Table of contents:
Announcements
MTGO Discussion Items
Editorial Section
Server Log In Availability
MTGO Price Movers and Shakers
Public Hide List
Outstanding Issues
Bug Complaints
Conclusion
Rules at a glance:
03-14-08:
| Alternating Draft/PE's for Morningtide | Morningtide release events | Plan your release event participation around the availability of your formats. |
| No top 8's for Morningtide PE's | Morningtide release events | Only 'no top 8' PE's will be held for Morningtide release events. |
| Set Redemption Schedule | Dates to know for Set Redemption | WotC_Eric linked to this fantastic chart regarding set redemption schedules |
| Single Client Restrictions, coming back | SCR's back in effect | With MOR being released on V2.5, SCR's are needed once again |
| Planar Chaos Redemption Off line | Planar Chaos Redemption - Off line | PLC redemption removed due to no more product |
| Chains of Mephistopholes fixed! | In the bug fix section | Chains is unbanned in Classic and should be working! |
MTGO Discussion Items:
Commander (aka EDH) discussion thread
03-14-08
There have been a few Commander games done by the community lately and the tales of triumph certainly make the format sound intriguing. I'd recommend that anyone who is interested in a unique Multiplayer Free For All (FFA) format to check out this link Commander Stories
Anything Goes, and how to play it
03-14-08The 'casual' debate has been raging again, with no consensus formed, yet again. However, something slightly different evolved from the latest discussion... how to actually get an 'Anything Goes' type of game? As of right now trying to get a certain level of game is based on equal parts of Game Description and trust in humanity, sprinkled with hopes of literacy. The results of trying to rely on others to read and comprehend the restrictions have been sporadic at best. However, the discussion on how to get like minded players together for their games can be found here.
Morningtide Release event PE Stats:
03-14-08
Emoticon has been compiling the results of the Premier Events this week, including packs won, time taken, etc. He's done a very good analysis of the available data and I'd certainly recommend reading what he's found. Link is here.
March Bannings?
02-15-08 - Current:
It's about time for a new wave of bannings and restrictions for the MTG/MTGO worlds. We have a couple threads to discuss the desires for changes, here and here.
*Update: 03-07-08*
No changes to any MTGO format besides Elder Dragon Highlander where Kokusho, the Evening Star will be banned later this month.
New leagues on hold during Morningtide Events:
03-07-08:
There will be no new non-Morningtide leagues started during the release events. Details here.
Lorwyn Redemption offline until restocked:
03-07-08:
Lorwyn sets have been taken offline until more can be ordered. Information can be located here.
MTGO Community Building Discussion:
03-07-08:
A pretty big discussion item lately is the desire for more community building tools and focus in MTGO. You can see an article written by meuslix here, and a conversation on the WotC boards here.
New MTGO Community Liaison:
02-22-08 - Current:
Solice is now our CM (taking over from the overburdened Gamer_Zer0). The announcement can be located here.
*Update 03-14-08*
Solice has already posted three blog posts, bug fixes and more. She's getting up to speed with the community as well as our concerns and frustrations and is following up where applicable. Thanks Solice!
V3 Beta is Down
02-28-08 - Current:
Beta is down until at least March 17th (Post Morningtide release). More information as we hear it.
Magic Relegated game?
02-22-08 - Current:
As mentioned here, there's are games coming from Stainless and Microsoft that involve Magic Intellectual Property. There's not much information about it yet, but certainly something to keep your eye on.
Morningtide Release Events, soon!
02-15-08 - Current:
The list of release events has been posted and there are some important changes to the lineup! Be sure to check the announcement here
Editorial Section:
Building a Collection out of Nothing!: aka BaCooN!
Where do begin with my thoughts about last week's deck, *shakes head*. Some observant readers noticed that the deck list was absent from the article. I'll apologize now for failing to include the list, however, I couldn't in good conscience recommend building this deck to anyone.
On paper, and in a vacuum, it looks stronger than the week two deck. I mean, it has another Eternal Witness, another Korlash, and a Gleancrawler. It seems like it should be good, better even than week two. I don't know what I can say about it, but that was sooooo not the case. Looking back over it, and my epic failure for this week, I'm starting to piece together where I've gone wrong.
1) Sacrificing synergy for raw power. Last week's deck had some great synergistic plays, like chaining Gravediggers with Diamond Valley. Or RFG'ing a cards permanently with a well stacked Faceless Butcher. Or any of the shanigans I pulled with Solemn Simulacrum in the first couple of weeks. Reducing the chances for these intertwining plays at the cost of raw power hurt the deck more than they helped.
