MY DECEMBER 2024 MARKET PICKS (A NEW YEARS RETROSPECTIVE)
Welcome everyone to the end of the 2024 MTG Game State recap! In this article I go over all of the cards featured on the segment and see where they currently are in pricing as well as inform the reader on why I chose the card, let's see what we got!
1. Zombify (full art textless)
01 Jan 2025
Average Listing $23.07
Market Listing $3.05
Already out the gate for the retrospective article we're seeing a classic example of cards you want to add to your collection or bling out for your decks. Those invisible check boxes are getting marked in my mind. We got a card that's relevant to 60 card formats, specifically in reanimator archetypes, It's from a premium "set" (Magic Player Rewards) and to top it all of we got it in a glorious full art textless style. Cards that are textless especially from 2010's era are what you need to be looking for. Now our prices seem scary regarding the listings on TCG player but when you really look into it, we see that this card is really $3.00! Get at it
2. Glissa Sunslayer
01 Jan 2025
Average Listing $7.68
Market Listing $7.08
Glissa is a current standard format banger, a card I love personally to run in my Magic Arena decks, you want to add her into your 60 card standard decks that run green/black immediately. The card shouldnt be your main focus in the build so you wont need an entire playset for your decks but it's still a rare card that's useful in the current meta. Glissa is a Swiss Army knife of a card and having the ability to remove enchantments is perfect for this standard season. $7.00 is a good price and I dont think this rare will skyrocket to $10.00 as the season moves on.
3. Abjure
01 Jan 2025
Average Listing $1.20
Market Listing $3.66
Okay so hear me out, Abjure is a lowkey secret banger counter card that's cheap. I know I know you gotta sac a blue permanent but it shouldn't be a problem for you depeneding on your build. But we LOVE cards with addtional costs that can open up opportunities, we can counter a spell at instant speed obviously, we have a possible sac trigger effect and then being cheap makes this a card I feel compelled to sound the alarm on. Currently seeing a high market listing but this card is lowkey and I dont think will be in the competetive spotlight anytime soon. in actuality you can pick this up for a few cents across most stores or online markets.
4. Thrumming Stone
01 Jan 2025
Average Listing $33.73
Market Listing $15.38
Originally this card had popped off in commander format due to Dragon's Approach
and the combo shenanigan's it can pull off to end games. currently in 2024 we saw the card gain another spike due to combo shenanigans with Hare Apparent
. Thrumming Stone is only printed in the premium set category (Cold snap is old, Double masters with a foil etched treatment and finally The List). You can pick the original Cold Snap printing for about $25.00 on the markets but on TCG player people are trying to get the cheapest copies possible for their Hare Apparent combo decks.
5. Gaea's Touch
01 Jan 2025
Average Listing $3.32
Market Listing $4.30
Gaea's Touch is a card I am sounding THEE alarm on for the commander format. In my opinion it's doing too much and I love that for it. 2 G mana green enchantment that has a 0 cost ability to play a forest from your hand onto the battlefield only once per turn and it can sac itself to add 2 G mana to your manapool. We got an ability that pays for 0 and a card that can sac itself already I can see uses for this with Korvold, Fae-Cursed King
for casual builds and players who wanna get into brewing. A nice cheap old card you can pick up for around $2.00 from the markets.
6. Preacher of the Schism
01 Jan 2025
Average Listing $4.96
Market Listing $4.04
Another Standard BANGER from our market research in 2024, Preacher of the Schism is from one of my all time favorite sets 'The Lost Caverns Of Ixalan' It's in Delereium, Rakdos, and one of my favorite Standard archetypes; Mono Black. Like Glissa, Sunslayer this card is another rare card where you wont need a full playset but you will need 2 of this card for your standard runs at the local game store and on MTG Arena. for about $4.00 this is a good time to get the card as the standard season grinds away post the last banned and restricted news.
7. Kogla, The Titan Ape
01 Jan 2025
Average Listing $3.58
Market Listing $4.07
Kogla, The Titan Ape is another card that is from another top 5 favorite MTG sets for me; Ikoria: Lair of Behemothsand was why I chose it at the time in my market research. I was a little surprised to see this bulk rare card get some action on the market. it's not seeing play in any format as far as I could tell and I think we're seeing the base print increase in price due to that classic classic ever so sweet check box marker "printed across premium sets" in Kogla's case I believe it's due to a Secret Lair release.
8. LOTR Collector Booster: Special Edition
01 Jan 2025
These frickin' cards man lemme tell ya, in my entire 2024 market research I was always trying to find unique cards that stood out or made a name for themselves. Usually on MTG stocks when a new set is spoiled or drops the market gets flooded with current info and it's hard to find anything unusual. For all of 2024 we had that experience PLUS thee ever so steady increase in the Lord of the rings special edition collector's booster prints. No matter the card you pick you've been seeing it's price increase day after day. nothing much I can say other than if youre going to collect LOTR cards I'd aim for these as they're to me not as PREMIUM as the Masterpieces or original Zendikar Expedition lands but they're still historic items in Magic's history no less.
