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By: one million words, Pete Jahn
Aug 28 2015 9:54pm
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 State of the Program for August 28th 2015

In the News:

Wizards Releases Schedule for Next Round of Online PTQs: Pretty similar to past seasons, but note that Wizards will host an extra PTQ on Monday, September 7th - Labor Day in the US.   There will be a total of 16 PTQs online. Details here.
 
League Code Here – Leagues Themselves a Month Off: During the downtime, Wizards released the code for leagues. You can now see the League box on the main screen, but it doesn’t do anything yet.   Constructed leagues won’t begin until mid-September, and limited leagues won’t happen until sometime after that. Update: Saw a tweet that some Wizards employees played the first league match on the non-beta client in seven years. It’s happening!
 
FNM Promos Announced: Wizards has released info on the paper FNM promos for the next few months. This is relevant because the FNM promos often become MOPR promos. September’s FNM promo is an alt art Orator of Ojutai. Seriously meh – unless Wizards knows something about Standard once RTZ arrives. It gets a lot better in October, though, with some disturbing new art for Ultimate Price.   November gets cold around here, so I will be happy to snap up a fiery new Roast. You can see the art here.
 
Magic the Gathering Puzzle Quest Announced: Wizards has announced a Magic flavored version of the match three game Puzzle Quest for IOS and Android. Wizards will make a full announcement at PAX. What details we have are here.
 
Post-Downtime Problems: The new build installed last downtime had some issues. After restart, the program ran slowly and joining events was iffy. After an hour, Wizards ended all events and eventually restarted the client.   MTGO was up and running well by around 5pm PDT. The PTQ Qualifier which was to be held Wednesday will be / was rescheduled. 
 
New Mulligan Rule to be Global w/ Battle for Zendikar Rules Update: (repeat from last week) Wizards has announced that the new mulligan rule tested at Pro Tour Origins will be universal with the next major rules update, which coincides with the Battle for Zendikar Prerelease. In other words, once Battle for Zendikar is here, if you don’t keep your opening seven, you may scry before beginning the game. The announcement is here, and the article explaining the rule is here.
 

The Timeline:

This is a list of things we have been promised, or just want to see coming back.   Another good source for dates and times is the MTGO calendar and the weekly blog, while the best source for known bugs is the Known Issues List. For quick reference, here are some major upcoming events.   In addition, there are either one or two online PTQs each weekend.
 
Item: date and notes
·         2-Player Legacy Cube Sealed:  August 26th through September 2nd.
·         Rise of the Eldrazi 6-2-2-2 Drafts:  August 26th through September 9th.
·         MOCS Season 10: runs from August 26th through September 30th. Promo is an alt art Stifle.
·         Magic Origins Standard Championship: Saturday August 29th. Qualifiers preceding downtime to downtime “week.” Details here.
·         Battle for Zendikar Prerelease: starts Oct. 9th.
·         From the Vault: Angels: October 12, 2015. Details here.
·         Legendary Cube: Nov. 18th. Details here.
·         Implementation of the ‘Tuck” Rule in Commander: Delayed – no date given.
 

Opinion Section: Investing in MTGO Cards

This is not investment advice. 
 
I’m writing this Wednesday morning. MTGO is in downtime, and the Wizards website is also down. I’m looking for something to put in this section, and I’m not upset about anything enough to rant. I want to draft, but downtime, so I took Buster for a walk. I kept thinking about card prices, how they change, and how much cheaper MTGO is now than it once was. 
 
I also thought about how much value I have lost as cards have rotated or been reprinted. This is true in both paper and online. For example, I remember paying $15 a piece for the Replenishes I needed for a paper tournament (which I won), and almost $20 each for Call of the Herds. Once upon a time, Birds of Paradise were really expensive – and on and on.   On the flip side, I paid $12.50 in store credit for my paper Bazaar of Baghdad, and $129 for a played Time Walk.   Those cards are worth a lot more than that now.
 
I have some data on these changes. I have been paid in store credit, for the most part, for writing the 850+ articles I have had published over the last 15+ years. For tax purposes, I have kept copies of all my compensation-related purchases.   So, just for laughs and groans, here are a few of my MTGO purchases, what I paid for them and what they are worth now. Some of these purchases make me look brilliant. Others – not so much.

 

 

 

Card

What I Spent

Value Now

Notes

City of Brass

$6.00

$2.57

2005. First order from MTGO Traders

Rakavolver

$8.00

$0.02

Remember Rainbow Stairwell?

