Archetype of Imagination (FOIL)

Like, Archetype of Courage, Archetype of Imagination is a popular Commander card. It’s for a much different reason, however. The regular non-foil printings are about 0.05 - 0.10 USD on buylists, rivalling Courage. But foils buylist for as much as 1.25 USD. It turns out making your creatures gain flying and make all others lose it is a lot better. The Commanders who take advantage of this Archetype most include Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor, Tibor and Lumia, and Tromokratis, among many others.

Enigma Drake in Magic 2019 Standard

Still, could an Enigma Drake deck be competitive in Standard? Despite getting some more tools in Hour of Destruction, it didn't really happen during Amonkhet block. It didn't really do much during Ixalan block or Dominaria, either. But, it was reprinted in Magic 2019 and gained a valuable ally in Guttersnipe!

Finding out that Enigma Drake was in M19, I decided to look and see if someone actually built a deck with these two. In fact, I found a U/R Spells list on Tappedout that fit the bill perfectly!


Creatures:

4x Enigma Drake
3x Guttersnipe

Instants:

2x Abrade
3x Censor
3x Disallow
3x Hieroglyphic Illumination
3x Lightning Strike
4x Magma Spray
3x Opt
3x Supreme Will

Sorcery:

2x Banefire

Land:

9x Island
7x Mountain
4x Spirebluff Canal
4x Sulfur Falls

Enchantments:

2x Search for Azcanta
2x The Mirari Conjecture


Artifacts:

2x Primal Amulet


This deck would lose a ton to the October 2018 Standard rotation, but it gave a much different approach to the deck. It has Cycling elements that replaced the Madness elements of the Shadows Over Innistrad/Eldritch Moon sets. Guttersnipe gives the deck an extra burn component, which is really helpful.

This deck also has a powerful endgame with The Mirari Conjecture to copy a big Banefire and Primal Amulet to speed up your spellslinging and give you another way to copy spells. It's a pretty sweet build.

But alas, it would lose so much so soon...

Enigma Drake and Kiln Fiend in Modern

I always felt strongly that there would be a space for the Drake in Modern. In fact, a Modern deck with Enigma Drake would become competitive. But it took a rather different approach.

In Modern, Enigma Drake made a couple of new friends: Kiln Fiend and Thing in the Ice. It resembles a Kiln Fiend / Nivix Cyclops deck in Pauper, one of the better decks in that format. Here's a list that has gone 5-0 in matches in several competitive Modern leagues on Magic Online.

Creatures

4     Kiln Fiend   
4     Thing in the Ice   
1     Young Pyromancer    
3     Enigma Drake  

Non-Creature Spells

2     Dive Down
1     Gut Shot    
4     Lightning Bolt
4     Mutagenic Growth  
4     Serum Visions
4     Sleight of Hand    
1     Vapor Snag    
1     Disrupting Shoal    
4     Manamorphose
4     Temur Battle Rage   

Enchantment

1     Blood Moon   

Lands

2     Flooded Strand
3     Island      
1     Mountain  
2     Polluted Delta       
4     Scalding Tarn      
4     Spirebluff Canal
2     Steam Vents      

Sideboard

2     Ceremonious Rejection    
2     Dispel   
2     Flame Slash
3     Abrade  
1     Negate   
1     Young Pyromancer    
2     Blood Moon   
1     Enigma Drake    
1     Jace, Architect of Thought    

To save a little money, the 4 Sleight of Hand could be replaced with 4 Opt, which wasn't in Modern yet.

Basically, Enigma Drake becomes a back-up plan to Kiln Fiend. It also is out of reach of Lightning Bolt, which the Fiend isn't. Whereas Kiln Fiend requires you to cast a lot of spells to do a bunch of damage in one turn, the Drake turns your spent spells into power. So it's a really nice synergy you can't do in Pauper, since Enigma Drake is an uncommon.

Yes, Enigma Drake is a competitive Modern card. I still like my sort of midrange brew that I had early on, but this Kiln Fiend deck is really sweet.

What do you all think? How would you build an Enigma Drake deck?

Looking for a Commander to lead a Tribal Vampire EDH deck so you can jam in all your new Vampires from Shadows Over Innistrad? Wondering how to slip in the notoriously blue flip-side of Elusive Tormentor: Insidious Mist? Garza Zol, Plague Queen just may be the gal to be your Vampire Commander.

From way back in Coldsnap, Garza Zol is not the most popular Vampire Commander out there. But because of the three colors in her mana cost, she allows you to splash Blue. This allows you to play the often overlooked but color intensive Blood Tyrant, plus another semi-popular blue/black Vampire Commander Szadek, Lord Of Secrets. Meanwhile, you can jam other Blue staples such as Counterspell, Cyclonic Rift, Hinder, Rhystic Study and more.

What’s cool about Garza Zol is while she’s expensive to cast, she can get bigger fairly easily and also draw you cards. You can just play all of the best Vampires available. In particular, Shadows over Innistrad provides some of the best ones ever printed for use in a Tribal deck. Falkenrath Gorger gives all of the Vampires in your hand Madness, allowing you to play them as you discard them from your hand! Olivia, Mobilized for War allows you to discard a card to give another creature a +1/+1 counter and haste. It even makes it a Vampire! Asylum Visitor and Indulgent Aristocrat are playable, too.

Here’s a sample decklist for a powerful Garza Zol, Plague Queen EDH Vampire deck!

Commander

Garza Zol, Plague Queen  

Creatures (39)

Falkenrath Gorger     
Guul Draz Assassin       
Stromkirk Noble      
Asylum Visitor     
Blood Artist    
Blood Seeker
Bloodcrazed Paladin
Gatekeeper of Malakir     
Kalastria Highborn   
Vampire Hexmage
Captivating Vampire
Dark Impostor
Markov Blademaster  
Olivia, Mobilized for War   
Rakish Heir
Stromkirk Captain     
Vampire Nighthawk     
Bloodline Keeper
Falkenrath Aristocrat
Falkenrath Noble     
Mirri the Cursed
Olivia Voldaren  
Sanctum Seeker
Sangromancer
Vampire Nocturnus    
Anowon, the Ruin Sage    
Bloodlord of Vaasgoth    
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
Fiend of the Shadows    
Malakir Bloodwitch
Mephidross Vampire   
Necropolis Regent
Nirkana Revenant    
Vein Drinker
Blood Tyrant    
Butcher of Malakir    
Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet   
Szadek, Lord of Secrets     
Baron Sengir


Non-Creature Spells (23)

Blade of the Bloodchief   
Bloodchief Ascension
Sol Ring
Cyclonic Rift    
Demonic Tutor    
Dimir Signet     
Feast of Blood   
Go for the Throat   
Izzet Signet  
Lightning Greaves  
Rakdos Signet
Terminate
Urge to Feed    
Chromatic Lantern     
Obelisk of Grixis     
Phyrexian Arena     
Diabolic Tutor   
Liliana Vess    
Sanguine Bond   
Blood Tribute    
Sorin Markov
Cruel Ultimatum
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
 

Lands (37)

Akoum Refuge       
Blood Crypt       
Command Tower       
Crumbling Necropolis       
Dimir Aqueduct       
Dragonskull Summit       
Drowned Catacomb       
Evolving Wilds       
Grixis Panorama       
Island       
Izzet Boilerworks       
Jwar Isle Refuge       
Mountain       
Rakdos Carnarium       
Steam Vents       
Sulfur Falls       
8 Swamp       
Terramorphic Expanse       
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth       
Watery Grave    


Budget Considerations

Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is another powerful Vampire that you can consider. But due to his strength in competitive play, his price has been as high as $30 - although it's settled to closer to $7.

