State of the Program for March 13th, 2020
Bans and Suspension list: The following cards have been added to the Banned and Restricted list.
Brawl: Golos, Tireless Pilgrim has been banned.
Historic: Oko, Thief of Crowns, Once Upon a Time and Veil of Summer have been moved from suspended to banned. Field of the Dead has been moved from suspended to legal.
Legacy: Underworld Breach has been banned.
Modern: Once Upon a Time has been banned.
You can read about the changes and Wizards thought process here.
Coronavirus cancellations: ChannelFireball cancelled all MagicFests until mid-April. StarCityGanes cancelled their tour stops in Baltimore and Syracuse.
Changes to competitive event schedule: I am listing this apart from the other one as these are Wizards cancellations. Player's Tour Houston has been cancelled. The Mythic Invitational in May has also been cancelled. Travel reimbursements will be given to qualified players with non-refundable, non-transferrable flights to the impacted Players Tour, Players Tour Finals, and Mythic Invitational events. In addition players for the next set's prerelease will be able to buy prerelease kits from local game stores and play with them at home. You can read about these changes here and here.
Extended Redemption cutoff for Throne of Eldraine: WotC extended the cutoff for Throne of Eldraine redemption to March 25th, 2020. You can see the tweet here.
Fetchland reprint and Chandra Spellbook: Look, because I spent most of yesterday being panicked about storms, I was late on a lot of stuff for this column. That means I get to talk about late breaking things. In this case, WotC said there would be a Chandra Signature Spellbook. It's out June 26th, and features both Chandra, Torch of Defiance and a new art Past in Flames. You can see those here. Secret Lair Ultimate Edition is going to feature the enemy fetches with art from different planes. It WILL be in stores. It comes out May 29th, and local stores will get typically, no more than 10 copies. It is also going to retail for more than 160 dollars. If these are two expensive, they have promised a much needed fetch land reprint this year. Check it out 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
|
March 25, 2020 |
Constructed Leagues End
|
April 15, 2020
|
Sealed Leagues End
|
April 16, 2020
|
Next B&R Announcement
|
Unknown
|
Throne of Eldraine Redemption
|
Ends March 25, 2020
|
Theros: Beyond Death Redem
|
Starts February 12, 2020
|
Theros: Beyond Death
|
January 24, 2020
|
Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
|
April 24, 2020
|
Core Set 2021
Zendikar Rising
|
Third Quarter 2020
Fourth Quarter 2020
|
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:
Pioneer PTQ - Saturday
Modern PTQ - Sunday
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:
Event Type
|
Start Time
|
|
Saturday 6:00 am PT
Saturday, 8:00 am PT
|
|
Saturday, 10:00 am PT
Sunday 6:00 am PT
|
|
Sunday, 8:00 am PT
|
|
Sunday, 10:00 am PT
|
Standard: Showing off a sweet Standard deck this week. Powered by leylines, this
Enigmatic Incarnation deck has been an absolute blast to play. Casting the enchantment on turn three and then sacrificing a leyline to go get
Cavalier of Gales, to power further nutty stuff, or
Ilharg, the Raze-Boar to set up a game ending attack with
Terror of Mount Velus is great. I've been playing it on Arena for most of the week, and it's got some good game against some of the Standard decks right now.
Teferi, Time Raveler does complicate things a bit sadly.
Legacy: Not going to highlight a Legacy deck this week, because there hasn't been any post banning events that have happened that I could find.
Modern:
Blood Moon, to me, doesn't feel well set up in the current Modern format, because of the amount of snow basics that see play, but I always enjoy seeing this deck do well.
Pauper: It's not for me, even with the large amount of voltron style decks I am playing in Modern and Pioneer, but a non bogles style voltron deck is neat to see in Pauper.
Pioneer: To quote Gerry Thompson, "Well, Pioneer is busted."
Vintage:
The Winner's Circle is where I will recognize winners of the past events on MTGO.
Challenge Winners
Legacy - IslandsAreStillRad - Maverick
Modern - Dazai - Bant Snow
Pauper - SickWorld - Boros Metalcraft
Pioneer - Coly2 - Bant Spirits
Standard - pepeteam - Jeskai Fires
Vintage - Oklahomigan - Shops
Other Event Winners
Modern - McWinSauce - Bant Snow
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!
