WALL STREET -- Magic: The Gathering collectors were left scrambling amid heavy profit-taking Wednesday after Type I prices fell to an all-time low, below that of even Type II.

Black Lotus closed Wednesday at US $1.99.

The crash, precipitated by anxious sell-offs, came after market analysts such as First Call/Thomson Financial and Oscar Tan predicted significant devaluations in Type I.

"Multiply that argument by sixty card slots, and you understand why Type I can be cheaper than Type II after you've put together the core of your first deck," Tan said Wednesday.

The announcement was said to have sent shockwaves through the market. Ancestral Recalls fell to US $1.25 after the prediction hit the trade floor. Mox prices also sank Wednesday, in wild trading, with Mox Sapphires being downgraded to junk status.

Prices in other formats skyrocketed Wednesday, with Odyssey Block drafts rising to $250.00 per person.

The crash also coincided with the government release Wednesday of June deck figures. Type I deck starts were down 23 percent in June, with newly constructed Keepers selling for $13.60.

Thomson said the news should not be viewed entirely as bleak.

"The devaluation in Type I should open the gates for more nervous Type I investors, who may now jump at the chance to get into a format where top decks can be built for just a few dollars," Thomson spokesman Irvine Hornby said. "What we're going to see, with luck, is a previously and preposterously inaccessable format spontaneously become a perfectly viable and rewarding market for ordinary people. Not like with drafting and subsequently using the drafted cards in standard."

In related news, the Senate Finance Committee rapidly pushed through a bill to ban Back to Basics, with Senate floor debate expected as early as today.

"If there is anything holding back the ordinary citizen from Type I investment, it is this Urza Block enchantment that has no effect on basic lands and can be countered or destroyed," committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-MT, said Wednesday.

"This bill will help the average person and is not the 'elitist turkey' or 'control player payoff' that partisan pedagogues would have you believe."

Discuss this article in the Magic: the Gathering Forums!

WALL STREET -- Magic: The Gathering collectors were left scrambling amid heavy profit-taking Wednesday after Type I prices fell to an all-time low, below that of even Type II.

Black Lotus closed Wednesday at US $1.99.

The crash, precipitated by anxious sell-offs, came after market analysts such as First Call/Thomson Financial and Oscar Tan predicted significant devaluations in Type I.

"Multiply that argument by sixty card slots, and you understand why Type I can be cheaper than Type II after you've put together the core of your first deck," Tan said Wednesday.

The announcement was said to have sent shockwaves through the market. Ancestral Recalls fell to US $1.25 after the prediction hit the trade floor. Mox prices also sank Wednesday, in wild trading, with Mox Sapphires being downgraded to junk status.

Prices in other formats skyrocketed Wednesday, with Odyssey Block drafts rising to $250.00 per person.

The crash also coincided with the government release Wednesday of June deck figures. Type I deck starts were down 23 percent in June, with newly constructed Keepers selling for $13.60.

Thomson said the news should not be viewed entirely as bleak.

"The devaluation in Type I should open the gates for more nervous Type I investors, who may now jump at the chance to get into a format where top decks can be built for just a few dollars," Thomson spokesman Irvine Hornby said. "What we're going to see, with luck, is a previously and preposterously inaccessable format spontaneously become a perfectly viable and rewarding market for ordinary people. Not like with drafting and subsequently using the drafted cards in standard."

In related news, the Senate Finance Committee rapidly pushed through a bill to ban Back to Basics, with Senate floor debate expected as early as today.

"If there is anything holding back the ordinary citizen from Type I investment, it is this Urza Block enchantment that has no effect on basic lands and can be countered or destroyed," committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-MT, said Wednesday.

"This bill will help the average person and is not the 'elitist turkey' or 'control player payoff' that partisan pedagogues would have you believe."

Discuss this article in the Magic: the Gathering Forums!