Thanks for the info Pete and continuing the column week in and week out.
As for my opinions on the HoF ballot, Paulo=Duh, yes. And while I can't argue with much of your reasoning with any of the players, I think Chapin should make it in on his book alone, well perhaps not alone, but with his stats and weekly contributions on websites and as you stated ambassadorship, just seems like he should make it this year. I don't know of a MTG player who has been to a major event and doesn't know the name Patrick Chapin, that in itself is Fame, and well it's called the Hall of Fame, not hall of champions.FWIW my humble? opinion.
A good article as always, and thanks for your efforts in putting together my most looked forward to article of the week.
I realise it is extra work, and certainly not something we're entitled to, but the tournaments fired info would be much more helpful and informative as a percentage, instead of (or as well as) a number. Just from your numbers it's hard to tell whether Pauper or Block is more popular for example, as we don't know if one of them has more events scheduled (without going and counting them all up, and then working out the percentages ourselves each week).
Also I'd love to compare how popular Momir Basic is. It's the only Daily Event I tend to play but I understand if you can't find the number of those firing, as they don't publish "decklists".
Finally, on the Hall of Fame, while I certainly respect your position re cheating, I just wondered whether you would *ever* consider voting for Saito? You mention Bob Maher yourself, and wondered if it's possible for Saito to reach the same place in your eyes?
Personally, I think he showed a real passion for the game and was character I used to look out for in the coverage, and would love to see him come back "clean". I also think anyone who voted in Olivier Ruel should not have a problem with Saito, who seems to me to be in a very similar situation.
On the otherhand, Kenji has it all going for him, in my opinion.
1. Try and be more descriptive in your front page summary. I had no idea we would be doing a review of budget modern decks until I opened up the article and got to the end. You may have missed out on an potential chunk of the audience by not accurately titling and summarizing your article's focus.
2. It would be helpful if there were more clear transitions, even something as simple as a subheading. This would be nice for people who are only looking for information from a certain segment of your article (the sealed piece or the modern decks in this example).
3. You had me very confused with the statement "Next up, I'd like to call out the color Red, specifically in Modern: Red is dominating these days. The top decks in the format are basically all Red variants". I hope you did not mean traditional red decks ala burn and RDW, bc a quick scan of DEs would show that these decks are not dominating. If you meant decks that produce red mana, then I could see where you are coming from, but really it just seems like a half-baked transition. I think most people would refer to storm and other decks of it's ilk combo decks and not "red variants".
Overall, I like the content and it was a fun read. These are just some small nitpicks that would really tighten things up. You seem to be really growing as a writer. Don't stop (writing or growing).
I like your walk through of your ballot and agree with your thoughts on your votes. I will chime in to try and push your vote for Kenji. I remember watching many an event that the man managed to tear through, and he had a long string of successes that are commendable. Additionally, I remember him being a very funny character, contributor to the community and an honorable player as well. I clearly remember reading coverage about how Kenji quickly signaled to stop his opponent from drawing a card (in a pro event) because the dude had played a pact last turn and would've auto-lossed. That's classy.
I think you shouldn't let current activity sway your that hard. Finkel wasn't active when he was voted in and look what that did to his playing time.
My feeling about halls of fame is they are one of the modern farces. Along with awards shows and top 10 lists. That said I can't really argue with any of your reasonings and if you are comfortable with your votes then that's awesome. I used to be friendly with a number of these guys and I respect and admire many more but there are certainly many of them that fit into grey areas.
I should note I saw a FOW on a bot site (something about a dying star) listed for $84.00. The site has a bit of a history for sometimes having incorrectly listed prices (they keep having Restoration Angels at 7.x on the site but the bots themselves never have it for less than 8.x for example) but they also tend to undercut the stores so it wouldn't be too surprising if that was a genuine price. Which is an interesting thing to note. Is force of will becoming less relevant or are people selling off because they fear a reprinting at some point? (Mocs, promo, etc.)
I've been impressed with all your articles, but the IPA bit of this was really good.
I'd never drafted IPA the before, so it was steep curve (and a fair few losses), for me to reach many of the same conclusions over the last week.
