half of that. Could this be $30 again? It’s going to be more than $12 again, that’s for sure. This has already demonstrated how high it can go and I plan to buy a lot of copies of this for personal use before I even start to speculate. This feels very, very strong to me in the deck, and with mana burn gone, there is no downside at all to this mana machine.

I don’t want to wade into which 3 color creatures are good, but you know what’s very good in a deck that plays Conflux like this deck probably will?

That’s right, Dream Halls. This is basically half of its historic peak as well. Was that buying driven by speculators trying to dump crypto gains into something stable? Maybe, but it’s on the Reserved List and it’s dirty in a deck like this where you have a good shot of pitching any given 3 color card for another one. This deck is going to be so much fun.

Black Market seems super good in this deck, too, honestly.

Looking at the Black Market price graph reminds me of the article where I talked about how I expected Blind Obedience to recover. Whelp! Extort is a sick ability in Commander but not enough cards have it. While Blind Obedience is too expensive right now, consider this monster.

As is the trend this week, this card also used to be worth more and is better now than it previously has been. Pontiff is very good but very slow. Play it in a slow deck, like this one.

I think this set is going to be huge and that’s a shame because I still haven’t really processed Brother’s War. Next week we’ll have some data to dig into so, until then, check my twitter feed, the Pro Trader’s Discord and your bulk. Until next time!

Casual Fridays

Pro Tour? In This Economy?

Normally, we have to wait until during the weekend for Pro Tour decks to come out, for us to get access to the top information. Those days are gone, because decklists are due Wednesday night, and Thursday, we get metagame information.

With this information in hand, and the rest of Karsten’s article here, we can look ahead and figure out what to buy if the Pro Tour is back and if Pioneer is really really a thing. 

For the record, I think it is, and not just because of my previous specs.

Decklists will go up Friday afternoon local time, around when Pioneer play starts. Everyone’s list will be published, in order to minimize the advantage bigger testing teams used to get by watching lots of matches, recording data, and feeding it to others on their team. Big, skilled teams still get great practice and advice, but more information is a good thing.

We’re told the top cards across all decks: “The most-played nonland cards across all main decks and sideboards were Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, Thoughtseize, Fatal Push, Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic, and Bonecrusher Giant.”

I’ve been skeptical about how much higher Fable can go, but it’s already in need of a reprint and it is a Standard-legal rare. One card represents two creatures and a rummage for two cards, which we’ve established is already redonk good. 

Yes, you could have gotten in at extremely low prices early on, and several of our ProTraders did. However, I think that only a reprint can cool this card off. It’s a top spell in Pioneer, very good in Modern, and it has a more than respectable 19,500 decks listed on EDHREC. It might dip down a little as we come up to its rotation out of Standard, but I won’t be shocked to see this rise till its reprint arrives.

Thoughtseize is a different story. It’s got a massive amount of reprints, multiple premium editions, and while it’s a staple in Modern and Pioneer alike, there would have to be a massive surge of interest to crank prices higher. Even if they did go up, Wizards has shows a willingness to reprint this into the ground. I’d stay away here, as well as from Fatal Push, a card with a similar ‘too many cooks’ problem.

The Elf cards are intriguing. One-mana dorks will always have a place in decks looking to get out fast, and there’s some specific targetable versions that I can see going in for. These elves also have the bonus that when you go for these cards, you’re getting a matching playset, not just a singleton. If these decks get a lot of attention and put up some results, watch out for prices to go up.

Llanowar Elves has a sweet Secret Lair version that might be the right nonfoil choice. There’s a ton of copies, it being a recent lair, but my eye is really on the foil Dominaria promo versions. Larger art, simplified frame, very unique while still being a Magic card, and not a huge number of copies out there. Elvish Mystic has some awesome choices for art, but if you’re betting on tournament play you might want to target the Time Spiral Remastered retro non-foils for around $7 each. One vendor has 33 copies as of this writing, but the overall quantity is small, especially if you’re counting by four. 

I’ve extolled Bonecrusher Giant before, and I’ll say it again: a spell this popular probably shouldn’t be this cheap.

We did get extras in one of the CLB precon decks, and that plus inclusion on The List has been enough to keep the price in check. We’ll see if a reprint comes soon, though.

There’s one more set of cards worth calling out: the fastlands. These are new to Pioneer and are among the most popular cards this weekend. Right now, the BR and RG ones are on top but all of them will have their place in the sun. I love picking up your playsets of foil or nonfoil ZNR Expeditions right now, because the while borderless ones are cool, these are cooler.

Supply is also pretty light here, so get in there and get what you can at under $20 before a few playsets sell and you’re looking at $30-$40 a copy. 

The different archetype decks will highlight what certain cards can do, but I want to talk about one more card that perfectly shows both what a card can do and why you want to sell into the spikes: Indomitable Creativity.

The current iterations of this deck use some generated tokens before casting this at x=2, hitting the only two creatures in the deck: Worldspine Wurm and Xenagos, God of Revels, giving them a 30/30 trample crashing in that leaves behind three 5/5 tokens if you kill it without an exile effect. The rest of the deck is a UR control-type list, very reactive and ready to interact with your game plan.

The namesake card hit big, as you can see, but within a couple weeks prices had come back down to pre-spike levels. I think this is an excellent candidate to be in a Secret Lair soon, but we’ve got at least a month left on the current drop and the Pro Tour is this weekend. Hitting your opponent for 30 hasty trample damage is the stuff of Magic players’ dreams, and if the deck performs well, I think you’ll see this card spike hard yet again. 

Cliff (@WordOfCommander) has been writing for MTGPrice since 2013, and is an eager Commander player, Draft enthusiast, and Cube fanatic. A high school science teacher by day, he’s also the official substitute teacher of the MTG Fast Finance podcast. If you’re ever at a GP and you see a giant flashing ‘CUBE DRAFT’ sign, go over, say hi, and be ready to draft.

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