Rachel Agnes, The Collector

Dripping with Icony

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Soooo… Iconic Masters! I am sure many of you have heard about this recent announcement that has been blowing up the MTG social media sphere. We know very little about the set so far other than the details are going to be relatively secretive. With the prominence of the Internet, spoilers run rampant and everyone knows the set’s contents a week or two in advance. Wizards has stated that there will be no spoiler season for this set and that the goods will be revealed the day of release when players first open the packs. They stated their desire to emulate the old feeling of cracking your first packs from a new set.

Additionally, there is one other BIG thing we know about this November 2017 Iconic Masters set (IMA) so far… There will be ZERO Reserved List cards printed in it.

When players hear the word “Iconic” in regards to Magic the Gathering many things come to mind. Lightning Bolt, Swords to Plowshare, Shivan Dragon, Serra Angel, Force of Will, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Tarmogoyf, Wasteland, and even Storm Crow. Those seem like viable options for reprints right? Well what about cards like Black Lotus, Juzam Djinn, Wheel of Fortune, Time Walk, Ancestral Recall, Time Vault, Library of Alexandria, Mishra’s Workshop, Tolarain Academy, and Bazaar of Baghdad? Surely those cards also evoke a feeling of or nostalgic and reverence. They are also absolutely iconic. I know they do for me and I’ve only been playing since Innistrad!

Since their initial announcement, Wizards has publicly stated that they will not be printing any Reserved List cards in the set and that there are plenty of iconic cards besides them to be included. I could go on for hours about the Reserved List, its merits and its downsides, but that is for another article.

For this article today I would like to discuss my top 10 wishlist for Iconic Masters. This isn’t a list of cards I think will be in the set, just cards that I would love to see. To preface this list, I would like to mention I would be over the moon if they brought back the old border for all the cards in the set. I know it is probably asking for the impossible but, it is technically allowable. Since it would look horribly mismatched if they did half and half, I would suggest that the whole set be printed in old, pre-8th Edition border, but that is surely a pipe dream. A girl can dream right? Let’s dig in!

10. Shivan Dragon

I would LOVE to see Shivan Dragon in this set. There is no argument against the original Melissa Benson artwork as  it is a memorable callback to days long gone. Wizards may have stated that there would be many new card artworks in the set, but you can’t beat this classic.

IMA booster packs will have an MSRP of $9.99 per pack. NOBODY wants to open a Shivan Dragon from a pack that cost them $10, so the solution? Make it an uncommon! We have already seen cards like Volcanic Dragon and Pardic Dragon at uncommon in other sets, so Shivan Dragon should be no different. Many players once coveted the mighty Shivan Dragon and seeing them at uncommon would be win-win for everyone.

9. Grim Tutor

Grim Tutor is a very expensive piece of cardboard. Rolling in at over $200 each, Grim Tutor is in desperate need of a reprint. Tutors are an iconic part of Magic’s history. Grim Tutor has always been eclipsed by its peers, most of which are more powerful.

That being said, most of the other tutors have seen several reprints. This would be a great opportunity to finally reprint Grim Tutor with new artwork to boot. Maybe keep that amazing flavor text, though.

8. Necropotence

Combo decks have had a huge impact on Magic’s history. Some of these decks were so powerful that they even instilled fear in the hearts of opponents. Necropotence, while not being the first combo card of all time, surely does a great job displaying the more broken aspects of Magic. I understand the need for this to be printed at rare/mythic, but I am hoping for the former. When Necropotence was a mythic in Eternal Masters it was a complete dud to open. It would hit the sweet spot at rare, even with the $10 MSRP.

The Mark Tedin artwork is a must and I would absolutely cry if I saw the FTV/Eternal Masters artwork again in IMA. To make this card even more viable for Limited I would also include Dark Ritual as a common/uncommon. Without the Storm mechanic, I think it would be safe to have a turn 1 Necropotence here and there in Limited. That’s never something I thought I would write, but here we are folks. There was a time where that was absolutely iconic and everyone should be able to try it at least once… or ten times.

