MTG Salvation

Card prices are picked on Thursday morning from TCGplayer mid price, the price used by many for trading cards for cards. Going by the selling price involves whether to go by Ebay, TCGplayer low, Star City Games, or another vendor. It is just simpler and cleaner to go by the trade value of TCGplayer mid. Comments about cards are the opinions of the author, and should not be taken as facts or divine intervention. That said, comments and predictions are based on data and experience, not on idle speculation or an attempt to move certain cards. Cards that are worth $2.00 USD or more will be on the list. If a card is worth $1.99 or less, it will not appear on the list even if it was on the previous week. 

The Running Tally of Standard

Shadows Over Innistrad

The state of the Magic market is losing value.

The value in Standard is draining across the board. This is probably a combination of Standard is in a standstill, the Modern Grand Prix events recently, and Eternal Masters coming out now, which is demanding a lot of attention. Standard currently feels stale, with there not really being a clear number deck to lead the pack and no real shifting in the meta. There is not a lot of good sideboard hate for some decks, and hand/field disruption is at a high point, as well as Collected Company limiting deckbuilding and what to play around. This translates into Standard being kind of a void that is defined by certain cards rather than by decks. Eldritch Moon should shake up the meta, but the loss of Dragons of Tarkir and Magic Origins when the next block comes around will be rather stifling. 

The second issue is the amount of Modern events going on with little or no Standard events alongside them. The attention is mostly around Modern and what Nahiri was doing, as well what will do well at Modern Weekend, which focused a lot of attention on Modern. There simply was not interest in playing Standard among the pros and great deckbuilders, but that should end now and attention diverted somewhat to Standard, although the third point is dominating the conversation and most likely the cause of the Standard market slump. Eternal Masters is the set players are interested in as it has some of the most iconic and powerful cards that can be reprinted, and now a new generation can open these powerful cards for the first time without spending a lot of money on pack that may only have a bad rare. As of the writing of this article, the set looks very good and is worth the hype it is getting, and once there is an official spoiling of the entire set, then there will be a market review of the set. 

There is no Standard set to really buy packs or boxes of, but if you really want to buy a box or packs  of a Standard set, Dragon of Tarkir is the best bet for value. However, you should be saying your money for a box or packs of Eternal Masters. That set will be good for value if the current trend of good cards are reprinted. Or buying singles of the cards in Standard that are not high end cards, as all of them are going down, and will most likely continue to go down. 

Hopefully next week will be more positive and more to talk about. This is not a sign of bad things to come  just this has been a weak week in a overall good few months of Standard. 

Previously, these were predicted to spike:

Note: Standard is a downward spiral, so none of the cards are expected to go up in retrospect. 

Llanowar Wastes: Did not go up.

Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit : This should have done up, but it did not.

Tireless Tracker: This is going to go up, but not today apparently. 

This week:

Sin Prodder:  This is not a prediction for the card to go up next week or even next month, but after Eldritch Moon comes out and maybe later.

Previously, these were predicted to fall:

Jace, Vryn's Prodigy: It dropped to $55.  It will drop more. 

This week:

Most of Standard. Now is not a good time to buy high end Standard cards.