Stoooooooooooooooooooooooop!!!! Please don't pay preorder prices; cancel your order if you can. Nyx Lotus is going to be bulk in a couple of months, Dryad's price will be halved and Idyllic Tutor will be a couple of bucks tops. Ancient is 100% worth grabbing but EDH isn't nearly as popular in EU so you'll have plenty of opportunities to get it cheaper. I don't recommend pre-ordering anything from this set unless you make enough money that you don't have to care about grossly overpaying. I anticipate it to be a relatively weak set from a financial perspective that won't favor the people who get in early.
Shadowspear is my pick for the safest long-term investment and I'm going to grab some Extended arts (foils and nonfoils) when they bottom-out in price. I wouldn't touch the preorder prices with a 10-foot pole but this is the Smothering Tithe/Arcane Signet of the set for casual + EDH play.
Preorder is only possibly worth it if you regular at standard tournaments and want that edge. If you are casual just crack a pack or two or just wait. Legends, obvious established pieces of story ( like Urza or Weatherlight), any mention of “Mox” or “Lotus”, and planeswalkers are always overpriced until about a week after prerelease.
I’m hoping to crack a few things but currently my favorite card is Mirror Shield. My meta, myself included, run things like Typhoid Rats as staples. It is nice to see there is finally an answer to that strategy that fits all colors.
The other main thing I will be doing is updating my Constellation deck with just a few cards. They reprinted “Gary” but we’re wise enough to not reprint Grim Guardian.
If I do prerelease, I’d probably go Azorious.
Legends, etc... are always overpriced until about a week after prerelease.
Longer. Think about a card like Murderous Rider that sees play in Standard, Pioneer and EDH and that everyone knew would be good. It didn't hit its floor of $6.00 until 2 months after its release: https://www.mtgstocks.com/prints/50055 .
Honestly I dont know much about pre-orders prices in the US, but here is what I paid for the cards which I ordered from a shop in Prague to Germany
Idyllic Tutor 3,5 dollar
Dryad 5,5 dollar (considering the cheapest swordtooth I can find here is around 5 dollar i think it`s pretty good)
Nyx Lotus 3,5 - 4 dollar
Nyxbloom Ancient 10 dollar.
Considering, that I always order for my 9 person Playgroup I always have to find a shop sellung up to 15 copies of card.
I do not know very much about the US and the Canadian market, but I think MTG seems to be cheaper in Europe.
Especially the prize of the tutor is pretty fine (or I think so at least), I always wanted to grab a playset of those but it was like 20 bucks or so before the reprint.
Most certainly I will honour your tipps and wait with my order until a couple of weeks after the release.
Your prices are halved relative to ours so it's definitely way cheaper over there in EU. That being said the "never preorder cards" advice should still hold true because you're still buying into unproven hype during a period of (literally) no supply. Typically, the best time to buy anything is at peak supply which occurs roughly 2 months (between 60-70 days) after a set's release when the allocation period ends. The "allocation period" is the time-frame where Wizards artificially restricts supply by limiting the volume of product that stores can purchase. Even if you wanted to buy 200 booster boxes they'll only sell you 24 (fake numbers but you get the idea) for the first 60-70 days of a set's release in order to keep the prices of singles inflated. Once the allocation period ends these restrictions are lifted and prices typically hit their floors shortly after that. Why? Prior to this the set's expected value (EV) will often be significantly higher than the price of a booster box due to the (artificially) limited supply and so businesses will pounce on that arbitrage opportunity by buying booster boxes, cracking them, and selling the singles. This occurs until the set's EV and the price of a booster box converge (~2 weeks after the allocation period ends) and that's when cards will reach their lowest market prices.
Thank you for your advice! I think your mostly right.
I had some luck with preorders during the Guild of Ravnica etc block when it was possible to pre-order Shocklands for 5 Dollars a piece...I bought a playset of each combination because I expected them to never be that cheap again!
I also bought Wrenn and Six for 15 dollars a piece and a couple of Okos for 12 dollars.
But I think those are different kind of cards and you r talking about Nyx Lotus styled cards.
