FNM Report 2-24-2012

~
Happy Monday MTG peeps,

It is not very often that we stay for the full evening of Friday Night Magic as we unfortunately have some other obligations to attend to. Typically, we play the first two or perhaps three matches at our local WPN Games store, OMG! Games and Collectibles here in Barrie, Ontario and then have to take off. This last Friday was however an exception and we stayed until the bitter (approximately midnight) and took in the full 5 rounds of matches slinging our favourite new Magic the Gathering cards in our favourite format, standard constructed.

We are rather pleased that we did stay longer as not only did we finally get our paws on a Friday Night Magic foil promo card (this month is Despise) but also did not too badly in our matches against some of the club's very best players. We also collected an additional 15 Planeswalker Points for the evening. We went on to 5th place in a field of 32 players with 1 match loss and 4 wins with our W/B Token Deck.

~
Our first match was against David N who won rather handily in two games with an Esper Control build. In both games, we were just trying to catch up after a series of counter spells. Having our 'anthem' enchantments blown up really did not help our cause at all either.

The second match was against Zach K, a new player who had just started playing. Zach was playing a Red Deck wins featuring Grim Lavamancer, Chandra's Phoenix, Stormblood Berserker, Volt Charge, Shrine of Burning Rage, andIncinerate. We were able to get past all the burn and field a small army of pumped up Human tokens thanks to Increasing Devotion which we also were able to cast again with flashback.

The third match, against Dan L was rather interesting. Dan is a great player and we love the home-brews he brings to game with. Unfortunately we can't really recall very well what he was playing but do think that after Dan fine tunes it, great things may be expected.

In the fourth match, we were pitted against Matt S who also fielded an Esper Control build. We did take the match in two but it was a very tight race in both games - the second one especially. We took the second game after we were able to stick four anthems (2 Intangible Virtues and 2 Honor of the Pures) in play followed by an Increasing Devotion.

For the fifth and last match, we were paired with Taylor W who had brought along a Mono-Green Aggro build featuring solid Mana-ramp, Young Wolf, Strangleroot Geist, Thrun, the Last Troll, and Vorapede. Taylor had just put the deck together earlier in the day and (thankfully) did not have an opportunity to tweak it against the ever evolving metagame. Had there been some Overrun trample spells in the mix we seriously think we would not have won.

Anwwhoos -stay tuned to MTG Realm - tomorrow, wel'll give a run down of the Esper Control archetype which are doing rather nicely at most casual and competitive circles.
~

Also of note - Great news from MTG Mint Card - They have restocked singles on one of our favourite recent sets - CONFLUX ! This is the set which brought you such notable cards as Noble Hierarch, Knight of the Reliquary, Progenitus among others. Click on over before they sell out.
~

Dark Ascension Wallpapers

~
Happy Friday MTG Peeps,

It's been a while since we provided a round-up of the excellent wallpapers that Wizards of the Coast typically provide each Friday on the Mothership. Whether you want to rock out your work desktop, lap top, iPhone, iPad or other mobile device, nothing says cool more than a Magic the Gathering card art pimping that virtual space. Recently, the WoTc have started providing 851 x 315 px images for your Facebook covers as well. Make sure you drop by the Daily MTG Wallpaper of the Week archive and check these out.

For the last set, check out previous post providing links on some Innistrad Wallpapers. For now, here's the latest Magic the Gathering wallpaper featuring sweet Dark Ascension arts.

Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Illustrated by Jana Schirmer & Johannes Voss

2560x1600
1920x1080
1280x960
640x960 (iPhone)
1024x1024 (iPad)
851x315 (FB Cover)
~

Altar of the Lost
illustrated by Daarken

2560x1600
1920x1080
1280x960
640x960 (iPhone)
1024x1024 (iPad)
851x315 (FB Cover)
~

Havengul Lich
illustrated by James Ryman

2560x1600
1920x1080
1280x960
640x960 (iPhone)
1024x1024 (iPad)
851x315 (FB Cover)
~

