Vintage Masters

[Killane]

My Google-Fu is being stymied by the ancient web broswer I'm forced to run at work. Are VMA drafts over, and will they be run again? Can anyone help me with that?

I have no MTGO account, but am thinking of joining- between Vintage and Cube I'm pretty interested, but I do not have the money to buy power at current prices- I'd need to VMA draft and hopefully open a piece or two plsu some other expensive staples.

Alternatively, does somehone with expertise in doing it have any advice for buying into and getting started on MTGO, especially from an Eternal Format perspective? (my interest in Standard is approximately equal to my interest in getting a root canal).

Thanks!

[enderfall]

VMA drafts are still available, but only for another couple of days or so. I believe the last day to draft will be Tuesday, September 30th. They will be taken down the day of KTK pre-releases on MTGO, at the very latest (October 3). Unless you plan to start today and draft non-stop without any sleep, it's too late to extract a set of Power through drafting.

That said, you can go to www.MTGOtraders.com and directly buy Power from them. If you use PayPal and promo code "cqpaypal", you'll get an extra 8% off their prices. They usually have stock of 99% of all relevant Eternal cards, and with their 8% discount, their prices are usually very competitive. The alternative is to simply buy a bunch of tickets through MTGO, then buy cards through bots. It's a time consuming process, and while you can shave a few $$ that way, the time spent doing so is probably not worth the effort.

You will need to set up an MTGO account first, which can be done here (cost is $10 USD, but you get some free cards, a couple of event tickets, and a pack of M15): https://accounts.onlinegaming.wizards.com/

[diophan]

I have no MTGO account, but am thinking of joining- between Vintage and Cube I'm pretty interested, but I do not have the money to buy power at current prices- I'd need to VMA draft and hopefully open a piece or two plsu some other expensive staples.

Unless you are very very good at VMA drafting this is not an efficient way to pick up power. You'll be playing against some people who have drafted VMA dozens of times and know the archetypes inside out.

Since you haven't played on MTGO before and it's the only VMA format, I suspect that it would be significantly more cost effective to buy the power directly. mtgotraders with the PayPal code as mentioned is good. Googling wikiprice will also give you results from many competitive bots.

[Killane]

Thanks for the advice folks, I should clarify:

I cannot afford to buy power online. It would take two months of my budget to buy a single piece of power.

Is VMA expected to come up again?

I'm a very good drafter - I rarely loose at the local shop, which even has a few PT players at it. I get that I'd be at a staggering disadvantage for VMA drafts, but I have watches at least 30 online and feel i could do well.

I just don't get how MTGO works in terms of economics. I need good advice on how to get in with a budget that's VERY low.

[TheKidsArentAlright]

Is VMA expected to come up again?

It will at some point.  I'm not sure the exact details, but they run Flashback Drafts where you can draft a specific out of print set for a week or 2.  The exact set rotates and at some point VMA will work its way into the rotation.

I'm a very good drafter - I rarely loose at the local shop, which even has a few PT players at it. I get that I'd be at a staggering disadvantage for VMA drafts, but I have watches at least 30 online and feel i could do well.

A word of caution on this: the average MODO grinder is a higher caliber player than the average opponent at a local shop.  Back when the program used to keep track of ratings, it was generally accepted that ((MODO rating - 1600) * 2) + 1600 = approximate paper rating.  That is, a 1700 player online is roughly equal in skill to an 1800 paper, or 1800 online is about 2k in paper.  Big name pros use this as well.  In the past few months, I have for sure played against Sam Black and Randy Buehler, and I haven't even gotten to play a whole lot thanks to work.

I just don't get how MTGO works in terms of economics. I need good advice on how to get in with a budget that's VERY low.

You're on the right track with drafting.  It is the cheapest way to go infinite if you're good enough.  Drafting VMA, however, is a money losing proposition even if you do well.  The format has been a victim of its own popularity.  The expected value of cards opened is very low compared to the cost of a pack.  If you're concerned with using winnings to build a collection, you're probably better off drafting M15 or KTK in a few weeks.

[enderfall]

I cannot afford to buy power online. It would take two months of my budget to buy a single piece of power.

If your budget is about $25/month (roughly half the cost of a Mox Pearl/Emerald/Ruby), you might as well forget about playing Vintage on MTGO. I'm not trying to be facetious here, I'm just being realistic. Unless WotC finds another way to massively release more sets of Power into the system (which won't happen for at least another year, and I even give that a 1% chance of happening), the price of Power is only going to increase over time, and VMA drafts will only be around for about 1 week, maybe 2-3 times over the next year or so. There simply won't be enough time to draft enough to get Power, and you'll need to have an incredible win % since $25 pays for exactly 1 draft.

If you are interested in MTGO, however, i might direct you to Pauper, which by and large, is the cheapest constructed format on MTGO. It uses the entire Vintage cardpool, but is limited to only cards printed at common.

[Killane]

Ok I was being a bit hyperbolic about the budget, but the point stands.

Ok I appreciate your help and honesty everyone. Looks like I might have to engage in boring current formats for a while and look at Vintage as more of a long-term goal.

[thecrav]

Ok I appreciate your help and honesty everyone. Looks like I might have to engage in boring current formats for a while and look at Vintage as more of a long-term goal.

If it's a long term goal, I'd definitely consider picking up whatever duals you might want now while they're still rares in a set that's being actively drafted.

[Smmenen]

Ok I was being a bit hyperbolic about the budget, but the point stands.

Ok I appreciate your help and honesty everyone. Looks like I might have to engage in boring current formats for a while and look at Vintage as more of a long-term goal.

Yeah, I mean Moxen online cost what real life Moxen cost in 1993/94, and less than cards like Jace in real life.  If $50 moxen are unaffordable...

[Killane]

The problem is that i just bought a new car... for the first time (at the age of 30 lol). Insurance premiums as a new male driver, plus the cost of gas and the actual car payment itself have almost entirely consumed my budget for magic.

Car insurance is disgustingly expensive here in Canada. I pay more per month for my car (a 2010 Elantra) than I do in rent.

I thought Moxen were more like $100 online- at $50 each.. hmmmm.

Burning Oath is my favourite deck - if my wife wanted to buy it for me for x-mas online what would she be looing at (ballpark?)

[H]

Burning Oath is my favourite deck - if my wife wanted to buy it for me for x-mas online what would she be looing at (ballpark?)

As per MTGGoldfish it should be about $1500 dollars.

[Killane]

Well, it's better than IRL lol