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By: one million words, Pete Jahn
Mar 04 2016 1:00pm
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State of the Program for March 4th 2016

In the News:

Sealed Leagues Caps Raised: Sealed leagues were initially capped at 2,000 players, but Wizards raised the cap almost immediately. As of early Thursday morning, roughly 16 hours after launch, there were 2,496 players in the league. That’s way more successful that any of the constructed leagues. Sweet! League details here.
 
Fewer Downtimes: Wizards is going to experiment with reducing the number of downtimes. Wizards will be skipping downtimes on the following dates: March 16, April 6, April 20, May 11, June 8 and June 22. The goal, of course, is to allow us to play more Magic. About the only downside is that redemptions will not be processed during weeks without downtime. Seems like a decent trade-off to me.
 
From the Vault: Lore: Wizards has announced that the next FtV set will be called From the Vault: Lore. It will release online October 10, 2016. That’s all we know so far.
 
Whether to Ban Eye: A lot of players have been arguing about an emergency ban to kill Eldrazi in Modern. Frank Karsten actually runs the numbers to see how likely a turn two kill is, and how much banning either Eye or Eldrazi Temple would slow down the decks. The results: it is unlikely that the turn two kill will happen even once at a Modern GP this season. OTOH, banning one of the two cards is probably wise, because having both provide too much consistency.  Frank’s excellent article 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, with qualifiers running the three days prior to the PTQ.
 
Item: date and notes
·         Sealed Leagues: March 2nd for basic leagues, Summer 2016 for add-a-pack leagues
·         Power Nine Challenge: Last Saturday of the month, at 11am Pacific.  Next one Feb. 27th.
·         Legacy Challenge: Second Saturday of the month, at 11am Pacific. Next one March 12th.
·         No Downtime on: March 16, April 6, April 20, May 11, June 8 and June 22
·         League End Dates: all current leagues end April 13th
·         Shadows over Innistrad Prerelease: April 15-18, 2016. Details here.
·         Eternal Masters: online release June 17, 2016 Details here.
·         Eldritch Moon Prerelease: July 29-August 1. Details here
·         From the Vault Lore: releases online October 10, 2016.
 
Flashback Schedule:
Flashback drafts are 10Tix / 100 Play Points / 2 Tix plus product, not Phantom, single elim and pay out in play points: 200 for first, 100 for second, 50 for third and fourth. 
·         Triple Ninth Edition: March 9, 2016 to March 16, 2016
·         Triple Ravnica: March 16, 2016 to March 23, 2016
·         2 Ravnica and 1 Guildpact: March 23, 2016 to March 30, 2016
·         Ravnica, Guildpact, and Dissension: March 30, 2016 to April 6, 2016
·         Triple Coldsnap: April 6, 2016 to April 13, 2016
·         Triple Time Spiral: May 4, 2016 to May 11, 2016
·         2 Time Spiral and 1 Planar Chaos: May 11, 2016 to May 18, 2016
·         Time Spiral, Planar Chaos, and Future Sight: May 18, 2016 to May 25, 2016
·         Triple Tenth Edition: May 25, 2016 to June 1, 2016
·         Triple Lorwyn: likely June 1 to June 8
·         2 Lorwyn, Morningtide: likely June 8 to June 15
·         Triple Shadowmoor: likely June 15 to June 22
·         2 Shadowmoor, Eventide: likely June 22 to June 29
 
Flashback This Week: Triple 9E drafts begins next downtime. Ninth Edition has the following chase cards. Don’t pass these.
·         Blood Moon:   $31.17
·         Adarkar Wastes: $15.74
·         Worship:      $8.64
 

Opinion Section: Should Wizards End Online Prereleases and Release Events?

I have been playing a fair amount of leagues recently. In fact, I have found myself playing far more sanctioned matches of constructed Magic online than I have in years – and that is mainly because of leagues. I have always had mixed feelings about Daily Events. On the one hand, I love the idea. On the other hand, I hate waiting around for rounds to end.   So, I played the very occasional constructed queue and a lot of Swiss drafts. And I played constructed in paper.
 
