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By: one million words, Pete Jahn
Sep 18 2015 4:51pm
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State of the Program for September 18th 2015

In the News:

Standard League Cap Raised: The Standard League hit 1000 players earlier this week. With the downtime, Wizards has raised the cap to at least 2,000. We were at 1050 players very early Thursday morning. Nice to see the leagues working out. 
 
Legacy Cube Updated & Returning: The Legacy cube has been reworked (to, among other things, get rid of the vampire infestation.)   It will return September 23rd. Information on the updates is here
 
Magic Online R&D Challenge Today: The R&D Challenge is a 5 round Swiss event with a number of R&D players participating.  As Wizards employees, they can’t collect prizes, so any prizes they would have earned are distributed among all non-R&D players going 5-0. The Challenge is Modern, today at noon PDT.  
 
Community Cup Stakes: The Community Cup (details here) begins tomorrow. As always, Wizards will give everyone who logs in during the time the CC is running a commemorative card or cards. This year, the stakes are higher. If Wizards wins, we all get a non-promo Drown in Sorrow. If the Community Team wins, everyone who logs in will get two sets – one foil and one non-foil – of the special Unhinged full art basic lands plus (new addition) an alt art Thalia. The lands are gorgeous in real life and should be worth a lot if we get them online, and Thalia is a staple in eternal formats.  The community team better win.
 
October Promos Announced: Wizards has announced the promos for next month. The MOCS promo is Sword of Feast and Famine in the old frame. I like the frame, but have not played the card in a while. The Event promo is Scythe Leopard, a card from Battle for Zendikar that looks pretty strong. The Store Promo is an alt art Ultimate Price, which is okay.  
 
Next Streamer Showdown: Wizards will run two special Streamer drafts on Friday, Sept. 25th, featuring Legacy Cube.   All 16 participants will be streaming their drafts and rounds. The first draft will kick off at 1pm PDT, and the second at 6pm PDT. 
 

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
·         MOCS Season 10: runs from August 26th through September 30th. Promo is an alt art Stifle.
·         MOCS Season 11: runs from September 30th through October 28th. Promo is an old bordered Sword of Feast and Famine.
·         Phantom Time Spiral Flashback Draft: September 16th through September 23rd.
·         Legacy Cube: September 23rd through October 9th. Details here.
·         Standard League Close and End: The last chance to enter is Oct. 5th. The league ends Oct. 7th.   After that, we will get a new league with the new Standard format.
·         Battle for Zendikar Prerelease: starts Oct. 9th.
·         From the Vault: Angels: October 12, 2015. Details here.
·         Legendary Cube: Nov. 18th. Details here.
·         Oath of the Gatewatch Prerelease: January 29–February 1, 2016
·         Implementation of the ‘Tuck” Rule in Commander: Delayed – no date given.
 

Opinion Section: More on Leagues

Leagues are a thing. Players are playing. I’m playing, when I get time. And I’m pretty positive about the whole thing. 
 
I can’t rant. Feels strange.   It probably helps that I am on a winning streak at the moment.
 
I am really liking the current Standard. Part of it is that I am facing decks like Esper Dragons and Sphinx’s Tutelage with decks that have no enchantment removal, and I’m forced to sequence my plays very carefully. I first learned to play tournament Magic baiting counterspells and playing around removal, and it is fun to do so again. 
 
Actually, what is really fun is to have the chance to play tournament Magic whenever I can find time. I manage a match here and a match there.   I have also heard of other players playing fast decks, and managing 10 matches in just over 2 hours. All of that is great, and something that you just cannot do in Dailies or 8-mans.   In theory, you can in the causal room, but I am so sick of random disconnections and concessions that I have avoided all casual games for months. The Standard League, though, has got me playing again. 
 
I also find that I actually like the 5 match plan. I’d still prefer 10 matches, but this way I get to play more decks. (I have a personal rule to never play a deck a second time. Even so, I have at least a dozen decks I want to try, so that should work out fine. I will probably run out of format before I run out of decks.) 
 
