Ultimate Masters is still in full bounce back mode, and the last World Magic Cup has come to a finish. Plus, some sweet Ravnica Allegiance spoilers have hit the market so there’s gonna be a nice mix of things to talk about again in this piece.

Owing to the spoilers, this might be a little more on the speculative side of things compared to previous articles where a lot of the content was based on tournament results and shift in the metagame.

Article Series Main Focus Points

• Cards that you should hold on to or pick up for tournaments if you need them before they rise in price. These cards are either seeing increased play in one or more formats, the supply is drying up, or they’re pretty far from the next reprint.
• Cards that you should consider selling or trading away. Their prices are pretty much at the ceiling owing to inflation from speculation, reprint inevitability in the near future, a lull in tournament play, or some combination of these.

Holds

Exquisite Firecraft - Magic Origins (Foil)

Target Purchase Price
Under $4

With UWx Control decks still being quite popular and also doing decently well in Modern and Legacy, some people have started to add this to their sideboards again. The price has pretty much remained flat since it rotated out of Standard about a couple of years ago but has started a slight rise in the past six months. I’m not sure if this will get reprinted anytime soon; but if it does, the price can’t really fall too much further.

Modern

Legacy

Recent Buys

Mortify - Magic Player Rewards

Purchased Price
$3.50ish

This was recently spoiled as a reprint. If you haven’t seen the spoilers yet, be sure to check them out here. This is really a Standard-only card with an additional boost from quite a bit of play in EDH/Commander, showing up in over 17,000 decks.

However, I picked up a playset of these because this version will never get printed again. And Wizards will probably continue to reprint this once in a while in Standard. This is a sweet version of the card, especially if you don’t like foils.

Ral, Izzet Viceroy - Guilds of Ravnica (Non-Foil)

Purchased Price
Under $5

This has really tumbled from it’s release price of $25. And I’ve had my eye on this card for Modern’s Izzet Phoenix. It actually shows up in quite a few decks in Modern.

The card also had a pretty good weekend at the World Magic Cup with it showing up on both sides of the table in the finals between Arnaud Hocquemiller and Shahar Shenhar.

I think we’re going to see more of this card in Modern and Standard going forward. So I picked up a playset, especially since they’re only about $5 each now. There are a lot of copies on TCGplayer right now, and it doesn’t see play as a four-of; so I don’t expect the price to pop anytime soon. And if you want to splurge, the Mythic Edition under $35 seems like a pretty decent deal.

Watchlist

Nexus of Fate - Buy-A-Box Promos

Observed Price
$12-15

This has pretty much come back down to its lowest price even after the crazy spike during the Pro Tour 25th Anniversary. But now might be the time to pick it up again thanks to the spoiling of Growth Spiral.

Aside from it being two colors, this is an essential an upgrade to Explore, which could cause an uptick in decks like Scapeshift and Amulet Titan. I’ll get to those two decks next.

Primeval Titan - Grand Prix Promos

Observed Price
$19ish

There are five printings, but this is probably the coolest one. Thus, the price is a little higher than the other versions. But it’s hard to see the price of this go down much further if any at all ever again. It sank to about $10 once. But that happened about five years ago, and this is a promo so I would say that’s very unlikely to happen again.

This shows up in the aforementioned Scapeshift and Amulet Titan decks, so the demand is there. And as I mentioned, the demand could rise a bit with the printing of Growth Spiral. There isn’t really any countermagic in either deck, but there are still some instants that show up like Lightning Bolt, Abrade, Nature's Claim, and Ancient Grudge. Plus, Engineered Explosives and Walking Ballista sometimes also show up. So Growth Spiral gives the deck a bit more flexibility now on its opponent’s turn.

Ultimate Box Toppers

I just wanted to spend a little bit a time talking about these specifically since a lot of the regular cards have already bounced back. If you want to read more about that, I suggest checking out Sigmund Ausfresser’s article.

Anyhow, the box toppers that kind of stick out to me are Fulminator Mage and Life from the Loam. They both see quite a bit of play and neither of them have a promo version. And they’re both significantly cheaper than many of the other box toppers.

Fulminator Mage - Ultimate Masters: Box Toppers

Life from the Loam - Ultimate Masters: Box Toppers

I’m having a hard time with these. I think because I’m not really that big of a fan of them. But I’m pretty sure I’m an outlier. Over time, I think most of these will just continue to go up in price, since many of them have new art or are the only ‘full art’ version. I think Wizards could’ve made the full art design a bit more pronounced, but that’s just my opinion.

Anyhow, I think if you really want them, it’s pretty hard to go wrong with picking these up as they’ll most likely hold their value and continue to appreciate over the years.

Office Hours

Office Hours #4 is coming up, and I’ll be co-hosting it with Sigmund Ausfresser. You can catch the audio of Office Hours #3 with Sigmund Ausfresser and me here in case you missed it.

Office Hours #4 is set for Thursday, December 27 at 8p Central, so mark your calendars and join us in the Discord channel if you have a Quiet Speculation membership subscription.

Office Hours

• When: Thursday, December 27 at 8p Central
• Where: Quiet Speculation Discord Channel
• Who: Sigmund Ausfresser & Edward Eng
• Why: Increase Community Engagement
• What: Anything Goes

Public Spreadsheet

Stay up to the minute on what I’m looking at on a daily basis via the Hold ‘Em & Fold ‘Em - Public MTG Finance Spreadsheet. Don’t forget to bookmark it, because I update it on the fly. This way you can see what’s going on as the market moves and before articles about certain cards are published.

Summary

Holds

• Exquisite Firecraft - Magic Origins (Foil)

Recent Buys

• Mortify - Magic Player Rewards
• Ral, Izzet Viceroy - Guilds of Ravnica (Non-Foil)

Watchlist

• Nexus of Fate - Buy-A-Box Promos
• Primeval Titan - Grand Prix Promos

Ultimate Masters: Box Toppers

• Fulminator Mage - Ultimate Masters: Box Toppers
• Life from the Loam - Ultimate Masters: Box Toppers

Office Hours

• When: Thursday, December 27 at 8p Central
• Where: Quiet Speculation Discord Channel
• Who: Sigmund Ausfresser & Edward Eng
• Why: Increase Community Engagement
• What: Anything Goes

Public Spreadsheet

Hold ‘Em & Fold ‘Em Spreadsheet

Let me know what you think in the comments below. Agree? Disagree? Why? You can also connect with me on Twitter at @edwardeng. I’m also open to suggestions on how to make this series more valuable. Hit me up.

Have fun,
Eddie