Drana, Liberator of Malakir is another Vampire you could consider not listed above, and she’s reasonably priced around $5.

For non-creature spells, if you don’t have the $25 to shell out for a Demonic Tutor, then Dark Petition will usually work just as well in its place for less than a quarter of the price. Otherwise, the deck is fairly affordable and great for anyone who wants to take Tribal Vampires for a spin with the best cards available.

Updated 11/13/18

Oblivion Sower is a pretty good Eldrazi. At one time, the 6-mana creature was well over $8 a copy. Nowadays, you can find copies of  Oblivion Sower for just over $1. He's been long forgotten in Standard, and related to the sideboard of Modern Eldrazi Tron decks.

But in Legacy, he's been seen as a four-of in a tournament winning Eldrazi deck. He also sees a good amount of play in Commander. EDHREC has Oblivion Sower listed in 5000 decks. Still, with a Duel Deck foil printing, there are a lot of copies out there in the wild.

Legacy demand alone won't drive this card in the way that the format used to, but it's so widely usable in Commander that copies will always be selling. But, if a Modern deck happens to win a major event with multiple copies in the 75, it's likely this card could end up spiking in price.

If a price spike doesn't happen ever again for Oblivion Sower, it's hard to see this card ever being worth less than $1. So if you need your copies, now is as good a time as any to pick up Oblivion Sower.

I don't know about you, but I haven't seen many Magic: the Gathering players tripping over themselves to build Legacy Enchantress decks. The once very popular archetype ran four copies of Enchantress's Presence, a rare from Onslaught, in order to speed up their draws. Well, it's late May 2017, and suddenly the price has jumped from $6 to over $13 on TCGPlayer and the card has all but disappeared entirely from Amazon. What caused this strange and sudden buyout?

 The last time that a deck with four copies of Enchantress's Presence topped a tournament was in March of 2017. This has been a $5-ish card for a very long time, despite how clearly good it is. So this is a price correction of sorts. Did a bunch of Magic financiers suddenly decide, hey we can afford to buy these out? Maybe. It's a good card in Commander, but there's no new Commander that's demanding this card.

So I guess this is a buyout/price correction. If you have any copies of this card laying around that you're not using, I'd happily sell into the spike. There's just no real demand for this card to stay this high.

Crown of Flames is an Enchantment originally printed in Tempest, and later reprinted in Invasion. This one-drop Aura has two abilities, each of which costs one Red mana. One gives the Enchanted creature “firebreathing” or +1/+0 until end of turn. You can activate this ability as many times as you have mana to pay for it. The second ability allows you to pay one Red mana to return Crown of Flames to its owner’s hand. This means if the creature is going to be destroyed or otherwise removed from the field, you can save this Aura in order to use it later.

For a common Aura, especially one that was printed so many years ago, Crown of Flames is a decent card. But does it still see any play anywhere? Actually, some Anax and Cymede EDH decks play a copy. This is mostly because Anax and Cymede decks play a lot of Heroic creatures. Because Auras target the creature they are Enchanting, they trigger Heroic abilities. So it’s a pretty efficient card in that deck, since you can get it back to your hand and then target another creature.

Some Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest EDH decks have been seen to play Crown of Flames, too. Although Auras are certainly useful to Shu Yun, it’s not an optimal card choice for his deck.

Have you ever played with Crown of Flames? It’s a decent little common, even if its playability today is fairly limited to a few EDH decks.

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Dragons of Legend 2 has lots of cool Yu-Gi-Oh cards, including the awesome Toon Kingdom, a much better version of the classic Toon World. With many players wanting to build Toon Kingdom decks, there are plenty of options to choose from when constructing your deck. Comic Hand, Mimicat, and Toon Briefcase are all cards that many Toon decks play, but there are others to consider, as well. Here are 3 Toon cards not to overlook from Dragons of Legend 2 when building your own Toon deck. While I’m not sure I’d put them in my main 40 cards, they are still worth considering.

A couple of these cards requires that you have Toon World (or Toon Kingdom, which counts as Toon World) in play when you play them. One only requires that you have a Toon monster in play (which often means you’ll have Toon World or Toon Kingdom in play anyway). Each has an effect that is definitely useful.

Originally from the days of Alara Reborn, Filigree Angel has found herself so useful in Commander that she's been reprinted in Commander decks on two separate occasions. When Filigree Angel enters the battlefield, you gain 3 life for each artifact you control, which includes itself. A 4/4 flyer that gains you, at the very least, 3 life for 8 mana doesn’t sound incredibly cost-effective.

But in Commander, 5WWU isn’t that restrictive of a casting cost. It's especially worth casting by turn 8, as well, since the life-gain that one would get from Filigree’s effect by that point will be substantial. With artifact cards like Sol Ring, Swiftfoot Boots, Lightning Greaves, Darksteel Ingot, and Sensei’s Divining Top a part of many Commander decks, you’re talking about double-digit life gains whenever this card hits the board.

Also, while a 4/4 flyer doesn’t seem impressive on the surface, there are so many pumps for artifact creatures that exist in Commander that this Angel probably will be a good deal beefier when it hits the board. Add to that we have yet another Angel for Angel lovers, and one that’s light on the wallet (they sell for only about 50 cents USD a copy.) Filigree Angel was also reprinted in one of the Commander 2013 and one of the Commander 2016 decks.

While hardly one of the best artifact creatures around, Filigree Angel has its uses, especially in an artifact deck that cares about life-gain. There are quite a few Commander decks out there that revolve around artifacts. What better way to keep yourself in the game than double-digit life gain? In particular, the popular Breya, Etherium Shaper plays Filigree Angel a lot. But if you play any artifact Commander deck in White & Blue, you should definitely consider slotting this artifact angel in somewhere.

Setessan Tactics is a Magic: the Gathering card from the Journey into Nyx set. It features the Strive ability, which allows you to pay additional mana in order to target multiple creatures with its effect. It's one of the better cards with this ability. This  costs 1G to cast,and for each extra Green mana you add, you get to target an additional creature. Each of the target creatures get +1/+1 and gain a tap ability to fight another target creature until the end of turn. By fight, that means each creature deals damage to the other creature equal to its power.
 
During the Theros block, Heroic decks were very popular. The Heroic mechanic depended on spells targeting a creature to activate their Heroic abilities. Spells with Strive were particularly relevant for these decks. Most Heroic creatures already would gain a +1/+1 counter upon being targeted. So gaining an additional boost and being able to tap to fight another creature can be quite handy, as well.
 
It's a pretty simple combat trick, but Setessan Tactics offered a very inexpensive way to trigger Heroic while getting a good deal of value, as well. It's one of those cards that the later in the game that you cast it, the better it will usually be. The printing of this card seemed to make a good deal more Heroic creatures playable. However, Setessan Tactics never worked its way into competitive Heroic decks. It did, however, see a fair amount of Standard play in sideboards alongside a card that wasn't even from the Theros sets.

The Setessan Tactics and Hornet Nest Combo

 It turned out that Setessan Tactics worked very well with a creature called Hornet Nest in a rather clever way. By allowing the Nest to be able to fight a creature, you could get a bunch of flying tokens with deathtouch. For example, say your opponent had a Stormbreath Dragon, an extremely popular creature at the time. You would be able to get 4 hornet tokens by tapping the nest to fight the dragon.

