Following tradition, I’m going to look back on my Journey into Nyx set review to see how I did predicting the path of the set. After all, evaluating your own calls is important not only for transparency, but also for learning lessons moving forward.

So let’s apply that to Journey, a quirky third set that had some cool things going for it but was also the tail-end of a bunch of mechanics we’ve seen before.

Ajani, Mentor of Heroes

Then: “I think we all know $30 is overpriced, but where will this settle? I think it does actually have some Standard applications, simply because it tops out an aggressive or midrange deck and provides great value with both +1s. The gain 100 life is more cute than good, but it sure is fun.

Keeping in mind that everything here is a third-set card and won’t be drafted very long, I think $15 is pretty reasonable in a few months.”

Now: $18 and slowly tailing off. Pretty comfortable with my call here. Moving forward, I think it has the potential to stay at least near $15 and possibly move up with more play post-rotation. There simply isn’t much of this set out there.

Godsend

Then: “At $15, this has to be the most overpriced card in the set. It has cool flavor and cool abilities, but it’s not very good. Basically we’re looking at a souped-up Whispersilk Cloak here, except they can choose to block when they need to. $5 mythic.”

Now: $6. Not much to see here, in my opinion. It was a flashy card, sure, but it has no legs in Standard and will continue to slide until bottoming out at $3-4.

Gods

Then: “All are good, and all are overpriced for now. I expect all the gods to follow an Eldrazi-type route, where they languish a little in Standard pricewise but perform strongly in the following years thanks to casual appeal.

And damn, are these sweet for Commander. (Almost) all of them. Wait for Journey to reach the end of its drafting cycle, then stock up hard on these, particularly foils. The black-white god, Athreos, is especially good in Standard, but it’s not $30 good. I don’t want to predict a floor for each individually right now, but I know that as soon as they start to level out in price I’m moving on these.”

Now: Athreos is down to $11, and the others are all available under $6. Time to start hoarding these, especially Keranos and Kruphix, which have the most widespread applications. Given that Kruphix is sitting at $3 today, there’s no reason not to starting trading for all of these.

Worst Fears

Then: “It’s a Mindslaver, people. Nowhere near as good as the card it’s modeled on, of course, but good in Commander nonetheless. This will plummet from the already-low $2 and I’ll be picking them up, especially foils.”

Now: A buck, with foils at $6 mid. I love any foil copies you can find at $5 or lower, and Worst Fears at dollar-rare status is juicy.

Dictates

Then: “It seems there are more cycles to generalize around than usual, but all the Dictates (maybe less so the Anthem) are nuts in Commander. They took staple Commander effects and threw them onto colors. Giving them flash is sweet value, and I particularly like the green, black and blue ones for Commander.

It’s interesting how Commander seems to drive so much these days, but it’s true. These are all awesome in the format, and the foils especially will go high since this is a third set and all. When these bottom out two months after release, that’s your window.”

Now: All under a dollar. Dictate of Erebos has to be the best target of the bunch (and foils are $7-8), but I like picking up all three (Dictate of Kruphix and Dictate of Karametra), in that order.

Mana Confluence

Then: “Interesting card here, and one I think may be most deserving of the prerelease price. We have a land that can go into a variety of decks in a variety of formats, and comes from a third set. The immediate comparison is Cavern of Souls, except Cavern was actually opened more than this will be.

So is $20 right? I think it will probably see time at $12-15 in Standard, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it’s $20 again 18 months from now. Commander. Standard. Modern. Cube. Maybe Legacy. That’s a lot of formats where this can go.

The one thing to worry about is that with a generic name like Mana Confluence it could be reprinted often, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see that happen. So be wary of that.”

Now: $11 right now, pretty much right where I predicted. I don’t see how this can drop under $10 in the immediate future (or long-term future without a reprint), so I really like picking these up. I’m not sure how well it will play with painlands (that’s a lot of life to lose), but I do know that until a reprint this has a lot of cross-format viability.

Master of the Feast

Then: “Yeah, this card is actually pretty good, if only because of context. Of course giving your opponent cards in a vacuum is bad, but the mono-black aggro decks have been tearing up Magic Online in Block, and I’m sure they’ll be looking at these. At $4 I don’t hate trading for them.

With a Block Pro Tour coming up, we could see big movement on something like this or Herald of Torment or Pain Seer. This is something I’m sure I’ll revisit as we approach the Pro Tour, but worst-case scenario getting into these at $4 you get out at $2 a month from now.”

Now: $3.75, but trending down. I feel really good about calling this during prerelease weekend, because trading for them at that price put you in a great spot in case it broke out at the Pro Tour. It didn’t really, though it did move to $5-6 retail for a small window, but most importantly it’s not something you would have lost money on.

Cards like this are so hard to evaluate because a lot of the time the drawback ends up being too real and they’re suddenly bulk (see: Skaab Ruinator, though I’ll note it’s a sweet sideboard card in Modern Merfolk). Master toed that line for me.

Moving forward, I don’t hate holding these in case they tick up with Standard play, but I do think there are better targets, namely $1 Herald of Torments. The larger the format gets, the worse Master becomes, so if it didn’t make a huge splash in Block (and it didn’t), then I don’t like betting on it for Standard.

Temple of Malady

Then: “This does a lot to help the G/B Dredge deck, along with Mana Confluence. I’ve been going on the forums about Nighthowler and Shadowborn Demon, and both have shown movement. I’m not sure how long you have left to get in on these, but if the deck breaks out this Temple will have a part in it. That said, $6 is probably about right.”

Now: $10. Now here’s our card that was driven by the Pro Tour and the BUG deck ChannelFireball was on. That said, it will likely stay $6-9 in its Standard life because of the set it was in, and I’d lump Temple of Epiphany in there as well, even though it’s currently closer to $5.

The G/B Dredge deck I spoke of did make an impact, and while it may not have been as long-lasting as we may have hoped, it 100% made some of us money, as the Shadowborn Demons I started advocating at $2.50 went to $7.50 for a few weeks and brought everything else along for the ride.

Temple of Epiphany

Then: “This is the Temple to pick up this weekend at $6. Not only does it help, along with Keranos, to push the UWR Control decks, but this is pretty much an auto-include in the Blue-Red Combo decks in Modern. Huge fan of this one, even more so if it drops low a month or two after it releases.

These two Temples will be opened less than any of the others, and that bodes really well for Epiphany especially in the future.”

Now: $5. I really don’t regret what I said before, and it’s low because the colors it’s in aren’t taking off in Standard right now. But that could easily change, and if it does Temple of Malady shows us how easy of a double-up this can be. I still want to pick these up at $5.

Banishing Light

Then: “Despite a ton of printings, Oblivion Ring was a solid quarter on buylists for a long time. Now we have the replacement, and it’s only been printed once (so far). I know it will be printed regularly, but I also know this is a really solid throw-in this weekend.”

Now: $2.50. Did you expect this be more expensive than all but six of the rares in this set? I expected $1-2, but this is a little higher than anticipated. That said, I’m glad I called this on prerelease weekend when they were a buck, because it’s been very hot since then. These are basically the free-est of money, and since it wasn’t in Magic 2015 there will be at least a few more months of this being the premier uncommon of Standard.

Jumping Out of Journey

Overall, this is one of the strongest set reviews I’ve done in some time. I’m proud of spotting both the bad buys as well as the several cards that went up in price.

I really like the value of this set for both Standard and the larger future, because we barely drafted this thing before moving on to Conspiracy. Cards that spike out of this set are going to do so hard, and the casual hits will stay valuable for years to come.

Thanks for reading,

Corbin Hosler

@Chosler88 on Twitter