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By: one million words, Pete Jahn
Mar 11 2016 1:00pm
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State of the Program for March 11th 2016

In the News:

Shadows Over Innistrad Previews Starting: Cards are appearing everywhere. The rules article for SoI is here. Flip cards, madness, delirium – mostly the same, but the converted mana cost of a flipped card is being changed to be the cost of the unflipped side. That’s relevant, because Ratchet Bomb with no counters will no longer kill a flipped Jace. Wizards has also said they are rewriting Madness so it makes more sense online.
 
Worth’s Update Article: Worth Wollpert, Executive Producer for Magic Online, published his most recent progress report. You can read it here.   He noted that Leagues were doing well (4,500+ players, including me, in the Sealed League) and promised updates to recreate V2-style leagues. He also promised more Cubes, more big prize events like the Modern Festival, and to continue the Year of Modern Flashbacks next year. He promised more technical updates, and improvements to the promo card programs – including using it to get “cards into circulation that need to be there.” 
 
Legacy Challenge Tomorrow: The Legacy Challenge will take place at 11am Pacific time.   250 play Points, big prizes, details here.
 
No Downtime Next Week: Wizards is experimenting with reducing the number of downtimes. The first skipped downtime will be next Wednesday, March 16.  It will be Magic as usual all Wednesday, just no redemption this week.
 
Streamer Showdown Next Week will be Ravnica Flashback: Wizards will be hosting another streamer showdown March 17th.   As usual, we can watch two events, one starting at 1pm Pacific time, and one at 6pm Pacific. The players will be drafting triple Ravnica. If you never drafted Ravnica, or have forgotten how, I would recommend watching some of the more experienced players who drafted Ravnica back in the day. That would include Neal Oliver, Kenji and Randy Buehler in the first event, and LSV in the later pod. 
 
VSL Finals Next Tuesday Night: It will be David Ochoa verses LSV. Last Tuesday’s semi-finals was cool, since LSV and EFRO agreed in advance to not play Mishra’s Workshop and Bazaar of Baghdad. This let them build decks which didn’t have maindecks and sideboards choked with anti-shops and anti-dredge cards. Interesting. Watch it all on Twitch.tv/Magic, or watch the replays on YouTube.
 

The Timeline:

This is a list of things we have been promised, or just want to see coming back.   Another good source for dates and times is the MTGO calendar and the weekly blog, while the best source for known bugs is the Known Issues List. For quick reference, here are some major upcoming events.   In addition, there are either one or two online PTQs each weekend, with qualifiers running the three days prior to the PTQ.
 
Item: date and notes
·       Power Nine Challenge: Last Saturday of the month, at 11am Pacific.  Next one March  26th.
·       Legacy Challenge: Second Saturday of the month, at 11am Pacific. Next one March 12th.
·       No Downtime on: March 16, April 6, April 20, May 11, June 8 and June 22
·       League End Dates: all current leagues end April 13th
·       Shadows over Innistrad Prerelease: April 15-18, 2016. Details here.
·       Eternal Masters: online release June 17, 2016 Details here.
·       Eldritch Moon Prerelease: July 29-August 1. Details here
·       From the Vault Lore: releases online October 10, 2016.
 
Flashback Schedule:
Flashback drafts are 10Tix / 100 Play Points / 2 Tix plus product, not Phantom, single elim and pay out in play points: 200 for first, 100 for second, 50 for third and fourth. 
·       Triple Ravnica: March 16, 2016 to March 23, 2016
·       2 Ravnica and 1 Guildpact: March 23, 2016 to March 30, 2016
·       Ravnica, Guildpact, and Dissension: March 30, 2016 to April 6, 2016
·       Triple Coldsnap: April 6, 2016 to April 13, 2016
·       Triple Time Spiral: May 4, 2016 to May 11, 2016
·       2 Time Spiral and 1 Planar Chaos: May 11, 2016 to May 18, 2016
·       Time Spiral, Planar Chaos, and Future Sight: May 18, 2016 to May 25, 2016
·       Triple Tenth Edition: May 25, 2016 to June 1, 2016
·       Triple Lorwyn: likely June 1 to June 8
·       2 Lorwyn, Morningtide: likely June 8 to June 15
·       Triple Shadowmoor: likely June 15 to June 22
·       2 Shadowmoor, Eventide: likely June 22 to June 29
 
