State of the Program for May 20th 2016

In the News:

Magic Online Legacy Festival: Wizards is looking to up the participation of MTGO Players in the Legacy format, and has created a three step process to help out. First, to help players get used to Legacy, they will have a Legacy Gauntlet from June 8-16. This will lead up to the Eternal Masters roll-out, where you can get some sweet Legacy cards. When Eternal Masters winds up, Wizards will convert the Legacy League to a qualifier for the Legacy Festival Championship on July 24th. There will also be a LCQ event for the LFC. The LFC will have some sweet prizes. Details Wizards is looking to up the participation of MTGO Players in the Legacy format, and has created a three step process to help out. First, to help players get used to Legacy, they will have a Legacy Gauntlet from June 8-16. This will lead up to the Eternal Masters roll-out, where you can get some sweet Legacy cards. When Eternal Masters winds up, Wizards will convert the Legacy League to a qualifier for the Legacy Festival Championship on July 24. There will also be a LCQ event for the LFC. The LFC will have some sweet prizes. Details here

New Product Announcements: Wizards announced that they are changing how they do announcements. For the future, they will announce new products twice a year. The first of these announcements is Wizards announced that they are changing how they do announcements. For the future, they will announce new products twice a year. The first of these announcements is here . The next announcement day will be sometime in September. Which leads to:

Kaladesh Announced: The fall set will be called Kaladesh. The paper version will launching in September. The online version will go on sale October 10th. Online prereleases start October 7th. What details there are so far are The fall set will be called Kaladesh. The paper version will launching in September. The online version will go on sale October 10. Online prereleases start October 7. What details there are so far are here

Planeswalker Decks: Wizards has announced that, starting with Kaladesh, these will replace the Intro Packs as a gateway product. The Planeswalker decks will include a unique Planeswalkers, plus some cards specific to that Planeswalker. Each Planeswalker deck will include 10 cards available only in these packs, but those cards will be Standard legal. The unique cards will be more “flavorful” than tournament ready, but we will see. The announcement is : Wizards has announced that, starting with Kaladesh, these will replace the Intro Packs as a gateway product. The Planeswalker decks will include a unique Planeswalkers, plus some cards specific to that Planeswalker. Each Planeswalker deck will include 10 cards available only in these packs, but those cards will be Standard legal. The unique cards will be more “flavorful” than tournament ready, but we will see. The announcement is here

Commander 2016: This year’s Commander sets will feature four-color legends. There will be five decks. The paper release date is November, 11, 2016. And that’s about all we know. Announcement This year’s Commander sets will feature four-color legends. There will be five decks. The paper release date is November, 11, 2016. And that’s about all we know. Announcement here

Niels Noorlander wins Magic Online Championship: The MOCS Championship was last weekend. Niels Noorlander took it down. Coverage is The MOCS Championship was last weekend. Niels Noorlander took it down. Coverage is here . Decklists are at the bottom of that page. For those of you with SCG Premium, Mike Sigrist wrote a tournament report with lots of deck analysis here

Three Players Decided to Skip the MTGO Championship: Wizards hosted what should have been a 16 player Magic Online Championship, but three players failed to appear. Apparently an all-expense paid trip to play in an event with a minimum prize payout of $4,000 as not sufficiently enticing – or maybe they had travel issues. Sometimes getting a passport, visas and permission to enter the US can be difficult on short notice.

Customer Rewards Promos Announced: The May promos are an alt art Sylvan Scrying for the event promo and an alt art Goblin Dark Dwellers for the store promo. While I do like the new art on Dark Dwellers, Worth has promised to use the promo program to get cards that are really needed for eternal formats into circulation. This does not do that in any way.

