State of the Program for March 15th, 2023
MTGO Socials: Daybreak has set up forums for MTGO, which you can find here. In addition to the Forums, Daybreak has set up a Discord for MTGO. You can get the invite here. MTGO has a Twitter account, and can now add an account for Facebook and Instagram.
Redemption: Redemption is up and running! Remember that redemption runs now until supply is gone. Currently being redeemed are Dominaria United (10% left of regular, 15% left of foil) and The Brothers' War (About Half-Gone). Phyrexia: All Will Be One's redemption period starts today, March 8.
Challenge Schedule Changing: Two Prelims on Friday nights are now becoming small Challenge events. This helps players in the Asia-Pacific region. Saturday is also getting another Modern Challenge. Both of these are 32 player events.
Win Trading: New steps are being taken to in order to deal with the bad actors that make Magic: The Gathering Online less fun for those of us that want to enjoy the game! By adjusting the contents of the Account Upgrade Kit, most notably the amount of play points in it, the hope is that those players will have their profit motive undercut in the smaller leagues with few play points in the Account Upgrade Kit. To help new players, Phatom Sealed events are coming back. You can read about the changes here.
MOCS Season 1: This season is ending soon, and qualifier points will leave your accounts on or after March 22, 2023.
Challenge Change: Modern 32 player challenges are moving to 64-player event prizes, starting this weekend!
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.
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Upcoming Events
|
Dates
|
|
Scheduled Downtimes
|
April 5, 2023 |
|
Constructed Leagues End
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April 18, 2023
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Sealed Leagues End
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April 18, 2023 |
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:
Ongoing - Modern Horizons
March 17 - Limited Super Qualifier
March 18 - Vintage Showcase Challenge
March 19 - Legacy Showcase Challenge
March 16 - 22 - Last Chance Qualifiers
March 22 - Modern Horizons 2
April 5 - Dominaria Remastered
April 12 - March of the Machine Release
May 3 - Magic 30 Cube
May 10 - Vintage Cube
Magic Online Format ChallengesThese 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: The hot tech this week, out of Europe, is Esper Legends, with
Wedding Announcement
in the main to fight off the Grixis midrange decks. This worked out pretty well for players like Nico Bohn, Thoralf Severin and the rest of team behind this deck, who did finish 2nd, 3rd, 18th and 39th.
Grixis Midrange won the
event.
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Go for the Throat
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Darkslick Shores
1 Plains
3 Seachrome Coast
3 Adeline, Resplendent Cathar
4 Dennick, Pious Apprentice
3 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
1 Ludevic, Necrogenius
3 Otawara, Soaring City
4 Plaza of Heroes
4 Raffine, Scheming Seer
2 Razorlash Transmogrant |
3 Shattered Sanctum
4 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
1 Shipwreck Marsh
4 Skrelv, Defector Mite
2 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
4 Wedding Announcement
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|
Legacy: Is the Izzet and Initiative metagames finally over? Well, for Izzet, probably not, but at least we can look at the Elf list this week! This list won the Sunday challenge on MTGO.
Modern: The Modern Horizons 2 elementals really make this deck sing. I wonder how the format would look without Modern Horizons cards in it.
Pauper: Cheap threats that can be cast before countermagic comes in to play and cheap burns spells to keep up pressure make a great deck!
Pioneer: The
Bring to Light
decks are evolving!
The Winner's Circle is where I will recognize winners of the past events on MTGO.
Challenge Winners
Friday Modern - Boland - Izzet Murktide
Saturday Legacy - ht91122 - Sneak and Show
Saturday Modern 32 - jessy_samek - Izzet Breach
Saturday Modern - Showcase Challenge
Saturday Pauper - Cherryxman - Gruul Cascade
Saturday Pioneer - roter_Erzengel - Omnath to Light
Saturday Standard - No event was reported for the day
Saturday Vintage - Miharu_Fuyumiya
Sunday Legacy - ferrarix - Elves
Sunday Modern - FerMTG - Temur Rhinos
Sunday Pauper - Tremer_Metere - Mono Red Sac
Sunday Pioneer - Showcase Challenge
Sunday Standard - karatedom - Esper Legends
Sunday Vintage - ManBoyChild
Other Event Winners
Pioneer Showcase Challenge
Modern Showcase Challenge
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:
The Stone Brain
is new to the list this week. A couple of lands are back on the list as well this week.
