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By: Jared Yost

EDITOR’S NOTE: MTGPrice.com will have extensive live coverage of the #mtgfinance side of GP:NJ Friday through Sunday. This includes dealer interviews and live blogging from the floor. Be sure to check devblog.mtgprice.com all weekend long!

In preparation for Grand Prix New Jersey coming up later this week I thought I might share with you some of my ideas for what to expect at the tournament.

Vendor Paradise

There are going to be twenty vendors at the event – twenty vendors! – which means there are going to be many different opportunities for buylisting and arbitrage during the weekend. Buylisting almost becomes an art rather than a science during a GP.

Of course, the best time to visit the vendors is early Friday morning if you want the best deals and most opportunities to sell to them. At the beginning of the event the vendors will be looking to stock up not only for the weekend but to increase their general inventory. However, as the weekend goes on, fewer and fewer vendors are prone to offer high buylist prices on staples.

Besides buylisting cards, GP’s are a great opportunity to pick up swag. What I mean by swag are sleeves, dice, bags, binders, and other Magic related items that aren’t the cards themselves. Lots of vendors will be looking to undercut the others for items like Dragon Shield sleeves, Ultra Pro binders, and more.

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Binder Preparation

You will want to give yourself plenty of time to gather all of the Legacy staples you want to trade at the event. Prices are going to be spiking the weekend of the tournament, for at least a select few cards. If you are keeping an eye on the price changes you will be able to capitalize on cards that experience short term spikes by trading them or buylisting them to the vendors.

Beyond Legacy, you should also prepare another binder for Modern and Standard trades. There will be plenty of opportunity to trade higher valued Theros block cards during the weekend like Elspeth, Sun’s Champion, Hero’s Downfall, Kiora, the Crashing Wave, and Ajani, Mentor of Heroes. There are going to be side events for Modern and Standard plus vendors will be picking up many of the Standard staples, in addition to Legacy and Modern, to increase their inventory.

Here are some cards that will be good to have for the event. I marked the format(s) the card will be desirable in. The more formats a card is desirable in the higher the chance you will have of being able to trade it. You should be able to trade or buylist all of the Legacy cards at some point during the weekend.

I would also like to mention some decks that I think many different players will adopt for the Legacy main event. The decks are on the cheaper side to build and players could be looking for copies of random cards that appear in the decks. If you prepare well, you will be able to trade some of the more obscure pieces to someone looking to play the deck.

• U/R Delver
• Dredge
• Belcher
• Elves
• Death & Taxes
• Merfolk
• Affinity

I think many players will want to use these decks because they are fairly straightforward to pilot and offer a pretty simplistic game plan in order to win. Check out a few lists online and see if you have any of the pieces of the decks. If you do you can probably trade them away during the weekend if you currently aren’t using them.

Besides decks, cards that show up in sideboards will also be nice to have for trades. Some cards in this list include:

• Grafdigger’s Cage
• Pithing Needle
• Flusterstorm
• Rest in Peace
• Null Rod
• Blood Moon
• Surgical Extraction
• Sulfuric Vortex
• Wear / Tear
• Submerge
• Engineered Explosives
• Krosan Grip
• Ethersworn Canonist
• Golgari Charm
• Meddling Mage
• Cabal Therapy
• Price of Progress

By no means is this an extensive list but it does reflect many of the popular choices for sideboards.

Bulk Drop Off

Vendors are pretty happy to buy bulk at these types of events, especially bulk rares. If you have a stack of them lying around that you’ve been looking to get rid of a GP is a great place to do it. Similar to buylisting, different vendors have different goals about how they want to buy bulk. There will be plenty of pricing options available for getting rid of it. Bulk foils are also pretty desirable and you should be able to get a decent quote if you shop around.
Don’t be afraid to barter. There are plenty of other vendors at the event and most vendors will be open to reasonable offers. The place will be crowded and  the vendors are going to want to get things over as fast as possible but it doesn’t mean that you have to feel pushed into making a deal you don’t want. Feel free to walk away if you’re not comfortable. There will be plenty of opportunities throughout the weekend.

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Similar to buylisting, getting rid of bulk will be much easier Friday morning compared to Saturday or Sunday. By Saturday and Sunday vendors will already be dealing with piles of cards so the chances of getting a deal will be harder and harder the further you try from Friday.

Discount Binders from Vendors

Grand Prix’s are great places for vendors to get rid of cards that they have a hard time moving locally if they don’t have a big online presence. Several vendors will have $1 Binders, $2 Binders, $5 Binders, etc. where they will put a ton of random cards into and hope to sell them during the event. Many times, staples of formats will be in these binders and you should be able to get good deals on otherwise higher prices at other stores. For example, at Grand Prix Richmond I saw cards like Scapeshift and Hero of Bladehold in these type of binders. It’s a pretty sweet deal if you take a few minutes out of your time to browse the binders.