I wish I'd had this article a week ago!! ;-)
My one tip for anyone who's going to try it for the first time, is to have a quick look through the commons/uncommons on Gatherer first. There are so many cards, and they are all so wordy, that I found there was only time to read and understand less than half the cards before the draft pick time ran out!!
In my (short) experience, a GRu/b is best, focussing on GR for the early game creatues. I try to draft decks with 2-3 horned Kavu's in pack 2, and 3-4 R or G one-drops (especially disciples) in pack three to avoid too much of a tempo loss from playing the Kavus.
In this way, you have less mana problems in the crucial early game, for playing creatures and applying pressure, while most of the blue/black cards you want to play are bounce/removal spells that you don't need to play early, and so have time to find the mana for.
I want to send out a special thanks to Lucas Boyd, who helped me this week with gathering the IPA data. I wouldn't have been able to get both portions done without his help. Also, I forgot to thank him in the article proper, so I promised to leave him a thank you note in the comments once the article went live.
It's been brought to my attention that M12 and Scars of Mirrodin will rotate at the same time. My apologies for this error as I believed that M13 becoming Standard legal would mean the rotation of M12. Having researched a little further, which admittedly I should have done before writing the article, M13 will become legal on 13th July 2012. From that time there will be two core sets in rotation M12 and M13.
Return to Ravnica will come in on 5th October 2012 and with its entrance out will go M12 and Scars of Mirrodin Block. I definitely think the Core Set overlap is confusing but I suppose it can lead to cool things like the Soul Sisters deck from last year.
So my article is misleading when it discusses the rotation of M12 and Scars as separate events. However, I think the basic points of the article still stand. Delver, if it is remain a top tier deck with Return to Ravnica's arrival, will have to become a very different beast than it is today. Also, with Delver being underpowered in Innistrad Block Constructed there's hope that it won't be the dominating threat it is now. However, sadly it looks as though it might be until October before we see any major changes.
The cards you list are interesting options for post-rotation Delver, but I imagine the deck will look quite different if they are included. Lingering Souls isn't a card the deck currently plays and unless there is better mana fixing I'm not sure if it will go into the deck.
Talrand might find his way into Delver but I'm not sure. He's a little fragile as a 2/2 and he doesn't have an immediate impact on the board, but his effect might be worth the risk.
Sublime Archangel is a very powerful card but I'm not sure that to what extent it lends itself to Delver strategies. Sublime Archangel relies on other creatures to be powerful and Delver is currently running about 15-16 creatures. I suppose adding in Lingering Souls would be a difference maker but as I say the current builds of Delver don't. You would have to find a happy medium between playing creatures and instants/sorceries to reliably flip Delver.
Sleep is an interesting one and I'm eager to see how it gets used once M13 comes in.
Delver has been around way too long. I'm not willing to wait until October for things to clear up. In fact, looking at the M13 spoilers, it seems things will get worse.
Talrand, Sky Summoner 2uu: every time you cast an instant or sorcery spell, put a 2/2 Drake with flying into play. This is perfect for the Delver decks because you get a free creature whenever you cast a spell. Decks that run Delver and Lingering Souls together are going to love this guy.
Sublime Archangel 2ww: Exalted. All other creatures you control have exalted. What do you do when you have a bunch of tokens and one flying creature with 3 power? Swing with one of them and leave the rest to block! This should be a 4-of in every control build and it already looks like a design mistake.
Sleep 2uu: Remember sleep? I don't remember playing it in standard, yet with the amount of token decks running around, this card seems very relevant all of the sudden. It's also a little better than Day of Judgment if you're a token deck because it will likely give you two turns of free attacking.
Mana Leak is a huge hit to the deck, but I don't doubt that Delver decks will be around for a long time to come. It will have to turn into a mid range tempo deck instead of an aggro/control deck, but I have a hard time seeing anyone move away from the archetype everyone has been playing in standard since the Alara block rotated out. It's not a question of whether there are other decks out there. There are. It's just that people don't want to play them.
I was fortunate to have two accounts one of which is my beta so I got the whole panoply of gifts. I also went ahead and got an extra F&L for 4 tix because though I have had several before I sold off the $$ cards after awhile. Now I have 16 f&l bolts and a bunch of other extras.
Also bought 3x Entomb at $2 each which seems like a great deal even with the gifts being free to some of us. Great cards are great.
