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By: one million words, Pete Jahn
Mar 27 2015 12:00pm
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State of the Program for March 27th 2015

In the News:

Banned and Restricted List Updates: The new B&R list is out. The major sanctioned formats saw no changes. Pauper got a shake-up: Treasure Cruise is banned. 100 Card Singleton also lost a card - Skullclamp is now banned. Commander is now seeing any changes to the banned list, but it is changing how cards that put your commander into your hand or library function.    Read the B&R announcement for non-commander formats here. Read the explanation of, and reasons for, the commander rule change here
 
Dragons of Tarkir Streaming Events: Like last time, Wizards will give us a preview of the new set on MTGO. We can watch two drafts streamed live by the competitors. On Wed, April 1st, Cameron Aldous, Randy Buehler, Thomas Delia, Paul Pires, Gabe Reale, Noah Sandler, and Luis Scott-Vargas will battle at 6pm PDT.   The Thursday, April 2nd draft will include Paul CheonKenji Egashira, Julian Knab, Frank Lepore, Scott MacCallum, Graham Stark and Marshall Sutcliffe. That draft will take place at 1pm PDT. Each of the names should have links to their Twitch.TV streams.
 
Magic Online Championship Formats Announced:  Wizards has announced the formats for the MOC to be held in Seattle in May. On Friday, players will play three rounds of Vintage, followed by four rounds on Modern. On Saturday, players will draft DTK / DTK / FRF, followed by four rounds of Standard.   The event will cut to the Top 4 on Sunday, with one round of Standard, followed by a finals which will have three matches in three formats: Vintage, Modern and Standard (if the third match is necessary.)
 
UltraPro to Sponsor a Pro Tour Team: I usually avoid talking about things that are not directly MTGO related, and sleeves are about as non-MTGO as you can get. Even so, I wanted to highlight a new team and sponsor just announced. In the past, most teams have been sponsored by card dealers, like SCG, Channel Fireball and so forth. This time, a sleeve maker – UltraPro – has sponsored a team. It is led by Bob Maher, Jr., with Paul Reitzl, Ben Stark, Sam Black, Craig Wescoe, Matt Sperling and a host of Midwesterners I have been losing to for almost two decades. Info on the team, including a roster, here.   
 
RIP Mike McArtor: We lost one of the truly good, in every respect, people Monday with the passing Mike McArtor, copy editor at DailyMTG.com. The website went to gray and white early and suspended new articles for a few days in memory of Mike. A series of tributes from the many people he worked with and whose writings he edited is here 
 
Some MTGO Players Get Week-long Suspensions for Reimbursement Abuse: Some players have posted comments about their suspensions on social media. I don’t know a lot, other than the suspensions appear to be for one week and reportedly resulted from reimbursement abuse. I have filed a number of reimbursement requests, and never had trouble getting reimbursement. My friends have had similar experiences, so I have no concerns about filing legitimate requests for reimbursement if a bug costs me a game or match. On the other hand, I have heard rumors of people who deliberately shut down MTGO whenever they are close to losing, then file for compensation. That’s pretty clearly fraud, and if you are making a habit of doing that, in my opinion you deserve what you get when Wizards catches you.
 
New 6-2-2-2 Queues: We should see new 6-2-2-2 queues with next week’s downtime, including M15 and Theros block. 
 

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.   
 
Item: date and notes
·         MOCS Season 5: Champs 7am Pacific, May 9th. Prelims. May 6th-8th
·         Dragons of Tarkir Limited Championship: tbd 
·         Dragons of Tarkir Standard Championship: tbd 
·         Leagues (Q2 2015?) Wizards said leagues will return in 2015.
·         Tempest Remastered: May 6th. Tempest block without the chaff. Code: TMR. Details here.
·         Modern Masters II: May, 29, 2015. Mirrodin through Zendikar. Details here.
·         Magic Origins: released on MTGO July 27th, prerelease should begin July 23rdor July 24th  Code: ORI
·         From the Vault: Angels: October 12, 2015. Details here.
 

