Has anyone else noticed Living End?
Economics forum
Posted on July 14, 2015, 7:58 a.m. by GeminiSpartanX
So Living End is currently up to ~$18 a piece since yesterday. I couldn't find any reasons why in the competitive magic world this past weekend for the price hike, so the only thing I can think of is yet another buyout. I'm honestly worried about all of these buyouts, since it may disincentivize players from making the change from standard to Modern, which may in turn lead to more players leaving the game once they tire of paying so much every rotation for a new standard deck. Thoughts on Living End? Modern sustainability?
well apparently i picked the perfect time to buy my set. got them like a week and a half ago for 5 a pop.
July 14, 2015 8:39 a.m.
GeminiSpartanX says... #4
Lucky you 8vomit! I was going to try and pick up a playset at that price and rebuild Living Moon now that I have some Blood Moons, but I might give up on that project now.
I hear ya maiden77! My buddy found a few Nourishing Shoals in the .50 binder of our local LGS the day everything in the Griselcannon deck shot up in price. I myself was lucky to have traded for a pair of Through the Breach, a pair of Blood Moon, and an Omniscience a few months before all those cards spiked. I don't think I could have made my Sneak and Show legacy deck now due to all these spikes driving up prices, and it feels even worse for Modern. If 'investors' keep going as unrestricted as they have been, I fear it may hurt the game in the long run. I'm pretty sure there are laws for certain staple consumer goods in the US just to avoid the kind of inflationary practices that we're seeing in the secondary MTG card market.
July 14, 2015 8:43 a.m.
GeminiSpartanX i missed out on blood moon though. traded my 2 at around 30ish a few months back. now I need them again and theyre 50$
July 14, 2015 8:56 a.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #6
This is getting a bit ridiculous. Living End is used in a single deck in a single format, and that deck hasn't won any big competitions recently (I think?). It's a good deck, but it's not tier one material and it certainly does not warrant a tag of 14 bucks. Living End was literally the only competitive modern deck that you could buy for less that $100. Damn you people.
July 14, 2015 9:03 a.m.
Jamesfurrow says... #7
Well from experience living end is a good deck and unusual one to pilot. Its interactions are very strong and it can fight decks like abzan, twin, and zoo fairly effectively since they are all relying on their board state not to be removed at instant speed. Now the card itself may have gone up due to how well it can be abused in jund for tiny leaders, modern, and ive heard some decks trying to use it in legacy but that one im not too sure on. I dont think it will stay at this $15 mark though. As was stated before a huge group of people are shifting into modern. With that in mind most players are going to make the decks that are cheap to contruct when starting modern which explained the huge influx of burn decks now it seems to be an influx of living end. Thats my thought on why it probally jumped
July 14, 2015 11:52 a.m.
GeminiSpartanX says... #8
While I understand your point about newer Modern players generally building the more inexpensive decks Jamesfurrow, the fact that only yesterday Living End was <$10 and today is almost completely bought out leads me to believe that new Modern players aren't the true cause of most of the recent price spikes. Although if that were truly the case, then I'd be glad for them and hope that more of them would show up in my meta (we have problems with attendance during the weekly Modern nights for the 2 LGSs that I frequent).
July 14, 2015 12:24 p.m.
Gorgosaurusrex says... #9
LSV recently released a set of videos showing him playing Living End against a variety of opponents on MTGO, so this may have caused some sort of spike. It may have also triggered a buyout.
I've been putting this deck together for a while now and Living End was one of the final pieces I needed. When it started spiking I bought up a set on Amazon for $8 per card... I'm glad I did, as $18 each is a bit ridiculous.
July 14, 2015 1:05 p.m.
RoarMaster says... #10
That is kinda silly how its $18 a pop. I bought my entire living end deck in all foils for $21, but that was quite a while ago, lol.
July 14, 2015 2:25 p.m.
@8vomit: I laughed out loud because I'm in the same boat as you. I picked up a playset about a week ago for $20.
Bragging aside, I suspect this is more of a market correction, rather than a buyout. Living End has only been printed once and previously, its most expensive card was Fulminator Mage. People (like myself) have probably decided to give the deck a try now that it's more affordable without needing to spend $160 on four cards.
Furthermore, the deck is really good against a large majority of the field. Twin and Delver are the hardest matchups (due to Remand), but Tron, Affinity, Amulet Bloom, Rock variants, and Collected Company are all favorable for the Living End player. Given these decks are all on the rise, while Twin and Delver have seen the same amount of play, it makes sense the deck preying on them would see its namesake go up in value.
July 14, 2015 5:23 p.m.
SimicPower says... #12
I am going to assume buyout, due to the only 20 sellers on TCGplayer. There would still be 100+ sellers if it was a natural price gain.
July 14, 2015 8:22 p.m.
@SimicPower: MtG Stocks is showing it might be a little bit of both of what we're saying. Right before Journey into Nix, it was a $14 card. Its price then plummeted.
Someone probably noticed and proceeded to buy them out, causing it to spike to $18. It seems it's back down to its $13~$14 price range.
maiden77 says... #2
might be time to shift my spare foil one lol. As a new modern player, I am certainly concerned with this almost daily posting of a new card that has sky rocketed though. Glad I got my infect deck all sorted now, hope it sticks around being good enough to compete though, I would really like to play something fun like Amulet Bloom or Griselcannon, just cus BIG STUFF. but its so pricey to buy into, and subject to scrutiny on being 'too fast' and maybe bannable
July 14, 2015 8:30 a.m.