 Another trick people would use involved Aspect of Hydra, a spell popular in mono-Green Devotion decks at the time. You would cast the Aspect of Hydra on the creature you intended to fight. Considering that Aspect of Hydra considers the green mana symbols in permanents you control (which would be a lot in that deck), you could end up making a ton of tokens, while assigning a token to block the creature you were trying to deal with anyway.

 Alternatively, you could have it fight one of your own big creatures, giving you a bunch of tokens to attack with on the next turn. Green decks in Standard at the timehad some big creatures, including Polukranos, World Eater and later Dragonlord Atarka. While the Setessan Tactics & Hornet Nests were usually relegated to the sideboard, it definitely was a solid way for Mono-Green Devotion and Selesyna (Green & White) Aggro decks to steal a game out of nowhere.

 Setessan Tactics is a great little card that probably could have seen a lot more competitive play than it did. It's actually a Modern playable card, and I'm a bit surprised that we haven't seen it more than we have.

The Slivers in the Magic 2014 Core Set were a fairly impressive bunch. While Slivers never became a Tier One deck in Standard, they were a deck to beat for a time at Friday Night Magic events at local game stores. With Cavern of Souls around for another three months after the release of M14 and Mutavault being reprinted, there was a pretty solid deck.

There was a very important difference between these Slivers and those from the past. Unlike older Sliver cards, which affected all Sliver cards on the battlefield (possibly including even your opponent’s), these new cards affect only your Sliver cards. This means that in Sliver mirrors, if you can get the more powerful effects on the board before your opponent can, you likely have the game won. Having double striking Slivers is certainly one way to do that.

Would Bonescythe Sliver be a part of that Sliver puzzle? It was certainly possible. Having a casting cost of 3W seemed fair, especially with Manaweft Sliver from the same set giving all of your Slivers the ability to produce any color of mana. Double strike is quite relevant, as well. With how quickly Slivers can mass an attack, this could help you stage a finishing blow.
 
When I first took a look at this card in July of 2013, I thought that people would find a way to stick at least one copy of this card in a Sliver deck. It seemed clear to me that White wasn’t going to be a big color for Slivers, although Sentinel Sliver and Hive Stirrings were definitely playable cards. So there seemed to be room for this card to work out. Double Strike seemed too good to ignore.

Unfortunately, outside of casual Sliver decks and Commander players running the several very good Sliver Legendary Creatures, Bonescythe Sliver never saw much play. Even when the Magic 2015 Slivers made the archetype even better, Bonescythe was basically forgotten. It just didn't seem worth the deck slot for a deck that could win even without the double strike.

That being said, Bonescythe Sliver is far from worthless, still being worth over $1 even without competitive play. The promo version of Bonescythe Sliver is  worth even more. The value of this card is due to the fact that Slivers are a very popular tribe in Kitchen Table Magic. While it proved to not be an optimal play in competitive 60-card Magic, Bonescythe Sliver has become a staple in Sliver Commander decks everywhere. It's also often played as a four-of at the kitchen table, so this card definitely still has some value.

Let's check out that November 2018 Blackwing deck list and see the strategies and must have cards for a Blackwing deck in 2019.

Main Deck (40 Cards)

Monsters (26)

3x Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring
3x Blackwing - Auster the South Wind
1x Blackwing - Blizzard the Far North
3x Blackwing - Bora the Spear
1x Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind
3x Blackwing - Harmattan the Dust
1x Blackwing - Kris the Crack of Dawn
1x Blackwing - Oroshi the Squall
3x Blackwing - Simoon the Poison Wind
3x Blackwing - Steam the Cloak
3x Radian, the Multidimensional Kaiju
1x The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots

Spells (12)

3x Allure of Darkness
3x Black Whirlwind
2x Called by the Grave
1x Monster Reborn
3x Pot of Desires

Traps (2)

2x Phantom Knights' Fog Blade

The best Blackwing decks from the past couple of big tournaments used strategies nerfed by recent Forbidden and Limited list updates. But, with the release of White Dragon Abyss, the deck gained not only a new boss Synchro Monster in Full Armor Master, but also Blackwing - Simoon the Poison Wind and Blackwing - Auster the South Wind.

Simoon the Poison Wind is a Level 6 Blackwing, but if you control no monsters and he's in your hand, he can do something cool. You can banish 1 other "Blackwing" in your hand and put a "Black Whirlwind" from your Deck face-up in your Spell & Trap Zone. Then, you can either send Simoon to the graveyard or Normal Summon it without tributing. However, that Black Whirlwind must be sent to the Graveyard at the end of the turn and you take 1000 damage. This is worth playing, though, because you can get any Blackwing with less than 1600 ATK from your deck when he's summoned. He's a pretty cool new engine for the deck.

Auster the South Wind is a level 4 Blackwing tuner with only 1300 ATK and 0 DEF, but his effects are really good. He can't be special summoned, but when he's normal summoned, you can target one of your banished level 4 or lower Blackwing monsters and Special Summon it. That's prety powerful and has great synergy with Simoon and even Allure of Darkness! Also, when Auster is in the grave, you can banish him to get one of a couple effects. The first doesn't matter in our case, as it deals with Black-Winged Dragon. The second effect, though, places 1 Wedge counter on each of your opponent's monsters that doesn't have one. This is very relevant, thanks to Blackwing Full Armor Master, which we'll get to later.

Many older Blackwing monsters that were once staples in the deck such as Shura the Blue Flame and Zephyros the Elite  are no longer seeing play in this deck. But, one Blackwing from Breakers of Shadow from early 2016 still is, Harmattan the Dust. This level 2 Blackwing monster isn't a tuner, but he can be special summoned from your hand if you control a Blackwing other than Harmattan. You can only special summon one Harmattan per turn this way. But, the cool thing about Harmattan is that when he's normal or special summoned, you can target one other Blackwing monster you control and add its level to Harmattan's. This allows for some pretty cool Synchro shenanigans.

Kris the Crack of Dawn is a level 4 Blackwing with 1900 ATK that has the ability to be special summoned if you control another Blackwing monster other than another Kris. It also has the distinguishing ability to be unable to be destroyed by spell or trap cards once per turn. I play the full three copies because he's so easily Special Summoned and he's a nice beatstick.

There's also one Oroshi the Squall, a level one Tuner from Dragons of Legend.  Not only can you special summon him if you have another Blackwing on the field, but if you use him in a Synchro Summon, you can change the battle position of one monster on the field. Not bad!

One copy of Blizzard the Far North helps you to set up Synchro Summons - a third copy always ends up usually being extraneous and a second is just too slow in today's game.

There's one copy of Gale the Whirlwind, of course. This guy was once limited to a single copy because of how he once overran the Yu-Gi-Oh metagame. You really only need one in today's game with all of the other Blackwing tuners you have access to.

Bora the Spear is simple, and is easily Special Summoned as soon as you control another Blackwing. He also inflicts piercing battle damage on creatures in defense mode, something that makes a lot of difference with Kalut’s ability. He's been a mainstay of the deck from the very beginning.

Lastly for the Blackwings, there are three copies of Steam the Cloak, a pretty useful Synchro Monster that leaves behind a level 1 Tuner token when he leaves the battlefield.

Steam the Cloak also has another neat ability that you can use once per duel:

"If this card is in your Graveyard: You can Tribute 1 monster, Special Summon this card from the Graveyard. You can only use this effect of "Blackwing - Steam the Cloak" once per Duel. If this card Summoned this way is used as a Synchro Material Monster, all other Synchro Material Monsters must be "Blackwing" monsters."

There are plenty of Blackwing Synchro monsters in our extra deck, so running two is worth it. Also, if you don't use that ability, you can use Steam to make any Synchro monster you want, as well as the token. This is just a good Blackwing monster.

