So I'm doing a little research, looking at a -1/-1 counter theme with maybe Hapatra and I notice that
Devoted Druid is a $10+ card. Like... WUT?!

I should bought more of those things. I had no idea they would be worth so much.

What are some other cards that seemed like they should have been 25 cents but turned out to be worth dollar billz? Just in case I need to start saving up for my next gimmicky deck.

I learned the other day that Street Wraiths are going for $7 and Mishra's Baubles are....

Most recent discovery for me was Lava Spike.

$5 for a bad Bolt? Is there an arcane deck in modern I don't know about?

I think the deck is strait modern burn, the idea is to run every burn card that deals 3 damage so during the course of the game you deal 21 damage by playing 7 of these types of cards.

Also adding to the discussion sleight of hand is now a 3 dollar card.

Yeah, I just sold a playset for €120 (about $134) in shop credit. Crazy prices!

I think it might also be played in legacy burn... I dunno for sure.

Good thing Wizards had the foresight to create the Modern format so they could avoid the reserved list and reprint cards as needed to smooth out availability issues.

*cough*

yeah. They're so smart.

Note that these are all prices being asked for these cards. You may wonder whether they actually sell at such prices. Unfortunately a lot of price manipulation is taking place, especially for older cards, you can be sure that you'll have to pay more for them that you used to, but only when buylist prices start moving up do they become real prices (and as such zimagic confirmed that the Bauble rise is real).

Wizards is not capable of directly responding to price shifts. It simply takes time to print cards, design sets and even realize that there is a problem. In addition some cards may not fit in the reprint products they want to create. Basically the earliest you would expect a reprint for a card suddenly jumping in price is a year (occasional lucky hits by Wizards aside where they accidentally already planned to reprint the card) and it may take several more before they find a fit. Mishra's Bauble made its first big jump in Feb '15, from $3 to $10, then another one to $20 in Jul '16 and finally to about $40 in Mar '17. Depending on where you draw the line they would have been considering the price an issue for a couple of months, a year or two years. If we consider another high priced Cold Snap uncommon, Counterbalance that was high in price for a much longer time and was now finally reprinted we can conclude that it probably wasn't on Wizards' radar when it was available at $3 and only made its first blip at $10. Obviously they take a wait and see approach as often price spikes are later followed by a price drop, so only when it jumped to $20 do I expect that Wizards started to worry about it. This means they haven't even had a full year to respond, the time they need at a minimum. The Bauble being a cantrip makes it an awkward card to reprint as Wizards now lets you draw immediately, this makes it a very unlikely fit in a regular set. Then it's a card with a very minor effect that flavorwise will only fit in decks that care about the top card of a player's library, something that's not impossible, but also not commonly found as a preconstructed deck theme. It's also reached a price high enough to cause any precons to not sell to their target audience but just to people looking for Baubles. Basically what it comes down to is that the card could only feasibly be reprinted as a promo (a pretty lackluster one) or in a Master set (theoretically maybe a Conspiracy).

Wizards also could never keep up with all price changes without reprinting even more than they already do and then it would still only be a temporary measure as Modern keeps growing, causing more and more cards to need a reprint. Only a significant decrease in the playerbase would reduce the need for reprints and while the growth is no longer what it was there are no signs of a significant reduction.

Basically price rises are unavoidable and you need to be smart about purchasing cards before they jump out of your price range.

Which makes it a good target for speculation and buyouts.

Basically, yes, though the other factors are relevant too .

I write articles for quietspeculation.com and I'm admin on their forum .

So... I checked my box. I have two Devoted Druids chillin' out. I might try to build hapatra this weekend!

So Mikaeus the Unhallowed non-foil is $25.00?

That's a lot.

So, I'm sortof ambiguous about this. Modern has certainly driven the prices of EDH staples harder than I would have liked, but the backend of that is that Vintage and Legacy staples have become more accessible as Modern has usurped the other Eternal-formats. On one hand, I'm really happy to pay $20 for powerhouse singles like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite- and consider the Khans reprinting of the 5 Onslaught fetches a stroke of brilliance on WotC's part.

But, on the other- many safe-to-reprint in casual oriented sets and Standard sets simply don't get enough frequent saturation. I should be excited that Academy Ruins is a card that I picked up for $4, and has had it's trade value spike over the last couple years, but instead I find myself more or less frustrated that it's no longer just a card that I can comfortably give to other members of my playgroups to enhance our gaming experiences. While the secondary market structure fundamentally benefits us as players, Wizards is particularly gunshy about stepping on collector toes, which has ultimately become a continuing force in making accessibility issues.

This is to say, that $20+ collectible pieces aren't bad for EDH, and certainly aren't bad for Magic on the whole- but accessibility issues to certain types of cards (looking at you Maelstrom Pulse and Verdant Catacombs) are a very real problem. Neither of these points of view are mutually exclusive, and while I have faith in Wizards looking to find creative solutions, we do know that sometimes the financiers of the game have to be offered up to the altar, collections have to be devalued, and rightly so, collectors will try to strongarm Wizards if they can, or us, the players if they feel compelled to. But if we all work in our interests, and split the difference- things just work out (like the Khans fetchlands "fiasco")