One caveat with this plan is that if you are looking for NM condition than the discount binders may not be for you. There is usually a reason that these cards are in the binders in the first place. Foils with some scuffing, cards that are SP or even MP, and tons of cards that you probably aren’t interested in that you still have to look through will usually be prevalent. Don’t be discouraged though, if you are one to pick through bulk to find gems then browsing these binders should be a walk in the park in comparison.

Final Thoughts

Most of all, have fun at the event. Since there are tons of people be aware of your surroundings and keep a close watch on anything you bring to the event. I’ll be thinking carefully about what exactly I want to bring to an event of this size and so should you. I find that bringing less is much less stressful (barring bulk, of course) and helps me focus on other activities like playing, participating in events, and bargain hunting through the various vendors.

GP’s are pretty much the best place to find deals at and unfortunately there are hardly any Legacy GP’s anymore. This is going to be the best opportunity for many of us in some time to sell off any unused Legacy staples, or pick up those remaining staples we’ve been looking for to complete a deck or add to our collection.

Good luck to any playing in the main event, and safe travels to those flying in and driving four or more hours. Your dedication is what makes Magic great!

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By: Jared Yost

The first time I brought my girlfriend Em over to my friend Nic’s house to introduce her to Magic beyond the realm of our own kitchen table, my other friend Matt had brought his cube and we were ready to play with it. I’ve fondly named it the “Matt’s Greatest Hits” cube since there isn’t any goal or overarching theme with the cube (at least that I can see). It is simply his personal favorite cards along with solid roleplayers to create archetypes to play with. Anyways, we’re trying to get people involved to get some awesome cube action going and he’s asking everyone “Are you cubin’? Are you cubin’?” clearly leaving off that oh so important ‘g’ at the end of the verb ‘cubing’. When Em was asked this question she responded “From the country of Cuba?” fully believing his question was “Are you Cuban?” We all had a good laugh, and after I explained this misinterpretation we were soon underway.

Besides the “Matt’s Greatest Hits” cube, Matt also has put together an Innistrad cube and a Return to Ravnica cube. These are definitely more theme and goal oriented, as he is focusing on specific limited environments for these cubes in addition to trying to foil out as many cards as he can. These cubes also better reflect the draft environments of the sets because he includes multiple copies of commons and usually two of every uncommon from the sets.

Drawing inspiration from my friend’s ventures into the cubing world, I’ve made it a goal to refine my own cube. I’ve had a “Jared’s Greatest Hits” cube for quite a long time myself, which I created for something to do with my brother when I go back home to PA and we want to play Magic together. However, I’m thinking about upgrading it and making it deeper and more interactive. I currently modify it here and there but I feel like it could use more cohesiveness.

Of course, being a financier I want to know approximately how much it is going to cost me to create an updated cube. I’ll be looking at cubes that span the financial spectrums, from the ones that include Moxes to the peasant cubes that are much more limiting in the cards you can include. I will even show you some price quotes that include proxying anything $50 or more. For the calculations, I’m going to assume I’m starting from scratch with zero cards so that others who may want to build a cube for the first time know the cost of all cards.

In order to help with this effort, I am drawing upon the power of Cube Tutor and their average cubes list to get the best picture about the costs of a cube. The website’s average cubes use the most popular cube cards. Odds are that players are going to want to include most cards on the list with slight modifications based on personal preference. I think this is a good starting point for determining approximate cube values because the Cube Tutor website draws these averages from all the cubes posted on the site.

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Budgeting for a Cube

The average cubes tracked are:

• Cube Tutor 360
• Cube Tutor 360 Peasant
• Cube Tutor 360 Pauper
• Cube Tutor 450
• Cube Tutor 450 Peasant
• Cube Tutor 450 Pauper
• Cube Tutor 720
• Cube Tutor 720 Peasant
• Cube Tutor 720 Pauper

Briefly looking over the cubes, they range in size from small to large according to your budget or tastes. For example, even though you might have the budget to get almost anything you want, maybe you don’t have a very large group that you cube with so you only need the bare minimum 360 cards to have a well rounded cube.

One aspect of the lower card count cubes that I noticed right away was that they did not contain cards like the Power 9, Mana Crypt, Mana Drain, Yawgmoth’s Will, Aether Vial, etc. The lower cube counts opted to play more straightforward cards since cubes with lower card counts will be more linear in their strategies. This leads to the super powerful cards like Black Lotus becoming unbeatable powerhouses. To avoid this, the cube average aggregator decided not to include them in the smaller cube lists. Expensive cards are still in the smaller cubes, like Revised dual lands, Karn Liberated, Cryptic Command, and Jace, the Mind Sculptor – it’s just that the extremely broken cards like Black Lotus tend to only be balanced out by including a majority of the old broken cards. This will greatly affect the overall price of the smaller cubes if we can expect extremely rare cards like Black Lotus to be absent from them.

