I have been thinking about playing mtgo because I have been wanting to play standard again lately, but my work schedule has me working every friday night so standard is pretty much out for me.
I usually go to pre-releases at a local store and spend about 60 every set release so I really don't want to be spending too much more on digital magic because I'm already spending some on paper magic.
I'm just looking for some input into this topic to see what type of payment requirement I need to get a decent standard deck that I can play in online events and then how much I should expect to be paying bi-weekly/monthly in order to remain relevant?
Daily events are really the only profitable events for the average player. If you're above average you can grind 8 mans and PTQQ's et.
Depending on pack prices usually a 55-60% win rate in daily events will pay for your entry fees. As far as investing in the new set goes it can vary a lot. (I'm assuming you never play limited at all and just trade packs for bot credits/tix). If you need the cards right now on release you'll pay about 2x what they'll settle at in a month, so if you can wait you can do it a lot cheeper. If you just need some rares et I would think a small set would run you about $30-50 to upgrade. If you need a set of the latest PW or mythic tack on $10-15 for each one.
I would expect to spend about 2x that on rotation. If you manage your cards well you can recoup some of that, but standard cards that aren't chase mythics crash hard going into rotation. Modern is popular online because a lot of people realised their cards didn't give all that much back on rotation so they kept them and a couple years of that caused them to chase modern staples when Modern Masters came out.
Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
If you want to buy 4 of every card in Standard (not necessarily on release day but fairly promptly) and never sell anything, expect to spend USD500 on each new release on average.
If you are willing to optimize purchase times (e.g. buying most of your Khans stuff now) and sell it off when sensible, expect to spend USD 350 per set released and to get a good deal of that back.
If you don't want to hold 4 of everything, just cards you want - it's dramatically cheaper. Probably half of paper prices (but with an important caveat - cards from underdrafted sets can be expensive; Voice of Resurgence was never under 40 tix while it was in Standard and WG was a big thing).
It depends on how much you want your initial investment to be, if you like owning multiple decks, or if you plan on drafting, etc. Grinding the Standard DEs will net you the most EV. If you like to draft, only play 8-4 events (if you are good at draft) or Swiss rounds (if you are mediocre or worse limited player).
If you want a T1 deck, you'll like need to spend between $200 and $250.
If you want a T2 deck, $150 or so is around the initial investment you currently need.
There are budget options like UW Heroic that only cost around $65. It's a deck that can easily hang with the heavy hitters of the format, but odds are you need to be a great pilot to consistently get that 50%+ limited record to stay on track.
Bad news:
Khans packs are only around 2.5 tickets right now, so playing Standard online isn't a great idea unless you have wiggle room to hoard the packs for when they increase in price later down the road.
Good news:
Khans and Fate Reforged singles are currently at their all time lows, so you are currently in a great window to buy staples (fetches, Siege Rhino, PWs, etc) from those sets to build a deck. Since those sets still have another year+ as standard legal, they represent a solid long-term investment as well.
Well, playable cards start rising a lot before that, especially mythics.
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Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
Well, playable cards start rising a lot before that, especially mythics.
Individual cards can and will rise, but the set of mythics will decrease over time for as long as FRF remains heavily drafted. Look at Born of the Gods for an example - I paid 240 tickets for my 4 sets and that wasn't bought at the bottom pricewise, I think it got as low as 190/playset. FRF is the same size and gets drafted the same amount.
FRF singles have a lot of room to fall. They will continue to drop until a week or so after Magic Origins releases.
Khans is already starting to rise - once KTK packs stop being cracked (I assume FRF will be the default prize pack soon), KTK playable singles will continue to climb back to where they were before FRF was released. Now is definitely good time to buy KTK staples.
FRF is now less than $90 per mtggoldfish, which is very low considering FRF packs aren't prize packs for 2-man queues. FRF appears to be mythic-heavy value wise (minus Tasigur).
Yeah but it's all relative - Khanks, M15, and Journey all seem to have more playable rares than Fate Reforged. The only chase rare is Tasigur. Crux, Outpost Siege, and Flamewake Phoenix are the only rares currently worth more than 1 ticket, which is low considering the set has only been out for 2 weeks.
Sharpe's post about Khans staying at the default pack was not met with much community support. We have to assume MTGO will switch to FRF packs eventually as prizes for most queues - I would guess after the FRF release events are over.
Have they announced if Khans/FRF drafts will remain available once Dragons of Tarkir is released?