Raffinie, Scheming Seer
is back on the list this week.
| Standard Cards |
Price |
Last Week |
Change |
% Change |
Phyrexian Fleshgorger |
$7.81 |
$8.01 |
-$0.20 |
-2% |
Brotherhood's End |
$9.92 |
$10.94 |
-$1.02 |
-9% |
Cityscape Leveler |
$20.56 |
$20.47 |
$0.09 |
0% |
Portal to Phyrexia |
$6.49 |
$6.45 |
$0.04 |
1% |
Titania, Voice of Gaea |
$6.50 |
$5.66 |
$0.84 |
15% |
Urza, Lord Protector |
$5.40 |
$5.40 |
$0.00 |
0% |
One with the Multiverse |
$6.84 |
$6.90 |
-$0.06 |
-1% |
Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor |
$5.44 |
$5.36 |
|
|
| The Stone Brain |
$5.58 |
|
|
|
Leyline Binding |
$20.56 |
$19.53 |
$1.03 |
5% |
Liliana of the Veil |
$8.78 |
$9.00 |
-$0.22 |
-2% |
Sheoldred, the Apocalypse |
$71.60 |
$61.35 |
$10.25 |
17% |
Karn's Sylex |
$8.44 |
$8.26 |
$0.18 |
2% |
Serra Paragon |
$6.32 |
$6.26 |
$0.06 |
1% |
Memory Deluge |
$11.96 |
$11.27 |
$0.69 |
6% |
Brutal Cathar |
$11.55 |
$14.20 |
-$2.65 |
-19% |
Graveyard Trespasser |
$3.89 |
$5.23 |
-$1.34 |
-26% |
Bloodthirsty Adversary |
$11.28 |
|
|
|
Shipwreck Marsh |
$7.51 |
|
|
|
Boseiju, Who Endures |
$55.04 |
$62.91 |
-$7.87 |
-13% |
Otawara, Soaring City |
$11.88 |
$8.36 |
$3.52 |
42% |
The Wandering Emperor |
$10.83 |
$10.21 |
$0.62 |
6% |
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker |
$58.48 |
$56.89 |
$1.59 |
3% |
Atraxa, Grand Unifier |
$79.84 |
$74.53 |
$5.31 |
7% |
Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines |
$10.07 |
$12.96 |
-$2.89 |
-22% |
Jace, the Perfected Mind |
$5.48 |
$6.58 |
-$1.10 |
-17% |
Ledger Shredder |
$15.12 |
$14.20 |
$0.92 |
6% |
Unlicensed Hearse |
$14.35 |
$13.15 |
$1.20 |
9% |
Xander's Lounge |
$6.08 |
$8.31 |
-$2.23 |
-27% |
Raffine, Scheming Seer |
$11.99 |
|
|
|
Stormcarved Coast |
$9.32 |
$11.53 |
-$2.21 |
-19% |
| Wedding Announcement |
$30.65 |
$17.83 |
$12.82 |
72% |
Cultivator Colossus |
$5.24 |
$5.66 |
-$0.42 |
-7% |
Modern Staples:
Surgical Extraction
and
Puresteel Paladin
have come off the list this week.
Eternal Staples:
Pioneer Staples:
Jegantha, the Wellspring
has fallen off the list.
Rest in Peace
came off the list again too.
Sea Gate Restoration
is off again as well.
