State of the Program for November 7th 2014
In the News:
WARNING – BE VERY CAREFUL WITH THE NEW WIZARDS ACCOUNT SYSTEM: Wizards has created a new account management system that unifies DCI numbers, forum log-ins, customer service requests, etc. The new system requires you to create a complex password and unify disparate accounts. I would recommend that you
log in initially using whatever is most important to you – DCI number, forum ID, etc. Reason – I first discovered the new system when logging into the forums, and I began with that account. It gave me, without asking, a new DCI number and zeroed out my match history and Planeswalker points. I have been working with Wizards customer service for over a week now, and we still have not managed to merge the accounts or restore my match history. (More on that in the
Pete Rants Opinion Section, below.)
MTGO Reimbursement Policy Updated: (repeat from last week) Wizards has changed its rules for reimbursement when your event is affected by a bug. In the past, you were reimbursed for your entry fee (TIX and/or packs) less whatever you had won in the event. Now, if you fill out the reimbursement form and Wizards approves reimbursement, you will get back your entire entry fee, regardless of any packs you may have won. Details
here.
Completely Rebuilt Cube Coming November 19th: Wizards has created a new cube which will debut in a couple weeks. The new cube has been cut to 600 cards by axing the chaff. The new cube is more streamlined, while still adding more than 150 new cards. This redesigned cube – called the Legacy Cube – will be offered a couple times a year, and feature only cards that are Legacy legal. It will alternate with Holiday Cube, which will be powered, include Vintage-only cards, and also appear a couple times a year. Initial details and announcement
here.
Vintage Masters Drafts Returning: Traditionally, Wizards has offered a throwback format to appear opposite Cube drafts. This time around, the throwback will be VMA. It looks like Wizards decided to put up a super-fun format instead of something like Tempest block, or maybe they just want to give Worlds competitors a chance to practice before the event. (At Worlds, competitors will be drafting actual VMA “packs.” That does not mean the Reserve List is gone; just that Wizards will build paper VMA packs using already printed cards bought from dealers where necessary. It’s like Zendikar, where Wizards bought the “treasure” cards on the open market, probably from SCG.) It would be nice to draft paper VMA, but I’ll settle for the online version.
Vintage Changes: Wizards has limited the number of Vintage events – cutting the weekday events. Vintage now runs at 11:30am and 6:30pm, Pacific, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This appears to have worked – the three events I was watching fired last weekend. Wizards has also promised “an exciting Vintage announcement coming soon.”
Wizards looking a Manager of Technical Operations: Wizards has posted a job opening for a manager to oversee the operations center for WotC web and online game operations. Details are
here.
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. Here’s what we know, want or are tracking. This list is getting short, mainly because Wizards is so bad at passing on any information about future products or events. They generally have announced these events a day or two before they happens, which means most players never hear about them, and news compilations (like State of the Program) only hear about them too late to be included. (But big props and a thank you to Wizards for announcing “Spooky Sealed” far enough ahead of time that I could include it. Hopefully it is the start of a trend.)
Item: date it will return and notes
· New Cube: Nov 19th to Dec 10th
· Vintage Masters Drafts: Nov. 19th to Dec 10th
· Limited PTQ Prelims: Nov 5th to Nov 8th
· Limited PTQ Finals: Nov 9th
· Season 11 MOCS Prelims: Nov 5th to Nov 7th (format is Standard)
· Season 11 MOCS Championship: Nov 8th (format is Standard)
· Khans of Tarkir Limited Champs Qualifiers: Nov 12th to Nov 18th
· Khans of Tarkir Standard Champs Qualifiers: Nov 19th to Nov 25th
· Khans of Tarkir Limited Championship Finals: Nov 22nd
· Khans of Tarkir Standard Championship Finals: Nov 29th
· Leagues (2014) Wizards has promised that leagues will return this year. Details
here.
· Commander 2014: (
TODAY) Details
here.
· Modern Masters II: (May of 2015?)
