State of the Program for December 18th, 2020
The Week of Metal: Kaldheim previews started a bit early this time around, with the band Mastodon kicking things off by previewing the rest of the Pathways. Brazilian metal band, Angra, previewed Showdown of the Skalds. Torche showed off Pyre of Heroes. The next day more metal bands, in a paid partnership with Wizards of the Coast, previewed more cards. Amon Amarth showed up the cool double faced God, Halvar, God of Battle. It is a God, or an equipment! Oceans of Slumber showed off the new Kaya, Kaya the Inexorable. Rhapsody of Fire showed us Realmwalker and the final band, Smoulder dropped Magda, Brazen Outlaw, a Dwarf lord that cares about treasures, artifacts and dragons on us. You can find the previewed cards here. The schedule for previews is here, with the next one set to drop on December 24th.
Set and Theme Booster Changes: We are getting additional cards that are legal in Standard but also exclusive to Set and theme boosters. Outside of four cards in the Kaldheim Commander precons, these boosters will be the only way to find them. You can see the additional spoiled cards here. The List, a list of cards that shows up in the last slot of a Set booster pack 25% of the time is also going through some Charles Bradley like changes. You can check those out here.
Modern Super Qualifier: Added to the organized play schedule for Sunday, December 20th. You can join with QPs, Play Points or Event Tickets.
Commander Legends Phantom Queue: This one is ending early due to lack of participation. There will be no new entries after Monday, December 21st.
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
|
Ends April 7th, 2021
|
|
|
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 16 - December 23:
Supreme Draft: Vintage Cube
December 23 - January 13:
Vintage Cube *New* Will have Commander Legends cards in the card pool
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: Gruul Adventures may have ended up being the best Standard deck after what seemed like endless bans. Kaldheim is coming along at just the right time to shake things up.
Historic: Apparently in the non-rotating formats, Lotus Field and Blood Sun decks are all the rage. I tried to find one for each format this week, as long as it played one of the two cards.
Legacy: I still can't imagine anything better than casting
Buried Alive for three copies of Arclight Phoenix.
Modern: I didn't think that there would be a control deck to use the Lotus Sun combo, but Field makes casting
Cryptic Command easier, it turns off some problematic non tron lands like
Ghost Quarter and Field of Ruin. Blood Sun may actually be better against the fetchlands of the format, as it turns them off, where
Blood Moon at least lets them tap for mana.
Pauper: To me this isn't as exciting as cascading in to land destruction, but this list looks like a lot of fun regardless.
Pioneer: I guess this is the original Lotus Field combo deck. Loving the inclusion of Baral into these lists now.
Vintage: This was the cheapest Vintage deck that wasn't Dredge that I could find on mtgo.
The Winner's Circle is where I will recognize winners of the past events on MTGO.
It looks like Graciasportanto had themselves a great Saturday!
Challenge Winners
Saturday Legacy - kanican - Bomberman
Saturday Modern - Lucabireskusku - Omnath Piles
Saturday Pauper - LiturgiskaKniga - Wall Cascade
Saturday Pioneer - Graciasportanto - Oops! All Spells
Saturday Standard - Graciasportanto - Dimir Rogues
Saturday Vintage - Lord_Beerus
Sunday Legacy - musasabi - Esper Vial
Sunday Modern - Hamuda - Hammer Time
Sunday Pauper - Beicodegeia - Dimir Monarch
Sunday Pioneer - WaToO - Sultai Rec
Sunday Standard - IwillCRUSHyou - Esper Dance
Sunday Vintage - Zar0s
Other Event Winners
MTGOTraders YouTube: Did you know that MTGOTraders.com has a YouTube page? Well if not, now you do, and you can find it here!
Mike Flores wrote about the combos that made him fall in love with Magic.
Cassie LaBelle wrote about the ten most expensive Magic cards you've never heard of.
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: I don't believe anything is changing about this list until Kaldheim comes out.
Modern Staples: After a long absence,
Noble Hierarch
is back on the list.
Tarmogoyf
has fallen off the list.
Flagstones of Trokair
enters the list as well.
Eternal Staples: No real changes this week to the list.
Pioneer Staples:
Collective Brutality
is off the list.