I have heard a few people complaining that the Standard League is not a real League. Sorry, but it is. Leagues were all about getting to play a match when you had time, and you can. Old-time leagues were also about limited, but that is coming.   Wizards wanted to test out the program before launching limited leagues. Can you blame them?   After all, this is Wizards experimenting with something digital. They have every reason to be cautious.
 
The Standard league has stages – and everyone is on stage one. That is clearly there to allow players to add packs to their pool: every time you add a pack, you move up a stage, and pairings will be within stages to the extent possible. 
 
What the leagues will not be is a method of playing infinite matches for “tie-breaker points” and so forth. That was a nice benefit of the old league structure, but the old league structure was broken. Seriously broken.   This seems better.
 
I expect we will see a Modern League soon, and a limited BFZ League once BFZ is here and the cards stable.   We may see other leagues at some point, but only if the demand stays strong.   I have been in leagues where you had to wait around for hours to get a match, and those leagues were awful.   So Standard, Modern and BFZ for sure, then Wizards may experiment with other leagues. With luck, the return of these leagues may bring back enough players that we can have a Legacy and even a Vintage League. I hope so. It would be a ton of fun.   
 

Random MTGO Suggestion of the Week / Opinion Section II

I’m going to climb back on my old soapbox and rant about collection issues. Back under v3, I actually collected MTGO cards.   The collection pane allowed me to see what I owned in each set, and what I didn’t. I had a storage account for bulk, but I left a playset of every card I could in my One Million Words account. That generally meant that I had a playset of every common and uncommon, plus some Rares and a few Mythics.   I bought what Mythics and Rares I needed for constructed decks.   All the rest I transferred to Ingrid’s account, and spares went into a bulk storage account. Life was good.
 
Then we went to V4. Early on, V4 had a very rough time with collection management. It took a long time for the program to process searches, moves, and so forth. Deck building took forever with a large collection. It was also a pain to identify newly drafted cards and move the duplicates out. Eventually, deck building got so bad that I bought a new account and moved all my constructed staples into that account. I now play constructed through the 3MWords account, and play non-phantom drafts and limited only in One Million Words. Every few drafts I move the dozen or so constructed playable cards I’ve drafted into 3MWords but this generally works.   
 
Or, at least, it did until Leagues. 
 
Up until Leagues, I have managed to squeeze in a couple drafts a week, and almost never played any constructed other than 2 man queues. At that rate, I rarely ended a season with more than a handful of QPs in One Million Words and almost none in 3MWords, so I did not really worry about qualifying. With Leagues, however, I am now racking up QPs in both accounts, and I may actually hit 15 QPs for this season, despite a late start. Of course, since they are spread across two accounts, I won’t qualify.   Likewise, I now have a surplus of Play Points in one account, but can’t trade them to the other account. 
 
I know these are first world problems – a lot of players would love to have “too many” cards, but I can say that there is nothing special about having 3,000+ Mountains and over 250 Pacifisms. 
 
I know I have asked for this before, but Wizards, could we have a method of turning bulk commons into Play Points or store credit or something? I understand that having a readily available shredder could create some problems. The three I can think of off the top of my head are stupidity, deliberate vandalism and shortages.   Stupidity would happen when someone accidentally deleted the wrong cards (e.g. their foil Goyf), and wanted them back. The vandalism might happen when someone’s roommate or friend got mad and got access to the account, and shredded the whole collection.   The third problem would be if so many copies of something got shredded that they were suddenly scarce. That could happen with something that was deemed unplayable, then suddenly became part of a combo deck. The cards in the Lantern of Insight deck are decent examples.   
 
Here’s a simple way around that: allow players to “redeem” 50 (that’s fifty - 50) copies of the same common card (e.g 50 10E Pacifism, not just 50 mixed Pacifisms) for either a Play Point or $0.10 in store credit. Volumes like that will eliminate the problems of someone accidentally shredding Goyfs or malicious shredding. It might also limit the use to dealers or traders, but that is probably a good thing. It will give dealers a way to get rid of the huge number of random commons they are sitting on. It would also create a market for the random commons no one wants to but from my trade account. More importantly, dealers will know what cards are in short supply, or might be worth holding, so they are unlikely to sell off the last 100 Ghoulcaller’s Bells.  
 
