Special Invites for Mythic Championship III:  On June 10th, MagicEsports tweeted out the recipents of the 16 special invitations for Mythic Championship III.  It seems to be a nice mix of Hall of Fame players, Twitch streamers and diversity choices.  A lot of exciting players will be there and taking part in the event, and it's no different for these specially invited players. 

Spoiler Season for Next Core Set Starts:  The fine people at io9 shared with us the first spoilers of Core Set 2020, which start in earnest next week.  It sure looks like Chandra is going to feature heavily in the set, and you can check out the spoilers here. 

Changes with Core Set 20:  The set, according to the Wizards Play Network, a resource for retailers, is going to have better foil odds, going to 1:45 from 1:67.  Not only are foil odds increasing, but bundles are getting an upgrade as well, coming with an all-foil land pack, an alternate art foil and an oversized spindown die.  The Spellslinger Starter Kit has a reduced cost now.  Not sure if the foil odds in packs will come over to MTGO, but I assume that they will for all newly released product.  You can check out these changes and more here.

MOCS Crashes:  Been a while since an event crashed on MTGO, but over the past weekend, the MOCS prelim had issues, was canceled and rescheduled.  Players that were in the canceled event got 3 packs of Modern Horizons and their entry refunded, but it's like no one values the time lost in the event.  It has been rescheduled for July 7th. 

MTGSalvation.com sold, to remain open, loses staff to MTGNexus:  Not to long ago, Curse announced the closure of MTGSalvation and several other sites that they owned.  Plans were put into place for other sites to open, and then they announced that Magic Find had purchased those sites.  According to a post on reddit, most of the staff at MTGSalvation will be leaving for MTGNexus, which is set to open this month.  The same thing happened with HearthPwn and the staff that started a new site from there. Maybe Curse should have sold them first?  Who knows, check the reddit post here, and the staying open post here.  It's forum software Curse, not the keys to anything incredibly important, and now you've split multiple communities in half with your short sighted decision to close and then turn around and sell.

Play Lobby Update:  Because Tumblr is, for some reason, the way to get stuff out about MTGO, Chris Kiritz has a post about the Play Lobby there. 

Modern Horizons hasn't even been officially published yet and we are already getting spoilers for Core Set 2020.  With the exception of March, this year has seen the release of something new for Magic: The Gathering every month.  The first of the year was Ravnica Allegiance, the next month was Guild Kits for the set.  March saw nothing, but April came with new Challenger Decks.  May was War of the Spark, June sees Modern Horizons, July sees the next Core set, and that leads us to the offering of August, Commander 2019.  Wizards of the Coast has not only decided that it wants nearly every dollar from us, but it has nearly created a never-ending hype cycle for new products. 

I for sure understand that not every product is for every player.  Ravnica Allegiance, the Challenger Decks and War of the Spark will appeal to Standard players, limited players and those on a budget looking to expand their collections.  Modern Horizons and the Guild kits will appeal to Modern players, limited players and Commander players, while Commander 2019 will do the same but for Commander players and those that are in to non-rotating formats, depending on the new cards printed. 

Is this good for Magic?  Honestly I am not entirely sure.  I think it's possible that burnout from so many rapidly published things could be a thing to worry about, and it has been good that target audience for each product has been staggered.  I'm not sure a Standard player would want to deal with a new set each month, but if you play other formats as well, suddenly each month can be met with hype and then dread over what it might do to your wallet.  Heck Modern Horizons hasn't come out yet, most players haven't experienced the new set in the new Modern yet, and we're already chugging along towards Chandra: The Gathering.  Can we catch our breath?  Can we be allowed to enjoy the set before the cycle starts up again? I know that bundles need to be sold and such, but give us a small break Wizards, I think you will find that you have a devoted fan base for the game that you make, but going back to the well so many times is eventually going to leave it dry.  