2) Less card advantage. Speaking of Solemn, he's a special type of good at providing card advantage. And this type deck desperately needs something like that. With no other draw effects, I was left at the mercy of Grog. And you never want to be at the mercy of Grog. Ever.
3) Mana. I didn't really have mana 'issues' per se, but things were tenuous at best and easily disrupt able. Looking at what I was expecting from the cards I was running showed a huge weakness in my strategy. A timely Boomerang could become a timewalk, or kill my team, or make my combat/spell math implode. Sometimes that's worth the risk, but not always. This was one of the times that it really wasn't worth forcing the issue.
4) No acceleration. When your hinging your deck around 4cc+ spells, you HAVE to start firing them off a turn earlier if you want to keep up with the tempo. The Ravnica Bounce lands are really good at a great many things. But keeping tempo is not one of them. They eat a turn and they are a HUGE target for hate.
And now, I'll regale you with the worst week of BaCooN yet...
Game Logs:
Game 1: G/W Tokens
We both start out with a Forest. I play another. Then a non-swamp... then miss a land drop and have to discard. Meanwhile, he plays the following:
Turn 3: Kodama's Reach
Turn 4: Birds of Paradise, Sterling Grove, Raise the Alarm
Turn 5: Twilight Drover, Kjeldoran Outpost
Turn 6: Doubling Season
I concede here as even *if* I topdeck a Swamp I'm hosed. In theory, I should have a good matchup against this type of deck, right? RIGHT? *sniffle* I would have thought so, but mana makes fools of us all. Shrugging it off as an unlucky break, I move on to the next game.
Results: 0-1
Game 2: Mono White 'Protection from' stuff
In a unique moment of awesomeness, I play a Forest first, despite having a Swamp, a Diamond Valley and an Urborg in hand. My thought was: 'I can bluff the true nature of my deck'. Why I thought this, I may never know. My craftiness pays off as his first turn Order of the Stars gets set to Green in response. I follow it up with a Swamp only to see another Order, this time set to black... nertz! So much for my cleverness... He plays defense for a while but doesn't really do much else. Meanwhile, I play threat after threat until his 0/1's can't withstand the pressure. Not a rousing victory, but I'll take it.
Results: 1-1
Game 3: B/W Deadguy Ale
I'm fighting the urge to be a petty jerk and name this guy. Maybe I should so others can know to avoid him if they don't enjoy the following 'game'.
Turn 1: Godless Shrine
Turn 2: Tainted Field into Dark Ritual into Gerrard's Verdict + Dark Confidant
Turn 3: Dark Ritual into Hypnotic Specter + Jotun Grunt
Turn 4: Duress, Hymn to Tourach
Turn 5: Blight, targeting my Golgari Rotfarm
Yes, I lost this game spectacularly. And yes, as we weren't playing for a tournament it is completely 'Casual' as far as the room goes. That doesn't change that the deck is a top 8 Classic deck that thrives by destroying the will to live of its opponents. Blech. I expect to face this type of deck in a tourney, or even in the Tourney Practice room. But when I'm playing for 'fun', mass discard coupled with Classic Brokenness just doesn't feel 'fun'.
Results: 1-2
Game 4: B/G Savra Control
This was a fun game. A frustrating loss, but a fun game none the less. We went back and forth until turn twenty when I finally conceded to his recurring Gravepacted, Hell's Caretaker + Savra backed army. My removal, although good, was just not enough to keep the Shambling Shell's from ruining my day. Once he got his creature control active, I was pretty well hosed. A good deck and a good player though, so no regrets on this loss. I may want to start packing cards like Offalsnout, (Whithered Wretch), or possibly Scrabbling Claws. I can't keep ignoring dredge
Results: 1-3
Game 5: Mono Black Something.
My opponent gets stuck on two lands for a few turns, but has a Nameless Inversion for one of my early creatures and then he gets started with some of his own creatures around turn five. However, a Putrefy aimed at his morphed creature draws a concession.
Results 2-3.
So, against non-mana screwed opponents I'm 0-3. I even played a few more games after this and they wound up about the same. I could win against extremely unlucky/unfocused decks, but any deck with a 'plan' or 'focus' would beat me... slowly... and with much humiliation.
