This week in the world of Magic finance, the biggest news isn't the March of the Machine set that just released, it's a leak of nearly the entire March of the Machine: Aftermath set that is scheduled to drop in the middle of May. I'm not going to get into individual new cards here, if you want to see the leaked cards you can easily find them on Reddit or on various spoiler sites, but there is one very relevant reprint that is worth mentioning: Training Grounds. The combo piece has never really been reprinted (technically it was on The List for a while, but that doesn't really count as a reprint) and has climbed up to a massive $31, but its price should crash thanks to Aftermath which is unique in that the entire set is only 50-ish cards, all of which are uncommons, rares and mythics. There was a collector booster box opening posted to Youtube and the amount of duplication in the box was wild, with the same rares showing up two or three times in a single box. All this to say thanks to Aftermath, the supply of Training Grounds is about to rise exponentially. If you have copies I'd look to sell or trade them now if you can get anywhere near retail prices. If you need copies, you should wait until Aftermath releases, because you should be able to snag them for just a few dollars.
Meanwhile in Pioneer, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy was bought out this week, spiking all the way up to $44. How real this buyout is remains to be seen. As far as I can tell, the story of the Jace spike is that Todd Anderson has been working on a new combo deck for Pioneer that looks to combine Rona, Herald of Invasion (showcase), Retraction Helix, and Mox Amber (retro) to make infinite mana (use Retraction Helix on Rona, use it to bounce Mox Amber (retro) after tapping it for mana, recast Mox Amber (retro) to untap Rona, rinse and repeat). The deck also plays four Jace, Vryn's Prodigy. The MTGFinance Reddit picked up on this with a post declaring Jace, Vryn's Prodigy a good buyout target. As a result, pretty much all the Magic Origins Jaces were bought out on TCGplayer and other popular sites, however it doesn't seem like anyone is actually buying Jace, Vryn's Prodigy at the new post-spike price. Recent sales show a few purchases in the $20 range, which matches the price of the From the Vault version of Jace, Vryn's Prodigy. My guess is that Jace, Vryn's Prodigy was underpriced at $9, but there's no way it will stick in the $40, with a landing in the $20-$25 range most likely.
Finally, you might see The One Ring near the top of the winner's list this week, but it's safe to ignore. The price spike is a result of there only being two copies listed on TCGplayer at an unrealistic price. In reality no copies of The One Ring have sold for more than $55, way less than the TCG-mid of $85. Either way, the Lord of the Rings set doesn't release for months. There's no reason to order copies now since you won't get them until after the set releases anyway.
