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Did you miss me? Hmmph. What I really should be asking is ‘did you miss this series?’ I’ve had a number of people email me asking me when I’m going to pick this one back up and the answer is: NOW! I won’t be able to kick it into overdrive and finish off all of the sets in today’s article. I will, however, talk a little about Shadowmoor, a little about Eventide and a lot about the Onslaught block. Does this excite you? Does this tantalize the very existence of your soul to know which cards in your collection are worth more than the cardboard they are printed on and that you might someday be able to trade one or several of these cards for a Mox Ruby? I don’t know about a Mox, but maybe a card from Arabian Nights… If this interests you I would encourage you to keep reading. Since its been about two months since the last article in this series, let quickly recap the categories for both Commons and Uncommons:
You’ll notice something different about the above categories. No, they aren’t different in pricing and they aren’t different in name. They are different in the way that I’ve listing them. To be specific, they are in reverse. This is for a reason. And that reason is I will be talking about the cards in the above order. Before it was Uncommons then Commons; High to Low. Now it will be Commons then Uncommons, Low to High. Let me know how you like this in the forum. This won’t apply to my discussion of Shadowmoor or Eventide. Speaking of which, let’s dive into where we left off last time: Shadowmoor!
Below is a grid showing the current pricing (as of 8/16/08) next to the pricing from June 2008. See if you can notice anything earth shattering…
If you know of any thing I don’t or have some speculations on what cards might become more or less valuable as Eventide infiltrates more deck lists, please let me know in the forum. In the meantime, lets move onto the star of today’s column: Onslaught Block.
Onslaught is one of my favorite blocks of all-time. It was the first time in Magic’s history that the focus of the cards was on the different creature types and the tribes of Magic. With me being a huge fan of tribal decks before Onslaught, I just couldn’t get enough. I started going to tournaments, I started drafting, I started to rekindle some of that spark of the game that had been lingering in the undercurrents of my mind. All in all, it was a good thing for me, Magic and MDV. Some people complained that the Onslaught Block was underpowered or that Elves were annoying – but I disagree. I do, however, agree that Goblins were annoying. Will we find any Goblins in our Onslaught Block Commons? Let’s take a look.
There aren’t a whole lot of commons worthy talking about, which is a shame because there were so many great ones. That makes me kind of mad, but oh well. Let’s talk about our two commons, pictures above.
Wellwisher ($1.25), our only star common, is much like the Priest of the Timberwatch Elf mentioned above. The two big differences is that it only costs two mana (not three like Timberwatch) and it gains you life. Life gain has proven itself time and time again a very useful tactic in dueling. Look at Kitchen Finks from Shadowmoor. Interesting to note is that I traded away eight Wellwishers within a week of adding them to my Trading Haves List. I don’t recall what I got in return but that doesn’t matter. Remember that some of your commons are worth more than many of your rares. Wellwisher is a good example. This also concludes the Onslaught Commons section.
Luckily there are a lot more Uncommons to talk about than Commons and several in each category of Uncommon too. While I was disappointed with the turnout for Commons, I am made happy again to see some of these cards again. Let’s begin with our solid uncommons.