Or Wizards could fix the collection screen. I have offered several suggestions from that in the last year or two as well. But I’m not holding my breath.
 
If you have a suggestion for an improvement to MTGO, send it to magiconlinefeedback@wizards.com.       
 

Cutting Edge Tech:

Standard: We are getting close to the end of the Standard season.   In a couple weeks, we will start seeing results from events with BFZ cards in the metagame and with Theros block gone. Until then, here’s what I am playing in the Standard League. I am 3-0 at the moment. (Last minute update – went 5-0.)
 
 
Modern:  Grand Prix Oklahoma City was Modern. The winning deck was a new take on Lantern Control. Coverage is here
 
 
Pauper: Pauper is at least interesting. In the most recent event, a couple well-bleached Boros decks went undefeated.   It was not all Delver. 
 
Light Pink
singer_from_sengir, 3-0, Pauper Premier #8762354 on 09/15/2015
Creatures
3 Court Homunculus
4 Glint Hawk
4 Kor Skyfisher
1 Lone Missionary
2 Order of Leitbur
4 Safehold Elite
18 cards

Other Spells
3 Wind-Scarred Crag
1 Kor Sanctifiers
4 Alchemist's Vial
1 Firebolt
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Journey to Nowhere
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Prophetic Prism
21 cards
 
Lands
4 Ancient Den
2 Boros Garrison
4 Great Furnace
1 Haunted Fengraf
5 Plains
1 Radiant Fountain
17 cards

Gorilla Shaman
 
Legacy: SCG ran a Premier IQ in Worchester last weekend. Most of the Top 16 was boring, but one deck leaped out at me. Enchantress. I played Enchantress at GP Vegas back in 2003, and at other events over the years. The deck is great. Admittedly, modern Enchantress is a bit different from the old Rancor Auratog combos I played, but it is still Enchantress.  When Wizards brings us Legacy Leagues, I am totally playing this.
 
 

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 for staples in the current and future format rebounded this week. Theros block cards are beginning to slide as we get close to rotation.  That said, we still have a few weeks of current Standard left, and the format is really diverse.      
 

Standard & Block Cards
Price
Last Week
Change
% Change
$10.73
$8.46
$2.27
27%
$9.30
$7.19
$2.11
29%
$17.81
$16.15
$1.66
10%
$7.79
$7.83
($0.04)
-1%
$23.03
$19.75
$3.28
17%
$6.53
$6.23
$0.30
5%
$16.70
$16.46
$0.24
1%
$4.75
$7.15
($2.40)
-34%
$10.29
$9.52
$0.77
8%
$35.45
$31.12
$4.33
14%
$18.28
$18.48
($0.20)
-1%
$6.36
$5.77
$0.59
10%
$4.62
$4.68
($0.06)
-1%
$10.00
$8.64
$1.36
16%
$13.17
$14.91
($1.74)
-12%
$5.97
$6.47
($0.50)
-8%
$9.52
$9.22
$0.30
3%
$4.27
$3.09
$1.18
38%
$6.72
$7.82
($1.10)
-14%
$9.23
$9.23
$0.00
0%

Modern staples:  Modern prices were generally up.   A few cards had taken strange turns recently, are recovered, but the format is pretty stable. IN a couple weeks, a few Theros block cards may make their way onto this table.   
 

Modern Cards
Price
Last Week
Change
% Change
$31.46
$29.49
$1.97
7%
$21.24
$23.49
($2.25)
-10%
$23.54
$23.35
$0.19
1%
$29.54
$23.79
$5.75
24%
$27.00
$25.37
$1.63
6%
$13.94
$12.04
$1.90
16%
$18.33
$17.27
$1.06
6%
$40.22
$40.43
($0.21)
-1%
$26.47
$20.10
$6.37
32%
$29.28
$26.40
$2.88
11%
$27.10
$27.23
($0.13)
0%
$108.30
$103.35
$4.95
5%
$30.46
$28.63
$1.83
6%
$17.82
$16.56
$1.26
8%
$22.54
$22.58
($0.04)
0%
$37.46
$32.20
$5.26
16%
$21.74
$14.59
$7.15
49%
$18.19
$19.23
($1.04)
-5%
$45.98
$44.92
$1.06
2%
$27.99
$28.31
($0.32)
-1%
$17.86
$18.15
($0.29)
-2%
$25.56
$20.40
$5.16
25%

