The State of the Program for January 31st 2014

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

In the News this Week:

Are You Ready for some F.O.O.T.B.A.L.L?: This Sunday a lot of people will be excited about the This Sunday a lot of people will be excited about the Superb Owl (It’s a bird watching thing, I believe.) To help celebrate, Wizards is offering a special phantom limited event. The event, called Phantom Football Sealed is this Sunday, February 2. You open virtual packs from these sets:

· Future Sight

· Odyssey

· Onslaught

· Time Spiral

· Betrayers of Kamigawa

· Alara Reborn

· Lorwyn

· Legions

premium Screaming Seahawk and Nightmare The event starts at 12:30am PST and fires every hour on the half hour. Players: 16-256. Four rounds of Swiss. Prizes are boosters, as listed below, and all participants receive a

Match Wins Prizes QPS 4 3 Mirrodin / Darksteel Fifth Dawn draft sets

16 Phantom Points 3 3 1 Mirrodin / Darksteel Fifth Dawn draft set 16 Phantom Points 1 2 5 Phantom Points 0

Why is Wizards adding the promos? Well, apparently Seahawks are native to the Renton area. As for the Nightmare – I guess that’s what you get if the Seahawks don’t show up. Beats the alternative promos they might have used

Classic League Season 1 Sign-Up Ends Saturday: Registration for the 2014 Classic Quarter League Season 1 QT #1 ends tomorrow at midnight (meaning Feb. 1st at 11:59 pm EDT.) This will be the last season before the release of Vintage Masters. QT #2 will start in mid-April. You can also qualify by going 4-0 in a Classic DE between now and May 31st. The Invitational will be the last opportunity to play competitive Classic, so you don't want to miss it! More information regarding the league and the Invitational can be found gistration for the 2014 Classic Quarter League Season 1 QT #1 ends tomorrow at midnight (meaning Feb. 1st at 11:59 pm EDT.) This will be the last season before the release ofs. QT #2 will start in mid-April. You can also qualify by going 4-0 in a Classic DE between now and May 31st. The Invitational will be the last opportunity to play competitive Classic, so you don't want to miss it! More information regarding the league and the Invitational can be found here . You can register at www.gatherling.com . Good luck, all.

Cube is Back: The Cube is not powered this time around. Details The Cube ispowered this time around. Details here

MOCS Makeup Preliminaries End Today: The MOCS makeup prelims will run from January 29th-31st. That means they end today. The format is Phantom Cube Sealed: three packs, build a deck. Details The MOCS makeup prelims will run from January 29-31. That means they end today. The format is Phantom Cube Sealed: three packs, build a deck. Details here

Flashback Drafts Will Continue: Wizards has announced that flashback drafts will be coming back later this month. The next two weeks of flashbackiness are:

· Jan 29 - Feb 5 Mirrodin / Darksteel / Fifth Dawn + Cube

· Feb 5 - 12 Invasion / Planeshift / Apocalypse + Cube

The price for flashback drafts has dropped – the flashback drafts are now just 14 TIX, like other drafts. That’s a decided improvement. The drafts are not great EV in any case, but the extra TIX was just too much for me.

If you are drafting Mirrodin/ Darksteel / Fifth Dawn, the EV is in the play, not necessarily the opens. The average value of the cards in a draft set is $6.96 at retail. You can make money pretty much only by winning 8-4s, but here’s a list of the money cards to help stem the bleeding:

Card Set Rarity Retail Price Crucible of Worlds 5DN R $ 17.67 Auriok Champion 5DN R $ 16.04 Oblivion Stone MRD R $ 12.05 Vedalken Shackles 5DN R $ 9.84 Chrome Mox MRD R $ 8.98 Staff of Domination 5DN R $ 8.10 Arcbound Ravager DST R $ 6.65 Fist of Suns 5DN R $ 6.52 Sword of Light and Shadow DST R $ 6.44 Sword of Fire and Ice DST R $ 6.40 Engineered Explosives 5DN R $ 5.62 Damping Matrix MRD R $ 5.62 Mycosynth Lattice DST R $ 5.00 Goblin Charbelcher MRD R $ 4.94 Sundering Titan DST R $ 4.56 Trinisphere DST R $ 4.42 AEther Vial DST U $ 4.42

