MTG Finance Recap – Planeswalkers, Sphinxes & More

The MTG market has been moving quite a bit lately, with interesting spikes across competitive formats, Commander and collectibles.

Premodern has seen several cards move thanks to specific strategies gaining attention, while new Commander products have brought some older cards back into the spotlight. We've also seen some interesting movements on Magic Online, including a few connected to Pauper and the new Reality Fracture cards.

As always, these observations are not absolute truths. They're simply my interpretation of recent price movements. Sometimes there's a clear competitive reason behind a spike, sometimes it's Commander hype or collectibility, and sometimes it's a bit harder to tell.

Price references are based on English-language cards. For cards under €20, I generally use CardTrader, while for cards above €20, I use Cardmarket. If a card has multiple sellers offering at least four copies on Cardmarket at a lower price than CardTrader, I'll use the Cardmarket price instead.

One small note: the prices displayed below the card images correspond to the lowest available CardTrader listing, regardless of the card's language.

Let's take a look at some of the most interesting movements.

PREMODERN

Let's start with Premodern, where several movements involve cards seeing play in Reanimator and other strategies in the format.

[[Didgeridoo]]: €9 → €17

Didgeridoo is seeing play in a UR Control list that, at least for now, doesn't seem particularly successful. That said, the card is on the Reserved List, which can help support its price even without particularly impressive competitive results.

[[Distorting Lens]]: €1 → €4.5

Distorting Lens has also been moving, going from around €1 to €4.5. It's played as a four-of in a list that went 5-0 at the end of August. Nothing too exciting in terms of results, but the increased demand is clearly worth noting.

[[Sickening Dreams]]: €3 → €6

Sickening Dreams is finding more room in both Reanimator and Psychatog than it used to. Both archetypes can take advantage of the card's unique characteristics, which seems to be contributing to the increase.

[[Iridescent Angel]]: €8 → €16

This is probably the most interesting Premodern movement for me. Iridescent Angel has doubled in price, with Reanimator once again appearing to be the main reason.

The creature can't be targeted by [[Swords to Plowshares]], which can make it particularly appealing in certain situations.

Interestingly, this is already the third spike in just a few weeks.

[[Petradon]] (foil): €10 → €15

Finally, Petradon foil has also moved upward, while the available stock of the regular version has dropped significantly.

Petradon is played as a four-of in some Reanimator lists, so there's a clear gameplay connection here.

PIONEER

[[Kasmina, Enigma Sage]]: €1 → €9

Pioneer has seen a much more dramatic movement, with Kasmina, Enigma Sage jumping from around €1 to €9.

The spike seems to be connected to the hype surrounding a rather complicated combo in a format that currently doesn't enjoy the same popularity as some of the other competitive environments.

The combo involves four cards: [[Kasmina, Enigma Sage]], [[Jace's Machinations]], [[Enter the Infinite]] and [[Thassa's Oracle]].

The increase is particularly interesting when you consider both the complexity of the strategy and the relatively limited popularity of the format.

It'll be interesting to see whether the price can hold or if this is mostly a spike driven by the initial excitement.

My guess would be the latter.

COMMANDER

Moving on to Commander, where new products and spoilers continue to influence the market, bringing attention back to cards that previously had much lower demand.

DRAGONS & THE HOBBIT

Let's start with [[Ganax, Astral Hunter]]: €1 → €4.5.

Ganax could find a home in Dragon strategies thanks to its synergy with [[Draconic Visitor]] from Reality Fracture.

The movement is interesting because Dragons are already one of the most popular Commander archetypes, so even a relatively small increase in interest can translate into additional demand for cards that fit the strategy.

The Hobbit is also continuing to generate some interesting movements as players figure out which older cards work best with the new commanders.

[[Words of Wilding]]: €1 → €3

[[Beorn the Fierce]] seems to have brought this card back into the spotlight.

[[Lively Dirge]] (foil): €2 → €4.8

[[Thranduil, the Elvenking]], together with the interest in Jund Sacrifice in Standard and Pioneer, seems to have contributed to the increase in the foil version of Lively Dirge.

[[Cadric, Soul Kindler]]: €5 → €17

[[Bearded Axe]]: €0.4 → €4

Both movements appear to be connected to [[Thorin, King of Durin's Folk]], which has brought renewed attention to cards that fit its strategy.