I have started playing leagues a fair amount.   I love not waiting for rounds to end. I love being able to play when I can.   On weekends, I tend to budget my time - do an hour of chores and work, then play online for a while, and back to work. Games like Guild Wars could fit into that sort of schedule. Magic Dailies could not – and even drafts were highly problematic. Leagues, though – Leagues have been a godsend. I can play one league match, then get to work for an hour, then reward myself with another match. 
 
Sealed leagues should be about the same. My goal this week was to enter the sealed league on Wednesday night when I got home (really late), build my deck and crash. Then Thursday morning I could get up early and get a match in before work. Best laid plans… It snowed, so I got to spend an hour shoveling instead of playing, but maybe tonight.    And this weekend I hope to cycle through a couple sealed leagues, along with some constructed stuff.
 
Why go through all that? I just wanted to make it clear that I have a bias towards the league structure. It really works for me, but your mileage may vary. If you prefer 4 round Dailies and so forth, that’s fine. I don’t have the data to know if more people like the league format or dailies (although seeing the sealed leagues hit 2,500 players in hours, seems like people lie leagues.)   Wizards does have such data, though, and if they are considering changes at all like what I am going to discuss, I am sure they will look at that data.
 
I should also say that I like paper prereleases. My first prerelease was the Mercadian Masques prerelease in Minnesota, a decade and a half ago. I love getting my hands on the new cards, and getting a foil something for my efforts. I played back when a prerelease was one big many round event, and played more when TOs went to 32 player flights. On a good weekend, I could play in three or four flights, and win prizes in all of them – and get foils in all of them. Paper prereleases are awesome. 
 
I have been online since 2003, and have seen prereleases evolve online as well. Sometimes the prereleases awarded foil promo cards, sometime avatars that had cool functions, and later avatars that were just art. I have seen the cost of prereleases change several times. Sometimes I have played, sometimes I have boycotted the prerelease, and sometimes I have played Guild Wars instead. Paper prereleases have always been our first chance to play with the new cards. Online – not so much. I have generally been playing with the new cards for a week or two by the time the online prereleases roll around. 
 
The online prerelease events, as of the last go-around at least, were composed of an almost normal Swiss drafts and a couple variations of 32 man sealed flights. The Swiss drafts cost 15 TIX instead of the usual 14, and paid out one additional pack to first place. The sealed events cost 25 TIX, more than typical DEs, but paid out either to more players (the “friendly” events) or top-loaded the prize payout a bit (the “competitive” events.)  The sealed events also awarded a promo foil, which was and is great. 
 
I have been thinking about these events, and wondering if they could be improved. Right now, Wizards gets to make a few extra TIX, but the tradeoff is that the cards being opened are also at a premium. Constructed players want these cards, so even the playable commons opened during the prerelease often command a premium. The fact that you cannot use the packs you win to enter the prerelease events is mildly annoying, but these events only last one weekend, so I can live with that. Likewise, I would like to have a league format available, but a two day league seems like more headaches for Wizards than it would be worth.   Overall, the prereleases seem just fine. 
 
Oh, yeah - everyone who played in any sort of prerelease got an avatar. I have many copies of some of these avatars, which have zero resale value. For me at least, these add nothing to the experience. Personally, I would love to have Wizards give out a participation token which could be traded in for an avatar, or Play Points, or a couple for a random foil, or something useful.   Not eight copies of an avatar. Or just dump the avatar altogether. I’ll be happy with the existing prerelease package, as is.
 
The release events are more of a problem to me. In the past, when Wizards made us pay cash for all of the events, and did not let us use the product we had won, they were a big problem. With OGW, however, Wizards has at least let us use our packs to draft, but the release sealed events were still TIX or Play Points only.  After the release events ended, Wizards reverted to the normal mix of drafts and Sealed Dailies. 
 
Back then, we had sealed Dailies. Now we have sealed leagues.   I’m not sure how Wizards could do a “release event” league. Would it be similar to a regular sealed league, but cost more and give you another copy of the prerelease avatar? If so, no thanks. Would release events continue to be 32 player sealed flights with “friendly” and “competitive” prize payouts? If so, I’d much rather just have league start immediately.  
 
