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The Financial Value of Scars of Mirrodin

Friday, September 24th – The long-awaited financial article on Scars of Mirrodin! Make sure you know how to trade and value cards before your Prerelease! Ben Bleiweiss reviews the entire set for valuable cards and predicts their rise and fall.

Hey everyone, and welcome to my look at the Financial Value of Scars of Mirrodin! In this column, I’ll be taking a look at the cards I think are going to go up in price, those that will go down in price, and those I think are the sleepers in the set. Along the way, I’ll discuss some older cards I believe will go up in value due to newer cards being printed in Scars of Mirrodin.

For this article, I’m going to go color by color. Usually I just go straight alphabetically, but we’ll see if this format makes it easier to keep track of all of the new cards, since thematically each color gets mechanics that tie in with other cards of that color. I’ll list the rares/mythics of note, and whether I think they’ll be going up or down in value. I’ll also give a list of bulk rares (those rares I believe will be in the $0.50-$1 range and don’t really have potential to go up), and non-bulk commons and uncommons from that color.

Before we get started on this set review, I’d like to take a brief moment to talk about commons and uncommons, in general. While mythics and rares typically have a higher average value than commons and uncommons, there are certainly C/U’s that have been expensive – such as Bloodbraid Elf, Lightning Bolt, Gatekeeper of Malakir, Eternal Witness, Aether Vial, Lightning Bolt, Mana Leak, and the such. Having a good number of
good

commons and uncommons in each set ensures that even if a player swings and misses with their rare slot, they’ll be compensated with a $1 card somewhere else in their pack.

Scars of Mirrodin has one of the worst “good to bad” common/uncommon ratios of any set in recent Magic history, given that we define “Good” as a card that is starting out at a higher price than bulk, and “Bad” as a card that is the lowest bulk price.


Commons:


Scars of Mirrodin: 10 Good, 91 Bad (10.1% Good)
M11: 25 Good, 76 Bad (24.75% Good)
Rise of the Eldrazi: 31 Good, 70 Bad (30.69% Good)
Worldwake: 17 Good, 43 Bad (28.33% Good)
Zendikar: 31 Good, 70 Bad (30.69% Good) – Doesn’t count full-art lands


Uncommons:


Scars of Mirrodin: 9 Good, 51 Bad (15% Good)
M11: 22 Good, 38 Bad (36.66% Good)
Rise of the Eldrazi: 15 Good, 45 Bad (25% Good)
Worldwake: 14 Good, 26 Bad (35% Good)
Zendikar: 17 Good, 43 Bad (28.33% Good)

While the mythic rares and regular rares in this set are quite solid, the paucity of good commons and uncommons gives the set an appearance of being weak. This is especially disappointing because the first Mirrodin block was a cornucopia of great commons and uncommons, and had a very high ratio of Good to Bad commons/uncommons.

With that said, let’s take a look at the mythics and rares in Scars of Mirrodin color by color, and throw in my thoughts about the few commons and uncommons of note found in this set! Here’s the formatting:

Current Price
Projected Price (one month from now)
Thoughts


White Rares and Mythics

Elspeth Tirel
Current Price: $50
Projected Price (one month from now): $40

Thoughts: The disparity between the top-tier cards in this set and the lower-tier cards is pretty wide. We have multiple mythic rares right now that are clocking in at $25+. If you haven’t been reading Jon Medina (and I highly suggest checking out his articles here on SCG!), I invite you to check
out his article, “Supply, Demand, and Spoilers.” In this article, Jon points out that at a certain point, if enough cards are at a certain price, it just makes sense to crack more packs than buy singles, which in turn drives down the price of singles until the ratio of pack-opening to singles-pricing equalizes (more or less).

Elspeth Tirel is a very good card, and in another set (Worldwake perhaps?), we may have been looking at her maintaining a $50 value for the long-term. However, I’ll equate Scars of Mirrodin to Zendikar – so much of the set is going to be opened that all of the card values will be suppressed to some degree. The previous Elspeth sat at $40 for nearly a year, and this Elspeth is about on the same power level.