In addition to the Blackwings, there are three copies of Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, just because it's one of the best cards in the 2019 meta!  What it does is pretty awesome!

"When a card or effect is activated that includes any of these effects (Quick Effect): You can discard this card; negate that effect.

● Add a card from the Deck to the hand.

● Special Summon from the Deck.

● Send a card from the Deck to the GY.

You can only use this effect of "Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring" once per turn."

There are also three copies of Radian, the Multidimension Kaiju. Radian has popped up in past Blackwing decks. What does he do?

You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) to your opponent's side of the field in Attack Position, by Tributing 1 monster they control. If your opponent controls a "Kaiju" monster, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand) in Attack Position. You can only control 1 "Kaiju" monster. Once per turn: You can remove 2 Kaiju Counters from anywhere on the field; Special Summon 1 "Radian Token" (Fiend-Type/DARK/Level 7/ATK 2800/DEF 0), but it cannot be used as a Synchro Material.

That's a lot of text! Basically, though, you can deal with a problem opponent's monster. Sure, you give your opponent a 2800 ATK monster, but then you can summon your own Kaiju if your opponent already has one. It's cute tech, really. The Kaiju counter ability we don't have to think about here.

The last monster in the deck is a single copy of The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots. He basically exists as a way to get a copy of the Phantom Knights' Fog Blade from your Deck to your Hand. Also, we run a copy of the Link Monster Phantom Knight of Rusty Bardiche in the Extra deck, so Special Summoning him is actually possible.

Onto the Spell and Trap cards!

The only two trap cards in the deck are two copies of Phantom Knights' Fog Blade. Here's what it does:

Activate this card by targeting 1 Effect Monster on the field; negate that face-up monster's effects, that face-up monster cannot attack, also monsters cannot target that face-up monster for attacks. When that monster leaves the field, destroy this card. You can banish this card from your GY, then target 1 "The Phantom Knights" monster in your GY; Special Summon it, but banish it when it leaves the field. You can only use this effect of "Phantom Knights' Fog Blade" once per turn.

Extra Deck (15 Cards)

Synchro
1x Assault Blackwing - Raikiri the Rain Shower
1x Assault Blackwing - Sohaya the Rain Storm
1x Black Rose Dragon
1x Black Rose Moonlight Dragon
1x Blackwing - Nothung the Starlight
2x Blackwing Full Armor Master
2x Blackwing Tamer - Obsidian Hawk Joe





Link
1x Borrelsword Dragon
1x Knightmare Unicorn
1x Linkuriboh
1x The Phantom Knights of Rusty Bardiche
2x Wee Witch's Apprentice

Blackwing Full Armor Master is a very powerful new level 10 Synchro Blackwing. He's really not that hard to summon in this deck, either. He has 3000 ATK and DEF and can't be affected by other cards' effects. Each time an opponent's monster activates an effect, you put a Wedge counter on it. Then, once per turn, you can target 1 monster your opponent controls with a Wedge Counter and take control of it. Then, once per turn, during your end phase, you can destroy all monsters on the field that have a Wedge Counter. Talk about a big finisher, something Blackwings never really had.

What's great about Full Armor Master is you can steal one of your opponent's monsters, and use it to attack or create a Synchro or Link Summon. Then, you nuke your opponent's monster zones at the end of the turn. That's just mean. Plus, not many things can beat him, either.

Raikiri the Rain Shower is definitely a strong Blackwing monster and one of the more powerful Blackwing Synchro monsters ever created. It can wipe out your opponent's side of the field in a hurry. Once per turn, Raikiri lets you destroy up to as many cards as you control other Blackwing monsters. Being able to become a Tuner is pretty much gravy.

Taking the spot that Armed Wing once occupied in the Extra Deck, Nothung the Starlight from Premium Gold: Return of the Bling actually does some pretty cool things. Not only does he deal 800 damage to your opponent upon being summoned, but he also causes one of your opponent’s monsters to lose 800 ATK and DEF! Also, when he’s face-up on the field, you get to Normal Summon an additional Blackwing monster each turn! This is another huge addition for Blackwings since 2015, and not sure how other players have overlooked him!

While not technically a Blackwing (he’s a Warrior), Blackwing Tamer - Obsidian Hawk Joe, also from Return of the Bling, is definitely a nice addition to the Blackwing Extra Deck. Interestingly enough, you still need a Blackwing tuner to summon him. Here’s what he does:

You can target 1 Level 5 or higher Winged Beast-Type monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon it. During either player's turn, when your opponent activates a card or effect that targets only this card, or when your opponent targets this card for an attack: You can target 1 other "Blackwing" monster you control that would be an appropriate target; that card/effect/attack now targets the new target. You can only use each effect of "Blackwing Tamer - Obsidian Hawk Joe" once per turn.

That’s a lot of text. Basically, once per turn, you can just get back one of your Winged Beast-type Synchro monsters into play (there aren’t any other Level 5 or higher Winged Beasts in this deck). If that wasn’t good enough, once per turn, you get to change an opponent’s attack target to another Blackwing you control. Wow.
 

Are Blackwings Still a Top 8 Deck?

While Blackwings didn’t Top 8 any major tournaments in 2016, they did make an appearance in 2017 and early 2018. There was also that top 3 finish in November 2018, and they have the tools to at least be competitive once again in 2019 and beyond.

Being my favorite archetype from my old playing days, it would be fun to see a Blackwing deck list like this make some waves going forward. Blackwings keep getting more support over the years, too. Does this mean Blackwings will be a Top 8 threat going forward? It's possible!

Blackwings may not be the fun "troll" deck that Toon Kingdom allows you to build, but Blackwings have the ability to pull out some very quick wins. It seems that Blackwings may once again have a chance to pull out more upset tournament victories in the future, especially  on the local game store level!

Updated 1/2/2019
 

Here are some other Yu-Gi-Oh trading card game articles you may enjoy:

- Is a Toon Deck Now Competitive with Toon Kingdom?
- Can a Gladiator Beast Deck Still Be Competitive in 2019?
- GOAT FORMAT! - Intro to the Format and Original Aggro Control Deck
- Fire Princess Burn - Old School Yu-Gi-Oh! Deck Profile!
- The Legendary Fisherman - Old School Yu-Gi-Oh Deck Profile

At one time, Wizards of the Coast released two Event Decks with the release of each set. Event Decks were great value items for some time and were fantastic for newer players getting into the competitive game!  The only trouble was that one of the Event Decks was always strictly worse than the other, at least in terms of value. Then, oftentimes, the more "valuable" event deck would have cards that “rotated” out of Standard just months after the deck's release.

But with the release of the Dragon’s Maze set, Wizards of the Coast decided to only do one Event Deck per set. The Dragon's Maze Event Deck had decent value in it, with three copies of the useful Lingering Souls, two copies of the popular Enchantment Rancor, Commander favorite Parallel Lives and Godless Shrine. Now that there was only one, all the value could go into one deck.

For the Magic 2014 Core Set, the Event Deck was entitled “Rush of the Wild.” Not only did it provide the building blocks for a competitive Red/Green “Gruul” Aggro deck, but it had zero cards that rotated out of Standard in October 2013. This was very useful for newer players who were just getting into Standard at the time. With this deck, if you paid $20 or less for it, you basically made your money right back.


Let’s take a look at the creature line-up.