Scorch the Fields
illustrated by Jaime Jones

1024x768
1280x960
1280x1024
2560x1600
640x960 (iPhone)
~

Bone to Ash
illustrated by Clint Cearley

1024x768
1280x960
1280x1024
2560x1600
640x960 (unavailable?)
~

Helvault
illustrated by Jaime Jones

1024x768
1280x960
1280x1024
2560x1600
640x960 (iPhone)
~

Stromkirk Captain
illustrated by Jana Schirmer & Johannes Voss

1024x768
1280x960
1280x1024
2560x1600
640x960 (iPhone)

~
Winter's almost over, don't be a shut in - get out to your local game store. We'll be kicking butt and taking names (yah right) at OMG! Games & Collectibles here in Barrie, Ontario tonight at Friday Night Magic.
~

Token Defence

~
Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

For today's post, we wanted to yatter about what Magic the Gathering players may want to consider for inclusion in their standard constructed sideboards. More specifically, this post is really just us here at MTG Realm thinking aloud about what to do about the gaining popularity (at least in some casual / FNM circles) of white weenie or token-based decks.

Between Gather the Townsfolk / Increasing Devotion, Lingering Souls / Midnight Haunting, and other token generating spells, the skies (and ground) is anticipated to be filled with tokens. There will be Spirit, Human, Vampire, Wolf and Zombie tokens aplenty but players are likely to favour white based builds featuring tokens hoping to cash in on the double anthem effects of Intangible Virtue and Honor of the Pure. Sure, Sorin's first minus ability provides an unmoveable anthem effect curtesy of the emblem but the likely mix will be a black splash in an otherwise white deck.


Now, for the Haterade . . .

How to deal with this token mess is unpleasant, and even more so should they have mana open to activate the lifelink / deathtouch ability on their Vault of the Archangel. One way to deal with this that is already starting to see play is the use of Ratchet Bomb which will kill all tokens on the turn it comes down or Elesh Norn which will kill off anything they have with two toughness or less. Ms. Norn's buddy is the Innistrad curse, Curse of Death's Hold which may have a wider appeal as the same effect is not attached to a fragile and easily removed body.

Now since we're casual Magic the Gathering players here at MTG Realm, we will not baulk or take pause to consider some other fine and under appreciated cards to battle the token menance. Currently we're considering Choking Fumes to throw negative counters on their en masse alpha swing. Likewise, Marrow Shards and Corrosive Gale may prove of use. What we would really like to brew up is a strong effect with Arm with Aether while attempting to sneak several critters under the wire like Invisible Stalker or other unblockable / intimidate creatures. If you did not get this punchline, don't worry - tokens bounced back to their owner gets eaten by the same clothes dryer that has been eating our socks for years and will never come back. There of course is answers in red and we've been experimenting with a modified Tempered Steel build featuring Whipflare (I wip ma flare back 'n' forth). Lastly but certainly not exhaustively is Slagstorm, which if your are playing red should have in your side board at all times.


As the Token players start to adjust to these hater cards, they may become more reliant on those afore-mentioned anthem effects and hope to hold their token army together with toughness above Norn / Curse level. This is when you may want to consider Dark Ascension's Ray of Revelation. This two mana (one colourless and one white) instant will nerf any enchantment pumping their tokens and will come back for a flashback encore for just one green.

Anywhoos -
Tell us about your local meta-game - Has token decks taken off, and if so how are players defending against it ?
Use the comment thingy below.
~
Also of note - the folks over at MTG Mint Card has cracked open a few more boxes of Innistrad and has now restocked. If you've been looking for that special hard-to-get sorcery or Planeswalker, drop by.
~

DKA Spirit Aggro

~
Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

We continue on today with developing some quirky and fun standard constructed builds with all the latest Magic the Gathering cards from Dark Ascension. Previously we had showed a B/W Token build with Sorin and Lingering Souls, next we derped around with a Delver Spirit build. (Check out our buddy Virgil's Magic Emporium on an excellent run down on U/W Spirit Delver). Today however, we want to dig deeper into all the decent spirit cards Dark Ascension has brought us.

Don't worry if you're not a fan of blue-white - we hope to make similar posts with the other Innistrad 'tribes' as well. More specifically, we want to make casual decks featuring Diregraf Captain with U/B Zombies, Stromkirk Captain with B/R Vampires and Immerwolf with R/G Wolves / Werewolves. Anywhoos - onto today's post Dark Ascenscion Spirit deck. The draft deck may be found electronically HERE at Tapped Out.


