Weekly Update: August 23
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Duel Decks: Zendikar vs Eldrazi |
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The full decklists for Duel Decks: Zendikar vs Eldrazi were spoiled this week. We received 5 new cards from Battle for Zendikar which revealed three new mechanics: Ingest, Awaken, and Devoid. Landfall is also confirmed to be making a comeback this fall. Continuing the trend in recent supplemental products, the Duel Deck is packed with value including $14 It That Betrays, $4 Avenger of Zendikar, $7 Primal Command, and $4 Stirring Wildwood. Duel Decks: Zendikar vs Eldrazi releases August 28 for an MSRP of $19.99. Be sure to check out our Duel Decks: Zendikar vs Eldrazi Preview Article for the more details. You can pre-order the new Duel Deck on Amazon.com for 19.50. Read more
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Vancouver Mulligan Incoming |
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The new mulligan rule trialed at Pro Tour: Vancouver will be effective starting with BFZ prereleases. If you don't remember, the new rule basically states that any player who mulliganed can Scry 1 after mulligans are resolved. Hopefully this creates less non-games where someone mulligans into oblivion. Read more
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Budget Magic: $94 (50 tix) Modern Mono-White Emeria Control |
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Looking for something new to play in Modern? How about blinking and reanimating your way through the format with Emeria Control?Read more
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Finance Update w/ Saffron Olive |
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This past week might end up being the least exciting and least active for MTG finance so far in 2015. We're in the doldrums of summer, BFZ spoilers are still a week away from really starting (with a Pax Panel next Saturday night at 7:30 EST), and the most important tournaments of the weekened are Legacy and Vintage, which I love to watch, but don't typically drive financial markets. This adds up for a slow week, but don't worry &emdash; things will be picking up shortly and we'll be back to business as usual.
Evolutionary Elves
The biggest news this week is Evolutionary Leap (up 14 percent in the last day to $2.38) and Cloudstone Curio (up 211 percent to $17.99) which shot up in response to CVM and friends "breaking the Modern format" with a turn two combo Elves deck. While Cloudstone Curio has been comboing off in various Elves build for years now, the big improvement in this build is Evolutionary Leap as a combo piece. If you're familiar with Legacy Elves, you'll know the main way the deck generates infinite (or nearly infinite) mana is by combining Heritage Druid with Nettle Sentinel. The problem is you need to keep drawing and casting more Elves to keep this chain unbroken. In Legacy, this is typically done with the banned-in-Modern Glimpse of Nature (as well as Wirewood Symbiote). CVM and friends figured out that Evolutionary Leap combined with a bunch of one-mana Elves can do a pretty good Glimpse of Nature impression. You play an Elf, untap two Nettle Sentinels, make three green mana with Heritage Druid, sac the elf you just played to Evolutionary Leap, get another cheap Elf, rinse and repeat. Since each Heritage Druid activation adds three mana, and activating Evolutionary Leap plus casting an one mana Elf only costs two, you actually net one mana through this process. Eventually you generate 15 mana and your Evolutionary Leap hits your one-of Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and boom &emdash; you have a turn two Emrakul.
Whether or not this Elves build is really format breaking remains to be seen, but people are going to build it because hardcasting Emrakul on turn two is just too much for people to resist. The downside of Evolutionary Leap in the long term is that it seems unlikely to have as wide of an appeal as Collected Company. Where as CoCo is good enough for Modern just by grabbing random value creatures and adding eight power to the board at instant speed, Evolutionary Leap seems tricky to use as a value card which might limit its appeal and price.
Movers and Shakers
In other news, Anger of the Gods ticked up 15 percent while Temple of Epiphany dropped 25 percent. Both cards are rotating from Standard in a little over a month, but Anger of the Gods appears to have more Modern potential at the moment. Magic Origins is continuing its steady decline as supply increases. While these are small changes, underplayed mythics are losing between 5 and 10 percent per week which adds up to significant losses in the long run. MTGO redemption of Magic Origins starts on Wednesday and the supply of the set will only increase further as redemption is a pretty good deal at the moment. The current retail price of a complete paper set of Magic Origins is just under $300, while you can redeem a set from Magic Online for about $125. In fact, the six walkers (five flip and one Hangarback) retail for more than it costs to redeem the complete set. If you were thinking of buying playsets of these cards for your Standard collection, I would definitely encourage you to check out redemption.
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Can't Miss Articles |
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Mythic Investments: Part Two - The Three Year Plan |
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@SaffronOlive concludes his research on mythic rares and discusses his three year plan - a low-work, long-term MTG investment strategy. Read more
The Complete History of Magic Online |
Magic Math - Magic Origins Edition |
From 1999 to 2015, relive the entire history of Magic Online. Read more |
Jake Stiles calculates the odds on some Magic Origins cards Read more |
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Cuddly Soft Combo #3 |
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Looking for a way to punish your enemies and pump your own creature? Check this out!Read more
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Magic Origins Clash Pack Giveaway |
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There's less than 24 hours to enter for your chance to win a Magic Origins Clash Pack. What are you waiting for? GO GO! Contest closes August 24. Enter Now
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Tournament Center |
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- Joseph Herrera took down SCG Modern Open Charlotte (modern) with Jund.
- Bob Huang took down 2015 Eternal Weekend Legacy Championship (legacy) with Grixis Delver.
- Brian Kelly took down 2015 Eternal Weekend Vintage Championship (vintage) with Oath.
- Nicholas Charland took down SCG Standard Premier IQ Charlotte (standard) with Abzan Rally.
- Chris VanMeter took down SCG Legacy Premier IQ Charlotte (legacy) with Omni-Tell.
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#Trending Cards |
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The five most viewed cards on MTGGoldfish this past week were:
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From the Vault: Angels |
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From the Vault: Angels was released this week. If you couldn't score one from your LGS, you can pick them up on eBay for about $65. If you need some shiny Angels, this is still a good deal even with the markup since the Angels inside are worth about $105. Read more