· Fix the Changeling bug in Tribal Wars in Beta: No date yet. Been bugged for 3 months.
Opinion Section: The New Wizards Accounts System
Note: I was really upset when I wrote this, and I wrote a really sarcastic rant. I considered cutting it, but I didn’t. I think it's important to explain the potential problems with Wizards Account Manager, and this does that. However, I was also very sarcastic and engaged in the sort of hyperbole which I usually condemn. So, fair warning – this is an angry rant, not calm and rational reporting. On the plus side, it is funny. If you don’t want to hear it, skip down to the Cutting Edge Tech section. I’ll understand. Otherwise buckle in and let’s get to it.
Now, I try to treat State of the Program like a reporting gig, so I spend time every day trolling online sources for news and info related to MTGO. This includes visiting the Wizards website and the forums. About ten days ago, when I tried to log into the forums, I was redirected to the new
Wizards Account System (or “WAS.”) The new WAS is intended to unify the many log-ins and accounts you may have with Wizards: your forum accounts, DCI number, customer service accounts, RPGA membership, etc. The WAS FAQ is
here. I read the info, then logged in. I was prompted to create a new, more robust password, which I did.
I completely failed to consider one thing. One totally important fact. Wizards had created the new login system.
WIZARDS had written NEW SOFTWARE.
Wizards, the people who created DCI-R, and GleeMax, and MTGO V2 & V3 & V4, and WER, and these
forums, and
this website, had created the software I was logging into.
I completely failed to think this through.
I logged in. I should have remembered that Wizards is incapable of writing quality software. I should have proceeded with all kinds of caution, or just run away screaming. I didn’t. I just logged in and tried creating my account. My first attempt to log in failed, but I was trying to access the forums which have always had finicky log-ins. I tried again using my email address instead of my forum name and this time it worked.
I need to provide some additional history here. I joined the official Wizards forums back around 2000, maybe 2001. I posted a fair amount and was generally active. Around 2006, Wizards changed their forums and website. Wizards was implementing “GleeMax,” which was supposed to be “Facebook for Gamers.” (No, that did not work out.) The website and forums were “updated,” meaning Wizards added green slime across the top of the webpage and broke a lot of features. (That's not hyperbole - that's fact.) One of the things that broke was my account, and after a lot of email exchanges with Wizards customer support, they determined that my account was unrecoverable. I created a new one, with a new nickname. Then, in 2013, Wizards made another forum upgrade which again broke my account. I lost that account, too, but got back my old username. I have also changed the email addresses associated with my accounts (successfully) on occasion. All this meant that the forums had at least three user names and five email addresses for me somewhere in the system.
Anyway, I was logged in – but my user name was now PeteJahn, the name that died in 2013, not PRJ. I could log in to the forums, but my message folder showed only messages from 2006 to mid-2013, and nothing since then. My post count was about an order of magnitude lower than it had been last week. Supposedly, merging my WAS account and the PRJ account could fix that. I clicked on “merge accounts” and entered the login for my PRJ account. That worked – sort of. The program had me log in to both, then gave me the choice of keeping either PeteJahn or PRJ. I clicked the button for PRJ, checked that the right choice was highlighted and clicked confirm. The program merged the accounts – it said – but kept the PeteJahn name and did not restore any of the lost messages and responses. Since a lot of those messages were exchanged with Worth, Mike Turian and other Wizards folks, I was not happy about that. On the plus side, I could edit forum posts I had made under the PRJ tag, even if all the new posts were from PeteJahn. However, the PRJ account log in was now the same as PeteJahn, so I could not try the merge again.
I looked more closely at my profile over in the Wizards Account System. I noticed that I had a new DCI number. I also had zero planeswalker points and no match results history. I tried changing my DCI number. You can’t do that. I tried adding my old DCI number. A Wizards customer service rep had suggested trying "the box under the picture of a DCI card on the Account Details screen." That option will “activate” a DCI number. That box asked me to enter the DCI number and the Activation code shown on the card. I still have the DCI card I got in 2000. That card does not have an Activation Code. Besides, my card is active. I have earned enough Planeswalker Points to be "Level 41," and have judged another 1k+ events. At least, I thought so. The Wizards Account System disagrees.
