Farewell Duel Decks

After ten years Duel Deck series go into retirement and the last edition of DD will be Elves vs Inventors. It's hard to believe that Wizards have run out of ideas. But there is no vacuum. We will get a new product instead. I'm speaking of Challanger Decks, which will be available 6th April for 29.99 USD. Ten dollars more than old Duel Decks and we are getting only one deck. Each Challenger Deck comes with a complete 60-card main deck and a 15-card sideboard and is intended to be playable and competitive at a local level right out of the box. Wizards ensured, that decks will be strong and feature many rares, as well as at least two mythic rares. All cards will have been previously printed in Standard and are Standard-legal. Additionally, each Challenger Deck will contain the following:
a box capable of holding 75 sleeved cards,
a spindown life counter,
a quick reference guide.


These decks are not going to come to MTGO. The online cost of all the cards in past precons has been much, much lower than MSRP. But paper market is a totally different story. We must wait and see. In the worst case, we'll get Intro Packs. At best, something like Event Decks

Holiday Promo Card

With the holidays coming up, it is time to reveal the Wizards of the Coast Holiday Promo Card. The Holiday Promo Card is given to Wizard's partners, contractors and employees with a fun treat to say thank you.

It is silver bordered card, legal in EDH.

Silver-bordered cards legal in EDH!

A week ago I wrote about Un-set finance and we came to conclusion, that only basic lands are keeping any value and rest of cards is worthless. However, within a week a lot can change. Wizards only have to announce revolutionary rules change, that silver-bordered cards are legal in EDH and Un-set finance are turned upside down. No, it is not a joke. Silver-bordered cards are legal in Commander until January 15th (the date of the next banned and restricted announcement). It is not a surpise, that prices spiked. Some cards are banned from the start: Ashnod's Coupon, Double Cross, Double Deal, Double Dip, Double Play, Double Take, Enter the Dungeon, Magical Hacker, Mox Lotus, Once More With Feeling, R&Ds Secret Lair, Richard Garfield, Staying Power, Time Machine. And some are recommended not to use: Ach! Hans, Run!, Collector Protector, Incoming, Infernal Spawn of Infernal Spawn of Evil, Johnny, Combo Player, Mirror, Mirror Topsy Turvy, Yet Another Aether Vortex and Gotcha wording cards.

Un-lands

A few days ago a full Unstable set was spoilered. I took a look at pricelist of previous Un sets: Unglued and Unhinged and I drew some conclusiones, that I want to share with you. Among all rares only just five are worth something and by something I mean several dollars. To ilustrate the amount we are talking about the most expensive is Mox Lotus for 9 USD. We may assume, that prices of Unstable rares will go the same way as their predecessors and be worthless. Responisble for all this is barely no demand for Un cards. However, there is one exception - basic lands. Over course of time Unhinged lands are reaching even 10 USD and Unglued 6 USD now. We get a basic land every single pack. Unstable basic lands are priced now for around 1,5 USD. It looks like a good long-term investment. The art is beautiful. The borderless basic land is unique for this moment. Some may say that there are many full art basic lands already to choose from. But, was it really a obstacle for Unhinged lands to go as high as they are now? It is just matter of time, when Unstable basic land will gain on value.

Sideboarding mastery

Few tips on sideboarding:

1. It matters a lot if you are on play or draw. When you are on the draw, you are behind in the tempo and damage race from the start. However, you do have one extra card instead. As a result, you can safely cut a land and shave a few cheap threats. Meanwhile, you should add efficient answers and catch-up cards. Fatal Push and Radiant Flames are examples of spells that are better when you’re on the draw, as they allow you to steal back tempo.

2. Sideboard against post-sideboard deck. Bringing in cards that would have been good in game 1 is a common mistake. Try to predict a gameplane of your opponent in game 2 and adjust.

3. Don't oversideboard situational answers. Sideboarding a card, that blocks only up to 4 opponnent's cards it is not a good decision. Your card will too often be a dead card. It should have a least 8 targets.

4. Don't oversideboard in general. Sometimes, by bringing in too many sideboard cards, especially reactive ones like removal spells or counterspells, we run the risk of simply diluting our deck’s core strategy so much that we hurt our chance of winning the gam

4. If you are not familiar with deck your are playing, becasue you copied someone's else deck list, you should prepare your sideboard plan before tournament. It is legal to have notes what you should cut and what add in specific matchup. 

Play Points for sale

Wizards store is now offering Play Points for sale. Three bundles to choose from:

• 240 Play Points for $24 (regular price)
• 480 Play Points for $45
• 1200 Play Points for $100.

Let's do some math. We can buy Event Tickets from players at classifieds for around $0.95 each. So, we are able to get 105,26 Event Tickets for $100 or 47,37 Event Tickets for $45. I'm not taking into consideration buying Event Tickets directly from Wizards, because it always costs $1 each and we want to get them as cheap as possible. Remembering, that 10 Play Points are considered as 1 Event Ticket we are coming to conculsion as follows. If we want to save some money it is the most reasonable to buy 1200 Play Points bundle. We must transfer Play Points into Events Tickets for the analysis to see it clear. Spending $100 at Wizards store gives us 120 Event Tickets, in comparizon to 105 Event Tickets bought from sellers in classifieds for the same amount of money. To wrap up, buying direclty from Wizards gives us extra 15 Event Tickets.


These Bundles are only available through the holidays and will disappear from the store when Rivals of Ixalan releases on January 19, 2018.

From the Vault: Transform

Starting November 24 From the Vault: Transform hits the shelves. What could be found inside FtV?

• Huntmaster of the Fells - New art
• Garruk Relentless - New art
• Delver of Secrets - New art
• Archangel Avacyn
• Arguel's Blood Fast
• Arlinn Kord
• Bloodline Keeper
• Bruna, the Fading Light
• Gisela, the Broken Blade
• Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
• Elbrus, the Binding Blade
• Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
• Kytheon, Hero of Akros
• Liliana, Heretical Healer
• Nissa, Vastwood Seer