And I guess that’s my point: the concept of release events may be irrelevant. Sealed leagues are highly successful, at least based on initial demand. Release events were always something that just were. Half the time I basically endured them until the regular schedule came back. Maybe their time has passed. If they go the way of the warmark, I won’t be too sad. And if they open sealed leagues on Monday when the packs go on sale, I won’t be sad at all.
 
The other part of release events has been the 64 player / 8 pod drafts, with the winners of each pod drafting again. I have never had the time or inclination to play in these events, so I don’t really know if they fired. If so, great, keep them for the players that like them. If not, Wizards will probably do away with them. 
 

Judge Question of the Week

I have been training new judges for many years, and part of that training involves setting out scenarios and problems that teach various parts of the rules. They start simple – i.e. a creature with trample is blocked by a creature with protection – and more up. The goal is to determine what areas of the rules I need to teach, and what my candidate already knows. Lagrange asked me to share some, so I will keep throwing them out until people beg for mercy.
 
Easy one this week. The only card in my hand is Dryad Arbor. Which of the following spells can make me discard it?
 
Dryad Arbor Mind Rot Inquisition of Kozilek Ostracize Horrifying Revelation Distress   
 

Cutting Edge Tech:

Standard: GP Houston was last weekend. In the finals, Owen Turtenwald (playing 4Color Rally) beat Andrew Cuneo (playing Dark Jeskai.) Good match – worth watching. However, the breakout deck of the tournament was clearly Hardened Scales. That deck has always been on the fringe of playable, but the new Nissa has given it the extra counter generator it has always needed.   Coverage is here, and the Top 8 decklists are here.
 
Hardened Scales
Mark Jacobson, Top 4, GP Houston
Creatures
4 Avatar of the Resolute
4 Abzan Falconer
4 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
4 Servant of the Scale
4 Hangarback Walker
4 Endless One
4 Managorger Hydra
8 cards

Other Spells
4 Dromoka's Command
1 Valorous Stance
4 Hardened Scales
13 cards
 
Lands
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
2 Flooded Strand
1 Plains
10 Forest
2 Canopy Vista
21 cards

1 Secure the Wastes
3 Hallowed Moonlight
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
9 cards
 
Hardened Scales
 
Modern:  We will see whether Eldrazi is still the deck to beat this weekend, but in the meantime some other decks are succeeding.   This deck went 5-0 in leagues. It is also the sort of thing I might take into a league (if I get bored with sealed leagues…)
 
 
Legacy: SCG hosted a big Legacy event last weekend.   Eldrazi came in second, behind a fairly stock Grixis Delver deck.   Since there was nothing all that interesting in yet another Grixis Delver, I’m featuring the Eldrazi build. 
 
Colorless Eldrazi
Gerry Thompson, Second Place, SCG Legacy Open, Philadelphia
Creatures
4 Reality Smasher
4 Thought-Knot Seer
1 Endbringer
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Eldrazi Mimic
4 Endless One
0 cards

Other Spells
1 Warping Wail
3 Dismember
4 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Mox Diamond
17 cards
 
Lands
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Eye of Ugin
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 City of Traitors
4 Wasteland
4 Ancient Tomb
1 Karakas
4 Cavern of Souls
21 cards

3 Warping Wail
12 cards
 
City of Traitors
 
Vintage: The Vintage Super League Season 4 Championship is underway, and the Power Nine Challenge was last weekend. One deck showed its power in both events. Matt Sperling finished third in the P9 Challenge, and his build was adopted in Tuesday’s round of the VSL by both players. 
 
 

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 are down, pretty much across the board. The new Nissa is up, mainly because of the Hardened Scales deck. Some of the other cards have dropped below the $5 threshold, so I took them off the list.  
 

