State of the Program for December 4th, 2020
Secret Lair Anniversary: Cyber Monday kicked off a new round of Secret Lair products. Dubbed Secretversary, there are five new drops from the program.
A Box of Rocks gives you new art for Arcane Signet
, Chromatic Lantern
, Commander's Sphere
, Darksteel Ingot
and Gilded Lotus
in addition to a single use code for copies of each on MTGO. This comes in foil and non-foil.
Artist Series: Seb McKinnon is to me, the most ideal use for Secret Lairs, allowing an artist to pick some cards and create for them. Featuring a poem by Liam McKinnon, the alternate cards for Damnation
, Enchanted Evening
, Sower of Temptation
and Swamp
tell a story and highlight why Seb is a beloved artist in the game. This drop is also foil or non-foil, comes with a sleeve code for Arena and a code for MTGO.
Happy Little Gathering features ten basic lands with art from Bob Ross. Foil and non-foil, it also includes a code for 5 of the basic lands on Arena, and all ten on MTGO.
Party Hard, Shred Harder is my second ideal use for Secret Lairs. Announced by renowned Italian metal band Lacuna Coil, these cards don't look like Magic cards at all, but rather, concert posters. You get new art for Anguished Unmaking
, Assassin's Trophy, Decimate
, Dreadbore
, and Thraximundar
. You get an MTGO code for these as well. It is available in non-foil.
We Hope You Like Squirrels is the final drop of the sale. It's only in foil, and it's all about Squirrels. Chatter of the Squirrel
, Krosan Beast
, Squirrel Mob
, Squirrel Wrangler
, Swarmyard
and a Squirrel token are the featured cards in this one. You also get a code for an Arena sleeve, and an MTGO code for the cards as well.
There are bundles for this as well, one for all the non-foil offerings, one that is all the foil ones, and a third that is bundle of the previous two.
Bob Ross Land Codes: If you noticed in the previous section I talked about the Bob Ross drop only giving five lands on Arena (well that and apparently an alternate art Evolving Wilds
). The case sensitive codes for the other lands have been released for Arena, and they are good until December 14th. DelightfulMeadow, IslandWilderness, TreeFriend, HappySwamp, and MoveMountains are the codes you need.
Modern Super Qualifier: Friday, December 4th is the next super qualifier on MTGO.
Showcase Challenge Weekend: Saturday December 5th will highlight Standard, Modern and Vintage. Sunday, December 6th will show off Pioneer, Legavy and Zendikar Rising sealed. Format challenges for these formats will of course, be pre-empted.
2021 MOCS Season 1: This started on Wednesday, there are also changes to Prelim events on MTGO. The number of rounds is down to 4 from 5. Minimum players is down from 16 to 12. Prizes are also changed. 4 wins gets 600 Play Points, 40 QP and 5 Treasure Chests. 3 wins gets 300 Play Points, 20 QP and 3 Treasure Chests. 2 wins get 150 Play Points, 10 QP and 1 Treasure Chest. Entry fee remains the same.
You can read the rest of the Magic Online announcements here.
Magic Online Champions Showcase: The new MOCS was last weekend, featuring eight players, this two format event features the winners of each pod facing off in the finals, unless one player wins both of the 8 person pods. There is no finals then. Kazuya Takuwa won the Zendikar Rising draft pod, lost all of their Modern rounds and faced off against Francesco Giresi in the finals. Takuwa won the final series, with Modern decks 2-1, and took home $20,000 for the weekend.
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, 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 2 - December 9: Chaos Draft: Masters
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: It is weird to me, to see a linear aggro deck that isn't running green for the adventure card advantage engine, but this deck, packing five pieces of equipment does just that, trading out
Edgewall Innkeeper
for
Ox of Agonas
. You also have a nice little combo with
Robber of the Rich
and
Seasoned Hallowblade
.
Historic: This deck went 6-0 recently, and after playing it, I am not sure how it did it. To me, it is to mixed up in what it wants to do. Is it Enchantress? Is it Auras? It's taking up both lanes from what I recall about it.
