State of the Program for February 5th, 2021
Black is Magic: WotC had a lot of words on Thursday for the newest Secret Lair, Black is Magic. Most of those words were written by Jontelle Leyson-Smith, the first director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Wizards of the Coast. The Secret Lair is presented by game designer Sydney Adams, (Credits include Throne of Eldraine, Theros Beyond Death, Ikoria: Liar of Behemoths, Core Set 2021, and Zendikar Rising) and is benefitting Black Girls CODE. The set goes on sale February 22nd, 2021, and so far includes new art cards for Ponder and Shalai, Voice of Plenty. You can read the introduction to Black is Magic here. You can read the design article here, and the product details here. The cards in the set will trickle out through the rest of the month.
Saturday Super Qualifier: Kaldheim sealed is the format this weekend.
Magic Online Champions Showcase: March 13th and 14th show off the last two 2020 events of the Champions Showcase. Both of them are Vintage Cube and Modern. The feature a $70,000 prize pool.
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:
This changed this week, make sure to keep that in mind when looking at the schedule. I put the changes in bold.
February 3 - 10 - Triple Khans Flashback
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: I tried to feature decks using Kaldheim cards. It was a lot easier to do that for Standard than it was any other format!
Historic: A version of this is also floating around in
Standard.
Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider may have been the thing to finally break
Emergent Ultimatum. From my understanding of the deck, you cast the Ultimatum and grab
Garruk, Unleashed, Vorinclex and
Alrund's Epiphany. If they give you the Garruk and the Vorinclex, you resolve the monster first and the Planeswalker second, that way you can fire off the ultimate and start bringing out creatures as soon as possible. You may also just get three different Planeswalkers if you have Vorinclex in play already, as you can cast the Tibalt side of Valki and all three of these emblems are incredible. This seems like a very poor explanation, but I was only able to get the gist of it, because I can't speak French. This deck also apparently comes from the same mind as the Izzet combo deck featuring
The Locust God and
Sage of the Falls.
Elorim is appearing to be a most follow on Twitter!
Legacy:
Reidane, God of the Worthy is the only addition here, the snow land hate is incidental, but the tax text for noncreature spells your opponents cast is very important. Making spells that cost four or more cost two more is a huge play!
Modern: This
Thing in the Ice deck benefits from
Behold the Multiverse costing four, but spread out over two turns.
Pauper:
Ice Tunnel and
Behold the Multiverse are both great pickups for the deck here. Snow decks are sure to bet a bit more powerful thanks to the snow duals.
Skred is of course, still great, and only going to get better, even if we're not looking at an Izzet deck right now.
Pioneer:
The Raven's Warning is a fantastic addition to the deck, and
Eskia's Chariot not only gives us more things to play
Transmogrify with but also gives the deck another way to win, thanks to it's attack and copying tokens.
Vintage: There were no cards from Kaldheim that I saw in Vintage decks this week, but I did want to send out a signal that Rick, Steadfast Leader is hanging out in the format.
The Winner's Circle is where I will recognize winners of the past events on MTGO.
Good weekend for nathansteuer!
Challenge Winners
Saturday Legacy - MaxMagicer - OmniShow
Saturday Modern - ReturnToDust - Bant Field
Saturday Pauper - c_is_for_cookie - Elves
Saturday Pioneer - claudioh - Niv to Light
Saturday Standard - Mogged - Mono Green Aggro
Saturday Vintage - nathansteuer
Sunday Legacy - Kazuga - Temur Delver
Sunday Modern - B1gDan - Jund Shadow
Sunday Pauper - Boin - Boros Monarch
Sunday Pioneer - kanister - Niv to Light
Sunday Standard - nathansteuer - Izzet Control
Sunday Vintage - Beenew
Other Event Winners
Modern Champ Qualifier - Shadowz2005 - 4 Color Uro Pile
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: After not doing Kaldheim prices last week because frankly most everything is overpriced and the prices are quickly out of date on new set releases, we get to the three cards that are on the list now.
Valki, God of Lies makes an impressive debut here.
Modern Staples:
Engineered Explosives is off the list after a short time on it.
Eternal Staples:
Pioneer Staples:
Mana Confluence is back on the list, which is surprising to me, because I figured the Pathways would have made this card a lot less needed in the format. We might be a couple of sets worth of rare lands for that to happen though.
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!
It looks like Standard sets this week took a huge hit. I'm hoping that I messed this up, because I don't remember a loss like this, though it is easily explained by people getting rid of Standard stuff to buy new stuff. Looking at the Standard table itself doesn't bring much hope for Joshua was bad at this this week.
