Man, Ixalan sure is a sweet set; but, there are even more cards on the horizon for us to worry about! We’re about a month away from the release of Iconic Masters, which despite its name actually looks a lot more like Modern Masters and Eternal Masters had a child. A week after the release of Iconic Masters will be the release of Explorers of Ixalan, which is not a booster set. It’s a reprint-only multiplayer product like Planechase and Archenemy. With so much to talk about, let’s dive right in and see what it all means.

Prepare for Modern Masters, and make it double

We already got a Modern Masters set this year in March. It included a wide range of cards and caused a huge flux in prices as some cards got cheaper and others got more expensive as the card availability changed. Now, we’re seeing pretty much a steady increase in the price of the cards included in the set. Iconic Masters is not made of strictly modern legal cards but also includes a lot of previously very expensive modern staples. While none of the included cards are as ubiquitous as the enemy colored fetch lands included in Modern Masters 2017, this set does include a lot of expensive components of more fringe decks. If you were waiting to buy in to your next Modern deck, be sure to keep an eye on the reprints in this set.

These are some of the most important Modern reprints, but what does that all mean for you? Well if you know you were going to build a deck featuring one of these cards then you should be looking into the rest of the deck. Time and time again we see long needed reprints cause a sudden increase in demand in the rest of the cards in the deck. The best example I have is during Modern Masters 2015, when we saw another reprint of Dark Confidant and Tarmogoyf (two key and expensive parts of the Jund Modern deck) and a huge increase in the price of Raging Ravine and Blackcleave Cliffs due to new demand. If you were waiting to buy your dredge deck because Bloodghast was too expensive, then now is the time to jump on the other less expensive cards. If you were turned off from buying into a Death's Shadow deck because of Mishra's Bauble then you can now safely look into the missing cards for your deck because it’s going to be much cheaper! While this is usually true, some cards like Horizon Canopy are not cornerstones of decks. Decks that include Horizon Canopy can for all intents and purposes play a Temple Garden for most of the same effect. Obviously that’s not exactly true but it is much easier to have a lower budget replacement for Horizon Canopy. I don’t expect decks that play Horizon Canopy to get much more expensive due to its reprint. Most of the people that wanted to play decks that include them are just playing without them.

Exploring Explorers of Ixalan

Conversely, if you had some Ixalan cards you were hanging on to for speculative reasons, it seems like now is a good time to sell the expensive ones. I don’t expect to see a ton of new innovations before the Pro Tour in two weeks. Cards will continue to fall from now until the end of the year as people continue to draft the set and open more of it. I think your time to sell is rapidly closing.

Closing out the year

These last two reprint sets will close out the year and then we’ll have a ton of time to discuss our Christmas wishlists. Every year, many stores start to put cards on sale because attendance is lower during the holidays and people are too cash strapped buying gifts for family and friends. Next week, we’ll talk about my strategy to get the most bang for my buck this holiday season.