State of the Program for April 6th 2018
Dominaria Rules and Gallery Up: Dominaria spoiler seasons is happening for real – sort of – after being spoiled early on the Chinese website. The Card Image Gallery is
here.
Brawl Format Coming to MTGO: Wizards will introduce the Brawl format to MTGO. The format is basically 60 card Standard Commander. Full details on the format are
here. We will get details of what Brawl leagues or events will appear on MTGO in Lee Sharpe’s April 11
th article.
Should You Ghost?: Ghosting means watching your opponent’s stream, which shows you the opponent’s hand, and may let you listen to the streamer explaining their plans and thoughts. Michael Jacobs was ghosted during the finals of last weekend’s Pauper Challenge. Marshall Sutcliffe posted a video on CF laying out the issue from both sides. You can watch it
here. I will also talk about this in the Opinion Section, below.
Leagues Ending Soonish: Dominaria will release on MTGO later this month. That means that leagues – both limited and constructed – will be ending at then. Specifically, all Constructed Leagues end April 18th, and all Limited Leagues end April 23rd. Play your matches out before then.
Does Pauper Need Bans?: Alex Ullman wrote about fixing Pauper this week on CF. He discusses making the list of playable cards consistent, the effect of Masters sets, and questions whether blue cards need to be banned. As he points out, seven of the ten most played cards are blue, as are seven – arguably eight – of the most played creatures are blue. His article is
here.
This is a list of things we have been promised, or we just want to see coming back. Another good source for dates and times is the
calendar and the weekly blog, while the best source for known bugs is the bug blog which appears sporadically on MTGO.com. Not listed, but important: Wizards offers either one or two online PTQs each weekend, with qualifiers running the three days prior to the PTQ.
Upcoming Events
|
Dates
|
Scheduled Downtimes
|
April 18th (extended), May 9th
|
Constructed Leagues End
|
April 18, 2018
|
Sealed Leagues End
|
April 23, 2018
|
Dominaria
|
April 23, 2018
|
Core Set Magic 2019
|
July 13, 2018
|
Next B&R Announcement
|
April 16, 2018
|
SOI and EMN Redemption Ends
|
April 28, 2018
|
Ixalan Redemption Ends
|
May 23, 2018
|
Rivals of Ixalan Redemption Ends
|
May 23, 2018
|
WotC Covered Events
Wizards will be streaming a number of events next year, including all four Pro Tours, the Magic Championship and World Magic Cup, along with 35 Grand Prix. Since Wizards does not schedule premier events on prerelease weekends and certain holidays, that means they will be streaming an event nearly every weekend. Here’s the schedule we have so far.
· April 6–8: Grand Prix Seattle (double-GP weekend)
· April 14–15: Grand Prix Memphis
· April 28–29: Grand Prix Bologna
· May 5–6: Grand Prix Dallas
· May 11–13: Grand Prix Birmingham (double-GP weekend)
· May 26–27: Grand Prix Washington, DC
· June 1–3: Pro Tour Dominaria in Richmond, Virginia
· June 9–10: Grand Prix Copenhagen
· June 15–17: Grand Prix Las Vegas (double-GP weekend)
· June 23–24: Grand Prix Pittsburgh
· July 7–8: Grand Prix São Paulo
· July 21–22: Grand Prix Sacramento
· July 28–29: Grand Prix Minneapolis
· Aug. 3–5: Pro Tour 25th Anniversary in Minneapolis, Minnesota
· Aug. 11–12: Grand Prix Brussels
· Aug. 18–19: Grand Prix Los Angeles
· Aug. 25–26: Grand Prix Prague
· Aug. 31–Sept. 2: Grand Prix Richmond (double-GP weekend)
· Sept. 8–9: Grand Prix Detroit
· Sept. 15–16: Grand Prix Stockholm
· Weekend of Sept. 23–24: 2018 Magic World Championship and Team Series Championship in Las Vegas, Nevada (exact event dates TBD)
· Oct. 6–7: Grand Prix Montreal
· Oct. 13–14: Grand Prix Denver
· Oct. 27–28: Grand Prix Lille
· Nov. 3–4: Grand Prix Atlanta
· Nov. 9–11: Pro Tour "Spaghetti" in Atlanta
· Nov. 17–18: Grand Prix Milwaukee
· Dec. 8–9: Grand Prix Liverpool
· Dec. 14–16: World Magic Cup in Barcelona, Spain
2018 Magic Online Championship Series and other events
Complete details, including schedule, rules, and which online events qualify you for which online or paper events is
here. In addition, Wizards will be offering these special formats:
