Bang for Your Buck: Investing in Cards for Amonkhet – Multicolor, Lands, 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.

Pro Tour Amonkhet is underway and at first glance it seems like there is much more competition in this standard metagame than before. Mardu Vehicles is still king, but only because it’s a game of percentages. The chinks in the armor are becoming more apparent, and balance seems to be returning. Aetherworks was always on the cusp of being a great deck, but needed the absence of Saheeli combo to flex its muscle. I’m not too surprised that Zombies are doing well, considering I’ve had first had experience how strong they are. We’ll have to wait until the dust settles on Sunday to see which decks have the most favorable match ups, but I’m hoping against hope that the matches are close and that there are no clear winners. If that happens, standard becomes wide open again.

 

Previous Multicolor, Land, and Colorless suggestions

• Spell Queller – HIT. I said you should look for it to start going down, and I was right that the price would drop to around $5 from its then $7.
• Spirebluff Canal – Miss. I thought it would continue to go up, and while it did for a moment there, the banning of Felidar Sovereign stopped its ascension.
• Elder Deep-Fiend – Miss. It only went down a little bit to $2 from $2.25, but I’m kind of shocked that more people haven’t picked up on Dredge yet. It seems strong.

 

There wasn’t much to go on last time due to the stranglehold of Saheeli and Vehicle decks, but hopefully that will all change over the next few weeks. Let’s see what we have to work with for Amonkhet standard.

 

Multicolor Suggestions

 

Buy

I’m not sure Dovin Baan ($3) will find a spot in any decks during AKH standard, but it does feel like he’s bottomed out. I’m convinced that control decks will eventually find their footing, especially with cards like Pull from Tomorrow and Approach of the 2nd Sun, but it’s going to take a while to build a capable control deck. Dovin Baan might be a good sideboard card down the road in a stasis type deck that wins with Approach. It’s a long shot, but if you can find 2 of him for under $3, he’s worth having in your collection. As control gets better, so might Dovin. I don’t expect him to go up until closer to rotation though.

 

Another long shot, I think Olivia has a lot of casual appeal in standard. If the format opens up and becomes less oppressive without combo and Vehicles, Olivia with vampires and the new cycling effect cards could become best of friends. At only $2.25 she’s a steal and I think on casual appeal alone in the future she’ll be worth the investment at this price. Grab some while you can before rotation. I don’t think she’ll go much lower.

 

Spell Queller ($4.75) is going to be a strong Frontier card, and should see more play in eternal formats as time goes on. I think it has a little bit lower to go, but at $3-4 I would get your playset. If it goes lower than that this summer, might not hurt to get a few extra.

 

We have a decent amount of playable artifacts from Kaladesh block, so Tezzeret the Schemer is just waiting for the right deck to come along. I’d personally like to see a Grixis improvise control back become playable this summer alongside Nicol Bolas, but I’d be fine with Esper as well. Tezzeret is only $4.25 right now, and I think you should get your copies now in case he spikes when Bolas is revealed. We know he works with Bolas, so I’m thinking there might be some synergy between the two. If he sees any play, that price will double up in a weekend.

 

Sell

 

Grim Flayer is the card that just won’t go away. It’s going to continue to see play in modern and Frontier after it rotates, but before that it still has some work to do in standard. It’s holding at a steady $17.25 right now and GB delirium or Aggro seems to still be able to compete in this environment, but as we get closer to rotation it’s going to start creeping downward. I don’t expect it to go below $10, but if you want to make a little extra profit, now’s the time to trade it away or sell it. You should be able to get it back cheaper later in the summer.

 

Penny Stocks

I kind of like Kambal, Consul of Allocation ($.50). It could become a good sideboard card for BW zombies or other BW decks if control becomes more popular. Keep it in mind just in case you see the metagame start to shift.

 

Land Suggestions

 

Spire of Industry is finally close to affordable at $4, and it could go down even further if Mardu Vehicles can’t rebound from their performance at Pro Tour Amonkhet. That doesn’t mean it’s never going to reach heights of $8-9 again. Improvise and Colossus decks could see a resurgence if more casual players come back to the game, and it seems like a lot of the artifacts in Amonkhet are centered around the God-Pharoah Bolas. There might be a 3 color Bolas artifact deck in Hour of Devastation, so it might be a good idea to grab your play set now. There’s a chance it could hit $3 in the coming weeks, but don’t wait too long. Possible mover later in the summer.

 

Colorless Suggestions

 

Sell

 

As a 4 of in the Temur Aetherworks deck that did very well at Pro Tour Amonkhet, Ulamog, his price has soared to almost $30. This won’t hold. Sure it will be a strong card in Aetherwork decks until it rotates, but if you’re not planning on using it in your modern Tron or EDH deck, it’s probably better to sell at this price. Post rotation you’re probably looking at about a $10 price tag, so if you want out now is the time to do it.

 

The Wrap Up

 

Nothing too exciting out the last few categories, but there are quite a lot of chances to profit. We’re heading into summer and Amonkhet standard is going to have the last spikes for every card in both the Battle For Zendikar and Shadows Over Innistrad blocks. I don’t think that the Pro Tour will tell the whole story of standard over the next few months, but it will set the tone. It should be a little easier to beat Zombies and Aetherwork decks, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a better control deck rise from aftermath.

I hope you got some good insights on what to do with your cards for the next season, and as always comments are welcome down below. If you have any thoughts about cards you think will shoot up in price or can think of another card that is over priced and ready to drop, feel free to speak your mind. Thanks for reading and I hope you’ll be back in a few days for my next article.