Wizards Looking for More Beta Testers: Wizards is still asking for more beta testers. This would cover testing of both the next sets and the closed beta of the new interface. You can get details and apply : Wizards is still asking for more beta testers. This would cover testing of both the next sets and the closed beta of the new interface. You can get details and apply here

HammyBot Update: Hammybot is a great way to get cards and support the family of the late Erik Friborg. So far, Hammybot has raised well over $6,000! Don’t stop now! Hammybot still has over 25,000 cards to sell, including a number of foil Mythics. Hammybot also has a nice collection of Foil lands, so if you want to pimp out your constructed decks…

Opinion Section: Functional Reprints

I was listening to Mark Rosewater’s Drive to Work podcast recently, and he mentioned being surprised at the pushback when Wizards reprinted Searing Spear as Lightning Strike. After all, the cards were commons – they were not hard to get. Now Searing Spear had been a FNM promo foil, which meant that people had gone to some effort and expense to collect playsets of the foils. Replacing the card with a functional reprint was clearly a bad choice in that respect, but I have a problem with the whole functional reprints in general.

First, some definitions. Functional reprints, according to Doug Meyer’s article , are “older cards with new concepts, names, and art.” With functional reprints, the names change. Sometime things like creature type also change, but the card functions in the same way. Here’s an example:

A 2/2 for 2B that pumps by eating other creatures has been a black staple for a long time. These creatures have, on occasion, been playable in Standard: Phyrexian Ghoul was a part of Carpe Noctum, and Nantuko Husk featured in a recursion deck built around Elvish Soultiller . However, I could not play my playset of Korean Phyrexian Ghouls in my Soultiller deck, because the cards are not the same. The names are different, and the creature types are different. Blood Bairn even functions differently – unlike the others, you cannot sacrifice the Bairn to itself.

In other cases, however, the cards are identical, except for the name. Here’s another example. All of these now have the same Oracle text, same creature type and same CMC. Only the names are now different.

So why the change? Originally, Llanowar and Fyndhorn were forests on worlds created very early on in Magic’s backstory. Very few people remember that origin, and even fewer care to remember that Llanowar has two “L”s. Elvish Mystic is generic, and that makes it easier for new players to understand. New players have a ton of things to learn when they start playing Magic – the names of forests and what a Phyrexian is don’t really have to be part of that. I can understand that reasoning.

However, functional reprints have a downside. They are why experienced players often leave their commons and uncommons on the table after a draft. It’s why throwback formats have such a bad EV. Simply put, commons and uncommons have no value because Wizards is as likely to do a functional reprint as to reprint an old card, so those old cards are highly likely to be unplayable in the future.

Even online, I go for special versions, where possible. I bought a playset of Onslaught Naturalizes shortly after starting to play online, and those are the only Naturalizes I have ever put in a constructed deck. I also learned to play with the old frames. I like them. I play them whenever I can. That means I play the old Syncopates, not the new ones. Back in the day, I collected cool versions of my favorite cards. I loved my German (Uktabi Orangutans) and Korean Saga Duress es. Ingrid played the same version of Counterspell in every control deck she ever played.

More importantly, the ability to use older versions with artwork or frames I preferred was a big reason why I kept old cards. In paper, Ingrid and I kept a double playset of every common and uncommon from old sets. Online, I tried to do the same: keep a playset of every card I get. Playing in enough drafts and sealeds make this pretty easy, but it meant that we collected the cards. It was also a reason to play in older format events online, like Tempest and Masques block.

Bâtard Sauvages, the odds are very high that I will simply never be able to play them in tournaments again. But now I am realizing that this is pretty pointless. Wizards may one day reprint old favorites, like Wild Mongrel or (Gaea’s Skyfolk), but the odds are good that 1) if they do, and 2) if the card is playable in constructed (both big ifs), then the odds are good that Wizards will do a functional reprint or rename them. No matter how much I may like Rebecca Guay’s art, or be amused by my Frenchthe odds are very high that I will simply never be able to play them in tournaments again.