Indomitable Archangel
Current Price: $10
Projected Price (one month from now): $5

Thoughts: Wizards of the Coast is pushing hard for white and artifacts to work symbiotically in this set. white has the lion’s share (pun intended – hi there, Leonin folks!) of metalcraft-enabled creatures going to white. I still don’t think that will be enough for a 4/4 flier for four to see a lot of tournament play, though Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH) players will eat this up (Fountain Watch/Guardian Beast-type effects are always popular casually). I think that Linvala, Keeper of Silence is a better choice for this slot given her relevant ability, and that’s a small cost to lose one power.

Leonin Arbiter
Current Price: $4
Projected Price (one month from now): $3

Thoughts: The latest hate-bear from white (2/2s for two that hate out a particular strategy). This one’s strong against a lot of relevant cards in Standard (fetchlands, Fauna Shaman, Primeval Titan), as well as a lot of relevant cards in older formats (fetchlands, Survival of the Fittest, Tutors). Still, the prices of rares in this set are going to suffer because of the amount of product opened to get to the mythics (three planeswalkers, Wurmcoil Engine, Mox Opal), so this will be a solid $3 card, but shouldn’t jump up much in value until the supply soaks out a year down the road.

Sunblast Angel
Current Price: $2.50
Projected Price (one month from now): $1.50

Thoughts: Casually playable Angel – should follow a similar trajectory to Battlegrace Angel and Stoic Angel from Shards of Alara.

Tempered Steel
Current Price: $2
Projected Price (one month from now): $2.50 – $3

Thoughts: +2/+2 is a pretty huge bonus, though white traditionally hasn’t been the color that plays well with artifact creatures. Mostly, white has been set up to play well with equipment. And I’m not looking at those of you who are old like me and want to point to Angelic Voices – we’re talking cards printed sooner than Julian Nuitjen’s been alive.

Anyhow, if there’s going to be an artifact-based deck (either aggressive or defensive), it stands to reason that it can basically be any of the five colors of Magic, but it’d choose one (or two) for consistency. Lodestone Golem (which is shooting up in value as we speak) doesn’t care if he’s cast with Plains, Forest, Mountain, Island or Swamp – he just wants four lands in play. If you’re looking to pump up creatures, and mix metalcraft guys with efficient artifact creatures, white aggro would be the way to go, and Tempered Steel would be a way to start making Memnite and friends super-huge in the early game.

Plus, casual players love Crusade effects. See: Honor of the Pure, Crusade, Bad Moon, and all of the lords in Magic that give creature types +1/+1.


White Bulk Rares


($1 or less)

Kemba, Kha Regent
True Conviction


White Commons and Uncommons

Auriok Edgewright/Auriok Sunchaser/Glint Hawk: The basis for a metalcraft-centric White Weenie deck. These will be the $1-$2 foil White Weenie cards in the set, assuming this deck takes off.

Dispense Justice: I’m just not a huge fan of this card. Condemn kills the creature you want to kill, whereas Dispense Justice will likely nab the one guy you least care about. If you happen to be metalcraft, then this would be a consideration, but it’s not an auto-include like some other cards that might not always trigger off the block mechanic.


Blue Rares and Mythics

Argent Sphinx
Current Price: $3
Projected Price (one month from now): $1.50-$2

Thoughts: Fantastic if you achieve metalcraft, but people are going to be packing a lot of artifact hate in a post-Scars world. So how does this guy measure up if you can’t get to three artifacts in play? Well you’ve got a 4/3 flier for four mana – and I wasn’t too excited about a 4/4 for four in white. I think this’ll have a similar trajectory as Sphinx of Jwar Isle – the blue finisher of choice in some blue decks, but by no means universal.

Grand Architect
Current Price: $5
Projected Price (one month from now): $6-$7.50

Thoughts: Blue isn’t the color that typically gets such an efficient Lord creature, as far as giving other creatures a power boost. Compare this to Field Marshal or Elvish Champion, and he compares favorably. Throw in the activated ability (which allows you to just go berserk on mana), and you’ve got a build-around-me card that lets you start dropping Triskelions and Wurmcoil Engines on turn 4 with consistency. This is one of those cards that hits Timmy, Johnny, and Spike – efficient, combolicious, and makes your guys that much bigger.

