Happy New Year! There were a few cards spoiled yesterday and a little movement on some previously-spoiled cards. Today’s article will be generally brief because of the New Year’s holiday, but I’ll touch base on all of these cards.
How I Review:
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 was written (usually by midnight on the day of 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.
Rarity: Rare
Starting Price: $1
Current Price: $1
Future Price – Low: $0.50
Future Price – High: $1
Thoughts: This is a really interesting ability, but interesting does not equal good or valuable. It has “haste” of sorts (in that you can play it pre-combat and use the ability on your turn), but we’re talking seven mana for a “maybe will do something” creature that relies on having other creatures in play. Should be interesting for casual play, but probably not Constructed-worthy.
Rarity: Rare
Starting Price: $1
Current Price: $1
Future Price – Low: $0.50
Future Price – High: $1
Thoughts: Zealous Conscripts were an Intro Pack rare, but it hit $4 in Standard due to being played a whole lot. Eldrazi Obligator is basically a 3/1 Zealous Conscripts for one more mana, but that you can also play for one less mana and not worry about getting the body.
I actually like Eldrazi Obligator quite a bit for Modern since you can use Eldrazi Temple to pay for the two colorless in the mana cost (you can’t use it to pay for the triggered 1<> because it’s not an activated ability), but that’d knock the ability down to four lands to use (Eldrazi Temple + Mountain + any two). This is the type of card that can slot into maindecks and sideboards to battle midrange decks if you’re already on the Eldrazi plan.
Rarity: Mythic
Starting Price: $3
Current Price: $2
Future Price – Low: $2
Future Price – High: $2
Thoughts: This is probably the Ally you most want as your commander by ability and identity since it counts as all five colors. Aside from that? You’d need ten mana to cast and activate it the turn you play it, and Allies aren’t turning out to be the most versatile of tribes right now. Great for casual play, probably great in Limited, Constructed chaff.
Rarity: Rare
Starting Price: $4
Current Price: $4
Future Price – Low: $3
Future Price – High: $6
Thoughts: Much better than Needle Spires – it costs one less to activate, takes down any creature, and is in a color pair that traditionally can field an enters-the-battlefield tapped land for a mid-to-long game. Should be a solid card for Standard play, though I don’t think it’ll make the leap to Modern.
Rarity: Rare
Starting Price: $2
Current Price: $2
Future Price – Low: $1
Future Price – High: $3
Thoughts: Ignore the second ability on Oath of Jace – anytime you trigger the scry it’ll be a bonus but shouldn’t be counted on. Let’s judge it entirely on the first ability: 2U, draw three, discard two. It’s a legendary enchantment, but honestly you’re going to be happy to kill the first one to cast the second one because the main use for Oath of Jace is as an early enabler of graveyard effects – be it flipping Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy, powering up a big Dig Through Time, or acting as a plant for graveyard-matters effects that are sure to be a part of Shadows Over Innistrad. Overall this is card filtering (you draw three, and use three, including having Oath of Jace be a dead card once it’s on the board most of the time), but there are a lot of decks that are happy to spend three mana to draw three new cards in Standard.
Rarity: Rare
Starting Price: $2
Current Price: $2
Future Price – Low: $0.50
Future Price – High: $1
Thoughts: The main use for Vile Redeemer is going to be getting a 3/3 flash creature on turn 2 if you’re playing with Eldrazi Temple or Eye of Ugin in Modern. I could see an Eldrazi deck going G/R if enough good green Eldrazi see print in this set – and Vile Redeemer is a step in that direction.
Changes Since Yesterday:
Call the Gatewatch: From $1 to $1.50 – market value is $1.50 to $2 right now, based on completed e-bay auctions. Bumped the price to match the bottom of market value.
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar: From $15 to $20. Might climb slightly higher than $20 by release, but is more based on hype than playability.
Pack Value
2R + 1M (Each Rare is printed twice against each Mythic) / 96 (84 Rares/12 Mythics) * 36 (36 packs/box)
Mythics of Note ($4+) (6/12 Mythics Spoiled):
Kozilek, the Great Distortion: $12.50
Mirrorpool: $5
Total: $47.50
Rares of Note ($2+) (21/42 Rares Spoiled)
Hissing Quagmire: $4
Needle Spires: $3
Oath of Jace: $2
Vile Redeemer: $2
Total: $21
2R ($42) + 1M ($47.50) = $89.50 / 96 = $0.93 value per pack or $33.48 per box. Expeditions add $0.80 per-pack value (see yesterday’s article for the math), bringing the pack value to $1.73 ($62.28 per box). Literally half of the rares and mythics have been spoiled at the time of writing, so there’s still a lot of pack value to jump by the time the full set is spoiled.
Again – hope everyone had a great New Year’s Eve and is having a great New Year’s Day! I’ll see you all on Monday!