That’s the problem with functional reprints, even of commons. Yes, we can easily get commons. However, a functional reprint means we cannot play the old copies of the cards that we may have collected in the past. The fact that Wizards likes doing “more flavorful” functional reprints means I have really no reason to try to collect old sets online, or keep my paper cards. The odds that I will ever again need any of them are simply way too low. And that’s sad. It is also the reason that the older commons, uncommons and even rares are all worth practically nothing online, and why Wizards cannot get people to play in throwback formats. At least in part.

Cutting Edge Tech:

Standard: The format is on its way out, since Born of the Gods will be entering the format in two weeks. Until then, we have what we have. Last weekend, what we had was a Standard GP. The Top 8 was mono-black devotion, mono-blue devotion and UW Control. UW Control took it down, partly because : The format is on its way out, since Born of the Gods will be entering the format in two weeks. Until then, we have what we have. Last weekend, what we had was a Standard GP. The Top 8 was mono-black devotion, mono-blue devotion and UW Control. UW Control took it down, partly because Archangel of Thune beats the hoard from the Mono-blue player, and is a complete beast when paired with Elspeth. I hear soldiers are good when they come in threes, but beat down as 8/8s or better.

Modern: The next Pro Tour, which will be Modern, is in a couple weeks. A lot of Pros are testing, but they are keeping their innovative tech to themselves. One writer did share an interesting build, though: Travis Woo build a ramp / devotion deck that lives to cast Genesis Wave and Primal Command. His article on the deck is : The next Pro Tour, which will be Modern, is in a couple weeks. A lot of Pros are testing, but they are keeping their innovative tech to themselves. One writer did share an interesting build, though: Travis Woo build a ramp / devotion deck that lives to cast Genesis Wave and Primal Command. His article on the deck is here

Pauper: Blue based control has long been a thing in Pauper. It still is, even if : Blue based control has long been a thing in Pauper. It still is, even if Prohibit (one of the first cards I bought just for Pauper) is no longer seeing play. Here’s the latest build to win a PE.

Legacy: Just one big Legacy event last weekend – the SCG Open in Baltimore. Legacy is seeing a few more archetypes: the Top 16 ( : Just one big Legacy event last weekend – the SCG Open in Baltimore. Legacy is seeing a few more archetypes: the Top 16 ( here ) included at least a dozen different archetypes. The winning deck was a classic Life from the Loam / Manabond Lands deck, but with both Punishing Fire and Thespian’s Stage. Not exactly the old 40+ land builds of the past.

Classic: Wizards moved Classic back to Saturday night, and the events are firing. This week an actual creature-based deck went 4-0. Moreover, the deck is relatively cheap (for Classic). If you are looking for a deck for the Classic League Season 1 (see above), and can get the Force of Wills, go for it. (You are going to need the duals and fetches if you want to play any eternal formats, ever, so get them, too.) And check out the main deck Price of Progress.

Card Prices:

MTGOTraders Bots, so check out mtgotradersbot, mtgotradersbot2, mtgotradersbot3, mtgotradersbot4, mtgotradersbot5, CardCaddy and CardWareHouse, or you can order them directly from Notes: All my prices come from MTGOTraders.com . For cards that are available in multiple sets, I am quoting the lower price. Thus, the price I’m quoting for Thoughtseize is generally the Theros price. In certain other cases (e.g Brainstorm) I will note which version I track. All these cards are generally available from theso check out mtgotradersbot, mtgotradersbot2, mtgotradersbot3, mtgotradersbot4, mtgotradersbot5, CardCaddy and CardWareHouse, or you can order them directly from the website . Now, on to prices.

The cost of entire sets is relevant if you redeem, but it is also a decent indicator of overall trends. This week, things moved around a bit. A lot of the drop, though, can be attributed to the rise and fall of certain chase cards. For example, a big chunk of the value of a Dragon’s Maze set is Voice of Resurgence, which dipped this week.

Complete Set Price Last Week Change % Change Dragon's Maze $77.67 $83.25 ($5.58) -7% Gatecrash $112.36 $115.58 ($3.22) -3% M14 $145.62 $144.28 $1.34 1% Return to Ravnica $160.88 $156.14 $4.74 3% Theros $112.00 $118.73 ($6.73) -6%

Standard prices are moving around, but are overall slightly down. A few of the big dollar cards fell fairly hard. The big jumps are in UW, following Hayne’s win last weekend. Sphinx’s rev and Archangel of Thune are both key components of that deck.

