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Commander 2013 Spoiler Coverage

Commander 2013 Spoiler Coverage

About Quiet Speculation's Commander 2013 Spoiler Coverage:

A team of Quiet Speculation contributors will be following the gradual spoiling of the upcoming Magic: The Gathering Commander product, Commander 2013. Stay tuned to this page for insights from some of the brightest minds in the MTG Finance community on the noteworthy mechanics and cards.

And if you're an Insider, be sure to check out the Spoiler Season section of the QS forums for more Commander 2013 discussion.

Commander 2013 Spoiler Coverage

Release Date November 1, 2013
Magic Online Release December 20, 2013
Official Three-Letter Code C13
Twitter Hashtag #MTGC13
MSRP $29.99 (per deck)

It's time for another Commander set-

and we here at Quiet Speculation couldn't be happier. Commander sets in the past have provided important Commander staples like Sol Ring and also given us solid legacy-legal bombs like Scavenging Ooze and Flusterstorm. Priced very competitively, it seems like a solid plan to buy a few of each variety and sit on all of them for a while. Let's look at eBay prices for the old Commander sets. You can buy a Counterpunch for $55 shipped. Heavenly Inferno goes for a whopping $120 sealed. Mirror Mastery used to be the cheapest but now routinely sells for $75 on eBay. Devour for Power looks like it's ending up in the $70 range while Political Puppets is around $60. Astonishingly, Counterpunch and Political Puppets were the hottest ones a while after release when people were scrambling to get Scavenging Ooze and Flusterstorm. People who sat on sealed Heavenly Infernos must be really laughing, now.

Wouldn't you like to join in their laughter? These have all more than doubled in under two years. It's likely that we won't see the same return this time around due to people being prepared for the sets this time around, but I think this all goes to show what growth potential in a short time we're talking about. It's hard to know which ones the casual community is going to get behind, so it's best to cast a wide net and sit on all of them for a year or two. These are going to outperform your stock portfolio, regardless, so make sure you're not wishing you'd bought in big later on.

-Jason

Latest Spoilers:

10/23/2013 - Sigmund

I'll try to touch upon a couple of the reprints in Commander 2013 to see what financial impact we can expect.

Temple of the False God

Temple

This card was never really financially relevant but it was at least worthy of inclusion in the trade binder. With this reprint this card will really struggle to ever become significant in the finance world. It's a good thing we're getting no foils though, since foil Scourge copies is where the money's at.

Lim-Dul's Vault

Vault

When Mystical Tutor was banned in Legacy, this pseudo-tutor jumped in price for a brief period of time. I remember quickly buying a set out of desperation to see if the card was playable in storm builds. It really wasn't. I love seeing old school cards like these reprinted, but this reprint will ensure this card doesn't ever really spike in value again. At least, not unless the card ultimately does break Legacy somehow.

Goblin Sharpshooter

Goblin

Ok, now we finally have a serious reprint. This Onslaught rare currently retails on SCG for $9.99 and this reprint is bound to impact the price a little. In fact, you don't really hear about Goblins much these days, so I wouldn't be surprised if the reprint really dented this card's price simply because supply will increase while demand may remain mostly flat. Time will tell. I don't own any of these, but my inclination would be to recommend selling your copies now since upside is bound to be virtually nonexistent at this point unless Goblins has a second coming in Legacy.

10/19/2013 - Gervaise

The whole spoiler of the new cards have been spoiled at  http://www.mtgsalvation.com/commander-2013-spoiler.html while the decklists have been spoiled at the mothership ( http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/269c )

I will just highlight certain 'goodie' cards

Unexpectedly Absent

In a group where one has many shuffle effects this seems to be a good nonland permanent removal spell. In other cases it can be an (expensive) Delay. I rather have it in French though 🙂

Order of Sucession

Playing Blue in commander means you can easily steal things like Vedalken Shackles , Blatant Thievery. I think this card can be very good if good players are on your direct left or right. The fact that you can choose which creature you want makes this a powerful card.

 

Toxic Deluge

Seems to be good in decks where lifegain is no issue through the likes of A-Blood Artist, Sangromancer or the extort mechanic. the -X/-X and just a single black mana thing makes this card very good versus indestructibility. I dont think the life loss would matter anyway when you really have to sweep.

Sudden Demise

Ah an one-sided wrath of the color of your choosing? It also hits flying creatures which Earthquake does not hit for example? Excellent! I take happily take this one in any Red EDH deck I am going to play now.

Primal Vigor

We had Doubling Season. Then there was Parallel Lives. This one is a World Enchantment as it works for everybody but in any token or +1/+1 counter deck this is a pure staple card.

Roon of the Hidden Realm

It is a Rhino! And it blinks stuff! I am definitely going to buy this Bant deck for this card, Derevi and the new art of Rubinia Soulsinger. In case you are wondering what Blink is, it is (ab)using Enter the Battlefield abilities like Snapcaster Mage , Fiend Hunter, Angel of Serenity and much more to gain sustainable card advantage.

 

 

10/14/2013 - Gervaise

Nekusar, The MindRazer

Ia5UBh2

I am not sold on this one unless your Commander group is very casual and likes to grouphug. The fact that it is a Zombie Wizard can make people build Grixis Zombie tribal and/or Wizard tribal. I generally do not like to give people cards if I want to play Grixis control but one can play it Underworld Dreams style

I think many players will love the art on this because it looks pretty amazing if you ask me so I think there are people demanding this guy who cannot afford to buy the deck.