7. Ancestral Vision

Ancestral Recall is one of the most iconic spells of all time. No ifs, ands or buts about it.  Being a piece of the prestigious Power 9 and arguably the most powerful spell ever certainly makes its mark. But that card cannot be reprinted. SO, how about a card that calls back upon this powerful spell and is in desperate need of a reprint?

Ancestral Vision is illustrated by the talented Mark Poole, the same artist as Ancestral Recall itself. The card was created in Time Spiral as a throwback to the early Magic draw spell and has since been adopted in Modern. Despite being printed three total times, this card still commands a ~$50 price tag. Not to mention, the foil version hovers around $200. Combine these factors and you have the perfect candidate for a reprint. This spell and would be a great addition to IMA’s value.

6. Crucible of Worlds

Crucible of Worlds was actually part of program WotC had called “You Make the Card.” This was where, through a series of public polls, Wizards actually built a card from scratch and used various player-submitted cards as inspiration. They have made several cards this way, but Crucible of Worlds is by far the most iconic and powerful.

Crucible of Worlds may not be an all-star in Limited, but it certainly sees play across every format it is legal in. Despite its various printings you are paying close to $60 for the cheapest copies. Combined with the fact that this card has absolutely stunning artwork by Ron Spencer makes it a welcome addition for value as well as its iconic place in Commander and Vintage.

5. Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Okay Jace the freakin Mind Sculptor is absolutely iconic. In the modern era of MTG, Planeswalkers are by far the most iconic cards. Jace the Mind Sculptor sticks out as a giant among Planeswalkers. This Jace is, without a doubt, the most powerful Planeswalker printed to date, and despite it having 3 printings, still pushes ~$60.

Jace deserves a place in IMA because it is recognizable to all and his power is ubiquitous with the color blue itself. I feel this card is extremely likely to be included in this set, and because of this, any small hope I may have held for an all-old bordered set is shattered. Old frame planeswalkers just isn’t going to happen. And for that I will remain forever sad.

4. Lightning Bolt

Christopher Rush, old border, no flavor text. Done. Article is over thanks for reading!

Okay just kidding. Black Lotus may wear the crown for the most iconic card in all of Magic the Gathering, but Lightning Bolt is certainly top 5. Seeing a brand new black bordered version of the Christopher Rush classic artwork Lightning Bolt coming out of a booster pack would overwhelm so many players, old and new, with incredible emotion.

I know Lightning Bolt isn’t the most expensive card and it would only be a common or uncommon at best. But, a sub ~$200 version of Christopher’s artwork in foil would be amazing for us all. Formats with Lightning Bolt are a blast to play and this spell is always deserving of a place in masters sets. I do uphold the condition that if IMA does not contain the Christopher Rush artwork for Lightning Bolt, I would absolutely remove this card from my list and replace it with something like Birds of Paradise.

3. Lord of Atlantis

Let’s face it, Merfolk are awesome. You either love them or you’re wrong. Merfolk are such a classic tribe in Magic and one of the few that see play in competitive formats almost 25 years later. When Lord of Atlantis was printed in Alpha, Merfolk of the Pearl Trident was the only creature in the game that it could actually pump. Did that stop people from running the little blue men in their deck? Nope.

Lord of Atlantis has a storied history throughout Magic and saw play in every constructed format there is. Because of their popularity, many creature of this tribe are actually quite costly. Cursecatcher, Silvergill Adept, and Merrow Reejery all contribute to the inflated price tag of this tribal deck. When they made the Modern pre-constructed decks, I believed that Merfolk would eventually be one of the products. But the plug was promptly pulled on that product forcing us to look elsewhere for needed reprints. This would be a great time to reprint not just Lord of Atlantis (please Melissa Benson art) but quite a few fishy friends for an amazing limited archetype. Move over Master of the Pearl Trident, bring us back the classic.

