Welcome back to my Daily Financial Value of Shadows over Innistrad series! From now until the full set is spoiled, I’ll be posting up regular updates with my thoughts about the officially-spoiled cards from Shadows over Innistrad!
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 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.
I’m excited to be back for another day of Shadows over Innistrad spoilers! Let’s get started!
Rarity: Rare
Starting Price: $4
Current Price: $3
Future Price – Low: $2
Future Price – High: $6
Thoughts: This is a sleeper card in my opinion. A two-mana Forked Bolt isn’t terribly impressive until you attach “Madness: Rolling Thunder” to it. This format is shaping up to be extremely aggressive and Avacyn’s Judgment will be a great way to stem the bleeding in the early game and a way to murder your opponent’s team later in the game. I don’t want to compare it to Bonfire of the Damned because it’s certainly nowhere near as powerful, but it’s going to fulfil a similar role. In addition to battlefield control, you’re going to find it useful to have an X burn spell that can close games for you.
Rarity: Rare
Starting Price: $1
Current Price: $1
Future Price – Low: $0.50
Future Price – High: $1
Thoughts: I love this card! It’s going to be a bulk rare, but it has so much casual appeal. This is another type of card that is safe to pick up as bulk and sit on for a few years. You should also keep an eye on foils, as those have the ability to be worth something in a few years. As for their value while they’re in Standard, I wouldn’t expect them to be much more than bulk.
Rarity: Mythic
Starting Price: $4
Current Price: $5
Future Price – Low: $3
Future Price – High: $7
Thoughts: Goldnight Castigator defines Red Magic: high risk, high reward. I expect this card to see some amount of Standard play, likely in some sort of burn deck that would also want Sin Prodder. In addition to being an extremely aggressive red creature, Goldnight Castigator is also an Angel.
For those of you that don’t know, some creature types have a tendency to increase the value of a Magic card just for being those type; Angels are included in this category. As a veteran card buyer, I can’t tell you how many Angel and Dragon collections I’ve looked at in my life. Keep an eye on the foil and regular versions; I don’t think they’ll dip into the $2-$3 range, but if they do, they’d probably be worth picking up for a long term investment. These types of investments are usually slightly more risky just because cards like this are easy to reprint, but it has the ability to pay off pretty big. #NoGambleNoFuture
Rarity: Rare
Starting Price: $1
Current Price: $1
Future Price – Low: $1
Future Price – High: $3
Thoughts: I’m going to categorize this as another “if” card. At its core, a two-mana 2/2 isn’t terrible. If you can get it to flip it’s great. Having three additional creatures out seems kind of difficult, but with all the Humans that they’re printing, I don’t see it being too difficult. They’ll just need to print some type of insurance for you having to overextend your battlefield.
“If” all of these things happen, then I think this card could shoot up in price. Realistically, this is probably a $0.50-$1 card, but it’s certainly not a bad card by any means; it just needs some support.
Rarity: Rare
Starting Price: $2
Current Price: $2
Future Price – Low: $1
Future Price – High: $2
Thoughts: Invocation of Saint Traft reminds me of a Pemmin’s Aura / Steel of the Godhead type of card. That means it will have long-term casual appeal and the foils may eventually be worth a pretty penny. As far as its playability in Standard goes, I don’t think there is much room at this moment. If they print some sweet hexproof stuff in the future, then it might work out, but I’m not too hopeful for that.
Invocation could see play in the Modern Hexproof deck, but three mana might be a bit too much to be considered an improvement on the current Bant list. Either way, if you’re looking to pick up Invocation of Saint Traft, you’re probably better off waiting for a few months as this card drops down to bulk range.
Rarity: Rare
Starting Price: $1.13
Current Price: $1.13
Future Price – Low: $1.13
Future Price – High: $1.13
Thoughts: I’m hilarious!
This is a fun card aimed at Casual players. It wouldn’t surprise me if foils eventually went for $13 just because most Magic players have a good sense of humor. Overall, the card isn’t really playable outside of Casual and I’d expect it to stay around bulk for a long time to come.
Much like Chains of Mephistopheles should only be exchanged in pairs (2 Chainz), I would expect these to be bought and sold in increments of thirteen.
This was another exciting day for spoilers! As the rest of the commons and uncommons start to get spoiled, make sure to keep an eye on what rares and mythics will also change in price as a result of different archetypes starting to fill out in the Standard environment.
Unfortunately, there weren’t enough cards spoiled today for the Pack Value to increase by more than a few cents. If you missed it, check out yesterday’s article (3/22) for my Pack Value breakdown!
I’ll see you all tomorrow for another exciting day of Shadows over Innistrad spoilers!