Episode Archives

Weekend Magic: 11/21-11/23

Jared Yost Articles

This past weekend featured Star City Games: Richmond. Let’s take a look at what decks were featured in Standard, Modern, and Legacy.

SCG Open Richmond – Standard (VA, USA)

Decklists

Finish Deck Finish Deck
1st Jeskai Combo 9th U/B Control
2nd Esper Control 10th Abzan Midrange
3rd Abzan Aggro 11th Temur Midrange
4th Jeskai Aggro 12th Mardu Aggro
5th 4-Color Midrange 13th Temur Aggro
6th G/B Constellation 14th W/B Aggro
7th Mardu Midrange 15th Abzan Midrange
8th Mardu Midrange 16th Mardu Midrange

Harlan Firer took down the Standard portion piloting Jeskai Combo. This combo version featured plenty of tokens in order to have a backup game plan in case the infinite combo didn’t work out. A highlight of the deck is four [card]Hordeling Outburst[/card], a card that seems to be seeing play in more and more archetypes as Khans Standard goes on. [card]Stoke the Flames[/card] was also a four-of in Firer’s build. However, I would recommend getting rid of your Stokes since a reprint of the card anywhere is going to completely tank its price (Event Decks!!!).

Other highlights from the Top 8 included:

  • Three copies of [card]Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver[/card] in Shaheen Soorani’s second-place Esper Control.
    • Ashiok has been declining in price since the October highs of $15 TCGplayer median (all prices quoted in the article will be TCGplayer median). Now down to $10, this could be a good time to pick up your copies if you like them for Standard.
  • Four [card]Bloodsoaked Champion[/card]s, four [card]Soldier of the Pantheon[/card]s, and three [card]Gather Courage[/card]s from Aaron Birch’s Abzan Aggro.
    • Champion is still high, but Soldiers and Gather Courages are still pretty cheap.
  • A Four-Color Midrange monstrosity created by Brad Nelson, which featured three [card]Chained to the Rocks[/card] alongside cards such as [card]Siege Rhino[/card], [card]Butcher of the Horde[/card], and [card]Elspeth, Sun’s Champion[/card].
    • Nothing new in the main deck, just a hodge-podge of good stuff. Out of the sideboard, Xenagos was seen but nothing else really jumped out to me.

Highlights from the Top 16 included:

  • Three more Ashioks in the UB control list that placed ninth.
  • Four [card]Ashcloud Phoenix[/card]es in the 11th-place Temur Midrange list.
    • Phoenix is the real deal, but wait until the Khans lowest prices are reached next year to pick them up for value.
  • Four [card]Savage Knuckblade[/card]s in the 13th-place Temur Aggro list, along with two [card]Sagu Mauler[/card]s and two [card]Polymorphist’s Jest[/card]s out of the sideboard.
  • Three Brimaz, King of Oreskos in the 14th-place W/B Aggro list.

SCG Open Richmond – Legacy (VA, USA)

Decklists

Finish Deck Finish Deck
1st Death And Taxes 9th Miracles
2nd Miracles 10th Miracles
3rd U/R Delver 11th Elves
4th Jeskai Stoneblade 12th Sultai Delver
5th Miracles 13th Storm
6th Infect 14th Jeskai Delver
7th Jeskai Stoneblade 15th Dredge
8th Lands 16th Jeskai Stoneblade

Marc Konig took down the even with Death and Taxes, a Legacy standby that continues to place well in the new UR Delver world. [card]Containment Priest[/card] is the new addition to the deck and Konig played one in the main deck and one in the sideboard. Containment Priest works against D&T’s plan slightly by messing with its own [card]Aether Vial[/card]s, but clearly the upsides outweigh this annoyance. Two [card]Gut Shot[/card]s were featured in the sideboard, and Konig mentioned that this card was currently underrated in Legacy. Foils at $4 or less seem like a good pickup.

Other highlights from the Top 8 included:

  • Three [card]Containment Priest[/card]s out of Ben Friedman’s Jeskai Stoneblade sideboard.
    • Also a playset of [card]Flusterstorm[/card] between the main deck and sideboard.
  • Another two [card]Containment Priest[/card]s out of Tomas Vicek’s Miracles sideboard.
  • Ryan Macedo’s Infect build featured two copies of [card]Become Immense[/card] in the main deck. He also mentioned that [card]Hydroblast[/card] worked really well out of his sideboard.
  • Yet another three [card]Containment Priest[/card]s in the sideboard of Fred Edelkamp’s Jeskai Stoneblade build.
  • David Long’s Lands featured four [card]Mox Diamond[/card]s and four [card]Gamble[/card] in the main deck, along with four [card]Krosan Grip[/card]s out of the sideboard

Highlights from the Top 16 included:

  • [card]Keranos, God of Storms[/card] was featured as a one-of in the ninth-place Miracles build
  • [card]Massacre[/card] made an appearance as a two-of in the 13th-place Storm deck
  • [card]Flayer of the Hatebound[/card] was featured in the 15th-place Dredge list

Taking a count across the Top 16, there were nineteen [card]Containment Priest[/card]s across the decks, with an average of two copies per deck (well, per sideboard, really). Priest is making an impact on Legacy but still feels overpriced to me.

SCG Richmond – Modern Premier IQ (VA, USA)

Decklists

Finish Deck Finish Deck
1st Scapeshift 9th Abzan Pod
2nd 4-Color Pod 10th U/R Delver
3rd Jeskai Control 11th G/W Auras
4th Scapeshift 12th Abzan Midrange
5th Temur Twin 13th Abzan Midrange
6th Skred 14th Blue Moon
7th U/R Twin 15th Affinity
8th Affinity 16th Abzan Pod

Modern also provided some interesting decks. The Modern Premier IQ was won by Niklas Kronberger who piloted Scapeshift to victory. Cards to watch from the deck include [card]Remand[/card] and from the sideboard [card]Obstinate Baloth[/card]. Remand has gone down to $12 and could go up from now until MM2. Obstinate Baloth only had one printing in M11 and could also go up if more discard strategies start being used in Modern.

Other highlights from the Top 8 included:

  • Two [card]Siege Rhino[/card]s in Adonys Medrano’s secondnd-place Four-Color Pod deck
    • Watch for foils of this card. If [card]Siege Rhino[/card] becomes a mainstay in Modern, the foil price will eventually reflect this demand.
  • A deck called Skred, which placed sixth. Tyler Forshaw built a deck around Snow-Covered Mountains in order to utilize the deck’s namesake, [card]Skred[/card], as a cheap answer to many of Modern’s creatures.
    • The whole deck uses cards that aren’t seen much in Modern: [card]Boros Reckoner[/card], [card]Stormbreath Dragon[/card], [card]Koth of the Hammer[/card], [card]Volanic Fallout[/card], and [card]Pyroclasm[/card] are the main takeaways (along with [card]Skred[/card] and Snow-Covered Mountain of course).
    • Out of the sideboard, three copies of [card]Chalice of the Void[/card] popped out to me. In addition to the Legacy applications, Chalice is also pretty good against the Modern variants of UR Delver. I feel like it is only a matter of time until Chalice’s price goes up to match this demand.
  • Two main-deck [card]Chalice of the Void[/card]s in Erik Aliff’s eighth-place Affinity deck.

Highlights from the Top 16 included:

  • Two Abzan Pod decks, which played five [card]Siege Rhino[/card]s between them.
  • Two Abzan Midrange decks, which played eight [card]Siege Rhino[/card]s between them.
    • Six [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card] were also played across both main decks.
    • The 13th-place Abzan Midrange deck played one [card]Sorin, Solemn Visitor[/card] in the main deck.
  • The 10th-place UR Delver list played an [card]Isochron Scepter[/card] in the main deck.
  • The 15h-place Affinity deck played one [card]Ghostfire Blade[/card] main deck.
    • It also played two [cad]Feed the Clan[/card] out of the sideboard.

That’s all for this week! Richmond showed us that there is still innovation in Standard, Legacy, and Modern. Until next time.

Pitt Imps Podcast #95 The Future

Pitt Imps Pitt Imps, Podcasts 01:54:32

In what can only be described as a slow week, the time is taken to explain exactly what to expect once the next century of the Pitt Imps begins. We go over SCG Columbus and let you guys know that the PPTQ schedule has been announced.

 

Host Angelo @ganksuou

Co-Host Ryan @brotheryan

Co-Host Will

Email [email protected]

Welcome to the Jungle: Sideboarding versus Midrange and Control

Max Perlmutter Articles

Welcome back again! I hope my previous article was able to help you all with the more explosive matchups you will face and I hope this one will help you with the more grinding matchups.

A Quick Refresher

The Deck

[deck title= AZooni (Big Zoo) ]
[Creatures]
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Scavenging Ooze
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
[/creatures]
[Spells]
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Lightning Helix
2 Ajani Vengeant
[/spells]
[Lands]
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
4 Arid Mesa
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Kessig Wolf Run
2 Forest
2 Plains
[/lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Spellskite
3 Blood Moon
2 Choke
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Deflecting Palm
1 Bow of Nylea
2 Batterskull
2 Engineered Explosives
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

Sideboard Breakdown

[card]Blood Moon[/card]

Blood Moon is a fantastic card out of the sideboard and is there to give you free wins or stall the game until you can reach a dominant position. This card is a must against all three-or-more-color decks and can even dominate two-color decks.

[card]Choke[/card]

If your opponent plays [card]Island[/card]s, you play Choke. I don’t think it can be any clearer than that.

[card]Spellskite[/card]

I really like Spellskite. It stonewalls aggro early on and can help you win the burn matchup. I like Spellskite especially in game three of the control and Pod matchups to protect your [card]Blood Moon[/card]s and [card]Choke[/card]s from their removal.

[card]Engineered Explosives[/card]

Board sweepers are really good and Explosives is no different. If they play creatures, you should play Explosives.

[card]Batterskull[/card]

Burn, midrange, control: all of these are matchups where Batterskull can shine. It is your most resilient threat (next to Thrun) and when paired with your creatures can be very potent.

[card]Ancient Grudge[/card]

Good versus artifacts.

[card]Bow of Nylea[/card]

I think this card is the best card in my sideboard. Every ability on the card is good. The graveyard one, although you use it the least, can be very strong. It lets you bottom some strong cards from your graveyard, and with your large amount of fetch lands, you can shuffle and redistribute your used powerful spells back into your deck.

[card]Deflecting Palm[/card]

If you expect to get hit with a lot of damage from a single source, play this card. Creatures holding [card]Cranial Plating[/card], Tron’s creatures, Bogles, Ascendancy Combo (choose the creature, and yes, you can choose Caryatid) are great sources for this card to choose. Palm also has bonus points versus Burn, where it basically acts as an extra [card]Lightning Helix[/card].

Let’s Begin with UWR

[Deck Title=UWR Control]
[creatures]
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Restoration Angel
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Keranos, God of Storms
[/creatures]
[Spells]
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Mana Leak
3 Electrolyze
3 Lightning Helix
3 Path to Exile
3 Cryptic Command
2 Supreme Verdict
2 Remand
2 Spell Snare
1 Sphinx’s Revelation
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Ajani Vengeant
[/Spells]
[lands]
4 Celestial Colonnade
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Island
3 Tectonic Edge
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Sulfur Falls
2 Flooded Strand
2 Steam Vents
1 Arid Mesa
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Mountain
1 Plains
[/lands]
[sideboard]
2 Stony Silence
1 Batterskull
1 Spellskite
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Combust
2 Counterflux
1 Celestial Purge
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Anger of the Gods
2 Wear // Tear
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

I personally love this matchup. You need to establish multiple threats early and luckily your deck is great at that! They have no answers to [card]Thrun, the Last Troll[/card] in the first game and you can ride him or a large [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card] to victory. I approach this matchup as if they are a critical mass burn deck so I want to apply a lot of pressure and force them to engage with me before they want to.

Sideboard out 4 [card]Qasali Pridemage[/card],  2 [card]Lightning Helix[/card], and 1 [card]Path to Exile[/card]

Sideboard in 3 [card]Blood Moon[/card], 2 [card]Choke[/card], and 2 [card]Batterskull[/card]

The sideboard plan is to lock them out and kill them while they sit there doing nothing. [card]Batterskull[/card] is great because you can cast it through your [card]Blood Moon[/card]s, which in and of themselves are game winners in their own right.

Blue Moon

[Deck Title=Blue Moon]
[creatures]
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique
[/creatures]
[spells]
4 Serum Visions
4 Cryptic Command
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Remand
3 Spell Snare
3 Vapor Snag
2 Electrolyze
2 Mana Leak
1 Dig Through Time
3 Blood Moon
2 Vedalken Shackles
1 Batterskull
[/spells]
[lands]
8 Island
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Steam Vents
2 Flooded Strand
1 Mountain
[/lands]
[sideboard]
1 Blood Moon
1 Batterskull
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Spellskite
1 Counterflux
1 Magma Spray
2 Negate
1 Keranos, God of Storms
3 Anger of the Gods
2 Vandalblast
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

In the first game its easy to get caught thinking you are playing against UR Delver or Splinter Twin, but in both of those matchups (Delver moreso than Splinter Twin), you should be fetching basics to keep yourself from getting burnt out. Qasali Pridemage is your allstar keeping [card]Vedalken Shackles[/card] at bay and your [card]Tarmogoyf[/card]s under your control.

Sideboard out 4 [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card]

Sideboard in 2 [card]Choke[/card], 2 [card]Batterskull[/card]

If you choke your opponent, you should win. I like to leave in all of my removal, including the [card]Path to Exile[/card]s, because I expect to see [card]Batterskull[/card] and [card]Spellskite[/card] in the post-board games.

Pick Your Poison (BG, Jund, or Junk)

In these matchups, your sideboard plan is the same in all matches but for shits and giggles, here are three decklists.

[Deck Title=The Rock]
[lands]
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Treetop Village
4 Twilight Mire
4 Swamp
3 Overgrown Tomb
2 Marsh Flats
1 Forest
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Woodland Cemetery
[/lands]
[creatures]
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Phyrexian Obliterator
3 Scavenging Ooze
2 Courser of Kruphix
[/creatures]
[spells]
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Dismember
1 Slaughter Pact
4 Liliana of the Veil
[/spells]
[sideboard]
1 Scavenging Ooze
3 Fulminator Mage
3 Creeping Corrosion
1 Drown in Sorrow
1 Damnation
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Torpor Orb
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Batterskull
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

[Deck Title=Jund]
[creatures]
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Scavenging Ooze
2 Courser of Kruphix
1 Olivia Voldaren
[/creatures]
[spells]
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Thoughtseize
2 Slaughter Pact
1 Terminate
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Anger of the Gods
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
[/spells]
[lands]
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Raging Ravine
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Forest
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Swamp
1 Marsh Flats
1 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Stomping Ground
1 Blood Crypt
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
[/lands]
[sideboard]
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Choke
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Batterskull
1 Shatterstorm
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Golgari Charm
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Grim Lavamancer
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

[Deck Title=Junk]
[lands]
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Marsh Flats
3 Tectonic Edge
2 Stirring Wildwood
2 Twilight Mire
2 Treetop Village
2 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
1 Temple Garden
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Misty Rainforest
[/lands]
[creature]
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Dark Confidant
3 Scavenging Ooze
[/creatures]
[spells]
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Slaughter Pact
2 Path to Exile
2 Lingering Souls
1 Darkblast
1 Dismember
4 Liliana of the Veil
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
[/spells]
[sideboard]
1 Lingering Souls
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Stony Silence
2 Skinrender
3 Fulminator Mage
1 Aven Mindcensor
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Black Sun’s Zenith
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

Sideboard out 4 [card]Noble Hierarch[/card] and 4 [card]Qasali Pridemage[/card]
Sideboard in 3 [card]Blood Moon[/card], 2 [card]Batterskull[/card], 2 [card]Engineered Explosives[/card], and 1 [card]Bow of Nylea[/card]

In these matches, you want to try and topdeck better than the BGx decks, and yes, it is possible. This is why you cut all the little fluff that couldn’t become a threat late in the game. [card]Blood Moon[/card] wins games on its own, and the player with the last [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card] standing also tends to win the game. Seriously, it is the best card in the matchup, so make sure you deploy Goyf into removal first so you can eat it with your Ooze.

[deck title=The New Junk]
[creatures]
4 Siege Rhino
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Scavenging Ooze
2 Courser of Kruphix
[/creatures]
[spells]
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Thoughtseize
3 Lingering Souls
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Darkblast
1 Duress
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Dismember
1 Slaughter Pact
3 Liliana of the Veil
[/spells]
[lands]
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Marsh Flats
3 Treetop Village
2 Swamp
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Twilight Mire
2 Windswept Heath
2 Tectonic Edge
1 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
1 Forest
1 Plains
[/lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Drown in Sorrow
1 Golgari Charm
3 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Fulminator Mage
2 Timely Reinforcements
2 Stony Silence
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Creeping Corrosion
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

Honestly, I would sideboard the exact same way as I do with other BGx decks and just fight the topdeck/attrition battle.

GR Tron

[Deck Title=GR Tron]
[creatures]
4 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
[/creatures]
[spells]
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Pyroclasm
4 Sylvan Scrying
4 Relic of Progenitus
4 Karn Liberated
4 Chromatic Star
4 Oblivion Stone
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Expedition Map
[/spells]
[lands]
4 Urza’s Mine
4 Urza’s Power Plant
4 Urza’s Tower
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Eye of Ugin
[/lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Torpor Orb
2 Platinum Angel
1 Sundering Titan
2 Choke
4 Nature’s Claim
4 Combust
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

You have to be a conservative aggro deck in this matchup—and I know that sounds weird. You don’t want to overextend against them into a [card]Oblivion Stone[/card]. [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card] will hopefully be there to be your second wave of attacking.

Sideboard out 2 [card]Thrun, the Last Troll[/card], 2 [card]Lightning Helix[/card], and 1 [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card]

Sideboard in 3 [card] Blood Moon[/card], and 2 [card]Ancient Grudge[/card].

Just add better removal and try to lock them out. Blood Moon while ticking up [card]Ajani Vengeant[/card] is a blowout, or just use the Moon to delay until you can kill them.

Mono U Tron and UW Tron also exist, but I don’t view them as being the most competitive.

For Mono U, I would side out 4 [card]Lighting Bolt[/card], 2 [card] Lightning Helix[/card], and 1 [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card].

I would side in 3 [card]Blood Moon[/card], 2 [card]Choke[/card], and 2 [card]Ancient Grudge[/card].

For UW I would board the same as GR Tron, unless they played an insane amount of Islands.

The Faerie Conclave

[Deck title=UB Faeries]
[Creatures]
4 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Mistbind Clique
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Snapcaster Mage
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Thoughtseize
3 Cryptic Command
3 Spell Snare
2 Dismember
2 Mana Leak
2 Shadow of Doubt
2 Smother
1 Go for the Throat
1 Tragic Slip
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Bitterblossom
[/spells]
[Lands]
4 Mutavault
4 River of Tears
4 Secluded Glen
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Island
3 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Ghost Quarter
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Negate
1 Squelch
1 Damnation
2 Duress
1 Darkblast
2 Sower of Temptation
1 Spellskite
1 Pithing Needle
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Batterskull
1 Memoricide
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

What I have found with the Faerie matchup is that you just need to be all-out aggressive in game one. Killing their [card]Bitterblossom[/card] and deploying a large amount of threats is just too much for them to handle. Maindeck Thrun also just makes them jump through hoops to win.

Sideboard out: 2 [card]Lightning Helix[/card], and 4 [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card]

Sideboard in: 3 [card]Blood Moon[/card], 1 [card]Bow of Nylea[/card], and 2 [card]Batterskull[/card]

Just kill their meager threats post board, and if you resolve a Blood Moon, you should win. I think it appears obvious why you don’t side in Choke for this matchup, but I’ll explain anyway: Faeries does not play Islands.

Sideboarding Mastery

Well thats all for this week! thanks for checking in and I’ll be happy to answer any questions you could have and I will be back next week with my final installment on sideboarding versus the combo decks of the format.

Privileged Position 5: No Sleep ‘Til Edison

Ross Lennon Articles

Last weekend was Grand Prix New Jersey, the third-largest GP (or any tournament, really) of all time. I had a great time, but more than anything else, the past couple of days were a glimpse into what is likely the future of Magic’s organized play program.

The official attendance for this tournament was 4003, but that number is a little bit disingenuous, at least in terms of explaining how the weekend went. That count does not include vendors, judges, floor traders, side-event participants1, security personnel, etc. The venue, especially on Friday and Saturday, felt packed. I think a lot of people got a different impression of the final number because they compared it to SCG’s publicly announced cap of 6500 attendees (as if 4000 could be small somehow), but in no possible sense was this a loss for them.

I think the biggest question we have to ask is: was this a successful Magic tournament? Obviously we know what BBD’s answer would be, and SCG’s as well, but was this representative of the GP system? Someone2 recently mentioned that GP weekends are starting to resemble conventions, rather than pro-level tournaments, and this weekend certainly made that statement more apparent as well. So my question is: if it was a Magic Convention, what would have actually been different? If the main event did not award Pro Points or PT invites (but maybe offset that by paying out more cash), how many people would that have really turned away? The closest analog would likely be Eternal Weekend or the European Bazaar of Moxen (named presumably for my cat, Mox Kitten). Eternal Weekend didn’t attract 4003 players, but it also was not run by Star City Games, which has been plugging #GPNJ for the past several months.

Okay, so it turns out that everyone is writing about this, and you’re probably sick of it by now. As a means of compensation, please accept this excellent Strong Bad Email

Of course, the main event is the crucial axis that the financial aspect relies on for weekends like this. Cards like [card]Chalice of the Void[/card] were in heavy demand all day Friday and into Saturday morning, and [card]Containment Priest[/card] was selling for the price of two Commander decks! I won’t credit myself as getting that called shot correct (who are we kidding, of course I will), but I think there is a trend starting to emerge—when there’s a Legacy-playable option in a Commander release that goes on sale the week before a big Legacy event, bring lots of copies. These decks are already more plentiful than last year’s offering, so I don’t expect that price to stay high long term, but this definitely shows the pressure a deck registration deadline can put on a Legacy singles market.