Pricing the various cubes, we arrive at the approximate values without proxies:

No Proxies

Cube	Price
Cube Tutor 360	$4,502.14
Cube Tutor 360 Peasant	$191.75
Cube Tutor 360 Pauper	$121.71
Cube Tutor 450	$5,008.29
Cube Tutor 450 Peasant	$236.13
Cube Tutor 450 Pauper	$142.19
Cube Tutor 720	$18,316.41
Cube Tutor 720 Peasant	$396.97
Cube Tutor 720 Pauper	$229.77

*TCG Mid

Well, if we’re talking about a 720 card cube with Black Lotus and Moxen in it, that $18,000 price tag doesn’t really surprise me. It certainly is a ton a money to invest in a cube, and if you have a cube like this more power to you. Just please get insurance. We all hate seeing those reddit posts saying that someone “forgot” to hand back in all their cards when cube drafting…

For more reasonable options, the Peasant and Pauper cubes for 720 cards are much more affordable. If you’re looking to build a large cube on a budget that can accommodate lots of players and a plethora of archetypes I think it would be a good idea to start with a Peasant or Pauper cube and modify it from there.

Myself, I only need the 360 card cube. I think I’m going to start with the 360 Peasant and modify it to my tastes from there.

Hooray for Proxies

If you’re a person that just has to play all those powerful cards and don’t care if you have real copies, then proxying everything over a certain price point makes sense. This way you can have the best of both worlds and also have a goal to work towards – to one day own a cube that has all the real copies of the cards you want in it. When accounting for proxies of cards that are $50 or more, these are the updated cube prices for the regular cubes. I didn’t bother with the Peasant and Pauper options because they are already heavily discounted.

Proxies ($50 or more)

Cube	Price
Cube Tutor 720	$4,939.03
Cube Tutor 450	$2,221.65
Cube Tutor 360	$1,803.95

As would be expected, the price with proxies drops considerably. It didn’t drop as much as I thought it would, however you could always lower the limit to $30, $20, or even $10 as the threshold for proxying. Your startup costs will keep decreasing with the limit you set yourself until you can build something that is affordable and work up from there.

Since I set the proxy limit at $50 or more, the prices show that there are still plenty of $30-$45 cards that can be included with a cube to bolster the price. Even the lower cards that range from $5-$15 can add up quickly.

Oooh, Shiny!

Just for fun, let’s see how much these cubes are on average are if your goal is to ultimately foil them out.

FOIL Cubes

Cube	Price
Cube Tutor 360	$9,738.61
Cube Tutor 360 Peasant	$1,045.71
Cube Tutor 360 Pauper	$789.90
Cube Tutor 450	$10,847.83
Cube Tutor 450 Peasant	$1,230.37
Cube Tutor 450 Pauper	$928.39
Cube Tutor 720	$26,303.03
Cube Tutor 720 Peasant	$1,794.67
Cube Tutor 720 Pauper	$1,210.16

 

So if I wanted a foil 360 card Peasant cube, I could expect to pay around $1,000 for it. This is about what I expected in terms of pricing for foils. Clearly the the 720 card powered cube was going to be absurdly expensive, there is not denying that – if your goal is to foil out a powered cube it is quite a lofty goal.

Time to Play

Once you’ve decided where your budget lies and how big you want to make your cube, all I can say is go for it! Know that I too will be working on my cube now that I have a goal in mind and know where I want it to fall on my budget. Even if I have to proxy a few cards initially and then pick them up over time, I at least have a starting point for how much it will cost me – especially if I want to foil out my cube down the road.

Some final thoughts:

What have you guys spent on creating your cubes? Do the averages match what you think you’ve spent?

Do you procure expensive proxies to fill the slots of Black Lotus, the Moxen, Time Walk, and other powerful old cards that are hard to find? This can be a good compromise to purchasing the real card, in addition to having a fully foiled cube if the proxy is foil. I’m curious to know how much it costs to create these premium proxy cards for those who play with them.

Also, do you like to build cubes on a budget and add some spicy bulk/cheaper rares when the urge strikes you? Are you picking up multiple copies of cards to make set themed or more linear cubes? It would be good to know if Cube Tutor is hits or misses the mark in terms of what a typical player’s cube looks like.

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By: Jared Yost

Drawing inspiration from my coverage of Khans uncommons and commons, I decided to put together a list that was slightly more… ambitious. I figured, if there was value in deciding which uncommons and commons from the latest set have financial implications, why not look into even more sets for other gems that have maintained or increased in value over the years?

