#mtgstocks

Squandered resources is a powerful card with a powerful effect. I am actually shocked that this card flew under the radar for as long as it did especially since there was a blog, site, or other form of media that carried the name squandered resources. The card was actually under a dollar until the end of 2016 so there was a time since prices were formally recorded that you could have picked up this card for absolute bulk prices. If every good card on the reserved list has been picked dry and there is nothing left to speculate on then how do you explain squandered resources being 60 cents less than ten years ago? Did no one see the potential in a 2 mana ramp card that is also a free sacrifice outlet. There are many decks that want lands in the graveyard or can easily recur lands so a free sacrifice engine is absolutely paramount for those decks to function. Zuran orb and sylvan safekeeper are cheaper options but redundancy is important and this offers the effect on an enchantment. The payoff is also stronger. Never underestimate extra mana even at the cost of a resource especially if you can easily get the resource back or you are using that sacrifice to you advantage. Many decks can make excellent use of squandered resources in their combos. The gitrog monster, muldrotha the gravetide, and lord windgrace decks all benefit from having lands enter the graveyard and can put them right back into play. Even so, the number of commander decks that use this card on edhrec is astonishingly low. I would think any landfall deck that utilizes combos that sacrifice all lands only to bring them back with aftermath analyst or world shaper would need to use squandered resources. Very few cards let you sac all your lands in a single turn and leave you mana positive but squandered resources has combos and synergies. The card was five bucks after 2016 and reached almost 20 dollars during the initial buyout of 2018. By 2021 the card was about seventy five dollars as a all time high. So why is the cars going up now? Why is there a renewed interest on a reserved list card that has spiked a number of times? In short, the necrobloom. The necrobloom is the second strongest commander released in modern horizons 3. A little birdy can tell you what the strongest commander in the set is. The necrobloom is also highly competitive and is potentially cedh. The card wants lands in the graveyard to dredge and some decks have a land in graveyard theme. Is it any wonder that squandered resources can fit into a necrobloom cedh deck? Desert decks and a jund graveyard commander deck also got a boost in 2024 so it was a good year for squandered resources. Currently, the card is approaching fifty dollars. That is higher than in 2018 but I do not think it will reach its market high. However, this has become a soft staple in necrobloom decks, appearing in over 20 percent of decks. That deck is competitively viable, popular, and new so I think squandered resources will probably hold onto a higher price tag for the foreseeable future. Will it go back down when the hype dies or will you have to squander your resources getting a copy of this card?

Yawgmoth's Bargain is banned in commander and legacy. This would be a completely different conversation if this card was legal in those formats. The card is absurdly powerful, but is it good enough to banned alongside the power nine? Is yawgmoth's bargain as good as a mox or a black lotus? Most people would argue that while Yawgmoth's Bargain is an extremely broken card it is not quite in the same tier as many other cards banned in legacy or commander. I should note that while there are many cards on the reserved list that are banned, very few are banned because they are simply too good to be played. Some reserved list cards are banned because they reference ante while other cards have issues in tournament play. For instance, dexterity cards and cards that trigger a subgame are banned because they cause headaches and confusion in official tournaments. Yawgmoth's Bargain does not have this issue so why can't you play it? Surely, newer cards like dockside extortionist or jeska's will are just as powerful so why does the bargain sit on the banned list while my goblin makes me 20 treasures? Undoubtedly, yawgmoth's bargain is potent. One card for one life has always been an exchange that I would pay all day everyday. Yet many cards offer that rate. Necropotence is not banned in commander and even the new necrodominance offers a similar effect for modern. Both of those cards only cost 3 mana while Yawgmoth's bargain costs double that! Six mana is a huge investment and a player really needs to be able to cast the bargain early. You can not drop this on turn six and then just pass, even with a fresh grip of cards. However, this card has always benefited from combos and synergy. You can bury the opponents in card advantage but you are more likely to combo out using this reserved list card to find your combos. Getting access to the cards immediately is a major upside and should not be underestimated. The one life payment is negligible but ensures you can not just draw your entire deck without another combo piece. Otherwise, you could just play this, draw your deck, and cast thassa's oracle. Speaking of the oracle, is yawgmoth's bargain