Deck issues and concerns : WaA&E, obviously. However, it's focused and flexible. It carries evasion and removal with multiple finishers. And it's simple. Swamps + control + tutoring + finishers. A time honored tradition
Deck Synergies:
Back to the same as week 1 actually, namely, being able to chain gravediggers, or, draw cards on the fly with Valley + Solemn, or RFG a creature for.ev.er with Valley + Butcher. Also, it allows you to mess with math thanks to Korlash's Grandeur abilities. Namely, making him, or a lashed creature bigger mid combat. Or, give a Corrupt/Tendrils of Corruption that's on the stack more 'oomph' once they think they've got the situation figured out.
Card Choices:
I've only really added two cards, and three non-Korlash cards in total. However they're there to fill in some holes. Up until now, I've not played with discard despite being heavy black. I chose the Mournwhelk for its ability to dodge counterspells, as well as be a beater later on if I want it to do so. It was a toss up between this guy, Nightmare Void, or Honden of Night's Reach. If I'm going to run a one of card, I want it to be swingy or repeatable, and preferably both. Mournwhelk is the newest guy to the party so I though I'd pick on him.
Conclusion:
A much, much, MUCH more coherent deck. I won't spoil all of the surprises for next week, but I'm already better than this week's performance. For whatever that's worth... :)No Bannings in Prisma... LOOK, A UNICORN!!!!
... Sorry, I guess it was just a regular horse. -Chester
I feel like Prismatic has been overlooked after the latest round of March 1st bannings. Namely two cards: Primal Command and Lilana Vess. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm happy that they're allowed in the format, as I personally think that Prismatic could use more tutors to let the non-aggro deck types have a chance. In fact I went so far as to request a lot of un-bannings before. No, my concern isn't predicated upon a lack of actions. My concerns are actually based upon a lack of actions followed by no information about those actions. These latest non-bannings make all sorts of questions go off in my head, like a bag full of microwave popcorn. *pop* Were these cards missed? *pop* If so, will they get them next time? *pop* If not, will they keep leaving cards in the format? *pop* If so, will they start supporting the format via events so they can see the impacts? *pop* If not, how will they tell if it's broken? *pop* If they can tell, what will they do? *pop* Or, if it wasn't just a mistake, are there going to be unbannings of older, weaker tutors? *pop* If so, which ones? *pop* If not, why not? *pop* *pop* *pop* *ding*
I've been thinking about the impacts of these two cards and how important they are to the format. Right now, I haven't seen them in many deck lists (although I'll admit that the sporadic replay status has been hampering my information collection skillz). I don't think that Vess alone will make a Black-ish control deck strong enough to fight back against aggro decks. Nor will she miraculously open the door to combo decks, yet. Since the aggro player will be swinging for the win by turn five/six I don't see Vess turning the tide. I do however see the power of Primal Command turning around more than a game or two soon. Gaining an extra turn of life, and choosing to set back your opponents creatures, or searching up a removal creature to help turn things back around seems like it will be worth running. Will it alone be able to turn the tide in the format? I can't see it happening with just this card, but it sure is a powerful weapon in the fight for a control deck. But their uses are only secondary to my concerns about Prismatic right now.
My largest concern though, is about communication about the format's future. I'm sure I'm not the only one who is wondering what the plans are for Prismatic, and if this latest round of bannings is heralding a new plan for the format. I know that there's been a much bigger backlash regarding the change to the Extended rotation, and that Wizards' focus is justified in handling that situation. However, there has been no follow up as of yet regarding the very interesting omissions to the ban list of Prismatic. Not even a blurb in last week's Latest Developments article as to why nothing was done in Prismatic.
Server Log In Availability: 
Compared to, oh, Lorwyn's Release:
You may not like the progressively restrictive restrictions, but I have to admit that they seem to be helping.
First up, our weekly view of the downfall of IPA. Another week of double digit losses for a couple of the cards. And despite this down trend, they remain fully stocked here at the store. Why did I start the chart section with this one?
Because it directly ties into the Ham Jones Industrial Average chart's recent decline:
As long as IPA drops (and I don't think we've hit the bottom yet) we'll keep falling. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised to see us fall below 4000 before this is all said and done. Personally I think Morningtide is about to level out for a while and we'll see IPA contingue to drop for the next few months. Of course, by that time I expect to see Shadowmoor gaining steam and putting some money back into the overall pool.
And finally, my favorite section of numbers: the movers and shakers table. I never get tired of seeing the ebb and flow of card prices with the rise and fall of tournament decks that use them. For instance, this week, Nimbus Maze, Body Double, Scion of Oona, and Browbeat are getting attention from new decks. Besides IPA dropping the newest set on the block begins to give up some of its hype-price and settle into a more balanced level as expected.
