State of the Program for November 10th 2017
Seth Manfield Wins PT Ixalan: The Pro Tour was last weekend. Coverage is
here.
Martin Juza and Josh Utter-Leyton Inducted to HoF: Both players were formally inducted into the Hall of Fame at PT Ixalan. The profile of Martin Juza is
here. The profile of Wrapter is
here.
A New(er) Standard Gauntlet: Wizards has announced the final throwback Gauntlet, featuring more recent decks. (Remember Theros? Remember Siege Rhino and Collected Company?) It begins November 8th. More info, including decklists, is available
here. Later this fall, Wizards will bring us the “Gauntlet of Greatness” featuring the best preforming decks from the entire Throwback season.
Redemption Ending Soon: Redemption for Amonkhet and Hour of Devastation ends November 22nd. If you want to turn your digital cards from those sets into paper, redeem them now.
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 PTQs each weekend, with qualifiers running the three days prior to the PTQ.
Upcoming Events
|
Timing
|
Extended Downtime
|
Nov. 15th & 29th
|
No Downtime Scheduled
|
Nov. 22nd
|
Constructed Leagues End (maybe)
|
January 15, 2018
|
Sealed Leagues End
|
January 15, 2018
|
Iconic Masters
|
November 17, 2017
|
Rivals of Ixalan
|
January 21, 2018
|
Core Set Magic 2019
|
July 20, 2018
|
Commander 2017 details here.
|
November 2017 on MTGO
|
25th Anniversary Edition Masters
|
March 16, 2018
|
Next B&R Announcement
|
January 15, 2018
|
AKH and HOU Redemption Ends
|
November 22, 2017
|
SOI and EMN Redemption Ends
|
April 28, 2018
|
Ixalan Redemption Ends
|
May 23, 2018
|
Rivals of Ixalan Redemption Ends
|
May 23, 2018
|
2018 Magic Online Championship Series
Complete details, including schedule, rules, and which online events qualify you for which online or paper events is
here. Here are the main dates for the next quarter:
Event Date
|
Event Type
|
Event Format
|
Invites
|
Sunday, November 26
|
Monthly
|
Ixalan Sealed
|
February 10 MOCS Playoff
|
Saturday, December 16
|
Monthly
|
Standard
|
February 10 MOCS Playoff
|
Friday, December 29
|
Monthly
|
Ixalan Sealed
|
February 10 MOCS Playoff
|
Saturday, December 30
|
Open
|
Ixalan Sealed
|
Magic Online Championship, Pro Tour Dominaria, PT Challenge at Pro Tour Dominaria
|
Saturday, January 6
|
Open
|
Ixalan Sealed
|
Magic Online Championship, Pro Tour Dominaria, PT Challenge at Pro Tour Dominaria
|
Sunday, January 7
|
Monthly
|
Modern
|
February 10 MOCS Playoff
|
Saturday, January 27
|
Monthly
|
Standard
|
February 10 MOCS Playoff
|
Sunday, January 28
|
Monthly
|
Ixalan-Rivals of Ixalan Sealed
|
February 10 MOCS Playoff
|
Saturday, February 10
|
Playoff
|
Standard
|
Magic Online Championship, Pro Tour Dominaria, PT Challenge at Pro Tour Dominaria
|
Magic Online Format Challenges
These are high stakes events that happen every weekend. They cost 25 Tix / 250 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:
Event Type
|
Start Time
|
|
Saturday, 8:00 am PT
|
|
Saturday, 10:00 am PT
|
|
Saturday, 12:00 pm PT
|
|
Sunday, 8:00 am PT
|
|
Sunday, 10:00 am PT
|
Flashback, Throwback Standard and CUBE for 2017
Wizards will be offering either a flashback draft league, a flashback Standard gauntlet, a CUBE league or prerelease / Release events each week. Here’s the schedule so far.
Flashback and Such Rotation
|
Begins
|
Ends
|
Recent Past Standard Gauntlet
|
November 8th
|
November 15th
|
Iconic Masters
|
November 17th
|
December 6th
|
Standard Gauntlet of Greatness
|
???
|
???
|
The Flashback Leagues are still draft, and still you-keep-the-cards. They are 12 TIX / product plus 2 TIX / 120 Play Points. However, they are no longer single elimination. Now you play until you have three wins or two losses. Prizes are 240 play points for three wins and 80 play points for 2 wins. The leagues run one week.