Finally, [[Mauhur]] (Scroll): €1 → €4.5 has moved following the increased interest in [[The Great Goblin]].

In this case, I'd also consider the collectibility angle. Scroll versions from the Holiday Release have relatively few copies in circulation, and I find them particularly interesting from a collector's perspective.

REALITY FRACTURE: THE RETURN OF PLANESWALKERS

The Reality Fracture precon seems to have brought planeswalkers back into the spotlight in Commander, with several cards moving thanks to their ability to support strategies built around this permanent type.

Some of the biggest movers include:

• [[Ichormoon Gauntlet]]: €7 → €20
• [[Onakke Oathkeeper]]: €1 → €12
• [[Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God]]: €3 → €20
• [[Oath of Teferi]]: €0.5 → €6
• [[Commodore Guff]]: €0.5 → €15
• [[Jace, Cunning Castaway]]: €1 → €4

As often happens in Commander, there's a difference between the initial excitement surrounding a new commander and demand that can actually sustain itself over time.

Some of these increases are certainly impressive, but it'll be interesting to see which prices manage to hold once the initial hype settles down.

REALITY FRACTURE & THE RETURN OF SPHINXES

Another commander from the Reality Fracture precon that seems to have generated interest is [[The Ur-Sphinx]].

As expected, the card has brought renewed attention to Sphinxes and the older cards that can support this type of deck.

The most interesting movements include:

• [[Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign]]: €0.8 → €8.5
• [[Sphinx Ambassador]]: €10 → €25
• [[Medomai the Ageless]]: €3 → €9
• [[Azor, the Lawbringer]]: €1 → €3.8
• [[Tivit, Seller of Secrets]]: €4 → €10

These are some pretty significant increases, especially for cards that may have been sitting in binders for quite some time.

As always with Commander, the real question is how much of this demand will remain once players have had time to build and test their decks.

THE UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL & NIV-MIZZET

Another interesting movement involves [[Growing Rites of Itlimoc]]: €5 → €8, which transforms into [[Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun]].

The increase seems to be connected to [[The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl]] from Marvel Super Heroes, which may have brought renewed attention to cards that support strategies based on generating creatures and taking advantage of them.

We also have [[Words of Worship]]: €2 → €10, apparently following the release of [[Niv-Mizzet, Ghost Counsel]].

Both movements are worth keeping an eye on, although it'll take some time to understand whether the increased demand is sustainable.

COLLECTING

Moving away from gameplay-driven movements, there are also a couple of interesting developments that seem to be primarily connected to collectibility.

SECRET LAIR & THE ZETA SET

[[Secret Lair Drop Series: MSCHF]]: €70 → €100

The announcement of The Zeta Set seems to have brought renewed attention to Secret Lair Drop Series: MSCHF.

The connection appears to be the artists involved in the two projects. When a new product is announced, previous releases by the same artists can also benefit, especially when they share a recognizable artistic direction.

This is an interesting example of how a new release can influence the market for older products, even when there's no direct gameplay connection.

OPTIMUS PRIME & THE PASSING OF PETER CULLEN

Another movement involves the Optimus Prime cards, following the sad news of the passing of Peter Cullen, the legendary voice actor associated with the character.

The versions that have seen the most interesting increases include:

• [[Darksteel Colossus]] (Optimus Prime): €10 → €20
• [[Optimus Prime, Hero]] // [[Optimus Prime, Autobot Leader]] (Shattered Glass): €15 → €32
• [[Optimus Prime, Hero]] // [[Optimus Prime, Autobot Leader]]: €1 → €4

In this case, the movement seems to be driven primarily by the emotional and collectible aspects of these cards.

When a figure so closely associated with a recognizable character passes away, it's not surprising to see renewed interest in products that celebrate that character.

That said, it'll be interesting to see how much of these increases lasts and how much is simply a short-term reaction to the news.

MAGIC ONLINE

As usual, Magic Online has also produced several interesting spikes.

Even when we're talking about prices measured in tix, I find these movements particularly useful because they can tell us something about actual gameplay demand across different formats.

PAUPER: MONO WHITE AGGRO & THE ZETA SET

Let's start with three cards that have increased thanks to Pauper Mono White Aggro:

• [[Ultimate Alliance]]: 1.5 → 10 tix
• [[Phyrexian Walker]]: 2 → 9 tix
• [[Ramosian Rally]]: 5 → 10 tix

Another interesting movement involves [[Utrom Monitor]]: 9 → 20 tix.

