State of the Program for April 29th 2016

In the News:

Amazing Pro Tour Top 8: Pro Tour Shadows over Innistrad – the 100th Pro Tour - was last weekend and it did not disappoint. The Top 8 may have been the strongest ever assembled – certainly the strongest this century. In the end, Steve Rubin won out over three Hall of Famers, two Players of the Year and the reigning World Champion. The Top 8 had eight very different archetypes. Coverage, including decklists, is Pro Tour Shadows over Innistrad – the 100Pro Tour - was last weekend and it did not disappoint. The Top 8 may have been the strongest ever assembled – certainly the strongest this century. In the end, Steve Rubin won out over three Hall of Famers, two Players of the Year and the reigning World Champion. The Top 8 had eight very different archetypes. Coverage, including decklists, is here

Pro Tour Gauntlet is Here: Wizards is letting us preview the best decks form Pro Tour SoI. The Gauntlet will let you play with one of the decks, chosen at random, in three round Swiss bouts. The Gauntlet includes all of the Top 8, plus five more interesting decks from the 8-2 or better list. Details and decklists Wizards is letting us preview the best decks form Pro Tour SoI. The Gauntlet will let you play with one of the decks, chosen at random, in three round Swiss bouts. The Gauntlet includes all of the Top 8, plus five more interesting decks from the 8-2 or better list. Details and decklists here

Wizards Axes Modern Pro Tour: Wizards has announced an end to the Modern Pro Tour. Going forward, all Pro Tours will combine Standard and draft. Aaron Forsythe explained the reasoning Wizards has announced an end to the Modern Pro Tour. Going forward, all Pro Tours will combine Standard and draft. Aaron Forsythe explained the reasoning here . Wizards is not abandoning the format. Presumably some GPs will be Modern (schedules and format not yet announced), but Wizards has said that one of the upcoming PPTQ and RPTG seasons will be Modern.

Pro Tour Info and Pro Players Club Changes: Wizards has announced the locations for next year’s Pro Tours: Dublin, Nashville, Kyoto, Albuquerque, plus the World Magic Cup in Nice. Wizards has reduced the appearance fees for Hall of Famers and platinum pros, but the rest of the packages remain the same. At the same time, Wizards has announced an increase to the prize pool for the Magic World Cup. The First Place prize will rise to $70,000 this year, and to $100,000 next year. Details : Wizards has announced the locations for next year’s Pro Tours: Dublin, Nashville, Kyoto, Albuquerque, plus the World Magic Cup in Nice. Wizards has reduced the appearance fees for Hall of Famers and platinum pros, but the rest of the packages remain the same. At the same time, Wizards has announced an increase to the prize pool for the Magic World Cup. The First Place prize will rise to $70,000 this year, and to $100,000 next year. Details here . Recording of the live announcement here . I’ll talk about this more in the opinion section.

Backlash to Wizards Cuts to Platinum Status: The above item included significant cuts to the annual compensation for platinum level pros. The inevitable backlash has occurred, but a number of pros have written really balanced and sane responses to the article. They are not rants, but are very clearly condemnations. I noted articles by Matt Sperling , The above item included significant cuts to the annual compensation for platinum level pros. The inevitable backlash has occurred, but a number of pros have written really balanced and sane responses to the article. They are not rants, but are very clearly condemnations. I noted articles by Jon Finkel Brian Kibler , and others, and a long Facebook post by (Levy? - one of the French pros whose name I can’t read. Sorry, my bad – I have horrible handwriting.) Someone has started a change.org petition to reverse the cuts, and some streamers (Kenji, joined by Gabby Spartz and probably others) have stopped streaming this week in solidarity. The Vintage Super League has also been delayed because at least some of those pros are/were considering pulling out. Finally, players are using the Twitter hashtag #paythepros – but don’t go too far back. That hashtag was also used in 2012 for the NFL vs. football refs dispute. More on this – the cuts to platinum, not football refs – in the opinion section, below.