Legacy: It was only a matter of time that Legacy would see an uptick in Oops! All Spells! It has been doing well enough in Modern and Pioneer, so I am not surprised at all.
Modern: This list won two Challenges over the weekend, and a list that ran one more land won the new MOCS. It's worth keeping an eye on for sure.
Pauper:
Fall from Favor
is a nearly 4 dollar common that makes it almost impossible to get back in to the game. I don't imagine that it will be a part of Pauper for long, but then again, I thought Tron would have left a long time ago. Just let me cast
Nivix Cyclops
again please!
Pioneer: It's like the Standard deck but with more explosive options!
Vintage:
The Winner's Circle is where I will recognize winners of the past events on MTGO.
It appears that Tweedel and Hamuda both had incredibly good weekends.
Challenge Winners
Saturday Legacy - into_play - Golgari Depths
Saturday Modern - Tweedel - Mono Red Obosh Prowess
Saturday Pauper - Hamuda - Jeskai Atog
Saturday Pioneer - gottelicious - Irencrag Red
Saturday Standard - _Spata_ - Gruul Adventures
Saturday Vintage - thedeck84
Sunday Legacy - John1111 - Urza Echo
Sunday Modern - Tweedel - Mono Red Obosh Prowess
Sunday Pauper - Hamuda - Jeskai Atog
Sunday Pioneer - Showtime_ - Mono Red Prowess
Sunday Standard - kvza - Dimir Control
Sunday Vintage - discoverN
Other Event Winners
Sealed Champ Qualifier
Pioneer Champ Qualifier - jay44bab - Oops All Spells
MTGOTraders YouTube: Did you know that MTGOTraders.com has a YouTube page? Well if not, now you do, and you can find it here!
I am consuming less Magic content, because let's face it, after spending 40 to 60 hours a week writing, working with writers and getting the sites ready the last thing I want to do is read more Magic stuff, so when I do read something it's always a thing that I think is impressive as heck. I also do not get worked up about MTG finance, Cassie Labelle however is one of the best finance writers for Magic right now, and when she writes about something I always find it captivating. Looking at the prices of cards after bans? What a neat idea! You can check it out on tcgplayer.
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: Nothing huge going on in Standard right now. The format still feels really healthy.
Modern Staples:
Steelshaper's Gift
is back over $5. Well it's actually closer to $11. It's not on the list this week because this is surely driven by Commander right? It's seeing play in two decks on MTGGoldfish, so I am assuming it is thanks to Commander Legends. A couple of New Phyrexian cards came back to the list as well.
Boil
is over 7 dollars now, and that, I reckon is good sideboard tech.
Eternal Staples:
Dark Depths
is back on the list.
Sphere of Resistance
has also came back to the list. I added
Echo of Eons
to the list as well, as it seems like it is a Legacy playable more than a Modern one.
Paradigm Shift
is something I am going to keep an eye on, as I am not sure if it is a Legacy playable or not.
Pioneer Staples: Pioneer also seems like it is really fine right now.
