Even the people living under rocks for the past few months have heard of Magic Online. These same people have also heard of Wizards pricing plan to charge the manufacturers suggested retail price for packs and decks.

But for those who are living under rocks on the moon, Magic Online is selling virtual cards for $3.29 a pack and $9.99 a deck. The price for event tickets is unknown at this time, but it takes twelve tickets to get into an 8-person booster draft, less tickets if you have the product in your collection for the draft.

I could bore everyone to tears rehashing every argument known to man and beast about the pricing structure, alternative pricing structures, hacking, crashed servers, rollback, and so on. But this article is about an experiment I'm conducting - ever since everyone's collections were wiped on May 25^th. Before the wipe, I had about 25,000 cards. Notable rares that I had four of include: Birds of Paradise, Urza's Rage, Undermine, Pernicious Deed, Spiritmonger, Call of the Herd, Earthquake, Phyrexian Scuta, Nantuko Shade, Mutilate... A lot of nice stuff that I like to use in decks. I also had enough good cards to build casual decks and have fun.

Wizards' goal of the wipe was to recreate the stress that would be placed on the online store of people buying product. My goal after the wipe was to see how much fun I could have with Magic Online on a budget of $50 dollars a month. The store was set up to limit users' purchases to 150 points of product a week. (This was later changed to 200 points a week.) Boosters are 3 points a pack, decks are 10, and the event tickets are 1 point each. So the average beta tester could get 50 boosters a week from the store for a grand total of 750 cards for the initial purchase.

For my experiment, $50 bucks gets me about 50 points a purchase. You can see the difference already.

And one last note on the $50 bucks a month experiment: The game is still in beta and doesn't go live until June 24^th or so. The actual product is free, but I was"purchasing" product from the store as if I were really paying the MSRP.

Month #1
So for my initial purchase, I decided to buy three 7^th edition boosters, 1 Invasion tournament deck, one Odyssey tournament deck, and 24 tickets. For the price of tickets, I divided 12 tickets, one of the payment options to enter a draft, into the price of three booster packs and came up with about .82 cents per ticket. For the sake of argument and since the collective mind thinks they'll be a buck each, we'll go with that. Grand total of my initial purchase was $53.75 for 53 points of product - about a buck a point. Below I listed the notable cards I opened. And for the curious, I got the tournament packs for the basic lands... I hear you need those to build decks these days.

Rares: Worship, Dueling Grounds, Tek, Cognivore, Mystic Enforcer, Mossfire Valley
Uncommons: Arrogant Wurm, Buried Alive, Cabal Coffers, Creeping Mold, Diabolic Tutor, Nimble Mongoose, Pillage, Puppeteer, Wash Out, Tainted Field, Overrun
Commons: Aquamoeba, Basking Rootwalla, Chatter of the Squirrel, Corrupt x2, Flame Burst, Muscle Burst, Recoil, Syncopate, Werebear, Wild Mongrel

It will probably be no surprise that my first deck built from all of this randomness was a four-color highlander deck. So now what do I do? Well, since it's still in beta, there was a free sealed deck tournament that I entered and received more free cards, which brought the Rootwalla and Werebear total up to two each. I also received some nice red cards that allowed me to start thinking about a G/R deck.

Notice I said"think," not"build."

Well, I still had 24 tickets left to use so the first draft was an OD/TO/TO draft, which I quickly discovered I suck at. Now I'm out twelve tickets and I have a bunch of random white fliers to trade off. I know I'm relatively good at drafting 7^th, plus I might pull a painland or bird on my initial packs, so I buck up twelve more tickets and draft a pretty solid B/G deck with four Unholy Strengths. Another first-round loss to blue fliers and bounce and now I have zero tickets, a janky highlander deck, and some possible trade fodder. Off to the trading post I go.

Trade #1
Him: Mystic Enforcer, Pillage, Overrun
Me: 3 Horned Kavu, 1 Muscle Burst, 2 Giant Growth, 2 Raging Goblin, 1 Darigaaz's Caldera, 1 Earthquake (Obviously I'm shooting for a G/R Stompy type deck)

Trade #2
Him: Worship, Dueling Grounds
Me: 4 Llanowar Elf, 4 Shock

Trade #3
Him: Cabal Coffers, Nimble Mongoose, Diabolic Tutor
Me: 2 Giant Growth, 1 Raging Goblin, 2 Werebear, 1 Chainflinger

After these trades, I build this deck:

Arrogant Wurm
Basking Rootwalla
Centaur Chieftain
Chainflinger x2
Earthquake
Giant Growth x4
Horned Kavu x3
Llanowar Elf x4
Muscle Burst x4
Raging Goblin x4
Seton's Desire x2
Shock x4
Trained Orgg
Werebear x4
Wild Mongrel
Darigaaz's Caldera
Mossfire Valley
Forest x12
Mountain x8

Needless to say, this kicks butt in the casual room... But five bucks for five event tickets to enter an eight-person Constructed tournament showed me the error of my ways. I won the first round and promptly got beat on in the second round by a deck with Braids, Spiritmongers, and Nantuko Shade.

