With Disney Lorcana’s ninth expansion, Fabled, just around the corner, a lot of cards have suddenly begun moving hands at breakneck pace and pricing. This time, another Legendary from Azurite Sea has spiked in price.
Yzma - Conniving Chemist
Yzma - Conniving Chemist followed the same kind of trend previously tread by the likes of Tiana - Restaurant Owner and Rapunzel - High Climber.
Last month, copies of this particular Legendary card were being moved around at a $2.30 market average; some copies were pushing the upper bracket of sales to about $5 here and there.
This market trend held steady until last week. Starting around the 14th of August, there was a bit of a bump in the second-hand market, where the price average had moved up to around $4 to $5.
Then on the 17th of August, the average market value of Yzma - Conniving Chemist practically tripled to around $12 - $13. Some cold foil copies are skewing the market analytics as they are sometimes exchanging hands at about $20 or even more.
Taking away older staples for creative deck building
The Fabled expansion for Disney Lorcana isn’t just another extension of the card pool for the game. It also marks the start of set rotation for the Core Constructed format in officially recognized tournaments. This, in turn, makes using any cards from the first four sets illegal in said tournaments unless they’ve been reprinted in a legally recognized expansion.
For the Amethyst ink color, a lot of its early game and cheaper consistency tools have not been reprinted in Fabled. Cards like Friends On The Other Side or Chernabog's Followers - Creatures of Evil were some of the most used parts for Amethyst’s draw engine.
With set rotation coming into effect, however, it looks like players are looking for alternatives to fill in the void left behind by this purge. Players looking at Yzma - Conniving Chemist seem to be favoring her in aggro builds.
A discussion over on Reddit shows that some players believe Conniving Chemist would be too slow. Essentially, if the Amethyst player is already winning in the Lore race and the opponent has very little chance for a comeback.
Notably, however, a point was raised that even the best laid plans don’t always survive contact with the opponent. An opponent that actively engages with the board could drastically change the direction of the match in just a couple of turns.
Played on ink curve, Yzma - Conniving Chemist provides aggro decks a much-needed replenishment of resources without spending ink, and even if not used for her draw prowess, Yzma does offer a good stat line.
A 2 in Lore does contribute quite a bit to the race, and her threes in both Strength and Willpower afford Yzma some staying power while on the field. At the very least, the opponent has to invest something to stop Yzma regardless of how she’s applying pressure to the state of the match.
The Fabled expansion and Ravensburger’s implementation of a set rotation are not just shaking up the second-hand market. It’s forcing a shift in player perspective, generating discussion topics, pushing creativity and skill expression within its player base.
Underutilized cards like Yzma, Tiana - Restaurant Owner, and Rapunzel - High Climber are beginning to see a rise in value, and while we can’t rightfully predict how the format will develop in the coming months, it’ll be interesting to see how players in Core Constructed will leverage their available tools now that some staples have been removed from rotation.