The Throwback Standard Gauntlet events provide a random choice of prebuilt decks from a past standard environment. These will function like the Pro Tour Gauntlets – you won’t need to own the cards. The entry fee is 10 TIX or 100 Play Points. Prizes are in Play Points: 150 for 3-0, 100 for 2-1, 40 for 1-2 and 10 play points as a bad beats award.
At the Pro Tour, 13 of the 20 decks going 8-2 or better in Standard were Energy decks. Energy was the dominant strategy for the event, and is pretty dominant online as well. Why? Well, it is a combination of synergy (e.g. Winding Constrictor and counters) and mana reduction. It’s mainly mana reduction, in the form of Energy. Energy is a substitute for mana, allowing players to play bigger and better creatures and spells than the game would normally allow. It’s a mana alternative.
Should Wizards have known that Energy was good – arguably too good? Well, the one land per turn rule, and the mana constraints that rule creates, is an important part of Magic. It's why Magic works - but like every rule in Magic, cards can overwrite the rule. Certain cards let you cheat on lands and mana. Let’s look at the history of that sort of cheating. Here’s a short and incomplete review of mechanics that either allow you to play spells faster than normal, or for a significantly reduced price.
When Magic was first introduced, back in 1993, it had cards that let you cheat on mana. Such as:
The original set included Black Lotus, the Moxen (in effect free lands), Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Fastbond and Dark Ritual. These cards all proved to be broken. Every single one of these cards were banned in various formats, and most are still restricted in Vintage.
In Antiquities, Wizards tried making some lands that tapped for more than one mana. The catch was that you had to get all three in play. (Urza’s Power Plant), (Uzra’s Tower) and (Urza’s Mine) are currently legal in Modern and Vintage, but we can certainly argue about whether they are too good. Since then, we have seen these lands appear, and sometime disappear, as well:
Some of these were problematic. The Urza’s Saga lands, like Academy
Serra's Sanctum and
Gaea's Cradle are flat out busted. Even Cloudpost is enough of a problem to be banned in Modern.
Let’s get back to history. I was going to go chronologically, but it seemed to make sense to clump the lands. Cause that's what lands do.
After Antiquities, the next set to offer mana reductions was Alliances. Alliances introduced the pitch spell mechanic: pitch meaning an alternative casting cost of removing a card in your hand form the game.
All of these were significant in their day, and Force of Will is still significant in every format in which it is legal. Alliances also gave us
Elvish Spirit Guide, which powered a lot of early decks. It’s color-pie appropriate cousin,
Simian Spirit Guide is important in Modern. These are not broken enough to be banned, in most cases, but anyone who has been on the wrong end of a turn one Blood Moon due to Simian Spirit Guides rarely considers them fair.
The pitch spells were in Alliances, from Ice Ages block. The next block was Mirage, and Mirage block gave us more ways of getting mana without tapping lands –
Cadaverous Bloom and
Squandered Resources. Cad Bloom was the first real combo deck, and that deck got Squandered Resources banned in Mirage block constructed.
Mirage block was followed by Tempest block, which gave us the already mentioned Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors. That was followed by the ridiculousness that was Urza’s Saga block, which had the lands that tapped for stupid amounts of mana, but we have already talked about lands. Also in Saga block, Wizards also tried a new approach to “free” spells, untap lands after casting:
This did not go well. Every single one of these cards was featured in combo decks. Even Great Whale – in combination with
Recurring Nightmare, created an infinite mana engine. The deck was called
Free Whalie, and you can find the archetype in old GP and PT decklists. Finally, Urza’s Saga also had cards that let you cheat cards into play at greatly reduced costs. The worst offender,
Tinker, is still restricted in Vintage and banned everywhere else.
I should also mention
Flash, from Mirage, here. Originally, Flash put creatures into play, but required them to be sacrificed unless they were fully paid for. Later, that was errataed to prevent them coming into play – but that errata was later reversed. With the change, Flash let you put a creature into play for 1U, and trigger that creature’s comes-into-play abilities. It was a method of cheating on mana cost, and combo decks built around
Protean Hulk. After completely dominating a GP, Flash was banned in Legacy and restricted in Vintage.
