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Hello, everyone and welcome to the last edition of our special Ultimate Masters review on the Daily Stock Watch! My apologies for the delay on the release of this last part as there were some very personal issues that I had to deal with. It feels great that some readers have asked me for it, so I'm still proceeding with it to start the week before I return to the usual segment tomorrow. For today, I'm going to talk about cards from the set that had a special "reboot" that would affect its financial value.
Mana Vault was one of those cards upon spoiling the box toppers that gave us the feel that this was going to be an EDH/Legacy kind of set. This used to be a rare card that last saw print back in Fifth Edition, and is widely used as a key cog of multiplayer Commander decks along with the likes of Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, and Grim Monolith among others. Even though it was not being used elsewhere, it has remained popular and expensive due to its power level. This mythic promotion is justifiable, and the new art is great enough to attract more interest for the card. It will also be the first time for it to have a foil (outside of the Masterpiece version) so I would be suggesting that you be on the lookout for the normal foils or even the box topper if that's possible, as they will command some pretty good prices down the line.
What was once considered a bulk rare came to life because of decks like Tin Fins in Legacy, and Ad Nauseam in Modern. It was doing well years removed from its original print until WotC decided that it's time to make it an uncommon. The $8 tag that it's currently enjoying is almost as good as gone once UMA hits the shelves, and this would be back to a dollar or less in no time. Don't be afraid to move your copies now while you have time.
Cards like Temporal Manipulation are seen in the same light as Three Visits or Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed: pretty expensive because of low supply, but not as powerful as they seem for what they could do. I remember seeing a list in Reddit before about cards that are above $50 and aren't part of the Reserved List, and there's a clamor from the masses to see them reprinted again. This card gets the reprint axe, and the rest of the cards from that list that didn't appear on UMA should be safe for now -- for as long as WotC keeps its word that this would be the last Masters set in a while. If you plan on playing Unli-Turns deck on Commander, now's the best time for you to get this card. Capture of Jingzhou might not be too far ahead at this rate.
Arguably one of the best cards to get printed in this set, Demonic Tutor makes a return with a new art and a new foil that would make Commander and Vintage players cringe. There's never enough copies of this card to go around, as it could just get you what you need for such a cheap cost. Of course, the same thing cannot be said in reality where it is expected to maintain at least a $25 price tag for normal copies, but way more for the normal foil and box topper versions. Along with Back to Basics, this would be one of the cards that I would be keeping an eye on.
This card was banned in Commander for a lot of obvious reasons, and it also had something to do with why Deathrite Shaman and Gitaxian Probe was hit with the banhammer in Legacy because of the dominance of the Czech Pile. One of StarCityGames' most recent sales dropped this to as low as $21, and that was even before the box toppers were revealed. Unless some new list abuses this card, I don't see it climbing past $15 once UMA hits the shelves. The formats where it could be of premium use just stopped it from becoming the powerhouse that it already is.
All in all, I think that Ultimate Masters is indeed the best of its kind until WotC decides that it's time to make another one. A lot of this product will be opened while it lasts but if the print run is indeed limited, there would be lots of value in the unopened boxes and the box toppers. Buy singles appropriately, and don't get blinded by price drops. We should have learned our lesson from past Masters sets by now.
And that’s it for today’s special edition of the Daily Stock Watch! See you again next time, as we check out a new card that should be on the go, or good enough for speculating. As always, feel free to share your opinion in the comments section below. And if you want to keep up with all the market movement, be sure to check in with the QS Discord Channel for real time market information, and stay ahead of the hottest specs!
Temur's main hurdles in Modern are:
I think Todd's big innovation here is mainboarding 3 Engineered Explosives. Temur has always struggled to kill creatures with more than three toughness, as outside of Lightning Bolt, its viable removal spells are limited to say the least. Here, Explosives plays that role against low-cost creatures specifically. Hollow One and Tasigur? We won't be killing those. But Tarmogoyf, Scavenging Ooze, and Death's Shadow just became much more manageable.
Some things have changed since Command's glory days: Scavenging Ooze has entered the format, and makes an appearance here. So does Huntmaster of the Fells. Most game-changing of all, though, is Opt, the unassuming cantrip that's all but taken over Modern blue decks. Swapping Serum Visions for Opt lets Eternal Command play at instant-speed more often, taking pressure of its mana and increasing synergy with Aether Vial. I imagine the switch is particularly helpful against reactive control decks like UW.
Over Snapcaster Mage, KYLEHL includes a peculiar bullet for Traverse the Ulvenwald: Hazoret the Fervent. Over the last year, I've become 
Same deal with Dredge, and a couple of sideboard cards make the cut here: Anger of the Gods and Tormod's Crypt. Anger doesn't just deal with Dredge, but with any wide board Temur is otherwise hard-pressed to beat. Without Snapcaster Mage in the picture, reach is harder to come by in the mid-game, and Anger can punch through a board for a final strike.
Ravenous Trap and Grafdigger's Cage come in as additional Dredge hate
It seems KYLEHL's choices were made largely with the intent of giving the pilot lots of choice and flexibility while sideboarding. Many of these cards play multiple roles, with Life Goes On being the big exception; I wouldn't be surprised if after many matches of tuning, KYLEHL landed on this sideboard configuration organically, as opposed to via having lost a bet.
