I am writing this article because Wizards has given us a huge present and, given how few people seem to be taking advantage of it, I have to conclude that the majority of the player base has not realized it yet.

“Going Infinite” is a dream for many Magic Online players. Who wouldn’t want to play their favorite game for free? In the distant past, it was quite a bit easier to play indefinitely by using your winnings to enter more events. With reductions in prize support, most players think that it is now almost impossible to go infinite. When prize support was cut for the Theros release events, many players saw the writing on the wall. I was one of those players, and I began to play constructed in addition to limited as a way of staying infinite.

I think you all see where this is going.

When THE ANNOUNCEMENT was made last week that all non-queue tournaments were temporarily being suspended, many players lost their ability to realistically support their bankroll with constructed. It seemed that there was absolutely no way to be infinite in the current system. Wizards took our daily events away and all we got were a bunch of crappy swiss queues!

WRONG.

Right now it is easier to go infinite by playing limited than it has been in YEARS.

How, good sir, is this possible? Isn’t the limited room where paychecks come to die? Aren’t the queues where you go to incinerate your constructed winnings in a flurry of poor decision making and misclicks? Not anymore! You see, when Wizards took the daily events down they gave us two new offerings.

One was an outright slap in the face: Yay! Constructed swiss queues that are functionally identical to playing three two mans in a row! Wizard's quickly realized what a joke this was and removed the queues after only one week.







The other is a diamond in the rough: 6 Pack Sealed Swiss queues. You may have glazed over this queue assuming that it was just another terrible limited offering. I didn’t even notice how good it was at first. When you do the math though, you quickly realize that this new queue is actually better than release queues used to be before they were nerfed… by a significant margin.

The hidden secret of just about every player that went infinite based on mostly or only limited play is that they slammed the hell out of the release sealed queues. This worked well up until Theros, allowing a player to build a bankroll of packs that would then last for weeks or months afterward.

This new queue is even better than that. As the graph indicates, it provides substantially more prize per ticket of entry fee than most other events. The six pack sealed queue is nearly 63% better than 8-4 or swiss draft queues.

Let’s look at the data from a different angle: prize support per player. Here we can only compare sealed events to each-other because the cost of entry is so different between sealed and draft:

The prize support for this new queue is simply fantastic.

So how good do you need to be to play for free at this queue? Well, to figure that out we need to settle a few things. First of all, I’m assuming a pack price of 3.6 tickets per pack. That seems reasonable given the current market, but we can expect prices to vary between 3.5 and 3.7 or so. Secondly, we need to establish the value of an opened pack as you get six packs worth of cards for each queue you enter. I won’t go into too much detail here, but suffice to say I crunched some numbers and a very conservative estimate of the value of an opened Theros pack is about 1 ticket.

So if we assume you play these events and then sell the cards that you open, how much can you expect to lose or win if you win half of your matches on average? What about 40% of your matches? 60%?

As you can see, regardless of your skill level this new queue is pretty much the best thing available by a wide margin (except for the highest skill group – in that case the new queue is only a hair better than release sealed queues). If you are good enough to win 60% of your matches you can actually make a profit playing these events. Even if you win only 50% you are only losing less than a ticket and a half per entry (far better than any other option). Clearly the break-even point is somewhere between a 50% and 60% match win rate. As the prize distribution is relatively flat, I suspect the number is closer to 50% than 60%.

Just let that sink in. A 50% match win rate is literally average. You only need to be slightly above average to go infinite playing sealed, and even if you are only average or below average these queues provide the absolute cheapest way to play limited on MTGO.

Do you make 2-1 or better about half the time in your swiss drafts? Do you make the finals of your 8-4 queues about a quarter of the time? If so, you’ve got a real chance at going infinite with the new six booster sealed queue. I’m guessing that this queue won’t be around forever, so I’d suggest taking advantage while you can.

Note that you do still need a bankroll to reliably stay infinite. Variance is absolutely a thing and players WILL go on hot streaks and cold streaks. The purpose of a bankroll is to make sure that you don’t go bust. No matter how good the prizes are, there is always a chance of busting so be sure to have an adequate starting bankroll to protect yourself with.

While I personally do not find Theros to be an especially compelling sealed format, I am a glutton for value and will be jamming these queues with gusto.



Bonus Section: Some Thoughts on the Return of Throwback Drafts

Another late breaking piece of news is the return of throwback drafts every week on MTGO. According to the latest weekly blog, we will be getting queues for a different classic draft format every week. The first week's offering is Triple Innistrad, starting on 11/20. The cost of entry will be product plus three tickets or 15 tickets. It used to be that these events were often nix-tix, so the three ticket cost is a bit of a letdown. For me, the format choice is an even bigger disappointment as I actually didn't like Innistrad all that much, mainly because of Travel Preparations. For those of you who are interested in value, I can't in good conscience recommend these tournaments as Innistrad rares are not especially valuable. The set just rotated out of standard, and it usually takes a while for prices to rebound.

That said, any value-conscious player should keep a sharp eye on these queues. There are a few sets that, if featured, could be amazing value. The formats that I'm looking out for are Tempest, Mirage, Urza's, and Masques, especially if they focus on the big sets: Tempest, Mirage, and Urza's Saga.

Mirage block features Lion's Eye Diamond as the only truly noteworthy rare, but that card is a doozy. In addition you can also find value in Enlightened Tutor, Mystical Tutor, and (Wordly Tutor) at uncommon for $19, $9, and $6 respectively. Not bad for an uncommon.



Tempest has some decent rares, although nothing that can come even close to competing with Lion's Eye Diamond. The real money is to be found in the uncommon slot with cards like Ancient Tomb clocking in at about $15, Reanimate at $5, and Wasteland at an absurd $80. You can even profit off of commons in this set, with Diabolic Edict, Rolling Thunder, and Lotus Petal all at or above the value of a pack.



Urza's Saga's rare slot is worth even more than Mirage and it's not close. Show and Tell and Gaea's Cradle are worth about $100 and $70 respectively, Sneak Attack is closing in on $40 and there are four other rares at or around $20, with another ten more clocking in at the price of a pack or more.



Masques Block offers a number of paths to value, with Rishadan Port and Misdirection doing a great impression of Show and Tell and Gaea's Cradle. There are some other reasonable finds as well, such as Tangle Wire. Submerge is close to $10 at uncommon. There is a lot of money at common with Daze at $15, Accumulated Knowledge at $3.50, Flame Rift at $6.25, Ancestral Mask at $7.50, Brainstorm at $4.50, Gush at $6, and Land Grant at $3.



Those card prices certainly whet my appetite, but they aren't the only reason I am excited by the possibility of these drafts. Wizards also announced that these queues will be offered as 8-4 and Swiss rather than the old model of 4-3-2-2 only. One of the main things that scared me away from these drafts in the past is that I have never played many of these formats, particularly Tempest and Mirage. 4-3-2-2s are a terrible way to learn a format, but swiss drafts are excellent, especially given that the value is mostly in the cards rather than the prizes. If you are hoping to go infinite, then ignoring these formats should they come up would be a big mistake. Gather your courage and jump into a few swiss queues. Get a feel for the format and bust some value doing it. If nothing else, you'll be experiencing part of Magic's history. When Masques block drafts were available last year, I was initially turned off by the format's terrible reputation. When I actually jumped in the queues though I found that I actually liked the format. It plays very differently from most recent sets and was a very refreshing change of pace.