Top 8 Reserved List Cards to Spike Next

Ryan Normandin
July 16, 2018
0 Comments

We in the "know" understand that Magic is an investment. In fact, it’s a better financial instrument than stocks, bonds, or even Bitcoin. Hell, I moved my entire 401k over to cardboard, and I’ve never looked back.

But in this business, we’re always on the lookout for the next big thing. My date last night can confirm this as she tiptoed around stacks upon stacks of Séance. As you might imagine, the date was not successful (nor was Operation Séance… a story for another time). The Magic stock market is volatile, with only those who pay close attention able to predict which cards will rise and which will sink.

Luckily, you’ve got me.

Who am I? Well, I took a class on economics in undergrad. And I know a guy who works for Goldman Sachs. Hence, I’m likely more qualified than anyone else on /r/mtgfinance to play in the big leagues of cardboard stock. Without further ado, here are the Reserved List cards that I have my eye on.

 

8. Ring of Gix

 

We just found out that the UR Commander 2018 deck is going to be all about artifacts. So what’s my response? My FOMO is telling me to buy out every single artifact on the reserved list – and my FOMO is never wrong. It’s why, to this day, I show off my rubber elbow. My FOMO just wanted to make sure I had a good time at the shark tank and, boy, was that an unforgettable day!

But back to Ring of Gix. Icy Manipulator is one of the most powerful, feared cards of all time. When it was printed in Dominaria, there was so much hype around it, it was banned instantly. I think. Right? That’s the only explanation for why it’s not in any Standard decks. But one of the biggest downsides of the Commander format is that you can only run a single copy of any given card in your deck, which means buying out Icy Manipulator won’t give you much bang for your buck. People will start to look for cards that are functionally similar to Icy Manipulator, and Ring of Gix is a prime target. It’s an artifact. It taps stuff. It’s only six mana over two turns. And can I just say: that flavor text, amirite? Talk about #deep. Back when AIM was the primary mode of communication, you’d better believe that this flavor text was my entire profile. Color? Neon green. Background? Black. Font? Papyrus. Obviously. And that was before Avatar hijacked it for their garbage movie.

 

An authentic look inside the teenage mind and heart.

 

Trash.

 

 

 7. Zephid

 

In the most recent Great Designer Search, Hexproof was one of the most commonly submitted answers for the question, “Which mechanic makes should we get rid of if we want players to enjoy playing Magic instead of questioning why they’re dying to a 1/1 with seven auras stapled onto it? And what the hell is a ‘bogle?’ And why do some people pronounce it ‘boggle’?” The second most popular answer was “splice onto arcane.”

Anyways, Hexproof came along to replace Shroud because everyone just assumed that Shroud behaved like Hexproof. And everyone knows what happens when you assume: game designers eventually just cave and give in to your foolishness.

Well, Zephid, besides having a dope name, has this mythical Shroud ability, and it’s even spelled out so that people can’t play it incorrectly. Not only that, but it’s an illusion without the downside of dying to anything that targets it! Though new illusions only die to spells targeting them apparently, and not abilities? Ah well, if enough people play it incorrectly, I’m sure they’ll just go back.

Finally, six mana may be a lot, but the mana cost is actually a strength. The four toughness means that it dodges Bolt, and the CMC of six means it can’t be Pushed. And look at that art! It’s so dragonfly-esque, that you should easily be able to throw it into your Dragonfly Tribal deck, give it all kinds of crazy pumps from the dragonfly lords out there, and nobody will ever even question it.

 

 

 6. Argothian Wurm

 

Look at the mana cost. Now at the stats. Back at the mana cost. Back at the stats. Too good to be true? It gets better: now read the text box.

That’s right. It’s a 6/6 for four mana with trample.  Lemme tell you, they just don’t make cards like they used.

Three times the mana cost for twice the stats? Our Wurmy friend would eat Ghalta alive.

This guy is ripe for a price spike. Not only are the stats bonkers, but it has some combo potential as well. The new Jund Commander deck has a land focus, and this card let’s you just sacrifice lands willy-nilly. People might think that paying four mana to sacrifice a land every single turn is a losing proposition, but people also thought that Goblin Lore was a bad card. Be sure to pick this up before Jund Land-Sacrifice makes it big!

 

 

 5. Wood Elemental

 

Picture this: it’s late in the game. You have ten forests on the board in your monogreen please-don’t-Essence-Scatter-me deck. But you’ve started to fall a bit behind. You know there’s only one card that can truly make use of your ten lands and pull you back into the game. You draw, holding your breath. The heart of the cards has rewarded you for your faith and handed you a Wood Elemental. What a wonderful relationship you must have with your deck!

You tap four lands and smile, picking up the other six and moving them to the graveyard. Your friends gasp as you reveal… your four-mana 6/6. WOTC had no choice but to only count untapped Forests; otherwise, games would just be over on Turn 4, and that’s why Splinter Twin was banned.