Might get some more Sphinges since that is one card I never got to play with in my UBW sphinges deck since it was always so pricy. I opened a foil one in a draft a long time back but sold it for about $18. So far haven't been able to actually practice with any of my new decks because I've been busy with other games and activities.
Btw Keya, have a great time and congratulations! :D
It just goes to personal preference I guess. I would take those extra hoops over the paper extra hoops of tournaments taking a whole weekend and having to travel a lot any day.
I'd also like to add some info from my own experience in building a deck both in paper and online.
I have an elves deck that I love to play online, and I'm currently putting together a paper version of it. The bulk of the value is held in 20/60 cards in the deck. *EDIT: adding in (Paper Price / MTGO Price)*
Knowing which site my local game store uses to price cards, and comparing to MTGOTraders.com
but I find those "extra hoops" to really be annoying and restrictive. They also diminish what you truly win, paypal fees, rate exchange on tix then paying taxes in some states for product out of the store, fractional bot credits, etc. All can and have been worked around, but just BLAH to red tape lol
Maybe you can win more in paper if you get on the pro tour or travel to lots of big tournaments, but it is so much easier to pay off your decks and come out ahead playing online. Daily events fire constantly, just simply enter those in your favorite format (unless it is Legacy,) sell your packs for tickets, and sell the tickets you don't need for cards to keep going through paypal. No travel needed.
While I enjoyed this article, the glaring omission to me is the lack of discussion on the current Standard legal sets and recently rotated sets still available to redeem for paper cards. These cards tend to fluctuate more in value, but also tend to hold their value better because of the ability to convert them to paper within the given window.
This has greatly influenced my spending/playing habits... I now play draft and sealed events online to accumulate cards, and play Standard Constructed and Pauper for fun with the cards I have when I don't have enough time to dedicate myself to a tournament. When sets rotate out of Standard each year in the fall, I redeem for paper cards and use them for Modern/Legacy/EDH. I usually only redeem one copy of each expansion, which has steered me toward EDH almost exclusively when playing constructed formats in paper.
It is also worth noting that I do attribute my playing habits to having a family. I don't get to the game store like I used to. I log on to MTGO once everyone else is asleep for the night. My IRL play time is limited to prerelease events and the occassional EDH meetup.
You can definitely win money online too - you just have to jump through additional hoops.
I've been managing to go "infinite" online for a couple of years now, to the point where I started selling tix to local MTGO players. If you don't have local players to sell to, you an always use PayPal, eBay, etc.
Yes, the potential in paper prize value is bigger (what with 1K+ tournaments and all), but it is also much harder to break even, and there are way, way less opportunities to play (i.e. less tournaments).
While I agree, the biggest glaring difference here is that in paper YOU CAN WIN MONEY. I know most will say, "yeah but not many win money, etc etc etc." but as someone who has done it, it really isn't that hard, it does take a large time investment and some money(but you don't HAVE to have 3 playsets of lands for 3 decks...that just doesn't even make sense) but if you are good enough and have some luck you can easily pay for your next trip and deck. I do concede that for the general public and especially new players that online is FAR FAR cheaper to get into and maintain.
I can tell you that when you go to big events, there's a lot of opportunity to make gains by trading. A player who came to the FNMs I used to go gave himself a challenge: he would start with a land and trade his way to a Gideon Jura (when Gideon was 30 dollars). At the end of the day, he had his Gideon (but not his land). That's the kind of thing players do all the time, and it's one way people can get themselves better decks other than having to pay for it.
I agree that the price differences are due largely to liquidity of card. In paper, if I open a god but not amazing rare, it can often be quite difficult to trade, especially if everyone already has a playset of that card if they want it. Online, I can easily sell to a bot for 85-95% of its value, and use those tix to buy whatever I need. (Paper stores pay less than this for cards, and won't buy everything, and may only offer credit for their limited selection, etc.)
As for Legacy, it is much cheaper online. While FoW and LED are more costly in paper, dual land prices and other prices more than make up for this. E.g. the recent SCg Open was won by a deck with Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale. It is $325 in paper, and $5 online. Underground Sea is $120+ in paper and $25 online.
