Editorial Section:
Ahh the limbo lull time of MTGO and MTGP being out of sync. I've been keeping track of the MTG News cycles for the past few years and it's always kind of interesting. There's a lull for the paper world in the month before the set comes out. During this time, all eyes are on MTGO it seems. The established metagame gets run through the wringer and tournaments fire one after another. Then, the set releases and the MTGP lull disappears and the MTGO lull swings into play. All eyes go to <newest set> and what is happening with that set in the Paper world. Pre-releases, releases, new decks, etc... it's this time that writing about MTGO is usually the hardest, and this set is no exception. At least with spoiler times there are some things to talk about as spoiler cards are equally applicable to MTGO and MTGP... But once the set is out MTGO dries up pretty fast. Luckily for us we have the Community Cup to talk about and discuss but even that can only supply so much discussion for us at this point. So instead of trying to stretch any one thin topic out to a silly degree I'm going to use my face time with my readers to cover a few interesting topics right now.
Community Cup Updates - First and foremost, a gigantic CONGRATULATIONS to our very own Joshua Claytor for being selected to go to the MTGO Community Cup this June! He's amongst the lucky nine people picked to go out there. He's in pretty good company too! The others are:
- Brad Nelson (FFFreak) – Magic Online phenom, 2010 MOCS season III winner, and Channel Fireball contributor
- Marin Baraba (Plejades)- MTGOAcademy founder and contributor
- Joshua Claytor - PureMTGO editor and contributor
- Callum Milne (zammmmm) - Wizards of the Coast VCL
- Victor Bloodgood (tempesteye) - Magic Online community member
- Joseph Hill (MTGKaioshin) - Magic Online community member
- Evan Erwin (Mister Orange) - The Magic Show host and StarCityGames.com Community Manager
- Ed Grabianowski - Managing editor and "Mighty Overlord" for Robot Viking
- Bill Stark – Founder and editor-in-chief of TheStarkingtonPost.com
Those are some pretty big names, and I really look forward to the coverage and the play by play of the events. For those who haven't been paying attention, the Community Cup is coming up fast, and it's just a small thank you to the MTGO community and some of the folks who help keep the game as a whole in the spotlight. Of them, I've met Brad, Evan and Bill (all at PT: Austin, actually) and have had the chance to chat with Brad at Pro Tour Qualifier: Fargo just a few months ago! I'm pretty sure that this line-up will have a great chance at making the WotC's sweat during the events as Brad is a Pro, and Josh was a State Champion as well... and the rest are no slouches either! I wish them all the best of luck! The invites they've received are well deserved! To wish them luck, you can use this thread: MTGO Community Cup General Discussion.
Onto the fun of Rise of the Eldrazi!
I had the fun of running an RoE event this last weekend at my shop. Two things I noticed is that MTGO's rules enforcement, while imperfect at times, is still infinitely better than trying to allow the players to "figure things out" on their own. Not that the players *can't* grok the rules, but when a new rule comes into the mix it can be a bit of a learning curve. MTGO of course reduces that curve by just making the players follow the rules. The other thing that was readily apparent: infinite "add a land" options in MTGO are so nice! No need to track down scads of basic lands to build a deck!
But enough of that! What nuggets of wisdom can I share about RoE? Well, the first is that Rise of a S.L.O.WWWW. sealed format. Games went to time every round. At least one match, sometimes multiple matches. And we had 50 minute rounds! It wasn't slow play either (I kept an eye out for that), but a lot of it was deep decision processes. Like what to level up, when, and how much. How much mana to invest in any one area and what to do when someone attempted to thwart the plans.
The other thing I noticed was that even the common Eldrazi are enough to swing a game or two into your favor. There really aren't a lot of creatures that can trade with at Pathrazer of Ulamog once it gets online. The removal, if you get it, is pretty solid in Black, Red and even white. Smite is amazingly good and you really will want to make sure you have your stops set right on MTGO (as in, you'll want to stop at the end of the Declare Blockers step, before the Combat Damage step). I saw a lot of very amazing mid-combat blowouts with that lowly one mana spell. It was so powerful that it might even be playable in Standard with the white walls and/or the tokens that are available in that color already. It's possible that it wont actually see play of course, but it's certainly within the realm of possibilities at this point. Especially once Jund moves out of the format.
Lastly, but certainly not least-ly is I wanted to take a moment to plug Cape Fear Games which is run by the illustrious Heath Newton (the man who funds this here article site here). As a fellow game-shop-runner-guy, I have to admit that he's running a great site for paper singles if you happen to be in the market to grab a few. I've personally decided to avoid the online card market due to such a high level of saturation that already exists, but if I ever do need to grab some singles (which despite running a shop, happens from time to time), I'll likely hit him up first.
Discussion Items:
Rise of the Eldrazi Dev Chat -
A huge "thank you" to Erik and Brian for fielding these questions and to Gardevoir for running the event and to PhoenixLAU for providing the transcript! These types of things are always fun to see happen and provide some fun details about the future and thoughts of the game.
Card price discussion:
Alrighty! So, based on the numbers I have, Mirage/Visions/Weatherlight drafting is going to be ridiculously profitable for the good drafters and even solidly coastable for the mid to low end drafters in the group. I know that I'm looking forward to those queues going up this week!
