State of the Program for June 16th 2017

In the News

Three Big Sets plus a Core Set Model Announced: Mark Rosewater announced some changes to how Wizards will be making sets in the future. Beginning a year from now, Magic will have three large set releases every year, plus a revamped Core Set in the summer, starting summer of 2018. The announcement is Mark Rosewater announced some changes to how Wizards will be making sets in the future. Beginning a year from now, Magic will have three large set releases every year, plus a revamped Core Set in the summer, starting summer of 2018. The announcement is here . I break it out in more detail in the opinion section.

Aetherworks Marvel Banned: The B&R list is out, and : The B&R list is out, and Aetherworks Marvel is banned in Standard. The explanation is here . One interesting note – Wizards notes that players may be suffering from “Banning burnout,” so Wizards is delaying the next B&R announcement until after the next Pro Tour.

Magic 25th Anniversary Events: Wizards released a video announcing a number of things related to Hour of Devastation and Magic’s 25th Anniversary. The video is Wizards released a video announcing a number of things related to Hour of Devastation and Magic’s 25Anniversary. The video is here . Pirates, dinosaurs, a new Masters set, the HoD trailer, Ixalan and the next couple sets – and a new Un set for the paper players.

Sam Stoddard’s Last Latest Developments Column: Sam Stoddard is turning over the Latest Developments column on the mothership to Melissa DeTora. Sam’s last article is : Sam Stoddard is turning over thecolumn on the mothership to Melissa DeTora. Sam’s last article is here . Melissa was writing long before she landed a job with Wizards, so we can expect more good stuff in the column.

End of Duels: Wizards gave us a very small update on the next iteration of digital Magic. They did not tell us a lot, but did announce that Duels would stop getting new set updates. The servers will stay on, and the game will be playable, but without new cards.

The Timeline

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. Most of the major upcoming events we know of are listed. Not listed, but important: Wizards offers either one or two online PTQs each weekend, with qualifiers running the three days prior to the PTQ.

Upcoming Events Timing No Downtime June 21st Extended Downtime June 28th Current Leagues End July 10, 2017 Amonkhet Limited Championship (details here June 18th Amonkhet Standard Championship (details here June 25th Hour of Devastation release July 9, 2017 (day after prerelease!) Ixalan release September 25, 2017 Rivals of Ixalan January 21, 2018 Core Set Magic 2019 July 20, 2018 Commander 2017 here . details November 2017 on MTGO 25th Anniversary Edition Masters March 16, 2018 Next B&R Announcement August 28, 2017 DTK, ORI, BFZ & OGW Redemption Ends November 2, 2017 SOI and EMN Redemption Closes April 28, 2018

Flashback, Throwback Standard and CUBE for 2017

Wizards will be offering either a flashback draft league, a flashback Standard gauntlet, a CUBE league or prerelease / Release events each week. Here’s the schedule so far.

Flashback and Such Rotation Begins Ends Battle of the Planes Sealed June 14th June 21st Vintage Cube June 21st July 10

The new Flashback Leagues are still draft, and still you-keep-the-cards. They are 12 TIX / product plus 2 TIX / 120 Play Points. However, they are no longer single elimination. Now you play until you have three wins or two losses. Prizes are 150 play points for three wins and 70 Play points for 2 wins. The leagues run one week.

The Throwback Standard Gauntlet events provide a random choice of prebuilt decks from a past standard environment. These will function like the Pro Tour Gauntlets – you won’t need to own the cards. The entry fee is 10 TIX or 100 Play Points. Prizes are in Play Points: 150 for 3-0, 100 for 2-1, 40 for 1-2 and 10 play points as a bad beats award.

Opinion Section: Announcement Week

First off, I applaud the Aetherworks ban. I ran a Standard PPTQ last weekend. The store has hosted a number of PPTQs, with an average attendance in the 30-32 range. The PPPTQ last weekend had 14 players. That’s not proof – no single data point is – but it is a good example of the data I cited from other sources last week. Players were staying away, so a change was necessary.

Players at the event were debating whether it was “fair” to ban a valuable card. I have two responses. First, cards will not retain as much value if a format is in trouble. The value of chase Mythics is always higher in decks in healthy formats. Second, having one broken card or deck banned just opens up room for another. Five months ago, Emrakul, the Promised End was $20.21, and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger was $6.97. After the Emrakul ban, those prices reversed. Now, with Marvel gone, some other decks will climb the rankings, and those cards will rise in value. Yes, Ulamog will tank now, but it was going to tank as soon as it left Standard anyway. Magic cards do not hold value.

