Earlier this week, Wizards of the Coast announced the new nonrotating Magic: The Gathering format called Pioneer, and as indicated in the infographic below, Pioneer features cards from Return to Ravnica and forward, but note that supplemental sets like Modern Horizons and Battlebond are not legal in this format.
Shortly after Pioneer was announced, several members of the Magic community noticed some early price spikes for presumed Pioneer "staples" like "Aetherworks Marvel", "Saheeli Rai", "Smuggler's Copter", and "Dig Through Time", and unfortunately, it looks like someone bought out many of them nine days before the announcement for Pioneer was made.
TCGPlayer seller Michael Caffrey (known as @MChainmail on Twitter) recently revealed that he sold a lot of Pioneer "staple" cards roughly a week in advance of WotC's official announcement. The invoice includes 87 copies of "Smuggler's Copter", 35 copies of "Aetherworks Marvel" (2 are foil), and 11 "Deathrite Shamans".
According to MTGSTocks.com, the market value of "Deathrite Shaman" is $12.49, a nearly 400% increase from the $2.45 price sold by Caffrey.
"Smuggler's Copter" is now worth $6.98 per copy at market price while the invoice shows that it was listed on TCGPlayer for $1.79.
Another person reported issues with buyouts prior to the Pioneer announcement. StarCityGames.com General Manager Ben Bleiweiss (@StarCityBen on Twitter) replied to Caffrey asking him to compare notes on suspicious orders on his store.
Someone also started buying out all the "staple" cards from Return to Ravnica onward on Magic: The Gathering: Online, according to @GoatBots, a client which uses bots on MTGO to sell digital MTG cards.
With these recent buyouts, it looks like someone had insider knowledge prior to the Pioneer announcement. Not even the five fetchlands banned in the format spiked up in price, so it's likely that someone knew what Wizards was planning to announce before sharing information to the public.
What do you think about these recent buyouts? Let us know in the comments section below.
Are you excited to play the new Pioneer format? Feel free to join our Pioneer Facebook group if you're interested in playing Pioneer.
Magic: The Gathering Pioneer Players Private group · 1,548 members Join Group A group for Magic: The Gathering Pioneer Format discussion, news, deck tips, strategy, rules help, memes and more! For general MTG discussion, post he... |
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