BANNED - The face of "new" standard

I woke up this morning to some interesting news to all of you magic players getting fed up playing against and probably losing against Caw-blade time and time again:

June 20, 2011

Standard Banlist Updates

- Jace the Mind Sculptor is banned from standard.
- Stoneforge Mystic is banned from standard.

So, if you are on the heroic side and play rouge decks, this is your time to celebrate!  Now if you played the villian and had an all foil Caw-Blade deck, prepare to lose a ton of money.

Not only will the prices on Jace and Stoneforge halve, but you'll also see a huge drop in the other big cards in the deck.  Let's look into the future, shall we?

- Jace the Mind Sculptor

: Banned in standard, still a big card in legacy (and extended, but extended is the crap format right now) so he will retain some value.  how much?  I would bank on $35-$50 bucks.  A lot of people want to sell their Jaces right now so the market will be flooded with them, dropping it lower than that, but after the legacy players soak them up, they will again become a chase card and keep some value.

- Stoneforge Mystic:

 Also Banned in standard, this card does see some play in legacy and its pretty good there.  It's value depends on what gets printed in the future.  Wizards has more room now to create broken equipment for standard now that stoneforge is banned.  Which could trickle down to legacy.  Or it could just stay this way and we still have a lot of nice stuff to use with it (Batterskull, Sword of Fire and Ice, etc)  In any case, I'd like to say it will still have to drop to being a $5-$10 buck card.

- Batterskull:

  Well the time has come that we can start testing Batterskull for the card it is at face value, instead of being a stoneforge trick.  How good is it?  Well, when I reviewed it for my New Phyrexia price guide, I didnt really think much about it with stoneforge since it was going to rotate anyways.  I usually just value the card for what it is.  So heres what I wrote back in early May about it:

"Ok, so its spoiled right, and worth $5 on Starcitygames.com - so Patrick Chaplin posts hows its so bonkers and within 24 hours it shoots up to $25 bucks. Yes, I think the price is artifically inflated. Yes, I think its a great card. Ok, so its 5 mana for a 4/4 lifelink vigilance. Thats awesome right there. But wait, if it dies, I can give make my Gatekeeper here a 6/6 lifelink vigilance for 5 mana? Sweet! Oh, it gets better? At the end of my opponents turn, if I'm out of creatures, I just tap 3 mana, untap for turn, then pay 5 again and get my creature back? Does anyone remember Eternal Dragon? It was 7 mana for a 5/5 flying, but it kept coming back! A must have for control decks imo.

Value: $10-$20
Cap: $25"


Sword of War and Peace/Feast and Famine:

So, these cards arent too good now, but they might see fringe play in sideboards.  I dont like running dups in a deck since they dont give enough value when you have most than one on the board.  Still, you never know what they will print next, so lets say $7-$12 for these guys.

Squadron Hawk:

You suck.

Jace Beleren:

A solid card, but you have to think that it will lose some value since half the reason you run him is to thwart 2.0 via the legendary ruling.  And he's up for reprint.  But at the end of the day, I run him just for card advantage.  He's a slow concentrate for a mana less.  Or a howling mine if you want that.  So I have no doubt he will maintain value, so let's peg him at $4-$7.


So enough of CawBlade, its done.  What cards do I see becoming more popular in the near future?  Heres a small list to finish this article with current prices:

- Primeval Titan (25)
- Thrun (7)
- Green Sun (5)
- Phyrexian Obliterator (20)
- Koth of the Hammer (25)
- Deciever Exarch/Splinter Twin (75 cents/8)
- Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas (30)
- Valakut (2.50)
- Vengevine (20)
- Gideon Jura (20)
- Wurmcoil Engine (6)