2. Rishadan Port

Perhaps the most requested reprint we didn’t get from Eternal Masters was Rishadan Port. Sporting play as a 4-of in both Legacy Lands and Death and Taxes, the Port commands a price tag over $100. When it comes to this iconic land, it isn’t a matter of if, but when it will be reprinted. I figured Wizards would wait for Eternal Masters 2 to reprint this iconic land as a flagship addition to the set, along with the classics like Force of Will and Mana Crypt. But now, Iconic Masters would be an even better spot for the much desired reprint.

Rishadan Port has one of the most amazing artworks in the game and the original painting recently changed hands for around a whopping $80,000!! So yeah, I would absolutely call this card as iconic as it gets. Since they commissioned a new artwork for the Judge Promo Port relatively recently, I would not be surprised if they went with that artwork. But hey, this is about my hopes and dreams here. Just spoil me please!

  1. Storm Crow

The moment you have all been waiting for. The card the masses have clamored for and reason for the season. Wizards has heard your cries of desperation and your songs of hope.

**Ahem** Moving on.

1. Demonic Tutor

And the winner is… Demonic Tutor! THE card I would most love to see reprinted in IMA, Demonic Tutor, is an Alpha classic. At one point it even graced the Reserved List. Most people who have ever picked up the game of Magic have seen or played with a Demonic Tutor. The original artwork, while iconic, would probably have issues being released in a 2017 world. This would be the perfect time for an amazing new artwork commission!

Demonic Tutor is the most powerful and most played tutor in all of Magic the Gathering. The effect is coveted and the power level is undeniable. This would make a perfect upshift to rare in Iconic Masters. It sees play in almost half of all black EDH decks posted online and obviously that number should easily be 100%. Never a bad draw, Demonic Tutor comes in clutch at all points of the game and the power of the deck itself is the only limit for the card. Because of this, even ugly white bordered versions of this spell command around $20 and the Divine vs. Demonic version is pushing above $30. With the only foil of this card soaring above $225 a pop this would absolutely be an excellent time to reprint this perfect little piece of MTG history.

That wraps up my thoughts on Magic’s November 2017 set Iconic Masters. This set will blow minds, I can guarantee that. You can’t just call a set iconic and have it disappoint. Magic has 25 years of rich history and amazing cards, so you can bet that there will be a little something for everyone here. What cards do you want to see reprinted? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments! I do read them all. Thanks so much!

Rachel Agnes is a VSL Competitor, Phyrexian Princess, Collector of all things shiny and a Cube, Vintage, Legacy, and EDH enthusiast.
Catch on Twitch and Twitter via Baetog_.

Jason Alt

Unlocked Pro Trader: Hulking Out

4 Comments

#&$@ Leovold. I don’t care, don’t let the door hit you in your three toughness. Buff-ass bureaucrat, sitting behind a desk shaking hands with his 3 toughness. Like he needed to be a 3/3 for 3, like his stats matter. Like he would be unplayable in Legacy if all he said was “Your opponents can’t cast Brainstorm or win with basically any combo deck.” Like people would say “I don’t know, a 1/1 for 3 is a bad rate for my EDH general when all his text box says is ‘If you resolve Teferi’s Puzzle Box, no one but you gets to play Magic.'” Eat a bag of elf $^%&, Leovold.

That said, I made a lot of money off of cards that Leovold made expensive and while I don’t think any of those cards will tank too much because of price memory and the post hoc justification about how they’re all played in Nekusar,  Nekusar himself actually is trending up in price because Legacy and Vintage are making up the bulk of his demand and with the elimination of Sensei’s Top, people are going to lean on him harder than they did before. Leovold, you made a lot of people a lot of money and for that we thank you. If your demand continues to increase, maybe my LGS will clear out a few more of the boxes of Conspiracy they accidentally overordered and can’t get rid of.