2 Burning-Tree Emissary
1 Deadbridge Goliath
2 Dryad Militant
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
2 Kalonian Tusker
1 Ogre Battledriver
1 Pyrewild Shaman
2 Rakdos Cackler
1 Rubblebelt Raiders
2 Skarrg Guildmage
3 Slaughterhorn
1 Wild Beastmaster
1 Wrecking Ogre

Right off the bat, we have six rares! Also, back in 2013, Burning-Tree Emissary was a money uncommon. It’s still a good card now. Dryad Militant wasn’t money, but it’s a fantastic and playable uncommon in a wide variety of decks, and still sees play in the Modern format. Elvish Mystic is a functional reprint of Llanowar Elves, and a full playset has always been welcome to see. Ghor-Clan Rampager is another uncommon that sees Modern play, as well, and was a “money” uncommon when this deck release. There’s a full playset of them in here.

Other notable uncommons are Rakdos Cackler, Slaughterhorn, and Kalonian Tusker. Cackler and Slaughterhorn don’t really see play anymore. But Kalonian Tusker does still see play in Mono-Green Devotion decks in Modern.

We haven’t even discussed the rares yet. Frankly, they’re not at all big money cards, but worth a look. Deadbridge Goliath is a 5/5 for 2GG, which is in itself good value. Its Scavenge ability, while expensive, is also quite useful considering that you have some sweet combos with it within this pre-con. Wild Beastmaster is a very nice aggro card, and while she is fragile on her own, she can do a lot of damage if she’s big enough. She was a 3-of in top-tier mono-green decks, and was still considered a “bulk rare.” Plus, she is a great target for Deadbridge Goliath’s Scavenge ability; give the counters to Wild Beastmaster and swing out with a +6/+6 bonus to all of your creatures!

Rubblebelt Raiders is a card that I always liked, but it hasn’t seen play because it’s a 4-drop, and there’s a card called Hellrider that was strictly better than it in Standard. But Raiders is a card that can get scary in a hurry, especially if you have the ability to give it haste with a card like Ogre Battledriver.

Speaking of Ogre Battledriver, while we’re on the subject, he is a card that I've always felt was underrated. However, he himself not having haste really dissuaded aggro deck-builders from wanting to play him. Still, having the ability to give any other creature that hits the board gets +2/+0 and haste until end of turn is pretty significant. Wizards of the Coast seemed to include him in every Event Deck that they could for awhile, but he just never really caught on in Standard.

Meanwhile, Pyrewild Shaman and Wrecking Ogre are okay Bloodrush creatures that are great for casual and Limited play, but not really the best options for competitive play. (Although both creatures are playable in Commander.)

Next we’ll look at the non-creature spells:
1 Armed // Dangerous
1 Clan Defiance
2 Flames of the Firebrand
1 Gruul Charm
1 Mizzium Mortars
3 Shock

Armed and Dangerous is a nice little Fuse card, especially considering that the two halves can target different creatures. You can give your best attacker +1/+1 and double strike and make your opponent’s army block an Elvish Mystic for the LOLz. Mizzium Mortars is a fantastic burn spell, even if it’s sorcery speed, mainly because it does four damage for only one and a Red. Plus, Mortars has a sweet overload ability that can murder an opponent’s board.

Gruul Charm is a nice little utility charm, even if not the best of them. One of its options makes me scratch my head: gain control of all cards you own? Huh? But the other two are nice. Deal 3 damage to all flyers and make no ground forces able to block for a turn. Pretty solid card, honestly.

This is then where I get sad. Flames of the Firebrand and Shock are the best burn removal this deck has to offer. Anyway, Flames of the Firebrand, despite costing 2R, can ping up to three things, which against the right board state, is pretty devastating. Shock is only 2 damage, which doesn’t kill a lot of the things you would need to kill with it. So this is one of the places the deck can very cheaply be upgraded. Fortunately, Theros would bring back Magma Jet and also provided us with Lightning Strike that were easy replacements if you wanted to upgrade this deck right away.

Lastly, I would like to make an honorable mention for a rare that I particularly loved at the time,
Clan Defiance. It didn’t get much love because a sorcery speed burn card doesn’t really fit into an aggro deck. However, it can kill three things! The best part is, you can do just one or two of those things. In the right situation, this card can kill two of your opponent’s best creatures, AND hit them in the face! I’d play one or two of these just to win out of nowhere. It’s a very underrated card, but it's really only ever seen play in Commander, where it's actually super powerful.

Now the mana base:

12 Forest
4 Gruul Guildgate
6 Mountain
1 Rogue’s Passage
1 Stomping Ground

OK, Guildgates are neat, but in aggro they are not exactly what you're looking for. Temple of Abandon from Theros, even though it comes into play tapped, at least gives you the Scry 1. The Stomping Ground is awesome value, though. This was a nice way for players to get this highly sought after land for Modern. Rogue’s Passage is also neat tech to slip one of your double striking big guys in for the kill.

SIDEBOARD
2 Act of Treason
3 Annihilating Fire
2 Enlarge
2 Gruul Charm
2 Naturalize
1 Savage Summoning
3 Skullcrack

The sideboard is solid, if not incredibly inspiring. The Skullcracks are obviously amazing against life-gain effects, and are pretty valuable uncommons nowadays. Annihilating Fire is extra removal. Naturalize is, well, Naturalize. Enlarge is not as good as Overrun, but played on Wild Beastmaster is pretty fun. The extra Gruul Charms may come in handy, as well, and Act of Treason can steal your opponent’s best creature to use against them in an alpha strike.

The most interesting card here is Savage Summoning, a card that received tons of hype upon its release, but has only seen some fringe play since. Still, it has a nice effect that can be useful in control match-ups. Also, flashing in a Wild Beastmaster on their turn is always useful. Flashing in, anybody, really, and it is a nice little trick… But yeah, it’s best against control decks, not really much else.

Overall, if you’re were just looking for a shell for a red/green aggro deck, or you were a newer player, it’s best to just hold onto the stuff. Even at the time, the Stomping Ground made your money back, and all of the other cards were just a bonus. At the time, this was one of the best value Event Decks Wizards has printed since Verdant Catacombs was in the Vampire Onslaught Deck!

This is a playable deck out of the box, but better if you buy a second copy to supplement the existing Dryad Militants, Burning-Tree Emissary, and additional copies of Wild Beastmaster, Ogre Battledriver, and of course, Stomping Ground.

Even now, you can find copies of the Rush of the Wild Event Deck for under $15! It's still worth buying simply for the Stomping Ground and value uncommons. It's one of the best value Event Decks around, without a doubt, and it’s still fun to play at the kitchen table!

The Magic Origins “flip walker” experiment has proven to be a success. Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, in particular, succeeded the expectations of many. Nissa, Vastwood Seer saw plenty of Standard play. Liliana, Heretical Healer became a decent mid-range card and extremely popular among the casual crowd. Kytheon would work his way into Standard competitively. Even Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh burned some folks in Standard.  In Commander, they've all proved worthy of attention.

Previously, we took a look at the Commander 2014 planeswalkers specifically designed to be your Commander. We found them to overall be better than your average legendary creatures, which is to be expected. These flip walkers blend the two card types in some interesting ways. You have to build around them to ignite their spark, then compliment their ascended abilities, as well.

How has the EDH / Commander community risen to the challenge? Which Origins planeswalker is best in the format? Let's find out.

Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy / Jace, Telepath Unbound

Commander of 300+ decks (EDHREC)

In the 99: Seen in about 5000 decks. Top Commanders include Tasigur, the Golden Fang, Azami, Lady of Scrolls, Atraxa, Praetor's Voice, Mizzix of the Izmagnus, and Teferi, Temporal Archmage

It may seem strange to say, but Vryn’s Prodigy made Jace tribal a thing. That was the approach to building his deck,  at first. It really does seem to make sense to jam any card with his name on it or any card having to do with him in a deck and run with it.