· April 4–20: Modern Cube
· April 23rd forward: Dominaria
Magic Online Format Challenges
These are high stakes events that happen every weekend. They cost 25 Tix / 250 play points, and last a number of rounds based on participation (assume 5-8), plus a single elimination Top 8. Details, including prize payouts, are
here. Start times are:
Event Type
|
Start Time
|
|
Saturday, 8:00 am PT
|
|
Saturday, 10:00 am PT
|
|
Saturday, 12:00 pm PT
|
|
Sunday, 8:00 am PT
|
|
Sunday, 10:00 am PT
|
Opinion Section: Ghosting on MTGO
|
Some basics: streaming means broadcasting your game play, in real time, over the internet. Streaming also involves interacting with your audience – it is what makes streaming more interesting than, say, just posting recordings of your matches to YouTube. Generally, streamers show their MTGO / Arena screen, including hand, etc. They also often discuss options: for example, they might explain that they are not going to use the Abrupt Decay on the Goyf because they are saving it for the Dark Confident.
Ghosting means watching your opponent’s stream. This means that you are not only able to see your opponents hand, you can also hear them discuss why they are not casting the Abrupt Decay. It’s near-perfect knowledge, and a real advantage in the match..
Last weekend, DarkestMage was live streaming his side of the finals of the Pauper Challenge. DarkestMage was explaining, to his audience, what he could do. His stream showed his MTGO screen, including his hand. His opponent in that match was ghosting. Once people discovered that this was/had happened, the Interwebs exploded.
For full details, and a good overview of the issue, see Marshall’s video on the issue,
here. It really is worth watching. Go now. I’ll wait.
I want to talk about this issue from two perspectives – what is legal and what is ethical/good for the game. Let’s start with the later.
First, I think streaming is good for the game. It draws viewers in. Viewers may begin as spectators, then become players. Viewers who are already players may become more engaged. Watching a good streamer, like NumottheNummy or LSV, explain why they are doing what they are doing makes the viewers better players. That means they are more likely to play more, do well and participate at higher level events. All of that is good for the game.
A critical part of what makes streaming popular is the interaction. Viewers are not just passive spectators – they can interact with each other and with the streamer. They can ask questions, and debate paths of play. Sometimes the streamer is involved with the interactions, sometimes chat just discusses it among themselves. However, that live interaction is what makes streaming more compelling that TV or YouTube videos. The interaction is important. Streamers can delay their streams, or cover their hands with graphic overlays to limit the information that a ghost can obtain, but that destroys much of what makes watching a stream compelling. It also really reduces the number of viewers.
The discussion revolves around two camps: “it’s not right/fair/ethical” and “it’s not illegal.” One side feels that ghosting is just wrong. It is wrong because it is using a service in a way that it was not intended, and doing so harms the person providing the service and the community they are building. It feels like angle shooting. It is using an advantage that they player should not be using. To this camp, it is like taking all the pennies in the “take-a-penny, leave-a-penny” bowl and pocketing them.
The other camp looks at this differently. They argue that nothing prohibits a player from watching their opponent’s stream. (This is true – nothing in the MTGO code of conduct or anything else I am aware of forbids ghosting.) They argue that the streamer has an advantage because of the comments and advice from their viewers. Now we can argue about how much advantage that is, but having streamers point out plays the player may have missed is an advantage. To the second camp, ghosting the stream is a legal advantage, and failing to take advantage of that advantage means giving away a couple percentage points they could legally use.