Out with Leovold and in with a card that may or may not have belonged in card jail – Protean Hulk. For those of you who don’t know what Protean Hulk does, he basically enables combos that are so convoluted that my favorite story about Protean Hulk is from 2005.

 

People were playing a Flash-Hulk deck in what I have to imagine was either Extended or Legacy at a GP. Day one, everyone was scooping to a resolved Flashed Hulk because the Hulk player would get a bunch of cards and say “I win the game with my combo” and the other player would say “Darn, you won the game with your combo. I hope you don’t win the game with your combo next game.” Day two was veritably lousy with copies of the deck because it got so many free wins. On day two, people started to say “Please demonstrate the combo for me” and then the Flash Hulk player would start to say “Well, I go get these creatures and then I combo” and if you asked “How does the combo work?” or said “I use Mogg Fanatic to kill a creature in response” some players would demonstrate the combo properly but others would burst into flames and you would get the free win instead of them.

Protean Hulk sure does enable a lot of combos. But which ones? And how? I’m going to be honest, I don’t really know as much about a card that’s been banned in EDH as long as I’ve played EDH, but I have been playing Magic in some capacity since 1996 so it’s not like I can’t figure it out. You want to make some money? Well, all of the copies of Protean Hulk are gone, so we better look at combo pieces instead. Those are largely untouched. Let’s make some money, shall we?

Flash

Maybe this first one is a little bit obvious, but with the bulk of the EDH decks excited about Karador builds and the like, Blue stuff gets lost in the shuffle. This is already disappearing a little bit but there are still cheap, loose copies floating around. I have a bunch in the dollar box at my LGS I need to swoop in and scoop up unless someone beats me to it. I think this has upside and with its two printings coming from extremely low-volume sets, supply is not going to keep up with demand for long.

Body Double

Do I sort these by color, or…

Either way, Body Double is a card that plays a big part in a lot of Hulk combos. It was used in some of the classic Hulk combo decks and it’s being touted as a combo piece now. It’s blue, like Flash, so it likely ends up playing a part in a combo deck. I doubt you can do any combos in just Simic, but The Mimeoplasm has the infrastructure to just start jamming Hulk combo without much retooling and Tasigur and Sidisi and other decks will get there, also. Body Double got a duel deck reprinting, which hurts, but so did Coalition Relic. This is a low-risk, low-to-medium-reward spec, IMO.

Grand Architect

Hulk can get you the Pili-Pala, Architect combo, which can give you all of the manas. With infinite mana, you can do a lot of dirty things in Simic, Temur and Sultai or Bant. Win with Helix Pinnacle, deck yourself with Thraisos, deck everyone with Prosperity, etc. This also got a little heat when Breya came out and with that cooling off, this could be a second spike scenario and you all know how we feel about those. We’re in favor of them, that’s how.

Saffi Eriksdotter

Not sure who “Erik” is but his dotter is a beast of a Magic card. Already spiking hard recently. this card is not going down anytime soon, unless it’s considered “Iconic” enough to be included in “Iconic Masters” which may turn out to be a set where they fart out a ton of cards that badly need EDH reprints, something I welcome. You know how many $6 Phyrexian Altars I’ll sell? Because I currently sell 0 because they’re too expensive. Anyway, Saffi gets played in Hulk combos a lot because she interacts with Karmic Guide, another card I have been predicting is due for a price increase for a minute. I hope you stocked up.

Boonweaver Giant

Foils of this combo piece are under $0.50. I think of this fact every time people try to convince me that competitive EDH is a major driving force behind prices. This card has upside and the foils are safer from reprinting than the non-foils, but this is an important combo piece played in a lot of “competitive” EDH decks and the foil is worth less than guac at Chipotle. I think this will get some extra attention and there aren’t a ton of copies available so renewed interest could trigger a price avalanche, so buy in before that, I guess. What do I know? I predicted competitive players would buy Dramatic Reversal enough to make that foil price go above $1 and they printed Paradox Engine 2 months later.