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 new came on or off the list this week.
Standard Cards |
Price |
Last Week |
Change |
% Change |
Brazen Borrower |
$43.71 |
$48.95 |
($5.24) |
-11% |
Korvold, Fae-Cursed King |
$9.48 |
$8.42 |
$1.06 |
13% |
Questing Beast |
$8.04 |
$7.85 |
$0.19 |
2% |
Alela, Artful Provocateur |
$8.19 |
$8.11 |
$0.08 |
1% |
Chulane, Teller of Tales |
$6.87 |
$6.75 |
$0.12 |
2% |
Fabled Passage |
$11.07 |
$9.93 |
$1.14 |
11% |
Bonecrusher Giant |
$4.96 |
$5.14 |
($0.18) |
-4% |
Embercleave |
$6.15 |
$6.54 |
($0.39) |
-6% |
The Great Henge |
$5.54 |
$5.11 |
$0.43 |
8% |
Arclight Phoenix |
$5.44 |
$5.30 |
$0.14 |
3% |
Assassin's Trophy |
$5.04 |
$6.00 |
($0.96) |
-16% |
Chandra, Awakened Inferno |
$17.77 |
$18.05 |
($0.28) |
-2% |
Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord |
$6.07 |
$5.54 |
$0.53 |
10% |
Leyline of the Void |
$10.19 |
$11.71 |
($1.52) |
-13% |
Vivien, Arkbow Ranger |
$46.27 |
$32.44 |
$13.83 |
43% |
Ajani, Strength of the Pride |
$7.04 |
$7.01 |
$0.03 |
0% |
Cavalier of Thorns |
$7.27 |
$7.20 |
$0.07 |
1% |
Lotus Field |
$5.34 |
$5.24 |
$0.10 |
2% |
Cavalier of Flame |
$5.29 |
$5.11 |
$0.18 |
4% |
Deputy of Detention |
$5.98 |
$7.58 |
($1.60) |
-21% |
Kaya, Orzhov Usurper |
$4.19 |
$5.43 |
($1.24) |
-23% |
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath |
$53.35 |
$49.10 |
$4.25 |
9% |
Heliod, Sun-Crowned |
$15.88 |
$18.18 |
($2.30) |
-13% |
Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger |
$15.89 |
$15.68 |
$0.21 |
1% |
Ox of Agonas |
$5.97 |
$5.05 |
$0.92 |
18% |
Teferi, Time Raveler |
$59.85 |
$59.52 |
$0.33 |
1% |
Finale of Devastation |
$10.16 |
$11.02 |
($0.86) |
-8% |
Karn, the Great Creator |
$29.11 |
$28.99 |
$0.12 |
0% |
Dreadhorde Arcanist |
$15.08 |
$13.64 |
$1.44 |
11% |
Blast Zone |
$14.96 |
$14.11 |
$0.85 |
6% |
Gideon Blackblade |
$6.55 |
$6.45 |
$0.10 |
2% |
Niv-Mizzet Reborn |
$14.24 |
$16.88 |
($2.64) |
-16% |
Jace, Wielder of Mysteries |
$14.29 |
$9.21 |
$5.08 |
55% |
Nissa, Who Shakes the World |
$9.80 |
$9.35 |
$0.45 |
5% |
Modern Staples: This is the last time we'll see Once Upon a Time on this list. Snapcaster Mage fell back off the list. Cryptic Command has taken its place. Modern Horizons, look at those prices. Having prices like that for one set on MTGO is a mistake and WotC needs to address that.
Eternal Staples: Welcome back
Mox Opal!
Pioneer Staples:
Kolaghan's Command came off the list this week.
Inverter of Truth is back on.
Tireless Tracker is also back.