Next I tried merging accounts using my DCI number. The merge accounts button had worked – sort of – to combine PRJ and PeteJahn. The Merge Accounts pop-up asked for user name and password. I didn’t know if a user name was associated with my old DCI number, so I tried entering the DCI number and the password I use for WER and the Judge Center. WAS seemed to accept that login, but I got an error message stating that the accounts could not be merged and that I should contact customer service.
I contacted customer service, again. I signed in, and noticed that my customer service “My Stuff” tab now showed only those contacts with customer service made this week about this problem, and contacts from 2009 and earlier. The “My Stuff” tab no longer shows any record of the reimbursement requests, bug reports or misconduct reports that I filed in the last five years.
I updated my customer service record with everything that happened and screen shots of the error messages, and asked for help. I got a quick response, explaining again how to combine accounts. I had already tried that, but I did it again, carefully clicking through the instructions. I got the same error message.
I tried logging out, then logging in to WAS from scratch using my old DCI number. That worked at first, and WAS asked me to create a more robust password. However, when I entered the password, the Wizards Account system gave me an error message stating that another account was using the same email address. The error message is a dead end – you cannot proceed from that point.
I sent screenshots of that attempt to Wizards customer service, too. We have exchanged several emails. No real progress – and the latest response says that, because of excessively high volumes, I shouldn’t expect anything for several days. Now I should say that customer service has been of some help. After merging the first two accounts, my name suddenly changed from “Pete Jahn” to “Pete AUG IIXOJahn.” I reported that, and that has been corrected. I should also say that the early responses from customer service were prompt and friendly, even if they didn’t fix the problems.
Here’s my status so far:
· My forums nickname has been changed from PRJ to PeteJahn.
· My official Wizards account shows that I have never played in any sanctioned Magic events.
· The “My Stuff” tab at customer service shows nothing between 2009 and last week.
· I still have access to Judge Center, through my DCI number. That may change when/if access to the Judge Center is linked to the Wizards Account System.
· I still have access to WER, through my DCI number. That may also change.
· I cannot access my Planeswalker Points, or check byes. I think they still exist, since I can get a total on the Planeswalker Points website by entering my DCI number. However, any attempt to log in erases the results.
· My forum post count is now around 120. It was over 1,000. The missing posts do not show up my history log.
· My last two years of messages sent and received are missing.
· And whether or not I check the “Keep Me Logged In” box, Wizards Account System does not keep me logged in.
Wizards, if your system is this sensitive to which initial account is used, you should immediately insert a big pop-up saying “If you have a DCI number, log in using that number.” The downside is that only judges, scorekeepers and TOs have ever logged in to anything using that number, so most people may not know their passwords, but at least try.
The bigger problem is that the system assigned me a new DCI number by default. Why? Wizards, why in the world would you create an account management system that assumes that people active in your forums don’t have DCI numbers? Did you assume that the average active forum member has never played any of your games? If DCI numbers and forum access were being combined for the first time, why didn’t your system ASK FOR THE DCI NUMBER?
Did anyone think about this at all?
Of course not. Management at Wizards is bad at software. They just assign some underpaid people the task and give them too little time and resources to finish the job. And given Wizards' policy of moving people around to give them “cross-training” / a wider experience, the Wizards Account System was probably designed and coded by an artist good at drawing goblins, a warehouse clerk from shipping and the food services supervisor.
I did mention that I would engage in sarcasm and hyperbole, right? That last paragraph might have contained a smidgen of that stuff.
I don’t know whether my experience is common or not. The emails I got from customer service read like form letters (and I got the same one twice, initially and after my first reply.) I got an “extreme volumes, expect delays” answer to my latest update submission. That’s weak evidence that the problem might be widespread - those emails could be caused by something else. I have also read some comments in the forums from others that have had similar problems. But that’s not really data – anecdotes are not evidence. But it is cause for concern.