really stronger than the demonic consultation/oracle combo? I do think that yawgmoth's bargain has a legitimate chance of getting unbanned one day. The game has evolved since the card first landed on the ban list. The card would still see a tremendous amount of play but I do not see it warping formats. Black decks might run it as a generic staple draw spell but how much better is it than phrexian arena if you are using it purely as a draw engine. Even as a combo piece, this card is 6 mana. The skipping your draw step is also not really a drawback when you can draw at anytime for one life. In fact, the card gets around nekusar and sheoldred. Currently, the card is around ten dollars in price. That is actually quite a lot for a card that can not be played in most formats. There has always been speculation surrounding this card, though, as everyone always believes this card is about to get unbanned. The card was over 5 dollars even in 2017, so this card was not bulk even before the reserved list buyouts of 2018 and 2021. Even so, the card was below 2 bucks before 2017. Of course, the card has been banned long before significant price data was calculated. In 2021, the card did go to almost fifty dollars but a banned card just can not keep that price tag. What are you playing it in? Albeit, some reserved list cards have a high price due to scarcity and not playability but I can still put those cards in decks even if they are not very good. Today, you can get the card for about 10 dollars. I have a few copies that I got in 2015 for very little and I will hold those cards until the day the card finally is liberated off of the banned list. On that day, the price of this card will rocket to the moon. I should also note that this card is one of the few reserved list cards with a foil version. The foil version is about 150 dollars which is a big discrepancy between foil and nonfoil.

Herald of Serra is another reserved list rare from urza's saga that has no play value. It has no niche ability or anything unique. The card is merely stats and those stats were not even viable wen herald of serra was first released. A 3/4 flying vigilance for 4 mana is not good enough in the modern era and this card has an additional drawback. Herald of serra has echo so you actually need to invest 8 total mana to keep this angel singing in your chorus. If 4 mana was over costed than 8 mana is a joke. I would much rather pay 6 mana upfront for zephid than 8 mana across 2 turns for Herald of Serra. I also value shroud over vigilance so I would play zephid over this card in almost every single deck. Of course, Herald of Serra is an angel. Did I forget about all the Giada font of hope decks or other angel typal decks? I did not. I simply believe that there are so many angels that you should never feel the need to dip so low even in mono white. The only deck that I would actually play this card is in Radiant, archangel and only if I am making a flavor deck. Clearly, Herald of Serra is a reference to serra angel and the planeswalker serra. Serra does not have a card that can be a commander but Radiant captures a lot of that same flavor and lore. If I was making a fun flavor deck around serra or her realm than I might include Herald of Serra but that would be purely for flavor points. Honestly, Serra angel is the superior card so it seems strange for them to make a weaker version of a card from alpha. Since this card is a collectable and not really a game piece than you would expect this card to have a similiar price history and trajectory as Zephid. After all, they are both reserved list cards from the set and neither will ever be playable. Even ignoring the echo cost, you wouldn't play the Herald. Unless they make a very powerful commander for echo decks this will never see the inside of a sleeve. I just don't see an echo commander in the future as the mechanic was largely seen as an unpopular mistake. I doubt they will return to that well significantly in the future but the only chance Herald of serra has to actually be played is in an echo deck and I just do not see support for that mechanic in 2024 or moving forward. Herald of Serra was bulk until the end of 2020. There was no market movement in 2018 which shows that this is one of the reserved list cards with little speculation in terms of playability. The card did spike in 2021 and it was as high as 29.99 in March of that year. The card could not hold that value and quickly declined. There was a small rebound in 2022 when the card went almost back to ten bucks but the card plummeted back down to near bulk prices. Today, you can pick up a color for about 2 dollars. Why is more expensive than zephid? Well, zephid is an illusion and the Herald is an angel. Illusion has some minor typal support but the only creature type more popular than angels is dragons. People collect angels just for the art or just to have every angel in their collection. The angel secret lair commander deck fed into this fomo by making an angel exclusive to that product. Likewise, people are going to want every rare angel especially an angel on the reserved list that can not be reprinted. That is why Herald of serra is more expensive and I would buyout Herald of serra way before zephid simply because of its association with the iconic serra angel.