Bomat Courier
is on the list as well 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 |
$122.16 |
$126.80 |
($4.64) |
-4% |
Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths |
$75.04 |
$72.95 |
$2.09 |
3% |
Theros Beyond Death |
$166.66 |
$158.83 |
$7.83 |
5% |
Throne of Eldraine |
$144.51 |
$140.15 |
$4.36 |
3% |
Treasure Chest |
$2.34 |
$2.35 |
($0.01) |
0% |
Zendikar Rising |
$125.89 |
$129.08 |
($3.19) |
-2% |
Zendikar Rising Booster Pack |
$3.27 |
$2.97 |
$0.30 |
10% |
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 |
125.68 |
Snapcaster Mage |
UBT |
Mythic |
101.48 |
Force of Negation |
MH1 |
Rare |
90.53 |
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath |
THB |
Mythic |
81.56 |
Liliana of the Veil |
UBT |
Mythic |
76.51 |
Ancestral Recall |
1E |
Rare |
74.29 |
Karakas |
UBT |
Mythic |
73.85 |
Mox Jet |
1E |
Rare |
73.6 |
Cavern of Souls |
UBT |
Mythic |
70.06 |
Wrenn and Six |
MH1 |
Mythic |
65.61 |
Hullbreacher |
CMR |
Rare |
63.62 |
Time Walk |
1E |
Rare |
61.72 |
Mox Emerald |
1E |
Rare |
61.22 |
Seasoned Pyromancer |
MH1 |
Mythic |
54.4 |
Karn Liberated |
UBT |
Mythic |
51.38 |
Dark Depths |
UBT |
Mythic |
50.87 |
Noble Hierarch |
UBT |
Mythic |
50.79 |
Force of Will |
MED |
Rare |
48.61 |
Allosaurus Shepherd |
JMP |
Mythic |
48.07 |
Dockside Extortionist |
C19 |
Rare |
44.28 |
Jace, the Mind Sculptor |
MS4 |
Mythic |
42.82 |
The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale |
ME3 |
Rare |
41.48 |
Lord Windgrace |
PZ2 |
Mythic |
40.7 |
Karn, the Great Creator |
WAR |
Rare |
39.96 |
Mox Pearl |
1E |
Rare |
39.9 |
Platinum Emperion |
UBT |
Mythic |
38.01 |
Mox Sapphire |
1E |
Rare |
37.99 |
Teferi, Time Raveler |
WAR |
Rare |
37.36 |
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth |
UBT |
Mythic |
37.32 |
Timetwister |
1E |
Rare |
37.31 |
Force of Will |
MS3 |
Mythic |
37.02 |
Force of Will |
2XM |
Mythic |
36.47 |
Mox Ruby |
1E |
Rare |
36.39 |
Wasteland |
TE |
Uncommon |
36.39 |
Force of Will |
EMA |
Mythic |
36.29 |
Liliana, the Last Hope |
MS4 |
Mythic |
35.48 |
Force of Will |
VMA |
Rare |
35.28 |
Demonic Tutor |
UBT |
Mythic |
35.15 |
Carpet of Flowers |
UZ |
Uncommon |
34.32 |
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow |
PZ2 |
Rare |
33.92 |
Opposition Agent |
CMR |
Rare |
32.07 |
Purple-Crystal Crab |
PZ2 |
Common |
31.36 |
Celestial Colonnade |
UBT |
Mythic |
31.08 |
Life from the Loam |
UBT |
Mythic |
30.51 |
Elder Gargaroth |
M21 |
Mythic |
30.3 |
Wasteland |
TPR |
Rare |
30.21 |
Wasteland |
ZNE |
Mythic |
29.77 |
Wasteland |
EXP |
Mythic |
29.37 |
Wasteland |
EMA |
Rare |
28.37 |
Gaea's Cradle |
UZ |
Rare |
28.22 |
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria |
MS4 |
Mythic |
26.41 |
Auriok Champion |
IMA |
Rare |
26.26 |
Scourge of the Skyclaves |
ZNR |
Mythic |
26.01 |
Cavern of Souls |
ZNE |
Mythic |
25.46 |
Bitterblossom |
UBT |
Mythic |
25.28 |
Heavenly Qilin |
PZ2 |
Common |
25.25 |
Creeping Tar Pit |
UBT |
Mythic |
25.19 |
Field of the Dead |
M20 |
Rare |
25.01 |
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 $26,457. Last week it was $25,957. Still a small gain of $500, and I expect some losses after the first of the year due to Kaldheim coming out.
I did some webcam commander on Sunday and just had a wonderful time playing Magic for myself. Tried to stream some on Wednesday, but each time I started my nephew called to play video games with me. I love Magic, I really do, but I love my nephew more, so playing Fortnite was the thing to do. I don't have my son on Christmas this year, which is a bummer, but I'll have him soon after for a week. I'll write State of the Program and have it out on Christmas day, but I will not be writing one for the next week.
This series is an ongoing tribute to Erik “Hamtastic” Friborg.