Inexorable Tide
Current Price: $1.50
Projected Price (one month from now): $2

Thoughts:
Pop quiz

: What’s the most valuable card in Ravnica?

Answer? It’s not Dark Confidant, or shocklands – it’s Doubling Season, the poster child for casual players everywhere. Wizards hasn’t reprinted Doubling Season yet (either in a box set or in Standard), and it continues to march towards the $20 mark. Inexorable Tide isn’t Doubling Season for any number of reasons, but it’s close enough that I just don’t see it ending up being a complete bulk rare for the casual crowd. There’s just too much of a precedent for this type of card to have enough appeal to go up in price, even if I don’t think Inexorable Tide has any Constructed applications.

Quicksilver Gargantuan
Current Price: $3
Projected Price (one month from now): $1.50-$2

Thoughts: Will end up being a bulk mythic rare, which means a $1.50-ish card.


Blue Bulk Rares ($1 or less)

Dissipation Field
Shape Anew


Blue Commons and Uncommons

Riddlesmith: This is in my vote for one of the top five cards in the entire set. In older formats (Legacy/Vintage), this guy’s a complete house. While it doesn’t trigger off of artifact lands (only spells you cast), you can chain together enough Affinity guys, free artifacts, and cheap artifact creatures to tear through a significant percentage of your deck by turn 2 or 3. Plus, there are reasons you’d want to get cards into your graveyard (Yawgmoth’s Will, Dredge, etc.), or reasons you’d want to just keep casting cheap artifact after cheap artifact (Chromatic Star to build up a storm count). I’m surprised Wizards would print this sort of loot effect without a mana cost attached.

Stoic Rebuttal: Strictly better than Cancel, so the worst case scenario makes it a fringe, but playable Standard card.

Thrummingbird: Of all of the proliferate enablers, this one’s the most likely to see tournament play. The important part is that it comes down before planeswalkers – so the turn you play a planeswalker, you can hit with a Thrummingbird and get another counter. There aren’t any other proliferate cards that realistically do this (four mana for a planeswalker + three to four mana to cast/activate the other proliferate cards), so the tempo boost provided here would be worth looking into.

Trinket Mage: A staple for Extended and should only get better in Standard, as the block continues. Seems very solid with Basilisk Collar, Brittle Effigy, Chimeric Mass, Darksteel Axe, Elixir of Immortality, Everflowing Chalice, Expedition Map, Infiltration Lens, Memnite, Mox Opal, Nihil Spellbomb, and Voltaic Key. (Turn 3 Trinket Mage, turn 4 Everflowing Chalice for two is likely a scene that will replay thousands of times over the coming months.)


Black Rares and Mythics

Geth, Lord of the Vault
Current Price: $5
Projected Price (one month from now): $2.50-$3

Thoughts: By the time you’ve gotten Geth on the board and want to use his ability, you’re probably going to win the game with a 5/5 unblockable guy anyhow. Should be great fun in EDH, so the foil version will probably shoot up a bunch as people try to make him their general.

Hand of the Praetors
Current Price: $2
Projected Price (one month from now): $2.50-$3

Thoughts: Do I think poison is a viable strategy? Personally, I do, but not in Standard (I’ll talk about this later). In Standard, I think that the infect creatures are too weak to be able to beat through the current metagame, so even though you only need to do half as much damage as normal (ten versus twenty) to win, it probably isn’t going to happen. On the other hand, Hand of the Praetors is one of the stronger infect creatures, and it’s a lord, so it’ll hold value to casual players in the worst case scenario.

Memoricide
Current Price: $3
Projected Price (one month from now): $3

Thoughts: Cranial Extraction without the whole arcane/splice mechanic. Should stay steady in the $3 range, as most of these sorts of effects do these days (see: Thought Hemorrhage when it was in Standard).

Necrotic Ooze
Current Price: $2
Projected Price (one month from now): $2.50-$3

Thoughts: This guy is really good, but repeat after me: Not a combo with Phyrexian Devourer!

