Bang for your Buck: Investing in Cards for M15 – White

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. Prices I used are based on the iMTG IOS app, using TCG player.com’s mid-level price range.

Welcome to the M15 installment of Bang for your Buck. Now that we are only about 2 months out from rotation of the Return to Ravnica block, it puts us in the unique position to pick up really good deals. Last summer, I was able to get some Jace, Architect of Thoughts for about $7 each before he took off to $24 in Theros due to blue devotion. I think between now and September, we’ll be able to find a lot of great cards for next to nothing. Some cards might see play in EDH, some in modern, but as always my main focus will be on standard. As you can see, today I will be covering ONLY the white cards currently in standard. I’ve decided to do this mostly because many players are now weaning themselves off of Return to Ravnica block multicolor cards, and for the most part all of their prices are dropping. There are still some bargains to be bad, but this time I’ll be putting all multicolor cards in their own article. If you have any questions about this, please leave them down below. If you don’t, let’s get started by looking at my suggestions for the last set.

Previous White Suggestions

• Archangel of Thune – In my last article I said that she would drop in price from her then value of $25 to somewhere under $20. She’s going for $17 now. If you heeded my advice, you might have saved yourself some value.
• Brimaz, King of Oreskos – I was a little off with Brimaz. I thought he’d hold his value at $23, but now he’s closer to $20. He hasn’t seen much play recently, and that’s why he’s dropping in price.
• Elspeth, Sun’s Champion – Elspeth was at around $19 the last time we talked, and I said she would definitely be going up before rotation. She’s at $22.50 now and will only continue to go higher. That makes me 2/3 so far.
• Blind Obedience – Aggro decks didn’t take off as much as I thought they would, so neither did Blind Obedience. I thought it would go up to $3 from $2, but now it’s actually closer to $1.50.
• Rest in Peace – I’m a little surprised that this card hasn’t seen more play in modern. It’s still unchanged at about $1.25 in the USA, but in Japan you can sell these for $1 each in some places. Guess they won’t really see their value go up until after rotation.
• Soldier of the Pantheon – Another card that I thought would see play with aggro but didn’t materialize. It dropped from $2 to $1.50. That makes me 2/5 on white cards from last time.

Well, now’s the time to start looking for deals before the fall set is spoiled and some cards start to really go up in value.

White

The first card I’d like to recommend is Angel of Serenity. I don’t think this will go up in value any time soon, in fact you might be able to find her for less than $2.50 in most places, and if so, pick up a few. I think this could be a good EDH/commander card down the road, so it wouldn’t hurt to have a few in your trade folder a few months down the road for this price. If EDH continues to gain in popularity, this one could too, especially if it’s in foil. If you can get a foil for $10 or less, pick it up. As for your other angel, Archangel of Thune, I think she should stay above $10 before and after rotation due to her rarity, being an angel, as well as seeing play in Birthing Pod decks (which should get even MORE popular now that Chord of Calling has been reprinted). If you can find one for $12 or so, pick it up or trade for 1-2.

Elspeth, Sun’s Champion

At $22.50, I still feel that Elspeth is undervalued. She’s going to go up a little bit more before rotation, at least to $25 if not more. We just got 6 new planeswalkers in M15, and only Nissa, Worldwaker even begins to get close to Elspeth in turns of power. If it came down to it, the Sun’s Champion would win in a battle (Nissa makes 4/4 land creatures, Elspeth destroys everything with 4 power or more). I really wouldn’t be surprised if she hit $30 by October.

A short discussion about White Devotion

I think it’s quite possible that we’ll see white devotion decks in the coming months thanks to cards like Mass Calcify from M15, Preeminent Captain, and Soul of Theros. The deck already has some heavy hitters such as Elspeth, Sun’s Champion and Brimaz ($19.50). With the addition of those 3 cards, I think it could very well vault itself into tier 2 status. While I don’t think any of the rotating cards will see an increase in value such as Precinct Captain, I do think there are cards you should watch out for and buy if you see some deals. They are:

• Brimaz, King of Oreskos
• Heliod, God of the Sun
• Spear of Heliod
• Soldier of the Pantheon
• Godsend (this is a maybe)

If the deck takes off, you can bet these cards will see a slight increase in value, so keep your eyes peeled at FNM and other casual tourneys. If the deck starts putting up good numbers, consider buying a few of these if they are still cheap.

Next Time on Bang for your Buck

Without the multicolor cards clogging up the articles, I’m going to guess that most of these are going to be pretty short and to the point. This also means that I should probably have time to do one every day before the cards go on sale this Friday, if not two. Close to rotation, this is always the case. We’ll have a nice chunk of white cards to look at with M15 included before Khans of Tarkir comes out, but until then this will be easy reading. For my next article, I’ll be talking about blue. I think there should be a little more action coming out of blue in the coming months If you have any other tips/suggestions on the white cards currently in standard and would like to add to the conversation, please do so below. I’ll see you next time.