I am not sure but I would have to assume that either they stay or you get triple Khans drafts back. They keep the standard legal sets available to draft. My money would be on Khans/FRF drafts.
I'm thinking it will be the standard FRF/KTK/KTK structure. Strangely enough we won't get DTK/DTK/DTK anywhere except release/pre-release so that will change availability quite a bit, however it won't have true 3rd set syndrome since 2 packs will always be cracked and FRF/DTK/DTK will be the default draft until the Fall set.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
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I usually go to pre-releases at a local store and spend about 60 every set release so I really don't want to be spending too much more on digital magic because I'm already spending some on paper magic.
I'm just looking for some input into this topic to see what type of payment requirement I need to get a decent standard deck that I can play in online events and then how much I should expect to be paying bi-weekly/monthly in order to remain relevant?
http://www.mtggoldfish.com/metagame/standard#online
Daily events are really the only profitable events for the average player. If you're above average you can grind 8 mans and PTQQ's et.
Depending on pack prices usually a 55-60% win rate in daily events will pay for your entry fees. As far as investing in the new set goes it can vary a lot. (I'm assuming you never play limited at all and just trade packs for bot credits/tix). If you need the cards right now on release you'll pay about 2x what they'll settle at in a month, so if you can wait you can do it a lot cheeper. If you just need some rares et I would think a small set would run you about $30-50 to upgrade. If you need a set of the latest PW or mythic tack on $10-15 for each one.
I would expect to spend about 2x that on rotation. If you manage your cards well you can recoup some of that, but standard cards that aren't chase mythics crash hard going into rotation. Modern is popular online because a lot of people realised their cards didn't give all that much back on rotation so they kept them and a couple years of that caused them to chase modern staples when Modern Masters came out.
If you are willing to optimize purchase times (e.g. buying most of your Khans stuff now) and sell it off when sensible, expect to spend USD 350 per set released and to get a good deal of that back.
If you don't want to hold 4 of everything, just cards you want - it's dramatically cheaper. Probably half of paper prices (but with an important caveat - cards from underdrafted sets can be expensive; Voice of Resurgence was never under 40 tix while it was in Standard and WG was a big thing).
If you want a T1 deck, you'll like need to spend between $200 and $250.
If you want a T2 deck, $150 or so is around the initial investment you currently need.
There are budget options like UW Heroic that only cost around $65. It's a deck that can easily hang with the heavy hitters of the format, but odds are you need to be a great pilot to consistently get that 50%+ limited record to stay on track.
Bad news:
Khans packs are only around 2.5 tickets right now, so playing Standard online isn't a great idea unless you have wiggle room to hoard the packs for when they increase in price later down the road.
Good news:
Khans and Fate Reforged singles are currently at their all time lows, so you are currently in a great window to buy staples (fetches, Siege Rhino, PWs, etc) from those sets to build a deck. Since those sets still have another year+ as standard legal, they represent a solid long-term investment as well.
Individual cards can and will rise, but the set of mythics will decrease over time for as long as FRF remains heavily drafted. Look at Born of the Gods for an example - I paid 240 tickets for my 4 sets and that wasn't bought at the bottom pricewise, I think it got as low as 190/playset. FRF is the same size and gets drafted the same amount.
Khans is already starting to rise - once KTK packs stop being cracked (I assume FRF will be the default prize pack soon), KTK playable singles will continue to climb back to where they were before FRF was released. Now is definitely good time to buy KTK staples.
FRF is now less than $90 per mtggoldfish, which is very low considering FRF packs aren't prize packs for 2-man queues. FRF appears to be mythic-heavy value wise (minus Tasigur).
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/market-street/market-street-cafe/market-street-modo-cafe/588649-jan-2015-prize-payouts-2-ktk-for-every-frf-pack?comment=4
Yeah but it's all relative - Khanks, M15, and Journey all seem to have more playable rares than Fate Reforged. The only chase rare is Tasigur. Crux, Outpost Siege, and Flamewake Phoenix are the only rares currently worth more than 1 ticket, which is low considering the set has only been out for 2 weeks.
Sharpe's post about Khans staying at the default pack was not met with much community support. We have to assume MTGO will switch to FRF packs eventually as prizes for most queues - I would guess after the FRF release events are over.
I am not sure but I would have to assume that either they stay or you get triple Khans drafts back. They keep the standard legal sets available to draft. My money would be on Khans/FRF drafts.