Aaron Forsythe Cast Cone of Flame in Standard – Twitter Erupted: Aaron tweeted that he had cast Twitter exploded, since many players did not know/remember that it is Standard legal. It is in the Welcome Decks 2016. This led to a debate about whether it is appropriate to have Standard legal cards that are not in any Standard legal booster packs. Aaron tweeted that he had cast Cone of Flame off Googles , and that it was good.Twitter exploded, since many players did not know/remember that itStandard legal. It is in the Welcome Decks 2016.This led to a debate about whether it is appropriate to have Standard legal cards that are not in any Standard legal booster packs.

Rosewater on Magic: Mark Rosewater gave a speech entitled Magic the Gathering: Twenty Years, Twenty Lessons at GDC 16. If you like knowing more about how Magic is made, check it out Mark Rosewater gave a speech entitled Magic the Gathering: Twenty Years, Twenty Lessons at GDC 16. If you like knowing more about how Magic is made, check it out here

Community Super League Plays Legacy Tribal Wars: The CSL built tribal wars decklists last week. The results showed off all the best and worst of the tribal format. Some of the decks were really cool, but they also got killed by combo builds almost instantly (e.g. The CSL built tribal wars decklists last week. The results showed off all the best and worst of the tribal format. Some of the decks were really cool, but they also got killed by combo builds almost instantly (e.g. Horrors vs. Nightmares and Scarecrows vs. Werewolves . Lots of turn two kills.) Some of the builds were a totally unbalanced (e.g. Gaby Spartz stomping LR Marshall’s Elks ), or at least balanced at different levels. Since Tribal Wars has no sideboards, game twos in many of these matches were still totally hopeless. This round of the CSL was very much a case of competitive builds stomping casual decks.

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 MTGO calendar and the weekly blog, while the best source for known bugs is the Known Issues List . For quick reference, here are some major upcoming events. In addition, there are either one or two online PTQs each weekend, with qualifiers running the three days prior to the PTQ.

Item: date and notes

· Power Nine Challenge: Last Saturday of the month, at 11am Pacific. Next one May 28th.

· Legacy Challenge: Second Saturday of the month, at 11am Pacific. Next one May 14th.

· No Downtime on: June 8 and June 22

· League End Dates: all current leagues end July 27, 2016

· Legacy Gauntlet: June 8 through 16

· Eternal Masters: June 16 through July 6. Details : June 16 through July 6. Details here

· Legacy Championship Qualifiers: July 6 through July 20

· Legacy Championship: July 24

· Eldritch Moon Prerelease: July 29-August 1. Details : July 29-August 1. Details here

· Kaladesh Prerelease: October 7-10, on sale October 10th. Product code KLD.

· From the Vault Lore: releases online October 10, 2016.

· Aether Revolt: January 2017 release

Flashback Schedule:

Flashback drafts are 10Tix / 100 Play Points / 2 Tix plus product, not Phantom, single elim and pay out in play points: 200 for first, 100 for second, 50 for third and fourth.

· Time Spiral, Planar Chaos, and Future Sight: May 18, 2016 to May 25, 2016

· Triple Tenth Edition: May 25, 2016 to June 1, 2016

· Triple Lorwyn: likely June 1 to June 8

· 2 Lorwyn, Morningtide: likely June 8 to June 15

· Triple Shadowmoor: likely June 15 to June 22

· 2 Shadowmoor, Eventide: likely June 22 to June 29

Flashback This Week: Flashback drafts are back. We have Time Spiral / Planar Chaos / Future Sight until next downtime, followed by Tenth Edition. Tenth Edition has two money cards – Crucible of Worlds and Hurkyl’s Recall. Neither are any good in 10E limited, but they are still worth grabbing. Beyond that, the pain lands are worth a few TIX each.

Opinion Section: Answers to Bulk Commons

Last week, I talked about the problem of bulk cards – the mix of extra lands, commons and other cards that have no real present or future value. These are the cards that even hard-core Pauper players ignore. For me, it includes the 270 odd Pacifisms in my collections. For a dealer like MTGOTraders.com , it is roughly 54,000 of the 55,000+ copies of Pacifism they own. (Yes, really – I asked Heath. They own over 55k Pacifisms.)

