State of the Program for September 20th, 2019
Magic Online and Eternal Weekend: Top eight the weekend's championship events and get some sweet Magic Online prizes! The Prize Wall at Eternal Weekend will also feature MTGO packs. On top of that, the winners of each Challenge (Legacy, Modern or Vintage) on MTGO from September 21st to October 13th will get a bye in the corresponding Eternal Weekend event. Max you can earn is two! You can read up about that here, and visit the Card Titan site for Eternal Weekend news.
Changes with Throne of Eldraine: Cards in hand are now drag to cast! Adamant gets a text box! Brand new avatars and new alternative play events, which include all four Masters Editions with drafts where you keep the cards, Modern Horizons with keep the cards and Phantom drafts, and Vintage Masters with Alpha Art Power Nine! Read about this and more, here. The biggest news? It no longer costs 9.99 to create an account on MTGO, however, if you want to chat, trade or directly challenge others, you can purchase a 9.99 upgrade. Seems like a reasonable change!
Throne of Eldraine Deluxe Collection: 449.99 is gonna get you a lot of stuff exclusively from the Wizards store. What are you going to get ? A binder, 16 Throne of Eldraine Collector's Boosters, a special Garruk, Cursed Huntsman card, an art print of Garruk, a non-foil version of Kenrith the Returned King, a 3x3 card foil strip, and an Arena Megacode with all sorts of goodies. I love this product, and am happy to see WotC taking more chances with premium stuff. I won't buy it, but others will. Here is the link.
Eldraine Spoilers are Wrapping Up: Regular cards are here, booster fun cards are here, and tokens are here.
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
|
September 25, 2019
|
Constructed Leagues End
|
September 25, 2019
|
Sealed Leagues End
|
September 30, 2019
|
Next B&R Announcement
|
October 7, 2019
|
Modern Cube
|
September 4-26, 2019
|
Throne of Eldraine
Throne of Eldraine Redemption
|
September 26, 2019
Starts October 23, 2019
Guarantee Ends Feb 5, 2020
Closes March 11, 2020
|
Theros: Beyond Death
|
First Quarter 2020
|
Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
|
Second Quarter 2020
|
Core Set 2021
Zendikar Rising
|
Third Quarter 2020
Fourth Quarter 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:
Limited MOCS Open - September 21
Limited MOCS Prelim - September 22
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
|
|
Sunday, 8:00 am PT
|
|
Sunday, 10:00 am PT
|
The ten cards I will miss the most when Ixalan, Dominaria, Rivals of Ixalan, and Core Set 2019 rotate out of Standard.
Nexus of Fate
The first buy a box promo that showed Wizards of the Coast wasn't afraid to push these cards was also one of the most miserable to play against for a long time in the Standard format. Remember when it was a 60 ticket card on MTGO? This card was printed in foil only, which made paper Magic a bit more complicated as judges had to make proxy versions of these cards so decks wouldn't have marked cards in them. Why will I miss it? It's an instant speed card that lets me take another turn. That is pretty dope to me. Thankfully, it is seeing fringe play in Modern already, so hopefully it will stick around for a bit.
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
Other than Ertai, Teferi is my most favorite character in Magic lore. This Planeswalker does a really great job of capturing how great he is, even if it's been outclassed by Teferi, Time Raveler
. All of his abilities rocked socks, and the ultimate was a grindy dream, removing cards from play each time you drew. Why will I miss it? It was a solid finisher for control, a card advantage engine, and an answer to threats all rolled up in a nice 3UW package.
Zetalpa, Primal Dawn
Zetalpa, Dinosaur of incredible abilities was one of my favorites to reanimate whenever one could in the format. Five keywords, all of them great, it was basically an Akroma, Angel of Wrath for new players. This card also sees fringe Modern play thanks to Soulflayer
Surprise. It might be time to bring that deck back out in a new Modern format!
Haphazard Bombardment

This was a recent favorite, but to me, this said spend 6 mana, blow up some lands. Any time I can blow up some lands (or, I guess, some threats, but mainly lands), it will be a card that I adore. I am just sad that I discovered it so late in the season!
The Mirari Conjecture
This saga was so dope! Allowing you to return an instant and a sorcery to you hand is nice enough, but waiting for the last chapter, and getting to copy those instants and sorceries? Wow, that's incredible. I can't tell you how many extra turns I took with this and Nexus of Fate
Karn's Temporal Sundering
Look, another card that let's me take another turn! I am afraid that I am going to typecast myself in Magic, taking extra turns, destroying lands, and reanimating things, but never be quite good enough to actually get recognition for it. One of the Commander games I played see me copy this twice, which was a lot of fun for me. It wasn't so great for my last opponent, but I sure did love it.