I also wanted to expand a bit more on my work for modern buylist data crunching, which involved seeing which vendors that MTGPrice tracked (I later completed a review of Card Kingdom) offered the highest buylist prices on average. However, some players aren’t really going to care about shopping around – they have a buylist that they use and will continue using that buylist because it is convenient for them rather than always splitting up orders between multiple buylists. So the question becomes, instead of which buylist offers the best prices what are the cards I should be looking out for in general that will sell well to almost any buylist? Odds are you are going to be selling lots of bulk picks to a buylist, so I wanted to see what the most valuable Modern uncommons and commons that go to buylists in general are.

I hope this article will prove useful to bulk pickers, those tireless souls that spend hours upon hours looking through bulk boxes for the gems that the rest of us find useful. If there is enough interest, I can continue tracking the value of uncommons and commons for the remaining older sets in the Magic (barring sets like Alpha, where basically every card is worth $5 or more).

For now though, I think Modern is a good starting point because it is the newest eternal format that is gaining interest again due to the Onslaught fetchlands being reprinted in Khans. There are many uncommons and commons on the list (see appendix) that have popped up in Modern builds over the past year and have gained some value due to being discovered as useful in the format.

However, a large majority of the uncommons and commons on this list have maintained value due to casual demand. Casuals drive a large part of the demand from the market, so when you see cards like Salt Marsh, Zombify, and Mirrodin’s Core being listed on buylists you really shouldn’t be that surprised. As Anthony Capece recapped in a groundbreaking MTG finance piece last November, cards from newer sets are printed in vastly higher quantities than older sets. Starting with Innistrad, the card printers that Wizards contracts to make Magic must have been jumping for joy from the amount of work that Wizards (Hasbro, really) sent their way.

This is also reflected in the pricing data. Before arriving at Innistrad, I could find numerous uncommons and commons from the pre-Innistrad sets that retailed for $0.50 or more on TCGPlayer. The number of post-Innistrad uncommons and commons that retail for $0.50 on TCGPlayer (barring Modern Masters and Conspiracy, of course) are noticeably lower. Khans being the only exception, since the set is so new still that we’ll need a year for the uncommons and commons to be printed into oblivion and decrease in price too.

OK, so you’re probably wondering what trends I’ve found after glancing through that appendix. Let’s first start with the most expensive uncommons and commons by retail price that are legal in Modern. I will refer to as Tier 1 uncommons and commons.

TCGPlayer Retail – Tier 1 Modern Uncommons and Commons

Card Name	Set	TCGPlayer Value	Avg Buylist
Sensei’s Divining Top*	Champions of Kamigawa	$25.99	$14.78
Aether Vial	Darksteel	$21.93	$15.64
Aven Mindcensor	Future Sight	$11.98	$7.50
Remand	Ravnica: City of Guilds	$11.39	$9.50
Counterbalance	Coldsnap	$9.67	$6.92
Cursecatcher	Shadowmoor	$8.36	$4.12
Serum Visions	Fifth Dawn	$6.97	$4.50
Ghostly Prison	Champions of Kamigawa	$6.94	$3.46
Flames of the Blood Hand	Betrayers of Kamigawa	$6.02	$4.20
Lightning Greaves	Mirrodin	$5.99	$4.00
Dryad Arbor	Future Sight	$5.99	$3.50
Inquisition of Kozilek	Rise of the Eldrazi	$5.99	$3.69
Path to Exile	Conflux	$5.82	$2.95
Path to Exile	Modern Masters	$5.74	$3.50
Merrow Reejerey	Lorwyn	$5.50	$2.00
Skullclamp*	Darksteel	$5.24	$3.92
Heritage Druid	Morningtide	$5.17	$2.28
Stoke the Flames	M15	$4.91	$3.50
Tolaria West	Future Sight	$4.80	$3.00
Imperious Perfect	Lorwyn	$4.54	$2.95
Isochron Scepter	Mirrodin	$4.51	$4.60
Harmonic Sliver	Time Spiral	$4.25	$3.96
Kitchen Finks	Shadowmoor	$4.19	$1.91
Kitchen Finks	Modern Masters	$3.88	$2.05
Might of Old Krosa	Time Spiral	$3.81	$1.75
Keen Sense	Planar Chaos	$3.80	$2.00

*Not Modern format legal

Not surprising here is that many of these card are Modern or Legacy tournament staples, such as Sensei’s Divining Top and Aether Vial. However, cards like Ghostly Prison, Lightning Greaves, Imperious Perfect, and Harmonic Sliver are the casual gold I was talking about that usually comes out of these bulk boxes because players focused on tournament play don’t care about them. If you continue on to the next 25 or so cards with higher retail values you will continue to see more casual cards show up in the list. These are your Tier 2 Modern uncommons and commons.

