Modern seems to be on the mind of every competitive player as of late with the PTQ season quickly getting underway. This week, I am going to cover what I feel are the most undervalued investments going into the next few months of grinding. In addition, I will be covering a few trades I made this past weekend and taking a few more reader-submitted cards. As with last week, I am going to get straight into the action, so let’s get to it!

Card: Pyromancer Ascension

Current price: $2

Investment period: One to three months

Price point: $6 to $8

Expected return: $4 to $6

Gain on investment: 150%

Verdict: This one seems like a no-brainer—why hasn’t this card already spiked? We already know this deck is a real contender, and although it may be stifled slightly with some graveyard hate, it looks to be among the Tier 1 decks to beat. With the deck’s mainstay being a four-of, it only makes sense to grab up what copies you can now before the inevitable spike we will see over the next few months.

Card: Bloodghast

Current price: $2 to $3

Investment period: One to three months

Price point: $6 to $7

Expected return: $4

Gain on investment: 75%

Verdict: Although this seems to be a relatively low return on investment, it also carries a relatively low risk. Dredge is a real deck, and although we do have some hate cards available, it is unlikely that this deck will be stifled enough to drop off the radar. With the printing of Faithless Looting, we have what looks to be a solid few months of graveyard-based decks ahead of us—at least until the next bannings. Like Pyromancer Ascension, everyone acknowledges that this deck is real, and still the prices have not risen. Everyone is so concerned right now with fetches and shocks that they are overlooking the lower-end format staples.

Card: Mistbind Clique

Current price: $1 to $2

Investment period: One to three months

Price point: $5 to $6

Expected return: $3 to $4

Gain on investment: 250%

Verdict: With the latest round of bannings, Faeries finally rid itself of its nemesis: Punishing Fire. Given how powerful this archetype has always been, expect some sort of rehash even without the overpowered Bitterblossom engine. I wouldn’t expect this deck to be format-defining as in the previous Standard, but I would expect it to be a solid competitor in the coming meta.

Card: Surgical Extraction/Extirpate

Current price: $6 to $8

Investment period: Three months

Price point: $10 to $12

Expected return: $8 to $10

Gain on investment: 25%

Verdict: Although this may look to be an odd investment, you will notice a recurring theme in the metagame that is forming. So many of these decks, whether combo- or aggro-based, rely on the graveyard to keep their engines going. Either of these cards can currently be obtained for $4 to $5 in trades just because few are looking that far into the future of Modern. Once we see the format shape itself into a tiered metagame, it is likely people will be seeking an out for decks like Pyromancer Ascension and Martyr Proclamation—which is where these cards come in. Once people start looking for metagame answers, the perceived price of these cards is likely to double from the current value—in turn, netting you a healthy trade percentage.

I am sure I missed some of the players for this up-and-coming PTQ season, so please feel free to leave me a comment or tweet explaining what you feel has room to grow and why. For now, I want to cover a few of the user-submitted cards before continuing into some of the trades from this past weekend. These are all Standard cards that people feel have some room to grow in the next few months with the release of Dark Ascension.

Card: Hex Parasite

Current price: $1

Investment period: Three to six months

Price point: $5

Expected return: $3

Gain on investment: 200%

Verdict: Ever since the undying keyword was spoiled last week, I have wanted to talk about this card. Given the versatility in the metagame after Dark Ascension, I can’t see Hex Parasite staying cheap for long. The way it interacts with undying alone makes me want to scoop as many copies of this card up as I can, but that is just the beginning. As a cheap way for any deck to deal with planeswalkers, Hex Parasite also offers a solid answer to Illusions as well as a few other random cards such as Sphere of the Suns. With so many uses, expect a quick spike when people realize just how good this card is.

Card: Mentor of the Meek

Current price: $2

Investment period: ???

Price point: ???

Expected return: ???

Gain on investment: ???

