Lol, no worries, Carl. I always appreciate the comments!

I sure hope you’re right on Visions of Beyond. I love the flavor of the card, and it seems breakable in the right environment. Let me know how it pans out!

^ I am also disapointed in Ruinator… thought for sure he'd make a splash (finally!) and realize his potential. At best I see him as a 1 or 2x in self mill as a "backup plan" after a DoJ or something. You CAN still mill him into the yard to cast him, but I doubt he'll see much play right out of your hand as there are not enough set-ups (yet) to make him a consistent 3 drop that doesn't interfere w/ a conflicting splinterfright / cagebreakers plan (he's like a nonbo in that deck).

I DO own > 50 Visions of beyond, however, so I'm on that ship at least :). Also looking at Birthing pods right now because of the GG-Geist and undying mechanic.

LOL sorry if I'm spamming your post Sig! I just love these speculatory conversations! 🙂 Hope I'm feeling well enough to pick up my pen again soon!

I own a set of Visions from Beyond just in case it sees play. They are certainly cheap enough to purchase as a small speculative play. As of right now, I'm not as confident that the card will break out but I am definitely keeping an eye on it.

My biggest disappointment is Skaab Ruinator. As more cards get spoiled from Dark Ascension, I am growing in confidence that the 5/6 flier will not see constructed play. Hopefully I'm proven wrong.

I really hope it works out for you! I don't see her value dropping too much if things sputter out, so overall it's not a bad buy. And it sounds like you found a great preorder price on eBay.

My hesitation is precisely that she is strong only in a deck that runs black and red. Currently that number is near 0. The awesome human cards and the new Sorin will be great for Black / White. The sweet graveyard creature interaction decks will heavily use green. As you put it, we are now looking at a scenario where red deck wins needs to splash black for the Aristocrat. In today's metagame that may be the best place for her. And I think she may fit in decently, though most red decks want to curve to Koth at 4-drop and this does not synergize well with him.

So net, I'm still tepid on her and I place her in a group comparable to Olivia Voldaren. Perhaps additional spoilers will sway my vote 🙂

Carl, thanks for the kind comments! There has to be a few solid cards from Dark Ascension that will make their way into Tier 1 decks. This doesn’t mean they will all double in price, however. Your mention of Master of the Wild Hunt is a great example – I missed that one! More evidence of the mythic rare price ceiling on these type of beatdown creatures.

I like Bloodline Keeper a lot. I only own 1, but I am keeping my eye on them as possible speculation targets. Still not moving in yet though. 59 damage is a lot!

Thanks for the comment! I know there will be no shortage of articles these next couple weeks which will attempt to predict the exact value of every relevant spoiled card. That seems like a tedious guessing game if you ask me. I try to approach the paradigm from a broader viewpoint so that the information I share can be reapplied to future sets as well. Hopefully this came through in my article in an interesting way.

Funny story about Bloodline keeper since you'd mentioned him in passing. I play a rogue Jund build in Standard right now and had 3x of them in play all at once with 4 other tokens. Swinging for 59 sure felt good :).