State of the Program for September 9, 2016

Magic News

SotP News: Pete is taking a bit of well-earned break. So, this week I am stepping in. My SotP bent will be more towards the financial aspects and the story of Kaladesh, while lighter on the decks and the opinion section. Hope you enjoy!

World Championship: Brian Braun-Duin faced off against Marcio Carvalho in the finals, the battle being between Bant Company and Bant Humans. Surprisingly, the Bant deck won! Err, Brian Braun-Duin won, and congratulations to him!

Draft Leagues Begin: Draft leagues started this week, so some of you are likely already playing in them! Of course, like every decision Wizards makes, some number of players complained. The discussion last week in the comments of the State of the Program mirror some of those complaints. Essentially, we lose the in-pod pairings to gain the league perks. Lee Sharpe addressed this by noting there is a trade off--less wait, ability to spread out at the costs of losing swiss in-pod pairings. For now, Wizards views their player data as supporting the switch to leagues, and Wizards claims it will continue to evaluate whether to reinstate the queues.

Change to Draft League Payout: When the draft league came up, the prize breakdown for the 6-2-2-2 was altered slightly, shifting the breakdown to 5 Eldritch Moon packs and 1 Shadows over Innistrad pack for the winner.

Legacy Cube Returns: The Legacy Cube will be back from September 21 to October 7. The Cube swiss option is a league ! This means that you might fight someone with the same card or cards as you! I think this may be where Wizards has gone too far with removing swiss queues, since part of the Cube format is that each card is unique. There are a number of changes, mostly adding Shadows over Innistrad block bards such as Archangel Avacyn and Emrakul, the Promised End . Other fun additions include Mirror Entity and Chaos Warp .

Bug Blog Update: There appears to be a new bug related to Fortune's Favor . It is display only--if someone casts a spell or activates an ability in response, the indication of which pile is face down goes away, but it is always the bottom row in the pane.

The Timeline: Similar to Josh last week, I'm largely copying Pete's timeline section. 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. It seems the Known Issues list is now part of the Bug Blog. 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.



Upcoming important dates:

Power Nine Challenge: Last Saturday of the month, at 11am Pacific. Next one September 24th.

Legacy Challenge: Second Saturday of the month, at 11am Pacific. Next one September 10th.

No Downtime on these Dates: September 14th, October 12th, November 2nd, 9th and 30th and December 14th.

Extended Downtime on September 28, 2016.

League End Dates: all current leagues end October 5th.

Duel Decks: Mind v. Might -- paper release March 31, 2017.

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

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

Commander 2016: paper release November 2016. No MTGO release, but key cards will be released online within another product.

Aether Revolt: January 27, 2017 MTGO pre-release, January 30, 2017 MTGO release.

Modern Master 2017: MTGO release March 23, 2017.

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.

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

Break for Kaladesh Release

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

This week is Magic 2011. The winners are Primeval Titan and Leyline of Sanctity. Overall the set is not a bad value, but not too good either.

Opinion Section:

I am going to play the new Chandra. In standard (which I haven't actively played in since original Mirrodin), in Modern, in EDH, and any format. Chandra is by far my favorite planeswalker, so I am quite excited to see such an excellent version (though disappointed by the insane paper prices).

Kaladesh Story and Chandra, Torch of Awesomeness :

Here, I'll give some general background that shouldn't be worrisome spoilers for those who haven't caught up on the story.

Background: Kaladesh is likely the most technological plane we've visited in the multi-verse. However, the technology is more art than application. So, on Kaladesh, the technology and invention is wide spread, but not particularly evolved. The technology is powered by Aether, an abundant resource on the plane. Aether is so important, that the entire plane essentially revolves around it, economically, politically, and magically.

Click away for some of the more specifics of the story

After dealing the Eldrazi on Innistrad the Gatewatch starts its mission to protect the multiverse. One of the first to come to the Gatewatch is Dovan Baan, a Minister of Inspections from Chandra's home plane of Kaladesh. Baan pleads with the Gatewatch to come to Kaladesh and track down a renegade inventor, appartenly threatening the stability of the plane and political order. However, this is not a multi-verse threatening event, so the Gatewatch declines to get involved. Chandra, however, is torn and eventually planeswalks home. Torn bettwen her past and present, she is surprised by Liliana joining, encouraging reckless fun. The Inventor's Fair is occuring and the duo attempt to track down the renegade. When they finally catch up, turns out he was chasing someone. Oh, the regenade turend out to be Tezzeret. And he has hunting Chandra's mother, who turned out to be alive.

Show More Story!

Cutting Edge Tech:

As noted above in the opinion section, I haven't played Standard in a while, and have only been lightly involved in Modern. So, my cutting edge may be a bit....off. Luckily, I can get by that by just showing two of the world championship decks!

And here's one of the top Modern decks, Titanshift!

Card Prices:

Standard Staples: Standard is in retreat with Kaladesh on the horizon. Even Wizards has attempted Bant Company is tiresome at this point. I feel bad for people holding Nissa, Vastwood Seer ...

Modern staples: Modern climbed a bit overall, showing some growth.

Legacy and Vintage staples: Legacy and Vintage are, again, all over the place. Last time saw similar levels of wild changes.

Magic Origins took a hit, likely in anticipation of its rotation and the continuing decline of (Jace, Vyrn's Prodigy).

Complete Set Price Last Week Change Percent Change Eldritch Moon $93.26 $87.26 $6.03 6% Shadows over Innistrad $65.93 $66.26 ($0.43) -1% Oath of the Gatewatch $104.62 $95.60 $9.02 9% Battle for Zendikar $62.52 $56.84 $5.68 9% Magic Origins $62.51 $76.30 ($13.79) -22% Dragons of Tarkir $53.81 $57.38 ($3.57) -7%

Fun Economic Facts:

Here are some random facts. Keep in mind some of these are actually because of lack of demand and no supply, so don't take them too seriously.

Rishadan Port is not the most expensive card on MTGO currently. The promo version of Yawgmoth's WIll is $243.33

is not the most expensive card on MTGO currently. The promo version of Yawgmoth's WIll is $243.33 You can buy a complete set for less than 10 bucks. A full Legions set currently sells for $6.41!

The average cost to buy a full set is $81.83. Mercadian Masques is the most expensive at $551.36.

The most valuable From the Vaults is Realms

The Premium Deck Series have never recovered. Several years ago, based on length of holding the account (I think) you got various handouts. Included in those was the three Premium Deck Series. Slivers and Fire & Lightning both sell, as a deck, for less than 2 bucks!

The most valuable uncommon is Wasteland , followed by Submerge .

, followed by Submerge . The most valuable common is Gorilla Shaman

The Good Stuff:

Here is a list of every non-foil, non-promo card worth over $25. Rishadan Port , unsurprisingly, stays on top. Black Lotus dropped a fair bit and Liliana of the Veil climbed a bit. Chalice of the Void joined the list.

The big number this week is $26,073.80, the cost to own a playset of every non-foil, non-promo card, assuming you bought the cheapest version. That's up around $200.00 from two weeks ago. I imagine it'll fluctuate soon as Kaladesh approaches and enters the market. The paper world is slowing down, so there probably won't be much innovation to shake up the value.

Weekly Highlights:

For me, I've been busy with Law School, work, and my 15-month-old. However, the new Chandra has me itching to get back into Magic a bit more heavily, so that's exciting. Overall, I'm quite excited for Kaladesh.

Hope you enjoyed my spin at the wheel!

xger

xger21 on MTGO

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