Phyrexian Delver

This card is part of basically every combo I see, barring the ones that don’t use black. It’s not quite Karmic Guide but it does a pretty good impression and while your life total can sometimes matter, depending on how long the game goes, you shouldn’t need to use Delver to get Hulk back more than two times no matter what the rest of the combo looks like. If you have to go Whiteless, this card is part of the combo nearly every time. I think there is very little risk here and despite the Commander deck printing, there is upside enough to move the price. You know what’s even safer than the non-foils of a card they’ve demonstrated their willingness to print?

If you can find foils, they’re probably headed to $40 and beyond soon. This used to be a pretty reasonable card until, I guess, everyone started thinking about how good it was in a lot of combos and I credit Commander 2015 for reminding people the card existed. Hulk hype is driving this up a bit more, I think (I’m writing this under 24 hours after the announcement and the price has been on the move for a minute so it’s not just Hulk doing it) and this was a junk foil until pretty recently so there may be just rando copies in binders.

Feldon of the Third Path

It’s been a while since I revisited this card which is a shame, because it started to move while no one was looking. The spread is pretty low on this for a card that’s inching above its historic high. I think this card is taking off, and how well it pairs with Hulk combos has something to do with it. If you have a sac outlet, especially Ashnod’s Altar, you can KO them with Hulk, Lightning Mauler, Kiki-Jiki and Zealous Conscripts. Kiki-Conscripts was a known combo already, but Feldon helps you find both pieces from your deck by making another Hulk to get the job done. This is a complicated combo that takes a lot of mana, requiring you to use cards like Priest of Urabrask and Skirk Prospector, but we’re trying to KO people and if all those cards need to do is be somewhere in your deck, you’re OK with running a lot of components as long as you can find all of them with Hulk.

Feldon is already on a good path (heh) so whether or not Hulkamania moves his price at all, it’s already a good card to be about. Buying at the floor was better, but buying right before it crosses the threshold of its historic high with a very low spread seems also fine. Breya is a deck that loves this and with WotC being fully aware that people want a UR artifact commander, we could get one any day now and then a card like this has real upside.

Karmic Guide 

This was in Commander 2013 and I predicted it could climb in price. I was totally right. Then came Eternal Masters. I think this could climb again and maybe even flirt with $5, but Iconic Masters is coming soon.

I think Karmic Guide is not where you want to be. That said, it’s part of every single combo with Protean Hulk in decks that run White, so maybe you want to at least have them on hand.

I think Hulkamania will be pretty rad at first but as time goes by, it will taper off (much like the real Hulkamania) and Hulk decks will be just another deck. Hulk really isn’t getting us combos that are that much worse than Tooth and Nail was getting us, especially if you are not playing Hulk for 2 mana with flash. There are counterspells, removal spells, graveyard hate spells and the RC can always just re-ban Hulk if this experiment doesn’t work out. Sure, twitter and Reddit will pule and whine about how Sheldon and co. don’t know what they’re doing, but they say that literally every ban announcement anyway so those complaints are like the buzzing of insects at this point.

That does it for me. I have been doing a lot of reading about Hulk combos but if there is something I missed, throw it in a comment and we’ll talk about whether the buy-in makes sense. People bought all of the Hulks but there are plenty of targets left. Buy before everyone else and your orders won’t get cancelled. Until next week!

Travis Allen, Watchtower

PROTRADER: The Watchtower 4/24/17

3 Comments

By: Travis Allen
@wizardbumpin

Don’t miss this week’s installment of the MTG Fast Finance podcast, an on-topic, no-nonsense tour through the week’s most important changes in the Magic economy. And if you enjoy playing Magic, make sure to visit https://scry.land to find PPTQs, SCG Opens, and more events on an interactive map with worldwide coverage. Find Magic near you today.