Current Phyrexian Devourer Oracle Text:

When Phyrexian Devourer’s power is 7 or greater, sacrifice it.
Exile the top card of your library: Put X +1/+1 counters on Phyrexian Devourer, where X is the exiled card’s converted mana cost. If Phyrexian Devourer’s power is 7 or greater, sacrifice it.

Under the current Oracle wording, the sacrifice is both static and part of the activated ability. Therefore, Necrotic Ooze cannot get arbitrarily large if it’s copying the ability of a Devourer.

With that said, this is a type of power-level errata that Wizards has been doing away with (see: Time Vault, Frenetic Efreet), so I wouldn’t be surprised to see Phyrexian Devourer change back to working as-printed sometime in the near future. When this happens, Survival of the Fittest decks have another soft-lock win condition.

Necrotic Ooze is naughty when combined with Fauna Shaman. I think it should have a place somewhere in the current Standard metagame, though likely as a one- or two-of and not as a four-of.

Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
Current Price: $12
Projected Price (one month from now): $7.50-$8

Thoughts: Huge, poisonous, and realistically, it costs six mana (haste) or seven mana (keeping up regeneration mana) to cast. It loses in a fight with Baneslayer Angel, and it loses an attrition battle with Titans as well. Still, this only needs to hit three times, and you win, so if a black-style control deck hits the table, this will likely be the finisher of choice.


Black Bulk Rares ($1 or less)

Carnifex Demon
Painful Quandary


Black Commons and Uncommons

Exsanguinate: If Syphon Soul was annoying in EDH, this is going to be the king of the “put a target on my head” cards.

Ichor Rats: One of the only infect cards that can get a poison counter on an opponent without hitting.

Painsmith: Powerful because it doesn’t cost mana to activate (what a difference a cost of one makes!). With that said, I’m not sure black/artifact decks are aggressive enough to take advantage of this guy.

Plague Stinger: Legacy has a number of powerful archetypes, and there are dozens of decks that I’d consider tier one to tier two decks. There are hundreds of other decks out there that are tier three, and one of those decks is Berserk Stompy. This deck runs lots of cheap or free green creatures and spells, topped off with the combo of Kavu Predator plus Invigorate/Skyshroud Cutter – force your opponent to gain life to end up with a humongous Predator on the board. A Giant Growth and a Berserk later, and your opponent’s just about dead.

Since infect keys poison off of power, a card like Invigorate becomes downright dangerous. The life gain doesn’t matter at all if you don’t care about killing your opponent through damage – so imagine the following:

Turn 1: fetchland, Bayou, Mox Diamond/Lotus Petal/Elvish Spirit Guide, Plague Stinger.
Turn 2: Invigorate, Berserk, win

Likely still a tier three deck, but it’s much easier to use cards like Giant Growth, Invigorate, and Berserk to kill an opponent when you only have to deal ten damage, instead of twenty. Maybe starting an opponent with effectively ten life will make this deck even better than I’m giving it credit for in Legacy. We’ll see.

Skinrender: On the curve for where you’d want this sort of Flametongue Kavu effect to be. Mono-Black Control keeps getting tools, but until there’s something that’ll help it generate massive amounts of mana (Cabal Coffers, anyone?) it’ll remain an unplayed Standard deck.


Red Rares and Mythics

Cerebral Eruption
Current Price: $1
Projected Price (one month from now): $1.50-$2

Thoughts: Typically when people look at this sort of card, they dismiss it entirely because a) it’s random, and b) it can swing and miss.

Look carefully – b) is taken care of on this card (if you hit a land, you get to try again the next turn), but the effect is so large that you have to take a second look here. I compare this to Chain Reaction – it might not always do what you want it to, but some decks really want this effect in the sideboard. Cerebral Eruption is a comparable card – sometimes it’s better, sometimes it’s worse. However, given that a) it doesn’t affect you, and b) it hits both your opponent and his or her creatures, this might be exactly the type of card that an aggressive deck wants. It can top out the curve to punch the last few points of damage past Titans and Baneslayers.