Month #2
So far I've spent $58.75, not too bad. I'm having a decent amount of fun in the casual room, but serious tournament play is seeing me hold my own against random decks and losing horribly to people with tournament-quality decks... Not to mention I'm out of event tickets, so I can't enter any sanctioned tournaments. Off to the store I go to for the second month's"purchases."

Boosters:
2x 7^th Ed.
2x Invasion
2x Planeshift (I was hoping for a Flametongue Kavu)
2x Apocalypse
4x Torment (Meant to buy 2)

20x Event Tickets (Gets me admission to 4, 8-person Standard Constructed tournaments)
Total Price: $59.48
Total Points: 56

Notable cards I pulled:

Rares: Nightmare, Elvish Champion, Global Ruin, Juntu Stakes, Cromat, Penumbra Wurm, Nantuko Shade
Uncommons: Compost, Salt Marsh, Gainsay, Treva's Ruins, Mana Cylix, Narcissism, Tainted Peak, Cabal Coffers
Commons: Duress, Horned Kavu, Temporal Spring, Urborg Elf, Aquamoeba, Basking Rootwalla, Fiery Temper

Hmmm.... Still short of some cards I want for my G/R deck, more trading:

Trade #1:
Him: Floating Shield x2

Me: Tranquility x2

Trade #2
Him: Urborg Elf

Me: Wild Mongrel, Basking Rootwalla x4 (puts me at six, two went to the trade binder)

Trade #3
Him: Foil Seeker of Skybreak, Foil Scrivener
Me: Wild Mongrel x2, Spined Wurm

Now my deck list looks like this:
Basking Rootwalla x4
Wild Mongrel x4
Llanowar Elf x4
Raging Goblin x4
Horned Kavu x4
Werebear x4
Chainflinger x2
Shock x4
Giant Growth x3
Muscle Burst x3
Seton's Desire x2
Darigaaz's Caldera
Mossfire Valley
Forest x12
Mountain x8

Not too bad; much tighter and way more consistent. This deck helped me finish second in an eight-person constructed tournament. So for a 5-ticket entrance fee, I won four packs of Odyssey.

Notable cards
Rare: Mindslicer
Uncommon: Skull Fracture
Commons: Innocent Blood, Springing Tiger, Chatter of the Squirrel

Pretty sucky winnings, if you ask me. I did enter a 7^th Edition draft and pulled a Howling Mine, Revenant, Grafted Skullcap, and a 13^th pick Karplusan Forest!! I was well on my way to winning that draft when a big storm rolled through the area and blew me offline. Fortunately, I was able to draft some good cards to offset the loss of twelve tickets.

Trading Post Adventures
I really want some Flametongues for my G/R deck and I also want to build a U/B deck based on Extract, Mesmeric Fiend, Puppeteer, Phyrexian Scuta and Merfolk Looter.

Before I get into the trades, I need to rant. If you have a card marked as tradable in your binder, then it should be up for trade. I don't know how many times I've clicked on a card I wanted and the other person writes in the chat box:

Sorry dude I need those cards for my deck.

Then why the hell are they marked as tradable? I keep my trade binder in meticulous order and I always tell the person that everything they see is for trade. Now for Month #2 trading:

Trade #1
Him: Wooden Sphere, Ivory Cup
Me: Extract, Looming Shade

Trade #2
Him: Heavy Ballista
Me: Volcanic Hammer x4

Trade #3
Him: Cabal Coffers, Megrim
Me: Foil Zombie Infestation (which no one else seems to want)

Trade #4
Him: Tainted Field
Me: Roar of the Wurm

Trade #5
Him: Nantuko Shade
Me: Pillage, Sengir Vampire (I probably should have asked for more, but he didn't have much)

Trade #6
Him: Gainsay
Me: Lobotomy

Trade #7
Him: Elvish Champion
Me: Mesmeric Fiend x4, Sengir Vampire (I like the new Sengir!)

Trade #8
Him: Parallel Evolution, Penumbra Wurm, Pillage
Me: Extract x2, Darigaaz's Caldera

Not too bad, I got some cards I wanted and gave up some strange stuff in return. I was quite surprised I couldn't score any FTKs... Actually, I had to tell a few people what FTK stood for. It seems that the chase cards for Magic Online are Birds of Paradise, Nantuko Shade, Braids, Cabal Minion, Painlands, Off-color Painlands, Call of the Herd, Fact of Fiction... Basically, all of the big cards in Standard right now. The other big chase items are boosters and tickets, which are used for entrance into sanctioned events. I'm not sure what the exchange rate is, but I've seen people offering packs and tickets for high-end cards and vice versa.

Month #3
Grand total for the experiment after two months of playing is $118.23. Not too bad; about $18 bucks over my budget, but a very realistic simulation of what Magic Online will be like for me once the game goes live on June 24^th or so. The fun factor is still pretty high for me at this point. I can hold my own in the casual room and play some decent games against good decks.

