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.
As the final week of Eldritch Moon spoilers continues we’re now starting to see of the some of the cards that will round out the format. Let’s check out what we got!
Rarity: Rare
Starting Price: $2
Current Price: $2
Future Price – Low: $1
Future Price – High: $2
Thoughts: Collective Defiance could easily find its way into the top end of a burn deck, but I think it’s much more likely to see play in a slower midrange or control deck. It definitely has the potential to see play in Constructed, but I don’t expect it to be played enough to bring it out of the $1-$2 range. I believe most decks would prefer Incendiary Flow over Collective Defiance.
Rarity: Rare
Starting Price: $2
Current Price: $2
Future Price – Low: $1
Future Price – High: $2
Thoughts: I love the design of Cryptbreaker. Despite its design focus on Limited and Casual playability, there is still some room for it to see play in Constructed. It could be a neat sideboard card for control decks to make a large team later in the game or aggressive decks to turn their lands into creature’s late game. To be clear, I don’t think Cryptbreaker will make a ton of appearances in Standard decks, but I do feel that it’s likely to see occasional Standard play. Overall I would expect Cryptbreaker to stay in the $1 ball park.
Rarity: Mythic
Starting Price: $4
Current Price: $12
Future Price – Low: $3
Future Price – High: $8
Thoughts: Grim Flayer reads really well, but I’m not convinced it will find a deck to dominate. They are printing a ton of awesome black and green cards and that could certainly help Grim Flayer’s future price, but with the format being as aggressive as it is, it’s going to be very difficult to profitably attack with Grim Flayer during any early turns in the game.
From what I’m reading, most people disagree with me and they’re are loving the card, but I really think this is another “Lotleth Troll” in the making. Lotleth Troll started preselling at $10 and eventually went up to $12 before crashing down to $1. I know Lotleth Troll was only a rare, but the general principle still applies. Before the hype dies down Grim Flayer could easily hit $15, but after people start to test with it I think they’ll quickly learn that it’s not game changing enough to warrant that kind of price tag. I would avoid picking up Grim Flayer right now as I expect it will drop significantly over the next few weeks.
Rarity: Mythic
Starting Price: $3
Current Price: $3
Future Price – Low: $2
Future Price – High: $3
Thoughts: This is a Mythic aimed purely at the Casual crowd. It’s going to be a great Commander card but that’s about the extent of its playability. If you want one for your Commander deck then $3 is a fine price to pick them up at; otherwise I’d steer clear of Mind’s Dilation for the distant future. In previous articles I’ve talked about various casual cards that have the ability to go up long term, but I’m not confident this is one of those cards. That generally applies to cards that mill, double mana or tokens, or any effect that is auto included in a casual archetype. Mind’s Dilation is sweet but I don’t foresee every blue casual player putting them in their decks.
Rarity: Mythic
Starting Price: $3
Current Price: $4
Future Price – Low: $3
Future Price – High: $5
Thoughts: The days of Dragons holding value because of their creature type are coming to an end and it now depends on how playable they are across various formats. Mirrorwing Dragon has a good ability attached to a mediocre body. I love the fact that when you target it, Mirrorwing Dragon also helps the rest of your team and in addition to that, when your opponent uses a removal spell, it also targets their team. To top all of that off, it beats Avacyn in a fight. Despite all of those facts I don’t think Mirrorwing Dragon will see enough play to push it much past the $5 point. At five mana I feel like it’ll be a bit too clunky for decks to want to play four of it and that’s usually a requirement for an expensive mythic.
With only a few days left in spoiler season I’m confident Wizards has a few more flashy cards for us! Make sure to check back tomorrow as I continue to cover the financial values of Eldritch Moon!