Armadillo Cloak

$1.80

$0.03

Remember how much Invasion cards cost before flashback drafts?  In 2006, Cloak had never been reprinted.

Dark Confidant

$5.00

$8.78

It was $35.00 a few months ago

Ohran Viper

$9.50

$0.63

I had a reason, I guess, back in 2006.

Sundering Titan

$1.94

$10.94

 

Undiscovered Paradise

$5.50

$18.94

 

Trinisphere

$0.90

$6.67

 

Damnation

$16.50

$7.54

2007.  Back when it was Standard legal.

Grove of the Burnwillows

$2.31

$17.00

 

Infernal Tutor

$1.70

$34.23

2007.  I bought a playset at this price.

Vindicate

$62.42

$12.62

Invasion block cards were super expensive.

Fact or Fiction

$15.52

$0.02

Tournament staple and not reprinted back then.  Neither of those things are true now.

Ensnaring Bridge

$0.97

$24.17

7E version – all there was back then.

Vendilion Clique

$4.00

$17.82

Bought these as Lorwyn was rotating.

(Lion’s Eye Diamond)

$32.00

$7.71

It was over $100 for a while, but I bought my playset at $32.  Post VMA, it is cheap.

Stifle

$5.00

$19.50

 

The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale

$1.00

$22.24

I only bought a pair.  I have never seen a deck run more than two.

Gideon Jura

$39.00

$1.18

Oh, how the mighty have fallen…

Celestial Colonnade

$5.75

$16.14

Sometimes you win

Jace, the Mind Sculptor

$93.50

$11.68

And sometimes not.  Yes, big Jace was $100.  Caw-Blade, remember?

Primeval Titan

$39.00

$5.24

2010, first time around, and I played green.

Time Vault

$9.00

$0.33

VMA rare = value destruction

Null Rod

$42.00

$0.37

Yes, it really was that expensive back in 2011, and necessary in Classic. But ouch.

Batterskull

$13.25

$24.78

2011.  It’s been a lot higher.

Show and Tell

$14.50

$60.96

I bought two and drafted the other two.  If it is banned in Legacy, this will drop to about  $2.

Rishadan Port

$48.26

$155.06

Ingrid and I had 6 between us.  I sold two for $300.  Only time I have ever sold lands.

Liliana of the Veil

$19.80

$98.45

Bought them in 2012.

Scapeshift

$0.94

$12.18

This was over $25.00 for a while.

Oblivion Stone

$2.32

$14.35

J

Griselbrand

$6.52

$38.15

I try to buy three of each Mythic that seems interesting…  Big win this time.

Force of Will

$129.68

$25.28

I was playing Vintage and Legacy with these at the time. This was my fourth.  I don’t regret paying this much.  (Okay, I’m lying…)

Misdirection

$33.24

$116.89

I bought 3 and later sold one for what I paid for all three.  I can’t imagine playing more than two, ever.

Omniscience

$1.54

$22.41

Bought a playset.  I like to buy anything that seems cheap and does something unique.  Sometimes that works, sometime I lose out.

Voice of Resurgence

$44.18

$18.49

2013. I was buying in at the top, but I wanted to play the deck.

Cavern of Souls

$3.95

$16.35

Timing – bought a couple as it rotated, to complete Ingrid’s playset.

Snapcaster Mage

$4.79

$19.95

Ditto

Mana Confluence

$7.66

$10.34

 

Black Lotus

$251.15

$94.47

I bought my Lotus when Wizards stopped VMA drafts for the first time…

Temple of Malady

$5.89

$11.65

I like to buy lands in the slump after the release events get going.  I saved money here, but not across the board.

Keranos, God of Storms

$4.23

$19.14

Buying a copy before it gets popular can save you money.

Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker

$11.87

$4.73

Or lose money.

Eidolon of the Great Revel

$7.73

$16.62

The concept works best with cheap multi-format staples. 

Do I have a point here? Not really. I don’t see some plot by Wizards, or a conspiracy of Bot owners. This isn’t the result of crating Mythics, or changing redemption. This is just how Magic works. Cards have value based on how they do in constructed decks.   Cards is Standard have to compete with a thousand or so other cards to fit into decks. When they rotate into Modern, they are competing with thousands of other cards. Most cannot make the cut, and their price plummets. In rare cases, cards that were trash suddenly gain symmetry with other cards and their price rises. This happened with Illusions of Grandeur and Donate, Bazaar of Baghdad and dredge, etc. It’s what happens in Magic.

