Quote from Squirtle_Squad »Do you think the print sizes are affecting the price? The BFZ and SOI blocks are/were being printed into oblivion. I dont know about KTK block however.
KTK had a fairly large print run because it was drafted as 3x for 3 months and then as 2x for another 3 months. Additionally, tons of people cracked it for the Fetchlands.
Dragons of Tarkir only had 3 months as a 2x set and was never drafted as a 3x set. It's also the only large set ever printed where this is the case - Avacyn Restored, Gatecrash, and Rise of the Eldrazi (the other non-Fall Large sets) were all drafted by themselves as 3x for at least three months. It has only a few staple Eternal cards, so its draw from the Eternal crowd was much smaller as well.
On top of this, Collected Company has been the cornerstone of one of the most dominant strategies in Standard, and has made a splash in Modern. So it's one of the most expensive non-Land, non-Mythic Rare cards in recent memory.
All that said, the set is one of the few standalone sets in standard, so there's lower intra-block synergy than with BFZ and SOI cards, and it has only three months left in Standard, which is why everything is starting to creep downwards.
4 Nezumi Cutthroat
4 Chittering Rats
4 Ravenous Rats
4 Nezumi Graverobber
4 Throatslitter
4 Skullsnatcher
2 Ink Eyes, Servant of Oni
2 Patron of the Nezumi
2 Death Cloud
2 Marrow Gnawer
4 Nezumi Shortfang
24 Swamp
Drop down a cutthroat to have an easy ninjutsu target. Chittering and Ravenous rats also provide great ninjutsu targets with the card advantage they provide. Throatslitter provides removal. Ink eyes and Night eyes provide reanimation. The patron is useful for saccing ninjas (who you play via ninjutsu for cheaper than their price). Marrow Gnawer provides a good win condition that creates hard to block tokens for ninjutsu targets. Shortfang and Patron take advantage of the death cloud by making it twice as devastating. Note that this is a casual deck, and not intended to stand up to affinity.
Flames of the Blood Hand Vs. Torrent of Stone:
They both provide 4 damage. Flames of the blood hand hits players, torrent of stone hits creatures. The biggest difference is that Torrent is too pricey. At 4, with a splice cost that is nearly impossible to manage with only 8 other arcane spells and 12 other effects that sac your own lands, there is pretty much no situation under which you could cast it. Plus it can't sac the God's eye, which makes it even weaker. Being able to remove a blocker is great, but Flames takes a sizeable chunk out of the opposition's life and can't be stopped. It can also provide card advantage/keep them in death range by trumping their lifegain.
Lava Spike vs. Frostling:
Originally I was all for frostling, back when it could hit creatures and players. Hitting players is vital to this deck, as the board position doesn't matter if they're already dead. And with the overall toughnesses in this block being higher (especially with the inclusion of bushido), it becomes harder to kill things with fanatic-style creatures. And when you can't hit a player, that means his effect goes to waste. Plus Lava Spike is arcane, meaning glacial ray can splice onto it for additional damage, which is always a plus.
Cohort+1 Mountain Vs. Yamabushi's+2 FotBH:
Bascially if it comes down to a situational creature or versatile burn, I'll go with the burn. I know you already run 2, but a full set of four gives you a very good way to deal with pesky samurai or spirits, or launches 3 at the head in a pinch. Cohorts on the other hand, can go turns at a time not attacking and then just rolls over when the opposition drops a Samurai of the pale curtain. And while another land would probably be nice (and I may end up dropping 1-2 more 3 cost burn spells for mountains) I'm going to try for the massive burn strategy right now.
Genju
Flames of the Blood Hand
Yamabushi's Flame
Glacial Ray
Crack the earth
Lava Spike
which is 23 (only running 3 genju). 23 spells + 22 lands = 15 spaces for creatures. So a 1 in 4 chance of drawing a creature spell each turn. So out of your starting 7 cards plus your first turn draw you can expect 2 creatures. If you consider one of those is the cohort, that means that there is only one other creature to have him attack, and it could be as many as 4 turns before you draw anther creature. A 2/2 that attacks once and then does nothing for 3 turns is pretty bad in my book. I'd much rather run something that has synergy with the rest of the deck for my slots: Avalanchers, Zo-Zu (3), Raiders, Blizzard Herders. So yes, this deck is Akki Ponza/Burn I guess, but that's the way I like it.