Hello, everyone.

This week, the Iconic Masters (IMA) spoilers started. Generally, cards that get reprinted will drop in price. Wizards has noted that we will be seeing Angels, Sphinxes, Dragons, Demons, and Hydras in this set. When the full spoiler is out, cards from those tribes that were not reprinted will have a potential to go up in price due to demand from new tribal players.

Notable Reprints

As I'm writting, the following cards are included in the IMA spoiler:

• The five Kamigawa Dragons: Yosei, the Morning Star, Keiga, the Tide Star, Kokusho, the Evening Star, Ryusei, the Falling Star, and Jugan, the Rising Star
• Primeval Titan
• Restoration Angel
• Thoughtseize
• Cryptic Command
• Aether Vial
• Mishra's Bauble
• Grove of the Burnwillows
• Horizon Canopy
• Ancestral Vision

Let's take a deeper look at these cards.

The reprint of the five Kamigawa Dragons was predicted by many. Wizards is giving them new artwork, probably to make them a little bit exciting, but otherwise they are quite meh.

These Dragons have been reprinted at least once before, in the original Modern Masters. The price for the non-premium versions shouldn't see much difference, but you may aim for the foil version of these Dragons with the new artwork.

This is the third time Primeval Titan has been reprinted. Currently, the average price for "Prime Time" from its three printings is around 19 tix. We can expect this price to drop up to and through the drafting of IMA on MTGO. I think the Titan will stay at a relatively low price while drafting is available, then increase when drafts have ended. Remember that Amulet Bloom and Titan Shift have been popular in the MTGO Modern metagame.

Restoration Angel was reprinted in MM3 not long ago, and the card is not very popular in Modern to begin with. She rarely appear as a four-of in the format. With IMA's release, I expect the price of Restoration Angel to go downhill. It's just not worth investing in this card.

According to the spoilers, the art for the IMA version of Thoughtseize will be the same as the Lorwyn version. However, the price for Lorwyn Thoughtseize has not changed much as of this writing. This is probably because players on MTGO tend to play with the cheaper versions of each cards, which is why the price of the Theros version is dropping rapidly. This card has been a staple of multiple eternal formats; thus, I suggest keeping them on your watchlist just in case.

In the long run, I think the Lorwyn version is going to lose out in value as the latest version has the same art, and as I said, most Constructed format players online have access to the same art with a way cheaper price when these hit the shelf. If you are going to stock up on Thoughtseize, I suggest you focus on the Theros version, because obviously they are cheaper right now and have a higher potential for profit after the IMA events end.

Another card that has been reprinted multiple times. The price for Cryptic Command was about 15 tickets before it was announced as being in MM2. Since then, this card rarely has rarely gone above 10 tickets. Thus, I think this card is not worth investing in.

Aether Vial is the main component of some Modern creature aggro decks like Death and Taxes, Slivers and Merfolk. Before it was confirmed to be included in IMA, copies were about 10 tix each on MTGO, and have since dropped by about 1 to 2 tickets. Keep an eye on the price in the coming weeks; if it keeps dropping, investing in a playset or speculation copies may be worth it. Aether Vial creature decks are always there, and I don't see them dropping in popularity any time soon.

One of the most expensive uncommon in Modern is being reprinted in IMA, and surprisingly, it will remain an uncommon. This means that when IMA releases, the market supply of this card will increase greatly. It's hard to predict what will happen when IMA is released, but I think it will be at least a good opportunity to get your own playsets for your collections. As for speculation, if this card drops to a point below 3 tix, it's probably safe to get some as long-term specs.

Grove of the Burnwillows was reprinted in From the Vault: Realms a very long time ago. This card is mainly played in Modern and Legacy. Its interaction with Punishing Fire is probably what makes it Iconic. The price of this card has been fluctuating between 55 and 13 tickets for the past two years. I think with the reprint, it's going to drop to somewhere between 13 and 18 tickets. Based on the price trend of Grove, I think the 13- to 18-range is a good opportunity to get some copies for investment. I think the price of Grove will stabilize at above 20 tickets again in year 2018.

Similar to Grove of the Burnwillows, this card was reprinted as an Expedition foil and appears in most green-white decks in Modern. For a green or white deck, a card that generates both colored mana and offers an extra card late in the game is huge. Cycling lands from recent set can only be a budget replacement of Canopy because: 1) they comes into play tapped; 2) they require 1 more mana to cycle for a card. However the current price is still too high for us to buy in. If this card drops to a point below 30 tickets, then we can consider buying a few.

This card was unbanned in Modern a year ago and was played in certain control decks. However, it's not very popular in Modern ,and it's price is at its low point this season. With the reprint confirmed, its price further decreased by at least 5 tickets. I think for this card to grow in price, it needs to appear at multiple decks in Modern or Legacy, which is not likely to happen because both of these formats are so fast right now that this slower card isn't really as relevant as it could be. Being said that, I still think Ancestral Vision is worth investing on if the price drops below 5 tickets, for a longer-term specs watching for when the metagame does allow for this card.

Alright, that's all for these week. Next week, we will continue our analysis on Ixalan and IMA depending on what is spoiled. So far, I've been using a straightforward approach in my articles, and this is my sixth article on QS. If you all have comments, questions, requests, or suggestions for my articles, I'd love to continue improving them. Do let me know in the comment section below if you have anything to say! Thank you for reading, guys, and I'll see you all again soon.

–Adrian, signing out