 
These changes are not unique to MTGO. However, three aspects of MTGO do tend to reduce the demand for, and price of, cards. 
 
The first aspect is that you can use the same four copies of cards in many decks at the same time. This reduces demand. For example, I have a couple EDH decks, a few casual decks and at least two competitive decks that all use Eternal Witnesses. That means I have, and need, nine Eternal Witnesses.  Online, I can duplicate all those decks with just four copies. 
 
The second aspect is that MTGO does not support collections. In the paper world, many people collect cards and sets. That creates a demand for every card – even if it just “one for the collection.” I’m one of those people, and I used to collect cards online as well. However, MTGO does not have any easy or usable way of viewing your collection, so I have stopped bothering.   I still collect paper cards, but I could care less about online versions. 
 
The third aspect of MTGO is that it does a very bad job of appealing to casual players. MTGO is a very good platform for drafts and tournaments, but it is not all that good for multiplayer games. It is also very hard to find opponents for fun variant formats. For example, I mentioned some cards I purchased, years ago, for a Rainbow Stairwell deck. I also used to buy cards for Prismatic decks, for Star Magic and so forth. MTGO cannot even get the tuck rule for Commander implemented, or get Legacy Tribal right, much less support less popular formats. The result of that lack of support, though, is that casual players are few and scarce, and that means that the demand for casual cards is also much lower than it would otherwise be.    
 
I’m really not ranting.  This is just what MTGO, and Magic, is. As for the list of prices -  
I just find data interesting.  Hopefully, you did too.
 

Random MTGO Suggestion of the Week: 

The leagues box needs to do something. ;)
 
If you have a suggestion for an improvement to MTGO, send it to magiconlinefeedback@wizards.com.       
 

Cutting Edge Tech:

Standard: The Standard metagame has shifted yet again. This week the SCG Open in Charlotte had Jeskai Ascendency and Mardu Dragons in the Top 8, but Abzan Rally managed to win out.
 
 
Modern:  SCG ran a Modern Open in Charlotte last weekend. The Top 32 decklists are here. The metagame was a mix of styles, with several Collected Company decks and very little Twin. One Lantern Control did make top 16, so that thing is not dead.   The top deck was Jund, as it should be. 
 
 
Legacy: The Legacy Championships was last weekend.  Over 740 players showed up to play with old cards and new. Coverage, including decklists, is here.   The Top 8 decks were not too surprising, with several varieties of Delver, Lands and Omni-Tell.   Moving further down the list of finishers, we see more Lands, Jund in 12th, more Delvers, a Painted Grindstone in 14th, Twelve-Post in 15th, Merfolk in 16th, Infect, Miracles, Metalworker in 23rd, Death and Taxes in 25th, and Affinity in 27th place. The list was predominantly Oni-Tell, Lands and a variety of Delver lists. 
 
 
Vintage: The Vintage Championship was last weekend. Turnout was amazing – 458 players competed.   Coverage is here.   The breakout deck was probably Shops with Hangerback Walker, but in the end an innovative Oath / Bomberman combo deck won out. 
 
 

Card Prices

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 moved around this week. I clipped a few cards off the list – stuff that was holding at or under $5.   Cards that used to be super-expensive are also in danger of falling off the list – cards like older Nissa, Worldwaker and Rabblemaster.     
 

Standard & Block Cards
Price
Last Week
Change
% Change
$12.04
$10.27
$1.77
17%
$7.49
$7.79
($0.30)
-4%
$20.80
$22.55
($1.75)
-8%
$10.21
$9.15
$1.06
12%
$16.82
$14.12
$2.70
19%
$7.16
$7.43
($0.27)
-4%
$16.62
$16.91
($0.29)
-2%
$10.60
$10.31
$0.29
3%
$5.72
$6.84
($1.12)
-16%
$10.90
$8.89
$2.01
23%
$30.51
$26.45
$4.06
15%
$15.14
$19.21
($4.07)
-21%
$6.92
$7.67
($0.75)
-10%
$10.34
$10.72
($0.38)
-4%
$10.72
$9.02
$1.70
19%
$13.00
$14.27
($1.27)
-9%
$5.84
$6.94
($1.10)
-16%
$6.30
$5.68
$0.62
11%
$10.37
$10.58
($0.21)
-2%
$10.28
$13.53
($3.25)
-24%
$11.65
$12.28
($0.63)
-5%
$7.21
$7.26
($0.05)
-1%
$10.12
$9.55
$0.57
6%

Modern staples:  Modern prices also fluctuated.   I may also cut a few cards from this table – cards like Azusa. People who wanted to play that deck have copies, and the rest of us are chasing other Modern strangeness, like Evolutionary Elves. 
 

