Xenagos is holding well for now because there was a top tier deck in his colors, that synergies with his ability, and was already focused on adding permanents to the board. It is a no brainer for now. The questions is if removal heavy control decks and Mono-B can make them pay for dropping non threats. Yes I know the god can activated but no deck in standard counted on their god being active.
I am most intrigued by the decks featuring Kiora. Control decks tend to be a little slower coming on in the format so if she is already showing traction..... I had similar results after I tried to put together a turbo-fog deck, I found it was just way easier to focus on just using her ultimate as a win con, or to lead into Elpeth than dork around with all those gates. And while we have Supreme Verdict and Sphinx's Rev in standard people will be playing the deck. It remains to be seen if green or black is the better 3rd color choice. If she holds keep an eye on cards that work well with her at the 3 and 5 drop slot. The Courser is one, but also D-Sphere
Yes, that's good enough, thank you for the link. I don't play Standard and generally rely on discussion here and links that people are aware of to help me understand the format, so I'll check that out. I've always loved myself, and have always considered myself a Timmy, so I tend to overvalue Timmy cards like Xenagos. Lately I've been consciously trying NOT to overvalue them (because I need to be more objective as a business owner who prices cards basically for a living). Now I'm rethinking that because indeed it looks like the card is placing well in Standard. Sorry I doubted you but that's the first real proof I've seen on the card. I'll watch its price closely. I sold a bunch of singles (not Xenagos but support cards) for that deck last night, looks like demand is indeed picking up.
I'm not giving up on Ephedra (haha, that's a pharmaceutical very similar to "speed" so it's a good nickname for her). In fact the cards I posted above look like they'd be well positioned to combat a Xenegos deck, putting on early pressure and then tapping down/evading/removing the key threats later on. As for Mogis, I think he's strong on paper, but typically people don't like playing Rakdos all that much for some reason.
Regarding Kiora, I notice Prophet of Kruphix has crept up from $1.50 to nearly $3 in the past couple weeks.
The thing is, even if it is as good as people say, it still should only be a $20 retail/$15 ebay card at most. Thassa settled into that range, and was played as a 4of in a top deck whereas he is a 2of. Unless G/R monsters makes twice as much of the format as mono-u did, he shouldn't be that much higher price then Thassa ever was. Yes. he's in a set that will sell a bit less, but it's also a smaller set and tons of the Gods were opened at pre-release. I think Ephara is the only god that is NOT going to fall in price much, and that's saying a lot really.
The only cards in this set I currently see as potential speculation targets, are Herald of Torment, Eidolon of Countless Battles, Courser of Kruphix and to a lesser extent, Hero of Iroas. I think those cards should all be up a few dollars in the next couple weeks. Just from gauging how much interest these cards have sparked in pro articles, plus new archetypes that showed up at nashville using them, message board discussion, etc.. I think they are currently underpriced. Starcity still has Herald of Torment at !.99 and it's more expensive through tcgplayer right now. That's normally a sign that there is some recent interest in the card and the cheaper copies got bought out.
(previous tallies are located in the following posts: 1, 4)
A few surprising moves as the set gets opened and played with:
1) Brimaz King of Oreskos (27) /
2) Kiora the Crashing Wave (20) /
3) Xenagos God of Revels (16) /
4) Mogis God of Slaughter (12) /
5) Ephara God of the Polis (10) /
6) Phenax God of Deception(8) /
7) Spirit of the Labyrinth (7) /
8) Temple of Enlightenment(7) /
9) Courser of Kruphix (6) /
10) Karametra God of Harvests (5.5) /
11) Flame-Wreathed Phoenix (5) /
12) Temple of Malice (5) /
13) Temple of Plenty (5) /
14) Pain Seer (4) /
15) Eidolon of Countless Battles (3)
The card's most recent move is on right. means no movement. is a card that wasn't on the list last update. This is the update's hottest mover. (#) is price in CND incl. shipping here.
There are still 15 cards worth $3 or more, and therefore worth opening in a booster pack, because Eidolon of Countless Battles jumped 50c this update.