Standard Cards
Price
Last Week
Change
% Change
$5.64
$9.90
($4.26)
-43%
$7.56
$8.75
($1.19)
-14%
$13.12
$14.60
($1.48)
-10%
$17.66
$17.70
($0.04)
0%
$14.11
$15.68
($1.57)
-10%
$7.02
$8.29
($1.27)
-15%
$15.75
$14.51
$1.24
9%
$10.09
$9.09
$1.00
11%
$17.19
$18.06
($0.87)
-5%
$6.79
$6.15
$0.64
10%
$88.05
$93.51
($5.46)
-6%
$16.34
$17.14
($0.80)
-5%
$12.95
$16.81
($3.86)
-23%
$6.65
$8.65
($2.00)
-23%
$11.64
$15.13
($3.49)
-23%
$10.15
n/a
n/a
n/a
$7.21
$8.78
($1.57)
-18%
$3.78
$5.24
($1.46)
-28%
$8.73
$11.33
($2.60)
-23%
$10.04
$15.47
($5.43)
-35%
$8.00
$8.32
($0.32)
-4%
$7.92
$10.66
($2.74)
-26%

Modern staples:  Modern prices were mixed this week.   A few cards are falling, hard, either because they are less played, or maybe because people expect them to appear in EMA. We will see.
 

Modern Cards
Price
Last Week
Change
% Change
$23.89
$24.30
($0.41)
-2%
$36.22
$34.09
$2.13
6%
$31.17
$31.59
($0.42)
-1%
$39.91
$48.67
($8.76)
-18%
$18.18
$17.67
$0.51
3%
$47.47
$39.40
$8.07
20%
$20.26
$28.86
($8.60)
-30%
$35.31
$32.25
$3.06
9%
$43.06
$49.46
($6.40)
-13%
$38.19
$41.09
($2.90)
-7%
$24.70
$26.95
($2.25)
-8%
$60.12
$86.30
($26.18)
-30%
$38.75
$36.94
$1.81
5%
$32.39
$32.75
($0.36)
-1%
$32.00
$26.69
$5.31
20%
$54.41
$53.45
$0.96
2%
$26.31
$26.37
($0.06)
0%
$17.01
$16.03
$0.98
6%
$41.77
$40.16
$1.61
4%

Legacy and Vintage: Legacy and Vintage are mixed this week. Wasteland and Force of Will are confirmed to be in Eternal Masters, and are dropping. Rishadan Port is up again, but maybe because people are playing Lands, in the hope that it can beat Eldrazi.
 

Legacy / Vintage Cards
Price
Last Week
Change
% Change
$47.81
$53.10
($5.29)
-10%
$139.63
$146.89
($7.26)
-5%
$27.87
$23.55
$4.32
18%
$31.09
$33.60
($2.51)
-7%
$29.02
n/a
n/a
n/a
$32.45
$32.12
$0.33
1%
$26.74
$26.66
$0.08
0%
$40.23
$36.79
$3.44
9%
$46.44
$47.78
($1.34)
-3%
$106.38
$106.07
$0.31
0%
$39.96
$40.11
($0.15)
0%
$61.93
$61.95
($0.02)
0%
$180.15
$174.40
$5.75
3%
$44.03
$42.80
$1.23
3%
$66.55
$65.50
$1.05
2%
$37.52
$39.33
($1.81)
-5%
$56.25
$62.29
($6.04)
-10%

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.  
 

Complete Set
Price
Last Week
Change
% Change
Battle for Zendikar
$67.96
$69.31
($1.35)
-2%
Dragons of Tarkir
$139.28
$140.34
($1.06)
-1%
Fate Reforged
$39.16
$52.62
($13.46)
-26%
Khans of Tarkir
$77.53
$88.58
($11.05)
-12%
Magic Origins
$150.49
$159.95
($9.46)
-6%
Oath of the Gatewatch
$94.97
$116.76
($21.79)
-19%

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 got a lot longer again this week. I suspect this is because of Legacy Leagues – 500 players suddenly need Legacy staples.  Rishadan Port went up again. We will see if it appears in Eternal Masters.
 

