Bang for your Buck: Investing for Cards in Kaladesh – Multicolor, Land, and Colorless

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.

With Pro Tour Kaladesh finished, we can expect most of the metagame to be set up for at least the next month but that doesn’t mean that it won’t change come winter. There are still a number of cards yet to be experimented with, and while they might not transform into tier 1 decks, the odds are that we will see a number of decks be refined further and that some fun casual decks will appear too. There are still some spikes to happen down the road, so you can still grab some good deals now while the prices are low. Lets take a look at what I talked about last time first.

Previous Multicolor, Land, and Colorless Suggestions

• Conduit of Ruin – Miss. This was my longshot choice. I thought that perhaps it would see more play due to all of the new Eldrazi cards being added to standard, but I was wrong. Down to $.75 from $1.
• Reality Smasher – Miss. I thought it would see more play with the increase of artifacts in Kaladesh standard, but it seems like not having the pain lands to make colorless mana with has hurt it’s chances of seeing standard play. Down slightly to $3.75 from $4.
• Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger – HIT. I got lucky with this pick. If Aetherworks Marvel hadn’t shown up Ulamog would still probably be around $11, but now it’s $15.50 which is quite the spike. If the deck does well, it could hold that price for a while.
• Lumbering Falls – N/A. I didn’t say it would go up or down, but to keep an eye on it due to decks like UG Tentacles which had some potential during the last standard season. There was no change in its price.
• Westvale Abbey – Miss. I guess without GW tokens showing up in numbers, nobody thinks to play this land anymore. Still good I think, but I was wrong that it’s floor would be $5. It’s down to $3.50 from $5.50.
• Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim – Miss. Seemed like a good investment at $1, but she’s seeing no play and has inched closer to bulk at $.75.
• Olivia, Mobilized for War -Miss. I seriously think that BW vampires is a good deck, and affordable too. I just guess that most people don’t play fringe/casual decks anymore at FNMs in large enough numbers now. Down to just over $3.75 from $5.25.
• Kiora, Master of the Depths – Miss. Another one of my longshot picks, I thought she could see play in Temurge or Sultai Emerge but it never happened. Down to $3 from $3.50.

Multicolor Suggestions

At $6.50 I think Spell Queller has some space to move upwards before the next set is released. With the success of control and Torrential Gearhulk at Pro Tour Kaladesh, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of people lean towards UW Decks. I don’t expect it to go up too much, but I could see it hitting $8 by next year.

I currently think that Grim Flayer is overpriced at $18. GB Delirium is a strong deck, but it won’t show up in large numbers anymore thanks to all of the other choices in standard now. I think Grim Flayer will drop to about $14-15 this season, so if you’re looking for a high point to sell, now’s probably good.

My longshot pick for this standard is Anguished Unmaking ($1.50). I feel like exiling effects are going to be really strong during this standard, especially at instant speed. It stops Eldrazi, Aetherworks, Planeswalkers, Gearhulks, you name it. There isn’t a strong BW deck at the moment, but if one shows up you can be sure it will be playing this card. Seems like a good pick up at its current price.

Penny Stocks

With GW back in the mix thanks to Verdurous Gearhulk, it’s quite possible that a GW Humans deck with a 4 of Heron’s Grace Champion ($.25) could see play. It’s showed up on some MTG sites already, so it’s not too farfetched. They are bulk now so it could save you some money if the deck ends up doing well. Speaking of GW, Sigarda is still a steal at $1.75, so you still have a chance to grab a few in case she sees play in the near future.

Omnath, Locus of Rage ($1.25) also seems like a fun card for this format. I’ve been playing around with Combustible Gearhulk in a GR Delirium deck and had Omnath in their as well which can do a lot of damage sometimes when revealed. Really fun with Spendid Reclamation :).

Land Suggestions

There isn’t much to say about lands at this point. Lots of the colors that are in the most popular decks have spiked and should hold their value for a while. If you don’t have a playset of the other colors yet from BFZ or SOI then I would recommend getting on them at their low points, but otherwise I don’t think there are that many opportunities in lands right now. It’s possible that Shambling Vents ($3) could see more play if BW does better later this season, but otherwise I don’t see that many other options.

Colorless Suggestions

I straight up love this card. It seems so incredibly powerful and waiting to be broken, but yet nobody has found a deck for it yet. Perhaps it’s because of the triple green emerge cost, but I think Decimator ($2.50) will eventually find a deck and it won’t just be a 1 of. I think this card will be a 3 of when it finally finds a deck and then its price will shoot up to $6-7. It might not happen until Aether Revolt, but this card WILL eventually see play. Heck, it might even show up in the SB of some Aetherworks Marvel decks. If you haven’t grabbed any yet, now seems like its low point. Good time to invest.

At $3.50, Elder Deep-Fiend seems undervalued to me. It’s the cornerstone of a strong archetype, and it’s always a 4 of. In the right metagame (like against control) the deck could actually do very well so I’m inclined to say BUY at this point in time. It could easily go up to $6-7 if UB Emerge does well in future metagames.

Penny Stocks

UB Emerge seemed to do well at the Pro Tour, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see some SB tech down the road where they deck uses Distended Mindbender ($1.25) against control decks. Control has shown to be viable once again, so effects like Mindbender’s will be sought after.

The Wrap Up

Welcome to Kaladesh standard. With the next set not due out until January 20th, you can be sure we’ll see a few more surprises over the next few months. The Pro Tour did a lot to set up our metagame for the immediate future but you can be sure people will push it even harder and find more viable strategies. The standard PPTQ season is also starting up again, which means a lot more people will be playing in high level tournaments and coming up with new ways to approach the metagame.

Of course I’ll be focusing on standard over the next few months, but I’ll be checking out this new Frontier Format that came out of Big Magic and Hareruya here in Japan and talking about both my experiences and the decks I’m interested in playing. I hope you’ll join me in later this week as I talk about Kaladesh Game Day and how the metagame was affected by the Pro Tour. Until then, good luck and see you next time.