If you’ve missed the last two articles and own any cards from the Mirage Block, Tempest Block or Urza’s Block, then I would encourage you to check those articles out either before or after you read today’s article. However, reading them before today’s article isn’t completely necessary.

Today I’m going to take a look at the popular and pricey uncommons and commons from both the unpowered Mercadian Masques block as well as the powered Invasion block. What uncommons will be All-Stars today? And which block will I have to dip into cards lower than Solid Rated uncommons to flesh out the article? All that and ShadowMOOR in today’s Words from the Streetz!

Before I get into the uncommons from the Mercadian Masques block, I have a quick poll in store for you. Some have expressed concern for the title of this series. Some say it’s too long while other say it’s the perfect title that drew them into reading it. Below are some names for the series. Vote on the one you think is the most appropriate. And note that this will still be a subset of Words from the Streetz.

I was originally just going to call it Uncommon Magical Treasures, but opted to make the title more descriptive and added Commons… thus making it a long article title.  Note that "Words from the Streetz" is not changing.

I mentioned Masques as being and underpowered block earlier because I honestly think it was. While Rebels and Mercenaries were a fun and decent ability; while Spellshapers were an innovation of Magic, the rest of the cards and abilities were on the poor side. While I know this is a bold statement on my part, it is also undeniable that Rhystic is a terrible mechanic. I wouldn’t also be surprised if you, the reader stopped playing Magic temporarily around this time. If for no other reason this block was overshadowed by the power of the Urza’s Block and thus will be known as the weak set that followed an uber-powerful set.

While I am really just rambling, this does play into the number of star uncommon and commons you’ll see in the block… which is significantly less than what we’ve seen thus far. So much that I am dipping into the sort-of worthy uncommons from the block because otherwise there are only four other Solid and better uncommons from the ENTIRE block! On top of that, none of them are All-Star Uncommons ($3.99 and up).

The only Star Uncommon($1.99 to $3.75) is Story Circle($2.49). While I am a little surprised this card is valued so greatly, and even more surprised to see that it has gone UP 50 cents since a little over a month ago. The surprise comes from the fact that Story Circle has been printed four times thus far: Originally in Masques, then in Eighth Edition, Ninth Edition and finally in Tenth Edition. With that many printings it is going to be available.

However, what I shouldn’t forget is that the CORE set no longer contains Circle of Protections(CoPs). Up until Ninth Edition, every CORE set had a full set CoPs including all five colors. In Ninth Edition they cut down to just White’s enemies, Black and Red. Then in Tenth Edition, the CORE Set currently in the Standard card pool, they reprinted NO CoPs, except for Story Circle. Story Circle combines all of the CoPs against colors into one card so I guess I can understand why they got rid of the other cards. But it’s really that fact, the fact that there isn’t a CoP other than Story Circle, in the CORE set that drives the price of Story Circle up.

Why did it go up 50 cents since a month ago? I have no clue there. If you know, bring everyone up to speed, myself included, in the forum.

Moving along to the Solid Uncommons ($0.99 to $1.75), we have two cards: Foil and Noble Purpose. Both of these cards are currently valued at $0.99.

Foil is one of those counterspells that works well in a Stasis deck and translates into a potential free counter spell, or a counterspell trick. A counterspell trick is one that you can play even when you opponent thinks you are tapped out. Another example of a counterspell trick card is Force of Will. You can be all tapped out and still play Foil. Mind you that Foil is a very neutered version of Force of Will. So neutered that you are going to trade three cards for one card… Still, it’s a potent card and thus the one dolla’ value.

Noble Purpose is a card that, as a certified Johnny, I don't get. I should like it and want to build a deck around it. But I don't. I just don't like it. Apparently Noble Purpose was so good that it went from Uncommon in Masques to Rare in Eighth Edition. I am thinking it is the rare-ification of the card in Eighth Edition that raised the value of this card.

By no means am I making another category here but below are the other noteworthy uncommons from the Masques Block:

An interesting tidbit for me from the above grid is that Chimeric Idol isn’t worth more and that only two of the storage lands are worth $0.49. What happen to the other three? Was there a misprint I missed?

In any event, if I were you, I would add Haunted Crossroads, Chimeric Idol and Rain of Tears to your trade thread… Oh wow.

That’s the first time I’ve mentioned “trade” in today’s article. If you are reading this series for the first time know that the roots of this series are based in the act of Trading cards, particularly through a forum somewhere, whether it is MDV’s or someone else’s. I wanted to let people know what commons and uncommons are worth more than there rares within their “Haves” list so they could add them and get more trades in motion.

There’s a LOT of Blue in the notable commons from Masques block. It would appear Wizards hadn’t yet learned their lesson about Blue being so overpowered that an Island is worth more than any other land… and I’m making all of that up. There are, however, more Blue cards on the list than the other colors. In fact, Red and White are devoid from this list altogether:

Before I begin let's revisit something I said earlier in the series:

Counterspell, an All-Star Common, is worth just as much in the Masques block as it was in the Tempest block ($1.49). And the reason for it being up there in pricing hasn’t changed from the article in this series (as referenced above).

