News:
AJ found a great Player Run Classic Tribal league, which you can find more information about at their website; http://worldofkedoria.com/. I have to admit to being a tad envious of those with the time to enjoy this league, and wish them all the best of luck. Also announced today was a new game based on Wizards of the Coast's Intellection Property titled: Magic the Gathering: Tactics. There isn't a lot of data about this game or all the details yet but I'm very excited about the potential growth opportunities for it. Last, but not least, is the Community Cup kicking off this Thursday! Wish us MTGO players luck in crushing our WotC foes!
Prices: Baneslayer Angel climbs to 48, shattering the old records of in print cards (Goyf, et al)... will she surpass Force of Will? It could, what with 11 FoW's in stock at 64 and 0 Angels at 48... It’s not out of the question! Eldrazi Monument holds steady at 4.5, not moving at all from its Friday price... Jace's M10 persona climbs to 8.5 as he fits into quite a few powerful decks for at the present time. Warren instigator drops to 4 from 4.5, as he has yet to find a home and Master of the Wild Hunt drops to 8, thankfully, as an underplayed Mythic from M10
Whatcha been playing?
AJ - Ink treader + spitting Image = haha, you got killed by a nephilim!
Erik: More testing for Community Cup, 100CS and Standard Unified...
Tournaments:
Zendikar events finishing up, and the community cup is on the horizon! Stay tuned Thursday and Friday for the details! I'll be updating twitter for sure (@realhamtastic) and will try to have a blog set up similar to the one we had for Pro Tour Austin.
PureMTGO News/Articles of the Week:
AJ: Going for Rogue Play - Into the Core by Lord Erman
Erik: Tribal Apocalypse: The Fourth Seal
Congratulations ArchGenius! You've won a foil Goblin Legionnaire! Custom Card Creation Contest: Do you think you have what it takes to make the best custom card?
I will have to listen when i get up tonite. And then Ill be off to work on my zany card creation idea. Good luck Hammy and Co! :) I tried to be of service as a playtester/punching bag but I am afraid I failed to provide much time. Anyway I know you guys will succeed because the community is behind you and rooting for you.
I want to comment on two of the cards mentioned as possible investments from Zendikar and then mention a third investment card of my own. Let's start with Warren Instigator. I see this card as future "Dark Depths" in extended. Sometime in the next seven years Wizards is going to print a game-winning goblin card that will turn Instigator into the cornerstone of a tier 1 deck. In addition, I think people have overlooked the synergy of cheap double-strikers with Blood Lust effects. Right now Warren Instigator is the only reliable cheap double-striker, but this could change and we might see double-strike.dec in the near future. 4x Warren Instigator might even be playable as the only goblins in such a deck.
Another card mentioned was Ob Nixilis. I do not share Hamtastic's positive outlook on this card. Ob Nix compares very unfavorably to Ms. 48 Tickets herself as a beatdown creature. A turn 5 Baneslayer is a huge threat that must be answered, but a turn 5 Ob Nix requires a turn 6 land (preferably fetch) to be effective. Even with cards to trigger landfall, Ob Nix is more easily chump blocked and can often be killed with a Lightning Bolt. Is Ob Nix even better than Malakir Bloodwitch? Definitely not if the field is full of Path to Exile and O-Ring. Hamtastic mentioned using Ob Nix as part of a landfall combo, but any combo that relies on a five drop creature followed by playing seven lands just doesn't seem viable.
Now I want to mention by own personal pick for "Zendikar Card Most Likely to Rise in Value": Iona, Shield of Emeria. As the Zendikar constructed PE events have shown, you can build a deck around cheating her into play and be very successful. Locking opponents out of an entire color is extremely powerful, and Iona is sure to be abused. The Vintage guys are already talking about running her in Oath, so she will definitely make an appearance in Classic once we get Exodus. Also she's a pretty good Dread Return target in Dredge against many decks.
To summarize, I recommend stocking up on Warren Instigator, holding off on Ob Nixilis, and buying every Iona you can get your hands on. Consider this post my entry for the big foil reward of the week.
Sphinx of Jwar Isle is currently going on mtgo for 1.3 tickets which seems likely to rise to me. Other than that, valakut seems a decent buy at ~0.4, but the scapeshift deck hasn't really showed up yet, and may never do so. I think I just like the card..
I agree that warren instigator is likely to rise in price at some point, but probably not before some mad goblin gets printed, so it might be worth waiting a few months until at least wwk spoiler season to pick them up?
I think Warren Instigator will go up, but probably even sooner than Mr. TopDecker would suggest. I can think of at least one mythic tribal card that got a massive boost in price when the the set following its own came out, Vampire Nocturnus. I think it's fairly probable that the card or cards required to take the Instigator from potentially insane to actually insane could very well come in Worldwake.
Wizards has tricked us many times with cards that seem too narrow to be very good until all the complimentary cards come along to make it great. So, when I'm looking at cards to go up in value, I'm looking for the ones that would be playable in standard if a complimentary card were to come along and bolster it because as often as not that card does come along.
Which other cards could be the next Vampire Nocturnus or Knight of the Reliquary? Nissa Ravine is already seeing play and only needs one or two more elf related tools to become the cornerstone of a top tier deck. The same could be said about Chandra Ablaze. As the format gets bigger and there are more and more red instants and sorceries she will get better.
We will also be due for a "good" counter spell, and if we get it, all those awesome control cards that are on the cusp now will go up. Things like Luminarch Ascension, Day of Judgement, Sphinxs, etc.
Basically, I think you can look at a format and ask yourself what holes in the Standard format does it seem likely Wizard's is going to fill in the coming set or sets, and what cards become better or worse when that happens. The cards with the potential to be better are the ones you want.
