This week has a few very significant trades, and thankfully no actual setbacks, so I will actually be gaining value this week! There are some incredibly spicy trades that happened at the end of the week that really helped vault the binder's value towards a much more completed status!
April 25, 2012
My:
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite (25.67)
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben (3.87)
His:
Geist of Saint Traft (20.22)
Scalding Tarn (14.67)
Net: +5.35
After discovering how Elesh Norn had dropped last week without me knowing, I was glad to move it for some cards that will be much more stable in the coming weeks. Delver has been the best way to beat Ramp, so we may see a resurgence because of the printing of Cavern of Souls to fight against the ramp deck. A major part of the advantage is because of Mana Leak, but Delver does hit hard enough that they may not be able to survive long enough to untap with titan anyways, so Geist may get more popular in the coming weeks.
My:
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben (3.87)
His:
Spellskite (4.71)
Ad Nauseam (0.68)
Net: +1.52
Spellskite still sees some fringe play, so I think it should be a fine card to have on hand. Also, Ad Nauseam isn't really a risk to take on, but it is important enough to a deck that it is entirely named after it, so it should be very malleable for what it's worth.
My:
Celestial Colonnade (2.72)
His:
Hinterland Harbor (3.98)
Net: +1.26
This is the second Colonnade to go to Commander players of the 3 I once traded for. Clearly UW Tron never caught on in the local area, but Commander is getting more and more popular. No one is pimping as far as I know, so crazy rare foils probably won't get anywhere, but I will keep my eye out for random flashy cards in the future.
My:
Dryad Arbor (3.40)
His:
Woodland Cemetery (4.91)
Net: +1.51
Dryad Arbor has become much more of a fringe card recently because it sees very little play in legacy, so moving for a standard staple is a great maneuver.
April 27, 2012
My:
Scalding Tarn (14.67)
His:
Primeval Titan (17.78)
Net: +3.11
Finally I get my hands on a Primeval Titan! This card is so tradable and so easy to move I wish I could get 9 more in my binder! Especially now with Cavern of Souls coming out, Primeval Titan just became really cool once again, and I expect the price to rise a buck or two.
My:
Chandra's Phoenix (5.56)
Geralf's Messeger (7.65)
Slagstorm (4.75)
Grave Titan (9.32)
Primeval Titan (17.78)
His:
Lion's Eye Diamond (51.85)
Golgari Grave-Troll (3.14)
Net: +9.93
Now THIS was a great trade! Before we get to what I acquired, I finally got to get rid of my Chandra's Pheonix, which has lost $1.50 since I acquired it! But getting a Lion's Eye Diamond??!! Now I have 3 premium cards in my binder with the Chinese Show + Tell, Bayou, and LED! I need to get some individually high value cards, and this was a great way to do it, especially because I only traded one card that was worth over $10! The funny thing about this trade was a guy I was hanging out with sleeved up the dredge cards he had one him, which was about 80% of a final list - not bad. After sleeving up all the cards he sighed, looked at me and said, "hey, want anything in this deck? I don't feel like playing it" So I was able to get the last Bridge from Below for my own Dredge Deck, leaving everything unproxied except for 2 LED, and then I was able to do this trade. It is important to not forget about the Grave-Troll that I got as well, Dredge is very popular in my local area as it seems everyone and their mother is trying to break into legacy the inexpensive way via Dredge, so I expect this to get picked up very soon. If it does, and the person needs more for the deck, I may be able to broker them the whole thing! And of course, if it goes through this binder, I receive little royalties the whole time, which is the trick of the trade (HA!)
My:
Harmonize (1.66)
His:
Path to Exile (4.72)
Net: +3.06
I was actually a little ecstatic when one of the local ringers wanted my Harmonize and valued it at 3. I found out later that he is building a cube, but at the time I wasn't going to question his logic. Path to Exile is the premium removal spell of Modern, but even though the format won't come around again for the PTQ season for almost a year, it is a card that everyone understands is very good and they move fairly well.
April 29, 2012
My:
Lion's Eye Diamond (51.85)
His:
Jace, the Mind Sculptor (58.46)
Net: +6.61
Right after I got the LED I txted a friend to share my excitement, and he responded "Sweet! I really need that card! Reserve it for me!" No even wound up asking for it, which is probably because it's not an incredibly flashy looking card, but I was able to make it into the Mind Sculptor himself. Jace is about to get MUCH better in legacy because of Miracle. The best card for miracle in my opinion for legacy is Terminus + Sensei's Divining Top, basically a 1 mana wrath whenever you feel you finally need it! (By the way, that is incredibly powerful) Jace, Top, and Brainstorm together make the miracle actually consistent enough to set up when needed, which was the problem with cards like Temporal Mastery that everyone lost their heads over. I think Jace will do very well for himself as he is quite the fine gentleman, and he is one of the best cards in
8 Trades
Week 13 Net: +32.35
So after a very disappointing end and final tally for week 12, Week 13 did a great job of rebounding back. With the 3 Boom-booms of Jace, Bayou, and Show + Tell I have $175 in value across just 3 cards! Because if how consuming acquiring the LED was, the binder actually looks very thin right now, but hopefully I can thicken in all up this upcoming week. For a while, I thought it may have been possible to make it over the SCG Providence weekend. While that may still be true, I need another $50 in the binder before I even get to the $300 plateau, and then I need to sweeten it up so that Matt actually wants to do the trade. If I can, I hope to get another $50+ card to help increase the likelihood of him accepting because in all reality cards like Path to Exile really don't matter. They are just necessary to help grind their way up to cards that actually matter. Maybe if the stars align and I hit some gold mines I will have it done this next weekend, but I don't think that will be the case. I think this may end as a 15 or 16 week project when all said and done. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it definitely won't be done in 14.
That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
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