State of the Program for April 9th, 2021
Strixhaven Previews: The main set has been fully spoiled and we wait now for the early access event in a week and then the release of the set on the 15th on MTGO and Arena, and the tabletop release on the 23rd. You can see the full set here, and the variants here.
Commander Previews: Starting Monday and rolling right along with Strixhaven are the previews for Commander 2021. Tied in with Strixhaven thems we have a deck for each school of the college. You can check those decks out here. If you want the card gallery you can see that here and variant gallery here.
Spotlight Cube Series: Andrea Mengucci is bringing the Mengucube to MTGO for the last special format of Kaldheim. You can see a breakdown of the archetypes and a full list of the cube here.
Showcase Challenge Weekend: April 10th sees showcase challenges for Standard, Modern and Vintage. Saturday sees them for Pioneer, Legacy and Kaldheim sealed.
All-Access Week: This wraps up on the 14th. If you're looking to take advantage of this for a Super Qualifier, there is a Modern one that is happening soon after publication fo this article!
Arena State of the Game: Coming after the Strixhaven update will be a The College Cup, a series of events where your school matters! The Sealed Arena Open will be back on May 9th. Best of 1 Formats will have a reduction in sideboard cards from 15, to 7. You can see notes about the Mystical Archive and other store related things here and 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 MCQs each weekend, with qualifiers for limited MCQs running the days immediately prior to the MCQ.
Upcoming Events
|
Dates
|
Scheduled Downtimes
|
April 14, 2021 |
Constructed Leagues End
|
April 14, 2021
|
Sealed Leagues End
|
April 15, 2021 |
Next B&R
|
Unknown
|
Kaldheim Redemption
|
Ends June 23, 2021
|
|
|
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 7 - April 14 - MenguCube
Sealed Qualifier - April 25th - Time Spiral Remastered
Magic Online Format Challenges
These are high stakes events that happen every weekend. They cost 30 Tix / 300 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:
Standard: There was a little bit of inovation as the end of Kaldheim Standard came to events. This deck uses Lukka to make sure it can get Koma and present a heck of a threat early in the game.
Historic: Before Strixhaven and the Mystical Archive comes along, Jund Sac was probaly the best deck in the Historic format. Will the cards entering shake up the Arena format? I'd say so this is, in essence the best Historic Anthology that Wizards of the Coast has ever added to the format.
Legacy: Hogaak still has a home, despite not being allowed in Modern for some time now.
Modern: I do not know why this deck called out to me this week, but it seemed like a fine time to show off a control option in the format.
Pauper: I cannot believe the price of
Snuff Out these days.
Pioneer: Obosh seemed like one of the companions that should have gotten more love, and it's been nice to see it get some more play recently in Standard and Pioneer.
Vintage:
The Winner's Circle is where I will recognize winners of the past events on MTGO.
Challenge Winners
Saturday Legacy - musasabi - Food Chain
Saturday Modern - TSPJendrek - Esper Control
Saturday Pauper - kasa - Flicker Tron
Saturday Pioneer - Ptarts2win - Gruul Obosh
Saturday Standard - Ekeross - Temur Adventures
Saturday Vintage - Dead_style
Sunday Legacy - yoshiwata - Death and Taxes
Sunday Modern - Thiommimp - Izzet Blitz
Sunday Pauper - cicciogire - Jund Cascade
Sunday Pioneer - O_danielakos - Boros Prowess
Sunday Standard - Poyo_del_Mal - Sultai
Sunday Vintage - Mogged
Other Event Winners
Pauper Super Qualifier - chrolony and zachattack23
Modern Super Qualifier - sicsmoo and MentalMisstep
Vintage Super Qualifier - discoverN and IamActuallyLvl1
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 a decade and a half now, and have never been overcharged or disappointed.
Standard Staples:
The Great Henge came off the list.
Ketria Triome is gone as well. We've got three new additions to the list from Kaldheim as well, and that's a bit odd considering Strixhaven is coming out next week. I am not sure if this is a Commander related bump, but I know that
Koma, Cosmos Serpent is seeing a bit more play in Standard. The other two I haven't noticed an uptick in play of.
Terror of the Peaks is off the list.
Liliana, Waker of the Dead is gone as well.
Modern Staples:
Kaya's Guile is new to the list, but is this a Commander bump or not?
Eternal Staples: I added
Snuff Out to the list because Pauper is an Eternal format.
Sol Ring is off the list.
Pioneer Staples:
Assassin's Trophy's days aren't numbered yet.
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet has been removed.
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). This is being kept as a small tribute to Pete!
Complete Set |
Price |
Last Week |
Change |
% Change |
Core Set 2021 |
$73.05 |
$75.19 |
($2.14) |
-3% |
Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths |
$58.84 |
$58.23 |
$0.61 |
1% |
Kaldheim |
$155.43 |
$137.89 |
$17.54 |
13% |
Kaldheim Booster |
$3.06 |
$2.99 |
$0.07 |
2% |
Theros Beyond Death |
$105.03 |
$110.46 |
($5.43) |
-5% |
Throne of Eldraine |
$158.51 |
$151.82 |
$6.69 |
4% |
Treasure Chest |
$2.38 |
$2.40 |
($0.02) |
-1% |
Zendikar Rising |
$169.90 |
$126.71 |
$43.19 |
34% |
The following is a list of all the non-foil, non-promo cards on MTGO that retail for more than $25 per card. These are the big ticket items in the world of MTGO. The list is interesting, at the least. This is interesting to me because a lot of these cards have been reprinted more than once, and they are still commanding a high price.
