Comments on: Insider: Return to Ravnica Case Study

By: JasonAlt

JasonAlt — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 09:30:51 +0000

In reply to John Hamilton. So you think you should listen to Chas Andres and ignore Ben Bleiwiess? Talk about batting .000....

By: Tucker McGownd

Tucker McGownd — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 18:43:37 +0000

In reply to Jose Gasque. We're at low tide for RTR staples right now, and it's higher than the shocks. It also sees a lot more multi-format play than the shocks, and we're bearish on terra firma right now... why not shaman?

By: Tucker McGownd

Tucker McGownd — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 18:42:36 +0000

In reply to John Hamilton. You'll notice that when it comes time for Mr. Bleiweiss to review his predictions, and I'm not sure about how consistent he is with doing that, he will get most of them right, and will ride that as hard as he can. This is not to say he's writing the correct stuff on the cards that matter, but if you guess enough crap rares correctly (Even if they're plain as day) you'll have a winning percentage.

By: Gervaise Pechler

Gervaise Pechler — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 17:52:38 +0000

In reply to Nikolas Mohammed.

Thanks for the elaboration. While I do not doubt the player in question has multiple years of experience, the information we obtain is not directly from him. I would be a bit skeptical hearing it from someone else.

Ofcourse we can do research and investigate whether player A, writer 1 is suggesting that card X is pretty overpowered is a reliable source to believe it.

I do not see writers do this often enough to be skeptical since most writers are seasoned pros like Craig ‘White Weenie’ Wescoe 🙂

By: Janina Pascual

Janina Pascual — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 04:43:57 +0000

Always liked Craig Wescoe. I still don’t know how he gets White Weenie to work all the time. Guy must be a genius.

Also, I read all of Chas Andres’s articles when he still wrote for Channelfireball. Too bad he moved to SCG. Stupid premium. At least there’s still LSV, monguise durdler.

(On to more useful information, I’m glad I got into Deathrite Shaman. Guy is insane, and I don’t even play black. Because of him, I might start. $20 MIGHT be too high, but though Standard has no fetchlands, I love Grisly Salvage and Tracker’s Instincts. BUG control?

And do complete opposite of what Ben Bleiweiss says, gotcha.)

By: Rob Kost

Rob Kost — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 03:00:50 +0000

Someone needs to confront him about his articles. I cant even stay a member of that site just thinking about how bad his articles are and how he always is so in your face trying to relay prices, like releasing an article like every day, how desperate. Just thinking about this guy, I cant even be a member of their premium any more but reading some of those pros is such good info, Im so torn.

By: Rob Kost

Rob Kost — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 02:57:31 +0000

That guy from SCG games talks down cards, like if he didn’t know Deathrite Shaman was good, then the dude is delusional. These guys want the prices the opposite at the set release so they can sell the ‘faces’ of the set for big bucks while they buy up the cards they classify ‘duds’ right around release time. My comment is mainly to call out the guy Ben and his lying sac of squirrel nuts, because as speculators, I know we all look for information on the net, and this guy BEN is not the place to get the info. I have been keeping track of his BS on these over-hyped articles he always writes around the spoiler season, 80% of the stuff he says is totally inaccurate, but his comments about Deathrite Shaman just show what a lying, desperate scumbag this guy is for the financial market. Who the heck would even pay him retail prices for the cards anyways. The dude is always lying about cards, trying to manipulate the market before the sets are released so SCG can get a piece of the action. I’ve had my nose to him for awhile, all these financial reviews he writes are total BS, how can he be an expert but get 80% of his information wrong? Great that you included his thoughts in the article, shows what a fool that guy is

By: John Hamilton

John Hamilton — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 02:54:22 +0000

Chas Andres is the best writer in mtg right now. Buy scg premium for him & gerry t, and just ignore every single other person. Oh ya, read Ben Bleiweiss articles and do the direct opposite of what he says. He was wrong on Jace, Deathrite, Sphinx & Angel, so batting .000 basically.

By: Jose Gasque

Jose Gasque — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 17:55:46 +0000

references tickle my fancy. Nice article.

Though, I like this guy, I’m not sure standard makes him $20.

By: Nikolas Mohammed

Nikolas Mohammed — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 16:39:34 +0000

I’ll also add, if you have a SCG premium act, Chas Andres writes some amazing financial articles. In a recent article, he predicts Deathrite Shaman will be a $20 card while it is still in standard.

By: Nikolas Mohammed

Nikolas Mohammed — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 16:34:34 +0000

This was from Craig Wescoe who I read regularly and have found to be a thoughtful writer. The account is only anecdotal but the nature of the account was most intriguing. He speaks of a player, Sal Molka, who we can tell has been in the game for at least 15 years and was writing about the game 15 years ago. Being a writer doesn’t necessarily command respect but I tend to give MTG writers more respect than people in the community who don’t write. I definitely perceived Molka to be among the more seasoned Magic players. The guy obviously loved playing G/B decks and qualified for multiple pro tours with them. So, if there is such a thing as an authority on G/B Magic cards Molka would be a better candidate than almost anybody. He claimed not that it was a great card but that it was the BEST card in Return to Ravnica. This was so divergent from what anyone else at the time was saying about which cards were the most powerful in the set that to me it smelled like one of those rare instances when someone through his unique experience had attained near certain knowledge. It wasn’t a sure thing for me but was good enough that I wanted to make sure I picked up a play set of the card.

By: Gervaise Pechler

Gervaise Pechler — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 16:04:06 +0000

In reply to Nikolas Mohammed. Hey Nikolas, thanks for quoting the remainder of Craig Wescoe's comment. Can I ask you what you specifically found insightful when reading that piece of writing?

By: Nikolas Mohammed

Nikolas Mohammed — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 13:53:51 +0000

Craig Wescoe’s comment about the Shaman in his set review was most insightful:

“When I first saw the card, I was not particularly impressed. These sorts of cards are never big winners. However, an old friend of Mine – Sol Malka, caused me to take a closer look at the Shaman. You see, Sol Malka knows GB Rock the way I know White Weenie. Ever wonder where the name “Rock” came from to describe Green-Black? About 15 years ago Sol Malka (aka the People’s Champion) wrote an article describing an Extended deck called “The Rock and his Minions,” a deck primarily based around Phyrexian Plaguelord and Deranged Hermit. The Plaguelord was the Rock (after the professional wrestler), and all the squirrels and other weenie fodder were his minions. Sol almost always played Green-Black and qualified for multiple pro tours with the archetype. So when Sol claimed that Deathrite Shaman was the best card in Return to Ravnica, amidst all the other highly esteemed Golgari cards, this definitely caught my attention.”

Immediately upon reading it, I jumped onto ebay and picked up a play set for $20.00. His full review is found here:

http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=1073…