Modern Cards
Price
Last Week
Change
% Change
$10.03
$12.72
($2.69)
-21%
$26.63
$26.82
($0.19)
-1%
$24.78
$27.46
($2.68)
-10%
$21.36
$23.59
($2.23)
-9%
$16.53
$15.74
$0.79
5%
$24.17
$22.94
$1.23
5%
$11.82
$12.56
($0.74)
-6%
$15.53
$15.89
($0.36)
-2%
$38.15
$37.19
$0.96
3%
$17.00
$21.10
($4.10)
-19%
$20.24
$20.07
$0.17
1%
$18.61
$16.49
$2.12
13%
$98.45
$89.65
$8.80
10%
$23.50
$24.03
($0.53)
-2%
$14.35
$16.91
($2.56)
-15%
$22.41
$22.48
($0.07)
0%
$39.26
$40.66
($1.40)
-3%
$12.18
$12.36
($0.18)
-1%
$19.95
$18.37
$1.58
9%
$47.06
$46.69
$0.37
1%
$28.30
$28.27
$0.03
0%
$17.82
$17.70
$0.12
1%
$18.49
$20.06
($1.57)
-8%

Legacy / Vintage staples: This week, Legacy and Vintage staples moved around a bit, as usual.   Stifle fell again, but that’s to be expected of a MOCS promo.      
 

Legacy / Vintage Cards
Price
Last Week
Change
% Change
$35.58
$33.99
$1.59
5%
$94.47
$85.34
$9.13
11%
$27.61
$26.91
$0.70
3%
$21.62
$22.72
($1.10)
-5%
$40.58
$39.80
$0.78
2%
$26.83
$26.83
$0.00
0%
$25.28
$25.01
$0.27
1%
$24.07
$24.13
($0.06)
0%
$34.23
$33.15
$1.08
3%
$19.95
$18.62
$1.33
7%
$116.89
$117.68
($0.79)
-1%
$25.93
$27.16
($1.23)
-5%
$46.60
$41.83
$4.77
11%
$155.06
$163.97
($8.91)
-5%
$60.96
$58.25
$2.71
5%
$19.50
$21.39
($1.89)
-9%
$22.24
$22.19
$0.05
0%
$26.98
$25.76
$1.22
5%
$21.96
$21.87
$0.09
0%
$22.07
$23.39
($1.32)
-6%
$21.00
$21.00
$0.00
0%
$66.62
$65.25
$1.37
2%

Set Redemption: You can redeem complete sets on MTGO. You need to purchase a redemption voucher from the store for $25. During the next downtime, Wizards removes a complete set from your account, and sends you the same set in paper.   For those of you who redeem, here are the retail prices of one of everything set currently available in the store, excluding sets that are not currently draftable or not redeemable.  
 

Complete Set
Price
Last Week
Change
% Change
Born of the Gods
$26.89
$32.62
($5.73)
-18%
Dragons of Tarkir
$136.80
$128.06
$8.74
7%
Fate Reforged
$59.20
$54.60
$4.60
8%
Journey into Nyx
$97.74
$107.77
($10.03)
-9%
Khans of Tarkir
$89.38
$79.82
$9.56
12%
M15
$76.17
$79.82
($3.65)
-5%
Magic Origins
$109.78
$100.07
$9.71
10%
Theros
$61.98
$56.38
$5.60
10%

The Good Stuff:

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.  The list has shrunk again and is now under thirty cards. On the plus side, other than some Mercadian Masques cards and maybe Liliana and Wasteland, MTGO is reasonably affordable in every format.  
 

