MTGO?
Economics forum
Posted on March 24, 2016, 2:33 p.m. by ninjaclevs13
I've heard MTGO tix are cheaper than actual cards, and this seems to be true. So, I have been considering MTGO from solely a financial perspective, and it seems appealing. In addition, I don't really have anyone outside of my LGS to play magic with, so MTGO will solve that problem too. So is MTGO worth it financially?
P.S. Also, can I trade real cards for tix on MTGO?
APPLE01DOJ says... #3
I collect paper magic for in person gaming and use untap.in for online magic. It's browser based, free, and new cards are generally added as soon as they're spoiled.
I will say, you'll probably learn more playing online for a month than you will going to FNMs for 6.
March 24, 2016 2:46 p.m.
magic_monicle says... #4
You actually can trade real cards for online cards (or tickets, which is Mtgo currency, which you can turn around and buy cards online)
Google Mtgo traders. Very helpful site. I just got into Mtgo and have build a couple decks using their bots. Mtgo is great and I recommend it to anyone who doesn't have time to go to a shop as much as they preferred.
I had almost every staple in standard to make any deck but realized I only go to a card shop 1-2 a month MAX. Now I play Mtgo every night almost and have learned a good bit more about the mechanics of the game (priority, how the stack works). Give it a try
March 24, 2016 2:58 p.m.
If all you want is to play Magic, MTGO is the best place you can ask for. There's different people to play with every time (well, depending on the format - Limited, Standard, Modern and EDH queues are always crowded, others not so much), you get to face every possible deck from the jankiest piece of shit to the Eldrazi-est piece of Eldrazi Aggro and most importantly, there's no rules-related bullshit, because stuff like priority, target legality and setting up ability triggers is handled automatically. APPLE01DOJ said you learn stuff much faster by playing online, and this is especially true for MTGO, because the game literally shows you what you can and cannot do every step of the way.
That said, if you want to play Magic for the "social" aspect of it, I'm sorry to say MTGO is the last place you should go to. People rarely ever talk to each other - and when they do, they're usually very rude. You can trade cards with real people, but most of the time you'll be buying/selling cards from bots, because it's simpler, cheaper and faster to do so.
Also, keep in mind that while MTGO prices are significantly lower than those of paper cards, there are a few exceptions (Batterskull and Daze are the ones I can remember off the top of my head). It's mostly Legacy cards though, and it probably won't be an issue unless you're looking for very specific stuff.
March 24, 2016 3:11 p.m.
My store manager rage quit MTGO yesterday because he's tired of it being so damn buggy. Gave in to the HEX side.
March 24, 2016 3:32 p.m.
magic_monicle says... #7
How was it buggy? I know it has it's bugs but it's not as bad as people make it out to be. Trust me, this is coming from someone who used to be a huge skeptic.
March 24, 2016 4:49 p.m.
He tried loading it multiple times yesterday and it kept crashing on him when he tried to load it. No particular reason and this wasn't his first time dealing with it. I think he was just done.
When you have actual value on the line in online tournaments, I can understand being fed up, not to mention he can have a short line of patience.
March 24, 2016 5:02 p.m.
I've had very few issues with bugs since I began playing on MTGO, and none of them had to do with it crashing. Some cards don't work like they should (Retribution of the Ancients comes to mind), sometimes the Limited and Constructed queues get mixed up (which you can solve by leaving the Play Lobby and going back in) and that's pretty much it.
March 24, 2016 5:49 p.m.
Personally I would recommend just using xmage. It's just mtgo but free. IF you decide to use Ill leave a link here:
http://xmage.de/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2agdX5OZTc
P.S make sure you download java.
https://java.com/en/download/
any questions just send me a pm
March 24, 2016 11:31 p.m. Edited.
PepsiAddicted says... #12
Mtgo is great but its not the right choice for everybody. It offers way more than just casual play, if you have some money to drop on modo cards then its way better than the 3rd party f2p versions (tournies, cubes, ptq, momir basic etc) It can be way cheaper than paper. Mtgotraders is a great place to start.
It gets expensive when you want your paper tier1 decks in modo, too. Oh it gets sooo expensive ;) but outside of that its super cheap. Just look at Mishra's Workshop for example.
You can redeem full sets in modo and wizards will send you the paper cards and delete it from your inventory.
Add me if you wanna play pauper: pepsiaddict
March 25, 2016 9:29 a.m. Edited.
anooshapalooza says... #13
I've been considering this as well and am hesitant to pull the trigger, especially since I have modern paper Jund and want to play that on mtgo as well. I got tired of playing pauper after a while.
I've been playing "untap.in" for about a year and am willing to try "XMage.de" just to see what all the fuss is about--being described as "mtgo but free" has piqued my interests.
March 25, 2016 12:29 p.m.
XMage is worth. And you can expect to see the full SOI set on there in the next 24 hours so people can start running mock Pre-Releases. You'll see a lot of 8 man sealed tournaments running on the main server for sure.
March 25, 2016 1:38 p.m.
Named_Tawyny says... #15
Just remember, if you're looking at it from a financial perspective, paper Magic is the answer, always.
With paper M:TG, you own the cards. They're yours. Nothing anybody can do can legally take them away from you. Even if Hasbro goes bankrupt, the cards are still yours, and are still potentially worth money.
With MTGO, this is not the case. You own nothing. You're buying a license to temporary use a digital collection. That's all. If Wizards decides to shut down MGTO, you're SOL. If they go bankrupt, you're SOL. If they stop maintaining the website, or decide to change the T&C, or ban you from the server, you're SOL.
So yeah, from a purely financial perspective, you can pay money to own somehting, or you can pay money to own nothing.
March 25, 2016 5:59 p.m.
Yep, Xmage is where I test all My modern decks before buying them irl, because buying a deck twice is retarded. I would highly recommend xmage. It's also fully automatic just like mtgo, unlike untap and cockatrice.
EmblemMan says... #2
I do not believe you can trade real cards for tix no its mainly just cash or selling online cards to vendors. It will solve your problems IF you stop playing in paper keeping both collections is not really feasible unless youve obtained the cards over time or spend way too much money on magic.
March 24, 2016 2:35 p.m.