Black Lotus |
1E |
Rare |
188.33 |
Snapcaster Mage |
UBT |
Mythic |
104.13 |
Force of Negation |
MH1 |
Rare |
98.38 |
Karakas |
UBT |
Mythic |
92.45 |
Liliana of the Veil |
UBT |
Mythic |
91.59 |
Cavern of Souls |
UBT |
Mythic |
89.44 |
Hullbreacher |
CMR |
Rare |
78.03 |
Mox Jet |
1E |
Rare |
75.71 |
Mox Sapphire |
1E |
Rare |
73.54 |
Force of Will |
MED |
Rare |
71.22 |
Ancestral Recall |
1E |
Rare |
68.88 |
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow |
PZ2 |
Rare |
68.55 |
Time Walk |
1E |
Rare |
67.2 |
Mox Emerald |
1E |
Rare |
62.8 |
Wasteland |
TE |
Uncommon |
62.65 |
Wrenn and Six |
MH1 |
Mythic |
61.17 |
Carpet of Flowers |
UZ |
Uncommon |
60.38 |
Wasteland |
ZNE |
Mythic |
57.35 |
Wasteland |
EXP |
Mythic |
55.36 |
Wasteland |
TPR |
Rare |
54.58 |
Dark Depths |
UBT |
Mythic |
54.09 |
Scourge of the Skyclaves |
ZNR |
Mythic |
53.78 |
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth |
UBT |
Mythic |
53.62 |
Wasteland |
EMA |
Rare |
51.67 |
Force of Will |
2XM |
Mythic |
51.57 |
Force of Will |
MS3 |
Mythic |
51.31 |
The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale |
ME3 |
Rare |
51.17 |
Force of Will |
VMA |
Rare |
50.88 |
Karn, the Great Creator |
WAR |
Rare |
50.72 |
Jace, the Mind Sculptor |
MS4 |
Mythic |
47.33 |
Force of Will |
EMA |
Mythic |
46.79 |
Demonic Tutor |
UBT |
Mythic |
46.51 |
Auriok Champion |
IMA |
Rare |
45.55 |
Noble Hierarch |
UBT |
Mythic |
45.49 |
Verdant Catacombs |
ZNE |
Mythic |
44.67 |
Auriok Champion |
5DN |
Rare |
43.3 |
Allosaurus Shepherd |
JMP |
Mythic |
42.65 |
Mox Ruby |
1E |
Rare |
42.25 |
Karn Liberated |
UBT |
Mythic |
41.26 |
Valki, God of Lies |
KHM |
Mythic |
40.76 |
Mox Pearl |
1E |
Rare |
40.75 |
Teferi, Time Raveler |
WAR |
Rare |
39.93 |
Purple-Crystal Crab |
PZ2 |
Common |
39.84 |
Wooded Foothills |
ZNE |
Mythic |
38.81 |
Skyclave Apparition |
ZNR |
Rare |
38.52 |
Seasoned Pyromancer |
MH1 |
Mythic |
38.26 |
City of Traitors |
EX |
Rare |
37.93 |
Brazen Borrower |
ELD |
Mythic |
37.29 |
Polluted Delta |
ONS |
Rare |
36.75 |
Cavern of Souls |
ZNE |
Mythic |
35.74 |
Liliana, the Last Hope |
MS4 |
Mythic |
35.47 |
Hexdrinker |
MH1 |
Mythic |
35.44 |
Platinum Emperion |
UBT |
Mythic |
35.36 |
Timetwister |
1E |
Rare |
35.35 |
Underground Sea |
ME2 |
Rare |
33.79 |
Celestial Colonnade |
UBT |
Mythic |
32.37 |
Heavenly Qilin |
PZ2 |
Common |
32.18 |
Underground Sea |
ME4 |
Rare |
31.98 |
Verdant Catacombs |
EXP |
Mythic |
31.9 |
Scalding Tarn |
ZNE |
Mythic |
31.17 |
Misty Rainforest |
ZNE |
Mythic |
30.71 |
City of Traitors |
TPR |
Rare |
29.96 |
Ethereal Forager |
C20 |
Rare |
29.95 |
Mox Diamond |
ST |
Rare |
29.53 |
Scalding Tarn |
EXP |
Mythic |
29.24 |
Ancient Tomb |
ZNE |
Mythic |
29.19 |
Cavern of Souls |
UMA |
Mythic |
28.99 |
Opposition Agent |
CMR |
Rare |
28.86 |
Verdant Catacombs |
MM3 |
Rare |
28.46 |
Cavern of Souls |
MM3 |
Mythic |
27.84 |
Mox Diamond |
TPR |
Mythic |
27.68 |
Polluted Delta |
ZNE |
Mythic |
27.27 |
Doomsday |
WL |
Rare |
27.04 |
Mox Diamond |
V10 |
Mythic |
27 |
Lord Windgrace |
PZ2 |
Mythic |
26.89 |
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria |
MS4 |
Mythic |
26.41 |
Creeping Tar Pit |
UBT |
Mythic |
26.18 |
Ancient Tomb |
EXP |
Mythic |
26.04 |
Fulminator Mage |
UBT |
Mythic |
25.67 |
Bitterblossom |
UBT |
Mythic |
25.57 |
Life from the Loam |
UBT |
Mythic |
25.29 |
Earthshaking Si |
PZ2 |
Common |
25.23 |
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 a number that I cannot figure out still. I have actually asked Pete to do this for me, because Open Office is weird, and I have no idea what I am doing, and I am pretty close to just being a dog in a labcoat.
Nevermind, ignore all of that, Pete got it done for me, because he is just the dang best. The big number this week is $29,677. Last week the big number was $29,335. Even with the all-access token the number went up $342.
Not an exciting week for me this week. It wa just kinda there. Still recovering from Covid, I'm not sick anymore, but I'm still improving every day.
This series is an ongoing tribute to Erik “Hamtastic” Friborg.