Well, uh, so much for a fresh, new, exciting Standard, eh? It’s not much of a stretch to say that nearly everybody, even those that wouldn’t have cared for the decision, were expecting a ban on Felidar Guardian. After Wizards openly admitted that it was a mistake in the first place, and seeing that it’s now nearly 40% of the metagame, and possibly an even larger percentage of Standard top eights, how could they not get rid of the combo? Removing Copy Cat would dramatically open up the format for all sorts of strategies to try and find their home, an excellent recipe for a Pro Tour.

Instead, Wizards changed nothing in Standard, and we’re left with existing Standard + Amonkhet, rather than New Standard. While Amonkhet brings new tools to the table, (and I find myself wishing I could reasonably spec on Manglehorn), I’m suspect that we’ll really see any especially exciting shakeups. Our most likely universe is the one in which there’s a bunch of Copy Cat and Vehicles players, each with some clever tech for mirrors, and then 10% of the room playing something different, of which one or two will manage to make T16.

It’s disappointing, especially from a market perspective, but what can you do? Join us again in about two months when we go through this song and dance once again. For today, I’m going to skip Standard, simply because I’m not sure where to turn. Glorybringer is already up to $5, and beyond that, a lot of pros are talking on Twitter about just locking Copy Cat now and moving on to drafting. Once I have a better idea of what changes to Standard may look like, I’ll start covering cards over there.

Odds/Ends

Price Today: $7.50
Possible Price: $15

I’m as surprised as you are, but it’s my duty to share these things with all of you. If ever there were a longshot with a payoff potential, it’s Odds//Ends.

As some of you may recall, there was a change made to the way split cards are handled in regards to their converted mana costs. This came as a blow to their playability, with cascade spells no longer able to hit the cheaper half, Brain in a Jar no longer able to cast them, and other similar effects. Well, it turns out there’s a silver lining to all of this. The downside of not being able to cast split cards with cascade effects is that…you can’t cast split cards with cascade effects.

Practically, this allows decks that rely on cascade cards to now be able to play split cards without worrying about connecting with them. This is a considerably smaller scope than before, but it could have corner applications. In this case, it’s Ari Lax pointing out that there’s now a counterspell that’s playable in Restore Balance and Living End decks. (He built a URx Living End deck, in case you were wondering how he’s casting it.) Odds works by either A. countering their spell, or B. making a copy of their counterspell, which then counters their counterspell. Technically Determined of Bound/Determined is better at keeping your spell uncountered, but Odds//Ends lets you stop opposing combos, something Determined decidedly doesn’t. Odds only works half the time in that scenario, but half the time is better than none of the times, right?

Copies are floating around $.75 right now, and honestly, I don’t know why. They are though, and there aren’t that many, all things considered. Like Protean Hulk, it’s from Dissension, which means the supply is as close to zero as you can get in Modern. If this ends up a common component of these style decks, expect to see the price hitch up towards $3 or $4. It’s not a big gain, but if you can snag these out of $.25 or $.50 rare boxes, or you find them for cheaper than TCG somewhere online, there’s very little risk involved.


Protean Hulk

Price Today: $4.50
Possible Price: $30

While I was writing the intro to this article, Protean Hulk got unbanned in Commander. Know any quiet shops that don’t see a lot of online business? Now’s your chance. For most of us, this is a “there it goes,” not a “here it comes.” Sorry, I can’t tell people to slow down. I’m sure TCGPlayer is being bought out as I type these words.

Honestly, I didn’t even realize this was on the EDH ban list, but then again, it’s not the type of card I would ever seek to play. The mere fact that Hulk’s legality status has changed will probably bring the card to the attention of many players that simply didn’t know it existed, because they’re not the type of person to know a random rare creature from Dissension, and nobody in their EDH playgroup was running it (because it was banned). Now that they’ll see it out there, there could be a “oh, that’s a card? I need that!” moment for a lot of players. It helps too that the card is quite good in EDH; saccing this to any random sac effect allows you to set up an instant kill, if you so desire, or even just value engines if you don’t. There’s probably some engine in there with Eternal Witness, Restoration Angel, and a few more copy/bounce effects that will let you drag every creature in your deck under six mana into play.