All other cards from the list a Star Commons. Such as Brainstorm.

Brainstorm, originally printed in Ice Age, is INSTANT SPEED CARD DRAWING. It’s also INSTANT SPEED deck excavation. Dig three cards deep and keep one or all of them as long as you put two other cards back on top of your library? SIGN ME UP. I could conceivably fit brainstorm into any deck I own that has Blue somewhere in the mana base. It’s just that useful of a card. Perhaps that’s how every other Magic player feels. If that is the case, we now know why the card is such a valued common.

As a general rule, and especially since Wizards of the Coast has neutered instant speed card drawings for Blue in recent sets, any card that can draw cards at instant speed is going to be worth more than it’s rarity peers. This concept applies to another card from the grid: Accumulated Knowledge. The beauty of Accumulated Knowledge is that at best this card will draw you four cards for two mana. At worst this card will draw you one card. Whether its one or four cards, this is still instant speed card drawing. And thus the hefty price on a common.

I don’t think I need to rehash Dark Ritual as my quoted reference above explains the reasoning behind this cards worth. And Daze is just a weaker version of Foil mentioned earlier today. But Spidersilk Armor? That’s worth talking about.

Spidersilk Armor, by today’s standards, isn’t that great of a card. I tried putting it in my Triskelion deck the other day but was quickly advised to take it out in place of other, better cards. However, it’s the fact that I put it in the deck initially that matters here. The ability to grant all of your creatures Reach and give them +0/+1 is nothing to scoff at. It will keep you protected against heavy flying decks like those of Birds, Illusions and so on. But it will also keep many of your creatures free to death due to a normally catastrophic Pyroclasm. It’s the fact that the average casual player, which I consider myself, would put it into their deck and own more than just a playset of it that drives up this cards pricing. It also gives Green access to toughness pumping en mass which would normally just be White.

Quickly wrapping up the commons I can see any of these cards being great additions to your Haves list. If you have extras of these, pull them, catalog them and watch the trade offers start to pile up. Just remember to reply to them right away else you’ll lose a potential trade!

In reflection to the Masques Block, which followed an extremely powerful block and turned out to be a terribly weak block, the Invasion block was held in high due to the weak block that followed. Invasion had a lot of power and not just in Fact or Fiction or Sterling Grove. Read on to see what I’m talking about.

Fact or Fiction and Sterling Grove.

Fact or Fiction is the All-Star, All-Star Common (yes, I repeated that for a reason) of Invasion Block as it’s valued at $5.49. That value is similar to a good rare card and it is the highest priced uncommon in all of the Invasion Block. While I don’t completely understand the extreme value of the card, I know two things. It could potentially draw you five cards for four mana and it is instant speed draw. True, your opponent can split those cards up into two different piles and break up combo pieces, but you still get to choose the pile that goes into your hand. I personally own about six of these cards and would never trade any of them away. Maybe that’s why it’s so crazy expensive.. because no one wants to let go of the power that was in the Invasion Standard rotation. Is this card even played anymore in Eternal formats?

Sterling Grove($3.99) is excellent Enchantment TECH. It’s used heavily in casual play, eternal play and crazy combo decks across the globe. The card is reasonably costed and can even fetch an enchantment for you. Isn’t that silly Academy Rector worth a lot too? Well she doesn’t give shroud to all of your enchantments and give the option to search out an enchantment from your deck, does she? This is another card I want more of but that I don’t want to spend the money to get. I only own four and can think about three more decks I could use the card in. Where are my four copies currently? Egg-Shrine-Ance… here’s a link to the deck database page of the deck. *grin*

That was a pretty good turnout for All-Star Uncommons in comparison to the Masques block. What about our Star Uncommons? Let’s keep going, shall we?

Dragon Arch, Flametongue Kavu, Goblin Ringleader, Fire/Ice, Voice of All and Wash Out

Dragon Arch ($2.99) most likely spiked in value after the Ravnica block. Let me check…and it did. All of the Hybrid cards (which count as multicolored cards) sure opened up a plethora of options for the Dragon Arch. I’ll tap the Arch for two mana and put this Firemane Angel into play… Sign me up. And I believe every other casual player had the same thought. With a higher demand and limited quantity (only one printing of the card) makes for a good price. For us traders anyway…

Flametongue Kavu ($2.99) is so good that it can take out a Serra Angel by just entering play. The 4/2 body in combination with the four damage it can deal to any creature upon coming into play makes this four mana investment a steal. Then paired up with Astral Slide and other blink shenanigans, and you have an abusable, efficiently costed creature card for Red. While I’m a bit priced at the card, this too was only printed once. They did try to Timeshift the card into Firemaw Kavu… but we still have a few articles to go before we get to the Time Spiral block. And correction, it wasn’t “Timeshifted” as much as it was just printed as a card to give homage to an older card like the Flametongue…

Goblin Ringleader ($2.99) is a goblin… and it has haste… Need I say more? Yes, I do. This card can search the top of your library four cards deep in search for other goblins. What goblins have over the other tribes is that they aren’t mana intensive. And thus, the number of lands you have in a goblin deck are on the slim side. This in turn maximizes the number of Goblin cards you could potentially draw from the Ringleader.

