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With all the hype surrounding Modern Masters 2017, I’ve written thousands of words on the subject. One of the main topics I haven’t covered yet is what didn’t get printed in the set. We can gain just as much from the cards that were not included in the set as the ones that were. Today, I’ve chosen one of mine and your favorite article formats: the Top 10! So, let’s dive right in:
Top 10 Modern Cards Not Included in MMA17
Honorable Mentions
There are a couple cards previously printed in Modern Masters that didn’t make the cut this time around. The ones that stick out are Vendilion Clique and Doubling Season. Clique hasn’t seen a ton of play recently, because tempo decks aren’t as prevalent as they used to be in the format. I think this has a lot to do with the existence of Cavern of Souls paired with Eldrazi, because fast, potent aggro like that runs over tempo decks that can’t counter important spells to stay ahead. Doubling Season is a good one to mention as well as it’s seen some growth recently. The third one worth mentioning is Kitchen Finks. This uncommon should be seeing some growth in the near future. With no reprint, I’d expect to see this creature bump back up to the $10 range.
Maybe a Masterpiece is enough to keep the price of Ensnaring Bridge down, but this is still an important card that was not on the reprint list.
As I said a couple of weeks ago, I thought that this iteration of Modern Masters would include some lands in the mythic slots. I was slightly off, and happy to be so, because we got the Zendikar fetches at rare. I would have still liked Horizon Canopy and Grove of the Burnwillows in the set, but fetches are fetches and they’ll always be awesome. We notably also didn’t get any of the creature-lands like [Cards]Creeping Tar Pit[/Cards]. That land cycle has been slowly on the rise for a while now, and that trend should continue until it finally gets a reprint. The Zendikar creature lands could be reprinted in Standard, though, because they were not overpowered enough to warp the format.
10.
Wowzers. I’m sure this is old news by this point but the success of Death's Shadow has propelled this older card to approximately a million dollars. Mishra's Bauble, a Coldsnap uncommon, is now a $50 card. With a name like that, who knows when this card will be reprinted. This is the most expensive uncommon in Modern by a mile, and it could still go higher. I expect that most players will be priced out of owning this card because they won’t be able to justify spending $200 or more on a play set for their deck.
9.
I expected Ancestral Vision as a reprint, but we didn’t get it. I think the hype has slowed a bit on this card, but tournament results sporting this deck could propel it above its unbanning price point of $40.
One thing I’m wondering is that with the prices of the high-end Modern cards coming down under $100, are we entering an era of $50 cards? It seems like more and more cards are converging on this price point. Is that going to be a trend in the format? This is definitely something to keep our eye on going forward. Spoiler: Most of my list fits this description.
8.
Glimmervoid is another card that has already gotten a reprint, but it’s back to its original price point now. With Death's Shadow taking over the format, Affinity’s dominance has slowed considerably. We didn’t get any cards from this deck in MMA17, though, and that most likely means a price increase. We could see a plateau on Glimmervoid in particular if new players don’t gravitate towards this strategy.
7.
Again for one of the most historically popular strategies in Modern, Mox Opal is another important component that didn’t get the reprint it needed. Now $60, we’ve already seen a price bump from not being reprinted; with some tournament success, we could see it jump even higher. Affinity has been in a state of flux lately due to all of these new artifacts that could possibly see play in the deck. The best version needs to be found once again, and when that happens, look for your investments to increase on this one. The same could be said of Blinkmoth Nexus and Arcbound Ravager as well, who almost got included on this list. [Card]Mox Opal[Card] also sees play in a couple other strategies, and that pushes the price forward as well.
6.
Next up is Karn Liberated. Urzatron has been one of the latest developments in Modern. It seems like every major event that passes, someone else has a sweet new version of Tron with a different list of cards to pair with the powerful mana lands. Karn could continue to rise as well, so if you need your copies, I’d get in now.
One detriment to the brewing with Tron is the shifting away from Grove of the Burnwillows. If players aren’t running red and green together for this strategy, not as many players actually need this powerful land. If the meta shifts back to red-green, though, expect a quick price jump on Grove.
5.
Scapeshift is one of those cards you don’t see printed very often. This green sorcery is basically a one-card strategy. Just like Primeval Titan, Scapeshift can do a number of things just with the land base you construct your deck with. The main strategy with this card is of course Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, but there could be others that come about in the future. Valakut is just the most powerful land to pair with Scapeshift. All we need for this card to have huge gains is a new card to include in the strategy. The last one was Dig Through Time. I thought Bring to Light was going to be the next big thing, but that never took off.
4.
Chalice of the Void has exploded in price since it was reprinted in the first Modern Masters. The format has adopted this hate artifact into a couple different strategies. From experience, many players just don’t have an answer to this card. Sometimes you cast Chalice for one and your opponent concedes. We would see an even bigger price jump on this card if it found a home in a tier-one deck. As of now, the decks that play it aren’t dominating the meta and so the price is only $60. It could go a lot higher if it finds the right home.
3.
At number three, we have the new hotness, Engineered Explosives. Modern players figured out that Explosives is basically a better version of Ratchet Bomb. You can play both for two mana and deal with tokens, which can be a huge deal. It also has versatility to use more mana to blow up higher cost things faster than Ratchet Bomb can tick up. Finally, the reason Engineered Explosives is such a dangerous card is because nearly any deck can play it.
Reminder: you can play Explosives for additional mana to get around things like Counterbalance in Legacy or Chalice of the Void in Modern by paying additional colorless mana. This is a great trick to remember if you’re playing this card.
2.
Ignoble Hierarch is up next. This mana dork is the best ever printed, even better than the old-school Birds of Paradise. I doubt we will ever see another mana accelerant as great as Noble. Currently it’s a centerpiece of Bant Eldrazi as well as the currently less popular Infect deck and others. As long as it’s legal, Noble will be played, and it will be awesome. Without a reprint this time, it's going to continue to grow above its previous price peak.
1.
Finally, number one on this list is Through the Breach. With a keyword on this card, it’s hard to say when this could be reprinted. They had a great opportunity the last time around when splice onto arcane was already a supported mechanic, and I think they missed this necessary reprint. At the time, it was only $25 dollars, but it has since double up. You can combine Breach with Goryo's Vengence or just play it separately with cards like Primeval Titan or a giant Eldrazi. Either way, this Sneak Attack variant is a powerful strategy to be playing in Modern right now.
So, there you have it. The top 10 cards not printed in MMA17. Did I miss a card you thought should be on the list? What would you have included? How high do you think these cards could go? Let me know in the comments. Next week, I’ll most likely be diving into Amonkhet cards, so stay tuned for that!
Until next time,
Unleash the Force!
Mike Lanigan
MtgJedi on Twitter