Cutting Edge Tech:

With a brand new set just hitting the paper world, most of the tech is out of date.   Moreover, with the prereleases happening last weekend, no serious paper events were held. Next week we will see decks from events where DTK is legal. More then.
 
Vintage: The Vintage Super League is continuing to produce new decks. LSV is trying a new interaction for Vintage Super League – Punishing Fire and Grove of the Burnwillows in a Pyromancer shell. Interesting. It turns out this deck is soft to True-Name Nemesis, but it works pretty well against some other matchups. Meanwhile, check out Dave Williams match this week. He was facing elimination from the league. He had lost game one, and his opponent had a turn one Griselbrand in game two. Williams won. 
 
 

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 almost a decade now, and have never been overcharged or disappointed.
 
Standard staples: Standard prices fell hard this week, pretty much across the board. Some of this is seasonal – prices always fall just before a new set is announced – but this fall was larger than normal.
 

Standard & Block Cards
Price
Last Week
Change
% Change
$5.70
$5.83
($0.13)
-2%
$6.20
$7.53
($1.33)
-18%
$14.76
$16.88
($2.12)
-13%
$7.63
$10.47
($2.84)
-27%
$16.04
$16.62
($0.58)
-3%
$11.27
$13.25
($1.98)
-15%
$13.25
$14.36
($1.11)
-8%
$11.46
$11.78
($0.32)
-3%
$6.14
$6.55
($0.41)
-6%
$9.58
$11.48
($1.90)
-17%
$13.18
$15.89
($2.71)
-17%
$22.16
$23.39
($1.23)
-5%
$15.82
$15.59
$0.23
1%
$7.57
$8.84
($1.27)
-14%
$7.16
$8.05
($0.89)
-11%
$8.89
$8.89
$0.00
0%
$8.84
$11.81
($2.97)
-25%
$9.27
$11.24
($1.97)
-18%
$5.52
$5.20
$0.32
6%
$13.49
$14.80
($1.31)
-9%
$10.75
$11.36
($0.61)
-5%
$5.49
$5.83
($0.34)
-6%
$10.06
$11.56
($1.50)
-13%

Modern staples:  Modern prices were all over the place this week, but slightly down overall. This does seem seasonal – people are getting TIX together for the prereleases and for buying the new cards they need for constructed decks. 
 

Modern Cards
Price
Last Week
Change
% Change
$41.76
$41.70
$0.06
0%
$28.08
$30.98
($2.90)
-9%
$18.03
$17.28
$0.75
4%
$9.96
$10.14
($0.18)
-2%
$18.89
$19.80
($0.91)
-5%
$17.40
$16.91
$0.49
3%
$13.50
$14.61
($1.11)
-8%
$29.83
$34.32
($4.49)
-13%
$44.98
$44.35
$0.63
1%
$32.62
$34.73
($2.11)
-6%
$81.86
$81.54
$0.32
0%
$38.78
$42.83
($4.05)
-9%
$27.88
$30.34
($2.46)
-8%
$33.48
$34.27
($0.79)
-2%
$21.56
$24.36
($2.80)
-11%
$13.57
$14.94
($1.37)
-9%
$25.16
$27.50
($2.34)
-9%
$10.51
$14.94
($4.43)
-30%
$63.08
$63.15
($0.07)
0%
$28.15
$27.85
$0.30
1%
$39.41
$38.69
$0.72
2%
$16.31
$16.44
($0.13)
-1%

Legacy / Vintage staples: Legacy and Vintage prices were stable this week. Some oscillation, but nothing unusual. 
 