TCGPlayer Retail – Tier 2 Modern Uncommons and Commons

Card Name	Set	TCGPlayer Value	Avg Buylist
Tectonic Edge	Worldwake	$3.79	$1.00
Hinder	Champions of Kamigawa	$3.75	$1.30
Silvergill Adept	Lorwyn	$3.75	$2.00
Smash to Smithereens	Shadowmoor	$3.66	$2.00
Spell Snare	Dissension	$3.57	$2.95
Shattering Spree	Guildpact	$3.50	$2.08
Spell Snare	Modern Masters	$3.49	$2.25
Gilder Bairn	Eventide	$3.45	$2.77
Necrotic Sliver	Planar Chaos	$3.30	$2.31
Shatterstorm	10th Edition	$3.25	$1.65
Beseech the Queen	Shadowmoor	$3.23	$1.50
Ancient Ziggurat	Conflux	$3.15	$2.27
Sylvan Scrying	10th Edition	$3.13	$1.38
Liliana’s Caress	M11	$3.00	$1.93
Mind Funeral	Alara Reborn	$2.99	$2.06
Squelch	Champions of Kamigawa	$2.93	$1.80
Lightning Helix	Ravnica: City of Guilds	$2.92	$1.25
Steelshaper’s Gift	Fifth Dawn	$2.90	$1.03
Lightning Helix	Modern Masters	$2.89	$1.52
Simian Spirit Guide	Planar Chaos	$2.86	$1.15
Sylvan Scrying	Mirrodin	$2.85	$1.22
Mind Funeral	Modern Masters	$2.85	$1.55
Hedron Crab	Zendikar	$2.65	$1.50
Sowing Salt	Betrayers of Kamigawa	$2.59	$0.92
Elvish Promenade	Lorwyn	$2.59	$1.50
Mishra’s Bauble	Coldsnap	$2.52	$1.70

 

This list is where we start seeing cards like Hedron Crab and Mind Funeral – cards that might be tournament playable under the right circumstances but really are just popular with casual mill players looking to build sixty card mill decks, using only the best mill cards available from Magic’s history. I can keep going like this, tiering cards out based on price, though again I will emphasize that all of my research is located in the appendix which is the reference that you can use to take a look at the multitude of cards I’ve found.

Instead I would like to showcase the highest buylist prices and lowest spreads that I found. I’ll cover the highest buylist prices out of the data set next.

TCGPlayer Retail – Highest Buylist Modern Uncommons and Commons

Card Name	Set	TCGPlayer Value	Avg Buylist
Aether Vial	Darksteel	$21.93	$15.64
Sensei’s Divining Top*	Champions of Kamigawa	$25.99	$14.78
Remand	Ravnica: City of Guilds	$11.39	$9.50
Aven Mindcensor	Future Sight	$11.98	$7.50
Counterbalance	Coldsnap	$9.67	$6.92
Isochron Scepter	Mirrodin	$4.51	$4.60
Serum Visions	Fifth Dawn	$6.97	$4.50
Flames of the Blood Hand	Betrayers of Kamigawa	$6.02	$4.20
Cursecatcher	Shadowmoor	$8.36	$4.12
Lightning Greaves	Mirrodin	$5.99	$4.00
Harmonic Sliver	Time Spiral	$4.25	$3.96
Skullclamp*	Darksteel	$5.24	$3.92
Inquisition of Kozilek	Rise of the Eldrazi	$5.99	$3.69
Dryad Arbor	Future Sight	$5.99	$3.50
Path to Exile	Modern Masters	$5.74	$3.50
Stoke the Flames	M15	$4.91	$3.50
Ghostly Prison	Champions of Kamigawa	$6.94	$3.46
Tolaria West	Future Sight	$4.80	$3.00
Path to Exile	Conflux	$5.82	$2.95
Imperious Perfect	Lorwyn	$4.54	$2.95
Spell Snare	Dissension	$3.57	$2.95
Gilder Bairn	Eventide	$3.45	$2.77
Necrotic Sliver	Planar Chaos	$3.30	$2.31
Heritage Druid	Morningtide	$5.17	$2.28

*Not Modern format legal

I wanted to see what the most valuable cards on a buylist were, on average, for Modern uncommons and commons. Yes, Aether Vial and Sensei’s Divining Top made this list again, no surprises there. But did you know some stores are paying $3.50 for Stoke the Flames, an M15 uncommon? That seems like pretty easy money to me there – take out all those Stokes that you drafted during M15 and make a nice bit of cash from them, especially since when it rotates from Standard that price is going to tank really hard. There is no way in the long run that Stoke the Flames has a higher buylist price than Heritage Druid, Imperious Perfect, and Path to Exile.

