There has never been a better time to start playing magic’s most exciting formats. I am of course talking about magic’s main two eternal formats, Modern and Legacy. Below I will tell you why there has never been a better time to start enjoying these formats.

Just a quick explanation for those who are not familiar with what I am talking about. Modern is a fast paced format with all of magic’s most powerful cards from the modern era (specifically cards printed from 8the Edition onwards). As a format it is a natural progression from standard, so if you are looking for a change and like the sound of pummelling your opponents into dust with a horde of artifact creatures or summoning giant end gaming monstrosities as early as turn 3 then modern is likely to be the format for you.

Legacy is full of awesome decks and gut wrenching interactions that leave players on the edge of their seat every game they play. It’s essentially a continuation from modern, the cards may be more powerful but the answers to them are even more astonishingly powerful which leads to a balanced and rewarding format. If you are a fan of modern already I strongly recommend you watch some legacy coverage (you can find this quite easily online) as this is usually a natural progression after playing modern.

So why now?

These formats are notoriously expensive and the cards can be hard to find and get hold of in some cases due to age and scarcity, which is no secret. But as I write this something is different! What is it?!?

The reason now is the best time ever to get into these formats is that many of the staples are actually in standard (or current product) as you read this! That’s right, wizards of the coast have done it again and brought us the most mind boggling power level of cards all at once since, dare I say it, the original Mirrodin block!

This means cards are easier to get and cheaper too! The price history of all modern and legacy cards has consistently shown that these diamonds in the rough only go up in price in the long term, even after they rotate out of standard. Now is the best time to pick them up as they will likely just be double or triple (or up to ten times in some cases) their price in a few years.

Serum visions was once an £8 common because of modern, and it only dropped because of a reprint at uncommon! ……£8 for a common! The value modern and legacy cards can gain when they are not in standard and suddenly become hard to find is real! Worst case scenario is you just sell them a few years down the line for a nifty profit if you decide you don’t want to play modern or legacy.

What is so good at the moment?

Let me start with the most obvious……..the Eldrazi! Wizards of the coast made some serious mistakes with these ones, they are all far too good and instantly saw both modern and legacy play (even leading to a banning in modern). Tournaments were full of Eldrazi as far as the eye could see, conjuring up dark flashbacks to the time of mirrodin when colourless artifact creatures dominated tournaments and table tops alike. Simply put these are 4 of’s in both legacy and modern and are wayyy too cheap right now!

Some examples are:

 Reality smasher : £3.17………………………..A solid 4 of in every Eldrazi deck, it kills

opponents in a flash and is easily better than a £3 card considering its long term

playability.

 Thought-knot Seer : £4.83…………………….The most expensive Eldrazi and most

powerful, a 4 of in every Eldrazi deck. and a cornerstone of the deck at that, for less

than £5. Comparable to affinity’s Arc-bound Ravager (currently siting at £30) in terms

of how much of a staple and iconic card it is to the Eldrazi deck. Don’t expect this

one to still be under £5 in a few years from now.

 Eldrazi Displacer: £3.27…………………………. If you watched World Champion Brian Braun-Duin smash people in the modern section  of worlds with 4 of this in his Eldrazi deck you know how powerful this one is! £3.27 is nothing compared to the price this one could go up to when the numbers dry up.

 Drowner of Hope: £0.32…………………………It’s in every modern Eldrazi deck and its 32p. I mean what?!?… you practically can’t lose on this one when you consider that absolute worst case scenario you can sell bulk rares back to the store for 10p!

So now the Eldrazi in the room has been dealt with I can discuss some of the other current staples.

 Grim Flayer: £14.94…………………………….A more pricey one here but for good reason! This card started cheap but then as people played with it and realised how absurdly powerful it is in modern the price shot up. It’s becoming a 4 of in every black green based deck in modern. These are some of the most powerful and popular decks in the format with Abzan (black/green/white) being the most popular deck by far at the World Championships this year. This one also has a lot of time left in standard and gives you the option to use it there too!

 Thalia, Heretic Cathar: £2.99……………………..Thalia has started seeing play in both modern and legacy and, while not a 4 of like these other cards, she is a quick an easy pick up.

 Conspiracy 2 Take the Crown £76.95

This set has the most value (EV) of any set with a regular price tag ever! Many of the cards you can open are worth almost a third of the box price by themselves. I don’t think you will be disappointed with the box but just in case you were looking at single cards Serum Visons (£2.24) is a 4 of in almost all modern decks using blue and as mentioned before commanded a high price until its very recent reprint. The boxes also have some more pricy reprints in Show and Tell (a deck in itself) and Berserk (legacy infect staple). They also have the eagerly awaited Inquisition of Kozilek rounding out cards that already see play in eternal. However, there are many cards like Sanctum Prelate, Recruiter of the Guard and Leovold, Emissary of Trest as a few examples that will very likely also see play!

These are just the cards that see widespread play, there are plenty of others such as Kozilek’s Return and the new emerge eldrazi such as Elder Deep-Fiend that could easily see regular modern play.

But wont these cards get reprinted?

Its very very unlikely that these cards get a reprint for years, almost as close to not going to happen as you can say (although remember nothing is ever 100% certain). Almost all of these cards are far too powerful to reprint in a normal standard environment and also carry set specific mechanics or flavour which usually means they are a no no for reprints in a normal block and will come in a masters type set….except they are all too new to be reprinted in those for a few years and unlikely to be desired as they won’t hit Tarmogoyf prices. Giving them time to gain value!

So these are the reasons why I believe now to be a great time in magic to secure your first eternal cards and as always keep at it have fun and good games all round! If you have any questions about how to get in to the formats please post in the comments below.