Post Dark Ascesnsion Sprits
Blue-White

38 Spells
4 x Doomed Traveler
4 x Spectral Rider
4 x Niblis of the Urn
4 x Honor of the Pure
4 x Intangible Virtue
4 x Midnight Haunting
4 x Lingering Souls
4 x Drogskol Captain
3 x Geist of Saint Traft
3 x Geist-Honored Monk

22 Lands
4 x Glacial Fortress
2 x Isolated Chapel
1 x Swamp
3 x Island
12 x Plains

Sideboard
3 x Revoke Existence
3 x Arm with Æther
3 x Divine Offering
3 x Oblivion Ring
3 x Feeling of Dread


First up - the mana base.
This may still require further tweaking. The idea however is to have just a splash of black for the flashblack cost of Lingering Souls, other than that, it's open season so fire off your recommendations in the comments below.

Doomed Traveler is the requisite one-drop followed by what we feel is an under rated card in Innistrad - Spectral Rider. For two white mana, you get a 2/2 with evasion (Intimidate) and with the meta-game as it is, loads of players are into red, green, and blue - so we're thinking we could do worse here. Honor of the Pure provides the anthem effect to the rider as well as most other creatures this build will play. Niblis of the Urn provides a decent tap down effect which hopefully will help land damage.

Midnight Haunting and Lingering souls are 'auto-includes' whose tokens will get pumped by the Honor but also Intangible Virtue. Speaking of pumps - Drogskol captain will provide another +1/+1 including hexproof to all your spirits.

Geist of Saint Traft is another spirit creature that already has hexproof and will produce a temporary 4/4 alpha-striking angel. Geist-Honored Monk will help you cash in on those tokens you've been creating and hopefully provide you with a monster to finish the game.

Again - we would love to hear your suggestions to take this build from the Kitchen table to FNM.
~

Also of note - the folks over at MTG Mint Card has cracked open a few more boxes of Innistrad and has now restocked. If you've been looking for that special hard-to-get sorcery or Planeswalker, drop by.
~

Post DKA MetaGame

~
Happy Monday MTG peeps,

First up - we want to let you know that our B/W Token build (featuring Sorin 2.0 and mad token generators) that we showed you in Thursday's post performed not too badly during the Friday Night Magic tournament at OMG! Games here in town. First match we won 2-0 against a black-red build, second match we won again 2-0 against a blue-red Delver variant, and in the third match we lost 2-1 against a Solar Flare build. We loved that the deck was not only fun to play but competitive as well.

Speaking of competitive, we should speak onto the big tournaments this past weekend - namely the StarCity Games Open Series in Cincinnati as well as the ProTour Dark Ascension in Honolulu. We realise that this is a casual Magic the Gathering blog with focus on standard constructed but one is well served to see what the 'Pros' are doing as their strategy and tech will show up in one form or another at the Games Store or at the Kitchen table. Anywhoos - let's have a look at the past weekend -

StarCity Games Open Series in Cincinnati, Ohio - Top 8 Breakdown -
4 U/W Delver, 2 Wolf Run Ramp, 1 U/B Heartless Control, 1 Tempered Steel

Nolen Lauren - SCG Champion - U/W Delver Standard Deck

23 Lands : 9 Island, 1 Plains, 4 Glacial Fortress, 3 Moorland Haunt, 4 Seachrome Coast

13 Creatures : 4 Delver of Secrets, 2 Dungeon Geists, 4 Snapcaster Mage, 3 Geist of Saint Traft

26 Other Spells : 1 Dismember, 2 Gut Shot, 4 Mana Leak, 1 Mutagenic Growth, 3 Thought Scour, 4 Vapor Snag, 4 Gitaxian Probe, 4 Ponder, 1 Runechanter's Pike, 2 Sword of War and Peace

Sideboard : 1 Timely Reinforcements, 2 Celestial Purge, 1 Dungeon Geists, 1 Faith's Shield, 2 Oblivion Ring, 2 Dissipate, 2 Divine Offering, 1 Sword of Feast and Famine, 2 Ratchet Bomb, 1 Revoke Existence

~
Pro Tour Dark Ascension Honolulu - Top 8 breakdown -
4 U/W Delver, 3 Wolf Run Ramp, 1 Birthing Pod