Chain of Vapor ($0.99) wasn't very high in value until early 2007. It appears this card had started to make appearances in Extended and Eternal formats as a means to deal with cards like Tormod's Crypt, cards in Enduring Ideal decks and with Pithing Needles. …to name a few. Whether or not this card is found in sideboards or main decks, one thing is certain: a one-mana blue bounce spell is efficient since it can bounce anything except for a land. True, it may backfire on you as they can chain this bounce right back at you, but at the cost of a land. This is also the only Chain spell to make it into today’s article. Pemmin's Aura ($0.99) is actually an anagram of "I Am Superman" which pays homage to Morphling since these abilities can also be found naturally on Morphling. Pemmin's Aura will be sought after as long as there are cards that generate more than two mana. Hence, infinite mana. until Infinite loops are banned from casual magic, this card will continue to be a valuable card. Wirewood Channeler anyone? So I have to ask, when are we going to meet Pemmin? Is he a planeswalker from the upcoming Shards of Alara? Hmmm…. Root Sliver ($0.99) is a sliver that can make it so that all of your other sliver spells cannot be countered. Last I checked this was a really good ability for a really powerful tribe. I’m surprised this isn’t worth more. I suppose if it was costed as aggressively as Crystalline Sliver was back in the Tempest Block we might see another four dollar sliver here. Good thing Wizards learned their lessons a long time ago. Smother ($0.99) was printed twice thus far: Once in Onslaught and once as a DCI promo. Quick side note: I really wish I could find a website that has every single Promo listed with the date of its release. I started to compile a list together a few months ago and gave up because I just could find all of the information. Perhaps I should submit a question to Ask Wizards. In fact, here I go… I’ll be right back. Done. I feel better now. The unfortunate part is that I won’t ever see an answer. Or at least it is highly unlikely that I will get a reply. I’ve never received a reply to any of the Ask Wizards questions I submitted in the past five years – maybe this one will be different. Back to Smother, this is an efficient removal spell for Black that is mostly better than Terror. Most importantly is that Smother is capable of killing any color creature (including Black and Artifact), something which Terror cannot. On the downside, it is not capable of destroying anything with a converted mana cost higher than three. However, this is not such a bad deal because your average Black deck has another card to deal with those creatures. Note that the promo version of this card is valued around $4.00. Blade Sliver ($1.25) could be a valuable card because it is technically a 3/2 creature for 2R in Red. Which is really an efficient creature for Red. Or, it could be because it’s a sliver which is a highly popular and efficient tribe of creatures… Dragonspeaker Shaman ($1.49) is a great card for any Dragon lover. One of the problems with the Dragon tribe and building decks around them is that they cost so much mana to play. There are cards like Dragonstorm, but even that spell by itself is nine mana! Dragonspeaker Shaman fits nicely into the mana curve of a Dragon deck and does a real good job at getting a Dragon out faster. Remember a two mana reduction in cost is NOTHING to scoff at. Combine this reduction with the fact that every other block they seem to be making a cycle of Dragon cards and we have a great Uncommon that will continue to increase in value as long as Magic keeps making new Dragons. Ward Sliver ($1.49) is amazingly powerful even at five mana. Granting flying is one thing, but protection from a color of your choice is painful for any opponent. Even if they aren’t playing a mono-color deck, this is a tough ability to work around short of a Terror. Assuming you don’t choose Black when you play Ward Sliver.
Wirewood Hivemaster ($1.75) has not yet been promo’d but I wouldn’t be surprised if it ever is. Tokens creatures time and time again have proven their value in Magic and thus any card that can generate them is typically a valuable card. Look at the recent prices of Bitterblossom … There is no tap involved and no mana investment involved in generating 1/1 green Insect tokens. All you have to do is do what you would normally do in a tribal deck: play Elves! Each Elf you play will trigger the Hivemaster’s ability and also give you a 1/1 green Insect token to play with. Good times. Next up are Onslaught Block's Star Uncommons:
Daru Warchief ($1.99) is amazing on many levels. In fact, all of the Warchiefs are amazing cards and really tickled my deckbuilding motivation when they were first released. They enabled the tribes I loved to build around, reduced their overall cost to play and enabled them with something extra. In the case of the Daru Warchief, all soliders get +1/+2! I would love to see more warchiefs in the future for other tribes like Insects, Spikes, Thallids, Bears, Frogs, Minotaur, etc. They printed different variations of warchiefs in the Lorwyn block, but still those were limited to the tribes they chose in Lorwyn and Morningtide. Shifting Sliver ($1.99) is much like Ward Sliver in that it gives a strong form of Evasion in most dueling scenarios. Unless your opponent is playing Slivers, or has a Wrath of God or Evacuation effect, once this card is dropped you are certain to win the game. Game winners usually fetch a nice price and this card is no exception. Silver Knight ($1.99) was printed both as a Legions uncommon and as a DCI Promo ($3.99). Now, let’s take a quick look at all of the “(Five or Six Letter Word) Knights” in Magic. They all have five or six letter words in their name, all are 2/2 for two converted mana, all have protection and all have first strike:
Silver Knight is the most valuable of them all! Is Protection from Red really better than protection from any other color? Perhaps. If that’s true, it is solely because of Ponza, Burn and Red Deck Wins types of decks where all they do is burn down threats and send the rest of the flame back at their opponent.
