Editor’s note: Sylvain Lehoux is taking a three-week break from writing due to other commitments. In the meantime he’s promised to keep us abreast of any changes to his portfolio via emails to the Quiet Speculation staff. We’ll present these purchases/sales in a shortened form along with Sylvain’s explanation so you don’t miss a beat. Join us back on May 9 when he returns in full form!

Here is the link to the High Stakes MTGO live portfolio.

Buys

Oath of the Gatewatch and Battle for Zendikar Boosters: With the release of Shadows over Innistrad the price of these two packs took a hit but they seem to have stabilized since. With extra tix ready to deploy, these seemed like a reasonable and low-risk investment. I'm betting on them returning around 3.5 tix sometime before the release of Eldrich Moon.

Dismember: From almost 5 tix, Dismember dropped to 2 tix about two weeks ago. Nonetheless this instant remains one of the best removal spells in Modern and playable in many decks. I'm expecting an easy comeback in the 3.5-4 tix range fairly soon.

Grove of the Burnwillows: Dropping below 18 tix was pretty much a one-year low from a very high 50 tix in mid-February. The ban of Eye of Ugin impaired R/G Tron decks, the principal consumers of Grove of the Burnwillows, but this land remains unique in the sense that it produces two colored mana without any conditions and a very small drawback. R/G can surely survive post-Eye of Ugin and a lot of other decks in Modern or Legacy will keep using this land. The imminent Future Sight flashback drafts don't worry me that much since it is the third set of Time Spiral block and if the Grove drops below 20 tix again I will actually reinforce my position.

Monastery Mentor: Fate Reforged is officially out of Standard and if Monastery Mentor topped 13 tix right after the release of SOI it went back to 10 tix this past week. That seems to be a solid floor for a card with a lot of potential but which still has yet to prove itself in Modern. I'm betting here on a push from redemption and its possible incorporation in more Modern decks.

Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher: These two OGW rares have proven to be powerful in all formats. They haven't seen much play in Standard but I bet that will change. Now that SOI is up and OGW is being drafted less, hopefully these two Eldrazi will start climbing from the long-term bottom they reached during these past few weeks. I hope to see them raise up to 10 tix for Thought-Knot Seer and 5 tix for Reality Smasher.

Sales

Languish, Liliana and Demonic Pact: Following Pro Tour results I sold these three Magic Origins positions. let's face it: I was a little off tempo with all of them, which is what happens when you don't have a lot of time to monitor your positions and put everything in the same basket. I was a little bit too late for Demonic Pact but was clearly too early for Liliana, Heretical Healer and Languish Along with Nissa, Vastwood Seer, that's a decent number of tix I've left on the table for being in too much of a hurry.

Dragon Whisperer: The right time to sell this guy was...seven months ago. Since last September the price of Dragon Whisperer kept going down. With no apparence at PT SOI it was really time to let go, near the absolute bottom for a mythic. You can't win every time...

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite: On a gradual upward trend since October 2015, the legendary preator peaked to 4 tix a week ago, most likely due to a resurgence in popularity of the Gifts Ungiven-Unburial Rites combo. I was unsure I would get a better opportunity anytime soon so I decided to sell this position with a decent 77% profit.