Who Knew? New News

I just posted something less than 24 hours ago that was news related, but this is new news! Wizards announced today that the new Dual Decks will be Elspeth vs Tezzeret! (http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/459) The dual decks will go for $20. But wait? How can they get away with having the cover card for one of the decks go for over $50 individually, and then sell another 59 cards with it, and then have a $13 planeswalker on the other side plus another 59 card deck? Here's the secret: standard rotates out less than a month after this is released, so neither of them will be legal and thus both of their prices will dramatically drop.

Heres a look at all the planeswalkers ever released:

Llorwyn/M10:
Ajani Goldmane - $8
Jace Beleran - $9 ($10 in M10, $12 in Dual Decks)
Lilliana Vess - $7
Chandra Nalaar - $5 ($6 in Dual Decks)
Garruk Wildspeaker - $11

Shards of Alara:
Ajani Vengeant - $11
Elspeth, Knight-Errant - $53
Sarkhan Vol - $14
Tezzeret the Seeker - $14

Conflux:
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker - $15

Zendikar:
Chandra Ablaze - $4
Nissa Revane - $10
Sorin Markov - $13

Worldwake:
Jace, The Mind Sculptor - $79

Rise of the Eldrazi:
Gideon Jura - $52
Sarkhan the Mad - $22

What is interesting to point out is that every single Planeswalker ever printed is still legal in standard. When Scars of Mirroden comes in, 10 of the current 16 planeswalkers will rotate out (5 from shards, 5 from M10). Obviously, it would be rediculous to have all 10 printed in M11, so for the first time ever we will see planeswalkers that are not standard legal. I think they will have no value once they rotate out because the formats they will be legal in (Extended, Legacy, Vintage) are way too fast for them to compete. In Extended, you can have a 20/20 flying indestructable creature come into play on turn 2 and kill your opponent on turn 3 (Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth + Dark Depths + Vampire Hexmage). In legacy, you can have any creature you want come into play under your control on turn 2 with multiple counterspells able to defend yourself (Entomb + Reanimate, Force of Will + Daze). Vintage is Legacy, but with power 9 restricted instead of banned, which means you can have 1 of each, so you could have a turn 1 emrakul in play with counterspell backup. The lowest costing planeswalker is Jace Beleran at 1UU, but he is just a card drawing engine, which isn't exciting enough to make a difference, and the other planeswalkers cost 4 or more, which can be far too much.

I will get this dual decks anyways, because it is a casual player's dream. The get $65 in planeswalkers plus decks for both all for $20 is not something i will pass on easily. Another thing i want to point out is how the dual decks system seems to be working. There have been 5 dual decks released so far, and one to come:

Elves vs Goblins - released November 16th, 2007
Jace vs Chandra - released November 7th, 2008
Divine vs Demonic - released April 10th, 2009
Garruk vs Lilliana - released October 30th, 2009
Phyrexia vs The Coalition - released March 19th, 2010
Elspeth vs Tezzeret - to be released September 3rd, 2010

Notice how they altarnate between tribe vs tribe and planeswalker vs planeswalker. Also, with the exception of Elves vs Goblins, the planeswalker battles happen in the fall and the tribe battles happen in the spring. All the decks have been mono-colored, with the exception of The Coalition. With the exception of that deck, heres how the colors are represented (including Elspeth vs Tezzeret):

White: 2
Blue: 2
Black: 3
Red: 2
Green: 2

The Coalition deck was heaviest on green and red, so before they announced this new duel decks, white and blue were getting hosed, and black was featured 3 decks in a row.

So what should you take away from this? I think the planeswalkers in M10 will all be reprinted in M11, sothe shards planeswalkers will all go down to less than $10 in value. Despite that, I recommend picking this duel decks up, because regardless of their tournament legality, getting $65 in planeswalkers plus 2 decks (which after Pyrexia vs The Coalition feature one additional rare per deck) all for $20 is simply nuts! The 3 duel decks that werent released this year currently cost $45 (Divine vs Demonic), $70 (Jace vs Chandra), and $80 (Elves vs Goblins). If you want to play some odds, maybe you should buy a bunch of these, not open it for 3 years, and then sell them back to the store you bought them from for prophet (although make sure to open one for yourself). I am excited, and I can't wait to get my hands on this new Duel Decks!