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 |
$129.46 |
$139.66 |
($10.20) |
-7% |
Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths |
$72.51 |
$74.22 |
($1.71) |
-2% |
Theros Beyond Death |
$160.47 |
$157.01 |
$3.46 |
2% |
Throne of Eldraine |
$140.00 |
$141.96 |
($1.96) |
-1% |
Treasure Chest |
$2.35 |
$2.40 |
($0.05) |
-2% |
Zendikar Rising |
$137.50 |
$139.26 |
($1.76) |
-1% |
Zendikar Rising Booster Pack |
$3.27 |
$3.23 |
$0.04 |
1% |
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 |
149.25 |
Snapcaster Mage |
UBT |
Mythic |
101.48 |
Force of Negation |
MH1 |
Rare |
81.07 |
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath |
THB |
Mythic |
76.83 |
Liliana of the Veil |
UBT |
Mythic |
76.51 |
Ancestral Recall |
1E |
Rare |
74.94 |
Mox Jet |
1E |
Rare |
74.61 |
Wrenn and Six |
MH1 |
Mythic |
74.09 |
Karakas |
UBT |
Mythic |
73.85 |
Cavern of Souls |
UBT |
Mythic |
66.18 |
Time Walk |
1E |
Rare |
62.07 |
Mox Emerald |
1E |
Rare |
62.02 |
Allosaurus Shepherd |
JMP |
Mythic |
55.82 |
Hullbreacher |
CMR |
Rare |
54.48 |
Noble Hierarch |
UBT |
Mythic |
52.93 |
Dark Depths |
UBT |
Mythic |
52.25 |
Karn Liberated |
UBT |
Mythic |
52.12 |
Force of Will |
MED |
Rare |
45.66 |
Seasoned Pyromancer |
MH1 |
Mythic |
45.31 |
Wasteland |
TE |
Uncommon |
43.12 |
Mox Sapphire |
1E |
Rare |
42.89 |
Jace, the Mind Sculptor |
MS4 |
Mythic |
42.82 |
Mox Pearl |
1E |
Rare |
42.42 |
The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale |
ME3 |
Rare |
41.27 |
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow |
PZ2 |
Rare |
39.14 |
Lord Windgrace |
PZ2 |
Mythic |
38.29 |
Timetwister |
1E |
Rare |
37.98 |
Mox Ruby |
1E |
Rare |
37.95 |
Teferi, Time Raveler |
WAR |
Rare |
37.6 |
Force of Will |
MS3 |
Mythic |
36.99 |
Dockside Extortionist |
C19 |
Rare |
36.89 |
Karn, the Great Creator |
WAR |
Rare |
36.78 |
Cavern of Souls |
ZNE |
Mythic |
35.49 |
Liliana, the Last Hope |
MS4 |
Mythic |
35.48 |
Force of Will |
VMA |
Rare |
35.34 |
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth |
UBT |
Mythic |
35.18 |
Elder Gargaroth |
M21 |
Mythic |
34.88 |
Force of Will |
EMA |
Mythic |
33.34 |
Demonic Tutor |
UBT |
Mythic |
32.76 |
Platinum Emperion |
UBT |
Mythic |
32.76 |
Wasteland |
TPR |
Rare |
32.46 |
Force of Will |
2XM |
Mythic |
31.91 |
Wasteland |
ZNE |
Mythic |
31.43 |
Purple-Crystal Crab |
PZ2 |
Common |
31.36 |
Opposition Agent |
CMR |
Rare |
31.31 |
Celestial Colonnade |
UBT |
Mythic |
31.08 |
Life from the Loam |
UBT |
Mythic |
30.51 |
Wasteland |
EXP |
Mythic |
29.77 |
Carpet of Flowers |
UZ |
Uncommon |
29.28 |
Scourge of the Skyclaves |
ZNR |
Mythic |
29.22 |
Wasteland |
EMA |
Rare |
28.96 |
Gaea's Cradle |
UZ |
Rare |
28.57 |
Auriok Champion |
IMA |
Rare |
27.68 |
Jeweled Lotus |
CMR |
Mythic |
26.85 |
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria |
MS4 |
Mythic |
26.41 |
Submerge |
NE |
Uncommon |
25.69 |
Bitterblossom |
UBT |
Mythic |
25.28 |
Heavenly Qilin |
PZ2 |
Common |
25.25 |
Creeping Tar Pit |
UBT |
Mythic |
25.19 |
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 $25,630. Last week, even though I took the week off, Pete did the big number and it was $25,063. That is an increase of $567. It's also the same last three numbers but in a different order!
Neat.
Spent a reasonable amount of time playing CommandFest over the weekend. It was a blast, and I was mostly symptom free during the bulk of it. I know webcam games are not the same as in person games but it was a small step. The next season of Fortnite started as well, so I have been doing work on the battlepass for my son. I streamed the end of season event for him to watch, and we all had a blast with it.
This series is an ongoing tribute to Erik “Hamtastic” Friborg.