State of the Program for December 11th, 2020
Zendikar Rising Championship: Congrats to Brad Barclay for winning the Zendikar Rising Championship. The format for the event was Standard and Historic, with a Historic top eight. Brad had a highly teched out Azorius control deck that dominated the top eight. You can read about the event here.
Showcase Qualifiers: There are two chances to qualify for the Magic Online Champions Showcase. Saturday give Standard a go, if that's not your style, on Sunday there is a Pionner qualifier. You can learn more about Showcase Qualifiers here. Showcase Last Chance events can be learned about here.
MOCS Season 1: This began on Wednesday! The info page for this is found here.
Terms of Use changes: Wizards of the Coast sent out an email that said their Terms of Use and Privacy Policy have been updated. It reflects the inclusion of Spelltable, organized play and dispute resolution. You can read the new Privacy Policy here, and the new Terms of Use here. It would be super nice though, if they just showed you what changed at the state of the document.
Commander Legends League changes: Player clocks are down to 40 minutes and the time to make picks in drafts has been reduced. Peep the tweet!
Limited Showcase issues: December 6th saw some issues on MTGO with the Limited Showcase. It just didn't fire. It eventually started at a later time, and three booster packs were given out as a token of apology.
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
|
January 27, 2021 |
Constructed Leagues End
|
January 27, 2021
|
Sealed Leagues End
|
January 28, 2021 |
Next B&R
|
Unknown
|
Zendikar Rising Redemption
|
Began November 11, 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:
This changed this week, make sure to keep that in mind when looking at the schedule. I put the changes in bold.
December 9 - December 16:
Supreme Draft: Chaos
December 16 - December 23:
Supreme Draft: Vintage Cube
December 23 - January 13:
Vintage Cube
January 13 - January 20:
New Spotlight Cube
January 20 - January 28 - Vintage Masters Flashback
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:
Standard: The Arena deck dumps are weird. Sometimes you get a cool looking deck like this Abzan Control list, and other times you get a best of one list with no sideboard that is just hanging out in the best of three queue. Sometimes you get someone's great netdeck, others, someone decided to play with their Brawl deck. I mean good for them, but there has to be a better way the featuring a deck with 4 sideboard cards and a dream right?
Historic: I did want to show off the deck that Brad Barclay won the Zendikar Rising Championship with. It's pretty strong and having access to
Grafdigger's Cage
in the main makes playing God-Pharaoh's Gift a little more difficult.
Legacy:Every so often it is nice to see a tribal strategy do well in Legacy. It's usually Death and Taxes that does it, so Goblins showing back up, with the help of
Muxus, Goblin Grandee
is nice.
Modern: I was at a loss for Modern decks this week, so I went with another tribal strategy.
Pauper: I did not imagine that Temur Land Destruction would rise up in a
Fall from Favor
dominated format, but here we are. Cascading in to land destruction spells off of
Boarding Party
or
Annoyed Altisaur
has to be great. Also there are not the right words in the right order to convince me that
Bonder's Ornament
as a 10 dollar card on MTGO is a good thing.
Pioneer: Any deck with
Whelming Wave
in it is going to catch my attention. Sadly,
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
is cost prohibitive to some people, but I guess that is why Magic is a luxury item.
Vintage: This is probably my last Vintage deck for a while. The format is more and more difficult to find exciting decks for, and it's not it's fault. When you have access to the most powerful cards of Magic's history it is hard to go away from that.
The Winner's Circle is where I will recognize winners of the past events on MTGO.
Challenge Winners
Saturday Legacy - comeback - Elves
Saturday Modern - showcase
Saturday Pauper - Mogged - Mono Blue Monarch
Saturday Pioneer - Phill_Hellmuth - Sultai Reclamation
Saturday Standard - showcase
Saturday Vintage - showcase
Sunday Legacy - showcase
Sunday Modern - Sodeq - Dredge
Sunday Pauper - _against_ - Dimir Monarch
Sunday Pioneer - showcase
Sunday Standard - Good_Game - Dimir Rogues
Sunday Vintage - Jenara19
Other Event Winners
Pioneer Showcase Challenge - jessy_samek - Green Devotion
Legacy Showcase Challenge - slod - Snow Control
Vintage Showcase Challenge - laughingrock
Standard Showcase Challenge - O_danielakos - Dimir Control
Modern Showcase Challenge - Xwhale - Eladamri's Toolbox
Modern Champ Qualifier - kaktusowysmok - Goblins
MTGOTraders YouTube: Did you know that MTGOTraders.com has a YouTube page? Well if not, now you do, and you can find it here!
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:
Sea Gate Restoration
fell off this week.
Modern Staples: Welcome back to the list
Steelshaper's Gift
and
Engineered Explosives
.
Eternal Staples: With
Muxus, Goblin Grandee
being featured in this week's Legacy list, I figured it would be a good time to add the goblin to the table.
Show and Tell
has come off the list.
Pioneer Staples: The smallest list remains stable for the most part this week.