Protean Hulk was sitting at $4 to $4.50 before the unban. He’s been on the (very remote) fringe of Modern a few times, which pushed him north of $10 for half a day, and has since hung out in the “people hope this combo gets good some day” price range. Now with EDH legality, once the dust settles, I expect copies to sell for at least $8 to $10, and depending on what Jason Alt tells people to think about this card, it could end up above $20 if it’s as evergreen as some of the other green monsters.


Body Double

Price Today: $1
Possible Price: $5

Since I started playing EDH, I was surprised that Body Double was as cheap as it is. It’s relatively inexpensive, gives you a copy of the best creature that’s been cast all game, and enables all sorts of shenanigans, either from being flickered or because of its zero power. Given that most cards I find myself saying “huh, that’s surprisingly cheap” eventually end up not, and Protean Hulk, Body Double’s most dangerous enabler, is now legal in EDH, I think Double is worth turning our attention to.

Modern’s most common variant of the combo required Mogg Fanatic, Viscera Seer, Body Double, Reveilark, and of course, Protean Hulk. That’s across all five colors, and given that this is EDH, it would be nice to streamline that a bit. It’s likely this could be streamlined in terms of color requirements, especially given all the tools available outside of Modern. Instant kills aren’t required to make Body Double useful, though. If you just assume that eighty percent of people who now need a Protean Hulk also need a Body Double, and add in that a bunch of people may not realize they should have been playing this card already, and you can see how demand can mount fast. If you find yourself saying “claiming that eighty percent of people who bought a Protean Hulk would need Body Double is ridiculous,” mind I remind you that A. shut up and B. blue is the second best color in EDH, and the best color to pair with green.

Copies are available in the $1 range, and possibly lower if you dig hard. Inventory isn’t especially low, but it’s lower than some of the other cards we talk about in this series. There’s about forty-ish copies of the original on TCG right now, and maybe one hundred of the duel deck printing. That’s the only other printing of the card other than Planar Chaos though, a set many EDH players probably don’t even realize exists. Add to that that there’s probably over 100 EDH decks represented at your local store alone, and you can see how that reserve may dry up fast if there’s a glut of players looking to Double their Hulks.

Travis Allen has  been playing Magic: The Gathering since 1994, mostly in upstate New York. Ever since his first FNM he’s been trying to make playing Magic cheaper, and he first brought his perspective to MTGPrice in 2012. You can find his articles there weekly, as well as on the podcast MTG Fast Finance.

Casual Fridays

PROTRADER: Price Targets for Amonkhet

Oh do I love the beginning of a set. Prereleases are among the purest tournaments to me, because I don’t know the tricks, the angles, the basics of what to be afraid of. There’s synergies to explore and so much to experience!

I don’t like picking Standard cards when there’s a banning announcement coming so soon, but there’s already some stuff that I’ve noticed and want to trade for soon.

A couple of caveats: First of all, my standing advice remains good: Trade away everything you open at the prerelease, and trade for anything that isn’t in Amonkhet. There’s going to be a big loss in almost all the prices, and picking the one or two cards that go up from here isn’t worth it. Assume it’s all going to lose value, and trade accordingly.

Second, about the price drops: The value loss is going to be real and big and significant. I’m going to give you my price targets, the value that I’m hoping these fall to before I start picking them up in earnest. Panharmonicon never fell to the dollar rare I was hoping for, but Lifecrafter’s Bestiary is surely there.

I’m going to list the prices that we currently have for these cards, but with this still being in pre-order mode, these prices reflect what stores want to get for them.

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