State of the Program for August 2nd, 2019
Mythic Championship IV Winner Crowned: Congrats to Thoralf Severin who outlasted 500 or so other players in a field full of Hogaak and Leyline of the Void
with Tron. Alvaro Fernandez Torres was in the finals, who was on Hardened Scales
Affinity.
Red Bull Untapped: A soft drink that gives you wings is holding a Magic tournament for reasons I don't really understand, but they shared the top eight finalists with the world recently. Headlined by 2018 World Champion, Javier Dominguez, these eight players are getting together to battle it out for 60000 dollars. You can see the competitors here, and watch the action here. The article doesn't say when they are playing, so it might be going on now, or tomorrow, or maybe next year. I have no idea!
MPL Bracket Play: The MPL is split in to 8 player brackets that will play round robin matches, and the top four will have a play off to determine the winner of each group. Each division will get a featured week. You can watch that on twitch. You can read about it more here.
Modern Horizons getting Extra Time: The end date of Modern Horizons events has been pushed back from the 14th of August to the 28th of August. Go play some sealed and maybe crack a Wrenn and Six
!
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 MCQs each weekend, with qualifiers for limited MCQs running the days immediately prior to the MCQ.
Upcoming Events
|
Dates
|
Scheduled Downtimes
|
August 14th, 2019
|
Constructed Leagues End
|
September 25, 2019
|
Sealed Leagues End
|
September 30, 2019
|
Next B&R Announcement
|
August 26, 2019
|
|
|
Modern Horizons Ends
|
August 28th, 2019
|
Throne of Eldraine
|
September 2019
|
“Baseball”
|
January, 2020
|
“Cricket”
|
Spring, 2020
|
2018 Magic Online Championship Series and other events
Complete details, including schedule, rules, and which online events qualify you for which online or paper events is
here. In addition, Wizards will be offering these special formats:
M20 Sealed MCQ - August 18, 2019
Pauper MCQ - August 24, 2019
Standard MCQ - August 31, 2019
Modern MCQ - September 1, 2019
M20 Sealed MCQ - September 2, 2019.
All of the above qualify for Richmond.
Limited MOCS - August 3, 2019
Standard MCQ - August 4, 2019
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
|
|
Sunday, 8:00 am PT
|
|
Sunday, 10:00 am PT
|
I may need to outsource the opinion section. As a person with agoraphobia, a lot of stuff really doesn't apply to me anymore. The new Judge Academy? Level 1 judge Joshua would have hated it, but the dude afraid of the outside who let his membership lapse? He really does not have any strong opinions. I don't feel it's great. I've talked about it on twitter, but my feelings aren't strong enough to actually sit down and put words to website over it.
The lack of communication about organized play and what its future might hold? Doesn't matter to me, I no longer play in MCQs or have the dreams of the Pro Tour or Mythic Champion or whatever. It sure would be nice if WotC would say something and help my friends out, but no strong feelings. What about the MPL? Did it achieve its goals for WotC or will changes be happening with it? Will digital MCs ever have an audience? It feels weird to embrace esports, but do it so haphazardly.
I very much feel like the Neutrals from Futurama right now. I have no strong feelings one way or the other. Have I outgrown Magic? Maybe, I still play an awful lot. I stream, I interact with the game, but it's on different terms now. I would never go to a Magic Fest to actually play in the main event anymore, but to hang out with friends and maybe do a few side events.
I know things are doing well for Magic, and that is exciting, but I also feel like I'm leaving it behind as I try to figure out what role it has in my life going forward. I love the management work here at Pure, and can't imagine my life without the game, or the great writers and fans of the site, so leaving Magic is never been a thing I seriously considered.
A thing I have seriously considered? Opening MTGO and playing some commander. That's always great!
Standard:
Looking at this deck, and my collection on MTGO and I sure wish that there were alternate art versions of every Planeswalker. The anime walkers are great, even if a bit expensive, but it is nice to have something a bit different. I truly wish that Wizards of the Coast had printed the stained glass walkers. With an actual stained glass style treatment. Would have been a heck of a Mythic Edition.
Legacy:
This deck to me is needlessly complicated. It may not actually be, as it seems that putting
Vampire Hexmage
in to play with
Dark Depths
as quickly as possible. I played this a while back when the format was a lot more affordable, and ran the ole spicy 0-5. The deck just never seemed to click for me.
Modern:
For sure need to show off the winner of the most recent Mythic Championship, even if the deck is as old as time.
Pauper: Goblins got a heck of a boost with the recent unification of the format.
Goblin Grenade
is a heck of a Magic card. I still wish that WotC would have left
Sinkhole
alone, even if just for one legality cycle. I would have loved it.
Vintage:
I am probably retiring weekly Vintage coverage, because I feel like I have highlighted the most played decks. I may replace it with Brawl decks, or something. Enjoy this BUG list though!
The Winner's Circle is where I will recognize winners of the past events on MTGO.
Pauper Challenge: Heisen01 won with Jeskai Astrolabe.
Modern MCQ: rastaf won with Hogaak.
Legacy Challenge: astrozombie took first place with UW Stoneblade.
Sealed MCQ: Tetsubou qualified in sealed play.
Vintage Challenge: swiftwarkite won with Dredge.
Modern Challenge: JMM rose to the top with Izzet Phoenix.
MTGOTraders YouTube: Did you know that MTGOTraders.com has a YouTube page with videos added Monday, Wednesday and Friday? Well if not, now you do, and you can find it here!
Monday: Alex Ullman broke down the recent Pauper Challenge.
Tuesday: The Goblin Lore Podcast spoke with Chase about mental health in a two part episode.