Power Overwhelming

Have you seen the prices of Power this week? Probably not, since they’re so high. They’re so high, you’d need a telescope to price them, since they are likely breaking through the ionosphere right now. They’re so high, Tal Bachman wrote a hit song about them. Their prices are getting so high, Lindsey Lohan tried snorting a Mox Ruby.

Those terrible jokes are right, though: these prices are getting out of hand. You can now trade a NM Alpha Lotus for a NM Hyundai Elantra. Of course, there are very few mobile pieces of near-mint Power left in the world, if any. The best ones have already been graded, and graded Power has always had a higher market price. Power also doesn’t change hands very often, especially pieces that have been personalized or are too played to attract an interested buyer. Star City is saying they didn’t aggressively target Power over the weekend, but at least a few floor traders are saying they were. The SCG buy prices changed almost immediately after the weekend was over, though, and there doesn’t seem to be any other possible reason why.

If you have plans of ever owning Power, start getting it soon. There are a couple of things to be aware of when acquiring Power, so let’s touch on them here:

  • Power has multiple prices: The retailer price, the eBay price, and the cash price.
    • If you went over to SCG’s website and added an Alpha Time Walk to your cart, you are paying the retailer price. This is the highest possible price, although the trade-offs include a very high probability that the card is real, and they are pretty strict about condition3. They will also probably give you some Game Night tokens.
    • The eBay price is going to be somewhere in between retail and cash. Like everything online, it will involve fees in some form or another, shipping costs, and waiting, but with eBay you have a higher chance of getting burned by less than authentic cards. This isn’t to say that this type of thing is common, but always temper yourself if you see a deal that has to be too good to be true. This is where you want to deal with experienced sellers with great feedback.
    • The cash price (sometimes colloquially known as the “Bro Deals Price”), is often times going to be the cheapest option. Cash talks, and very often it strikes a solid bargain. The downside to this is that it almost always happens in person, or with someone who you’ve dealt with consistently online (outside of a structured system like eBay). This is the price where trade-ins will get you the most value, especially if the person with the Power has a stronger market for newer cards.
  • If you are at a large event with dealers, you can absolutely go up to a dealer table (if they aren’t busy!) and ask a buyer to inspect a piece of Power. Fakes are getting better and better, and if you aren’t confident in your ability to spot a counterfeit, then don’t buy something without a second opinion.
  • I’ve said this before, but always trade Modern or Standard cards for eternal staples and Power if you can. When I got my first piece of Power, it was entirely off of trades, and many of the cards I traded have actually gone down in value since that trade was made. While this is unfortunate for the dealer, he likely sold all of them before that happened, since his ability to move those cards is greater than mine.
  • Understand that it is okay to convert the majority of your collection to Power. Keep what you absolutely need for the decks you can’t live without, and be willing to part for the rest if you get the right price. Remember, life is a game of Mario Party, and Power is stars. All other cards are just coins.

Even though the prices on Power are the only things to have gone up significantly so far this week, I would expect things like Library of Alexandria and Time Vault to go up soon as well. If you have ever wanted something from the first few Magic sets, you may want to start working towards it now.

Cheers and Jeers: GPNJ Edition!

Cheers: SCG. Even though there were some logistical issues throughout the course of the weekend, I am confident that any other TO would have done a much worse job. Also, Ben was seriously on top of stuff this weekend, including indirectly helping me get to the event on time Saturday!

Jeers: My deck. You should be guaranteed a feature match and day two if you play above a certain percentage of sweet foils, regardless of what the deck actually does (or in my case, doesn’t do).

Cheers: Legacy. Despite everyone saying that Treasure Cruise, Monastery Swiftspear, and Dig Through Time ruined the format, they were proven wrong. The format is still rich, diverse, and impossible to predict. I didn’t play against UR Delver once this past weekend!

Jeers: Legacy. This format is rich, diverse, and impossible to predict. I showed up ready to crush UR Delver and didn’t play against it once. Instead, I got crushed by Food Chain and turn two’d by Through The Breach. Go home, Legacy, you’re drunk.

Cheers: The high-end vendors. There was a lot of cool stuff at the vendor booths this weekend (not to mention literal Cool Stuff, the store). I saw a test print City of Brass, which I didn’t realize existed, as well as a textless foil Lightning Bolt (picture below). There was allegedly a Summer Sol Ring and Bayou, as well as some other fascinating obscurities, along with quite a lot of Power.

Test City

Jeers: SCG. I’m not sure if this is just a Star City policy, or if it extends to other Tournament Organizers, but there were hardly any packs for sale at vendor booths. One vendor told me it is because SCG sells current Standard packs, and so they tell other vendors not to bring them as a condition for buying booth space. Another told me it is to prevent people from buying packs and going to the hotel bar to draft, rather than signing up for a side event. I’m leaning more towards the first, since if that was SCG’s modus operandi, then they wouldn’t be slinging packs either. Anyways, it was hard to find sufficient packs for wacky draft, and that is a shame. I WANT MORE WACKY DRAFTING. WHY ISNT THERE A WACKY DRAFT PRO TOUR?

P.S. New term: A wacky packs Winston Draft is henceforth known as a “Crazy Ivan”.

Cheers: The building the tournament was in. It was almost like it was built specifically for Magic events. VIP lounge was nice, even though the somelier’s recommendation of the malbec with the duck confit was a bit pedestrian. The free box of Arturo Fuentes with our VIP Modern Masters draft was a nice touch though. Oh wait, we were instructed not to tell the proles about the super secret VIP perks. Sorry. :(

Jeers: Everything outside the building in a roughly three-mile radius, the state of New Jersey. Turns out, the convention center was in the middle of an industrial park. No convenient access by train, bus, or subway. There were also no restaurants within walking distance, and if you elected to stay at one of the cheaper hotels, renting a car was a necessity.

I know it’s common for people to crap on New Jersey. The roads are confusing and full of crazy people. They think “Thunder Road” is the magnum opus of western composition. Garden State was a terrible movie. And thanks to semi-recent political shenanigans, they are constantly being shit-talked by Wesley Crusher look-alike Rachel Maddow. But don’t worry, New Jerseyians (Jerseites? Jersuits? Jersey Boys?). I just want you all to know, deep down in your heart of hearts, that it’s all absolutely true.

Sorry for the short article this week, but due to travel and catching up on work, I didn’t have the time needed to write this article and fully put off writing this article. Come back next week, when I talk about building and growing your network. Until then, keep standing on the overpass screaming at the cars you want to get better.

BEST,

Ross

 

1 I played a couple Modern events, and I don’t think any of my opponents actually played in the main event.

2 I honestly spent the better part of an hour trying to find out who. I want to say it was Matt Sperling. Anyways, I really wanted to link you the article, so if you find it, please post the link in the comments and we will tack it on somehow.

3 By American standards. Apparently the Japanese are on a whole other level when it comes to this kind of thing.

 

Brainstorm Brewery #123 – Unpronouncable

Brainstorm Brewery Brainstorm Brewery, Podcasts 0:54:49

Winter strikes, and the cast has a difficult time assembling at the designated time. It’s actually going to be a bit telling who assembles the show notes because someone both shows up late and doesn’t really know what was discussed for the first fifteen minutes of the episode. That same person may or may not be in charge of assembling the show notes. Is that revealing too much? Don’t worry about it—you read the show notes, so you pretty much earned it. Can I level with you? I’m not really entirely sure who, if anyone, reads the show notes. It reads like ad copy every week outside of the bullet points. If you’ve clicked on the link, we pretty much have you. It’s like having ads inside a McDonald’s—you’re already hooked, and you’re already probably pretty sad about it. Our podcast isn’t McDonald’s; let’s be obvious. We’re like Kobe beef served on China plates paired with a twelve-year-old Cabernet Sauvignon in a crystal goblet. We’re the podcast Kanye West imagines Kanye West’s podcast would be. We’re seconds away from being in your head holes, and you’re welcome for that.

  • Grand Prix Edison was last weekend, and Jason, Corbin, and Ryan were in the Money Draught Mansion with @Time_Elemental and @SlickJagger. How many of JR’s belongings were destroyed?
  • Jason got stuck in a snow drift, and who knows what the first fifteen minutes of the cast were about? Not him.
  • Jason and Ryan learn that Marcel is the actual scum of the earth.
  • Marcel pronounces a bunch of words funny.
  • Reader e-mails dragged on, so some of it was cut so Marcel could get up early.
  • Pick of the Week goes super-esoteric. Jason essentially just rants. It was weird.
  • Ryan describes this episode as “better than not doing one.”
  • Questions? Concerns? E-mail brainstormbrew at gmail dot com.

 

Cabe Riseau produced the intro and outro music for Brainstorm Brewery.

Contact Us!

Brainstorm Brewery – Website – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook

Ryan Bushard – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook

Corbin Hosler – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – QuietSpeculation

Jason E Alt – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – QuietSpeculation

Marcel White – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook

Conjured Currency #40: Lessons from Grand Prix New Jersey

Douglas Johnson Articles

Grand Prix New Jersey has come and gone, and it was certainly an event to remember. With 4,003 people playing in the main event, Magic players have proven once again that Legacy is not a dead format. MTG even finally managed to beat Farm Simulator 2015 on Twitch, reaching over 15,000 viewers at its peak. But I’m not here to tell you which deck won, how many copies of [card]Treasure Cruise[/card] were in the top eight, or how many copies of [card]Forked Bolt[/card] you should be selling at $4 right now (hint: all of them). That information is just a Google search away. Today, I’m going to explain to you my methodology while buying/selling/trading, my first-hand experience with the vendors on site, and why you should tie a balloon to your backpack the next time you walk into a convention center containing 5,000 people. Let’s get to it.

Wheeling and Dealing

After suffering through the six-hour drive from Upstate New York, I arrived at the Expo Center at approximately 11:00 a.m. After saying hello to a few friends, my first order of business was to stop by every on-site vendor, pick up a copy of their printed-out buylists (if they had one), and quickly skim through the binders. Some vendors have multiple binders off to the side where they mass price random EDH/casual stuff that doesn’t deserve to be in the high-end display case. This is a great place to pick up things that have crept up recently (I found a foil [card]Kuldotha Forgemaster[/card] for $5), or grab the weird foils you’ve been missing for EDH.

Anyway, step two is to bunker down with your multiple sheets of homework, grab a pen, and circle/star/whatever you need to do to mark off prices for cards that look acceptable. I managed to throw all of mine away in my infinite wisdom, but I think you get the picture without having to actually have a picture. Circle the boxes that say, “[card]Voice of Resurgence[/card]: $12,” and stay away from the boxes that say “[card]Polukranos, the World Eater[/card]: $4.” Once that’s done, dig through your binders for the cards, and separate them by store. You save a ton of time (both yours, the vendors, and the people that would’ve been waiting in line while you sat at the table) by doing this.

“But DJ, what about the stores that don’t have printed out buylists?” Honestly, I usually stay away from the stores that don’t have a physical copy. You only have so much time in a weekend, and I’m not going to sit down at the table just to say “no” to 80 percent of the cards and prices they name. There are certain exceptions to this rule, though; LegitMTG at Grand Prix Philadelphia had a promise to honor every single other paper buylist on site unless their prices were “unreasonably high,” and I was perfectly happy to just give them everything. Some promise to match their online buylist in person, and others are well known to buy specific types of cards (like bulk) for a high price. Still, a few quick questions should determine whether you want to sit down at their table or not.

Individual Vendor Review

My first stop of the weekend was CoolStuffInc. The name might sound familiar to you, because you’ve probably heard Marcel telling you to show your support to them. I’ve always had an amazing experience with unloading casual gems to CoolStuff, and Jersey was no exception. They took stuff like [card]Fabled Hero[/card] at quarters, [card]Essence Warden[/card]s for $.50, [card]Rancor[/card]s for $.75, and all of my Ravnica bounce lands for $.10. It doesn’t seem like much, but it adds up over time. The dealer that handled my buy was very friendly, and we talked a bit about the weird cards that I was selling (also getting $.50 for [card]Congregation at Dawn[/card] that I used in the stupid [card]Skill Borrower[/card] deck was great). He was also happy to pick through several thousand bulk rares and pull out the cards that he would buy for higher than bulk, keeping my cards in order when I told him they were alphabetized. Overall, I highly recommend CoolStuffInc when getting rid of the casual gems and near-bulk cards that I talk about all the time in this column. Very personable, great prices on a specific niche of the market, and a fast transaction. 10/10, highly recommend.

After CoolStuff, I noticed that GamingEtc was having a deal on Monster binders. These binders normally go for between $30 and 35 on most retail sites, and many vendors on location were unloading them for $25. GamingEtc took it one step further, and created a bunch that had their logo on them, dropping the price on these to $20. I’m perfectly fine being a walking label if it means I can get supplies for cheaper (even if you for some reason hate GamingEtc, three minutes and a roll of duct tape can solve your internal crisis), so I had my target. At the same time, the store was offering $.50 cash for any NM bulk mythic, with a 25 percent trade-in bonus. I counted out all of my [card]Malignus[/card]es, [card]Tree of Redemption[/card]s, and [card]Champion of Stray Souls[/card]s, and dumped them all on the table (metaphorically), walking away with five new binders and a small wad of cash. Considering I buy bulk mythics for $.25 a piece, it was a great way to stock up on supplies for very little buy-in.

binders2

Next up was a certain famous (or infamous, depending on your past experiences) store that has built quite the reputation throughout the community, StrikeZoneOnline. The abridged version of my experiences with this vendor have always been, “Don’t mail cards to them, but always stop by and sell things to them in person.” This past weekend, I managed to sell a [card]Sublime Archangel[/card] to them for $7, original [card]Grim Lavamancer[/card]s for $5, and a few other nice deals that were oddly close to retail. Normally, I ask them to skim through my binder for odd foils. I remember buylisting a foil [card]Sorin Markov[/card] for practically retail, and was hoping the same would happen this weekend. Unfortunately, I was told that, “If it’s not on our paper buylist, we don’t want it at all this weekend.” That also meant that they wouldn’t honor their online buylist, which I was really hoping would be the case. I guess they wanted to save their cash to grab up dual lands and Legacy staples, but it left me not being able to execute my plan of action. My recommendation going forward is to still stay away from mailing cards (they’re much harsher grading when you’re not sitting across the table from them), and only plan on selling cards that are on their list when you pick it up.

After SZO was a store called Card Advantage. After hearing about issues with them not honoring their paper buylist in person, I wanted to see for myself. I pulled my cards from my binders that were on their hot list, and they honored their prices without giving me any trouble. Getting $3 per Thalia was more than what I was trying to get in my display case back home, so their hot list was definitely worth picking up and scrolling through. In addition to having great prices on certain cards, the people behind the booth (@amistod and @zachsellsmagic on Twitter) were very personable and nice to talk to, which wasn’t true with every vendor that I visited over the weekend.

Other Notes

[card]Containment Priest[/card] was impossible to find this weekend, and I watched a few copies sell out of cases for $40 or more. This does not mean that Priest is the [card]True-Name Nemesis[/card] of the set. Priest is not a four-of in its deck—it barely sees main-deck play. These new Commander decks will be printed to death, so wait until Priest is $10 in a couple of weeks, then buy in if you need your copies for Legacy or EDH.

Keep an Eye on Your Stuff!

Yes, this is supposed to go without saying. Yes, it’s a broken record to say, “Don’t let people steal your Magic cards.” However, here’s a story from this weekend. I sat down to trade with a young gentleman (probably younger than myself), and he hands me his binder to flip through. It’s not a bad binder, probably a couple thousand dollars (retail) worth of stuff in it. Before I’m finished, he tells me, “I’ll be right back, I’m gonna go get the rest of my cards.” Before I can even hand him his binder back, he sprints across the hall, awkwardly leaving the binder with me and two people I was sitting with. We are sitting less then 50 feet from the exit to the convention center, and are shell shocked as to what just happened. It takes him almost ten minutes to return with a few more fat pack boxes, and I end up letting him know how lucky he is that neither I nor the people I was sitting with were terrible people. Do not let anyone else watch your collection for you. There are already multiple stories of stolen collections surfacing from this past weekend, and there’s no guarantee that things get returned.

On the Other Hand…

There are some good people in the world. My experience on the New Jersey road system was less than ideal, and I ended up hitting a massive pothole in the middle of the night, and breaking the exhaust pipe on my car. The back half of the pipe dragged on the road the entire way back to the hotel, and it almost certainly wouldn’t have lasted the entire drive back to New York. Thankfully, a good Samaritan decided to help my group and me before we drove back on Sunday morning. Shout out to Bobby for patching my car back together! As much as everyone tends to focus on the negative, there are definitely some amazing people in our community who will stop what they’re doing and help others out.

How Was Your GPNJ?

Did you play in the event? Did you get any good trades or notice any financial trends? I can’t cover the entire weekend in one article, so feel free to fire away any questions about what happened on the floor last weekend, or anything about Grands Prix in general. I’ll reply in the comments section here, on Reddit, or on Twitter. Until next week!

Finance 201: Putting Theory to Practice

Sander van der Zee Articles

For the purpose of this article, I will be using fictional card prices that may or may not reflect the current prices as of the date this article is written or released. All prices quoted are in US dollars.

As a Magic: The Gathering financier, you likely hold a substantial number of cardboard Magic cards. But how do you properly register the value of your collection? How do you determine the profit per card, and how can you avoid getting confused by all the historical numbers, price changes, trades, or whatever else might distort your price memory? That, my fellow entrepreneurs, is all a matter of proper bookkeeping, and I am here to help you with your ABCs.

The Price Basis: A Historic Price System

In order for a company (or our little enterprises) to express their assets in monetary values, one must settle on a price basis. The most commonly used price basis is the price of purchase. That means that with the price of purchase as price basis, our valuation of our assets happens at the moment of purchase for the actual value that you have paid for that asset.

For example, Jason has saved up $100 and starts his own little venture in Magic: The Gathering finance named “Alt F4.” On January 1, he purchased 40 copies of [card]Rattleclaw Mystic[/card] at $2.50.

Balance Sheet January 1 Alt F4

Debit Credit
Inventory Equity $100
Rattleclaw Mystic 40 X $2.50 $100
Total $100 Total $100

This is a very simple way of showing what the value is of Jason’s assets. Here Jason has only a single product, Rattleclaw Mystic, all purchased together for the same price per copy. This, for us Magic: The Gathering financiers, is not all that representative of how we acquire our assets. In this article, we will follow Jason as he acquires his assets in all sort of different fashions and how that reflects on his balance sheet. In the following year, only a single relevant event occurs. On June 1, Jason sells 20 copies for $4 a piece. For the purpose of these examples, other costs are disregarded. The profit of this year will be calculated as follows:

Balance Sheet December 31st Alt F4

Debet Credit
Inventory Equity $100
Rattleclaw Mystic 20X $2.50 $50 Profit $30
Cash                         20X $4.00 $80
Total $130 Total $130

Income Statement Alt F4

Sales: 20 X $4 $80
Cost of goods sold 20 X $2.50 -$50
Profit $30

The example above shows the essence of profit calculating using the price of purchase as price basis. From here on out, I will elaborate on the following subjects relevant to Magic: The Gathering finance working off this concept in the following weeks:

  • How to incorporate trading
  • Purchase of same goods in different batches (with different prices of purchase) (next article!)
  • Price drops (next article!)

The Basics of Trading: 201

Equal trades

For most of us, most of our assets comes from acquiring cards by trading for them with our own cards. The concept of trading is ancient: I give you something you need in exchange for something I need. Back in those days, any item or service worth anything to anyone was a virtual currency. However, not everyone had something the other person wanted. That’s when the coin was introduced, an item that represents value. The real currency.

Trade goods Practical value Virtual currecy
Money Virtual value Practical currency

If we want to determine the value of a traded card properly, we need to imagine we are taking an extra step between the trades: exchanging the cards for money. Once you realize that you are actually selling your goods for money, then using that money to purchase someone else’s goods, then you can safely use the price basis of price of purchase.

To determine how much imaginary money is being exchanged, you need to have a baseline way to evaluate prices. Pick a single source for yourself and stick to it. I don’t care what source you use to actually facilitate the trade, as long as you always use the same source for when you determine the value that you are going use to register your cards. Because your source determines what price you theoretically paid for your assets, you must choose your source responsibly. The cheaper the source is comparatively, the more profit you appear to make. If your source’s prices are too high, it might appear as though you’re making no profit at all!

Example: Corbin is visiting a local grand prix and has a binder full of cards. He stumbles across another player named Ryan and they both settle on a trade. Corbin notes the cards he has traded and checks his chosen source, StarCityGames.com, to evaluate the purchased goods and his sold goods. We will assume that Corbin valued his [card]Giant Shark[/card] for $5 on his balance sheet. Corbin has traded his $5 [card]Giant Shark[/card] for Ryan’s two $2.50 [card]Shambleshark[/card].

In theory, this means that Corbin sells his Giant Shark for $5 and then purchases two Shamblesharks for $2.50$ each. That’s an even trade with an even value, at least according to Corbin’s source. That’s an easy one. Let’s assume that this is the only thing Corbin does the entire year.

Balance Sheet December 31st Corbin’s Cabin

Debet Credit
Inventory Equity $50
Giant Shark      9 X $5 $45
Shambleshark  2 X $2.50 $5
Total $50 Total $50

Income Statement Corbin’s Cabin

Sales: 1 X $5 $5
Cost of goods sold 1 X $5 -$5
Profit 0$

As you can see, an even trade results in no profit made. Now let’s see what happens if Corbin trades in his favor at the moment of his purchase.

Profitable Trades with Single Cards

“That means that with the price of purchase as price basis, our valuation of our assets happens at the moment of purchase for the actual value that you have paid for that asset.” This time, Corbin avoided Ryan completely and instead encountered Marcel. Marcel also wants to trade Corbin for his Giant Shark and Marcel insists on using a price source that results in the following numbers according to Corbin’s price source: Corbin trades his $5 [card]Giant Shark[/card] for four of Marcel’s $2 [card]Stinkweed Imp[/card]s.