I’m hoping this problem isn’t widespread, or persistent, but Wizards can’t seem to fix my account. I also really hope this doesn’t mess up the DCI numbers database, but the fact that Wizards Account System is supposed to be the new way to get new DCI numbers has me worried. All paper events run off DCI numbers. Wizards Account System also appears to have affected Planeswalker Points, or at least the ability to confirm Planeswalker Points – and Planeswalker Points grant byes at Grand Prix. Having that messed up is bad. What’s worse is that SCG has planned the largest Grand Prix of all time, to happen in ten days. They expect 5,000+ players. If the Wizard Account Management system has screwed up GP registration and/or Planeswalker Point byes – oh my gawd.
I feel like the look-out on the Titanic, spotting the iceberg. I really, really hope I am wrong, but – we are talking about version 1 of software designed by Wizards.
Wizards has ten days - seven when this is posted - to make sure that the scorekeepers can actually set up GP NJ, and that people get the byes they deserve. I so hope Wizards can do it. If not – well, GPs always bring in the most talented scorekeepers in the world, but a 5000 player tournament where scorekeepers have to manually enter the byes? That’s a really BIG iceberg.
Well, I’m not enraged anymore, just depressed.
I was thinking that Wizards should produce a dirt simple piece of code, just to show they can get something right. Something like the first program I wrote on my Commodore 64, which made the computer type out “Hello” when I hit enter. Or maybe not. If Wizards wrote a Hello.exe program, it would probably swear at you, reformat your hard drive, then delete all the vowels on the Internet and activate
SkyNet.
Ah, I think a little sarcasm slipped into that last paragraph, too.
Okay, time to calm down.
To close, I just want to address one request to Wizards. Wizards, please, just once, hire enough programmers at salaries necessary to get really skilled people, then look at the results. It might surprise you. If you hire enough programmers, paying what it takes to get good ones, and fix MTGO, I will be willing to pay 3 TIX plus product for every draft from here forward. I’ll promise to draft twice as much as I do now, and play in at least three more DEs per month. I also promise to earn store rewards every month, if you just start staffing your programming teams adequately and fix the program.
Wizards, please try it. Just once.
And, when you have a minute, can I get my account fixed?
Cutting Edge Tech:
Standard: The new deck this week comes from the SCG Standard Open in Oakland. Jeskai Aggro and Jeskai combo have gotten together and produced a baby. Here she is – aged one week:
Modern: I looked through the entire
Top 32 of the SCG Modern Premier IQ last weekend in Oakland. Jeskai combo was not to be found. Instead, the event was dominated by fast decks: Affinity, Bogles, Infect and various burn decks, plus a smattering of other combos like Splinter Twin and Scapeshift. Birthing Pod was absent.
Pauper: I think the Pauper filter is fixed, but I haven’t checked. Last week’s decks were interesting, but Hymn to Tourach is not going to stay Pauper legal. This week’s offering looks legal.
Khans Block: Wizards has started running KTK block events. I’m seeing Temur and Jeskai decks doing well, but the format is still in its early days. And this week I found another clan build that managed to go 4-0.
Abzan
kuhon0626, 4-0, KTK Block Constructed Daily #7620508 on 11/02/2014
1 Blossoming Sands
3 Forest
4 Jungle Hollow
1 Plains
4 Sandsteppe Citadel
4 Scoured Barrens
4 Swamp
4 Windswept Heath
3 Anafenza, the Foremost
4 Heir of the Wilds
4 Rakshasa Deathdealer
4 Siege Rhino
3 Wingmate Roc
4 Abzan Charm
1 Bitter Revelation
2 Debilitating Injury
4 Despise
2 Murderous Cut
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2 Utter End
2 Bitter Revelation
2 Debilitating Injury
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Utter End
3 End Hostilities
2 Hooded Hydra
1 Incremental Growth
3 Suspension Field
Legacy: SCG ran a Legacy Open last weekend. The
Top 8 had a nice mix of decks, with two varieties of Delver and six other archetypes. The winner – well, it appears people were not packing enough hate, because this menace shows up if people skimp.
