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Editor’s note: Sylvain Lehoux is taking a three-week break from writing due to other commitments. In the meantime he’s promised to keep us abreast of any changes to his portfolio via emails to the Quiet Speculation staff. We’ll present these purchases/sales in a shortened form along with Sylvain’s explanation so you don’t miss a beat. Join us back on May 9 when he returns in full form!
Here is the link to the High Stakes MTGO live portfolio.
Buys
Khans and Fate Reforged full sets: Prices dropped a little bit during Shadows over Innistrad release events and I stocked up a few more playsets. I'm probably done with KTK but I might try to grab a few more FRF playsets. Like any other full sets, my primary goal is a 30%+ increase.
World Breaker & Ugin, the Spirit Dragon: Positions I already held with some room for more copies. With prices down this past week during release events I completed my positions on the two mythics.
Oath of the Gatewatch full sets: OGW full sets never had the dip I expected during SOI release events. They actually moved quickly from sub-80 tix to 90 tix earlier last week. I only squeezed in 11 full sets, which is much less than I wanted, but now that the price is flirting with the 90's I don't want to commit further.
Through the Breach: This card slipped below 9 tix, as cheating big fatties into play is not the flavor of the day in Modern. I reloaded on two playsets to complete my position here, waiting for Grishoalbrand to strike again in Modern.
The five KTK fetchlands: The fetchlands had rebounded earlier, most markedly the blue ones due to the unban of Ancestral Vision. But the increase didn't stick and prices were back down last week. At more reasonable prices I'm all for solid investments like fetchlands. Nonetheless I'm expecting a fluctuating and chaotic price trend for the year to come. My goal here is therefore modest: 50% profit and I'm out.
Sales
Craterhoof Behemoth: This big guy reached my selling target after a very linear upward trend. Modern doesn't seem ready for Elves or Green Devotion decks so I don't have any incentive to keep riding a trend that could end anytime.
Caves of Koilos: Painlands are on the rise again and Caves is the strongest one in the new Standard metagame. I'm continuing to sell them at my 2.5 tix mark for now. Depending on PT SOI results I might raise my selling price a bit but either way I still have a lot of copies to liquidate.
Nissa, Vastwood Seer // Nissa, Sage Animist: From an 8 tix low, Nissa's price went back to 14 tix with the rise of Bant Company decks. I took advantage of that trend to sell my copies now in order to at least break even on this spec. Bant's popularity right now gave Nissa a 50% boost but nothing guarantees that will be the case tomorrow. Additionally, Magic Origins is entering its last period in Standard and I want to get rid of my ORI positions sooner rather than later.
Hangarback Walker: This spec didn't go anywhere and the Walker was nowhere at PT SOI. Time to bite the bullet on move on.
Scapeshift: The recent change in the B&R list caused this green sorcery to top its previous record high. That's about the best I could reasonably hope for so I'm selling while winds are favorable.
Thrun, the Last Troll: This one may have more potential to grow but I would rather leave that for the next person. I recently reloaded a few copies of the Troll and now it's paying off with a solid 50% return.
I should’ve sold the caves at 2.5, but was lazy at the day I saw it at that price, also lost the chance of selling Ulamog for 7 tix thinking its value might increase even more. Do you think Thunderbreak Regent and Caves of Koilos may raise again?
I’m itching in selling these Regents to buy some cards that I think it might increase.
I also lost the opportunity in selling all my Imp’s mischiefs (had me 50 of these for 0.05 each when Ancestral Vision got unbanned) for 0.7-0.8, now they are 0.2. I was pretty damn sure AV would see much more play.
I’m rather optimistic with the Caves and the other painlands. With the Regent, not so much. Aggros and midrange red-heavy decks were not very successful lately but this might change. However Thunderbreak Regent other other red creatures will keep sliding down waiting for something to change. I’ll give it one more month at most and then sell.