It’s that time again. Time for the set review! If you’re not familiar, this is both a financial review of the set but also my trading plans for the prerelease itself, which doesn’t always align with where I expect cards to settle three months down the road.

For those of you not familiar with how I do set reviews, I start by giving you all a little credit. I don’t go card-by-card through the entire set and waste thousands of words telling you that obviously bulk rares are, in fact, bulk rares. Instead, I try to hit on the cards drawing the most hype as well as those I feel like you need to have on your radar for one reason or another, whether they be sleepers, overpriced, or so forth.

If you want to hear some financial thoughts besides mine on the new set, make sure to check out the latest episode of Brainstorm Brewery when it comes out Friday at GatheringMagic.com. We were lucky enough to have the godfather of EDH, Sheldon Menery, as our guest this week, which was an awesome way to do the set review.

Caveats

With that said, I want to take a moment for a brief aside. We’ve got a ton of new readers here on QS lately, and that’s great. It means more opinions in the forums and more collaboration in general. It also means that, as writers, we have to keep our game up because some people reading this have maybe never read a single thing I’ve written before.

I feel like I should make a point that I’ve made elsewhere but not necessarily in a while. Here goes.

Do not blindly trust me.

I’ve been doing this for a while. I’ve been a weekly columnist for more than three years and I’m highly active in the community. I’ve been responsible for some of the best called shots on here, from Stoneforge Mystic to Huntmaster of the Fells to Boros Reckoner. I like to think I’m pretty decent at this speculating game.

I take accountability very seriously. When I first began writing, back in the Wild West days of MTG finance, so to speak, no one was accountable in their articles. There’d be a ton of “I hope you took my advice on this card, it went up two dollars!” while never mentioning the $20 card they told you to buy into that dropped to $15.

So I started set reviews, and more importantly, looking back on those set reviews and grading myself, as I will next week with Journey into Nyx.

And guess what? I’m wrong, too. Everyone is. No one can bat 1.000, and in baseball you’re a pro if you’re successful one out of three times.

So don’t take my advice just because it’s my advice. Consider my reasoning on cards, take it into account along with what other people are saying, and at the end of the day make your own decision.

The Cards

Crucible of Fire

There’s nothing special about this card, but it’s clearly a seed for Khans of Tarkir and the fact that Dragons and Sarkhan will play a major role.

That said, it’s quickly nearing bulk prices, and before this reprint the original version was nearing $5. I really like this one on the cheap for long-term play.

In Garruk's Wake

EDH gold here. Foils are the long-term play.

Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient

The fact that this is bulk blows me away. I know I’m somewhat new to Commander, but there’s this card called Rings of Brighthearth that I hear is pretty good. This is similar enough to that to warrant a buy call on this at bulk prices, and again on foils.

Obelisk of Urd

I don’t think this is the next Adaptive Automaton ($4 card now), but it’s in the same vein at least. It won’t be bulk long-term.

Phyrexian Revoker

Another on the growing list of “cheap now but sure long-term gainers.” That really does seem to describe so many cards in this set, which is why I’m much more excited to have boxes of Magic 2015 two years from now, rather than now.

Avacyn and Friends

Here I’m talking about the legendary rare cycle that also includes Ob Nixilis and Jalira and so on. Dump them into the “want to own in two years pile” that basically sums up this set.

Preeminent Captain

See everything I’ve already said.

Soul Cycle

So I don’t think these are insane. Soul of New Phyrexia is pretty clearly the best one, and Soul of Theros isn’t bad. That said, the prices are all over the place. I think all of these will end up $2-4, with Phyrexia being a bit higher, if they see little to fringe play.

If any do take off, and I see Soul of Innistrad with likely the best upside, then we’re looking $8-10. That said, I’d rather put my money else where in this set right now.

Painlands

One of the places I want to put it is into the painlands. I know these aren’t exactly sexy reprints given how unloved they were and are, but they do get the job done. Once shocks rotate out these will look a lot better, and I’m pretty sure $3-5 is where they will all be. If you want yours to play with, the current prices are fine, and I see more up than downside here, even if it’s not a very large gap.

Sliver Hive

Of course, where I really want to park my money is in this card. It’s under $3 right now because it’s not expected to see a lot of Standard play.

Well, when it comes to slivers I don’t care even a little about Standard play. There’s no reason this won’t be $10 in a few years, and I want to scoop every one of these I can this weekend.

The Chain Veil

$4-5 sounds exactly right for this long-term, though it will dip in the short term. It’s extremely unlikely to make a big splash in Standard, but it is a mythic and does go infinite in Commander, so it’s not going to all of a sudden become bulk.

Liliana Vess

Normally reprinting Planeswalkers tanks the value, and sometimes they don’t ever really recover (see the formerly-$20 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker).

But the original Liliana is now up to six printings, and all but the newest one in M15 are at least $10. Then you look and see that this can be had for $4. It doesn’t get much more simple than that. Snagging these all weekend. Similarly, I like Chandra at the $4-5 price point.

Waste Not

Part of the $7 price here is because of the hype of it being community-designed. But that’s not enough to maintain this price, and while it has some fringe applications in Modern and Legacy (8-Rack, anyone?), it’s going to fall hard from $7.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

They basically turned the “cool reprints” dial up to eleven on this set, and here’s on of the poster children of that. Planar Chaos Urborg was $35 before this, and is currently falling off a cliff. The newest version is going for under $7. This will likely fall to $5 or so in the next few months, and then it’s time to move hard on this, because it will definitely not sit there for more than a few months.

Chord of Calling

Surprisingly low preorder at $8. I like this to hold that price moving forward. Not only will it likely make a few Standard appearances, there’s a whole crop of some Modern but mostly Commander players who want this now that it’s not $30.

Sliver Hivelord

The price is still volatile on this one, but if we assume a $12 preorder (where it sits on Wednesday, compared to $19 on Tuesday), I like it to hold that price.

This is the best five-color Sliver ever printed. Things that get the “best” tag don’t typically tank in value. People have a bad taste in their mouth due to last year’s Slivers and are really skimming past this year’s. Foils of this will always be super valuable, and I imagine this increasing in price steadily over the next few years.

Jace, the Living Guildpact

Better than people gave it credit for coming out of the gate, but still overpriced at $13. I do think this will see some Standard play after rotation, but it has nowhere but down to come in the meantime, likely to the $5-7 range.

Ajani/Nissa/Garruk

$13, $17 and $23 respectively. All will come down, but I think the Garruk will crash especially hard in comparison. Given that it’s a core set, there won’t be infinite amounts opened so none of these are going to immediately plummet 50% or anything, but I think a 20-30% drop is likely on all of these.

These are definitely worth evaluating come rotation, because while the next few months is clear, it’s way too early to speculate where the prices will go until we know what’s in Tarkir.

Something for Everyone

That’s basically how I feel about Magic 2015. As I wrote a while back, the #HypeTrain is real and I’m happy to be the conductor. We’ve got casual cards, Commander cards, Standard cards and Eternal reprints here. This set is great to invest into by trading out your rotating cards, and as much as I like this set now, I know I’m going to like it even more in a couple years when all these dollar rares suddenly creep up to $3-5.

I know that’s a long wait, but there’s no time like the present to get started. Happy Prereleasing!

Thanks for reading,

Corbin Hosler

@Chosler88 on Twitter