This debate happens in most games that can be streamed. I was watching a PUBG stream recently. The streamer did kill someone who was camped directly in their path – someone the streamer had killed, or been killed by, in similar circumstances in several recent games. The streamer assumed that it was a ghost and wasn’t too happy about it. That same streamer also tries to keep advice from their viewers to a minimum. Their stream bot posts this in response to !backseat:
Nightbot: Telling the streamer what item he missed and where is not fair towards other players in the game. Please, do not backseat in this channel.
Telling the streamer that they forgot to take a pan is not, so far as I know, illegal. This streamer felt that this was an unfair edge and did not want to use that edge. They are clearly on the “don’t ghost, don’t take advantages” side of the argument.
People have also attempted to draw parallels to paper Magic. They wonder what would happen if this was at, say, a Grand Prix. I can talk about that – I’ve judged dozens of GPs, plus some Pro Tours, Worlds, etc. I know what I would think about, if I were head judge.
Let’s assume that one player wants to play for an audience. They have several viewers gathered around the table. They play with their hand face up on the table, and describe, out loud, their thought processes. Is this legal, at a competitive level event like a GP? Yes, it is. The player can do this. As a judge, my only concern would be if the monologue would be distracting for other matches nearby.
And if the player is doing this, is it legal for the opponent to look at the cards laid out in the table and listen to the monologue? Absolutely. If a player chooses to reveal information, either visually or verbally, nothing in the rules or even etiquette of the game requires the opponent to cover their ears or look away.
Now let’s assume that the player and the spectators are discussing the game, and the spectators are asking questions. This gets problematic, since even questions could suggest lines of play. If the player asks the spectators what they would do, or if the spectators make suggestions about the game, then this is a problem. In the paper world, at a GP, this would result in a match loss if the player asked for assistance. If a spectator provides assistance without being asked, that spectator gets the match loss, or is evicted form the venue if not enrolled in the tournament. (
Section 3.2 Tournament Error – Outside Assistance in the
Magic Infraction Procedure Guide.)
Digital Magic has never had this type of restriction on outside assistance. It is just one of the many ways that digital Magic is not the same as paper Magic. MTGO has chess clocks. Wizards has said that they would apply chess clocks to paper Magic, if that were feasible. Since it is not, paper Magic has slow play rules and time extensions. Paper Magic has infinite (technically, unbounded) combos and simple rules to go to two million life, or create a billion saprolings. Online Magic does not support these loops, so it is difficult to repeat a combo even a couple dozen times without timing out. (I’ll justify these two statements further down.) Finally, paper Magic allows intentional draws, while MTGO does not.
The paper and online games are just different. Different rules apply.
I agree that ghosting “feels wrong,” and I expect that Wizards, Twitch, etc. would ban it if they could. However, we live in a world where it is not hard to be anonymous on the Internet. People can, and do, create secondary or secret accounts for any number of reasons. (My dog had email
and Facebook accounts.) If someone wants to ghost, I don’t see how that can be prevented. Wizards could ban it, but that ban would be impossible to enforce – just like a ban on outside assistance on MTGO. And if a ban is not enforceable, then it is unlikely that Wizards will make a rule outlawing it.
However, even if ghosting is not per se illegal, social pressure may keep it in check. We can only hope.
Chess Clocks: every time I say that chess clocks are not feasible in the paper world, someone argues they are. Sorry, no. When you use chess clocks, which I have, you have to push their button every time you passed priority. That happens a lot, even if you use shortcuts. Players are going to be passing a lot – literally dozens, possibly hundreds of times per match. (Classic judge question: how many times is priority passed on turn one if player plays a land and does nothing else? The trick is to know that if no attackers are declared you jump to end of combat – which makes the answer 16 times, if I counted correctly. The number of passes is higher if either player does anything significant.) So no matter how you count it, chess clocks would get a ton more pushes in a Magic match than a chess tournament. They are going to wear out quickly.