Brimaz is holding tight at $27 to stay in top spot by a long ways. I still think it'll come down to $15 once more supply comes on board, and once people see it's really not as undercosted as it seems. Kiora moved up a couple bucks, still a distance 2nd, but clearly being played or attempted. Xenagos held steady, as did Mogis and Ephara, but Phenax surprised me by jumping a few bucks, good enough for a 2 point move on the tally. I think it was initially underpriced because people were upset it was so predictable, but mill decks are always popular to try out, and of course anyone trying one (especially in casual) will need a copy or two. I don't have high hopes for it long term but we'll see what support it continues to get. Spirit of the Labyrinth drifted slightly lower. I think it was a bit overhyped to begin with, although it certainly is an excellent card. It may slip down to around $5 over the next little while, but if it gets included in a big deck, that's obviously not happening. Temple of Enlightenment shocked me when I repriced my singles, moving from $4 to $7, a massive jump for a rare. Anybody know what's going on there? The Theros temples never made it above $4 each, regardless of colour combination, and the other 2 Born temples are barely $5. Phoenix fell again as predicted (it's red after all), as did Pain Seer (what a horrible card, I expect it to fall from the tally soon). And as mentioned, Eidolon of Countless Battles moved up onto the tally. I think people undervalued it, and are still undervaluing it. Not many 3 mana creatures out there that have power and toughness equal to the number of creatures you've got! Wayfaring Temple comes to mind, but that requires green, and its ability needs you to have a token creature. Eidolon doesn't require another colour, and has quite a potent extra ability that doesn't need anything except a creature in play in order to make work.
Just South of the tally is Hero of Iroas which appears possible for an appearance soon. Herald of Torment is at 2.5 and seems stable there, but you never know. Satyr Firedancer is at that price as well but seems on the move downward, as I think people saw it as being an inclusion in red burn decks... but they really don't need 1/1s for 1R no matter what the text box says, IMO.
Looks like the smiley issue here on the new forums isn't going to be fixed, so what I'll have to do from now on, is put a space between each smiley, and a space between each slash ( / ) separating the smilies. Better than having a wall of :thumbsup::3mana:/:thumbsdown::2mana:/:rate0:/:thumbsup:1mana: all over the place, obviously. And I don't want to get rid of that part of the tally altogether, because then it's just a price list, and not really a "running tally", which is meant for following trends.
As usual, uncommons aren't selling yet. Takes a while for that, as players slowly start to actually build their decks. Right now it's mostly players looking for bargains and picking up mythic and rare staples. Box value appears low, but not as low as Dragon's Maze, thankfully. The temples doing well (surprisingly) is helping, and the gods haven't fallen as quickly as I thought they might have. Actually, they haven't fallen at all really.
Looks like the smiley issue here on the new forums isn't going to be fixed, so what I'll have to do from now on, is put a space between each smiley, and a space between each slash ( / ) separating the smilies. Better than having a wall of :thumbsup::3mana:/:thumbsdown::2mana:/:rate0:/:thumbsup:1mana: all over the place, obviously. And I don't want to get rid of that part of the tally altogether, because then it's just a price list, and not really a "running tally", which is meant for following trends.
What you *could* do is to take the code, copy/paste it to a text editor and do a replace-all (ctrl+h on windows PCs). Then it's just a matter of replacing every :: with : : and :/: with : / :. It's still annoying, but takes most of the busywork out of it.
Looks like the smiley issue here on the new forums isn't going to be fixed, so what I'll have to do from now on, is put a space between each smiley, and a space between each slash ( / ) separating the smilies. Better than having a wall of :thumbsup::3mana:/:thumbsdown::2mana:/:rate0:/:thumbsup:1mana: all over the place, obviously. And I don't want to get rid of that part of the tally altogether, because then it's just a price list, and not really a "running tally", which is meant for following trends.
What you *could* do is to take the code, copy/paste it to a text editor and do a replace-all (ctrl+h on windows PCs). Then it's just a matter of replacing every :: with : : and :/: with : / :. It's still annoying, but takes most of the busywork out of it.
Not sure what you mean. Somebody has already done that. Yesterday, some unseen hand went through every post ever made on MTGS and put spaces between every known smiley and any character that came before or after it. This has made all smilies (in Running Tally threads, and every other thread) show up again, instead of the raw code. It has probably fixed and created a lot of problems. What it didn't do was make it so that we could have smilies IN THE FUTURE next to each other such as :thumbsup::1mana: or at the end of sentences :(.
