First of all, don't panic.

The first Modern Masters drove down prices briefly, but not for long. Tarmogoyf and Dark Confidant went up from their pre-reprint prices, with 'Goyf basically doubling since then. Cryptic Command dipped slightly, then proceeded to reach unprecedented highs in the following year.

The main cards that took seemingly permanent hits are the casual staples that don't see play in Modern. Stonehewer Giant, for example, was at its all-time high before being reprinted; now it's at half the price and has continuously dropped since Modern Masters.

The hardest-hit cards may have been the commons and uncommons. Spell Snare was around $10 and today is around $4. Lava Spike was approaching $5 and dipped to around $1 (it's experiencing an uptick due to the resurgence of Burn in the post-Khans Modern metagame, but is nowhere close to $5). Etherium Sculptor used to be a common that would buylist for a solid buck, but now the retail price is half that. Only Path to Exile, probably the best removal spell in the format, seems immune to being reprinted—and, oh, how it has been reprinted.

In fact, it's hard to see how Modern Masters made the Modern format more accessible at all. Although there was an extremely brief period where prices went down, most of the prices for playable cards in the format, in the set and not, have risen well above their pre-Modern Masters printing. What playable, expensive card was reprinted and is now more affordable?

Tarmogoyf costs more. Dark Confidant costs more. Vendilion Clique costs more. Cryptic Command costs way more. Aether Vial, Blood Moon, and Sword of Fire and Ice are all more. In a few cases, important cards have nearly doubled.

The staples that became more affordable, on the other hand, became only slightly more so. Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is a little less, down from $28 to $25. Arcbound Ravager went down about a dollar. Cards that are powerful but not usually played in Modern took the biggest hits: stuff like Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Tooth and Nail, and Doubling Season (which is still quite expensive for a purely casual card).

So yeah, don't panic. The cards that you already own are probably safe.

Unless...

...the print run is significantly higher. Given the success of the first Modern Masters paired with the general discontentment about its lack of availability, I expect Wizards of the Coast to put a whole lot more Modern Masters 2015 out there. I imagine that will be the justification for the $9.99 MSRP: by pricing the product higher, WOTC will be able to print more of it without entirely crashing the secondary market.

As much as the first Modern Masters didn't kill the price of cards in the set, we've seen that normal-set reprints can absolutely have huge impacts:

If Modern Masters 2015 has an unlimited print run like the Commander sets of the last couple years, then prices will go down. Now, we already know that it is not unlimited:

But the fact that it's higher means that this set's impact on card prices will likely be slightly different that the first Modern Masters—unless the $9.99 MSRP offsets the higher print run exactly, I suppose. Until there's observable data, though, we can't really know for sure.

So What Should I Do?

If your primary investment in Modern is for cards to play with, I think it's very reasonable to do nothing at all. Your deck isn't going to become worthless overnight, and any cards that aren't in Modern Masters 2015 will probably rise in price, which hopefully leaves your total collection value more or less the same.

If you can't handle losing any money at all, you could sell the cards you aren't actively using. If you want to rebuy them after MM15 drops, you should do so quickly, based on how soon prices rebounded after the first Modern Masters. If you lag on picking up the cards you want in your collection, you may actually end up losing money.

If you're deep on Modern cards for purely speculative reasons, I ask you: why? Wizards of the Coast has shown that it is more than willing to reprint expensive cards in the format—not just in Modern Masters, but in expert expansions and products like Commander, as well. These days, short-term investments in Modern cards are much safer than long-term holds. If you want to park resources in cards to hold for a while, then you should be looking at cards on the Reserved List. 

As for picking up Modern cards in the next six months: there may be opportunities that are absolutely worth taking, but I'm going to be far less aggressive picking up cards for the format. We may have until May for this set to be released, but many cards dipped in the months leading up to Modern Masters—we have a savvy community and it's not hard to guess what is being reprinted. Don't turn a blind eye to the chance to make money, but give a little extra scrutiny to Modern specs as we move forward.

The Biggest Holes in the Format

Okay, so what's most likely to be reprinted? After not getting the nod in Modern Masters or Magic 2013, Noble Hierarch has to be on the reprint docket. After the banning of Deathrite Shaman, Hierarch became the go-to mana dork in the format, and its current price is just untenable. I would be shocked if it weren't Modern Masters 2015, and I expect it to be reprinted at rare.

Cryptic Command aside, a rare reprint is likely to crash the price much harder than a mythic reprint, which makes Hierarch, in my opinion, the riskiest hold in Modern as we approach MM15.

Affinity has been a go-to budget deck in the format for quite some time, but as card prices rise, Affinity becomes less and less of a budget deck. A big reason for that is Mox Opal, a key part of the strategy and the priciest card in the deck by quite a bit. With the word "Mox" in the title, this will certainly be reprinted at mythic, so don't expect too big a dip. If you're an avid Affinity player, you don't have to move your Opals, but it would probably be the safer play.

With so few good cantrips in the format, Serum Visions has become unreasonably expensive for a common that is indispensable in the decks that want it. Expect it to be in MM2015, expect it to be at common, and expect it to be a dollar at most after than happens.

Remand is one of, if not the, premier counterspells in the Modern format. A one-of reprint in the Jace vs. Vraska Duel Deck didn't do much to alleviate its price, and with the rise of U/R Delver, the card is only going to be more in demand. I expect it to perform similarly to Spell Snare after its reprint.

They have to reprint Tarmogoyf, right? It's a must-have for green creature strategies, which WOTC seems to want to push the last several years. An entire archetype (or multiple archetypes) being inaccessible due to an $800 playset is just not cool, so I expect 'Goyf to get another reprint here. It just seems correct.

I'm pretty disappointed by the $10 MSRP on these packs, but other than that, I'm excited for this product. If stores don't mark it up and the set is absolutely insane, it may even be worth the price. QS will be keeping an eye on the situation moving forward, and we will keep you informed. Until next time.