Flashback This Week: Triple Ravnica drafts begins next downtime. Ravnica has the following chase cards. Don’t pass these. Other than that, the cards with reasonable value include the shock lands – i.e. Temple Garden.
·       Dark Confidant
·       Golgari Grave-Troll
·       Glimpse the Unthinkable
·       Life from the Loam
 

Opinion Section: The State of Magic

I have been writing about the state of the game for almost 20 years. I have been writing about the state of MTGO for a decade. But I am in an interesting place right now.
 
The online program right now is in a pretty good place. This time a couple years ago this wasn’t so. When I was having huge problems running the client on my old laptop, and we were heading towards a change a version that had huge problems. We had memory leaks and trade bugs. We had formats suddenly canceled and uncancelled. We had Vintage Masters drafts ending, then not ending. We had crashes and bugs and high-stakes tourneys being suspended.   We had streamers moving to other games, and streamers who streamed crashes and expletives about the program. Not at all good times. 
Now, however, we have a program that basically works. Admittedly, I have a much better laptop, and that helps, but the program itself is better. Years of working on performance and stability has meant the program performs and is stable. I have lost just one game this year to a bug, and since I won the match I didn’t even bother filing for reimbursement. That’s a huge improvement over a couple years ago.
Casual play is still something I avoid completely online, and multiplayer still sounds like a mess, but tournament Magic is great online. Leagues are a huge hit, and they absolutely work for people like me. Events like Modern Festival have also seemed to hit a sweet spot, and Worth has said they will continue and expand. It sounds good.
 
Card availability is still an issue. Worth has said that they are looking at using promos to get cards that should be out there out there. About time. Rishadan Port should not be almost $750 a playset, and a common like Daze should not be in the top 50 most expensive cards online. More importantly, given how easy it is to trade online cards, you should never be unable to buy cards for a deck, but I have seen some times recently that major vendors were out of particular cards. That should not happen. At least not for cards that have been in “print” online for years.
What is also weird is that while online is improving, I am having some concerns about the paper side. For most of the last two decades, we have had a mix of really great Magic sets, interspersed with periods where R&D just missed the boat.   Urza’s Saga created Combo Winter which was a disaster for organized play. Standard with Skullclamp Affinity was almost as bad, and Caw-Blade was almost an equally low point. These problem periods have always been bracketed by great sets and great constructed environments, but they are still unfun while they occur.
 
My concern, at the moment, is that R&D appears to be off its game at present. Printing a Man-o-War as a 2/3 in a format with most removal doing two damage is mistake that should not have been made, but I can understand a mistake like that. Stuff happens. What I don’t understand is that the much-vaulted Future Future league apparently didn’t see 4 color Rally and the other 4 color good stuff decks that are dominating Standard. I am not a brewer anymore, but even I could immediately see that having fetchlands and duals in the same Standard format meant the mana was insanely good. How can these people not remember what happened when we had the Vivid lands and Reflecting Pool?  We had a format with decks that play Cryptic Command (1UUU) and Cloudthresher (2GGGG)in decks based around Cruel Ultimatum (RRBBBUU).    The mana worked then, and the decks were broken, and yet Wizards made a format with mana that was even better than that.
 
Wizards gets into a blind spot every couple years or so, and produces a clunker of a set or a format. Right now, the format is a bit of a clunker, because the mana is too good. Hopefully, Shadows will put us back on track. If not, Wizards R&D needs to up its game a bit.
 
As for the folks running MTGO, though, they are on top of their game.    
 

Judge Question of the Week

I have been training new judges for many years, and part of that training involves setting out scenarios and problems that teach various parts of the rules. They start simple – i.e. a creature with trample is blocked by a creature with protection – and more up. The goal is to determine what areas of the rules I need to teach, and what my candidate already knows. Lagrange asked me to share some, so I will keep throwing them out until people beg for mercy.
 
