What I bought and why? [May 2015 - 22 June 2015]

A rather active period for me, as I decided to hit hard in some of the specs. The main target as you can see are the God cards from Theros expansion. I'm looking to trade heavily into them. Both foils and Non-Foils due to the casual appeal.

In the same time, I have moved out a lot of unused modern staples like Snapcasters, Leyline of Sanctity, etc. to acquire these cards and as well as to build up my liquid asset. As I did bring up a couple of times when I first started the blog, the biggest issue for me is to balance out liquid and solid assets. Hence, I'm moving towards that as the goal for the year.

As I am still studying, my finance flexibility isn't rather rigid and I can only spend that much on cards. Sure, I can don't spend any of it on cards; that's one way. But, I have to remember that I have a lot of cards that may worth value that are still sitting in my binder. I have to move them asap in order to clear out and restart the collection. I'll talk about this in a later post after GPSingapore.

Meantime, this is what I have been trading:

Cards purchased / Traded	Prices per piece
1x Heliod, God of the Sun 1x Karametra, God of Harvests 1x Keranos, God of Storms 1x Xenagos, God of Revels	Trade With: 1x Scute Mob  1x Vedalken Shackles (MMA)
2x Kruphix, God of Horizons 1x Karametra, God of Harvests 1x Ephara, God of Polis	333  Points (PucaTrade) 195  Points (PucaTrade) 143 Points (PucaTrade)
1x Abrupt Decay 1x Ashen Rider 1x Krosan Grip 1x Rakshasa Deathdealer 1x Silumgar, Drifting Death 1x Terastodon 1x Utter End	Trade With: 1x Bloodstained Mire 1x Fracturing Gust 1x Tyrant's Choice (Foil)
2x Breaking // Entering 1x Conjurer's Closet 2x Dictate of Kruphix 1x Medomai the Ageless 1x Pithing Needle 2x Rakshasa Deathdealer 1x Rattleclaw Mystic 2x Strionic Resonator	Trade With:  1x Bloodthrone Vampire (Foil) 1x Cavern Lampad (Foil) 1x Congregate (Foil) 1x Dazzling Ramparts (Foil) 1x Dragon-Style Twins (Foil) 1x Erase (Foil) 1x Fortify (Foil) 1x Fossil Find (Foil) 1x Highspire Mantis (Foil) 1x Meandering Towershell (Foil) 1x Mind Sculpt (Foil) 1x Monastery Flock (Foil) 1x Nature's Panoply (Foil) 1x Poison the Well (Foil) 1x Scion of Vitu-Ghazi (Foil) 1x Sidisi's Pet (Foil) 1x Sigiled Skink (Foil) 1x Smite (Foil) 1x Tormenting Voice (Foil) 1x War-Name Aspirant (Foil) 1x War-Wing Siren (Foil) 1x Whirlwind Adept (Foil) 1x Windstorm (Foil)
3x Jace, Architect of Thought (Duel Deck)	$4.13 each ($12.39)
1x Chromatic Lantern 3x Erebos, God of the Dead 1x Purphoros, God of the Forge	1x Leyline of Sanctity (M11)
2x Chord of Calling 1x Ephara, God of the Polis 1x Erebos, God of the Dead 1x Heliod, God of the Sun 1x Karametra, God of the Harvests 1x Pharika, God of Affliction 1x Tasigur, the Golden Fang 1x Thassa, God of the Sea	1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All 1x Leyline of Sanctity 1x Persecute Artist (Unhinged) 1x Spell Pierce
7x Kruphix. God of Horizons	$4.00 each ($28.00)
1x Prophet of Kruphix (Foil)	$5.00
8x Karametra, God of the Harvests	$2.50 each ($20.00)
1x Feed the Clan (Foil)	$1.00
1x Become Immense (Foil)	$6.00
3x Nettle Sentinel (2 NM, 1Ex)	NM: $1.50 each Ex: $1.27 ($4.24 after disc)
1x Ephara, God of the Polis 1x Karametra, God of the Harvests	$1.98 $2.50
Small Collection from a friend quitting MTG	$75.00

Yes, as I said, it's quite an extensive list. I won't be posting my sell-list however. If not there will be no end to this post!

In a quick summary of my trades:

• Gods acquired are for extremely long-term investments. I'm talking about holding them for 3-5 years at least. I have calculated the ROIs and stuff and I'm expecting them to hit at least $8 at that point of time.
• Feed the Clan, Jace, AOT and Become Immense Foils are extremely situational. I will want to keep them, but am willing to trade them if the trade value is good. This includes any other unmentioned Modern-usable cards.
• Nettle Sentinel and the other rares are strictly for trades and resale. 
• EDH staples like Prophet of Kruphix Foil, Chromatic lantern is meant to be kept for future EDH decks.

So, what do you think? Did I make good trades or I made a bad move moving out the cards like Leyline? What have you traded/bought in the past month or so? Comments and share! I love to hear your discussions and thoughts!

Keep a lookout for this binder during GPSingapore! I'll be using this as my main trade binder! Just... dont' expect any high end cards from me alright? I'm still doing mainly bulk rares and cheaper cards :)

3 Reasons Why Kolaghan's Command Deserve the Spotlight [Flash!]

I can assume this series has gained enough popularity that I'm back with another? I'll go easy with this still, so I'm presenting another Command in the Dragons of Tarkir expansion!