Bulk cards are not much of a problem for newer players. Over time, however, they accumulate and really slow you down. My old laptop could not handle my collection of 85,000 cards – it froze roughly half the time I launched the collection tab, and deckbuilding took literally hours per deck. Moreover, you cannot make more than 50,000 cards tradeable, so if your collection is larger than that, you cannot let the BuyBots loose on the whole thing. I use my original account as a storage account, and it had almost 100k cards in it. It is almost entirely bulk. I have been trying to sell these cards for years. To even offer them to the Buybots, I have had to make five separate binders. One holds 50k creatures. One holds 35k sorceries, and so forth. I have to open a trade, let the bot buy what it wants, then change active binders and do it again. It’s a pain.

Note: I could sell everything in the account to MTGOTraders.com. They would buy it, and probably give me a decent price. However, that would mean that someone at MTGOTraders.com would have to trade the cards to another account, 400 at a time. Or maybe they have a BOT for that. The point is that they don’t want those cards. No one wants 210 copies of Canyon Minotaur. Or the 262 copies of Pacifism in that account.



If the bulk junk just sat there, I would not have an issue. However, I design decks in Excel or on paper, then type them into Notepad and load them into the deckbuilder. The program then grabs from the bulk. If I am building Bant Company, I want to use the Unhinged Forests, not three random SOI Forests I got 15th pick in recent drafts. If I am going to run Duress, I want to use my old frame Saga versions. That’s why I own them. However, the deck editor will throw some other (more recent) version into my deck whenever it can.

The answer to that is to trade off all the bulk junk as fast as you get it, so that the deck builder cannot stick the wrong card in there. The problem is that if you spend a morning drafting that can be a lot of trades. Worse, in my experience, adding cards to trade binders is laggy and clunky. As a result, I have occasionally ended up trading away cards I actually wanted to keep without realizing it. After selling one of my original Bob Maher art Dark Confidants, then buying it back at a significant loss, I got so sick of this mess that I bought another account which I only use for constructed. I have moved almost 5k cards from my general, not limited only account, to the constructed account. And even then I have problems with bulk junk, because I keep getting event promos and so forth in the account.

Yes, first world problems, but it is worse now that we have Play Points. With two accounts, I have one account with lots of spare Play Points, and another where I have to keep spending TIX to enter events. I would merge them if not for the pain of dealing with bulk junk. I still like to draft, and have been playing in sealed leagues, so I get lots of it.

So how should this work? Well, here’s what happens when I draft in paper. After the draft, I break down my deck. I sort it into three or four piles. I give the basic land back to the shop. I give the bulk commons and uncommons I don’t need, and the occasional chaff rare, to some kid just getting into the game. I generally wind up with 0-10 cards I actually intend to keep and use in constructed. Those are the only cards I take home and add to my actual collections.

MTGO, on the other hand, takes all those cards and dumps them into my collection. It does sort them alphabetically, but those unwanted cards are still in my collection. That might be nice for new players, but Wizards has often said that Duels of the Planeswalker is their entry-level digital offering. MTGO is for advanced players, and we really don’t get any pleasure out of having bulk junk in our collections.

So how should this work? Here’s how I would build this – and this is inherently obvious. Moreover, I explicitly release all rights to the idea and concepts. In other words, Wizards, you can do this. Please.

First, instead of one huge collection for everything, I would separate them. First, I would give everyone a collection for constructed cards. If you build a deck, the cards come from this pool. Second, all players have a bulk storage bin – or possibly a couple bulk bins. If you import a decklist into the deckbuilder and you don’t have a card in your constructed collection, one of the options would be “add a copy from your bulk bin” in addition to “update with version in your collection.” And here’s the important part: whenever you get new cards, the program would pop up a window showing the product. You could click or drag individual cards into your constructed collection, but the default would be to put them into the bulk bin. So, after the draft, I could save the couple cards I wanted for constructed and the rest would be safely out of the way. My deckbuilder would run faster, I would get to use the cards I paid for and life would be better.