The Eldest Reborn
Speaking of reanimation, we have this sweet enchantment, which filled the yard with a card from play and a card from hand. Being able to pick out a creature or planeswalker from either graveyard was super sweet too, as it could allow you to get back an already dealt with threat if your opponent didn't have anything super juicy to take.
Star of Extinction
Destroyed a land, dealt 20 damage. I wish I had taken a count of how many times I cast this when it was legal, because I tried to do this a lot. With how fast Standard was though, it was hard to take full advantage of this card before you were dead. I loved it though and whenever I get tired of established stuff in Modern, I am sure I will try to do dumb stuff with this in the format.
Blink of an Eye
Sometimes you want to bounce something. Sometimes you want to pay a couple of more mana and draw a card as well. I'm a simple man, with simple pleasures, and Blink of an Eye was a really nice card to have in the format. Kicker is just such a great mechanic.
The Check Lands.
I am going to miss the checklands a ton. Mana in Throne of Eldraine is not going to get any better, especially without a dual land cycle and an eye towards mono colored decks with a return to Theros next year. While we still have shocks, guildgates and gainlands, the check lands were super important to a lot of decks. Their impact and absence will be felt in Standard for a while.
Standard 2020: Fandom Legends moved to Standard 2020, so I figured I would show off the winning list, by Martin Juza here.
Legacy:I really like the idea of casting a
Dark Ritual
into
Buried Alive
to get three
Arclight Phoenix
and attacking for nine in the air on turn one. Seems fine and not at all busted!
Modern:
Living End
a traditional Jund colored deck is coming back, thanks to the ban of
Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis
. What about Living End, but with
Force of Negation
to protect it?
Pauper: The second place list from the Playoff this weekend was Mono Green Land Destruction, and for sure that's a deck I am going to highlight here.
The Winner's Circle is where I will recognize winners of the past events on MTGO.
Vintage Playoff: The Atog Lord won with Jeskai.
Pauper Playoff: federusher took Elves to the win! Of note, this list runs (Land Grand) and that, to me is super interesting!
Modern PTQ: asnook won with Jund!
Legacy Challenge: MahfuzVanGogh dredged their way to victory.
Modern Challenge: Winning the challenge with Mono Green Eldrazi Tron, was NMSX.
Legacy PTQ: m-boy qualified for the PT with Merfolk, which is sure to please some fish fans!
MTGOTraders YouTube: Did you know that MTGOTraders.com has a YouTube page with videos added Monday, Wednesday and Friday? 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: Small list for right now, but soon, Throne will add a ton of cards for a few weeks, and those will also whittle away. I'd pick up some
Arclight Phoenix
soonish, those feel important to have for Modern and Legacy.
Standard Cards |
Price |
Last Week |
Change |
% Change |
Arclight Phoenix |
$13.12 |
$14.80 |
($1.68) |
-11% |
Assassin's Trophy |
$7.60 |
$9.40 |
($1.80) |
-19% |
Chandra, Awakened Inferno |
$27.91 |
$30.78 |
($2.87) |
-9% |
Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord |
$10.40 |
$11.14 |
($0.74) |
-7% |
Mu Yanling, Sky Dancer |
$5.94 |
$5.47 |
$0.47 |
9% |
Leyline of the Void |
$3.75 |
$3.51 |
$0.24 |
7% |
Omnath, Locus of the Roil |
$10.92 |
$9.07 |
$1.85 |
20% |
Cavalier of Night |
$6.59 |
$5.23 |
$1.36 |
26% |
Yarok, the Desecrated |
$9.82 |
$9.97 |
($0.15) |
-2% |
Cavalier of Thorns |
$4.93 |
$5.08 |
($0.15) |
-3% |
Ajani, Strength of the Pride |
$8.34 |
$6.15 |
$2.19 |
36% |
Kethis, the Hidden Hand |
$4.20 |
$4.65 |
($0.45) |
-10% |
Hydroid Krasis |
$5.58 |
$6.04 |
($0.46) |
-8% |
Deputy of Detention |
$7.07 |
$5.80 |
$1.27 |
22% |
Teferi, Time Raveler |
$35.26 |
$30.85 |
$4.41 |
14% |
Finale of Devastation |
$22.55 |
$22.70 |
($0.15) |
-1% |
Karn, the Great Creator |
$36.46 |
$35.10 |
$1.36 |
4% |
Finale of Promise |
$20.36 |
$22.46 |
($2.10) |
-9% |
Dreadhorde Arcanist |
$13.76 |
$13.05 |
$0.71 |
5% |
Blast Zone |
$6.58 |
$7.20 |
($0.62) |
-9% |
Niv-Mizzet, Reborn |
$6.50 |
$8.92 |
($2.42) |
-27% |
Modern Staples: Modern Horizons stuff took a hit this week. Some will say it's because of Standard Rotation and wanting to get tickets together for those events. I will say it's because news broke that treasure chests will have new content, announced next week.
