State of the Program for November 24th 2017
Event Crashes: MTGO had some issues early on – possibly due to Iconic Masters, possibly more generic. The client was freezing up during matches.
MTG Arena Closed Beta Launches Dec. 4th: Wizards has said that the alpha playtests were successful, and they are ready to launch the closed beta. The beta will open on a limited basis on December 4
th here.
Play Points for Sale: (from last week) Wizards is now offering Play Points for sale. The bundles include 240 points for $24, which is regular price. You can also buy 480 play points for $45 or 1200 play points for $100. This discount on Play Points is a first. Details are
here (and, yes, that’s a link to Iconic Masters – the announcements are combined.)
GP Portland Round Timing Issues: The scorekeeping software at GP Portland had issues. The software – from Wizards – failed to pair people correctly, which required manual intervention by the scorekeepers. This caused delays. Only mentioning it because we MTGO players have some experience with software glitches.
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 PTQs each weekend, with qualifiers running the three days prior to the PTQ.
Upcoming Events
|
Timing
|
Extended Downtime
|
Nov. 29th
|
No Downtime Scheduled
|
|
Constructed Leagues End (maybe)
|
January 15, 2018
|
Sealed Leagues End
|
January 15, 2018
|
Rivals of Ixalan
|
January 21, 2018
|
Core Set Magic 2019
|
July 20, 2018
|
Commander 2017 details here.
|
November 2017 on MTGO
|
25th Anniversary Edition Masters
|
March 16, 2018
|
Next B&R Announcement
|
January 15, 2018
|
SOI and EMN Redemption Ends
|
April 28, 2018
|
Ixalan Redemption Ends
|
May 23, 2018
|
Rivals of Ixalan Redemption Ends
|
May 23, 2018
|
2018 Magic Online Championship Series
Complete details, including schedule, rules, and which online events qualify you for which online or paper events is
here. Here are the main dates for the next quarter:
Event Date
|
Event Type
|
Event Format
|
Invites
|
Sunday, November 26
|
Monthly
|
Ixalan Sealed
|
February 10 MOCS Playoff
|
Saturday, December 16
|
Monthly
|
Standard
|
February 10 MOCS Playoff
|
Friday, December 29
|
Monthly
|
Ixalan Sealed
|
February 10 MOCS Playoff
|
Saturday, December 30
|
Open
|
Ixalan Sealed
|
Magic Online Championship, Pro Tour Dominaria, PT Challenge at Pro Tour Dominaria
|
Saturday, January 6
|
Open
|
Ixalan Sealed
|
Magic Online Championship, Pro Tour Dominaria, PT Challenge at Pro Tour Dominaria
|
Sunday, January 7
|
Monthly
|
Modern
|
February 10 MOCS Playoff
|
Saturday, January 27
|
Monthly
|
Standard
|
February 10 MOCS Playoff
|
Sunday, January 28
|
Monthly
|
Ixalan-Rivals of Ixalan Sealed
|
February 10 MOCS Playoff
|
Saturday, February 10
|
Playoff
|
Standard
|
Magic Online Championship, Pro Tour Dominaria, PT Challenge at Pro Tour Dominaria
|
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, 8:00 am PT
|
|
Saturday, 10:00 am PT
|
|
Saturday, 12:00 pm PT
|
|
Sunday, 8:00 am PT
|
|
Sunday, 10:00 am PT
|
Flashback, Throwback Standard and CUBE for 2017
Wizards will be offering either a flashback draft league, a flashback Standard gauntlet, a CUBE league or prerelease / Release events each week. Here’s the schedule so far.
Flashback and Such Rotation
|
Begins
|
Ends
|
Iconic Masters
|
November 17th
|
???
|
Standard Gauntlet of Greatness
|
December 6th
|
December 13th
|
Triple Lorwyn
|
December 13th
|
December 20th
|
Vintage Cube
|
December 20th
|
January 15th
|
[time off for Rivals of Ixalan events]
|
January 15th
|
???
|
The Flashback Leagues are still draft, and still you-keep-the-cards. They are 12 TIX / product plus 2 TIX / 120 Play Points. However, they are no longer single elimination. Now you play until you have three wins or two losses. Prizes are 150 play points for three wins and 70 Play points for 2 wins. The leagues run one week.
The Throwback Standard Gauntlet events provide a random choice of prebuilt decks from a past standard environment. These will function like the Pro Tour Gauntlets – you won’t need to own the cards. The entry fee is 10 TIX or 100 Play Points. Prizes are in Play Points: 150 for 3-0, 100 for 2-1, 40 for 1-2 and 10 play points as a bad beats award.