And Wizards Reverses Course: The feedback, the streamer boycott and the Reddit and Twitter storm all had an effect. By Tuesday, Wizards had restored the Platinum benefits for 2016/2017 to their prior levels. Worlds prize payout will stay at $250k for 2016. Wizards will re-evaluate the changes for future years, but promises more player involvement. Read the article : The feedback, the streamer boycott and the Reddit and Twitter storm all had an effect. By Tuesday, Wizards had restored the Platinum benefits for 2016/2017 to their prior levels. Worlds prize payout will stay at $250k for 2016. Wizards will re-evaluate the changes for future years, but promises more player involvement. Read the article here

Magic Documentary Film Out: The folks behind the Walking the Planes videos have produced a feature-length documentary on Magic and life on the Pro Tour. The film features Melissa DeTora, Reid Duke, Huey Jensen, Chris Pikula, Owen Turtenwald, Patrick Chapin, Shahar Shenhar more. Article on the film The folks behind thevideos have produced a feature-length documentary on Magic and life on the Pro Tour. The film features Melissa DeTora, Reid Duke, Huey Jensen, Chris Pikula, Owen Turtenwald, Patrick Chapin, Shahar Shenhar more. Article on the film here . Details here . Irony on the release of this coming immediately after the cuts to platinum everywhere.

Windows XP and Vista Users Need to Upgrade: After NEXT DOWNTIME, MTGO will use .NET 4.5.2, which is not supported by XP. Vista users need at least Service Pack 2. Without it, MTGO will not run. I know upgrading is a pain, but XP has not been supported for years.

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 April 30th.

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

· No Downtime on: May 11, June 8 and June 22

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

· Eternal Masters: online release June 17, 2016. Details : online release June 17, 2016. Details here

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

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

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 Time Spiral: May 4, 2016 to May 11, 2016

· 2 Time Spiral and 1 Planar Chaos: May 11, 2016 to May 18, 2016

· 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 coming back next downtime. The format will be triple Time Spiral. Enjoy the format. The only money cards are Ancestral Visions in the rares, and Pendelhaven, Lord of Atlantis and The Rack among the “Time Shifted” cards.

Opinion Section: Organized Play Changes

This has been a crazy week. I have started this section a half dozen times, and every time things change faster than I can write. Here’s where we are, as of mid-week.

Last Friday, the Pro Tour was looking great. Limited was interesting, but Standard was seriously over-performing. Two icons of the community were undefeated, playing decks that were not Bant Company, with stars like Finkel just a step behind. Saturday also delivered. Sunday, I slept in too late, and by the time I woke up, most of the people I was rooting for were eliminated. Then we got the Wizards announcements about Modern Pro Tours and the cuts to Platinum. And the backlash. On Tuesday, Wizards backtracked, at least partly.

Let’s break these down. But first, some background on why promoting pros is important.

Magic is a collectible card game. It was the first, but by no means the only one. Over the last 20 years, literally hundreds of CCGs have appeared, been played, and died. I have written about this many times in depth. The key to Magic’s survival is the Pro Tour, which is an amazing marketing tool for the game. The Pro Tour provides a goal for players, a reason to play certain formats, and a group of celebrities that promote the game. That is hugely important. People watch sports like Magic, or any sport, partly because they like to see the game being played, but partly because they are rooting for certain teams or players. Watching a football game (round or oval football, makes no difference) is always more fun when your team / favorite player is competing. Same with Magic.

Years back, I used to work on the broadcast side during the Top 8 at Pro Tours. That let me see the viewership numbers. Viewership would plummet when the last big name was eliminated. Wizards understands that. The only question is what they need to do to effectively create and support those celebrity players. There’s a balance – Wizards needs to support enough celebrity players to keep viewers excited, but not so many that faces start getting lost in the crowd.

Modern gone as a PT format:

Wizards tried this once before, remember? A little over a year ago, Wizards announced that all Pro Tours going forward would be Draft and Standard, with no Modern. The community erupted, and Wizards agreed to keep one Pro Tour each year Draft and Modern. Since then, we have had two changes: the first was the new rotation schedule, which keeps Standard far more interesting than it used to be. Secondly, the last Modern PT was not too exciting, unless you consider endless heaps of Eldrazi exciting. Wizards will still be using Modern as a PTQ season format, and presumably for GPs, just not for Pro Tours. Reaction to this announcement was almost entirely positive, and I agree. My only concern is whether the GP schedule will include Modern at the expense of Legacy.