This trade seems to be in Corbin’s favor: Corbin’s $5 versus Marcel’s $8. That seems easy—a profit of $3, right? Well, that’s not how it works. Let’s take another look. What truly happens is that Corbin sells his Giant Shark for $5 and purchases four Stinkweed Imps for $5. ($1.25 / piece). Again, no other relevant events occur during the year.

Balance Sheet December 31st Corbin’s Cabin

Debet Credit
Inventory Equity 50$
Giant Shark      9 X 5$ 45$
Stinkweed Imp  4 X 1.25$ 5$
Total 50$ Total 50$

Income Statement Corbin’s Cabin

Sales: 1 X 5$  5$
Cost of goods sold 1 X 5$ -5$
Profit 0$

In practice, Corbin simply traded for no profit, selling an asset to purchase another asset. Remember, the price that we value it as is the price of purchase, so that is why it seems like we made no profit. Profit only happens once we are able to sell our Stinkweed Imps.

Instead, let’s assume that after Corbin traded with Marcel, one relevant event occurred. He sold four copies of Stinkweed Imp for $2 a piece to a customer.

Balance Sheet December 31st Corbin’s Cabin

Debet Credit
Inventory Equity $50
Giant Shark      9 X $5 $45
Cash                  4 X $2 $8 Profit $3
Total $50 Total $50

Income Statement Corbin’s Cabin

Sales: 1 X $5, 4 x $2 $13
Cost of goods sold 1 X $5, 4 x $1.25 -$10
Profit $3

I split the cards out in the income statement to create clarity for the reader. Usually, the accumulated sales and costs of goods sold are clumped together, considering there are usually over a thousand per year, even for a small company.

As you can see, the profit is only acknowledged when Corbin actually sells the cards. And unlike some other Magic financiers, Corbin can clearly see what his profit margins were because he used the price of purchase when he did his bookkeeping. The important lesson to be learned here is that profit is generated through sales, not through purchases. When you trade for a card, you are in fact purchasing.

Profitable Purchase =/= Profit

(The clue is in the word: profitable.)

Profitable Trades with Multiple Cards

When you make a trade where you acquire more than a single card and the trade is not equal according to your source, the way to determine the value for each card is a little trickier to evaluate. This is where your baseline source is key.

Corbin makes another trade. Corbin trades his 5$ Giant Shark for Raymond’s $6 [card]Lightning Bolt[/card] and his $4 [card]Merfolk of the Pearl Trident[/card]. You can’t simply value the Lightning Bolt at $6 and the Merfolk of the Pearl Trident at $4. After all, you only paid $5 for them, so according to the price of purchase, both should equate to $5. This means we should make the values proportional. The total cited value of the cards according to Corbin’s source is $10. We need to decide what percentage of that $10 is Lightning Bolt and what percentage is Merfolk of the Pearl Trident. The formula is as follows: cited value of single card / total cited value X 100%.

Lightning Bolt: $6 / $10 *100 = 60%

Merfolk of the Pearl Trident: 4$ / 10$ * 100 = 40%.

Now we know what the individual cards are in relation to the total amount, we can easily determine their price of purchase value.

Lightning Bolt: 5$ * 0.6 (60%) = $3

Merfolk of the Pearl Trident: 5$ * 0.4 (40%) = $2

Balance Sheet December 31st Corbin’s Cabin

Debet Credit
Inventory Equity $50
Giant Shark      9 X $5 $45
Lightning Bolt  1 X $3 $3
Merfolk of the Pearl Trident 1 X $2 $2
Total $50 Total $50

And that’s how it looks on the balance sheet after you’ve properly deduced the value of each card.

There is a lot of ground left to cover, but it’s best to let this sink in first.

Practicing

I highly suggest practicing with these methods.

Start off small: make a new imaginary company where you slowly incorporate each new card acquired. Your inventory is your current trade binder. Odds are you don’t remember what you paid for those cards in the past. Use the naïve method to determine the value of your cards (assets)—assume you paid for them in the past what you would pay for them now, according to your cited source. This way you are not incidentally making a profit where there is none.

Summary

A trade consists of the sales of your own assets for virtual cash, followed by purchasing assets with the amount of cash generated. The value of your purchased assets are equal to the amount of virtual cash you spent on them, proportionally to the value cited by your source.

Stick to one source. Simple value any card you acquired in the past for the value of your source as if you were to purchase it.

Be consistent. Practice. Practice. Practice.

See you all next article, where we will delve into purchasing similar (same) goods at different prices, as well as what happens if a price drops!

Weekend Magic: 11/14-11/16

Jared Yost Articles

Two Grands Prix for the price of one! This weekend featured Grand Prix New Jersey and Grand Prix Madrid. New Jersey featured some sweet Legacy card slinging, where players were either playing [card]Treasure Cruise[/card] or playing around it, and Madrid featured some great Modern action where players were… basically doing the same thing. Let’s see what happened at the events.

Grand Prix New Jersey (NJ, USA)

Format – Legacy

Decklists

BBD took down the event piloting the Jeskai Stoneblade deck. The most obvious innovation in the list is the removal of [card]Delver of Secrets[/card] for [card]Young Pyromancer[/card]. Young Pyromancer foils have already spiked to $40 and I don’t see them moving from there, especially because a deck other than UR Delver featured them. [card]Meddling Mage[/card] is still hovering around $6 TCGplayer mid (all cited prices moving forward will use TCGplayer mid unless otherwise stated) and could continue its upward trend in price since it is so good out of the sideboard in the current Legacy metagame.

Second place went to The Boss, Tom Ross, who as usual was piloting his famous Infect deck. One [card]Become Immense[/card] in the main deck is the takeaway here. Watch out for foils of this card over the coming months. If you can snag them for under $1, I think that is a good pickup.

Rounding out the Top 8, we have Storm, two Miracles, UR Delver, Metalworker, and something called UR Landstill.

[card]Snapcaster Mage[/card] showed up in both Miracles and the UR Landstill lists. Snapcaster Mage seemed to wane in popularity due to [card]Deathrite Shaman[/card]. However, since more players decided to get on the UR Delver bandwagon to play [card]Treasure Cruise[/card], it seems that Snappy is back in action again in Legacy in addition to the Modern play he sees.

There were four copies of [card]Containment Priest[/card] across the sideboards of the Top 8. Sell into the weekend hype, then when more copies of the Forged in Stone mono-white Commander deck hit the market, you can pick up the Priests on the cheap.

[card]Flusterstorm[/card] was a popular card during the weekend. Many players were looking for copies in trades and it will continue to be popular in Legacy. [card]Forked Bolt[/card] was also a popular card at New Jersey, as many vendors seemed to be selling out of them at $5. I would expect this card (which is from the same set as [card]Inquisition of Kozilek[/card]) to maintain that price until a reprint. Another card that that will continue to go up in price is [card]Smash to Smithereens[/card]. This card has hit $4 and will continue to trend upwards since it is a popular option for Burn and UR Delver players both in Modern and Legacy.

[card]Chalice of the Void[/card] could be a potential sleeper. There were four of them in the main deck of the [card]Metalworker deck[/card], and in addition, [card]Blood Moon[/card] decks and even Merfolk lists were main-decking a playset of this card in order to fight through all the cheap cantrips of UR Delver and similar variants. At $6, this could be a very good buy-in point.

Another card out of the Metalworker deck that has been trending is [card]Metalworker[/card] itself (which spiked when it was unbanned from EDH from $13 to $30, but has been trending down to $27 at this point). If you were savvy enough to get in on foils before the unbanning, they are now going for $220—though these results are misleading since there are only three listings.

[card]Kuldotha Forgemaster[/card] foils are up to $20 while regular copies are still below $1. There is a ton of buzz surrounding this card and its exclusion from the Built from Scratch mono-red Commander deck. I think eventually this could affect its price, and $2 or more certainly isn’t out of the question.

Lastly, the UR Landstill deck was the most unique deck of the Top 8 to come out of post-[card]Treasure Cruise[/card] Legacy format. The deck played one copy of the newly infamous spell and instead opted to play three [card]Standstill[/card]s, manlands [card]Mishra’s Factory[/card] and [card]Faerie Conclave[/card], and a control package featuring cards like [card]Spell Snare[/card] and [card]Sudden Shock[/card] in order to control the game until either Jace, Snapcaster Mage, or manlands kill the opponent. The cards to watch from this deck include Standstill and Sudden Shock, especially foils.

Outside of the Top 8, Omni-Tell placed ninth and a Grixis Control deck placed thirteenth. Omniscience is around $8.50 and I think that it could continue to trend upwards because it is also a popular Commander card. Foils are $40 and I could also see this price increasing over time as well. Grixis Control featured two [card]Dack Fayden[/card], which is a card already poised to go up based from casual demand alone. The possibility of it being featured in Legacy will also have price implications for the future.

Grand Prix Madrid – Modern (Madrid, ES)

Format – Modern

Decklists

Immanuel Gerschenson won Grand Prix Madrid piloting a Temur Delver build. Based off the longstanding Canadian Threshold/RUG/Temur Delver lists that have been a staple of Legacy for years, Gerschenson adopted the archetype to Modern with great success. The deck plays playsets of ‘Goyf, [card]Young Pyromancer[/card], and Delvers, along with a ton of one-mana cantrips and disruption/removal spells in order to cast [card]Treasure Cruise[/card] as fast as possible and to keep casting more spells. Highlights from this deck include two [card]Vapor Snag[/card] in the main deck and [card]Dragon’s Claw[/card], [card]Hibernation[/card], and [card]Molten Rain[/card] out of the sideboard. I would be looking to pick up foil copies of these cards since they hadn’t been seeing much play before Treasure Cruise and may continue to see play based on Temur Delver winning the GP.

Second place went to Till Riffert who was piloting Scapeshift. The notable card here was [card]Dig Through Time[/card] (three copies), which seems to have boosted the power of Modern combo decks because it allows you to look seven cards deep. Another Scapeshift deck made the Top 8, but it didn’t have blue cards and instead utilized [card]Through the Breach[/card] as an alternate way to combo off and win with an Emrakul if the Scapeshift plan didn’t work out. Notables from the Breach Scapeshift deck include Through the Breach, three [card]Summoning Trap[/card]s, and three [card]Chalice of the Void[/card]s in the main deck.

Rounding out the Top 8 we have three Birthing Pod decks, Abzan, Martyr Life, and another Scapeshift deck. Martyr Life is the outstanding deck here. Cards to watch from this deck include [card]Serra Ascendent[/card], [card]Ranger of Eos[/card], [card]Proclamation of Rebirth[/card], and [card]Ghostly Prison[/card]. [card]Flagstones of Trokir[/card] also appeared as a playset. These cards could see an uptick in price based on the results.

What a weekend! Plenty of cards seem like great opportunities based on the shaken up Modern and Legacy formats. Until next week!

Pitt Imps Podcast #94 The Rickets

Pitt Imps Pitt Imps, Podcasts 01:57:42

Seriously, people, stop cheating. I can’t believe I got to go over another suspension this week. Oh, well. We also got a couple GPs and SCG Oakland, which had the real breakout deck of the week. Plenty of news came out of the Aussie PAX and Angelo goes off on a rant about Modern. You’ve been warned.

Host Angelo  Twitter @ganksuou

Co-Host Ryan   Twitter @brotheryan

Show Email  [email protected]

Welcome to the Jungle: Sideboarding Versus the Aggressive

Max Perlmutter Articles

Welcome back, everybody!

I assume since you are here you want to learn how to sideboard with my Zoo deck against the more aggressive decks in Modern. If not, tough luck. Against these decks, you want to start off as the control deck and stabilize before transitioning into being the beatdown to close the game.

The Deck

[deck title= AZooni (Big Zoo) ]
[Creatures]
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Scavenging Ooze
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
[/creatures]
[Spells]
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Lightning Helix
2 Ajani Vengeant
[/spells]
[Lands]
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
4 Arid Mesa
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Kessig Wolf Run
2 Forest
2 Plains
[/lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Spellskite
3 Blood Moon
2 Choke
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Deflecting Palm
1 Bow of Nylea
2 Batterskull
2 Engineered Explosives
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

Sideboard Breakdown

[card]Blood Moon[/card]

Blood Moon is a fantastic card out of the sideboard and is there to give you free wins or stall the game until you can reach a dominant position. This card is a must against all three-or-more-color decks and can even dominate two-color decks.

[card]Choke[/card]

If your opponent plays [card]Island[/card]s, you play Choke. I don’t think it can be any clearer than that.

[card]Spellskite[/card]

I really like Spellskite. It stonewalls aggro early on and can help you win the burn matchup. I like Spellskite especially in game three of the control and Pod matchups to protect your [card]Blood Moon[/card]s and [card]Choke[/card]s from their removal.

[card]Engineered Explosives[/card]

Board sweepers are really good and Explosives is no different. If they play creatures, you should play Explosives.

[card]Batterskull[/card]

Burn, midrange, control: all of these are matchups where Batterskull can shine. It is your most resilient threat (next to Thrun) and when paired with your creatures can be very potent.

[card]Ancient Grudge[/card]

Good versus artifacts.

[card]Bow of Nylea[/card]

I think this card is the best card in my sideboard. Every ability on the card is good. The graveyard one, although you use it the least, can be very strong. It lets you bottom some strong cards from your graveyard, and with your large amount of fetch lands, you can shuffle and redistribute your used powerful spells back into your deck.

[card]Deflecting Palm[/card]

If you expect to get hit with a lot of damage from a single source, play this card. Creatures holding [card]Cranial Plating[/card], Tron’s creatures, Bogles, Ascendancy Combo (choose the creature, and yes, you can choose Caryatid) are great sources for this card to choose. Palm also has bonus points versus Burn, where it basically acts as an extra [card]Lightning Helix[/card].

To Begin, Let’s Start Off With UR Delver

UR Delver is a very interesting matchup that I feel lands in the favor of Zoo 60 percent of the time. The main goal for Delver is to play a tempo game versus you. To counter that, you should try to kill every creature they play on sight and try to go wide with your threats. An uncontested creature from them can spell the end for you, but as long as you have two or three blockers and some of your 12 removal options, you should be fine.

Sideboard out: 4 [card]Qasali Pridemage[/card], 3 [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card]

Sideboard in: 2 [card]Choke[/card], 2 [card]Engineered Explosives[/card], 2 [card]Spellskite[/card], 1 [card]Bow of Nylea[/card]

Out of their sideboard, I would expect counterspells and maybe combust for Knights.

Pro tip: [card]Insectile Aberation[/card] has a converted mana cost (CMC) of 0, and therefore will die along with [card]Young Pyromancer[/card] tokens to [card]Engineered Explosives[/card].

Next Up At Bat: Burn

[Deck Title=Burn]
[Creatures]
4 Goblin Guide
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Boros Charm
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Skullcrack
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
4 Treasure Cruise
2 Shard Volley
2 Searing Blaze
[/Spells]
[Lands]
5 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Arid Mesa
2 Steam Vents
2 Sacred Foundry
1 Stomping Ground
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
3 Destructive Revelry
4 Dragon’s Claw
2 Searing Blood
2 Smash to Smithereens
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

Burn is one of your rougher matchups, and can be a deterrent to playing Zoo, but after you learn the matchup, it isn’t that bad. I would consider it 45 percent pre-board, and post-board it is completely draw dependent on your end.

In game one of each match, once you find out your opponent is playing Burn, you want to try not to kill yourself with your lands. Basic lands are your best friends, making [card]Windswept Heath[/card] your best fetch. Every single creature that they play is worth killing with any removal spell you have, so don’t be picky. [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card], [card]Lighting Helix[/card], and [card]Ajani Vengeant[/card] are how you stay alive in game one, so please try your best not to get [card]Skullcrack[/card]ed.

Sideboard out: 4 [card]Qasali Pridemage[/card], 2 [card]Path to Exile[/card]

Sideboard in: 2 [card]Batterskull[/card], 1 [card]Bow of Nylea[/card], 1 [card]Deflecting Palm[/card], 2 [card]Spellskite[/card]

Just like your plan versus Delver, you are going to try to stonewall their aggressive creatures. Spellskite helps block the aggressive starts and subtracts one damage from most burn spells (except when coupled with Hierarch and you are able to pay the blue mana to activate its ability). [card]Deflecting Palm[/card] is basically another Lightning Helix in this matchup—it is better than your other cards so you play it. [card]Batterskull[/card] and [card]Bow of Nylea[/card], if unanswered, basically read, “You win the game.”

Pro Tip: Although you board them out for games two and three, you should remember that Qasali Pridemage kills [card]Eidolon of the Great Revel[/card].

Affinity for Affinity

[deck title=Affinity]
[Creatures]
2 Etched Champion
2 Master of Etherium
2 Memnite
3 Steel Overseer
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Ornithopter
4 Signal Pest
4 Vault Skirge
[/creatures]
[spells]
4 Cranial Plating
4 Mox Opal
4 Springleaf Drum
3 Ensoul Artifact
3 Galvanic Blast
[/spells]
[Lands]
1 Island
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Glimmervoid
4 Inkmoth Nexus
[/lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Thoughtseize
1 Whipflare
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Gut Shot
1 Dismember
1 Nature’s Claim
1 Blood Moon
2 Spellskite
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Torpor Orb
1 Etched Champion
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

Affinity is a race, and one you are primed to lose. Disruption and killing all of their threats is key to winning this matchup. [card]Qasali Pridemage[/card] is a three-mana removal spell that sometimes sits around to block, but if your board is full of them, you are doing something wrong. One-for-one removal on key threats and two-for-oneing your opponents when they use [card]Ensoul Artifact[/card] are your best ways to get any semblance of card advantage. [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card] is a champ and helps you stick a big threat while you try not to die.

Sideboard out: 2 [card]Thrun, the Last Troll[/card], 2 [card]Ajani Vengeant[/card], 1 [card]Noble Hierarch[/card]

Sideboard in: 2 [card]Engineered Explosives[/card], 2 [card]Ancient Grduge[/card], 1 [card]Deflecting Palm[/card]

Engineered Explosives and Ancient Grudge are how you get your card advantage here. The same thing is true here as in the previous matchups: you just try not to die until you can close out the game. Kill everything on sight, and if they crack in with a [card]Cranial Plating[/card] or even just an Ensouled Artifact, throw it back at their face.

Pro tip: Be mindful of [card]Arcbound Ravager[/card]. You can use removal to coax them into going all in on a creature if you have another removal spell to kill its target. Never let a [card]Steel Overseer[/card] untap or you will lose the game.

Brainstorm Brewery is a Great Place for Merfolk

[deck title=Merfolk]
[creatures]
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Lord of Atlantis
1 Phantasmal Image
4 Merrow Reejerey
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
3 Master of waves
[/creatures]
[spells]
4 Aether Vial
4 Vapor Snag
2 Spell Pierce
4 Spreading Seas
[/spells]
[lands]
14 Island
4 Mutavault
2 Cavern of souls
[/lands]
[sideboard]
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
4 Gut Shot
2 Spellskite
2 Steel Sabotage
2 Swan Song
3 Tidebinder Mage
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Merfolk is a matchup that is never close. If you let them develop a board, you can plan on getting blown out, while if you keep their board clear and don’t let them establish three lords, you should be fine. I don’t have a percentage for this matchup because it is so draw-dependent, but I feel favored.

Sideboard out: 4 [card]Qasali Pridemage[/card]

Sideboard in: 2 [card]Choke[/card], 2 [card]Engineered Explosives[/card]

Post-board, you really just want to Choke them out or decimate their board with Explosives, but otherwise play the same as game one. If they are on a UW build rather than a mono U build you can bring in Blood Moon to decimate them. 

Bogles, AKA Your Worst Nightmare

[deck title=Bogles]
[Creatures]
4 Slippery Bogle
4 Gladecover Scout
4 Kor Spiritdancer
[/creatures]
[Spells]
2 Path to Exile
4 Spider Umbra
4 Rancor
4 Ethereal Armor
3 Hyena Umbra
1 Spirit Link
3 Spirit Mantle
4 Daybreak Coronet
2 Unflinching Courage
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
3 Sunpetal Grove
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Wooded Foothills
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Supression Field
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Torpor Orb
4 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Rest in peace
2 Stony Silence
1 Nature’s Claim
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

You have four cards to interact with this deck, period. Prepare for a beating and losing game one. I’d call it a 10-percent chance to live past turn five in game one.

Sideboard out: 2 [card]Ajani Vengeant[/card], 2 [card]Lightning Helix[/card], 4 [card]Lightning Bolt[/card]

Sideboard in: 2 [card]Spellskite[/card], 2 [card]Engineered Explosives[/card], 3 [card]Blood Moon[/card], 1 [card]Deflecting Palm[/card]

I leave [card]Path to Exile[/card] in for games two and three over [card]Lightning Bolt[/card] because it gives me a way to deal with [card]Kor Spiritdancer[/card], but I think they are interchangeable if you would rather burn faces.  Your game plan post-board is to stick an early [card]Spellskite[/card] to steal their enchantments or to [card]Blood Moon[/card] them out of the game ASAP. It doesn’t matter if you lock yourself out, either—just hope you draw basics before them. Explosives is your reset switch on one or two, usually to try and rip apart their Voltron. Good luck, because you will need it.

Pro tip: Funerals and coffins are a waste of money, just get cremated because there wont be anything besides a bloody pulp to see at a viewing.

Little Zoo: It Ain’t No Big Zoo

[Deck Title=Little Zoo]
[Creatures]
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Qasali Pridemage
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
[/creatures]
[Spells]
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Helix
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Arid Mesa
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
3 Horizon Canopy
2 Temple Garden
2 Stomping Ground
1 Forest
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Plains
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Molten Rain
2 Wear//Tear
1 Magma Spray
2 Boros Charm
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Stony Silence
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Historically, Big Zoo was built to prey upon Little Zoo, and that is what you do. I played this exact matchup at SCG Worcester in the quarterfinals and got a quick 2-0 victory. As long as you don’t get blown out by a [card]Ghor-Clan Rampager[/card], you should be able to win game one off of having more [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card]s.