Discounting the fact that it's ridiculous to ban a fairly innocuous card to make a powerful one reasonable, the point does stand that Arbor does grant GSZ significant utility, as Batterskull does for Stoneforge Mystic.
to set up an explosive turn two with Heritage Druid. It just felt inefficient as a ramp trick.
a normal land forces players to mulligan otherwise keepable hands.
This effect wasn't obvious in exploratory testing or in my practice matches, but as the test wore on, I had flashes of déja vu. I was able to take the same successful lines over and over thanks to all the tutors in my deck. The games did feel quite repetitive towards the end. It was rare for games to be exactly the same, as variance affects both decks, but the tutor-heavy games definitely bled into each other. I would describe the effect of playing Collected Company, Chord of Calling, and Green Sun's Zenith in the same deck as severely diminishing negative variance. It was like I took a variance sine wave and cut the bottom off. I don't recall losing many games where I resolved two tutors.
I did not appreciate that because I had multiple tutors in my deck, I could have pushed the Elves deck harder than I actually did both in-game and in composition. In normal Elves, it was correct to hold the actual tutor, Chord, for whatever I needed to win the game. I fired off Company anytime I could just for value. However, in test Elves, GSZ allowed me to smooth out and actually hit my ideal curve for a very low price. Chording for Heritage Druid was okay, but casting GSZ for it was busted. The way I ended up using my tutors was GSZ for power, Company for bulk, and Chord for specialized cards. This division of labor function frighteningly well.
My other mistake was not appreciating just how busted Elves could be. There were a number of times where I had nine mana available turn 3. I didn't record how many, because I didn't realize that it kept happening until midway through testing. Had I been playing it, I could have GSZ'd for Craterhoof Behemoth and won the game, which I couldn't quite do with Ezuri because of summoning-sick creatures.
I know that I was skeptical of Bloodbraid Elf and Jace, the Mind Sculptor when I 
Wizards also doesn't want tutoring to be 
Gemstone Caverns #3 also moved main to make room for another Spatial Contortion, a hedge against Humans and Spirits. It usurped the second Scavenger Grounds main, which I feel is too slow to reliably hose contemporary graveyard decks without Simian Spirit Guide or a fast Thought-Knot Seer as backup. Grounds is better against fair decks as a way to nerf Tarmogoyf, complicate Snapcaster Mage plays, or recur Eternal Scourge.
Sideboarding:
Game 3, W (Play; P 7 – M 6): I keep a seven with three Temples, Seer, and Reshaper, and soon draw a second Reshaper. My turn one Temple is chased by a second Temple and the Seer, which sees a bunch of lands and exiles Summoner's Pact. Next turn, I cast two Reshapers, and my opponent concedes when I attack him for 10.
Sideboarding:
Game 3, W (Play; MP 6s – 7): I keep a one-lander with Temple-Relic and miss a land drop, but then rip one and cast Scourge from exile. My opponent's creatures eat kill spells in the meantime. I eventually let him keep a Scavenging Ooze, as the graveyards have been exiled. This is a longer game in which my opponent resolves 4 Liliana of the Veil (Seer crucially exiles a Liliana, the Last Hope). The walkers keep dying to Blinkmoth Nexus after minusing, and Mutavault is joined by Seer towards the end to close things out, trading with a reluctant Ooze.
Game 1, W (Draw; MPPPPMMMMM 1ss – 7): I almost keep a six-carder with Gemstone and Scourge, but end up Powdering it. The other hands are clear Powders or ships; towards the end, they stop having lands. I end up with a one-carder of just Eldrazi Mimic and scry Smasher to the bottom.
Sideboarding:
Sideboarding:
Sideboarding:
Sideboarding:
Game 2, W (Draw): My opponent leads with Hierarch, and I respond with Temple, Mimic. He drops another Hierarch and an Inkmoth Nexus. I swing and hold up removal, but end up letting through 4 Poison in the air. I fail to make a third land drop, swing, and pass again. He boots up the Inkmoth and casts Might of Old Krosa in the main phase. I respond with Spatial Contortion, which meets Blossoming Defense. Spirit Guide exiles for R and I Dismember it, winning the counter-war; my opponent hits for 2 with Hierarch and passes. I cast Reshaper and beat my opponent to death with that and a Mutavault, finally making my third land drop on turn six or so.
Sideboarding:
Game 3, L (Draw): This time around, I single-handedly lose the mid-game slog to a resolved Crucible, which my opponent uses to Field of Ruin me about six times. Lyra Dawnbringer resolves minutes away from time, and my first Dismember is Negated; the second one goes through, but a follow-up Baneslayer Angel spells my doom.
Sideboarding:
Sideboarding:
Going forward, I'd like to swap a Blinkmoth and the last Grounds for two more Mutavaults. These should help in the control and combo matchups. There are fewer small fliers around without Signal Pest, and our fair matchups already seem fine without Grounds. We also have more cards in the side right now to fight small creatures and graveyard decks, respectively, and I'd like to keep it that way until I have a chance to at least cast Ravenous Trap once.