So who supplies the chess clock? Players? We judges cannot get players to bring dice, counters and a means of tracking life totals, despite being specifically required by the tournament rules. And even if they do, how do players decide whose clock gets used? More importantly, when some player gets angry because they are losing / mana screwed / unhappy / all of the above and hits the button hard enough to break it, do they have to pay for it? Chess clocks are expensive – a reasonably durable one is $100 or more. Practically, if Wizards were to require chess clocks for paper play, they would have to require tournament organizers to supply them. For a decent sized GP, that means the TO is going to have to invest in $100,000 or more worth of chess clocks, with the knowledge that many are going to be broken or stolen. For something like GP Vegas, it would be triple that. Not going to happen.
As for including infinite loops in MTGO, that could happen. Wizards could incorporate some sort of macro language that would let you record a series of actions, enter a number and have the program repeat the loop that number of times. Let’s use an old favorite combo as an example:
Saber Ants (Whenever Saber Ants is dealt damage, you may put that many 1/1 green Insect creature tokens onto the battlefield), enchanted with
Bravado (enchanted creature gets +1/+1 for each other creature you control),
Intruder Alarm (when a creature enters the battlefield, untap all creatures) and a
Prodigal Sorcerer (tap, ping target creature or player.) The loop is simple – tap Prodigal Sorcerer to ping the Sabre Ants to make a 1/1 insect, let Intruder Alarm untap the Sorcerer, repeat. I could demonstrate the loop, then set it to repeat one million times. That’s what the paper rules allow: demonstrate the loop, state how many times it repeats and that’s what happens.
If Wizards were to create a macro to allow that, how long before some player would try to find out how many tokens are required to crash server? Five minutes? Two? And once the servers come back up, how long before it is going to crash again? Wizards is never going to create any such macro.
Standard: This week’s deck should be familiar to anyone who plays much Standard.
Modern: I’m featuring this week’s Modern MOCS winning deck. It’s Humans. It is probably the best, or at least most flexible, deck in Modern.
Pauper: This week’s Pauper deck is Tireless Tribe combo. Both players in last weekend’s Pauper Challenge played this deck. LSV also posted a video with the deck,
here.
Legacy: And the Legacy Challenge decklist.
Vintage: This week the Vintage Challenge was won by a more traditional UWR deck with Planeswalkers, Monastery Mentor and Snapcasters.
Note: all my prices come from the fine folks at
MTGOTraders.com. These are retail prices, and generally the price of the lowest priced, actively traded version. (Prices for some rare promo versions are not updated when not in stock, so I skip those.) You can get these cards at
MTGOTraders.com web store, or from their bots: MTGOTradersBot(#) (they have bots 1-10), CardCaddy and CardWareHouse, or sell cards to MTGOTradersBuyBot(#) (they have buybots 1-4). I have bought cards from MTGOTraders for over a decade now, and have never been overcharged or disappointed.
Standard Staples: Standard prices are down, overall, again this week. I cut a few more cards. Prices should keep dropping as we get closer to Dominaria. Some cards will then climb, once people start talking about new, Dominaria-fueled archetypes.
Standard Cards
|
Price
|
Last Week
|
Change
|
% Change
|
|
$6.00
|
$6.24
|
($0.24)
|
-4%
|
|
$20.13
|
$16.93
|
$3.20
|
19%
|
|
$20.46
|
$22.00
|
($1.54)
|
-7%
|
|
$5.01
|
$5.41
|
($0.40)
|
-7%
|
|
$6.16
|
$6.16
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
$11.09
|
$10.12
|
$0.97
|
10%
|
|
$24.69
|
$23.34
|
$1.35
|
6%
|
|
$4.72
|
$4.87
|
($0.15)
|
-3%
|
|
$27.41
|
$29.41
|
($2.00)
|
-7%
|
|
$12.38
|
$13.32
|
($0.94)
|
-7%
|
|
$5.59
|
$5.37
|
$0.22
|
4%
|
|
$4.64
|
$5.05
|
($0.41)
|
-8%
|
|
$20.66
|
$19.37
|
$1.29
|
7%
|
Modern staples: Modern prices climbed again this week. Masters 25 is no longer adding new cards to the pool, so we should see the values returning to normal. Horizon Canopy needs a reprint. Since that was a Future Sight card, I wonder if we might see a cycle of those cards in the fall set. That would be nice.
