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Editorial Section:
The Promo Program, and what it means to you!

WotC just announced the Promo program this week, and it's actually pretty amazing.  However, I will state up front that it sucks majorly that non-US players are excluded, assuming they don't lie about thier locations.  Everything stated from here on out is stated in complete understanding that the non-US players are getting shafted.

There's a lot of data to parse through for this promo program, so I'll start at the bottom and work my way up. 

The basics: You get promo 'points' each month.  At the end of the month, the promo points reset.  You earn 1 (one) point for each dollar spent in the MTGO store.  You also earn effectively ear one point for each round in an event, minus the top 8 draft, if there is one.  Meaning that for a 2 man queue, you get one point for the one round you played.  For the 4 man queue you get two points, and the 8 player queue nets you three.  They scale upwards to 512+.  Lastly you get points for logging in to MTGO, with a maximum of five points awarded this way.  Just log in five times in the month and you get a free alternate art land for your troubles.  That's pretty good, just for logging in.  But what about the other points and tiers?  That's where things get far more individualistic.  Let's look at a few scenarios and see what they do for us in the new system.

Player Profile - Draft-a-month:
You log in five times, +5 points.
You buy a draft set for 13.97 + 13 points
You play a Swiss Draft, three rounds + 3 points
Total: 21 Points and you're in Tier 3.  You will get the following:

• 1 Alternate Art Land
• 1 Foil Alternate Art Land
• 1 tier 3 card (non-foil version of a previously released promo card.  Details will be at the bottom of this section).

Player Profile - Sealed Player Once a Month
You log in five times, +5 points
You buy six packs and two tickets for 25.94.  +25.94
Total so far: 30 Points
Now here's where the decisions come in.  You can either join an 8 player sealed queue and get three points or a daily sealed event and get five or six points and an additional promo card from the sealed event itself.  If you choose the former, you'll be at 23 points and into tier 3.  We'll say you go with the Sealed Swiss queue.  You'll wind up needing seven more points to get to Level 4 which has the new promo card that you're interested in.  You have a couple of options from here.  If you've won enough packs to join again you'll be able to get to 26 points, otherwise, a quick trip to the store for a pack and a ticket will put you over the top for the next tier.  Joining the bigger Daily Events would get you there a bit quicker, although the competition is higher and the prizes aren't as slanted towards letting everyone get something.

At this point you can be at 33 Points or as much as 36 Points
That would get you the same as a drafter, unless you fill in the rest of the points to 40 somehow.  A quick purchase or another event would make that happen.

Player Profile - Weekly Drafter
+5 Points (login)
Buy a draft set, +13 points.
Play a draft + 3 points.  Here I'm going to assume you get 2 packs per draft on average, because I have to use something as a baseline.
Total So Far: 21 Points
Buy one more pack, two tix :+ 6 points (the remainder of the previous purchase is kept, so you're at +6)
Play a draft, +3
Total so far: 30 Points
Buy one more pack, two tix :+ 6 points (the remainder of the previous purchase is kept, so you're at +6)
Play a draft, +3
Total so far: 39 Points
Buy one more pack, two tix :+ 6 points (the remainder of the previous purchase is kept, so you're at +6)
Play a draft, +3
Total so far: 48 Points
Drafting once a week nets you the following:

• 1 Alternate Art Land
• 1 Foil Alternate Art Land
• 1 Tier 3 card
• 1 Tier 4 Card

This is where things get more difficult if you're not spending heavily in the MTGO store.  To get to Tier 5 from Tier 4, you need to double weekly drafter without getting any better at the game.  For each time you don't have to visit the store you have to play another two drafts.  Meaning that for each $6 you spend you are essentially netting two drafts worth of points.

