Commander 2015 Spoiler Coverage

November 3, 2015 Jason Alt 10 Comments

Welcome back, readers!

Spoilers for Commander 2015 are already upon us and you know that that means! Not as many new cards as were in Battle for Zendikar, but while it won’t mean much to predict the prices of cards that will be in Sealed product, it will be useful to predict which deck could be above MSRP in value and which older cards will be boosted by the new printings. Yes, this is very similar to my weekly column, which you should also read. Let’s get into it!

Daxos the Returned

This card is very, very good. I wrote in-depth about the cards I think could be boosted by this in my weekly article this week which will be published for everyone to read tomorrow, but, briefly, I think Serra’s Sanctum is a slam dunk. It scales very well with this card and is one the Reserved List. Heliod scales with it nicely as well, and with the option to play both, BW tokens/pillow fort could be very nasty. Daxos is very, very good, easy to trigger and cheap to play and activate. I have more picks in my article, but take a look at Serra’s Sanctum. It has a high buy-in but Gaea’s Cradle shows us how high it could theoretically get (not that a card that is multiples in Legacy is comparable in demand to an EDH card, though there are fewer Sanctums than Cradles). This card is nuts and I hope the rest of the deck has slick new enchantments.

Mizzix of the Izmagnus

I think a lot of the obvious cards bolstered by this are inexpensive right now. Again, I covered this in depth in my article, but I will say that we could see renewed interest in Storm since this lets you play bigger spells than a Melek deck and theoretically makes Mind’s Desire a big player without you having to run mana-generating spells. This is harder to scale than the other experience counter generals but it’s worth it. Playing a very cheap Enter the Infinite or 11 point Blue Sun’s Zenith or Epic Experiment is going to feel very good, though there aren’t a ton of expensive rares that this grants upside.

Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest

I have a sneaking suspicion that this will be much better than the experience counter commander in Golgari. This is savage and gives a lot of cards already popular in Prossh deck some upside. This will likely get jammed in Prossh, Ghave and Skullbriar decks as well as being a good commander in its own right. Greater Good and Grave Pact are cards I’m watching, but the list of potential upside targets is a long one.

Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas

Angels are going to get quite a boost from this guy as well as cheap cards like Boros Battleshaper. This is going to make Sunforger a card as well, if you ask me. Big, durdly creatures are key here and I think that’s the way you build around this guy which is good since Boros is traditionally about tokens and small creatures. Sun and Inferno Titan are printed into powder but will get a second look, and Sunforger, down from a reprinting and Tiny Leaders turning out to be a total bust could get some upside, especially in foil. You kill them very quickly with a Sunforger on this double striking creature, after all, and grabbing a Ghostway or Master Warcraft as a combat trick wins games.

Kaseto, Orochi Archmage

This isn’t the most exciting Simic Legendary creature, but that’s OK with me. People will absolutely build snake tribal and there are a lot of cool snakes, especially legendary ones from Kamigawa block. A lot of the snakes do stuff when they deal damage and with the ability to make the creatures unblockable is underrated, currently. Nature’s Will isn’t a snake but it’s snake-flavored and it has real upside as well as Lotus Cobra and a few Legendary snakes, Time of Need and cards like Ohran Viper. Even Mystic Snake is great in a deck with this. Tribal staples will get another bump as people with tribal decks build yet another one.

Ezuri, Claw of Progress

This card is insane. I have written about a lot of the cards that get upside here and I don’t want to rehash too much of the article I wrote this week here, but the list of cards that get upside from this guy are almost too many to name. This doesn’t say “non-token” or “cast” and I think it’s actually irresponsibly good. Dumping the counters on a Master Biomancer to make everything huge, or taking infinite turns with Sage of Hours or going to Hydra town – this guy does it all. I plan to brew a deck with this in my Gathering Magic column this week and the cards in that deck are all likely getting upside. This card is insane.

Command Beacon

Depending on how many of the decks this is in, this has very limited upside, but what it does do is make people take a second look at Phage, the Untouchable as a Commander which I think is worth doing.

At $15 in foil and $2 in non-foil, though this has had a few printings, I bet this gets a second look. If this goes up, it likely brings Torpor Orb along with it, and Torpor Orb is a card that’s going up eventually anyway. I’m surprised it’s still so cheap. Torpor Orb is literally my only “want” card on PucaTrade, that’s how many of them I want.

