http://magic.wizards.com/en/MTGO/articl ... 2015-12-14

New draft format each week starting at 8th edition and moving forward in order of set release, even doing set drafts as they originally evolved (triple of first set of block, then 2-1, etc.)

Cool idea, me thinks.

Edit: Also, not phantom, get to keep the cards, and only 10 tix to enter, although prizing contains no boosters.

I guess since the boosters are very cheap for most of these formats that it is a good deal. I am a little skeptical about the play point prizes. But being paid in fixed value play points could be better than a cheap boosters which would maybe even decrease in value during the drafts.

If they only had 10 tix or play points as entry fee then I would not play. But at the moment it seems like a good deal because of the booster entry option.

If this is the new way to do flashback then at some point the system will be empty in regards to old boosters. And then we would be back to a 14 tix entry because there will be no alternative anyway to justify the 10 tix. The last statement is a bet/prediction It will be interesting to see how fast and by how much the old boosters will increase in value.

Ok, lets see how this will go

Prices of boosters as of 12/15 (taken from mtgotraders.com)

8th: 2.94
Mirrodon 2.58
Darksteel 2.60
Fifth Dawn 4.13
Champions of Kamigawa 2.62
Betrayers of Kamigawa 2.65
Saviors of Kamigawa 2.13
9th 2.31
Ravnica 2.57
Guildpact 1.91
Dissension 2.46
Coldsnap 4.88
Time Sprial 2.41
Planar Chaos 1.59
Futuresight 7.79

Most were cheaper than I expected. This will be interesting to see what overall prices for old boosters will be. I will try and do a weekly check once the drafts start and lets see if we can spot the trends. I guess basic laws of supply and demand will cause most to rise in price. Equilibrium will look to approach 3.33 per booster, how close will it get? Be interesting to also see how much it can drive down those boosters with higher tix prices.

I have been looking at a lot of pauper decks lately and was surprised to find some commons with a bit of value. Will have to make a list for sets that may have some of these. Of course, there is the whole other issue of how this may affect individual card prices, but it seems these type of drafts haven't moved this pricing much in the past.

I am actually surprised to see that so many boosters have a high value above 4 tix. Lower bound in equilibrium should be 10 tix = 2 tix + 3 packs so 1 pack = 8/3 = 2.66. I would not expect those boosters above this point to decrease in value because they should not be used for entry fee anyway. On 2nd thought then they will decrease in value because the value of these packs are determined by the expected value of cracking them open outside limited. The expected value of opening the packs will decrease slightly because of the increase in card supply.

I do expect the value of common and uncommons to drop hard and on a more permanent basis. Usually when we see little inpact it is for rare cards. There will be a lot of common cards opened. Or what?

Not that many packs below 2.66. They have probably looked a lot of the secondary market pack prices when deciding for the 10 tix entry fee instead of 14 tix. They dont want you to enter using packs. Why else lower the entry fee?

I am torn. First I love flash back and odd draft formats. So this speaks to me on that level. I also hated phantom and am glad that seems to be going away. I don't really like single elimination though and am a bit mixed on the no packs. I would probably rather have packs. Overall its positive right now but I will have to see how many 0-1s I get before I am sick of it.

I have several ME packs. I hope they bring those back.

This is clearly a ploy to get me to start playing MTGO again.

But will the ploy work?

Most likely.

I would draft the hell out of those if they were swiss instead of single elim. As is, I'm probably try one every once in a while, go 0-1 and go "screw it, trying to play commander instead".

Glad drafters are getting something they might like. Nobody else is.

They are the only ones that matter. (If we go purely by actions rather than words anyway.)

Eh, they have taken away draft formats, then sometimes bring them back but with a cost. Also they lowered prize payouts on some draft formats from what I have heard. I will admit that its not as drastic as some formats that are completely cut but we have not been untouched. Also part of me liking drafts and especially older drafts is it gives me the feeling of building up my collection to eventually try other formats. I would really like to get into pauper, modern, and commander. Would also consider vintage and legacy but I feel I am even further from getting into those. Standard, which is the other big player, hasn't interested me much. I was really interested in standard with Scars block and somewhat interested when Innistrad was still in. Though they have mentioned how they are toning down the power at lower rarities which makes newer format drafting and standard less interesting.

Eight Edition Boosters are now at $3.25 per MTGGoldfish. (None in stock at MTGOTraders)

Cauchy's mathematically correct lower bound equilibrium price of $2.66 has been jumped. What might drive the price this high? Might it be that there is such low supply of these old boosters in bot's supply and none needed to actually enter the event there is very low correlation between bot price and the market price trying to be set by the event?

People are stupid.

I guess that it could make sense if you have 1-2 boosters on your inventory and then you buy the rest. However, in this case where the buy price is above 2.66 you should then sell your boosters and enter with the 10 tix. So people are stupid.

Good idea, I forgot that I should be dumping my odds-and-end old boosters during these events.

So it appears to have worked. I have drafted 2-3 of each flash back sets. I think before that I had done an release event of zen and a few legendary cubes.

Price update:

Mirrodin ends the week at: $2.88

Darksteel starts the week at: $2.98

So far from what I can tell the best prices for commons has been early in the flashback draft. The cards I was trying to look up seemed to rebound near the middle and end of the draft time.

I am wondering how people are liking the flashback drafts? I am enjoying them. A bit up and down on some of the formats. I kind of liked coldsnap and was starting to find a groove in it. Also have a nice start to a snow land collection now.

I am starting to wish this was a true swiss setting. It would give me more entertainment for my money and also give me more of a chance to learn. Mostly I have gotten beaten around on Time Spiral with every time being a 1 to 0 game win. Not match, but game. I know I did well before when they did this as a flash back but probably at this point I have gotten worse, the competition has gotten better, or both.

Is Time Spiral suppose to be a 3+ color format? Seems I am getting bashed around by that. While I try to stay in two colors I face 4 color thalid sliver stuff decks.

Part of that is bad beats, but mostly it is a valid question. Should I just run 3, 4, or 5 color?