Card
Set
rarity
 Price
Rishadan Port
 MM
Rare
 $ 180.15
Black Lotus
 VMA
Bonus
 $ 139.63
Misdirection
 MM
Rare
 $ 106.38
Liliana of the Veil
 ISD
Mythic Rare
 $ 90.12
Jace& Vryn's Prodigy
 ORI
Mythic Rare
 $ 88.05
Wasteland
 PRM
Uncommon
 $ 78.33
Black Lotus
 PRM
Rare
 $ 75.00
Tangle Wire
 NE
Rare
 $ 66.55
Wasteland
 TPR
Rare
 $ 65.45
Mox Sapphire
 VMA
Bonus
 $ 61.93
Wasteland
 TE
Uncommon
 $ 56.25
Tarmogoyf
 FUT
Rare
 $ 55.50
Tarmogoyf
 MMA
Mythic Rare
 $ 55.30
Tarmogoyf
 MM2
Mythic Rare
 $ 54.41
Ensnaring Bridge
 ST
Rare
 $ 48.22
Ensnaring Bridge
 7E
Rare
 $ 47.87
Ancestral Recall
 VMA
Bonus
 $ 47.81
Ensnaring Bridge
 8ED
Rare
 $ 47.47
Infernal Tutor
 DIS
Rare
 $ 46.44
Show and Tell
 UZ
Rare
 $ 44.03
Grove of the Burnwillows
 FUT
Rare
 $ 43.06
Show and Tell
 PRM
Rare
 $ 42.69
Voice of Resurgence
 DGM
Mythic Rare
 $ 41.77
Gaea's Cradle
 UZ
Rare
 $ 41.36
Gaea's Cradle
 PRM
Rare
 $ 40.23
Mox Jet
 VMA
Bonus
 $ 39.96
Cavern of Souls
 AVR
Rare
 $ 39.91
Mox Opal
 SOM
Mythic Rare
 $ 39.29
Mox Opal
 MM2
Mythic Rare
 $ 38.75
Horizon Canopy
 FUT
Rare
 $ 38.19
Time Walk
 PRM
Rare
 $ 37.52
Ancestral Recall
 PRM
Rare
 $ 37.52
Mutavault
 PRM
Rare
 $ 37.51
Force of Will
 MED
Rare
 $ 37.35
Time Walk
 VMA
Bonus
 $ 36.49
Archangel of Thune
 M14
Mythic Rare
 $ 36.30
Batterskull
 PRM
Mythic Rare
 $ 36.29
Batterskull
 NPH
Mythic Rare
 $ 36.22
Mox Ruby
 VMA
Bonus
 $ 35.77
Griselbrand
 AVR
Mythic Rare
 $ 35.31
Mox Emerald
 VMA
Bonus
 $ 34.51
Griselbrand
 PRM
Mythic Rare
 $ 32.77
Food Chain
 MM
Rare
 $ 32.45
Scalding Tarn
 ZEN
Rare
 $ 32.39
Scapeshift
 MOR
Rare
 $ 32.00
Blood Moon
 MMA
Rare
 $ 31.54
Blood Moon
 8ED
Rare
 $ 31.41
Blood Moon
 9ED
Rare
 $ 31.17
Doomsday
 WL
Rare
 $ 31.09
City of Traitors
 EX
Rare
 $ 30.80
Mox Pearl
 VMA
Bonus
 $ 30.41
Maze of Ith
 PRM
Rare
 $ 30.28
Exploration
 UZ
Rare
 $ 29.02
Verdant Catacombs
 ZEN
Rare
 $ 28.90
Sneak Attack
 UZ
Rare
 $ 28.52
Volcanic Island
 PRM
Rare
 $ 27.89
Daze
 DD2
Common
 $ 27.87
Phyrexian Metamorph
 PRM
Rare
 $ 27.82
Force of Will
 PRM
Rare
 $ 26.81
Force of Will
 VMA
Rare
 $ 26.74
Daze
 NE
Common
 $ 26.43
Twilight Mire
 EVE
Rare
 $ 26.31
Fetid Heath
 EVE
Rare
 $ 25.85
Undiscovered Paradise
 VI
Rare
 $ 25.03

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 $ 26,720.  That’s down $950 from last week’s number – that’s quite a correction.   
 