The card is seeing more play thanks to the presence of [[Dispatch]] and [[Baleful Strix]], both of which have started moving significantly after becoming legal in Pauper through The Zeta Set.

[[Dispatch]]: 0.005 → 0.6 tix

[[Baleful Strix]]: 0.15 → 6 tix

It's interesting to see how the introduction of new cards into a format can affect the prices of existing cards, sometimes creating a chain reaction that extends well beyond the original release.

MODERN: RAKDOS DELIRIUM

[[Moonshadow]]: 10 → 35 tix

Moonshadow has seen a significant increase thanks to the growing popularity of Rakdos Delirium, which has been gaining ground with the help of [[Dark Matter Manipulator]] from Reality Fracture.

Since Moonshadow is a mythic rare, I wouldn't be surprised if the paper version also started moving upward.

This is definitely one of the cards I'll be keeping an eye on.

STANDARD: JUND SACRIFICE

[[Rottenmouth Viper]]: 0.03 → 0.8 tix

In Standard, Rottenmouth Viper has increased following the growing popularity of Jund Sacrifice.

The starting price was extremely low, so even a relatively modest increase in absolute terms translates into a very significant percentage gain.

As always, the important thing to watch is whether the deck continues to perform well enough to maintain demand.

KASMINA, ENIGMA SAGE

Finally, we have [[Kasmina, Enigma Sage]]: 0.007 → 0.5 tix on Magic Online.

This is the same card we discussed earlier in the context of the Pioneer paper market. The movement appears to be connected to the combo involving [[Jace's Machinations]], [[Enter the Infinite]] and [[Thassa's Oracle]].

It'll be interesting to see whether the strategy can put up enough results to keep the card relevant, or if the increase will remain mostly driven by the initial hype.

So far, I haven't seen any particularly significant results.

THANK YOU

I originally covered many of these market movements on METAGAME, where I regularly write about MTG Finance alongside spoilers, gameplay, deckbuilding and competitive Magic.

If you'd like to read more of my MTG content, you can find my articles there.

I also make videos about Magic on YouTube, and post additional MTG content on Instagram and TikTok under u/paolothewall182.

If you noticed another interesting spike this month—or if you disagree with any of my interpretations—let me know in the comments.

What did I miss?

Thanks for reading!

At this point I don’t even think this is news with how often it happens lol feels par for the course every release now. Seems play and prerelease stuff is fine at least just get ready for Amazon to delay those CBBs and pray they don’t get cancelled.

Edit: Missed the TMNT Vigor, so about $8 less than originally posted. Thanks~

Hey folks, we just wrote up a piece on the Marvel Countdown Kit, but if you just want to see the numbers, here's what you can expect from the 30-card Secret Lair release:

• $20+ Reprints (5)
• $10-20 Reprints (3)
• $5-10 Reprints (2)
• $2-5 Reprints (5)
• <$2 Bulk (13)
• No Price (2) --> Two uncommons from Darkhold Destiny, assuming not worth anything.

Total value using lowest possible market price versions on TCGplayer is about $248. This is not counting randomly inserted foils/surge foils.

If I'm remembering correctly, the "money card" distribution is about what it was for last year's Countdown Kit, maybe slightly worse. And I want to say people were averaging 1-2 surge foils per kit last year.

Big hits include [Fierce Guardianship], [Biorhythm], [Tainted Pact], [Timber Protector] (was just in another Secret Liar this month), and [Opposition Agent]. About half the total box is duds.

Why are a bunch of sellers suddenly trying to upcharge this card? As far as I can tell there havent been any sales for a price this high but my collection app now lists it as such.

Hobbit and RF cbb are available at MSRP on Amazon Canada. Sold by Amazon.

https://a.co/d/0evgUTQl

https://a.co/d/06YSbXjj

Hobbit has been in and out of stock at this price the last couple of weeks.

https://a.co/d/03C22dg5

For the first time in my life I’m in the position to buy a high end version of a card AND there’s one I actively want. I’m looking at the confetti foil version of [[The Theorist, Jace Beleren]]. I know that the best window to buy singles is generally ~3 months after the set comes out. I’d usually wait but I saw that the base printing is spiking and I don’t want to overpay for the card if necessary. Would y’all recommend buying now or waiting?