So I'll just separate everything with spaces in all my future posts, as I did yesterday with my tally update. I'd rather have the smilies show up with excessive spacing, than not be able to use them at all. It's a little harder to read but I imagine we'll adjust.
I'm thinking the high prices of the Born scrylands are more to do with lower supply of Born cards than the high demand for them. Blue/white is popular right now in Standard, which explains why that land is $7 and the other two are $5, but it doesn't explain why the Born lands are between $5 and $7 while the Theros lands are between $3 and $4. I think Theros was simply a better set and Born isn't being opened as much. I have to admit, I'm not sure how much more I want to open. It feels like the Brimaz lottery (although the juicier scrylands are nice.)
I agree with your analysis. There just isn't the card tonnage to split the costs of the box across the rares. (The good uncommons may get surprisingly pricy as well, given the bump to 60/set.)
It is going to be like Dragonmaze. Expect a lot of stores to give out Born only as prizes for a while to reduce their stock. If I were a shop, I would save my money for trade-ins instead of opening any more packs. I all in on trading for the good uncommons; bile blight, fanatic of Xenogos, drown in sorrow, searing blood. I expect at least some of them will move to $2. Foils from this set of the few good cards will get really tough.
Also anytime you can trade Theros Scrylands for Born it is a good move.
Exactly this. Everyone needs their playset. UW Control won a Grand Prix and doesn't seem to be slowing down.
I know personally, I needed 4 ASAP. I've been playing GR Devotion for a while now, but can't see a reason not to play a deck that
seems to beat most of the other "top decks."
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
(previous tallies are located in the following posts: 1, 4, 24)
A few surprising moves as the set gets opened and played with:
1) Brimaz King of Oreskos (29) / /
2) Kiora the Crashing Wave (21) / /
3) Xenagos God of Revels (16) / /
4) Ephara God of the Polis (11) / /
5) Mogis God of Slaughter (11) / /
6) Phenax God of Deception (9) / /
7) Temple of Enlightenment(8) / /
8) Courser of Kruphix (7) / /
9) Spirit of the Labyrinth (6) / /
10) Temple of Plenty(5.5) / /
11) Flame-Wreathed Phoenix (5) / /
12) Karametra God of Harvests (5) / /
13) Temple of Malice (5) / /
14) Eidolon of Countless Battles (3) /
The card's most recent move is on right. means no movement. is a card that wasn't on the list last update. This is the update's hottest mover. (#) is price in CND incl. shipping here.
There are now only 14 cards worth $3 or more, and therefore worth opening in a booster pack, as the crappy Pain Seer rightfully fell to pieces.
I decided to do another update, as there have been some moves, and I'm staying right on top of everything right now because I've switched to an "unlimited inventory" method for Born. So far it's going well, customers are enjoying it and sales are up, I just have to be vigilant I don't let my prices get inaccurate. Brimaz has surprised me, moving up from $27 to $29 (and eBay says it should actually be higher than that). I still don't like the card, and I'm a white weenie fanatic, but maybe I'm wrong on this one. Kiora stepped up her game a couple more bucks - another card I don't see the point of, but it's doing well. Xenagos has been stable since release, good enough for 3rd. Ephara gained a dollar as Mogis lost a dollar, perhaps on the strength or white/blue decks out there, and the two met at $11 with Ephara winning the tie-break alphabetically. Phenax moved up another buck but that wasn't enough to change its status on the tally. Temple of Enlightenment somehow gained another dollar to $8, making it the set's top rare, above Courser which is also up in price. Green, blue, and white seem to be the hot Standard colours right now, and the corresponding scrylands are benefiting. Belying that fact though is Spirit of the Labyrinth, down again in price and standing, along with Karametra which apparently is just too late for mana acceleration. Eidolon of CB rounds out the tally holding tight at three bucks.
Just below that point is the recently fallen Pain Seer, then Herald of Torment and Hero of Iroas. Top uncommons are Bile Blight, Drown in Sorrow, Fanatic of Xenagos, Kiora's Follower, and Searing Blood... with the two black one being the hottest despite black not being all that hot in Standard.
The scrylands are one of the big stories here. They're worth almost double the Theros scrylands, for example. Which makes me wonder what the prices of the 2 in the next set will be like. Temple of Enlightenment is shocking at nearly eight bucks, when it started just a week or two ago at four. I'll continue to follow them and the set in general closely.