Card
Set
Rarity
Price
Rishadan Port
 MM
Rare
$ 155.06
Misdirection
 MM
Rare
$ 116.89
Liliana of the Veil
 ISD
Mythic Rare
$ 98.45
Black Lotus
 VMA
Bonus
$ 94.47
Wasteland
 TPR
Rare
$ 67.12
Wasteland
 TE
Uncommon
$ 66.62
Show and Tell
 UZ
Rare
$ 60.96
Tangle Wire
 NE
Rare
$ 56.87
Tarmogoyf
 MMA
Mythic Rare
$ 49.55
Tarmogoyf
 FUT
Rare
$ 47.77
Tarmogoyf
 MM2
Mythic Rare
$ 47.06
Mox Sapphire
 VMA
Bonus
$ 46.60
Doomsday
 WL
Rare
$ 40.58
Scalding Tarn
 ZEN
Rare
$ 39.26
Griselbrand
 AVR
Mythic Rare
$ 38.15
Ancestral Recall
 VMA
Bonus
$ 35.58
Infernal Tutor
 DIS
Rare
$ 34.23
Force of Will
 MED
Rare
$ 32.67
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
 ORI
Mythic Rare
$ 30.51
Twilight Mire
 EVE
Rare
$ 28.30
Containment Priest
 C14
Rare
$ 27.61
Time Walk
 VMA
Bonus
$ 26.98
Food Chain
 MM
Rare
$ 26.83
Daze
 DD2
Common
$ 26.82
Auriok Champion
 5DN
Rare
$ 26.63
Mox Jet
 VMA
Bonus
$ 25.93
Ensnaring Bridge
 ST
Rare
$ 25.79
Mox Ruby
 VMA
Bonus
$ 25.66
Force of Will
 VMA
Rare
$ 25.28

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 you can own is $ 23,790.  That’s down about $270 from last week.  We are back in the normal fluctuation pattern.      
 

Weekly Highlights:

I will be watching Worlds this weekend, and playing in the MTGO Judge event. Other than that, not a lot this week. I did get to play some Magic at Geek.kon. The morning Standard was a player short, so I stepped in. I even asked the other players which deck I should play – Mono-red or Abzan Aggro. They chose unwisely – Abzan Aggro crushed the event.  That felt a bit weird, since I was the TO and judge, but you need eight players to sanction an event. Playing just meant I paid the prize packs to myself.  
 
 
PRJ
 
“One Million Words” and “3MWords” on MTGO
 
 
This series is an ongoing tribute to Erik “Hamtastic” Friborg.
 
HammyBot Still Running: HammyBot was set up to sell off Erik Friborg’s collection, with all proceeds going to his wife and son. So far, HammyBot has raised over $8,000, but there are a lot of cards left in the collection. Those cards are being sold at 10% below retail price. Erik died five years ago, so HammyBot does not include any standard legal cards, but it includes a ton of Masters Edition and Vintage cards, and some nice Modern bargains. 
 

 

 

 

 

20 Comments

Prismatic by Sensei at Fri, 08/28/2015 - 12:20
Sensei's picture

I would love to play anyone with a competitive deck.

I played 5c Premiere Events when they existed.

The_Sensei

I smiled a lot during the by CottonRhetoric at Fri, 08/28/2015 - 15:28
CottonRhetoric's picture

I smiled a lot during the before/after price breakdown. (A few of those cards I've suffered from and profited from myself.) Out of curiosity, I copied and pasted the whole chart into Excel, and added up the sum for each column.

At 1x of each card (which I realize is not what you bought or sold), it would come out a net expenditure of $1019.81 and a net gain of $1026.62. In other words, buying those cards at the times you did saved you almost $7 versus buying them all today!! (It could have been worse.)

magic for profit? by mindlesslemming at Fri, 08/28/2015 - 15:34
mindlesslemming's picture

in general response to: "Opinion Section: Investing in MTGO Cards"

its unrealistic and absurd for people to expect to make a consistent profit PLAYING a (collectible card) GAME.

its unrealistic and absurd for people to expect to use any service provided by other living humans for free.

if you want to produce "income" or multiply your wealth for your own benefit, i might suggest being a bank robber, or finding a job, or hiring a financial planner. maybe mtgotraders is hiring. i wonder how their profit margin is.

if you're actually using mtgo as an "investment"... im scared. upon further reflection, if you do decide to hire a financial planner, don't tell him about this hobby of yours.

Lol, imagine someone by CottonRhetoric at Fri, 08/28/2015 - 16:54
CottonRhetoric's picture

Lol, imagine someone saying

"I spent $300 buying PS2 games over the years, and now I can't even sell them at a profit!"

"its unrealistic and absurd by TugaChampion at Fri, 08/28/2015 - 19:31
TugaChampion's picture

"its unrealistic and absurd for people to expect to make a consistent profit PLAYING a (collectible card) GAME."

This part is where you are very wrong. The fact that some people can profit means many others will try and fail and in the end that gives Wizards more money. Also, no matter how much you win, tix can only be bought in the store, so even if someone wins a lot and trades packs for tix to sell them to other players, those tix also came from the store.