Opinion Section: Future of Magic Online
|
Wizards has added complete sets of Standard-legal sets and expansions to the Treasure Chests. I was really happy to see this. I think this change is really important, and is a very promising for the future of MTGO. And I’m serious about that. In fact, I find it promising enough that I can write an editorial that I drafted back when I first heard about MTG Arena – MTGA for short. Back then, the only way I could conclude the editorial was to recommend selling out. Now – well, I’m not selling out.
Here was my concern:
Wizards had stated that they intended to keep MTGO alive as the place to play eternal formats, Commander, and so forth. I was not sure that such an option would be sustainable. To start, let's assume MTG Arena works as intended and becomes a far better way to play Magic digitally. In that case, players looking to draft, and probably play Standard, are going to head for MTGA. This may well mean that players will stop drafting on MTGO. Not immediately, but over time we will likely see a migration. If MTGA has a better platform, and if drafts on MTGA fire faster and more consistently, then drafters are going to play there. Now Wizards can control this migration by paying out booster packs as prizes for Constructed events, but Wizards has not yet shown any indication that they will do so. My conclusion: if MTGA works as intended, you will draft on MTGA and play older Constructed formats on MTGO.
One big problem with this scenario is that the overwhelming majority of cards in the MTGO card pool were opened in limited events. Drafters bust the packs, then sell off the cards to fund more drafts. It’s been that way since inception. Early on, some dealers did buy and open some packs to meet demand in the very first week of a new set’s release, but the numbers were small and I’m not sure that it still happens. And some players did buy packs just to crack them, but that is really rare on MTGO. The vast, vast majority of cards on MTGO were opened in limited events.
So my question was, if draft and limited events move to MTGA, how will we get cards onto MTGO? Even if you assume MTGO will only be a place to play Modern and older formats, those formats still need cards from the new sets. The Vintage deck I featured in Cutting Edge Tech, below, contains Ixalan cards like Chart a Course. Such new cards have to be available online if MTGO is to continue to be a place to play these older formats.
Up until recently, I have not seen how Wizards planned to address this problem. Wizards had to do something, but we had no indication that Wizards was even thinking about the problem. I have contacted Wizards and asked about the issue, but have not received a response. Now, however, we see the first change. Treasure Chests will contain Standard legal sets. This will make the cards available to players. This approach will have another advantage – it will even out the distribution of rarities. For limited, rarity matters: rare and Mythic cards can be more powerful because they will appear rarely in drafts. In constructed, however, rarity doesn’t matter other than to affect the cost of assembling a constructed deck. If cards are distributed mainly through complete sets as part of prize payouts, then all cards will, eventually, be about equally scares. This does not mean all cards will be the same price. As always, cards in heavy demand will be more expensive. I predict that useful lands from future sets will be the most valuable, regardless of rarity.
You could argue that the changes to redemption timing shows that Wizards has been thinking of this for a while. Back in the day, all Standard legal sets were redeemable. If this were still the case, then too many of the sets from Treasure Chests would be redeemed. This would not grow the online card pool, and could potentially hurt paper card prices. So Wizards shortened the redemption period, and redemption of most Standard sets has ended long before the sets rotated out of Standard. I doubt it is a coincidence that sets began appearing in Treasure Chests just days after the redemption period for the sets ended.
Now this change will not solve all the potential changes and problems that integrating MTGA with MTGO will cause. We still don’t really know how you will acquire cards on MTG Arena, or what will happen to Arena cards that rotate out of Standard. We don’t know whether dealers will be able to operate profitably under MTGO once MTG Arena becomes popular, or whether MTGO could continue to operate without dealers. We have a ton of unanswered questions – but at least we now have one promising sign: a sign that Wizards is thinking about the issues and taking some steps to solve them.
Standard: We had another Standard GPs last week, as two short of 1,700 players converged on Portland. Coverage is
here. The Top 8 had plenty of Energy decks, in various forms, and the expected smattering of Ramunap Red. One of the few new archetypes to show up was Corey Burkhart’s cycling control build.
Modern: I had to head to Europe for a Modern deck this week. It says a lot about the mana bases in Modern that a beatdown deck can run five colors.
Legacy: Here’s another Legacy deck from the fun police. Piloting a deck with Chalice of the Void, Chains of Mephistopheles, Liliana and recurring Wastelands is probably an indication that you hate people, and want them to be miserable. Or maybe just that you will do anything to win.
Vintage: The VSL decks are not yet up, as I write this, so I’ll head to Europe for this week’s featured deck.
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 fell hard petty much across the board. With neither the Pro Tour nor the three GPs this week showing a way to beat Energy, interest in the format is falling.