Just a personal observation but might still be relevant. My lgs in germany got a restock 3x every deck. Prices have gone down strong for about a month. Have your lgs been restocked?

Pack EVs basically never exceed the actual cost of a pack, but Reality Fracture isn't too far off on average. You're still unlikely to make your money back if your plan is to crack them and sell the singles. We always omit cards worth less than $1.

• One pack: $42.49 indexed price, $31.20 quoted EV, -$11.29 gap, 73.4% return.
• Typical pack: $22.36 modeled median, with 16.7% gross chance of recovering the indexed price.
• 12-pack display: $416.93 indexed price, $374.36 quoted EV, -$42.57 gap, 89.8% return.
• Typical display: $347.32 modeled median, with 26.7% gross chance of recovering the indexed price.
• These recovery rates come from 150,000 modeled packs and 70,000 modeled displays. The guide contains a calculator if you'd like to run your own simulations.

https://tcgspikes.com/guides/mtg/are-reality-fracture-collector-boosters-worth-it

I own TCG Spikes. The guide contains affiliate links, and TCG Spikes may earn a commission from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.

"Nobody is going to build superfriends" - Everyone in this sub.

From wizards themselves, merfolk are a confirmed type for Nauctis. I'm currently looking at [[lord of Atlantis]] which seems pretty low atm, but got a reprint in MSH. Any other core meefilk cards to look out for?

I more or less wanted this post to be general discussion on what Yall think of the life/longevity of Collector Booster Boxes (CBB), including the pricing, desirability from the MtG audience/collectors, and which sets yall think will survive a bear market.

I'm not necessarily looking for financial advice on a specific product, or what set you think will skyrocket, but feel free to post thoughts/interpretations of the market.

Not sure why people are saying they’re bad 🤷🏿‍♂️

My pre-orders from the first round ($100) and second round ($160) have all dropped down to $75. Who knows how well Trek is going to go, but at $75 it should be a slam dunk. What are your thoughts?

TL;DR if you don't want to hear me complain about 80% of the art - the value's bad, the art's bad, and now I feel bad.

This drop is incredibly disappointing. Just to remind people, last year had:

- Field of the Dead

- Urza's Saga

- Wasteland

- Phyrexian Altar

- Myrel

- Krark-Clan Ironworks

And a bunch of other decent cards (either mid price-wise or cheap staples) that were almost guaranteed to have wild multipliers for the variant art alone, or as jackpots for foil / surge foil. The Sol Ring, for example, was a crazy design, and a surge of it now is worth a decent chunk of how much the entire drop cost. Even the regular / foil are over 10 / 20, and Sol Ring is one of the most contested variant alt slots. Llanowar Elves is in the same price range for the regular card, though the halo isn't as expensive. And those are two of the absolute cheapest cards you could jam into a lair; if the variant art is good, it's a nice inclusion. Meanwhile, for jackpots, Urza's Saga halos are closing in on $600, or 3x of the drop's original price.

These reprints in a vacuum look worse, and a lot of the art is terrible. I love Marvel, I grew up with it and still own comic books, and most of this drop is a combination of not looking right on a Magic card (in contrast with the Darkhold set, which has looked VERY Magic, like how Edge of Eternities felt MTG despite being a space set), and not being art I'd like regardless of where it is. Having bad art on Fierce Guardianship is a kick in the balls considering they (mostly) had good art on the big ones last time.

So what's in here!? Why does it suck?! Let's go see!

Molten Duplication - single printing, ~$14 or 15 for the cheapest. This is absolutely ripe for disintegrating with an actual reprint in a Commander deck or something. Android Torch is certainly a choice, and when they make a card about him, I'll be interested to see it. I don't know what this thing is supposed to be. The "duplication" part doesn't make sense either, the FF torch didn't exist yet, this is just a flamey boy made in a lab back in the 30s. The whole purpose of the card is making an artifact copy of something, and Android Torch is not a copy. Maybe I'm missing something.

Fierce Guardianship - the value banger, currently ~$60 for a range of similarly-priced editions, even with the influx from Extra Life's drop and CMM. There are small multipliers for variants, but lots of people are buying whichever's cheapest. The Namor art is so fugly, I can't imagine anything but the halo foil bling factor mattering. Easily the least-desirable of all the variants, and that includes the polarizing pixel one. I'd much prefer out-of-place but cute to whatever this Namor one is. Classic Namor is already silly, but the slanted comic panel thing is a hard pass.