Vintage: The
Vintage Super League is in the Top 4 playoffs, with LSV, Steve Menendian, Eric Froehlich and David Williams. This week @efropoker beat @dwpoker. Even though he lost, Dave Williams had an interesting build featuring Chains of Mephistopheles maindeck. Chains plus Dack Fayden is a combo your opponent will not enjoy.
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 disappointed.
Standard staples: Standard prices have pretty much shaken out. This week’s movement is all pretty minor, other than a slow drop in Dig Through Time now that enough copies have been opened. Until a new archetype shakes up the format, these prices should stay about where they are.
|
Standard & Block Cards
|
Price
|
Last Week
|
Change
|
% Change
|
|
|
$16.08
|
$17.90
|
($1.82)
|
-10%
|
|
|
$26.15
|
$24.33
|
$1.82
|
7%
|
|
|
$9.17
|
$9.03
|
$0.14
|
2%
|
|
|
$14.88
|
$13.56
|
$1.32
|
10%
|
|
|
$4.73
|
$6.09
|
($1.36)
|
-22%
|
|
|
$11.72
|
$11.71
|
$0.01
|
0%
|
|
|
$18.26
|
$21.50
|
($3.24)
|
-15%
|
|
|
$17.88
|
$14.86
|
$3.02
|
20%
|
|
|
$17.71
|
$17.71
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$7.34
|
$7.14
|
$0.20
|
3%
|
|
|
$20.39
|
$15.12
|
$5.27
|
35%
|
|
|
$19.23
|
$20.72
|
($1.49)
|
-7%
|
|
|
$15.27
|
$15.94
|
($0.67)
|
-4%
|
|
|
$5.50
|
$6.17
|
($0.67)
|
-11%
|
|
|
$15.04
|
$17.03
|
($1.99)
|
-12%
|
|
|
$15.17
|
$17.44
|
($2.27)
|
-13%
|
|
|
$12.13
|
$12.22
|
($0.09)
|
-1%
|
|
|
$19.37
|
$18.36
|
$1.01
|
6%
|
|
|
$9.40
|
$11.00
|
($1.60)
|
-15%
|
Modern staples: Modern prices oscillated a bit, but the overall trend was up. Some of the decks that did surprisingly well recently, like Bogles, pushed their component cards.
|
Modern Cards
|
Price
|
Last Week
|
Change
|
% Change
|
|
|
$37.08
|
$35.38
|
$1.70
|
5%
|
|
|
$9.81
|
$10.62
|
($0.81)
|
-8%
|
|
|
$20.18
|
$20.18
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$16.07
|
$15.76
|
$0.31
|
2%
|
|
|
$16.57
|
$16.68
|
($0.11)
|
-1%
|
|
|
$21.44
|
$20.37
|
$1.07
|
5%
|
|
|
$21.20
|
$19.95
|
$1.25
|
6%
|
|
|
$15.62
|
$11.96
|
$3.66
|
31%
|
|
|
$17.32
|
$17.32
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$49.46
|
$49.46
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$27.19
|
$29.82
|
($2.63)
|
-9%
|
|
|
$67.27
|
$77.48
|
($10.21)
|
-13%
|
|
|
$23.10
|
$23.10
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$53.18
|
$53.87
|
($0.69)
|
-1%
|
|
|
$32.53
|
$34.53
|
($2.00)
|
-6%
|
|
|
$17.87
|
$18.16
|
($0.29)
|
-2%
|
|
|
$47.14
|
$39.58
|
$7.56
|
19%
|
|
|
$23.60
|
$20.54
|
$3.06
|
15%
|
|
|
$17.73
|
$15.22
|
$2.51
|
16%
|
|
|
$80.64
|
$80.64
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$21.65
|
$22.45
|
($0.80)
|
-4%
|
|
|
$48.20
|
$50.54
|
($2.34)
|
-5%
|
|
|
$16.40
|
$16.84
|
($0.44)
|
-3%
|
Legacy / Vintage: Legacy and Vintage prices are down this week. The big impact seems to be Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time. These cards make cards like Wasteland and Tarmogoyf far worse, and Dig has largely replaced Dark Confidant. Treasure Cruise has also meant that Delver decks are now far better than Sneak and Show and the like. As for VMA – the announcement that VMA drafts are coming back is affecting the price of power.