Brian Kibler - Pro Tour DKA Champion - Standard Wolf Run Ramp

5 lands : 4 Copperline Gorge, 5 Forest, 4 Inkmoth Nexus, 2 Kessig Wolf Run, 6 Mountain, 4 Rootbound Crag

16 creatures : 1 Acidic Slime, 1 Birds of Paradise, 4 Huntmaster of the Fells, 2 Inferno Titan, 4 Primeval Titan, 3 Solemn Simulacrum, 1 Thrun, the Last Troll

19 other spells : 4 Galvanic Blast, 2 Green Sun's Zenith, 4 Rampant Growth, 4 Slagstorm, 4 Sphere of the Suns, 1 Whipflare

Sideboard : 2 Ancient Grudge, 1 Autumn's Veil, 2 Beast Within, 2 Combust, 1 Garruk, Primal Hunter, 2 Karn Liberated, 2 Naturalize, 2 Thrun, the Last Troll, 1 Whipflare

~

Lastly, Valentine's Day is right around the corner . . .

and nothing says 'I wub U' more than getting that special someone some Magic Cards. Here's something interesting from the folks over at MTG Mint Card -

Roses are red, violets are blue, the perfect deck for Valentines day?
~

Geist-Delver Spirits

~
Happy Friday MTG peeps,

If you are unable to get out to a Friday Night Magic this evening and get your Magic the Gathering fix, you will be pleased to know that you can still jump onto the interwebs and follow the SatrCity Games Open Series tournament in Cincinnati, Ohio or the Pro Tour Dark Ascension in Honolulu this weekend. From these two tournaments, we should expect to see what direction standard constructed will develop over the next few weeks and months.

As for us, we posted a B/W Token build yesterday and received from great comments already via eMail and post comment. We hope to refine and tweak this several times over the next while. You can keep up with the updates to this black white token build posted under 'Haunting Souls' at TappedOut.net.

For today, we wanted to take a crack at a post-Dark Ascension Delver build featuring spirits. The 'in work' decklist is posted here and is a bit more unrefined than the previous build. Again, we invite you to provide input and guidance on this. Let's have a look -

Geist-Delver Spirits

37 Spells
4 x Delver of Secrets
4 x Ponder
4 x Artful Dodge
4 x Vapor Snag
4 x Mindshrieker
3 x Runechanter's Pike
4 x Drogskol Captain
3 x Phantasmal Image
3 x Geist of Saint Traft
2 x Dungeon Geists
2 x Drogskol Reaver

23 Lands
3 x Moorland Haunt
4 x Glacial Fortress
5 x Plains
11 x Island

Sideboard
3 x Mana Leak
3 x Disperse
3 x Saving Grasp
3 x Feeling of Dread
3 x Oblivion Ring


The next day after we had compiled a rough list, we realised that we just wanted to build something with Geist of Saint Traft and Drogskol Captain and nothing too competitive. To this end, we think this will be kept at the kitchen table for fun and not taken to FNM. Having said that, should you have some great suggestions, we might must change our mind.

Anywhoos, we've yet to get any real games in with this yet but will keep you up to date on where this goes.
~

DKA B-W Tokens

~
Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

We have a series of posts over the next few days in which we provide a decklist of real Magic the Gathering cards the group has collected and present to you, the reader for a critical review. We hope to take said finished build and slay the local meta-game at the next FMN. Oh - When we say critical review, we mean constructive suggestions and not stuff like, yo dude - your dog is fugly - that sort of thingy.


Anywhooos - first build up for your review Elspeth Tirel, beautiful mysterious knight from Alara (and Mirrodin) goes on this date with Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, and the pair promptly has tokens, and loads of 'em. Righto - here's the first build - post Dark Ascension B/W Tokens -


38 Spells
4 x Doomed Traveler
3 x Shrine of Loyal Legions
4 x Intangible Virtue
4 x Gather the Townsfolk
3 x Go for the Throat
3 x Altar's Reap
4 x Lingering Souls
4 x Midnight Haunting
3 x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
3 x Elspeth Tirel
2 x Sun Titan

23 Lands
2 x Vault of the Archangel
2 x Evolving Wilds
3 x Isolated Chapel
4 x Swamp
12 x Plains

Sideboard
3 x Tragic Slip
3 x Revoke Existence
3 x Oblivion Ring
3 x Divine Offering
3 x Dismember

Solid enough of a start but only one 1-drop. No Honor of the Pure here as we thought that Sorin's little 1/1 vampire tokens would not benefit as well as the Myr tokens from Shrine of Loyal Legions. Alter's Reap provides a cheap card draw and GftT is our spot removal. Best uncommon from DKA is Lingering Souls and we've paired this up with Midnight Haunting.

