Maybe there's no uber-expensive deck at the moment, but there doesn't seem to be any kind of cheap deck like RDW either.
Part of the issue there is the fact a mono colored T1 deck isn't better than a deck with 2 colors, and therefore your manabase considerations drive up the price of your deck by $100-$150. While MB Zombies is (sort of) a thing, it isn't nearly as good or flexible as a B/R or B/G.
But that's the reality of the current meta. RTR is multicolored by design.
A lot of the cards you mentioned are the gold cards from the last block, and they were mostly mythics and rares. Since less is being opened now and demand is high, price goes up. So, back to the OP - I would say the increase you are seeing is more to do with the multicolor-dominant meta and the lower availability of multicolor mythics.
Mythic Bant was about 1300 to build off SCG (Remember when BSA was 50, and every decent planeswalker was the cost of an expensive dinner for two?)
Superfriends was 1100
Even outside of JTMS, jund with lotus cobras and 8 fetches was pretty costly during that standard season.
I honestly don't know how anyone stays current in standard. It's not the decks that are expensive, it's the constant switching of decks. Sometimes you get lucky and want to play a 250 dollar burn deck. Other times, the best metagame choice for one event is a 1000 dollar UB Control deck.
Oh, it won SCG and now everyone is sideboarded against it? Time to switch to the esper version and spend even more money.
Oh, that won states? Time to switch to Jund...
I think that the previous metas have locked people into this kind of thought process, that there is ONE DECK above all others that just wins. In the past, that was largely the case (Faeires, Jund, Caw-Blade, Delver), but I think the current meta is balanced to the point that really any T1 deck played well can win. Chasing the winning deck one week to the next doesn't really work here.
I'm probably going to regret saying this but: I think Mythic Bant was an outlier. I don't see a standard deck ever being THAT expensive again.
I highly recommend reading MaRo's Tumblr posts. He's answered a lot of questions about this lately and is offering as much honest insight as he can. Basically, he's said out-right this product was far more popular than they imagined, and that the print run was estimated many months ago.
While true, their product estimation was off, still a nuisance. Not everyone is going to think about what goes into these products (card selection, market research, production cost estimation, MSRP valuation etc ad infinium) so you get some sore feelings from players, which isn't good. Obviously you can't please everyone, but this seemed more bad than good in the end.
Just my opinion as a store employee, not an end user. Interpret as you will.
Man, this product was a real nuisance in the end. The stories just in this thread alone should give WotC pause before doing something like this again.
For our store, we were to receive 5. I didn't take any preorders before I knew everything about the product, and only then would I set a price, which was $149. I had a store employee that wanted to buy it at MSRP (like I do for FTV), but due to the limited quantity, I said no.
I have an EDH League where players earn points, similar to Sheldon's Armada Games setup. I track lifetime points, so I said that EDH players would be given first option, based on their lifetime points. I only had two takers from that crowd, so I had 3 for the general public. Only one other person signed up, so I had two to sell outright on Friday. They were gone by 5pm. I had a few people ask me after that, and they were disappointed at themselves for not signing up.
tl,dr; I set a reasonable price after all was known, and I sold out pretty quick. I feel I struck a fair balance between supporting local players and preventing speculators from snapping them up.
Wow, those prices seem... ... reasonable? Command Tower seems like a deal. Scroll Rack is a bit on the high side. Retainers is high, but that kinda gets a pass for being so rare.
Obv you'd want the whole thing for $75... but if you just want one or two this seems not hateful.
Is this the first time Wizards has asked store owners to fill out a special form for Buy-a-box promos?
No. In the past (pre-M12) you had to sign up for it as a promo. They changed it to being tied to the prerelease with Scars of Mirrodin. I guess some stores that don't have space for prereleases complained about it, and they switched it back to being a sign-up.