Legacy / Vintage Cards
Price
Last Week
Change
% Change
$47.78
$47.01
$0.77
2%
$139.58
$138.31
$1.27
1%
$24.37
$24.18
$0.19
1%
$38.19
$38.02
$0.17
0%
$25.06
$26.42
($1.36)
-5%
$25.14
$25.33
($0.19)
-1%
$28.06
$28.06
$0.00
0%
$32.51
$31.93
$0.58
2%
$24.52
$25.93
($1.41)
-5%
$34.82
$35.12
($0.30)
-1%
$37.34
$36.67
$0.67
2%
$18.10
$18.12
($0.02)
0%
$107.88
$106.64
$1.24
1%
$37.18
$39.68
($2.50)
-6%
$68.66
$67.29
$1.37
2%
$147.42
$145.94
$1.48
1%
$47.25
$44.44
$2.81
6%
$25.00
$24.54
$0.46
2%
$25.95
$26.29
($0.34)
-1%
$42.80
$42.42
$0.38
1%
$30.55
$30.67
($0.12)
0%
$19.25
$18.75
$0.50
3%
$19.98
$21.07
($1.09)
-5%
$22.50
$23.36
($0.86)
-4%
$64.98
$64.98
$0.00
0%

 
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.   For those of you who redeem, here are the retail prices of one of everything set currently available in the store, excluding sets that are not currently draftable or not redeemable.   
 

Complete Set
Price
Last Week
Change
% Change
Born of the Gods
$49.12
$57.96
($8.84)
-15%
Dragons of Tarkir
n/a
n/a
n/a
Fate Reforged
$70.56
$79.08
($8.52)
-11%
Journey into Nix
$97.56
$103.63
($6.07)
-6%
Khans of Trakir
$67.64
$71.73
($4.09)
-6%
M15
$122.85
$135.13
($12.28)
-9%
Theros
$81.08
$91.46
($10.38)
-11%

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 is the most expensive card around.   That will probably continue until we get Mercadian Masques Reforged.
 

Card
Set
Rarity
 Price
Rishadan Port
 MM
Rare
 $   147.42
Black Lotus
 VMA
Bonus
 $   139.58
Misdirection
 MM
Rare
 $   107.88
Liliana of the Veil
 ISD
Mythic Rare
 $   81.86
Mox Sapphire
 VMA
Bonus
 $   68.66
Wasteland
 TE
Uncommon
 $   67.24
Tarmogoyf
 MMA
Mythic Rare
 $   65.20
Tarmogoyf
 FUT
Rare
 $   63.08
Ancestral Recall
 VMA
Bonus
 $   47.78
Show and Tell
 UZ
Rare
 $   47.25
Force of Will
 MED
Rare
 $   46.69
Griselbrand
 AVR
Mythic Rare
 $   44.98
Time Walk
 VMA
Bonus
 $   42.80
Batterskull
 NPH
Mythic Rare
 $   41.76
Tangle Wire
 NE
Rare
 $   40.96
Vendilion Clique
 MOR
Rare
 $   40.04
Vendilion Clique
 MMA
Mythic Rare
 $   39.41
Mox Opal
 SOM
Mythic Rare
 $   38.78
Containment Priest
 C14
Rare
 $   38.19
Infernal Tutor
 DIS
Rare
 $   37.34
Mox Jet
 VMA
Bonus
 $   37.18
Mox Ruby
 VMA
Bonus
 $   35.73
Hurkyl's Recall
 10E
Rare
 $   34.82
Primeval Titan
 M12
Mythic Rare
 $   34.78
Primeval Titan
 M11
Mythic Rare
 $   33.48
Karn Liberated
 NPH
Mythic Rare
 $   32.62
Force of Will
 VMA
Rare
 $   32.51
True-Name Nemesis
 C13
Rare
 $   30.55
Fulminator Mage
 SHM
Rare
 $   29.83
Mox Pearl
 VMA
Bonus
 $   28.54
Twilight Mire
 EVE
Rare
 $   28.15
Bitterblossom
 MOR
Rare
 $   28.08
Volcanic Island
 ME3
Rare
 $   28.08
Doomsday
 WL
Rare
 $   28.06
Noble Hierarch
 CON
Rare
 $   27.88
Gaea's Cradle
 UZ
Rare
 $   27.79
Mox Emerald
 VMA
Bonus
 $   27.50
Stifle
 SCG
Rare
 $   25.95
Toxic Deluge
 C13
Rare
 $   25.78
Daze
 DD2
Common
 $   25.40
Spellskite
 NPH
Rare
 $   25.16
Daze
 NE
Common
 $   25.14
Dark Depths
 CSP
Rare
 $   25.06
Sneak Attack
 UZ
Rare
 $   25.00

 
The big number is the retail price of a playset (4 copies) of every card available on MTGO. Assuming you bought the least expensive version available, the cost of owning a playset of every card on MTGO you can own is $ 24,590.  That is down about $350 from where we were last week.  
 