PayPal payments not going through for some users:
10-12-07 through Current:
Overseas Paypal issues have been experiencing many issues trying to order product from the Magic Online store via PayPal. Since WotC has no control over what PayPal does they're stuck until PayPal gets it fixed.
PayPal issues
Bug Fixes:
I was informed about so many card fixes this week that I felt that they deserved their own section. I'd like to thank Dhuse for his time and his communication regarding these bugs. I really appreciate it! Also, thanks to Solice for stepping up the communication about these issues as well. Keep up the good work!
Chains of Mephistopheles + Anvil of Bogardan/Forced Card Draw:
01-25-08 through 02-27-08:
Chains is causing entire hands to be emptied due to its own effect when forced to draw from another source. This bug impacted the last Classic tourney and is probably going to happen again if it isn't fixed soon. 03-14-08 Update: Chains should now be functioning properly.
Eyes of the Wisent tokens:
12-28-07 to Morningtide Release
The tokens from this card say that they have 'Flying', but they actually do not have flying. This is only a textual bug, but has already caused lost games through the confusion.
03-14-08 Update: These tokens should now be produced correctly.
Shah of Naar Isle No card draw:
The fix is going out with the 3/12 update.
Collective Restraint / Ghostly Prison Crashing games
Fixed with the Morningtide updates.
A Lignify'd Thoughtweft Trio can no longer block more than one creature.
Stonehewer Giant now shuffles your library only once.
Rhox now always asks it's controller about how to deal it's damage. Previously, it could ask another play
Fix for bug with (Bridge from Below).
Fix for bug with Stalking Vengeance Bug Complaints:
Retether Randomly Working:
Retether has been bugged since day one, in one way or another. Right now it appears to randomly work and randomly do a steaming pile of nothing. Use at your own risk.
Thieves' Auction only returning one permanent:
http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?p=15148181#post15148181
Graveyard Choice Cards Crashing the game:
Play any card that targets cards in a graveyard from the game. Note that it must be optional to target them, like with Shred Memory or Decompose. Then don't choose any targets, and just hit OK. Until you concede all you can do for the rest of the game is hit the OK button with the card on the stack. (Quoted from authenticsimpsonian). According to a developer, this should be fixed when V3 goes live. Newest thread located here.
Shielding Plax + Targeting:11-30-07 through Current:
Shielding Plax is not granting untargetability correctly.
Colfenor's Plans + extra draw:
11-30-07 through Current:
Colfenor's Plans is not handling extra draw actions properly. Link
Lignify + Layers:
11-23-07 through Current:
Lignify + Spirit Loop does not appear to follow the correct rules for timestamps and loss of abilities. More information can be found here. Sutured Ghoul + Tarmogoyf
10-19-07: through Current:
Sutured Ghoul + Tarmogoyf doesn't pump the Ghoul correctly. And before anyone starts to yell about the Ghoul not caring about the Goyf's dynamic power, look up the Future Sight rules update information. Or better yet, you can read about this question here and here.
This interaction is still broken. And based on the latest Pro Tour results, this will be a popular deck in Extended and likely Classic. This is not the first time that an MTG rules update has lagged far behind on MTGO and thereby invalidated a deck type. Phyrexian Dreadnought, Flash and suspend cards like Lotus Bloom have had similar issues in the past year.
Update: this is currently being investigated by the devs for a fix. I don't have any ETA as to when it wil be resolved, but rumor has it that this is in the works as we speak.
Putting aside my epic BaCooN failures, this was a good week. The amount of bug fixes alone makes me swoon. And hopefully you all got to partake in some of the Morningtide release event fun and frivolity this week. Until next time, Hello and good luck.
~Erik
19 Comments
Always great i would also like to see ham jones std
alas, i'm almost willing to bite on IPA cards.. really this is the downward spiral we all expected..
and wow on some of those movers.. i knew some of them would jump but i think i picked up Body doubles for like 70 cents a piece before Future sight came out.. and thats like a 300 percent increase now.. wow.. amazing..
I too second the motion that BaCON should be tried as its own article series.. i might need to be beefed up a little bit for the editors to consider but really i feel sometimes I skip over it to read the rest of the "business" end first then I go back to read it..
but I do however like how you are incorporating more actual "content" to the articles opposed to just serving as a link house for the mothership board posts.
