Are you a Quiet Speculation member?
If not, now is a perfect time to join up! Our powerful tools, breaking-news analysis, and exclusive Discord channel will make sure you stay up to date and ahead of the curve.
The Gatecrash Event Decks have been spoiled and everything is ruined. I kid, but things have certainly got more interesting.
Thrive and Thrash — Gatecrash Event Deck
Really?! Three Event Decks with Thragtusk in a row? Fortunately the rest of the deck is mediocre enough financially beyond the copies of Rancor in the sideboard that this printing shouldn't effect the current (falling) price of Standard's favorite Bovine very much. While a good buy low candidate in the coming weeks, Thragtusk's ceiling has been lowered yet again, something to remember when stocking up for the Standard PTQ season.
Rally and Rout —Gatecrash Event Deck
That's some pretty insane value for $25 MSRP. These should sell out almost immediately and once the decks are released I expect every major card in Rally and Rout to take a temporary price hit (maybe a week or two). Keep this in mind when picking up inventory over the next couple weeks: Ash Zealot, Boros Charm, Champion of the Parish, Clifftop Retreat, Silverblade Paladin, Skullcrack, and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben have all been moving very well and this puts us in a bit of a bind; I'd be careful picking up excess copies unless you already have an out or are prepared to sit on them for a bit (the uncommons should be coming down in price around that time anyway so this shouldn't do much there).
What does this additional printing do to Thalia, Guardian of Thraben in the long term? Well it certainly doesn't help, one of the most appealing aspects of Thalia as a hold was the (comparatively to Avacyn Restored and Innistrad) limited printing and unpopularity of Dark Ascension which kept the copies in circulation relatively low. As with most reprints the ceiling has been lowered and I do not recommend going deep on Thalias post rotation as I probably would have otherwise in eight months time. Picking up some is fine, but the idea of putting 100 of them in a shoe box for a few years should probably reserved for other cards now.
What's not in Rally and Rout is almost as important as the decklist itself, namely Boros Reckoner, Cavern of Souls, and Hellrider all of which had great showings in Gatecrash Standard's opening weekend.
All three of these are selling very close to their perceived trade value ($10, $25, and $10 respectively) and picking them up over the next few weeks at those numbers is easy money.
Other Targets
Abrupt Decay has been selling very well over the past month, and I think the price is only going to rise as players immerse themselves in the new Standard format which maybe even more aggressive than usual. You can still get these for $5 in trade, and they're going to be in high demand as people realize they need a spell that can kill a Silverblade Paladin at instant speed and still deal with Boros Reckoner evenly.
~
I love Master Biomancer, its very easy to get them at $10 or less in trade still and that feels like cheating. Even if you're not high on its potential (which I am), Ebay is a great out for any copies you're looking to offload and you'll make a killing doing it.
Biomancer in multiples happened on the SCG open stream and sold me on his potential. The card seemed bonkers in that context. Also just going Biomancer > Thragtusk, seems like a pretty big beating.
You should consider how bad he is on his own however….4 mana for a 2/4 with no ETB abilities. I understand how everyone wants this guy to be bonkers, and in Magical Christmasland he’s pretty solid…but as a mid game/late game top deck..he’s pretty awful.
I don\’t think anyone who has mentioned Biomancer and Zegana has done some without mentioning Thragtusk in the first 4 seconds. However, I don\’t think he\’s as bad alone as others do. Sure, he\’s bad if you never play another creature. But which decks do that?