But that sort of thing will have to wait for version 5. MTGO does not have this sort of thing, and this version never will. Combining the collection screen and deck builder in V4 was a mistake, but one we just have to live with. It would be great if Wizards could rebuild this, but I am not going to hold my breath. What resources they have are stretched pretty thin just trying to get sets online and fixing bugs. So let’s look at fixes we can implement now.

The existing solution is the one I took: have separate accounts for constructed and limited. Just don’t expect to qualify for the MOCS very often, since you will be splitting points. As for the bulk commons that accumulate in your draft account, when the pile gets too deep, spend $10 on a new account, play through the new player points in that account and transfer out anything of value. After that, trade the 50k bulk cards over to the new account and then forget all about it. That will probably only take 8-10 hours. It’s almost like a shredder, but Wizards makes some money, so it is all good – right?

In case it isn’t obvious – I hate this system. It is one of the main reasons I don’t play more on MTGO. I would totally play more limited if dealing with chaff online wasn’t much, much more time consuming than it is in paper. And that is stupid.

So here are a couple ideas that seem not unreasonable, along with the pros and cons:

A Shredder: This is the equivalent of throwing away your draft leftovers, the shredder would simply erase the cards. I think the concern is that someone would accidentally shred good stuff, or someone would get access to an account and shred money cards in spite or as a “joke.” It should be easy enough to work around this – just limit what can be shredded. If the shredder could only erase commons and basic lands from in print sets, it would be pretty hard for anyone to do too much damage either deliberately or by accident. I don’t like a shredder on principle, but this would help empty collections.

Donate to Charity: In theory, this is great. Everyone can take all their spare cards and pool them, then someone could give new players cards to play with. In practice, we already have this. MTGOTraders.com, and other vendors, have free card bots that “sell” cards for nothing. You can trade some number of cards per week. It would be better if Wizards were to do this – to collect cards from players and donate them to new players, but Wizards is already making money with the deckbuilder’s tool kit. It would be great, but I don’t see it happening.

Redeem for Value: In the real world, I can always sell my bulk dealers for $2-3 per thousand cards. It’s not much, but it is something to do with the cards. Ideally, I would love to have Wizards give us a special binder that we could fill. During downtimes, Wizards would remove the cards form that binder and give us something: 1 Play Point per thousand cards, 1 TIX per 10k cards, whatever. The concept is great, but the problem is that there is so much bulk out there. MTGOTraders.com has over THREE MILLION basic lands, and many million more commons and uncommons. 55k Pacifisms, remember. The potential downside would be a flood of TIX, but that could be ameliorated if Wizards limited the redemption to once per month per account. Trading cards for TIX would also give big dealers like MTGO a windfall, but maybe they deserve it. They have enabled constructed events for a long time, and they have also been wrestling with all this bulk for a long time.

Sell Us Storage Boxes: In the paper word, I can buy a big box and fill it with cards. Then I can stick it in a closet, or up in the attic. A digital equivalent might be a special binder that can close to become an object in the non-card tab, while removing any cards in that binder from my collection. The programming is probably not trivial, but I would be willing to pay for this. If enough others were also, then this might even be profitable for Wizards.

Redeem to Archive: This is a simpler version of storage boxes. Wizards creates a binder called “archive.” Each downtime, it takes all the cards in that binder are “compacts” them into a thing in the non-card tab. You can click on that item to unpack it, just like you open a booster pack. Conceptually, this seems simple, but I suspect that it isn’t, really. The system would have to remember all the digital IDs of each card in each archive box. Storage boxes probably have the same problem.

A Bulk Cards Tab: I keep coming around to this. The only cheap things that Wizards could do are a shredder or pulling cards during downtimes, like they do for redemption. Maybe they can give us a third tab on the deckbuilding//collection tab. Now we would have “collection”, “noncard” and “bulk card storage.” To keep it from being confusing to new players, the default would be to put all cards into the collection tab. In settings, however, you could choose where to put all new product from limited events, and have another toggle for where new cards from trades go.