Weekly Highlights:

I am really excited for the sealed leagues. I joined one late last night (Wed.) and fell asleep thinking about how to build it. With luck, I may get a chance to play the deck a bit Thursday night, or over the weekend. 
 
PRJ
 
“One Million Words” and “3MWords” on MTGO
 
This series is an ongoing tribute to Erik “Hamtastic” Friborg.
 
HammyBot Super Sale: 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 MTGOTrader’s Buy Price.  
 
 

Judge Question of the Week Answer:

The only card in my hand is Dryad Arbor. Which of the following spells can make me discard it?
 
Dryad Arbor Mind Rot Inquisition of Kozilek Ostracize Horrifying Revelation Distress  
 
Mind Rot, Ostracize and Horrifying Revelation can make me discard the Arbor. Distress and Inquisition cannot. 
 
Rules stuff: You can cast Mind Rot targeting a player with only one card in hand, and that player discards that one card. (That question comes up surprisingly often with newer players.) 
 
Distress and Inquisition cannot hit lands. Says so on the card.
 
Ostracize hits creatures, and Dryad Arbor is a creature.

 

32 Comments

Thanks for doing the judge by Lagrange at Fri, 03/04/2016 - 13:12
Lagrange's picture
5

Thanks for doing the judge questions. Highly appreciated!

There seems to be a small typo in the price for Liliana of the Veil this week.

Traders promos by Sensei at Fri, 03/04/2016 - 14:58
Sensei's picture

I'm not sure if there's a way to exclude out of stock promos, not Liliana otV is not available for 70 tickets and definitely not for 60.12

I thought it was just a typo by Rerepete at Fri, 03/04/2016 - 17:43
Rerepete's picture

I thought it was just a typo since Lili is listed in the overall list at 90.12 and in the modern list at 60.12...

Lili by Sensei at Fri, 03/04/2016 - 21:56
Sensei's picture

You're right!

I hope they ban Temple by TugaChampion at Fri, 03/04/2016 - 17:33
TugaChampion's picture

I hope they ban Temple instead of Eye, because Eye has other applications. I also hope they ban Mox Opal because that still keeps Affinity playable, but it takes away their most busted draws.

About Leagues, it's good that they provide no waiting time and are playable at will but their prize structure is pretty bad (both constructed and sealed). Sealed Leagues are a bit worse than Sealed DEs, but not by much. Where they are worse is that they pay in untradable crap. Release events had one great thing: they were actually pretty good value and they were playable by people who don't or rarely play Sealed DEs, because they were good value. By eliminating them and having only the leagues, I certainly won't play sealed events anymore. And what needs to be removed is the pre release events because those are pretty bad and we already waited 2 weeks to get the set online, we don't need to wait one more weekent to get decent events.

Eye would be the more by Elbinac at Sat, 03/05/2016 - 01:09
Elbinac's picture

Eye would be the more realistic ban if only one is hit and not the other as producing 2 mana on turn one is less of an issue than "producing" up to 12 mana worth of reduction on the play or 14 on the draw in some situations.
Granted seeing that many of your low drops that soon is highly improbable, even at 2-3 playables you are getting 4-6 mana value from a single land.

The collateral damage to tron would likely be something they'd consider desirable as well.

Though I still feel the situation isn't "that bad" since the sort of all-in play leaves you open to a heavy blowout as well.

Certainly that level of aggro warps the format to some extent.
But at the present time it is still an interesting deviation to what we had from my perspective.

Even a simple Bile Blight into Mutilate line would cover a lot of it.
There are a lot of options for stalling into a sweeper as well.
Might we see more fog style decks now?
More control builds?
I'm interested in seeing how the meta shifts around before we see the impending bans..

I have two problems with the by TugaChampion at Sat, 03/05/2016 - 10:05
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I have two problems with the ban of Eye:

1) with just one of the two lands legal, the deck is simply a good deck at most, probably not even tier 1. It doesn't matter if it's one or the other. Eye may lead to more busted draws but it also is worse for the average draw because drawing 2 Temples is good but drawing 2 Eyes is not.