Timber Protector *would* be pretty nice, but we're getting a shot in the arm literally RIGHT NOW from the Corn Maze drop. Polarizing cutesy art for that drop, but I think it's a suitable aesthetic for a treefolk deck, and it doesn't feature modern cars and buildings like this one. Horrible timing and bleh art for a card over $20 (before the injection of the new drop), and people that want a Magic-style art have the beautiful LotR borderless, albeit at a premium. Card itself would absolutely collapse if they ever did a more common reprint, it's absolutely a $1 card if given a single normal set (or Commander deck) worth of copies.

Biorhythm - low print runs, >$20 price tag can temporarily hold, even considering the.... interesting FF art, but this card, like a bunch of others, is precariously propped up by scarcity. Recently unbanned for EDH, no way this card holds with an injection beyond lair drops. It was bulk until recently, despite its age and only two printings, and I don't think it would take that many copies to be 'enough' for everyone with its new EDH legality.

Tainted Pact - pretty big hit. Garbage price for the longest time, started to get attention in the late 2010s and then exploded in the COVID interest surge thanks to EDH usage. It's all but nonexistent outside of EDH. Strixhaven's subset reprint tanked it by 80-90% in value, which is scary for future reprints. It's had nothing since for reprints though, steadily climbing from the teens to $40, and it's art that not only feels Magic / not-Marvel, but features Doom. If the whole drop was more like this one, it would be great, or at least palatable to non-believers. It will get hammered by the next Strixhaven-sized reprint, but this version should stay fine.

Vigor - high teens price before/outside of TMNT, modern art with a military jeep / soldiers and gray Hulk off to the side isn't great. $2 card with TMNT print and crummy art, this doesn't look much better. The Hulk SL drop did not do well, it's still in stock. That doesn't bode well at all for a multiplier here. People are currently still paying over $10 to not look at the TMNT art, they'll likely do that here, too.

Mjolnir - card settled at the $3-4 range after a brief speculative frenzy a few months post-release. I see this carrying a premium for people wanting the Marvel skin for it, but you need a lot of people wanting that to move the needle.

"With Great Power..." - much better than the first one. I can't believe Uncle Ben wasn't on the Spidey set art. But it's a sub-$1 card with a modern glut of copies and it's not a broad staple, even though it can be shoe-horned into most aura or equipment decks.

Unbreakable Formation has neat art for what it is, and there's almost no way of making it look "Magic" with Cap anyway, so it's forgivable to me compared to the Vigor art. It's also a bulk card with a ton of recent prints.

Doctor Strange is apparently a fuckin' uncommon from Darkhold. Card is understandably underwhelming. Art is pretty nice, the card is not.

Champion's Helm - CMM and Fallout kept this in check, and then Final Fantasy killed it, even with janky art. It would be well more than $2 without the recent reprints, but they exist. Even the neat borderless from CMM has gone nowhere. Reasonable EDH use, but not a ton. As for the art, what are we doing. It's so bad that I almost like it.

Force of Virtue - Turbo bulk card, bulk rate art. I don't even get how the art makes sense, multiple wires were crossed during this inclusion. I see what they were going for, given the flavor text, but this ain't it. All I see is Loki.

Heroic Intervention - FINALLY, IT GETS A REPRINT. Speaks volumes about how wildly expensive this card would be if they didn't reprint it so much, as the cheapest are all the various Marvel ones. Dr. Who, Fallout, Marvel (many), LotR, CMM, Secret Lairs (multiple), Avatar, plus the original Core and Aether Revolt, and it's *still* $10 for the cheapest. This would be $50-80 if it was Core/Aether and then one reprint in CMM and that's it. If they hands-off and let it run for 4-5 years with no more prints, I could still see $40-50 hitting, but I think they don't want to let this one get away from them. Pretty great art other than being as Super Hero-y as can be. The other side of the Tainted Pact coin - while I'd prefer that it all blended in better, if it's all gonna look very Marvel, this is how the whole drop should've been. And before you're like, hey, that'd be unrealistic, too much value... it's TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS for 30 cards, they have room for more $10 cards.

