Trade Secrets: What I learned at GP London, upcoming cards and rising trade stars.
As a vendor (or working for one) at Magic Grand Prix’s and other large scale tournaments and events you are privileged in many ways, but one of the best is the information that if you are savvy you can pick up from the tournaments. Through the process of buying and selling huge amounts of cards in a short space of time you get to notice patterns and customer wants. This makes it much easier to predict cards that will go up or down in value, as well as how metagames, decks and formats will likely shape up over the coming months.
I believe there are enough cards and tournaments to go around and so figured why not share this information for once.
Fast Lands
We always sell lots of fetch and shock lands, this time we sold lots of the kaladesh fast lands too. No real surprise there but just a heads up to get yours now before they go up in price.
Unsurprisingly we sold a ton of Smuggler’s Copter….a ton! Despite the price going up drastically since the SCG open last weekend this card is probably set to go up in price again. Normally this early into a format you would expect cards that do well to sell well but this one is really off the charts.
Firstly the SCG tournament that caused the spike had 4 copters in every deck in the top 16 apart from 2! That’s unheard of! Even Jace, the Mind Sculptor wasn’t as played when it dominated standard. This combined with the fact that we could only just keep the copters in stock with literally only 1 or 2 left over the whole grand prix despite buying in as many as we could makes me think this one will go up again in price for sure. Get yours now while they are still £13
Red/White Aggro
As expected Red white aggro was one of the decks we sold loads of cards for. Pia Nalaar will go up in price for sure! It’s so good and at only £1 we sold more than I can count. There is nothing bad about the card but you have to see it in play to fully realise how great it is! I would also pick these up now while they are still cheap. Toolcraft Exemplar is another great aggro card that fits in this deck that we sold a ton of, as is Depala, Pilot Exemplar. I think from how pushed the power level of some of these cards this deck is the real deal and not just a week one flash in the pan. Expect to see it at standard events near you.
Nissa, vital force is a great card, and our most sold planeswalker by far over the weekend. It’s easy to see the power of the card and I believe we will be seeing plenty more of this one in standard when the initial aggro hype dies down and people figure out great midrange and control strategies. The card is also powerful enough that it will see cube and possibly modern play.
This still seems to be black’s weapon of choice for all purpose hand destruction, small creature killing and a discard outlet. I can’t see this one staying cheap for long as it is in one of the most popular modern decks and has potential for a few others. In short if you are playing a deck with swamps any time soon I would also expect to be playing Collective Brutality.
Our most popular gearhulk by far, and another one that we sold a lot of. Verdurous Gearhulk is such a good card that it is hard to be sure if people were buying it for the green white aggressive decks that have been floating around or some other colour combination or possibly even cube or modern.
Nevertheless a card to watch.
Surprisingly Torrential Gearhulk was our second most popular gearhulk outselling even the white one. It is certainly very powerful and there has been some talk of running it in modern as an additional Snapcaster Mage of sorts that can also beat down and ambush creatures. I could also imagine a possible 3 colour modern deck with Through the Breach and ramp effectively using the gearhulk to flashback through the breach and counterspells.
We sold and had a lot of interest in general around Kozilek’s Return which leads me to believe standard decks featuring the sweeper plus powerful emerge eldrazi like Elder Deep-Fiend will likely be in the ‘control’ deck of the format. That combined with the fact that this card sees play in eternal formats makes me think it’s a good card to own right now.
Since its strong performance at the magic world cup Scapeshift decks that kill with Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and a whole lot of mountains have become increasingly popular. Grand prix London saw this trend continue for us as vendors. A fun and very competitive modern staple, not really much surprise or too say about this one, expect a price rise in all the cards in this deck if it continues selling the way it is now.
Grim Flayer has been far too cheap for far too long! Every Grand Prix we have been at this summer has resulted in us completely selling out of Grim Flayer on the Friday and then being unable to keep any in stock as the ones we buy instantly sell no matter what price we put on them! If you can get these they are a great buy and will hold their value for a long long time due to its standard playability and being a 4 of in various modern decks.
Vintage and Old School 93/94
As time goes on we have started selling more and more cards for the old school 93/94 format. If you aren’t sure what this awesome format is then you can check it out here.
The more playable cards and alpha/ beta basic lands sell out surprisingly quickly and get an astonishing amount of interest from players. You would be surprised how many people want a beta white knight or even the hugely expensive Juzam Djinn. Every grand prix seems to have a decent sized 93/94 old school event now too, the result is cards becoming even harder to find and affecting the prices of desired cards. If you are looking to speculate or just to play this fun format now is the time to get in before it becomes unaffordable and it’s too late.
Well there you have it, the most popularly purchased and asked for cards at Grand Prix London. Use this information as you wish either to take advantage of the upwards price shift trends or to plan sideboards to beat these cards. I fully expect a number of these to feature in the upcoming pro tour and I will be watching eagerly!
If you have any questions please feel free to post below