I've mentioned the tiers, so I'll add the details now:

Players in the Tournament	Reward Points	Minimum Rounds Played
2	1	1
3 - 4	2	1
5 - 8	3	1
9 - 16	4	1
17 - 32	5	2
33 - 64	6	2
65 - 128	7	2
129 - 256	8	2
257 - 512	9	2
513+	10	2

Tier 1 and Tier 2(foil), 5 points and 10 points, respectively:

Tier 3, 20 points:

Tier 4 and 5(foil) 40 and 80 points, respectively:

Tier 6 and 7(foil) 160 and 320 points, respectively:

Tier 8 and 9(foil) 560 and 1280 points, respectively:

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So what's the best plan for racking up points?  Buying from the store.  It's the surest way to nail the first few tiers.  Then, play a metric ton of events.  I think it's a good time to mention that this isn't meant to be a way for everyone to get every card on this list.  Instead, it's meant to be a REWARD for playing as you do now.  So if you only draft once a month, you'll get three free cards, just for doing what you already do.  If you want to step it up a bit and make it to Tier 4, that's your choice and certainly will have its own benefits beyond the promo card itself.  And I'll also mention that the 'infinite players' who are technically at a disadvantage in this program need to get over themselves.  You're already playing the game for free off the backs of the multitude of lower players, and you'll also get a fair share of these promo cards as well.  Not to mention the invite only promos you likely receive by being good enough to top 8 the qualifier events.  If you feel that you're not being catered to with this program, I have a hard time feeling sorry about that.  You have a lot of benefits for being good already, this is something that is not nearly as good for you, but it's still not a bad deal for you.

Discussion Items:
MTGO Player Rewards Discussion:
As mentioned above, the Player Rewards has generated a lot of discussion.  A lot of complaints from overseas and infinite players, and some thanks.

China Bans Gold Farming:
Whenever something like this happens it piques my interest.  While MTGO doesn't share a lot of things with WoW, I'm always interested in news about regulations against Digital goods.

Advantages of non-USA Players:
Some interesting thoughts about non-USA players and the type of benefits they get by being off of the prime time.

Alara Reborn Card price discussion:
As with most sets, people feel that the prices fall too fast for the newest set.

Price Table Discussion:
This is your last chance to avoid spoilers... they're right below here!  

 

 

 

 

Seriously!  This is your last chance!

Okay, enough high school spam email humor, let's get down to biddness. 

M10 is reprinting some interesting cards, and if you haven't seen yet, Wrath is apparently out and replaced with Planar Cleansing (which I got to preview, sweet!).  Wrath has started a sell off for each version.  We'll see where she lands.  However, a couple cool cards have allegedly gotten new life.  Namely Time Warp,  (Darksteel Collosus), Bogardan Hellkite and Haunting Echoes.   Preeminent Captain has jumped up on the back of getting a turn four Soldier of the Broken Tokens into play (the guy that makes 3 tokens, and pumps other soldiers and makes you coffee in bed for six mana).

In other news, deed drops a bit more, which is sad for the once great heavyweight, but not unexpected.  And Reflecting Pool finally starts to cool off a bit.  It's about darn time, if you ask me.

The only 'buh?' moment I have this week is why Noble Hierarch is going down.  She's staying in Standard, people!  And she's not in Alara Reborn or anything... but whatever!  I would suggest keeping an eye on her and picking her up if she drops much more.  She's a huge creature in Standard, and will likely recover once Alara isn't the de facto draft standard anymore.

Price Tables: 

