"Two mechanics carried forward from the earlier sets in Masques block"
Prophecy also had several Rebels and Mercenaries, including the Informers.
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- KnickM
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Member for 8 years, 10 months, and 7 days
Last active Fri, Apr, 20 2018 19:57:27
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Tabernacle is the new Black ... Lotus.
It's way more playable, and an essential part of a winning Legacy deck that will never be reprinted. I wish that I could be surprised, but this is the world in which we live.
I have always loved Chaos Orb, and I've wanted one forever. That aside, I'm always interested in big deals going down - do tell us how it goes. Is it real? Does the seller know what he's got? Does he name a price that's firm that leaves you shaken and wondering who would part with that much money for a simple (yet gorgeous) piece of cardboard? These are the stories of our people, the tales swapped over the fire. Of COURSE you should tell us what happens.
Hi ekgregory, and welcome to MTGS!
So, first things first. Thank you for posting pictures. I can't verify the veracity of the Orb over the internet - for a card like this, you're going to want to physically inspect it with a loupe, and maybe take it to a trusted dealer. As much as I'd love to be able to authenticate remotely, there's just too much wiggle room.
Second thing, yeah, those do look like Alpha corners.
Third thing: While Chaos Orb is kind of a "random" card, it is quite good in 93/94, as it's gotten format-specific errata to skip the flipping and simply blow up any card. So there is real demand for it again, and it's probably seeing more play than it ever did back in the day. It's also quite iconic (and strikingly illustrated).
Fourth thing: the Reserve list. WOTC has promised that they will never ever print Chaos Orb (among other cards) again. That's led to some serious market-cornering and price-gouging by people who've thought "Well, I can buy up ALL of the copies of this card, and charge whatever I want". UL Chaos Orbs are currently $500 on TCGp, so if this is an Alpha and not a damaged Beta, you're going to be looking at a cool grand, easy.
More like $60 to $100, but yes, that smells of a buyout. Hazoret has started to show up in Modern and Legacy as well, so someone probably decided to try to bump the price. This has been happening to a lot of Inventions; it hasn't really happened with Invocations but it was really only a matter of time.
Plus, there's the joke.
It'll fetch a higher value, but from a narrower market. You'll have to find a misprint collector (not too hard to do via eBay or Facebook), which makes it slightly dicier than just jamming it into your trade binder. Be aware that some misprint collectors (such as yours truly) won't touch security seal error cards. Have patience, and you'll be able to move it.
There is a market (see what I was just saying to the other guy about misprints), but be aware that since QA was pretty atrocious back in Ice Age, off-center cards are not terribly rare. So you're not looking at your new college fund.
Again, I don't have a crystal ball nor a scrying glass. I would say "Yes, it is too early for price specs". A lot depends on what's printed into Standard with all these splashy legends.
Also, real life is totally kicking my ass right now, making me less likely to speculate.
Well, currently you're playing casual. And it seems that you're having fun
I'd hold off, at the moment, on buying into a competitive format (unless you want to get one of the Standard Challenge decks - the Hazoret/Chandra one seems good, and the rest are actually pretty decent as well). Hit up Gatherer and find cards that will go in the decks you have, or that might work with decks you are thinking about. "I wonder if there's a card that lets me mill my opponents out? Oh geez, there're a million!" Buy singles that interest you. Hold on to all your duals for the moment. When you decide that it's time for a new deck, you can trade one or two against a whole deck. Or against the bones of half-a-dozen different decks.
Personally, I'd advise strongly against Modern Masters '13. It was an AMAZING draft environment; I loved it to death, and it has some awesometastic cards. But the box cost just isn't there in value when you crack it. Modern Masters '17 is a much better entry point to Modern, since it has the fetch lands at rare and boxes can be had for significantly less than MM13 boxes.
Hi there RapidWombat; and welcome to MTGS. I'm sorry that you're here under such painful circumstances, but I see that you are pretty excited about where those circumstances have led you.
WarMachinePrime has some pretty good advice: pick a format, and pick a deck. Decide what you want to play, then build that deck. Revised duals are pretty sweet things to have, but they aren't a deck by themselves. It may not make strict financial sense to trade them for Standard or Modern cards, but if they're your only currency then you'll need to spend them, at least some of them.
Once you decide on a format and a deck, then we can give more tailored advice about what to pick up and how to do so.
Now that DFCs are a thing, it's less impossible than it was before. I still don't think that it's a good move - even the DFCs have "normal" card backs (in the form of checklist cards).
MTG would not be the first card game to change the back. VTES and L5R both went through back changes. VTES was entirely casual, however, and L5R had no "Legacy" format - tournaments were effectively "standard" only.
I'd say that it's fairly common? Maybe not some in every box, but there are widespread accounts of them happening. I have a couple that I just picked up incidentally. They're kinda lame. Also, when I say "common", I mean that the ones that I've seen are all random commons, in addition to it being widespread.
Correct - that's why I didn't post a code - there was none. You either got it or you didn't.
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