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Just below that point is the recently fallen Pain Seer, then Herald of Torment and Hero of Iroas. Top uncommons are Bile Blight, Drown in Sorrow, Fanatic of Xenagos, Kiora's Follower, and Searing Blood... with the two black one being the hottest despite black not being all that hot in Standard.
Make no mistake Mono black is still very much a tier 1 deck in standard. Just cause people are trying out new things, that did nothing to dethrone it as one of the pillars of the format right now. (i include BW midrange in here too since they are really really similar).
(previous tallies are located in the following posts: 1, 4, 24, 33)
A few surprising moves as the set gets opened and played with:
1) Brimaz King of Oreskos (30) / / /
2) Kiora the Crashing Wave (21) / / /
3) Xenagos God of Revels (15) / / /
4) Ephara God of the Polis (10) / / /
5) Mogis God of Slaughter (10) / / /
6) Phenax God of Deception (9) / / /
7) Courser of Kruphix (7.5) / / /
8) Temple of Enlightenment (7.5) / / /
9) Temple of Malice (5) / / /
10) Temple of Plenty (5) / / /
11) Flame-Wreathed Phoenix (4.5) / / /
12) Karametra God of Harvests (4) / / /
13) Spirit of the Labyrinth (4) / / /
The card's most recent move is on right. means no movement. is a card that wasn't on the list last update. This is the update's hottest mover. (#) is price in CND incl. shipping here.
There are now only 13 cards worth $3 or more, and therefore worth opening in a booster pack, as Eidolon of Countless Battles returned from whence it came.
Bored is beginning to show signs of SOKS (Saviors of Kamigawa Syndrome). You know, where 2 or 3 cards are sought in great numbers and the rest aren't, so you get a divide between them that widens over time, the chase cards moving up in price and the rest falling. In Saviors it was Twincast and Pithing Needle (ironically, both now worthless). In Dragon's Maze it's Voice of Resurgence and Blood Baron. Brimaz appears to be moving upward to $35 although I can't bring myself to price it that high. Kiora has moved above $20 now although I can't figure out how I'd ever want to play the card. Xenagos seems to be on the cusp, pretty stable at $15, maybe down slightly from a few days ago. Ephara and Mogis sit at $10 but aren't looking too strong and might start to drift lower as more product is opened. Phenax is holding well at $9, Courser moved up a bit to match the scryland's price, with the other two Temples a couple bucks back at $5. Karametra cooled further and Spirit of the Labyrinth has now lost half its value in just the first 2 weeks, what an utter disappointment that card has been!
I'm interested to see what results these cards post in tournaments in the next couple weeks. I think the power level of many of the cards is decent but the set overall has a lot of stinkers and disappointments, and the prices of the top cards aren't even holding up that well, except a few chase cards as I mentioned.
Spirit of the Labyrinth is a legacy playable card, and that's about it. But, every time we see legacy card in a new set, the price spikes from speculators and some legacy players grabbing them, then cools because the supply is so high. A year, or two, down the line the card will start going back up as the print run has ended, some copies start disappearing and more legacy players pick up theirs. Not all legacy players are in a rush to grab a playset the way Standard players are. On the same note, the foil of the card is still pretty high from the legacy foil 'pimp out my deck' crowd.
re: Kiora, she really does play out better in practice then on paper. In the decks you play her, they normally include caryatid, so the first two creatures the opponent plays aren't going to be able to take down kiora. You've got a caryatid to block a small creature and kiora fogs the other one. She only takes 3 turns to get to her ult as well. So, if they don't have an immediate removal, she often wins the game. I see her being used that way a lot more then the 'double explore' mode it looked like she'd get played for. But, that option is also there and can be quite strong as well. If you have a courser of kruphix out, you quite often end up filtering through 2 lands on top of your deck and ramping at the same time. No one is really playing red right now, so her weakness to burn spells is mitigated.
The most successful home for her so far, has just been in the U/W shell that splashes green mainly for her. aka: bant walkers.
She is also great in a control deck, as I stated multiple blue/white control decks splash solely for Kiora since she can seal the game after you deal with the board. I have seen tons of standard games come down to extreme late game where both players have dealt with everything the other had of note.
