The true price of Lore of the Undead ?

Lore of the Undead: The Price we'll pay

So here it comes. The rumoured Lore of Undeath. And enter THE TOKEN.
"...Now every wizard, mage and sorcerer can wield the fell magic from the Lore of Undeath."

$NZ 12 for a pack of magic cards:  OK, I could justify spending the money on a pack of cards. BUT how much is the game going to change over the next year? And what is the real price of this pack of cards going to be?

How much will the average VC or TK player have to spend to be able to "raise the dead" ?
What about armies that HAVE no undead?

And how will the TOKENS work? (Hello SAGA, can we borrow an arrow from your quiver?)
We'll only use it for magic, seeing as you don't have any in your game (sort of):

So a quick analysis of my current 8500 point VC army shows some gaps if I wanted to play this lore of Magic:
Errr...No Monstrous beasts in my army, not nearly enough Chariots (in fact none) , War machines and Monsters

Lore Attribute - Raise Dead
Place a counter on the battlefield every time a friendly Wizard successfully casts a spell from the Lore of Undeath. Any friendly Wizard who casts a summoning spell from the Lore of Undeath may choose, after having successfully cast the spell, to spend one or more counters. For every counter spent, he increases by 10 the amount of points that the spell may summon.

<Ok, can live with that>

Signature Spell: Call of the Grave (9+)
Call of the Grave is a summoning spell with a range of 12". Base spell summons a 50 point infantry unit from the Undead Legions list. Bigger versions summon a 100 point (13+) or 150 point (16+) unit.

<Ok, I'll be able to do both>

1. Dark Breath (6+)
Dark Breath is a blessing that targets a friendly unit with the Undead rule within 12" of the caster. The unit immediately regains 1D3+1 wounds. In addition, if the unit is not engaged in combat, it can perform a normal movement as if it were the Remaining Moves phase.

<Ok, can live with this>

2. Hand of Dust (7+)
Hand of Dust is a blessing that targets the caster. In combat, the wizard may choose to forego all of its normal attacks in order to perform a single attack with the Hand of Dust against a single miniature in base to base contact. If the attack roll hits, the enemy takes a wound with the Multiple Wounds (D6) rule with no armour saves allowed. If Hand of Dust kills an enemy character in a challenge, immediately gain D6 Raise Dead counters.
<Can certainly live with this>

3. Soul Stealer (8+)
Soul Stealer is a direct damage spell with a 12" range. Roll 2D6+2. For each point the result exceeds the target's Leadership, the target takes a wound with no armour saves allowed. If this spell causes at least one unsaved wound, gain D3 Raise Dead counters.

<Ok, this may be ok, Ld of my Wizard allowing>

4. Abyssal Swarm (10+)
Abyssal Swarm is a summoning spell with a range of 12". The caster summons a unit of War Beasts or Swarms from the Undead Legions list of up to 75 points. Caster may instead choose to summon a unit of Monstrous Beasts of up to 150 points, in which case the difficulty is 16+.

<O-o-ok, may just have enough bat swarms and dire wolves, depending on how I choose my army to start off with (at lower casting value); But...not too sure about the monstrous beasts... There are NONE in the current VC book: 
Vargulf is a MONSTER, and Vargeists and Crypt horrors Monstrous Infantry! So, will this mean that I have to buy Aghasts? Will they be monstrous beasts or infantry?
 Suspect the latter. Or invest in Sepulchurous stalkers? Just to enable my Wizards to cast the higher value spell. (...could do without, the monstrous beasts of course, but my regular opponents probably won't)>

5. The Herald (10+)
The Herald is a summoning spell with a range of 12". The caster summons a character of up to 65 points from the Undead Legions list. The caster may instead choose to summon a single Monster, Chariot or War Machine of up to 200 points, in which case the difficulty is 24+.
<Ok, I have a Vargulf (will need an extra one ("Ka-ching",  $73) , I have corpse cart and black coach, would have to invest in Mortis engine/coven throne ($113) , or turn to TK list (Don't have any TKs at all)>

6. Dark Riders (16+)
Dark Riders is a summoning spell with a range of 12". The caster summons a unit of Cavalry, Monstrous Cavalry or Chariots from the Undead Legions list of up to 150 points.
<Ok, I can do this, other than the Chariots>

So, looking at additional expense to field this Army, presuming I would need the new book and Nagash model:

$175 Nagash model
$165 books
$12 Magic cards
plus $216 if I wanted to add 6 Sepulchural Stalkers:
Total $568 before we've even started, just to make my current VC army playable with Nagash;
 if I add another Vargulf and a Mortis Engine/Throne, were talking $750 if I wanted to playing the End Times Expansion game. Or is it "just" an expansion?

Now...lets deal to every army in the WH World in a similar fashion ?
If we clump them together it may not be as noticable to the punters!

Is this really an expansion or the direction the game is taking for 9th ED ?
That is the real question.

Yes its just a game. Yes you've spent a massive amount of money investing in these toys.
Yes, they may become useless at the stroke of a pen. There is hope for you:

Sticks and stones, rage quitter...
 I'm still saying:
The King has no clothes. And his hands are very deep in your pockets. And he's not tickling you. You may think so. He's milking you. And its ok by me if you're happy with that.