Dread Summons

This is very good in Sidisi decks and milling out your opponents is non-trivial. Getting a ton of tokens for hurting their strategy is saucy, and Doubling Season, Primal Vigor and even Parallel Lives could be impacted. This card is likely not going to see much play, ultimately, but I like it in a few decks.

Blade of Selves

Ultimately, the list of cards affected by this is too long to name. Any creature with an ETB trigger is savage with this. I would focus on equipment tutors if we’re trying to home in on cards with upside granted by this card. This could ultimately be a bust, but it just seems so, so good primae facie and I think ultimately having a bunch of extra copies of utility creatures come into play when you attack is going to win games. Imagine you put this on a Woodfall Primus or Frost Titan. This card is a player.

Scytheclaw

Who wants to pay 2 extra mana for a worse Quietus Spike?

Meren of Clan Nel Toth

Remember I said a few places I figured Mazirek was so good it would be better than the Golgari experience counter card? My first thought looking at this card was complete incredulity. This card would be ridiculous without the whole “otherwise put it in your hand” caveat. This card is stupid good. It’s likely to grant upside to all of the same cards that Mazirek does as well as financially-irrelevant cards like Fleshbag Marauder. Sac outlets are especially juicy with this card. I’d watch Black Market, High Market, Greater Good, Miren, the Moaning Well and foil Perilous Forays.

Anya, Merciless Angel

It’s too bad this has no black in it. Imagine this in a deck with Sorin Markov, Sorin’s Vengeance and Magister Sphinx. Still, this dirty angel does some work. I don’t think you want this as your commander, but I’d say jamming this in a Gisela deck would be sweet. I don’t think this is good enough to make Kaalia of the Vast move on its own, but between FTV angels and the Gisela reprint in C15, I think we will see Kaalia move organically. Angels are popular and while this isn’t an impetus, it’s weight on the scale and that matters, too.

Mizzik’s Mastery

I predicted that we would get a card that was a new card that could get played in Legacy and that would be responsible for a lot of the value in the Izzet deck. I think this is it. If you play enough mana-generating spells and cantrips, this card lets you replay all of them and storm out. This is better than Ill-Gotten Gains and Past in Flames combined. This is Legacy Storm ready and it’s very good. How much money this ends up being worth, I can’t say, but this is going to help sell Izzet decks.

Magus of the Wheel

Nekusar decks gets a boost from this but that’s about all. I don’t see this pushing anything up a ton since all of the Nekusar cards already spiked. This is just a less reliable Wheel of Fortune. Could it be part of a cycle of awesome Magi imbued with sweet spell power? Maybe!

Grasp of Fate

This is a good rate for Oblivion Ring universe. This will be an EDH staple and I bet it’s going in the Black-White deck which means it’s a reason to buy that deck. This seems like a $5 card in the short term.

Synthetic Destiny

The same CMC as Mass Polymorph but playable at instant speed? Count me in! This card is absurd. Will it be financially relevant? Look at Mass Polymorph for the answer to that question.

Aethersnatch

Instant
Gain control of target spell. You may choose new targets for that spell. If that spell is a permanent, that permanent enters the battlefield under your control.

This card is stupid good. It’s a better Commandeer if you’re OK paying the mana cost, a better Desertion, a better Spelljack. This card is what EDH players have always wanted. I imagine if people are overly excited about Mizzik’s Mastery, it could push the cost of this spell to about $1. If it does, I’m all in.

Gigantoplasm

Clone is playable in EDH and this is better. Unfortunately, cards like this are role players. They’re not going to push anything up but they will be worth money and any time there is an impetus for speculators to buy these sets because a card in them is selling for more than the MSRP of the deck, the other cards in them get pushed to nothing and that’s a good time to buy. This will be worth more than bulk and that’s the price I want to buy these at. This will never be Phyrexian Metamorph money, however, so don’t go too deep on these. It’s just a better clone.

Karlov of the Ghost Council

This is pretty balanced, unfortunately. If this is your commander, the only way to cheat counters onto him is to proliferate with artifacts. Of course you could always do things the hard way and play a lot of lifegain. Making tokens with Soul Wardens out is one way to do it. Still, I’m not impressed with this creature. I imagine the fact that we’re getting cards like Black Market in the Daxos deck is going to crush mediocre cards into powder and I expect Karlov to be among the casualties. He’s good, but fair. Too fair.

