Hello, and welcome back for another High Stakes MTGO article!

My portfolio didn't see a lot of action this past week but it was a great week nonetheless. Modern prices keep trending up, and it feels good to be positive again with my Modern positions and choices. The Treasure Chest end-of-the-world storm is a thing of the past and resilient speculators should be happy about the current trend of prices. It may offer even more rewards to those of us who were in a buying mode while everyone else was selling—as usual, I should say.

Standard is also doing good for me. I'm slowly selling anything profitable as I'm trying to stick to a more careful and short-term investing strategy these days, even if all lights are green. There's nothing like a rapid turnover of profitable positions to grow a bankroll anyway.

Let's see how things went this past week! The latest snapshot of my portfolio is accessible here.

Buys This Week

Along with Magic Origins and Dragons of Tarkir full sets, I previously mentioned that I would try to target a few mythics that, in my opinion, may have a decent chance to rise on their own within the next six to ten months.

Here is a pick I like in ORI. Day's Undoing is as close to Timetwister as you can get, and has already made appearances in Vintage. Despite the drawback of ending your turn, drawing seven cards for three mana is not something to neglect in any eternal format.

The two possible scenarios I’m expecting here are either a slow rise in price, paralleling the slow rise of ORI full sets, or a possible spike if this card manages to find its way into a somewhat competitive Modern deck. Alternatively, considering Day's Undoing's uniqueness and current price, its inclusion in one of Saffron Olive's Modern Budget decks would also probably propel Day's Undoing into the 5-tix range.

Same reasoning here with these two dragonlords. Among the five mythic dragonlords from Dragons of Tarkir, I consider these two to have the best chance of seeing a significant price increase over the next few months. They are dragons, mythics, from a third large set, and have a good chance of appearing in competitive decks in one or more eternal formats. To me, that’s a good list of ingredients for two successful specs.

Sales This Week

I have been holding these for a long time without much success thus far. The spec is not terrible, but Path to Exile never went beyond 4 tix, cycling up and down between 2 and 4 tix for a long period. With the price strengthening between 3.5 and 4 tix now that Modern is picking up a bit, I’m looking to sell my copies around 3 tix whenever possible. That’s not a huge profit margin, but I’m satisfied with it and happy to move on to another spec.

A few more Battle for Zendikar full sets sold with a profit this past week! Okay, I’m only talking about a laughable 1-2% here, but I'll take it. These BFZ full sets have held too many tix hostage over the past eight months, and I'm simply excited to sell them without losses. I think I’ll be done with my BFZ full sets before the end of the month.

Although still posting a loss, the price of BFZ boosters cranked up to 1.2 tix this past week. I’ll keep selling these a little bit every day, whenever I think about it while on MTGO. I have no intention of waiting to see if the price can get better, and I’m perfectly resolved to the losses here. I just want to get these out and reinvest my tix elsewhere.

On My Radar

Most of the things I'm looking to do these days are no different from the previous weeks. I'm looking to close as many Modern positions as possible at the best possible selling price in November and December. I will also try to exit all of my BFZ full sets sooner rather than later.

In the buying department, I'll still be on the hunt for possible speculative opportunities with DTK and ORI mythics and rares. I'm happy with three pickups so far, but there might be more for fast gains as the value of these two sets rise, now that they have hit a floor after their rotation.

One last thing I'm going to try to pay attention to is the Commander 2016 and Conspiracy: Take the Crown singles now made available through the Treasure Chests. Commander and Conspiracy cards always occupied a particular position in the MTGO economy and the playable Legacy and singles Vintage could see moderate but steady price increases.

- Sylvain