Pioneer Bans: Oko, Thief of Crowns and Nexus of Fate joined the format's banned list on Monday. This is the final ban announcement for 2019, and the next Pioneer one will be January 6th of next year. You can read about reasonings here.
Other Format Bans: No changes to any formats. Ban list announcements have been banned. What changes here is instead of setting a date for a ban list update, they will not. They expect changes around the same time frames, and will be on a Monday, but this allows Wizards more flexibility to make changes if need be. Read the reasoning here.
Theros Previews: If you're looking for where the sweet previews are gonna be, check out here. For the card image gallery, go here. The Booster Fun gallery is here.
Production Error for Buy a Box Promos: The foil lands packaged with the Athreos, Shroud-Veiled are accidentally non-foil. They are making more, and shipping them to stores. WotC suggests checking with the store to see how that will be handled. Full info is here!
Challenger Decks: Back with a brand new invention, Challenger decks are precons meant for tournament play. Releasing in April of 2020, they will contain Theros cards. Will the release of seemingly endless products for Magic ever stop? Yo, I don't know, but with challenger decks, you should be able to take tournaments to the extreme and rock your deck like a vandal, light up the stage and wax a chump like a candle.
Last State of the Program for 2019: I am going on "vacation" No, I am not actually leaving, but I am not writing anything, not a personal blog, not a food review, not a game review or strategy article. I get my son for ten days this year, and he leaves on the Fourth of next year. As much as I would like to say I would have the time to write about the news, or do prices, I really just want to spend time with him. Expect State of the Program back on the tenth.
The Timeline
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 15, 2020
Constructed Leagues End
January 15, 2020
Sealed Leagues End
January 16, 2020
Next B&R Announcement
December 16, 2019
Throne of Eldraine Redemption
Ends March 11, 2021
Theros: Beyond Death
January 24, 2020
Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
April 24, 2020
Core Set 2021
Zendikar Rising
Third Quarter 2020
Fourth Quarter 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:
Saturday - Limited MOCS Open
Sunday - Limited PTQ Finals
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:
This list is a list of my ten favorite cards of the year.
Hydroid Krasis: Yeah it's a powerful card with a powerful cast trigger. It helps to stabilize the board and gives you cards, life and a must answer flying threat.
Electrodominance: I love doing cool things, and Electrodominance, killing a thing and then casting a spell for free is amazing. Paired with the Time Spiral free spells it's just absurd. I've cast Restore Balance, Ancestral Vision and Living End with this, just taking over the game each time. I actually haven't gotten to cast Crashing Footfalls with it yet, but I sure do like the idea.
Ashiok, Dream Render: Great against the Scapeshift decks that popped up after Field of the Dead was printed, this walker does one of my most favorite things, mill cards. It also fills your graveyard up while exiling your opponent's, you know, if you're in to that kind of thing.
Causalities of War: I love a versatile spell that can kill lands. It may cost six mana, but goodness, it sure does do a lot with that mana. It's not quite Wildfire but getting to blowup your opponent's best stuff is really swell.
Crashing Footfalls: I haven't actually cast this card yet, like I said earlier. I do however really enjoy that the cycle of free stuff is back to being complete after Hypergenesis was rightfully banned in Modern.
Llanowar Tribe: Why this card? Simple, it made, to me, one of the most amazing spoilers of the year. Dana Fischer and MTG: Young Mage teamed up to create this masterpiece. The card itself is just three Llanowar Elves put together, and isn't super exciting, but watching the joy from Dana preview this card was incredible. For Magic, the future is in the children, and there are some pretty good hands here.
Rest in Peace: Yes, Rest in Peace is a reprint, no, I do not care. When Gideon's spellbook was released this year, in June, I was having an incredibly hard time with therapy. Progress had been slow, I had hit a plateau, and to be honest, it's still something I am struggling with. However, I kept pushing myself, chipping away, and eventually, I broke. I had to take time off of therapy, I was overwhelmed and couldn't do it, it wasn't working, I was wasting money, and it was time to give up. I got my shipment of these right before my final appointment was supposed to happen, I was going to quit. I opened up a playset of the spellbook, and to see if I got sweet foils, and a small piece of cardboard with a quote from a fictional character was on it.
"When the fight seems hopeless, fight harder."
That little piece of cardboard was pinned up on my wall, and I see it every day, before I sit down for work, before I go outside of exposure therapy, when I'm feeling at my highest and lowest. It is kinda silly I know, but to see something I identify with motivate me and give me hope, even if it didn't end super well for Gideon. He deserved better, much like Dack Fayden.
Cavalier of Flame: The win condition of choice for Fires of Invention decks draws cards when it comes in to play and deals damage when it leaves. Most importantly when it comes in to play it pumps your team and gives them haste, which in the Jeskai Fires is a nice way to deal a ton of damage quickly.
