Trading Post: Q1/Q2 2016 – Artifacts & Colorless

Note: This article first went live for our Pro Traders on Aug 23rd/16. To learn how ProTrader can help you make and save money playing Magic: The Gathering for just $4.99/month, click here to watch our short video.

Hey guys,

Trading Post is a new video series I’ve been working on for our Pro Traders. The premise here is to give you guys some fresh video content, with a focus on giving you a window into the stuff I’ve been picking up for short, mid and long term specs. Think of this as a portfolio review series, where you gain access to some of my spec details and set yourself up to take action depending on whether you agree or not. This is another take on the “What We’re Buying” concept that we were running for a while and I’m posting some early work to gather feedback and help tune the final product to your needs.

To kick things off, here is a brief clip covering some of the artifacts and colorless cards I was picking up in the first half of 2016. This content was recorded a few weeks back, so some of the cards have already experienced meta-game shifts and/or spikes or declines, but upcoming segments will be freshly recorded to be a little more timely. If you guys like what you see, or have suggestions for improvements (I realize the video quality is only mediocre and will work on both lens and lighting), fill out the comments to help guide my hand moving forward.

Looking forward to producing some sweet vids for you all moving forward!

James & Team MTGPrice

Conspiracy 2 and You!

Two years after the original Conspiracy, the sequel is here and it looks badass. I’m super stoked to draft a bunch of it, and add some new sweet cards to all sorts of decks.

From a finance standpoint, I want to make something clear: While Kaya, Ghost Assassin took out Brago, King Eternal in the storyline, Conspiracy: Take the Crown is going to assassinate prices.

Here’s the current prices for the original Conspiracy. Plus, if you’re into that sort of thing, here’s the foils. Looking at these two lists, I want to bring up some data points that will inform my purchases for Take the Crown.

First of all, some of those foil multipliers are outlandish. Dack Fayden’s foil is thirteen times more expensive, and that’s even after being in Eternal Masters! Dack is one of the most powerful cards in Vintage and in Cube, so his price isn’t too shocking. Marchesa, the Black Rose is more than ten times as pricey in foil. Scourge of the Throne is big, as are lots of others. This tells me that the casual demand is pretty high for these cards, or in some cases, the Legacy/Vintage demand.

I do expect the foil demand to be high again for Take the Crown, and mostly, I’ll be going after foils for myself and for long-term value. Note that the value of Conspiracy foils have stayed pretty stable since about January 2015, so I don’t want to get foils right freaking now OMG shiny!! I do want to get them before Christmas. Generally speaking, the time to get cards in one set is after the next set has come out.

The print run of original Conspiracy was big enough to torpedo prices. Here’s the graph of Urza’s Saga Exploration:

Exploration

Note the dip around the time before/during Khans of Tarkir being released. The card was $50, and has stayed stable at $10-$15.

This has all the ingredients of a card that should be $50 or so. It’s a four-of in a powerful and effective Legacy deck (Lands) and only has two printings. But because one of them is a modern-day supplemental set, the price is quite reasonable. This loss of 75% of value is repeated elsewhere in the set. Misdirecton went from $30 to $5. Mirari’s Wake dived by half. Hydra Omnivore went from $15 to $3. And so on.

I’m going to treat Take the Crown as something that’s going to be printed a lot, and opened a lot. This has a lot of valuable cards, at a regular booster’s price. You cannot expect a Modern Masters-type effect here, you can only expect prices to take a bath. A big one.

With that in mind, here’s my list of things you need to trade away right now, send out via Pucatrade, whatever the case may be. These are going to fall and fall hard. I’m focusing today’s picks on the nonfoils, and I’ll be interested in seeing how the foil prices fluctuate.

Ghostly Prison – How much do we love these effects? This has been printed three times, plus a FNM promo, and still it’s this high. Granted, those three printings were Champions of Kamigawa, Commander 2011, and Planechase 2012, which are all three possibly not going to add up to the number of these that will be put into circulation. These will be lucky to keep half their value and likely end up in the $3 range.

Hallowed Burial – About to be a dollar rare.

Pariah – Buckle up, because you’re headed for the bulk bin.

Desertion – $6 for a foil or $9 for the Commander’s Arsenal version. Either way, this will hit $2 and stay there for a while. It’s an awesome spell and has long-term potential, but the market is about to be flooded.

Kami of the Crescent Moon – Smug little smile, less than a dollar in price.

Serum Visions – This might stay at $1.50, but that’s the highest. Again, we are about to get a big influx.

Show and Tell – This was $80 before the announcement. It’s not done falling, not nearly. I suspect that $30 is reasonable and $20 is in play. I don’t know if it has enough Commander appeal to soak up extra copies. Side note: I like picking up Griselbrand and Omniscience as the best things to put into play. More Show and Tell cards may lead to more Show and Tell decks.

Inquisition of Kozilek – Possibly the banner card for reprinting, It’s already down to $10 and I will be surprised if it stays above $5. I think two or three bucks.

Phyrexian Arena – Six printings, and three of those had foils too! It’s just so good in just about any deck, though it’s too slow for Modern or Legacy. The casual crowd is going to soak up a lot of these, and when it’s down to $2 or so, I’m going to start buying them.

Burning Wish – The demand for this card just isn’t very high. I think this struggles to stay above $4.

Gratuitous Violence – One of my all-time favorite cards, now destined to be bulk. People just don’t have the intestinal fortitude for this.