Having played the card for a while the only deck I could see prioritizing her -1 is basically a Maze's End deck. I only did it under dire circumstances where I needed to draw a supreme verdict or something.
To me she is a much better win condition in a control shell than assemble the legion and others. And she hits the board, protecting you 3-4 turns faster that Aetherling. They are different types of cards mind you, but I think Kiora is going nowhere. Maybe as the set gets opened more she will drift down to $15 or so, but I think she is in it for the long haul the next 2 years. And being in a small crappy set with only one mythic to share the burden I am seeing $25 as her long term prospect.
Brimaz is a good card but narrower than people think. I saw control decks siding them in, and aggro use it a curve topper. And most times it was good but less scart than the Blood Barons, Reckoner, Strombreath Dragons, World Eaters and what not. He goes well in haste decks and with token support. And is excellent in midrange. But as far as being a multi-deck, multi-format allstar I am not seeing it yet. Maybe $20-$25 as the kitty settles.
But I think the biggest upside with be some of the uncommon. Searing blood was doing a lot of work at my shop last weekend, and bile blight got in there too.
The way I look at Spirit of the Labyrinth, I feel her pricing pattern is going to be similar to Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. Thalia also have a better chance of seeing more play in Modern than SotL. Both also happened to be in the 2nd set. In the long run I can't see SotL doing better than Thalia.
It's a good model to use, but I wouldn't be surprised to see spirit being more then Thalia. The extra power is very relevant, even if the ability seems weaker at first glance. Vialing in spirit against a brainstorm is pretty brutal. Draw zero, discard two. Yikes. Death n Taxes decks love an effect like that. But, that's why her foil is upwards of $30 currently, just from legacy demand. There are more then enough regular copies floating around, the current price is buoyed a bit by speculators thinking it'll be worth more since it's legacy playable.
Then again, I think there is even less reason to open BNG currently then there was for DA, which also inflates single prices.
All that said, I think regular versions of Spirit will hover in the $4-5 range for awhile. Some standard white weenie decks are running them to counteract sphinx a bit. The foil may drop slightly as more product is opened, but then slowly climb back and level out a few months down the line, or next legacy season.
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I am most intrigued by the decks featuring Kiora. Control decks tend to be a little slower coming on in the format so if she is already showing traction..... I had similar results after I tried to put together a turbo-fog deck, I found it was just way easier to focus on just using her ultimate as a win con, or to lead into Elpeth than dork around with all those gates. And while we have Supreme Verdict and Sphinx's Rev in standard people will be playing the deck. It remains to be seen if green or black is the better 3rd color choice. If she holds keep an eye on cards that work well with her at the 3 and 5 drop slot. The Courser is one, but also D-Sphere
I'm not giving up on Ephedra (haha, that's a pharmaceutical very similar to "speed" so it's a good nickname for her). In fact the cards I posted above look like they'd be well positioned to combat a Xenegos deck, putting on early pressure and then tapping down/evading/removing the key threats later on. As for Mogis, I think he's strong on paper, but typically people don't like playing Rakdos all that much for some reason.
Regarding Kiora, I notice Prophet of Kruphix has crept up from $1.50 to nearly $3 in the past couple weeks.
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The only cards in this set I currently see as potential speculation targets, are Herald of Torment, Eidolon of Countless Battles, Courser of Kruphix and to a lesser extent, Hero of Iroas. I think those cards should all be up a few dollars in the next couple weeks. Just from gauging how much interest these cards have sparked in pro articles, plus new archetypes that showed up at nashville using them, message board discussion, etc.. I think they are currently underpriced. Starcity still has Herald of Torment at !.99 and it's more expensive through tcgplayer right now. That's normally a sign that there is some recent interest in the card and the cheaper copies got bought out.
A few surprising moves as the set gets opened and played with:
1) Brimaz King of Oreskos (27) /
2) Kiora the Crashing Wave (20) /
3) Xenagos God of Revels (16) /
4) Mogis God of Slaughter (12) /
5) Ephara God of the Polis (10) /
6) Phenax God of Deception (8) /
7) Spirit of the Labyrinth (7) /
8) Temple of Enlightenment (7) /
9) Courser of Kruphix (6) /
10) Karametra God of Harvests (5.5) /
11) Flame-Wreathed Phoenix (5) /
12) Temple of Malice (5) /
13) Temple of Plenty (5) /
14) Pain Seer (4) /
15) Eidolon of Countless Battles (3)
The card's most recent move is on right. means no movement. is a card that wasn't on the list last update. This is the update's hottest mover. (#) is price in CND incl. shipping here.
