This week was a busy one in the world of Magic finance, mostly thanks to Commander Masters. Oddly, one of the biggest gainers of the week was the Lord of the Rings rare Sauron's Ransom which shot up more than 200% to over $7. The mini-Fact or Fiction (or upgraded Divination, depending on who you ask) has started showing up in control decks in both Modern and Legacy, leading to the price increase. Whether Sauron's Ransom continues to see play has been hotly debated. Combine this with the fact that we know more Lord of the Rings will be printed this fall, I'd lean towards digging any copies you happen to have from your bulk and trying to move them while they are expensive. Its long-term future is unclear.

Meanwhile the Commander Masters precons are having a huge impact on card prices. More specifically, the cards that were missing from the Commander Masters precons are shooting up in price. The clearest example of this are the five-color legendary Slivers that weren't reprinted in the Sliver precon. The First Sliver shot up 73% to $45, Sliver Legion (Secret Lair Extra Life 2022 - Said) 76% to $41 and the Sliver land Sliver Hive jumped a massive 204% to $38. The biggest lesson here is likely to not expect too much from Commander precons - even expensive ones. We've known for months that there would be a Sliver precon, but buying cards like Sliver Legion (Secret Lair Extra Life 2022 - Said) and Sliver Hive felt risky because they could show up in the premium-priced precon. Well, it turns out that precons that sell for $80 or even $140 look a lot like precons that sell for $25 or $40, with both having very few high end cards. Next time this happens, it seems like the smart move is to buy the expensive upgrades early because the odds that Wizards actually reprints them in the decks is pretty low. 

The same is mostly true of various Eldrazi which are obvious upgrades for the Zhulodok, Void Gorger deck. Emrakul, the Promised End nearly doubled in price to $75, Void Winnower crept up 14% to $11, and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre gained 12% to just under $30. The Emrakul spike is especially problematic because the 13-drop does see some play in Pioneer and Modern, causing the $75 price tag to impact a lot of players. While selling now while prices are high makes sense, exactly where Wizards can reprint Emrakul, the Promised End is unclear. If you think you might need copies to play with, I'd probably hold because little Emrakul might be expensive for quite a while.