Collect the rotating cards

Wobbling in the September winds, leaves are starting their journey off the trees and branches, while the cards, shone or not in the standard, are heading to Modern, Legacy and Vintage. Every August, I make a list of what to collect from the rotating Standard. As well, I explain some of the reasons behind to my readers .

I 'll start with demand and supply. Upon rotation, usually the limited events of the first block ( RTR block) rarely fires. The supply of cards from the block mainly come from players who are holding these cards but decided to sell. They can be players shifting to the next standard, therefore they sell the cards in their decks for tix and wait to buy the upcoming set in September.
We also regard Vintage Masters as a rotating set when seeking the best cards to collect in September.

Case 1 

Logically, during rotation, the supply of cards frequently used in Standard but not in Modern, Legacy and Vintage surges, their prices drop. We can wait for 1-2 month before buying them(if you think they are potential non standard staples).

Some of the cards are: 

Vraska the Unseen

Rakdos's Return

Jace, Architect of Thought

Blood Baron of Vizkopa

Case 2

For cards widely used in Standard but less dominating in Modern, please try buying 1-2 copies a week. Don't risk to buy out them in a morning. On one cosy morning in the future, you may find some cards you will have collected turn 20 tix a piece!

Shock Lands

Mutavault

Sphinx's Revelation

Domri Rade


Case 3 

Some cards are used in some Standard decks but many Modern, Legacy and Vintage decks. We can rank these cards by popularity and set the priority of collecting. A number of standard players will sell their copies for the next block, we can pick them up during rotation. Normally, the more popular they are in Standard, the harder they fall in prices. But sometimes their prices may rise dramatically after rotation. We always try to collect as many as possible by making classified posts, checking bots whenever we are free to play MTGO.

They are:

Abrupt Decay                     Modern/Legacy/Vintage

Deathrite Shaman               Legacy/Vintage 

Scavenging Ooze                Modern/Legacy/Vintage

Voice of Resurgence          Modern

Steam Vents                       Modern/Legacy/Vintage


Case 4
We can also try the strategy of buying out a cheap niche card and wait for a deck using the card hits 1st in events by luck. The Standard card I am saying this time is Enter the Infinite. It's currently solely used in a Legacy deck called Omnitell.
For Vintage cards, I picked :
Ichorid, 0.70-1 tix, used in Legacy/Vintage Dredge deck.
Survival of the Fittest, 0.3 tix, in a Vintage UGW aggro deck.


Case 5
Vintage Masters is made of nearly all reprints and is a set without Standard playable cards. I've made a list of cards worth buying in my previous articles. Here, I should give you a brief idea of sorting out cards for the list. 


I give cards frequently used in Legacy decks +1 mark in my rating system, and
Cards frequently used in Vintage decks get +1 mark too;
Cards always appear as 4x in decks get double in total marks;
Restricted cards get /2 in total marks;
Mythic cards get +1 mark; 
*Cards not reprinted as MOCS promo or other forms of promo get -30% rating;
For each time a card was reprinted in a purchasable product, half the total marks.


*MOCS reprints can chop down the price of a high value card to half easily but the cards reprinted as MOCS promo before are less likely to be reprinted again (though not always true).


My top 3 Picks:
1. Force of Will
2. Underground Sea
3. Jace, the Mind Sculptor