2) nerfing Tron as collateral damage is bad. If they were doing it because they felt Tron was too good, I'd be fine with that, but being just collateral damage, when there is another option, seems like a poor decision.

I'm not opposed to nerfing Tron in itself, but there are other decks that could use a nerf, especially affinity. And seeing other decks getting nerfed or banned (like Twin), while affinity never loses anything is a very good move in my opinion.

I disagree with point 2. by TheKidsArentAlright at Sat, 03/05/2016 - 11:12
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I disagree with point 2. Tron's inevitability is one of the factors that has been keeping control out of Modern. Without Eye, they lose this and maybe we are one step closer to a format with some semblance of balance among the macro-archetypes.

I'm not saying nerfing Tron by TugaChampion at Sun, 03/06/2016 - 08:44
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I'm not saying nerfing Tron is bad in itself. It's bad if they do it because they just want to nerf Eldrazi.

And the reason control is unplayable is because there are too many different archetypes doing their own thing, each requiring different answers and all being very fast. Twin was playable because it could play control but it was also capable of winning fast.

I just looked at the Karsten article by Rerepete at Fri, 03/04/2016 - 18:07
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I read the Eldrazi Math article and I'm certain it is wrong as it ignores the hands where you get the 4 T1 cards with 2 of the 3 T2 cards and the other card in your opening 7 being a wastes, then drawing the missing piece on T2.

No it didn't--it covers that by Cheater Hater at Fri, 03/04/2016 - 20:46
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No it didn't--it covers that case right after the initial case (which makes it approximately three times more likely.

Looking at the speculation by Cheater Hater at Fri, 03/04/2016 - 20:44
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Looking at the speculation for the future flashback schedule, I'm assuming it'll take a break for Eternal Masters (and that's why they only published the first chunk of the year).

Less downtime by arcbounddaylabor at Sat, 03/05/2016 - 17:08
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Less downtime reeks of laziness and I'm sure that there will probably be a card or game breaking bug that will last an even more inordinate amount of time than they currently do because of updates.

"As of early Thursday by Hearts at Mon, 03/07/2016 - 09:43
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"As of early Thursday morning, roughly 16 hours after launch, there were 2,496 players in the league."

Because there is not a limit to how many accounts a player can have and use at the same time(s) you can never write a sentence like this.
The real number is probably like 1400.

This makes 0 sense. What by longtimegone at Mon, 03/07/2016 - 14:55
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This makes 0 sense.

What possible advantage is there to double queuing a league with 2 accounts?

The whole reason for double queuing in the first place is so that you have something to do while you wait around in between matches, and there is no waiting in leagues.

Not to mention the fact that in addition to offering no benefit, if Wizards catches you playing in the same event with 2 accounts, you can get both of them banned.

Why by Hearts at Tue, 03/08/2016 - 06:42
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Why should you get banned with two accounts in same event when wotc allows you to have several accounts in the first place ?

A person having several accounts will be logged on with one account at the time, thus not being able to pair with himself.

Argue all you like against by Paul Leicht at Tue, 03/08/2016 - 12:04
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Argue all you like against the logic of it, that is the rule.

Even if it wasn't against the by longtimegone at Tue, 03/08/2016 - 14:10
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Even if it wasn't against the rules, it would make no sense to actually do it.

Because play points are nontransferable, and can not be used as partial payment, even if you have multiple accounts you are better off only playing events that award PP on one of those accounts.

W by Hearts at Tue, 03/08/2016 - 16:03
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1400 players, and not 24XX, that was the point, whether it is against the rules in leagues or not.

Why did I write that ?

So your argument is that by longtimegone at Tue, 03/08/2016 - 19:04
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So your argument is that people are joining leagues with multiple accounts and getting no benefit from doing so just so that it looks like there are more people playing leagues?

I have no idea what you are trying to say.

I am simply saying that the by Hearts at Tue, 03/08/2016 - 22:59
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I am simply saying that the number of individs playing Leagues is lower than 24XX.