|
Legacy / Vintage Cards
|
Price
|
Last Week
|
Change
|
% Change
|
|
|
$67.09
|
$71.70
|
($4.61)
|
-6%
|
|
|
$171.95
|
$181.36
|
($9.41)
|
-5%
|
|
|
$25.29
|
$22.39
|
$2.90
|
13%
|
|
|
$28.74
|
$28.74
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$31.48
|
$27.63
|
$3.85
|
14%
|
|
|
$9.55
|
$9.95
|
($0.40)
|
-4%
|
|
|
$36.90
|
$34.80
|
$2.10
|
6%
|
|
|
$33.47
|
$33.47
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$20.97
|
$22.24
|
($1.27)
|
-6%
|
|
|
$31.41
|
$35.36
|
($3.95)
|
-11%
|
|
|
$23.77
|
$24.25
|
($0.48)
|
-2%
|
|
|
$20.80
|
$19.35
|
$1.45
|
7%
|
|
|
$13.31
|
$14.56
|
($1.25)
|
-9%
|
|
|
$98.91
|
$101.52
|
($2.61)
|
-3%
|
|
|
$54.78
|
$56.78
|
($2.00)
|
-4%
|
|
|
$76.92
|
$84.95
|
($8.03)
|
-9%
|
|
|
$8.17
|
$7.89
|
$0.28
|
4%
|
|
|
$145.77
|
$145.77
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$47.38
|
$47.38
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$40.51
|
$40.51
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$51.93
|
$52.93
|
($1.00)
|
-2%
|
|
|
$38.32
|
$38.32
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$18.08
|
$15.77
|
$2.31
|
15%
|
|
|
$34.88
|
$34.88
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$82.57
|
$89.12
|
($6.55)
|
-7%
|
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 price of one of everything set currently available in the store, excluding sets that are not draftable.
|
Complete Set
|
Price
|
Last Week
|
Change
|
% Change
|
|
Born of the Gods
|
$77.60
|
$73.20
|
$4.40
|
6%
|
|
Journey into Nix
|
$149.20
|
$140.14
|
$9.06
|
6%
|
|
Khans of Tarkir
|
$111.24
|
$125.46
|
($14.22)
|
-11%
|
|
M15
|
$161.00
|
$148.17
|
$12.83
|
9%
|
|
Theros
|
$121.35
|
$117.53
|
$3.82
|
3%
|
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. Black Lotus continues to lead the pack, while Rishadan Port drops back a bit. What is more interesting is what Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time are doing to the format. Tarmogoyf and Wasteland are worse in a format relying on dredge cards, so they are down. Overall, thought, the list itself is shorter.