Wizards has also announced that, starting in 2018, they will print three big sets and a core set each year. The little, subsidiary sets will be a thing of the past. I like this idea. Wizards discussed the “small set” problem in their announcement. I agree. I have been talking and writing about these issues since my days at the Dojo - since the current small set was Urza’s Destiny. It has always been hard for Wizards to integrate mechanics, while making a set feel new. Card availability was always an issue, especially when we drafted just one booster of the third set in the season. Back then, if you drafted triple big 20 times, double big plus first expansion 20 times, and entire block 20 times, you ended up opening 120 packs of the big set, 40 packs of the second set and 20 packs of the third. Chase cards from the third set (like Tarmogoyf) were always super expensive.

More importantly, when a new set was good, players loved drafting triple packs. If you look at list of all-time favorite draft formats, a disproportionate number of them are triple big set. And when a format is not popular, adding the additional sets almost never saved it. I consider Mercadian Masques the poster child for this – drafting triple Masques was different, and could be an acquired taste – just ask the editor. However, by the time Prophecy entered the mix, pretty much everyone was totally sick of the format.

Personally, I think the three big sets idea makes a tom of sense, provided Wizards has the resources to pull it off. On the plus side, they will save some resources by not having to integrate multiple sets into a single limited format.

Overall, I like the idea. I have to admit I think it is such a good idea I wonder why I never thought about it in the past. It should have been obvious.

Wizards has announced that it is not going to update Duels with new cards starting next year. This is probably good news for MTGO itself. Wizards seemed to have one too many digital offerings in the pipeline: MTGO, Duels and Magic Digital Next. I assumed that evolving both MTGO and Duels into Magic Digital Next was not feasible, since players have different collections on each platform. Phasing out Duels should mean that Magic Digital Next will incorporate MTGO, including MTGO collections. At least, I hope so. I have spent a lot on MTGO over the years – I’d like to keep that investment.

Finally, a totally unstable Mark Rosewater “announced” a new Un set – Unstable . The reveal (on this video ) was cute. I doubt I will be playing Unstable much; I’ve done enough Unglued and Unhinged to last me. On Twitter, Lee Sharpe posted that Unstable will not be on MTGO. Previous Un sets have required people to balance cards on themselves, play under the table, rip cards to shreds and stand up & sing when casting or activating certain cards – not to mention the whole “denim walk” thing. There was no way previous Un sets could be coded for online play. Of course, this set is supposed to be different. It will be, according to Mark Rosewater, balanced for draft, etc. In theory, Wizards could have limited their card design to cards that work online. Personally, I would much prefer that Wizards use their programmers’ time to make real Magic work on MTGO, not to code silver bordered silliness. Time will tell.

Cutting Edge Tech

Standard: Marvel Aetherworks is no longer a part of Standard. On MTGO, that banning went into effect on the 14th. We even have some League results from after the ban (or at least, that were reported after the ban.) Let’s see what we have.

Modern: What’s the best deck in Modern? Not completely sure. I’m not sure we will know even after the Modern GP Vegas. Right now, though, I think you would have to argue that it is either some variety of Death's Shadow , or this deck.

1V1 Commander: The format is happening, and we have more 5-0 decklists. This week’s development is that there were no bans in the format and Vial Smasher is all over the place. I won’t list the decks, but here are the Commanders, in order:

Legacy: A big (2,500 player) Legacy GP is starting as I am editing this, but decklists are not yet available. I did hear about a Turbo Planeswalker deck that sounds cool – maybe next week. For now, here’s what I would play if I had time for Legacy this week.

Vintage: Shops is back this week.

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 over a decade now, and have never been overcharged or disappointed.

Standard staples: Standard prices were mixed this week, but the format is beginning to adjust to the banning of Aetherworks Marvel. We will see what the new metagame brings.

Modern staples: Modern prices were down slightly this week. The format looks reasonably healthy. We will see what the Modern GP in Vegas brings us.

Legacy and Vintage: Lots of swings this week. Prices are all over the place. I knocked Mox Sapphire off the table this week. Too cheap.

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 packs. I’ll keep tracking these because they are interesting (at least to me). Note the drop in the price of Amonkhet boosters. I expect that this is directly related to the extra boosters in prize payouts to celebrate the 17 anniversary of MTGO.

Complete Set Price Last Week Change % Change Aether Revolt $85.04 $68.55 $16.49 24% Amonkhet $66.59 $65.57 $1.02 2% Battle for Zendikar $48.78 $56.29 ($7.51) -13% Eldritch Moon $121.76 $114.58 $7.18 6% Kaladesh $110.76 $108.19 $2.57 2% Oath of the Gatewatch $83.47 $85.49 ($2.02) -2% Shadows over Innistrad $72.27 $69.82 $2.45 4% Treasure Chest $2.51 $2.40 $0.11 5% Amonkhet Booster $3.07 $3.32 ($0.25) -8%

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. The list is now over 75 cards (including repeats), and Black Lotus has fallen to seventh most expensive.