This week, to celebrate the new Modern, and the release of Modern Horizons, I am going to just look at new stuff for the Modern Format.  What good is Cutting Edge Tech without a theme week every once in a while?  Also what better way to celebrate the printing of a new set that is going to shake up Modern!   Also, I am doing quirky decks, so if you are looking for other new Modern decks, I suggest you check out Around the Web this week! 

Temur Snow Tempo:  Digging the look of this deck.  While it's not going to be as powerful as the Legacy version, thanks to a lack of Force of Will, Wasteland and Daze, this deck has some good stuff in it.  Nimble Mongoose is a fun way to win a game, and a hard to deal with creature, Ice-Fang Coatl is a reasonable Baleful Strix.  Skred in a deck that isn't mono red is wild to me.  

Temur Snow Tempo

by spiral prince

4 Nimble Mongoose 4 Tarmogoyf 4 Thought Scour 2 Faithless Looting 3 Blood Moon 1 Stomping Ground 1 Fiery Islet 3 Hooting Mandrills 4 Ice-Fang Coatl 4 Lightning Bolt 2 Mana Leak 4 Misty Rainforest 1 Nimble Obstructionist 4 Prismatic Vista 1 Scalding Tarn 4 Skred	3 Snapcaster Mage 3 Snow-Covered Forest 3 Snow-Covered Island 1 Snow-Covered Mountain 2 Spell Snare 1 Steam Vents 1 Waterlogged Grove	Sideboard: 2 Ancient Grudge 2 Ceremonious Rejection 2 Dismember 3 Flusterstorm 2 Grim Lavamancer 2 Scavenging Ooze 2 Surgical Extraction

Goblins:  Goblins may not be as powerful as their Legacy counterpart, but Goblin Matron is going to try to push them that way!  There were multiple goblin decks to go 5-0, I picked the one that didn't have Cavern of Souls to be a bit budget minded.  Munitions Expert, Pashalik Mons and Sling-Gang Lieutenant are exciting new additions to the deck, and I am a bit surprised to see that Warren Instigator had no place in this build.  I linked the other 5-0 list as well if you are in to that kind of thing. 

Goblins

Tirifolix92

1 Wort, Boggart Auntie 1 Terminate 1 Dreadbore 4 Aether Vial 3 Swamp 4 Auntie's Hovel 4 Blood Crypt 4 Bloodstained Mire 4 Fatal Push 2 Goblin Chieftain 4 Goblin Matron 4 Goblin Warchief 1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker 2 Kolaghan's Command 2 Krenko, Mob Boss 2 Legion Warboss 3 Lightning Bolt	3 Mad Auntie 3 Mountain 2 Munitions Expert 2 Pashalik Mons 2 Polluted Delta 2 Sling-Gang Lieutenant	Sideboard: 1 Abrade 2 Blood Moon 2 Earwig Squad 2 Goblin Cratermaker 2 Goblin Trashmaster 2 Guttural Response 2 Relic of Progenitus 2 Thoughtseize

Snow Control:  Arcum's Astrolabe is a nice bit of tech here, but I am really hyped to see that Dead of Winter might have found a home that is not just some generic mono black Snow-Covered Swamp control deck. 

Snow Control

Freakle

3 Tireless Tracker 3 Fatal Push 1 Unearth 1 Engineered Explosives 1 Liliana, the Last Hope 1 Watery Grave 1 Abrupt Decay 4 Arcum's Astrolabe 3 Assassin's Trophy 1 Breeding Pool 2 Dead of Winter 4 Ice-Fang Coatl 3 Inquisition of Kozilek 2 Liliana of the Veil 2 Misty Rainforest 1 Overgrown Tomb 2 Polluted Delta 4 Prismatic Vista 2 Snapcaster Mage	3 Snow-Covered Forest 1 Snow-Covered Island 4 Snow-Covered Swamp 4 Tarmogoyf 3 Thoughtseize 4 Verdant Catacombs	Sideboard: 1 Vraska, Golgari Queen 3 Ashiok, Dream Render 1 Collective Brutality 2 Damping Sphere 1 Disdainful Stroke 1 Flusterstorm 1 Force of Despair 1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet 1 Nissa, Vital Force 2 Plague Engineer 1 Weather the Storm