However, I don’t believe that’s the only scenario. You have to remember that Black Knight and White Knight have been printed in many CORE sets over the years and thus are in circulation a lot more than Silver Knight. Because Silver Knight was restricted to two printings (one of which was limited as a promo) and the demand is a lot higher for it than say Blood Knight it is going to soar in pricing. It will be interesting to see if Blood Knight ever finds the right deck. I guess White weenie would have to become powerful in Extended… Do you see that happening any time soon? *shakes head*
I’m not really saying this is broken, but it is a very powerful card in the right deck. Given that storm decks have all of the fuel they could ever need, and infinite storm counts are totally feasible in Extended and at the casual kitchen table, it is no wonder this card is so expensive for an uncommon. I know I always liked Highway Robbers. Tendrils of Agony is the Sorcery equivalent of Highway Robbers. Wirewood Channeler ($1.99) is the new Priests of Titania except its bigger and better. You get to choose what color mana you want and he starts off as a 2/2, not a 1/1 like the Priests. Combine his with a card in Block (Pemmin’s Aura) and you have a two card infinite mana combo. And for those that don’t have any Priests of Titania to play with, the Channeler makes a fine substitution. Wirewood Lodge ($1.99) is a land that helps the Elf Tribe. Given that Elves are one of the top tribes in Magic (amongst Goblins, Clerics and Zombies) it is no surprise this card is so valuable. Its ability isn’t game breaking, but getting to untap one of your Elves (like the Channeler or a Priest of Titania) for one green mana should give you the resources to play something else that is game breaking. Soulless One ($2.99) is a member of one of those tribes I just mentioned: Zombies. In fact, he is like a zombie general of sorts getting a power and toughness set by Zombies in play and in graveyard. And not just your graveyard, but ALL graveyards. I suppose this has something to do with him being a three dollar uncommon. I’m personally not a fan of the tribe, but I hear that once you go soulless, you never come back… Undead Warchief ($2.99) is the complete opposite of Daru Warchief. Where Daru would give +1/+2 to Soldiers, Undead Warchief gives +2/+1 to Zombies. Either Zombies are more powerful than Soldiers, or giving +2/+1 is more valuable than +1/+2. In this cards case, both are true. Undead Warchief was also Timeshifted in Time Spiral ($2.99). Brain Freeze ($3.49) is the second Storm card to hit this list and this card happens to execute one of my favorite tactics in Magic: milling. While the mill strategy doesn’t win as many games as life loss (bleeding) strategies, it is a favorite of the casual crowd. And this is apparent in the fact that this is more expensive than even Tendrils of Agony. I was recently building a budget deck for a top secret Writers Guild project and wanted to include this card. Unfortunately, I couldn’t even fit one of them in given the measly budget I have to work with. You’ll be interested to see my final decklist when our project is complete. By the way, if you haven’t seen MDV’s Mill Database of Decks, please go here. You’re sure to find something up your alley. Next up are Onslaught Block’s All-Star Uncommons and this time around we only have two.