There are still 15 cards worth $3 or more, and therefore worth opening in a booster pack, because Eidolon of Countless Battles jumped 50c this update.
Brimaz is holding tight at $27 to stay in top spot by a long ways. I still think it'll come down to $15 once more supply comes on board, and once people see it's really not as undercosted as it seems. Kiora moved up a couple bucks, still a distance 2nd, but clearly being played or attempted. Xenagos held steady, as did Mogis and Ephara, but Phenax surprised me by jumping a few bucks, good enough for a 2 point move on the tally. I think it was initially underpriced because people were upset it was so predictable, but mill decks are always popular to try out, and of course anyone trying one (especially in casual) will need a copy or two. I don't have high hopes for it long term but we'll see what support it continues to get. Spirit of the Labyrinth drifted slightly lower. I think it was a bit overhyped to begin with, although it certainly is an excellent card. It may slip down to around $5 over the next little while, but if it gets included in a big deck, that's obviously not happening. Temple of Enlightenment shocked me when I repriced my singles, moving from $4 to $7, a massive jump for a rare. Anybody know what's going on there? The Theros temples never made it above $4 each, regardless of colour combination, and the other 2 Born temples are barely $5. Phoenix fell again as predicted (it's red after all), as did Pain Seer (what a horrible card, I expect it to fall from the tally soon). And as mentioned, Eidolon of Countless Battles moved up onto the tally. I think people undervalued it, and are still undervaluing it. Not many 3 mana creatures out there that have power and toughness equal to the number of creatures you've got! Wayfaring Temple comes to mind, but that requires green, and its ability needs you to have a token creature. Eidolon doesn't require another colour, and has quite a potent extra ability that doesn't need anything except a creature in play in order to make work.
Just South of the tally is Hero of Iroas which appears possible for an appearance soon. Herald of Torment is at 2.5 and seems stable there, but you never know. Satyr Firedancer is at that price as well but seems on the move downward, as I think people saw it as being an inclusion in red burn decks... but they really don't need 1/1s for 1R no matter what the text box says, IMO.
Looks like the smiley issue here on the new forums isn't going to be fixed, so what I'll have to do from now on, is put a space between each smiley, and a space between each slash ( / ) separating the smilies. Better than having a wall of :thumbsup::3mana:/:thumbsdown::2mana:/:rate0:/:thumbsup:1mana: all over the place, obviously. And I don't want to get rid of that part of the tally altogether, because then it's just a price list, and not really a "running tally", which is meant for following trends.
As usual, uncommons aren't selling yet. Takes a while for that, as players slowly start to actually build their decks. Right now it's mostly players looking for bargains and picking up mythic and rare staples. Box value appears low, but not as low as Dragon's Maze, thankfully. The temples doing well (surprisingly) is helping, and the gods haven't fallen as quickly as I thought they might have. Actually, they haven't fallen at all really.
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What you *could* do is to take the code, copy/paste it to a text editor and do a replace-all (ctrl+h on windows PCs). Then it's just a matter of replacing every :: with : : and :/: with : / :. It's still annoying, but takes most of the busywork out of it.
Not sure what you mean. Somebody has already done that. Yesterday, some unseen hand went through every post ever made on MTGS and put spaces between every known smiley and any character that came before or after it. This has made all smilies (in Running Tally threads, and every other thread) show up again, instead of the raw code. It has probably fixed and created a lot of problems. What it didn't do was make it so that we could have smilies IN THE FUTURE next to each other such as :thumbsup::1mana: or at the end of sentences :(.
So I'll just separate everything with spaces in all my future posts, as I did yesterday with my tally update. I'd rather have the smilies show up with excessive spacing, than not be able to use them at all. It's a little harder to read but I imagine we'll adjust.