Righteous Confluence

This is garbage.

Verdant Confluence

This is better than the white one, but not great. This is a bulk rare most likely. I love 6 mana ramp spells to really help me get over the hump.

Mystic Confluence

Even though you can use this to draw three cards, I’m not sure the lack of a “tap all of your opponent’s creatures” mode won’t keep this from seeing play in a Universe where we have access to Cryptic Command. People anticipated this card would be legacy-playable and they are likely pretty disappointed. This card is fine, but Cryptic Command is much better and I don’t see playing both. Are you already playing Jace’s Ingenuity? Congrats, they printed a rare version that’s a little better.

Bloodspore Thrinax

This card is legitimately very exciting. Master Biomancer that doesn’t require you to play blue? This is going to be a card that people want multiple copies of for multiple decks right out of the gate and I could see it being worth a few bucks. This card is stupid and though it won’t replace Master Biomancer in my Vorel deck, it will supplement it.

Bastion Protector

This card is very exciting to people with vulnerable, low-toughness Commanders like Gaddock Teeg, Rubinia Soulsinger and Geist of St. Traft. I imagine this becomes somewhat of a staple initially, but I don’t know that it will play as well as everyone hopes. Still, expect this to be money for a minute.

Arachnogenesis

Not every Fog gives you a ton of creatures and a ton of experience counters on Ezuri. This is powerful and narrow, a perfect recipe for not much money now and some money potentially later. Let this hit bulk.

Ezuri’s Predation

If EDH decks could have sideboards, this would be a sideboard card. This is a green wrath of God or a way to spend 8 mana and watch a bunch of 4/4 creatures die. If you can benefit from that situation with a Fecundity or something, go for it, but this seems like it’s hard to benefit from and 8 mana spells better win the game almost on their own.

Deadly Tempest

This is so much better against some decks than others, this also feels like a sideboard card. I don’t see a reason to play this over Decree of Pain.

Awaken the Sky Tyrant

This could easily have been uncommon.

Dream Pillager

Creature – Dragon
Flying

Whenever Dream Pillager deals combat damage to a player, exile that many cards from the top of your library. Until end of turn, you may play nonland cards exiled this way.

Meh. I’m not super stoked about this since you have to pay the mana costs and it’s tougher to serve than you might think starting around turn 7. There aren’t a ton of dragon slots in most decks and I’d much rather steal all of their artifacts if I hit them with a dragon.

Centaur Vinecrasher

I’m not sure this was made for EDH. This seems like a card that players are going to try out in Legacy, either in a New Horizons variant or dredge or some new kind of deck. This could potentially be a lot of money if people want it for Legacy, but with its place in the meta being unclear and SCG withdrawing support for Legacy as a format, its future is pretty murky. Ultimately, in a Titania deck this could thrive but it’s narrow although powerful. I like the idea of playing it and saccing it to Greater Good only to make it larger and larger as you discard cards.

Ajrun, the Shifting Flame

I am not so sure I want my flames shifting this often. Teferi’s Puzzle Box is cool because it screws up your oppponents’ plans and forces them to draw a ton of cards and take a ton of damage from Nekusar. This messes with you alone and also sometimes helps you take a ton of damage from their Nekusar or fuels their Consecrated Sphinx. Someone explain to me how this isn’t all downside.

Daxos’ Torment

Constellation – Whenever Daxos’ Torment or another enchantment enters the battlefield under your control, Daxos’ Torment becomes a 5/5 demon with flying and haste until end of turn in addition to it’s other types.

Eh. I’m not thrilled by this at all. I feel Daxos’ pain every time I find this in my hand instead of a card that affects the board. 4 mana is not a good rate for a sometimes 5/5 flier. It’s better than Awaken the Sky Tyrant, but that’s damnation by faint praise considering so are some of the commons in this set.

Scourge of Nel Toth

I could see looping this with something like Tooth and Claw and Parallel Lives but you also need a way to benefit. Getting back a generic 6/6 for 2 tokens can be OK but I think this feels a little to balanced for you to trifle with. This is a good card if you’re playing the precon against another precon, but this seems like trash to me and a bulk rare unless I’m missing something huge.

Seal of the Guildpact

I think the best thing about this card is the art, even though the wrong guild is illuminated. EDH players love cost reduction, and the chance to reduce their gold spells by 2 colorless will appeal to people a ton. I could see this climbing to a few bucks over the long term but getting crushed to powder in the short term. There may be opportunity here.