The third and final warchief to make the list is Goblin Warchief ($3.99) and he is apparently the most powerful. But this is not because he is better than any of the other Warchiefs. It is because his tribe is better and more powerful and more sought after than any other tribe in Magic. While the Haste he grants does help his price, it’s the goblins he helps that make him so powerful. It is interesting to note that since Goblin Warchief was printed, his value continues to go up in price. Unless Wizards of the Coast reprints him in another set, this trend will continue. Goblins are one of the tribes, next to Elves, that keep getting printed in new sets. Will this change in Shards of Alara? We’ll have to keep checking the Rumor Mills on MTGS and www.wizards.com Arcana to find that out. I don’t remember seeing any in the wall papers they recently posted. By the way, Goblin Warchief was also printed as an FNM promo ($4.99) card. The last card to talk about in the Onslaught Block is Heedless One ($3.99) and she isn’t any more expensive or less expensive than Goblin Warchief. She does have gorgeous art, a beautiful key worded ability of Trample and has power and toughness directly relative to the number of Elves you have in play. It’s elegant, powerful and certainly associated to another of the top tribes in Magic: Elves. Much like Goblins above, Elves seem to populate the universe of Magic as much as Goblins do. But are Goblins really as strong as Elves in power and popularity? I have yet to pick up a copy of the Elves vs. Goblin duel deck so why don’t you tell me which is more powerful in the forum.
Two cards in that list that REALLY surprise me are Astral Slide and Blackmail. Certainly these cards should have been worth $0.99 or more. But they aren't. Even Whipcorder seems like it should be a Noteworthy Common. And, wow… there’s Temple of the False God. Rotating out of Standard Pool should does cause a lot of cards to drop in value.
I'm a little surprised on some of the slivers, Carrion Feeder and Twisted Abomination. Even the Wirewood Herald and Savage seem like $0.49 cards. Perhaps more time will improve the value of these cards. In the meantime, let's take a quick look at Eventide Commons and Uncommons and then close shop for the day.
We have three Noteworthy Commons and only Solid Uncommon. There are a number of cards worth watching as I’ve shown above. I would expect Unmake, Edge of Divinity, Raven’s Crime, Flickerwisp and Moonhold to all increase in price before Eventide rotates out of standard. However, only time and the deck choices of the Pros will determine this. Since I started tracking the prices of these cards late July, only one Common card went up in price: Unmake. I expect this card to reach $0.99 very soon. Thank you for reading and join me in further discussion of this article in the forums. John Streetz
You can discuss this article in the MDV forums
here.
Articles
Spotlights from 2008: |
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Timberwatch Elf ($0.79), much like Priest of Titania from
Urza’s Block, has an ability that gets bigger and better with each additional
Elf you have in play beyond itself. While the Priest of Titania had a much more
useful ability, this ability is not to be ignored. It can target itself to take
down an attacker. It can target your one creature that got through enemy lines.
It can work real well when you have a Taunting Elf and another attacking
creature… It’s reasonably costed for its ability and it doesn’t require anything
beyond a tap to pump an ally.
Withered Wretch ($1.49) was printed three times. Once in
Onslaught ($1.49), once as a DCI promo ($3.99) and once as a Timeshifted card in
Time Spiral ($1.49 to $1.99). Every block had its card or cards that dealt with
cards in a graveyard. Before Withered Wretch there were cards like Steamclaw,
Phyrexian Furnace and Tormod’s Crypt. However, Withered Wretch is the first
efficient 2/2 for two creature to have the ability to remove multiple cards
(specific cards that you choose) from a graveyard in the same turn. And because
it’s a creature (Zombie Cleric mind you, both of which are popular tribes) it
doesn’t have to be a sideboard option. It can almost always be main deck.
Alpha Status ($1.99) is particularly useful in an Elf
tribal deck running Defiant Elf. But Alpha Status is not restricted to just an
Elf tribe or just a green deck. This card works wonders in any tribal deck. You
are going to have to splash some green mana in there so you can cast it (unless
you want to play some white spells to work around actually having to cast them).
Let’s not forget the crazy interaction this card has with Mistform Ultimus or
Shapeshifter creatures from Lorwyn…
Tendrils of Agony ($1.99) was also printed as an FNM Promo
($5.99). This card is what you get when you take away the ‘all opponents’ clause
on Syphon Soul and then tack on Storm. Add one mana to ensure it isn’t broken
and then watch it become broken anyway. 
Well that concludes our Onslaught Block review of uncommon
and common magical treasures. Were you surprised to see so few commons and so
many uncommons as I was? What cards didn’t make this list?