Koth of the Hammer
Current Price: $50
Projected Price (one month from now): $40

Thoughts: For the decks that want to play Koth, I’d rank Koth as the second most powerful planeswalker ever printed (behind Jace, the Mind Sculptor). I don’t say this lightly – but all three abilities are fantastic, and Koth is at home in both aggressive and midrange red decks. You’re going to see a lot of Koth in the new Standard because the turn 4/5 boost he gives is just plain unfair. The only thing holding back the price of Koth is that you really don’t reap the benefits of him unless you’re nearly or actually mono-red. Whether you’re using him to pump out 4/4 haste creatures every turn, or doubling your mana to drop a fully leveled Kargan Dragonlord on turn 5, Koth’s just insane.

Tunnel Ignus
Current Price: $1.50
Projected Price (one month from now): $2

Thoughts: Many are banking on Leonin Arbiter as the hate creature of choice from this set, but I’ve heard from a number of people that Tunnel Ignus is where it’s at. Tunnel Ignus fits the curve in red decks (which are going to be back big-time, thanks to Koth), and it hoses the heck out of the #1 game in town, Primeval Titan. These are likely going to be in high demand over the next month because of the 2010s (States), and then might drop down again – but for now, expect a price spike as people try to get them ASAP for that upcoming, nationwide event.


Red Bulk Rares ($1 or less)

Hoard-Smelter Dragon
Kuldotha Phoenix
Molten Psyche
Spikeshot Elder


Red Commons and Uncommons

Arc Trail: Probably less important without Noble Hierarch around (kill your Hierarch and your Fauna Shaman? Hootie hoo!), but good for killing Birds of Paradise and Lotus Cobra.

Furnace Celebration: I’m surprised this card isn’t getting more love right now, given that it turns fetchlands into Shocks. I feel that there’s some deck that wants to run this card, even if it’s as a one-of.

Galvanic Blast: Modern-day Red Burn decks in Legacy try to pack in the most efficient burn spells they can, regardless of drawback. Hence, Flame Rift is now a Red Burn staple in Legacy, despite the fact that it domes yourself for four. At what point does Wizards of the Coast have to print burn spells that key off artifacts until these archetypes move to an artifact-centric build? I’d argue that Galvanic Blast (four damage for one mana) and Shrapnel Blast (five damage for two mana) are getting close to that threshold – which in turn would affect the values of Great Furnace and Darksteel Citadel in Legacy (especially the foil version).


Green Rares and Mythics

Asceticism
Current Price: $1.50
Projected Price (one month from now): $2

Thoughts: If Privileged Position is a $4 card, this one’s surely higher than a bulk rare in price. Just give it time for the supply to soak out of the market – it’ll probably be one of those cards that hits $3 two years down the road, when Scars is out of print and about to rotate from Standard. All of its value will come from casual players.

Ezuri, Renegade Leader
Current Price: $2
Projected Price (one month from now): $2

Thoughts: This guy would be much, much better if we were in the midst of a tribal block, but there’s not really an Elf-centric strategy going on in Standard right now. Still, great for casual play, and might have a place in Extended come January.

Ezuri’s Brigade
Current Price:  $2.50
Projected Price (one month from now): $3

Thoughts: Green doesn’t have as much of a metalcraft theme as white, but Ezuri’s Brigade is undeniably huge when it gets going. I just don’t know if there’s enough incentive to try to play Green Metalcraft, and W/G Metalcraft might not have enough tricks to compete, since the deck might not be consistent enough to ensure both early metalcraft
and

early pressure each game.

Genesis Wave
Current Price: $1.50
Projected Price (one month from now): $3

Thoughts: This guy has been selling really well, and Matt Gargiulo (our Acquisitions Manager) is stoked to be playing this as a finisher in any sort of Turboland deck. This should be a straight swap for Mind Spring, except instead of drawing cards, you’re putting four lands, a Titan, and an Oracle into play by the end of the game. Started as a sleeper, but is starting to wake!

Liege of the Tangle
Current Price: $5
Projected Price (one month from now): $1.50-$2

Thoughts: Bulk mythic rare.