Gustha's Scepter costs 0 mana. That alone is reason to give the card a second look. Never underestimate a card that gets around the Magic the Gathering resource system. It costs mana to cast cards. Any card that breaks that rule is inherently broken as it spits in the face of one of the fundamental rules of the game. Personally, I try to have at least 4 of any card that costs 0 mana or can be cast for free in some way. If a card has an alternate casting cost that allows it to be cast without mana, I always make sure to keep those in my collection. Typically those types of cards are conditional but Gustha's Scepter always costs 0. There are decks that simply want you to chain together 0 cost artifacts like Jhoira Weatherlight captain, meria scholar of antiquity, or fblthp lost on the range. There are only a certain number of artifacts that cost 0 so sometimes you have to play cards like this to reach that threshold. Even ignoring those decks, gustha's scepter does actually have an effect. You can use it to store cards under it so that the cards are not in your hand but you still have access to them. This can matter for decks around the hellbent mechanic or decks that want a certain hand size. It can even be used in wheel decks to hold certain combo pieces as you wheel for the other pieces. Of course, if the scepter is destroyed the cards go to the graveyard. That is a real risk but one you are willing to pay in certain decks. Recently, the card has gone up in price. Is it because players have finally realized the innate power level of 0 mana cards? Do people finally understand that a card that can be cast for free, and is also on the reserved list, should not be bulk? No, instead, the card is spiking because of a new commander in Bloomburrow. There is a lot of hype around the new set and some reserved list cards are moving because people seem anxious to build decks with these new cards. In Gustha's scepter's case, the card is increasing in price because of Flubs, the fool. Flubs is a strange commander but is pretty unique and interesting. First, flubs is an exclusive buy a box promo. That fact alone draws attention to the card. I am not sure if flubs would be as popular or as hyped if it was just in the regular set. Being an exclusive promo offers the card a unique prestige and marks the card as special. I also think Flubs is an interesting look at society's views on art, plagiarism, artificial intelligence, homage and inspiration. The art for flubs is based on a public domain piece of art on a tarot card. Obviously, flubs the fool is meant to reference the tarot card known as the fool. The art is clearly an homage to a famous piece but the art is very similar. if the art was not in the public domain would it just be plagiarism? If the artist had the original artist's permission would that be just a source of inspiration? If an artificial intelligence spit out this image would it still be art? Does the fact that a human intended this to be a reference to another piece of art what makes this acceptable? If machines had intent would their creations be considered art because art is emotion? What makes it acceptable? Where is the line? How different does the work have to be to be considered unique? Is anything unique at all? Those thoughts aside, the scepter synergizes with flubs perfectly. It was almost like the cards were made in conjunction to work together. The card has such a niche use and this commander takes advantage of that tiny effect in the best possible way. This just goes to show that even the most narrow of effects can eventually find a home in a specific deck if the effect is unique enough. The scepter is over five bucks right now and some copies are going for as high as 13 dollars. With the number of decks it can see play in, plus the fact that it costs 0, plus the fact that it is a top card with a high synergy in a new popular commander, will this card continue to go up? I certainly do not think it will ever be bulk again. I would be surprised if this card dropped below five dollars again.