In Commander, the "looter" (draw a card, discard a card) ability on a 0/2 simply isn't that exciting. Even when you do flip him, the flashback ability is not what you'll be trying to do. You'll be looking to tick him up to his ultimate and work to mill everyone to death. There are a lot better ways to do it in Commander. You could obviously use his flashback ability on extra turn spells to help you “get there.” The trick is getting more than one activation out of him and there are plenty of other ways in blue to recycle spells.

Being such a hot card in tournament play, though, probably kept most Commander players from acquiring him at first. This Jace could prove useful in more than a few decks that actually like the looting such as Sultai (green/black/blue) and are happy to get the flashback for some big spells.

Some blue/black and Sultai decks also don't mind getting the emblem to get some fuel for reanimator spells. Simply put, I’m not sold on him as a Commander, but he's shown up in the 99 of more than a few strong commanders.

Grade: B (he's not bad in multiplayer, but much stronger in 1v1), In the 99: B (definitely a useful complementary piece on both sides)

Liliana, Heretical Healer / Liliana, Defiant Necromancer

Commander in 500+ decks

In the 99: Seen in 5000+ decks. Key contributor in Meren of Clan Nel Toth and Alesha, Who Smiles at Death. Notable appearances in Gisa and Geralf Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, Sidisi, Brood Tyrant, Grimgrin, Corpse-Born and Karador, Ghost Chieftain

Liliana’s popularity shouldn't be too much of a surprise as her flip side embodies Liliana’s two favorite things, discarding and reanimating. The optimal Liliana brew probably hasn't been found yet, but stocking up on value creatures and ways for you to benefit from opponent's discards is a nice place to start. Mono black is so flooded with strong Commander options that it's no surprise that major innovations taking place around the Heretical Healer haven't yet taken place.

That being said she's easy enough to get online in Commander, so you can get some solid value from her. Just being able to build a Commander deck around one of the most popular planeswalkers of all time is pretty sweet.  After her rotation from Standard, she has found consistent homes in the 99 of Commanders who most value her contributions.

Grade: B (Commander), B+ (In the 99). Mono black is flooded with Commander options, but she should prove to be a good one long term.

What Are My Magic Cards Worth?

It is a question that anyone who has ever owned any sizable collection of Magic the Gathering cards has asked: are my Magic cards worth money? There are many people who bring their old shoeboxes of Magic cards into a hobby store and find out that their collection is little more than bulk rares and long forgotten cards that no one wants any more. Of course, sometimes gold is found in these often long-neglected collections, and a store owner can buy a box of bulk for about $10-20 USD and later find a $50 or even $100 card through later perusal.

The trick is to always know what your cards are worth. But who wants to spend their time on sites like TCGPlayer (which does have a useful price guide, actually) and Star City Games simply price checking every rare card that he or she has? Really, no one, but a lot of people resort to it.

The purpose of this article is to let you know how to value your collection properly, and not simply in terms of straight dollar value, but to inform you what cards will hold their value, or lose their value long-term. As with any collection, present vs. future value is the foundation of any great investment, and this information is what this article aims to provide.

Valuing Your Magic Card Collection

One fantastic resource that I have found for valuing a collection is a website called  MTGPrice. What this website allows you to do is look up the current “fair trade value” of any particular card. It factors in a variety of major online retailer prices, along with EBay and Amazon to formulate a sort of median price at which you can feel comfortable selling or trading a card.

 MTGPrice has a few even more powerful features at its disposal. By connecting a Google account, you can log into the website and actually create a complete list of your collection. This list is very easily sortable, and is constantly updated with current card values, as well as letting you know whether a card’s price has risen or fallen in the past day or in the past week.

The database isn’t perfect and some weird glitchy things can happen with its pricing algorithms. But these minor things aside, the site gives you a very good idea of what each of your cards is worth, with a total collection value. With this site, you can always know what a certain card of yours is worth in an instant!

The other neat aspect of MTGPrice is that you can find out what the site calls the “instant cash value of your collection.” What this actually means is that the site will display cards in your collection on the current buylists of major online retailers. What you may discover is that some buy list prices are actually higher than the median value of certain cards, because of the demand for them. This is incredibly useful information, because this means that the card’s price may actually rise in value!

What’s also useful is that MTGPrice won’t list a card twice on this buy-list page. This means that it chooses the highest buy-list price for each individual card for you, which saves you a lot of time having to check around. Knowing what immediate cash value your cards can have is a really good indication of how “fluid” or movable your cards really are.

As with anything, the laws of supply and demand are extremely important with valuing Magic cards. If retailers, especially major ones, are constantly running out of stock on certain cards, it means that people really want those cards. Cards with high buy-list prices are those that you should look to hold onto and keep in either your personal collection or trade binder. You could also, of course, actually sell them to that vendor, but do keep in mind that the shipping costs of sending the cards out sometimes isn’t worth the return.

Remember, a card is only worth what someone will offer for it, and you can sometimes get a higher value on a card just because it’s really popular at that time. By having all of this information at your disposal, you can easily decide what cards are truly bulk that you should off-load or simply keep around, and what is trade-able and sell-able.

The Magic Card Stock Market?

Another website I highly recommend is  MTGStocks, which is sort of like a Magic the Gathering stock market. Like MTGPrice you can make a free account, add the cards in your collection into its inventory tool and track its value. The cool thing about MTGStocks is that it actually allows you to put it how much you actually paid for a card and how much you have profited or lost from it.

While it doesn’t offer all the same tools as MTGPrice, MTGStocks does allow you to track cards not only by TCGPlayer Mid prices, but Market Price, as well. This allows you to see not only the trend of what cards are being listed at, but can allow you to see how the card is actually moving.

A card with a Market Price of within 10-15 percent of TCGPlayer Mid price tends to be a card with a very healthy market. If the Market Price is higher than the mid price, that typically means that card is about to see a significant price gain. So, MTGStocks is a great website that has a great tool to show you what card prices are trending up and down, as well as a Wall Street-style ticker.

The Fluidity of Cardboard

The most important thing to understand with Magic cards is understanding how many formats in which a certain card is most useful. The formats to consider are Legacy, Modern, Standard, and Casual.

Legacy and Modern are known as Eternal formats. With Legacy, any cards are playable in a deck, except for those on the Legacy Ban List. Modern allows any cards that have been printed in any “modern” set, that is, since 8th Edition, as well as any cards that have been re-printed in older sets with modern borders in newer sets (even the old-bordered versions.) Modern also as its own banned list.

The major difference between these Eternal formats and Standard is that with Standard, there is a rotating card-pool. Standard is made up of the three most recent “blocks” of two sets (for example, as of October 2018, the Standard legal sets were Ixalan, Rivals of Ixalan, Dominaria, Core Set 2019, and Guilds of Ravnica). Also, any older printings of cards that have been reprinted in any of the current Standard sets may also be played (including old-bordered and promotional versions.)

Because Standard is the most widely supported and played competitive format, the cards that are currently widely played in the top decks of the format tend to fluctuate widely in price. Depending on the current meta-game (meaning what people are playing most often and how that affects every other card that’s played), some cards can be $20 one day, and $5 the next. It all depends on how in favor a card is with the more competitive players. Of course, when a card leaves the Standard card-pool, its value almost always immediately plummets.

Often played Standard cards are usually the most fluid card you can have during the Standard season in which they are playable. Usually, the best thing to do with these cards if you’re not currently playing with them is to either cash in on them at the peak of their popularity, or “trade up” in Eternal staples.