Putrefax
Current Price: $2
Projected Price (one month from now): $1.50-$2

Thoughts: While you only need to hit someone twice to Putrefax them to death, I tend to think that either the big black dragon or the smaller, stick-around guys are the better way to win a poison battle. However, if Mimic Vat decks end up seeing a lot of play, this might be a viable kill condition mainstream.


Green Bulk Rares ($1 or less)

Engulfing Slagwurm


Green Commons and Uncommons

Carapace Forger: Part of a W/G Metalcraft deck, should one arise. Pick up the foil copies.

Copperhorn Scout: Great for Elf Combo. Should see some play in those decks.

Viridian Revel: Compost was a backbreaking card against black decks back in the day, but there hasn’t been an effect like that in a while. Revel should see sideboard play.


Artifact Rares and Mythics

Chimeric Mass
Current Price: $2.50
Projected Price (one month from now): $2

Thoughts: Trinket Mage generally is used for grabbing silver bullets and utility cards, not for grabbing creatures. Chimeric Mass is a great one-of in a Trinket Mage-centric build because he’s one of the few offensive targets that Trinket Mage can fetch. Late game, turning Trinket Mage into an 8/8 creature is a great play.

Contagion Engine
Current Price: $2
Projected Price (one month from now): $1-1.50

Thoughts: If I thought highly of Inexorable Tide, I think double highly of this guy! I think long term, Contagion Engine is just the type of card that casual players love – it affects the board immediately, and has a big, splashy, build-around-me, repeatable effect. I think Contagion Engine is going to slip into bulk rare territory, and then end up as a $3-$4 card two years down the road. New players who weren’t around to get these when Scars was first released will start picking these up.

Etched Champion
Current Price: $2.50
Projected Price (one month from now): $2

Thoughts: Cute, but doesn’t have protection from artifacts. Auto-include in metalcraft-centric decks (of course), but probably not good enough for, say, Affinity in Legacy.

Kuldotha Forgemaster
Current Price: $2
Projected Price (one month from now): $1

Thoughts: If Time Sieve has taught us anything, it’s that sacrificing multiple artifacts for a common cause can be beneficial. However, a five-mana, summoning-sick, sac-three-artifacts Tinker seems a bit of a stretch compared to a two-mana, non-summoning-sick, sac-five-artifacts Time Walk. Three mana and summoning sickness make a big difference here.

Lux Cannon
Current Price: $4
Projected Price (one month from now): $5

Thoughts: People see this as too slow, but it’s in an environment with Trinket Mage, which can fetch Voltaic Key. Voltaic Key speeds up Lux Cannon by two turns, and having access to Vindicate every other turn seems more than fine. I expect this guy to be a riser, especially since he’s a good buy for casual/EDH players.

Mimic Vat
Current Price: $2.50
Projected Price (one month from now): $3

Thoughts: Unlike many other imprint cards, Mimic Vat doesn’t carry any sort of card disadvantage when destroyed. This is huge, because generally players look at imprint and go, “Well, card disadvantage, next!” Mimic Vat is situational, but it’s a situation that comes up often (creatures dying). It’s able to recopy Titans, creatures with an effect as they enter the battlefield, or any other huge guy who dies – all at the cost of three mana. This also seems like the main way to get Putrefax to reliably kill an opponent.

Mindslaver
Current Price: $4
Projected Price (one month from now): $5

Thoughts: Slightly dipped in price because it’s being reprinted, but Mindslaver is a staple. I expect it to see play in the new Standard, at the least as a sideboard card.

Molten-Tail Masticore
Current Price: $20
Projected Price (one month from now): $10

Thoughts: This has my vote for the most overhyped card in the set. One of the great things about Masticore was that he broke up the weenie rush and could be played in a control deck. Molten-Tail Masticore can do neither – if you’re creature light, or short on early mana, you’ve got a 4/4 for four that has to chump block. I just don’t see Molten-Tail Masticore being that good in the current Standard metagame. At least, not enough to justify a $20 price tag.

