The State of the Program for November 8th 2013
This series is an ongoing tribute to Erik “Hamtastic” Friborg.
In the News this Week:
Slow news week this week. Wizards did not post anything in the weekly blog update (correction – the link on the info page is just busted.)
Dates for MOCS Final Events for 2013 Announced: Wizards posted an article about the MOCS, so if there is anything you want to know about the events, go here. The 2013 Series is winding down, but Wizards did give us dates for the Last Chance Qualifiers and PotY event:
· MOCS Player of the Year December 14, 2013, at 11:00 AM PST
· MOCS Last Chance Qualifier 1 December 21, 2013, at 11:00 AM PST
· MOCS Last Chance Qualifier 2 December 28, 2013, at 11:00 AM PST
MTGOnline.com is now MTGO.com: The Magic Online has a news and information page. It has a long and complex
URL, but
MTGO.com is a ton simpler. MTGOnline.com also works, and will continue to redirect you to the News and Updates page. Wizards gave
Mtgotraders.com special thanks for helping Wizards in acquiring the short URL.
Community wins the R&D Hydra Challenge: The
Face the Hydra Challenge Preliminaries and main event are over. The Community wins – apparently in a clean sweep. Since our champions are victorious, all players who were logged in between October 4 and November 6 will receive a Hydra Avatar. Congrats, players.
Commander 2013 Arriving in December: (a repeat, but relevant) The
Commander 2013 set will not appear online until about 6 weeks after it is released in paper. That means we cannot play with these cards in Legacy and/or Classic until then. Cards from these Commander decks were played in both formats during Eternal Weekend, including
True-Name Nemesis in the winning Vintage deck. This trend will continue:
Jace vs. Vraska, the next duel deck, will arrive in paper in March, but not appear online until May.
Redemption Bug: Wizards had some problems processing some redemption orders last week. The failed redemptions were supposed to happen during this week’s downtime. Since I am writing this before the downtime ends, I don’t know if it happened, but we can hope. Details
here.
Limited Resources Kickstarter Funded: Years ago, Ryan Spain wrote some great articles for this website. Later still, he and Marshall Sutcliff created the Limited Resources podcast. That podcast has boomed, despite Wizards repeatedly hiring cohosts to work on MTGO. Marshall tried a kickstarter campaign to support the podcast. It was successful. Details
here.
HammyBot Update: It’s still around, and still a great way to get cards and support the family of the late Erik Friborg. So far, Hammybot has raised almost 6,200 TIX! Keep it going! Hammybot still has 25,525 cards to sell, including a number of foil Mythics. That includes a very pretty
Foil, Lorwyn block Vendilion Clique If you want a Legacy, Classic and Vintage staple, grab the Clique. You will get a great card, and help out Hammy’s family through HammyBot. It’s good value.
Opinion Section: Time and MTGO
A caveat: I am basing this on my own experiences, not on a statistically valid, double blind study. I may or may not be representative of the community as a whole, or of a significant portion thereof. In other words, I think this is true, but maybe I’m just weird.
I should be one of MTGO’s better customers. I have disposable income. I love Magic. I live almost an hour from the nearest local game store. More importantly, I am not quite good enough to play a lot without sinking money into the game, either at the store or at
MTGOTraders.com.
The problem is that they don’t have a product that I can buy. They haven’t crafted something that works for me. And since I suspect that I am hardly unique, that means Wizards is leaving a fair amount of money on the table.
The problem is time. On a typical day, I get up about 5am (for those of you with a more normal life, shift this a couple hours forward.) I get up, get cleaned up and dressed, run the dogs, get breakfast. I do some work on the computer for an hour or two, then commute to work, spend 8-10 hours in the office, another commute, dogs, dinner, and so forth. Other stuff usually eats an hour or so in the evenings, and I sometimes work at home. All this leaves very little time for MTGO. Worse, the time I have is in small chunks. I could, and sometime do, spend an hour or so playing computer games (or writing these articles) in the mornings, and can sometimes find a couple hours in the evening. I often have interruptions in those available hours – for example, last evening, I had 45 minutes before dinner, then ate a nice meal that I could not / did not want to eat in front of a computer. After dinner, Ingrid and I had a little under 2 hours on the computers before taking the dogs out and crashing.
