Join us for a special release weekend edition of The Magic Market Index as former Market Street moderator and longtime Magic Market Index veteran Greg Schutte takes us through an in-depth analysis of Aether Revolt. Which cards are sleeper hits waiting to be discovered, and which cards are going to bomb both in Limited and monetary value? Can the expertise of the legends of Kaladesh bring you victory? Are there any worthy replacements for the cards tragically banned before their time in Standard? Now's the best time to find out!
| Card Name | Price as of 01/16/2017 | Comments | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heart of Kiran | $22.49 | The banning of Smuggler's Copter has changed this from overrated to the most likely replacement for the banned vehicle. This will drop in price, as it is fine but not terribly great. The loyalty crew cost is quite real and crew 3 is not an easy cost to pay for many decks. R/W Vehicles will most likely be the best to use this. | ||
| Herald of Anguish | $13.47 | The Demon has moved up recently. It has some serious potential, but you should expect it to drop like all cards do upon release. This will probably keep around 50% of its value unless it proves to be in a dominant deck. | ||
| Tezzeret the Schemer | $12.92 | Tezzeret the Schemer is not the same as his two previous counterparts and is not a strong card for Standard or any other Constructed format. Planeswalkers need a powerful effect to be good in any format, and this advantage generally needs to be real card advantage or the ability to affect the board. Otherwise it won’t see play. This has some neat potential with the Demon and other artifact strategies, but don’t expect it to do well. | ||
| Ajani Unyielding | $10.99 | Unlike Tezzeret, Ajani can easily see play in Standard and maybe other formats. It has card advantage in its plus ability and a Swords to Plowshares effect in its minus ability. Ajani will go down as most planeswalkers do, but expect it to be worth a good amount of its preorder price. | ||
| Paradox Engine | $7.98 | The price of this card will drop, as to be expected, but this will always have demand as it is a powerful combo enabler and the kind of card Johnnies will love to try and break. This has some Constructed potential as well. | ||
| Planar Bridge | $7.98 | This will see some play in Modern Tron decks and a lot of Commander decks. This will have demand even if it is not super expensive. | ||
| Yahenni's Expertise | $6.49 | Aggressive decks lost their best answer to this card in Smuggler's Copter, so this card will be better at clearing up the board. Look to see this stay within a dollar or two of its preorder price. If this sees play in Modern, expect it to maintain its price. | ||
| Walking Ballista | $6.24 | The younger brother of Triskelion is still good. This is not a clear upgrade or downgrade, so it has potential. It will probably replace Triskelion in Vintage Workshop, but not in Commander decks which rely on the infinite loop with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed. | ||
| Aethersphere Harvester | $5.78 | Since Smuggler's Copter got banned, this looks to be the next best Vehicle. This could easily go up if it sees play, so this might be worth it to invest in. | ||
| Baral, Chief of Compliance | $5.65 | Baral is going to be a centerpiece for several control decks. Look for this to show up in several decks, even outside of Standard. It should maintain most of its preorder price. | ||
| Fatal Push | $4.99 | Fatal Push is going to be one of the most impactful cards of the set. Keep your copies of this card as it will go up. This will see play in all competitive formats. Disfigure is a card used in a lot of sideboards and this is better than Disfigure in most situations. | ||
| Rishkar, Peema Renegade | $4.97 | This could easily see play in Green decks. This could see play in Standard as there aren’t that many decent mana dorks and this makes any creature a mana dork. | ||
| Metallic Mimic | $4.94 | Adaptive Automaton was a good card for tribal decks, and while there is not a lot of tribal synergy in Standard right now, this seems to be likely for tribal decks to come out. Expect this in some Human based builds. | ||
| Disallow | $4.49 | Disallow will be a very solid rare in this set that could see play in Modern. Expect to see this card played and keep a lot of its value. | ||
| Mechanized Production | $4.49 | Any effect that says "win the game" and is has some kind of "build around me" effect is bound to see play. There will be demand for this, but it will not be worth much more than a few dollars. | ||
| Spire of Industry | $4.27 | A slightly worse Glimmervoid is still a great mana fixer for artifact decks. | ||
| Sram's Expertise | $3.75 | In the token deck, this could be good. It's worth keeping an eye on this, but it doubtful it will move past its preorder price unless the GW Tokens deck dominates like it did before. | ||
| Exquisite Archangel | $3.49 | The effect is interesting, but most of the time, you will be dead before you cast this, and with no built-in protection, it is not likely to survive. This is in the same vein as Platinum Angel and Platinum Emperion: Fun and flashy, but not likely to have a strong effect on the game most of the time. | ||
| Gonti's Aether Heart | $3.32 | Extra turns effects are always a good target to keep an eye on. Sometimes, they find a home, like Part the Waterveil, or they are Ugin's Nexus and don't find a home. | ||
| Indomitable Creativity | $3.00 | This card has a lot of potential and Johnny type players will flock to this card. Most likely it will only see play in a lot red Commander decks. | ||
| Oath of Ajani | $2.95 | A G/W Tokens deck could come back with this set, and this card helps that a lot. | ||
| Greenbelt Rampager | $2.91 | This is might make for a good green aggressive energy strategy. A turn two 3/4 with no other downside seems solid. | ||
| Lightning Runner | $2.47 | In Magical Christmasland, this will win games. If RG Energy becomes a thing, it will not be because of this. However, despite this, this is not a card to dismiss as unplayable. It has a potential place in the R/G Energy deck, so keep this on the radar. | ||