Card Name:	Set:	Last Week:	This week:	Tix Change:	Percentage Change:
Time Warp	TE	1.5	8	6.5	433.33%
Lich's Mirror	ALA	0.35	1	0.65	185.71%
Preeminent Captain	MOR	0.4	1	0.6	150.00%
Bogardan Hellkite	TSP	0.8	2	1.2	150.00%
Haunting Echoes	OD	7	10	3	42.86%
Militia's Pride	LRW	0.5	0.7	0.2	40.00%
Horde of Notions	LRW	0.15	0.2	0.05	33.33%
Oona, Queen of the Fae	SHM	1.15	1.5	0.35	30.43%
Incandescent Soulstoke	LRW	1.15	1.5	0.35	30.43%
Darksteel Colossus	DST	4.75	6	1.25	26.32%
Card Name:	Set:	Last Week:	This week:	Tix Change:	Percentage Change:
Time Warp	TE	1.5	8	6.5	433.33%
Haunting Echoes	OD	7	10	3	42.86%
Darksteel Colossus	DST	4.75	6	1.25	26.32%
Bogardan Hellkite	TSP	0.8	2	1.2	150.00%
Figure of Destiny	EVE	15	16	1	6.67%
Lich's Mirror	ALA	0.35	1	0.65	185.71%
Preeminent Captain	MOR	0.4	1	0.6	150.00%
Necroskitter	EVE	3.5	4	0.5	14.29%
Ajani Goldmane	LRW	7	7.5	0.5	7.14%
Hallowed Fountain	DIS	9.5	10	0.5	5.26%
Card Name:	Set:	Last Week:	This week:	Tix Change:	Percentage Change:
Malfegor	CON	0.75	0.6	-0.15	-20.00%
Lavaborn Muse	10E	0.15	0.12	-0.03	-20.00%
Upwelling	10E	0.15	0.12	-0.03	-20.00%
Shivan Reef	10E	1.25	1	-0.25	-20.00%
Cream of the Crop	MOR	0.25	0.2	-0.05	-20.00%
Eyes of the Wisent	LRW	0.25	0.2	-0.05	-20.00%
Sigil of the Empty Throne	CON	0.5	0.4	-0.1	-20.00%
Squee, Goblin Nabob	10E	0.5	0.4	-0.1	-20.00%
Ethersworn Adjudicator	CON	2.75	2.25	-0.5	-18.18%
Rings of Brighthearth	LRW	0.3	0.25	-0.05	-16.67%
Card Name:	Set:	Last Week:	This week:	Tix Change:	Percentage Change:
Wrath of God	10E	12.5	10.5	-2	-16.00%
Reflecting Pool	TE	24	22	-2	-8.33%
Pernicious Deed	AP	23.76	21.78	-1.98	-8.33%
Reflecting Pool	SHM	21.75	20	-1.75	-8.05%
Wrath of God	9ED	11.5	10	-1.5	-13.04%
Wrath of God	7E	11.5	10	-1.5	-13.04%
Wrath of God	8ED	11.5	10	-1.5	-13.04%
Maelstrom Pulse	ARB	18	16.5	-1.5	-8.33%
Steam Vents	GPT	7.5	6.5	-1	-13.33%
Noble Hierarch	CON	9	8	-1	-11.11%

Card Graph Discussion:
We lost just a little bit more value than we gained this week, for an overall change of -16.49 when all the results are tallied, decreases in soon to be rotating cards led the gains of soon to be reprinted cards.

Time Warp Leapt up on the back of unofficial reprint statements... not only a reprint, but a MYTHIC reprint of Time Warp.  

Wrath of God has already started its decline, and I'm curious about where it will settle in the future, it's never not been in Standard.  I guess we'll see how many people have extra copies laying around.

And (Darksteel Collossus) gained a bit from his all time low of the last month!

Card Graphs:

 

Tournament Discussion:
I won't have a ton of tournament discussion this week, except to say that there are SO MANY options for tournaments on MTGO right now and so many ways to play competitive Magic on MTGO, and with the new promo program kicking into gear for the USA players it's the best time to join in.

Here are the important links that I check weekly:
Magic Online Event Schedule
Weekend PE Schedule
7th Anniversary Celebration
MTGO Announcements!

Conclusion:
This has been a really busy month for tournament level Magic playing, hopefully you've found your niche!  If not, I can personally attest to the great formats that Standard, Block and Classic have become lately.  I think there's a lot of room to make a name for yourself in MTGO right now, and I hope that you're all as anxious as I am to get a piece of the action.

Oh, and lastly, I'm building a Clan for the competitive folks who read and write on PureMTGO.com.  More details can be found in our forums here!