Something that jumped out to me right away is that Isochron Scepter has arbitrage right now – there is a buylist out there buying Isochron Scepters for more than TCGPlayer retail. Seems like a good time to pick up some Scepters before TCGPlayer retail catches up with the demand. Speaking of which, let’s see from the appendix data which cards have arbitrate opportunities or low spreads.

Arbitrage Opportunities / Lowest Spreads

Card Name	Set	TCGPlayer Value	Buylist Value	Spread
Psychotrope Thallid	Planar Chaos	$0.99	$1.04	-5.05%
Isochron Scepter	Mirrodin	$4.51	$4.60	-2.00%
Thirst for Knowledge	Modern Masters	$0.50	$0.50	0.00%
Talisman of Dominance	Mirrodin	$0.53	$0.50	5.66%
Harmonic Sliver	Time Spiral	$4.25	$3.96	6.82%
Leatherback Baloth	Worldwake	$0.68	$0.63	7.35%
Bile Blight	Born of the Gods	$0.59	$0.53	10.17%
Banishing Light	Journey Into Nyx	$1.95	$1.75	10.26%
Chromatic Star	10th Edition	$1.43	$1.25	12.59%
Pathrazer of Ulamog	Rise of the Eldrazi	$1.94	$1.69	12.89%
Swarm of Rats	8th Edition	$0.75	$0.64	14.67%
Remand	Ravnica: City of Guilds	$11.39	$9.50	16.59%
Telekinetic Sliver	Time Spiral	$0.60	$0.50	16.67%
Spell Snare	Dissension	$3.57	$2.95	17.37%
Electrolyze	Guildpact	$2.00	$1.65	17.50%
Gilder Bairn	Eventide	$3.45	$2.77	19.71%
Serra Angel	M15	$0.54	$0.43	20.37%
Great Furnace	Mirrodin	$0.73	$0.58	20.55%
Terminate	Alara Reborn	$0.99	$0.78	21.21%
Fabricate	Mirrodin	$1.83	$1.43	21.86%
Lava Spike	Champions of Kamigawa	$1.49	$1.16	22.15%
Drove of Elves	Shadowmoor	$1.82	$1.41	22.53%
Molten Rain	Mirrodin	$1.19	$0.92	22.69%
Spectral Procession	Shadowmoor	$1.62	$1.25	22.84%
Treetop Village	10th Edition	$1.47	$1.13	23.13%
Rift Bolt	Modern Masters	$1.20	$0.90	25.00%
Skullclamp*	Darksteel	$5.24	$3.92	25.19%
Genesis Chamber	Darksteel	$2.40	$1.75	27.08%
Blackmail	9th Edition	$1.83	$1.32	27.87%
Ancient Ziggurat	Conflux	$3.15	$2.27	27.94%

 *Not Modern format legal

I’m betting this is the list that surprised most of you. These are the cards that have arbitrage and the lowest spread out of the entire list. Yes, that’s right – Psychotrope Thallid, a card that I didn’t even know existed, currently has the lowest spread amongst all Modern legal uncommons and commons. Card Kingdom is buying these guys for more than what TCGPlayer is selling on average. Also among the negative spread club are Mirrodin Isochron Scepters which are also being bought by Card Kingdom. Again, these numbers tell me that I should probably pick up some copies of these uncommons in anticipation of a climb in retail price in the future. However, this is definitely much riskier than a rare or mythic rare arbitrage opportunity because a reprint of an uncommon will kill the current price and wipe out the arbitrage.

Bile Blight and Banishing Light seem to be very popular Standard uncommons, so any extras of these you have can be sent back to buylists and give you good value. Random casual uncommons and commons with low spreads include such cards as Talisman of Dominance, Harmonic Sliver, Leatherback Baloth, Pathrazer of Ulamog, Swarm of Rats, Telekinetic Sliver, Gilder Bairn, Terminate, Drove of Elves, and Ancient Ziggurat.

Final Thoughts

Always be on the lookout for hot Modern uncommons and commons. There are certain casually popular uncommons and commons especially that fly under the radar but at the same time are flying off the shelves of game stores around the country (and even the globe!). Picking bulk has always been a good path to gaining value out of your collection, or a recently acquired collection, and I hope that this article shows that value through exhibiting both tournament and casual retail and buylist prices.

Arbitrage is present, however unlike rares and mythics uncommons and commons are much more risky to try and make profits by buying single cards in mass quantities. At any time Wizards could reprint that uncommon or common if the demand is present. Feel free to pick up undervalued uncommons and commons but make sure you time your offloading them correctly.

Finally, here is the appendix I have been referring to throughout the entire article. Please feel free to print it out and reference it the next time you are sit down to pick through Modern bulk.