Sideboard out: 4 [card]Qasali Pridemage[/card], 4 [card]Noble Hierarch[/card]

Sideboard in: 3 [card]Blood Moon[/card], 2 [card]Batterskull[/card], 1 [card]Bow of Nylea[/card], 2 [card]Engineered Explosives[/card]

In games two and three, you should just kill them. Sweep their board and play stronger and more resilient threats until they die. Thrun is a card they have a lot of trouble with, and locking them out with a Blood Moon is just GG.

Now You Know

Thank you all for reading. I’ll be back soon with another installment, where I will talk about sideboarding against more midrange and control-oriented decks. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments and I will try to get to them as soon as I can.

Privileged Perspective 4: The Mana From Another Place

Ross Lennon Articles

One of my favorite aspects of Magic finance is the one that is very likely the least discussed. People will pore endless hours over set reviews, Modern breakouts, and Reserve List buyouts, but there is, comparatively, nothing written about foreign foils and obscurities. There are several different factors that contribute to this, but in an era where it feels like Magic information is being homogenized and disseminated faster than ever1, it’s strange that the foreign markets have so little to go off of. We’ll touch a little bit on how the foreign foil premium works (spoiler alert: it’s pretty random!), some of the resources that you can use to grow your reach with niche markets, and we will get to look at lots of pictures of cool cards! Let’s rock!

Grasping at Straws; or “Known Knowns and Known Unknowns”

When you are operating with unknown or incomplete information, it is best to look at everything that you know is concrete, and extrapolate from that. In the context of today’s theme, this means we want to look at everything we do know when trying to determine the price of a card that we don’t know.

FIRST OF (SURPRISINGLY FEW!) BRIEF ASIDES: Very rarely will a site like SCG have a published price on a foreign foil or rarity. If they do, treat this as one possible price, not the correct one—it may be several months old or predicated on unavailable information (like what their buyer paid for it). Also, they are likely to tack on a “Star City Premium” (and I don’t mean the kind where they charge you money to watch Todd Anderson videos), because most people simply wouldn’t know where else to find these types of cards.

The very first thing I figure out is what language a card is in. This will give us some idea of the scarcity/demand relative to its standard counterpart, the English copy. While almost all languages receive shorter print runs than English2, not all of them experience the same influences when it comes to final price. Here is a handy cheat sheet when it comes to identifying languages:

  • With European languages (excluding Russian, but including Spanish and Portuguese even though the majority of their speakers live in Central and South America), the price is typically going to be lower than English. While supply is lower, demand is lower as well, and many players prefer English copies as they typically trade better, especially internationally. The caveat here is any card where the translation makes the name of the card hilarious. Popular examples include Spanish [card]Sarkhan the Mad[/card] (Sarkhan, El Loco), French [card]Delay[/card] (Retard, which I personally don’t think is funny, but I’m just presenting facts), and for a brief period, German [card]Huntmaster of the Fells[/card] (which many expected to include the word “Jagermeister” in the name). There are also occasional misprints for specific languages, the most notorious being Spanish Meloku, who makes 2/2 tokens, instead of 1/1s (because that card wasn’t good enough already).
  • Chinese cards are actually printed in larger quantities than English cards (you would know this already if you were reading the footnotes). This results in lower prices on the majority of cards, but things like foil [card]Abrupt Decay[/card] are typically in line with the English price. When I am preordering or buying cards just to play with in Standard, I will typically buy Chinese copies to get a little bit of a better deal on them. Ignore the stigma of potential counterfeits by buying from trusted, reputable vendors: I buy exclusively from MTGMintCard, because they have great pricing and are (I think) based in the US, allowing for cheaper and faster shipping. My most recent purchase from them was a preorder of four Chinese [card]Temple of Enlightenment[/card], which were almost $2 less a piece than the English price. In the wild, I am able to identify Chinese cards by comparing the bulkier printing style to Japanese lettering. Chinese lettering in the name of the card often appears thicker than any other language.
  • Japanese has long been the “cool” language, and so it sees a price increase by virtue of being Japanese. Because the Japanese Magic community travels well, there is a great arbitrage opportunity trading English cards to Japanese players at events. English cards often fetch higher prices overseas, and there is a large subset of American players who like the look of Japanese cards. Foils will always outpace the pricing on English copies, and tournament staples for Modern or Legacy can have even stronger premiums attached. The easiest way to tell Japanese from any other language is by checking the card name (top left)—there will often be a small row of characters on top of the name. Japan, moreso than Korea or Russia (to my knowledge), has an extremely strong Magic community, and so there are some easy-to-find store sites with prices on #JPFoils (a hashtag I invented along with Zak, Heiko, and a couple others—shout out!). My personal preference is TokyoMTG.com.
  • Korean was a supported language for a few years (starting with Visions and then ending with Urza’s Saga), before it was discontinued. It has since been resumed (as of M12 and Innistrad), and is a popular choice with people who like foreign cards. For some reason, the beginning of the new Korean printings seem prone to several typos and misprints, including [card]Gideon Jura[/card] and Ashiok.
  • Russian is the last of the premium languages. It has a very small printing, and started around Gatecrash. Because these last two languages are relatively new, they have had a hard time ousting Japanese as the de facto cool language. I’m not going to make a lame Yakov Smirnoff joke, BECAUSE I AM A PROFESSIONAL, DAMMIT.
  • Henceforth, I will refer to Japanese, Korean, and Russian as “prestige languages.” This is in no way, shape, or form an endorsement of Hugh Jackman.

Once you have determined the language of a card, find out the price on the English equivalent (in the case of a foil, you will want both the foil and non-foil prices). For cards with either of the “modern” frames, the foreign and English prices on non-foils will be roughly the same (I might pad the sale price a little bit for prestige languages). If you are working with foils, then what you are looking for isn’t the price of the English card, but rather the foil premium between English versions. We will use two cards from Ravnica: City of Guilds as an example, with all prices coming from Star City Games.

[card]Blood Funnel[/card] is listed at 99 cents for non-foil and $1.99 for foil. These are, after doing some cursory research, about the lowest prices SCG will list older rares (and foil rares) at. We can establish the minimum foil premium at 100-percent markup, or double the price of the non-foil.

[card]Life from the Loam[/card], on the other hand, has a non-foil price of $4 (and out of stock!) and a foil price of $40. This means that the perceived value for [card]Life from the Loam[/card] (in spite of several additional printings and another foil printing!) is so high, that the foils are able to fetch ten times the non-foil price!

If I was presented with an opportunity to determine the prices on Japanese copies of these two cards (let’s say I’m somewhere without cell reception, like a giant concrete convention building or Mississippi), then I am going to value the [card]Blood Funnel[/card] about on par with the foil English copy (I’d probably settle on $3 in trade, which is pretty good for freakin’ Blood Funnel).

The Loam, however, is going to be trickier. Despite being unable to find any JP foil copies of Loam for sale with a quick Google search, I can tell you its typical sale price is about $180. The foreign premium will not always be the same percentage as the foil premium (thank God), but if there’s a foil premium in excess of the standard3, then the foreign premium for prestige languages will be in excess as well. I wish I could tell you exactly how the Loam got to $180, but it isn’t an exact science. A lot of times, however, it seems the rule of thumb is “double it, then double it again.”

Acquisitions

The growth of Magic’s presence on the internet has made getting foreign foils and niche cards much easier over the last couple of years. The expansion of eBay into other countries (with PayPal serving as a financial Tower of Babel in easily converting currencies) and social media have largely replaced the old system of, “Go to a GP and try and trade with the Japanese players.” While that original system of arbitrage is still largely in effect, the majority of my recent acquisitions have been from my phone, typically while pretending to work. Look, let’s just bullet point these so we can get on to the cool pictures of foils and stuff, okay?

  • You already know about eBay, but make sure you’re able to see foreign sellers as well (I think sometimes this gets disabled in settings, I don’t know, I always look at it on my phone). Here’s a great tip: type “Japanese Foil” or “Japanese Foil MTG” into eBay and just read through all of the listings some time when you’re bored living in the most technologically advanced civilization to ever exist. Not only will this help you familiarize yourself with the kinds of prices and margins you’ll be dealing with, but it makes a fantastic car game on the way to a tournament. You, the phone person (and hopefully not driver), say, “How much is Japanese Foil [CARD NAME] worth?” and the other people in the car try to guess closest without going over.
  • Another quick eBay tip: Make sure to write down the names of some of the more frequent users you see dealing in foreign/niche cards. If you are going to be getting into this stuff, it’s good to know who the other players are, and you will likely buy from them repeatedly, so build a friendly rapport. This will allow you to build a network of people who are able to find things for you across the globe, which is pretty cool.
  • In a future portion of this article, I will tell you about a website called Magic Librarities. One of the things listed on it is every printing of every FNM/Arena/Gameday promo in every language it was printed in. I personally like Japanese FNM promos ([card]Grisly Salvage[/card] especially), so you can browse that website for promo cards to see what language they are in. I also have a sweet Japanese [card]Slave of Bolas[/card]. Will you deliver a message to future Ross for me? Tell him, “The owls are not what they seem.”
  • Websites like TokyoMTG and MTGMintCard are great if you know what language you are looking for. MTGCardMarket is a good source of European language cards, but you have to live in Europe to be a member. Therefore, I recommend either making a friend in Europe who doesn’t mind being a middle-man in facilitating trades, or committing international identity theft. Actually, you should probably just do the first one.
  • I literally just have a little blurb at the end of my PucaTrade profile that says, “If you have any foreign or weird foils that you don’t know what to do with, I’ll take ’em,” and people message me out of the blue all the time with cards they want to get rid of. It’s sweet!
  • I’ll let you in on a secret: your LGS can get foreign boxes from WOTC. They can’t get much (and I believe it is partially dictated by your store level), but if you’re the only person in your town that likes Korean cards, then make friends with the store owner. Be willing to pay up front if this is something they don’t do often—many small stores have a hard time selling foreign packs to casual players.
  • Trade with foreign players at large events! There are a lot of great guys like Saito who have been doing this for a while, and will be happy to scratch your back if you scratch theirs. DISCLAIMER: do not actually scratch another attendee’s back without consent. Can we look at cool cards now? Awesome.

The Sweetness

Do you ever scroll through Librarities? If you aren’t familiar with it, it’s a website that catalogs all of the rare obscurities of Magic’s past, as well as a comprehensive collection of every promotional card ever printed. It’s MagicLibrarities.net and you should really go check it out after finishing my article and leaving me a comment about how great this was. Don’t worry, the link will still be there. Now, grab a cup of damn fine coffee and settle in, we’re gonna check out some sweet cards!

Tenth Edition Foils

Were you aware that foils in Tenth Edition didn’t have reminder text? This was before core sets featured new cards, so all the cards that got this treatment were reprints. The most famous is [card]Time Stop[/card], which sells for about $30, twice the price of the original set foil! Many of the cards with this treatment also received flavor text that otherwise didn’t fit. [card]Time Stop[/card] just looks sweet though.

1374_10E_Timestop_foil

Test Foils/Test Prints

While foils weren’t introduced to Magic until after Urza’s Saga, Wizards spent some time internally developing how they would look, including printing some test versions of cards that already existed. These are rare, and are not even technically supposed to exist. Likewise, right before the card frame overhaul in Eighth Edition, Wizards tried a couple different templates, including some that made it to print. These were never intended to leave the building, but a few made it out alive. We know these are legit because they were featured in an Arcana on the Mothership. Featured below are two scans of actual test prints: a basic Plains with a frame for Eighth Edition that was ultimately scrapped (as well as the Unglued set symbol, and the art for Parallax Tide), and a test foil [card]City of Traitors[/card], with a red text box.

testprints

Bear in mind that neither of these were ever expected to be seen by the public eye, so these aren’t mistakes—they are just attempts to see every possible permutation before announcing a change to the public. Obviously, when you get to this level of the game, things like price become much less concrete. I’m posting a couple of links to test prints that are on eBay. The high-end Magic crowd doesn’t play around.

The auction for that Plains I showed you

Giant Growth Test foil, for the best-looking Infect list ever

Here is a Counterspell with a price tag higher than some credit card limits

A Somehow Even Less-Playable Shivan Dragon

One of the more interesting things about Magic obscurities is that they can sometimes become lost, even to the hyper-aware Magic finance crowd. Featured below is the CoroCoro Magazine Shivan Dragon promo that was released in Japan to celebrate the upcoming Seventh Edition. (Note for young people: magazines were like the internet, but strictly worse. But sometimes they came with crap inside!)

corocoro shivan

Notice the alternate card back. This card is literally unplayable in sanctioned Magic (sweet gift, thanks!). The great thing about older, unimpressive regional promos like these is that they don’t stay in the public eye. Because people aren’t trolling eBay and such for these niche cards, it makes it possible to pick them up for surprising prices. I snatched one of these of eBay for $10, and was able to flip it for double. SCG actually has quite a few of them in stock, all for between $25 and $30 based on condition, but these were going for about $40 NM a while back. While demand is not very high, it’s still a collectable, and I imagine SCG is just content owning a bunch of them and moving them whenever. I’m still a buyer at $10, but not much higher.

More Expensive Promos. Like, Much More

It’s interesting to me that Wizards seems to be moving away from the regional distribution of promotional cards. Every GP gives away a [card]Batterskull[/card], every PTQ gives away a Liliana (I want yours, by the way), but it wasn’t always like that. I’ll lead off with what is likely the most high-profile example of a regional promo:

mutavaultEA

Only 32 of these exist, and they are going for roughly the same price as a beat up Unlimited Mox. If you didn’t make top four of Champs (which was basically States before “States” meant “eight-hour win-a-box tournament”) in England or Ireland, you likely don’t have one. Why these were not the selected promo for all Champs events is beyond me (I got a Doran).

Do you know what the JSS was? It was a tournament series for kids too young to understand the moral severity of cheating in Magic tournaments, but old enough to watch Rounders during FNM to ranch fish for scholarship money. No joke, many people still refer to, “Swamp, Duress” on turn one as the “JSS Opening,” since: #1. Duress was a great card 10 years ago, and #2. You immediately got to see your opponent’s hand to determine if he was playing an actual deck or not. Anyways, WOTC gave out a bunch of promos for JSS events, some of which are really expensive today. The program was later extended to be internationally run, and its somewhat abrupt end4 caused some promos to be under-distributed (or not given away at all). The best such example is the APAC Glorious Anthem, which was never given out, but has slowly leaked into the market through other means (supposedly, a former Wizards employee was given one as a parting gift). The APAC version is only identifiable by the APAC stamping on the foil watermark (I highlighted it for you).

APACAnthem

I saw one of these close recently on eBay for about $650, although they’ve been known to go for much more.

The last thing I’ll leave you with is the Hachette or “Pegasus” cards. There was a program in Italy (and/or possibly Spain?) where you could basically register for a “Magic Encyclopedia Program” and they would mail you terrible decks to play with your friends. The cards were all white-bordered, had a unique Pegasus set symbol, and were part of a terrible system that nobody signed up for. Fast forward to our times, and the cards sell as yet another collectible oddity. The most playable card printed for this program was probably Marrow-Gnawer, although there was a Sliver deck with Riptide Replicator. You can find all of the decks (with card images) here.

I will see you again in 25 years. Or next week. Whatever. Actually, I’ll see some of you at GPNJ!

BEST,

Ross

 

1 Nowhere is this more pronounced than Magic Online, where WOTC is literally restricting the amount of decklists that get published to try and delay format stagnation.

2 The only one I know of that has a larger printing is Chinese. More on this later!

3 Remind me some time to tell you why the foil premium is BS.

4 It was actually “redesigned” as the Magic Scholarship Series in ’07, and the Glorious Anthem was for that, and not the JSS. That said, the redesign only lasted a year, so meh. Everyone just called it the JSS then anyways.

Brainstorm Brewery #122 – Moneystorm Draughtbrew

Brainstorm Brewery Brainstorm Brewery, Podcasts 0:53:56

You’re not hearing things; Brainstorm Brewery has been invaded! Determined to bend the universe to his will in the interest of making his own life easier, Jason records Money Draught and Brainstorm Brewery back to back this week and brings JR (@Time_Elemental) and Slick Jagger (@Slickjagger) with him. Two’s company, but five’s a crowd as Marcel ducks out to do grownup-people stuff. With no one to drive the train, does the gang go off the rails or are you in for a podcast meet-up that is greater than the sum of its parts? Can’t it be both?

With Slick keeping the gang on track and JR offering his trademark finance insights, this could be the best Brainstorm Brewery to date. The list of guests who have been back on the cast more than once is a short one. So who ends up driving the train? Who has the most controversial Pick of the Week? Who dozes off? Find out the answer to all of these questions and more on an episode that will have you asking, “Why haven’t I been checking prices on MTGGoldfish?” Join us for Brainstorm Brewery.

  • Guestravaganza! Money Draught millionaires Slick Jagger (@slickjagger) and JR (@Time_Elemental) join their cohost Jason and invade the BSB!
  • Finance 101 comes naturally this week.
  • Slick tries to derail the cast with questions and ends up accidentally adding value.
  • Listener e-mails are insightful as ever.
  • Questions? Concerns? E-mail brainstormbrew at gmail dot com.

 

Cabe Riseau produced the intro and outro music for Brainstorm Brewery.

Contact Us!

Brainstorm Brewery – Website – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook

Ryan Bushard – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook

Corbin Hosler – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – QuietSpeculation

Jason E Alt – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – QuietSpeculation

Marcel White – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook

Conjured Currency #39: The Nekusar Effect

Douglas Johnson Articles

Hey, everyone! I’m going to take a moment and assume that not all of you reading this article have been playing for longer than a year. For those who are unaware of what the title of this article is referring to, let me give you a brief refresher: [card]Nekusar, the Mindrazer[/card], was one of the three legendary creatures that came attached to the Mind Seize Commander 2013 deck last year. While almost all of the people who purchased Mind Seize ripped open the packaging for [card]True-Name Nemesis[/card] and threw the other cards to the wind, there were a tiny number of players who realized that [card]Underworld Dreams[/card] on a stick in Grixis colors made for a damn good commander.

Just kidding, that “tiny” number of players was enough to make [card]Forced Fruition[/card] jump from $1 to $7 almost overnight, because making people eat a [card]Searing Wind[/card] every turn was fun. Not only Fruition, but [card]Wheel of Fortune[/card], [card]Teferi’s Puzzle Box[/card], and [card]Winds of Change[/card] also managed to skyrocket past their previous slumbering bulk box prices. Meanwhile, Nekusar himself drifted down to bulk status, and remains there a whole year after his release. The card’s only other printing is a $35 judge foil, so it’s safe to assume that there are enough Mindrazers to go around for people who want him.

Now, where does that leave us with Commander 2014? While I don’t think any of the new (or reprinted) legendary creatures will be above single dollar status a year from now, its’ entirely possible that EDH players find a common ground in one of the cards from the set to build around. Just like with Nekusar, there will be weird, old cards that have low supply and a sudden spike in demand. Let’s try and have a discussion to see if we can pinpoint which general can rise to the top, and the older cards that will end up supporting him or her!

[card]Daretti, Scrap Savant[/card]

daretti

While I don’t recommend buying in at $11 at all, I do think this will be the most opened deck by far. The mono-red deck has goodies such as [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card], [card]Dualcaster Mage[/card], [card]Chaos Warp[/card], [card]Goblin Welder[/card], [card]Reliquary Tower[/card], and [card]Solumn Simulacrum[/card]. While you can definitely expect these to drop in the coming months, that doesn’t mean players won’t rush out to buy the deck because they believe it to be “more than worth it.”

If we run with this assumption, then there will be tons of spare Feldons and Darettis lying around once people figure out he’s not good in Legacy. For what it’s worth, it looks like Wizards tried really hard with this deck to dispel the (currently true) myth that “mono-red is the worst color choice in Commander.” Where should we look for potential “artifact matters” mono red EDH pieces?

[card]Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer[/card]

Slobad_Goblin_Tinkerer
Chas Andres of SCG made an excellent point on a recent Reddit thread discussing this topic, and suggested this as a pickup. As someone who already likes bulk rare specs, I support this 100 percent. It’s strong in the deck, has an extremely low chance of reprint, and is running on a very low comparative supply, considering it’s only been printed once, back in the original Mirrodin block. Although there are a few hundred copies on TCGplayer, it’s a very low-risk pickup with high reward potential.

[card]Kuldotha Forgemaster[/card]

forge
I talked about this card a few weeks ago, about how it was a bulk rare that really only needed one more card to be absolutely broken. I’m assuming it’s incredibly powerful in the Daretti deck, and I really don’t think you have long before this card starts gaining financial traction. It’s freaking [card]Tinker[/card], people. If you untap with it, you basically win. Out of every card in this article, I’m loving this more and more as a spec each day.

[card]Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient[/card]

kurkeshonakkeancient

Besides having a stupid name and looking like a boss monster out of Legend of Zelda, this seems like it deserves a spot in the mono-red deck. I don’t think this is poised for an immediate spike, like Fruition or any of Nekusar’s buddies, but I also don’t think it deserves to be a bulk rare a year or two from now. Definitely something to grab out of bulk rare bins and set aside for later. M15 had quite the low supply, as we could tell from $40 Nissas and $20 Rabblemasters.

While the red deck definitely seems to be the winner of “most popular,” I don’t think the green deck is too far behind. They reprinted almost all of everyone’s favorite elves this time around, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were many a Johnny looking at the below card, wondering how to break it.

card]Titania, Protector of Argoth[/card]

titaniaprotectorofargoth

I admittedly wasn’t super excited about any of the new cards in Commander 2014, at least until I saw this baby. For those who don’t know me, I have a five-color [card]Child of Alara[/card] deck that runs approximately 60 lands, and runs entirely off of land-based engines. Titania seems absolutely absurd in any sort of land-themed deck, although I think she works better as one of the 99 instead of as a commander. Still, maybe her existence is enough to spike interest in land-themed decks. Let’s see if there are any old cards that could see a resurgence due to her interesting mechanics!