You are at two life and have Nihil Spellbomb in play, but no black mana available.  Your opponent untaps with an active Grim Lavamancer, a Mountain and two fetchlands in play, and nothing in the graveyard. If your opponent hits you with the Lavamancer’s ability, you die. Can you use the Spellbomb to survive the turn?
 
Grim Lavamancer   Nihil Spellbomb
 
As always, there are no relevant cards not mentioned - for example, you do not have an Isochron Scepter imprinted with Stifle waiting to save the day.
 

Cutting Edge Tech:

Standard: The GPs last weekend were Modern, and the other events featured a lot of decks like those we have seen before – Rally, Dark Jeskai, etc. Here’s something a little les ubiquitous.
 
Mono Green Eldrazi
CRACUDO, 3-1, Standard Daily
Creatures
4 Rattleclaw Mystic
2 Hedron Crawler
4 Thought-Knot Seer
2 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
2 Whisperer of the Wilds
2 Whisperwood Elemental
4 World Breaker
4 cards

Other Spells
3 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
2 Explosive Vegetation
4 Nissa's Pilgrimage
3 Hedron Archive
4 Oath of Nissa
10 cards
Lands
13 Forest
1 Haven of the Spirit Dragon
4 Sanctum of Ugin
1 Sea Gate Wreckage
4 Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
1 Wastes
13 cards

Sideboard
2 Den Protector
3 Plummet
3 Titan's Presence
2 Reclaiming Vines
1 Kozilek, the Great Distortion
4 Jaddi Offshoot
5 cards
Whisperwood Elemental
 
Modern:  Three Modern GPs last weekend.   Three finals – and five copies of UW Eldrazi in the finals.   Yes, an Abzan Collected Company deck did win GP Detroit, but the deck of the week is clearly the deck that won GP Melbourne and GP Bologna, and put four copies into the Top 8 of GP Detroit. UW Eldrazi. As a side note, the odds that something will be banned in the April B&R update just got a bit shorter. 
 
UW Eldrazi
David Mimes, Winner, GP Melbourne
Creatures
4 Drowner of Hope
4 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Eldrazi Mimic
4 Eldrazi Skyspawner
4 Endless One
1 Matter Reshaper
4 Reality Smasher
4 Thought-Knot Seer
0 cards

Other Spells
4 Dismember
2 Path to Exile
9 cards
Lands
1 Island
1 Plains
4 Adarkar Wastes
1 Caves of Koilos
4 Flooded Strand
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Eye of Ugin
3 Cavern of Souls
22 cards

1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
14 cards
Cavern of Souls
 
Legacy: Just a reminder – pack your sideboard hate. If you don’t, this can happen.
 
 
Vintage: The Vintage Super League Season 4 Championship is underway. This week saw EFRO and LSV square off in a five match play-off. The matches were great. Since both players agreed to not play Shops and Dredge, decks and sideboard were tuned to other approaches. Great to watch, but I’m not highlighting any of the decks. After all, they only work if you don’t face shops or dredge, and that’s not a metagame I would expect in Vintage.
 

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 over a decade now, and have never been overcharged or disappointed.
 
Standard staples: Standard prices are down, pretty much across the board. The new Nissa is up, mainly because of the Hardened Scales deck. Some of the other cards have dropped below the $5 threshold, so I took them off the list.  
 