Weekly Highlights:

We had paper prereleases this weekend. I ran two events, and the set looks interesting. I may get a chance to play the set next weekend, both online and in my local game store. As for last weekend, I spent most of Monday clearing fence lines. I was working in short sleeves, sweating while cutting brush and coiling barb wire. On Monday, I was shoveling out after almost a foot of snow, while watching some rather confused robins. 
 
In other news, I started watching Rich Hagon’s Downtime series. (Twitch.tv/mtgrich at Wed. 8am Pacific, or on youtube.)   I loved the trivia contest – I got considerably more than half the questions playing along at home. Interesting, and I recommend the series.  Except, maybe, for the Last Laugh section. 
 
PRJ
 
“One Million Words” and “3MWords” on MTGO
 
 
This series is an ongoing tribute to Erik “Hamtastic” Friborg.
 
HammyBot Still Running: 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 10% below retail price. Erik died three years ago, so HammyBot does not include any standard legal cards, but it includes a ton of Masters Edition and Vintage cards, and some nice Modern bargains. 
 

19 Comments

Reimbursement Ban by Rerepete at Fri, 03/27/2015 - 22:15
Rerepete's picture

I got a week ban a few months back for "too many reimbursements" because it was higher than the "average" number of claims.

I only filed for a claim if the client crashed, due to the memory leak known error, during an event (in my case drafts), because on the reimbursement page it says:

"If you encounter an issue with Magic Online, we would like to know about it. If were in a Magic Online tournament, we may be able to reimburse your entry fee to your collection after processing your report."

Each time an ORC reimbursed me (usually very quickly) after submitting my request, so I thought my requests very valid, since their policy states "...MAY..."

After a number such reimbursements, I got locked out for a week with no advance warning of any kind.

After a back and forth conversation with the account specialist, the reasoning given, was that the number of reimbursements was higher than the average player for the number of tournaments played, as well as some claims (that were reimbursed) should not have been. The one example cited, was a draft where the client crashed and I was able to finally rejoin it and win the round it crashed in (even though I was stressed out over the remaining clock left by the time I was finally able to get back on).

In a nutshell, I got banned because: A) The ORCs were not doing their jobs and reviewing the claims BEFORE making a reimbursement; B)They expect the player to be aware of the unwritten rule that if the outcome of your match is not affected by the bug, it is an invalid claim.

I disagree with this whole mindset. I am paying for an enjoyable few hours of entertainment (If I went to a movie and the projector broke, I would expect a refund too). IF there is a problem, I report it; it is their prerogative whether to reimburse (a valid claim) or not. It should not be the player who decides (as the current system operates) if it is a valid claim.

To top this while affair: After my ban, I played a few drafts to use up the remaining packs that I had. In one such, the client crashed, but the (now) wiser me did not submit for reimbursement since the outcome was not affected. After the event was over, I noticed that only the R3 replays were saved (R1 and R2 replays were there during the event when I checked; client crashed during sideboarding after R3G1), so I hit the "Report a Bug" button in the client and filled out a proper bug submission (I've been doing Beta since Alara) detailing the steps leading to the error (ie draft, crash, event ends, replays missing). I even stated that I won the round that the client crashed in. Lo and behold, I was reimbursed entry fee even though I made no request for that. Panicked, I call WotC Customer Service to talk the the account specialist (I definitely did not want a permanent ban) - don't bother, can't get hold of them that way, but they did pass on a message to him to read my latest submission, which he did and no penalty to me this time. He suggested that in future, if I had a bug submission that did not need reimbursement for, to use the "Other" category in the contact us page, rather than the combined reimbursement/bug submission category.