[card]Zuran Orb[/card]

zuranorb
Quite possibly the easiest way to sacrifice your own lands in the entire game, and a quick way to get an army of 5/3s at the end of your opponent’s turn. While I don’t think Titania is going to make Orb spike to $7, it’s still probably worth having the interaction on your radar just in case the deck does become popular.

[card]Realms Uncharted[/card]

realms
A bulk rare designed to be a land version of [card]Gifts Ungiven[/card], but it never really got anywhere. I play it in my Child deck to great effect though, so maybe I’m biased when I argue in favor of its power level. You can search a number of different fetch lands to crack for elemental tokens, or go full utility and grab stuff like [card]Thespian’s Stage[/card], [card]Maze of Ith[/card], and [card]Vesuva[/card].

[card]Crop Rotation[/card]

crop
It’s always been an extremely powerful tutor at first glance, but having a 5/3 attached at instant speed seems worth enough to be an auto-include in any Titania decks, and most decks that include her. You only get to play one [card]Gaea’s Cradle[/card], and this finds it quickly and easyily.

[card]Elvish Harbinger[/card]

elvishharbin

For all of the new elf Commander decks out there, this is one that I control-F’d on the decklist page and didn’t end up seeing. It’s not quite [card]Fauna Shaman[/card] in terms of power level, but it’s one card that you don’t have to worry about unloading as a result of the massive number of reprints. She’ll most likely continue to slowly creep up until she hits $5 like [card]Imperious Perfect[/card] did.

It’s a Gruul Kind of Week

Unfortunately, there’s not the same “build around me” feel in the blue or black decks as there is in the green, white, or red. The Teferi and Ob Nixilis decks feel much more generic instead of having a dedicated theme. This is something you might want to take into account if you feel that’s a strong enough reason for one deck to be opened less than the rest. Personally, I believe that the mono-red deck has the largest room to have a Nekusar effect, either with Daretti or Feldon.

Do you have any pet specs that you think have a chance to shine because of the new legends and planeswalkers? Let me know in the comments section, Reddit, or on Twitter. Also, I’ll be off at Grand Prix New Jersey this weekend, selling cards to dealers and enjoying the vacation. Message me if you want to hang out, talk finance, or play Commander!

Pimp My Deck: Commander 2014 – Guided by Nature (the Green Deck)

Jim Casale Articles

Hey, everyone, I’m here to bring you a brand-new article series to help newer players get into Commander.  I’m planning on covering all the new decks over the course of a few articles, and today I’m going to start with the green one, Guided by Nature. The first thing I’m going to do is break down the article based on which Commander we’re going to use and keep the cost of our upgrades within a specific range.

[card]Ezuri, Renegade Leader[/card] – The $30 Upgrade

What to remove:

-[card]Titania, Protector of Argoth[/card] – Titania is sweet, but she really doesn’t fit with our theme. We need to cut cards to add cards, so she’s getting the swift axe.

-[card]Terramorphic Expanse[/card], [card]Crystal Vein[/card], [card]Evolving Wilds[/card], [card]Myriad Landscape[/card] – We want to shave a few lands from the 37 we’re playing, and these are mostly in the decks to work with Titania.

-[card]Harrow[/card] – also a card that is best with Titania

-[card]Hunting Triad[/card] – Yeah, it makes elves, but it’s one of the worst elf cards in our deck.

-[card]Elvish Skysweeper[/card] – This guy is pretty bad for a one-mana elf.  He doesn’t make any mana and should be replaced with an elf who can!

-[card]Seer’s Sundial[/card] – This card is fine, but it’s pretty slow in this deck and we’d rather be playing elves.

-[card]Assault Suit[/card] – I’m not honestly sure why this card is in this deck, but it’s not particularly good.

-[card]Rampaging Baloths[/card] – We’re getting rid of all the land stuff, so this guy is going, too.

-[card]Loreseeker’s Stone[/card] – We’re replacing this with a more mana-efficient artifact.

-[card]Sylvan Safekeeper[/card] – It’s blasphemous that they aren’t using the sweet Olle Rade art, but since we’re removing Titania, this guy gets a lot worse (and he’s not even an elf!).

-[card]Moss Diamond[/card] – We’re going to have plenty of elves to make mana. We don’t need this.

-[card]Commander’s Sphere[/card] – This is often going to be three mana: draw a card.  We can do better.

What to add:

-[card]Forest[/card] – FREE – You should have one of these.

-[card]Slate of Ancestry[/card] – $1.50 – We need some card drawing once we dump all our cheap elves into play.  Not much better in tribal decks than this.

-[card]Caller of the Claw[/card] – $1.50 – Much like [card]Fresh Meat[/card], we need some contingencies for sweepers. This one also happens to be an elf.

-[card]Fierce Empath[/card] – $0.75 – Oh, hey, it’s an elf.  It also draws a card!  And the card is a sweet one!

-[card]Birchlore Rangers[/card] – $0.50 – Unlike its $6 cousin, [card]Heritage Druid[/card], this guy makes a bunch of mana and helps power our sweet turns. It’s important to note that you can use summoning-sick elves to power its ability.

-[card]Wirewood Symbiote[/card] – $3.50 – Much like [card]Birchlore Rangers[/card], this guy is a Legacy staple. Yep! Legacy, the format with [card]Force of Will[/card], [card]Wasteland[/card], [card]Show and Tell[/card], etc. That should tell you how good this 1/1 insect is.

[card]Wirewood Channeler[/card] – $1.00 – Oh, well, what do you know? It’s a sweet elf to untap with [card]Wirewood Symbiote[/card]. This guy can make a ton of mana in short order.

[card]Arbor Elf[/card] – $0.25 – A guy that makes some more mana. Can’t ever have too many of those, right?

[card]Joraga Treespeaker[/card] – $2.00 – Shhhh. The trees are speaking. They said this makes all of your elves into [card]Sol Ring[/card]s.  That’s a good deal, right?

[card]Coat of Arms[/card] – $8.00 – The most expensive card on this list. I was trying to figure out a way to squeeze in [card]Craterhoof Behemoth[/card], but you really need tutors to make the most of that monster.  This card is pretty good in a tribal deck.

[card]Triumph of the Hordes[/card] – $0.25 – This has elves in the art!  But seriously, it’s one of the best green win conditions in EDH, and for a quarter, you can’t get much more bang for your buck.

[card]Elvish Harbinger[/card] – $2.00 – Makes mana, check. Is an elf, check. Brings more elves to the party, check. Seems like a slam dunk in this deck.

[card]Nylea, God of the Hunt[/card] – $6.00 – This goddess loves green mana symbols in play and green mana in your mana pool. Elves provide these.

[card]Bow of Nylea[/card] – $2.00 – [card]Nylea, God of the Hunt[/card] combined with her bow completes the one-two punch of deathtouch and trample.  It makes blocking all our little dorky guys exceptionally hard.

[card]Yeva, Nature’s Herald[/card] – $0.5 – This is one big girl.  A 4/4 elf is nothing to sneeze at, but it also gives our deck tons of play against sweepers because we can flash in creatures during the end step.

What’s the Damage, You Say?

It’s $29.75 on most retail websites. Just a touch under $30 before shipping. We’ve focused the deck by removing most of the extraneous stuff that combos with Titania and streamlined our elf theme. I’m going to assume you make these upgrades before you move onto my [card]Freyalise, Llanowar’s Fury[/card] section. Both Ezuri and Freyalise play well into the elf theme, so you can do both sets of upgrades with either general.

[card]Freyalise, Llanowar’s Fury[/card] – The $100 Upgrade

What to remove:

[card]Terastodon[/card] – This guy is pretty good for most budget decks, but we’re going to replace him with a creature that doesn’t give our opponents elephants when we blow up their stuff.

[card]Sylvan Ranger[/card] – This card’s effect is pretty marginal.  It’s just a worse [card]Elvish Visionary[/card] most times.

[card]Drove of Elves[/card] – This card is slow and klunky.  It can be big, but a lot of the time, it plays naturally into cards that kill it ([card]Wrath of God[/card], etc).

[card]Grim Flowering[/card] – This card is really expensive and slow.  Ideally we don’t want to draw cards after all our guys are dead.

[card]Desert Twister[/card] – This card is also, you guessed it, really slow.  Paying six mana to destroy what is likely going to be an enchantment or artifact is pretty expensive.  Occasionally, you’ll want to kill a creature, but we should have the biggest guys in town.

[card]Sylvan Offering[/card] – This puts a lot of dudes into play but also gives our opponents blockers.  I don’t think its mana cost justifies it.

[card]Emerald Medallion[/card] – It might be wrong to take this out, but we’re planning on casting a lot of cards with only green mana symbols in their costs. This card doesn’t reduce those cards’ mana costs.

[card]Wolfcaller’s Howl[/card] –  I know there’s a mini wolf theme in the deck, but this is easily the worst card.  It’s not guaranteed to trigger, and I think there are better things we can be doing with four mana.

[card]Whirlwind[/card] – There’s already a [card]Predator, Flagship[/card], [card]Silklash Spider[/card], and [card]Tornado Elemental[/card] in the deck. [card]Whirlwind[/card] is overkill after our additions.

[card]Masked Admirers[/card] – Four mana to draw a card and have a 3/2 is not a great deal in Commander.

[card]Thornweald Archer[/card] – This guy is a pretty effective rattlesnake-style card. I want us to be able to do bigger and stronger things, though, so he’s going to get the axe.

What to add:

[card]Genesis Hydra[/card] – $2.50 – We’re getting this guy in here to help find our more powerful permanents. It scales well with elf mana and can put a lot of our most powerful cards into play for free!

[card]Eternal Witness[/card] – $2.50 – Being able to rebuy any of our spells is pretty awesome! It also dies to [card]Skullclamp[/card].

[card]Oracle of Mul Daya[/card] – $12.00 – If you’ve played with [card]Courser of Kruphix[/card] in Standard, you know how powerful playing lands from the top of your library is. Oracle also happens to ramp and be an elf, so it seems like a win/win situation in this deck.

[card]Craterhoof Behemoth[/card] – $12.00 – This card is the number-one reason why people concede to a green deck in Commander. Its power and grace cannot be matched.

[card]Chord of Calling[/card] – $5.00 – Thanks to the recent reprint, this card is more affordable than ever!  It allows us to tutor up corner-case creatures or just find a big [card]Regal Force[/card] for value!

[card]Green Sun’s Zenith[/card] – $6.00 – Much like above, this card is also a lot less mana so we can find cheap mana elves to accelerate us more easily.

[card]Heritage Druid[/card] – $6.00 – The big poppa of making mana.  This elf rivals [card]Priest of Titania[/card] in the sheer volume of mana that can be generated. Also, it’s a legacy all-star.

[card]Glimpse of Nature[/card] – $26.00 – If you’ve never cast a [card]Glimpse of Nature[/card] with a hand full of cheap elves, you haven’t lived.  This is the most expensive card we’re adding, but its power speaks for itself.  The only card that I would say is more important is [card]Gaea’s Cradle[/card], but that’s a little out of our price range.

[card]Woodfall Primus[/card] – $4.50 – The gift that keeps on giving!  Don’t be afraid to blow up your opponents’ dual lands with this guy. All is fair in love and war and Commander.

[card]Regal Force[/card] – $15.00 – This will likely be your second-most tutored creature after [card]Craterhoof Behemoth[/card] because of the sheer volume of cards it can draw.

[card]Tooth and Nail[/card] – $8.00 – The most powerful green card in Commander.  For the low, low cost of nine mana, you can tutor up [card]Regal Force[/card] and [card]Craterhoof Behemoth[/card], and on the off chance you don’t immediately win the game, your hand is full of cards. I almost always start green Commander decks with [card]Tooth and Nail[/card]

Damage on the Stack?  

The total cost of these upgrades is $99.50, and along with the Ezuri upgrades, you’ve got yourself a very competitive Commander deck.  Now that we’ve got the elf theme done, we’re going to work on the hard deck.  [card]Titania, Protector of Argoth[/card] is not a commander that is supported very well in this product. I’d say you need to start from scratch if you want to make a truly good deck. With that said, you can just remove your 15 least favorite elf cards and play the 15 I’m going to list below to make it a lot better.

[card]Dryad Arbor[/card], [card]Wasteland[/card], [card]Strip Mine[/card], [card]Petrified Field[/card], [card]Tectonic Edge[/card], [card]Dust Bowl[/card] – What? You weren’t expecting a ton of lands in the deck that revolves around putting lands into play and sacrificing them? These lands will serve as a base for the rest of the deck to revolve around.

[card]Crop Rotation[/card] – Searches up one of our best lands, puts a land into the graveyard. Pretty much everything Titania wants to be doing. It’s good before you cast her because you can return the sacrificed land to play, and it’s good after you cast her because you get an elemental.

[card]Constant Mists[/card] – The buyback is the really appealing part.  It helps protect our life total as we grind our lands into 5/3s and enables Titania.

[card]Crucible of Worlds[/card] – Well, if we’re going to sacrifice a ton of lands, we need a way to get them back into play, right? Unlike most decks that play [card]Strip Mine[/card] and [card]Crucible of Worlds[/card], this deck will kill you quickly with the 5/3s it’s generating.

[card]Exploration[/card] – As close to the banned [card]Fastbond[/card] as we can get. More land drops will lead to more lands being sacrificed and more elementals!

[card]Scapeshift[/card] – This may look like a weird card, but it lets us [card]Armageddon[/card] ourselves to make a bunch of elementals and search up our most powerful lands to close out the game.

[card]Natural Balance[/card] – I’ll be honest, I did not know this card existed until I was searching for cards that had “sacrifice” and “land” in their rules text.  It’s a sweet little balance that helps you recover from sacrificing a bunch of lands and curbs your opponents’ mana development. If you’re confused by the wording, basically: everyone has five lands when the spell resolves.

[card]Overlaid Terrain[/card] – Okay, seriously. Read this card again. It’s so sweet in this deck, right!  I’m about to pick up a foil as I’m writing this article.  It’s only ever going to be in Titania, but it’s a really cool way to make an army of elementals.

[card]Life From the Loam[/card] – Good way to get back lands, keep the wheels turning, and find more important lands.

[card]Terravore[/card] – Fine, we got a boring one to round it out. This is a big creature with sweet art.

Honorable Mentions

-Any green fetchland (ie [card]Misty Rainforest[/card])

-Multi-lands with a drawback of sacrificing a land (e.g., [card]Lotus Vale[/card] and [card]Scorched Ruins[/card])

-[card]Smokestack[/card]

Thanks for reading, and I hope you all enjoyed it. I’d like you to vote on the bottom of the article for which deck I’ll work on next.

[poll id=”8″]

Weekend Magic: 11/07-11/09

Jared Yost Articles

Magic coverage this week includes highlights from Star City Games Columbus. As usual, the Open this week includes Standard and Legacy, with a side of Modern in the form of a Premier Invitational Qualifier. Let’s see what results came out of the weekend.

SCG Open Columbus – Standard (OH, USA)

Decklists

Steve Rubin took down the Standard portion piloting Abzan Midrange, a familiar deck that we’ve all seen before. Two copies of [card]Brimaz, King of Oreskos[/card] in the main deck is the only thing that pops out to me from his list. Everything else is your stock Abzan Midrange build.

Second place was a Mardu Aggro deck piloted by Andy Ferguson. Notables out of this deck included four [card]Bloodsoaked Champion[/card]s and four [card]Thoughtseize[/card]s in the main deck, as well as three [card]Hushwing Gryff[/card]s out of the side. Hushwing Gryff is a card that many players are keeping their eye on because it’s from M15 and is a great card in the right metagame. It’s pretty cheap if you can pick copies up for $2.50 or less. The TCGplayer mid price is getting pretty close to the Star City Games listing at $3, which is a sign to me that this card could see some upward price mobility in the near future.

Third place went to UW Heroic, a deck we’ve seen in a Pro Tour Khans deck tech video but haven’t seen since (barring the Jeskai Ascendency combo version of the deck that took down the Star City Games Open in Oakland last weekend). These results have made [card]Hero of Iroas[/card] a card of interest and have taken it out of the $1 range into $2 and beyond.. Another card to look out for is Eidolon of Countless Battles, which was a two-of in the deck and hasn’t put up any results until now. All in all, it is a very budget friendly deck since Hero and Eidolon are the only rares outside of the manabase.

UB Control resurfaced again to put up another Top 8 Result. [card]Pearl Lake Ancient[/card] has gone down significantly since spiking after Pro Tour Khans. However, as long as the UB Control deck remains alive, the card will continue to see play throughout its life in Standard. [card]Perilous Vault[/card] was a playset in the deck and could continue to trend upward if UB control remains a metagame regular due to scarce M15 supply.

SCG Open Columbus – Legacy (OH, USA)

Decklists

Jeskai Stoneblade took down the event, piloted by Rudy Briksza. Instead of three [card]Treasure Cruise[/card]s, Rudy chose instead to include two of the old standby, [card]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/card], and only one Cruise. He also put in a [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card] to help him recast such classics as [card]Brainstorm[/card], [card]Pyroblast[/card], [card]Counterspell[/card], and [card]Swords to Plowshares[/card] among others. This is a much more controlling version of other Jeskai Legacy builds I’ve seen. It is a strange deck in a sense, because it plays like a Jeskai Miracles deck without the Miracles pieces. I think Briksza opted not to play a Miracles build of Jeskai because there are so many [card]Cavern of Souls[/card] running around in Legacy these days. The land nerfs Jeskai Miracles pretty hard if they don’t have an answer for it.

We also got our first glimpse at [card]Containment Priest[/card] this weekend. Instead of the loud fanfare that [card]True-Name Nemesis[/card] got when it was printed and became Legacy-legal upon its release, [card]Containment Priest[/card] has immediately been relegated to the sideboard in Briksza’s build. The 12th-place Maverick deck also played [card]Containment Priest[/card], and even it couldn’t find two spots in the main deck for the creature among its motley cast of characters (such as one [card]Mirran Crusader[/card], one [card]Brimaz, King of Oreskos[/card], three [card]Judge’s Familiar[/card]s, and two [card]Flickerwisp[/card]s). Unless you’re planning on playing a deck with white mana at Grand Prix New Jersey, I would stay far away from [card]Containment Priest[/card] at $15 to $20. Commander 2014 is going to be printed into oblivion just like the previous Commander 2013 release. You don’t want to get stuck holding the bag, especially if the white and red deck are released in greater numbers due to casual demand.

Of [card]Dualcaster Mage[/card], the other $15 card from the Commander 2014 series, we have seen nothing so far. Now would be the time to dump these as well, since the price can only go down from here as more Commander 2014 product is opened.

Going back to the tournament results, Elves came in second place along with UR Delver at both third and fourth places. The only thing of note here is that some red decks are opting to play [card]Electrickery[/card] out of the sideboard to fight against UR Delver. Foils are less than $1 and seem like a good pickup to me. I thought [card]Mizzium Skin[/card] out of Jared Rice’s board was a nice, “Gotcha!” card for targeted removal, but I think [card]Electrickery[/card] is a better foil target.

The rest of the Top 8 included Sneak and Show, a deck called Mono-Red Moggcatcher, Miracles, and another UR Delver deck. Brad Nelson decided to main deck two [card]Overmaster[/card] in his Sneak and Show build for the tournament. This is a neat way to get around counter magic. I’m not going to go deep on regular copies, since it is from Odyssey block and could be reprinted at some point in the future. However, picking up foil copies is certainly an option. The foils also have Commander appeal since the card also works in that format to get around pesky counterspells.

Mono-Red Moggcatcher is an interesting deck. A spin on the old mono red Dragon Stompy decks, Marshall Arthurs decided to take it into… experimental territory. The deck seems to be based around a toolbox package of [card]Goblin Rabblemaster[/card], [card]Murderous Redcap[/card], [card]Siege-Gang Commander[/card], [card]Tuktuk Scrapper[/card], and [card]Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker[/card], along with four [card]Imperial Recruiter[/card]s and four [card]Moggcatcher[/card]s to get them out. [card]Simian Spirit Guide[/card], [card]Chrome Mox[/card], [card]Ancient Tomb[/card], and [card]City of Traitors[/card] help with speeding up the clock, and at the same time, [card]Chalice of the Void[/card], [card]Trinispshere[/card], [card]Magus of the Moon[/card], and [card]Blood Moon[/card] are slowing the clock down for opponents. [card]Koth of the Hammer[/card] seems to be a nice finisher if the goblins can’t get the job done.

If you like the deck, I would pick up pieces before GP New Jersey happens and some cards have a chance to spike. [card]Moggcatcher[/card] is a pretty random card that is poised to have the most significant spike if the deck also makes waves at New Jersey. This deck could also take [card]City of Traitors[/card] into the $100 range, and could also randomly make [card]Gemstone Cavern[/card]s spike, since it is below $2 TCG Mid and is a two-of in Arthur’s sideboard.

Outside of the Top 8, Mono-Black Pox made an appearance along with Maverick and ANT. Maverick and ANT were basically standard lists, barring some of the cards I mentioned before for Maverick. Pox is an interesting deck that came out of nowhere and seems pretty good in the format. The end game of Pox is [card]Cursed Scroll[/card], [card]Nether Spirit[/card], and [card]Mishra’s Factory[/card], along with discard spells, land destruction, and sacrifice effects to control the game until the win conditions come online. Surprisingly, the deck doesn’t play its namesake Pox from Ice Age and the only pox in the deck was [card]Smallpox[/card]. Smallpox is played in Modern as well, so picking up foil copies of the card seems good to me. This deck is definitely a pet deck for now, though [card]Cursed Scroll[/card] could also see a spike if it places well at New Jersey.

SCG Premier IQ Columbus – Modern (OH, USA)

Decklists

Three copies of UR Delver made the Top 8, along with Jeskai Ascendancy Combo, UR Twin, RG Urzatron, Jeskai Control,and Mono-Red Burn.