A few years later, Wizards tried another cost reduction mechanic. In this case, cards got cheaper based on the number of artifacts in play. Wizards even gave us artifact lands to help increase the artifact count. Affinity was born, and almost destroyed Standard. Now the Affinity mechanic itself was not the only reason that the deck was busted – cards like
Skullclamp,
Cranial Plating and
Arcbound Ravager certainly contributed – but the mechanic itself was a major factor.
Future Sight introduced a number – okay, a ton – of mechanics. One of these was Delve. It was not completely busted back in Future Sight, although a few cards (looking at you,
Tombstalker) were good enough to see Vintage play. However, when Wizards brought Delve back, the mana reduction proved too good. Remember these?
While cards like Tasigur were just really good, the above cards were either banned, are banned or are still being argued about even now.
Time Spiral block also introduces another alternative method of casting cards – Suspend. Some of the suspend cards had no mana cost:
These were pretty good in their own right, but proved to be broken with Cascade. These were either banned in Modern or spawned their own archetypes. Or both.
I could keep going. Looking over my notes, I see that I haven’t touched on Phyrexian Mana or Madness, both of which were too good in their day. Phyrexian mana is too good now –
Gitaxian Probe is banned or restricted all over the place. And I have not even mentioned the most egregious violation of the mana rules: Dredge. Dredge is a Vintage staple, and is good enough that you can play a totally manaless Dredge deck in Legacy.
Aetherworks Marvel was the quintessential example of a card that violated the mana rules in a number of ways – and it got banned. But the Energy mechanic that Marvel abused is still the defining feature of current Standard. Energy is a mechanic that lets you do more than the normal rules of lands and mana would normally allow. Wizards has always been very careful with anything like that – it is way too easy to push it a bit too hard. And sometimes they do. The current Standard format may be an indication that Energy was pushed a bit too hard. Of course, if a mechanic is not pushed a bit – if Wizards does not skate close to the edge - that does not work out very well, either. Magic is full of mechanics that were not pushed hard enough, and ended up being meaningless in limited or Standard. It’s a tough balance.
Standard: The Pro tour was last weekend. Coverage is
here. The Top 8 had the expected Red and Energy decks, plus a God-Pharaoh’s Gift deck and a UWR Approach of the Second Sun deck. Looking at the decks that went at least
8-2 in the Standard Portion, I see 13 Energy decks (7 Temur, 4 Four color and 2 Sultai), 4 Ramunap Red and three one-offs. And, finally, we have the statistical breakdown of all day two decks
here. The most interesting deck was this
Oketra's Monument variant.
Modern: SCG ran a bunch of Modern Regional Events last weekend, but nothing was quite as interesting as this UW deck from the MTGO competitive leagues.
Legacy: SCG ran a Legacy Open two weekends ago, and with 535 players it’s more important than anything else that has happened recently. The Top 32 is
here. SCG listed the deck and Punishing Abzan, which makes sense since it is basically Abzan splashing red for Punishing Fire, but that’s not what I call it.
Vintage: Eternal Weekend was the last big event, but the Top 8 was basically all Shops and Oath variants. (Decklists and coverage for Vintage Champs are
here.) Since I have featured both Shops and Oath, I’ll head back to the VSL. I’m featuring Randy Buehler’s deck, simply because of the name. Randy had a rough week – he either drew no lands or way too many every game – but the deck is at least different. And I found the punny name amusing.
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 fairly weak across the board. Other than lands and a handful of Mythics, nothing has much real value. It might have been different if the Pro Tour had shown us some new archetypes.