He's not wrong by howlett23 at Sat, 08/29/2015 - 11:07
howlett23's picture

He didn't say it could NOT be done...he said its unrealistic and absurd..which is very much accurate. It's also absurd for a football or baseball player to make 25$ million a year, but it happens.

But it's not unrealistic or by TugaChampion at Sat, 08/29/2015 - 11:50
TugaChampion's picture

But it's not unrealistic or absurd. It's not that difficult, it just needs a lot of time and most people can make much more in a real job. However, it's a nice option for some extra money or for people who live in certain countries.

i admit by mindlesslemming at Tue, 09/01/2015 - 14:34
mindlesslemming's picture

i admit it should be possible and even literally mathematically required for the top 1 or 2 % of all players to make a profit ****CONSISTENTLY***** but i have the feeling that most of the more vocal complainers just desire easy free prizes and they aren't thinking about objective logistics. they aren't comparing this situation to other competitive sports or games where people might be "paid or rewarded" for top performance. they also aren't comparing this situation to most other collectible hobbies: baseball cards, beanie babies, sports memorabilia, antique furniture, automotive restoration....

MTGO isnt a 401k. its a game. this isn't pro sports, its a CCG.

If you pay for a tournament, by Joe Fiorini at Tue, 09/01/2015 - 15:20
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If you pay for a tournament, there should be prizes worth paying for, period. There are local FNM tournaments with a better prize pool at an equal or lesser than entry fee, and those tournaments are run in physical spaces with real costs.

Then there's the fact that you're sharing a real, social experience in the real world with actual friends.

We all paid a lot to play the game already, we bought cards. I can't even begin to imagine that under the old system they were somehow losing money. They just realized that they could make even more. That's all it is.

Besides, this is a trading card game, why should we be playing to win objects that can't be traded?

MTGO had tournaments that by TugaChampion at Wed, 09/02/2015 - 05:03
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MTGO had tournaments that allowed a bigger % of players to profit consistently for years and their profits were still very good. All other online games don't require an investment of at the very least $100 (but more likely twice or more) to start playing (constructed here). We have to get something back for that investment.

I agree entirely. We all pay by Joe Fiorini at Wed, 09/02/2015 - 06:47
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I agree entirely. We all pay to play already, and the events should pay out something more. I know they can't flood the market with packs, but the current offerings are not adequate in my opinion.

To me, it would be like going to a paper FNM, having the entry be expensive, and first prize is "here's a free tournament entry ticket and five bucks of monopoly money we photocopied".

And let's not forget that by TugaChampion at Wed, 09/02/2015 - 09:04
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And let's not forget that many players who could potentially profit from playing constructed, just use the prizes to draft so they don't actually profit.

Also, every single event means profit for them. It doesn't matter how many packs they give because when people enter with tix and get boosters as prizes, it takes tix away from the system. Since tix can only be bough in the store, that means profit. Obviously an absurd ammount of boosters prizes would destroy the economy but so do bad prizes because less people play.

I had never seen a Modern DE fail to fire under the old system. The first one I tried to play under the new system didn't fire. Standard is fine because it has enough players to function but every other format is suffering.

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REMOVED * EDIT * POSTED IN WRONG SPOT

agreed by mindlesslemming at Tue, 09/01/2015 - 14:39
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those "elite" are the drastic minority.

OK CLEARLY IDK how to reply to a comment propperly. MY BAD.

this was a response to:

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He's not wrong by howlett23 at Sat, 08/29/2015 - 11:07
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He didn't say it could NOT be done...he said its unrealistic and absurd..which is very much accurate. It's also absurd for a football or baseball player to make 25$ million a year, but it happens.
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The before/after table was by Leviathan at Fri, 08/28/2015 - 17:17
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5

The before/after table was great. I'm still sad that I sold my foil Griselbrand for 20 tix after it got banned from EDH. Also I had no idea that Infernal Tutor was that high, I have a ton of those.

It's due to the interactions by longtimegone at Tue, 09/01/2015 - 19:53
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It's due to the interactions with Lion's Eye Diamond making it basically Demonic Tutor. Played in storm decks mostly.

Didn't Bob Huang win the by Joe Fiorini at Fri, 08/28/2015 - 17:24
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5

Didn't Bob Huang win the Legacy Championships? That's the info I went with for my article?

Fixed that. Editing from a by JXClaytor at Fri, 08/28/2015 - 21:54
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Fixed that.

Editing from a smartphone due to monitor failure is not exactly the most fun I've had the past two days :(

oops. by one million words at Fri, 08/28/2015 - 21:56
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yup, reversed those. Sorry, Bob.