There were four [card]Dragon’s Claw[/card]s in the winning deck’s sideboard. Foils of this card are generally under $1, which could be a good pickup due to the rise of Burn and UR Delver in Modern.

[card]Forked Bolt[/card] has spiked recently, going from $0.50 to $4 with foils going for $25. Be on the lookout for [card]Forked Bolt[/card]s, since they will be used heavily in Modern and Legacy (as long as [card]Treasure Cruise[/card] remains in the format). I also like [card]Gut Shot[/card] in the post-Khans Modern format as well. This was a $4 uncommon during its time in Standard, and I think there is a good chance it could be adopted in Modern if Delver starts taking over the format. Foils of this card are around $3, which I think is a great price point for long-term gains.

Jeskai Ascendancy Combo came in second and looks to be a combo deck that is going to stick around. The combo is disruptable, but it can win very fast with the correct hand. The card [card]Jeskai Ascendency[/card] seems to be on a downward trend, and I will be looking to pick them up at the floor based on the results the deck has put up.

Summary

Standard

  • [card]Bloodsoaked Champion[/card] and [card]Hushwing Gryff[/card] are cards to watch from Mardu Aggro.
  • [card]Hero of Iroas[/card] and [card]Eidolon of Countless Battles[/card] are cards to watch from UW Heroic.
  • [card]Pearl Lake Ancient[/card] and [card]Perilous Vault[/card] are cards to watch from UB Control

Legacy

  • [card]Containment Priest[/card] seems to be sideboard only at this point. Sell into the hype, and buy in later once she bottoms outs.
  • [card]Dualcaster Mage[/card] didn’t even show. Sell into the hype here as well.
  • Foil [card]Electrickery[/card] is a sideboard card to watch.
  • Foil [card]Overmaster[/card] is a good pickup if you like the card.
  • Two innovative archetypes did well, Mono-Red Moggcatcher and Pox.
    • [card]Moggcatcher[/card] is pretty cheap. However, the cost of the deck mostly goes into [card]Imperial Recruiter[/card]s and [card]City of Traitors[/card]. Still should keep an eye on Moggcatchers for future results.
    • [card]Cursed Scroll[/card] is the card to watch from Pox, along with foil [card]Smallpox[/card] since it also has Modern appeal

Modern

  • Tools to fight UR Delver are cards to watch currently. They include [card]Forked Bolt[/card], [card]Gut Shot[/card], [card]Smallpox[/card], and [card]Dragon’s Claw[/card]s—especially foils of these cards.
  • Look to pick up [card]Jeskai Ascendency[/card] once it bottoms out due to the Modern appeal of the Ascendency combo deck.

See you next week!

Pitt Imps Podcast #93 Eternal

Pitt Imps Pitt Imps, Podcasts 2:34:15

Yes, it’s a long one. Not my fault. Way too much crap to go over, with everything from saying goodbye to cheaters to Eternal Weekend. We got GPs, SCGs, and even Commander spoilers. Let’s not forget the MTGO policy changes. It took a while, even with Will taking the night off.

Host Angelo   Twitter @Ganksuou

Co-Host Ryan Twitter @brotheryan

Email [email protected]

Welcome to the Jungle!

Max Perlmutter Articles

Hello, everybody! I’m back, but this time, instead of a tournament report, I am here to teach you how to play Big Zoo in Modern.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1tj2zJ2Wvg]

It All Started Here

To give you all a background of where this deck came from, I’ll give you my background as a player. I was introduced to Magic: The Gathering by two of my teachers in my sophomore year of high school. This was when I was going through a very bad, depression-filled period of my life. Magic gave me an outlet where I could have fun showcasing my creativity in my own style.

From the beginning, I was trying to find a way to play insanely large creatures while still playing silver-bullet cards to help me beat my friends. A memory that I now look back on fondly was when a friend built a deck based around [card]High Tide[/card] and the “free” mechanic featured on blue cards in Urza’s Saga block. I eventually got sick and tired of the deck and played a deck with four copies of each of [card]Red Elemental Blast[/card], [card]Pyroblast[/card], and [card]Choke[/card], along with every creature in the deck having protection from blue. Unbeknownst to me, this was my first foray into what is now my favorite part of Magic: metagaming.

The summer of 2013 is when I finally took the plunge into competitive Magic. I had seen Brian Kibler’s Hate Bears decklist from Worlds earlier that summer and I had fallen in love with it. I traded every card I owned that was worth any money, and by September, I had GW Hate Bears built and was ready to take on Modern. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing at first, but in time, I learned how to properly tune my main deck and sideboard to help me maximize my matchups. I started to finally make the top eight of a bunch of Grand Prix Trials in preparation for Grand Prix Richmond.

A Fateful Meeting

In February 2014, I was introduced to my friend [card]Wild Nacatl[/card] right when she got back from her long vacation. We hit it off pretty quickly. I ended up lucking into a GPT win for Richmond at the last possible moment with a crude Zoo list, a lot of luck, and the help of my friend Barrett running blocker for me and giving me a quarterfinals concession. On Thursday, March 6, 2014, the day before I had to drive down to my first Grand Prix ever, I finalized my decklist, with the help of  some friends and the best players in my area.

[Deck title=Old Zoo*]
[Creatures]
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Loxodon Smiter
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
[/creatures]
[Spells]
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Lightning Helix
1 Naya Charm
2 Ajani Vengeant
[/spells]
[Lands]
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Arid Mesa
2 Stomping Grounds
2 Temple Garden
2 Sacred Foundry
2 Forest
2 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Kessig Wolf Run
[/lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
1 Batterskull
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Rule of Law
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Stony Silence
2 Combust
2 Spellskite
2 Engineered Explosives
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

*This list is so bad and so out of date. You can read my report that I wrote up for Reddit here. 

After losing my first two rounds of the tournament, I was 2-2 and looking at elimination. Long story short, I ended up closing out the tournament with a 9-1-1 record, finishing at 11-3-1 and in 75th place. I had fallen in love with my deck and I was hooked on Zoo.

Since Richmond, I have played different iterations of Zoo in tournaments at least once a week in a mix of small local affairs, Star City Games IQs, and whatever other Modern tournaments I could find within a reasonable driving distance (80 to 120 miles in my case).

Now for the Reason You Came Here

With how the Modern metagame has shifted since Khans of Tarkir, I feel that my deck is no longer my rogue pet deck and is poised to make a real dent in the format. Now let’s break it down.

[deck title=Current Zoo]
[Creatures]
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Scavenging Ooze
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
[/creatures]
[Spells]
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Lightning Helix
2 Ajani Vengeant
[/spells]
[Lands]
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
4 Arid Mesa
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Kessig Wolf Run
2 Forest
2 Plains
[/lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Spellskite
3 Blood Moon
2 Choke
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Deflecting Palm
1 Bow of Nylea
2 Batterskull
2 Engineered Explosives
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

I have made one change since SCG Worcester: I replaced [card]Grafdigger’s Cage[/card] with [card]Spellskite[/card].

[card]Noble Hierarch[/card]

Noble Hierarch is my mana dork of choice for this deck. Although it doesn’t cover all of your colors, it can help power out turn-two Knights and turn-three Thrun or Ajani. Its exalted triggers are fantastic for helping win a Tarmogoyf battle, and when facing down an [card]Ensnaring Bridge[/card], she can crawl under and still get in damage. Although for budgetary reasons you may play [card]Birds of Paradise[/card] over Hierarch, the power-level dropoff is insane.

[card]Wild Nacatl[/card]

What more could you ask for from only one green mana? Wild Nacatl is some of the best early pressure in the Modern format and can win games by itself. Nacatl is an integral part of the deck’s early game and is still a solid top deck late in the game when you want a threat.

[card]Tarmogoyf[/card]

This is #bigdumbidiot, also known as the greatest creature ever printed. It is a threat at every point in the game, and if you need me to explain how good Tarmogoyf is to you, then you shouldn’t be playing Modern.

[card]Scavenging Ooze[/card]

This little Ooze doesn’t stay little for long. I have found this card alone can make bad matchups winnable. Against [card]Living End[/card], which is one of Zoo’s worst matchups, an early Scavenging Ooze can neuter them. In the BGx matchup, it boils down to who is able to have their Ooze stick around the longest. Being relevant versus [card]Kitchen Finks[/card] is also just value.

[card]Qasali Pridemage[/card]

This card is fantastic! Because [card]Splinter Twin[/card], [card]Birthing Pod[/card], and Affinity decks still run around in Modern, you need four of this cat. The synergy of him killing himself and Scavenging Ooze eating him is fantastic and provides a lot of the disruption you need in the format so you can hang around long enough to kill your opponents. He is my most sideboarded-out card, although when he is relevant, all four need to stick around.

[card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card]

Brian Kibler has great taste in cards, and his signature covers the text box of my Knights, annoying my opponents who basically never remember its abilities (yes, of course, I explain it and offer to call a judge for oracle text). This deck of mine is built around Knight and making her huge. We will address my mana base further down, but basically, she is the reason I run every single land in my deck. A beatstick, combat trick, and mana accelerant all rolled into one, I feel Knight is the best card in the deck.

[card]Thrun, the Last Troll[/card]

At GP Worcester, I got beat badly by a Jund deck packing main-deck Thrun. I figured if you can’t beat them, join them, so for awhile I replaced one of my [card]Thundermaw Hellkite[/card]s. As BGx died and Delver started to take over, I realized Thrun was a near unbeatable threat as long as you had the mana to regenerate. He is now no longer a refugee of Mirrodin and has found a home.

[card]Lightning Bolt[/card]

Lightning Bolt is the premier removal spell in Modern. It is quite rare to find a red deck in the format that isn’t packing at least three or four somewhere in its 75. Always bolt the bird or other mana dork that they play in the early game, and close the game out by hitting their face.

[card]Lightning Helix[/card]

Lightning Helix in this list is just Bolts five and six, with an obvious upside versus Burn, Delver, and other aggressive strategies.

[card]Path to Exile[/card]

What Lightning Bolt is to red, Path to Exile is to white. Path is a card that should be saved to deal with troublesome creatures, like anything with four or more toughness that can’t be killed in combat.

[card]Ajani Vengeant[/card]

Like most of this deck, Ajani is a pet card of mine. Because this deck has very little card advantage, I like running two to four planeswalkers in each of my builds. I was running [card]Chandra, Pyromaster[/card] for most of the summer, but with the metagame change and how many two-or-more-toughness creatures are running around, I felt swapping her for Ajani would be stronger. Since most Delver and Burn decks are light on mana, you can sometimes drop him and immediately mana screw them, or just use him as a four-mana [card]Lightning Helix[/card] that they need to waste an attack step on killing. He is very good right now and will be as long as blue decks are popular.

Mana Base Time

[card]Wooded Foothills[/card]

[card]Windswept Heath[/card]

[card]Arid Mesa[/card]

[card]Stomping Ground[/card]

[card]Temple Garden[/card]

[card]Sacred Foundry[/card]

[card]Forest[/card]

[card]Plains[/card]

[card]Kessig Wolf Run[/card]

[card]Horizon Canopy[/card]

I don’t feel like I need to do a card-by-card breakdown here, as it should be pretty easy to understand. I play [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card], and because of that, I play 12 fetch lands. The basic lands that I play are only Forests and Plains. This helps not only provide more fodder for Knight to sacrifice, but it also helps me play around or with [card]Blood Moon[/card] post sideboarding. [card]Kessig Wolf Run[/card] is a premium combat trick and [card]Horizon Canopy[/card] is for when you need an extra card to get back in the game. Learning all of the tricks with Knight is the quickest way to master the deck.

Next week, we’ll cover sideboarding. Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any questions or comments!

The Puzzle Box: Personalizing Your Cube

Andrew Colman Articles

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Puzzle Box!

Now, that is probably more of a welcome back for me, rather than you, as I’ll have to assume that you have been around these parts more than I have as of late. Last time I showed up here, I was winding up my life in Winnipeg, preparing for a really big adventure across the the ocean in Europe. The trip was fantastic and will actually be the topic of my article today. This will resemble a bit of a travel blog, but it all has its point rooted in building and personalizing your cube.

MORThe Start of the Addiction 

I’m going to rewind for a moment and talk about the night that I bought my [card]Mother of Runes[/card]. I remember talking to the guy behind the counter and saying, “Mother of Runes is a cube card right?”

He laughed and said, “Of course it is!”

I replied, “I’ll take one.”

He asked me which one I wanted, and I responded by asking for the cheapest one possible. He laughed again and said, “You say that now, but later you’ll want the foil one, then the foreign foil one, then the altered foreign foil one and then… and then… and then…”  

“No, not me,” I said.

A few years and a foil [card]Liliana of the Veil[/card], [card]Flickerwisp[/card], [card]Falkenrath Aristocrat[/card], [card]Pack Rat[/card], [card]Lone Missionary[/card], [card]Vendillion Clique[/card], [card]Thirst for Knowledge[/card], [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card], [card]Cryptic Command[/card], and any other cube foil I have laid my eyes upon later, I am now looking for my foil [card]Mother of Runes[/card].

The Trip

I wanted to have a really cool article to write, either while on my trip or as soon as I got back, which was two and half months ago. I had to think of something I could do for my cube throughout the whole trip. My idea was this: in each city that I could buy Magic cards in, I would buy a foil that matched the theme of that city or country, or however I could justify buying a foil for my cube. Perfect! We were gone for 45 days in five different countries. I should have had my cube totally finished by the time we got back. Alas, this is not how it worked out.

irealnd

My wife and I landed in Dublin. As soon as we got off the plane, we dropped our bags off at the hostel and headed to a pub for some dinner. (Here I had my first Guinness, but that is a whole other story. In short, in North America I am embarrassed when a friend orders a Guinness at my table. In Ireland, it is the nectar of the gods! From there, we headed to the Guinness factory, which was amazing, but again, a story for another time.)

It was the next day that my wife and I scouted out the local MTG shop. Forgive me, but I forget the name. It was a small, quaint place and the guy working there was wonderful. I told him I was from Canada and what my cube mission was and we dove into their singles binders straight away.

I asked him what he thought a themed cube card could be and he said, “Anything to do with drinking, vikings, or leprechauns.” We dug through Lorwyn looking for a foil [card]Glen Elendra Archmage[/card] to no avail. After a while, he gave up and left me on my own to scour the binders while we chatted.

Eventually, I came across an [card]Oath of Druids[/card], but it was non-foil. I asked him, “Druids are Irish right?” He went on to tell me all about the druids that had lived in Ireland thousands and thousands of years ago and I was sold! I left with a non-foil Oath of Druids that I cannot imagine ever replacing with even a free, altered, foreign foil, because I got it from the land of the druids with all of the stories attached to it. I now have one of the coolest conversation pieces I own in my cube and I get to use it and talk about when ever someone flips something crazy off of it. I can say, “You know that Grislebrand was summoned from Dublin, eh?” and let Magic do what it does best and create an awesome social atmosphere!

High-Power Personalization

It was after this visit with the guy in Dublin that I Untitledrealized that this idea fit right into the Puzzle Box ethos: high-powered play without a high-powered budget. With this concept of personalizing your cube, you can have high-powered personalization without a high-powered budget!

I plan on finding little stickers of the flags for each country where I bought cube cards and putting them on the perfect fit over each card’s set symbol to try and further spark the conversation. If you are talented and buy a card like [card]Cogwork Librarian[/card] in Alexandria, you could paint an Egyptian or Minnesota flag on it and have your own Librarian of Alexandria.

Of course, you don’t need to travel to other countries to buy themed cards that you can attach a story to. If you come to Canada during winter, you can get an [card]Icy Manipulator[/card] from Ice Age and tell people how bloody cold it gets here. Or if you go to Florida, you can get a [card]Mother of Runes[/card] next door to your grandmother’s summer home. If you are in Paliano, which is actually a place just a little to the southeast of Rome, you could perhaps pick up a Paliano and find the mayor or any citizen to sign it for you.

Another Souvenir Another Reflection

One of my favorite parts of this whole exercise was that it really got me thinking about what I was seeing. When we were in Paris and went through the Louvre, we went on a tour through Napoleon’s apartment. It was a spectacle! Everything was dripping in gold and covered in the most plush of upholstery.

One thing that my wife noticed was that most of the many, many paintings were of hunting scenes. Not just scenes of men riding with guns and dogs, but the actual moment when the prey that was being stalked was being killed, either by gunshot or dog bite. It was quite violent. As we walked around and heard bits of the tours describing how the monarchy taxed and taxed and taxed and gave nothing back but misery, it occurred to me that that felt very Orhsovish. It was rich and took on the official appearance of religion and benefit for its people, but their actions resembled more the themes of the paintings: death.

After the Louvre, we had planned on going to find the Magic shop to find the card for my cube. There was a perfect choice: [card]Mortify[/card]. It was black and white, it killed creatures and enchantments.  It’s no [card]Vindicate[/card], but that’s okay. To be fair to France, in a small town called Altkirch, where my wife’s family is from and there are no opportunities to buy cards, I would have bought an [card]Eternal Witness[/card]: it was beautiful!

That’s what I have for this installation of the Puzzle Box. There are lots of other souvenir cards to talk about and really, really cool stories and lessons to attach to them. Next time: London, the Graffiti Tunnel, Lambeth, and Thalia.

Thanks for lettin’ me come and hang!

Andrew

Brainstorm Brewery #121 – The Real Diva

Brainstorm Brewery Brainstorm Brewery, Podcasts 1:16:03

Ray’s the rookie, Jeskai Ascendancy continues to evolve, and Commander (2014 Edition) is the stones. Sometimes, everything is right in the world and you start firing on all cylinders. With a few topics to cover, the gang got right into it. Who’s the real diva on the cast? What’s the rarity on Jason’s Pick of the Week, and who gets it wrong? How long has it been since the gang read an e-mail? Find out the answer to all of these questions and more on an episode of your favorite podcast that will leave you asking, “What does “take the piss” mean?” Join us for Brainstorm Brewery.

  • Jeskai Ascendancy continues to evolve.
  • Pick of the Week is a real barn burner this week.
  • Finance 101 comes in the form of listener e-mails.
  • What to do about Commander (2014)?
  • It sounds like not a lot happened because of the few bullet points, but it’s fine.
  • Questions? Concerns? E-mail brainstormbrew at gmail dot com.

 

Cabe Riseau produced the intro and outro music for Brainstorm Brewery.

Contact Us!

Brainstorm Brewery – Website – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook

Ryan Bushard – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook

Corbin Hosler – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – QuietSpeculation

Jason E Alt – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – QuietSpeculation

Marcel White – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook

Conjured Currency #38: Finance 101, Arbitrage

Douglas Johnson Articles

Arbitrage. Noun. The simultaneous purchase and sale of the same securities, commodities, or foreign exchange in different markets to profit from unequal prices.

In “Finance 101” terms, this basically means that we’re going to buy something at one price from some entity, then immediately turn around and sell that exact same thing to somebody else for a higher price. As such, this tactic would be most commonly found in the stock market, where an individual can make make dozens of transactions in a single minute.

While the stock market has razor-thin margins where fractions of a penny are made in each transaction, Magic corrects itself far more slowly. While it’s true that [card]Mesmeric Orb[/card] can climb from a bulk rare to $4 in less than a day, that’s still much slower than the “real world economy.” Every single store and dealer doesn’t update its prices by the hour, so there are definitely opportunities to be taken advantage of.

“Free Money”

Maybe a vendor on TCGplayer has a $40 card listed for $25 (whether to rapidly increase his store level, or due to a mispricing, or any other reason). At the same time, a buylist might be offering to buy the same card for $30 cash. If we account for packaging and shipping, we’re still likely ahead for a couple dollars if we act fast enough. Now, is that honestly worth the initial money and effort? That’s up to you. There’s also the possibility that the buylist updates while you’re waiting for your purchase to come in the mail, and now you don’t have an immediate out for $30. Whoops.

Many other websites and authors have called this method “free money” in the past, and I’ve never been a fan of that analogy. It’s not free if you have an initial investment cost, and you’re still taking multiple risks along the way. For all we know, our buyer could just refuse our sale.

Where to Look?

I’m assuming you’ve realized this by now, but arbitrage is not exactly the secret golden goose of Magic finance. This isn’t like buying a collection where you can easily make a 200-percent profit when you’re finished. As a matter of fact, solid arbitrage opportunities are probably more rare than collections. You don’t want to spend all day scouring TCGplayer for every single card and checking it up against every single buylist. Thankfully, our friends at MTGprice.com have released a tool (still in beta) that can help with your search for “free money,” as some people call it: the arbitrage tool.

If you’re already in the habit of checking the MTG interests every day, adding one more webpage to the routine can’t hurt. Even if there aren’t any amazing buy-in opportunities, this page shows how absurd some buylist prices actually are. StrikeZoneOnline, for example, is buying foil [card]Breeding Pool[/card] right now for higher than retail! I know where I’m dumping my copies at Jersey this coming weekend.

If you have a Quiet Speculation Insider subscription, you can sort lists of entire sets on MTG.gg by the spread (the spread is the difference between the lowest sell price, and the highest buy price). If a card has a negative spread, then there should be red lights going off in your head that there’s an arbitrage opportunity. Just click on “lists,” pick your set in the dropbox, hit “View Edition,” and then click the “s%” column. Any negative spreads will jump to the top of the list, which can also be a great help while sorting through bulk.

Unfortunately, there’s still a lag in the time it takes for the card to arrive. Like we went over in our initial example, the price could have changed in the few days it took to be shipped. Thankfully, this is much less of an issue when on site at a Grand Prix. I think I’ve previously told the story in this column of when I bought eight copies of [card]Chromanticore[/card] from one vendor for $1 each, then walked across the hall and got $12 for all of them from a different dealer. Zero lag time, and minimal effort required. If you see one vendor advertising an absurd cash offer on a card and you don’t have any, it might pay (literally) to take a walk around the cases and see if someone else is selling the card for lower than the first store’s buy price.

Which Cards?