Standard Cards
|
Price
|
Last Week
|
Change
|
% Change
|
|
$8.25
|
$8.15
|
$0.10
|
1%
|
|
$9.07
|
$8.01
|
$1.06
|
13%
|
|
$7.00
|
$7.73
|
($0.73)
|
-9%
|
|
$35.87
|
$40.04
|
($4.17)
|
-10%
|
|
$8.10
|
$9.09
|
($0.99)
|
-11%
|
|
$10.27
|
$12.38
|
($2.11)
|
-17%
|
|
$8.10
|
$7.83
|
$0.27
|
3%
|
|
$7.89
|
$7.67
|
$0.22
|
3%
|
|
$36.96
|
$42.65
|
($5.69)
|
-13%
|
|
$13.61
|
$15.96
|
($2.35)
|
-15%
|
|
$11.13
|
$13.49
|
($2.36)
|
-17%
|
|
$8.67
|
$12.64
|
($3.97)
|
-31%
|
Modern staples: Modern prices were fluctuating this week but not a lot. Horizon Canopy has been all over the map in the last couple months – this is a “normal” swing for that card.
Modern Cards
|
Price
|
Last Week
|
Change
|
% Change
|
|
$13.12
|
$14.34
|
($1.22)
|
-9%
|
|
$27.42
|
$29.19
|
($1.77)
|
-6%
|
|
$29.10
|
$29.23
|
($0.13)
|
0%
|
|
$34.25
|
$36.06
|
($1.81)
|
-5%
|
|
$18.54
|
$19.26
|
($0.72)
|
-4%
|
|
$16.98
|
$14.67
|
$2.31
|
16%
|
|
$19.50
|
$17.94
|
$1.56
|
9%
|
|
$29.41
|
$28.60
|
$0.81
|
3%
|
|
$23.88
|
$25.61
|
($1.73)
|
-7%
|
|
$19.36
|
$21.00
|
($1.64)
|
-8%
|
|
$36.80
|
$35.85
|
$0.95
|
3%
|
|
$63.86
|
$60.64
|
$3.22
|
5%
|
|
$31.34
|
$32.85
|
($1.51)
|
-5%
|
|
$57.28
|
$55.31
|
$1.97
|
4%
|
|
$22.97
|
$20.70
|
$2.27
|
11%
|
|
$25.83
|
$26.70
|
($0.87)
|
-3%
|
|
$26.14
|
$26.21
|
($0.07)
|
0%
|
|
$20.68
|
$20.31
|
$0.37
|
2%
|
|
$24.33
|
$23.46
|
$0.87
|
4%
|
Legacy and Vintage: Vintage and Legacy prices are back to a more normal level of churn – but a fairly quiet churn again this week.
Legacy / Vintage Cards
|
Price
|
Last Week
|
Change
|
% Change
|
|
$56.17
|
$59.94
|
($3.77)
|
-6%
|
|
$20.69
|
$21.16
|
($0.47)
|
-2%
|
|
$15.36
|
$17.42
|
($2.06)
|
-12%
|
|
$89.88
|
$91.32
|
($1.44)
|
-2%
|
|
$38.00
|
$37.13
|
$0.87
|
2%
|
|
$35.84
|
$37.73
|
($1.89)
|
-5%
|
|
$16.26
|
$18.62
|
($2.36)
|
-13%
|
|
$24.46
|
$24.33
|
$0.13
|
1%
|
|
$28.27
|
$36.23
|
($7.96)
|
-22%
|
|
$40.83
|
$40.83
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
$24.79
|
$25.30
|
($0.51)
|
-2%
|
|
$39.15
|
$38.76
|
$0.39
|
1%
|
|
$74.12
|
$79.21
|
($5.09)
|
-6%
|
|
$19.45
|
$18.84
|
$0.61
|
3%
|
|
$49.66
|
$46.09
|
$3.57
|
8%
|
|
$24.14
|
$24.45
|
($0.31)
|
-1%
|
|
$16.61
|
$19.09
|
($2.48)
|
-13%
|
|
$36.40
|
$35.55
|
$0.85
|
2%
|
* A significantly cheaper promo version of Rishadan Port is available, but I do not include promos prices on the table. MTGO has over 900 promo cards on the list, and occasionally those cards are sold out for months at a time, so their prices do not reflect the market price. I tried checking numbers in stock, but 900+ is too many.
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).