Legacy and Vintage: Eternal format cards were a bit swingy. Stifle is falling, as we get closer to the MOCS events that will award it. Infernal Tutor spiked a bit, which apparently convinced some people to sell. Everything else was pretty quiet.
 

Legacy / Vintage Cards
Price
Last Week
Change
% Change
$41.60
$39.21
$2.39
6%
$106.34
$102.52
$3.82
4%
$28.44
$28.39
$0.05
0%
$23.23
$22.84
$0.39
2%
$45.82
$45.12
$0.70
2%
$28.60
$28.60
$0.00
0%
$23.27
$25.12
($1.85)
-7%
$25.21
$24.91
$0.30
1%
$27.25
$33.14
($5.89)
-18%
$22.14
$22.34
($0.20)
-1%
$120.24
$119.45
$0.79
1%
$27.95
$27.82
$0.13
0%
$45.75
$44.90
$0.85
2%
$166.76
$163.74
$3.02
2%
$68.82
$67.49
$1.33
2%
$10.56
$15.24
($4.68)
-31%
$22.46
$22.74
($0.28)
-1%
$26.62
$26.49
$0.13
0%
$23.61
$23.66
($0.05)
0%
$21.98
$20.98
$1.00
5%
$21.58
$21.60
($0.02)
0%
$63.76
$66.84
($3.08)
-5%

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.  Note – I expect to cut Theros block sets a week or two after they disappear from the draft list.
 

Complete Set
Price
Last Week
Change
% Change
Battle for Zendikar
coming
n/a
n/a
n/a
Born of the Gods
$21.62
$22.73
($1.11)
-5%
Dragons of Tarkir
$142.50
$129.88
$12.62
10%
Fate Reforged
$57.10
$52.45
$4.65
9%
Journey into Nyx
$61.26
$65.60
($4.34)
-7%
Khans of Tarkir
$96.30
$95.80
$0.50
1%
M15
$64.16
$66.25
($2.09)
-3%
Magic Origins
$109.34
$105.00
$4.34
4%
Theros
$39.99
$46.66
($6.67)
-14%

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 grew a bit this week, and is now at thirty-three 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
$ 166.76
Misdirection
 MM
Rare
$ 120.24
Liliana of the Veil
 ISD
Mythic Rare
$ 108.30
Black Lotus
 VMA
Bonus
$ 106.34
Wasteland
 TPR
Rare
$   69.27
Show and Tell
 UZ
Rare
$   68.82
Wasteland
 TE
Uncommon
$   63.76
Tangle Wire
 NE
Rare
$   61.07
Tarmogoyf
 MM2
Mythic Rare
$   46.27
Tarmogoyf
 MMA
Mythic Rare
$   46.17
Tarmogoyf
 FUT
Rare
$   45.98
Doomsday
 WL
Rare
$   45.82
Mox Sapphire
 VMA
Bonus
$   45.75
Ancestral Recall
 VMA
Bonus
$   41.60
Griselbrand
 AVR
Mythic Rare
$   40.22
Scalding Tarn
 ZEN
Rare
$   37.46
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
 ORI
Mythic Rare
$   35.45
Force of Will
 MED
Rare
$   33.28
Mox Opal
 SOM
Mythic Rare
$   32.29
Auriok Champion
 5DN
Rare
$   31.46
Mox Opal
 MM2
Mythic Rare
$   30.46
Cavern of Souls
 AVR
Rare
$   29.54
Horizon Canopy
 FUT
Rare
$   29.28
Ensnaring Bridge
 ST
Rare
$   28.86
Food Chain
 MM
Rare
$   28.60
Containment Priest
 C14
Rare
$   28.44
Twilight Mire
 EVE
Rare
$   27.99
Mox Jet
 VMA
Bonus
$   27.95
Ensnaring Bridge
 8ED
Rare
$   27.80
Infernal Tutor
 DIS
Rare
$   27.25
Inkmoth Nexus
 MBS
Rare
$   27.10
Mox Ruby
 VMA
Bonus
$   27.06
Ensnaring Bridge
 7E
Rare
$   27.00
Time Walk
 VMA
Bonus
$   26.62
Grove of the Burnwillows
 FUT
Rare
$   26.47
Daze
 DD2
Common
$   25.88
Voice of Resurgence
 DGM
Mythic Rare
$   25.56
Gaea's Cradle
 UZ
Rare
$   25.21