Floor Reports, Jeremy Aaranson

Floor Reports: Grand Prix Indianapolis

November 3, 2015 Jeremy Aaranson 23 Comments

Hey Guys!

GP Indy was a great time this weekend. With 11 vendors in the room, there were plenty of opportunities to get top dollar with so much competition for the bucks in your binder. I figured I’d share my opinion of GP Indy with you, so that you guys can come to recognize the GP scene more. As a disclaimer once again, I’m not a writer, only a finance guy who wanted to express my opinion.

For this GP, I decided to ogre a few cards in my collection. Ogreing is named after a well-known vendor called Ogre, who is present at pretty much every GP. It’s pretty simple. You get a two or four-row and fill it with cards by price that you want to get on each card. Using top loaders or sticky notes, write how much you want for each card and have each vendor pull out the cards if they’re okay paying the price of the card in your column. It saves the vendors a ton of time, and allows you to get top buylist for each card.

Let’s get in to the 11 vendors and what each of them brought to the GP!

MTG Deals

MTG Deals attended their first Midwest GP in quite a while. They came strong out of the gate with a buy price of $30 on Gideon and $57 on Jace, Vyrn Prodigy, as well as a strong buylist price of $5 on Anafenza and $4 on Oblivion Sower. With Sower appearing to be a failed buy for now, it was a good weekend to dump copies at a break-even point. I didn’t sell anything to MTGDeals, but I did buy a few cards from them. Like most vendors, they had a played section case for deals that appealed to players of all stripes. I found a warped reliquary tower promo for $1 which I kept for personal use, and a beat up Thoughtseize for 13 that I traded for a monastery mentor. I hope to see them in the future for more sweet deals in their played case, and hopefully next time I will have cards to sell them on their hotlist.

Tales of Adventure

Tales had a strong buying crew this weekend. Adam; normally a floor grinder for Ogre was buying for them in his usual tophat. They seemed eager to buy cards, and were definitely asking every person walking by if they could see their binders. I also didn’t sell any cards to them, but Adam’s power of persuasion incited my need to spend a couple dollars on a playset of Splinter Twin. Their other buyers were also friendly, and they definitely had a line on Friday of people waiting to sell cards. With bulk buy prices of 11 cents per rare and $4 per thousand on bulk C/U, many people were outing bulk to them throughout the weekend.

Hotsauce Games

Hotsauce was an interesting experience to say the least. Although it didn’t seem like they had stellar buy prices outside of Ulamog at $12, they definitely had enough people selling to them to make it a profitable venture. Aaron Werst, a bubbly shop owner from Indiana, was in attendance with quite a few people stopping by to see how he was doing and sell him some stuff. Joe Bernal, a well-known grinder when he’s playing, was buying for them this weekend as well. I didn’t get the numbers I wanted on cards I showed them, but their deals sure were hot. I picked up a played Tropical Island for $90, a foil Time Spiral Vesuva for $15, and a played Volcanic Island for $175. I sold the Vesuva to Coolstuff for a dollar more, and expect to get a premium in trade in the future for the dual lands. I highly recommend stopping by this booth in the future to buy some cheap cards out of their case.

Coolstuff Inc.

Coolstuff has always been known as a great booth to sell and buy casual cards from. They definitely lived up to my expectations this weekend. After picking through my ogre box, they pulled out about 20% of my cards. Getting $1 on Wild Slashes, Chaos Warps, and Jet Medallions sure added up fast. I was able to trade in for a LP Mana Drain with their store credit bonus of 25%. I also got about $150 in cash from them for the other cards that I sold them. They didn’t have the cheapest prices in the room as far as selling cards went, but they were definitely paying high numbers on random cards throughout the weekend. Their buyers are also some of my favorite people to work with, as they know how to chat with the players instead of grumpily offering numbers on cards with a dour face.

Pink Bunny Gaming

Pink Bunny has always been an interesting case for both me and other sellers in the room. Their online reviews are quite bad, and I have always stayed away from their booth due to past experiences of them cancelling my orders. In my opinion, they seemed to have turned over a new leaf at this GP. Their head buyer Damien was extremely charismatic this weekend, and after a lengthy discussion about buying tips convinced me to sell him some cards. Their prices on them were fair , and they matched a couple of top buylists in my ogre box on cards that they were confident they could move. I hope to see a repeat performance from them in the future, and cautiously advise you guys to stop by and see their prices at the next GP.