For the moment, we have 3 Elspeth and 3 Sorin in here. Following is Sun Titan which can and will bring back almost every card in the build. Vault of the Archangel is this deck's Gavony Township. The lands are continued to be tweaked to provide maximum effeciency.

UPDATE : Pop on over to our buddy Vergil's (Vergil's Magic Emporium) site for a very decent summary of this deck archetype he posted on the same day as us. He's been writing about MTG since 2010 and is much less derpy than us.

Righto, your turn.
We admit we are not the best brewer and given our love of the casual game, will often include cards because of righteous artwork. Your job, if you so choose, is to take this build and provide improvements so it's not sad panda time at FNM.

Lastly,

If your are looking to pimp up your deck beyond just having a number of foils and / or alternate art / promos in your stack, we suggest you check out MTG Mint Card which has excellent prices not only on foils but Chinese language cards - which looks Kung-Fu Kewl.
~

DKA Event Deck Lists

~
Happy Tuesday MTG Peeps,

You may recall last week when we provided a quick post reagarding the soon to be released Dark Ascension Event Decks. Well today, WoTC Monty delivered the decklists on the mothership.

Here's the 4.1.1 on these competitive pre-cons before we get into the decklist details -

Dark Ascension Event Decks are scheduled for release on February 24th, 2012 and contain the following : 1 x 60-card deck, 1 x 15-card sideboard, 1 Spindown life counter, 1 strategy insert, and 1 card box. These should retail for about $25 and contain 7 rares as well as a full compliment of uncommons / commons.
~

Spiraling Doom -
Black-Green (/) Event Deck
(Rare cards in bold)
25 land : 2 Evolving Wilds, 1 Grim Backwoods, 8 Swamp, 14 Forest

27 creatures : 1 Hex Parasite, 4 Young Wolf, 1 Perilous Myr, 4 Viridian Emissary, 4 Strangleroot Geist, 1 Phyrexian Rager, 1 Wakedancer, 1 Viridian Corrupter, 1 Solemn Simulacrum, 3 Skinrender, 1 Stingerfling Spider, 1 Bloodgift Demon, 1 Morkrut Banshee, 1 Acidic Slime, 1 Brutalizer Exarch, 1 Myr Battlesphere

8 other spells : 1 Mortarpod, 3 Doom Blade, 2 Birthing Pod, 2 Diabolic Tutor

15 sideboard : 1 Despise, 3 Autumn's Veil, 1 Myr Sire, 4 Distress, 1 Wakedancer, 1 Beast Within, 1 Dismember, 1 Gravedigger, 1 Entomber Exarch, 1 Acid Web Spider

Take this build for a spin and draw a few hands HERE. We like 'tool box' builds and this Birthing Pod deck delivers. The build does look solid with Solemn Simulacrum and Viridian Emissary to power up your mana ramp and has a very nice showcase of the new 'undying' tech with a full deckset of Strangleroo Geist and Young Wolf. Sadly, we suspect that players may just purchase the singles and build something similar to game with as the MRSP closely approximates the summary of singles here.

~

Gleeful Flames - Mono-Red ()Event Deck
(Rare cards in bold)

22 land : 3 Haunted Fengraf, 2 Inkmoth Nexus, 17 Mountain

20 creatures : 4 Forge Devil, 4 Goblin Arsonist, 4 Goblin Fireslinger, 4 Goblin Gaveleer, 3 Torch Fiend, 1 Hellrider

18 other spells : 3 Infiltration Lens, 2 Faithless Looting, 4 Goblin Grenade, 1 Curse of Stalked Prey, 4 Brimstone Volley, 4 Artillerize

