Thank you very much Captain Morgan. I really appreciate that. This is definitely a tough journey but the last month, while having challenges, has also been incredibly inspiring. The people in my life - family, friends, co workers, students, and even perfect strangers from real life and online are all doing incredible things. It's totally blowing me away.
In just a month we've raised over $6,000 towards Angelman Syndrome Research and the MTG community is part of that too.
I managed to attend the midnight pre-release of Born of the Gods (which was amazing) and our shop wants to run a tournament and make shirts and have all the proceeds go towards AS research. I was so amazed to hear that because I fell out of the scene so abruptly. Knowing they care and are wanting to help means so much to me.
Thank you to everybody who's read this and clicked through to the website. There are hundreds of hits coming from this community and it means tons to us.
I'd like to encourage you all to go to the website and there's now a link to a whitehouse.gov petition to increase AS research funding. I got the idea from the whole Justin Bieber thing and figured if something like that can get 250,000 votes than surely this can get 100,000.
Thank you so much to everybody and please take a moment to sign/share the petition - means the world to us.
Some of you might remember me - I wasn't super active on the forums but I'd frequent a few of the forums - Artwork, Market Street, Standard, and Rumor Mill in particular. I have been unable to play MTG for quite awhile and miss it quite a lot. I still visit here and lurk whenever I can manage.
The main reason for my initial absence was fatherhood - balancing my interest in the game, work, and home was rough. Well it has gotten rougher as we learned my son has Angelman Syndrome - which I had never heard of until now.
I can't really express the pain we have gone through and are still going through. Some moments feel better than others and then some moments the pain is as fresh as ever. It's the worst thing I have ever experienced.
I wanted to just let everybody in my world know about what's going on and to raise awareness about this disease.
If you would like to learn more about Angelman Syndrome and my son's journey, please visit his website:
Thank you so much for reading this and thank you so much for the community - I loved my time here and still think back often about how great you all are.
Well I like the art. I think people just have feelings about how Jace "should" look. IMHO I like seeing different artist interpretations of characters. If Jace always looked the same that'd be awful.
As far as spec targets go - there's some consideration to be had on these:
Angel of Serenity - Go to card for reanimator or possibly ramp if either happens, Angel appeal, currently very low and out of print - trajectory should only be up from here
Other cards which seem criminally undervalued and should certainly rise some:
Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
Aurelia, the Warleader
Prime Speaker Zegana
Legion's Initiative
Imho double red is harder on a mana base than uw currently. If you're trying to run a control deck and need double red on turn 3 or 4 you are in grixis colors most likely and that's a tough mana situation. The only reason Slagstorm was able to maintain a price was because it was auto 4 in ramp which was king of the hill for a long period of time.. I could be wrong but I see it dropping just under 3. It was the most borderline of all the cards tho.
These are the only cards I expect to hold any meaningful value whatsoever. Ie, over 3$ tcg mid:
Elspeth Sun's Champion
Stormbreath Dragon
Ashiok Nightmare Weaver
Thoughtseize
Xenagos the Reveler
Purphoros God of the Forge
Thassa God of the Sea
Erebos God of the Dead
Fleecemane Lion
Heliod God of the Sun
Temples
8 Mythics and 7 rares worth pulling long term which is probably a little mythic heavy as far as big sets go. EV won't fall as hard as Dragon's Maze for sure but won't hold up nearly as well as RTR. Pretty average set.
I just bought a case, shipping included, for 518$. Thanks for the heads up on this you guys. I'd really suggest you all do likewise as we saw what happened with Innistrad. RTR has huge value and is on the rise.
As a slight aside - this isn't meant as an attack. RancoredElf, I respect a lot of the things you say, but it seems like you sometimes are wrong on a card and refuse to admit it to the bitter bitter end. In this case it's Sphinx's Revelation. The card is about to climb in tandem with Jace for the next 6 months because it is a staple of WUx control decks and those decks are currently all over standard... I know you don't like the card. Heck, I didn't like the card either, but I knew when to admit I was wrong (when it went from 4 to 7 and I saw the tournament results flooding in last year) and the card hasn't changed it's power level since. It's a really strong card in the standard environment and you can't really talk sensibly about prices and ignore the standard window. Sure, this time next year it'll be a bulk rare - that's been it's destiny since the day it was printed. But that doesn't stop it from occasionally defining standard and having a 30$ pricetag or w/e.
Just sayin'. Same goes for reckoner - card's about to hit 20$+.