Standard Cards
Price
Last Week
Change
% Change
(Anafenza, the Foremost)
$4.43
$5.64
($1.21)
-21%
(Atarka's Command)
$6.31
$7.56
($1.25)
-17%
(Chandra, Flamecaller)
$13.08
$13.12
($0.04)
0%
(Collected Company)
$20.33
$17.66
$2.67
15%
(Deathmist Raptor)
$13.99
$14.11
($0.12)
-1%
(Den Protector)
$6.48
$7.02
($0.54)
-8%
(Dragonlord Ojutai)
$12.56
$15.75
($3.19)
-20%
(Flooded Strand)
$7.32
$10.09
($2.77)
-27%
(Gideon, Ally of Zendikar)
$17.01
$17.19
($0.18)
-1%
(Hangarback Walker)
$8.37
$6.79
$1.58
23%
(Jace, Vryn's Prodigy)
$90.22
$88.05
$2.17
2%
(Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet)
$10.60
$16.34
($5.74)
-35%
(Kolaghan's Command)
$14.47
$12.95
$1.52
12%
(Kozilek's Return)
$5.41
$6.65
($1.24)
-19%
(Monastery Mentor)
$10.26
$11.64
($1.38)
-12%
(Nissa, Voice of Zendikar)
$9.98
$10.15
($0.17)
-2%
(Nissa, Vastwood Seer)
$7.80
$7.21
$0.59
8%
(Thought-Knot Seer)
$5.32
$8.73
($3.41)
-39%
(Ugin, the Spirit Dragon)
$8.93
$10.04
($1.11)
-11%
(Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger)
$7.11
$8.00
($0.89)
-11%
(World Breaker)
$4.50
$7.92
($3.42)
-43%
Modern staples:  Modern tanked slightly this week.   People are too interested in sealed leagues to play as much Modern. Besides – Eldrazi.

Modern Cards
Price
Last Week
Change
% Change
(Auriok Champion)
$22.47
$23.89
($1.42)
-6%
$35.34
$36.22
($0.88)
-2%
(Blood Moon)
$27.84
$31.17
($3.33)
-11%
(Cavern of Souls)
$26.35
$39.91
($13.56)
-34%
(Crucible of Worlds)
$22.42
$22.39
$0.03
0%
(Eidolon of the Great Revel)
$16.72
$18.18
($1.46)
-8%
(Ensnaring Bridge)
$48.89
$47.47
$1.42
3%
(Goryo's Vengeance)
$20.84
$20.26
$0.58
3%
$38.13
$35.31
$2.82
8%
(Grove of the Burnwillows)
$36.70
$43.06
($6.36)
-15%
(Horizon Canopy)
$39.58
$38.19
$1.39
4%
(Inkmoth Nexus)
$23.16
$24.70
($1.54)
-6%
(Liliana of the Veil)
$89.41
$90.12
($0.71)
-1%
(Mox Opal)
$37.53
$38.75
($1.22)
-3%
(Scalding Tarn)
$29.27
$32.39
($3.12)
-10%
$32.94
$32.00
$0.94
3%
$49.57
$54.41
($4.84)
-9%
(Twilight Mire)
$25.44
$26.31
($0.87)
-3%
(Vendilion Clique)
$17.27
$17.01
$0.26
2%
(Voice of Resurgence)
$44.81
$41.77
$3.04
7%
Legacy and Vintage: Legacy and Vintage are mixed this week. Wasteland and Force of Will are confirmed to be in Eternal Masters, and are dropping. Rishadan Port is up again, but maybe because people are playing Lands, in the hope that it can beat Eldrazi.
 
Legacy / Vintage Cards
Price
Last Week
Change
% Change
(Ancestral Recall)
$57.33
$47.81
$9.52
20%
(Black Lotus)
$144.23
$139.63
$4.60
3%
$27.31
$27.87
($0.56)
-2%
$28.64
$31.09
($2.45)
-8%
$30.04
$29.02
$1.02
4%
(Food Chain)
$32.56
$32.45
$0.11
0%
(Force of Will)
$26.02
$26.74
($0.72)
-3%
(Gaea's Cradle)
$52.75
$40.23
$12.52
31%
(Infernal Tutor)
$44.97
$46.44
($1.47)
-3%
$106.38
$106.38
$0.00
0%
(Mox Jet)
$43.09
$39.96
$3.13
8%
(Mox Sapphire)
$66.55
$61.93
$4.62
7%
(Rishadan Port)
$181.21
$180.15
$1.06
1%
(Show and Tell)
$43.91
$44.03
($0.12)
0%
(Tangle Wire)
$66.55
$66.55
$0.00
0%
(Time Walk)
$38.34
$37.52
$0.82
2%
$55.71
$56.25
($0.54)
-1%
Set Redemption: You can redeem complete sets on MTGO. You need to purchase a redemption voucher from the store for $25. During the next downtime, Wizards removes a complete set from your account and sends you the same set in paper.  
 