There's actually a bit more to this - I do sanctioning for a FLGS, and I missed on the BaBs too. Here's why:
When sanctioning, events are broken out into a few different categories: Magic is one, D&D is another, WPN promotional material is another, etc. In the past, BaBs were something you had to sign up for, and was under the WPN promo tag. WPN promos are typically special stuff, and you don't often look at what is available. However, last year, WotC made the decision to tie the BaBs directly to prerelease participation; if you signed up for prereleases, you were automatically enrolled in BaB. That was the case for Scars block, as well as M13.
Well, they changed it back to a separate sanctioning. Under the WPN promos. Where you rarely look. And didn't tell anyone (well that might not be true, but I certainly don't remember seeing anything about it).
So I think a lot of stores thought that prerelease registration would enroll them in BaB this time round, only to be caught off guard when it didn't.
For my store, I considered this to be a mistake on our part, and I am now actively trading to get those cards for those that should have received it. We are an Advanced store, so that means 30 promos. One of my local players is a prolific trader, and he was able to get 20 of them for me already. Obviously that doesn't cover all of them, so I have given the choice of a promo or $10 in store credit.
I'm not happy at WotC for this, but as it was ultimately an oversight on my part, I have to take it on the chin.
When I was keeping everything for Modern forward, I would store a playset or two of each common and uncommon in a penny sleeve, and then a couple extra unsleeved. All of those would go into a 5000 ct box in collector number order by set. Rares and mythics would go in a binder in order as well. Typically, a 5000 ct was enough to store a complete block with a core set. Anything extra went to a trade binder or a bulk box to take to a store. if I took a playset out of the penny sleeve for a deck, I'd take one of the extras, turn it upside down and put it back as a place holder.
Yes, it was time-consuming. And I had a lot of boxes. But I could always find what I needed for a deck.
What do you do if the reverse happens? Say I get all of the Uncommons from Ctorg's packs in my Rare slot?
Hopefully, your LGS is cool and lets you trade it for a fresh pack. Otherwise, you are likely out of luck.
WotC might have a policy for this, but the potential for abuse makes it unlikely.
Another odd thing I've seen is foils running back to back in packs. Like, out of a single column, you'd get 4 packs in a row with foils. That may just be variance, but I've never seen it before.
Yea, this has actually happened quite a bit. Friend of mine had 18 rares in a fat pack. There have also been way more miscut and smeared cards then I have ever seen before.
My theory is they backed off quality control a little to get M13 out the door, so they could get RTR on press ASAP. I expect demand to exceed supply come October.
suppose my opponent and I are each at 5 life, and I have a stuffy doll, he has 2 6/6 dungrove elders. If he attacks with both, and I block one with the doll, will I die before my opponent gets the damage from stuffy doll resolving?
You would die first. The 'Whenever' in stuffy doll indicates a triggered ability, not a replacement effect. So combat damage is done, the trigger goes on the stack, and then the game ends because you are at 0 or less life.
Nope. It's got a collector number of 9/12, which would make it the September promo.
Hey, nice spot on the collector number. I was a little worried that it was some kind of special thing, since the picture makes it look like it was bundled with the M13 promo.
Huh... looks like it actually is in the M13 promo pack. I wonder how that happened.
Part of the issue there is the fact a mono colored T1 deck isn't better than a deck with 2 colors, and therefore your manabase considerations drive up the price of your deck by $100-$150. While MB Zombies is (sort of) a thing, it isn't nearly as good or flexible as a B/R or B/G.
But that's the reality of the current meta. RTR is multicolored by design.
A lot of the cards you mentioned are the gold cards from the last block, and they were mostly mythics and rares. Since less is being opened now and demand is high, price goes up. So, back to the OP - I would say the increase you are seeing is more to do with the multicolor-dominant meta and the lower availability of multicolor mythics.
I think that the previous metas have locked people into this kind of thought process, that there is ONE DECK above all others that just wins. In the past, that was largely the case (Faeires, Jund, Caw-Blade, Delver), but I think the current meta is balanced to the point that really any T1 deck played well can win. Chasing the winning deck one week to the next doesn't really work here.