Then again, my definition of"fun" is probably different from other definitions. I like to play games that come down to the wire and are close all the way. Pounding someone who was mana screwed isn't really that enjoyable for me. I also enjoy playing offbeat formats like highlander, 7^th Ed. drafts or multiplayer. I'm already planning another article that covers the subject of alternative formats for Magic Online.

Now the big question for month three is this, what do I spend my $50 bucks on? I could drop most of it on tickets and attempt to win more boosters. Problem with that is that you can't select which set your prize will come from. For a 7^th Ed. Draft, you win 7^th Ed. packs. In an eight-person constructed standard tournament you currently win packs of Odyssey. I could also buy $50 dollars worth of boosters and try to trade for tickets or just not enter any sanctioned events. Then again, I could just split the purchase between booster and tickets like I have in the past. I opted for the split and ordered up 24 event tickets (good for 2 drafts) and 4 packs each of Invasion and Odyssey. I wanted packs from the two big expansions in the hopes of getting good cards or good trade stuff. Total price is $50.32 for 48 points. Here's the list of mentionables:

Rares: Saproling Symbiosis (only one, very disappointing)
Uncommons: Voracious Cobra, Urborg Volcano, Assault/Battery, Lobotomy, Plague Spitter, Still Life
Commons: Harrow, Ravenous Rats, Opt, Wild Mongrel, Cephalid Looter, Innocent Blood, Werebear, Peek, Firebolt, Elephant Ambush

Not the greatest, but stuff I can use and solid commons to sweeten a trade. Speaking of which, here's month 3 trade list:

Trade #1
Him: Cognivore, Time Stretch
Me: Puppeteer, Arrogant Wurm, Innocent Blood

Trade #2
Him: Roar of the Wurm, Arrogant Wurm x2, Nightmare, Grafted Skullcap, Howling Mine, Salt Marsh, Foil Zombie Infestation
Me: Flametongue Kavu, Lobotomy x2, Caves of Koilos, Darigaaz's Caldera, Counterspell x4, Aether Burst, Innocent Blood, Memory Lapse x3

Trade #3
Him: Urborg Volcano, Elfhame Palace, Engineered Plague, Creeping Mold, Foil something (can't read my note on this)
Me: Pillage, Washout x3, Mortivore

Trade #4
Him: Ravenous Rats, Juntu Stakes, Foil Forest, Chatter of the Squirrel x2, another card I can't read
Me: Foil Fire Elemental, City of Brass

Trade #5
Him: Mana Cylix
Me: Standstill

So far this month I've entered one 7^th Ed. draft and made into the second round before losing. Drafting 7^th makes for some interesting matches and decks. From my experience so far, blue control with heavy bounce and fliers works great, as does fat green creatures with red direct damage. Some of the MVPs I've drafted in the past include Storm Shaman, Looming Shade, Wall of Spears, Lightning Blast, Gorilla Chieftain, Gravedigger and Raise Dead. The blue cards that work well are Unsummon, Boomerang, Remove Soul, Counterspell, Sage Owl and Confiscate.

I'm about ready to bring the experiment to a close, so let me highlight some stats for you.

• Money budgeted: $50 over 3 months= $150
• Total price of product purchased: $168.55
• Amount over budget: $18.55
• Total points purchased: 162
• Dollar per point: approximately $1.04
• Total cards in collection: 917
• Total Rares: 45, Foil Rares: 0
• Total Uncommons: 153, Foil Uncommons: 4
• Total Commons: 719, Foil Commons: 6
• Total tickets purchased: 73 Tickets remaining: 23
• Total trades conducted: 19
• Cards traded away: 46
• Cards received in trade: 78
• Product won: 4 packs Odyssey, 4 packs 7^th Edition (I'm not sure where these came from, but I pulled a Birds of Paradise!)

Final Analysis
Am I having fun? Hell, yeah.

Am I having $168 dollars worth of fun? Sure.

Will I pay money for the cards once the game goes live?

The verdict's still out on that one.

I really enjoy playing Magic Online whenever I can. Magic Online allows me to play anytime I want... Providing the servers are up and running. But then again, how many card shops are open 24-7?

A big plus in favor of Magic Online is drafting. I could never get the guys I play with to drop $8-$9 bucks on a draft and take it seriously; Magic Online allows me to draft as soon as enough people join. On the other hand, if I lose at the shop, I can play the other losers and still get some games in. The draft tournaments are single elimination - once you lose, you're done and so is your entrance fee.

On the issue of virtual cards... In real life, I have three huge boxes full of cards, most of which I'll never use. I paid real money for them and I'll be able to use them long after Magic dies. Heck, I still have the first gold card I ever opened in 1997 - a Harbor Guardian. On Magic Online, I had 25,000 cards before the wipe and 917 cards after my experiment.

When the game goes live, we'll be paying real money for them... But what happens to them when MTGO dies?

A lot of people are going to have to make some tough decisions when the game goes live: Wizards, consumers, independent retailers, tournament organizers... Hopefully, everyone will make the decisions that are best for them and the game.

pejota on MTGO
pjsines@hotmail.com