24XX as an activity number stands and is correct, and I am not saying some players cheat in any way.

I get that you are saying by longtimegone at Wed, 03/09/2016 - 03:12
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I get that you are saying there are less actual people than that number. You just haven't given any reason why that might actually be true.

Your initial suggestion of people playing with multiple accounts does not hold up, since it is both forbidden by the rules and offers no benefit even if you were willing to break the rules.

True by Hearts at Wed, 03/09/2016 - 05:12
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Ahh, it is so true.

Did you ever wonder why it is harder to get high ratings online ?

It is because paper rated players around 2000 use several accounts online.
Initially they play an mtgo account to around 1900. Then they start second account (for collection purposes/years ago they got free stuff with new accounts/etc/etc/lots of different reasons to do this).

This new account is rated at 1600, because that is where new accounts start. They beat someone who is rated 1700 (worse player than them). Yadidadida - you have knowledge about how the elo-system works, right ?

Result; mtgo ratings flatten, all over the board, impossible to get 2000 rating online. LSV who is a 2100++ player in reality is a 1900 player online.

People start 3d, 4th, 5th - etc etc - I bet some people have 10-20 mtgo accounts, all at 1800 rating. Remember, it is the hardcore players that have several accounts - those players are not bad at mtg - they get higher ratings.

You mean the ratings which by AJ_Impy at Wed, 03/09/2016 - 08:03
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You mean the ratings which cannot actually be seen by anyone else?

The ratings which haven't had any tangible benefit whatsoever since the closure of the 1800/1750/1700 room waaaaay back in version 2?

yes by Hearts at Wed, 03/09/2016 - 08:23
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Yes, those ones.

No, I don't wonder about by AJ_Impy at Wed, 03/09/2016 - 09:49
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No, I don't wonder about them.

Yeah same. And I have 2 by Paul Leicht at Wed, 03/09/2016 - 09:54
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Yeah same. And I have 2 accounts the 2nd of which (actually the first) is my beta account from the beginning. I use it as a storage account and rarely check it at all. I'm sure other players are more active on average on their multis but even so I suspect none of this weirdness since as pointed out, 1) it could get your accounts banned, 2) serves no purpose and 3) there is no evidence at all to support this, and 4) it is crazier than camping on the moon without a proper tent.

Did you ever wonder ... by Hearts at Wed, 03/09/2016 - 11:21
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Did you ever wonder ... ?

Rhetoric question to write the explanation, it wasnt actually meant to be answered.

That level of using language is obviously way over your head.

Your obtuseness is obvious to by Paul Leicht at Wed, 03/09/2016 - 11:39
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Your obtuseness is obvious to everyone, except yourself. Giving us shit for not extracting the precise meaning you wish to impart from your vague ramblings is not particularly productive or interesting.

point by Hearts at Wed, 03/09/2016 - 13:47
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The whole point with this is to paint a more sad picture of mtgo than what Pete paints.

In order to do this it is suitable to point out that "DrVendigo" and "Paris", that you often face on mtgo, necessarily arent two different persons - mtgo is not a rich and thriving milieu. And that having several accounts can have advantages only known to the most hardcore experienced players.

If Pete had painted a sadder picture of mtgo then wotc would have to do more in order to keep the existing player base - and that benefits all of us.

And many of us have stated in by Paul Leicht at Wed, 03/09/2016 - 13:52
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And many of us have stated in no uncertain terms we disagree with your viewpoint. Yes there are troubles in paradise. Yes MTGO v4 has been a disaster for some players. Yes it still works. People still play. It isn't going anywhere. The sky did not fall despite the predictions and yes life has gone on. And guess what? Those who were saddest about mtgo, the leagues fans are and will come back for these even if they aren't perfect/what we wanted exactly/not the golden goose/etc. That is why we don't believe your dystopic point of view. No matter how hostile you become in response.

My apologies, I did not make by AJ_Impy at Wed, 03/09/2016 - 17:48
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My apologies, I did not make it sufficiently clear that I was being exceedingly dismissive towards what amounts to empty rhetoric.