I'm probably going to regret saying this but: I think Mythic Bant was an outlier. I don't see a standard deck ever being THAT expensive again.
While true, their product estimation was off, still a nuisance. Not everyone is going to think about what goes into these products (card selection, market research, production cost estimation, MSRP valuation etc ad infinium) so you get some sore feelings from players, which isn't good. Obviously you can't please everyone, but this seemed more bad than good in the end.
Just my opinion as a store employee, not an end user. Interpret as you will.
For our store, we were to receive 5. I didn't take any preorders before I knew everything about the product, and only then would I set a price, which was $149. I had a store employee that wanted to buy it at MSRP (like I do for FTV), but due to the limited quantity, I said no.
I have an EDH League where players earn points, similar to Sheldon's Armada Games setup. I track lifetime points, so I said that EDH players would be given first option, based on their lifetime points. I only had two takers from that crowd, so I had 3 for the general public. Only one other person signed up, so I had two to sell outright on Friday. They were gone by 5pm. I had a few people ask me after that, and they were disappointed at themselves for not signing up.
tl,dr; I set a reasonable price after all was known, and I sold out pretty quick. I feel I struck a fair balance between supporting local players and preventing speculators from snapping them up.
Is it hard to turn? Maybe it will loosen up with use? Or is it just flimsy?
Possible. Or they forgot to sign up for it thru WPN. Sucks either way.
Wow, those prices seem... ... reasonable? Command Tower seems like a deal. Scroll Rack is a bit on the high side. Retainers is high, but that kinda gets a pass for being so rare.
Obv you'd want the whole thing for $75... but if you just want one or two this seems not hateful.
No. In the past (pre-M12) you had to sign up for it as a promo. They changed it to being tied to the prerelease with Scars of Mirrodin. I guess some stores that don't have space for prereleases complained about it, and they switched it back to being a sign-up.
When sanctioning, events are broken out into a few different categories: Magic is one, D&D is another, WPN promotional material is another, etc. In the past, BaBs were something you had to sign up for, and was under the WPN promo tag. WPN promos are typically special stuff, and you don't often look at what is available. However, last year, WotC made the decision to tie the BaBs directly to prerelease participation; if you signed up for prereleases, you were automatically enrolled in BaB. That was the case for Scars block, as well as M13.
Well, they changed it back to a separate sanctioning. Under the WPN promos. Where you rarely look. And didn't tell anyone (well that might not be true, but I certainly don't remember seeing anything about it).
So I think a lot of stores thought that prerelease registration would enroll them in BaB this time round, only to be caught off guard when it didn't.
For my store, I considered this to be a mistake on our part, and I am now actively trading to get those cards for those that should have received it. We are an Advanced store, so that means 30 promos. One of my local players is a prolific trader, and he was able to get 20 of them for me already. Obviously that doesn't cover all of them, so I have given the choice of a promo or $10 in store credit.
I'm not happy at WotC for this, but as it was ultimately an oversight on my part, I have to take it on the chin.
Yes, it was time-consuming. And I had a lot of boxes. But I could always find what I needed for a deck.
Hopefully, your LGS is cool and lets you trade it for a fresh pack. Otherwise, you are likely out of luck.
WotC might have a policy for this, but the potential for abuse makes it unlikely.
Another odd thing I've seen is foils running back to back in packs. Like, out of a single column, you'd get 4 packs in a row with foils. That may just be variance, but I've never seen it before.
My theory is they backed off quality control a little to get M13 out the door, so they could get RTR on press ASAP. I expect demand to exceed supply come October.
You would die first. The 'Whenever' in stuffy doll indicates a triggered ability, not a replacement effect. So combat damage is done, the trigger goes on the stack, and then the game ends because you are at 0 or less life.
Hey, nice spot on the collector number. I was a little worried that it was some kind of special thing, since the picture makes it look like it was bundled with the M13 promo.
Huh... looks like it actually is in the M13 promo pack. I wonder how that happened.