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I wrote a piece last week about how Narset Transcendent was a very disappointing planeswalker. Currently Narset is in a nosedive towards its price floor. A lot of sellers are still posting her in the $25-$30 range, but don't let that fool you. More and more copies are showing up on TCGPlayer for just over $20.
Sarkhan Unbroken is similarly tanking in value, however, his price is worth paying attention to. Gerry T highlighted a sweet Temur brew over on SCG this week that features a full four Sarkhans! While I don't think that this deck will immediately take Standard by storm, seeing four copies of Sarkhan in a deck allowed me to finally see him for what he is...
When you don't care about keeping him around, Sarkhan is literally just a Broodmate Dragon that takes a turn of setup, but also costs one fewer mana. That card once crushed Standard, and recently Wingmate Roc saw a lot of play due to its similarity to the once mighty dragon. Wingmate Roc has seen a steep decline in Standard playability, with both Stormbreath Dragon punishing the birds from the other side of the table as well as Abzan decks having a myriad of other options to explore.
Don't be surprised when curving Rattleclaw Mystic into Savage Knuckleblade (or Thunderbreak Regent) into Sarkhan Unbroken becomes a major player post-rotation. I fully expect getting in at Sarkhan's floor to be lucrative in the same way that Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver and Xenagos, the Reveler were.
Broodmate was SUCH a house in those Jund decks, but the environment in Standard is very different now.
To me, the mana acceleration is by far the most attractive proposition here (and I never thought I’d see a BLUE SARKHAN)
Paying five mana to generate one extra mana a turn is weak. Though drawing cards is greatly. I imagine most commonly you make a dragon, draw a card, make a dragon, ???, profit.
What range do you predict his floor will be between now and rotation?
I guess I should specify that I am referring to Sarkhan Unbroken in my last post.
I’ve seen estimates that he’ll hit $5, and if his success stays limited to MTGO then this sounds likely. Mostly depends if temur ever takes off, but in order for that to happen people would need to be willing to try it. I predict grinders will stick to their Siege Rhinos and we’ll see Sarkhan dip down to $5-$7.
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