Hello and welcome back to another High Stakes MTGO report!

The hype around Eternal Masters and the Legacy Festival is clearly winding down and everyone is getting ready to some degree for the release Eldritch Moon and its eponymous Pro Tour. The way I have managed my portfolio recently is no stranger to these phenomenons and this past week totally reflected the trend with a big zero buys and a lot of sales.

There are several reasons I'd like to have more free tix on my account than usual. I want to make sure I can operate a few quickflips during Pro Tour EMN and give a try to a EMN booster spec if possible. Also, the next block to be flashback-drafted after the break for EMN is Zendikar, a block totally packed with pricey Modern and Legacy/Vintage staples. It will certainly be a good idea to have some spare tix to invest in Zendikar, Worldwake and Rise of the Eldrazi later in August.

Since prices are not expected to be at their best in this new Standard set release period, I'm actively trying to free some tix. Let's see what were the victims of my personal "purge."

If you are looking to the live moves they can be found on this spreadsheet.

Buys This Week

None!

That's rare enough to be underlined but this is not really a surprise considering the ongoing price crunch due to the incoming release of Eldritch Moon.

There may have been a few select buying opportunities such as Matter Reshaper but my intentions are to wait for about two weeks and Pro Tour EMN before targeting Standard cards. It might be too late for Matter Reshaper but I expect a lot of other cards to take a significant and temporary hit during the first week of the release of EMN.

Sales This Week

I was trying this past week to get rid of several positions that were either stagnating for a while (with a small loss or a small gain) or high enough to be sold now although they had not met my expectations. As I said in the intro the goal of this round of sales was mostly to get more liquid in this period of general lower prices.

Ranging from +6% (Eidolon of the Great Revel to +52% (Spellskite) all these specs did a decent job.

Spellskite is the one I had been holding the longest and I clearly should have sold it back in January while the price was around 25 tix, more than the double my buying price. This is one more reminder than passing on such a selling opportunity has a real cost---I "lost" about 6 to 7 tix per copy and six months! It's on a slight upswing now and at the height of these past four months---it was time to let go now.

Bought after its Standard rotation, Sorin probably has a ceiling higher than 6 tix but I'm okay with selling it now rather than waiting who knows how long while I need tix. So even with a moderate 21% profit I'm out.

I was expecting a tiny bit more with Blood Moon, Karn and Past in Flames but I also knew I was not going to double with these cards. They were perfect targets to sell sooner rather than later.

I'm actually pretty satisfied with Wanderwine Hub and Pyromancer Ascension. Hub was within my target range and although I could have expected more with the Ascension (and it seems to be happening actually) making 50% is great for specs you pick up as they are rebounding, as the turnaround is just a few weeks. With the release of EMN and the Zendikar flashback drafts coming up soon it's also very hard to justify keeping the Ascension at this point.

A little bit like Snapcaster Mage, Eidolon of the Great Revel seems to be trapped between 15 and 20 tix. I don't want my tix to be trapped anymore so I exited this position now.

The same fate is likely to happen to Mage as well. If nothing really changes in the weeks/months to come at least I know what price support to wait for before rebuying some copies. In the meantime I may have more profitable positions to invest my tix in.

Selling these only had the goal to free more tix. Tarmogoyf is the only one I'm selling with a loss. I was optimistic when I bought Goyf but I have admit that it will take more than that for this iconic green creature to reach 100 tix again.

I sold the other cards at the minimum price I felt comfortable selling. Below that I'm not desperate to sell and I'm okay waiting a few more weeks or months for prices to reach higher price ranges.

Two lands I was counting on the Legacy Festival to boost their price. Cavern of Souls did exactly what I was hoping for---reaching 40 tix. I was counting on much more with Eye of Ugin and the price peak was actually met much earlier in June. Overall this spec did good since it was purely linked to the Legacy Festival. Maybe I was a little bit too greedy on a spec a lot of speculators may have been on.

Oath of Nissa could have done more but I have to be satisfied with +56% here. This green enchantment had a tremendous growth curve since March and who know what may happen if G/W Tokens falls out of favor once EMN hits. I still believe this card can do a lot in a lot of different decks in both Standard and Modern. But this time I chose to be reasonable and sold sooner with a concrete profit rather than later with an uncertain better profit.

I had actually sold Thrun several weeks ago but forgot to report it on my spreadsheet. My selling price was around 10 tix. If you haven't sold your Thrun, today is an even better opportunity as the troll is on a very nice upward trend since February, at its best in almost two years. Mirrodin Besieged flashback drafts are only two months away.

On My Radar

The only thing I'm focusing on at the moment is accumulating as many tix as possible and getting ready for the release of EMN. I will both try to pick up long-term picks in BFZ, OGW and SOI, and to attempt some quickflips during the Pro Tour.

I may also give a try to speculating on EMN boosters during the release events. Now that this "spec" is not a secret for anyone, only volume can make the difference---let's see if I can grind a few tix.

Thank you for reading,

Sylvain