State of the Program for February 12th, 2021
Live the Dream Cube: It's back, and it has some changes. You can check out the article detailing those and the archetypes here!
Qualifier Weekend: Friday, Saturday and Sunday we see three new qualifiers for the Kaldheim Champion on MTGA. You can try to qualify for this event playing Limited, Legacy or Modern this weekend. You can read more about it here.
Smitten Super Drop: To celebrate Valentine's Day (What time is it? It's Valentimes!) Wizards of the Coast is not giving us several boys, but instead several Secret Lair drops! They come in a mix of foil and non foil. The first one is Faerie Faerie Faerie Rad, which comes in foil only, and features Spellstutter Sprite, Mistbind Clique, Glen Elendra Archmage and Vendilion Clique. The Unfathomable crushing Brutality of Basic Lands features yes you guessed it, 1 on of each basic land, in either foil or non-foil. Valentine's Day 2021 features both foil and non-foil offerings of Heliod, Sun-Crowned, Boros Charm, Goblin Rabblemaster, Monastery Swiftspear and Gisela, Blade of Goldnight. You also get a goblin token with it. The Kaldheim Showcase frames are also being showed off on some old favorites as well. Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, Frost Titan and Primeval Titan are in one drop, while Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger, Grave Titan and Inferno Titan are in the second. Both are in foil or not. You can also buy them all as one bundle. For pricing and pictures, go here.
Banned Changes: It's not offical yet, but in the Secret Lair article, it is mentioned that Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath is going to be banned in Historic, Modern and Pioneer. They have not made any decision in it's status for Legacy. Expect the full announcement later on the 15th.
Arena Open: It's limited and it's on the 20th and 21st of this month! Here are the details.
Black is Magic Secret Lair: The next three cards in the Secret Lair were previewed recently. Joining Ponder and Shalai, Voice of Plenty is Cultivate, Kaya, Ghost Assassin and Teferi, Hero of Dominaria. We will see the rest of the cards next week, on the 16th. You can read the Designing article here, and the product details here.
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
|
February 24, 2021 |
Constructed Leagues End
|
April 14, 2021
|
Sealed Leagues End
|
April 15, 2021 |
Next B&R
|
Unknown
|
Zendikar Rising Redemption
|
Ends April 7th, 2021
|
Kaldheim Redemption
|
Begins February 24, 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:
February 10 - 17 - David McDarby's Live the Dream Cube
February 17 - 24 - Modern Horizons Encore Draft. You keep the cards you draft!
February 24 - March 3 - Ultimate Masters Flashback
March 3 - March 24 - Vintage Cube
March 24 - March 31 - Time Spiral Remasted Supreme Draft
March 31 - April 7 - New Spotlight Cube
April 7 - April 14 - Another new Spotlight Cube
Magic Online Format Challenges
These are high stakes events that happen every weekend. They cost 30 Tix / 300 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: Willy Edel coming through with a sweet looking Standard deck in the format now. You can almost be assured that he will have something that attacks the field early in the season. Of course, a Hall of Famer should do that!
Historic:
Smothering Tithe in a format that isn't Commander? Sign me right up to play that!
Legacy: I'm not entirely sure but the interaction with double faced cards and Cascade is a thing that should be looked it. If I can't cast the Bust side of Boom // Bust, they shouldn't be able to cast the flip side of Valki. The fix seems easy, and it seems to help out the formats that this deck is harming.
Modern: Again, justice for Boom // Bust.
Pauper: Some of these decks use mand destruction, this one seems to be more focused on value from cards that can be cascaded in to.
Pioneer: I wonder how this bans are going to effect Pioneer. Looking forward to the format!
Vintage: Oath always seems like one of those super fun decks.
The Winner's Circle is where I will recognize winners of the past events on MTGO.
Challenge Winners
Saturday Legacy - Ark4n - Tibalt Cascade but with CounterMagic
Saturday Modern - SmokinBacon27 - Tibalt Cascade
Saturday Pauper - dragon7k - Dimir Control
Saturday Pioneer - _Batutinha_ - Boros Prowess
Saturday Standard - Sapoa - Rakdos Aggro
Saturday Vintage - KelMasterP
Sunday Legacy - Gul_Dukat - Temur Delver
Sunday Modern - Do0mSwitch - Tibalt Cascade
Sunday Pauper - aarong - Gruul Cascade
Sunday Pioneer - Gozzito - Oops! All Spells
Sunday Standard - Paskardi - Boros Aggro
Sunday Vintage - Kenzaburo
Other Event Winners
Sealed Kaldheim Block Qualifier - NightShadowJ and ShawnDanger
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:
General Kudro of Drannith has fallen off the list.
Teferi, Master of Time is gone,
Liliana, Waker of the Dead went to go find him.
Modern Staples: Seems like a good time to buy
Cryptic Commands. It came off the list today, probably thanks to the Cascade deck. Seems like that should be fixed as soon as possible.
Collector Ouphe is also gone.
Hexdrinker is also gone.
Gemstone Caverns has jumped on the list.
Eternal Staples:
Echo of Eons is no longer around.
Academy Rector has fallen, and might get up, but that's for a future article.
