State of the Program for June 10th 2016

In the News:

Legacy Gauntlet This Week: The Legacy Gauntlet is up and running. It includes Miracles, Shardless BUG, Storm, Sneak and Show, Reanimator, Lands, Death and Taxes, RUG Delver, Punishing Knight, Infect, Elves, Grixis Pyromancer, Painter’s Stone, and Eldrazi. Decklists The Legacy Gauntlet is up and running. It includes Miracles, Shardless BUG, Storm, Sneak and Show, Reanimator, Lands, Death and Taxes, RUG Delver, Punishing Knight, Infect, Elves, Grixis Pyromancer, Painter’s Stone, and Eldrazi. Decklists here

R&D Looks at the State of Modern: Sam Stoddard wrote about the state of the Modern format over on the mothership. Overall, it looks pretty good (his opinion – also mine.). Mostly recaps what we know, but confirms Wizards will not print new Modern cards outside of Standard sets. Article is : Sam Stoddard wrote about the state of the Modern format over on the mothership. Overall, it looks pretty good (his opinion – also mine.). Mostly recaps what we know, but confirms Wizards will not print new Modern cards outside of Standard sets. Article is here

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 June 25th.

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

· No Downtime on: 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.

· 2 Lorwyn, Morningtide: June 8 to June 15

· Triple Shadowmoor: June 15 to June 22

· 2 Shadowmoor, Eventide: June 22 to June 29

· Triple Shards of Alara: June 29 to July 6

· 2 Shards, Conflux: July 6 to July 13

· Shards, Conflux, Alara Reborn: July 13 to July 20

· Triple Magic 2010: July 20 to July 27

· Triple Zendikar: August 17 to August 24

· 2 Zendikar, Worldwake: August 24 to August 31

· Triple Rise of the Eldrazi: August 31 to September 7

· Triple Magic 2011: September 7 to September 14

· Triple Scars of Mirrodin: September 14 to September 21

· Mirrodin Besieged, 2 Scars of Mirrodin: September 21 to September 28

· New Phyrexia, Mirrodin Besieged, Scars of Mirrodin: September 28 to October 5

· Triple Innistrad: October 26 to November 2

· Dark Ascension, 2 Innistrad: November 2 to November 9

· Triple Magic 2012: November 9 to November 16

· Triple Avacyn Restored: November 16 to November 23

· Triple Magic 2013: November 23 to November 30

· Triple Return to Ravnica: November 30 to December 7

· Triple Gatecrash: December 7 to December 14

· Dragon’s Maze, Gatecrash, Return to Ravnica: December 14 to December 21

Opinion Section: Five Reasons I Should Not Run MTGO

Wizards employs Worth Wollpert to run MTGO, instead of me. Here’s one reason why. If I ran MTGO / if I had a Magic wand to make things happen, here are five things I would consider doing. (If I were actually there, I would crunch the numbers on these, first, but that’s quibbling.) And if I really had a Magic wand that could do anything, I’d start with things like “eliminate all bugs” and “make V5 awesome and instantly,” but I’ll keep this to things that could be done more easily.

1) Change Last Month’s Store Promo to Rishadan Port

Seriously, I would throw several thousand more Rishadan Ports into the card pool. I would say – sorry, last month’s store promo was supposed to be Rishadan Port. If you got the Ravenous Bloodsucker promo, you can keep that, but we will add the Rishadan Ports next downtime. Because when cards are in such short supply that the format is harmed (and it is – Lands is the best Legacy deck nobody plays), then we will dump more copies into the card pool. As for why last month – I don’t want to have everyone rush to the store immediately. However, I would say that this may happen again, at some random time, so buying from the store might make sense. Yes, this would hurt speculators a bit, but it is saying that, if the price of a card gets totally unreasonable, Wizards may take action. I would not do it often – probably once a year at most – but it would prove that Wizards could act.

2) Have MTGO Buy Commons for Play Points

I would have MTGO buy bulk cards – only commons and basic lands, no foils or promos – for Play Points. I might create a MTGO bot that would accept bulk cards for trade and replace them with play points, but that might require raising the number of cards that could be traded (to 1k or maybe more.) It would also mean that play points would need to be tradeable, at least from the bulk buy bot to the player. Alternatively, players could create a binder called “bulk redemption” which Wizards would turn into play points during downtimes.

3) Random Participation Promos:

I would expand the number of programs for awarding promos. For example, I would have an award for someone who played in a sanctioned match in all the major constructed formats (Standard, Pauper, Modern, Legacy, and Vintage). I would have another for limited, which would require at least one sealed event and one draft, phantom or real, in each Standard-legal format (SOI, DTK, BFZ block, Magic Origins and at least one flashback format.) Do it three times in a month and you get a second promo. The special promos would be a random card off this “good stuff” list in the State of the Program article – in other words, a card currently retailing for at least $25. However, I would probably exclude the P9 from that list, since I want the P9 to get more expensive over time. I would not give them out as promos.

