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Main » Articles » Out with the Old

Out with the Old

Ryan Bushard
Posted on January 2, 2015
 Reddit

I have been contemplating what to cover this week, as I have been out of town with family—other than the occasional spoiler peek, Magic has not been on my mind. Next week, I am hoping to be fresh off another Pro Tour Qualifier and looking to gather some information from players as to what they see so far from the new set that interests them.

Acquiring this information as early as you can may seem tedious, as cards ebb and flow in popularity as new stuff is spoiled, but there is reasoning. Early cards that create new themes tend to draw more attention to later-revealed cards that follow that theme. This can help you gauge what is driving prerelease prices, and from there, you can see what is creating early results and what has flopped. This widens the gap you have to research cards in order to move out of anything you need to while the prices are still high.

This week, I went back through some of the reader suggestions for when I was in a Standard downtime and saw a good one to herald in the New Year. What better way to prepare your speculation boxes than to dust off some of the old ones that have not gotten there the past year and reevaluate them. I have hundreds of different cards in these boxes—most under a play set—that I am holding for people or waiting to climb in price. It would take far more words than my editor should have to ever endure to cover everything, so I am going to stick to the cards I have actually put money into.

Some of these cards have future potential still, so I am not completely emptying the coffers. If the ship has sailed on any reasonable expectation of profit, I usually put these back into the bulk rotation. There is one school of thought that says you should never move bulk because many cards that are now worth money started off as bulk. This is true to an extent and contributes greatly to the reason I reevaluate the box before shipping everything. If you only have a few sets of something, and you still are not convinced they are bulk, I encourage you to keep them. A few cards do not take up much room—a few thousand, on the other hand, build up very quickly.

Séance

Séance
Since everyone has to know it is coming at this point, I will throw the card I am probably most well-known for now. Séance, in my opinion, still has a great deal going for it, and—even if just through causal and Commander appeal—it does have potential for growth down the road. I have, of course, evaluated the card in Modern. I would love to play it again in a competitive environment; it just does not get there in anything I can dream up. That is not to say the card could not gain some synergy down the road, but for now, it looks like a slow hill to climb.

Verdict: I am keeping my Séances, including the Japanese foil copy in my Trostani, Selesnya's Voice deck, but if you have lost the faith, I cannot promise you immediate returns. I feel a bit guilty for putting these back in the box, but I refuse to give up hope.

Average Buy Price: $0.23

CoolStuffInc Buy List: Bulk

TCGplayer Mid Price: $0.36

Scion of Vitu-Ghazi

Scion of Vitu-Ghazi
Another card I put a lot of faith in due to some whisper of results is Scion of Vitu-Ghazi. Unlike Séance, I have no real personal attachment to this card, but I still find it difficult to believe it remains bulk in the long term. The card is not abusable given the cast-from-hand clause, but it still can do some very fun and interesting things in Commander. During its time in Standard, I expected to see a small spike, as it was not unheard of to see in lists, but given how few decks caught on, and with the matter of it usually being a ’board card, it just never got there.

Verdict: The limited application means it will take time to catch on, so if you are looking for your money back with some small loss, selling out now is fine. I am probably going to hold them for a few years, but that just stems mostly from the fact that Dragon’s Maze was hurt during sales, thus giving anything from the set a small boost down the road if it does catch on.

Average Buy Price: $0.21

CoolStuffInc Buy List: Bulk

TCGplayer Mid Price: $0.28

Splinterfright

Splinterfright
Oh, how I love to imagine graveyard strategies are always possible. Before I was on Séance, I bought into a card I expected to push Reanimator over the top: Splinterfright. Of course, neither the deck nor the strategy ever panned out, and now all we have is a card that wished it cared about all graveyards instead of just yours. I always thought the card was a little clunky in Standard application, and though I am sure there is a deck out there that wants four, it will probably create very little long-term demand.

Verdict: Into the bulk they go. I was not always sold on this card, and now that I look at it again, I am just fairly underwhelmed given how many better graveyard cards have been printed since. Format-specific cards are something I am looking to stay away from more and more now, as you have virtually no chance of moving them after rotation—such as in this case. Now when I look for bulk specs, I also look at their long-term potential; giving a card two chances to hit seems like a much better strategy.

Average Buy Price: $0.26

CoolStuffInc Buy List: Bulk

TCGplayer Mid Price: $0.29

Lingering Souls

Lingering Souls
Lingering Souls is one of those cards that, as a financier, you instantly just have to look at and know is going to be worth money. Spectral Procession was almost $2 on the buy list during Lingering Souls’s release, so when these were first reprinted and tanked, I bought in. Now here we are a little over a year later, and the card has been crushed to almost nothing through a flurry of supplementary products such as the Modern Event Deck. The average price of the card, though low, has stayed above bulk, and by the third printing, it saw little movement at all.

Verdict: I expect it to be a while before you see any real returns on these. As long as the reprints eventually cease, the card will climb. This still shows up in both Modern and Legacy regularly. I like stashing these away as well, but for an uncommon with so many printings, it is still on the buy list, giving you an out if you want it.

Average Buy Price: $0.29

CoolStuffInc Buy List: $0.05

TCGplayer Mid Price: $0.39

Heliod, God of the Sun

Heliod, God of the Sun
Most of the cards up to this point have been sitting in the box for a while, and though I remember my line of thought on each, one of my more recent pick-ups to not pan out is in a prime position to sell now. Heliod, God of the Sun was among the less investigated Gods when Theros first released, and I remember thinking any God that fell to nearly bulk as a mythic was a good buy. I still stand behind that and do still like some of the Gods, such as Karametra, God of Harvests for long-term growth—I just cannot see Heliod climbing any higher. Luckily, I did not go super-deep on these and only bought them at shows where I could pay less than $1, so I won’t be losing anything here, but I also don’t see any potential for growth in the long term due to how many other exciting things mono-white Commander can do than have an indestructible token-producer. This guy may be able to kill Elspeth, but he isn’t going to dethrone such powerhouses as Raksha Golden Cub, leaving him out in the cold come rotation.

Verdict: I am shipping these before they are complete bulk in a few months. Standard shows little sign of turning into a White Weenie–friendly environment, and even if that deck does miraculously pop up, there is no guarantee this will even be in the seventy-five. You will be able to pick these up later for less than you can move them for now, which is not what I expected when the Gods were first spoiled.

Average Buy Price: $0.75–$1.00

CoolStuffInc Buy List: $1.00

TCGplayer Mid Price: $2.29

Soldier of the Pantheon

Soldier of the Pantheon
The last card I want to cover this week is another cards still residing in Standard: Soldier of the Pantheon. I have been on this card for over a year, watching it struggle for spots in various decks, only to be squeezed from the format completely. The card is not quite bulk yet, but I am not sure how I feel about its chances of seeing Eternal play either. I am very torn here and will probably end up keeping some number of these if they do ever crop up in Modern.

Verdict: With all of that being said, I have to believe if you see no Modern potential, now is the time to get out while you can still gain anything for them. It may not quite hit bulk until rotation actually occurs, but it will be a long time after that before it comes out of the bin.

Average Buy Price: $0.45

CoolStuffInc Buy List: Bulk

TCGplayer Mid Price: $1.12



I hope 2014 treated you well on the way out and that you are ready to herald in the new year. I look forward to getting back on some Standard discussion, as the new set looms only a few weeks out. If you have any cards you would like to share, feel free to comment below or find me on Twitter!

Ryan Bushard

@CryppleCommand

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TAGS articles, trading, bulk, financial, trades, finance, ryan bushard, picks

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