Modern Cards
|
Price
|
Last Week
|
Change
|
% Change
|
|
$20.67
|
$19.41
|
$1.26
|
6%
|
|
$37.10
|
$33.62
|
$3.48
|
10%
|
|
$25.02
|
$24.81
|
$0.21
|
1%
|
|
$25.34
|
$23.47
|
$1.87
|
8%
|
|
$29.36
|
$28.66
|
$0.70
|
2%
|
|
$14.78
|
$16.34
|
($1.56)
|
-10%
|
|
$46.84
|
$47.61
|
($0.77)
|
-2%
|
|
$23.00
|
$22.06
|
$0.94
|
4%
|
|
$17.41
|
$21.21
|
($3.80)
|
-18%
|
|
$20.30
|
$19.91
|
$0.39
|
2%
|
|
$57.84
|
$50.56
|
$7.28
|
14%
|
|
$41.93
|
$37.77
|
$4.16
|
11%
|
|
$23.62
|
$21.48
|
$2.14
|
10%
|
|
$56.39
|
$54.18
|
$2.21
|
4%
|
|
$60.07
|
$59.55
|
$0.52
|
1%
|
|
$33.56
|
$41.32
|
($7.76)
|
-19%
|
|
$59.50
|
$50.81
|
$8.69
|
17%
|
|
$34.26
|
$31.99
|
$2.27
|
7%
|
|
$26.88
|
$25.07
|
$1.81
|
7%
|
|
$14.15
|
$16.75
|
($2.60)
|
-16%
|
|
$15.40
|
$13.07
|
$2.33
|
18%
|
|
$34.13
|
$33.58
|
$0.55
|
2%
|
|
$37.43
|
$39.16
|
($1.73)
|
-4%
|
Legacy and Vintage: Legacy and Vintage are generally pretty quiet this week. Rishadan Port is off the table. It was once $1,000+ per playset, now that playset is under $30.
Legacy / Vintage Cards
|
Price
|
Last Week
|
Change
|
% Change
|
|
$27.88
|
$28.05
|
($0.17)
|
-1%
|
|
$25.16
|
$22.99
|
$2.17
|
9%
|
|
$23.42
|
$23.15
|
$0.27
|
1%
|
|
$29.87
|
$30.30
|
($0.43)
|
-1%
|
|
$17.71
|
$18.58
|
($0.87)
|
-5%
|
|
$33.48
|
$33.13
|
$0.35
|
1%
|
|
$33.72
|
$30.64
|
$3.08
|
10%
|
|
$19.10
|
$19.98
|
($0.88)
|
-4%
|
|
$40.52
|
$40.52
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
$27.78
|
$27.33
|
$0.45
|
2%
|
|
$25.90
|
$24.20
|
$1.70
|
7%
|
|
$81.57
|
$80.41
|
$1.16
|
1%
|
|
$16.08
|
$16.09
|
($0.01)
|
0%
|
|
$14.52
|
$14.45
|
$0.07
|
0%
|
|
$35.07
|
$34.41
|
$0.66
|
2%
|
Standard Legal Sets: This table tracks the cost of a single copy of every card in each Standard legal set, plus Treasure Chests and the current booster pack. I’ll keep tracking these because they are interesting (at least to me).
Complete Set
|
Price
|
Last Week
|
Change
|
% Change
|
Aether Revolt
|
$83.55
|
$79.76
|
$3.79
|
5%
|
Amonkhet
|
$71.86
|
$69.28
|
$2.58
|
4%
|
Ixalan
|
$81.79
|
$77.73
|
$4.06
|
5%
|
Hour of Devastation
|
$61.31
|
$61.29
|
$0.02
|
0%
|
Kaladesh
|
$85.15
|
$85.90
|
($0.75)
|
-1%
|
Rivals of Ixalan
|
$77.39
|
$77.37
|
$0.02
|
0%
|
Treasure Chest
|
$2.38
|
$2.52
|
($0.14)
|
-6%
|
Ixalan Booster
|
$3.91
|
$3.98
|
($0.07)
|
-2%
|
Rivals of Ixalan Booster
|
$2.39
|
$2.46
|
($0.07)
|
-3%
|
The following is a list of all the non-promo, non-foil cards on MTGO that retail for more than $25 per card. These are the big ticket items in the world of MTGO. True-Name Nemesis and good art Lotus still rule the roost – but Horizon Canopy is closing fast.