I’m sure there are other options, but I really wish we could do something. What we have now is a mess.

BTW, I did note the irony of discussing the problem of a shortage of money cards in the same article where I complain about having too many cards. Paper has the same problem, but at least in paper I can take a junk common and a Sharpie and make a playtest Avacyn. Or use then for bookmarks, of course. For those of you whose books are still paper, that is.

Judge Question of the Week:

I have been training new judges for many years, and part of that training involves setting out scenarios and problems that teach various parts of the rules. They start simple – i.e. a creature with trample is blocked by a creature with protection – and get harder as they go. The goal is to determine what areas of the rules I need to teach, and what my candidate already knows. And to have some fun. Here we go.

You are about to die. You have seven dead cards in hand, and if your opponent untaps, she will kill you. On the plus side, she is at one life. You have one draw step to rip a burn spell, but during your upkeep she casts Silence, preventing you from casting spells this turn. Then, just to rub it in, you draw Fiery Temper. Question: is this the worst bad beats ever?

As always, there are no relevant cards not mentioned. As for why you cannot win once your opponent untaps – she has a grip full of counterspells, but is tapped out on your turn.

Cutting Edge Tech:

Standard: The biggest MTGO event last weekend was the Magic Online Championship. The winner’s deck is featured. All thirteen Standard decklists can be found : The biggest MTGO event last weekend was the Magic Online Championship. The winner’s deck is featured. All thirteen Standard decklists can be found here

Modern: Modern was one of the formats for the Magic Online Championship. The winner’s deck is here. All thirteen Modern decklists can be found Modern was one of the formats for the Magic Online Championship. The winner’s deck is here. All thirteen Modern decklists can be found here

Legacy: Legacy was one of the formats for the Magic Online Championship. The winner’s deck is here. All thirteen Legacy decklists can be found Legacy was one of the formats for the Magic Online Championship. The winner’s deck is here. All thirteen Legacy decklists can be found here

Vintage: The VSL qualifying event has wrapped up. The VSL decklists are : The VSL qualifying event has wrapped up. The VSL decklists are here . Paul Rietzl went undefeated to win a spot in the VSL – playing White Weenie.

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 was going nuts this week. We had some really wild swings this time around. Last week I asked if CoCo could pass Jace? Answer is no, but Kalitas and Nahiri may be making runs.

Modern staples: Modern is a bit more reasonable this week. A couple solid cards that took hits are coming back. Horizon Canopy was up again – guess we are not doing enough flashback drafts.

Legacy and Vintage: Legacy and Vintage are mixed this week, with no overall direction I can see. Misdirection dropped again. Looks like people can see Eternal Masters fast approaching.

Set Redemption: You can redeem complete sets on MTGO. You need to purchase a redemption voucher from the store for $25. During the next downtime, Wizards removes a complete set from your account and sends you the same set in paper.

Complete Set Price Last Week Change % Change Battle for Zendikar $76.48 $72.78 $3.70 5% Dragons of Tarkir $131.55 $141.10 ($9.55) -7% Magic Origins $135.18 $122.17 $13.01 11% Oath of the Gatewatch $121.76 $114.42 $7.34 6% Shadows over Innistrad $100.07 $96.85 $3.22 3%

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. Worth promised to use the promo program to up the supply of some needed cards. These may qualify. (Gaea’s Cradle made it!) The list is down below 50 cards this week. I’m guessing people are selling now, expecting to rebuy at lower prices when Eternal Masters gets here.

