Wizards of the Coast is going to reveal the full spoiler for Khans of Tarkir this Friday, so we’ll have every card in the set to discuss by then at the latest! We’ll have foils up for sale by the end of the business day on Friday, so keep an eye on our Twitter account for the announcement of Khans foils going up for sale.
In the meantime, we have lots of new rares and the final mythic up for discussion today!
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 Magic 2015.
Future Price (Medium Term): The price I believe this card will be at by the time the next set (Fate Reforged).
Future Price (Long Term): The price I believe the card will be at a year from now, when M16 is released.
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Bloodsoaked Hero |
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Rarity: Rare Starting Price: $2 Current Price: $2 Future Price (Short Term): $3 Future Price (Medium Term): $4 Future Price (Long Term): $4 |
In case you missed it:
*B–Creature–Human Warrior
Bloodsoaked Hero can’t block. Raid
— 1B: Return ~ from your graveyard to the battlefield. Activate this ability only if you attacked with a creature this turn. 2/1*
Reminds me a lot of Gravecrawler. I think Gravecrawler was the better card, solely because it cost B to get back into play rather than 1B. Other than that, the conditions to getting both Bloodsoaked Hero and Gravecrawler back into play are arguably about the same in difficulty (i.e., not very), and both were 2/1 creatures for B that can’t block. Solid, but it might not have a deck like Gravecrawler did (Zombies) for Standard play right now. Gravecrawler hit $8-$10, so I can easily see Bloodsoaked Hero getting to at least half that.
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Rarity: Rare Starting Price: $4 Current Price: $5 Future Price (Short Term): $8 Future Price (Medium Term): $10 Future Price (Long Term): $10 |
Aside from the fetchlands (and you’ll hear people saying this a lot in the coming months), this is so far the best spoiled card in the set. It’s a 5/4
flyer for four mana, and it has no drawbacks. That’s huge! The three sacrifice abilities are all workable since there’s already a few cards in Standard
that do (or will) work well around feeding creatures to the Butcher. Goblin Rabblemaster anyone? Bloodsoaked Champion? Brimaz? Elspeth, Sun’s Champion?
Raise the Alarm? Spirit Bonds?
Butcher of the Horde is also big enough to see Modern play; Bitterblossom has a new best friend. I think that there are plenty of games that are going to
see a hasted, lifelink Butcher of the Hordes coming down on turn 4 after a turn 2 Bitterblossom.
Either way, Butcher of the Horde is going to be a Standard staple (better than Desecration Demon, which hit $12 before being printed in an Event deck), a
Modern-playable card, and potentially even a sideboard option for Legacy decks (which has been discussed to some degree, but I’m not 100% sold on).
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Rarity: Rare Starting Price: $1 Current Price: $1 Future Price (Short Term): $0.75 Future Price (Medium Term): $0.50 Future Price (Long Term): $0.50 |
In case you missed it:
*UWR–Enchantment
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn. Untap those creatures.
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card.*
I’m so unsure of this card. On one hand, this card plus a Master of Waves with three tokens can likely allow you to kill an opponent in one turn (since you can keep chaining cheap spells to make your guys bigger and bigger). It works well with red or white token generators to make your board lethal quickly. On the other hand – the second ability isn’t that great without the first ability working overtime, especially since you have to commit to three colors to play Jeskai Ascendancy.
Unlike the other Ascendancy cards, I think that there may end up being a non-obvious deck that can abuse the heck out of Jeskai Ascendancy. I’m just not 100% sure that deck is good enough (or consistent enough) to win.
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Rarity: Rare Starting Price: $1 Current Price: $0.50 Future Price (Short Term): $0.50 Future Price (Medium Term): $0.50 Future Price (Long Term): $0.50 |
Started this at $1 and then dropped it to $0.50 because it didn’t sell well overnight at all. Looks like a fun casual card, but there are too many restrictions to make this overly appealing (triggers once per turn, only on your upkeep, card at random).
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Rarity: Rare 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 |
Great limited trick, bulk rare for Constructed play.
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Rarity: Mythic Starting Price: $10 Current Price: $10 Future Price (Short Term): $15 Future Price (Medium Term): $12 Future Price (Long Term): $12 |
So let’s dissect Surrak:
Five for a 6/6 creature: On-curve.
Add: Flash & Uncounterable – Good value
Add: Gives all your other creatures trample and uncounterable: Yay!
Long story short – totally tournament playable in Standard, great for Commander (hooray for flash and uncounterable!), and should hold/increase in value
over the next few months.
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Rarity: Rare Starting Price: $2 Current Price: $2 Future Price (Short Term): $3 Future Price (Medium Term): $3 Future Price (Long Term): $3 |
In case you missed it:
*XBUG–Sorcery
Target opponent exiles the top X cards of his or her library. You may cast any number of nonland cards with converted mana cost X or less from among them without paying their mana costs.*
The comparison for Villainous Wealth is Genesis Wave. Both cost three colored mana + X to cast, and let you get some free spells equal to X. The
difference?
Genesis Wave lets you hit lands, which ramps you even further. You also know what’s in your deck, so there’s less of an X factor of what you might flip.
Villainous Wealth lets you hit instants and sorceries.
I believe that at the mana cost you want to cast either of these spells, the ability to play free instants/sorceries is more powerful than getting a few
extra lands. I also believe that while Genesis Wave is solid in a Mono-Green deck, Villainous Wealth is more generally playable since it can be a splash in
an otherwise three-color control deck (and by the time you get to seven or eight mana, you’ll have the three colors you need to play Villainous Wealth).
With Genesis Wave clocking in at $6, I can see Villainous Wealth having a bright future ahead. Also? Villainous Wealth looks like it’s fun to
cast, which is huge for casual play.
Changes since last article:
Deflecting Palm: From $1 to $1.50 – high demand, E-bay BINs are finishing at $8-$10 per playset.
Pack Value!
To determine the value of a booster pack, I’m going to start with the following formula:
(2R + 1M)/121
That isn’t enough of a picture though. In fairness, $0.50 to $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).
47 out of the 53 Rares have been spoiled. Here are the ones that are $2 and up!
Bloodsoaked Hero: $2
Bloodstained Mire: $20
End Hostilities: $3
Flooded Strand: $25
Ghostfire Blade: $2
Mantis Rider: $3
Mardu Ascendancy: $2
Mindswipe: $2
Polluted Delta: $30
Siege Rhino: $4
Utter End: $6
Windswept Heath: $20
Wooded Foothills: $20
Total Rare Value: $157
All 15 Mythic Rares are now spoiled!
Clever Impersonator: $15
Empty the Pits: $5
Narset, Enlightened Master: $6
Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker: $25
Surrak Dragonclaw: $10
Wingmate Roc: $6
Total Mythic Value: $99
So plugging this into the formula, we get the following:
(2R ($157) + 1M ($99) = $413
$413/121 = $3.41 value per pack, or $122.76 per box.
There’s only six rares left in the set. Join me tomorrow when I discuss whichever ones are spoiled, and then tune in Friday for a discussion of the foils,
commons, and uncommons of note!