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 $ 24,190.  That’s up almost exactly $200 from last week.  We are back in the normal fluctuation pattern, given that we are a couple weeks from a major rotation.      
 

Weekly Highlights:

Leagues are back, and I went 5-0 in the most recent. That makes me happy. Now I just have to decide what to play next. 
 

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 $8,100, but there are a lot of cards left in the collection. Those cards are being sold at MTGOTrader’s Buy Price.

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 $8,100, but there are a lot of cards left in the collection. Those cards are being sold at  MTGOTrader’s Buy Price.  


 

25 Comments

draft leagues? by cavegoat at Fri, 09/18/2015 - 12:05
cavegoat's picture

this all well and good (btw, I always read your friday column, wtg!) i miss the leagues of old where you got the packs and made the deck, not the current create a deck stuff going down now. i am in a position where i sell off my drafting cards for tickets for more drafts, i cannot assemble a deck. are they planning on giving us that anytime?

CC stakes are higher by Adam_the_Mentat at Fri, 09/18/2015 - 12:14
Adam_the_Mentat's picture
5

They had to be high, in order to mitigate the fact that the "community" was not involved in choosing who represented them. Giving us all those sweet cards might stifle us enough to overlook how a tournament organizer got to pick its dream team and also who faces that dream team in competition. It's not just that your favorite football team made it to the superbowl and then got to choose who they played against-- it's like the inventors of football hold a playoff and choose who represented the creators, and who they face. In order to re-establish relations with the community, WOTC better, not to put too fine a point on it, take a dive and divvy out those sweet prizes. I can't think of a worse situation then: 1. no community voting/involvement 2. hand-picking the opposing team. 3. Offering sweet prizes for the community. 4. Beating the "Community" and dangling sweet prizes in front of us only to not give them out. Though I loved interacting with Erik “Hamtastic” Friborg for the brief period I did, and though I love that his name adorns the cup and want it won, the whole situation sticks in my craw this year.

LOL by Claw at Fri, 09/18/2015 - 14:33
Claw's picture

Lol, of course "Community" team will win this. Do you seriously think that this is some kind of a real competition and not WotC marketing instrument?

You do know the community by longtimegone at Fri, 09/18/2015 - 15:55
longtimegone's picture

You do know the community team has lost in the past, right? We got a Sorrow's Path.

Indeed and if I recall by Paul Leicht at Fri, 09/18/2015 - 16:26
Paul Leicht's picture

Indeed and if I recall correctly that was a stacked invite too with very little input from the community heeded.

What Lontimegone and Paul by Adam_the_Mentat at Fri, 09/18/2015 - 16:53
Adam_the_Mentat's picture

What Lontimegone and Paul said. The community has lost in the past. Don't take me for a fool, I'm not one. I've been playing since Alpha, and know enough to think anything WOTC does in large scale like this is part PR, part marketing, small part community-driven. Knowing this ahead of time is what makes slimming down the "cmmunity-driven" part to nil, that makes it so infuriating.

The "Community" team can by Claw at Sat, 09/19/2015 - 06:58
Claw's picture

The "Community" team can consist of monkeys from nearby zoo and it will still win this, because WotC wants it to win. Me? I only care about cheap Thalias.