4) Let Dealers Trade Bulk for Store Discount Cash

My first and third points would hurt dealers a bit, so I’d make it up to them. Dealers could sell back bulk commons at the rate of $10 special store credit per 50,000 cards. Instead of trading hundreds of times, dealers would simply identify accounts full of commons and Wizards would delete the entire contents of those accounts. Dealers would receive special store credit based on the number of cards deleted. To keep from completely trashing Wizards revenue stream, I would limit this to 1M cards per dealer per month, and only allow them to use special store credits to pay for one-third of the cost of store purchases. Example: if a dealer wanted to buy five copies of Duel Deck: Blessed vs. Cursed (that would normally cost $99.95) the dealer could only use $33.32 in special store credits – the rest would have to be paypal or credit card.

5) Enable Team Drafts and Private Draft Rooms

I would create a format for three-on-three team drafts. Players would form teams, sit alternative, and play all three players on the opposing team. I would also allow players to create digital “rooms,” like they could in V3, and move into those rooms. I would also allow them to draft with the other people in that room, either with packs they supplied, or as a phantom draft. I would probably charge something nominal, like one TIX per draft, for phantom drafts, but nothing if the players were drafting their own packs.

I would also love to add chat support for clans, and even voice support, but those are things that would take a lot more time. If I ran MTGO, I’d start with the five things listed above. If you would do something else, tell us in the chat. If you think it’s a good thing I’m not running MTGO, you can tell us that, too.

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.

This question has an easy and a hard version. I have a Mogg Flunkies enchanted with Rancor. You have a Phyrexian Hulk. I cast Fling, throwing the Flunkies at the Hulk. The Easy questions is “does the Hulk die?”



The hard question is “in what order to cards go to the graveyard in this scenario?” This question gets easier if you remember the answer to last week’s question.

As always, there are no relevant cards not mentioned. You certainly do not have (Kira, the Great Glass Spinner) in play, as that would totally negate my Fling, and no Leyline of the Void effects will exile the answer to the second question.

Cutting Edge Tech:

Standard: Last weekend we had another Standard GP. GP Costa Rica was what you would expect. We saw lots of GW Tokens. Again. Seth Manfield won. Again. Coverage of the GP is : Last weekend we had another Standard GP. GP Costa Rica was what you would expect. We saw lots of GW Tokens. Again. Seth Manfield won. Again. Coverage of the GP is here

Modern: Modern seems to be in a pretty good place. The metagame includes a lot of different decks and archetypes. That does make building a sideboard tricky, but it is infinitely better than excessively narrow metagames. Believe me, I know. I have played in lot of them. Someday I should probably do the Top 5 bad metagames. But I digress. The SCG Classic Top 16 decklists are Modern seems to be in a pretty good place. The metagame includes a lot of different decks and archetypes. That does make building a sideboard tricky, but it is infinitely better than excessively narrow metagames. Believe me, I know. I have played in lot of them. Someday I should probably do the Top 5 bad metagames. But I digress. The SCG Classic Top 16 decklists are here . Here’s my favorite list this week.

Legacy: Once again, SCG has run a Legacy Classic this week, alongside its Open. The Top 16 decklists are Once again, SCG has run a Legacy Classic this week, alongside its Open. The Top 16 decklists are here . Colorless Eldrazi was there, along with Miracles and Death and Taxes.

Vintage: The VSL Season 5 has begun. The Season 5, round one decklists are : The VSL Season 5 has begun. The Season 5, round one decklists are here . This week, I’m featuring a very rare deck for Vintage – a deck with no instants or sorceries. None. And an interesting aside – other than the five pieces of power and the City of Traitors, nothing in the deck is on the Reserve List.

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 mixed this week. People are still looking for alternatives to the GW Tokens decks, and not finding them. Cards for the mono-blue prison deck bumped up, but not enough to put them on the chart.

Modern staples: Modern is a bit more reasonable this week. Just the normal fluctuations.

Legacy and Vintage: Legacy and Vintage are mixed this week. Eternal Masters is now out. Even cards that are on the list – like Daze – are climbing again. Are people are thinking it won’t matter because the EV is so low people won’t draft it? Or did people just overreact at first?

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 $78.17 $76.67 $1.50 2% Dragons of Tarkir $126.60 $127.95 ($1.35) -1% Magic Origins $131.11 $125.09 $6.02 5% Oath of the Gatewatch $122.86 $123.58 ($0.72) -1% Shadows over Innistrad $86.02 $88.30 ($2.28) -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 up the supply of some needed cards. Eternal Masters did a little, but we need more. Maybe Rishadan Port? It’s over $800 a playset now.