I'm thinking the high prices of the Born scrylands are more to do with lower supply of Born cards than the high demand for them. Blue/white is popular right now in Standard, which explains why that land is $7 and the other two are $5, but it doesn't explain why the Born lands are between $5 and $7 while the Theros lands are between $3 and $4. I think Theros was simply a better set and Born isn't being opened as much. I have to admit, I'm not sure how much more I want to open. It feels like the Brimaz lottery (although the juicier scrylands are nice.)
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Current post- Grand Prix KC Modern Postmortem (7/7/13)
Wizards doesn't have to put modern playables into every set if they don't want to but they have to give people incentive to buy their product.
If singles sellers turn off where does that leave the stock? In some warehouse somewhere ready to be burnt?
I was at my LGS this week and they still have 20 boxes of BTG and they said "we expected to only have 10, it's not selling that well".
So they're punishing the brick and mortar stores too which is sad.
Also anytime you can trade Theros Scrylands for Born it is a good move.
Rancored Elf will cancel your order if prices go up. Read about him and other shady vendors here.
My Trade Thread!
I know personally, I needed 4 ASAP. I've been playing GR Devotion for a while now, but can't see a reason not to play a deck that
seems to beat most of the other "top decks."
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)A few surprising moves as the set gets opened and played with:
1) Brimaz King of Oreskos (29) / /
2) Kiora the Crashing Wave (21) / /
3) Xenagos God of Revels (16) / /
4) Ephara God of the Polis (11) / /
5) Mogis God of Slaughter (11) / /
6) Phenax God of Deception (9) / /
7) Temple of Enlightenment (8) / /
8) Courser of Kruphix (7) / /
9) Spirit of the Labyrinth (6) / /
10) Temple of Plenty (5.5) / /
11) Flame-Wreathed Phoenix (5) / /
12) Karametra God of Harvests (5) / /
13) Temple of Malice (5) / /
14) Eidolon of Countless Battles (3) /
The card's most recent move is on right. means no movement. is a card that wasn't on the list last update. This is the update's hottest mover. (#) is price in CND incl. shipping here.
There are now only 14 cards worth $3 or more, and therefore worth opening in a booster pack, as the crappy Pain Seer rightfully fell to pieces.
I decided to do another update, as there have been some moves, and I'm staying right on top of everything right now because I've switched to an "unlimited inventory" method for Born. So far it's going well, customers are enjoying it and sales are up, I just have to be vigilant I don't let my prices get inaccurate. Brimaz has surprised me, moving up from $27 to $29 (and eBay says it should actually be higher than that). I still don't like the card, and I'm a white weenie fanatic, but maybe I'm wrong on this one. Kiora stepped up her game a couple more bucks - another card I don't see the point of, but it's doing well. Xenagos has been stable since release, good enough for 3rd. Ephara gained a dollar as Mogis lost a dollar, perhaps on the strength or white/blue decks out there, and the two met at $11 with Ephara winning the tie-break alphabetically. Phenax moved up another buck but that wasn't enough to change its status on the tally. Temple of Enlightenment somehow gained another dollar to $8, making it the set's top rare, above Courser which is also up in price. Green, blue, and white seem to be the hot Standard colours right now, and the corresponding scrylands are benefiting. Belying that fact though is Spirit of the Labyrinth, down again in price and standing, along with Karametra which apparently is just too late for mana acceleration. Eidolon of CB rounds out the tally holding tight at three bucks.
Just below that point is the recently fallen Pain Seer, then Herald of Torment and Hero of Iroas. Top uncommons are Bile Blight, Drown in Sorrow, Fanatic of Xenagos, Kiora's Follower, and Searing Blood... with the two black one being the hottest despite black not being all that hot in Standard.
The scrylands are one of the big stories here. They're worth almost double the Theros scrylands, for example. Which makes me wonder what the prices of the 2 in the next set will be like. Temple of Enlightenment is shocking at nearly eight bucks, when it started just a week or two ago at four. I'll continue to follow them and the set in general closely.
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Make no mistake Mono black is still very much a tier 1 deck in standard. Just cause people are trying out new things, that did nothing to dethrone it as one of the pillars of the format right now. (i include BW midrange in here too since they are really really similar).
