Top 5: Cards to Buy, Sell, or Hold, Standard Ban Edition

Players fear bans, because they might lose their deck. Collectors fear bans, as they heavily affect the prices of cards. Last week, Wizards banned Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, Invoke Despair, and Reckoner Bankbuster from Standard. Let us take a closer look at the direct and indirect financial implications.

fabled prices

Hold/Buy: Fable of the Mirror-Breaker

is a multi-format all-star. It is widely popular in Pioneer, putting four decks into the Top 8 of LMS Valencia, and even sees play in Modern, most notably alongside .

fable

After the bans happened, the card took a dip due to people's overreaction, but it is already picking back up. If you own a couple of Fables, there is no reason to try to liquidize them now in the fear of them losing considerable value, since they are still very much played in other paper formats. Not to mention, Standard didn't make up a big portion of what was played in paper anyway.

If you were looking to play Fable in, say, Modern I wouldn't hesitate to buy them either. They are at €25 right now, and they could easily increase by another €5 soon.

Rakdos Midrange by Jose Luis Sanchez Delgado, Top 8 at Pioneer LMS Valencia
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Izzet Creativity by Alejandro Dupuy de Lome, 1st at Pioneer LMS Valencia
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Hold/Sell: Sheoldred, the Apocalypse

sheoldred

wasn't banned but had been thought of as a candidate. That's due to its power and popularity in the format at the time. It did take a small hit around the banning period, but now the price is nothing but going up! It has already reached almost €70 apiece!

Similarly to Fable, I don't expect it to lose value as there is no reason to. It's going to be one of the role players in the new Standard format, if not in a Rakdos shell, then in Esper Legends.

Contrary to Fable though, the alternative to holding isn't to buy but to sell, in my opinion. Sheoldred has reached almost a peak, and there is no guarantee that it's going to keep increasing in price. If you're thinking about switching decks or exchanging your Sheoldreds for playsets of shock lands, I'd say that would be a good move.

Buy: Raffine, Scheming Seer

raffine

Speaking of Esper Legends, is a solid pickup. For quite some time Esper Legends had been either the best deck or second-to-best behind black-red midrange piles. I fully expect this strategy to be the actual king of the hill now and take the Fable's crown.

Raffine is a highlight of that deck and is always included as a playset. Currently you can pick up a copy for as little as €3—and it's a mythic! I'd buy four, expecting to play Legends soon. It's also affordable enough that you can treat them as a semi-speculative purchase. Foils go around at a similar price, so if you prefer bling, you can choose that as well with little-to-no financial impact.

Esper Legends, Standard
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Buy: Wedding Announcement

wedding

There is another theme going on. As far as I'm concerned, the color white will pick up in popularity considerably thanks to having two very powerful cards in and . Announcement can be a player in the aforementioned Legends deck but slots into many more like Monowhite Midrange, Jeskai Dragons, Monowhite Humans, and others.

Right now you can get a copy of Wedding Announcement for around €10, and the price seems to be at a stagnant-ish point. However, when Standard play picks back up again after the bans, I suspect players will gravitate toward those white strategies, increasing the demand for the card and hence the price. Similarly to Raffine, the cost of foils barely differs so it may be a good time for any bling lovers to enjoy the Festivities.

Buy/Hold: The Wandering Emperor

emperor

has never been cheap, but I don't think she's going to be anytime soon. The card is played here and there in Pioneer and Modern, mainly in White-Blue Control. In Standard, however, it is in almost every white deck, be it in the main or the sideboard. It is unbelievably powerful, and it defines the format.

As mentioned previously, I believe the meta might shift to those Emperor/Announcement decks like Monowhite Midrange, and so I don't expect the price to go down. On the contrary, Emperor has dipped a bit and commands €26. Expecting them to either retain the price or actually increase in value, I'd hold them for when that increase happens or buy them now before it happens.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, not of Cardmarket.