Verdict: I have been hearing a lot of buzz about this guy because of the new token-makers we are seeing from the first round of spoilers. Unfortunately, I think this guy still has the same flaw this time around as he did when Innistrad first released: He is just too fragile. In order to truly net any real value off this guy, you need to draw at least two cards, and although that may sound easy, it can actually prove quite difficult. The first card you manage to draw, if the Mentor survives until your next turn at all, is to replace the Mentor. At that point, you are essentially playing a conditional Striped Bears in a format full of board sweepers and spot removal. If you do manage to draw a second card, the Mentor has probably earned his keep, but this happens far less often than you would think. There also comes the issue that the deck you want to play him in is generally a fast, aggro deck looking to cave your opponent’s face in before he gains any real board position . . . meaning you are also slowing yourself down significantly on turn three by playing this guy. He also attempts to make you play poorly, holding back guys in order to gain extra value from them, when in reality, you are only stifling your ability to win. He is also fairly counterproductive with cards like Honor of the Pure, the new Sorin, and Intangible Virtue. My feelings toward this card tell me to stay away—it is just a win-more in most scenarios.

Card: Curse of Death's Hold

Current price: $1

Investment period: One month

Price point: $4 to $5

Expected return: $3

Gain on investment: 200%

Verdict: Given the current format of X/1s, this card has already begun to see some solid sideboard play in B/X control variants. With the slew of token cards being spoiled, I see this card inevitably seeing more and more play over the coming months, possibly even making its way into the maindeck of some builds. Although the card is expensive to cast, it will likely be paired with green in some variants, allowing this to come down as early as turn three, putting a major damper on the swarm-based decks. Although this card will see a good amount of play, I feel it will be stifled with the reprinting of Ray of Revelation in Dark Ascension, making me hesitant to pick up too many copies until I know for sure it won’t be over shadowed by Whipflare and Slagstorm.

I don’t want to speculate too much on the coming Standard environment, considering we are but fifty cards into a new set, but I can certainly see the above few cards being players regardless of what else is printed. This past week, I was able to attend Grand Prix: Orlando and have the pleasure of getting some solid trades in as well as meeting some great new people. I was planning on working toward completing the project, but considering how I have been talking about long-term investments, I decided it was wiser to start trading for these cards instead, allowing myself a solid collection when it comes time to move past Extended. Considering I started this project working off websites for pricing, I have found this to be a poor indicator of the actual value gained in most cases. With this in mind, I am going to instead use the values we dictated within the trade, showing not only how we came to an even trade, but also giving insight as to what values to place on cards.

Doug

−2 Swords to Plowshares $3

+ 4 Runechanter's Pike $0.50

+1 Bloodghast $2

+1 Curse of Death's Hold $1

As you can see, for all intents and purposes, this trade came out to an even value based on the prices he dictated. What people don’t realize most of the time is that gaining $0.50 to $1 on small cards can mean a $3 to $4 swing in your favor by the end of a trade. Most people put Swords to Plowshares at a higher value, but considering I already knew Runechanter's Pike was on the rise, I was perfectly happy losing $1 on each of my cards to gain $1 on each of his.

Steven

−1 Ratchet Bomb $5

−1 Mayor of Avabruck $3

+4 Skaab Ruinator $2

This trade honestly favors him in the current metagame—considering how little play Ruinator is seeing—but I still stand by my initial feeling that this should not be a $2 to $3 card. Picking up cheap mythics is rarely a bad idea—they are almost always on buy lists for at least $1, and although I could sell out now and make more than the other two cards would have netted me, I would rather hold off in hopes that these play out the way I think they will and make it back to the $10 or higher range.

Over the course of the next few weeks, I will bring you more trades from this trip—I won’t be traveling again for a while with the gap in United States Grand Prix events this coming month. Next week, I was going to dive into long-term Legacy investments, but given the fact that we should have the full spoiler by then, I think it will be wiser to instead cover the new set—both the new cards and what old cards they will cause to rise. If we, for some reason, don’t have the full spoiler, I will break the series into two parts and cover what we are missing the week after. I want everyone to be fully prepared going into the prerelease so you know what to look out for and what is safe to dump as we shift the metagame once again. As always, leave me some feedback in the comments section, let me know if you agree or disagree, and tell me what players you feel I may have missed.

Ryan Bushard

@CryppleCommand