Name Set Rarity Price Rishadan Port MM Rare $ 163.69 Black Lotus VMA Bonus $ 136.45 Liliana of the Veil ISD Mythic Rare $ 94.60 Misdirection MM Rare $ 93.00 Mox Sapphire VMA Bonus $ 61.31 Tangle Wire NE Rare $ 52.94 Tarmogoyf FUT Rare $ 52.05 Wasteland TPR Rare $ 51.79 Tarmogoyf MM2 Mythic Rare $ 51.75 Tarmogoyf MMA Mythic Rare $ 49.57 Ancestral Recall VMA Bonus $ 48.78 Wasteland TE Uncommon $ 46.64 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy ORI Mythic Rare $ 43.93 City of Traitors EX Rare $ 43.32 Mox Jet VMA Bonus $ 41.80 Celestial Colonnade WWK Rare $ 39.91 Grove of the Burnwillows FUT Rare $ 39.73 Gaea's Cradle UZ Rare $ 39.61 City of Traitors TPR Rare $ 39.02 Scalding Tarn ZEN Rare $ 38.38 Horizon Canopy FUT Rare $ 37.25 Scapeshift MOR Rare $ 36.79 Time Walk VMA Bonus $ 36.35 Food Chain MM Rare $ 36.17 Underground Sea ME2 Rare $ 35.59 Voice of Resurgence DGM Mythic Rare $ 34.70 Infernal Tutor DIS Rare $ 34.46 Mox Emerald VMA Bonus $ 34.16 Mox Ruby VMA Bonus $ 34.05 Lion's Eye Diamond MI Rare $ 33.19 Batterskull NPH Mythic Rare $ 32.61 Exploration UZ Rare $ 32.56 Show and Tell UZ Rare $ 32.51 Mox Pearl VMA Bonus $ 31.68 Cavern of Souls AVR Rare $ 31.57 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet OGW Mythic Rare $ 31.55 Mox Opal SOM Mythic Rare $ 31.41 Ensnaring Bridge ST Rare $ 31.33 Containment Priest C14 Rare $ 30.74 Griselbrand AVR Mythic Rare $ 29.51 Containment Priest PZ1 Rare $ 29.39 Mox Opal MM2 Mythic Rare $ 28.97 Ensnaring Bridge 8ED Rare $ 28.59 Underground Sea ME4 Rare $ 28.44 Ensnaring Bridge 7E Rare $ 28.34 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar BFZ Mythic Rare $ 27.12 Blood Moon MMA Rare $ 26.40 Crucible of Worlds 5DN Rare $ 25.73 Crucible of Worlds 10E Rare $ 25.56 Volcanic Island ME4 Rare $ 25.52 Volcanic Island VMA Rare $ 25.12 Unmask MM Rare $ 25.01

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 $ 26,840. That’s up about $600 from last week’s number.

Weekly Highlights:

I am going to be headed for GP Minneapolis the weekend after next. No idea what I will play, or even if I will play in the main event. I don’t really like any of my Standard decks, and paying $60 to play two days with a Standard deck I don’t love seems bad. It’s better if you money, but I don’t get anywhere near enough practice to think that will happen. That means that even if I make day two, I will likely go home with nothing.

Or I could play in side events.

PRJ

“One Million Words” and “3MWords” on MTGO

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

HammyBot Super Sale: HammyBot was set up to sell off Erik Friborg’s collection, with all proceeds going to his wife and son. So far, HammyBot has raised over $8,000, but there are a lot of cards left in the collection. Those cards are being sold at MTGOTrader’s Buy Price.

Answer to the Judge Question of the Week:

You are about to die. You have seven dead cards in hand, and if your opponent untaps, she will kill you. On the plus side, she is at one life. You have one draw step to rip a burn spell, but during your upkeep she casts Silence, preventing you from casting spells this turn. Then, just to rub it in, you draw Fiery Temper. Worst bad beats ever?

Worst beats ever? Not really. You can just win. During the cleanup step, "this turn" effects end. If you keep eight cards in hand, you will need to discard during clean-up. If you discard the Fiery Temper, Madness will trigger. Because an ability triggers, the game creates a stack for that trigger. The Silence effect has already ended, so put the madness trigger on the stack, then fire the Temper at her face. Fiery Temper FTW.