Standard Cards
|
Price
|
Last Week
|
Change
|
% Change
|
|
$16.43
|
$7.81
|
$8.62
|
110%
|
|
$11.61
|
$11.03
|
$0.58
|
5%
|
|
$7.05
|
$10.49
|
($3.44)
|
-33%
|
|
$36.22
|
$37.41
|
($1.19)
|
-3%
|
|
$10.15
|
$10.82
|
($0.67)
|
-6%
|
|
$15.47
|
$17.29
|
($1.82)
|
-11%
|
|
$8.59
|
$12.48
|
($3.89)
|
-31%
|
|
$9.91
|
$8.91
|
$1.00
|
11%
|
|
$45.74
|
$44.60
|
$1.14
|
3%
|
|
$16.87
|
$19.99
|
($3.12)
|
-16%
|
|
$17.43
|
$15.02
|
$2.41
|
16%
|
|
$14.59
|
$12.87
|
$1.72
|
13%
|
Modern staples: Modern prices were fluctuating this week. They are shifting around, but I don’t see much of a trend. I dropped Thought-Knot from the list – it is just one of many marginally valuable cards out there
Modern Cards
|
Price
|
Last Week
|
Change
|
% Change
|
|
$14.34
|
$14.33
|
$0.01
|
0%
|
|
$31.70
|
$32.95
|
($1.25)
|
-4%
|
|
$27.44
|
$21.61
|
$5.83
|
27%
|
|
$36.53
|
$34.09
|
$2.44
|
7%
|
|
$17.09
|
$18.33
|
($1.24)
|
-7%
|
|
$14.84
|
$14.41
|
$0.43
|
3%
|
|
$18.43
|
$19.59
|
($1.16)
|
-6%
|
|
$27.16
|
$26.02
|
$1.14
|
4%
|
|
$26.79
|
$27.83
|
($1.04)
|
-4%
|
|
$30.25
|
$27.32
|
$2.93
|
11%
|
|
$34.07
|
$32.78
|
$1.29
|
4%
|
|
$61.09
|
$57.64
|
$3.45
|
6%
|
|
$31.28
|
$27.02
|
$4.26
|
16%
|
|
$52.70
|
$53.20
|
($0.50)
|
-1%
|
|
$23.59
|
$27.91
|
($4.32)
|
-15%
|
|
$26.60
|
$26.85
|
($0.25)
|
-1%
|
|
$26.60
|
$21.87
|
$4.73
|
22%
|
|
$19.66
|
$18.39
|
$1.27
|
7%
|
|
$21.03
|
$22.21
|
($1.18)
|
-5%
|
Legacy and Vintage: Vintage and Legacy prices are back to a more normal level of churn – but a fairly quiet churn this week.
Legacy / Vintage Cards
|
Price
|
Last Week
|
Change
|
% Change
|
|
$54.91
|
$51.87
|
$3.04
|
6%
|
|
$20.95
|
$20.96
|
($0.01)
|
0%
|
|
$18.13
|
$18.44
|
($0.31)
|
-2%
|
|
$91.10
|
$92.00
|
($0.90)
|
-1%
|
|
$35.29
|
$37.11
|
($1.82)
|
-5%
|
|
$37.86
|
$38.05
|
($0.19)
|
0%
|
|
$22.59
|
$23.41
|
($0.82)
|
-4%
|
|
$24.18
|
$25.67
|
($1.49)
|
-6%
|
|
$35.18
|
$33.21
|
$1.97
|
6%
|
|
$41.24
|
$41.24
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
$26.88
|
$25.87
|
$1.01
|
4%
|
|
$34.11
|
$30.02
|
$4.09
|
14%
|
|
$13.49
|
$19.08
|
($5.59)
|
-29%
|
|
$79.21
|
$85.21
|
($6.00)
|
-7%
|
|
$17.55
|
$21.17
|
($3.62)
|
-17%
|
|
$16.27
|
$17.86
|
($1.59)
|
-9%
|
|
$39.62
|
$33.89
|
$5.73
|
17%
|
|
$24.67
|
$24.32
|
$0.35
|
1%
|
|
$19.43
|
$21.19
|
($1.76)
|
-8%
|
|
$34.46
|
$33.15
|
$1.31
|
4%
|
* A significantly cheaper promo version of Rishadan Port is available, but I do not include promos prices on the table. MTGO has over 900 promo cards on the list, and occasionally those cards are sold out for months at a time, so their prices do not reflect the market price. I tried checking numbers in stock, but 900+ is too many.
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).
Complete Set
|
Price
|
Last Week
|
Change
|
% Change
|
Aether Revolt
|
$83.20
|
$86.87
|
($3.67)
|
-4%
|
Amonkhet
|
$91.85
|
$95.23
|
($3.38)
|
-4%
|
Ixalan
|
$80.11
|
$82.97
|
($2.86)
|
-3%
|
Hour of Devastation
|
$85.83
|
$81.59
|
$4.24
|
5%
|
Kaladesh
|
$137.68
|
$138.28
|
($0.60)
|
0%
|
Treasure Chest
|
$2.24
|
$2.15
|
$0.09
|
4%
|
Ixalan Booster
|
$3.25
|
$3.31
|
($0.06)
|
-2%
|
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. Nothing is above a hundred bucks, and the number of cards on the list is smaller than it has been in the past.