Often, the cards with the highest buylist prices will be the ones that haven’t been touched in ages, and nobody has bothered to update. Sometimes a store already has a buyer lined up for a very particular EDH foil, and they’re willing to offer retail or higher to get the card in stock, because they know their loyal customer will pay even more than that to get their hands on it.

If you look at the MTG Price arbitrage page, you’ll see (at least if you’re reading this on the week of the article’s release) that a large majority of the cards with an absurdly high buylist price are EDH foils that StrikeZoneOnline is willing to pay ridiculous amounts of money for. (Quick aside on StrikezoneOnline: Do not mail your cards to their buylist, even if you have a nice arbitrage opportunity. They will grade cards extremely harshly if you’re not there in front of them, and they will flat-out refuse any card that is not “NM” in their eyes, sending it back and charging you for the shipping. On the other hand, they’re a great store to sell to in person at events.) Often times, these are the cards that you can make an offer to if you find the correct store. If the dealer you’re talking to enjoys having new EDH foils that he’s currently out of stock of, don’t be afraid to create an arbitrage opportunity out of nothing.

Bulk rares can have an oddly low spread as well. If you can be the guy in your local area who buys them at $.10 apiece, you can find the strangest bulk rares with a buylist price of $.17-$.20. ABUgames and AdventuresOn seem to practice this the most, and I’m not sure why. If you were planning on shipping a buylist to a store anyway, there’s no harm in getting a few extra dimes for a few seconds of work.  I’m ok with getting $.27 for each of my [card]Myr Battlesphere[/card]s, and so should you be.

Arbitreasured Information

Hopefully I was able to teach you a little about the concept of arbitrage, and how you can use it to your advantage. You won’t make a fortune by being the quick middleman between two parties, but it’s easy money (not free money!) if you know where to look, and what tools to use. If you were left hanging with any questions, comments or concerns, feel free to let me know! I’m also looking for topics to write about for next week, because the week after that will be my return from New Jersey. Thanks for reading!

Last-Minute Interesting Things

[card]Chord of Calling[/card] has dropped down to about $5, even though it’s from M15. I don’t see how it can go lower, and I like this as a long-term pickup going forward. Nobody’s opening up any M15, and it’s poised to spike if it sees increased play in Standard.

[card]Mishra’s Bauble[/card] is a $3 uncommon. Did you know that? I didn’t know that. Buylist them if you have them, because you can put that money towards things that aren’t this card.

These are your last couple of days to buylist some of the commons and uncommons that are reprinted in the Commander 2014 decks for maximum value before the decks start being cracked. The green deck is absolutely full of casual elves like [card]Imperious Perfect[/card] and the black deck has [card]Dread Return[/card]. Get rid of them while you can.

Casually Infinite – Catching Cheaters

Marc DeArmond Articles

With the recent wave of bans for cheating dropping on various known Magic personalities, one of the most common questions I’ve seen is, “Why haven’t judges been catching these issues far earlier?” I’m going to break down the duties of a judge at large events to try to bring some perspective as to why people like this haven’t been caught by judges prior to this event.

Large Event Numbers

One of the basic rules of thumb for staffing large events is that one judge is needed for every 30 or so players, plus judges to handle external functions such as score-keeping, logistics, covering breaks, deck checks, handling product, and cash transfers. While there are numerous judges working on a specific event, there is a significantly lower number of floor judges that are responsible for cruising up and down the aisles, answering questions, and providing assistance where needed. It’s not uncommon that a single judge is responsible for being available for 50 players, or 25 ongoing matches. Generally these judges move around, making use of the old school teacher tactic that says proximity is one of the best ways to prevent problems.

Judges do stop to watch games, especially once time has been called or when they see a particularly interesting board state. But glancing down and totally understanding a board state takes a considerable amount of time, and the chance of catching an error simply by glancing at a game is pretty low. Additionally, if a table is shuffling, I don’t even bother to glance at what they’re doing. This is likely to change in the future, but there’s a general assumption that judges make that players are doing things right unless they see something to prove otherwise.

As a school teacher, I’m regularly responsible for a classroom of 30 students. I can tell you that it is impossible for me to catch every gum chew, food sneak, text message, note pass, rude gesture, or quiet comment that my students make. All of these things may be against the rules, but most of them are likely to pass by without my notice simply because of the volume of students I’m dealing with. Judging works very much the same way. What I’m looking for as I’m wandering through the tables is someone doing something out of the ordinary. When I notice a student sneaking a text message in class it’s not because I see their phone, it’s because I notice them staring at their crotch for a highly conspicuous amount of time. Catching every infraction isn’t a possibility.

While an argument could be made that more judges are necessary to provide better coverage, it is worth noting that judges are hired employees of the tournament organizer and cost a significant chunk of money to bring to an event. Generally, a significant number of judges travel to an event from outside the state because the available local judges are exhausted early in the process of bringing on staff. Bringing in more judges may mean having to pay more to cover additional costs of those traveling from further away. While bringing on more judges could be an option, the likely turn around effect would be a significant increase in event fees, which I’m sure most people don’t want.

Coverage Judges

But surely coverage judges are in a very different place. They’re generally watching over one to three games and can provide significant attention to what is happening in one.

One of the northwest judges I look up to most is frequently a GP coverage judge. Rarely does a weekend go by where I don’t see him on the stream at the coverage table. He’s a fantastic judge, incredibly knowledgeable of the rules, and catches stuff I feel I’d never notice. However, while sitting there, he’s responsible for fishing out tokens, entering life totals and cards in hand in the coverage computer, and communicating with the coverage team. While he’s in this spot, he is definitely available to handle rules calls, but his job at this point isn’t to watch each player like a pit boss at a casino. He’s got a lot of other stuff going on at the same time.

The Role of Judges and Players

Some people liken a judge to a casino pit boss, but this is far from the case. A casino pit boss is responsible for overseeing dealers that are stationed at each table. Cheating would require some very skilled manipulation or collusion with the dealer. This is a multi-tiered prevention system with people overseeing each level. In Magic, we’ve got a much higher ratio of oversight to players. In fact, most rules violations would go entirely unnoticed if it wasn’t for players calling for a judge. In reality, the first line of defense against cheating is not judges, but players.

Just as a judge is unlikely to catch a player that pays the wrong mana for a spell, a judge is unlikely to notice suspicious shuffling in one game out of twenty or more they are providing oversight for. In reality, it is the responsibility of your opponent that you play correctly. There’s even a Game Play Error violation that is given for Failing to Maintain Game State, which essentially equates letting your opponent break a rule and not noticing. The integrity of the game lies primarily with the players.

As judges, we assume that games are proceeding appropriately until we are called to assist. This doesn’t mean we don’t watch games for mistakes, but watching games ourselves is a very small percentage of how we find infractions. The vast majority of infractions are called by the opponent of the one committing the infraction, followed by a percentage of infractions called by players on themselves. Finally we have a small number of infractions issued by judges for errors they witness themselves.

Avoid Being Cheated

The best way to avoid being cheated is to know the rules yourself and watch your opponent’s play very closely. A large number of infractions aren’t intentional but still give the person committing them a notable advantage. Cheating only makes up a tiny percentage of infractions handed out at events. Even if you’re not catching a cheater, you might be catching a misplay that could significantly hurt you in the game. I wouldn’t work under the assumption that your opponent will do everything right. There’s often a significant advantage to catching their error and it makes the game fair for everyone involved. You can only do this with a strong grasp of the rules. I’d advise anyone looking to play in competitive-level tournaments read the Infraction Procedure Guide and the Magic Tournament Rules available on the Rules and Documents Wizard Play Network website.

Finally, if you’re interested in becoming a judge, strike up a conversation with someone wearing black (or blue and white at a SCG event). Or find the judge of a local FNM, prerelease, or other event. If you can’t find someone locally, you can shoot over an email to your friendly Regional Coordinator who can point you in the direction of a local judge.

Weekend Magic: 10/31-11/02

Jared Yost Articles

We’ve got some more Magic coverage for you from this weekend! Last weekend was Grand Prix Santiago and Star City Games: Oakland. Let’s see what happened.

GP Santiago (Santiago, CHI)

Decklists

Two Abzan Midrange decks battled it out in the finals, and Eduardo dos Santos Vieira was the top dog in the end. The two decks are significantly different. The winning deck included three copies of [card]Soul of Theros[/card], the somewhat forgotten about M15 mythic rare that dominated M15 Limited but as of yet has put up no results in Standard to talk about. Well, that time is over. Soul of Theros is a real card and could be expected to show up in future Abzan lists based on these results.

The winning deck seemed to be a cross between the GB constellation decks that used [card]Whip of Erebos[/card] to put out a [card]Hornet Queen[/card] and Ari Lax’s Pro Tour Khans winning list. Vieira even included two [card]Doomwake Giants[/card] and an [card]Eidolon of Blossoms[/card] in the main deck to provide some constellation action, along with a playset of [card]Satyr Wayfinder[/card]s and two [card]Commune with the Gods[/card] to have a self-mill plan. The deck is definitely stranger than most Abzan lists we’ve seen so far, but only proves that Abzan is a deep clan that can take many different directions based on the metagame.

The second place Abzan deck resembled the previous Abzan Aggro decks we’ve seen in the past. Three [card]Anafenza, the Foremost[/card]s were in the main deck along with [card]Rakshasa Deathdealer[/card] and [card]Fleeceman Lion[/card]. The sideboard of the runner up is quite a trip—almost every single card is a one-of and resembles something you might see from a Legacy High Tide or old Survival side board.

Rounding out the Top 8, we have another Abzan Midrange deck, three Temur Aggro decks, Red Deck Wins, and the Sidisi-Whip deck.

There were eleven copies of [card]Boon Satyr[/card] across all three Temur Aggro decks—definitely something to keep in mind if you plan on playing Temur Aggro in Standard. I like picking up Boom Boom Satyr at less than $1 in anticipation of future Standard play in this archetype.

Twelve of each of [card]Rattleclaw Mystic[/card] and [card]Savage Knuckleblade[/card] is also noteworthy. These guys might dip below $3 as more Khans is opened, but I’m not sure how much lower they can get. Rattleclaw is definitely going to be played during the post-Khans Standard, there is no question about that. Finally, eight [card]Ashcloud Phoenix[/card]es showing up continues to showcase the Phoenix’s power. There is room for the Phoenix to drop, and I like picking them up for post-Theros Standard play once that happens.

In terms of Sidisi-Whip, keep an eye on [card]Sidisi, Brood Tyrant[/card]. She is pretty strong but the deck doesn’t seem to be putting up consistent results. I think there is still room to drop but she could shine eventually.

SCG Open: Oakland, CA (USA) – Standard

Decklists

We have a new type of deck that was able to take down the Standard portion of the weekend by playing a unique combo strategy that isn’t the typical Jeskai Ascendency combo build. Ivan Jen took down the tournament piloting a deck called Jeskai Heroic Combo, which utilizes the power of the [card]Jeskai Ascendency[/card] enchantment to target your own creatures, which have heroic and prowess, and win based off targeting them several times in a turn and then attacking with huge creatures or lots of soldier tokens. This isn’t an infinite combo deck, but it still provides a turn where the player “goes off” so to speak and can get a huge creature and a bunch of soldier tokens that the opponent is unable to deal with.

Cards that defined this deck included the creatures ([card]Lagonna-Band Trailblazer[/card], whatt!?), [card]Jeskai Ascendency[/card], and lots of cheap cantrips paired with [card]Retraction Helix[/card] and [card]Gods Willing[/card]. Lands included a playset of both [card]Battlefield Forge[/card] and [card]Temple of Triumph[/card], along with three [card]Mana Confluence[/card]s. In the sideboard, three [card]Chasm Skulker[/card] are seen, which can help in the Abzan and other matches that play a large amount of creature removal.

More results need to be seen, but to me, this looks like a quirky combo deck that needs to be playtested quite a lot in order to know the optimal plays. I don’t think any cards in the deck are going to spike in the near future from these results. On the plus side, it is a cheap deck to build. Only the lands and Jeskai Ascendency are rares in the main deck, and Chasm Skulker is the only rare in the sideboard.

Rounding out the rest of the Top 8 were two Abzan Midrange decks, three GB Constellation decks, Jeskai Aggro, and Temur Monsters.

The second place Abzan Midrange piloted by Justin Porchas was much more straightforward than the fourth place deck that Alexander Lien built. Lien was trying to do what dos Santos Vieira did in Chile, while Porchas’s build was more controlling and opted to toe the line with the previously well-placing Abzan builds.

Joshua Velasco’s GB Constellation build was unique. The eighth-place list had a playset of [card]Genesis Hydra[/card] in the deck and was a fully stocked creature build that focused on ramping up quickly to deploy an early Polukranos to fight some guys. The other GB Constellation builds were very similar, playing the self-mill strategy to [card]Whip of Erebos[/card] out a threat in addition to ramping up to deploy [card]Doomwake Giant[/card] or [card]Hornet Queen[/card]. Noticeably absent from all three of these builds was [card]See the Unwritten[/card], the green mythic rare sorcery from Khans that many players were salivating over after Jon Finkel was seen playing it during the PT. It looks like See the Unwritten isn’t quite as good as players initially thought, so until more support is printed for the card, I don’t think we’ll be seeing players cast it for a while in Standard.

SCG Open: Oakland, CA (USA) – Legacy

Decklists

The story of this tournament is Dredge, which put three people into the Top 16 of the event and was the deck that took down the tournament. Joseph Moreno opted to play a land-light main deck that focused solely on the [card]Bridge from Below[/card] plan of generating tons of zombies. He only played one [card]Dread Return[/card] in the main deck without any reanimation targets like [card]Griselbrand[/card] or [card]Flame-Kin Zealot[/card]. Sometimes a huge [card]Golgari Grave-Troll[/card] gets there. His sideboard only made his deck faster by having three [card]Lotus Petal[/card]s to speed up his clock. I liked that he included three [card]Abrupt Decay[/card] as a catch-all to get rid of any hate that his opponent would sideboard in. He had a backup [card]Dread Return[/card] plan for Iona out of the board, though it was interesting he did not include a Dread Return game plan in the main deck.

Two of the Dredge decks had a full playset of [card]Mana Confluence[/card[ in the main deck. This bodes well for its foil price long-term. Currently foils are around $30, which is high, but I don’t think they are going to go lower than this. It is a third-set rare, which means regular copies are already harder to come by than usual. Foils will be even harder to find as time goes on. I’m assuming that this will be reprinted at some point. However, if you pick up foil copies, I don’t think you’re going to lose when the reprint happens.

ANT, Goblins, and Lands all made the Top 8 of this tournament as well. These decks are all very good in Legacy but I wasn’t sure if they would be able to go toe-to-toe with [card]Treasure Cruise[/card] and all of the U/R Delver that is flying around in Legacy right now. Looks like they were able to beat their fair share throughout the day.

ANT was a fairly typical build that Randolph Gille piloted to a third-place finish. He made a comment that black discard is really good in Legacy right now, as it helps stop a Treasure Cruise before it happens. He main decked three [card]Cabal Therapy[/card]s in a creatureless deck to back up this statement. Looks like it helped him that day, because even though he didn’t win, he still managed to get third place.

Goblins is something we haven’t seen in a while. Richard Liu preferred to draw four cards and have a 2/2 with haste rather than delving for Treasure Cruise and three cards. A main deck [card]Goblin Settler[/card] was an interesting choice. This random Starter 1999 uncommon is worth $45 TCGplayer mid, which is quite the hefty price tag. The card certainly isn’t [card]Grim Tutor[/card], but wow, did Starter 1999 really put upward pressure on some of the better cards.

Kiki-Jiki also made an appearance in this deck. Even though there weren’t any [card]Siege-Gang Commander[/card]s to copy, there were definitely some juicy targets in [card]Tuktuk Scrapper[/card], [card]Stingscourger[/card], [card]Mogg War Marshal[/card], [card]Goblin Ringleader[/card], and [card]Goblin Matron[/card]. Four copies of [card]Cavern of Souls[/card] is pretty much the only way this deck even has game against Miracles, but I thought including the two [card]Pendelhaven[/card] main deck was also pretty cute. Also, three [card]Pyrokinesis[/card] and two [card]Tarfire[/card] main deck were great tools to help fight against Delver. The sideboard had the white cards that Plateau can play, [card]Rest in Peace[/card] and [card]Thalia, Guardian of Thraben[/card], to help in difficult matchups.

The version of Lands that made the Top 8 was very grindy. It included such wonders as [card]Zuran Orb[/card], [card]Crucible of Worlds[/card], and [card]Engineered Explosives[/card] in the main deck, which along with [card]Punishing Fire[/card] and [card]Grove of the Burnwillows[/card] ensured that nothing with toughness two or less survived very long. Zack Wong opted to play many different one-of lands in the deck, such as [card]Academy Ruins[/card], [card]Bojuka Bog[/card], [card]Glacial Chasm[/card], and even [card]Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth[/card] to help lands that don’t make mana start making it. I bet this worked great with the [card]Intuition[/card]s to help him out in various situations.

The kill, of course, was [card]Thespian’s Stage[/card] and [card]Dark Depths[/card], but it seems like without [card]Crop Rotation[/card] it would take quite a while to get there. [card]Notion Thief[/card] out of the sideboard is pretty funny—guess I’ll draw those three cards off [card]Treasure Cruise[/card] instead of you. [card]Nephalia Drownyard[/card] is an interesting sideboard choice as well. It probably came in for the mirror match or against other control decks as an additional clock for victory.

Tin Fins made the Top 16 of the tournament. This deck relies on [card]Children of Korlis[/card] in order to assist [card]Griselbrand[/card] in drawing you cards so that eventually the deck can kill you with [card]Trendrils of Agony[/card]. This feels like a bad mashup of Sneak and Show and Storm but if you’ve never seen the deck than it could be pretty hard to fight against it. The deck plays four [card]Shallow Grave[/card]s, which spiked a while back to $25, but has now come back down to earth and settled at $8.50 TCGplayer mid. If you want to play the deck, I would pick up [card]Shallow Grave[/card]s before they go back to more than $10 if the deck puts up good results at GP New Jersey.

BONUS – SCG Premier IQ Oakland, CA (USA) – Modern

Decklists

At Oakland, Star City Games also hosted a Modern Invitational Qualifier and I’m interested in seeing the results of that. It has been a while since I’ve covered Modern and it would be helpful to see how Khans has impacted the format.

First place was taken by Alan Marling piloting Affinity. Affinity has been one of the mainstays of the Modern format since its inception. These days, Affinity is playing [card]Ensoul Artifact[/card] to help speed up the clock on the aggro plan. Marling’s deck also plays two copies of [card]Spell Pierce[/card] in the main deck, which I’m guessing is used to help fight the influx of [card]Treasure Cruise[/card] in Modern. I also noticed a playset of [card]Spellskite[/card]s in the main deck. It is pretty unusual to see a playset of Spellskite in any deck, but with Affinity I can understand this, due to it being an artifact and helping draw all of the removal away from cards like [card]Memnite[/card], [card]Ornithopter[/card], and [card]Signal Pest[/card]. Other than these additions, the list contains all the usual suspects like [card]Mox Opal[/card], [card]Cranial Plating[/card], [card]Steel Overseer[/card], and [card]Vault Skirge[/card].

Second place went to a Temur Midrange deck, which played everything but the Splinter Twin combo. This deck was a pure control deck, playing tons of spells and adding [card]Dig Through Time[/card] in order to pick the best spell for a particular situation. [card]Vedalken Shackles[/card] in the main deck is an interesting choice that probably surprised some folks, considering that this a three-color deck. There are nine islands in the deck, so on average, only about three to four them were on the field at any given time. However, Shackles worked well for Yiwen Song, who was able to take the deck to the finals.

Third place went to R/U Burn, an existing Burn archetype that got even better now that [card]Treasure Cruise[/card] has been added to the format. Based on the Burn deck that splashed white for [card]Boros Charm[/card] to take down GP Kobe, burn decks these days are adding blue as well in order to cast Cruise. So they’ve become these R/w/u monstrosities that are able to kill very quickly if you are not prepared for it.

Rounding out the rest of the Top 8 were WG Hexproof, Infect, another Burn deck, UR Twin, and another Affinity build. [card]Become Immense[/card] was a two-of in the Infect deck, which means that you should be on the lookout for it in Infect moving forward. The card is very powerful in the deck, but only two copies were played because if you get too many over the course of a game, eventually they will be uncastable.

Summary

Plenty of interesting results this weekend. Here’s some highlights:

  • Standard
    • [card]Soul of Theros[/card] looks to be a real card in Abzan. It’s still only $1.50 on TCGPlayer, which is pretty cheap for a backbreaking mythic rare that probably has plenty of casual appeal as well. I’ll be picking up a few copies because it is still essentially a bulk mythic rare at this price.
    • Anafenza is showing up in Abzan Aggro lists. She has some room to drop but I will be on the lookout for copies once they get to $3 or less.
    • Temur Aggro will be a deck moving forward. Keep an eye on [card]Rattleclaw Mystic[/card], [card]Savage Knuckleblade[/card], [card]Ashcloud Phoenix[/card], and especially [card]Boon Satyr[/card].
    • Like Anafenza, Sidisi has room to drop as well without more results. At $1.50 or less she gets more appealing to me.
    • Don’t fret too much over the Jeskai Heroic Combo deck. There isn’t much opportunity in the deck and it seems like a very hard deck to play once people start boarding in hate to deal with it. The only noteworthy rare is [card]Chasm Skulker[/card] out of the sideboard, but I feel like the boat has already passed for it at $2.
    • [card]See the Unwritten[/card] is less played than initially thought. Don’t expect much from this card financially until it reappears in a Top 8 deck sometime in the future.
  • Modern
    • [card]Spellskite[/card] has started rising again. It is $19 on TCGPlayer and could continue to go up until it sees a reprint. If Affinity starts adopting the playset in the main deck, it could continue to go up.
    • [card]Dig Through Time[/card] is also appearing in Modern alongside of [card]Treasure Cruise[/card]. At $7 TCGplayer mid, there is room to drop. Once this rare gets down to $3.50 or less, it will be time to move in and start picking up copies.
    • [card]Become Immense[/card] has made its way into Modern Infect builds. I would target foils accordingly at $1 or less.
  • Legacy
    • Foil [card]Mana Confluence[/card] looks good since Dredge has easily adopted this land over [card]City of Brass[/card], at least in main decks.
    • [card]Goblin Settler[/card] is $45 and hard to find. I don’t think these results are going to increase the card’s price by themselves, but if Goblins places well at GP New Jersey playing this card, you can definitely expect some increased interest in it.
    • [card]Shallow Grave[/card] has gotten more affordable lately. It could certainly spike if Tin Fins does well. I don’t like buying them at $8.50, but I would trade for them at that price.
    • C14 [card]Daretti, Scrap Savant[/card] could spur interest in the mono-red Painter decks. [card]Grindstone[/card], [card]Painter’s Servant[/card], and [card]Imperial Recruiter[/card] may become financially relevant if Painter starts showing up more.

