Pile B - 2 Nylea, God of the Hunt
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Caged Sun
1 FNM Tidehollow Sculler
1 Petrified Field
1 Hammer of Purphoros
It looks like $48 for $48 to me. All cards are NM except maybe the Petrified Field. What do you think?
What about this one guys? It looks more like $44 for $44.
If you plan on playing the foil pierce I'd say take it (which in turn leads to acquiring more of them). If you're like me and tend to stay away from foils I'd say go with pile B. Either way is good, it just depends on which route suits you better. I'd personally take B.
Plus moving high value common foils like pierce can be difficult unless you can find the niche players. But that's just from my personal experience (I sat on a moderately played foil one for awhile until T&T took it off my hands for ~$9 if I remember correctly)
Do you think that I could easily turn the playset around for 80$USD?
They are 18.99 mid in TCGplayer so not likely. I think with the majority around 15-17 you'd be lucky to get more than 60-65. While they could go up a little more (they are ridiculous against some decks) they could just as easily crash with a reprint like with Leyline of the Void.
My local walmart (Fremont, OH) completely changed their display this week after pulling everything last week so maybe it's a new presentation Walmart is setting up. I know they are stocked by middlemen but maybe it's a walmart decision? I doubt they are pulling the cards unless theft is rampant. I'd just give them a week or so and see if they're back.
The new enchantments could also be stirring people to revisit Enduring Ideal decks. Idk how viable the deck is in the current meta having never played it but having a bunch of silver bullets and a consistent tutor is usually pretty decent (see Pod).
Going on my own experience, Modern has driven prices as much as anything else. Before Modern Standard-only players could dump their staples to keep up with rotation, Extended wasn't a very popular format and not many cards made the cut to port into Legacy. With Modern coming about many of these midrange cards that were good in Standard but not in Legacy now find homes in decks. With many people scrambling to pick up these cards for this new format many cards spiked because they were suddenly playable again. Within these spikes WotC announces Modern Masters and many people held out on getting into the format in fear that their "investment" would be for naught and prices would plummet.
Then MMa is released. People start picking up staples again and the supply doesn't slow the demand driving prices on more sought after cards up even further. Now a few years after Modern's conception the prices still rise as WotC continues to push Modern as their "eternal format". With Modern (and its banned list) being very volatile the "best deck" keeps changing and cards across the board rise because of the rotating lists. Eventually, players who got into Modern early (and profited) now are sitting on cards worth 2-10x what they payed for them. Rather than cashing out they trade them into Legacy staples fueling another rise in prices, this time from Legacy/reserve list staples. And this brings us to today. Many players now realize they have another format to contend with beyond standard. Many players (especially grinders) need to have at least one deck for each format to stay current.
I don't honestly believe there is a "bubble" in magic. I think prices are rising because of the massive influx of new players especially to non rotating formats like Modern. While I've seen numerous threads like this it often boils down to two sides. On one side you have players who didn't/don't have the cards or funds to play in more expensive formats and you have players who have much invested in these formats. I have no doubt the cost of entry to Modern will come down but that will require some input from WotC otherwise prices will keep reaching absurd levels (heres looking at you fetches).
Players are paying these prices to get the cards so complaining they are out of your price range and that they should be reprinted is more of a personal problem. If you can't afford to get into a format WotC does have other, cheaper, formats. It all comes down to how much you want to invest in this game, just because you think $2500 is way to much for a deck doesn't mean that I'm not going to pay it.
A solid commander deck costs as much as a good standard one just about, which costs the same amount as a totally sweet RC car or a paintball gun or a set of paints and some canvas, or taking a short road trip. people spend money on their hobbies.
TL;DR
There are more MtG players and not enough cards to go around, especially in older formats. If you can't afford these more expensive cards maybe consider less expensive options.
30 for Edric seems pretty high but after watching Bahra tear up a few dailys with Noble Fish I think it was undervalued for quite some time. I imagine it should be closer to $15-20 IMO (where it currently sits on TCGplayer). With only 2 partial printings it still not a common card to come by.
Make a fun deck to troll him with. 30 Act of Agression, 10 Dark Ritual, and 20 Swamp. Just keep killing him with his own Blightsteel and I'm guessing he'll stop playing that deck. If he complains about an illegal deck remind him his deck is also illegal. It's one thing to play a competitive deck in a casual game but to play degenerate strategies just isn't fair or fun.