Eternal staples are cards that are played in a wide variety of decks in Legacy and Modern. Because it’s a non-rotating format, the meta-game relatively stays much more consistent with only the release of new cards or the emergence of a new deck archetype really making much of a difference.

One of the best examples of an Eternal staple is Liliana of the Veil, who was a very good planeswalker in Standard, but even better in formats like Modern and Legacy, where the creatures that Liliana will often force opponents to sacrifice will be a lot stronger (Tarmogoyf, for example.) Speaking of Tarmogoyf, it was at one time  a nearly $200 card). It’s definitely of the greatest eternal staples that there are, essentially seeing play in any deck that runs Green in those formats.

Commander (EDH) and the Casual Magic Addiction


The last format we will discuss, and the format that is driving many card prices, is a little Casual format called Commander, better known as EDH.

Commander is the 100-card singleton format that has taken the world by storm. All you need is some Legendary Creature and 99 other cards that share colors with the casting cost (and any other mana symbols that appear on) that Legendary Creature, and you have an EDH, or Commander, deck of your own.

Commander itself, therefore, is an Eternal format that has a ban list, but because you can only run one copy of each card (excluding basic lands), the power level of certain cards changes dramatically. Because Commander games allow for more mana to be played and the games are far-more drawn out, cards with high casting costs that would never see play in a competitive Constructed deck often find themselves being a crucial win condition in many Commander decks. A great example of a card like this would be Rise of the Dark Realms, a mythic rare from Magic 2014. For the longest time it was $2-3. In EDH, it’s an absolute bomb. Being able to bring creatures back from ALL graveyards can essentially win you the game. So over time, it grew in price to almost $10, just from EDH play!

This means that mythic rares that may not be incredibly valuable, even ones that sell for about $1-3 USD, are still movable on the basis that someone may need a copy for their Commander deck, or know someone who needs one. So any bulk rare or mythic rare that you get may actually be wanted by someone for that very reason. But these kind of cards aren’t the only ones that you’re looking for: there are some cards that are very valuable, $10 or more, simply because they’ve become Commander staples!

One of the most important parts of Commander is top-deck manipulation. This is why cards like Sensei’s Divining Top (which was so good in Legacy that it was banned), Sylvan Library, and Scroll Rack are so expensive. Sylvan Library is the cheapest because it’s been reprinted in a core set. Sensei’s Divining Top has had three set printings and a From the Vault Reprint, but even the fair supply is low when compared to the high demand. The same is true for Scroll Rack, which has one regular printing, plus a very low supply reprint in Commanders' Arsenal. There are also some cards like Baneslayer Angel that used to be among the best cards in Standard, but today are only really played in EDH, which is why they are still about $10.

I could go into much further detail about the financial aspects of Commander, and I will at some point in the future. But for now, I’ll finish this article with what is likely the most important thing to invest in when it comes to Magic cards… FOILS!

The Allure of Foil Magic Cards

Yes, there are many Magic players that could care less about foils. But it is true that many players like them, and to be fair, the set foils are quite a bit rarer than regular cards. I say set foils, because believe it or not, some promo foils and collectible foils are actually fairly worthless due to a massive print run. But for the most part, there are a lot of set foils worth many times the price of a regular version of that same card.

Why exactly is this? First of all, foils do not come in every pack of Magic, except in rare instances like the Masters sets (Modern Masters, Eternal Masters, etc) in which every pack does in fact include a foil. Every set since Urza’s Destiny has had the chance of a premium foil in a pack. However, since any card in a given set has a foil counterpart, many foils that are pulled are either basic lands (which aren’t worthless, but not much outside of Zendikar, Battle for Zendikar, or Unhinged full art versions) or cards that no one will ever want to play, outside of perhaps Limited.

Enter Commander. With many people wanting to “pimp” out their decks with foils, the demand on foil versions of even common and uncommon cards has risen greatly over the past couple of years. While cards that see a lot of competitive play obviously have high foil values, cards popular in Commander (especially Legendary Creatures, since many of them are viable Commanders) can be incredibly expensive.

Set foils are among the rarest cards in Magic, which is why mythic rare cards like Jace, The Mind Sculptor (whose Worldwake foil printing was worth $800 at one time) and Liliana of the Veil ($60 non-foil vs $180 foil) see such ridiculous price differences between their premium versions. Even a more casually-oriented card like Rise of the Dark Realms has a foil version that sells for about $20! Mythic rare foils are usually pretty solid investments, simply because even the cheaper non-foil mythics have decently valuable foil versions.

Of course, Standard staples tend to have pretty high foil values, as well. But like their non-foil counterparts, their value is incredibly variable, and foil prices fluctuate even more wildly. What drives up a foil price is usually the majority of players’ unwillingness to part with a certain card, especially if that card will be playable in Modern or Legacy, as well (Liliana of the Veil is a perfect example).

As a general rule, foils of cards that see considerable play in any format are valuable. However, many widely played commons and uncommons can be purchased from online retailers for very near the price of a regular version, so be aware. (Again, MTG Price or MTG Goldfish is a great way to check on the differences since it indexes both.)

Buy, Sell, or Trade?

Now that you have this information about your collection, you may wonder what’s the best time to buy, sell, or trade Magic cards. The first thing to keep in mind is the Standard rotation.

Every October, there is a standard rotation that occurs, meaning that the oldest two sets in Standard are no longer playable in Standard with the release of the first set in the new block. (For example, in October 2017, cards from Battle for Zendikar, Oath of the Gatewatch, Shadows Over Innistrad, and Eldritch Moon are no longer  playable.) Just months before, many prices of Standard cards will have dropped, but many will still retain some value if they are still seeing competitive play (especially when there are Standard Pro Tour Qualifiers going on.)

It is important to unload any cards in the Standard sets that you aren't using that will be rotating out of Standard in October during the summer before. This is because after rotation, those cards’ prices drop precipitously as everyone is simultaneously unloading them.

Even cards that will see Modern and Legacy play, as well as Commander play, will drop in value, as well. This is because many Standard players will not play Modern, and look to move their extra copies for the newer cards or for cash. For Commander and Eternal players, after rotation is the best time to buy cards that have just left Standard. This is because the supply will be there, since most Modern players that want them already have them. Therefore, most demand won’t be there until the next Modern Pro Tour Qualifer (PTQ) season.

Trading Up

Anytime is always a good time to trade, however, as long as you are trading up. This means trading a bunch of Eternal staples for highly popular Standard cards that you can immediately move for either other Standard cards or more valuable Modern/Legacy/Commander staples. Watching the top deck lists and monitoring price gains and losses on MTGPrice or MTG Goldfish is a great way to know what cards are seeing more play.

MTG Goldfish  is a particularly interesting website because of the fact that it’s primarily a website that tracks the card prices on Magic Online (MTGO or MODO). However, it also tracks paper card prices. The most useful aspect of this website, however, besides showing the ridiculous disparity in prices of paper vs online Magic, is that Goldfish tracks the top decks in every format in Magic Online (Standard, Modern, Legacy, etc.) and will let you know if particular cards are seeing a lot of play in top decks.

You’re probably asking why it matters if a card is played a lot of online. Well, since many competitive players play-test on Magic Online, and some of the best players in the world now actually began on MTGO, the lists Online are going to be very, very similar to those used in Paper Magic. If something does well online, it very likely will be played in paper at one point or another.

Knowing what cards are being played in winning decks lets you know what people will be looking for, and what buy lists will be pricing more highly. You want to adjust your trade binder accordingly. Sometimes, this information will give you a jump on acquiring cards at a low price before they suddenly become chase cards and you can turn an easy profit.