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 2021 |
$126.80 |
$129.46 |
($2.66) |
-2% |
Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths |
$72.95 |
$72.51 |
$0.44 |
1% |
Theros Beyond Death |
$158.83 |
$160.47 |
($1.64) |
-1% |
Throne of Eldraine |
$140.15 |
$140.00 |
$0.15 |
0% |
Treasure Chest |
$2.35 |
$2.35 |
$0.00 |
0% |
Zendikar Rising |
$129.08 |
$137.50 |
($8.42) |
-6% |
Zendikar Rising Booster Pack |
$2.97 |
$3.27 |
($0.30) |
-9% |
The following is a list of all the non-foil, non-promo 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 |
127.8 |
Snapcaster Mage |
UBT |
Mythic |
101.48 |
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath |
THB |
Mythic |
77.12 |
Force of Negation |
MH1 |
Rare |
77.06 |
Liliana of the Veil |
UBT |
Mythic |
76.51 |
Ancestral Recall |
1E |
Rare |
74.21 |
Karakas |
UBT |
Mythic |
73.85 |
Mox Jet |
1E |
Rare |
72.77 |
Wrenn and Six |
MH1 |
Mythic |
66.7 |
Cavern of Souls |
UBT |
Mythic |
65.57 |
Hullbreacher |
CMR |
Rare |
61.74 |
Time Walk |
1E |
Rare |
61.72 |
Mox Emerald |
1E |
Rare |
60.54 |
Noble Hierarch |
UBT |
Mythic |
52.93 |
Dark Depths |
UBT |
Mythic |
52.25 |
Karn Liberated |
UBT |
Mythic |
51.38 |
Allosaurus Shepherd |
JMP |
Mythic |
48.75 |
Force of Will |
MED |
Rare |
46.99 |
Dockside Extortionist |
C19 |
Rare |
42.9 |
Jace, the Mind Sculptor |
MS4 |
Mythic |
42.82 |
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow |
PZ2 |
Rare |
42.81 |
The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale |
ME3 |
Rare |
42.16 |
Opposition Agent |
CMR |
Rare |
41.56 |
Mox Pearl |
1E |
Rare |
41.21 |
Mox Sapphire |
1E |
Rare |
40.12 |
Wasteland |
TE |
Uncommon |
39.88 |
Lord Windgrace |
PZ2 |
Mythic |
38.19 |
Timetwister |
1E |
Rare |
37.31 |
Mox Ruby |
1E |
Rare |
37.28 |
Karn, the Great Creator |
WAR |
Rare |
36.93 |
Seasoned Pyromancer |
MH1 |
Mythic |
36.75 |
Teferi, Time Raveler |
WAR |
Rare |
36.71 |
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth |
UBT |
Mythic |
36.23 |
Liliana, the Last Hope |
MS4 |
Mythic |
35.48 |
Force of Will |
EMA |
Mythic |
34.75 |
Demonic Tutor |
UBT |
Mythic |
34.13 |
Elder Gargaroth |
M21 |
Mythic |
34.08 |
Force of Will |
2XM |
Mythic |
33.99 |
Force of Will |
VMA |
Rare |
33.93 |
Carpet of Flowers |
UZ |
Uncommon |
33.29 |
Force of Will |
MS3 |
Mythic |
32.4 |
Purple-Crystal Crab |
PZ2 |
Common |
31.36 |
Platinum Emperion |
UBT |
Mythic |
31.16 |
Celestial Colonnade |
UBT |
Mythic |
31.08 |
Wasteland |
TPR |
Rare |
30.97 |
Life from the Loam |
UBT |
Mythic |
30.51 |
Wasteland |
EXP |
Mythic |
29.75 |
Scourge of the Skyclaves |
ZNR |
Mythic |
29.11 |
Gaea's Cradle |
UZ |
Rare |
28.9 |
Jeweled Lotus |
CMR |
Mythic |
27.74 |
Cavern of Souls |
ZNE |
Mythic |
27.61 |
Wasteland |
ZNE |
Mythic |
26.63 |
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria |
MS4 |
Mythic |
26.41 |
Lotus Petal |
MS2 |
Bonus |
25.97 |
Bitterblossom |
UBT |
Mythic |
25.28 |
Heavenly Qilin |
PZ2 |
Common |
25.25 |
Creeping Tar Pit |
UBT |
Mythic |
25.19 |
Auriok Champion |
IMA |
Rare |
25.09 |
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 $25,957. Last week the number was $25,630. It's a small gain, of $327, but a gain!
I have played so much Commander this week. While writing the news section I was actually taking a Gavi, Nest Warden
deck through a queue, and managed to the win the game early thanks to Approach of the Second Sun
. I've also been working on a few decks to take advantage of The Walking Dead legends. I'm really excited about Daryl and Michonne. Glenn and Rick both seem a bit straight-forward, and I am hesitant to play Negan, considering well, his character. I'm not sleeping well either, waking up after about 4 hours of sleep either in pain from a arm that fell asleep, with heartburn or needing to use the bathrom. Getting old is not fun, and I strongly advise against it.
This series is an ongoing tribute to Erik “Hamtastic” Friborg.