|
Name
|
Rarity
|
Set
|
Price
|
|
Black Lotus
|
B
|
VMA
|
$ 171.95
|
|
Rishadan Port
|
R
|
MM
|
$ 145.77
|
|
Misdirection
|
R
|
MM
|
$ 98.91
|
|
Wasteland
|
U
|
TE
|
$ 82.57
|
|
Tarmogoyf
|
M
|
MMA
|
$ 81.33
|
|
Tarmogoyf
|
R
|
FUT
|
$ 80.64
|
|
Mox Sapphire
|
B
|
VMA
|
$ 76.92
|
|
Liliana of the Veil
|
M
|
ISD
|
$ 67.27
|
|
Ancestral Recall
|
B
|
VMA
|
$ 67.09
|
|
Force of Will
|
R
|
MED
|
$ 55.59
|
|
Mox Jet
|
B
|
VMA
|
$ 54.78
|
|
Mox Opal
|
M
|
SOM
|
$ 53.18
|
|
Time Walk
|
B
|
VMA
|
$ 51.93
|
|
Vendilion Clique
|
M
|
MMA
|
$ 51.33
|
|
Griselbrand
|
M
|
AVR
|
$ 49.46
|
|
Vendilion Clique
|
R
|
MOR
|
$ 48.20
|
|
Show and Tell
|
R
|
UZ
|
$ 47.38
|
|
Scalding Tarn
|
R
|
ZEN
|
$ 47.14
|
|
Mox Ruby
|
B
|
VMA
|
$ 45.33
|
|
Sneak Attack
|
R
|
UZ
|
$ 40.51
|
|
Mox Emerald
|
B
|
VMA
|
$ 38.95
|
|
Tangle Wire
|
R
|
NE
|
$ 38.83
|
|
True-Name Nemesis
|
R
|
C13
|
$ 38.32
|
|
Mox Pearl
|
B
|
VMA
|
$ 37.75
|
|
Batterskull
|
M
|
NPH
|
$ 37.08
|
|
Force of Will
|
R
|
VMA
|
$ 36.90
|
|
Toxic Deluge
|
R
|
C13
|
$ 35.63
|
|
Undiscovered Paradise
|
R
|
VI
|
$ 34.88
|
|
Gaea's Cradle
|
R
|
UZ
|
$ 33.47
|
|
Noble Hierarch
|
R
|
CON
|
$ 32.53
|
|
Lion's Eye Diamond
|
R
|
MI
|
$ 32.03
|
|
Daze
|
C
|
NE
|
$ 31.48
|
|
Hurkyl's Recall
|
R
|
10E
|
$ 31.41
|
|
Infernal Tutor
|
R
|
DIS
|
$ 30.34
|
|
Craterhoof Behemoth
|
M
|
AVR
|
$ 29.19
|
|
Tezzeret the Seeker
|
M
|
ALA
|
$ 29.09
|
|
Daze
|
C
|
DD2
|
$ 28.96
|
|
Dark Depths
|
R
|
CSP
|
$ 28.74
|
|
Entreat the Angels
|
M
|
AVR
|
$ 28.46
|
|
Karn Liberated
|
M
|
NPH
|
$ 27.19
|
|
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
|
M
|
WWK
|
$ 27.14
|
|
Brimaz, King of Oreskos
|
M
|
BNG
|
$ 26.15
|
|
City of Traitors
|
R
|
EX
|
$ 25.29
|
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 $ 25,460. That’s up about $200 from where we were last week.
Weekly Highlights:
I have managed to get some Khans drafts in, but I am having real problems with the format. Some of it seems to be mulligans – I am playing 18 lands, but have seen a ridiculous number of mulls to 5, or even 4, because I cannot find lands. Really, though, I just haven’t learned the format. I am playing nothing but Swiss drafts now, and am still seeing 1-2 results. Best of all, Wizards brought back ELO ratings just in time for me to see my ratings hit their lowest point since I started playing. Seriously, I dipped below 1600 for the first time in a decade. Now some of that was due to bugged drafts that I was compensated for, but still – I just suck at this format.
PRJ
“one million words” 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 over 23,000 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.
23 Comments
I merged my two accounts without contacting Wizards. It took two tries and three days but it was all automated.
Don't worry about the sarcasm and hyperbole, it's hard to countain ourselves sometimes and you have done it well in the past. There are certain things that really get to us and we are paying costumers, we deserve to be well treated.
Hymn to Tourach isn't Pauper legal online.
anymore
I got to keep the same forum account and its associated history. But I have a new DCI#. Lots of back and forth with customer support (and a very long phone call) and the problem still hasn't been resolved. I'm going to give up on merging, I don't want to risk losing my ~20 year old DCI# nor my 12 year old forum account.
Snafu....ugly but true. Sorry you got tangled in that Pete. I think I managed to avoid that mess by not merging. But I am not one to swear that that is the case. My DCI number still gives valid data so that's something.