15 sideboard : 2 Gut Shot, 3 Torpor Orb, 4 Arc Trail, 2 Act of Treason, 1 Dismember, 3 Into the Core

Take this build for a spin and draw a few hands HERE. This mono-red build has a roster list of a number of popular cards now being played such as Gut Shot, Dismember, and Arc Trail. Given the deckset of Artillerize, we somewhat surprised we don't see any Ichor Wellspring or Mycosynth Wellspring. We love the synergy here with Goblin Gaveleer and Infiltration Lens but find it a titch odd about the Inkmoth Nexus inclusion - don't misinterpret this - we love Inkmoth, just think that this was included as a plan 'B' or to be more appealing to gamers. And appealing it is, this build if broken down should fetch almost double that of the MRSP and will fly off the shelves double-time compared to the previous Pod build.. It's only weakness is that a single Curse of Death's Hold or Elesh Norn will shut the gobby party down.

~
Lastly, just another reminder of the Top 5 selling DKA singles - this data compiled by the folks over at MTG Mint Card.

1. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
3. Hellrider
4. Vault of the Archangel
5. Vorapede
~

MTG Price

~
Happy Sunday MTG peeps,

Recently, we were contemplating our Dark Ascension preorders as well as some other orders we had made ahead of the new standard environment. Previously, we had been sort of hit and miss but have been improving over the last few releases. One way we a had used to determine which hot new Magic the Gathering cards to pick up as well as cards from previous sets we needed to acquire was the use of on-line MTG sites providing price trending. One which we had found which was rather useful was MTG Price. Oddly enough, we had been put into contact with the brilliant fella who runs this site and he was very kind to provide an article here today for us - Thank-you very much to Mr Young :

Hello! My name is Alasdair Young and I run a free site called MTG Price that lets players quickly look up historical prices of magic cards from all the major vendors. I've been trading and playing magic since Unlimited, I've played on the Pro Tour and I have an MBA in Finance, all of which I've found to be pretty useful when running a finance-based MTG website.

Today I'm going to cover the changes in the Standard landscape for traders now that Dark Ascension is upon us. I'll also quickly cover the impact that GP Orlando had on prices.

Let's start with the elephant in the room - Sorin, Lord of Innistrad This is clearly a phenomenal card for standard and he will see a will see a lot of block play too. Since Innistrad Block is the next format, this is one to watch; more than that, Sorin's presence affects the prices of the cards that work well in the same deck as him. For example, check out this graph of Isolated Chapel prices:


A single card, if powerful enough, can cause ripple effects in other markets. I wouldn't be suprised if other black and white cards recently went up a bit on the Sorin news. Even Liliana of the Veil, a card whose price has stabilized since launch at around $24, went up $3 when Sorin was spoiled.

Does this mean that I think Sorin is a good investment? Absolutely not. Sorin isn't Jace and big plainswalkers always start high and then typically mellow out. For an extremely stark example of this effect look at Garruk, Primal Hunter. Garruck lost almost HALF of his value this week as the last stalwart of high prices (ABU Games) decided to drop him by $20, presumably in the hopes of selling him off before M13 rolls around. Because of this trend, ultimately I think Sorin will settle at $30-$35 unless someone breaks him as badly as Jace.

In terms of other cards, the biggest change has been from Gran Prix Orlando's odd choice to use Standard instead of Limited as a format. Conley Woods ultimately won the event with green/black ramp and his win has had some serious effects on the MTG trading landscape. Since his win, three big cards in his deck have jumped over 20% each - Primeval Titan, Grave Titan and Solumn Simulacrum. Indeed, Grave Titan went up over 40% from a $6 card to one that most stores have listed for over $10. Indeed, almost every card in the deck has seen at least a small rise in value.