And as a darkhorse pick I would say pick up some junk rare merfolk like Cosi's Trickster, Lullmage Mentor and Seagate Loremaster. They range from 10 to 12 cents on MTGO Traders right now and with a good counterspell and some other highpowered and synergistic merfolk they could easily go up in value ten fold (to a whopping dollar)! And if not you can make a casual deck to play some zen block with.
I've been a part of the custom card contest for the past four months and have had a lot of fun with it. I even came in second place in September and used the winnings to soften the blow on my wallet and finish my set of Baneslayer's. It was just in time before the price skyrocketed, and they helped me win a standard daily event the next day. It seems like the contest has been getting a little less support, so thanks for the shout out. I like seeing what kind of ideas people come up with. The more the merrier.
6 Comments
I will have to listen when i get up tonite. And then Ill be off to work on my zany card creation idea. Good luck Hammy and Co! :) I tried to be of service as a playtester/punching bag but I am afraid I failed to provide much time. Anyway I know you guys will succeed because the community is behind you and rooting for you.
I want to comment on two of the cards mentioned as possible investments from Zendikar and then mention a third investment card of my own. Let's start with Warren Instigator. I see this card as future "Dark Depths" in extended. Sometime in the next seven years Wizards is going to print a game-winning goblin card that will turn Instigator into the cornerstone of a tier 1 deck. In addition, I think people have overlooked the synergy of cheap double-strikers with Blood Lust effects. Right now Warren Instigator is the only reliable cheap double-striker, but this could change and we might see double-strike.dec in the near future. 4x Warren Instigator might even be playable as the only goblins in such a deck.
Another card mentioned was Ob Nixilis. I do not share Hamtastic's positive outlook on this card. Ob Nix compares very unfavorably to Ms. 48 Tickets herself as a beatdown creature. A turn 5 Baneslayer is a huge threat that must be answered, but a turn 5 Ob Nix requires a turn 6 land (preferably fetch) to be effective. Even with cards to trigger landfall, Ob Nix is more easily chump blocked and can often be killed with a Lightning Bolt. Is Ob Nix even better than Malakir Bloodwitch? Definitely not if the field is full of Path to Exile and O-Ring. Hamtastic mentioned using Ob Nix as part of a landfall combo, but any combo that relies on a five drop creature followed by playing seven lands just doesn't seem viable.
Now I want to mention by own personal pick for "Zendikar Card Most Likely to Rise in Value": Iona, Shield of Emeria. As the Zendikar constructed PE events have shown, you can build a deck around cheating her into play and be very successful. Locking opponents out of an entire color is extremely powerful, and Iona is sure to be abused. The Vintage guys are already talking about running her in Oath, so she will definitely make an appearance in Classic once we get Exodus. Also she's a pretty good Dread Return target in Dredge against many decks.
To summarize, I recommend stocking up on Warren Instigator, holding off on Ob Nixilis, and buying every Iona you can get your hands on. Consider this post my entry for the big foil reward of the week.
Warren Instigator is one of three 'cheap, reliable, double strikers', the other two being Boros Swiftblade and Viashino Slaughtermaster.
Sphinx of Jwar Isle is currently going on mtgo for 1.3 tickets which seems likely to rise to me. Other than that, valakut seems a decent buy at ~0.4, but the scapeshift deck hasn't really showed up yet, and may never do so. I think I just like the card..
I agree that warren instigator is likely to rise in price at some point, but probably not before some mad goblin gets printed, so it might be worth waiting a few months until at least wwk spoiler season to pick them up?
I think Warren Instigator will go up, but probably even sooner than Mr. TopDecker would suggest. I can think of at least one mythic tribal card that got a massive boost in price when the the set following its own came out, Vampire Nocturnus. I think it's fairly probable that the card or cards required to take the Instigator from potentially insane to actually insane could very well come in Worldwake.
Wizards has tricked us many times with cards that seem too narrow to be very good until all the complimentary cards come along to make it great. So, when I'm looking at cards to go up in value, I'm looking for the ones that would be playable in standard if a complimentary card were to come along and bolster it because as often as not that card does come along.
Which other cards could be the next Vampire Nocturnus or Knight of the Reliquary? Nissa Ravine is already seeing play and only needs one or two more elf related tools to become the cornerstone of a top tier deck. The same could be said about Chandra Ablaze. As the format gets bigger and there are more and more red instants and sorceries she will get better.
We will also be due for a "good" counter spell, and if we get it, all those awesome control cards that are on the cusp now will go up. Things like Luminarch Ascension, Day of Judgement, Sphinxs, etc.
Basically, I think you can look at a format and ask yourself what holes in the Standard format does it seem likely Wizard's is going to fill in the coming set or sets, and what cards become better or worse when that happens. The cards with the potential to be better are the ones you want.
And as a darkhorse pick I would say pick up some junk rare merfolk like Cosi's Trickster, Lullmage Mentor and Seagate Loremaster. They range from 10 to 12 cents on MTGO Traders right now and with a good counterspell and some other highpowered and synergistic merfolk they could easily go up in value ten fold (to a whopping dollar)! And if not you can make a casual deck to play some zen block with.
I've been a part of the custom card contest for the past four months and have had a lot of fun with it. I even came in second place in September and used the winnings to soften the blow on my wallet and finish my set of Baneslayer's. It was just in time before the price skyrocketed, and they helped me win a standard daily event the next day. It seems like the contest has been getting a little less support, so thanks for the shout out. I like seeing what kind of ideas people come up with. The more the merrier.
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