Fighter Class - Baller art. The rest of the set wishes it was this great. Doing stained glass for Daredevil is peak. Base card has climbed up to the $7 range, this is a mega premium.

Court of Bounty - Up with Tainted Pact for aesthetic, maybe better. Fantastic art; if you didn't know the character, this could mostly fit right into Magic. If T'challa had the mask off, it'd look less Super-y, but the mask really suits the piece. I might get a print of this, it's awesome. The card itself is bulk, though I personally thought it had potential to creep into more casual green staple lists over time, and I specced on it for personal use. C'est la vie, it's still a pet card.

Finale of Devastation - Come the fuck on, wrong one! Portal/Starter card, miniscule print run and still only low teens for a price tag. EDH legal, but people *HATE* board wipes. I don't want to go down the rabbit hole discussing playgroup environments, but EDHrec has this at 0.07% inclusion, and that's not because of the small print run and (low) double digit price. Really has no home, super expensive to cast + blowing lands will get undergarments all ruffled, CEDH doesn't need this clunky cost, and the art is goofy at best. Big nope all over.

Unholy Heat - Card's a common. At least they tried with the art, though it's not for me, doesn't feel quite right. Maybe a bit too silly. Ghost Rider probably will demand a decent multiplier still, but Ghost Rider on a $10+ card with better art would've been, y'know, better. There's no way you couldn't figure out how to give Ghost Rider a Damnation card or something. Or Mephisto, but I can see WotC not wanting to use him. Don't need the 'ol Satanic Panic to come back.

Villainous Wrath - Don't worry, more cards you don't recognize because they just came out! SPM printing, increasingly crowded 5 mana Wrath space, though white is more cluttered. Gotta make sure to pad the $200 lair with more $0.40 cards. Also, the art is absolutely terrible. I had no idea what the fuck they were going for until I read the flavor text. Way more time in the oven for the concept was needed. My first thought was "what is this supposed to be, Zemo mouth tornado? What's going on?"

Damning Verdict - How'd they miss on this?! Blade should carry an enormous multiplier, even though I think a more modern look would hit harder for people. Regardless, I can barely see the vampires on a card meant to be a board wipe, and his hand looks absolutely ENORMOUS. I thought I was missing a deep cut or something with his weapons, so I googled to refresh my memory. OG blade threw teak daggers. And they look familiar, he held them on that ruddy brown bandolier. So then I look at this art again, and now I see it. They're absolutely wooden daggers that happen to look like crosses at the bottom, and he's holding the pointy ends. But that took me way too long to figure out. Maybe it's me. For value, the card exploded recently, but the FF reprint brought it back down to Earth. $3 for the forgettable / meh FF art, few dollars more of a premium for the original hammer art, hard to say how much of a premium for this Blade art. Maybe it'll grow on me.

Primal Might - Decent reprint! Oh, wait, that's Primal Vigor; this is trash. TCG stores are trying to sell the Breaking News version for less than Direct's $0.40 floor. If you wanted to highlight the famous Hulk/Wolverine meeting, maybe just show the fight. Points for creativity, at least it's something new, but it also has the infamous Secret Lair feature of "what the FUCK does this card do?!" Fortunately, no one uses this card, so it'll never actually be an issue. If you're gonna do a Hulk/Wolverine, the whole "reflection in the claws" art is right there, too.

Damn - The absolute brass balls to use Damn instead of Damnation in a $200 30-card set. $2 card, not $20. Simple concept for the art, but... broken record, it's not my favorite. It's not terrible. Now, here's the funny thing. The artist is John Romita Jr. + his colorist, Jesus Aburtov. He's done some iconic stuff with the character. I just don't think it looks quite right. Maybe it's the skull.

Genesis Wave - I take it back, Damn has the best art I've ever seen. Again, what are we doing. I have cards by the artist, I really like my Beholder's Charm Ray / Bribery, and her Morophon is beautiful and suitable. It just ain't it for the X-Men. Card itself is pure bulk anyway, but whew. I'd take a Lorwyn or Eldraine or something bundle from the artist, but not Marvel.

Fiery Confluence - You will never believe me, but this is yet another piece of bulk. It's 4 more cards than last year, so that's, what, 8-10 more pieces of bulk, right? Art isn't horrendous, but it still just... ain't it. I found a bunch of images of Phoenix wreathed in flame in similar poses in seconds, and I like basically all of them better. I give it 3.6 roentgens.

