The world of MTG Finance can be filled with excitement. Trading for Power or Beta duals is really exciting; landing a sick deal or bringing money home
after a GP is a moment that we enjoy as traders. Then there are weeks like these.
It’s quiet, too quiet.
Whenever it’s quiet in the finance game, I usually do research. The research consists of looking through articles and decklists for trends. It makes
sense to do this kind of work when it’s quiet because it helps me prepare for price spikes.
When things are in a frenzy, I switch to selling mode. It’s something that I do instinctually, but I’ve noticed that some people don’t operate this
way. When you sell during the frenzy time, it helps you maximize on the cards that you are selling. It also makes all your trades live.
Here’s an example. Last week, Stoneforge Mystic was the bee’s knees. I sold all the ones I had, and I’m still back-filling for people who still want a
playset. That means that every time I traded for a Stoneforge Mystic, I knew that it was at least a guaranteed $16 cash or $20 in trade. The trick is
to spot the trends before the frenzy; then you can profit when the frenzy happens. 
Ben’s Bold Claim
Let’s talk about some of the chatter around the MTG Multiverse and some cards that I think might be good to pick up. I want to start by talking about a
statement that caused quite a stir. I’ve received a lot of emails and some questions via Twitter asking the same question.
Do you think Bleiweiss is right about Force of Will?
In case you didn’t read Ben’s articles, you should check them out (Part 1 and Part 2). Ben made ten
predictions for 2011. The one that stands out the most is regarding Force of Will; here’s what he said.
“If Force of Will isn’t reprinted, it will pass Mana Drain in value in 2012!”
My favorite part of this prediction is that Ben doesn’t play it safe; instead he hangs them out there with this follow-up.
“And none of this ‘A Near-Mint Alliances Force of Will will be worth more than a beat-up Italian Mana Drain.’ I mean head-to-head, an English Force
of Will (NM) will be worth equal to, or more than, an English Legends Mana Drain (NM).”
As a trader, this is an important prediction to make a decision on; if this is true, then it seems like an easy way to make a ton of money. My opinion
is that Ben is right about Force of Will rising above Mana Drain in price. I’m just not sure about the timeline. I think Ben’s timeline is aggressive
but possible.
My recommendation is to pick up as many Forces of Will that you can and hold them till next year. It make sense to do this because Ben knows his stuff,
and even if he didn’t, he has enough influence to give this claim the trajectory that’s needed to see a return on your investment. The only thing that
you have to be careful of is the possibility of a reprint.
Green Sun’s Zenith
The next thing that I want to talk about is
Drew Levin article about Green Sun’s Zenith. Drew and his crew are trying Green Sun’s Zenith in Legacy. The fact that guys like Drew are trying this card shows that it has potential, but it
still hasn’t found a home. Until it finds a home, it will hover in the $10 range, plus or minus a couple bucks. This card does have the potential to be
an Elite Rare.
Until this point, Green Sun’s Zenith was already seeing play in Valakut in Standard and some Zoo decks in Legacy. Now it’s being tried in different
Bant Decks, like Lewis Laskin build. The one card that stands
out to me in Laskin’s build is Cold-Eyed Selkie. I don’t expect this to skyrocket because it’s not a four-of in the deck, but it’s a card that I don’t
see in binders often.
I expect it’s because not a lot of Eventide was opened, so the rares are in short supply. When you combine short supply with playability, then you get
profit. Cold-Eyed Selkie has seen some play in Vintage decks, and I assume that she wasn’t terrible in this deck. When you pump it with Elspeth, you
get to draw a ton of cards; it’s also a Merfolk, which can be relevant. Lastly, it’s sold out here at StarCityGames.com at $3.99.
My recommendation with Green Sun’s Zenith is to wait until it finds a home outside of Standard; then pick them up in the window (the period of time
between when the deck breaks and when the local shops get updated).