Infect:  Scale Up is the brand new toy here, and for one mana you're basically casting a sorcery speed version of Might of Old Krosa (I mean it's not +4/+4, but it's really close to that).  Scale Up does what players hyped about Awakening of Vitu-Ghazi said that it was going to do, but it's actually relevant here. Turning all of your infecting creatures into Craw Wurms for the cost of one is also going to be a wild way to win a game that I haven't seen yet, but am positive will happen!  

Infect

DDMeelow

1 Spellskite 4 Vines of Vastwood 2 Distortion Strike 3 Teferi, Time Raveler 3 Wooded Foothills 4 Blighted Agent 4 Blossoming Defense 2 Breeding Pool 1 Dryad Arbor 2 Forest 4 Glistener Elf 4 Inkmoth Nexus 4 Might of Old Krosa 4 Mutagenic Growth 4 Noble Hierarch 2 Pendelhaven	4 Scale Up 2 Spell Pierce 2 Temple Garden 1 Verdant Catacombs 3 Windswept Heath	Sideboard: 1 Dismember 1 Grafdigger's Cage 3 Kitchen Finks 2 Ravenous Trap 2 Return to Nature 3 Shapers' Sanctuary 1 Spell Pierce 1 Spellskite 1 Surgical Extraction

Martyr Proc:  I dunked on Force of Virtue as being the worst Force out of the cycle.  That was before I saw the Red Force, which is a card that trees died for.  I like Martyr Proc though, so this deck rules! 

Martyr Proc

orim67

4 Squadron Hawk 3 Path to Exile 4 Spectral Procession 3 Windbrisk Heights 4 Ajani's Pridemate 2 Field of Ruin 4 Force of Virtue 3 Martyr of Sands 16 Plains 2 Proclamation of Rebirth 4 Ranger of Eos	4 Serra Ascendant 4 Soul Warden 3 Soul's Attendant	Sideboard: 4 Damping Sphere 2 Disenchant 2 Grafdigger's Cage 1 Ratchet Bomb 4 Rest in Peace 2 Stony Silence

 

The Winner's Circle is where I will recognize winners of the past events on MTGO.

Julian23 won the Legacy Challenge with Elves!  
Soulstrong took a UW Control list to first place in the Modern Challenge.  It was filled with Dredge! 
UR Control was the winner of the Pauper Challenge, played by DenisevichAlexey.
Valorj won the Vintage Challege with Sultai Control.  Or not, I'm not actually sure what more Vintage decks are named! 
 

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! 

Since last time:  Alex Ullman started to go over the best cards from Modern Horizons for Pauper. 

Monday:  The Folks at Monday Night Magic talked about SCGCon, Taipei and new faces at Play Design!

Tuesday:  Michael Flores wrote about the Fun Police! 

Wednesday: Sheldon Menery started to recap his SCG Con experience, but mostly I wanted to say that Sheldon is a daily inspiration that is fighting cancer with both grace and tenacity.  Cancer picked the wrong person this time.

For the competitive scene Frank Karsten wrote about the best way to split Fact or Fiction. 

Thursday:  Adam Yurchick wrote a piece that put a spotlight on Modern, with Modern Horizons results coming off of MTGO.  Check it out 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: God-Eternal Oketra and Dreadhorde Arcanist join the list. Next week, Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and Assassin's Trophy may be coming off the list.

