L2P Episode 26: Magic: the Gathering Pricing

Allow me to preface this by stating for the record that I am not an economist and that my opinions are strictly for the sake of discussion. Being an avid fan of Magic: the Gathering as a gamer, I have always found some gripes with the cost of certain cards. With the introduction of the new Mythic Rarity, I was a little hesitant to trust this move as a way to lower the overall cost of play in formats like standard. Much to my chagrin, I patiently listened to the “experts” give their opinions on the subject and their claims that mythics would, in fact, lower the price of rares.

Divided Opinions

Now, over a year later, we have a nice even split in opinion. There are those who say that the system works, citing the lower prices of fetches, dual lands and staples like Archive Trap and Day of Judgment and we have the camp that says that the system doesn’t work, citing cards like Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Baneslayer Angel. While both these camps do make valid points, I feel it is best to look at the picture as a whole rather than claiming one way or the other.

First of all, it is true that there are cards like Jace and Baneslayer that heavily skew the numbers as far as their pricing goes, but as noted by many, the overall price of normal rares has indeed dropped. We are seeing an unprecedented number of decks using complex mana bases featuring fetch lands, M10 duals and the Worldwake Manland duals, yet most of these cards are finding it difficult to breach the $15 mark, with most of them hovering at around $8-10 at local card shops. This is by far a departure from the $15-20 filter lands at their peak or the $30 Reflecting Pools we had to deal with a little over a year ago.

Land, Land, Land

My focus when it comes to money in Magic has always been the lands, because more often than not, good cards need good lands and all the best lands are usually rares. Most of the good cards, however, are the commons and uncommons that make your decks run. I’m talking about the little guys, like reactive spells to keep the board clear or efficient creatures that keep your opponent on their toes. As a matter of fact, most of my games lately were not decided by Baneslayers, but by cards like Bloodbraid Elf, Vampire Nighthawk or Lightning Bolt.

There’s one motto I’ve lived by when talking about competitive Magic: “If you want to be successful in a format over a long period of time, always get the lands first.” This statement still rings true today, as having all the good lands ensures that you will be able to play nearly any deck you want in the format without worrying too much about what you may or may not have. Sure, you won’t have that playset of Baneslayers initially, but rather than shafting yourself into any one deck you may get bored of, you open all the doors by acquiring all of the lands. And with respect to that motto, the introduction of mythics has indeed lowered the cost of entry for Standard.

For more information on this topic, see the Ben Bleiweiss article at Star City Games here.