Hi everyone, and welcome back to High Stakes MTGO!

Similarly to the Aug 21st-27th week, this past week was skewed towards buying with only a couple more playsets of painlands sold. My buying activities were nonetheless lighter considering the bulk of my Zendikar block specs were done.

Rise of the Eldrazi was the next set to be flashback-drafted and although this third set is drafted three boosters at a time it was clearly not as intense as it was with Zendikar and prices haven’t dropped much as of Saturday afternoon. This doesn’t mean there’s nothing to pick up in ROE though and it won’t be long before I make a move.

With three GPs featuring Modern Constructed on the same weekend a week ago, the interest for Modern is not dying. While aggressive strategies, recent or old, are still kings, the format is again very wide open. Here are a few things I noted during last weekend:

• Dredge showed its limits and key cards revolving around this deck such as Golgari Grave-Troll, Greater Gargadon, Bridge from Below and Leyline of the Void are most likely bound to take a big cut in the coming days and weeks. Even the half-priced Bloodghasts I picked up last week don’t look so great.

• Through the Breach set a new record for itself after a doubling to more than 32 tix in merely a week. As sexy and efficient as the GR Titan Breach and Griselbrand decks may look after doubling in price, this isn't sustainable. I would have sold any Through the Breaches if I had some. Interestingly Scapeshift hasn’t picked up much after Titan Breach's recent successes. It is certainly more about Primeval Titan and Through the Breach these days but who knows when a full combo Scapeshift-only deck will return. Scapeshift is a card I have on my radar.

• Amulet 2.0 might well have arrived. With his 9th place finish at GP Lille, Kevin Grove proved that without Summer Bloom Amulet can be not just viable but competitive. News I gladly welcome since I own a pile of Azusa, Lost but Seeking purchased at a discounted price after Champions of Kamigawa flashback drafts. Azusa doubled over the course of this past week and Summoner's Pact, also played in the RG Titan Breach decks, tripled in less than two weeks. We might see even more action here.

While this isn't really specific to the triplet of Modern GPs, buying Modern staples is time and time again proving to be one of the safest and most profitable ways to generate tix on MTGO. Although the Standard environment is about to change, Modern is definitely where I place my bets these days. Let's see what happened for me this past week.

The new portfolio snapshot is available here.

Buys This Week

After Celestial Colonnade and Death's Shadow last week I put my hands on two other creature lands. Although I didn't exactly catch the absolute floor for the Wildwood these two lands have the potential to triple from my buying prices to their respective record highs.

With a much thinner margin of progress I didn't buy Raging Ravine. That being said the price the red-green creature land is on the loose---I'll probably be a buyer if the price get closer to 4 tix.

As bulk rare as could be, Lodestone Golem is one of those cards I'm happy to accumulate virtually for free and wait for something to happen, for a long time if needed. With a reprint in Modern Masters 2015 and a round of WWK flashback drafts I'm assuming the price of this golem couldn't be cheaper.

Now, the only thing I'm waiting for is for Lodestone Golem to find a home in a Modern deck which, who knows, could happen with a little push from Kaladesh block's artifact focus. My other option is a good budget deck from SaffronOlive.

Often fluctuating between 1 and 2 tix and with the potential to reach 3 tix, Tectonic Edge is simply a solid uncommon pick here. As an uncommon I'm expecting to see a lot of fluctuations in the price but I'm hoping to sell this land between 1 and 1.5 tix soon. I may have to sell it in different batches though.

After a very strong first three months and a peak above 27 tix, Chandra, Flamecaller gradually lost steam to bottom around 7.5 tix about two weeks ago. I wish I had pulled the trigger a little bit early but I think this version of Chandra can make a comeback to the 15-20 tix price range sometime in the rest of her Standard life.

As it was plumbing a new floor around 6.5 tix, I bought a few more copies of Bloodghast this past week. As I said earlier I'm not crazy about this spec but it makes sense prize-wise so let's go for it and hope for the best.

Sales This Week

200 more copies of Magic Origins painlands gone. I'm still selling Yavimaya Coast with a profit but that's no longer the case for the other lands. I have more work to do here and I don't really want to go through the incoming Standard rotation with painlands in my portfolio.

Even with losses at the end of this Standard season, I'll probably be closing these gigantic painland stacks with an overall profit of 50%. I had clearly expected more but to keep things in perspective making a 50% profit on a initial investment of ~2800 tix over only five positions is something I would sign up for almost every day.

On My Radar

Both Standard and Modern are in the hot seat now. With the release of Kaladesh only one month away Standard will rotate one more time this year. If it's not already the case, Shadows over Innistrad and Eldritch Moon will very soon be at their lowest price point.

Free from the oppression of Collected Company, current underdog strategies may emerge stronger and demand for cards from the last four Standard sets unplayed thus far may suddenly increase. I'll probably focus on that in a week or two.

Modern is where my immediate attention is. Prices are moving in both directions and I have to carefully watch virtually all of my Modern positions. Both Zendikar and Scars of Mirrodin block are rich in Modern staples so this is the time to invest in a lot of good Modern specs. Alternatively I'm also scrutinizing the MTG Goldfish Modern Movers and Shakers even more often than usual to make sure I'm not missing good selling opportunities.

Thanks for reading,

Sylvain