Standard Cards	Price	Last Week	Change	% Change
Arclight Phoenix	$28.69	$33.86	($5.17)	-15%
Assassin's Trophy	$4.42	$6.59	($2.17)	-33%
Teferi, Time Raveler	$17.68	$13.86	$3.82	28%
Hydroid Krasis	$21.58	$25.13	($3.55)	-14%
Kaya, Orzhov Usurper	$22.57	$23.98	($1.41)	-6%
Prime Speaker Vannifer	$8.04	$7.84	$0.20	3%
Seraph of the Scales	$8.32	$8.18	$0.14	2%
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria	$3.67	$7.21	($3.54)	-49%
Firesong and Sunspeaker	$5.13	$5.13	$0.00	0%
Vraska, Golgari Queen	$7.40	$9.45	($2.05)	-22%
Finale of Devastation	$13.30	$7.58	$5.72	75%
God-Eternal Kefnet	$8.32	$9.04	($0.72)	-8%
Karn, the Great Creator	$11.03	$9.74	$1.29	13%
Finale of Promise	$25.17	$19.68	$5.49	28%
Ilharg, the Raze-Boar	$9.32	$10.38	($1.06)	-10%
Aggressive Mammoth	$5.11	$5.11	$0.00	0%
God-Eternal Oketra	$6.37
Dreadhorde Arcanist	$5.40

Eternal staples:  Added new stuff from Modern Horizons to the list!  It is weird seeing Flusterstorm as a Modern legal card.

Eternal Format Cards	Price	Last Week	Change	% Change
Back to Basics	$10.87	$12.29	($1.42)	-12%
Cavern of Souls	$16.73	$17.41	($0.68)	-4%
Chalice of the Void	$16.72	$18.62	($1.90)	-10%
City of Traitors	$29.71	$27.06	$2.65	10%
Daze	$5.10	$4.71	$0.39	8%
Engineered Explosives	$14.82	$18.64	($3.82)	-20%
Ensnaring Bridge	$26.04	$26.74	($0.70)	-3%
Force of Will	$19.79	$19.42	$0.37	2%
Gemstone Mine	$14.04	$13.61	$0.43	3%
Horizon Canopy	$17.76	$25.59	($7.83)	-31%
Jace, the Mind Sculptor	$33.89	$40.07	($6.18)	-15%
Karn Liberated	$16.62	$19.19	($2.57)	-13%
Liliana of the Veil	$29.65	$29.76	($0.11)	0%
Liliana, the Last Hope	$13.67	$14.91	($1.24)	-8%
Auriok Champion	$19.63	$16.87	$2.76	16%
Mox Opal	$30.57	$28.58	$1.99	7%
Scalding Tarn	$14.73	$18.03	($3.30)	-18%
Surgical Extraction	$41.67	$38.60	$3.07	8%
True-Name Nemesis	$49.88	$55.34	($5.46)	-10%
Underground Sea	$6.79	$8.19	($1.40)	-17%
Wasteland	$15.41	$15.86	($0.45)	-3%
Mishra's Bauble	$13.27	$9.40	$3.87	41%
Snapcaster Mage	$12.26	$9.20	$3.06	33%
Trinisphere	$13.01	$15.01	($2.00)	-13%
Mox Diamond	$17.56	$17.45	$0.11	1%
Force of Negation	$28.15
Wrenn and Six	$27.64
Prismatic Vista	$10.36
Giver of Runes	$8.83
Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis	$8.50
Sunbaked Canyon	$7.97
Seasoned Pyromancer	$7.46
Fiery Islet	$6.73
Urza, Lord High Artificer	$6.10
Ranger-Captain of Eos	$6.00
Hexdrinker	$5.22
Flusterstorm	$5.02

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 2019	$90.46	$93.38	($2.92)	-3%
Dominaria	$22.92	$28.94	($6.02)	-21%
Guilds of Ravnica	$85.02	$104.19	($19.17)	-18%
Ixalan	$17.44	$18.14	($0.70)	-4%
Ravnica Allegiances	$119.84	$123.31	($3.47)	-3%
Rivals of Ixalan	$17.50	$18.83	($1.33)	-7%
Treasure Chest	$2.47	$2.49	($0.02)	-1%
War of the Spark Booster	$3.04	$2.82	$0.22	8%
War of the Spark	$151.41	$138.60	$12.81	9%

 

The Good Stuff

The following is a list of all the non-promo, non-foil 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.