Name Set Rarity Price Rishadan Port MM Rare $ 205.10 Black Lotus VMA Bonus $ 142.41 Liliana of the Veil ISD Mythic Rare $ 97.30 Misdirection MM Rare $ 84.86 Mox Sapphire VMA Bonus $ 65.73 Wasteland TE Uncommon $ 59.19 Wasteland TPR Rare $ 59.07 Show and Tell UZ Rare $ 57.41 City of Traitors TPR Rare $ 56.06 Infernal Tutor DIS Rare $ 53.71 Tarmogoyf MM2 Mythic Rare $ 52.94 Tarmogoyf MMA Mythic Rare $ 52.14 Tangle Wire NE Rare $ 51.73 Tarmogoyf FUT Rare $ 51.47 City of Traitors EX Rare $ 50.12 Ancestral Recall VMA Bonus $ 49.75 Gaea's Cradle UZ Rare $ 45.50 Mox Jet VMA Bonus $ 44.77 Lion's Eye Diamond MI Rare $ 43.27 Exploration UZ Rare $ 40.56 Cavern of Souls AVR Rare $ 39.67 Voice of Resurgence DGM Mythic Rare $ 38.81 Underground Sea ME2 Rare $ 38.72 Food Chain MM Rare $ 38.58 Force of Will MED Rare $ 37.57 Underground Sea ME4 Rare $ 37.42 Time Walk VMA Bonus $ 37.41 Volcanic Island ME4 Rare $ 37.02 Verdant Catacombs ZEN Rare $ 36.86 Mox Emerald VMA Bonus $ 36.62 Mox Ruby VMA Bonus $ 36.54 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy ORI Mythic Rare $ 35.87 Volcanic Island VMA Rare $ 35.81 Containment Priest C14 Rare $ 35.53 Containment Priest PZ1 Rare $ 35.34 Scalding Tarn ZEN Rare $ 35.28 Mox Pearl VMA Bonus $ 35.19 Grove of the Burnwillows FUT Rare $ 34.87 Underground Sea VMA Rare $ 34.78 Volcanic Island ME3 Rare $ 34.06 Griselbrand AVR Mythic Rare $ 33.26 Horizon Canopy FUT Rare $ 33.12 Batterskull NPH Mythic Rare $ 32.99 Mox Opal SOM Mythic Rare $ 32.43 Ensnaring Bridge ST Rare $ 32.18 Mox Opal MM2 Mythic Rare $ 32.11 Inkmoth Nexus MBS Rare $ 30.27 Collected Company DTK Rare $ 30.09 Blood Moon 8ED Rare $ 30.08 Blood Moon 9ED Rare $ 30.04 Scapeshift MOR Rare $ 29.98 Blood Moon MMA Rare $ 29.77 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet OGW Mythic Rare $ 29.47 Ensnaring Bridge 7E Rare $ 29.07 Celestial Colonnade WWK Rare $ 28.63 Lion's Eye Diamond VMA Mythic Rare $ 28.18 Ensnaring Bridge 8ED Rare $ 28.17 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar BFZ Mythic Rare $ 27.71 Force of Will VMA Rare $ 27.47 Unmask MM Rare $ 26.83 Ancestral Vision DD2 Rare $ 26.77 Ancestral Vision TSP Rare $ 26.50 Mox Diamond TPR Mythic Rare $ 25.98 Undiscovered Paradise VI Rare $ 25.53

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 $ 27,880. That’s up about $400 from last week’s number.

Weekly Highlights:

I had one of those weeks. I could gripe about work, but no one wants that. I could talk about the Magic I played, if I had had time to play any, but that doesn't work, either. Maybe next week.

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:

This question has an easy and a hard version. I have a Mogg Flunkies enchanted with Rancor. You have a Phyrexian Hulk. I cast Fling, throwing the Flunkies at the Hulk. The Easy questions is “does the Hulk die?” The hard question is “in what order to cards go to the graveyard in this scenario?”



The simple answer is yes, the Phyrexian Hulk dies. A spell like Fling uses “Last Known Information” to determine the Flunkies’ power, and the last known power was 5.

As for what goes to the graveyard, when, here’s the timeline:

1. I announce Fling, including choosing targets, etc.

2. I pay the costs for Fling, including the 1R and sacrificing the Flunkies. Flunkies goes to the graveyard.

3. I finish casting Fling. Fling is now on the stack.

4. State based actions are checked. Rancor is an aura enchanting nothing, so Rancor goes to the graveyard.

5. Rancor’s return trigger goes on the stack. Once that trigger resolves, Rancor returns to my hand.

6. Fling resolves. It deals 5 damage to the Hulk. As the very last step of resolving the spell, Fling goes to the graveyard.