Modern prices are generally climbing. We are coming up on a Modern Pro Tour, and a lot of pros are testing online. By now, most know what they want to test, and what works. That said, some less likely decks are seeing some play: for example, Daybreak Coronet has climbed recently.

Pauper prices were climbing again this week. The price drops caused by the flashback drafts are ending, and those prices are returning to normal levels.

Legacy and Classic prices were moving a bit more than usual. The big money cards climbed again. Force of Will is back over $500 a playset. Lion’s Eye Diamond is insane. Show and tell dropped a bit – people are afraid that it will be banned next week. Time will tell.

The Good Stuff:

The Good Stuff starts with a list of the non-foil, non-premium cards on MTGO that cost more than $25 each. LED jumped again. Force of Will is now above $120. The list of cards over $25 is now 55 cards long, and that does not include foils or special promos.

Card Rarity Set Price Lion's Eye Diamond R MI $ 185.94 Force of Will R MED $ 130.97 Force of Will R PRM $ 113.81 Rishadan Port R MM $ 94.17 Tarmogoyf R FUT $ 85.86 Tarmogoyf M MMA $ 80.08 Wasteland U TE $ 79.53 Liliana of the Veil M ISD $ 74.35 Show and Tell R UZ $ 68.87 Gaea's Cradle R UZ $ 68.78 Misdirection R MM $ 66.09 Tundra R ME2 $ 54.28 Mox Opal M SOM $ 51.63 Tundra R ME4 $ 49.92 Karn Liberated M NPH $ 46.26 Vendilion Clique R MOR $ 43.45 Vendilion Clique M MMA $ 41.64 Vampiric Tutor R VI $ 41.12 Underground Sea R ME4 $ 40.69 Underground Sea R ME2 $ 40.29 Bayou R ME4 $ 38.97 Tropical Island R ME4 $ 38.00 Bayou R ME3 $ 37.74 Volcanic Island R ME4 $ 37.24 Batterskull M NPH $ 37.22 Natural Order R VI $ 36.92 Griselbrand M AVR $ 36.06 Tropical Island R ME3 $ 36.03 Volcanic Island R ME3 $ 36.00 Polluted Delta R ONS $ 35.33 Fulminator Mage R SHM $ 35.23 City of Traitors R EX $ 32.90 Sneak Attack R UZ $ 32.55 Sphinx's Revelation M RTR $ 32.13 Jace, Architect of Thought M RTR $ 31.62 Mutavault R MOR $ 31.50 Vindicate R AP $ 31.25 Grove of the Burnwillows R FUT $ 31.18 Primeval Titan M M12 $ 31.06 Primeval Titan M M11 $ 30.66 Voice of Resurgence M DGM $ 30.64 Mishra's Workshop R ME4 $ 29.48 Jace, the Mind Sculptor M WWK $ 29.13 True-Name Nemesis R C13 $ 28.61 Flusterstorm R CMD $ 26.79 Tangle Wire R NE $ 26.66 Dark Confidant R RAV $ 26.60 Dark Confidant M MMA $ 26.59 Hurkyl's Recall R 10E $ 26.48 Threads of Disloyalty R BOK $ 26.42 Mana Drain R ME3 $ 26.30 Mana Crypt R ME2 $ 26.00 Mutavault R M14 $ 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 version available, the cost of owning a playset of every card on MTGO you can own is $26,800. That’s up a bit from where we were last week.

Weekly Highlights:

My spotlight article of the week is Paul Leicht’s Where Has All the Magic Gone , which mixes ruminations on the state of Magic, the digital divide and the power level of cards with some thoughts on where Paul is at and where he’s going, plus some interesting brews. I’m happy to see Paul writing again, and hope he doesn’t wait another 6 months to get another article together.

Prereleases this weekend. I’ll be attending some, and running others. And maybe watching that Superb Owl thing.

PRJ

“one million words” on MTGO.