Hello everyone, and welcome back to my daily series of Financial Value articles about the newest set. This time around, we’re going to discuss the third set of the immensely popular Return to Ravnica block: Dragon’s Maze! Since the formatting for this article is slightly different than past Financial Value articles, you’re going to have to look at this guide to my article every…single…day! There was some movement on mythics yesterday, so make sure you’re checking out the updates section!
Starting Price: The first price we assign to this card as a preorder
Current Price: The current price of the card, by the time this article goes live
Future Price—Short Term: The price I believe this card will be at before Magic Online redemptions go live for Dragon’s Maze
Future Price—Medium Term: The price I believe this card will be at by the time the next set (M14) comes out
Future Price—Long Term: The price I believe this card will be at a year from now, when the next Spring set is released (Journey to Nyx)
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Catch // Release |
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Starting Price: $2 Current Price: $2 Future Price—Short Term: $2 Future Price—Medium Term: $2 Future Price—Long Term: $2 |
Act of Aggression only let you grab creatures, but it saw play since it could be cast as a three-mana colorless Threaten at instant speed. Is Threaten as a blue/red card that can grab any permanent good enough to see play? I’d say yes—grabbing planeswalkers in particular seems very powerful, and three mana is aggressively costed for the effect. I think this will be one of those role-players in Standard that sees some amount of play, but nobody will build a deck around it—especially the six-mana end of the card.
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Emmara Tandris |
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Starting Price: $1 Current Price: $1 Future Price—Short Term: $1 Future Price—Medium Term: $1 Future Price—Long Term: $1 |
Another bulk rare. You don’t want your token lord to be the last drop in your deck. You want it to be early enough to be in play once you start dropping your token creatures.
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Notion Thief |
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Starting Price: $6 Current Price: $6 Future Price—Short Term: $8 Future Price—Medium Term: $6 Future Price—Long Term: $10 |
Notion Thief is going to be good enough to break into Legacy and Modern—probably even more so than Standard. This means in the short term, we’re going to see a slight gain in value as all Legacy players try to get a playset. Then, we’re going to see a drop-off in value once those players get their Notion Thieves and Standard-only players don’t need them. Finally, we’ll see another rise in value once Modern season hits next year.
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Warleader’s Helix |
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Starting Price: $2 Current Price: $2 Future Price—Short Term: $3 Future Price—Medium Term: $4 Future Price—Long Term: $4 |
Lightning Helix is back, but it costs two more mana for one more damage. I’d look at this more like Lightning Blast with a gain-four-life rider attached. It’ll be played a lot in Standard, but I’m not sure it’ll see play outside of that format. It’s a solid uncommon, and the first one that will clock in at $2+ in the longer term from this set.
Updates!
Blood Baron of Vizkopa: Raised from $10 to $12. Should probably hit $15 before the end of today. Attractive abilities, popular tribe, and cross casual/competitive appeal really help buoy Blood Baron to a top spot for this set.
Legion’s Initiative: Raised from $10 to $13. EBaying at $55-$60 a playset right now, but I still think this card will go down over time. It might bump up in the very short term, but I wouldn’t advise going heavily in on this card unless you really want to play a Boros deck right now.
See you all tomorrow!
- Ben
Previous Daily Financial Value Articles
April 16, Tuesday: Blood Baron of Vizkopa, Deadbridge Chant, Legion’s Initiative
April 11, Thursday: Blood Scrivener; Lavinia of the Tenth; Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker; Sire of Insanity; Varolz, the Scar-Striped; Zhur-Taa Ancient
April 10, Wednesday: Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch; Renounce the Guilds; Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts
April 9, Tuesday: Advent of the Wurm; Master of Cruelties; Vorel of the Hull Clade