Hall of Fame appearance fee cuts:

Previously, the Hall of Fame members were paid an appearance fee of $1,500 for each Pro Tour they attended. Wizards will be eliminating these payments, except for the Pro Tour at which the new HoF class is inducted.

Generally, this has received little attention, even from the pros directly affected. The HoF is large – a bit over 40 players at the moment, and growing every year. A significant number of those pros no longer play competitive Magic, while a handful more only appear at occasional Pro Tours. Many of the HoFs are no longer known to the wider Magic community, and a few are known only to people like me, who have been writing about the PT for 15 years and have watched many of these folks play (with old card frames and without sleeves.) Wizards does not really get its money’s worth when some of these old pros arrive, hang out at the lower tables and don’t make the Day Two cut. Having them together for the induction ceremony once a year is great, and worth the payment, but that is probably enough.

Platinum appearance fee cuts:

The part of the initial announcement that caused a lot of consternation was that Wizards was, effective immediately, cutting the appearance fees that Platinum level pros receive from $3,000 per Pro Tour to $250. Platinum pros would still receive invites, airfare and hotels for all Pro Tours, plus all the benefits they get for other level events, but the appearance fees were to be dramatically slashed.

More importantly, these changes were to begin with the next Pro Tour. This is huge, because Platinum status is based on the number of pro points you earn in the prior year. Players who are currently Platinum got that status because of a lot of hard work in the prior year. Likewise, players that are at, or close to, Platinum for next year have got to where they are by playing a lot of Magic in a lot of places. Getting to Platinum requires a ton of travel and expense, and players were making the choice to undergo that effort because of the Platinum benefits Wizards was offering. To have those benefits revoked suddenly and without warning was shocking. It was probably not illegal, since Wizards had included lots of disclaimers in the fine print, but it felt unfair. Players felt that Wizards was reneging on promises made. The backlash was severe, and by Tuesday Wizards had announced that Platinum players would continue to receive the full appearance fees for this year and next.

Why did this happen?

We don’t know exactly why this happened. Wizards’ statement made little sense on this point, being basically: “the program was not doing what we wanted it to, so we changed it.” Wizards was increasing the prize pool for the world Magic Championship, and it was pretty clear that they were doing it by getting the money out of appearance fees. But that’s what, not why.

After thinking about this for a while, I think the changes probably came about this way. I think it began with Wizards looking at their eSports numbers. Right now, Hearthstone has a significant chunk of Twitch viewers – at least an order of magnitude more than Magic, maybe two. (Midday last Tuesday, Hearthstone had 89,300 viewers, while Magic had 465, but many well-known streamers were boycotting that day.) Wizards had announced during their most recent earnings call that eSports was important, and that they would be working in that area. I suspect that Wizards employees were tasked with fixing that problem. One facet of the problem is that Magic has no big money tournaments, unlike the big players on eSports.

I’m still speculating here, but based on a couple decades of experience with the way large corporations operate, I think I understand what happened. I’d bet staff pitched the idea of a big money tournament, along with other changes, to senior management. I’m betting that senior management bought the idea, but refused to approve any more money until the next budget cycle. The employees were told to make it happen – but to make it happen by cutting existing expenses and moving money around. Now Wizards had already cut coverage and other expenses recently, so I suspect Wizards’ staff had to look for other parts of the marketing / Organized Play budget to find the money to pay for their one big event. Since a ton of expenses are locked in quite far in advance (contracts with TOs and venues for large events, design and printing expenses, etc.), I’m guessing they had few options. Appearance fees for the highest level pros probably looked like the least bad option. Maybe it really was the least-bad option.

I have been put in situations like this. Senior management approves the part of a plan that includes the doing, but denies the part of the plan that pays the costs. The directive is to do it, and find the money somewhere. I would also expect that the staff went back to senior management and said that there were no easy cuts, and that the cuts they would have to make would require betraying promises. (I’m speculating, but that’s how I would have handled it. Also how I have seen this sort of thing handled many times.)

