When a price changes drastically, there's (usually) a reason for that, for example an unbanning, spoiling of a new card that complements a card, or some new tech. But why are cards expensive that, well, already are expensive? That's what I'm going to try to explore in this article series. This instalment, we'll be talking about Rishadan Port.
Aim of this article
Many articles require (some) background knowledge about formats, the metagame and price history of a card and similar cards. We also like to serve newcomers, casual players and infrequent players in the community who would like to understand how or why a card got to where it is now. For this article series, I'm drawing a lot of inspiration from Masters 25. This shouldn't come as a surprise, because these master sets are generally used to increase the supply of certain cards, and when a card has a demand, but a low supply, prices are generally higher. So this time, we're going to look at Rishadan Port.
Since we started recording prices, in 2012, Rishadan Port already was about $30 each. When in May 2013 it was clear that Port would not see a reprint in Modern Masters, it jumped to $70. In February 2014, it was the first time it broke the magical $100 barrier and slowly came down to about $90. When Eternal Masters was spoiled, and Port wasn't in there as well, it shot up again to $115, slowly coming down to $90 again and going down after Masters 25. As of writing, the Mercadian Masques version is about $80, and the Masters 25 version is about $30. The first printing will probably always be a lot more valuable than the Masters version.
Mercadian Masques
Mercadian Masques is the eighteenth expansion set, which was released in October 1999. One of the interesting details about this set, is that it was the first set not protected by the Reserved List (the Wizard Reprint Policy). Meaning, that not a single card in the set is protected from reprints. Fun fact: this was also the first set that had "Fat Packs" and is one of the only sets to not introduce new keywords.
The sets before the Masques block, was the Urza Block, which contained sets Urza's Saga, Urza's Legacy and Urza's Destiny. Relatively, a lot of cards from there sets were powerful (like Tolarian Academy, Gaea's Cradle and Windfall). Because of this, the designers of Mercadian Masques were a bit reticent to print strong cards. Regardless, some powerful cards found their way into the set, like Gush, Food Chain, Squee, Goblin Nabob and of course Rishadan Port.
Abilities
Let's take a look at the card of the hour: Rishadan Port. The card is a land card with 2 abilities:
- : Add to your mana pool.
- , : Tap target land.
The first time I saw this card and read its abilities, I dismissed it. It looked very underwhelming, because you would have to keep up 2 mana on your own turn, to deny your opponent 1 mana on their turn. Then again, at that time, I didn't really know anything about tournament or competitive play anyway.
But when you think about it, having a way to deny your opponent one certain mana color by tapping a land in their upkeep, can deny them from casting what they want to cast in their turn. Imagine keeping your opponent off of their second , so they can't cast Wrath of God to wipe your board.
Standard
Even in Standard, Rishadan Port was so powerful, it was played in almost every deck as a 4-off. If you were land flooded, you could leverage this advantage to cut your opponent off of their mana. It was so powerful that in the next set, Invasion, they had to print two cards to try to tone it down: Tsabo's Web and Teferi's Response. But that wasn't enough, the card was still seeing lots of Standard play.
In 2001, Jan Tomcani won the 2001 World Championship (Masques-Invasion) with the following deck, playing a full playset of Rishadan Port.
Eternal Play
Still today, Rishadan Port sees a lot of tournament play in Legacy. Nowadays in Death & Taxes, but it used to be played as well in Goblins and Lands.
In all decks, it kind of fulfils the same goal: cutting off your opponent of resources. In Goblins and Death & Taxes, the card shines in combination with Aether Vial. If you manage to go Turn 1 Aether Vial, and have Rishadan Port on Turn 2, you can tick up your Vial, put creatures into play, while cutting your opponent off of mana. This strategy also works without Vial, as long as you play cheap costed creatures, like Goblins and Death & Taxes do. In combination with Wasteland, you're continuously taxing your opponent's mana, while still able to put threats down yourself.
In Lands decks, where you probably have more lands in play than your opponent, you can tax their mana as well. But it also gives some extra utility, by tapping down their Karakas before creating your Marit Lage Token with Dark Depths.
Commander
Rishadan Port sees a lot of play in Commander decks, because it's an easy auto-include and isn't constrained by commander colors. Commander decks usually pack utility lands, and to be able to make your opponents' utility land less useful can come in very handy. It seems nice to tap down your opponent's Maze of Ith so you can swing.
So... #ButWhy is Rishadan Port so expensive? It was, and still is, a powerful card. It saw lots of play in Standard when it was legal, giving it some price memory and nostalgia. It still sees play in Legacy, mainly in Death & Taxes decks, and it sees quite some casual play. Since it hasn't been reprinted a lot, it has a low supply and a much higher demand. However, with the recent printing in Masters 25, Port will become a lot more affordable for everyone.
Any feedback is appreciated. You can contact us through our Twitter or through e-mail at website@mtgstocks.com.