Complete Set |
Price |
Last Week |
Change |
% Change |
Core Set 2021 |
$70.69 |
$99.43 |
($28.74) |
-29% |
Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths |
$57.54 |
$74.07 |
($16.53) |
-22% |
Kaldheim |
$156.45 |
|
|
|
Kaldheim Booster |
$3.26 |
|
|
|
Theros Beyond Death |
$144.55 |
$170.34 |
($25.79) |
-15% |
Throne of Eldraine |
$126.80 |
$149.69 |
($22.89) |
-15% |
Treasure Chest |
$2.45 |
$2.30 |
$0.15 |
7% |
Zendikar Rising |
$133.95 |
$133.67 |
$0.28 |
0% |
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 |
$188.05 |
Snapcaster Mage |
UBT |
Mythic |
$101.69 |
Mox Jet |
1E |
Rare |
$83.58 |
Valki, God of Lies |
KHM |
Mythic |
$82.61 |
Karakas |
UBT |
Mythic |
$82.30 |
Force of Negation |
MH1 |
Rare |
$81.55 |
Ancestral Recall |
1E |
Rare |
$79.65 |
Cavern of Souls |
UBT |
Mythic |
$77.68 |
Liliana of the Veil |
UBT |
Mythic |
$74.73 |
Time Walk |
1E |
Rare |
$74.54 |
Hullbreacher |
CMR |
Rare |
$73.52 |
Mox Emerald |
1E |
Rare |
$70.01 |
Force of Will |
MED |
Rare |
$64.88 |
Wrenn and Six |
MH1 |
Mythic |
$64.29 |
Mox Sapphire |
1E |
Rare |
$64.25 |
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath |
THB |
Mythic |
$61.23 |
The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale |
ME3 |
Rare |
$58.55 |
Karn Liberated |
UBT |
Mythic |
$50.41 |
Dark Depths |
UBT |
Mythic |
$49.31 |
Mox Pearl |
1E |
Rare |
$47.67 |
Noble Hierarch |
UBT |
Mythic |
$46.88 |
Jace, the Mind Sculptor |
MS4 |
Mythic |
$46.85 |
Mox Ruby |
1E |
Rare |
$46.51 |
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow |
PZ2 |
Rare |
$45.65 |
Seasoned Pyromancer |
MH1 |
Mythic |
$43.49 |
Platinum Emperion |
UBT |
Mythic |
$42.17 |
Force of Will |
2XM |
Mythic |
$41.52 |
Wasteland |
TE |
Uncommon |
$40.92 |
Timetwister |
1E |
Rare |
$40.02 |
Demonic Tutor |
UBT |
Mythic |
$38.79 |
Lord Windgrace |
PZ2 |
Mythic |
$38.48 |
Force of Will |
MS3 |
Mythic |
$38.38 |
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth |
UBT |
Mythic |
$37.34 |
Purple-Crystal Crab |
PZ2 |
Common |
$36.72 |
Wasteland |
EXP |
Mythic |
$36.63 |
Liliana, the Last Hope |
MS4 |
Mythic |
$35.47 |
Force of Will |
EMA |
Mythic |
$35.42 |
Force of Will |
VMA |
Rare |
$34.89 |
Wasteland |
TPR |
Rare |
$34.17 |
Teferi, Time Raveler |
WAR |
Rare |
$34.11 |
Wasteland |
ZNE |
Mythic |
$33.06 |
Dockside Extortionist |
C19 |
Rare |
$33.03 |
Celestial Colonnade |
UBT |
Mythic |
$32.42 |
Mindbreak Trap |
ZEN |
Mythic |
$30.46 |
Scourge of the Skyclaves |
ZNR |
Mythic |
$30.35 |
Karn, the Great Creator |
WAR |
Rare |
$29.99 |
Heavenly Qilin |
PZ2 |
Common |
$29.74 |
Wasteland |
EMA |
Rare |
$29.27 |
Allosaurus Shepherd |
JMP |
Mythic |
$28.29 |
Carpet of Flowers |
UZ |
Uncommon |
$28.17 |
Gaea's Cradle |
UZ |
Rare |
$27.85 |
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria |
MS4 |
Mythic |
$26.41 |
Creeping Tar Pit |
UBT |
Mythic |
$25.70 |
Life from the Loam |
UBT |
Mythic |
$25.33 |
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 $25,535. Last time it was $26,750. Just lopping of $1,215 in a week doesn't seem great. Standard of course suffered heavy, but I can't see that being where the most loss were.
I played a game of Magic that had me feel like writing about it this week.
That game, that matchup, post board, Izzet Snow Control against Rakdos Aggro was the kind of game that makes me just hate Magic, the kind of game that makes me think of all the money I have put on to Arena or MTGO or even paper and come to regrets about a life poorly lived and dedicated to a game that can crush you without caring about you.
I go from overwhelming favorite to win the game, presenting lethal in the air, to having no hope at all in less than 30 seconds. My opponent's saga finishes, it brings back the new nighthawk (Nighthawk Scavenger), they drew (Mire TritonTHB). The Mire Triton let Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger escape.
I'm looking at the win percentage bar in my head. From 99.9% to less than whatever percent it was for me to draw the perfect card. The perfect card this time being a piece of removal for the nighthawk, to clear the blocker.
The perfect card wasn't a land. That's for sure, and that's what I drew. I wasn't completely gone though. I had blockers and a shark token that would survive Kroxa.
The token did not surive as Hagra Mauling came off the top for them and now their win bar was firmly at 100%. The life gain, the 6/6 beater, and soon enough Saheeli Rei has a smug smile on underneath a defeat banner.
I love Magic.
This series is an ongoing tribute to Erik “Hamtastic” Friborg.