We’re really deep in Innistrad spoilers now, and the set looks incredible.

Most unfortunately, I will not likely be able to play it as much as I would like to. My new full time job as a sports reporter at a large newspaper here in Oklahoma is pretty much sucking up all of my time, and I work Friday nights covering football.

This means no FNM for me (and makes me hate #pwpts even more). I also work Saturdays, although on a more flexible schedule. Overall, playing Magic and especially traveling to events just got a lot more difficult. Still, I’ll be playing as much Innistrad as I can, and there are a few cards from it I want to cover today before I move into the crux of this week’s piece – what to do with Fetchlands.

Next week I’ll be giving my full prerelease trading primer as usual. In the past I’ve called such risers as Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, Timely Reinforcements and Spellskite before they’ve spiked, and I hope to have the same success this time around. That said, there’s a few things I wanted to weigh in on now, in order to be as timely as possible.

Find the full spoiler list here.

Day of Judgment

What? This isn’t an Innistad card! I know, but I just wanted to throw it out there. White Weenie is being pushed hard as an archetype, and I expect Day to become much more in demand. I don’t think we’ll see too much of a price increase, but more players are going to need it, so snag a few now so you’ll have them in stock.

Skaab Ruinator

Opinions are all over the place on this card. I’m going to wait to see the final spoilers to make a call, but I see this guy finding a home as a 1-2 of in Pod decks and (as of what we know now), not much else. Overhyped for now, but is still very powerful and worth being aware of.

Snapcaster Mage

Very good card. Not $20 good. We haven’t had a $20 rare since Stoneforge, and I don’t expect that to change.

Moorland Haunt

This card hasn’t been “officially” spoiled yet, but I’m pretty sure this card is insane. I haven’t seen much press about it yet, but this thing fits right into Neo-Cawblade lists to replace Tectonic Edge. Infinite Sword carriers seem pretty good. Keep an eye on what this things presells for when it becomes available, because it could very well be too low.

That’s all for now. I just wanted to hit on a few of the major discussion-provoking cards and let you know where I stand. Next week I’ll dive into the entire set and give you a full breakdown, but that’s enough for now.

The Curious Case of the Rising Fetchland

Conventional wisdom on the Zendikar fetches stated that their price would bottom out after rotation and then increase in perpetuity. However, following the trend of well, trends, occurring ahead of schedule, it looks like we’re already at that point.

Using Scalding Tarn and Misty Rainforest as our baseline, we see that the price bottomed out at the beginning of August and has started creeping upward since. This didn’t catch anyone’s attention until SCG raised the prices on their fetches, but even this has escaped a huge part of the Magic community. It’s possible (likely, even) that SCG used Modern to raise the prices on their fetches, but Modern isn’t going anywhere and, unlike so many speculative Modern cards, fetches aren’t going anywhere either.

Literally all the buzz in the last month has been centered around Modern (glad I covered that well in advance and advised getting out a few weeks before the bubble burst), and now it’s being dominated by Innistrad. There are very few players or authors paying attention to fetchlands, and you’re running out of time to move on these.

Pick up literally every single Zendikar fetch you can find for $12 or lower, and trade for them aggressively (ideally with overpriced Innistrad goodies), and you’ll be looking very good a few years from now. It remains to be seen if these experience a dropoff once they are actually rotated, but I’m of the opinion that they won’t. We won’t be seeing a better time to buy in, and there certainly isn’t going to be less demand for them in older formats as we move forward. I’ll be spending my Innistrad prerelease (if I’m able to attend one) trading for fetchlands.

So where are fetchlands going? We see that old ones in the best color combinations can push $25 (Flooded Strand). It will be awhile before Zendikar fetches get to that point, but they’ll likely see $15 in a year or so. There’s a few reasons I love lands so much. In addition to being awesome in game design (a resource AND a bonus? Sweet!), lands are also one of the most stable investments you can make in Magic. They aren’t going to eclipse Misty Rainforest in the “fetching a land” category anytime soon (and probably never), so there’s no downside to getting in on these now.

Not to mention that most people don’t even realize that the price on these has gone up.

The Dark is Rising

With Innistrad now just a week away, I’m excited to dig deep into the financials of the set once we have it fully spoiled next week. I’ll also have some exciting Prediction Tracker updates for you ready to go just in time for your prerelease. This move should give you the best possible knowledge to get ahead at the prerelease.

Until then, thanks as always for reading.

-       Corbin Hosler

@Choser88 on Twitter