Conley Woods' Green/ Black Ramp - Main Deck

25 lands : 1 Dragonskull Summit, 7 Forest, 1 Ghost Quarter, 4 Inkmoth Nexus, 2 Kessig Wolf Run, 1 Mountain, 5 Swamp, 4 Woodland Cemetery

16 creatures : 2 Acidic Slime, 1 Birds of Paradise, 1 Glissa, the Traitor, 4 Grave Titan, 4 Primeval Titan, 4 Solemn Simulacrum

19 other spells : 3 Black Sun's Zenith, 3 Doom Blade, 2 Geth's Verdict, 2 Green Sun's Zenith, 4 Rampant Growth, 1 Ratchet Bomb, 4 Sphere of the Suns

Sideboard : 1 Ancient Grudge, 2 Batterskull, 1 Black Sun's Zenith, 2 Curse of Death's Hold, 1 Garruk, Primal Hunter, 1 Go for the Throat, 1 Liliana of the Veil, 2 Nihil Spellbomb, 1 Ratchet Bomb, 1 Thrun, the Last Troll, 1 Tree of Redemption, 1 Viridian Corrupter

Clearly, big decks affect prices. The classic example from a couple of months ago is Grixis Control which made Olivia Voldaren spike from $5 to $15 in a single day when it was revealed at Worlds but, really, any large tournament win means copycats. (Note: Olivia has fallen back significantly in the past 2 months). What does this mean for the savvy trader? My advice is to follow the live streams of major standard tournaments and as soon as you see a new deck or interesting card likely to hit the top 8, consider buying a few of the cheapest copies on ebay or from local stores.

As for other Standard decks, next up is Delver which is by far the most common deck on MTGO at the moment. Most of the cards in this deck have already increased in value but there are still players out there who are under-pricing certain cards. My personal favourite sleeper play are foil versions of the common Delver of Secrets. As a common, the regular version is worth about fifteen or twenty cents but the foil is worth serious money - StarCity has them listed at $8 each meaning that a playset of them are worth more than a Liliana of the Veil! This is an excellent card that will stay very good for a long time to come, yet I have repeatedly found players valuing this foil in the $1-$2 range even now. Have no shame in adding these in at the end of a trade to "balance out" an otherwise almost equal exchange.

Here is a good example of a Delver list.

Speaking of Delver, if you find any Geist of Saint Traft floating around for $15 or less, snap them up. A mere two weeks ago many players haven't noticed the number of delver decks being played on MTG Online and were still valuing this card at around $12 - you could get a full playset on eBay for less than $50 on January 15th. Now, the same playset is liable to run you closer to $100. I can't see these falling much this year given the fact that the next constructed PTQ format will be Innistrad Block and Delver looks like the deck to beat in that format.

Finally, I'll touch on one other hot card that I plan on picking up many copies of: Gravecrawler. It's already up another 15% this week and I expect it to skyrocket if a viable Zombie deck can be built when the PTQ season rolls around. At $6.50 it's not a chase rare and so many players won't value it especially highly. This is a speculative play but, on paper, the cad is just wonderful and can only get better when yet more Zombies are printed in Avacyn Restored.

This rounds out what I consider to be the most important Standard trading changes over the last few weeks. If you have any comments, I'd love to hear them in the section below!

Again, thank-you to Alasdair for this brilliant assessment - we will continue to use the great resource over at MTG Price.
~

Dark Ascension Fat Pack

~
Happy Friday MTG peeps,

It is Friday, 3rd February which means that the newest Magic the Gathering set is now on sale. Dark Ascension, the second set in the Innistrad block hit the store shelves today and gamers everywhere are set to crack open booster packs, try new builds, and start slinging cards.

We had a bit of a late night / early morning when we (and a lot of other players) hit up the local game store here in Barrie, Ontario midnight - OMG! Games to be the first to buy the new set. We picked up a Fat Pack, a few loose booster packs and yattered with some of the players - here's the vid -


~
The Dark Ascension Fat Pack on sale today has just about everything a MTG Player needs to step into the newest set. The MSRP is about $40 and contains the following :

9 boosters
1 card box
1 player's guide
1 70-card land pack
10 checklist cards
1 learn-to-play insert
1 Spindown life counter
2 deck boxes

The rares we pulled were very decent - Helvault, Sorrin Lord of Innistrad, Markov Blademaster, Séance, Thalia Guardian of Thraben, Increasing Savergery, Falkenrath Aristocrat, Increasing Ambition, and Grim Backwoods.

~

Since Dark Ascension has finally been officially released today let's have a look at the Top 5 selling DKA singles in - this data compiled by the folks over at MTG Mint Card. This may be an indication as to what players are contemplating for standard constructed.

1. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

2. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed

3. Hellrider

4. Vault of the Archangel

5. Vorapede

~