Tag Archives: Eternal Masters

PROTRADER: Everything In Its Right Place

This week’s article is not a continuation of the Playing Better series (which will continue next week), but is more of an address to the various things that have come up since I started that series. This is going to be one of those grab bag style pieces that is slightly more focused than a collection of quick hits. If there is one major point to be made, however, it’s the following:

NOT EVERYTHING IS FOR EVERYBODY: We have three supplemental Magic products coming out this summer, and they are all in the form of actual sets (as opposed to pre-constructed decks or something). This is unprecedented, and has a type of psychological impact that people have largely had trouble articulating.

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expensive cards

ProTrader: Magic doesn’t have to be expensive.

Grinder Finance – Not Everything is for You

Man, does it feel like there is a lot of stuff coming out this year?  I immediately realized after tons of announcements in a very short period of time, that we’re in for an exceptional year of Magic.

How exceptional?

mtg calendar

As of right now, this is this year’s release calendar.  This doesn’t include a 2nd duel deck and a From the Vault set [announced to be FTV: Lore].  FTVs usually come out in August so I have no idea where it will be now [Ed note: it still will].  It’s clear based on this release schedule that Wizards of the Coast is trying to release more products that appeal to more niche groups.  A lot of players have already realized “not everything is for me” but this summer will have some of the toughest choices for players in a long time.

eternal masters

Eternal Masters

This sets off a 3 month period of back to back set releases.  Obviously Wizards wants to lead with this one because it has the highest MSRP.  If it sells out (which it probably will) it will be great for their parent company.

Without any kind of spoilers it is hard to tell who this set is really for.  If you assume based on it’s name its to support Legacy and Vintage players with some reprints then it makes a lot of sense.  The reality of those players is the vast majority of them have already owned their deck and the cards needed for a long time.  I think this set is the biggest trap and biggest potential for people to waste money.  If your LGS supports a large community of Standard and Modern players (which is most common around the US), then this set will likely not provide a ton of value to those players.

There may be some overlap cards that are good in both Eternal formats and Modern (ie Cavern of Souls, Chalice of the Void, Tarmogoyf, Cursecatcher), it likely won’t include very many in the interest of including format staples that are generally outside of Modern (Wasteland, Force of Will, Ancient Tomb, Cabal Therapy, etc).  The reality of the reserve list is even if you buy a case of Eternal Masters you’re probably no closer to making a Legacy or Vintage deck than you are just spending that money on a Modern Burn deck.

Leading with the set is obviously a play by Wizards to try to get as much of your impulse spending money as possible.  It will be hard for people to resist buying booster packs that could contain a Foil Force of Will, which will assuredly be a few hundred dollars.

Eldritch Liliana

Eldritch Moon

I am calling it now.  This set will have the most expensive new cards all year.  This set will not sell nearly well enough to keep the best cards in Standard low enough.  It’s being sandwiched between two presumably exceptional draft formats.  Oh yeah, 3 draftable sets in a row, which one do you think people will skip?  Has Wizards solved the second set by jamming two sets worth of playables into it?  Is Oath of the Gatewatch setting the standard for small sets of the future?  There are a lot of questions but there is also some precedents we can look to.

Show of hands, how many people bought a ton of Magic Origins? No?  Why not?  Did you perhaps by too much Modern Masters 2015?  I have a feeling this same problem will happen again.  Shadows over Innistrad and Eldritch Moon will occupy the same slots as Dragons of Tarkir and Magic Origins did last year.  Did you know a box of Dragons of Tarkir has the highest EV of any set in Standard right now?  Magic Origins is only a few dollars behind Khans of Tarkir and Fate Reforged booster boxes which can contain the most powerful lands in the game.  The reason DTK and ORI are so expensive is because those two sets are the bun that surrounded the  Modern Masters 2015 Hamburger.  Their short draft time has lead to supply problems with some of the most popular cards in the set.

If Eldritch Moon is another set of similar quality to Born of the Gods then we might not have a lot to worry about.  On the other hand, if we get another Oath of the Gatewatch then we will have some really expensive cards.  If you play a lot of Standard this will be the best set to invest your money in.  I can’t see a world where the player base opens enough of this set to satisfy competitive players.

conspiracy take the crown

Conspiracy: Take the Crown

I’ll start out by saying I’m the most surprised by this set coming out this year.  I don’t know how Wizards got the resources to test 3 different draft formats all for release on the same summer but more power to them.  Due to the fact that this is a draft heavy format I don’t expect a ton of valuable cards to come out of it.  It won’t be used to hold any Legacy or Vintage style reprints (since those will help sell Eternal Masters).  It probably won’t contain a lot of reprints from Conspiracy because the set is only 221 cards.  With that in mind, Conspiracy 1 only had 210 cards but without a bigger breakdown of the number of uncommons, rares, and mythics we won’t know where the extra cards went.  What I will expect from this set is very expensive foils and Commander cards.

My short list of the Commander style of cards that can probably be in Conspiracy:

What I don’t expect is actual the actual legendary creature printings in foil because they have been doing those as Judge foils.

The point of all this

Be careful this summer.  There are a lot of Magic sets being released this summer, a lot more than usual.  Make sure you realize which sets are for you and spend your money appropriately.  Really take a hard look at what you’re buying because if you end up needing stuff from one of the other sets it will be very expensive.

PROTRADER: Hope Springs Eternal

By: Travis Allen
@wizardbumpin


The latest episode of MTG Fast Finance with myself and James Chillcott discusses the week’s biggest moves, our cards to watch, and Eternal Masters. Check it out here!


It’s been a wild two weeks, hasn’t it? I said in at least two mediums that Eternal Masters was a baseless rumor that sounded more like a Reddit pipe dream rather than an actual coherent business strategy, and then Wizards went ahead and announced it. The community was especially flush with drama regarding a few deepthroat-esque accounts regarding EMA, the full set list, and supposedly clandestine vendor operations. And to top it all off, a Maro Tumblr post sent pockets of the community into a tizzy with the perceived promise of a new constructed format.

Compared to June, when I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel for article ideas, this is great. So many topics worth discussing!

I’ll start with an amusing image I posted on Twitter this weekend:

What are we looking at here? Within the 24 hours leading up to that tweet, r/mtgEternal was the subreddit which had grown the most across all of Reddit. Someone made a subreddit not for Eternal Masters, mind you, but rather this imaginary constructed format called Eternal, and so many people joined it was the fastest growing subreddit. Why? Where is all of this coming from? Can we profit on it?

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ProTrader: Magic doesn’t have to be expensive.

PROTRADER: Quantitative Eternal Masters Reactions

After endless speculation, we finally have confirmation that Eternal Masters will be an official set, to be released June 10th of this year. Along with the announcement, we’ve also received two spoilers to whet our appetites: Force of Will and Wasteland (shout-out to Terese Nielsen for another gorgeous artwork on Force).

spoils

Since then, I’ve been monitoring three trends very closely: the price impact of these reprinted cards, the price impact of Reserved List cards, and discussions of a new (currently fictitious) Eternal format. This week I want to briefly explore each of these three separate reactions and share my takes on each. Some of my data just might surprise you…

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expensive cards

ProTrader: Magic doesn’t have to be expensive.