Appendix

Appendix – Modern Uncommon and Common Master List

 

All pre-Innistrad cards from sets have a TCGPlayer retail value of $0.50 or more. All Innistrad and later set cards have a TCGPlayer retail value of $0.25 or more.

Sets cover Eighth Edition through Khans of Tarkir.

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By: Jared Yost

Something I’m interested in seeing is the value of Standard decks over time, especially in light of the combination of the new setup of blocks/sets and the Standard rotation changes made by Wizards. These changes are happening once Khans block fully enters the Standard card pool and the final core set is released, which is much closer than players realize. What this means is that players will have to budget for Standard accordingly, since block rotation will occur every 18 months rather than every 24 months.

In order to track Standard deck values over time, I would like to see the current Standard decks that exist and then recreate this article in the future on a quarterly basis in order to keep on top of trends for existing and new Standard decks. It would be best to see the information on a quarterly basis to coincide with new set releases, where hype is highest and paying attention to the prices is most important.

Also, I hope by doing this that I point out to players which Standard decks are the cheapest competitive decks of the format, and which decks may feature cards hyped from a set release. My theory is that expensive decks now could be driven down in overall price due to the influx of the new set as players draft it and open boxes. I want to see if I can refer back to this article in the future and see more expensive decks now than in the future.

If there is interest, I could also write similar articles in this series about Modern or even Legacy decks to show players which decks are currently the cheapest to play and which decks increase or decrease in price over time. For now though, I want to keep the scope to Standard because the most widely played format is going to have the most price swings and will need the closest watch to determine the fluctuations of prices.

Scope of Analysis

The scope will include the following to determine a deck’s value:

• All decks that have been recorded on TCGPlayer (http://magic.tcgplayer.com/standard_deck_hq.asp)
  • For my own sanity’s sake, I am going to take the average of the first five decks that I find that match to an archetype on MTG Top 8, preferably using the decks of the archetype that got 1st place or were PT finishers. I will not use decks that aren’t ranked in the averages, but I will use all decks in the overall count in order to assess the popularity of the deck. There are 19 deck archetypes out there and trying to average each deck of all singular archetypes into one general price is too much work for only slightly more precise averages. Thus I stick with five.
  • Decks will be non-MTGO decks that placed at in-person events like Pro Tours, GP’s, State Champs, etc. since the data is from TCGPlayer and they do not track MTGO. If there is interest, I can track the price of MTGO decks as well in a future article.
• All prices reflect TCG Mid Pricing
• The term “deck” for this analysis includes both main and sideboard cards
• Finally, I realize that there are budget-based decks beyond what is recorded on TCGPlayer and that’s fine. What I am trying to aim for in this article is that if you are playing an extremely budget based deck at an FNM or other tournament, there are other options out there that have already proven themselves as a viable archetype that probably aren’t much more expensive than your deck. Especially if you are willing to sacrifice NM condition and go for cards that are SP or lower.

With my scope out of the way, let’s see which decks are the most and least expensive in Standard right now.

Data Set – Khans Standard Deck Prices

Deck	Average Cost	Copies Listed on TCGPlayer
Abzan Midrange	$708.74	98
Jeskai Tempo	$444.77	77
Mardu Midrange	$649.46	37
Temur Midrange	$537.52	26
RG Midrange	$554.87	22
GR Devotion	$461.41	19
Monogreen Devotion	$475.52	19
GB Devotion	$464.10	16
Esper Control	$458.40	12
Rabble Red	$150.23	11
Sultai Midrange	$565.57	10
Monoblack Aggro	$254.34	8
Naya Midrange	$695.00	7
Mardu Tokens	$533.20	7
Naya Superfriends	$713.76	6
BW Aggro	$309.07	6
Mardu Control	$552.85	5
Abzan Reanimator	$453.42	5
Jeskai Burn	$430.57	4
*Jeskai Combo (Lee Shi Tian)	$407.57	1
*Abzan Aggro (Thiago Saporito)	$530.06	1
*UB Control (Ivan Floch)	$369.64	1
**Sultai Dredge (Christian Seibold)	$444.96	1
**Boros Tokens (Brad Nelson)	$371.64	1
**Jeskai Control (Justin Cheung)	$557.36	1

*PT Khans Top 8, only appearance
**Place highly at PT Khans outside Top 8, no other appearances

Notes about the data set:

• The copies on TCGPlayer represent the amount of players who are listing their deck – this does not reflect the number of Top 8’s that the deck has received.
• Average cost represents the average cost of five winning decks (first place), as available – if there were fewer than five winners I picked the next highest placing decks of the archetype for the average. All averages were based on decks in Top 8’s.
• I included the rest of the Pro Tour Khans Top 8 decks in the analysis, which did not show up in the TCGPlayer top played deck archetypes, to see where the rest of the PT Top 8 was on the budget scale.
• I also included a few other PT recorded decks that were in the TCGPlayer database in the analysis that did fairly well at the tournament to see where they landed on budget.