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 Time |
Change |
% Change |
| The Brothers' War |
$138.72 |
$135.98 |
$2.74 |
2% |
| Dominaria United |
$153.56 |
$144.32 |
$9.24 |
6% |
| Innistrad: Crimson Vow |
$91.49 |
$81.45 |
$10.04 |
12% |
| Innistrad: Midnight Hunt |
$111.20 |
$116.79 |
($5.59) |
-5% |
| Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty |
$162.32 |
$163.66 |
($1.34) |
-1% |
| Phyrexia: All Will Be One |
$371.01 |
$398.38 |
($27.37) |
-7% |
| Phyrexia: All Will Be One Booster |
$3.29 |
$3.14 |
$0.15 |
5% |
| Streets of New Capenna |
$74.50 |
$69.98 |
$4.52 |
6% |
| Treasure Chest |
$2.57 |
$2.48 |
$0.09 |
4% |
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.
The list is really small now.
| Black Lotus |
1E |
Rare |
247.43 |
| Mox Jet |
1E |
Rare |
113.81 |
| Ancestral Recall |
1E |
Rare |
99.75 |
| Atraxa, Grand Unifier |
ONE |
Mythic |
79.84 |
| Time Walk |
1E |
Rare |
75.76 |
| Sheoldred, the Apocalypse |
DMU |
Mythic |
71.6 |
| Mox Sapphire |
1E |
Rare |
70.39 |
| Mox Emerald |
1E |
Rare |
66.55 |
| Fable of the Mirror-Breaker |
NEO |
Rare |
58.48 |
| Mox Pearl |
1E |
Rare |
57.45 |
| Atraxa, Grand Unifier |
ONE |
Promo |
56.48 |
| Sheoldred, the Apocalypse |
ONE |
Promo |
55.99 |
| Boseiju, Who Endures |
NEO |
Rare |
55.04 |
| Mox Ruby |
1E |
Rare |
52.36 |
| Karakas |
UBT |
Mythic |
51.7 |
| Liliana of the Veil |
UBT |
Mythic |
49.78 |
| Aether Gale |
C14 |
Rare |
48.31 |
| Cavern of Souls |
UBT |
Mythic |
47.99 |
| Urza's Saga |
MH2 |
Rare |
44.08 |
| Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth |
UBT |
Mythic |
39.46 |
| Demonic Tutor |
UBT |
Mythic |
38.79 |
| Force of Will |
MED |
Rare |
37.74 |
| Wasteland |
ZNE |
Mythic |
37.54 |
| Fury |
MH2 |
Mythic |
36.09 |
| Dark Depths |
UBT |
Mythic |
36.05 |
| Kozilek, Butcher of Truth |
UBT |
Mythic |
34.7 |
| Gaea's Cradle |
UZ |
Rare |
34.49 |
| Pramikon, Sky Rampart |
C19 |
Mythic |
33.23 |
| Timetwister |
1E |
Rare |
32.92 |
| Snapcaster Mage |
UBT |
Mythic |
32.7 |
| Marisi, Breaker of the Coil |
C19 |
Mythic |
30.94 |
| Wedding Announcement |
VOW |
Rare |
30.65 |
| Flooded Strand |
ZNE |
Mythic |
30.4 |
| Jace, the Mind Sculptor |
MS4 |
Mythic |
30.1 |
| Solitude |
MH2 |
Mythic |
27.09 |
| Engineered Explosives |
UBT |
Mythic |
26.84 |
| Endurance |
MH2 |
Mythic |
26.34 |
| Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer |
MH2 |
Mythic |
26.22 |
| Mox Diamond |
ST |
Rare |
25.56 |
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.
I spent the weekend playing World of Warcraft, thanks to a free play weekend. I like the game still, but I am not really invested in doing story stuff, I just want to tame animals. The changes that they have made to old content, I guess, scaling with your current aren't fun to me, sometimes I just want to solo raid content. The new season of Fortnite is fine. The new Battleground patch on Hearthstone was not. Also the new spellslingers on Spellslingers are fun. It's a shame Wizards of the Coast is just letting that game languish. It really deserves better from the company than what they are giving it.
This series is an ongoing tribute to Erik “Hamtastic” Friborg.
