Just one more day to go for the full spoiler on Journey into Nyx, and the cards being spoiled continue to be hit after hit. Today more money rares and uncommons were revealed. Let’s look at them!
Side Note: My Building On My Budget (or BOMB, if you will) column will be going on hiatus the next two weeks while I concentrate on the Daily Financial Value column. Don’t worry—I have a humdinger (yes, I said humdinger) of a column planned for the return of BOMB!
How I review:
Starting Price: The first price we assign to the card as a preorder.
Current Price: The current price of the card by the time this article goes live.
Future Price (Short Term): The price I believe the card will be at before Magic Online redemptions go live for Born of the Gods.
Future Price (Medium Term): The price I believe the card will be at by the time the next set (M15) comes out.
Future Price (Long Term): The price I believe the card will be at a year from now when the next spring set is released (name unknown still, but probably [Something] of Khanar).
 |
|
|
Starting Price: $4 Current Price: $4 Future Price (Short Term): $5 Future Price (Medium Term): $3 Future Price (Long Term): $2 |
Not Decide, but Deicide, as in the act of killing a god. It will have a place in the Standard metagame, and it’ll be a strong sideboard card that will hit the maindeck if the right decks are tier 1. Auctions on eBay are currently pushing $5-$6 a card. I don’t think that’s sustainable as a price (the fact that it only kills enchantments is very narrow as far as removal goes), but I do think that it’ll see enough play to hold a premium value above bulk.
 |
|
|
Starting Price: $2 Current Price: $2 Future Price (Short Term): $3 Future Price (Medium Term): $4 Future Price (Long Term):$4 |
One of the only rares/mythics in the set that I think is being undervalued out of the gate. Grave Pact has always been a casual favorite and has seen play in Standard given the right metagame. In the case of a card like this, I can make the argument that double black (versus triple black) and the ability to come down as an instant make Dictate of Erebos as or more powerful than Grave Pact (or at least playable) even though it costs one more mana. Also, Dictate is a way to kill Gods (since it invokes a sacrifice).
Dictate of Erebos is the card I would most recommend buying and sitting on for the long term. Grave Pact has been printed six times now; every time it’s been reprinted, the previous versions have taken a slight dip in price (for instance, from $4 to $3) and then come back as strong as ever within a year. Grave Pact is currently $12, and every casual player on planet earth who is already running Grave Pact in their Commander deck is going to auto want this card as a second way to get this effect.
Uncommons Of Note
Banishing Light – Starting Price $1.50. Should hit $2-$3. Oblivion Ring (before it was printed a billion times) was $2 as a common, and this is uncommon and only in one set so far. A staple, a card that will be played a ton, and a must have for Standard play.
Brain Maggot – $1. Call it Mesmeric Fiend or Tidehollow Sculler, this is a playable card in Standard. Potentially Legacy/Modern playable if enchantment creatures are a thing (and given the power level that some of these have been revealed to have over the past day, I’m starting to think that constellation might matter).
Strength from the Fallen – $0.50. Oddly, this is the first time I’m picking out an uncommon to be the sleeper card of a set. The cards in this set are so obviously strong that it’s difficult to point to a rare and say "this is the sleeper here!" Strength from the Fallen does something that most enchantments of this type have not done in the past: have an activation when it comes into play. I don’t know exactly how an enchantment-based creature rush deck would look, but I imagine it’d use a Junk shell with efficient enchantment creatures (think Spirit of the Labyrinth) along with repeatable enchantment effects (Rancor). I also think that with a dredge engine this ends up becoming very powerful very quickly. This is basically a Giant Growth effect pushed harder than it has been in years. Watch this card.
Changes In Value Since Yesterday
None!
Pack Value
To determine the value of a booster pack, I’m going to start with the following formula:
(2R + 1M) / 80
That isn’t enough of a picture though. In fairness, $0.50-$1 bulk rares don’t really amount to "real" value if you’re looking to trade with other players. So I’m omitting the value of any rare that is below $2 (rounded from $1.99) and any mythic that is below $4 (rounded from $3.99).
33 out of the 35 rares have been spoiled. Here are the ones that are $2 or more:
Aegis of the Gods: $3
Deicide: $4
Dictate of Erebos: $2
Dictate of Kruphix: $3
Eidolon of Blossoms: $3
Eidolon of the Great Revel: $5
Hydra Broodmaster: $2
Mana Confluence: $20
Master of the Feast: $3
Temple of Epiphany: $6
Temple of Malady: $6
Total Rare Value: $57
All ten mythics have been spoiled. Nine of them are above the $4 bulk mythic threshold.
Ajani, Mentor of Heroes: $30
Athreos, God of Passage: $30
Godsend: $15
Iroas, God of Victory: $20
Keranos, God of Storms: $20
Kruphix, God of Horizons: $12
Pharika, God of Affliction: $10
Prophetic Flamespeaker: $5
Sage of Hours: $6
Total Mythic Value: $148
So plugging this into the formula, we get the following:
(2R ($57) + 1M ($148) = $262
$262/80 = $3.275 value per pack or $117.90 per box
There is also a significant (enough) number of good uncommons spoiled at this point that the uncommons you open are going to affect box value. These include:
Banishing Light (currently $1.50)
Brain Maggot (currently $1)
Dakra Mystic (currently $1)
Disciple of Deceit (currently $0.50)
Gnarled Scarhide (currently $0.50)
Nyx-Fleece Ram (currently $0.50)
Riptide Chimera (currently $0.50)
Ritual of the Returned (currently $0.50)
Strength from the Fallen (currently $0.50)
Value Of These Uncommons: $6.50
If you open 108 uncommons a box, you average 1.8 of each of these uncommons per box (60 uncommons in the set), meaning that these add $11.70 in value per box. The last time a set had enough good uncommons spoiled that I felt it affected overall box value was New Phyrexia
At launch the following uncommons were $1 and up:
Beast Within
Despise
Dismember
Dispatch
Mental Misstep
Tezzeret’s Gambit
Post-launch the following uncommons have all held value $1 and up:
Deceiver Exarch
Gut Shot
Mindcrank
Noxious Revival
Whipflare
All in all with two rares left to go, I feel confident calling Journey into Nyx the best small set since New Phyrexia. There’s just a lot of value per pack to open compared to previous sets, and there are a lot of cards in this set that are going to shake up the metagame in Standard.
Previous Daily Financial Value Of Journey Into Nyx Articles
4/7 – Eidolon of Blossoms; Extinguish All Hope; Hall of Triumph; Heroes’ Bane; Iroas, God of Victory
4/9 – Ajani, Mentor of Heroes; Sage of Hours; Temple of Epiphany; Temple of Malady
4/10 – Eidolon of the Great Revel; Kruphix, God of Horizons; Setessan Tactics; Silence the Believers
4/11 – Dictate of Karametra, Hypnotic Siren, Launch the Fleet, Mana Confluence, Worst Fears
4/15 – Battlefield Thaumaturge, Bearer of the Heavens, Daring Thief, Daring Thief