Data Set – Graphical Representation

Ten Most Represented Decks on TCGPlayer – Average Cost, Ordered by Deck Price

Remaining Standard Decks and High Finishes at PT Khans – Average Cost, Ordered by Deck Price

Data Set Analysis

Not surprising is that that the Pro Tour winning deck Abzan Midrange is now the most expensive deck in Standard right now along with being the most popular on TCGPlayer. I believe the prices of several cards in the deck, specifically Siege Rhino, Wingmate Roc, and Sorin, Solemn Visitor are driven by the hype of the win. I expect this deck to go down in overall price over the next few months as the Khans pieces of the deck decrease in price.

Surprisingly, out of the top five most played decks of the format the Jeskai Tempo deck is significantly cheaper than the other top four decks even after the Mantis Rider, Goblin Rabblemaster, and Dig Through Time spikes. However, looking further into the deck we can easily see why. The archetype plays many solid commons and uncommons that the Abzan Midrange and other midrange decks replace with planeswalkers, which are typically among the most expensive mythic rares in the set. Most of the Jeskai Tempo decks only play two copies of Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker as their planeswalker with the occasional deck playing one or two copies of Chandra, Pyromaster along with Sarkhan. The other midrange decks are playing six to seven planeswalkers, which significantly drives up the price of the deck especially if the walkers are Sarkhan and/or Sorin. Keep this in mind if you’re trying to build a competitive Standard deck on a budget – Jeskai Tempo is currently a mid-budget deck that should get cheaper as more Khans product is released and is one of the more dominant decks of the format right now.

In terms of budget decks, there are several options available right now that are around $400 or less. The first that pops out to me is the Jeskai Ascendency combo deck and UB Control deck that both placed in the Top 8 of PT Khans. These decks can currently be had for $408 and $370, respectively. I’ll give you a guess as to what these decks have in common. That’s right, neither deck plays Planeswalkers in either the main deck or the sideboard. This allows the decks to be more to akin “budgetary” decks than the other decks that are showing up on TCGPlayer.

A true budget deck based on the results is Rabble Red, coming in at $150, and Monoblack Aggro coming in at $250. If you are playing Standard, it seems like the minimum amount you will need to spend to remain competitive is about $200 for one of the cheaper aggro decks. However, what surprises me is that Floch’s control deck is among the five least expensive decks in Khans Standard! For about $150 more you could build yourself a competitive control deck if you hate being on the aggro plan all the time and your budget is limited.

To summarize, the five most expensive Standard decks currently are:

1. Naya Superfriends    $713.76
2. Abzan Midrange        $708.74
3. Naya Midrange          $695.00
4. Mardu Midrange        $649.46
5. Sultai Midrange         $565.57

I’m certain a few of these decks, like Abzan Midrange, contain several cards that are driven by hype right now and that their average total prices should come down over the next few months. If you can, avoid playing these decks for now even if you don’t have a limited budget since you should eventually be able to play them for cheaper if you wait for more Khans product to be released.

The five least expensive Standard decks are:

1. Rabble Red            $150.23
2. Monoblack Aggro    $254.34
3. BW Aggro               $309.07
4. UB Control              $369.64
5. Boros Tokens         $371.64

These are the decks that should allow you to remain competitive at FNM while not burning a huge hole in your pocket. There is even a control option in here, UB Control, if you can’t stand playing aggro decks. Or maybe you just like the color blue!

Middle of the road decks (between $450 and $480) include:

1. Monogreen Devotion    $475.52
2. GB Devotion                 $464.10
3. GR Devotion                 $461.41
4. Esper Control               $458.40
5. Abzan Reanimator       $453.42

*Honorable Mention – Jeskai Tempo $444.77

These are the decks that are competitive and generally more consistent than the lowest priced budgetary decks, since they contain more powerful mana fixing or a few more planeswalkers than the budget decks. Keep in mind, Jeskai Tempo is not strictly in the middle five decks however is actually cheaper than all of them and is in many players’ view more a powerful archetype. There are two blue decks here, so again there are options for those players looking to avoid spending $500 or more on a Standard deck while still being able to play blue.

Last Thoughts

Let me know if you like this type of article. I enjoyed writing it and I hope you liked seeing most of the current deck archetypes and what the prices were. This will show you what you can play for all budget levels. Hopefully this will give new players and existing Standard players a starting point for choosing a deck from a financial standpoint after a Standard shakeup. Standard can be expensive, however many overall deck prices should go down over the next few months as more Khans product is added to the market.

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