It's best to know what you by longtimegone at Sat, 09/19/2015 - 07:04
longtimegone's picture

It's best to know what you are talking about before you open your mouth.

http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/event...

this guy gets it by Adam_the_Mentat at Sat, 09/19/2015 - 07:39
Adam_the_Mentat's picture

this guy gets it

It's best to learn to read by Claw at Sat, 09/19/2015 - 08:27
Claw's picture

It's best to learn to read before opening your mouth, try it.

What are you even referring by Adam_the_Mentat at Sat, 09/19/2015 - 08:34
Adam_the_Mentat's picture

What are you even referring to? You said, and I'm paraphrasing here, that of course they are gonna win, no matter if they picked a group of monkeys. Both longtimegone and I said, actually, the community has lost before, and provided an article as evidence, and yet you still seem to think you are in the right? There is going to be a live feed. It's going to be pretty hard to mastermind the WOTC clan throwing the event for the community while it's live. I really don't think you have a leg to stand on in this argument, and before you go full salty troll on us, accept that you are mistaken.

Let's just say I am 100% sure by Claw at Sat, 09/19/2015 - 08:42
Claw's picture

Let's just say I am 100% sure that the "community" team will win this year, because WotC wants it to win (this time). Past events don't matter.

Why? Why should we "just by Paul Leicht at Sun, 09/20/2015 - 03:11
Paul Leicht's picture

Why? Why should we "just say"? Is that code for "I know something you don't know?" or is it merely a dodge to avoid explaining what you actually mean because then you'd be held to account for any inaccuracies or lies you used in the course of that action?

And if it is "I know something you don't know" isn't that just a troll? A poorly disguised one at that?

The community team lost - ONE time by Felorin at Sun, 09/20/2015 - 16:36
Felorin's picture

I think it's pretty clear that Wizards sets up the Community Cup so that it's more likely than not that the community team will win, because that's better PR. Making the Community lose one year out of five probably just makes it even more convincing and exciting, if they won every year people would start to assume it was fixed and/or take it for granted.

If they really wanted to stack it against the community, they'd have 8 staff members that are pro tour champions and hall of famers, and not mix in Wizards employees who are medium or poor players along with the good ones.

I don't really care how they pick the community team, as long as they're semi-well known magic players / columnists / streamers. Which they are.

I mostly cared because I feel by Paul Leicht at Sun, 09/20/2015 - 22:57
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I mostly cared because I feel like we (the community) have been pretty disconnected already that taking away the illusion of choice was pretty harsh.

But also I disagree with your criteria that they must be semi-well known. An unknown who contributes to the greater community is imho the minimum. And I also disagree that they must only be columnists, streamers and pros. This CCC shows that podcasters who even claim Amateur status can wreck face against seasoned (if out of practice) pro tour champions (Meghan and Marie).

I don't think they stacked the community cup to be in favor or against one side winning or the other (if anything I think they tried very hard to make the skill levels very close and even). They just took away something important to us: The sense that we, the community are involved in the process in some way. Which imho is divisive and not community building.

I really miss the old by PanteraCanes at Fri, 09/18/2015 - 13:20
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I really miss the old collection view. It felt like I was building a collection. The new client feels like some toddler came into a room with a binder and just dumped it on the floor. I assume the issue where your sort of the collect defaults to alphabetical still no matter what you try to save it to?

At this point I don't think we are getting a collection screen back. Which is really sad because it at least helped to justify in my mind the money I've spent in the client. The last month I just haven't even had motivation to try and fight the client to play.

Hammybot by monkrealist at Fri, 09/18/2015 - 14:01
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If hammybot is selling the cards at mtgotraders buy prices......why not just sell them all to mtgotraders?

this gets asked every couple by Adam_the_Mentat at Fri, 09/18/2015 - 14:43
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this gets asked every couple of weeks. Seems logical at this point.

I think that the idea is to by Rerepete at Fri, 09/18/2015 - 19:54
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I think that the idea is to give to the community, rather than just profit off of Hammy's collection. Likely after some set time, MTGOTraders will buy out the rest of the collection and forward the money to Eric's family

Economics by Felorin at Sun, 09/20/2015 - 16:40
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I think it's better for Erik's family if they get as many as possible of those cards sold at "full retail" prices rather than at "wholesale" prices.