It may be better to display Price Per Card over (or in addition too) Total Value. The PPC just before Morningtide joined the mix was 0.5495. When Morningtide came in it jumped to 0.5771, a 5% increase. Now we are at 0.5464. I wonder how much of the drop is due to IPA fallout versus the typical new set decline.
Also, does the HJIA track foils, or just the plain versions?
Some very good ideas, I'll see what I can chart out for next week! :)
Also, they're only for regular cards, no foils.
~Erik
I'd like to humbly request the Bacoon section be partitioned into it's own article. It's a humble, notable effort, but it sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of your article. Your piece is labeled "The state of the program", not "State of the program and an evolving casual budget deck series".
I'm pretty sure I can bust out some standard based stats for next week. Look for it then!
Hi Hammy, a Standard index would be interesting, since it wouldn't be so markedly impacted by the IPA falls.
Maybe not weekly, but every so often?
I haven't tested it in quite a while but Cairn Wanderer was not picking up lifelink from any cards outside of Lorwyn Block. I've bugged it a couple of times but it does not seem to be a well known issue.
Bah.. the other reply was supposed to go to Diem's comment.
Oh well... on to this bug report. I'll look into it and add it to the list once it's verified. Thanks for letting me know!
i actually have one of kind of like that from a couple of weeks ago. It shows the price of all, then it shows how much each format makes up that number, like 60% Extended+ cards, 15% Classic Only, and 25% Standard only. I'll see what I can do about adding that in once a month.
"Dude, where's my car?" is my dirty obsession. I can't put my finger on it, but I love that movie sooooo much. I once heard a quote from a movie critic that I found quite appropriate to my obsession with "DWMC?": If you can't enjoy good art, enjoy good trash.
Anywho, about the lag... oh, my, the lag. There were numerous events impacted by the lag (such as Drafts being 'goof grabbed' by the client). And the lag over the weekend was quite frustrating. So on one hand, it's possible that the lag equated to being as bad as a downtime on occasion. However, it was able to recover far faster from the lag than a full blown crash. So while not 'great', it was definitely a step up from the last release event they ran.
What are the last two sections of card price changes, starting with Bramblewood Paragon?
I am guessing the top 2 are the biggest gainers and losers.
The last two are the Top Five Uncommon Gain/Loss this week. Since the general numbers usually show more rares simply due to how much they shift when something changes, I try to grab the top moving uncommons to see if anything of interest shows up. This week the losses were pretty easy to figure out: Morningtide drops. The increases show Standstill and Faerie Conclace rising (for landstill) and Magma Jet/Browbeat (for burn) and the WL version of Mine which is probably seeing play in 5color combo decks like Dredge and stuff. :)
How am i expected to read this when it won't fit my browser window?
I crunched down one of the images just now, hopefully that will help with the readability issue you were having.
If you're still having issues please let me know, I'll keep trying!
~Erik
I like looking at ur charts (with the cards on them) but until now I haven't understood the Ham Jones Industrial average thing. Who's Ham Jones and what does the chart show?
@_@ thanx for the enlightment in advance
*embarassed for not knowing*
Ha! Don't feel about not know who Ham Jones is... it's a nerdy thing I've decided to do.
Here in the states there are a couple of major Stock Market, one is NASDAQ, the other, larger stock market groupin is called the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It's price is a sum of all the stocks that it tracks, kind of like a 1x Set for the real world, if you will. :) What the Ham Jones Average tracks is the number of individual cards and the price of 1x all cards in the system. The bars are what show the sum of all the prices of 1x all the cards in the system. It's been dropping due to IPA Dropping + release events pushing Morningtide down. I imagine that it will end up getting right around 4,000 again, and possibly lower if IPA keeps tumbling.
I wanted to hug you to death when you quoted “Dude, Where’s my Car?” I thought I was the only one who continuously made references to that movi- ZOLTAN.
Concerning the Lorwyn release, was the lag just as bad? I skipped out on it unfortunately or fortunately, but I know that I can't play a league game in the evening because the lag is just too bad. There's almost zero lag or issue during my mornings though.
On card prices, Body Double’s rise is quite amazing. Only a month ago, I bought it in the junk rare section. Stupid Revailaalaalark. I do wonder where Bitterblossom fits into your movers and shakers. I’m pretty sure Secluded Glen is on the rise too.
That said, I would make the argument that Mutavault, and Tauren Mauler have actually increased in price. Since they've actually increased from their "expected" value. Traders had Mutavault at $20 when Morningtide was just released.
Why can't many people read this article? I hope more people will read this good article and gain positive energy안전토토사이트