menu

What card were you most wrong about?

Are you a Quiet Speculation member?

If not, now is a perfect time to join up! Our powerful tools, breaking-news analysis, and exclusive Discord channel will make sure you stay up to date and ahead of the curve.

This is a conversation brought on by an interesting Reddit post (which you can find here), so I decided I may as well share one of my most embarrassing misses.

The highlight of that thread, for me, is Brian Kibler being completely honest about his biggest miss: Daybreak Ranger. I remember when that happened and Ranger was supposed to be the next big thing, but it never really took off.

It was the same with my biggest miss: Splinterfright.

I own 94 of these to remind how wrong I was.
I own 94 of these to remind how wrong I was.

I thought this would be a thing. I got 94 of them at under 50 cents, and I thought with Dark Ascension the archetype could really take off. And, to be honest, it nearly did. There just never came the right metagame for it, even after more support cards came.

The investment definitely didn't work out, but it's not keeping me up at night either. I didn't lose much on these, and had it worked out it would have paid off really well. But hey, live and learn, right?

Anyway, that's my story. What was your biggest miss, either speculative or just in theory? What did you think would become a force but never quite did?

Avatar photo

Corbin Hosler

Corbin Hosler is a journalist living in Norman, Oklahoma (also known as the hotbed of Magic). He started playing in Shadowmoor and chased the Pro Tour dream for a few years, culminating in a Star City Games Legacy Open finals appearance in 2011 before deciding to turn to trading and speculation full-time. He writes weekly at QuietSpeculation.com and biweekly for LegitMTG. He also cohosts Brainstorm Brewery, the only financial podcast on the net. He can best be reached @Chosler88 on Twitter.

View More By Corbin Hosler

Posted in Casual, Feature, FreeTagged ,

Have you joined the Quiet Speculation Discord?

If you haven't, you're leaving value on the table! Join our community of experts, enthusiasts, entertainers, and educators and enjoy exclusive podcasts, questions asked and answered, trades, sales, and everything else Discord has to offer.

Want to create content with Quiet Speculation?

All you need to succeed is a passion for Magic: The Gathering, and the ability to write coherently. Share your knowledge of MTG and how you leverage it to win games, get value from your cards – or even turn a profit.

12 thoughts on “What card were you most wrong about?

  1. The card I was most wrong about was probably Rakdos’ Return. I thought it had a real good chance to be a format defining card and it just quite hasn’t lived up to the hype I thought it might have. I had a few playsets but got off them around Dragon’s Maze release.

    1. Yeah, it’s a card that’s been really good but not quite as powerful as it could be. I think it’s just a metagame product, where the Jund decks it needed to be in didn’t really exist in the form it would excel in.

  2. I thought Aqueous Form was a terrible limited card. It’s not.

    I thought Rage of Purphoros was a great card. In some formats it would be – but not in Theros.

    I thought Nightveil Specter would never amount to anything. I was wrong, but for the right reasons.

    I thought shocklands would double upon rotation. I don’t think anyone foresaw the dominance of mono-colored strategies.

    I thought Tibalt MUST be secretly good. To be fair, it’s hard to improve him in a way that both keeps the design goal (make a 2cc planeswalker) and isn’t busted to hell and back (for example, making his discard nonrandom is insane).

  3. Pre-ordered Kozileks at $20 each, took my losses and traded them in at €5*, look at their $45+ retail price now…

    * Fortunately it was a great deal that’s only gotten better as the old card I got keeps rising, but holding them would’ve been much better.

  4. When Laboratory Maniac was spoiled, I purchased 25 Diving Witches, 15 Paradigm Shifts, and 7 Thought Lashes. Needless to say, this did not work out.

  5. 32 Skaab Ruinator’s @ $2.50 because all the pro’s thought it was so good (when it was spoiled) and I thought all their reasons were still true, so maybe it’d get broken…

Join the conversation

Want Prices?

Browse thousands of prices with the first and most comprehensive MTG Finance tool around.


Trader Tools lists both buylist and retail prices for every MTG card, going back a decade.

Quiet Speculation