Complete Set
Price
Last Week
Change
% Change
Battle for Zendikar
$64.38
$67.96
($3.58)
-5%
Dragons of Tarkir
$135.80
$139.28
($3.48)
-2%
Fate Reforged
$36.55
$39.16
($2.61)
-7%
Khans of Tarkir
$64.12
$77.53
($13.41)
-17%
Magic Origins
$155.36
$150.49
$4.87
3%
Oath of the Gatewatch
$75.65
$94.97
($19.32)
-20%

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. Rishadan Port went up again. Amazing. I can’t imagine it not appearing in Eternal Masters.
 
Name
Set
Rarity
Price
Rishadan Port
 MM
Rare
$ 181.21
Black Lotus
 VMA
Bonus
$ 144.23
Misdirection
 MM
Rare
$ 106.38
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
 ORI
Mythic Rare
$ 90.22
Liliana of the Veil
 ISD
Mythic Rare
$ 89.41
Wasteland
 PRM
Uncommon
$ 78.33
Black Lotus
 PRM
Rare
$ 75.00
Tangle Wire
 NE
Rare
$ 66.55
Mox Sapphire
 VMA
Bonus
$ 66.55
Wasteland
 TE
Uncommon
$ 60.30
Ancestral Recall
 VMA
Bonus
$ 57.33
Wasteland
 TPR
Rare
$ 55.71
Tarmogoyf
 FUT
Rare
$ 55.30
Tarmogoyf
 MMA
Mythic Rare
$ 53.37
Gaea's Cradle
 UZ
Rare
$ 52.75
Ensnaring Bridge
 8ED
Rare
$ 50.78
Ensnaring Bridge
 7E
Rare
$ 50.20
Tarmogoyf
 MM2
Mythic Rare
$ 49.57
Ensnaring Bridge
 ST
Rare
$ 48.89
Infernal Tutor
 DIS
Rare
$ 44.97
Voice of Resurgence
 DGM
Mythic Rare
$ 44.81
Show and Tell
 UZ
Rare
$ 43.91
Gaea's Cradle
 PRM
Rare
$ 43.76
Mox Jet
 VMA
Bonus
$ 43.09
Show and Tell
 PRM
Rare
$ 40.41
Horizon Canopy
 FUT
Rare
$ 39.58
City of Traitors
 EX
Rare
$ 38.60
Time Walk
 VMA
Bonus
$ 38.34
Archangel of Thune
 M14
Mythic Rare
$ 38.29
Griselbrand
 AVR
Mythic Rare
$ 38.13
Mox Opal
 SOM
Mythic Rare
$ 37.59
Mox Opal
 MM2
Mythic Rare
$ 37.53
Time Walk
 PRM
Rare
$ 37.52
Ancestral Recall
 PRM
Rare
$ 37.52
Mutavault
 PRM
Rare
$ 37.28
Mox Ruby
 VMA
Bonus
$ 36.84
Grove of the Burnwillows
 FUT
Rare
$ 36.70
Batterskull
 NPH
Mythic Rare
$ 36.32
Force of Will
 MED
Rare
$ 35.71
Mox Emerald
 VMA
Bonus
$ 35.60
Batterskull
 PRM
Mythic Rare
$ 35.34
Mox Pearl
 VMA
Bonus
$ 35.20
Scapeshift
 MOR
Rare
$ 32.94
Food Chain
 MM
Rare
$ 32.56
Griselbrand
 PRM
Mythic Rare
$ 31.93
Blood Moon
 MMA
Rare
$ 31.53
Maze of Ith
 PRM
Rare
$ 30.28
Blood Moon
 9ED
Rare
$ 30.07
Exploration
 UZ
Rare
$ 30.04
Scalding Tarn
 ZEN
Rare
$ 29.27
Doomsday
 WL
Rare
$ 28.64
Phyrexian Metamorph
 PRM
Rare
$ 28.28
Volcanic Island
 PRM
Rare
$ 27.89
Blood Moon
 8ED
Rare
$ 27.84
Daze
 DD2
Common
$ 27.73
Sneak Attack
 UZ
Rare
$ 27.37
Daze
 NE
Common
$ 27.31
Force of Will
 PRM
Rare
$ 27.07
Verdant Catacombs
 ZEN
Rare
$ 26.92
City of Traitors
 TPR
Rare
$ 26.41
Cavern of Souls
 AVR
Rare
$ 26.35
Fetid Heath
 EVE
Rare
$ 26.15
Force of Will
 VMA
Rare
$ 26.02
Twilight Mire
 EVE
Rare
$ 25.44
Volcanic Island
 ME4
Rare
$ 25.42
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 $ 27,720.  That’s up a grand form last week’s number – that’s quite a correction.   
 