Repeated Reverberation: I cannot tell you how many hours of my life I have spent trying to get this card to work with Fires of Invention and stuff like Demolish. When it works, and you destroy three lands for free, it's just the bee's knees. When it doesn't do that, it's copying loyalty abilities and getting more value than Great Value.
Fae of Wishes: I love a good wishboard, and with it's ability, it's super cheap to reuse.
Cutting Edge Tech
The theme this week is whatever my favorite deck was in the format this year. So for Standard, it may not be current Standard, there might be some banned cards mentioned in other formats, just trying to review the year.
Standard: I've played some version of this deck nearly all year long. It's not great, but it's a lot of fun for me.
Modern: Electrodominance makes a showing here. This deck has a lot of stuff going on here, and takes full advantage of the suspend mechanic. It's also not great, but a ton of fun. That may be an issue I have to look in to as per why I am not winning a lot of matches this year.
Pauper: I have fond memories of Tireless Tribe from it's days of combo card in the Extended format. To see it have a home in Pauper is awfully nice for me.
Pioneer: Again, another deck that is fun, but not great. One of the first things I did when Pioneer was announced was look at Cat Pact decks, and this one has a great game for you if you don't find Harmless Offering, in that you can get rid of the Demonic Pact that might kill you with so many things in it!
The Winner's Circle is where I will recognize winners of the past events on MTGO.
Sealed MOCS - Flingg won this limited event.
Vintage Challenge - IdraftTheBeatz won with Esper.
Standard Challenge - Andy_Peters won with Jeskai Fires.
Pioneer Challenge - Mzfroste won with Izzet Phoenix.
Pauper Challenge - WhiTe TsaR won with Boros Monarch.
Modern Challenge - stainerson won with Titan Shift.
Legacy Challenge - JHK won with Elves.
Around the Web
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!
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 a decade and a half now, and have never been overcharged or disappointed.
Standard Staples: We have some old favorites back on the list this week as it is appears at least the Jeskai Fires and Simic Ramp are the most played Standard decks right now, and that's just basing them off of the Cavalier choices from Core Set 2020!
Modern Staples: Modern prices are still weird, but the format is still a lot of fun. Fetchlands seem to be dropping, and that's okay, but I sure would like to see the format without them. Pioneer has just been fantastic without them.
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
Guilds of Ravnica
$72.74
$69.19
$3.55
5%
Ravnica Allegiances
$87.99
$88.64
($0.65)
-1%
Treasure Chest
$2.16
$2.30
($0.14)
-6%
War of the Spark
$194.34
$196.21
($1.87)
-1%
Throne of Eldraine Booster
$2.62
$2.91
($0.29)
-10%
Core Set 2020
$211.06
$189.04
$22.02
12%
Modern Horizons
$253.87
$243.50
$10.37
4%
Throne of Eldraine
$172.87
$181.13
($8.26)
-5%
The Good Stuff
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
189.95
Mox Sapphire
1E
Rare
117.69
Mox Emerald
1E
Rare
82.55
Karn Liberated
UBT
Mythic
78.65
Mox Jet
1E
Rare
77.04
Ancestral Recall
1E
Rare
68.28
Mox Ruby
1E
Rare
67.03
Teferi, Time Raveler
WAR
Rare
59.57
Mox Pearl
1E
Rare
56.86
Liliana of the Veil
UBT
Mythic
53.29
Force of Negation
MH1
Rare
52.85
Time Walk
1E
Rare
51.03
Timetwister
1E
Rare
47.08
Dark Depths
V16
Mythic
44.34
Dark Depths
UBT
Mythic
42.08
Snapcaster Mage
UBT
Mythic
41.35
Noble Hierarch
UBT
Mythic
40.75
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
MS4
Mythic
40.12
Unmask
V16
Mythic
38.47
Wrenn and Six
MH1
Mythic
37.36
Oko, Thief of Crowns
ELD
Mythic
37.33
Liliana, the Last Hope
MS4
Mythic
34.22
Brazen Borrower
ELD
Mythic
32.5
Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord
M20
Mythic
30.57
Thoughtseize
IMA
Rare
28.25
Celestial Colonnade
UBT
Mythic
26.95
Dark Depths
UMA
Mythic
26.84
Karn, the Great Creator
WAR
Rare
26.28
Tarmogoyf
UBT
Mythic
26.08
Cavern of Souls
UBT
Mythic
26.02
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
MS4
Mythic
25.7
Chandra, Awakened Inferno
M20
Mythic
25.26
Mox Opal
SOM
Mythic
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 $18,550. Last week it was $18,505. Got a nice 45 dollar increase.
In Closing
I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, and enjoy the New Year in safety and in good health. As for me, I am going to do so many great things with Cassius while he is here, so thanks for understanding why I am going on break, and keep slinging spells! Prices were done on Friday morning!
This series is an ongoing tribute to Erik “Hamtastic” Friborg.