Recent MTG Bans, Regional Championships, and Pioneer

Finally… Fury, Geological Appraiser, and Karn, the Great Creator have all been banned and we can get to brewing again in Premodern. Oh wait…wrong format. 

Mox Diamond

Maybe Mox Diamond should’ve also been banned (in Premodern) since GW Terravore just won a recent Magic Online Society tourney.

All jokes aside, I don’t think Mox Diamond will get banned in Premodern, even though it’s one of the most powerful cards in the format. And it’s one of the cards I mentioned a couple of articles back to keep an eye on as an investment. Additionally, Premodern is decently diverse and it seems like the community is often really excited about playing older cards for nostalgia. Plus, I think the serialized old border reprints such as the ones recently featured in the upcoming Ravnica Remastered set continues to highlight that nostalgia. 

While these newer versions of cards with old borders might not appeal to some people, I think they’ll continue to put a spotlight on original old border cards and the formats they’re used in, such as Premodern, Middle School, Old School, and others. There’s also a much smaller supply of original old border cards, especially foils and foils of highly played cards.

Before shifting gears to head back to modern formats, there are a couple of cards I’d like to highlight from the GW Terravore list above. The first card is Rith's Grove. Foil versions of the card have dropped a bit in price recently. So now might be a good time to pick them up along with foil copies of the other four Lair lands (Crosis's Catacombs, Darigaaz's Caldera, Dromar's Cavern, and Treva's Ruins). I’m not sure if Wizards of the Coast will print more Lair cards in the future, but it’s possible since we’ve seen them print more cards of a specific card type over time, such as the recent Cave lands in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. And if they reprint these five specific Planeshift Lairs, I’d imagine they’d shoot up in price. I also like that they bounce a non-Lair land, which can be used towards your advantage. 

The other card I’d like to point out is Engineered Plague. There are three copies in the sideboard, and it continues to show up in a lot of sideboards of different decks, as I mentioned in my previous article.

Pioneer

Okay…shifting back to modern formats. Now that Geological Appraiser and Karn, the Great Creator are banned and Smuggler's Copter is unbanned in Pioneer, with the Regional Championships in Atlanta happening at Dreamhack from December 15-17, we might see an uptick in aggressive decks. Historically speaking, these are the type of decks that usually show up in larger numbers shortly after bans happen, and Smuggler’s Copter is more of an aggressive card than a midrange or control card. 

With that said, one deck that comes to mind is RW Convoke. Warden of the Inner Sky sticks out to me as a card to keep an eye on. It’s a one-mana value card, it’s a Human, and four copies are usually played in the main. I could be wrong, but I don’t think Smuggler’s Copter will show up in RW Convoke that much or at all, but I think a decent amount of people will play RW Convoke in Atlanta. I also like the idea of picking up Apocalypse versions of Battlefield Forge, especially since the price has really come down from its most recent peak a year ago in December 2022. This is another original old border card that some people like playing around with in formats like Premodern.

 

Another aggressive deck that comes to mind that might show up in larger numbers than originally expected in Atlanta are the other red-based decks, like Red Deck Wins and Gruul Blitz. Aside from Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might, which also sees play in various RB decks, I don’t really see any pickups in these decks since cards like Roiling Vortex and Questing Druid have already spiked. But I think you should sell Rending Volleys if you have these sitting around, especially foils, since it only has one printing. And one reprint could really tank the price of foils.

 

It’ll be exciting to see the results of the Regional Championships in Atlanta. Maybe a creature-based red deck will show its presence at the top tables and remind us how far we’ve come from the earlier days of playing decks with creatures like Ironclaw Orcs. And by the way…if you can find lightly played or better Beta Edition copies for under $10, I think these are decent pick-ups. 

Lastly, there are a few other cheaper Beta commons you might want to consider picking up to play around with for fun in old border formats or Pauper. I like Psychic Venom, Scryb Sprites, and Tranquility. Psychic Venom is probably the least played among the three, but I’ve heard of some people trying it out. As for Scryb Sprites and Tranquility, you can take a look at these decks for inspiration. 

Summary

Sell

Rending Volley (Dragons of Tarkir foils)

Buy (Foils)

Rith's Grove	CardKingdom $0.49	TCGPlayer $0.59
Crosis's Catacombs	CardKingdom $0.69	TCGPlayer $0.96
Darigaaz's Caldera	CardKingdom $0.35	TCGPlayer $0.68
Dromar's Cavern	CardKingdom $0.35	TCGPlayer $0.77
Treva's Ruins	CardKingdom $0.59	TCGPlayer $0.96
Warden of the Inner Sky	CardKingdom $2.29	TCGPlayer $1.00

Buy (Non-foils)

Battlefield Forge	CardKingdom $6.49	TCGPlayer $5.19
Ironclaw Orcs	CardKingdom $9.99	TCGPlayer $11.26
Psychic Venom	CardKingdom $9.99	TCGPlayer $12.72
Scryb Sprites	CardKingdom $13.99	TCGPlayer $14.19
Tranquility	CardKingdom $10.99	TCGPlayer $19.98

Respectfully,

Eddie

Further Reading:

Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commanders - Which Versions Should You Buy?