Weekly Highlights:

I have been playing sealed leagues this week.   The pools have been interesting – my last two pools have had pretty much nothing large. Having a pool with your biggest, best “fattie” being a 4/4 Kozilek’s Channeler makes for a real challenge. This Sealed format has a lot of large creatures in the mix.
 
PRJ
 
“One Million Words” and “3MWords” on MTGO
 
This series is an ongoing tribute to Erik “Hamtastic” Friborg.
 
 
HammyBot Super Sale: HammyBot was set up to sell off Erik Friborg’s collection, with all proceeds going to his wife and son. So far, HammyBot has raised over $8,000, but there are a lot of cards left in the collection. Those cards are being sold at MTGOTrader’s Buy Price.  
 

Judge Question of the Week Answer:

You are at two life, and have a Nihil Spellbomb in play, but no black mana. Your opponent untaps with an active Grim Lavamancer, a Mountain and two fetchlands in play, and an empty graveyard.  If your opponents hits you with the Lavamancer's ability, you die. Can you use the Spellbombto survive the turn?
 
Grim Lavamancer   Nihil Spellbomb
 
Answer: No, not unless your opponent does something really stupid. Removing two cards form the graveyard is part of the Lavamancer’s cost.   No matter when you crack the Spellbomb, your opponent should be able to respond by cracking any uncracked fetchlands, then activating the Lavamancer with the Spellbomb’s ability on the stack. Activating the Lavamancer's ability includes paying costs, which will remove the fetchlands from the graveyard.  The Spellbomb will do nothing at that point. The Spellbomb would only stop the Lavamancer if the opponent lets the Spellbomb's ability resolve while one or more fetchlands is in the graveyard.  

 

 

52 Comments

Foils by one million words at Mon, 03/14/2016 - 10:37
one million words's picture

I checked with MTGOTraders.com folks. The prices are less for foils than non-foils. It is supply and demand.

In my case, I don't like the way foils look. I also don't like playing non-matching cards in my deck in a format with often-played ways of looking at my hand (Duress, Thought-Knot Seer, etc.) That means I don' want to own three regular and one foil Hangarback Walkers, but I do. The only reason that I do is that, back when I bought my fourth, the foil was about $13 and the non-foil closer to $15. I even asked Traders about that, but they were having trouble keeping regular copies in stock, but not foils, at those prices. I even offered to trade my non-foil versions for foil versions, straight up, but no takers.

It doesn't help that most people turn off foil animations, but most of us don't have a good enough computer to run everything we want to run at that high a resolution.

Shut off by Hearts at Mon, 03/14/2016 - 12:09
Hearts's picture

I dont know how it is with the newest version mtgo (because I still have it shut off) but I know that in previous version when you had foils on the foil feature ate so much memory that the mtgo programme lagged (a lot).

I simply have it off now too, and I also dislike foils in paper (because of in game concentration). They are prettier to hang on the wall I agree though =).

(An annoying thing when you have foils shut off is that it isnt always easy to see that a card you enlarge actually is a foil (for trade reasons). Imo the small text box that pops up when you mouseover the card and hold still should simply say "premium" or "foil", but it does not.)