Will WOTC fix this eventually? Probably. But the damage done is considerable and probably irreversible. :/
"Vintage Changes: Wizards has noted that Vintage events are not firing, and that players are unhappy to be waiting for events only to have them fail. The immediate response is that Wizards will limit Vintage to six events, at 11:30am and 6:30pm, Pacific time, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. However, Wizards has also promised “an exciting Vintage announcement coming soon.” No further details, but I talk about Vintage and saving formats in the opinion section, below."
Can anyone confirm if in the past week we already had this in effect? Because I think it was already restricted to weekend events but there were 3 events each day. For me it was 7.30PM, 10.30PM and 2.30AM. I could play the first two but not the third one. Now this week there's only the first and the third one meaning for Europeans we can only realistically play the first one. The first one didn't fire today so without the second I simply won't be able to play. This is worse than I thought and I hope they give us back the other one.
The exciting Vintage announcement is return of VMA drafts for 3 weeks (between November 19 to December 10)
I think this is the last thing we need right now. Market is already flooded with VMA cards and their value holds no stability.
I doubt that is the exciting vintage announcement because it simply is not exciting at all and they have returned drafts formats all the time, there is nothing special in this.
https://twitter.com/MagicOnline/status/529754913698365440
Here, it is confirmed at twitter by Alison (Magic Online account) that the exciting vintage announcement is the return of VMA drafts.
What a major let down...
% 100 agree. I was expecting to see something like; Vintage leagues and following Vintage Super league...
I'd be very surprised if we see leagues before the second quarter of next year.
I was expecting a big tournament with cool prizes. Maybe some promos that don't exist yet. Maybe the best wouldn't be power9 but stuff that is too expensive right now like Daze, Wasteland and Misdirection.
I am not in the least bit surprised. I saw a few Wizards high ups attempting damage control on Facebook in response to people posting problems there, trying to help as best they were able. But yeah. Wizards + computer program = core incompetency.
At this point, it seems to me that the thing with them is:
Wizards + designing Magic cards/sets = very, very good
Wizards + doing anything else at all in the human society = appalling incompetency
They should maybe consider moving MaRo to run the other departments for a couple years.
I can access my account details, my planeswalker points, tournament history etc. I am totally locked out of forums. When I try and view forums without logging in it redirects to a login page and keeps on redrawing that page until I'm forced to kill the browser. I was mad for a day. I am mad that all I get from customer support for a week is an automated email. Euro customers don't apparently rate a phone support line. Now I'm past caring, I didn't really feel valued by wotc much on the forums since twitter seems to be the new spiritual home of mtgo community anyway. My down on wotc has made me decide not to buy into commander 14 for the time being.
Does that make those of us who don't tweet much spiritually homeless?
All joking aside that sounds quite aggravating. I hope they redress this soon.
I'm not so fond of twitter, I have tweeted just the once so far. What I dislike is the unstructured nature of it. Even on the mtgo channel it's full of irrelevant chaff that I wouldn't bother to read if it was structured into threads as on a forum.
Yeah the same here. I dislike it also because of the time element. Aside from the absolute time wasting of reading irrelevant posts, waiting for replies, posting and generally needing a device (and being stuck to it like glue) make the whole thing onerous and tedious. Not my cuppa. With facebook, I spend a little time reading my feed, responding to those posts I like, post things occasionally (mostly songs and art but sometimes political or social topics and an occasional public display of ire/angst.)
But the whole idea of social media is like something really bizarre out of Orwell's 1984. I make that connection mainly because of the social engineering aspect but also because of the information leak aspect.
The very first game of MtG that I played against was a powered chains deck. Once I wrapped my head around that card, I was hooked on the game.
Wizards finally corrected the classic color indicators of ME Dual Lands. But it seems, in the process they broke the backgroud color indicators of Artifacts & Lands from M15, KtK and C14 sets.
They all look like bleached...
The changeling bug is now officially 'Known issue, no ETA on a fix.'