Emberwilde djinn is somewhat interesting. It is an undercosted flyer in red that is not a dragon. Red does not get that often and something is telling me that the djinn creature type might get support when we return to tarkir. This card is from mirage though and although we get creatures of these stats in all colors back in the day this card had to come with a drawback. Magic the Gathering is a game with almost 30,000 cards and drawbacks are really advantages that you have to use synergy to produce. So, what decks have a want for a card that can switch control. You might immediately think Karona, false god or zedruu or kharn the betrayer. Any deck that benefits from donating permanents or wants to switch permanents may take a look at this guy. I especially like it in a deck that focuses on switching control of things because you can pay the mana or the 2 life to get your djinn back and then donate it all over again. This card is also decent in a goad deck. Giving your opponent a 5 power flyer but knowing that damage is not going toward you is pretty strong when. If you can give him vigilance or untap him during each turn then this card can attack 4 times in one turn sequence. That damage adds up fast and this card has evasion! This card has limited and niche use but donating is a strategy that gets a card here and there every couple of sets. Its a somewhat popular strategy in commander so I can see more commanders built on this premise. I was surprised that this card does not see more play in Blim comedic genius commander decks. You can either use the commander's ability to force emberwilde djinn to your opponent or your opponent may choose to take it but that would only fuel blim's ability. I feel like this card would see a little more play but not many people know it even exists. That is strange to me as the average person can not identify these bulk reserved list cards. That is part of the reason to look at each one individually and study it from the lens of 2024. Why do even expert mtg players not know a majority of the cards on the reserved list? Are these cards doomed to be forgotten? People who do not believe in the pedigree of the reserved list believe that cards like this have no value despite their age and remaining quantity. Am I preserving a history that just does not matter? I do not think so. I believe that when the game turns fifty years old the reserved list as a whole will spike again. In twenty years the number of reserved list cards will have shrunk but the number of unique cards in the game will have skyrocketed. Niche reserved list cards, like this, may find multiple homes or even one specific home in which it is the lynchpin of a deck. What will the quantity of the reserved list look like in the year 2045? Will even slight demand cause cards to become unobtainably expensive because there is no supply? After all, if no one knows or cares about a card like emberwilde djinn than copies will be lost. This card is not being preserved and my goal is to change that. Reblog and save these reserved list bulk cards from being lost to time. Buyouts have happened before and they will happen again. The culture, economy, and overall zeitgeist is not favorable to older cards in the moment but nostalgia sells. Eventually, through true demand, or through hoarding, or fire, or simply the reality that time destroys all things, the reserved list will shrink. My estimate is that in twenty years over half of the currently bulk reserved list will be above bulk. By that, I mean above 5 dollars for a near mint copy. This is not financial advice but if a reserved list card spiked in the next twenty years and I can make a 10,000 dollar profit or more selling off all excess copies above a playset I probably would. However, I will always keep at least one copy of each reserved list card no matter the price. I want the cards. I want to hold history in many hand. The reserved list is not a means to make money for me, although I may choose to profit off the market, but a game that I love.

This card is almost four dollars. Not only that, this card was one of the most purchased reserved list cards of the weeks so there is actual purchases involving this card. I do not know what card or strategy caused people to take a look at infernal tribute but the card is decent and playable in commander. Black gets a lot of cards with drawbacks, specifically creatures and enchantments, and infernal tribute can get rid of those permanents for you should those drawbacks get out of hand. It even draws you a card! Yes, you have to pay 2 mana but you can do it at instant speed and it is not limited to once per turn. The triple black in the casting cost means that you are in heavy black but devotion cards such as grey merchant of asphodel turn that into a benefit. Sure, this card is no necropotence and it can not sacrifice tokens, but this is a mediocre sacrifice and draw engine in one card. In edh you actually want this in Lynde cheerful tormentor curse decks. It is actually quite viable in that niche deck and I can see a need for this card in other decks in the future. You can sacrifice any nontoken permanent which is not an ability that black gets in high quantities. There are some enchantment decks in abzan that may consider infernal tribute. Anikthea hand of erebros, narci fable singer, and myrkul lord of bones all have some synergies with enchantments and sacrifice so the theme is currently viable in edh. I am actually surprised infernal tribute does not see more play in those decks. Perhaps the attention on it and increase sales will lead to it being played in more decks. The card has spiked before. The card experienced a high in the early part of 2021 and was 25 dollars. However, even in 2018 the card was almost five bucks so there has always been some early speculation on this card because of its limited playability. Bloomburrow does have a golgari food and token theme which involves a subtheme of sacrificing tokens so is that the reason people seem to be speculating on this card now? Will the price reach its 2018 values? If you know why infernal tribute is seeing some new attention on it please let me know.