I could have played MTGO for almost 4 hours yesterday. But what were my options.
Premier events were out. Daily events, even assuming one fired in a format I wanted to play at a time I want to play were out – a four round Daily takes a bit under 4 hours for constructed, and over 4 hours for sealed (because of the time for deck construction.)
I could have played in a draft, provided I was eliminated in round one, but that is not really appealing. I have started drafting an hour or two before my normal bedtime, but I have too often had a slow draft, followed by three rounds against players that are multi-queuing. I hate that. When in that situation, I am tired, frustrated, and angry. I know I won’t be at my best (worst case, not even awake) at work the next day, and the opponent is keeping me up because he is too much of a jackwagon to play attention to the game we are playing.
I get crabby when I’m tired. Sorry. However, the late-night draft experience has been bad enough that I don’t draft late at night unless I really love the format – and rarely then.
What does that leave? One-on-one play. I could play constructed formats, either in the casual play areas, or in the two-man queues. At present, though, I do not have a decent Standard collection. I generally try to build that playing limited, but I have not had time to draft. The tournament practice room is okay, but I face a mix of underpowered decks and net decks, leading to a lot of uneven games. More importantly, with nothing on the line, the experience is not all that satisfying. Too often, in tournament practice, games are decided because my collection is better, or worse, than my opponent, or because my opponent just quits. Not satisfying.
The two man queues have fewer quitters, but without many Theros cards, I’m not winning much. Sure, I could just buy mono-red for a couple TIX, but I’ll draft into those cards someday…
What I want is leagues. Not the old leagues, from back under v2.5. Those did allow you to play limited one match at a time, whenever you wanted, throughout the month. However, those old leagues were just sealed, had a bad prize structure and the tiebreaker system meant that most of the time you faced just the really stupid decks built from the luckiest card pools. What would really fit me is not exactly old leagues, but a fixed version, in both limited and constructed. I would be all over that.
Online games come in a number of flavors. MTGO requires time commitments, the serious tournaments at least, in multi-hour chunks. Angry Birds, Sudoku or Facebook games let you spend a couple minutes playing, when you have time. Games like Guild Wars 2 or WoW let you play for an hour or so, here and there. Right now, I am playing more Guild Wars 2 than MTGO, but MTGO could have my time and money again if it just gives me a way to play that fits my life.
Or maybe I will just go buy mono-red.
Quick note: I’m not dissing any of the existing formats, and I’m certainly not disparaging anyone who wants to play them – and that includes everyone that plays in the casual rooms. I just noticed that I am not playing much MTGO this month, and that is directly tied to not having time for the events I want to play.
Another note: I will get to play in a Theros sealed PTQ this weekend. Wish me luck: I am going to need a lot of it. I have not had a chance to practice at all. I think I have played in one sealed and a small handful of drafts since the paper prerelease.
Good thing the format is not complex or anything. ;)
Cutting Edge Tech:
Standard: The biggest Standard tournament last week was GP Santiago, won by a player who learned Magic a year ago. The winning deck was also new – a BR aggro deck that used Mogis Marauder to run past defenses. Coverage of the surprisingly large GP is
here.
Hero’s Path Standard: This is a new format created as part of the prerelease and release events. Wizards has added eight Hero’s Path Daily events to the calendar. The format is basically Standard, but with two Hero’s Path avatars as the 61st and 62nd cards. The new client includes a filter for the format. The events are firing, but not by much.
Gr Beats
Toastmachine, Winner, Hero’s Path Daily #6210780 on 11/02/2013
10 Forest
4 Mountain
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Stomping Ground
1 Arbor Colossus
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Elvish Mystic
3 Kalonian Hydra
4 Polukranos, World Eater
3 Reverent Hunter
4 Scavenging Ooze
2 Voyaging Satyr
4 Act of Treason
1 Avatar - The Harvester
1 Avatar - The Warrior
3 Domri Rade
2 Garruk, Caller of Beasts
1 Arbor Colossus
1 Destructive Revelry
1 Flames of the Firebrand
1 Ghor-Clan Rampager
2 Hunt the Hunter
2 Mistcutter Hydra
1 Nylea, God of the Hunt
1 Nylea's Disciple
2 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
3 Wasteland Viper
Modern: The main Modern events are now on MTGO. The most recent (as I write this) had four 4-0 decks: Scapeshift, Tron, Affinity and Soul Sisters. That last one has not been featured for a while, so take a look.