Pioneer Staples:
Chandra, Awakened Inferno has fallen back to sleep.
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 |
$64.17 |
$70.69 |
($6.52) |
-9% |
Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths |
$52.99 |
$57.54 |
($4.55) |
-8% |
Kaldheim |
$159.20 |
$156.45 |
$2.75 |
2% |
Kaldheim Booster |
$3.37 |
$3.26 |
$0.11 |
3% |
Theros Beyond Death |
$148.55 |
$144.55 |
$4.00 |
3% |
Throne of Eldraine |
$136.60 |
$126.80 |
$9.80 |
8% |
Treasure Chest |
$2.46 |
$2.45 |
$0.01 |
0% |
Zendikar Rising |
$136.77 |
$133.95 |
$2.82 |
2% |
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 |
185.95 |
Snapcaster Mage |
UBT |
Mythic |
101.69 |
Force of Negation |
MH1 |
Rare |
96.63 |
Valki, God of Lies |
KHM |
Mythic |
84.66 |
Karakas |
UBT |
Mythic |
82.3 |
Mox Jet |
1E |
Rare |
79.14 |
Cavern of Souls |
UBT |
Mythic |
77.68 |
Ancestral Recall |
1E |
Rare |
77.33 |
Liliana of the Veil |
UBT |
Mythic |
74.73 |
Time Walk |
1E |
Rare |
70 |
Hullbreacher |
CMR |
Rare |
69.94 |
Mox Emerald |
1E |
Rare |
67.06 |
Mox Sapphire |
1E |
Rare |
65.44 |
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath |
THB |
Mythic |
64.45 |
Force of Will |
MED |
Rare |
61.82 |
Wrenn and Six |
MH1 |
Mythic |
58.37 |
The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale |
ME3 |
Rare |
57.25 |
Karn Liberated |
UBT |
Mythic |
50.41 |
Dark Depths |
UBT |
Mythic |
49.31 |
Noble Hierarch |
UBT |
Mythic |
46.88 |
Jace, the Mind Sculptor |
MS4 |
Mythic |
46.85 |
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow |
PZ2 |
Rare |
46.05 |
Mox Ruby |
1E |
Rare |
42.73 |
Seasoned Pyromancer |
MH1 |
Mythic |
42.12 |
Teferi, Time Raveler |
WAR |
Rare |
42.09 |
Mox Pearl |
1E |
Rare |
41.62 |
Force of Will |
2XM |
Mythic |
40.06 |
Platinum Emperion |
UBT |
Mythic |
39.83 |
Timetwister |
1E |
Rare |
38.93 |
Demonic Tutor |
UBT |
Mythic |
38.79 |
Lord Windgrace |
PZ2 |
Mythic |
38.48 |
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth |
UBT |
Mythic |
38.37 |
Force of Will |
MS3 |
Mythic |
38.14 |
Wasteland |
TE |
Uncommon |
37.71 |
Wasteland |
EXP |
Mythic |
37.36 |
Purple-Crystal Crab |
PZ2 |
Common |
36.72 |
Force of Will |
VMA |
Rare |
35.75 |
Force of Will |
EMA |
Mythic |
35.56 |
Liliana, the Last Hope |
MS4 |
Mythic |
35.47 |
Mindbreak Trap |
ZEN |
Mythic |
34.64 |
Wasteland |
TPR |
Rare |
34.57 |
Celestial Colonnade |
UBT |
Mythic |
32.42 |
Dockside Extortionist |
C19 |
Rare |
31.1 |
Wasteland |
ZNE |
Mythic |
31.09 |
Carpet of Flowers |
UZ |
Uncommon |
30.9 |
Wasteland |
EMA |
Rare |
30.13 |
Scourge of the Skyclaves |
ZNR |
Mythic |
30.01 |
Heavenly Qilin |
PZ2 |
Common |
29.74 |
Brazen Borrower |
ELD |
Mythic |
27.29 |
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria |
MS4 |
Mythic |
26.41 |
Creeping Tar Pit |
UBT |
Mythic |
26.37 |
Leovold, Emissary of Trest |
UBT |
Mythic |
25.57 |
Black Lotus |
VMA |
Bonus |
25.55 |
Life from the Loam |
UBT |
Mythic |
25.33 |
Scalding Tarn |
ZNE |
Mythic |
25.03 |
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 $25,828. Last week the big number was $25,535. Gaining a little less than 500 is just fine by me!
This was writen on Tuesday in advance of an ice storm that was forecast to hit Kentucky over Wednesday and Thursday. I tried to get as much done as I could and have scheduled the site out until this coming up Tuesday. Hopefully we don't lose power and are okay, just needing to thaw out of the ice, but it's pretty rude, I think, for the first major bit of winter weather in my part of Kentucky be ice.
I was able to update things on Wednesday, but it's not looking great so far. You can see ice hanging off of the powerlines.
Thankfully the ice on the powerlines never disrupted power for me, but it did in communities around me. The roads that are heavily traveled around me are clear, but the rural areas are not so much. We're supposed to get more winter weather over the weekend and even more later on next week.
Exciting times in Kentucky!
This series is an ongoing tribute to Erik “Hamtastic” Friborg.