Weekly Winners - Eternal Masters Release Edition

Today, Eternal Masters will finally see its release. For the occasion, today's weekly winners will be a EMA special. So, once again,  just in time for FNM, I present you the cards that will be the talk of the town tonight.

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Eternal Masters top 3

The cards below are the top 3 most expensive cards in the set. For your convenience, I have added the lines of the original printing(s) of the card, so that a price comparison is easy to make. But before I start, I would like to warn you about prerelease prices. They tend to be overhyped in most cases, cards will plummet in value once the first packs are being opened. With EMA however, this might be a little different, since the set has such a low print run. But I do expect most prices to go down shortly after release. Especially because we have seen an increase in prices last week.

#1 Mana Crypt -18.87% ($107.97)

Mana Crypt is the most expensive card in Eternal Masters. And maybe you will pull one out of a booster tonight. But unless you are a Vintage player, you won't be able to play this card competitively, since it is banned in all other formats. Except EDH. On top of that, it is actually restricted in Vintage as well, so a soul won't need more than just 1 copy.

In other cases, the lack of use of a card will substantially decrease its price. But with Mana Crypt it's different since it has never been printed in a paper set before. The two older printings were promos, and their print run was limited. This makes up for the possible low demand of the card, since they are hard to come by. 

And when you pull a foil, beware. People will say that the Judge Promo is also a foil and the card will lose (part) of its uniqueness because of it. While this statement is true, it doesn't have to mean that the foil card price has to take a big hit. A foil from a very limited set, printed as a mythic and being a card that has never been printed in a set before are all reasons why the card should have a high price. Currently a foil will cost you $197.99 retail, and that's $90 more than its regular printing. Many other with the same (kind) of profile have a much bigger difference in foil-regular price.

#2 Karakas -9.52% ($95.95)

Ah yes, the good old Karakas. A card that sees a lot of play in Legacy, since it is able to bounce those pesky little Emrakuls, Griselbrands and Marit Lages you opponents cheat into play. On top of that, it works for all legendary creatures and in Legacy many legendary creatures see play. In a format where every choice, every turn and every play might win or lose you the game, bouncing a creature might just give you the edge to finish the game in your favor. On top of that, you can use Karakas on your own creatures, to save them from removal.

Karakas was only printed in Legends, which means that (compared to today's print runs) very little copies exist. Wizards has reprinted the card as a Judge Foil, increasing the supply a little. With the printing in EMA, players can save $45 a piece if they decide to buy the card today. And since Karakas sees play in decks that can be considered 'cheaper' for Legacy standards, this lowers the bar for new players to buy into the format. Especially because some of the decks that run Karakas, don't use dual lands.

#3 Force of Will +1.75% ($89.99)

It finally happened: Force of Will got a reprint. But all things considered, the price of the Alliances printing before the EMA announcement ($100-ish) could actually be considered extremely cheap for a card that defines the format and is an absolute and total classic in Magic. One would expect that a card is the second most played card in Legacy (after Brainstorm) and is printed in an older set with a limited print run would have a much higher price. To make an example: Liliana of the Veil will cost you $109.95, but is sees much less play -even when you combine both Modern and Legacy-, has a higher print run and a pro-tour promo printing. Sure, planeswalkers are always popular, but not that popular.

The main reason for this, is that Force of Will was printed in Alliances as an uncommon. That means that of all older Legacy staples, Force of Will is actually the most common. In EMA, Force of Will is printed as a Mythic, considering its mythic position in Magic, that is probably fitting. Your wallet might disagree though, you still have to pay around $75 for a copy.

Did you notice that the EMA printing of Force of Will is now actually more expensive than its original? This fact is hard analyze, since there is little base for comparison with other cards. Force of Will was spoiled together with the EMA announcement, giving the markers a lot of time to react to the fact that new forces will flood the markets soon. Wasteland was spoiled at the same time, but its original printing is still (a bit) more expensive. Wasteland is printed as a rare, while its original is -just like Force of Will- also an uncommon.

3 Biggest Losers

Prerelease prices tend to be overhyped. With Eternal Masters we have actually seen cards increasing in price after they were spoiled. With other sets, this is a rare occurrence, for one or two cards. With EMA, this happened with many cards. Why? I'm not sure, we are talking about prices with no actual supply behind them. But, most of those cards are already losing value. To prepare you for this release weekend, I give you a list of biggest losers.

#1 Eight-and-a-Half-Tails -13.6% ($4.64)

A real filler rare in EMA. One of the very few cards I actually had to read to find out what it does. It sees no play in Legacy and Vintage. It is sometimes used in Modern, but only sporadically. Since it's a legendary creature, it does see play in EDH.

#2 Gamble -13.6% ($12.6)

 

Almost half the price of the original printing, and it lost all value it gained. The cards sees little play in Legacy, but it has strong casual appeal. It tutors for anything, cheap to cast, but it is always a gamble. One of the very few cards that has a name so descriptive of what it actually does when you cast it. Gamble will probably start losing value after the release, since it has no real remand to back up a $12.60 price tag.  

#3Deathrite Shaman -13.6% ($5.07) 

Deathrite Shaman was probably one of the last cards in Eternal magic that needed a reprint. Considering the price tag of other cards, Deathrite Shaman was already cheap, and it is even cheaper now. Even considering the fact that we are talking about prerelease prices, $5 for such a good, and widely played card is extremely affordable. If I ever do a "best buys of 2016" section, a 5-ish Deathrite Shaman is probably on it.

 

See something interesting, or do you have a question? Send me a tweet: @MTGPeter