I also suspect that Wizards staff knew there would be a backlash. Maybe even senior management knew there would be a backlash. I really doubt that senior management knew just how harsh that backlash would be - #paythepros could not have been what they were expecting. And once the level of disaster was evident, senior management approved the partial roll-back. The cut to Hall of Fame appearance fees stuck, and that will partly offset the increase in Worlds prize pool. Maybe Wizards will eat the rest. Maybe we will see cuts in other areas, like coverage. And maybe Wizards will approve more money for Organized Play next budget cycle. I have no idea – I’ve got the speculator turned up to eleven here.

I have also read the theory that this change by Wizards is a reaction to the judge as employee lawsuit: that Wizards wants to avoid anything that might give players the same argument. Maybe, but I don’t quite see it. Judges are clearly doing work. Players are playing the game for prizes. There is no model or analog for Magic judges other than “employee,” or “volunteer.” For players, there is probably precedent from other sports. Pro golf, pro bowling, NASCAR, pro tennis – all have players supported partly by winnings, partly by appearance fees and partly by their teams and sponsors. I would think that the relationship has been adequately defined in these sports. However, this is just my impression – I have not looked for precedents or even thought all that hard about players as employees. Besides, if Wizards was making cuts because appearance bonuses could be argued to be wages, then Wizards would have eliminated appearance fees entirely, not just cut them 90%.

Why Not Just Raise Prize Payouts?

I have thought through many possible scenarios which would have lead Wizards to the decision they made, and the only plausible ones begin with the need for a high-value tournament. Wizards needs a big money event if it wants to be considered a real eSports player. (They need some other things, like a better MTGO client, but a half-million dollar event is easier to create.) I also think they should just budget the additional funds to increase the prize payout for both Worlds and the Pro Tours. The PT payout has been pretty much the same for a decade or so. Of course, it’s not my money. I don’t know how much Wizards budgets for advertising Magic, and how that is split between things like prerelease packs, advertising, coverage, events, support for stores, special promos, etc. etc. There are almost certainly way more important expenses than available funds. And Wizards cannot just allocate more funds, because it also has to make a profit. Companies and products that do not make a profit do not continue.

And I’m Writing the Same Article All Over Again:

So, maybe Wizards was in a bind. And maybe they had to make a hard choice, and take away something that some players valued, because something had to give. I can understand that. Life involves tradeoffs. You look at your options, and the ramifications of each of those options, and choose the one with the least-bad outcome.

And then you implement that option in a way that minimizes the downside, or at least sugar-coats it as well as possible.

Wizards has made a lot of tough choices over the years. They have cut formats and modes of play, and banned cards. They have changed the compensation for pros many times: by creating and eliminating the Masters Series tournaments, changing Pro Player levels 1-9 into Pro Player Silver/Gold/Platinum. In 2007, they made significant changes, then rolled them back. They changed to qualification via Planeswalker Points, then rolled that back. Same in other areas. Wizards cut Legacy Tribal Wars twice, and rolled that elimination back twice, before eliminating it completely (for now?) Over the 15 years I have been writing about Magic, I have seen Wizard reel back a lot of promises they have just been unable to keep.

I can forgive them that. Life is a series of compromises; you choose the best ones you can. Sometimes you have to disappoint people: your friends, yourself, your customers. It sucks, but that’s just the way the world works.

That said, I have trouble with how this has worked out for Wizards. Way, way too often Wizards has made one of these hard choices and reneged on a promise that they had made. Maybe that was unavoidable, and maybe they did choose the least-bad option. However, in way, way too many cases, Wizards does not seem to have thought through the consequences and ramifications of their choices. Take the massive cuts to appearance fees – how could Wizards have missed that eliminating payments that players had already spent time and effort earning would be perceived as unfair? (And not just perceived – taking away something players have sacrificed to earn is unfair.) I have real trouble believing that Wizards does a decent job of evaluating outcomes if something like this surprises them. But this happens again and again. I’m tired of writing articles were I end up asking “how could Wizards not have foreseen this?”