Pitt Imps Podcast #92 Act Right!

Pitt Imps Articles, Pitt Imps, Podcasts 01:58:38

This week, we go over GPLA and SCG Worcester. We discuss why to get the board game and decide to converse over how you should or should not act while playing this game. With the card manipulation at SCG and all the things said following Ari Lax’s win at the PT, we felt it was appropriate.

Host Angelo  Twitter @ganksuou

Co-Host Ryan  Twitter @brotheryan

Co-Host Will

Email [email protected]

Privileged Perspective 3 – Tired Legacy Pun

Ross Lennon Articles

So I’m starting to get the handle on scheduling out my writing. Tuesday is my day, so it’s easier to schedule my own deadlines, allowing for more topical discussion. We are approaching what has traditionally been a slower time in Magic’s calendar, so for the most part, we aren’t missing much in terms of breaking developments. Of course, I’m also averaging more references to Billy Zane movies per article than decklists, so maybe I don’t quite have this down pat yet. Feel free to tell me how great I am in the comments below.

Last week, I talked about how to approach a Legacy GP from a finance perspective, but, like everything else in Magic, there is a lot more to it than that. Today is going to be my attempt at trying to explain everything I have learned about Legacy, from the perspective of a player and a… financier? Wait, is that right? Really? It does not sound right at all. We really gotta work on that—I get that #mtgfinance is too entrenched to stop, but it’s not like I’m writing Tezzeret a small business loan, or diversifying Garruk’s stock portfolio. Anyway, today is going to be my attempt at trying to explain everything I have learned about Legacy, from the perspective of a player and a… Magic buyer/seller/trader/make-money-occasionally person. Crap.

Legacy, An Incredibly Brief History

There was a very large stretch of time where Legacy was an irrelevant format, at least in the United States. It began in 2004, when Wizards split Type 1 into two formats: Legacy and Vintage (this is a gross oversimplification, but I’m fine with it). For years, it was essentially a sanctioned casual format, with cult followings scattered across the country, but not enough competitive level backing to make it a relevant format. In Europe, however, there was demand, and lots of dual lands crossed the Atlantic during the format’s down years. It is not inaccurate to say that the rise of Legacy stateside coincided with the beginnings of the SCG Open Series, and savvy players learned to look to European developments, which was at times weeks ahead of American environments (most notably, Maverick was a European strategy that later became popular in the US). For a period, Euro Legacy GP Madrid (2011) held the record of largest Magic event ever (replaced last year by Charlotte and then Vegas). Legacy has effectively existed for 10 years, but was only in the public consciousness for half of that. I won’t even bother telling you what has happened to the price tag on [card]Underground Sea[/card] between the release of Matchbox Twenty’s “Unwell” and now. I know right now you don’t care.

The next two sections will address the format from a player perspective and from a finance perspective—although it may be difficult to understand the former if you skip the latter. Brace yourselves, this is gonna be a long one.

Legacy, From the Player’s Perspective

Let’s rip the bandage off quickly and move on. Magic is expensive sometimes, and until you develop time travel, you will be forced to operate within the parameters of our current situation. WOTC is firmly behind the reserved list, even though they don’t seem to like it any more than we do. This, however, does not make getting into Legacy impossible—it just makes it require more work. Trust me, it is worth it.

Legacy and Vintage (and to a much smaller degree, Modern) are fascinating in the sense that there are an overwhelming amount of archetypes in the formats. This causes two things to happen:

  1. It rewards experience.
  2. It allows you to “level up” your deck over time, which grows experience.

That’s right, Legacy is actually a Spike’s Magic RPG!

BRIEF ASIDE: When I started really getting into Legacy a few years back, I started small. I was fortunate to be diving into the format alongside Zendikar, which allowed me immediate access to [card]Verdant Catacombs[/card] (GB has been, is, and forever will be my preferred color combination). The list I started with was a budget version of a deck called Eva Green, which is essentially a suicide black deck that someone (not me) named after the actress. I tried to look for my original list to no avail, but I can tell you it featured [card]Gatekeeper of Malakir[/card] and [card]Vampire Hexmage[/card] alongside [card]Tarmogoyf[/card] and [card]Thoughtseize[/card]. While I was fortunate to start out with Goyfs at my disposal, I can also tell you I have not played the card in Legacy in at least two years. Just because it is good doesn’t mean you cannot live without it.

Very few people get into Legacy with one fell swoop of a credit card. I certainly didn’t. What I always tell people who are serious is pick an archetype or strategy that you really like, and dedicate yourself to it (sounds like what we talked about in Privileged Perspective 1!). I started with the black deck, because [card]Dark Ritual[/card] into [card]Hymn to Tourach[/card] or [card]Hypnotic Specter[/card] is what I consider to be fun. If Delver or Infect is your cup of tea, so be it. A surprising percentage of cards that are good in Legacy have the modern card frame(s), so in terms of playing, you really don’t have to reach that far back in time. The absolute most important part is that you put something together, and start playing with it. You need to start grinding XP!

SECOND BRIEF ASIDE: A lot of people will tell you to just play red. While this is kind of a crummy, stereotypical thing that seems to compound the whole “Legacy is expensive” stigma, the real, under-articulated reason people say that is because it is the best deck in terms of raw percentage points that you can put together on a budget. You don’t lose games to sequencing errors (hopefully), your game plan is linear and redundant, and you won’t experience the same, “Long Round Fatigue” that sets in on Miracles players after round four. Some of the cards, like [card]Chain Lightning[/card], are rebounding from the PDS box, but the deck is still affordable since the majority of the cards aren’t even rares. This allows you to start grinding with a known quantity right out of the gate.

So you have a starting deck. It won’t be winning any beauty contests, but it is yours. You may be playing shock lands instead of duals, but the important part is that you find (or help cultivate) a local Legacy environment, and you start playing in events. It is one thing to read decklists, but until you see what CounterTop can do in person, or you feel the pressure exerted by Infect, you can’t really understand how to best defeat them. The more you get a feel for these matchups, the more you can tune your deck to more concisely shore up your weaknesses. You’ll also start racking up wins as you go, and the prizes can be turned into the cards you are missing! As you improve your game, you’ll be able to decide and determine whether you really need those Goyfs that were pricing you out of Legacy, or if it’s better to keep playing [card]Treasure Cruise[/card] and find another creature that is more synergistic with delve.

I had a long-winded diatribe on Twitter the other day about [card]Wasteland[/card]. More than anything, Wasteland is the key to getting into this format. I really, really, really hope we get a more generous printing of this card soon. You know how good Mono-Red is in Modern because everyone starts at 14 life? Well, whereas life is the check against greedy mana in modern, [card]Wasteland[/card] is the check against it in Legacy. It is also crucial in the fair/tempo decks, since it can prevent your opponents from progressing into the later phases of their game on time. If you buy or trade any big-ticket card to get into the format, there probably isn’t a better choice than Wasteland.

We’ll wrap up this section with one more Legacy secret. So, unless you’re the Cutler family or Jenny McCarthy, you understand how herd immunity works. [card]Force of Will[/card] is an important part of Legacy because it keeps the very unfair decks from overrunning the format, but it is also $100. If your small Legacy environment has fewer combo players than [card]Force of Will[/card] players, you will likely be fine without Force, since the people that do play them will suppress the overall success of the combo decks. If your environment doesn’t have [card]Force of Will[/card] players, however, this is your chance to play some Belcher (another one of the few decks where shock lands are literally just as good as duals!). If you can’t get Forces and you don’t play combo, then make sure you have a proactive game plan against combo decks, by which I mean disruption. [card]Thoughtseize[/card] is just as good as Force in that you can answer their bottleneck card, although you need to live long enough to cast it. [card]Spell Pierce[/card] is probably the best straight-up replacement for Force, since neither are great against creature decks, and the two-mana tax is typically significant enough to throw off their ability to combo off.

LEGACY, FROM THE (UGH) … FINANCIER’S PERSPECTIVE

Good news! If you are looking to Legacy as a way of diversifying your Magic portfolio, you don’t’ really need either Force or Wasteland! These, along with duals and some other things, are the equivalent of blue-chip stocks, which are great long term, but you really won’t see a huge ROI when you decide to move them. If you want to own sets for personal use, or are able to trade standard cards for them, then these are fine targets, but today I will mostly focus on more volatile options.

REALLY BRIEF ASIDE, I PROMISE: ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS TRADE STANDARD CARDS FOR RESERVED LIST CARDS IF YOU CAN. Elspeth, the Whatever is expensive now, but [card]Bayou[/card] will be expensive forever. Take a little bit of a hit if you have to, but this is the safest thing you can do by far. Know what is and is not on the RL, and make this offer with every store owner you know—most LGSs would rather have fat stacks of Theros mythics than that dual land, anyway.

One thing I should get out of the way now is harp on condition. If you are buying these cards to play, like our friends from the previous section, then buy the most beat-to-hell copies that are still sleeve-playable. In fact, every big GP I go to, one of the first things I ask dealers during their slow time (early Saturday) is what super-beat cards they have, and what kind of a deal they can make me. My first three Forces were $50 for all of them. They looked like garbage, but I was still able to trade them away two years later for a healthy gain. If you are looking to have stuff to sell, however, you probably want as close to mint as you can get. Negotiating condition on anything below NM- on the internet is a pain in the butt, so if you are looking for stuff to sell, target quality condition.

So let’s talk about some things I do like: what makes a good eternal-format spec? Well, it has to either be on the reserved list, or be pre-Mirrodin. While there are some great eternal playables in the newer frames, the added pressures of a Modern reprint limits the long-term potential of many of these. The best example of a card I like as a target is [card]Cabal Therapy[/card]. Cabal Therapy is not on the reserved list and is not currently in Modern. Now, CT is one of my absolute favorite cards, and I wish they would have put it in Innistrad, but there is a problem: it’s way too good!

I had a brief exchange with a WOTC R&D member on Twitter recently (not disclosing your sources is legal, check the Patriot Act), where he/she/Ashiok described to me some of the myriad reasons why [card]Cabal Therapy[/card] is not a likely candidate for Modern. As a fan of the card, this is unfortunate, but as a collector and speculator, this tells me it is safe to move on these, even after the big price jump they made last year. The only versions of the card that exist are the set copies, FNM promos, and the PDS ones. I like all of them equally, but try to prioritize making sets, since this is a card that gets played as a four-of, and players will want matching sets (this avoids giving away free information to opponents). Also, since the only non-foils were from the set printing over a decade ago, those will stay strong with people trying to avoid foils.

There are few more criteria CT has going for it—first, the card is awful in Commander.

BRIEF ASIDE: [card]Goblin Welder[/card] would have been a decent recommendation from me up until last Friday, when it was spoiled in the Red C14 deck (called it!). This is great for the rest of the cards in the Welder decks (Painted Stone, UR Welder, assorted Forgemaster/Metalworker decks), but will probably keep Welder down for a while, given what I expect to be a healthy printing.

Cabal Therapy is beyond awful in Commander, which means it is a virtual 0-percent chance of a reprint in one of those supplemental products. After next year’s swan song core set, we are likely to see very few actual reprints appear out of nowhere (The Cabal, it should be mentioned, is a proper noun, making it even harder to get this into any given set. Thanks, Vorthos!).

The last thing I want to harp on here is something I touched on just a little bit ago—understand what is and is not acceptable by current design standards. [card]Cabal Therapy[/card] is way too good for Standard, which means it will never make it to Modern, which keeps it relegated to the land of Legacy. Understanding what is too good to exist in today’s game can help you find a lot of hidden gems. These are the things like [card]Shallow Grave[/card] that randomly spike and then stick, rather than things like [card]Summoner’s Egg[/card] that spike and then bottom back out.

So we just broke down the majority of Legacy Finance 101 by evaluating a single card! Now when you want to break down Legacy spec targets, you know the different variables to consider before doing so. Of course, this is just scratching the surface, so if you want a more in-depth breakdown, let me know in the comments, and we will do another Legacy special again sometime soon.

Let’s close out this week with some quick Legacy hits!

  • [card]Show and Tell[/card] is one of those cards that everyone suspects is probably a little too good for Legacy (or at least in post-Emrakul America). It’s too high to buy in with cash (I don’t like tying a lot of my cash up in stuff that I don’t expect to move), but if the format keeps pushing towards fast, aggressive decks, then S&T may slip a bit in popularity. Be careful though, I see S&T as a prime choice for a functional reprint (but at a much fairer mana cost) since the original doesn’t mention planeswalkers and the effect is interesting for multiplayer. If that happens, then the possibility of a S&T ban is not impossible.
  • All versions of [card]Entomb[/card] (especially the Judge Promo) feel too cheap to me. By the way, did you know that Entomb was supposed to be a Judge Promo right before PDS Graveborn came out? These are (according to a judge friend of mine) them.
  • In no world does [card]Rishadan Port[/card] feel like a $120 card. It is also terrible in this environment. It is probably fair enough to exist in some future Commander or Conspiracy type product. I wouldn’t keep any of my eggs in that basket.
  • [card]Cabal Coffers[/card] wasn’t in the Black C14 deck. If they haven’t spiked already, expect a possible price bump soon.
  • [card]Young Pyromancer[/card] is a pillar of the current format. Easily has more room to grow.
  • The two most immediately playable cards from C14 in Legacy are Containment Priest and Dualcaster Mage. I expect the former to see play in the majority of White decks- it is more than “just” another Hate Bear. The latter may make it into some of the more adventurous Red lists, since copying a Fireblast EoT and then untapping and attacking is a cool 10 damage. Expect to pay a premium if you plan to buy the White deck soon, especially if you’re in the Northeast in the next two weeks.

As always, thanks for reading!

 

BEST,

Ross

 

Commander 2014: A Financial Review

Jim Casale Articles

With the release of the newest Commander decklists, we are greeted with a few potent new cards, but also one of the nicest group of reprints in a sealed deck product in a long time.  I’m here to break down what you may have missed about this spectacular release!

decks

The New

p2 p3 p4 p5p1

The new centerpiece of these decks is a set of five mono-colored planeswalkers that all have an extra line of text: “~ can be your Commander.”  While the EDH/Commander governing body has stated there are no plans to allow other planeswalkers to become your commander, it would not surprise me if that stance is changed in the future (source).  These walkers will be highly sought after for their uniqueness in the casual format. None of them are playable in Modern, but there has been some interest in Daretti in Legacy and Vintage. Having a hasted [card]Goblin Welder[/card] (or as I would more accurately call a combo card of [card]Faithless Looting[/card] and [card]Trash for Treasure[/card]), is apparently a big deal. Its single red mana cost also makes it very effective in red prison-style decks (which already rely on [card]Blood Moon[/card], [card]Chalice of the Void[/card], and [card]Trinisphere[/card]).  I don’t know if this card is better than [card]Goblin Rabblemaster[/card] in those decks, but it’s something to keep on your radar. Daretti is pre-ordering for $18 or more on most retail sites, and unless it has a very dominant weekend, I don’t expect it to stay that high a month after release. None of these planeswalkers are particularly impressive and will likely not carry huge price tags after release.

b4 feldon g5 u1

The new legendary creatures (save for the white one, Jazal Goldmane) are all really unique and pretty strong build-around commanders. There is a precedent here, and those style commanders tend to be popular and good. These guys are much more in the realm of [card]Kaalia of the Vast[/card], [card]Animar, Soul of Elements[/card], and [card]Nekusar, the Mindrazer[/card] and less like [card]Basandra, Battle Seraph[/card] and [card]Oloro, Ageless Ascetic[/card]. One or more of these could become very popular, and I think they will all hit at least $5 long-term—the current $2 or $3 each seems unusually low.

b2 g4 r6

The lieutenant cycle is interesting, but I think these three are the most powerful.  One has haste, one has an ability that effectively has haste, and the last has hexproof.  The problem with the other two is that they have no way to affect the board before your commander comes onto the battlefield. They are much more just like big-stat sticks than anything else. [card]Tyrant’s Familiar[/card] is pretty oddly a non-bo with [card]Kaalia of the Vast[/card], but I think the upside most times is going to be so good that it won’t matter.  I think these guys can become staples of their respective decks, but it will take a while for them to become popular. Keep an eye out for bulk or near-bulk pricing to pick these up after Christmas.

w2g3 masterwork

These are the standouts for eternal formats.  [card]Containment Priest[/card] does a fine job of hosing powerful combo cards (such as [card]Goryo’s Vengeance[/card], [card]Through the Breach[/card], [card]Show and Tell[/card], [card]Sneak Attack[/card], [card]Reanimate[/card], etc).

[card]Song of Dryads[/card] could catch on if there is a need for flexibility. This card has so much utility that it’s hard to immediately write off a three-mana green sorcery speed removal. The only thing I see that might stop this card from seeing play is if all of your targets can also be killed by [card]Krosan Grip[/card]. The fact that it is equally effective against [card]Tarmogoyf[/card], [card]Griselbrand[/card], [card]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/card], [card]Counterbalance[/card], [card]Batterskull[/card], and [card]Grove of the Burnwillows[/card] is a big deal. If there is a resurgence of Maverick-style green decks in Legacy, I could see this card seeing as much play as [card]Council’s Judgment[/card].

[card]Masterwork of Ingenuity[/card] is a very unique card.  There haven’t been any cards less than three mana that could copy equipment ([card]Phyrexian Metamorph[/card], and [card]Sculpting Steel[/card]), and one-mana artifacts are especially important because they can be searched up via [card]Trinket Mage[/card]. What does all this mean? Not much right now. All of the cards are pre-ordering for too much and are not necessarily slam-dunk picks. Wait until January before picking them up for cheap.

csphere g2g1  w1r2 r5reef worm

This last set of cards are new and have a lot of uniqueness, which drives card prices.  I think [card]Commander’s Sphere[/card] especially will be a very popular card.  It’s a [card]Darksteel Ingot[/card] with a lot more upside and probably will be played in every Commander deck going forward.  I don’t see a world where these aren’t $3-4 cards by the time Commander 2015 comes out. [card]Command Tower[/card] has four printings and still has a retail price of $2 to $3.

[card]Siege Behemoth[/card] is a very odd card because it plays a lot like an [card]Overrun[/card] but also has a lot of power and hexproof.  I expect this to join [card]Craterhoof Behemoth[/card] and [card]Triumph of the Hordes[/card] as finishers of choice in green Commander decks.  [card]Lifeblood Hydra[/card] joins the other supporting cast of great hydras post-Theros, including [card]Genesis Hydra[/card], [card]Polukranos, World Eater[/card], [card]Hooded Hydra[/card], and [card]Hydra Broodmaster[/card].  I don’t know if it dethrones any of them as the top hydra, but it gives them a run for their money.

[card]Angel of Dire Hour[/card] doesn’t have fateful hour (as seen on all-stars such as [card]Faith’s Shield[/card]), which is a flavor fail. But it also has a clause that doesn’t not allow you to pair this with [card]Deadeye Navigator[/card] for a creature shield. It’s one-time effect is still extremely powerful and will likely find a place in most decks with Plains in them.

[card]Reef Worm[/card] (which is notably not a wurm, which is a flightless dragon) is a very flavorful card and sure to be very popular among Cube enthusiasts and casuals alike. I don’t think the demand will be very high initially, but its uniqueness will make it a great long-term hold. There are also tokens included in these decks for the fish and the whale, which I would suggest picking up immediately. As the only two non-dollar rares, [card]Dualcaster Mage[/card] and [card]Scrap Mastery[/card] have obvious parallels in other colors ([card]Snapcaster Mage[/card] and [card]Living Death[/card]), but being in red is a big difference. You don’t often get cards this powerful in red and I hope to see more in the future. But right now, their prices are too high. Keep an eye on them, and if they drop off a lot and then start to creep back up, then it’s probably time to buy in.

Reprints!

r3 wurmcoil

While [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card] is the most headlined reprint, it’s important to note that this is the first non-foil printing of [card]Goblin Welder[/card] in a modern border. It’s a no-brainer at this point to ship all non-foil [card]Wurmcoil Engines[/card] as this will make them worth 30 percent or less of their current value.

Notable new modern border additions:

[card]Stroke of Genius[/card], [card]Dregs of Sorrow[/card], [card]Collective Unconscious[/card] (in black border), [card]Desert Twister[/card] with Noah Bradley’s Vintage Masters art, [card]Predator’s Flagship[/card], the original Karoo lands ([card]Karoo[/card], [card]Everglades[/card], [card]Coral Atoll[/card], [card]Dormant Volcano[/card], and [card]Jungle Basin[/card]), and [card]Priest of Titania[/card]

Notable cards with new art:

[card]Exclude[/card], [card]Sacred Mesa[/card], [card]Sylvan Safekeeper[/card], [card]Wellwisher[/card], [card]Cathodion[/card], [card]Skullclamp[/card] with Vintage Masters art, the cycle of 5 diamonds (ex [card]Sky Diamond[/card], and 5 medallions (ex [card]Sapphire Medallion[/card])

All in all, this release seems to be chock-full of value, but I think the hype train is too strong right now for there to be any financial gains at this point. Give it a few months and then comb through the prices again to find the gems in the rough.

Select Brainstorm Brewery Eps

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