October 21, 2019. The day that the average Magic collection gained around 20% in value. When Wizards announced the newest competitive format, it was a big day for everyone in Magic finance. Join Jamin on a tour through this fall's biggest winners.
Nostalgia is a strong feeling. It's what many Magic players felt when they read about the possibility of playing their former Standard favorites in Pioneer. Soon, however, people's minds jumped to the marketplace. Wizards had just created a lot of demand for cards that were previously close to worthless. Like that that was banned in Standard and now almost useless in Modern. Or the that vanished as Abzan went away. The list of cards that gained is a long one today, so let's jump right in.
Previous Standard Staples
When working on a new format, rather than evaluate every single card starting from zero, it's much easier to look at cards that dominated in the past. When a card was great in Standard, it has a high chance of making it in Pioneer—or that's what many players think at least. If that's actually true remains to be seen.
Either way, this explains some of the following rises in price:
The funniest one of these spikes to me is , simply because it is such a weak card by itself compared to the others. A 4 mana 4/5 trying to keep up with the likes of , , in such a huge card pool. But who knows, maybe a deck is still looking for this kind of card to deliver the beats.
Cards That Were Previously Too Good
These two cards and were previously too good for Modern—and even Legacy—but are now legal in Pioneer. While could be a player here, I'd be careful as the actual fetch lands such as are banned. You'd have to use , or the clunky cycling lands from Amonkhet for the Shaman to act as mana acceleration.
I'm much more optimistic about , as it does not rely on being powered out quickly. Simply play your game as you like and resolve your 2-mana instant in the late game to refuel.
Cards That Barely Move in Price
I'd like to take the time and explain why certain cards don't move in price as much as one might think they should.
With planeswalkers like having so much loyalty, you would expect to be amazing—and even more valuable since it's a mythic. You may be correct on the first count, but during Aether Revolt's stint in Standard, the Heart was a staple and got a slot in a preconstructed Challenger Deck. People opened a lot of those due to the demand for the Vehicle and other cards, so now we end up with too many Hearts for them to be worth much.
: this bad boy was sooo good back in Standard, why isn't he at €30 like ?
Well, for one thing, there's very little demand outside of Pioneer. Also, Battle for Zendikar was opened a ton due to the printing of full-art basic lands as well as the Expeditions in that set. Back then, every booster had the chance to contain a highly valuable, alternate-art, foil land like or . This drove sales and once again we end up in a spot where some additional demand does not make for a huge price jump. Though, to be fair, it still rose from around €6 to a respectable €8.
Jamin's Cards to Watch
To end this article, I want to highlight two cards that I have seen surprisingly little talk about: and . The Oath has already risen in price a bit, but not to the extent I would've anticipated, while the black enchantment yet has to see major stock decrease. These oddball cards are always something to be aware of, so don't sleep on the Pact. Both also work extremely well with our favorite [Teferi, Time Reveler].
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily Cardmarket.