This is actually disgusting. by TugaChampion at Sat, 03/28/2015 - 10:13
TugaChampion's picture

This is actually disgusting. I use refunds a lot as well but I was never contacted saying I was banned for using it too much. But now I fear for my account and cards.

In the past, I had a bad internet connection so I got several refunds because my opp's clock was running and in the end I was the one losing. Obviously after a while I knew I had to reconnect but having to reconnect every time your opp takes 1 minute is very frustrating and it can still be enough to lose you the game by time. Eventually I asked for a refund and they told me they would refund me one last time as a courtesy but it wasn't mtgo that was down so they couldn't refund me anymore.

After this, when I asked for refund, they would always said they had refunded me several times as a courtesy but mtgo wasn't down so they couldn't refund me. It didn't matter what I wrote, I'd always get the same response. Most of those were actually bugs and I would have to respond back and insist to get the situation looked into.

I don't know when, but eventually they corrected that, and I have been gettin refunds when I ask. Again, I ask many refunds, when I think I have the right to get one I do. Obviously I don't know everything and I might ask one that I don't deserve thinking I do deserve.

A long time ago, I think during v2 still (if not, it was early v3), there was an interaction in a Lorwyn draft that I thought was wrong. I asked for a refund and they explained why it worked that way. I understood and it's like asking a judge when you are not sure. I have the right to ask for one if I think it was wrong. Why should anyone be banned without warning if they don't know they are doing something wrong? Most people will assume that getting a refund means they were correct.

And just because you won the match/game, despite the problems, you still deserve a refund, because it caused you problems, you weren't allowed to play the game like expected.

I still ask refunds often because I encounter problems often and I don't even bother asking refunds when I'm playing cube as I have plenty phantom points.

And the refund system is still broken. For limited tournaments it works fine because getting the entry fee + cards + any prizes is good but for constructed tournaments or high stakes tournaments it's horrible. How is it fair that you get 6 tix back after losing the last round to a bug ending up 2-2? Even worse when playing for high stakes.

If they don't want people asking for too many refunds, make the client better, analyze every refund request, give actual help and improve the refund system for constructed and high stakes tournaments.

I am sure it is VERY hard for by thewoof2 at Sat, 03/28/2015 - 10:26
thewoof2's picture

I am sure it is VERY hard for WOTC to differentiate between legitimate and fraudulent reimbursement requests considering all the variables with your equipment (PC, Network, ISP, etc...) and their software which has stability issues at times. Therefore, the notion of looking at users which have considerably more requests than the average seems fine to me. The real issue with your case is miscommunication. First your understanding of when to request reimbursement is whenever anything goes wrong at all submit a request and have WOTC decipher the rules and judge its legitimacy. Seems like a fair thought on your part, except I think most people (I could be wrong here) think about it very differently, I think most say (as I do) if I know the issue is with the WOTC software 100% and it impacted the game results then I submit. Not if I was more rushed and had less fun, but the results were not impacted, like your example - I would have never submitted for that.

The second item which I totally agree with you on, is WOTC has to be more effective in communicating early on with potential issues with a user and cannot assume that you are fraudulent all because your reimbursement requests are higher than average. If they were more proactive they should have told you a while ago that either how you interpret the process on when to request reimbursements is not the same as theirs OR tell you that some requests were invalid and if you kept submitting such requests you would be banned for 1 week. Without this communication WOTC is only making you upset and not correcting the underlying issue which was miscommunication.

The problem with "average" is by Rerepete at Sat, 03/28/2015 - 14:41
Rerepete's picture

The problem with "average" is that by definition, there have to be samples that are above it to make an average.

My specific problem was brought on because I did tournaments very rarely until M15. I never had the client crashing, until they changed the client adding in the pop-out graveyard, exiled, revealed zones.

Also: Please actually read the reimbursement page, nowhere does it say that the outcome has to be affected to put in a request for reimbursement; it says that they may (or may not) reimburse you upon review of your claim. It also encourages you to make the request. Obviously, the ORCs grant the reimbursement without reviewing the claim, many times within minutes of making it.