I think the lack of Legacy play is simply a network effect. If Legacy DEs launched every time (and one did launch yesterday), I personally would be willing to spend the money to buy a good Legacy deck. As it is, I am not willing, because I won't be able to use the deck much/at all in tournaments.
cool article, and that's a huge difference in price between paper and online. Intersting how that works, and I wonder how much of it is just a function of the paper market being so imperfect due to transaction costs. Online, it's just so easy to liquidate cards you don't want and to match up buyers and sellers that the market must function better overall. I know that if I ever draft a money card that I'm not currently using in the deck, I'll quickly go trade it for tix unless I suspect its price will dramatically increase (which doesn't happen for many cards that are already money cards) becuase I know it's so easy to pick it up later if I ever actually wanted it - holding unused stock on hand just incurrs unnecesary opportunity cost.
Also, I'm not sure the "individual trading" explantion for the disparity in legacy prices holds water. First, I don't think you've established that legacy is actually cheaper irl than online. Yes, vindicate is "selling" $30 cheaper in paper, but it's actually out of stock which means it's too cheap, so who knows what the actual market price is. And Jace is only a one card sample. But assume that it's true, I don't see how having less liquidity in the market (due to "off market" trades) can lead to lower prices, it'd seem to either do the opposite or just be irrelevant. I don't really know why legacy hasn't caught on online, if it's primarily price (and not just a network effect/chicken and egg situation) then could it possible be due to lower digital supply of the earlier print run product? Was the online game markedly less popular than the physical game back when legacy staples were being printed?
Good article. I enjoy playing the physical card game a lot, but nothing beats waking up early and having a MTG at your fingertips if you so desire it. Can you imagine trying to pull that one with your friends? "Yeah I know it's 5am, fancy a game of MTG? --- Click".
Thanks for the info Pete and continuing the column week in and week out.
As for my opinions on the HoF ballot, Paulo=Duh, yes. And while I can't argue with much of your reasoning with any of the players, I think Chapin should make it in on his book alone, well perhaps not alone, but with his stats and weekly contributions on websites and as you stated ambassadorship, just seems like he should make it this year. I don't know of a MTG player who has been to a major event and doesn't know the name Patrick Chapin, that in itself is Fame, and well it's called the Hall of Fame, not hall of champions.FWIW my humble? opinion.
Thanks GM. I'll keep that in mind.
A good article as always, and thanks for your efforts in putting together my most looked forward to article of the week.
I realise it is extra work, and certainly not something we're entitled to, but the tournaments fired info would be much more helpful and informative as a percentage, instead of (or as well as) a number. Just from your numbers it's hard to tell whether Pauper or Block is more popular for example, as we don't know if one of them has more events scheduled (without going and counting them all up, and then working out the percentages ourselves each week).
Also I'd love to compare how popular Momir Basic is. It's the only Daily Event I tend to play but I understand if you can't find the number of those firing, as they don't publish "decklists".
Finally, on the Hall of Fame, while I certainly respect your position re cheating, I just wondered whether you would *ever* consider voting for Saito? You mention Bob Maher yourself, and wondered if it's possible for Saito to reach the same place in your eyes?
Personally, I think he showed a real passion for the game and was character I used to look out for in the coverage, and would love to see him come back "clean". I also think anyone who voted in Olivier Ruel should not have a problem with Saito, who seems to me to be in a very similar situation.
On the otherhand, Kenji has it all going for him, in my opinion.
Just my thoughts. :-)
Not a bad entry. A few critiques.
1. Try and be more descriptive in your front page summary. I had no idea we would be doing a review of budget modern decks until I opened up the article and got to the end. You may have missed out on an potential chunk of the audience by not accurately titling and summarizing your article's focus.
2. It would be helpful if there were more clear transitions, even something as simple as a subheading. This would be nice for people who are only looking for information from a certain segment of your article (the sealed piece or the modern decks in this example).
3. You had me very confused with the statement "Next up, I'd like to call out the color Red, specifically in Modern: Red is dominating these days. The top decks in the format are basically all Red variants". I hope you did not mean traditional red decks ala burn and RDW, bc a quick scan of DEs would show that these decks are not dominating. If you meant decks that produce red mana, then I could see where you are coming from, but really it just seems like a half-baked transition. I think most people would refer to storm and other decks of it's ilk combo decks and not "red variants".