Mox Opal
Current Price: $40
Projected Price (one month from now): $40

Thoughts: Mox Opal is perhaps the best card in the set. Yes, it’s legendary – but it’d be completely broken if it weren’t. I expect this to be a staple in every format, and every serious tournament player will want to own four of these. You only need two other artifacts to turn on Mox Opal (since it counts itself), so it fits smashingly in Vintage, great in Legacy, fine in Extended, and fairly well (see, descending order!) in Standard. This might be the card that finally elevates Affinity to a serious threat in Legacy. (“Look, Ma, no more off-color mana problems!”)

Myr Reservoir
Current Price: $2
Projected Price (one month from now): $1-$1.50

Thoughts: Casual players love them Myr, but I’m not feeling ’em as a competitive tribe. Plus, doesn’t this artwork look like it was supposed to be a land, but they changed their mind last minute to make it into an artifact? What gives?

Platinum Emperion
Current Price: $5
Projected Price (one month from now): $2-$2.50

Thoughts: While this is larger than Platinum Angel, you can still lose the game to stuff like poision, decking, or what-have-you. Generally, anyone who wants this effect would rather run Platinum Angel, which has been conveniently reprinted in M11.

Precursor Golem
Current Price: $4
Projected Price (one month from now): $1.50-$2

Thoughts: I love the design on this card – but design doesn’t equal playability or popularity. The countermeasures for stopping the drawback on the Golems are much, much worse than the ways to abuse it – for instance, even if you counterspell a Lightning Bolt aimed at one Golem, it still copies to the other two. Plus, do you really want to start playing Giant Growth in Standard to cast on your five-drop creature? I could see this being exciting if it were three 1/1 creatures for three mana, but the extra two mana before you can play it seriously stunts any quick-game shenanigans.

Prototype Portal
Current Price: $4
Projected Price (one month from now): $3

Thoughts: I defer to Soul Foundry, which tells me that casual players will ask around $2.50-$3 for this sort of effect.

Ratchet Bomb
Current Price: $10
Projected Price (one month from now): $15

Thoughts: Powder Keg was a potent card, and this is an improved Powder Keg. I expect this to be the marquee rare card in this set, akin to Noble Hierarch or Maelstrom Pulse. It’s usable in multiple decks, as well as versatile and devastatingly effective.

Semblance Anvil
Current Price: $4
Projected Price (one month from now): $2-$2.50

Thoughts: Seems like the Amulet of Vigor in this set. People throw out all sorts of “what-if” scenarios about all the broken draws you can get with Semblance Anvil, but regard that a) playing Semblance Anvil is card disadvantage, and b) people are going to start playing a lot of artifact hate. In Extended and Legacy, this will have applications in combo decks (for instance, Time Sieve decks start going insane), but in the current Standard, I don’t think this has a place.

Steel Hellkite
Current Price: $2
Projected Price (one month from now): $1-$1.50

Thoughts: While Pernicious Deed is nice, having to wait to hit an opponent first to use it is likely too slow for the current Standard. Plus, this is the Release foil, so the ready supply of these will drive the price down.

Sword of Body and Mind
Current Price: $12.50
Projected Price (one month from now): $10

Thoughts: I believe people are seriously undervaluing Sword of Body and Mind because the two abilities on this Sword aren’t as exciting as the previous two Swords (Sword of Light and Shadow, Sword of Fire and Ice). However, the ability to attack and block (2/2 Wolf, which becomes 4/4 when equipped) is very strong. The blue ability is likely a drawback as much as it’s a strength. (Hi Vengevine!) However, the ability to swing through blue and green creatures is big (especially in the current Standard meta), and this is a fantastic target for Stoneforge Mystic. I believe that, in time, this will be a $15-$20 card – but for now, it’s going to sit on the sidelines a little bit. It fell below expectations (even though it’s a fantastic card overall).

Wurmcoil Engine
Current Price: $15
Projected Price (one month from now): $15

Thoughts: This is the Prerelease card, and it’s just as good as the best Titans from M11 (Sun Titan, Grave Titan, and Primeval Titan). In many cases, it’s even better because it rewards you for playing into board sweepers. I expect Wurmcoil Engine to be a Standard staple. It’s also the most splashable of the six Titans that currently exist.