4x Voice of Resurgence (1 is a foil)
4x Ral Zarek
2x Blood Baron
2x Legion Initiative
2x Master of Cruelties
4x Progenitor Mimic
3x each other mythic
8x shocklands
Notable foils:
Blood Scivenger
Notion Thief
Warleader's Helix
7 Guildgates
Putrefy
Render Silent
+40 other random foils
Playset of each rare + between 0 and 3 extra copies of each
3 Playsets of each common and uncommon
6 buy a box promos
Viashino with a Legion's Initiative onboard is a 3 mana 5/5 with haste. That will see constructed play. Following up with an indestructable 3/3 Tajik is certainly far from bad.
These cards will all 3 see play. They won't warp the format but you should certainly be prepared to deal with them at FNM or wherever because you could easily lose to those plays if you don't have the proper removal suit.
That said, Legion's Initiative fits better in midrange.
In just a month we've raised over $6,000 towards Angelman Syndrome Research and the MTG community is part of that too.
I managed to attend the midnight pre-release of Born of the Gods (which was amazing) and our shop wants to run a tournament and make shirts and have all the proceeds go towards AS research. I was so amazed to hear that because I fell out of the scene so abruptly. Knowing they care and are wanting to help means so much to me.
Thank you to everybody who's read this and clicked through to the website. There are hundreds of hits coming from this community and it means tons to us.
I'd like to encourage you all to go to the website and there's now a link to a whitehouse.gov petition to increase AS research funding. I got the idea from the whole Justin Bieber thing and figured if something like that can get 250,000 votes than surely this can get 100,000.
Thank you so much to everybody and please take a moment to sign/share the petition - means the world to us.
Garrett's Website
Whitehouse.gov Petition
Thanks
The main reason for my initial absence was fatherhood - balancing my interest in the game, work, and home was rough. Well it has gotten rougher as we learned my son has Angelman Syndrome - which I had never heard of until now.
I can't really express the pain we have gone through and are still going through. Some moments feel better than others and then some moments the pain is as fresh as ever. It's the worst thing I have ever experienced.
I wanted to just let everybody in my world know about what's going on and to raise awareness about this disease.
If you would like to learn more about Angelman Syndrome and my son's journey, please visit his website:
Garrett's website
Thank you so much for reading this and thank you so much for the community - I loved my time here and still think back often about how great you all are.
Feel free to ask me questions or anything.
Thanks again,
pwner1
Plus it's probably part of the printing and packaging process to do 500 cards at a time this way.
Goodjob and keep up the great work.
Angel of Serenity - Go to card for reanimator or possibly ramp if either happens, Angel appeal, currently very low and out of print - trajectory should only be up from here
Other cards which seem criminally undervalued and should certainly rise some:
Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
Aurelia, the Warleader
Prime Speaker Zegana
Legion's Initiative
Elspeth Sun's Champion
Stormbreath Dragon
Ashiok Nightmare Weaver
Thoughtseize
Xenagos the Reveler
Purphoros God of the Forge
Thassa God of the Sea
Erebos God of the Dead
Fleecemane Lion
Heliod God of the Sun
Temples
8 Mythics and 7 rares worth pulling long term which is probably a little mythic heavy as far as big sets go. EV won't fall as hard as Dragon's Maze for sure but won't hold up nearly as well as RTR. Pretty average set.
As a slight aside - this isn't meant as an attack. RancoredElf, I respect a lot of the things you say, but it seems like you sometimes are wrong on a card and refuse to admit it to the bitter bitter end. In this case it's Sphinx's Revelation. The card is about to climb in tandem with Jace for the next 6 months because it is a staple of WUx control decks and those decks are currently all over standard... I know you don't like the card. Heck, I didn't like the card either, but I knew when to admit I was wrong (when it went from 4 to 7 and I saw the tournament results flooding in last year) and the card hasn't changed it's power level since. It's a really strong card in the standard environment and you can't really talk sensibly about prices and ignore the standard window. Sure, this time next year it'll be a bulk rare - that's been it's destiny since the day it was printed. But that doesn't stop it from occasionally defining standard and having a 30$ pricetag or w/e.
Just sayin'. Same goes for reckoner - card's about to hit 20$+.
4x Voice of Resurgence (1 is a foil)
4x Ral Zarek
2x Blood Baron
2x Legion Initiative
2x Master of Cruelties
4x Progenitor Mimic
3x each other mythic
8x shocklands
Notable foils:
Blood Scivenger
Notion Thief
Warleader's Helix
7 Guildgates
Putrefy
Render Silent
+40 other random foils
Playset of each rare + between 0 and 3 extra copies of each
3 Playsets of each common and uncommon
6 buy a box promos
Great case! Might even beat my RTR case
These cards will all 3 see play. They won't warp the format but you should certainly be prepared to deal with them at FNM or wherever because you could easily lose to those plays if you don't have the proper removal suit.
That said, Legion's Initiative fits better in midrange.