Throughout the past three weeks, I've been giving nearly daily updates for the prices on Gatecrash. For today's article I'm going to give some overall thoughts about this set and give a cheat sheet for my thoughts on the longer-term value of the cards in this set—and by “longer-term,” I mean the price the cards will be at right around the time Dragon's Maze (the next set) starts getting spoiled!
Overall Thoughts
- The initial impression of Gatecrash is that it is not as good a set as Return to Ravnica. I am not sure that this is the case; I think that Return to Ravnica has a lot more 'obviously good' cards, whereas Gatecrash has a lot more cards that are good but not a straightforward “plug this into an existing deck” type cards. I think there are a few cards in this set that are going to go up from their current value because they are currently being undervalued.
- I don't think either of the planeswalkers in this set is going to be a winner, long term. Expect them both to drop quickly.
- Two of the Guildmages are part of a two-card instant-kill combo: Duskmantle Guildmage with Mindcrank and Vizkopa Guildmage with Exquisite Blood. Keep an eye on all four of these cards because pulling off the combo for both of these decks is much easier than some other combos currently available in Modern and Standard, respectively.
- Shocklands are being suppressed in value right now because Return to Ravnica shocklands dropped from their initial price to lower levels. However, people forget that R2R Shocklands had a jump until the second and third wave of product hit, so I think shocklands will rise in the very short term (2-3 weeks after release) before dropping again.
- Boros cards are all jumping in value leading up to the release. Look for the key Boros cards (Boros Charm, Aurelia, Aurelia's Fury, Boros Reckoner) to all rise together.
- The biggest questions for this set revolve around the mythics: Duskmantle Seer, Lazav, Dimir Mastermind, Master Biomancer, Obzedat, Ghost Council, and Prime Speaker Zegana all could have big spikes or big drops, if they start seeing play in Standard (or Modern, since we are in the middle of a Modern PTQ season). I think that Lazav, Master Biomancer, and Prime Speaker will maintain or gain value. I think Duskmantle Seer and Obzedat will drop.
CHEAT SHEET (download link)
BOLD: Rares or mythics I believe are worth picking up at their current price
Future Price = The price on April 15, 2013
See you all in April for the Financial Value of Dragon's Maze!
About Ben Bleiweiss
Ben is one of the foremost Magic: The Gathering financial experts in the world. His accomplishments over his 15+ year involvement with Magic include two tenures as a weekly columnist for Wizards of the Coast, global travel as both a Pro Tour player and reporter, and his position as General Manager for StarCityGames.com.