I personally think that it is completely wrong to suspend someone, especially without warning, for following their written policy to the letter because one (or more) of their employees are not doing their job. If they want only requests when the outcome of the event is altered, then why don't they state that in their policy!

All said, it is what it is. I by Rerepete at Sat, 03/28/2015 - 14:49
Rerepete's picture

All said, it is what it is.

I look at this incident as the cost of gaining wisdom.

I will not play any more tournaments until the client is once again stable. In fact, I don't even have the open client installed; I just play on the closed Beta client. When that becomes stable, I may try another tourney on the main client, but until then MTGO is not getting any more of my $$$.

I speculate that most of the bans were to people rather new to the tournament scene (like I was) with few overall tournaments under their belt.

I understand... What we by thewoof2 at Sat, 03/28/2015 - 15:55
thewoof2's picture

I understand... What we don't know is maybe you were 100% higher than the average, if average of the people ask for reimbursements in 5% of the tourneys they entered but you asked for it 20% then I get it. If average is 5% and you were 6% then it seems less fair. Again I think this is miscommunication by WOTC not you (if what you say is all correct, we obviously don't have their side of the story)...

I can honestly say my request by Rerepete at Sat, 03/28/2015 - 19:32
Rerepete's picture

I can honestly say my request % was very high, given that my computer runs Vista and the memory leak problem is prevalent because Vista has crap memory recouping.

The open client crashed on me in tournies about 2/3rds of the time. Funny thing is the Beta client rarely crashes on me (I think only twice in the last 3 months, and I have logged over a hundred sealeds and drafts).

I have no idea how they would rule the example of the client crashing during drafting and you coming back and winning the event. Probably negatively, but you might lose out on picking money cards?!?!

It is in the past now, I only put it out in response to Pete's wonderment and as a warning (which I never got) to newer players:

Regardless of what WotC's website says, do not submit a request for reimbursement/ bug reporting if your event is affected by a bug unless the outcome was affected.

First thanks for being honest by thewoof2 at Sat, 03/28/2015 - 21:15
thewoof2's picture

First thanks for being honest and bringing this up because it may help others. I can say when I first read 2/3's of the time I said WOW. While I disagree with the way WOTC handled it, I am not sure they will have an issue with any player making this request rate (you must have made a nice penny if you won many of these games on top of the reimbursement). I also bet that is so much above the norm, so they had to intervene somehow (they just did it the wrong way). I think your plans are the way to best handle this, until you can upgrade to a better PC that is...

No, was not a money maker as by Rerepete at Sat, 03/28/2015 - 22:59
Rerepete's picture

No, was not a money maker as I am not a very good player.

All my drafts were swiss KTKx3 and my overall match win % is somewhere around 50%.

I won't give the exact number, as I don't want to encourage "gaming the system", but the time frame was a month.

BTW, my PC is a Q6600 quad core with 4 GB Memory and 1GB GPU

That's at least a tiny bit by Paul Leicht at Sat, 03/28/2015 - 23:43
Paul Leicht's picture

That's at least a tiny bit better than my system. Most of my crashes though are from the deck editor scene not playing.

Also, when you have a problem by TugaChampion at Sat, 03/28/2015 - 17:06
TugaChampion's picture

Also, when you have a problem mas go to "chat with support" and ask an ORC, they always give the same copy pasted message saying something like: "if you believe you lost product, go to link and submit your problem". After that if people ask if they have any idea if they will get a refund they also always give the same response something like "we don't really know".

This is one more thing encouraging you to ask for a refund, even if you are not sure. It's simply ridiculous that something like this could happen without any warning. I would understand banning right away people who built a constructed deck to abuse a bug (there was one that had a creature enchanted with something that caused the opp to timeout without being able to do anything).

The link to the promise about by oraymw at Sat, 03/28/2015 - 00:52
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The link to the promise about leagues now leads to a 404 error :/

I definitely think leagues by Rerepete at Sat, 03/28/2015 - 09:58
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I definitely think leagues are coming, they were fun in the incarnation on closed Beta.

My guess is that they have to make sure it is not too similar to a competing product (IMO, it is not, but I'm no lawyer), so legal is having a look-see.

