Clever Impersonator

I'm not nearly as hyperbolic about this card as most people. Everyone seems convinced that a card with the word Ugin on it and Ghostfire Blade are proof positive that we're getting Eldrazi. Ben Bleiweiss predicted Eldrazi in the next 2 sets so everyone has decided that since Ben is never wrong (except when he called Filter lands in Theros, Thoughtseize in M14 and Grandeur rather than Chroma being the returning Theros mechanic) they should go out and get Emrakul playmats. I'm not really criticizing Ben Bleiweiss; he's right a lot and he's right about the stuff that matters. Whether we get Eldrazi doesn't really mean anything financially unless we can benefit from guessing correctly.

If we don't use this to copy Eldrazi, it's still probably very good. EDH jams this because it's the most flexible Clone ever printed.

The real question is whether we want to buy in above $7. I am not really sure. This is likely to be the most-opened set ever and I don't know if we can expect mythics that won't ever be a 4-of (I really, really have to imagine this won't be a 4-of) to maintain a price high enough that we'd wish we bought in at $10. However, we have a lot of things on our side.

1) This isn't selling out preorders yet. That means the presale price won't be recalibrated for a while which means we can see what happens.

2) We can wait until people who brew decks like Brad Nelson and Conley Woods weigh in. Bad players are saying very hyperbolic things right now, but I tend to pay less attention to what the people who loudly proclaim that Pain Seer is "a better Dark Confidant" say and more attention to what people who quietly opined that Voice of Resurgence may be the best card in the set think.

3) It will be a while before the foil prices are decided. I think if you can get foils of this for under $30, you likely do it because its EDH appeal is obvious, and while its non-foil price will largely be dictated by Standard, its foil price will largely be dictated by EDH and cube demand.

Will we get Eldrazi in the next few sets? I don't really care. If we do, great. If not, great. But I don't know that getting them or not will make or break this card. It's very flexible, aggressively-costed for being the most flexible Clone effect printed and it's a mythic, albeit one in a set where fetches are rare and I expect sales records to be shattered. Watch SCG's preorder inventory number carefully. A run on this card could happen with all the hyperbole I see bandied about. I'm not buying non-foils right now.