Aether Games

Aether came out swinging this weekend. Not only were they offering insane prices on competitive cards, they also were vending two GPs simultaneously on two different continents, splitting up their buying talent. After trading a Mox sapphire for Tasigurs and Eidolons at Buylist last weekend, I was really happy to make a profit selling those cards to Aether. They took over a hundred Tasigurs and 40 Eidolons from me, as well as many Constructed staples such as a complete set of 40 shock lands and over 20 fetch lands. Aether is still my go-to place to sell competitive cards, as I’m not sure that anyone can beat buy prices above TCGLow. It could have been possible to crack BFZ Event Decks and almost get 40 free cards after selling them Hangarbacks, Tasigurs, and Whisperwood Elementals. I sat down with Keith multiple times, and he was quick and professional when buying from me. They also had pretty good deals on Expeditions, such as Temple Gardens at 45 that seemed to disappear whenever I turned to look at another case. Aether has been my first stop when the doors open at every GP for the last couple of months, and I see no reason to go to another vendor first. However, it also has become well known that they are not interested in casual cards in the slightest, so I don’t advise selling any EDH cards to them unless you want to hear lower numbers than normal.

Pastimes

Pastimes looked through my ogre box and pulled out around 50 copies of Roast and Silkwrap that they bought for $1 each. I was pretty happy with the profits, but not happy with the mood of their buyers. They didn’t seem happy to be there, and should have greeted each potential seller with a smile on their face. I haven’t really sold much to Pastimes in the past, and honestly I haven’t seen a reason to do business with pastimes at almost any GP. They haven’t paid higher than any other vendor in the room for a while, and it seems to be locals that like to sell to them to support their shop.

MTGFirst

I haven’t seen MTGFirst at a GP for quite a while. They didn’t seem to have great buy prices or sell prices. However, they had a shelf entirely full of alters which looked really amazing. The prices weren’t that much more expensive than the normal cards, but I wasn’t in the market for alters at this GP. If you see them in the future, I recommend stopping by to see what they have in stock alter-wise, but they seemed tepid at best for selling to based on their hotlist and the amount of people selling this weekend.

Q&A Magic

Q&A Magic debuted for their first time this weekend. AJ from Gray Ogre decided to open his own booth, and he had Ogre working the booth for him this weekend as well. As always, when Ogre is working at any booth, you need to stop by. I’m not sure what it is about Ogre besides his smile, but he could charge $20 to talk with him at GPs and people would line up to say hi. Due to Ogre working at Q&A , they had a considerable amount of traffic this weekend. In order to stay competitive, they raised buy prices on their hotlist to match other vendors this weekend.

They seemed determined to make a name for themselves on the circuit, and this GP was a great start to it. Ogre picked through my Ogre box and didn’t find anything, but he did find a small amount of cards in my binders that he paid handsomely on. However, they also weren’t without their faults. AJ had the persona of a brick wall when dealing with many people this weekend. Although I was happy with my experience, quite a few of you reached out to me on Twitter about how you were treated at his booth. I also wasn’t happy with his practice of pulling out cards and putting them on the mat, and then downgrading them for condition right before adding cards up. Hopefully this practice will cease soon, as it made me feel uncomfortable seeing my $9 sell price on Sacred Foundry go down to $7 right before I was handed cash. As a newcomer to the scene, I still recommend stopping by Q&A magic in the future to see some of their deals and buy prices. They also were willing to negotiate on cash buys for random foils such as cascade bluffs and shizo, death’s storehouse. Being flexible might not make the best margins for them, but it sure made me a happy customer!

Alter Reality Games

Alter Reality Games didn’t bring much to the table this weekend, besides overpriced Modern Masters packs compared to the rest of the vendors at $12. I was quoted about 20% lower prices than top vendors like Coolstuff and MTGDeals. I also wasn’t happy with the mood of their buyers. They didn’t seem to interact with any of the sellers sitting next to me, and didn’t attempt to make conversation or friendly banter with anyone. The mood of a buyer is important to me, as I want to feel happy sitting down across from you while selling cards instead of listening to grunted numbers. After a negative experience as well at SCGSTL, I’m going to stay away from these guys for a while. Once again, this is just a personal view of mine. If you had a different experience, feel free to leave comments or reach me on twitter @lengthyxemit.

