Welcome back to my Daily Financial Value of Eldritch Moon series! From now until the full set is spoiled, I’ll be posting up regular daily updates
with my thoughts about the officially-spoiled cards from Eldritch Moon!
I will be reviewing cards using the following system:
Starting Price:
The first price we assign to this card as a preorder.
Current Price:
The current price of the card at the time this article was written (usually by 5:00 pm the day before publication).
Future Price – Low:
The lowest price I believe this card will hit while it is Standard Legal, post-release.
Future Price – High:
The highest price I believe this card will hit while it is Standard legal, post-release.
Whoa! After a few slow days of spoilers, Wizards certainly delivered yesterday! We picked up a ton of awesome cards, including my new favorite green card.
Let’s get started!
Rarity:
Mythic
Starting Price:
$15
Current Price:
$12
Future Price – Low:
$4
Future Price – High:
$10
Thoughts:
I thought people would be a lot more excited about this card than they are. It seems like a good card with tons of casual appeal. It also has the chance to
see some Constructed play. Judging from everyone’s reaction to Decimator of the Provinces I don’t expect it to be a bank-breaking Mythic but I would expect it
to stay north of $5 and south of $10 during its duration in Standard.
Rarity:
Rare
Starting Price:
$10
Current Price:
$12
Future Price – Low:
$5
Future Price – High:
$15
Thoughts:
This is by far my favorite card of the block so far. I’ve spent the last few minutes reading about all the awesome things people are thinking of doing with
Eldritch Evolution and it’s pretty nuts. There is a lot of talk of using high casting cost creatures to tutor up other high casting cost creatures – I
don’t think that’s necessary at all. Eldritch Evolution stands out to me just as a tutor. Even if you’re turning your three-drop into a five-drop of your
choice, that’s still incredible.
It’s pretty clear that everyone loves the card, now what about the price?
As I’ve stated in previous articles, it takes a lot for a rare to be double digits. Currently Eldritch Evolution is going strong at $12 and I expect it to
go up a least a little bit before it’s finally released. Unfortunately, I don’t think it will stay at $12. It is a fantastic card, but in order for it to
stay above $10 it will probably need to see play in multiple decks, across multiple formats. That being said, I don’t expect it to ever drop much below $5
during its time in Standard. This is an exceptional card that will certainly lead to some very sweet decks!
A small FYI I wanted to add while I’m on the subject. There is a buyout going on of Allosaurus Rider. I wouldn’t recommend buying in on that one. I don’t
think you need to spend four cards to make Eldritch Evolution good, I think it’s already good enough without having to play “free” high CMC cards.
Rarity:
Rare
Starting Price:
$2
Current Price:
$2
Future Price – Low:
$1
Future Price – High:
$4
Thoughts:
Here we have a 3/3 for three that seems hard to permanently get rid of. In addition to that it’s a card that could potentially go in Food Chain combo
decks. I’m not convinced that’s enough for it to ever be a format-altering rare and for that reason I don’t think it will ever be worth more than a few
dollars.
Rarity:
Rare
Starting Price:
$2
Current Price:
$2.50
Future Price – Low:
$1
Future Price – High:
$3
Thoughts:
Long term I really like Geier Reach Sanitarium. It’s like a Mikokoro, Center of the Sea that combos well with things like Megrim and Waste Not. It has so
much casual appeal . I would certainly keep an eye on the foils! As for a Constructed card, I don’t see a deck ever playing more than one or two and for
that reason I would expect it to stay in the $1 range for most of its Standard career.
Rarity:
Rare
Starting Price:
$2
Current Price:
$2
Future Price – Low:
$1
Future Price – High:
$1
Thoughts:
There are infinite cute combos that you can do with the new Red Donate. As much as I would love to Harmless Offering a Demonic Pact over to my opponent,
I’m not certain it’s an extremely viable Constructed strategy. If you really want to toy around with Harmless Offering combo decks then $2 is a pretty safe
price to pick them up at. However, I wouldn’t go speculating on this one.
Rarity:
Rare
Starting Price:
$1
Current Price:
$1.50
Future Price – Low:
$.50
Future Price – High:
$1.50
Thoughts:
Myr Superion, Serra Avenger, Talara’s Battalion – all of these cards were difficult to cast, but once you got them out, they did their job. Lupine
Prototype is a different approach to the cheap beaters they’ve put out the in past. Requiring a player to get hellbent for a card to become active doesn’t
seem too difficult for a deck like Mono-Red that just wants to close a game out quickly, but those decks rarely become popular because of the amount of
variance that goes along with them. The best case scenario for Lupine Prototype is for it to become the new threat of choice in an 8-Rack style deck, but
even then I don’t think that will be enough to push the value of it much past $1.
Rarity:
Rare
Starting Price:
$1
Current Price:
$1
Future Price – Low:
$.50
Future Price – High:
$1.50
Thoughts:
Stitcher’s Graft has a lot of opportunity to see play. It works well with emerge and it could potentially see play in a deck that makes a lot of tokens, or
a deck that wants to sacrifice its creatures after they get a swing in. Most of the decks like that already have better Equipment options in most formats,
which leads me to believe that Stitcher’s Graft will likely remain bulk, but there are a lot of fun things you can do with it!
Rarity:
Rare
Starting Price:
$3
Current Price:
$3
Future Price – Low:
$1
Future Price – High:
$4
Thoughts:
The fate of Stromkirk Condemned and all the other Vampire cards lies solely on what they print in the rest of Eldritch Moon. As of right now it’s
not a very expensive card, but the spoiling of a few new commons/uncommons can change the price of this card overnight. For any of you that read my Shadows over Innistrad series, you know how much I was in love with a Vampire deck, but all of the Collected Company and Humans decks just proved
to be too much for that archetype right now. I’m hopeful that they’ll spoil enough cards in the future to make all of the Vampire cards spike up in price,
but for now we just don’t have enough information.
Rarity:
Rare
Starting Price:
$.50
Current Price:
$1.50
Future Price – Low:
$.50
Future Price – High:
$1.50
Thoughts:
Much like Stromkirk Condemned, this card could become more expensive if they spoil enough new Vampires. Even if that does happen, I don’t think Voldaren
Pariah will become a staple in the deck. It’s a fun card, but likely a little too difficult to get online. I could see it being a sideboard card, but
that’s usually not enough to push the value of a card up too significantly.
Rarity:
Rare
Starting Price:
$2
Current Price:
$2
Future Price – Low:
$.50
Future Price – High:
$4
Thoughts:
The more I think about Wharf Infiltrator the more I like it. With limited evasion it can provide control decks with tons of card selection and eventually
make them an army. It is pretty easy to kill, but at the end of the day, I don’t think anyone could be too upset with that as long as they get a couple
licks in. I really like the fact that you don’t have to loot with it in order to make an Eldrazi token. Any other discard effect will trigger this ability
and you’ll get to make a token! I would recommend keeping an eye on Wharf Infiltrator; it could be one of the sleepers of this set.
That’s all I have for you today! There are a lot more awesome cards they’re going to spoil over the next few days so be sure to check back Monday as I
continue to discuss the Financial Values of Eldritch Moon!