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Man Your Battle Stations!
This week's article is being sent to my editor, the great Tyler Tyssedal, at around 1 or 2 a.m. on the day it is supposed to be released.
How could I possibly talk about Eternal financials with a banned and restricted announcement scheduled the same night!?
First, however, let's talk about setting yourself up for these announcements in order to be in the best possible buying opportunity.
Step One.
- Set a budget.
- How much money are you looking to spend?
- Will it cripple you if the cards you buy do not go up in value?
- How long can you have your money invested?
- Most people forget that you still have to sell these cards at a profit. You can't spend Magic cards to buy gas or food.
Step Two.
- Get all the sites you know you want to buy from open in tabs (or separate windows, I guess).
- I usually have SCG, Channel Fireball, and Ebay open. You can use which ever ones you'd like but I've had the best luck with these sites not canceling orders.
- Make sure you know the checkout process of the site you are going to. Walk through it and just have it down. Make sure your payment method is also ready.
Step Three.
- Make sure you know where the announcement is and know when it comes out in relation to your time zone.
- I'm not stating the obvious.
- I've seen people miss this before..
- In case you missed it, this is where it all went down.
Step Four.
Arguably the most important step:
- Pants.
- Yes I said it.
- No pants.
-
One of my great friends Julain Booher is a master of this step.
"I am too excited for tomorrow afternoon. Cloudy, chilly with a 0% chance of pants."- Julian Booher
- Many men have done great things while not wearing pants. Fire and the wheel are two that were invented before pants ever existed.
- Pants can make you think too much. When you are on a buying spree, you should be comfortable. One of the most comfortable things you can do is not wear pants.
The Announcement.
The banned and restriction changes came out on Monday night (found here). They were as follows.
Extended
Who am I kidding?
No one cares....
Modern


- Blazing Shoal is banned.
- 
Cloudpost is banned.

- Green Sun's Zenith is banned.
- 
Ponder is banned.

- Preordain is banned.
- 
Rite of Flame is banned.
I like what they did with Modern. Wizards doesn't want any turn 2-3 combo decks running around so they fixed it. They also don't want it to be overwhelmed with Zoo, so GSZ was also a good ban.
Vintage
- 
Fact or Fiction is no longer restricted.
Fact or Fiction not being restricted is AWESOME. If you have never played with FOF before, you are missing out. That card is one of the hardest cards to play against. It makes your opponent make impossible choices and that's why I love it.
LEGACY!!!


- Mental Misstep is banned.
Read it again....
MENTAL MISSTEP IS BANNED!!!!1!
I love this decision by Wizards. It allows the format to flourish with different decks again. I really like that Counterbalance will return and Goblins gets another shot.
When I heard the great news, I snap bought a few cards that were good pre-Misstep and will continue to be good now that it is gone. Those cards were:
Goblin Lackey
Goblins is an all time favorite. Now that Misstep is gone it will become very good again. I used to have a soft spot for the little red men, but after I played with Force of Will, everything changed.
Aether Vial
With a little help from Modern, Vial will be worth close to $20 in no time. I found these for around $11 online and bought a few more than I already have.
ManaBond
I picked this sucker up because I think I might try to play it in Indianapolis next week. Who knows if it will work out or not, I just love this one drop beast.
Keeping 'em in Check.
We’ll look at some obvious ones for this week.
Aether Vial - $13.99 on SCG
This one is obvious and I already talked about it above. Vial is worth buying if you can find them cheap.
Green Sun’s Zenith - $5.99 on SCG
I know it got banned in Modern, which means it will go down a bit. Look for these as low as $2-3 and pick them up. Green Sun's Zenith will be good for years to come.
Stifle - $11.99 on SCG
A MN favorite and one of my top 5 favorite cards. Stifle is good again with Misstep being gone. Not only is this card great against Goblins and Storm Combo decks, it punishes people for trying to be cute. [editor’s note: Don’t forget Stoneforge Mystic and Hive Mind’s Pact triggers!]
Get on My Level
Leveler is a joke…
This card isn't worth the cardboard it’s printed on.
People who speculated on them should sell them now before everyone realizes it doesn't have a shot.
I agree with Doug's Insider email. The real speculation is in Divining Witch.
- EOT, use the Witch’s ability looking for Lab Maniac.
- Untap, cast Lab Maniac or Vial him in.
- Use Diving Witch naming any card not in your deck and win.
I guarantee you someone will play it somewhere and the Witch will take a price hike.
Until Next Time…
I'm so happy Misstep is gone. I've been working on a FREE Legacy article for later this week showing off the format sans-Misstep. Keep an eye out for that.
I hope the banning made you all as happy as it made me.
If you’re not having fun, you’re not risking anything.
Please feel free to post question in the comments or email me.
Now that we're gonna see High Tide everywhere again with no hope of an answer, I'm betting on Candelabra of Tawnos to go back through the roof and not stop this time. Last time it stopped rising at $350 because of Mental Misstep. This time… $500? $800? Picking up a few playsets seems a good way to pay off some debts!
I don't think they will go any higher than the mark it was at before. Plenty of dealers had them and couldn't sell them at the price tag they were at.
While you were dropping your pants you also kinda dropped the ball on there also being changes to the EDH Banned list…
I don't do much involving EDH. I know my values on the cards I just really don't care about the "Format" at all.