Pauper: Pauper is doing quite well online. The most recent Pauper Daily had a lot of players – enough that eight players went undefeated. That means at least 128 players entered the tournament. UB Control ended up atop the heap.
UB Control
Theros Block Constructed: We had another
TBC Premier event last weekend, with another round of decks. This time the winner was a UG deck that used Prophet of Kruphix. The rest of the Top 8 had a lot of RG, black devotion and so forth. Details
here. (No special layout for this one - the decklist display editor doesn't recognize Theros cards, yet, and I am not going to build it manually.)
UG Prophet
BBD, Winner, THS Block Constructed Premier #6210831 on 11/04/2013
9 Forest
7 Island
2 Temple of Abandon
3 Temple of Deceit
4 Temple of Mystery
4 Boon Satyr
3 Horizon Chimera
4 Polukranos, World Eater
4 Prognostic Sphinx
3 Prophet of Kruphix
4 Sedge Scorpion
4 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Bident of Thassa
4 Dissolve
4 Voyage's End
2 Annul
2 Bident of Thassa
1 Bow of Nylea
2 Curse of the Swine
2 Fade into Antiquity
2 Hunt the Hunter
1 Nylea, God of the Hunt
2 Sea God's Revenge
1 Thassa, God of the Sea
Legacy: The Legacy Championship took place last weekend. Coverage is
here. Ari Lax took down the event with Death and Taxes, a white weenie build with Stoneforge Mystic and tricks like activating Mangara of Corondor, then blinking it with Flickerwisp. (That does exile the opponent’s card, but leave Mangara around to do it again. Mangara / Karakas also works.) Death and Taxes beat a UR Delver deck with Young Pyromancer in the finals.
Vintage: Eternal Weekend also featured the new face of the Vintage World Championship. Coverage is
here. Creature decks were a bigger part of the metagame than any time since the rise of BBS and Keeper. More importantly, Stax was not that big a thing. The Top 8 included Oath, 4 Color Control, Dredge, Storm (although not really Burning Long), Merfolk, “Blue Angels” and two copies of RUG. Merfolk won.
Card Prices:
Notes: All my prices come from
MTGOTraders.com. For cards that are available in multiple sets, I am quoting the lower price. Thus, the price I’m quoting for Thoughtseize is generally the Theros price. In certain other cases (e.g Brainstorm) I will note which version I track. All these cards are generally available from the
MTGOTraders Bots, so check out mtgotradersbot, mtgotradersbot2, mtgotradersbot3, mtgotradersbot4, mtgotradersbot5, CardCaddy and CardWareHouse, as well as from
the website directly. Now, on to prices.
Standard prices are jumping around a bit, apparently based on what is being played and not played. The consistent losers are cards like Hero’s Downfall and Nykthos – Theros rares which were in short supply, but now aren’t. Odds are I’ll take Nykthos off the list next week: I don’t waste time tracking cards under the price of a pack.
|
Standard & Block Cards
|
Price
|
Last Week
|
Change
|
% Change
|
|
|
$6.35
|
$7.36
|
($1.01)
|
-14%
|
|
|
$9.40
|
$9.63
|
($0.23)
|
-2%
|
|
|
$8.20
|
$7.91
|
$0.29
|
4%
|
|
|
$17.86
|
$15.35
|
$2.51
|
16%
|
|
|
$8.00
|
$8.24
|
($0.24)
|
-3%
|
|
|
$20.82
|
$23.19
|
($2.37)
|
-10%
|
|
|
$15.15
|
$16.09
|
($0.94)
|
-6%
|
|
|
$7.04
|
$7.30
|
($0.26)
|
-4%
|
|
|
$17.64
|
$18.84
|
($1.20)
|
-6%
|
|
|
$5.66
|
$7.17
|
($1.51)
|
-21%
|
|
|
$32.25
|
$30.05
|
$2.20
|
7%
|
|
|
$6.54
|
$7.63
|
($1.09)
|
-14%
|
|
|
$10.51
|
$8.51
|
$2.00
|
24%
|
|
|
$20.70
|
$20.07
|
$0.63
|
3%
|
|
|
$3.57
|
$4.46
|
($0.89)
|
-20%
|
|
|
$9.82
|
$10.76
|
($0.94)
|
-9%
|
|
|
$10.10
|
$9.40
|
$0.70
|
7%
|
|
|
$5.00
|
$5.31
|
($0.31)
|
-6%
|
|
|
$7.00
|
$7.25
|
($0.25)
|
-3%
|
|
(Sphinx’s Revelation)
|
$38.86
|
$37.72
|
$1.14
|
3%
|
|
|
$15.20
|
$14.84
|
$0.36
|
2%
|
|
|
$9.07
|
$8.73
|
$0.34
|
4%
|
|
|
$7.96
|
$7.60
|
$0.36
|
5%
|
|
|
$30.82
|
$29.12
|
$1.70
|
6%
|
|
|
$8.98
|
$9.68
|
($0.70)
|
-7%
|
Modern prices slowly recovering from their recent drop. Those players who sold out to afford Theros now have Theros, so the supply of Modern cards entering the market has shrunk.
|
Modern Cards
|
Price
|
Last Week
|
Change
|
% Change
|
|
|
$15.04
|
$15.59
|
($0.55)
|
-4%
|
|
|
$21.43
|
$22.09
|
($0.66)
|
-3%
|
|
|
$9.49
|
$9.78
|
($0.29)
|
-3%
|
|
|
$17.31
|
$17.31
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$13.22
|
$12.09
|
$1.13
|
9%
|
|
|
$10.95
|
$9.90
|
$1.05
|
11%
|
|
|
$23.55
|
$23.55
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$9.24
|
$9.24
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$11.75
|
$12.14
|
($0.39)
|
-3%
|
|
|
$8.97
|
$8.97
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$9.70
|
$9.70
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$24.58
|
$20.95
|
$3.63
|
17%
|
|
|
$18.06
|
$17.22
|
$0.84
|
5%
|
|
|
$19.00
|
$17.99
|
$1.01
|
6%
|
|
|
$30.15
|
$30.63
|
($0.48)
|
-2%
|
|
|
$8.73
|
$7.92
|
$0.81
|
10%
|
|
|
$47.00
|
$47.00
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$16.70
|
$17.44
|
($0.74)
|
-4%
|
|
|
$39.08
|
$41.33
|
($2.25)
|
-5%
|
|
|
$13.04
|
$12.84
|
$0.20
|
2%
|
|
|
$12.51
|
$12.51
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$19.12
|
$17.75
|
$1.37
|
8%
|
|
|
$9.25
|
$9.04
|
$0.21
|
2%
|
|
|
$6.95
|
$7.36
|
($0.41)
|
-6%
|
|
|
$75.31
|
$75.31
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$11.63
|
$11.63
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$27.63
|
$27.63
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
Pauper bounced around a bit this week. A few adjustments, but nothing major. The one surprise is Nettle Sentinel. Elves is played in Legacy and even Classic. I guess the number opened, though – it’s a common from a recent set. The only Modern legal one on the list, aside from Serrated Arrows, which is a special case. Time shifted cards are more like rares, when it comes to availability.
|
Pauper Cards
|
Price
|
Last Week
|
Change
|
% Change
|
|
|
$3.39
|
$3.22
|
$0.17
|
5%
|
|
|
$7.65
|
$8.35
|
($0.70)
|
-8%
|
|
|
$2.36
|
$2.36
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$4.53
|
$4.16
|
$0.37
|
9%
|
|
|
$5.85
|
$5.74
|
$0.11
|
2%
|
|
|
$9.46
|
$8.84
|
$0.62
|
7%
|
|
|
$14.22
|
$14.22
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$3.62
|
$3.51
|
$0.11
|
3%
|
|
|
$2.04
|
$2.04
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$5.36
|
$5.28
|
$0.08
|
2%
|
|
|
$5.66
|
$5.66
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$4.24
|
$3.93
|
$0.31
|
8%
|
|
|
$2.28
|
$2.28
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$1.14
|
$1.68
|
($0.54)
|
-32%
|
|
|
$1.60
|
$1.60
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$4.38
|
$3.63
|
$0.75
|
21%
|
|
|
$4.26
|
$4.34
|
($0.08)
|
-2%
|
|
|
$8.08
|
$8.08
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$2.91
|
$2.91
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$4.64
|
$4.73
|
($0.09)
|
-2%
|
|
|
$3.81
|
$3.81
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
Legacy and Classic were pretty silent this week. Natural Order went up, probably because a few well known players made videos with Legacy decks featuring the card.
|
Legacy / Classic Cards
|
Price
|
Last Week
|
Change
|
% Change
|
|
|
$11.45
|
$11.55
|
($0.10)
|
-1%
|
|
|
$56.64
|
$56.64
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$18.77
|
$18.70
|
$0.07
|
0%
|
|
|
$27.76
|
$27.06
|
$0.70
|
3%
|
|
|
$93.12
|
$93.12
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$60.34
|
$60.34
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$34.24
|
$34.24
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$157.72
|
$157.72
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$26.69
|
$26.69
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$16.38
|
$16.38
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$79.52
|
$79.52
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$28.28
|
$28.28
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$15.59
|
$15.95
|
($0.36)
|
-2%
|
|
|
$35.00
|
$32.72
|
$2.28
|
7%
|
|
|
$18.98
|
$19.52
|
($0.54)
|
-3%
|
|
|
$19.91
|
$19.91
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$97.63
|
$97.63
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$8.85
|
$9.31
|
($0.46)
|
-5%
|
|
|
$88.82
|
$88.82
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$31.74
|
$29.37
|
$2.37
|
8%
|
|
|
$31.46
|
$31.46
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$18.69
|
$18.69
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$33.20
|
$33.20
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$15.50
|
$15.50
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
Vampiric Tutor
|
$36.41
|
$36.41
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$28.94
|
$28.94
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
|
|
$79.39
|
$79.39
|
$0.00
|
0%
|
The Good Stuff:
The Good Stuff starts with a list of the non-foil, non-premium cards on MTGO that cost more than $25 each. Force of Will is holding at a touch under $100 – the promo version is nominally cheaper, but there are still none in stock.
|
Card
|
Rarity
|
Set
|
Price
|
|
Lion's Eye Diamond
|
R
|
MI
|
$ 157.72
|
|
Force of Will
|
R
|
MED
|
$ 99.76
|
|
Rishadan Port
|
R
|
MM
|
$ 97.63
|
|
Show and Tell
|
R
|
UZ
|
$ 88.82
|
|
Misdirection
|
R
|
MM
|
$ 79.52
|
|
Wasteland
|
U
|
TE
|
$ 79.39
|
|
Tarmogoyf
|
R
|
FUT
|
$ 75.31
|
|
Tarmogoyf
|
M
|
MMA
|
$ 74.90
|
|
Gaea's Cradle
|
R
|
UZ
|
$ 60.34
|
|
City of Traitors
|
R
|
EX
|
$ 56.64
|
|
Liliana of the Veil
|
M
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ISD
|
$ 47.00
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Underground Sea
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R
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ME2
|
$ 43.83
|
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Mox Opal
|
M
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SOM
|
$ 39.08
|
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Sphinx's Revelation
|
M
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RTR
|
$ 38.86
|
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Vampiric Tutor
|
R
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VI
|
$ 36.41
|
|
Natural Order
|
R
|
VI
|
$ 35.00
|
|
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
|
M
|
WWK
|
$ 34.24
|
|
Underground Sea
|
R
|
ME4
|
$ 33.20
|
|
Tropical Island
|
R
|
ME4
|
$ 32.28
|
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Jace, Architect of Thought
|
M
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RTR
|
$ 32.25
|
|
Sneak Attack
|
R
|
UZ
|
$ 31.74
|
|
Bayou
|
R
|
ME3
|
$ 31.69
|
|
Tropical Island
|
R
|
ME3
|
$ 31.55
|
|
Tangle Wire
|
R
|
NE
|
$ 31.46
|
|
Voice of Resurgence
|
M
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DGM
|
$ 30.82
|
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Bayou
|
R
|
ME4
|
$ 30.65
|
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Tundra
|
R
|
ME4
|
$ 30.46
|
|
Tundra
|
R
|
ME2
|
$ 30.33
|
|
Karn Liberated
|
M
|
NPH
|
$ 30.15
|
|
Vindicate
|
R
|
AP
|
$ 28.94
|
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Volcanic Island
|
R
|
ME3
|
$ 28.48
|
|
Volcanic Island
|
R
|
ME4
|
$ 28.47
|
|
Mishra's Workshop
|
R
|
ME4
|
$ 28.28
|
|
Vendilion Clique
|
M
|
MMA
|
$ 27.97
|
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Flusterstorm
|
R
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CMD
|
$ 27.76
|
|
Vendilion Clique
|
R
|
MOR
|
$ 27.63
|
|
Mana Drain
|
R
|
ME3
|
$ 26.69
|
|
Dark Confidant
|
M
|
MMA
|
$ 25.47
|
|
Mutavault
|
R
|
MOR
|
$ 25.10
|
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 $24,630. That’s up a couple hundred from last week. .
Weekly Highlights:
TeslaCon was amazing! Four days in my Steampunk persona, in costume, together with over 1,000 other Steampunkers also in costume and in persona. Totally amazing, but not exactly MTGO related, so not much more to say.
PRJ
“one million words” on MTGO.
18 Comments
Even if you had profited from it, I wouldn't hold it against you. It's business.
I agree with the time issue on MTGO. I have to schedule in draft time a few times a week to do them. I miss leagues a lot since I enjoyed them way back when and they were easier to squeeze in. I too draft a lot until I get most of a std deck. Then play that in 2mans or an occasional Daily. But there are many other games that are easier to find time for. I can't block out 4 hours all the time when I feel like playing. On the plus side, not being able to play MTGO every day is keeping my finances happy. If leagues ever come back, I will need to get a second job!
I an in the exact same boat with MTGO and created an account specifically to echo these sentiments. Please Wizards give us family men and professionals a forum to play. Because it is just such a terrible feeling when you are put in the position of finishing an event that you have invested an hour or two into and your time and energy or making dinner and having a conversation with your family. I don't know how many drafts I have bailed on after round two not because of play or the cards but because life gets in the way, and I certainly don't want to know how many times I have disappointed my family because I want to finish that third round.
Give us something and we will support it.
Loved the editorial section this week.
I am one of these people. I love Magic. I live in the middle of nowhere. I have disposable income. I used to set a $50 budget per month for MTGO, though I play exclusively limited events, but I would often not even meet that dollar amount. I've since reached a point where I no longer pay to do my drafts, but I have been in this situation.
Ideally, I should have been sinking that $50 into MTGO every single month. I was 100% willing to do that. I had set aside that money just for that purpose. Instead, I just had a gradually increasing bankroll. Then, I started investing that money into other games that I could play for shorter time periods during the day.
The problem is that I just didn't have an outlet to spend that money. Like I've said, I work about 60 hours a week. I'm also married, and I have two kids. Carving out 2.5 consecutive hours for a draft is almost impossible. If I want to draft, I have to schedule my entire day around devoting that time to drafting. Because of this, I just don't play MTGO every day. Even though I am 100% the best target demographic for MTGO, I just don't have an outlet to spend that money.
It is easy for me to carve out 45 minutes from my day. Those kind of time lengths come up spontaneously very frequently. Example; I get home from work, and I've got about 45 minutes before dinner is ready. Since I've got two kids, I want to eat dinner with my family, and spend time with them, so I can't draft at this time, but I'll often load up League of Legends, or some other game. Another example; when my kids have bath time, I can't really spend that time playing with them. Since there are two, it takes about 45 minutes to get both baths done. This is a time that I can play games. After the kids go to bed, I generally stay up for another hour before I go to bed.
Since I'm an English teacher, I also have to regularly bring home piles of papers to grade. It would be great if I could reward myself after grading for two hours with an MTGO sanctioned limited event that would only take about 45 minutes. I would do that several times in the day if it was available.
Honestly, I would play MTGO around 4 hours every day, if I could just do it in 45 minute increments. When I was still spending money on MTGO with my $50 budget, I would often come short by 20 to 30 dollars, and I would then sink that money somewhere else, like buying a book that I would have checked out from the library otherwise, or putting the money into another game, with League of Legends as an example.
I know that the MTGO team is working on Leagues, and that they are supposed to be coming out soon. But we really do need them, because I would love to give WotC some more of my money.
When you don't have time to play competitive multi-round magic and single-round competitive doesn't appeal to you, then you are a casual player. You are a serious casual player, but you invest a casual amount of time.
Welcome to the casual room. Make a dozen or so Commander decks and get in there!
o_0
Man I wish the new commander decks were available on MTGO...
Sometimes when I really want to play but don't have much time I consider joining an 8-4 draft. I figure that the odds of me making the finals in any of the present-day formats is low (I haven't played them much). So, the draft won't actually take that much time. On the few occasions that I do this, I'm overly tempted to rare-draft. Then I figure that if I want is the cards, I'm much cheaper off buying singles.
I make the finals in 70% of my drafts, so I really have to plan around that.
1. I suggest Chandra, Pyromaster could be tracked in your Standard section. It isn't quite a staple, seeing mostly fringe play, but certainly more than Angel of Serenity or Archangel of Thune lately.
2. Who did Natural Order videos this week? Kinda like to check that out.
Great article as always.
I also agree wholeheartedly with your opinions section, and with comments above (also a professional with 2 young kids).
I also love limited, but lack of short events means I've not done one for ages.
I have gotten into block constructed lately, and the 2 man events are great time-wise... but are pretty terrible in terms of prizes (since booster packs are always lower than 4 tix). Daily events have the opposite problem (great prizes, poor for short time).
Just wondered if you guys have read Matt Sperling's article on "Magic on-Demand" (on Channel Fireball). It seemed like a very interesting solution to the problem, for both constructed and sealed. Worth a read, and worth promoting to WotC. (I feel they must have read the article, but using any opportunity to raise it's profile can only be good, assuming you like the idea, which I do!!).
I'd be interested to know if his proposal would/wouldn't solve your problems. :-)
If they had draft leagues, where you do one draft in the week, and then play some number of rounds against people in the league, I would love that. I'd probably do 10 a week, since it would be easy for me to squeeze in the 30 minute draft + all the rounds here or there.
I think it's worth noting that this Wednesday FTV:20 has been withdrawn from MTGO store
I am in same boat, money to spend, not enough time to commit to a draft unless my wife and kids decide to do something without me. Draft leagues sound like a great idea, an hour is pretty easy to carve out.
Back at the first COmmunity Cup where we discussed with Chris the move to 50 minute rounds, and I suggested (and I can't remember if it was you, Alex and/or Erik who agreed) that you could even get away with 40 minutes - possibly only in eternal formats?
Well, no one complains about 50 anymore. Perhaps a shot at 40 minutes for DEs only would be a good start.
All I'm saying is I'm glad for Momir. $10 for all the fun in short bursts I could ever ask for playing MTGO is a great deal. Building a bankroll during the meantime is just a bonus. :)
I wonder whether there really is a huge untapped income from older players? It's difficult to judge from our perspective. What I know from involvement in clubs is that yearly wastage is a high percentage, and you constantly need new recruits to make up numbers. My perception is that mtgo follows that pattern. So to pluck a figure out of thin air of 10% of mtgo players are in the untapped category, it clearly pays Hasbro to focus on the 90% of players with lots of disposable free time.
There's also the increasing problem of mtgo integrity. A mocs failed over the weekend, not the first major tournament to crash either. The beta client is junk. There's a lot of complacency and lack of expert influence in the management of mtgo today. It seems like a bad time to be developing new features when the basics are not being attended to.