I suppose if it reaches the point where there's nothing left that's selling any more, then it makes sense to sell off the remaining cards at a much lower rate just to get something for them.

Can we get an eulogy in next by Lagrange at Fri, 09/18/2015 - 15:23
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Can we get an eulogy in next week's opinion section talking about the end of the forums?

Old Past - New Future by ComixWriter at Fri, 09/18/2015 - 16:23
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5

Thanks for the shout-out!

I understand the saying: those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it.

I cannot pine for older collection views, having never seen them.

I cannot fondly recall games with Hamtastic HammyBot.

I can say that I'm sad to have missed these elements of the game. I can have respect for those pieces, yet cannot ever fully appreciate their impact as a newer player. If anyone has some fun stories about Erik Friborg, older collection views, or even forums, please share.

What I can say is that I've found the Tribal Wars community very accepting. As a new player with some prideful intelligence, I can fully anticipate getting beat by veterans. Nobody walks into a chess tournament for their 1st time and expect to walk away with the championship title. I did not get into playing MTGO (an anniversary gift from my wife) for money or profits from wins.

I play to test fun ideas in different ways than merely netdecking the latest winning deck(s).

Tribal Wars offers this option to me. The community makes the experience great. Yesterday, I offered an open challenge and feedback about my new (1st!) tribal deck- warriors. Boy, did I get some feedback!

AT NO TIME did anyone threaten, belittle, or otherwise make an uncomfortable comment or suggestion. I believe part of the Tribal Wars community's investment is seeing how we can recycle WotC's orphaned synergies outside of blocks and rotations. Sure, elves can be a strong tribe. What I've learned is that one elf deck can be completely different than another elf deck. Currently, I'm brewing an elf deck that makes more wolves than elves! I'm sure I could make a pure wolf deck, but elves offers some unique opportunities. Like my warriors, already a strong tribe, people just seemed to want me to have fun, seeing things similar to they see things. If I offer 1% of uniqueness, the community softly applauds. C'mon, in our heart-of-hearts, didn't we get into playing cardboard crack to visually represent those noggles (bow to AJ_Impy), orcs, and wizards just sitting in our brains weaving cobwebs? A good tribal deck for one enthusiastic player is a good deck for the community.

Thank you, all, for your patience and welcoming spirits. Let's have some fun this weekend!!!

If you really don't care by Paul Leicht at Sat, 09/19/2015 - 07:37
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If you really don't care whether they are good decks, many of my articles dating back about 5-6 years or so feature Tribal Wars decks. Feel free to lift them as you like and change them however your imagination allows.

Also AJ is one of my primary building partners on MTGO. I tend to ask him first when a new idea arises and I need some inspiration. (While you are reading my old articles check out my interview with him from a while back: http://puremtgo.com/articles/magical-legends-players-profile-ajimpy )

People used to chat on MTGO by Felorin at Sun, 09/20/2015 - 16:55
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Before they took away the casual room group chat window and made the game chat windows auto-hide at the start of each match, people used to chat with each other a LOT more. Even clan chat windows would have conversations in them, and the user-creatable named chat windows.

Without even intending to, by making the chat interface far worse in V4 than it was in 3.5, they eliminated 90% or more of the conversation. That was a real tragedy. It already needed building up to be BETTER and get people chatting MORE, back in 3.5. But they killed it instead.

Glad you found some people that actually chat a bit. :)

Community Cup by MichelleWong at Sun, 09/20/2015 - 16:12
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5

Regarding the Community Cup, I would prefer that the Wizards team (or at least Alison the Community Liason Officer) interacted with us in the official community forums.

Instead, we get a flashy Community Cup that has, I suspect, little relevance to most people except the participants, and then Wizards shuts down the forums...for good. Nice one. :(

Thalia is a poor consolation prize for this bad deal (however I will take her rather than look a Cathar gift horse in the mouth!).

Michelle