Dave & Adams Card Shop

Dave and Adams brought the most high-end inventory by far with hundreds of graded pieces of Power. They picked through the rest of my Ogre box and took the dregs, as well as a couple commander and Khans cards. I struck up a conversation with the head buyer, and chatted for a bit while he bought cards from me. I’m sorry that I can’t remember his name, but it was definitely one of the top experiences buylisting this weekend besides Aether and Coolstuff. Even if someone is only buying $200 of cards from you, he should be able to talk about bad beats stories with old cards as well as how D&A runs their operations with one of the largest gaming spaces in the United States. I gained a lot of insight about the price of Pokemon bulk as well ($40 per k minimum is insane!) and walked away happier with some cash and their business card in my pocket. Even though they didn’t have the highest buy prices in the room, the experience of buylisting to them will definitely make me a repeat customer. They also had sealed high end product such as Collector’s Edition, Legends, and a Revised box that were cool to look at though a bit out of my price range.

Pastimes as TO

Disclaimer: This weekend was Halloween and RPTQ weekend, which may have led to the numbers below. However, it should also be noted that there was a RPTQ on site Friday afternoon.

So as many of you read from my tweets, pastimes TO’d an interesting GP this weekend. Pastimes rented one event hall for Friday, two for Saturday, and one for Sunday in order to accommodate all of the players for the GP. The thing is, they didn’t even need the second hall Saturday because not enough people showed up! A $70 fee to enter a GP is approaching ludicrous territory. Pastimes seems to have overestimated the amount of people willing to pay $70 and have $700 tier one decks.

On top of that, myself and a couple friends attempted to enter a Legacy Win-a-Box and ran into trouble. They were asking $20, more than twice the cost of a box for them since they rake in $160 per event. After looking online, it said that their Legacy Win-a-Box was $15. We showed it to them, and they still insisted that it was $20, as well as the Legacy side event also being $20. After being frustrated, we decided to not spend another dollar at Pastimes that weekend and instead play casual Legacy in a corner of the room. I honestly will most likely not attend another Pastimes GP for quite a while after this weekend. After attending both GP Chicago and GP Indy, it’s time to ask for a better TO in the Midwest than Pastimes.

The low attendance also had an effect on the vendors. Friday was very good for all of them, but after Round 2 of Saturday, there were very few people selling to any of the vendors for the rest of the weekend as some of my pictures show even in between rounds when people are normally selling. I think most of the vendors made an okay amount of money, but due to the lackluster attendance were not able to get enough cards in to make the Grand Prix as profitable as any others this month. Fetchland buy prices had also stabilized across all of the vendors, plateauing at $20 on Polluted Deltas instead of being higher like other GPs this month. Bloodstained Mire was the most sought after fetch this weekend for some reason, and at least four of the vendors had none in stock by the beginning of the GP. As of the time of writing the article, I’m still not sure where the meta is that prompted the high demand for Bloodstained Mires this weekend.

Anyways, thanks for reading. Once again these are my opinions, and I’d love feedback on your experiences at GP Indy. Until the Next One!

-Xemit

Bonus Questions:

Question: Biggest Trap in MTGFinance?

Using TCG Mid for trades – Coolstuff Buyer

Condition of Cards . On older cards, SP to MP Prices vary a lot and can be the difference between a $3,000 Black Lotus and a $5,000 Lotus – Ogre.

Foils newer than Zendikar for eternal staples. There’s just too many and they’re printing for millions of players – Floor Grinder.

What’s one thing Sellers should know before sitting across from a buyer?

Having a binder of bulk rares with a couple $4 dollar cards in it. It wastes both of our time –Aether Buyer.

Unorganized Binders – Tales of Adventure Buyer.

We’re trying to make a living. Understand that we do need to make a profit on these cards, and sometimes can’t afford to pay high on certain cards because they don’t move well for us. –Anonymous Store Owner.

Jim Casale

Grinder Finance – Winding Down the Year

November 3, 2015 Jim Casale 4 Comments

With the conclusion of this three-Grands Prix weekend, we draw ever closer to the end-of -year lull in Magic. Let’s talk about some new announcements and discuss the expected price drops in the comings weeks.