I admit that I did much mistakes pre-ordering cards too (I remember a 10 dollar Blood sun) and therefore I am very careful with cards that cost 5+ dollars and because of this asked for your oppinion regarding the Nyxbloom Ancient.
but hey....I feel pretty comfy with my Idyllic tutors now, which I wanted to have ASAP :D.
What other cards to you consider to be multiplayer Powerhouses in the set?
There's a lot of cool stuff but none of it has that "OMG I need it" quality. Nightmare Shepherd seems to have the most potential, but I still don't have any specific ideas what to do with it.
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There's a lot of cool stuff but none of it has that "OMG I need it" quality. Nightmare Shepherd seems to have the most potential, but I still don't have any specific ideas what to do with it.
I am in complete agreement. I am not actively looking to build many new decks, just potentially upgrade existing decks I have and because of that, there are few cards that I actively need.
Nightmare Shepherd is the obvious one for me. The ability is already making waves in standard with Gary allowing for stupidly easy drain shenanigans. The card has other applications as well, but its first home for me will be in a drain shell.
Plenty of other good cards I simply don't have shells for at this time, plus I usually make the mistake of buying too many cards for ideas that never quite come to fruition or pan out.
Nightmare Shepherd is the obvious one for me. The ability is already making waves in standard with Gary allowing for stupidly easy drain shenanigans. The card has other applications as well, but its first home for me will be in a drain shell.
It'll never be a real deck if we're being honest. It's certainly a fun deck though.
FWIW I'm on 4x Scroll of Fate and I think that it's the best card in the deck. I'll quickly plug cards like Den Protector and Stratus Dancer because it enables Megamorph among other things. It lets you play at instant-speed, helps you dodge Wraths and makes attacking into you almost impossible. After all, as long as it's untapped you're representing instant-speed 1 mana 12/12s. Moreover, it crushes permission and converts excess lands into useful resources. It also creates mind games where you can bluff putting useless cards into play that will still force people to play around the fact that they could easily be 12/12s. I could go on and on but suffice it to say I wouldn't consider playing fewer than 4 copies of Scroll of Fate in any versions of the archetype going forward.
I haven't thought too much about it yet, but with this new Theros I want to create a Dance of the Manse enchantment deck. I am not 100% sure what cards from the new set it will include but I am thinking:
Ill look what cards from Theros I end up owning and make a deck based on that. There is also the option of including enchantment creatures, artifacks or artifact creatures. If I order some cards Ill make sure to remember Hall of Heliod's Generosity.
I was pretty late to this set - I've been building a soundproof room, tore my MCL, holiday in Japan & discovered that baseball is more entertaining in South Korea than anywhere else I've seen. Fun times
After drafting one weekend and playing Arena this last week, the cards that made me think are;
Shadowspear looks killer, seems under-costed to me.
It's fairly costed. 1 to cast and activate is nice but 2 to equip means that you're not going crazy with it. Much like Umezawa's Jitte and Sword of Fire and Ice you can blindly jam 1 copy into any creature-based deck and it'll do fine.
So far I ordered a couple of Nyx Lotus, Dryad of the illysian grove and of course the Idyllic Tutor reprint.
I wondered if the Nyxbloom Ancient is worth the 10 Dollars it currently costs to preorder in europe or of the card is overrated thus far.
Also the gods seem a bit overpriced At the Moment
Shadowspear is my pick for the safest long-term investment and I'm going to grab some Extended arts (foils and nonfoils) when they bottom-out in price. I wouldn't touch the preorder prices with a 10-foot pole but this is the Smothering Tithe/Arcane Signet of the set for casual + EDH play.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
I’m hoping to crack a few things but currently my favorite card is Mirror Shield. My meta, myself included, run things like Typhoid Rats as staples. It is nice to see there is finally an answer to that strategy that fits all colors.
The other main thing I will be doing is updating my Constellation deck with just a few cards. They reprinted “Gary” but we’re wise enough to not reprint Grim Guardian.
If I do prerelease, I’d probably go Azorious.
