Well we got some interesting topics to talk about this week as we got the announcement of a new sanctioned format and the contents of a new supplemental product. This week I want to talk about Brawl and the financial implications it could have on Standard cards as a whole as well as the Signature Spellbook: Jace and what that product line could look like in the future. If you were here for any Modern financial musings, I'm sorry to say it doesn't look we have much to look forward to in the announced products. Unless some surprising reprints come in Core Set 2019, then I don't expect any Modern reprints until after August 2018.

What is Brawl? Well I certainly can't explain it better than Gavin Verhey did here, but I can talk about how this might affect card prices and trends going forward. There are staples in EDH that seem to drive even the most reprinted card to be worth at least a few dollars. Going forward, if Brawl becomes the most popular "between rounds" format, then we will see some increased demand for cards that normally would only be at the kitchen table. I'd keep a close eye on colorless cards that are Standard legal because Sol Ring is still $2-3 despite being reprinted in literally every Commander product for 6 years. If this format catches on, we could be seeing cards like The Immortal Sun and Azor's Gateway shoot up in price because every deck can play one. If we go so far as to see sanctioned tournaments, then it gets really interesting. Cards like that will quickly go out of stock at a small LGS and you can trade them to prospective players. I also think a lot of cards that might have been previously relegated to "draft trash" might see an uptick in price. Dusk Legion Zealot is the kind of role player card that might not have been up to snuff in a deck that you can play 4 copies of each card but might just be what you need in a singleton format. Keep an eye on cards that search your library like Deadeye Quartermaster. That could be a big part of any pirate deck (finding your singleton Fell Flagship or Captain's Hook for instance).

So, if you blinked you might have missed the announcement for the Signature Spellbook: Jace, and I wouldn't blame you. It was snuck into a product announcement day without many details. Well, we knew it was supposed to be the spiritual successor the From the Vault series. This includes some pretty significant changes that make it much more interesting. Wizards of the Coast announced the contents here, and while they're not mind-blowing reprints, they have a lot of sweet art and all come in foil and non-foil varieties. Each box will contain one of each card and a random foil from among the 8 included cards. This means that people that prefer non-foil promos for use in competitive tournaments can use the sweet art and bordered cards without worrying about having marked cards in their deck. The choice will probably also make it so that the non-foils will be much cheaper for the players that much prefer to have the art and not pay a premium for the cards. What is also pretty awesome is this will not continue the FTV foiling process (which was generally disliked by most players). I don't expect most of these cards to break the bank if you want a few, but there will probably be a premium on the foil Counterspell since they've held off on reprinting Counterspell with that art for a long time. It is the first time it will be foil.

Next time, I will be taking in the full Dominaria experience and bringing you my estimations for their futures. Sagas will definitely be hard to predict but I think a lot of the legendary creatures will find homes quickly and be a hit! Hope you found this helpful and if you have more questions feel free to ask them in the comments below or leave a comment on the newest Cartel Aristocrats every week!