This series is an ongoing tribute to Erik “Hamtastic” Friborg.

Dark Ascension!: The entire set is spoiled, and the set looks pretty good. By the time you read this, I’ll be getting set for paper prereleases – both the ones I will be playing in and those I will be judging. Paper prereleases will have a new thing: some number of players will begin the event as “monsters.” Whenever the monsters win an event, the losers also become monsters. Can humans survive the prerelease? More importantly, will wizards try to import this to online prereleases. In paper, monsters get stickers to identify them as such.   Wizards could do something like this online, either by modifying the avatar (e.g. a red box around it), creating a “monster” emblem players would begin the game with, or adding something to players’ inventories. I could live with the emblems, but I don’t want anyone screwing with my avatar, and I certainly don’t want more warmarks. 

 

Emblems could be cool, though.

 

Paper prereleases are January 28-29^th. Dark Ascension should be online a couple weeks later. As of Wednesday am, though, Wizards has not officially announced the online prereleases. 

Weekly Blog: Not much news from the blog, not much.  In fact, nothing.   As I write this Wednesday morning, we have no blog post.

 

Thursday Night Magic Online (TNMO) for the upcoming week (February  2^nd): M12 draft. This is as cheap as draft gets – NIX TIX Swiss. The TNMO card for February is an alternative art Glistener Elf.  

 

Wizards will be hosting a Ravinca block Sealed event on January 28^th, and running NIX PAX Ravnica drafts all week.   Given the price on Ravnica lands (Hallowed Fountain is currently the ninth most expensive card on MTGO), this should have a decent EV. It is a bit of a lottery, though. Most of the rest of the cards in the set are cheap, so the value of busted packs is also low: Ravnica $ 1.43, Dissension $ 2.61, and Guildpact $ 1.82. If you want to break even, you either need to open a dual land, or win some packs. NIX TIX drafts will start a week from now.

 

Let’s look at the Constructed Tournaments breakdown for the week of January 18^th    through January 24^th.    125 constructed events fired this week. Down a bit, but respectable.  Modern is back – amazing what a PTQ season can do. Pauper is doing well as always, and both Classic and Legacy fired an event.

 

 

FYI: I got the number fired from the list of results, here.  

 

Standard:  I think we need something to shake up the format. Dark Ascension cannot come fast enough. The SCG Open in DC had the following decks in the Top 16:

 

UW Delver:  8

UW Humans: 4

UW Control: 2

UB Control: 1

Grixis Control: 1

R/B Metalcraft: 1

Infect: 1

 

The only non-blue deck in the Top 8 was this RB Metalcraft build.

 

 

Innistrad Block Constructed: IBC is a really popular format. Here’s another new archetype I haven’t seen much of. Enjoy it while you can. Odds are this will all change once Dark Ascension is in the mix.

 

 

I tried playing some IBC.   I don’t have most of the cards, so I played a RUG Mulch deck.  I am not impressed with the format.  It is really swing and kinda stupid.  Still, blocks with a single set are like that.

 

Legacy: Legacy is back. SCG had a Legacy open in LA, and several Daily Events fired. The SCG Top 8 is interesting: Punishing Maverick (1^st, 5^th and 9^th), UW Stoneblade, Reanimator (3^rd and 7^th), Maverick, Dredge, and RUG Tempo.    . 

 

 

We also saw an actual combo deck make the Top 8. 

 

Classic  Classic fired one event this week: details here. It was pretty much same ole’ same ol’ – with the emphasis on the old. Xcorpio’s Hermit Druid deck reappeared. It’s seems like it’s been months since that made Top 8. Maybe this was just one last fling before Grafdigger’s Cage locks that deck up, too.

 

Bugs: Fact or Fiction is still bugged online. The caster ends up choosing what goes in each pile. The workaround in Classic matches is to simply tell your opponent what the split should be, and the caster splits it that way. Not perfect, but Classic players are a decent bunch, and don’t abuse that bug.  More dangerous: (Painter’s Servant) is also bugged, and that bug crashes games in ways that even a restart won’t fix. Basically, one player gets booted from the tournament – and it appears to be at random.   Sometimes the player with Painter’s Servant gets booted, sometimes the opponent.

 

Notes: All my prices come from MTGOTraders.com. For cards that are available in multiple sets, I am quoting the most recent set’s price. Thus, the price I’m quoting for Primeval Titan is from M12. If I list a card as out of stock, don’t assume you can’t buy it.  MTGOTraders stocks their Bots first, so the MTGOTradersBot1, MTGOTradersBot2, MTGOTradersBot3, or MTGOTradersBot4 often have the cards in stock even when the online store is out. Now, on to prices.

 

Standard prices are fluctuating. Everyone is waiting for Dark Ascension, and no one is really sure what will be good then. At least, I think that’s what’s happening.

 

Modern prices are falling. Breeding Pool fell hard – seems to help having NIX PAX events going on. That tells the hoarders and speculators that Wizards is going to reduce prices on the Ravnica duals.

 

Legacy prices are generally falling. Force of Will has given back a bit more of its big jump two weeks ago. Scavenging Ooze has come back down, while Vindicate is climbing. Interesting.  

 

 

Classic prices are dropping just a touch. Really, nothing much happening here.     

 

 

Here’s this week’s list of the top ten most expensive non-foil, non-promo cards on MTGO. A few weeks ago, Natural Order and Wasteland fell off the chart. This week, the Masques block disappeared, with a Standard Sword and Modern lands taking their places.         

 

It’s paper prerelease weekend.   I’ve been busy getting ready. That's all. 

 

PRJ

 

“one million words” on MTGO.