About the new 6-2-2-2 Queues by rodrigo at Sat, 03/28/2015 - 16:29
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In order to balance out the packs on secondary market.. they should distribute the prizes with mostly journey into nyx packs..
Like:
3 wins gets 6 packs: 2xTHS, 2xBNG, 2xJOU
2 wins gets 2 packs: 1xBNG and 1xJOU

Enough of theros packs flooding the market!!

On Refunds by Jyalt at Sun, 03/29/2015 - 10:28
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I think fixing the bugs and issues would be more productive for WotC instead of banning people for playing the game. It is obvious to me from reading social media, that whatever amount of fraud people are engaging in is low in proportion to the temp bans. Since they are banning based on 'average refunds,' 50% of the the playerbase who are 'above average' stand to have negative experiences. The last thing a smart company wants is for their 'whales', the people who use their product ALL THE TIME and spend tons of money, to leave. I don't think a few extra refunds for big spenders or multi-grinders is a bad policy when the software product itself is in a such a sorry state.

Every time MTGO goes through a new release like v4, they always make passive-aggressive digital policies encouraging people not to play magic. Personally, I admit, when things like this go down, I play less MTGO.

You are making a mistake in by longtimegone at Sun, 03/29/2015 - 19:18
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You are making a mistake in assuming that the fact that they are basing this on average refund % means that anyone above that number is at risk.

More likely, they are looking at people who are at least 2x the average %, so far, everyone who has gotten a ban and given actual examples of their redemption % has been way, way over the average.

But you can't just look at by TugaChampion at Sun, 03/29/2015 - 20:37
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But you can't just look at that. I play mostly DEs followed by swiss cube drafts and sealed release events (70% to 80% are DEs). That means my average tournament has over 3 rounds (swiss drafts I'll always play every round, I might get a bye once in a while and most DEs I play at least 3 rounds).

If you compare that to someone who plays a lot of 2man queues (which I have played in the past but I haven't played in many years), I'll obviously have more average problems per event than that person. And it's not only because of the number of rounds. Sometimes, bigger events crash. Also, a general mtgo crash has a bigger chance to catch a Daily event than 4 2man queues played in a row because you end up having to wait for the other matches to finish.

You also can't ignore that many people actually don't ask for a refund when they had the right to get one. First, it's something that takes too much time (by now, they should have a fast way to do it in game). Some people don't bother asking for it because of that. That's true specially for 2mans or cube drafts. Second, some people are new to MTGO and they don't even know they can ask for a refund or that the problem was worthy of a refund. Or it could even be a problem that they don't notice and they end up not asking.

When I was new to mtgo, I'm pretty sure I missed out on some refunds because of these things.

I agree that my problem has by Rerepete at Sun, 03/29/2015 - 22:03
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I agree that my problem has to do with the length of the event. When I open a fresh client, it is using ~400k RAM. Slowly over time it grows to near 1GB RAM.

It became that to use up the last boosters that I had, I would close the client and restart it between rounds 1 and 2 so it would not crash at the inopportune time of its choosing.

Yeah, to play mtgo, people by TugaChampion at Mon, 03/30/2015 - 05:04
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Yeah, to play mtgo, people not only need to know how to play magic but also know these little tricks that help mitigate problems mtgo has.

If I get dced during a draft (when the internet fails for a moment) sometimes it takes 30 seconds to 1 minute to login, which is more than it should and that's enough to miss at least one pick, especially because sometimes mtgo doesn't tell you it got dced so you end up losing more time there. But what's even more is that after you login, it shows you a screen with the names of the 8 players in the draft for another 30 seconds to 1 minute before taking you back to the draft. That means every dc, is likely to cost you at least 2 picks. To me that is a reason to ask for a refund, and I have in the past because even though it was my internet, it's their fault they haven't fixed these problems yet.

Obviously that can be abused but they have to look at each player individually for this and check how often they dc and see if they dc way more often during drafts than at other times. But if they actually made mtgo frequently check if you are online, if they made mtgo login faster and if they made you go to the draft right away, they could stop refunding for this.