Moreover i dont understand why mutagenic is so underrated. In my eyes it is a free 2 damage which is extremely important

http://www.starcitygames.com/article...In-Modern.html

It's a premium article which came out two days ago so you'll need to wait another 12 days to read it if you do not have an SCG Premium membership.

It's not free though, it costs us entire card slots!

Friend got me into mtgo a couple weeks ago (used to play like 12-15 yrs ago with friends). I've been playing a bunch of m14 drafts online for fun and mostly getting crushed haha. Out of curiosity, is the rake beatable in these things? I assume even if it is beatable, its for like a cheeseburger per hour or so? Just curious if anyone has done any math on it.

Also, me and my buddy want to just build some decks to play against each other. Is there a good bot where I can just get say 4 of every common/uncommon/rare for all the sets in the standard format? Should I wait until the new set comes out to buy these cards as some other sets rotate out?

Thanks!

Drafts/sealed is pretty much -ev for everyone (I used to actually be slightly winning player in these 6-7 y ago but since then card prices has gone down), constructed can be slightly +ev if you play good deck and play it well, but even then it is only for couple $/h.

Cardbot is my go-to bot. It is not the cheapest, but fair prices and 100% stock makes it easy choice for me. Mtgotraders and Marlonbot have identical prices and software but mtgotraders especially often has some cards out of stock.

A truly exceptional player can go infinite (break even or better) as they call it in draft/sealed, but it really is rare. The release sealed events have better value, and as Anssi mentions it does have to do with card value. Last format I was infinite in was AVR draft, which was helped by having more money cards than average. I was probably killing them for $0-$0.50/hour, and I consider myself elite at that format. I've lost money at every draft format since, but that shows it is possible. I think it's more typical for a good player to pay ~$2-3/draft depending on the market and skill level.

The changes to the redemption system seem to have depressed card prices as well, which makes it more difficult to cross the 0ev barrier. Since the change is still so recent it's hard to say if it's just redemption, the unusual structure of the Return to Ravnica block, or the relatively low impact Gatecrash and Dragon's Maze had on constructed. We'll learn more when Theros comes out I suppose.

If you want to play standard it is reasonable to wait 6 weeks until rotation, since anything that is leaving standard loses value overnight. How drastic the drop is varies from card to card - I'd guess 20-30% for staples - but if you really want to get into it you shouldn't feel compelled to wait. You also don't need to get complete playsets - it just makes more sense to buy the decks you are interested in. There's plenty of chaff, and as you will soon learn the trade interface leaves a lot to be desired. Here are a few bots/stores that I like to use

http://www.mtgoclanteam.com/
http://goatbots.com/
These two tend to have competitive prices and low spreads. They only deal in current sets, which is fine for standard, but you'll have to look elsewhere for older modern and legacy cards.

http://mtgotraders.com/
These guys run their operation a bit differently. You order on their website, then they message you on the client to trade. They only make the cards you ordered tradable, so that part is smoother. In general their prices are slightly higher, but that doesn't mean you can't get a good deal. They make up for it with comprehensive stock - they generally have almost every card. You can also get an 8% discount from the cash prices listed if you pay by paypal, which makes more sense than paying them in tickets.

Hope this helps. I tried to be concise, but there is just a ton of information to process when it comes to starting magic online so I might have left something out or been unclear. Our skype group is pretty welcoming of newcomers and questions, so if you're inclined you can join.

Extremely helpful posts guys, much appreciated!

If you can beat the rake playing only limited, yeah - it's around half a cheeseburger an hour range. If you're willing to invest in a constructed deck, then you might be able to win 1.5 cheeseburgers if you're really really good.

That said, there are a lot of little things you can do in order to increase your winrate. Limited Resources just did a podcast on this:

http://lrcast.com/limited-resources-...-magic-online/

Limited Resources is a pretty good podcast (okay, it's the only MTG podcast that's worth listening to for strategy content), and you fit right into their target audience: people who are just trying to get better at Magic. They don't ever talk about constructed, but limited is where you build your fundamentals IMO.

The real reason for your inflated ev.

Cool thanks, going to check it out now. A few days back I watched some of Marshall's draft videos. He seems well spoken/smart/logical. Other people's videos i've seen are brutal to watch/listen to (but I'm not skilled enough to comment on the strategic content). It's kind of interesting to see the parallels with poker training videos.

Marshall's videos are the most focused on playing good, fundamentally solid ABC Magic of anyone making videos. I don't think anyone's better at understanding his target audience and communicating to that audience.

Of the people making videos, there are more skilled players - but AFAIK nobody else makes videos with the focus being on playing as fundamentally solid as possible.

I'll be checking these out for sure - being a good player doesn't necessarily make someone a good coach/teacher, so this recommendation impresses me.

Link to said drafts?

Oh also today my opponent targeted my Jace's Mindseeker with a Banisher Priest and I got to Time Ebb it on my next turn.

/brag

http://www.mtgoacademy.com/author/Limited+Resources/

Full disclosure: I have a very strong pro-Marshall bias, so it's entirely possible I'm getting carried away.

Also, the LR set reviews are required listening for anyone trying to get better at magic.

Well, worst case scenario I disagree with your opinion, which certainly isn't the end of the world.

I listened to the "going infinite" podcast and I thought it was pretty good. There was some stuff in there that seemed obvious to me or got repeated a few times, but that's just sort of the nature of podcasts. Overall I thought it was really good.

First time playing M14 limited, any thoughts on this? I was planning on playing straight blue green for a long time, but couldn't resist the Pacifisms. Also not sure just exactly how defensive you're supposed to be (Millstone/Negate maindeck?).

Why is hydra in your sb? Why are you even playing blue, white seems way better.

Very much agree, GW seems like an optimal build here.

I feel like the GW deck is a mediocre midrange deck with no plan but to play medium sized monsters and hope one of them sticks. That's like the opposite of what my understanding of a good M14 sealed deck looks like. Thanks to the Depravations and counters, I quite liked the plan of being a very defensive control deck, eventually winning turn 22 by milling them out or by playing an 8/8 trampler after everything has settled down.

Whatever, I'm quite willing to be wrong about this, all I've done is read an article and watched a few videos. In any case, I did well with my deck and liked how it played.

As for the Hydra, it didn't seem very good in my deck. I'd definitely have played it in the GW type "tap out for a large monster for as many turns as possible" deck, but in this one I felt I wanted to keep trading cheap 1 for 1's and just sit tight without many creatures in play. I didn't think I'd be interested in tapping out for a mediocre 4/4 or whatever, here.

So much evasion in the sideboard of that deck.

Seems like Phantom Warrior and Warden of Evos Isle should be in there somewhere. Also seems to me like you're significantly undervaluing the hydra - in a deck this defensive he's often just going to be a 5/5+ that they will need to use two removal spells or piles of blockers on (once to kill the hydra and again to kill whatever you pile the counters on).

As it stands you've got three, maybe four creatures tops that are going to put any sort of pressure on your opponent, and almost no card advantage to give you the fuel you'd need to play control effectively.

it is incredibly rare for me to not maindeck a sporemound

and to quote someone from the recent GP, some decks just cannot beat seraph of the sword

Is Sporemound better than Behemoth though?

Play all of them ldo.

GW makes your mana better, gives you some solid/super solid evasion guys and another piece of removal in the priest. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

On a tangent I think M14 sealed is a pretty awful format, while draft is pretty decent. Though blue is way too good and white is awful. For once that's not an exaggeration (re: magic players massively overusing superlatives).