I mentioned it in the Modern Huge gainers thread awhile back but the Beta ones are also drying up. They went from ~24 to 60 in the last year. All that's left on TCGplayer is MP and HP ones.
Just to chime in I think Lightning Bolt and Sinkhole are the best commons. Brainstorm and Dark Ritual are good but need support to make them great. Bolt will always be 3 damage. But bolt is easily the best Modern common and possibly one of the best modern cards period. It's no surprise people are flocking to the pimped versions.
Modern is really blowing up! Any card, MD or SB in a popular decks has just taken off in price. For better or worse, this is where the money in the game is right now. More money to be made/lost but mainly made if you have foresight and the balls then in Legacy.
Keep in mind that some of this is likely short term gains, but still. WOW.
Are there even any "cheap" decks left? I mean it wasn't that long ago that splinter twin was $3-4
It's been like this pretty much since Modern became a thing. 2 years ago Tron was less than $300 as was Living end. I've been jumping on cheap decks hoping they go up and have had decent success so far.
How high do you guys think the WW manlands will reach? They are all underpriced IMO especially Wildwood and Ravine. They aren't a likely reprint and are quite cozy in their respective modern decks.
I think Huntmaster is another to watch. Transform cards were pretty meh except for Delver and Huntmaster and I doubt we'll see them again anytime soon. I think the foils are pretty decent spec targets.
How high do you guys think Spellskite can go? As many people have voiced there is a slim chance of more Phyrexian mana coming which makes something like Spellskite incredibly unique. It's colorless, a great sideboard answer, from a 3rd set, and in some cases a complete hoser to certain strategies. It seems like it's underpriced as is at ~$15
If you plan on playing the foil pierce I'd say take it (which in turn leads to acquiring more of them). If you're like me and tend to stay away from foils I'd say go with pile B. Either way is good, it just depends on which route suits you better. I'd personally take B.
Plus moving high value common foils like pierce can be difficult unless you can find the niche players. But that's just from my personal experience (I sat on a moderately played foil one for awhile until T&T took it off my hands for ~$9 if I remember correctly)
They are 18.99 mid in TCGplayer so not likely. I think with the majority around 15-17 you'd be lucky to get more than 60-65. While they could go up a little more (they are ridiculous against some decks) they could just as easily crash with a reprint like with Leyline of the Void.
Then MMa is released. People start picking up staples again and the supply doesn't slow the demand driving prices on more sought after cards up even further. Now a few years after Modern's conception the prices still rise as WotC continues to push Modern as their "eternal format". With Modern (and its banned list) being very volatile the "best deck" keeps changing and cards across the board rise because of the rotating lists. Eventually, players who got into Modern early (and profited) now are sitting on cards worth 2-10x what they payed for them. Rather than cashing out they trade them into Legacy staples fueling another rise in prices, this time from Legacy/reserve list staples. And this brings us to today. Many players now realize they have another format to contend with beyond standard. Many players (especially grinders) need to have at least one deck for each format to stay current.
I don't honestly believe there is a "bubble" in magic. I think prices are rising because of the massive influx of new players especially to non rotating formats like Modern. While I've seen numerous threads like this it often boils down to two sides. On one side you have players who didn't/don't have the cards or funds to play in more expensive formats and you have players who have much invested in these formats. I have no doubt the cost of entry to Modern will come down but that will require some input from WotC otherwise prices will keep reaching absurd levels (heres looking at you fetches).
Players are paying these prices to get the cards so complaining they are out of your price range and that they should be reprinted is more of a personal problem. If you can't afford to get into a format WotC does have other, cheaper, formats. It all comes down to how much you want to invest in this game, just because you think $2500 is way to much for a deck doesn't mean that I'm not going to pay it.
I think this is a great example:
TL;DR
There are more MtG players and not enough cards to go around, especially in older formats. If you can't afford these more expensive cards maybe consider less expensive options.
Just to chime in I think Lightning Bolt and Sinkhole are the best commons. Brainstorm and Dark Ritual are good but need support to make them great. Bolt will always be 3 damage. But bolt is easily the best Modern common and possibly one of the best modern cards period. It's no surprise people are flocking to the pimped versions.
It's been like this pretty much since Modern became a thing. 2 years ago Tron was less than $300 as was Living end. I've been jumping on cheap decks hoping they go up and have had decent success so far.
How high do you guys think the WW manlands will reach? They are all underpriced IMO especially Wildwood and Ravine. They aren't a likely reprint and are quite cozy in their respective modern decks.
I forgot all about Garruk. That's another decent one especially for foils.