Hello everyone, and welcome back to my daily series of Financial Value articles about the newest set. This time around, we’re going to discuss the third set of the immensely popular Return to Ravnica block: Dragon’s Maze! The entire set was spoiled at midnight, so here is a roundup of the last few cards! On Friday, I’ll be releasing my cheat sheet for the Prerelease—so tune in then as well!

Starting Price: The first price we assign to this 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 this card will be at before Magic Online redemptions go live for Dragon’s Maze

Future Price—Medium Term: The price I believe this card will be at by the time the next set (M14) comes out

Future Price—Long Term: The price I believe this card will be at a year from now, when the next spring set is released (Journey to Nyx)

Starting Price: $0.50

Current Price: $0.50

Future Price—Short Term: $0.50

Future Price—Medium Term: $0.50

Future Price—Long Term: $0.50

The majority of cards spoiled solely by the visual spoiler are by definition the less exciting cards in the set because Wizards of the Coast chose not to highlight them during previews—and previews are designed to get people excited about the set. Boros Battleshaper is a bulk rare.

Starting Price: $4

Current Price: $4

Future Price—Short Term: $5

Future Price—Medium Term: $3

Future Price—Long Term: $2

I can draw a direct comparison between Gaze of Granite and Pernicious Deed. Both cost a minimum three mana, and both will only kill converted mana cost zero nonland cards at three mana. The comparisons end there; Pernicious Deed is the superior card for multiple reasons. It is an enchantment, so you can pay dividends into activating it over two turns. It can be activated during your opponent’s turn, so you can clear the board at the end of your opponent’s turn and play into an empty board. You can cast it on turn 3 and have it sit for the rest of the game. Gaze of Granite has to be played right here and right now and is extremely expensive to use. I think it’ll be big for Commander, but I think it’ll be a flop for Standard.

Starting Price: $3

Current Price: $3

Future Price—Short Term: $4

Future Price—Medium Term: $5

Future Price—Long Term: $5

Mana Drain, but with a really awkward mana cost. Regardless, the effect is extremely powerful, and blue/green decks can take advantage of ramping from four mana to nine mana on the following turn (Prime Speaker decks, anyone?). I think that Plasm Capture is being undervalued right now because of the lackluster performance of Scattering Stroke. I’d pick them up at $3 because the ramp effect of Plasm Capture is relevant unlike the Silence effect of Render Silent.

Starting Price: $1

Current Price: $1

Future Price—Short Term: $1

Future Price—Medium Term: $1

Future Price—Long Term: $1

Will be popular with casual players due to the Lord ability (granting all creatures extort) but too costly for Standard.

Starting Price: $3

Current Price: $3

Future Price—Short Term: $2

Future Price—Medium Term: $2

Future Price—Long Term: $2

Lobotomy hasn’t really seen play in a long time because you have to hit an opponent’s hand in order to remove a certain card; other cards along this line (Cranial Extraction variants) let you hit the key card in your opponent’s deck even if they aren’t in hand. Five mana to Lobotomy for one is a lot; when this hits it’ll be devastating, but against a deck with any sort of speed (or countermagic), Reap Intellect will be too painfully slow to work.

Starting Price: $1

Current Price: $1

Future Price—Short Term: $1

Future Price—Medium Term: $1

Future Price—Long Term: $1

Reminds me of Cloudgoat Ranger—you get an extra +1/+1 power and toughness and two flying creatures at the cost of a third 1/1 creature. As an added bonus, if you have a creature larger than a 1/1 flying Bird token (say, an Advent of the Wurm token), you profit even further. The problem is that I don’t think Cloudgoat Ranger is great in current Standard because there aren’t enough cheap token generators to make that deck work yet. I wouldn’t write off Scion of Vitu-Ghazi entirely; this is the type of card that I’d say you should pick up four of because it could have an upside.

Starting Price: $3

Current Price: $3

Future Price—Short Term: $5

Future Price—Medium Term: $4

Future Price—Long Term: $3

How many evergreen keywords and abilities can you throw on one creature? The answer here is four; Skylasher will be played in Legacy, which will help it maintain value. It stops Geist of Saint Traft in Standard and reminds me of Great Sable Stag. GSS might be a $1 rare now, but it was $6-$10 the entire time it was legal in Standard. Currently greatly undervalued; I would pick these up now as well because it is a winning combination of abilities.