Now, Wood Elemental is already at a hefty $15 (TCG Mid), so you’ll need some real, my-retirement-savings-level funds if you’re going to buy out this one. But I suspect it will be well worth it, as this tree has plenty of room to grow. Buy these ASAP! I have no doubt that these will fit perfectly in the new Jund Commander deck, which focuses on lands! (My personal hunch, if you haven’t noticed, is that you want to sacrifice all of them. This way, all those Gitrog fanboys will finally be able to play the big toad in a deck that doesn’t just make its pilot cry after every match. Cuz they lost. Cuz it’s bad. No, even when you combine it with that other card. Or that one. Still bad.)

 

 

 4. Apocalypse Chime

 

One of my tricks for predicting spikes is to go deeper than everyone else. While all the finance n00bs out there were buying up Stoneforges, I was buying Kolaghan’s Commands. You see, you need to make sure you anticipate the knee-jerk responses to the knee-jerk buyouts. As more and more Reserved List cards get bought out for absurd prices, I’m one step ahead of everyone. Homelands has a bunch of cards on the RL, just waiting to get bought up and deployed at the Commander table. And maybe 93/94? I’ve never met someone who actually plays it. I’m slowly becoming convinced that someone had “Commander” autocorrected to “93/94” one time and everyone else just played along to avoid looking stupid. Anyways, Apocalypse Chime is an undeniably powerful answer to the RL-mania. With thirty-five Homelands cards on the RL, we need to be ready. And what better way to be prepared than with a four-mana thirty-five-for-one? I guess you could call me an apocalypse prepper. BUY NOW OR MISS OUT AND PERISH ALONGISDE THE OTHER SHEEPLE!

 

 

 3. Farmstead

 

We’re really getting into the cream of the crop here, the true crème de la crème (that one’s for you, Nassif #YelloWhat). Everyone knows we’re going back to Theros soon, and that the first time around, Monowhite Devotion was kind of garbage. We also know that Wizards tends to overshoot on things, aka the “Vehicles are cool, how’s this neato Smuggler’s Copter?” school of thought. When we get back to Theros, Monowhite Devotion is probably going to be OP, which means that all you White mages out there who are just dying to combine Serra’s Sanctum with Nykthos for the ultimate middle finger to Green, who is supposed to be good at mana, will finally have the opportunity to do so. An Alpha Farmstead is ~$130 while a Revised Farmstead is fifty-eight cents! You can really see the room that this card has to grow, so don’t miss out!

 

 

 2. North Star

 

There’s powerful, and then there’s the North Star. For the cost of a single Wood Elemental, you can cast any spell with any type of mana that you want. We had Eldrazi Winter once; North Star threatens to become the Eldrazi star once people realize that this card lets you spend the mana generated by Eldrazi Temple and Cavern of Souls to cast uncounterable, mana-accelerated threats way ahead of curve (again… after the one-time payment of only four mana, payed in one quick and easy installment!) The greatest thing about North Star is that when people argue about how the rules work, you can just point them to Gatherer… which has no rulings on how this card works. Which means they’ll just have to trust you because you wouldn’t have built an entire Commander deck around a card that you misinterpreted. Best of all, you can activate North Star’s ability as an interrupt! Anytime you get tired of listening to all your friends talk about how wonderful their lives are while you’re making your living speculating on cardboard, you can just activate good ol’ North Star to cut them right off. 

 

 

 1. Yare

 

As WOTC frequently reminded us during the Beta draft, even though cards don’t have monetary value, they definitely have “collectability” value. And this art is simply magnificent. It takes a lot to slap three golden robot-men with one swing with such force that they’re all K.O.’ed. But Yare pulls it off. I have to assume that Yare is the name of the central golden robot-man, because the dictionary definition of the word is, “(of a ship) responding promptly to the helm; easily manageable.” And as far as I can see, this golden robot-man is not managing a boat, he’s delivering some considerable force via his golden wizard cyborg hands.

And the card is playable cuz, combat tricks, you know? Like… never really what you want, but when you have a weak pool, you make do. Just make sure your blocks are legal, folks! No dirty blocking, you hear? Buy this one up before it becomes a meme!

And there you have it! Next time a person on the internet asks other people on the internet what card they should buy/which RL cards are going to spike next, you can just point them here to me, a third internet person! My parents always said, “Don’t take candy from strangers, but you can’t go wrong taking financial advice from strangers on the internet.”

 

Ryan Normandin is a grinder from Boston who has lost at the Pro Tour, in GP & SCG Top 8's, and to 7-year-olds at FNM. Despite being described as "not funny" by his best friend and "the worst Magic player ever" by Twitch chat, he cheerfully decided to blend his lack of talents together to write funny articles about Magic. Make fun of him online through Twitter (@RyanNormandin) and Twitch (norm_the_ryno).