Rogue's Gloves - More bulk. Art's fine, I guess. Not sure how well waifu tax will hold up, even considering it's Rogue, with that face she's making and the dagger fingers.

Beta Ray Bill - I hope that art's for someone. Reminds me of the breakfast cereal Secret Lairs, and not in a good way. Apparently another uncommon from Darkhold, so absolutely zero value aside from art premiums.

Snuff Out - Pricey common, still in the $5-6 range and up. Venom sells.

Titanic Ultimatum - Can Marvel's most popular heroes carry a $2 card (despite few reprints)? Nope. This isn't competing with cute cat/dog lairs (not the Marvel pets one, obviously, I mean the ones people wanted). Art's fine, but that doesn't feel like enough.

Opposition Agent - Certainly a choice to put Bucky in the chair and not doing something. Expensive card, OG print is around $20, as is the Agent Venom one. The Agent Venom art is insane compared to "guy sitting in chair", so I can't imagine a comparative premium. Card itself is propped up mostly by scarcity, Commander Legends alone isn't enough copies anymore, and subset Mythic isn't enough to move the needle. Another card that's precariously positioned to tank if it sees sizable reprinting.

Collective Effort is what was missing when they assembled this lair. Multiple prints INCLUDING A MARVEL ONE, card's worth nothing. Art's... fine, but I feel like the Guardians kinda get lost in each other a bit, kinda crowded.

Lightning Bolt - Sick art, bolts tend to go for a few dollars, but we have a pretty stacked set of alt arts and lairs for bolt. Of all the cards to give striking art, it was the bolt? Considering how weak a lot of this lair is, this is probably eventually a shocking (no pun intended) premium, because the money's gotta go somewhere. There's just so much good bolt art.

In conclusion, oh dear. Being generous and using current values, even for Timber Protector which is literally getting reprinted again as we speak, this is about $230. And I feel like it's a very soft $230. If memory serves, the A-Z one from last year was in the $260-280 range, something like that. And, look, art is subjective, but I was comparatively over the moon about the art for last year. And I love Marvel. It feels like they thought Marvel would carry without comparable value, whereas it actually feels like Marvel needs *more* help to get over the top.

Show's over folks. If you like it, be happy and order it. If you don't like it, it feels like the strategy is "buy it anyway and complain about it," so do that.

Just got an email that the orders for the EOE bundles have been cancelled. There was a post a while back for the preorders. Just wanted to fill everyone in that had placed one.

Star Trek omegas in stock at Walmart.

Won’t allow me to add link. Post gets deleted

Had a customer from a facebook group buying a japanese full-art Demonic Tutor. Pricy card, little haggling, guy was helpful otherwise. We go through paypal, shipped the card same day, and all is well. Now they're claiming the card is a fake?? I know it's not a fake, I pulled it, but I'm worried Paypal will issue a chargeback.

Can I get some input? I don't sell often and this sale really affected our finances. I'd hate to see it swing the other way due to someone being sketched out.

edit: buyer paid G&S for card, F&F for shipping

Pulled it in a Believers in Love secret lair apparently. Has anyone seen anything else about this? Looks cool but definitely my least favorite of the ones shown so far lol.

Tonight at 9 EST, some crazy prices from a big box in my opinion.

EDIT: this is actually just going to be a regular botmart queued drop.

I am currently holding about 60% of the set and plan to complete ut besides the golden smaug. I am holding for my love of tolkien. But I noticed I bought way to early on a lot of these cards and am wondering if they are still falling or if they reached the bottom yet? Mox amber foil for example is 500€ flat in germany rn… I bought in an 700€ after the spike with fear of missing out since I was obviously biased due to my loce for the book. 500€ feels cheap to me for such beautiful card. but yeah… let me know hoe you handle hobbit stuff right now. Especially interested in collector opinion of this set. But everyone is welcomed to discuss in here if it constructive.

With Commander Mystery Booster orders next week I reckon there will be plenty of folks looking to build [[Itazura, Lingering Wick]]

[[Brand]] and [[Homeward Path]] are both bangers in a donate focused version of this deck.

Brand, specifically, only has 2 print runs, one being the list the other Urza's Saga.

I see this also having longer-term viability as well given the popularity of the donate theme in casual commander.

I'm in for 50 copies, let's see what happens...