Now, I'll be honest. Initially, I didn't look much at this card. Partly because B/R colours are not my thing and I didn't really paid much attention to it as it's being 3 mana. I did ask myself if that would be a real deal. Eventually I pass on this. But, to redeem myself, I'm going to give you 3 reasons why this card deserves the spotlight it is in now:

1. B/R/X Decks are on the rise. Jund is making its move back into Modern after a slight hiatus. Meanwhile, Grixis control is also giving Modern a run for its money. Both decks centralizes a B/R core with the third colour being green and blue respectively. No mardu decks yet? Ah well.. Give it time.
2. Similar to Dromoka's Command, I praise this card for its utility and cost efficiency. None of the 4 options are not relevant in the format. 
   - Returning a creature back to hand is somewhat a black/green colour ability. Goyf or Siege Rhino in the grave? No problem!
   - Discarding a card is definitely black ability. Coupled with Liliana of the Veil, Inquisitions, and Thoughtseizes, it's just icing on the cake!
   - Destroying Artifacts is kind of the go-to to any side or mainboard material. Affinity, Tezzeret control, and to an extend, TRON can really have a set-back from this ability.
   -2 damage to either the creature a player is always relevant in any format.
   Now, having being broken down in its options, its a very versatile card and is never a dead draw in most scenarios. Also, it's a 2-for-1 in most situations, so that's value for mana and deck-slot there!
   
   
3. Played in Standard, Modern and even started to show up in some decklists in Legacy. While I'm not too sure about the card in the last format being real, as in the card being a real thing there, I'm quite positive that this nifty card is being played in the former two formats. Even so much as to the card popularity is rising these couple of weeks.

Okay, so that's the 3 reasons. I'm sure there are more reasons why this card is loved, or even hated. Drop your comments below and feel free to share this post to others if you like this or any of the other content that I have written so far!

Key Art for Battle for Zendikar!

Okay, so this picture was circulating around facebook. I was really amazed to see this beautiful art and several details caught my eye upon seeing this art.

Key art for Battle for Zendikar Expansion

Based on the picture alone, there are 3 things I would like to cover. There's a lot of details to cover, so let's jump in!

• Emrakul, Kozilek and Ulamog

The very first thing that caught my eye is the 3 Eldrazi titans. With that being the most significant feature of the image, I can very safely assume that the 3 Titans will make a return in the new expansion. Of course, this is really a no brainer as we all expect them to return. It's their world now! 

Now, the question is everyone's mind is this; will the Eldrazis return as a reprint or as a new card with new abilities altogether? I personal stand is that the Eldrazis would make a return as a new card. Note that the art here shows them in a form like statues. Coloured in pale greyish white and not like their original art. It is unlikely to see them in this colour as the new art for them. Also, note that the landscape doesn't seem to have rocks falling off or trembling, which is a sign of them moving or arriving to the scene. It just sits there with these beings on them. This hence make me think that these are statues rather than the actual Eldrazi titans.  

Furthermore, take a look at this picture:

It's a little pixelated but I think it serves its purpose. We obviously see Gideon here. I'll talk more about him later. I'm focusing the background at the moment. What it seems to be is there are 2 Eldrazis. It seems to be either one of the lesser Eldrazi titans like Spawnsire, Crusher, etc, and the other being Ulamog in another pose and angle. The features of it matches Ulamog more than the other 2 titans. The image above can be easily split into 2 cards. One probably being Gideon's new Planeswalker picture and the other being an instant or sorcery. Of course, it's all just a guess. 

A more cleaned up version of the picture. But I don't think this is an original artwork by Wizards.

So as to what is the deal with the picture? Look at the Hedrons. Unlike the key art, there is some hedrons present in the art, but they aren't any circling around Ulamog himself as shown in the first picture.

• Planeswalkers

Sorin, Ugin are rather familiar planeswalkers after appearing in the recent sets. If you missed the boat in Commander 2014 or if you are not up to date with the storyline, you may have overlooked Nahiri, the Lithomancer. These 3 planeswalkers form "the three", whom decided to get rid of the Eldrazis. I won't go too indepth with the lore here. You can go read it up in the links I've posted around in this post.

So based on the few pictures I have looked around, we know there will be the following planeswalkers in the storyline and possibly in this expansion:

1. Ugin
2. Sorin
3. Nahiri
4. Gideon

It would seem unlikely that we have two versions of Ugins and Gideons in the same Standard season, but take note that this happens before! Throughout M14-RTR, and even in the most recent KTK-DTK expansions have different versions of Sarkan in the same Expansion Block. (Okay, that was time travel... but my point is made.)

There will be definitely new planeswalkers being introduced. As mentioned, I won't delve too deep into the lore (no cards in graveyard..) and just by the artworks that are circulating around, those four planeswalkers will definitely be seen in the new expansion. 

• Landscape

Somehow the landscape subtly reminds me of Celestial colonnade, Raging Ravine and Dread Sanctuary. Hey, maybe. Just maybe, we have new manlands that are shaped of the Eldrazi Titans?  Either that or Fetchlands are highly likely to be back due to the nature of the theme of this plane.

I'm really curious to know what are your thoughts? What interpretations can you draw from this key art? More to come soon!