Name
|
Set
|
Rarity
|
Price
|
Exploration
|
UZ
|
Rare
|
$ 91.10
|
Rishadan Port
|
MM
|
Rare
|
$ 79.21
|
Liliana of the Veil
|
MM3
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 61.63
|
Liliana of the Veil
|
ISD
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 61.09
|
Mox Opal
|
MS2
|
Bonus
|
$ 56.73
|
Mox Opal
|
MM2
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 56.63
|
Black Lotus
|
VMA
|
Bonus
|
$ 54.91
|
Mox Diamond
|
TPR
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 52.89
|
Mox Opal
|
SOM
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 52.70
|
The Scarab God
|
MS3
|
Special
|
$ 50.66
|
Mox Diamond
|
ST
|
Rare
|
$ 46.75
|
The Scarab God
|
HOU
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 45.74
|
Force of Will
|
MED
|
Rare
|
$ 41.94
|
True-Name Nemesis
|
C13
|
Rare
|
$ 41.40
|
Misdirection
|
MM
|
Rare
|
$ 41.24
|
Force of Will
|
EMA
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 39.92
|
True-Name Nemesis
|
PZ1
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 39.62
|
Wasteland
|
TE
|
Uncommon
|
$ 38.62
|
Gaea's Cradle
|
UZ
|
Rare
|
$ 37.86
|
Wasteland
|
TPR
|
Rare
|
$ 37.55
|
Chalice of the Void
|
MMA
|
Rare
|
$ 37.53
|
Chalice of the Void
|
MS2
|
Bonus
|
$ 36.62
|
Chalice of the Void
|
MRD
|
Rare
|
$ 36.53
|
Dark Depths
|
V16
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 36.52
|
Chandra, Torch of Defiance
|
KLD
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 36.22
|
Force of Will
|
VMA
|
Rare
|
$ 35.85
|
Karn Liberated
|
NPH
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 35.46
|
Unmask
|
V16
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 35.32
|
Force of Will
|
MS3
|
Special
|
$ 35.29
|
Wasteland
|
EXP
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 35.26
|
Leovold, Emissary of Trest
|
PZ2
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 35.18
|
Cavern of Souls
|
MM3
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 34.61
|
Wasteland
|
EMA
|
Rare
|
$ 34.46
|
Mox Sapphire
|
VMA
|
Bonus
|
$ 34.11
|
Karn Liberated
|
MM2
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 34.07
|
Cavern of Souls
|
AVR
|
Rare
|
$ 31.70
|
Underground Sea
|
ME2
|
Rare
|
$ 31.50
|
Liliana, the Last Hope
|
EMN
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 31.28
|
Underground Sea
|
ME4
|
Rare
|
$ 30.67
|
Horizon Canopy
|
EXP
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 30.34
|
Horizon Canopy
|
FUT
|
Rare
|
$ 30.25
|
Ensnaring Bridge
|
8ED
|
Rare
|
$ 29.85
|
Underground Sea
|
VMA
|
Rare
|
$ 29.61
|
Ensnaring Bridge
|
MS2
|
Bonus
|
$ 28.91
|
Engineered Explosives
|
MS2
|
Bonus
|
$ 27.98
|
Scalding Tarn
|
EXP
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 27.79
|
Engineered Explosives
|
5DN
|
Rare
|
$ 27.72
|
Ensnaring Bridge
|
7E
|
Rare
|
$ 27.71
|
Celestial Colonnade
|
WWK
|
Rare
|
$ 27.44
|
Volcanic Island
|
ME4
|
Rare
|
$ 27.35
|
Gorilla Shaman
|
ALL
|
Common
|
$ 27.34
|
Engineered Explosives
|
MMA
|
Rare
|
$ 27.16
|
Scalding Tarn
|
MM3
|
Rare
|
$ 27.12
|
Mox Diamond
|
V10
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 26.88
|
Ensnaring Bridge
|
ST
|
Rare
|
$ 26.79
|
Scapeshift
|
MOR
|
Rare
|
$ 26.60
|
Scalding Tarn
|
ZEN
|
Rare
|
$ 26.60
|
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 $ 20,040. That’s down $30 from last week. Quiet week.
Teslacom was awesome. Now maybe I can get back to Magic.
PRJ
“One Million Words” 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.
1 Comments
Would like to see section on Collusion and Bribery please?