Overall, I like the content and it was a fun read. These are just some small nitpicks that would really tighten things up. You seem to be really growing as a writer. Don't stop (writing or growing).
Excellent work as always Pete.
I like your walk through of your ballot and agree with your thoughts on your votes. I will chime in to try and push your vote for Kenji. I remember watching many an event that the man managed to tear through, and he had a long string of successes that are commendable. Additionally, I remember him being a very funny character, contributor to the community and an honorable player as well. I clearly remember reading coverage about how Kenji quickly signaled to stop his opponent from drawing a card (in a pro event) because the dude had played a pact last turn and would've auto-lossed. That's classy.
I think you shouldn't let current activity sway your that hard. Finkel wasn't active when he was voted in and look what that did to his playing time.
My feeling about halls of fame is they are one of the modern farces. Along with awards shows and top 10 lists. That said I can't really argue with any of your reasonings and if you are comfortable with your votes then that's awesome. I used to be friendly with a number of these guys and I respect and admire many more but there are certainly many of them that fit into grey areas.
I should note I saw a FOW on a bot site (something about a dying star) listed for $84.00. The site has a bit of a history for sometimes having incorrectly listed prices (they keep having Restoration Angels at 7.x on the site but the bots themselves never have it for less than 8.x for example) but they also tend to undercut the stores so it wouldn't be too surprising if that was a genuine price. Which is an interesting thing to note. Is force of will becoming less relevant or are people selling off because they fear a reprinting at some point? (Mocs, promo, etc.)
I've been impressed with all your articles, but the IPA bit of this was really good.
I'd never drafted IPA the before, so it was steep curve (and a fair few losses), for me to reach many of the same conclusions over the last week.
I wish I'd had this article a week ago!! ;-)
My one tip for anyone who's going to try it for the first time, is to have a quick look through the commons/uncommons on Gatherer first. There are so many cards, and they are all so wordy, that I found there was only time to read and understand less than half the cards before the draft pick time ran out!!
In my (short) experience, a GRu/b is best, focussing on GR for the early game creatues. I try to draft decks with 2-3 horned Kavu's in pack 2, and 3-4 R or G one-drops (especially disciples) in pack three to avoid too much of a tempo loss from playing the Kavus.
In this way, you have less mana problems in the crucial early game, for playing creatures and applying pressure, while most of the blue/black cards you want to play are bounce/removal spells that you don't need to play early, and so have time to find the mana for.
Just my thoughts.
I want to send out a special thanks to Lucas Boyd, who helped me this week with gathering the IPA data. I wouldn't have been able to get both portions done without his help. Also, I forgot to thank him in the article proper, so I promised to leave him a thank you note in the comments once the article went live.
As always, extremely informative and well-written.
It's been brought to my attention that M12 and Scars of Mirrodin will rotate at the same time. My apologies for this error as I believed that M13 becoming Standard legal would mean the rotation of M12. Having researched a little further, which admittedly I should have done before writing the article, M13 will become legal on 13th July 2012. From that time there will be two core sets in rotation M12 and M13.
Return to Ravnica will come in on 5th October 2012 and with its entrance out will go M12 and Scars of Mirrodin Block. I definitely think the Core Set overlap is confusing but I suppose it can lead to cool things like the Soul Sisters deck from last year.
So my article is misleading when it discusses the rotation of M12 and Scars as separate events. However, I think the basic points of the article still stand. Delver, if it is remain a top tier deck with Return to Ravnica's arrival, will have to become a very different beast than it is today. Also, with Delver being underpowered in Innistrad Block Constructed there's hope that it won't be the dominating threat it is now. However, sadly it looks as though it might be until October before we see any major changes.
The cards you list are interesting options for post-rotation Delver, but I imagine the deck will look quite different if they are included. Lingering Souls isn't a card the deck currently plays and unless there is better mana fixing I'm not sure if it will go into the deck.
Talrand might find his way into Delver but I'm not sure. He's a little fragile as a 2/2 and he doesn't have an immediate impact on the board, but his effect might be worth the risk.