Kiln Fiend – I look like a genius, because two weeks ago, I sent out a dozen of these on Puca from old draft boxes. This price was due to scarcity, and it will be at a quarter, maybe fifty cents.

Beast Within – This has had a lot of supplementary printings, but those weren’t high volume. The volume of Take the Crown is going to be much higher, and it’s an uncommon, dropping it to a dollar or less.

Birds of Paradise – Doesn’t matter how many you print. This is going to fall, and then creep up over time. Again. Notably, this hasn’t been printed at all since Magic 2012 five years ago. It’ll fall to $2-$3 and stay there for a long while.

Berserk – Can you believe this is in the set? I still can’t. Printings are Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, FTV:Exiled, and now this. That is a tiny, tiny supply, and I suspect that a lot of Commander games are about to be ended by using this on someone else’s creature. I think the market gets pretty flooded, and this stabilizes around $25 in two weeks, but it could go lower.

Burgeoning – Exactly the path of Exploration. Huge hit to its value, likely to sub-$5.

Forgotten Ancient – We made this card! We will also see it hit bulk.

Platinum Angel – This mythic has been resilient to reprints, and I’m reluctant to forecast too much of a hit. Down to the $5 range seems about right.

Did I leave something off? Let me know in the comments or in the forums!

Brainstorm Brewery #204 – A New Era

 

We had a bit of a shakeup on the cast and moving forward the names and voices will be a little different but the quality will be the same. Marcel and Ryan will be back frequently for the Brainstorm Brewery After Hours podcast and we’re going to be having a lot of great guests in the future as we finalize the cast moving forward. We’ll be shaking up Patreon rewards and fixing audio quality issues and generally trying to be the best podcast we can. Don’t say goodbye, say hello to the future of Brainstorm Brewery, a future that absolutely involves Ryan and Marcel as well as Jason and Ryan. You’re going to like the future, we promise.

 

This week we were joined by Brainstorm Brewery turned MTG Price turned Quiet Speculation writer Douglas Johnson (@Rose0fthorns) who has a little podcasting experience of his own from over at Cartel Aristocrats as well as a few previous BSB appearances. The gang talks Conspiracy spoilers and other nonsense. Sit back, strap in and allow your favorite podcast to enter your head holes. Brainstorm Brewery is back.

 

  • Douglas Johnson is our guest (@Rose0fthorns)
  • What’s up with Conspiracy 2?
  • Listener E-mails!
  • Breaking Bulk is a permanent segment! I hope!
  • Pick of the Week!
  • Support our Patreon! DO IT. You know this cast makes you more than $1 a week
  • Need to contact us? Hit up BrainstormBrew@gmail.com

 

Contact Us!

Brainstorm Brewery Website – E-mail – Twitter Facebook RSS iTunes Stitcher

Corbin Hosler – E-mail – Twitter Facebook MTGPrice

Jason E Alt – E-mail – Twitter FacebookMTGPrice

MTG Fast Finance Podcast: Episode 30

MTG Fast Finance is our weekly podcast covering the flurry of weekly financial activity in the world of Magic: The Gathering. MFF provides a fast, fun and useful sixty minute format. Follow along with our seasoned hosts as they walk you through this week’s big price movements, their picks of the week, metagame analysis and a rotating weekly topic.

Show Notes: Aug 25th, 2016

Segment 1: Top Movers of the Week

Note: Price movements reflect posted NM prices, and may not represent prices players have paid.

Hide//Seek">Hide//Seek Foil (Dissension)
Start: $6.50
Finish: $11.00
Gain: +$4.50 (+70%)

Fulminator Mage">Fulminator Mage Foil (Shadowmoor)
Start: $65.00
Finish: $145.00
Gain: +$80.00 (+125%)

Bloodbraid Elf Foil (Eternal Masters)
Start: $5.50
Finish: $16.00
Gain: +$10.50 (+190%)

Narcomoeba Foil (Eternal Masters)
Start: $3.00
Finish: $20.00
Gain: +$17.00 (+566%)

 

Segment 2: Cards to Watch

James Picks:

  1. Eldritch Evolution Foil (Eldritch Moon) Confidence Level 8: $15 to $30 (+100%, 0-12+ months)
  2. Dark Confidant (Modern Masters 2015) Confidence Level 7: $35.00 to $45.00 (+30%, 6-12+ months)

Travis Picks:

  1. Death’s Shadow, Worldwake, Confidence Level 7: $10 to $20 (+100%, 0-6+ months)
  2. Darksteel Forge, Magic 2014, Confidence Level 7: $5 to $10 (+100%, 12+ months)
  3. Sanguine Bond, Magic 2014, Confidence Level 7: $2.50 to $8 (+220%, 12+ months)

Disclosure: Travis and James may own speculative copies of the above cards.

Segment 3: Metagame Week in Review

Starcity Games’ invitational was this past weekend, and it brought plenty of Standard and Modern decks to discuss. Bant Company, UB Zombies, Death’s Shadow Zoo, and RG Valakut are just some of the interesting lists that appeared.

Segment 4: Topic of the Week

Conspiracy: Take the Crown has been revealed in full, and it’s for some it’s what they wanted Eternal Masters to be in the first place. Show and Tell joins Berserk as high-profile reprints, with plenty of other cards sneaking in, like Horn of Green and Ghostly Prison.

 

PucaTrade’s redesigned site also launched this week, and it brought with it foreign card support and a connection to the MTGO market. New opportunities are abound for the adventurous trader.

MAGIC: THE GATHERING FINANCE ARTICLES AND COMMUNITY