MTG Salvation

Even as an April Fool's joke, misrepresenting prices is stupid and irresponsible. You should never screw with other people's money.

Agree wholeheartedly. My biggest complaint too was the obsessive need to comment on EVERY. SINGLE. CARD. Not every card needed or warranted it, so skimming through dozens of comments that offered little insight made it harder to find real bits of useful information. And the puns, the stupid puns...

Rai used to be the person that wrote this article.

If you're comparing BFZ to Dragon's Maze then do so. CALLING BFZ Dragon's Maze is neither clever or good writing, for one thing because it can initially lead to confusion.

People buy single packs from sets with no Masterpiece Series in them anyway.

I'm not certain that putting them 1 per box (1:36 packs) would be a bad thing. Wizards makes these in an effort to sell more packs, we get that, and frankly I have no problem with a company trying to sell more of their product. However, at the rate of 1 per every 4 boxes, the chances of getting one is so small it's not going to increase my expenditure. I'm 41 years old, and have never once in my life bought a lottery ticket. I'm not opposed to the lottery or gambling in general, I just know my odds are so small I feel it's not worth it. Similarly, the Masterworks Series will not make me buy more product, b/c I know the odds are so stacked against me.

Conversely, if their insertion were 1 per box, I'd be much more inclined to open another pack, or spring for another box. Granted, their value would be lessened (currently they're preordering at $40 for the Gearhulks, and they escalate from $50-$200 (or even $250 for the Vault)), so if they were inserted at 1 per box, they may go for $20-$100 (I'm just estimating prices here, but the point is they'd be markedly cheaper). I'd be much more inclined to buy more product, even if the prize "payout" were less, because I know every box was a "winner".

Masterpiece Series, not Collection.

"Ghostly Prison is an uncommon that is always in demand and never cheap." "Never" lasting precisely 2 days after release, as they are all over TCGP for less than $2.50 shipped.

Grenzo is fantastic in a Krenko EDH deck, or in a Boros based token deck.

Ouch, wrong on 5 out of 6 Cards to Watch last week.

If we're picking nits, Descent of Dragons is actually Descent of the Dragons. As it's currently listed, the card won't pop up when it's hovered over.

So much for "Tokens worth something are a nice bonus." in EMA. As of Monday morning all tokens can be had for 65 cents or less.

Re: your comment about Imperious Perfect "This uncommon is solid. It is good to see valuable uncommons." is incorrect, because the card got an upshift in rarity. When we're talking about $10 MSRP packs, the card that takes up a precious rare slot is important, and therefore this is is a disappointing reprint, at the Rare level. A card just under $3 is fine at the UC level, but at Rare is a disappointment to just about anyone that opens it, less it filled a critical spot in Limited.

Re: your comment on Regal Force "This only increased demand, not much to decrease price.", this is wildly incorrect. On May 23rd, Eventide copies were $14.79 TCG mid, and on release date EMA copies were sub $7. I would consider a drop of 55% a significant drop in price.
This is after the fact, considering the date in which you wrote your summary, but 5 days after release there are 33 different sellers that have them priced below $5, including the cost to ship them, while TCG Mid has them at $5.73, a 61% drop in price.

Is the comment for Maze of Ith supposed to say "cheaper" instead of keeper?

Also, FYI, in the Ichorid comment, the word you're looking for is "dregs", not "dreads".

Finally, why are cards down to $2 even on the list? Considering the MSRP of an EMA pack is 2.5x that of a typical pack, shouldn't the threshold be $5?

Lots of errors in your first attempt to analyze EMA.

I like how in "Cards to Watch" and "Cards to Avoid" you're providing updates for the previous week's recommendations. No one is correct all the time, and it's nice that you're holding yourself accountable, for lack of a better term. Please continue doing this.

Absolutely. Commander's Sphere may cost 1 more, but it ETB untapped so neither will be used until T3, Sphere GUARANTEES it taps for the colors you need whereas the Grafstone only has a chance to give you the color you need (esp as early as T3 when your GY likely has few cards in it), AND the Sphere can draw you a card without even having to tap it, so you can extract mana from it before the sac. IDK any serious or even semi-serious EDH player that would run a Grafstone over a Sphere, and to be honest I don't even see Sphere played all that much...

To say it will see play in "almost every" Commander deck makes me question how much the author knows about the format. I've got 10 multicolor decks currently, with numbers 11 and 12 under construction, and the Grafstone isn't going anywhere near any of them.

Small reminder to change the header from "tracking nine sets" to eight, and remove the reference to it now that you've ceased reporting on Modern Masters.