| Inspiring Statuary | $2.33 | Giving your non-artifact spells improvise is a good effect, but that is all this does. Having the right balance of artifact and non-artifact spells is tricky. You shouldn't expect this to go up. | ||
| Hope of Ghirapur | $2.10 | A new version of Xantid Swarm is not unwelcome. This can help the non-attacking combo decks in Modern win against control decks. This is not going to spike, even if it sees play in older formats, but it is worth keeping an eye out for. | ||
| Kari Zev's Expertise | $2.06 | Threaten effects rarely make it into Constructed decks, even in aggressive red decks. This might be the exception with the "cast a spell with converted mana cost 2 or less" effect, but that's not likely. | ||
| Baral's Expertise | $2.02 | All the Expertise cards are playable, but this is the weakest of the five. This is what is thought of as a "cute" card, something that does a great thing in narrow circumstances. | ||
| Whir of Invention | $2.00 | This has a lot of potential. It should be great in Commander, and it might see play in some blue artifact decks, if any exist. | ||
| Kari Zev, Skyship Raider | $2.00 | She is a solid red creature that attacks for 3 damage for 2 mana. She should see Standard play if there is a red-based aggressive deck. | ||
| Aetherwind Basker | $1.99 | There are some fun energy strategies with this card, so expect there to be some demand for this, but not really a lot of value behind it. | ||
| Rishkar's Expertise | $1.94 | This will see Commander play. It’s not likely to see competitive play, but is not unreasonable, just unlikely. | ||
| Heroic Intervention | $1.87 | A card that could see competitive sideboard play should be worth a dollar or two. | ||
| Sram, Senior Edificer | $1.79 | If a Standard Vehicle deck does well, this card will be partially behind it as a card drawing engine. This will not gain too much in value even if that happens. | ||
| Scrap Trawler | $1.65 | This has potential in a heavy artifact deck, whether it is competitive or casual. | ||
| Yahenni, Undying Partisan | $1.64 | This could move up a dollar or two, but it will not spike like Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet did. Kalitas sees play in Modern, which is why it went up in price and stayed there. This doesn't have that kind of potential. | ||
| Lifecrafter's Bestiary | $1.53 | This has potential to be good, but it depends if it can pick up interest. Keep an eye on this. | ||
| Glint-Sleeve Siphoner | $1.50 | This could see play, as its costs are not too bad. It could go up, so keep an eye on it. | ||
| Greenwheel Liberator | $1.46 | This will be a poor man's Tarmogoyf. It does still die to Lightning Bolt, but it is still a good card. | ||
| Solemn Recruit | $1.00 | Any value potential this card had went away when it was announced as a Planeswalker deck rare. | ||
| Aethergeode Miner | $1.00 | A 3/1 for two mana is fine, but it is not in the color that cares about attacking for energy, and its flicker ability is not great without an enter the battlefield trigger or a revolt trigger. It still has some potential, so don’t dismiss as unplayable, just a card without a home. | ||
| Peacewalker Colossus | $0.99 | |||
| Felidar Guardian | $0.98 | Felidar Guardian and Saheeli Rai is the new Splinter Twin combo for Standard. There will be a Jeskai deck centered around this combo, so Felidar Guardian has a chance to go up. | ||
| Aid from the Cowl | $0.77 | With this being in the Planeswalker deck, anyone who wants it can get it cheap. It is a fine card, but it won't be worth anything. | ||
| Secret Salvage | $0.72 | This card has so much potential. If this was cheaper, it would see play in older formats. Five mana is just too much for those formats. | ||
| Pia's Revolution | $0.62 | There is some potential in this card, but not enough to make it worth investing in at the moment. | ||
| Battle at the Bridge | $0.60 | This is one more thing away from being playable, like making it instant. Some decks are going to try it, but don’t expect it to be worth anything. | ||
| Midnight Entourage | $0.53 | The Aetherborn "lord" is actually good, even outside of an Aetherborn tribal deck. This will not go up too much, but it could see competitive play, so it could hover around $1-2 dollars. | ||
| Release the Gremlins | $0.50 | Release the Gremlins is not as imitating as releasing the Kraken, since the gremlins are a lot cuter. Sadly, that is really all that is going on with this card. | ||
| Merchant's Dockhand | $0.50 | Being a one-drop is the only thing keeping this from being called unplayable. It could see some play in Commander artifact decks, but there are much better cards for those. | ||
| Dark Intimations | $0.50 | A pale intimation of Cruel Ultimatum is not enough. This is a good value card, and that is really all it is, but for five mana, it needs to be more than a good value card. | ||
| Call for Unity | $0.49 | A cute effect, but not worth going after since this will only go down in value. | ||
| Aethertide Whale | $0.49 | If Temur Aetherworks was still a thing, this could have seen fringe play, but it won't see play and will be another good Limited rare. | ||
| Quicksmith Spy | $0.49 | Drawing a card off tapping an artifact seems for a good ability, but it is not worth a card that needs protecting and is not a strong creature in its own right. | ||
| Freejam Regent | $0.49 | Like most Dragons printed, this has an interesting effect, but is almost completely unplayable. Thunderbreak Regent is the measuring stick for this, and this does not measure up to it. | ||
| Consulate Crackdown | $0.49 | This artifact creature will find a home and will be worth something, although not likely to break a dollar. | ||
| Quicksmith Rebel | $0.43 | The other Quicksmith card is better, and that one is barely playable. This is not playable and not worth playing unless there is a fun untapping combo that is not fragile. | ||
| Ajani, Valiant Protector | $0.00 | This version of Ajani is clearly designed to be a casual pump spell, so leave it behind. | ||
| Tezzeret, Master of Metal | $0.00 | It is not a bad idea to get a copy or two of this. This could see play in a U/B/x Artifact deck and could be an easy casual favorite. | ||
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