Eternal Staples:
Pauper Staples: If
Mutagenic Growth
keeps going the way that it is, I may have to add it to this list too.
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! I dropped the rotating sets this week!
Complete Set |
Price |
Last Week |
Change |
% Change |
Guilds of Ravnica |
$51.40 |
$56.31 |
($4.91) |
-9% |
Ravnica Allegiances |
$56.27 |
$56.62 |
($0.35) |
-1% |
Treasure Chest |
$2.32 |
$2.31 |
$0.01 |
0% |
War of the Spark |
$183.02 |
$182.81 |
$0.21 |
0% |
Core Set 2020 Booster |
$2.98 |
$2.90 |
$0.08 |
3% |
Core Set 2020 |
$152.90 |
$150.72 |
$2.18 |
1% |
Modern Horizons |
$458.78 |
$494.91 |
($36.13) |
-7% |
The following is a list of all the non-foil 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 |
345.03 |
Mox Sapphire |
1E |
Rare |
167.15 |
Wrenn and Six |
MH1 |
Mythic Rare |
143.31 |
Mox Emerald |
1E |
Rare |
122.42 |
Mox Ruby |
1E |
Rare |
119.57 |
Ancestral Recall |
1E |
Rare |
104.18 |
Mox Jet |
1E |
Rare |
95.82 |
Mox Pearl |
1E |
Rare |
86.96 |
Time Walk |
1E |
Rare |
75.81 |
Karn Liberated |
UBT |
Mythic Rare |
73.73 |
Force of Negation |
MH1 |
Rare |
64.62 |
Timetwister |
1E |
Rare |
57.38 |
Mox Opal |
SOM |
Mythic Rare |
54.21 |
Mox Opal |
MS2 |
Bonus |
52.92 |
Liliana of the Veil |
UBT |
Mythic Rare |
52.09 |
Liliana of the Veil |
UMA |
Mythic Rare |
50.96 |
Engineered Explosives |
UBT |
Mythic Rare |
47.56 |
Mox Opal |
MM2 |
Mythic Rare |
47.03 |
Jace, the Mind Sculptor |
A25 |
Mythic Rare |
44.55 |
Dark Depths |
V16 |
Mythic Rare |
43.46 |
Jace, the Mind Sculptor |
WWK |
Mythic Rare |
43.46 |
Jace, the Mind Sculptor |
EMA |
Mythic Rare |
39.54 |
Force of Will |
MED |
Rare |
39.46 |
Jace, the Mind Sculptor |
VMA |
Mythic Rare |
38.96 |
Unmask |
V16 |
Mythic Rare |
37.09 |
Karn, the Great Creator |
WAR |
Rare |
36.46 |
Dark Depths |
UBT |
Mythic Rare |
35.3 |
Teferi, Time Raveler |
WAR |
Rare |
35.26 |
Jace, the Mind Sculptor |
MS4 |
Mythic Rare |
34.38 |
Lord Windgrace |
PZ2 |
Mythic Rare |
33.64 |
Noble Hierarch |
UBT |
Mythic Rare |
33.46 |
City of Traitors |
EX |
Rare |
32.78 |
Liliana, the Last Hope |
MS4 |
Mythic Rare |
31.27 |
Urza, Lord High Artificer |
MH1 |
Mythic Rare |
31.18 |
Cavern of Souls |
UMA |
Mythic Rare |
31.16 |
Karn Liberated |
UMA |
Mythic Rare |
30.58 |
Mishra's Bauble |
IMA |
Uncommon |
30.34 |
Dark Depths |
UMA |
Mythic Rare |
29.66 |
Chandra, Awakened Inferno |
M20 |
Mythic Rare |
27.91 |
Liliana of the Veil |
MM3 |
Mythic Rare |
27.53 |
Prismatic Vista |
MH1 |
Rare |
27.33 |
Mishra's Bauble |
CSP |
Uncommon |
26.94 |
Cavern of Souls |
UBT |
Mythic Rare |
26.85 |
Plague Engineer |
MH1 |
Rare |
25.91 |
Snapcaster Mage |
UBT |
Mythic Rare |
25.61 |
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 18015. Last week is was 18285. Down a bit more this week, but I think that is because of the alternative play options coming out on top of new treasure chest contents coming next week. Fingers crossed for more Modern Horizons, and less
Springjack Pasture
s!
I skipped therapy this week, to be fair, I was either in considerable pain due to terrible dental issues, crushing nausea, or a feeling of being unable to warm up no matter how many layers I had on. It's been in the upper 80s in Kentucky. I've been miserable all week, not gaming much, but I did get a few games of Commander in, and a Modern League in during the highest part of my fever.
That might have been a mistake.
This series is an ongoing tribute to Erik “Hamtastic” Friborg.