Name
|
Set
|
Rarity
|
Price
|
True-Name Nemesis
|
C13
|
Rare
|
$ 83.84
|
True-Name Nemesis
|
PZ1
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 81.57
|
Black Lotus
|
1E
|
Rare
|
$ 81.50
|
Horizon Canopy
|
FUT
|
Rare
|
$ 64.04
|
Horizon Canopy
|
IMA
|
Rare
|
$ 62.27
|
Liliana of the Veil
|
MM3
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 61.61
|
Mox Opal
|
MS2
|
Bonus
|
$ 60.63
|
Liliana of the Veil
|
ISD
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 60.07
|
Mox Opal
|
SOM
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 59.90
|
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
|
A25
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 59.53
|
Mox Opal
|
MM2
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 59.50
|
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
|
WWK
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 58.25
|
Force of Will
|
MED
|
Rare
|
$ 58.15
|
Horizon Canopy
|
EXP
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 57.84
|
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
|
VMA
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 57.31
|
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
|
EMA
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 56.39
|
Engineered Explosives
|
5DN
|
Rare
|
$ 51.63
|
Engineered Explosives
|
MMA
|
Rare
|
$ 51.53
|
Mox Sapphire
|
1E
|
Rare
|
$ 47.22
|
Engineered Explosives
|
MS2
|
Bonus
|
$ 46.84
|
Wasteland
|
TE
|
Uncommon
|
$ 46.47
|
Tarmogoyf
|
MMA
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 46.06
|
Mox Diamond
|
TPR
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 45.74
|
Karn Liberated
|
NPH
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 42.75
|
Karn Liberated
|
MM2
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 41.93
|
Wasteland
|
TPR
|
Rare
|
$ 40.85
|
Mox Emerald
|
1E
|
Rare
|
$ 40.81
|
Misdirection
|
MM
|
Rare
|
$ 40.52
|
Mox Ruby
|
1E
|
Rare
|
$ 39.42
|
Tarmogoyf
|
MM3
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 38.74
|
Cavern of Souls
|
MM3
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 38.00
|
Dark Depths
|
V16
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 37.98
|
Tarmogoyf
|
MM2
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 37.79
|
Ancestral Recall
|
1E
|
Rare
|
$ 37.55
|
Tarmogoyf
|
FUT
|
Rare
|
$ 37.43
|
Cavern of Souls
|
AVR
|
Rare
|
$ 37.10
|
Force of Will
|
EMA
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 36.63
|
Wasteland
|
EXP
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 35.18
|
Wasteland
|
EMA
|
Rare
|
$ 35.07
|
Noble Hierarch
|
CON
|
Rare
|
$ 34.93
|
Surgical Extraction
|
NPH
|
Rare
|
$ 34.68
|
Unmask
|
V16
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 34.60
|
Noble Hierarch
|
MM2
|
Rare
|
$ 34.26
|
Force of Will
|
MS3
|
Special
|
$ 34.16
|
Surgical Extraction
|
MM2
|
Rare
|
$ 34.13
|
Mox Jet
|
1E
|
Rare
|
$ 33.77
|
Force of Will
|
VMA
|
Rare
|
$ 33.72
|
Liliana, the Last Hope
|
EMN
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 33.56
|
Exploration
|
UZ
|
Rare
|
$ 33.48
|
Underground Sea
|
ME2
|
Rare
|
$ 31.61
|
Underground Sea
|
ME4
|
Rare
|
$ 30.04
|
Containment Priest
|
C14
|
Rare
|
$ 30.01
|
Dark Depths
|
CSP
|
Rare
|
$ 29.87
|
Collective Brutality
|
EMN
|
Rare
|
$ 29.36
|
Scalding Tarn
|
MM3
|
Rare
|
$ 29.13
|
The Scarab God
|
MS3
|
Special
|
$ 28.24
|
Black Lotus
|
VMA
|
Bonus
|
$ 27.88
|
Show and Tell
|
UZ
|
Rare
|
$ 27.78
|
Trinisphere
|
DST
|
Rare
|
$ 27.76
|
Mox Pearl
|
1E
|
Rare
|
$ 27.58
|
Scalding Tarn
|
EXP
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 27.54
|
Chalice of the Void
|
MS2
|