A few surprising moves as the set gets opened and played with:
1) Brimaz King of Oreskos (30) / / /
2) Kiora the Crashing Wave (21) / / /
3) Xenagos God of Revels (15) / / /
4) Ephara God of the Polis (10) / / /
5) Mogis God of Slaughter (10) / / /
6) Phenax God of Deception (9) / / /
7) Courser of Kruphix (7.5) / / /
8) Temple of Enlightenment (7.5) / / /
9) Temple of Malice (5) / / /
10) Temple of Plenty (5) / / /
11) Flame-Wreathed Phoenix (4.5) / / /
12) Karametra God of Harvests (4) / / /
13) Spirit of the Labyrinth (4) / / /
The card's most recent move is on right. means no movement. is a card that wasn't on the list last update. This is the update's hottest mover. (#) is price in CND incl. shipping here.
There are now only 13 cards worth $3 or more, and therefore worth opening in a booster pack, as Eidolon of Countless Battles returned from whence it came.
Bored is beginning to show signs of SOKS (Saviors of Kamigawa Syndrome). You know, where 2 or 3 cards are sought in great numbers and the rest aren't, so you get a divide between them that widens over time, the chase cards moving up in price and the rest falling. In Saviors it was Twincast and Pithing Needle (ironically, both now worthless). In Dragon's Maze it's Voice of Resurgence and Blood Baron. Brimaz appears to be moving upward to $35 although I can't bring myself to price it that high. Kiora has moved above $20 now although I can't figure out how I'd ever want to play the card. Xenagos seems to be on the cusp, pretty stable at $15, maybe down slightly from a few days ago. Ephara and Mogis sit at $10 but aren't looking too strong and might start to drift lower as more product is opened. Phenax is holding well at $9, Courser moved up a bit to match the scryland's price, with the other two Temples a couple bucks back at $5. Karametra cooled further and Spirit of the Labyrinth has now lost half its value in just the first 2 weeks, what an utter disappointment that card has been!
I'm interested to see what results these cards post in tournaments in the next couple weeks. I think the power level of many of the cards is decent but the set overall has a lot of stinkers and disappointments, and the prices of the top cards aren't even holding up that well, except a few chase cards as I mentioned.
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re: Kiora, she really does play out better in practice then on paper. In the decks you play her, they normally include caryatid, so the first two creatures the opponent plays aren't going to be able to take down kiora. You've got a caryatid to block a small creature and kiora fogs the other one. She only takes 3 turns to get to her ult as well. So, if they don't have an immediate removal, she often wins the game. I see her being used that way a lot more then the 'double explore' mode it looked like she'd get played for. But, that option is also there and can be quite strong as well. If you have a courser of kruphix out, you quite often end up filtering through 2 lands on top of your deck and ramping at the same time. No one is really playing red right now, so her weakness to burn spells is mitigated.
The most successful home for her so far, has just been in the U/W shell that splashes green mainly for her. aka: bant walkers.
Having played the card for a while the only deck I could see prioritizing her -1 is basically a Maze's End deck. I only did it under dire circumstances where I needed to draw a supreme verdict or something.
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Brimaz is a good card but narrower than people think. I saw control decks siding them in, and aggro use it a curve topper. And most times it was good but less scart than the Blood Barons, Reckoner, Strombreath Dragons, World Eaters and what not. He goes well in haste decks and with token support. And is excellent in midrange. But as far as being a multi-deck, multi-format allstar I am not seeing it yet. Maybe $20-$25 as the kitty settles.
But I think the biggest upside with be some of the uncommon. Searing blood was doing a lot of work at my shop last weekend, and bile blight got in there too.
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[Deck/Primer] Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Darth Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Casual Knights in Legacy
[Deck/Primer] Modern Knights
[Deck/Primer] Modern Ninjas
LEGACY
Legacy Knights Variants WG,WU,WR,WB,W,B
Soldiers Stompy W
NinjaStill UB
FOWless Merfolk UW
Aggro Elves G
MODERN
Modern Knights Variants WG,BR
Modern Ninjas Variants UB,UG,UW,UWR
Modern Kithkins WR,W
Then again, I think there is even less reason to open BNG currently then there was for DA, which also inflates single prices.
All that said, I think regular versions of Spirit will hover in the $4-5 range for awhile. Some standard white weenie decks are running them to counteract sphinx a bit. The foil may drop slightly as more product is opened, but then slowly climb back and level out a few months down the line, or next legacy season.