Welcome to another installment in the r/spikes tournament report series. Barrett Goss comes at you with a two-fer; a report about how his deck of choice fared at a GPT in Philadelphia and then at a PTQ in Delaware the next day. Hang on a second—didn’t Max Perlmutter play those same two events? Wonder if…
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Six months ago, Pro Tour Valencia was on the scene and it looked like Modern cards couldn’t be any hotter. We were approaching $100 fetch lands and it looked like any Modern card was bound to spike if it saw even moderate play. Corbin has a great article about what has changed over on Quiet…
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“What is Modern?” you might ask. Modern is an eternal (non-rotating) format that was introduced in the Spring of 2011, with a card pool that spans from Eighth Edition all the way to the present—basically, all the sets since the “modern” (soon to be replaced) border was introduced. In an effort to keep the format fun,…
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There are some great bargains on MTGO right now. I usually write articles about strategy or trends because I think they are most valuable and because there are a lot of writers who do a better job picking cards than I can. Still, every now and then I see enough opportunity somewhere to make me…
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Welcome back, readers! Last week I talked about how you can make a positive impact on your community by making sure they’re all aware that you are willing to pick up cards for competitive buylist values. This week, I’m going to go in a completely different direction, because that’s what I do. I scavenge for…
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There are a number of basic concepts that you learn when starting in Magic finance. These are the building blocks that make Magic finance predictable enough to be profitable—the fundamentals that dictate supply and demand. I’m talking about things like rarity, big set versus small set, draft pack ratios, scarcity of older sets, and rotation….
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Hi all, first let me apologize for taking so long to write my follow up to my Defense of Star City Games. This article series sounded like a great idea to connect with the community I love so much, but when it came down to it, I was struggling to string together 500 words rather…
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Sweeper effects have been a long-lasting staple in Magic. These effects make aggro players cry and control players gleam. They can make or break a game and trigger the same “ooooh’s” and “ahhhhh’s” Wizards of the Coast (WotC) tried to accomplish with the Miracle mechanic from Avacyn Restored. These game-changers will continue to be…
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Hello, fellow speculators! After the biggest Constructed grand prix ever, GP Richmond, we’ve been a whole lot of winding down from card spikes. The market seems to be returning to the regular world of value investing. It sure has quieted down around here in the MTG finance world. But the slower pace really gives us…
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Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. -Thomas A. Edison I’m going to take a bit of a break this week and shift into getting L.U.C.K.y while playing the game. In a game such as Magic, where there are sixty randomized cards built from thousands of…
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This normally isn’t my thing, but I figure that making some outlandish predictions about the future is something I’m occasionally good at, so I’m giving it a try. After GP Richmond’s massive 4,300-person attendance, it’s clear that Modern is really a force in the market. I think that Wizards will continue to show a lot…
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Welcome back, readers! In my last article, I discussed why I (erroneously) thought that Kiki-Pod would be stronger then Melira Pod at Pro Tour Born of the Gods. Today, I thought it would be a beneficial exercise to analyze why this was a mistake, and take a [card]peek[/card] as to why Brian Liu was able…
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This is a headline that makes me chuckle every single time I read it: “Apple posted quarterly results that beat estimates Monday … shares dropped more than 5%.” For those who don’t follow non-Magic finance, the reason this happens (and it happens all the time to all kinds of companies) has to do with expectations….
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Hello, fellow speculators! It’s the week of Grand Prix Richmond, destined to be the most-attended Constructed tournament ever, and the format is Modern. Registration is already shattering previous records for every past event except Grand Prix Las Vegas, the Modern Masters Limited GP. I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that Modern…
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After introducing my Naya Midrange deck, I promised to go over changes I felt were optimal and that is exactly what we are going to do today. First, we’ll explore what changes I made for a local grand prix trial for GP Richmond. Afterward, we’ll get to how we can go bigger and effectively dismantle…
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[Editor’s note: DJ submitted this article before the pro tour took place. Some of his metagame predictions didn’t turn out quite the way he thought they would, but the thought process behind them is still valuable and informative. DJ will be back next time to address what went wrong in assuming Kiki Pod would be more popular than…
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Two weeks ago, in The Unwilling Speculators, I wrote about the Modern format and how its affordability (or lack thereof) is quickly spiraling out of control. The article got some good discussion going—thank you to all the commenters who contributed. The article wasn’t intended to be another “blame Wizards” piece. I can only fit so…
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For those who don’t know, I play Zoo exclusively in Legacy, and likely would have been playing it exclusively in Modern too if it wasn’t for one small issue…[card]Wild Nacatl[/card] is banned. Well, not anymore! There were significant changes to the DCI Banned & Restricted list this time around, with [card]Deathrite Shaman[/card] getting booted from…
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Three things I think I know: 1. Modern has had a barrier-to-entry problem since its inception. It used to be (incorrectly) attributed to things like copies of [card]Hallowed Fountain[/card] being $40, but as the format has grown in popularity, very real scarcity issues have caused staples to spike at a rate far beyond anything most…
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Buying season for Modern is here. Or long past, as some would like to say, as prices of perceived staples have already quadripled or more. To say that there has been a cataclysmic shift in the Modern metagame due to the B&R announcements would be an understatement. Modern prices are shooting through the roof as speculation…
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There has been a lot said and written about the spikes in Modern card prices over the past few months, and much of it has been aimed at speculators. I completely understand the frustration with ever-increasing Modern card prices—I am a player and I feel it too. Until last weekend, I would have told you…
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It’s not a secret to anyone who knows me that I love Merfolk. Or that anyone who may have heard me say anything in passing knows that I love Merfolk. Or that anyone who has ever had a single limited interaction with me knows I love Merfolk. I have a good reason, after all. I’ve…
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