Extended
Extended season is dying down a bit, and now is the best time to prepare for next Extended season. One of the first things you want to do to prepare is
to ship all of your Lorwyn / Shadowmoor block rares. I told you to do this a couple of articles back; for your wallet’s sake, I hope you did that.
Next Extended season will see the rotation of Faeries, Prismatic Omen / Scapeshift decks, and 5- or 4-Color Control. The meta will still have: Naya,
Jund, G/W and U/W (Stoneforge plus Swords), and Valakut via Primeval Titan. There will of course be the fringe decks like Mono Red, Artifact Beatdown,
and Elves, but the dominant archetypes will probably be the ones that I named first. The wild-card deck in my mind is Time Sieve combo. It seems we
have a lot of the pieces that we need to make this deck work. I’m just not sure if it’s there yet. I know that Time Sieve had some success in a meta of
Jund and Naya when it was in Standard, so it’s reasonable to think that it can perform in the projected Extended metagame. With that in mind, you
should look into picking up these cards for the next Extended season.
Side Note:
If you pick up a card that’s not seeing any play right now in the quiet time, then when Extended becomes hot again, even if the card still isn’t seeing
play, the demand will increase from people wanting to try to build with it. The card is not going to go any lower than it is now until it rotates out
of Extended. Keep that in mind as you pick up some of my weird suggestions.
Time Sieve
— We talked about this above. With the addition of cards like Tezzeret and Ichor Wellspring, I think this deck has a chance. I’m also very interested
in the interaction between Time Sieve and Thopter Assembly.
Thopter Assembly
— This is a card that I cant see going up very much, due to it’s promo printing and high casting cost. This is what I call a grind card because I pick
them up at $.50 and then trade them at $1. There is very little demand for these now, but when the demand rises, I’ll have a pile to ship and hopefully
double my investment.
Master Transmuter
— If you need a way to sneak your Thopter Assembly into play, then you should look into this guy. I like this card for Extended, especially with the
printing of Blightsteel Colossus and Treasure Mage. Sure, it has a fragile body, but I’ve seen people be successful with less. I also noticed that this
card is quickly sneaking up to the $3 mark.
Elspeth, Knight-Errant
— The value of this card got killed with the printing of Elspeth versus Tezzeret, but it’s been on the rebound. I’ve been picking them up at the trade
tables at $10 to $12, but the card is a solid $17. Pick these up in the off-season.
Spellbreaker Behemoth
— This card showed up in Atlanta, and no one really noticed. It’s a solid addition to the Valakut sideboard, and depending on the meta, you could even
run them maindeck. A 5/5 beater for four mana is not spectacular, but I wouldn’t throw it out of bed. It real power is in the fact that he makes your
Primeval Titans uncounterable!
Legacy
The Legacy format is in a period of flux right now. The “best deck” has yet to be discovered. Who knows if there is a “best deck” in Legacy right now?
It’s possible that a handful of decks are equally viable. It’s like my friend Pete says, “It’s Legacy; you can do what ever the f@#* you want!” Last
week, the deck Team America won the SCG Legacy Open. The deck
runs a card that has been steadily rising.
Tombstalker
— This card used to be three dollars; now it’s a solid $8. If Team America Top 8s again in Edison, then I expect this card to break into the double
digits. The thing that’s really surprising to me is that this card is still less than two tickets on MTGO. My recommendation is to pick these up.
Ancient Tomb
— This card has become a must in Show and Tell decks and will always have a home in I-want-to-cast-big-artifacts-fast decks. I was surprised to see it
jump from $6 to $10. This is quickly becoming an Elite Uncommon. You can still get these at the trade tables at $6; I probably even traded some off at
that before finding out that they had gone up to $10.
Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
— This card has jumped in price. These are about $12 now. I noticed this trend about six months back, and the only thing that I can attribute it to is
the growing popularity of both Legacy and Merfolk. Another card with a similar trend is Llawan, Cephalid Empress, which has snuck up to $7 and is not
slowing down.
That’s all for this week, folks! Thanks for reading.
Jonathan Medina
Twitter: mtgmetagameÂ