Artifact Bulk Rares ($1 or less)

Argentum Armor
Darksteel Juggernaut
Grindclock
Livewire Lash
Myr Battlesphere
Myr Propagator
Nim Deathmantle
Strata Scythe
Tower of Calamities
Venser’s Journal


Artifact Commons and Uncommons

Darksteel Axe: A great target for both Stoneforge Mystic and Trinket Mage.

Ichorclaw Myr: Probably the most efficient poison guy, as far as mana-cost-to-connection ratio goes.

Infiltration Lens: People are calling this the new Skullclamp, but it doesn’t automatically let you kill your own guys to draw two cards. I’m not as big on this as many other people seem to be. You can just start burning guys out of the way/killing them outright, instead of blocking them. Should be fine, but not as good as the current hype would suggest.

Liquimetal Coating: Combo-licious, and allows you to play artifact kill against decks that may not have artifacts. No really – enables metalcraft and lets you Revoke Existence easily against any threat your opponent has on the board. Funny with Gorilla Shaman in formats that allow Gorilla Shaman.

Memnite: At first I wasn’t impressed by Memnite, but I’m starting to come around to his applications as a metalcraft enabler and a combo piece to be used with Trinket Mage/Vengevine.

Myr Galvanizer: People are all agog [
Atogagog? -LL

] about getting two of these out with another Myr and going infinite. It’ll be a popular card, but I’m not sure how solid the engine or tribe is, in general.

Necrogen Censer: Three mana for four damage isn’t too far off the pace, as evidenced by cards like Flame Javelin. Well, Necrogen Censer can’t target creatures, but it’s also a prime proliferate target. I think this might be efficient enough to warrant consideration in aggro decks that need extra artifacts to hit metalcraft but don’t want to give up the offensive charge.

Necropede: Another efficient poison guy for an Invigorate-style deck.

Nihil Spellbomb: Comparable to Relic of Progenitus – costs one less to activate, but needs a black mana to draw a card. I expect this to see a lot of sideboard play, similar to most efficient graveyard-hosing cards.

Perilous Myr: Seems solid for the cost – and should see some play in Standard as a way to push through extra damage/have an efficient blocker. Mudbutton Torchrunner saw fringe play, and this should as well.

Sylvok Lifestaff: The spiritual ancestor of Skullclamp (missing -1 toughness). Another good one-of for a Trinket Mage/Stoneforge Mystic deck, as it can help you efficiently battle any sort of rush deck.

Tumble Magnet: I think they finally printed an Icy Manipulator variant that will see play. Hallelujah!


Gold Cards

Venser, the Sojourner
Current Price: $50
Projected Price (one month from now): $30

Thoughts: The weakest of the three planeswalkers in this set, Venser’s probably the best of the three for casual players (Momentary Blink effects are popular). He doesn’t affect the board in competitive play the way that both Elspeth Tirel and Koth of the Hammer do. Plus, the second ability (unblockable dudes) doesn’t really fit into the U/W mold that well. A little too niche, and not good enough at what it does within that niche. Seems a lot of fun to play with, though!


Land Cards

Blackcleave Cliffs
Copperline Gorge
Darkslick Shores
Razorverge Thicket
Seachrome Coast
Current Price: $3.49
Projected Price (one month from now): $3

Thoughts: Should drop a little bit because the dual land cycles in recent sets have lowered in value after the initial openings. The W/U one (Seachrome Coast) will eventually outpace the other ones because that particular deck can really make good use of those cards early game, more so than other color combinations (which would rather likely use fetchlands).


Land Commons and Uncommons

Glimmerpost: You bet your ass I’m going to be rebuilding Twelve-Post! Oh, and while this card isn’t great on its own, casual players are going to love playing with even more Locuses in their decks – so don’t discount both the casual appeal of this card, or the potential for other Locuses to be released in the next two Mirrodin block sets!

And that’s it for this edition of the Financial Value of Scars of Mirrodin! As always, feedback is appreciated in the forum! I’ve also created a
work-centric Facebook account, so if you want to be friends with me on Facebook,
hit me up

!

-          Ben Bleiweiss

-          General Manager, StarCityGames.com