Here’s the other problem – way too often changes of this kind strike like thunderbolts out of the blue. Wizards give us no warning – the changes are just announced, often cloaked in platitudes and positive language. In 2007, Wizards announced significant cuts to pro player support with no warning or explanation. The pros banded together and fought back, and Wizards had to roll back the changes. One of the concessions that Wizards made at that point was to establish procedures and pathways for communications between Wizards and players, including the pros. These lasted the better part of a decade, until last weekend, when Wizards once again announced huge cuts without warning or consultation. And once again, they have had to apologize, roll the changes back and promise better communication in the future.

There is a better way. Psychiatrists, sociologists, marketing professional all studied this endlessly. Politicians and salespeople have known this for millennia. To get buy in from those involved, you explain the goals/needs, and why those goals are important for everyone. Then you lay out the cuts and costs, and ask for feedback. Once you have made your decision, you explain how you have allocated the pain, and why. Sometimes there are no good outcomes, but if everyone affected is equally unhappy, that is probably the best you can do. (I used to do rate design for utilities – that’s the secret to allocating price increases fairly.)

Sometimes choices will inevitably cause pain. All you can do is warn people it is coming, show them that you have done everything you can to minimize the pain, and then do it.

Or you can hit someone over the head with a club, giving no warning at all, then look away and whistle. Or just say that “we are whacking away like this because it better meets our goals.” Any MBA ever created can explain that this approach is just bad. For that matter, most first graders can tell you this is a bad approach.

Too bad I have to keep writing articles about how Wizards just doesn’t understand this, or maybe just doesn’t understand that it is important to talk to us, their customers.

Sigh.

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 more up. The goal is to determine what areas of the rules I need to teach, and what my candidate already knows. Lagrange asked me to share some, so I will keep throwing them out until people beg for mercy.

I control a Bearer of Overwhelming Truths (a transformed Daring Sleuth). You have no blockers. I attack. Before damage, you cast Jace’s Scrutiny, making my Bearer a 0/2. The Bearer connects. Do I get to investigate?

As always, there are no relevant cards not mentioned: the Bearer has no counters or equipment on it, and no static abilities affect its power.

Cutting Edge Tech:

Standard: We had a Standard Pro Tour last weekend. It was awesome. The Top 8 featured some of the game’s best players, playing eight entirely different decks. Coverage, including decklists, is : We had a Standard Pro Tour last weekend. It was awesome. The Top 8 featured some of the game’s best players, playing eight entirely different decks. Coverage, including decklists, is here . I also checked out the decks that did quite well in the Standard rounds of the Swiss. This deck did not make T8, but it is interesting. I’m considering taking it to league.

Modern: Modern may no longer be a Pro Tour format, but it is still being played. It will be played a lot more once we get closer to the next Modern PTQ season. For now, though, it is pretty diverse. The newly unbanned cards are coming back, but not in huge numbers. From the last list of 5-0 league decks, I only found one Thopter deck.

Legacy: Last weekend, SCG ran state championships across the country, instead of Opens and Classics. The only Legacy results on display were league results. So here's a fun deck - and a song to get stuck in your head, earwig style. .

Vintage: Nothing this week. The VSL delayed another week, due to the PT and the fall0out from the on-again, off-again changes to Platinum level. Next week, we hope, the ten player VSL S5 qualifying tournament begins.

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: SoI is here, and we have seen the Pro Tour decks. Prices are dropping. Several of these cards are likely to disappear next week – I tend to cut anything under $5. However, I may wait. Prices are very cyclical early in a format, and it is early.

Modern staples: Modern took a hit again this week, but not a large one. I doubt the elimination of the modern Pro Tour had any impact – odds are better people are just slowly working back into the format.

Legacy and Vintage: Legacy and Vintage are down again this week. I suspect people are selling old cards to pay for Shadows over Innistrad limited - liquidating what they don’t need in expectation of Eternal Masters.

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. Nothing strange about the hard fall in Shadows cards. The prices I had last week were just days into the set being available. Prices will drop after that.