Longer. Think about a card like Murderous Rider that sees play in Standard, Pioneer and EDH and that everyone knew would be good. It didn't hit its floor of $6.00 until 2 months after its release: https://www.mtgstocks.com/prints/50055 .
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
Honestly I dont know much about pre-orders prices in the US, but here is what I paid for the cards which I ordered from a shop in Prague to Germany
Idyllic Tutor 3,5 dollar
Dryad 5,5 dollar (considering the cheapest swordtooth I can find here is around 5 dollar i think it`s pretty good)
Nyx Lotus 3,5 - 4 dollar
Nyxbloom Ancient 10 dollar.
Considering, that I always order for my 9 person Playgroup I always have to find a shop sellung up to 15 copies of card.
I do not know very much about the US and the Canadian market, but I think MTG seems to be cheaper in Europe.
Especially the prize of the tutor is pretty fine (or I think so at least), I always wanted to grab a playset of those but it was like 20 bucks or so before the reprint.
Most certainly I will honour your tipps and wait with my order until a couple of weeks after the release.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
I had some luck with preorders during the Guild of Ravnica etc block when it was possible to pre-order Shocklands for 5 Dollars a piece...I bought a playset of each combination because I expected them to never be that cheap again!
I also bought Wrenn and Six for 15 dollars a piece and a couple of Okos for 12 dollars.
But I think those are different kind of cards and you r talking about Nyx Lotus styled cards.
I admit that I did much mistakes pre-ordering cards too (I remember a 10 dollar Blood sun) and therefore I am very careful with cards that cost 5+ dollars and because of this asked for your oppinion regarding the Nyxbloom Ancient.
but hey....I feel pretty comfy with my Idyllic tutors now, which I wanted to have ASAP :D.
What other cards to you consider to be multiplayer Powerhouses in the set?
The set is relatively weak and so I'm not very excited about it. There's very few playable from what I can see.
Hyped: Shadowspear, Nyxbloom Ancient, Woe Strider, Wavebreak Hippocamp
Hot: Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove, Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded, Whirlwind Denial, Heliod's Intervention
Warm: Arasta of the Endless Web, Storm's Wrath, Kiora Bests the Sea God, Medomai's Prophecy, Thirst for Meaning, Shatter the Sky
Combos:
S-Tier
Thassa's Oracle + Demonic Consultation
A-Tier
Underworld Breach + Lion's Eye Diamond + Brain Freeze
Heliod, Sun-Crowned + Walking Ballista
Hyrax Tower Scout + Splinter Twin/Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
B-Tier
Mischievous Chimera + Curiosity
Siona, Captain of the Pyleas + Shielded by Faith
The only thing that I really want to do is kill people on turn 1-4 with Thassa's Oracle + Demonic Consultation/Tainted Pact.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
My meta: 3 or 4 player free for all, anything goes but boring games or broken decks cause a vote to end that game.
- Enigmatic Incarnation
- Kunoros, Hound of Athreos
- Nightmare Shepherd
- Medomai's Prophecy
There's a lot of cool stuff but none of it has that "OMG I need it" quality. Nightmare Shepherd seems to have the most potential, but I still don't have any specific ideas what to do with it.ETBs and sac outlets mostly. Viscera Seer, Zulaport Cutthroat, Priest of Forgotten Gods, Weaponcraft Enthusiast, Woe Strider, Ophiomancer, Sidisi, Undead Vizier, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Grave Titan, Sepulchral Primordial.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
I am in complete agreement. I am not actively looking to build many new decks, just potentially upgrade existing decks I have and because of that, there are few cards that I actively need.
Nightmare Shepherd is the obvious one for me. The ability is already making waves in standard with Gary allowing for stupidly easy drain shenanigans. The card has other applications as well, but its first home for me will be in a drain shell.
Dryad of the Ilysian Grove is the other card I really want to like. Good with Field of the Dead or Valakut, the molten pinnacle and she has a big butt.
Is Uro, Titan of nature's wrath in a bant torpor orb Hushbringer deck with eater of days phyrexian dreadnought finally a real deck? Or is it simply better in a ramp shell with Hydroid Krasis and friends.