I had 12q34e, a member of the MDV forums, review this article before it was published and he noted that Goblin Ringleader is the big reason Legacy Goblins are viable.

Fire/Ice ($2.49) is… instant speed draw, with options. What’s not to like? Let’s move along…

Voice of All ($1.99) seems to be following a trend. Let’s combine five related cards from White into one card, print it as an uncommon at first and then reprint it in a CORE set as a rare. That is exactly what happened with Story Circle and Voice of All. Voice of All is related to its 3W brethren printed as Voice of Reason, Voice of Duty and so on… Replace one colorless with a White mana symbol, give is a choice and suddenly you have a two dollar bomb. If anything, this has evasion on two fronts. This isn’t exactly a card I would put into every White deck, but I can see it in Tribal Angels and White Weenie if I’m short of one of the power Angels (Serra Angel, Exalted Angel, etc.)

Wash Out($1.99), despite being a Sorcery, it's still an excellent card to have in your arsenal. It’s very similar to Persecute, a Black Sorcery that makes you discard cards of a similar color from your hand, in that it hurts a player for playing one color. Actually, come to think of it, Wash Out and Persecute is a great combo. Play Wash out… follow up with Persecute. I digress. This is a bargain of the money and really for one reason – it says “permanents”. Not creatures, not enchantments, but all permanents. Suddenly a White weenie deck sporting an Anthem or two and six creatures is going to be crying when you return them all to your hand. Combine this card with a Painter’s Servant, and…

Wait a minute. This isn’t a combo article. I apologize. This is an article that explores valued Commons and Uncommons. Specifically you’ll find the Solid Uncommons from the Invasion block detailed below:

I don’t have any major comments about the cards above other than it’s good to see Fires of Yavimaya on the list (it was a solid card during the Standard season for the block), it’s weird seeing Crosis’s Catacombs better than the other tri-colored Lair lands and its equally strange seeing only some of the dual-land variants in the Solid Uncommon place.

Would I add all of these cards to my Haves list? Yes. The unfortunate thing for me is I didn’t collect a whole lot of the Invasion block because I had stopped playing around this time. I got back into Magic towards the beginning of the Odyssey block and collected as much of the Invasion block as I could afford. The really unfortunate thing here is that I don’t have a lot of extra common or uncommon cards from the Invasion Block to add to my Haves list.

Invasion Block only gets two notable common cards including Armadillo Cloak ($0.79) and Terminate ($1.75).

Terminate and Armadillo Cloak.

Terminate, an All-Star Common, is extremely efficient removal. It like the uber efficient Terror that isn't restricted by colors. All of this just because you add a Red to the mana cost in place of a colorless. It's instant speed which is a major bonus and overall is just a great card. If you look at some of the removal spells from Ravnica block they aren't all instant speed and aren't all aggressively costed like Terminate. Overall, this is a card you should have more than one playset of. With all of the color fixing found throughout the recent sets you shouldn't have any problem fitting this card into your deck. (That maybe a stretch...)

Armadillo Cloak($0.79) was made popular thanks to Pauper decks and tournaments. Armadillo Cloak is an extremely powerful force within this format and for that reason the card jumped up in value. There is nothing about this Aura that implies weak. Trample, life gain and +2/+2 for three mana… sign me up! While pauper is an all-common format, not all of the cards within are cheap to acquire. This card is one good example.

I wasn’t expected so few commons that were noteworthy from Invasion Block. It had a good show out for uncommons but why not commons? That I can’t explain at the moment. However, it is amusing to see the difference in just uncommon and common card values between Masques Block and Invasion Block. Just from what we talked about today I think you can see what I was talking about earlier with Powered and Unpowered blocks.

There weren’t a whole lot of changes this week. Most of the cards held in value with exception to Kitchen Finks which went up, Tattermunge Maniac which went down and Flame Javelin which went up slightly. Will this list change after the recent Pro Tour? Most certainly. It may take a week or two, but expect Redcap to go up another dollar. I’m still waiting for some of those commons I referenced two weeks ago to jump up in price.

Thanks for reading today’s journey through valuable commons and uncommons. Specifically through Uncommon and Common Magical Treasures. Let me know your thoughts on all of this in the forum thread.

Sincerely,

John Streetz

You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here.
Find other articles by this author here.
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Articles Spotlights from 2008:
A Fresh Perspective: Stasis - Part One.
The Apprentice Magician - Part Six.
Design on a Dime: The Lunch Meat Edition!
Fit the Flavor 2008 - FINALE!
The Games People Play - Market & EDH.
Sarpadian Empires, Vol VII: Foreword.
More Evil Than Evil.
Pauper Chronicles: Top O' the Morningtide to You!
Words from the Streetz: Uncommon and Common Magical Treasures.
The Writers Guild: The Inside Scoop.