Bang for your Buck: Investing in Cards for Theros – White, Azorius, and Boros

Disclaimer: I can not be held responsible for any poor decisions I make in regards to any cards you might buy in response to my article. I’m going to post my thoughts and plead my case for each card I recommend, and if you agree then by all means head out to your local gaming store or buy cards online and try to snap up some good deals. I’m basing my information off of months of standard gaming experience as well as prices in my area and how they’ve reacted to the ever changing metagame. I can only hope that the decisions I make are good ones and that my gamble pays off after buying the featured cards.

Now’s the perfect time to start going over cards from the previous sets. Theros standard is now into its second week, and the metagame is finally starting to take shape. Over the next 2 weeks, I’ll be covering all of the colors, as well as the guilds, lands, and artifacts. By the time I finish, I believe that the metagame will have a solid direction and that it will be easy to see in which direction cards will go. Today I’ll be covering white, Azorius, and Boros, so before I go into my suggestions, let’s take a look at what I thought would happen back in July after M14 came out. 

Previous White, Azorius, and Boros Suggestions

• Supreme Verdict – I said it would hit somewhere in the $6-7 range, and it did. The card is now $2 more than what it was back in July. If you bought your playset then, you saved a nice chunk of change. 
• Sphinx’s Revelation – I said it would hold it’s value around $22, but it actually is hovering closer to $27 now. I was correct that it didn’t drop in price if you bought it then, but I was incorrect in thinking that it wouldn’t rise in value again. Hopefully you picked some up at the lower price. 
• Rest in Peace – I said it would drop in value a little bit after rotation due to Reanimator not being played, and it did slightly from its $1.75 price tag. So far I’m 3 for 3. 
• Angel of Serenity – I thought it was undervalued at $8.50 and suggested a bye, but it has now dipped to $5.75. Ouch. Didn’t think it would go down that much in value. 
• Detention Sphere – I said it would go up in value since Oblivion Ring wasn’t being reprinted, and so far it’s gained about $1.50 in value since I recommended it. I knew it would go up. 
• Aetherling – my guess was that it would hold its value around $5, and it did. 
• Aurelia, the Warleader – I thought she was undervalued at $6.50, but actually that was overvalued. She’s sitting at $5.50 now, but I don’t think she’ll be there long. Theros might be her time to shine. 
• Boros Reckoner – I believed it would hold its value at $13, but currently it’s closer to $19. Ouch. Well, if you waited to buy some you’re out of luck, but if you picked them up at 13 you made a nice profit. 
• Gideon, Champion of Justice – I gambled and said that he could see more play and an increase in value, but it’s still too early to tell. He’s currently at about the same price he was a few months ago, $5. Miss on my part. 
• Legion’s Initiative – I thought it was undervalued at $4, and it HAS seen more play early in this meta, but its price has slightly fallen to $3.75. Another miss on my part. 

I think I did much better with these colors than last time. There were a few mistakes, but overall I think I made some good calls on about 60% of the cards. Let’s see if I can improve my win % this time. 

White

Ajani, Caller of the Pride

I think Ajani, Caller of the Pride ($5.25) is very close to finding his niche and breaking out. White weenie decks and GW have become increasing popular, and I think the planeswalker could find his way into either the sideboard or main board. I also think it’s possible that we are getting close to a “Super Friends” control deck with all the white, blue, and black planeswalkers in standard. It’s a long shot, but I’m going to guess that Ajani will see more play and perhaps hit close to $7 before the next Theros set is revealed. He also helps out with Devotion counters if a player is doing all white. 

Angel of Thune ($25) seems like it’s at a good value right now. I don’t think it will go up too much or drop too much in the coming weeks. There might be times where it sees a lot of play in the metagame, but I don’t think it will become as common place as cards like Restoration Angel or Thundermaw Hellkite were before. Even though she burned me last time, I’m going to recommend picking up Angel of Serenity ($5.80) at her current price. She’s waiting for a deck to abuse her like reanimator did, and it’s only a matter of time until that happens. 

Precinct Captain

As I said before, White Weenie decks have been making a comeback, and if it gains in popularity to the extent that mono red did (or even a fraction of mono red’s popularity), I think the Precinct Captain could see a slight increase in value from his current price tag of $1.50. Not much, but at most it could hit Ash Zealot levels of around $3.

Renounce the Guilds

Another risky bet, but I think Renounce the Guilds ($0.80) will see more play as the metagame shifts away from multicolor cards and into one or two colors decks. It’s great against cards like Ashiok, Domri, Blood Baron of Vizkopa, and any other dangerous multicolor card if you’re playing a mono colored deck. I could see it hitting $3 the closer we get to the next set, but like I said, this is one of my risky bets. However, you can’t go wrong getting a playset right now at this price. Along this same vein, Rest in Peace ($1.50) could see more play in sideboards if Erebos’s Whip takes over standard and forms a new type of reanimator. 

Azorius

I believe that Detention Sphere ($3.75) should hold its value, but I think Supreme Verdict ($6.50) still has a little more room to go up. Esper, bant, UWR, and UW are still working on their decks in this format, but you can be sure that Verdict will be part of whichever strategy they choose. 

Render Silent

My big gamble for Azorius colors is Render Silent. Control lost a lot of cards from the last set: Dissipate, Rewind, etc. There are a few missing pieces that control players are trying to find. They already seem to have put in Dissolve instead of Dissipate, but I think Render Silent could find a spot as a 2 of in control decks like Rewind was. I’m not totally sure, but I think you can’t go wrong at $0.90 a piece.

Boros 

Boros always seems to be full of potential. There are some explosive cards such as Aurelia, the Warleader and Boros Reckoner that have proven themselves in standard already, but there are still quite a lot unused ones. Assemble the Legion ($1.70) is one such card. Many UWR control decks used it as a win condition against other control decks and mirror matches, but is it fast enough to make it into a midrange deck? I don’t think so. It should see play in some sideboards and hold its value, but I don’t think it will go up at all. 

I think there will be a lot of experimentation with Boros, but no decks will really break out solely in those two colors (Red and White). You’ll see cards like Legion’s Initiative ($3.75) from time to time, but it won’t be in any of the winning decks (at least not yet). If I had to bet on one card to see more play and go up in value, I think it would be Warleader’s Helix ($0.50). It saw a lot of play in UWR control in the past, but with WR control/midrange and WBR control seeing more play, I think it will get played in more decks. 

Next time on Bang for your Buck

Due to rotation, the number of cards we have to go over are fewer than before. Therefore it should make writing the articles that much easier. There are a lot of great cards in Azorius and Boros, but most of them will probably hold their current values until we get much closer to the next set in February. 3 months is a long time to work on the metagame, but I’m sure there will be some more unexpected heroes in the coming weeks. Next time I’ll be covering Blue, Simic, and Izzet cards, so be sure to visit me again before the weekend to see which cards you should pick up the next time you go to your local shop! As always, other suggestions are welcome, so if you think a card should be in this list that I didn’t talk about, let me know which one it is and why!

Thanks for reading.