Plenty of other good cards I simply don't have shells for at this time, plus I usually make the mistake of buying too many cards for ideas that never quite come to fruition or pan out.
(Optional: Turn 0 Leyline of the Void) Turn 1 Cauldron Familiar, turn 2 Yarok's Fenlurker, turn 3 Ayara, First of Locthwain, turn 4 Nightmare Shepherd + tap Ayara and sac Yarok's Fenlurker at EOT, turn 5 Gray Merchant of Asphodel + tap Ayara and sac Gary. Not only is the combo effective but it's also Standard legal. You can play it vs 1 or 100 opponents or even at your local FNM.
She doesn't do that much for the literal card Field of the Dead but she's fantastic at enabling Golos, Tireless Pilgrim.
It'll never be a real deck if we're being honest. It's certainly a fun deck though.
FWIW I'm on 4x Scroll of Fate and I think that it's the best card in the deck. I'll quickly plug cards like Den Protector and Stratus Dancer because it enables Megamorph among other things. It lets you play at instant-speed, helps you dodge Wraths and makes attacking into you almost impossible. After all, as long as it's untapped you're representing instant-speed 1 mana 12/12s. Moreover, it crushes permission and converts excess lands into useful resources. It also creates mind games where you can bluff putting useless cards into play that will still force people to play around the fact that they could easily be 12/12s. I could go on and on but suffice it to say I wouldn't consider playing fewer than 4 copies of Scroll of Fate in any versions of the archetype going forward.
It's a much better fair card. You want to support it with things like Satyr Wayfinder and Cavalier of Thorns; not Torpor Orb.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
Other cards I am interested in:
4x Watery Grave
4x Godless Shrine
4x Hallowed Fountain
2x Temple of Silence
2x Temple of Enlightenment
2x Castle Vantress
2x Island
2x Plains
1x Swamp
1x Hall of Heliod's Generosity
4x Prismatic Lens
4x Omen of the Sea
2x Mycosynth Wellspring
4x Thirst for Meaning
4x Oath of Liliana
4x Doom Foretold
4x The Eldest Reborn
4x Hour of Revelation
2x Kiora Bests the Sea God
4x Dance of the Manse
Maybe something close to this? Medomai's Prophecy, The Birth of Meletis, Ichor Wellspring, etc. would also work at 2 CMC.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
Yes, something very much like that. Cards that I already have for it that are most likely going in are:
Ill look what cards from Theros I end up owning and make a deck based on that. There is also the option of including enchantment creatures, artifacks or artifact creatures. If I order some cards Ill make sure to remember Hall of Heliod's Generosity.
I was pretty late to this set - I've been building a soundproof room, tore my MCL, holiday in Japan & discovered that baseball is more entertaining in South Korea than anywhere else I've seen. Fun times
After drafting one weekend and playing Arena this last week, the cards that made me think are;
Thassa, Deep-Dwelling I like. It's no Deadeye Navigator, but it's durable & 4cmc.
I think I'm gonna try a build with Act of Treason-style cards to keep their stuff.
Nightmare Shepherd + Sac outlet looks great, but don't think we *need* it for Gary. Gary don't need help Cool card.
Shadowspear looks killer, seems under-costed to me.
*Escape* cards are interesting, but none I'm super keen on yet.
Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger together with Lazav, the Multifarious would be hilarious though.
Gotta say, this set looks heavy on duel-focused cards. Not many I'm interested in so far, but I need more time to digest all the cards.
Don't forget about Agent of Treachery either!
We don't need it for Gary but it's awesome when your deck has Yarok's Fenlurker, Gary, Grave Titan, Sepulchral Primordial, etc. For sac engines you have Viscera Seer, Witch's Oven, Ayara, First of Locthwain, Woe Strider, etc.
It's fairly costed. 1 to cast and activate is nice but 2 to equip means that you're not going crazy with it. Much like Umezawa's Jitte and Sword of Fire and Ice you can blindly jam 1 copy into any creature-based deck and it'll do fine.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold