State of the Program for October 16th, 2020
Grand Finals: Austin Bursavich has had quite the year! A Player's Tour top 8 in Phoenix was followed by a suspension in May after Austin leaked confidental information from WotC that showed the negative changes to organized play. After his retribution suspension was lifted in time for another Players Tour (where he finished in the top 16) and other competitive events, he dodged not only a hurricane, but an incredible top eight packed with great players as well to win the event out of the lower bracket. Check out all the coverage for the event here.
Bans: Standard saw the banning of Omnath, Locus of Creation
, Lucky Clover
and Escape to the Wilds
. Historic added Omnath, Locus of Creation
to the suspended list and banned Teferi, Time Raveler
and Wilderness Reclamation
. Burning-Tree Emissary
came off the suspension list and is legal in Historic play again. Finally Brawl booted Omnath, Locus of Creation
, however it remains legal in Historic Brawl, where it will be subjected to the commander weighting system, ensuring that it is paired against other powerful commanders. For reasonings behind the action taken, go here.
Angela Chandler Memorial Event: Celebrating the life of Angela Chandler, Judge Academy has scheduled a charity event for the family. It has been rescheduled so it does not go up against the next Arena Open. You can see all the info here.
State of Arena: The next Arena open is a Halloween treat, as it starts on October 31 and ends on November 1st. It's standard, and offers both best of one and best of three play options. Kaladesh Remastered hits November 5th. An Extra Life charity sleeve will be up as well. Check out the full information.
Proliferate Cube: This week's cube spotlight is shining on Emma Handy's Proliferate Cube! The popular content creator and incredible player is fresh off a Grand Finals top eight, and has a look at what makes her cube so neat, check it out here, and draft it on MTGO!
Limited Split Championship: Sunday October 18th, sees the next Limited Split Championship Qualifier on MTGO.
Eternal Weekend: The first weekend of Eternal Weekend is happening now! Check out the details.
New Downtime: Originally scheduled to go live with Commander Legends, this has been pushed back as well, since the global launch has been pushed back to late November. The downtime is now November 18th.
This is a list of things we have been promised, or we just want to see coming back. Another good source for dates and times is the
calendar and the weekly blog, while the best source for known bugs is the bug blog which appears sporadically on MTGO.com. Not listed, but important: Wizards offers either one or two online MCQs each weekend, with qualifiers for limited MCQs running the days immediately prior to the MCQ.
Upcoming Events
|
Dates
|
Scheduled Downtimes
|
November 18, 2020 |
Constructed Leagues End
|
January 27, 2021
|
Sealed Leagues End
|
January 28, 2021 |
Next B&R Announcement
|
Unknown
|
|
|
Core Set 2021 Redemption
|
Starts July 22, 2020
|
|
|
2018 Magic Online Championship Series and other events
Complete details, including schedule, rules, and which online events qualify you for which online or paper events is
here. In addition, Wizards will be offering these special formats:
October 14 - October 21: Proliferate Cube
October 21 - October 28: Innistrad Supreme Draft
October 28 - November 4: Triple Innistrad Draft and Commander Legends release.
November 4 - November 18: Vintage Masters Flashback
November 18 - November 25: Supreme Chaos Draft
Novemver 25 - December 2: Core Set Cube
December 2 - December 9: Chaos Draft Masters
December 9 - December 16: Another New Cube
December 16 - December 23: Vintage Cube Supreme
December 23 - ???: Kaldheim Vintage Cube
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:
This week I am splitting the decks up again, to just look at the new format in a post ban world. If you're at a loss for Standard or Historic, maybe try one of these out!
Standard:
Another Standard:
Even more Standard:
Somehow more Standard:
Yup, you guessed it, Standard!:
Wait, this is Historic:
And so is this one:
The Winner's Circle is where I will recognize winners of the past events on MTGO.
A reminder that all Standard results are before the bans.
Challenge Winners
Saturday Legacy - Baby - Bant Snow
Saturday Modern - Metcalf23 - Death and Taxes
Saturday Pauper - Mathonical - Mardu Monarch
Saturday Pioneer - Traft - Azorius Spirits
Saturday Standard - Venom1 - Rakdos Aggro
Saturday Vintage - Bryant_Cook
Sunday Legacy - monkeyscantcry - Doomsday
Sunday Modern - kanister - 4 Color Copycat
Sunday Pauper - Oscar_Franco - Tron
Sunday Pioneer - billsive - Esper Yorion
Sunday Standard - LucasG1ggs - Mono Green Aggro
Sunday Vintage - Mogged
Other Event Winners
Sealed Zendikar Rising Qualifier - _against_
Pioneer Champ Qualifier - SanPop - Oops! All Pioneer Spells
MTGOTraders YouTube: Did you know that MTGOTraders.com has a YouTube page? Well if not, now you do, and you can find it here!
Note: all my prices come from the fine folks at
MTGOTraders.com. These are retail prices, and generally the price of the lowest priced, actively traded version. (Prices for some rare promo versions are not updated when not in stock, so I skip those.) You can get these cards at
MTGOTraders.com web store, or from their bots: MTGOTradersBot(#) (they have bots 1-10), CardCaddy and CardWareHouse, or sell cards to MTGOTradersBuyBot(#) (they have buybots 1-4). I have bought cards from MTGOTraders for a decade and a half now, and have never been overcharged or disappointed.
Standard Staples: This week I decided to remove
Alela, Artful Provocateur
from the list. I realize that I have been tracking it for a long time, but for reason it just dawned on me, that much like
Arcane Signet
, it is only this pricy because it's a Commander card. If it starts to see Standard play, of course I will bring it back. We did have a couple of additions to the list thanks to the recent banning.
Modern Staples:
Eternal Staples: Finally decided to add
Allosaurus Shepherd
to the list because it seems like this is Legacy driven as much as it is Commander driven. Also treasure chest driven.
Pioneer Staples:
Omnath, Locus of Creation
was always gonna end up on the Pioneer table, but it was earlier than I thought it would. I also took off the shock lands, because they hadn't been close to 5 dollars in months, and it was time for those to come off.
Standard Legal Sets: This table tracks the cost of a single copy of every card in each Standard legal set, plus Treasure Chests and the current booster pack. I’ll keep tracking these because they are interesting (at least to me). This is being kept as a small tribute to Pete!
Complete Set |
Price |
Last Week |
Change |
% Change |
Core Set 2021 |
$144.06 |
$138.32 |
$5.74 |
4% |
Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths |
$76.98 |
$77.68 |
($0.70) |
-1% |
Theros Beyond Death |
$152.73 |
$139.33 |
$13.40 |
10% |
Throne of Eldraine |
$141.66 |
$135.16 |
$6.50 |
5% |
Treasure Chest |
$2.49 |
$2.51 |
($0.02) |
-1% |
Zendikar Rising |
$178.27 |
$156.39 |
$21.88 |
14% |
Zendikar Rising Booster Pack |
$3.29 |
$3.39 |
($0.10) |
-3% |
The following is a list of all the non-foil, non-promo cards on MTGO that retail for more than $25 per card. These are the big ticket items in the world of MTGO. The list is interesting, at the least. This is interesting to me because a lot of these cards have been reprinted more than once, and they are still commanding a high price.
Black Lotus |
1E |
Rare |
157.63 |
Snapcaster Mage |
UBT |
Mythic |
100.76 |
Wrenn and Six |
MH1 |
Mythic |
80.7 |
Liliana of the Veil |
UBT |
Mythic |
77.95 |
Force of Negation |
MH1 |
Rare |
74.48 |
Mox Jet |
1E |
Rare |
71.64 |
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath |
THB |
Mythic |
69.77 |
Ancestral Recall |
1E |
Rare |
68.82 |
Karakas |
UBT |
Mythic |
61.94 |
Karn Liberated |
UBT |
Mythic |
61.39 |
Mox Emerald |
1E |
Rare |
61.25 |
Cavern of Souls |
UBT |
Mythic |
58.33 |
Noble Hierarch |
UBT |
Mythic |
54.62 |
Time Walk |
1E |
Rare |
54.37 |
Elder Gargaroth |
M21 |
Mythic |
49.14 |
Dark Depths |
UBT |
Mythic |
48.94 |
Mox Sapphire |
1E |
Rare |
45.12 |
Allosaurus Shepherd |
JMP |
Mythic |
44.05 |
Mox Pearl |
1E |
Rare |
43.69 |
Teferi, Time Raveler |
WAR |
Rare |
43.26 |
Jace, the Mind Sculptor |
MS4 |
Mythic |
42.84 |
Timetwister |
1E |
Rare |
39.16 |
Mox Ruby |
1E |
Rare |
39.05 |
Seasoned Pyromancer |
MH1 |
Mythic |
38.99 |
Cavern of Souls |
ZNE |
Mythic |
36.98 |
Force of Will |
MED |
Rare |
36.24 |
Lord Windgrace |
PZ2 |
Mythic |
35.26 |
Liliana, the Last Hope |
MS4 |
Mythic |
34.79 |
Carpet of Flowers |
UZ |
Uncommon |
31.42 |
Scourge of the Skyclaves |
ZNR |
Mythic |
31.32 |
Celestial Colonnade |
UBT |
Mythic |
31.09 |
Life from the Loam |
UBT |
Mythic |
30.36 |
Aether Vial |
MS2 |
Bonus |
30.19 |
Karn, the Great Creator |
WAR |
Rare |
29.32 |
Purple-Crystal Crab |
PZ2 |
Common |
28.97 |
Demonic Tutor |
UBT |
Mythic |
28.71 |
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow |
PZ2 |
Rare |
28.59 |
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth |
UBT |
Mythic |
27.53 |
Bitterblossom |
UBT |
Mythic |
26.78 |
Submerge |
NE |
Uncommon |
26.58 |
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria |
MS4 |
Mythic |
26.41 |
Wasteland |
ZNE |
Mythic |
26.39 |
Creeping Tar Pit |
UBT |
Mythic |
26.38 |
Aether Vial |
MMA |
Rare |
26.02 |
Aether Vial |
TD0 |
Uncommon |
25.93 |
Aether Vial |
DST |
Uncommon |
25.64 |
Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger |
THB |
Mythic |
25.56 |
Misty Rainforest |
ZNE |
Mythic |
25.45 |
Omnath, Locus of Creation |
ZNR |
Mythic |
25.36 |
Aether Vial |
IMA |
Rare |
25.06 |
The big number is the retail price of a playset (4 copies) of every card available on MTGO. Assuming you bought the least expensive versions available, the cost of owning a playset of every card on MTGO is approximately a number that I cannot figure out still. I have actually asked Pete to do this for me, because Open Office is weird, and I have no idea what I am doing, and I am pretty close to just being a dog in a labcoat.
Nevermind, ignore all of that, Pete got it done for me, because he is just the dang best. The big number this week is $22,680. Last week the big number was $24,075. This is a loss of $1,395. It's been much cheaper for me to put commander decks on my account at least. I can like that, but still be worried about the future of MTGO.
Prices were done on Thursday. That's it for me this week. Thanks for reading!
This series is an ongoing tribute to Erik “Hamtastic” Friborg.