In singles prices, Force of Wil..OMG KILL IT WITH FIRE!!! is up to 100 tickets, which is um, great for some people, I'm sure. Other than that, the improving cards went up in Legacy and Standard which is where a lot of the focus on MTGO lies currently. Standard in that there are Standard PTQ's afoot and Legacy in that it's new and interesting.
For decreasing cards I decided to leave the Vanguard cards in, even though they don't really impact too many people out there, there are enough people who used to collect them that I decided to leave them in. I don't expect that they'll be back next week, at any rate.
Card price tables:
| ALA |
1.652861 |
6.402486 |
12.80497 |
| CON |
2.27325 |
|
|
| ARB |
2.476375 |
|
|
| M10 |
2.115271 |
6.345813 |
12.69163 |
| ME3 |
2.753984 |
8.261952 |
16.5239 |
| ZEN |
2.050441 |
7.088173 |
15.1132 |
| WWK |
2.987292 |
|
|
| TE |
3.381427 |
10.58643 |
21.17285 |
| ST |
2.363409 |
|
|
| EX |
4.841591 |
|
|
| mi |
2.470643 |
12.59057 |
25.18115 |
| vi |
5.483766 |
|
|
| wl |
4.636164 |
|
|
Card price charts:
force of will chart
jace, the mind sculptor chart
entomb chart
baneslayer angel chart
karakas chart
lion's eye diamond chart
phyrexian negator chart
wasteland chart
vindicate chart
eureka chart
karakas chart
summoning trap chart
polymorph chart
polymorph chart
eureka chart
polymorph chart
cunning wish chart
rout chart
goblin piledriver chart
wrath of god chart
avatar _ platinum angel chart
tarmogoyf chart
avatar _ morinfen chart
avatar _ arcbound overseer chart
avatar _ chronatog chart
seal of cleansing chart
tolarian academy chart
karn, silver golem chart
gaea's cradle chart
avatar _ goblin warchief (alt.) chart
crater hellion chart
catastrophe chart
copper gnomes chart
energy field chart
karn, silver golem chart
contamination chart
great whale chart
lightning dragon chart
endless wurm chart
sunder chart
12 Comments
Good article this week. Sadly I was not picked for the communitycup maybe one year they will choose a grumpy angry guy just to represent that demographic and hopefully ill get a shot. But I really really really wanna check out Heath's store being that im in the same state and maybe only 3-4 hours a way. It's just trying to find magic buddies to go with is hard and my non-magic friends think its dumb to drive that far for magic...
They hit the grumpy guy demographic last year, when they chose me. Mixing it up a bit.
nice, sadly im not grumpy about the game, just life in general though i suppose that is what college does to you during final projects month
It's worth pointing out that Tempesteye is one of our own too: He's got a solid portfolio of Commander articles in our archive.
Also note Tempesteye doesn't do pants, if the rumours are true that is.
With the extended season over, when is the best time to buy extended cards that arn't needed for other formats at the cheapest? Ravinica block dues for example.
Also, just wondering what everyone would consider a "good" limited player rating?
Hamtastic, how's the quest for an 1800 limited rating going? Love the articles, keep up the good work.
Some of the extended season cards are purchasable now. I'd say barring steam vents and stomping ground, the ravnica duals are at a relatively stable price point. I'd wait on some other cards like bitterblossom and jitte though; those will yet drop further.
The price of Wasteland surprised me. Thank goodness I have mine. How'd it get so high? I mean, obviously, but still, wow!
Even if it were profitable to enter MVW and lose in the first round, no one will do it. There was a ME1-2-3 draft week not too long ago and I don't think it fired. I wasn't watching it constantly I was just looking for completed drafts. But it kind of makes sense that drafters are more motivated to play what they want rather than play what's free. They could 'pay' $8/draft for ZZW, $4/draft for MVW, or $0 to play some free-to-play MMO. They're just going to stick to the formats they find fun, period.
When TSE rolls around it might be profitable to enter, draft three boosters, and drop during deck building. Of course you wouldn't - you'd at least stick around to the first round. But with Wasteland at uncommon and the hotness that is Exodus I wouldn't be surprised if "gold farmers" basically did exactly that - rare draft and suck on purpose. And I'm not even talking about getting 8 friends together and rigging the queues. That's banned behavior. I mean just use these events as an excuse to crack packs.
Getting 8 guys together is not rigging the draft as long as you play. I will definitely play as many MVW queues as I can. Last time they were around, I played 8 of them and left with an LED, a Null Rod and a few other goodies. Kicking myself for passing that foil City of Solitude.
The ME123 drafts in late Feb? Plenty of those fired.. Like one every half hour. I did tons of them and all I got was this stupid Vesuvan Doppelganger.
Ive drafted TTS about 15 times and TSE 10. Out of those, I have gotten ZERO Wastelands. Big fat 0. Id say mythic uncommon =/
Well the difference between late Feb drafts of ME and the up commingones in my mind is the fact that Legacy has been announced since then. And the duel lands have been creeping up in price ever since. I'ld love to have my own set of those but I dont see that happening any time in the future.