Sublime Archangel is a very powerful card but I'm not sure that to what extent it lends itself to Delver strategies. Sublime Archangel relies on other creatures to be powerful and Delver is currently running about 15-16 creatures. I suppose adding in Lingering Souls would be a difference maker but as I say the current builds of Delver don't. You would have to find a happy medium between playing creatures and instants/sorceries to reliably flip Delver.
Sleep is an interesting one and I'm eager to see how it gets used once M13 comes in.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Delver has been around way too long. I'm not willing to wait until October for things to clear up. In fact, looking at the M13 spoilers, it seems things will get worse.
Talrand, Sky Summoner 2uu: every time you cast an instant or sorcery spell, put a 2/2 Drake with flying into play. This is perfect for the Delver decks because you get a free creature whenever you cast a spell. Decks that run Delver and Lingering Souls together are going to love this guy.
Sublime Archangel 2ww: Exalted. All other creatures you control have exalted. What do you do when you have a bunch of tokens and one flying creature with 3 power? Swing with one of them and leave the rest to block! This should be a 4-of in every control build and it already looks like a design mistake.
Sleep 2uu: Remember sleep? I don't remember playing it in standard, yet with the amount of token decks running around, this card seems very relevant all of the sudden. It's also a little better than Day of Judgment if you're a token deck because it will likely give you two turns of free attacking.
Mana Leak is a huge hit to the deck, but I don't doubt that Delver decks will be around for a long time to come. It will have to turn into a mid range tempo deck instead of an aggro/control deck, but I have a hard time seeing anyone move away from the archetype everyone has been playing in standard since the Alara block rotated out. It's not a question of whether there are other decks out there. There are. It's just that people don't want to play them.
I was fortunate to have two accounts one of which is my beta so I got the whole panoply of gifts. I also went ahead and got an extra F&L for 4 tix because though I have had several before I sold off the $$ cards after awhile. Now I have 16 f&l bolts and a bunch of other extras.
Also bought 3x Entomb at $2 each which seems like a great deal even with the gifts being free to some of us. Great cards are great.
Might get some more Sphinges since that is one card I never got to play with in my UBW sphinges deck since it was always so pricy. I opened a foil one in a draft a long time back but sold it for about $18. So far haven't been able to actually practice with any of my new decks because I've been busy with other games and activities.
Btw Keya, have a great time and congratulations! :D
It just goes to personal preference I guess. I would take those extra hoops over the paper extra hoops of tournaments taking a whole weekend and having to travel a lot any day.
I'd also like to add some info from my own experience in building a deck both in paper and online.
I have an elves deck that I love to play online, and I'm currently putting together a paper version of it. The bulk of the value is held in 20/60 cards in the deck. *EDIT: adding in (Paper Price / MTGO Price)*
Knowing which site my local game store uses to price cards, and comparing to MTGOTraders.com
4x Elvish Archdruid (1.00 / 0.06)
4x Elvish Champion (5.00 / 0.41)
4x Imperious Perfect (5.00 / 0.15)
4x Joraga Warcaller (2.50 / 1.04)
4x Oran-Rief, the Vastwood (2.00 / 0.17)
Paper Total $62.00
Online Total $ 7.32
Roughly 1/8 of the price of paper. WOW!
Cheers!
but I find those "extra hoops" to really be annoying and restrictive. They also diminish what you truly win, paypal fees, rate exchange on tix then paying taxes in some states for product out of the store, fractional bot credits, etc. All can and have been worked around, but just BLAH to red tape lol
I must be the only player here who doesn't play standard. :p
Maybe you can win more in paper if you get on the pro tour or travel to lots of big tournaments, but it is so much easier to pay off your decks and come out ahead playing online. Daily events fire constantly, just simply enter those in your favorite format (unless it is Legacy,) sell your packs for tickets, and sell the tickets you don't need for cards to keep going through paypal. No travel needed.
While I enjoyed this article, the glaring omission to me is the lack of discussion on the current Standard legal sets and recently rotated sets still available to redeem for paper cards. These cards tend to fluctuate more in value, but also tend to hold their value better because of the ability to convert them to paper within the given window.