If you are a Vorthos player, you may have been expecting this. In this article, Ugin explains to Jace that the only way to stop the Eldrazi is to seal them again. He instructs Jace to go to Innistrad and find Sorin and bring him back to Zendikar. Another important thing that Ugin mentions is that the Eldrazi Titans will planeswalk away when mortally threatened. There are a few expectations we can draw from these events.

Shadows over Innistrad is the start of a new block. It will be treated like a large fall set.
Liliana is MIA in the Zendikar storyline, I expect to see her return in Innistrad (This would be a prime place to reprint Liliana of the Veil without devotion in Standard)
We may see flashback return in SOI but with a Snapcaster Mage RPTQ promo he will likely not return in the set.
We may see an Eldrazi titan escape and attack Innistrad (Given the fact that Oath of the Gatewatch‘s set symbol looks like Kozilek’s head shards, it will probably be Emrakul)

This is all of course speculation but so far the story articles seem to be a reliable way to tell the future.

Why are we going back to Innistrad?

With a real definition of what is “new” and what isn’t, I expect this to continue to in the future and be a conduit for important reprints outside of Modern Masters. We can expect the Fall 2016 set to be a “new” plane.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s shift gears and talk about events.

What events are left in the 2015 calendar year?

Do you know how many weekends of Grands Prix are left? After this triple Grands Prix weekend, there are five left on three weekends to close out the year. Seattle/Tacoma (Legacy), Atlanta (Sealed), and Pittsburgh (Modern) are the last three Grands Prix in North America this year. There are two Standard GPs left, one in Brussels and one in Kobe, and that’s it! There is over a month off and then GP Oakland opens up the year with a Standard Grand Prix before almost another month off before the next set of Grands Prix after the release of Oath of the Gatewatch. Thats not a lot of Standard being played outside of the LGS level.

Let’s take a look at the other major circuit, the Star City Games Open Series. There are five SCG opens for the remainder of the year. Four are Standard (Philadelphia, Kansas City, Denver, and Las Vegas) and one is Legacy (New Jersey). That’s also not a lot of opportunities for the rest of the year to play in high level Magic events.

What does this all mean? Well, it precludes the December price dips. You basically have one month to sell or trade any Standard cards you will not need for the rest of the year before their price starts to drop significantly. I already traded away my Gideon, Ally of Zendikar this weekend for Eternal playables. I would recommend dumping any Khans of Tarkir cards especially since there will be no more Standard Pro Tours to breathe new life into them before they rotate.

As you can see from this graph, the post Pro Tour price tag quickly dips into a yearly low in December. If you want to get expensive cards from Battle for Zendikar, I’d wait until then.

Although Gideon doesn’t have a long price history, we can see he’s peaked and is already on his slow descent. I’m just guessing here but I could see Gideon being as cheap as $20 by Christmas. While it’s clear he will be a player in Standard for his entire lifetime, it is unwise to hold copies you’re not actively using. But, it’s not all gloom and doom for a buyer.

These two lands have already shown up in some decks as a way to ramp out huge Eldrazi. It might not be a thing today but I feel like the deck is very close to breaking out. I wouldn’t be surprised if these two lands are the mainstay of a top tier deck in Oath of the Gatewatch. Kind of hilariously, right now that is the basis for one of the cheaper Standard decks as it doesn’t play any fetchlands, Gideons, or Jaces. At about $0.50 per land, I wouldn’t fault you for picking up a playset of each in preparation for Kozilek in Oath of the Gatewatch.

Grand Prix Articles

Do you like the articles that Jeremy (@LengthyXemit) does for Grands Prix? I will be lucky enough to attend the last two American Grands Prix of the year and can provide some commentary for people looking to buy cards. Are there other questions you have for the Grand Prix process?

I took a week off due to some work-related complications but I will have the Pucatrade article for next week! Hope you all had an awesome Halloween and I look forward to your comments below!

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PROTRADER: The Meta Report: November Week One

November 3, 2015 Guo Heng Chin 2 Comments

By: Guo Heng

Welcome to another instalment of The Meta Report. The past weekend yielded a slew of major tournament results. There was Grand Prix Indianapolis which gave us some exciting new Standard results (spoiler alert: Jace is no longer king). The first Modern Grand Prix since rotation took place at Porto Alegre, and while Battle for Zendikar did not exert the level of impact Khans of Rhino and Cruise had on the format, a few new cards managed to slip into Modern. There was also the StarCityGames Modern Open at Dallas-Fort Worth.

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