Wednesday: Tournament reports are fun, tournament reports where Burger King has issues are even more fun. Check out LSV's winning report.
Thursday: To toot my own creative horn, I am messing around with different content ideas for Legitmtg.
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 a decade and a half now, and have never been overcharged or disappointed.
Standard Staples:
Cavalier of Gales
enters the list for the first time in a while. Cards that are soon to be rotated are still depressed, and I have noticed that cards out of the oldest legal sets come the fall have started to settle down as well. Outside of a couple of cards from War of the Spark, Standard seems to be pretty affordable right now.
Modern Staples: Seems like a lot of stuff from Hogaak moved down, while the key parts to Tron moved up. With the Mythic Championship over, Modern should settle down for the time being, unless Wizards of the Coast makes an announcement for pro level Modern play anytime soon.
Eternal Staples: Power Nine seemed to be on the move this week.
Pauper Staples: Added a couple of cards to the list that I missed last week, they seem pretty important to include on this list.
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). This is being kept as a small tribute to Pete!
Complete Set |
Price |
Last Week |
Change |
% Change |
Core Set 2019 |
$98.62 |
$93.28 |
$5.34 |
6% |
Dominaria |
$23.21 |
$23.82 |
($0.61) |
-3% |
Guilds of Ravnica |
$65.01 |
$63.59 |
$1.42 |
2% |
Ixalan |
$16.71 |
$17.04 |
($0.33) |
-2% |
Ravnica Allegiances |
$97.64 |
$106.43 |
($8.79) |
-8% |
Rivals of Ixalan |
$15.35 |
$15.28 |
$0.07 |
0% |
Treasure Chest |
$2.34 |
$2.29 |
$0.05 |
2% |
War of the Spark |
$170.99 |
$177.57 |
($6.58) |
-4% |
Core Set 2020 Booster |
$3.48 |
$3.00 |
$0.48 |
16% |
Core Set 2020 |
$147.03 |
$145.07 |
$1.96 |
1% |
Modern Horizons |
$254.96 |
$265.41 |
($10.45) |
-4% |
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 is interesting, at the least. This is interesting to me because a lot of these cards have been reprinted more than once, and they are still commanding a high price.
Black Lotus |
1E |
Rare |
325.55 |
Mox Sapphire |
1E |
Rare |
166.73 |
Mox Ruby |
1E |
Rare |
116.24 |
Mox Emerald |
1E |
Rare |
115.75 |
Ancestral Recall |
1E |
Rare |
101.18 |
Mox Jet |
1E |
Rare |
95.53 |
Wrenn and Six |
MH1 |
Mythic |
90.38 |
Mox Pearl |
1E |
Rare |
84.37 |
Time Walk |
1E |
Rare |
71.6 |
Liliana of the Veil |
PRM |
Mythic |
69.37 |
Karn Liberated |
UBT |
Mythic |
68.91 |
Lord Windgrace |
PZ2 |
Mythic |
59.49 |
Timetwister |
1E |
Rare |
50.66 |
Liliana of the Veil |
UMA |
Mythic |
48.92 |
Finale of Promise |
WAR |
Mythic |
43.72 |
Engineered Explosives |
UBT |
Mythic |
43.28 |
Liliana of the Veil |
UBT |
Mythic |
43.14 |
Dark Depths |
V16 |
Mythic |
42.43 |
Mox Opal |
MM2 |
Mythic |
41.83 |
Mox Opal |
MS2 |
Bonus |
41.27 |
Mox Opal |
SOM |
Mythic |
40.98 |
Unmask |
V16 |
Mythic |
36.99 |
Surgical Extraction |
PRM |
Rare |
35.03 |
Narset, Parter of Veils |
PRM |
Uncommon |
34.05 |
Black Lotus |
PRM |
Rare |
34 |
Dark Depths |
UBT |
Mythic |
33.15 |
Noble Hierarch |
UBT |
Mythic |
31.66 |
Liliana, the Last Hope |
MS4 |
Mythic |
31.27 |
Cavern of Souls |
UMA |
Mythic |
30.66 |
Karn, the Great Creator |
PRM |
Rare |
30.57 |
Karn Liberated |
UMA |
Mythic |
30.51 |
Mox Sapphire |
PRM |
Rare |
30 |
Surgical Extraction |
NPH |
Rare |
29.41 |
Teferi, Time Raveler |
PRM |
Rare |
29.21 |
Force of Negation |
MH1 |
Rare |
28.89 |
Surgical Extraction |
MM2 |
Rare |
26.92 |
True-Name Nemesis |
PZ1 |
Mythic |
26.57 |
Avatar - Aeon Chronicler |
VAN |
Rare |
26.28 |
Liliana of the Veil |
MM3 |
Mythic |
26.21 |
City of Traitors |
EX |
Rare |
26.01 |
Arclight Phoenix |
GRN |
Mythic |
25.9 |
Cavern of Souls |
UBT |
Mythic |
25.34 |
Snapcaster Mage |
UMA |
Mythic |
25.28 |
Ancestral Recall |
PRM |
Rare |
25 |
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 a number that I cannot figure out still. I have actually asked Pete to do this for me, because Open Office is weird, and I have no idea what I am doing, and I am pretty close to just being a dog in a labcoat.
Nevermind, ignore all of that, Pete got it done for me, because he is just the dang best. The big number this week is $16,420 . Last week this number was at $16,245. It's went up! (Inserts Stonks Picture here).
Prices were completed on Thursday August 1st, 2019. The bulk of the article was researched from Monday to Thursday, and written on Thursday. Time spent not doing that was spent on streaming some Standard and playing World of Warcraft, at least until I got the pathfinder achievement finally.
This series is an ongoing tribute to Erik “Hamtastic” Friborg.