Tag Archives: ProTrader

Jason Alt, ProTrader, Uncategorized

PROTRADER: Boating Expedition – A Course Correction

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I had hoped Battle for Zendikar spoilers would give me a clear signal this week. We got a lot of cool cards spoiled, but nothing really sticks out, and I think we need to avoid a repeat of last week. I used a card I’m not excited about reanimating to frame a discussion about reanimation cards, which felt forced to me and resulted in an article a lot of you weren’t super happy with the entire way through. I mean, granted, there were good points about cards like Debtors’ Knell, but in general, you’re not reanimating fatties in EDH as much as you are cycling value creatures. You don’t want a full yard, begging to get Bojuka Bogged or Tormod’s Crypted. You want to keep bringing back Karmic Guide and Eternal Witness like a cheater. I didn’t like writing or reading the comments on my last article.

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Accumulated Knowledge, ProTrader

PROTRADER: What to Expect When You’re Expeditioning

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The one thing that stinks about my articles going up on Friday is that a lot of Magic‘s news cycle typically happens on weekends (since that’s when all of the meaningful tournaments happen), with the news dumps occurring on Monday. The reason why this article isn’t all about the Expedition lands is because you’ve probably spent the last four days reading articles about them. Because we really haven’t learned too much about them between PAX and my writing this, I don’t have too much to offer that you haven’t heard already, which stinks because I need pageviews to feed my family it’s a really interesting topic to discuss.

All I can say right now is that while I remain convinced that most players should look at these as free gift cards for your local game store (rather than “now I need three more Steam Vents like this?!”), I will very likely fall incredibly hard for the eventual Verdant Catacombs and Overgrown Tomb copies, and attempt to get a set of each. In fact, you should probably just send me yours. Please? I NEED THEM.

Today is going to be one of those days where we hit a bunch of different topics at once, because this is probably our last chance until after BFZ releases. It will be a delightful mix of finance insight, tournament results (!), and mirth.

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Corbin Hosler, ProTrader

PROTRADER: Analyzing Standard as Battle for Zendikar Nears

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Rotation is nearly upon us, and the spoilers are coming in hot and heavy. Full-art basics. New, fetchable dual lands. Full-art fetches and Shocks. Crazy, mythic Eldrazi. This set is going to have it all, and for the first time in my life, I plan on buying a case of the new goodies.

It’s true that we’ve seen a lot of things out of Battle for Zendikar. But there is one thing I haven’t seen in droves yet: Standard-playable cards.

Sure, Gideon is incredibly strong and will be played, and the lands of course will be good. But getting to 10 mana for Ulamog with what we have available doesn’t seem great, and while casting See the Unwritten into huge guys will almost certainly be a deck, I’m not seeing a ton of good ramp options to go along with Shaman of Forgotten Ways and Rattleclaw Mystic. Of course, those are two good options to start, so it won’t take much more to make it viable, but it’s worth mentioning that we’re not there yet.

Now, I know most of the set hasn’t been spoiled, so it’s a little early to start saying it’s not going to drastically shake up the format, because with so many cards leaving ,there’s no doubt that it will happen.

Still, given that Battle for Zendikar has all the makings of a set that will quickly become the best-selling of all time, I feel most comfortable looking at the current Standard format as a sign of things to come, rather than looking forward to Zendikar to being the driver in that equation.

With that in mind, looking ahead to next season begins with looking back. In this case, to the World Championship, where the world’s 24 best players met and battled it out (congratulations to Seth Manfield for winning, by the way). The World Championship was fun to watch, and I believe it’s a good place to start when we evaluate the decks that will survive rotation.

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Jason Alt, ProTrader

PROTRADER: Battleship Graveyard

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I assumed there was some sort of official battleship graveyard where the Navy scuttles old, decommissioned ships that aren’t big enough to have their own gift shop. I Googled it and the first four pages were all related to this song by a band called The Fall of Troy which… well, just listen. I’m possibly overcritical of bands like this because this song is so close to something I might actually listen to. If this song were 25 percent more The Used and 25 percent less Coheed and Cambria I could possibly get on board. There may be some sort of battleship graveyard after all, but I stopped going through Google results while this song was playing. If it helps you like it helped me, I used an old standby to cleanse my palate after that song. Kidding, I listened to this instead.  Okay, real talk: this song actually helped rinse the taste of The Fall of Troy out of my mouth so I could concentrate on writing an article.

And if we’re talking about scuttled battleships then we’re probably talking about a card that makes graveyard shenanigans fun and doable and which could buoy some graveyard-related cards, right? When you’re right, you’re right. However, what changed recently that has me thinking about the graveyard? The answer might surprise you.

ulamogtheceaselesshunger

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ProTrader: Magic doesn’t have to be expensive.