 

Gahiji, Honored One

tQFZbBII love this card because the wording is so genius in a deck where players must attack when able but cannot attack you. Since creatures Opponent One controls get +2/+0 when he attacks Opponent Two, you can easily set up games in your own favour in the Naya colors. In White you have easy access to Ghostly Prison , Sphere of Safety. Green has more limited stuff like Elephant Grass but compensates it with big dudes like Avenger of Zendikar. Red is kind of a wildcard through the means of Goblin Diplomats or Basandra, Battle Seraph.

Even if you do not want to play this Political game, you can just pump up your tokens as Naya has easy access to token makers like Night Soil, Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Dragonlair Spiderp or Krenko, Mob Boss etc.

In other words it is a very fun general to play and it generally gives a faster pace of the game opposed to 2hour++ games which is in everyone's favour.

 

 

 

10/14/2013 - Jason

Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge

It looks like we're getting a few cards that emphasize just how Commander they are by scaling up their effects based on how much mana you spent on them. This increased mana is most likely going to come from the penalty you pay for repeatedly deploying it from the Command zone. This seems like it could be a decent Commander, but isn't much good in the deck in a non-Commander role which may hurt it. Still, being Grixis colors, repeatedly casting spells and scaling up her effects each time she's killed make her something to watch. Now, we're not evaluating the card in terms of whether to preorder a single copy. I think the deck that this commander comes in will not likely be the most popular initially, barring other cards in the deck being much better. I don't see much buzz on this, so this deck may be one you can buy cheap and sock away. Remember, even the bad Commander decks from last time more than doubled.

Derevi, Imperial Tactician

Quite the opposite of the scaling a few other generals see, this guy has the ability to always be put into play from the command zone for his printed CMC. This has combo potential with Deadeye Navigator and Gilded Lotus to generate infinite mana, and that's right off the top of my head. I'm sure dedicated Commander players will bust this guy wide open. I like it in Bant colors, although I am not sure how relevant the ability to untap your stuff if you deal damage with creatures will be. You already have cards like Nature's Will which would untap every land, so you'd be either using it to tap opponents' permanents or untap your non-lands. I'm sure there is something obvious I am missing, but this guy is pretty flashy and I expect the deck he's in to be one of the first to spike.

Oloro, Ageless Ascetic

This guy seems solid. He looks very easy to build around because all he does is generate vague advantage, leaving you free to customize how you want to capitalize on it. Continuing the theme of being incredibly commander-specific, this guy gains you life even if he's in the Command zone. When he's in play, those lifegain triggers fuel his card draw ability. He's in good colors as well, and I expect this to be the set that sells the best initially. Esper colors are popular and this effect is very powerful and obvious. I would preorder all of the sets, but make sure you get this one locked in first. That said, if some Legacy-specific card is in one of the sets all bets are off, but none of these Commanders will see Legacy play because they are too specific to Commander, unlike a card like Edric from the old sets that made a splash in blue Maverick builds.

Marath, Will of the Wild

This is another card that scales based on how many times it's been replayed, and it also has the ability to kill itself, which pairs nicely with the scaling. This is a solid toolbox card for a Naya deck. I don't see it replacing a card like Mayel or Uril, but it has a decent effect and some of the cards in the deck it's in might be new and good for those other, existing decks. I imagine this one will be decently popular based solely on its colors.

Prossh, Skyraider of Kher

There was already a bit of speculation in the forums that this could cause Kobold-Specific cards to spike. If Didgeridoo can spike based on the vague notion of potential future Minotaurs, anything is possible. You know there are people who will want to use Kobold of Kheer Keep from Legends as tokens for this guy. I'd buy some of those now. They're from Legends and Legends stuff went nuts this year, they're played in that Cheerios deck and they're iconic. That all seems like a good recipe for a solid spec to me. The best spikes are the ones you see coming and where there are a ton of copies lying around already.

Bane of Progress

This card is nutty. 6 mana is not an issue in Commander, and wiping troublesome permanents out is savage. With four players, you're getting 1 permanent from each player, minimum, if you play this on turn five or six. Sol Rings, Rhystic Studies, Solemn Simulacrums (even your own- nice combo) and signets, all sucked into his gigantic maw. Getting the huge body on top of the Creeping Corrosion is just gravy. This pulls the Sharuum deck's pants completely down. Ignore the rarity- every card that's new in a Commander deck is a mythic rare. I don't know what this guy is going to retail for, but I imagine it's an awful lot. This card is bananas and I will play him in every Green EDH deck I have. This card will be expensive.

Baleful Force

This guy seems awkward to me. A more expensive, more vulnerable Phyrexian Arena.  I'm sure I'm terrible at evaluating EDH cards and everyone in black is going to autojam this guy and I'll look like a buffoon. That's the only possible explanation for a situation where they'd print a card that is this stunningly underwhelming for its mana cost. He's a black elemental- they couldn't even make him a demon or something. I just really don't know what to make of this guy- my inclination is to hate him. I think you play Phyrexian Arena instead of this guy. Being 7/7 is cool, but if that mattered, people would play Scaled Wurm, right? I don't like this guy nearly as much as I do the other cards spoiled so far.

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