Bonus
|
$ 27.51
|
Containment Priest
|
PZ1
|
Rare
|
$ 27.47
|
The Scarab God
|
HOU
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 27.41
|
Scalding Tarn
|
ZEN
|
Rare
|
$ 26.88
|
Time Walk
|
1E
|
Rare
|
$ 26.64
|
Gorilla Shaman
|
ALL
|
Common
|
$ 26.47
|
City of Traitors
|
EX
|
Rare
|
$ 25.91
|
Chalice of the Void
|
MMA
|
Rare
|
$ 25.74
|
Trinisphere
|
MS2
|
Bonus
|
$ 25.49
|
Chalice of the Void
|
A25
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 25.48
|
Chalice of the Void
|
MRD
|
Rare
|
$ 25.34
|
Ensnaring Bridge
|
ST
|
Rare
|
$ 25.22
|
City of Traitors
|
TPR
|
Rare
|
$ 25.16
|
Celestial Colonnade
|
WWK
|
Rare
|
$ 25.02
|
The big number is the retail price of a playset (4 copies) of every card available on MTGO. Assuming you bought the least expensive versions available, the cost of owning a playset of every card on MTGO is approximately $ 21,140. That’s up $450 from last week.
It’s getting close to rotation time again. As always, I am trying to play through my last packs before the leagues end – but I seem to win enough to keep going. Why doesn’t this happen early in the format, when I actually need prize packs to fuel my drafting?
PRJ
“One Million Words” on MTGO
This series is an ongoing tribute to Erik “Hamtastic” Friborg.
7 Comments
I don't generally follow vintage prices, but is there a reason why Rishadan Port's price fell so much? It can't be just getting reprinted in Masters 25, as that hasn't really affected other chase cards all that much.
It was also given a promo which was widely distributed and hence was already dropping the price for a while before MA25.
"If Wizards were to create a macro to allow that, how long before some player would try to find out how many tokens are required to crash server? Five minutes? Two? And once the servers come back up, how long before it is going to crash again? Wizards is never going to create any such macro."
This can't happen. We have already reached max tokens max p/t, per side and not crashed the server. (There is a reason for the max tokens.)
Can confirm. Mycoloth and Cathar's Crusade hits both limits in very short order.
If not tokens, what does break the server? How about 5.6 quintillion life? How about creating a macro that adds items to the stack - how big can it get before the server surrenders? How about a loop that copies Living Wishes getting basic lands and puts them into play? If I can still have a sideboard over 15 cards in a freeform deck, then I can put 13,000 non-token basic Mountains into play. (That's how many I have in my collection - I could p that to 50,000 if I create a macro that gets each basic land in turn.) How about maxing the storm count? If I have a couple of Myr Retrievers and Ashnod's Altar, can I get the storm count to 69 googolplex? How about if I create a loop that takes infinite turns? Cloudstone Curio, Palinchron and Snapcaster Mage, Time Walk plus some lands that tap for lots of mana does that easily.
Even if Wizards has capped tokens and limited sideboard size, have they capped everything else? EVERYTHING else?
I don't think they will ever let us find out.
Fairly sure life is capped as well. As to deck sizes well at some point one can get pretty ridiculous and I expect there are caps on ALL of those things because of this.
Believe me, I've tried some very, very silly things in my time. Hitting animated doubling seasons with kicked rites of replication on a Panoptic Mirror. Research/Development on an Isochron Scepter to win with battle of wits starting with a 60 card deck. I've been pushing for the limits for over fifteen years now.