The bottom line is that you don’t want to sit on cards with a limited shelf-life. Yes, a lot of Standard cards will still be played in Commander. But remember, since you only need one copy, there will be play-sets galore being shipped off to buy-lists, traded in at local game stores, and filling bulk binders everywhere. Many cards once they leave Standard fall from grace extremely quickly, so if you’re looking to buy or trade for Standard cards to play in Commander, you’re better off waiting for the rotation if at all possible. Any time is fine to pick up good Eternal cards. Again, you can use MTG Goldfish’s Metagame and Format Staples sections to see what cards are most popular in each format and what are always good trade targets.

The Ever-Changing Landscape of Magic Finance

The prices of Magic cards are always changing due to the rising popularity of the game and the easy access to cards due to online availability. Using tools like MTGPrice, MTGStocks, and MTG Goldfish, as well as checking TCGPlayer  market prices can give you a good idea at all times when to pick up certain cards at their lowest price or drop them before their value plummets. Of course, Magic is not all about making money; it should be about having fun. But to maximize your fun, it’s important to use a little bit of economics in your card-buying routines, because you may find your collection grow a lot more quickly and your budget less strained if you keep yourself informed.

All photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. under Creative Commons license v2.0.

As a Magic: the Gathering player who loves instant win conditions built into cards, it shouldn’t be surprising that I’m a big fan of Approach of the Second Sun. It’s a deceptively simple win condition that this Amonkhet sorcery offers, too.

It costs 7 mana to cast (6W) and gains you 7 life. That doesn’t sound worth it, except if you haven’t cast a copy of Approach of the Second Sun during that game, you get to shuffle your deck and place it 7 cards from the top. If you already cast Approach of the Second Sun, however, you simply win the game.

Yes, it sounds simple enough. But 7 mana is a lot to pay for a card that really just gains you 7 life the first time you cast it. Fortunately, the Amonkhet set offers not only ways to ramp your mana, but also draw a whole bunch of cards thanks to the Cycling mechanic. There’s a neat little trick to make a whole bunch of mana in this deck, which will hopefully get you enough mana to cast Approach of the Second Sun twice in a single turn! Part of it has to do with a 6-mana Enchantment called New Perspectives, which is why some people have come to call this build New Perspectives Combo.

While there have been many builds of Approach of the Second Suns built in the early going, the most consistent and successful so far is this 4-color Approach of the Second Suns deck piloted by ksk0601 in a Magic Online Competitive Standard League to a 5-0 finish!


Creatures (9)

4 Vizier of Tumbling Sands
4 Shefet Monitor
1 Sphinx of the Final Word

Spells (17)

4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
4 Haze of Pollen
4 Shadow of the Grave
4 Renewed Faith
1 Approach of the Second Sun

Enchantments (12)

4 Weirding Wood
4 Cast Out
4 New Perspectives

Lands (22)

1 Fetid Pools
5 Forest
2 Fortified Village
4 Irrigated Farmland
1 Island
1 Plains
4 Scattered Groves
4 Sheltered Thicket


Sideboard

2 Dispel
3 Negate     
4 Drake Haven
2 Kefnet the Mindful     
4 Angel of Sanctions


Essentially, this deck focuses on Cycling a bunch of cards, gaining life, and preventing combat damage long enough to cast your win condition card twice. Let’s break it down, starting with the creatures.

Liliana's Mastery is a neat little Enchantment from Magic: the Gathering's Expansion set. It costs 5 mana to cast (3BB) and gives all of your Zombies +1/+1. The Enchantment also brings two 2/2 Zombie creature tokens into play. This means that these tokens are nominally 3/3 creatures with Liliana's Mastery in play. With how successfully Mono-Black Zombies played in Amonkhet Standard right from the get-go, it's not surprising that Liliana's Mastery has been seen as a two-of in some lists.

With the mass of new Zombie cards featured in Amonkhet, many players are seeking out any other cards that might synergize well with the powerful new Zombies. One card that has come to mind is a Zombie-themed sorcery card from Shadows Over Innistrad, From Under the Floorboards.

With the same mana cost as Liliana's Mastery, it would seem that this sorcery and the Enchantment would be competing for the same space in the deck. So does this Zombie token creator with Madness seem worthy of Standard play?

From a raw power standpoint, these two cards are extremely similar. From Under the Floorboards puts three 2/2 Zombie tokens into play. This is the same 6 power that Liliana's Mastery offers, but spread among three creatures instead of two. However, those tokens come into play tapped, which is a drawback. To make up for that drawback, you get to gain 3 life. For 5 mana, that's a good amount of value.

What really stands out about this card is its Madness cost. It has an X cost in it, meaning that if you discard this card, you can choose how much mana to pump into it. Heck, it's probably worth it to pay 1BB for the token and 1 life, especially since it can be played at Instant speed when Madness is being used.

Here's the thing, though. Cards that cost 5 mana or more that don't have an immediate impact on the board tend not to do well in Standard. Granted, this card does have a nice interaction with Wayward Wanderer, which would usually gain you 3 life and make your opponent lose 3 life. But with Liliana's Mastery, you're getting an immediate power boost for your other existing Zombies, plus two 3/3 bodies that can block right away. Then, you can get an immediate 4 point life swing from the Wanderer (or more if you have multiple Wanderers on board).  The immediate effect on the board is more obvious.

Both of these cards are good, but I see why competitive players have shunned From Under the Floorboards. With another Zombie lord, Lord of the Accursed, also in Amonkhet, the boost from Liliana's Mastery is likely enough for the Zombie player to make a lethal push. The Mastery definitely wins here, although I really like From Under the Floorboards in a White/Black Zombie deck that favors tokens and Anointed Procession, which doubles said tokens.

Which do you prefer: From Under the Floorboards, Liliana's Mastery, or would you just play both?

With Gideon of the Trials making waves in Modern, it might be easy to forget that there is another incarnation of Gideon on the plane of Amonkhet. Featured in one of the two Amonkhet Planeswalker decks, Gideon, Martial Paragon is a powered down, but still very interesting Gideon planeswalker.

First, we’ll take a look at Gideon, Martial Paragon himself as a planeswalker, as well as the three other exclusive cards in the deck. All are Standard-legal as long as Amonkhet is in Standard. Will Gideon and his friends from his aggressive red/white entourage match up to Liliana, Death Wielder and her crew?

Graceful Cat may not look exciting, but this common kitty can do a lot of work. As a 2/2 for 2W, he gains +1/+1 whenever he attacks. While this is decidedly average, having four copies of him in this deck makes him a solid role player.

These three exclusive cards all serve a purpose in this Gideon deck. The theme of this deck focuses around a mechanic where needing to untap your creatures actually matters.

Now, let’s look at the whole deck list and get a feel for what we’re getting here:

Planeswalker (1)

1 Gideon, Martial Paragon

Creature (24)

1 Glory-Bound Initiate
3 Gust Walker
1 Nef-Crop Entangler
1 Pathmaker Initiate
2 Honored Crop-Captain
3 Companion of the Trials
1 Devoted Crop-Mate
4 Graceful Cat
3 Ahn-Crop Crasher
2 Sparring Mummy
1 Tah-Crop Elite
2 Hyena Pack

Instant (3)

1 Impeccable Timing
2 Electrify

Enchantment (8)

2 Cartouche of Zeal
1 Hazoret's Favor
3 Trial of Zeal
2 Gideon's Resolve

Land (24)

4 Stone Quarry
10 Plains
10 Mountain