Name	Set	Rarity	Price
Black Lotus	1E	Rare	263.34
Mox Sapphire	1E	Rare	142.16
Mox Ruby	1E	Rare	103.64
Mox Emerald	1E	Rare	103.18
Ancestral Recall	1E	Rare	89.87
Mox Jet	1E	Rare	82.05
Mox Pearl	1E	Rare	71.74
Time Walk	1E	Rare	66.91
Lord Windgrace	PZ2	Mythic	61.76
Karn Liberated	UBT	Mythic	53.5
True-Name Nemesis	PZ1	Mythic	49.88
Jace, the Mind Sculptor	A25	Mythic	45.11
Liliana of the Veil	UMA	Mythic	41.95
Surgical Extraction	NPH	Rare	41.67
Surgical Extraction	MM2	Rare	41.63
Timetwister	1E	Rare	40.69
Liliana of the Veil	UBT	Mythic	39.91
Dark Depths	V16	Mythic	38.17
Force of Will	MED	Rare	36.61
Jace, the Mind Sculptor	VMA	Mythic	35.33
Jace, the Mind Sculptor	EMA	Mythic	35
Engineered Explosives	UBT	Mythic	34.5
Unmask	V16	Mythic	34.13
Jace, the Mind Sculptor	WWK	Mythic	33.89
Mox Opal	MS2	Bonus	33.1
True-Name Nemesis	C13	Rare	32.86
Liliana of the Veil	MM3	Mythic	32.03
Mox Opal	SOM	Mythic	30.57
Mox Opal	MM2	Mythic	30.5
Leyline of the Void	GPT	Rare	29.91
City of Traitors	EX	Rare	29.71
Liliana of the Veil	ISD	Mythic	29.65
Karn Liberated	UMA	Mythic	29.31
Liliana, the Last Hope	MS4	Mythic	28.76
Arclight Phoenix	GRN	Mythic	28.69
Ensnaring Bridge	MS2	Bonus	28.63
Force of Negation	MH1	Rare	28.15
Ensnaring Bridge	A25	Mythic	27.73
Kaya, Orzhov Usurper	MS4	Mythic	27.65
Wrenn and Six	MH1	Mythic	27.64
Dark Depths	UBT	Mythic	27.64
Noble Hierarch	UBT	Mythic	27.5
Cavern of Souls	UMA	Mythic	27.44
Ensnaring Bridge	7E	Rare	26.71
Leyline of the Void	M11	Rare	26.27
Horizon Canopy	IMA	Rare	26.12
Ensnaring Bridge	ST	Rare	26.04
Ensnaring Bridge	8ED	Rare	25.94
Finale of Promise	WAR	Mythic	25.17

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 $14730.00.  That is down $48 from last week. 
 

In Closing

Since the gofundme stuff last week, I have played significantly less Magic.  I let my quests build up on Arena, and haven't cleared them.  I think I have played 7 matches since last publication, and most of them were for the Singleton event.  Outside of the wonderful work of the writers here and at Legitmtg.com, I consumed no Magic content.  I don't feel like I am welcome in the part of the Magic community I want to be in anymore, so I just play less and spend less.  I guess I am at a crisis with Magic, not only did the poors get attacked, but I got critiqued (I wouldn't call it an attack, the poster said their piece, I said mine, there is nothing else to say) on a subreddit with 5 people on it for what I wrote last week. 

Make no mistake, I stand by what I said, and will not back down from that ever. 

I've started to play the new expansion for State of Decay 2, it's fun!  I have also started to play Breath of the Wild.  I have made very little progress on the main quest, but I have a ton of shrines knocked out already!  I imagine I am going to keep video gaming, since I have plenty of free time and do not see my son for another two weeks.  Summer is great for him, he gets a lot of traveling done, but I sure do miss him a lot!

This series is an ongoing tribute to Erik “Hamtastic” Friborg.