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Continuing our article we have our final 8 cards of December 2024's MTG Game state market picks! If you made it to the half way point just know I appreciate you and wanna give you this cookie! 🫳 🥠
9. Demilich
01 Jan 2025
Average Listing $10.49
Market Listing $7.47
Universes Beyond cards shook up early 2020's era of Magic. Originally we had Rick, Steadfast Leader
shaking up legacy then Orcish Bowmasters
and The One Ring in Legacy and Modern now it is time for the bulk rares from Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms to mark their place in deck building history. Demilich has a steep cost of 4 blue but thanks to the Faithless looting unbanning it's getting alotta use and works great with our next featured card that shares a decklist with it. you'll want to pick up a playset of this card for sure for about $6.00 each.
10. Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student
01 Jan 2025
Average Listing $48.00
Market Listing $45.02
This pritning of Tamiyo really interests me due to the Faithless looting unbanning. we can potentially get a turn 2 flipped planeswalker card with a great minus 3 effect allowing the player to return and instant or socery to hand and if its green we can add one mana of any color! in the buried phoenix archetype where we see this card used youll wanna use that minus on your Manamorphose
and start the fun all over again with faithless looting and throw out Demilich
to keep an aggressive board state
11. Indomitable Creativity
01 Jan 2025
Average Listing $9.89
Market Listing $6.84
Hands down 2024 was THEE year of the 60 card formats. Indomitable Creativity is getting recogniton during this golden era with a playset used in Through the breach modern archtype decks. An archtype I am throughly interested in for the Modern grind. This card "suffers" from that dreaded invisible check boxes in my head; it is reprinted in a premium set and in only 1 base set so there's not much options on the market.
12. Preston, The Vanisher
01 Jan 2025
Average Listing $32.76
Market Listing $32.20
Jumpstart cards are some of my favorite cards to add to my collection sealed or loose. Jumpstart 2022 doubled down and went harder than the first release! my favorite treatments are the anime styled art reprints/new character cards. For others it's Preston, The Vanisher. This card is a bomb in Hare Apparent commander decks. You can make Preston your commander then pop off the with your army of raving rabbits! Another reason why this card commands a high price is also due to the fact that Jumpstart 2022 like the first release is a premium collectors set and Preston is only found in this set!
13. Yggdrasil, Rebirth Engine
01 Jan 2025
Average Listing 20:00
Market Listing $17.72
It's so funny seeing IP from outside of Magic: the gathering actually becoming useful within the game's various metas. We all used to joke early on about our future spongebob and Master Chief cards but now like Ive mentioned before multiple times we're seeing there's truth in comedy. Another favorite Modern archtype of mine recently is the Eldrazi Tron deck using Through the Breach
. You can find a full playset of Yggdrisil in that build where it can help pull out one of your big Eldrazi titans. Mid December this card shot up in price and is now leveling out to an almost $20.00 card. Universes Beyond being legal in all formats moving forward makes me wonder if that will help drive prices down of future banger rares and mythic cards that require a full playset for a deck's engine to run.
14. Abhorrent Oculus
01 Jan 2025
Average Listing $49.99
Market Listing $43.47
The only reason a rare card printed in a standard set that's recently 3 months old would pop off would be because it sees some use in the sweatier 60 card formats within Magic's ecosystem; Legacy and Modern. We see Abhorrent Oculus used across muliple decklists with it's first spike in UB Murktide lists and in December it had a second spike with Grixis lists in modern and any blue deck within the Legacy archtypes. A card that pays for half of the booster box you paid for get it this now before we return to the days of $100 Tarmogoyf
15. Vengevine (ultimate masters)
01 Jan 2025
Average Listing $12.50
Market Listing $8.09
The spirits of the unholy invisible check boxes that wander in my mind sing in a chorus when we look at Venegvine in the current era of Modern. We see 1. Premium sets 2. a printing thats full art and textless among other cool promos. This is a main player in the Hollow One decklists you'll want to use Burning Inquiry
or the freshly unbanned Faithless Looting
to discard Blazing Rootwalla
and cast it for 0 using it's madness cost, do this enough times you'll be able to cast Vengevine pretty quickly by turn 2 or 3 and that's when things get spicy. Another rare card you'll want to get at early this season before we see a spike
16. Fear of Missing out
01 Jan 2025
Average Listing $12.00
Market Listing $11.03
Faithless Looting being unbanned feels more impactful to growth within the modern format than the banning of The One Ring Fear of Missing Out is a card wih a new lease on life in that format due to use within archtypes like Hollow one and Eldrazi Tron and many more Modern format decklists. For me though FOMO really shines in the mono red aggro standard decks on Magic Arena but a decklist like Hollow one coming to life out of nowhere due to a single unbanning is really funny to me. I dont think we'll see FOMO shoot up in price like Abhorrent Oculus
and cause you to endure it's affliction, at a reasonable price for a rare it has made it's way out of the bulk bin and into our decklists this season!
That's all of the card's featured from December 2024's MTG Game State!
Check back at the end of December for another follow up article from the month's market picks.
*all finance info sourced from MTGstocks
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