Complete Set
|
Price
|
Last Week
|
Change
|
% Change
|
Aether Revolt
|
$68.23
|
$74.10
|
($5.87)
|
-8%
|
Amonkhet
|
$81.25
|
$84.80
|
($3.55)
|
-4%
|
Ixalan
|
$69.48
|
$74.31
|
($4.83)
|
-6%
|
Hour of Devastation
|
$71.61
|
$80.27
|
($8.66)
|
-11%
|
Kaladesh
|
$111.18
|
$120.69
|
($9.51)
|
-8%
|
Treasure Chest
|
$2.48
|
$2.27
|
$0.21
|
9%
|
Ixalan Booster
|
$2.78
|
$3.14
|
($0.36)
|
-11%
|
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. Nothing is above a hundred bucks. The number of cards on the list is up a bit, but the average value has fallen slightly.
Name
|
Set
|
Rarity
|
Price
|
Exploration
|
UZ
|
Rare
|
$ 89.88
|
Rishadan Port
|
MM
|
Rare
|
$ 74.12
|
Liliana of the Veil
|
MM3
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 65.45
|
Liliana of the Veil
|
ISD
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 63.86
|
Mox Opal
|
MM2
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 62.69
|
Mox Opal
|
SOM
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 60.55
|
Mox Opal
|
MS2
|
Bonus
|
$ 57.28
|
Black Lotus
|
VMA
|
Bonus
|
$ 56.17
|
True-Name Nemesis
|
C13
|
Rare
|
$ 52.38
|
Mox Diamond
|
TPR
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 51.65
|
True-Name Nemesis
|
PZ1
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 49.66
|
Mox Diamond
|
ST
|
Rare
|
$ 45.76
|
Force of Will
|
EMA
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 42.02
|
Force of Will
|
MED
|
Rare
|
$ 41.87
|
Misdirection
|
MM
|
Rare
|
$ 40.83
|
The Scarab God
|
MS3
|
Special
|
$ 40.59
|
Wasteland
|
TE
|
Uncommon
|
$ 40.07
|
Force of Will
|
VMA
|
Rare
|
$ 39.90
|
Mox Sapphire
|
VMA
|
Bonus
|
$ 39.15
|
Force of Will
|
MS3
|
Special
|
$ 38.00
|
Wasteland
|
TPR
|
Rare
|
$ 37.42
|
Karn Liberated
|
NPH
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 37.40
|
The Scarab God
|
HOU
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 36.96
|
Wasteland
|
EXP
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 36.82
|
Karn Liberated
|
MM2
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 36.80
|
Wasteland
|
EMA
|
Rare
|
$ 36.40
|
Chandra, Torch of Defiance
|
KLD
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 35.87
|
Gaea's Cradle
|
UZ
|
Rare
|
$ 35.84
|
Chalice of the Void
|
MMA
|
Rare
|
$ 35.67
|
Dark Depths
|
V16
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 35.62
|
Chalice of the Void
|
MS2
|
Bonus
|
$ 35.53
|
Unmask
|
V16
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 35.32
|
Chalice of the Void
|
MRD
|
Rare
|
$ 34.25
|
Underground Sea
|
ME2
|
Rare
|
$ 31.49
|
Liliana, the Last Hope
|
EMN
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 31.34
|
Engineered Explosives
|
5DN
|
Rare
|
$ 30.67
|
Underground Sea
|
ME4
|
Rare
|
$ 30.38
|
Ensnaring Bridge
|
8ED
|
Rare
|
$ 29.69
|
Horizon Canopy
|
EXP
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 29.64
|
Engineered Explosives
|
MS2
|
Bonus
|
$ 29.59
|
Engineered Explosives
|
MMA
|
Rare
|
$ 29.41
|
Cavern of Souls
|
MM3
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 29.15
|
Celestial Colonnade
|
WWK
|
Rare
|
$ 29.10
|
Scalding Tarn
|
EXP
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 28.50
|
Leovold, Emissary of Trest
|
PZ2
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 28.27
|
Underground Sea
|
VMA
|
Rare
|
$ 27.82
|
Cavern of Souls
|
AVR
|
Rare
|
$ 27.42
|
Gorilla Shaman
|
ALL
|
Common
|
$ 27.12
|
Volcanic Island
|
ME4
|
Rare
|
$ 27.06
|
Ensnaring Bridge
|
ST
|
Rare
|
$ 26.95
|
Ensnaring Bridge
|
7E
|
Rare
|
$ 26.73
|
Tarmogoyf
|
FUT
|
Rare
|
$ 26.33
|
Scapeshift
|
MOR
|
Rare
|
$ 26.14
|
Scalding Tarn
|
ZEN
|
Rare
|
$ 25.92
|
Scalding Tarn
|
MM3
|
Rare
|
$ 25.83
|
Tarmogoyf
|
MMA
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 25.39
|
Tarmogoyf
|
MM3
|
Mythic Rare
|
$ 25.28
|
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 $ 19,600. That’s down $200 from last week.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone – or at least those of you celebrating this week.
PRJ
“One Million Words” 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.