This has greatly influenced my spending/playing habits... I now play draft and sealed events online to accumulate cards, and play Standard Constructed and Pauper for fun with the cards I have when I don't have enough time to dedicate myself to a tournament. When sets rotate out of Standard each year in the fall, I redeem for paper cards and use them for Modern/Legacy/EDH. I usually only redeem one copy of each expansion, which has steered me toward EDH almost exclusively when playing constructed formats in paper.
It is also worth noting that I do attribute my playing habits to having a family. I don't get to the game store like I used to. I log on to MTGO once everyone else is asleep for the night. My IRL play time is limited to prerelease events and the occassional EDH meetup.
Just my $0.02. Keep the good reads coming. :)
You can definitely win money online too - you just have to jump through additional hoops.
I've been managing to go "infinite" online for a couple of years now, to the point where I started selling tix to local MTGO players. If you don't have local players to sell to, you an always use PayPal, eBay, etc.
Yes, the potential in paper prize value is bigger (what with 1K+ tournaments and all), but it is also much harder to break even, and there are way, way less opportunities to play (i.e. less tournaments).
While I agree, the biggest glaring difference here is that in paper YOU CAN WIN MONEY. I know most will say, "yeah but not many win money, etc etc etc." but as someone who has done it, it really isn't that hard, it does take a large time investment and some money(but you don't HAVE to have 3 playsets of lands for 3 decks...that just doesn't even make sense) but if you are good enough and have some luck you can easily pay for your next trip and deck. I do concede that for the general public and especially new players that online is FAR FAR cheaper to get into and maintain.
I can tell you that when you go to big events, there's a lot of opportunity to make gains by trading. A player who came to the FNMs I used to go gave himself a challenge: he would start with a land and trade his way to a Gideon Jura (when Gideon was 30 dollars). At the end of the day, he had his Gideon (but not his land). That's the kind of thing players do all the time, and it's one way people can get themselves better decks other than having to pay for it.
I agree that the price differences are due largely to liquidity of card. In paper, if I open a god but not amazing rare, it can often be quite difficult to trade, especially if everyone already has a playset of that card if they want it. Online, I can easily sell to a bot for 85-95% of its value, and use those tix to buy whatever I need. (Paper stores pay less than this for cards, and won't buy everything, and may only offer credit for their limited selection, etc.)
As for Legacy, it is much cheaper online. While FoW and LED are more costly in paper, dual land prices and other prices more than make up for this. E.g. the recent SCg Open was won by a deck with Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale. It is $325 in paper, and $5 online. Underground Sea is $120+ in paper and $25 online.
I think the lack of Legacy play is simply a network effect. If Legacy DEs launched every time (and one did launch yesterday), I personally would be willing to spend the money to buy a good Legacy deck. As it is, I am not willing, because I won't be able to use the deck much/at all in tournaments.
cool article, and that's a huge difference in price between paper and online. Intersting how that works, and I wonder how much of it is just a function of the paper market being so imperfect due to transaction costs. Online, it's just so easy to liquidate cards you don't want and to match up buyers and sellers that the market must function better overall. I know that if I ever draft a money card that I'm not currently using in the deck, I'll quickly go trade it for tix unless I suspect its price will dramatically increase (which doesn't happen for many cards that are already money cards) becuase I know it's so easy to pick it up later if I ever actually wanted it - holding unused stock on hand just incurrs unnecesary opportunity cost.
Also, I'm not sure the "individual trading" explantion for the disparity in legacy prices holds water. First, I don't think you've established that legacy is actually cheaper irl than online. Yes, vindicate is "selling" $30 cheaper in paper, but it's actually out of stock which means it's too cheap, so who knows what the actual market price is. And Jace is only a one card sample. But assume that it's true, I don't see how having less liquidity in the market (due to "off market" trades) can lead to lower prices, it'd seem to either do the opposite or just be irrelevant. I don't really know why legacy hasn't caught on online, if it's primarily price (and not just a network effect/chicken and egg situation) then could it possible be due to lower digital supply of the earlier print run product? Was the online game markedly less popular than the physical game back when legacy staples were being printed?
Good article. I enjoy playing the physical card game a lot, but nothing beats waking up early and having a MTG at your fingertips if you so desire it. Can you imagine trying to pull that one with your friends? "Yeah I know it's 5am, fancy a game of MTG? --- Click".