Name Set Rarity Price Rishadan Port MM Rare $ 144.34 True-Name Nemesis PZ1 Mythic Rare $ 73.86 True-Name Nemesis C13 Rare $ 72.90 Liliana of the Veil MM3 Mythic Rare $ 72.82 Liliana of the Veil ISD Mythic Rare $ 72.27 Mystic Confluence PZ1 Rare $ 66.98 Wasteland TE Uncommon $ 64.37 Exploration UZ Rare $ 64.19 Wasteland TPR Rare $ 60.04 Wasteland EXP Mythic Rare $ 59.90 Black Lotus VMA Bonus $ 56.45 Show and Tell UZ Rare $ 55.28 Wasteland EMA Rare $ 55.20 Force of Will EMA Mythic Rare $ 50.00 Chalice of the Void MMA Rare $ 48.30 Force of Will MED Rare $ 47.76 Chalice of the Void MS2 Bonus $ 47.68 Chalice of the Void MRD Rare $ 46.20 Misdirection MM Rare $ 45.07 Force of Will MS3 Special $ 45.01 Mox Opal MS2 Bonus $ 44.50 Engineered Explosives MS2 Bonus $ 44.27 Liliana, the Last Hope EMN Mythic Rare $ 44.02 Engineered Explosives MMA Rare $ 43.65 Engineered Explosives 5DN Rare $ 43.08 Mox Opal SOM Mythic Rare $ 42.99 Ensnaring Bridge MS2 Bonus $ 41.48 Mox Opal MM2 Mythic Rare $ 41.02 Infernal Tutor DIS Rare $ 40.85 Mox Diamond ST Rare $ 39.17 Gaea's Cradle UZ Rare $ 38.96 Unmask V16 Mythic Rare $ 37.89 Horizon Canopy EXP Mythic Rare $ 37.43 Surgical Extraction NPH Rare $ 37.15 Tarmogoyf FUT Rare $ 37.15 Force of Will VMA Rare $ 36.97 Surgical Extraction MM2 Rare $ 36.90 Unmask MM Rare $ 35.33 Mox Diamond TPR Mythic Rare $ 35.03 Ensnaring Bridge 8ED Rare $ 34.59 Tarmogoyf MMA Mythic Rare $ 34.25 Ensnaring Bridge 7E Rare $ 34.05 Tarmogoyf MM3 Mythic Rare $ 33.64 Tarmogoyf MM2 Mythic Rare $ 33.37 Mox Diamond V10 Mythic Rare $ 33.31 Ensnaring Bridge ST Rare $ 32.97 Food Chain MM Rare $ 32.68 Horizon Canopy FUT Rare $ 32.60 Ancestral Vision DD2 Rare $ 31.93 Batterskull NPH Mythic Rare $ 31.83 City of Traitors EX Rare $ 31.77 Leovold, Emissary of Trest PZ2 Mythic Rare $ 31.08 City of Traitors TPR Rare $ 30.86 Grim Monolith UL Rare $ 30.73 Karn Liberated MM2 Mythic Rare $ 30.64 Underground Sea ME2 Rare $ 29.47 Karn Liberated NPH Mythic Rare $ 29.13 Containment Priest PZ1 Rare $ 29.11 Ancestral Vision TSP Rare $ 28.76 Underground Sea ME4 Rare $ 28.74 Containment Priest C14 Rare $ 28.44 Scalding Tarn EXP Mythic Rare $ 28.10 Dark Depths CSP Rare $ 28.04 Underground Sea VMA Rare $ 28.01 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy ORI Mythic Rare $ 27.74 Volcanic Island ME3 Rare $ 27.49 Dark Depths V16 Mythic Rare $ 27.12 Gorilla Shaman ALL Common $ 27.06 Volcanic Island ME4 Rare $ 26.15 Eidolon of the Great Revel JOU Rare $ 26.13 Collected Company DTK Rare $ 25.92 Fulminator Mage SHM Rare $ 25.86 Grove of the Burnwillows V12 Mythic Rare $ 25.70 Fulminator Mage MM2 Rare $ 25.68 Doomsday WL Rare $ 25.44 Scalding Tarn ZEN Rare $ 25.21 Scalding Tarn MM3 Rare $ 25.07

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 $ 24,900. That’s up $30 from last week – remarkably little change again this week.

Weekly Highlights

Nothing this week. So far, just a bunch of very long days at work and no time to play Magic. Hopefully the weekend will be better.

PRJ

“One Million Words” on MTGO

This series is an ongoing tribute to Erik “Hamtastic” Friborg.