Complete Set Price Last Week Change % Change Battle for Zendikar $62.76 $64.23 ($1.47) -2% Dragons of Tarkir $131.01 $138.03 ($7.02) -5% Magic Origins $153.72 $140.92 $12.80 9% Oath of the Gatewatch $103.40 $78.24 $25.16 32% Shadows over Innistrad $117.15 $173.88 ($56.73) -33%

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 to about 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 $ 161.65 Black Lotus VMA Bonus $ 142.52 Misdirection MM Rare $ 103.60 Liliana of the Veil ISD Mythic Rare $ 82.35 Mox Sapphire VMA Bonus $ 65.27 Wasteland TE Uncommon $ 61.00 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy ORI Mythic Rare $ 60.51 Tangle Wire NE Rare $ 57.92 Wasteland TPR Rare $ 57.58 Tarmogoyf FUT Rare $ 57.36 Tarmogoyf MM2 Mythic Rare $ 52.46 Ancestral Recall VMA Bonus $ 50.46 Tarmogoyf MMA Mythic Rare $ 49.14 City of Traitors EX Rare $ 46.70 Ensnaring Bridge ST Rare $ 44.72 Gaea's Cradle UZ Rare $ 43.31 Mox Jet VMA Bonus $ 42.22 City of Traitors TPR Rare $ 40.79 Time Walk VMA Bonus $ 40.19 Scapeshift MOR Rare $ 38.63 Exploration UZ Rare $ 36.47 Underground Sea ME2 Rare $ 35.94 Food Chain MM Rare $ 35.61 Batterskull NPH Mythic Rare $ 35.49 Mox Emerald VMA Bonus $ 35.38 Mox Ruby VMA Bonus $ 34.90 Voice of Resurgence DGM Mythic Rare $ 33.68 Infernal Tutor DIS Rare $ 33.62 Ensnaring Bridge 8ED Rare $ 33.43 Show and Tell UZ Rare $ 32.80 Lion's Eye Diamond MI Rare $ 32.79 Mox Opal SOM Mythic Rare $ 32.50 Force of Will MED Rare $ 32.08 Mox Pearl VMA Bonus $ 31.39 Underground Sea ME4 Rare $ 30.92 Archangel Avacyn SOI Mythic Rare $ 30.68 Celestial Colonnade WWK Rare $ 30.55 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet OGW Mythic Rare $ 29.74 Ensnaring Bridge 7E Rare $ 29.42 Daze DD2 Common $ 29.40 Mox Opal MM2 Mythic Rare $ 28.97 Crucible of Worlds 5DN Rare $ 28.55 Crucible of Worlds 10E Rare $ 28.46 Griselbrand AVR Mythic Rare $ 27.91 Horizon Canopy FUT Rare $ 26.95 Containment Priest C14 Rare $ 26.32 Fetid Heath EVE Rare $ 26.19 Volcanic Island ME4 Rare $ 25.85 Scalding Tarn ZEN Rare $ 25.59 Blood Moon 9ED Rare $ 25.48 Containment Priest PZ1 Rare $ 25.41 Volcanic Island ME3 Rare $ 25.36

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 $ 26,300. That’s down a whopping $2,100 from last week’s number. Some of that is Shadows over Innistrad losing their prerelease premium prices, and some is the general sell-off after the PT. Eternal Masters may have some effect – as have pros upset at Wizards for the whole Platinum fiasco.

Weekly Highlights:

Rollercoaster of a weekend. I was looking forward to States, but life intervened and I could not play. The Pro Tour was awesome, but everyone I was rooting for got knocked out in the first round of the Top 8. Then came the organized play mess, showing that Wizards just does not understand that professional Magic players can do math and understand variance – and that Wizards just does not know how to communicate

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.

Judge Question of the Week Answer:

I control a Bearer of Overwhelming Truths (a transformed Daring Sleuth). I attack, and you do not block. Before damage, you cast Jace’s Scrutiny, making my Bearer a 0/2. The Bearer connects. Do I get to investigate?

The answer is no. The rules tell us to treat zero damage as if the damage did not happen.