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 2020 |
$226.96 |
$216.10 |
$10.86 |
5% |
Guilds of Ravnica |
$47.51 |
$49.44 |
($1.93) |
-4% |
Modern Horizons |
$462.72 |
$440.64 |
$22.08 |
5% |
Ravnica Allegiances |
$54.04 |
$61.34 |
($7.30) |
-12% |
Theros Beyond Death |
$135.47 |
$136.83 |
($1.36) |
-1% |
Theros Beyond Death Booster |
$3.24 |
$3.32 |
($0.08) |
-2% |
Throne of Eldraine |
$169.28 |
$184.32 |
($15.04) |
-8% |
Treasure Chest |
$2.04 |
$2.09 |
($0.05) |
-2% |
War of the Spark |
$215.41 |
$211.26 |
$4.15 |
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 |
185.54 |
Wrenn and Six |
MH1 |
Mythic |
105.97 |
Karn Liberated |
UBT |
Mythic |
80.81 |
Force of Negation |
MH1 |
Rare |
79.31 |
Mox Sapphire |
1E |
Rare |
71.29 |
Snapcaster Mage |
UBT |
Mythic |
69.75 |
Ancestral Recall |
1E |
Rare |
61.93 |
Mox Emerald |
1E |
Rare |
60.74 |
Mox Jet |
1E |
Rare |
59.73 |
Teferi, Time Raveler |
WAR |
Rare |
57.7 |
Liliana of the Veil |
UBT |
Mythic |
57.5 |
Lord Windgrace |
PZ2 |
Mythic |
53.22 |
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath |
THB |
Mythic |
52.51 |
Vivien, Arkbow Ranger |
M20 |
Mythic |
50.54 |
Dark Depths |
V16 |
Mythic |
48.41 |
Noble Hierarch |
UBT |
Mythic |
48.28 |
Unmask |
V16 |
Mythic |
46.24 |
Time Walk |
1E |
Rare |
45.51 |
Mox Pearl |
1E |
Rare |
45.19 |
Brazen Borrower |
ELD |
Mythic |
43.65 |
Mox Ruby |
1E |
Rare |
42.71 |
Dark Depths |
UBT |
Mythic |
42.08 |
Jace, the Mind Sculptor |
MS4 |
Mythic |
41.58 |
Cavern of Souls |
UBT |
Mythic |
39.44 |
Mishra's Bauble |
IMA |
Uncommon |
37.06 |
Mishra's Bauble |
CSP |
Uncommon |
36.92 |
Ice-Fang Coatl |
MH1 |
Rare |
36.71 |
Liliana, the Last Hope |
MS4 |
Mythic |
34.92 |
Force of Will |
MED |
Rare |
32.14 |
Karakas |
UBT |
Mythic |
31.86 |
Mana Confluence |
EXP |
Mythic |
31.7 |
Tuvasa the Sunlit |
PZ2 |
Mythic |
31.5 |
Celestial Colonnade |
UBT |
Mythic |
30.2 |
Timetwister |
1E |
Rare |
29.97 |
Tarmogoyf |
UBT |
Mythic |
29.21 |
Ancient Tomb |
UBT |
Mythic |
27.97 |
Karn, the Great Creator |
WAR |
Rare |
27.26 |
Saheeli, the Gifted |
PZ2 |
Mythic |
26.68 |
Force of Will |
MS3 |
Mythic |
26.44 |
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria |
MS4 |
Mythic |
26.23 |
Force of Will |
EMA |
Mythic |
26.06 |
Force of Will |
VMA |
Rare |
25.92 |
Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer |
PZ2 |
Mythic |
25.13 |
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 $21,490. Last week, the number was $21,600. We have a loss of 110 this week. I wonder how this number is going to go with all the cancelled events. Will people jump on to MTGO to get a competitive fix?
I've been under the weather again this week, and today (Thursday) I get to add storm based anxiety to the list of things wrong with me. Yeah we're under a tornado watch in my part of Kentucky, and I know it's extremely unlikely that I take a direct hit, but I am super glad that on the list of things wrong with the house to get fixed, the steps into my root cellar were on that list, and also fixed, so I will have a safe place to go in case things hit the fan. Hopefully the won't. Also all the sports related cancellations have been a bummer for me, the NCAA tournament and the lead up to it is one of my favorite things, and it looks like things are changing there. Anyways, wash your hands, be safe, listen to local authorites and stay healthy!
This series is an ongoing tribute to Erik “Hamtastic” Friborg.