Personally, I hate the new client. About the *only* thing I’ve seen that’s a true improvement is that it lets you set up for trading/selling better.

Otherwise, it’s just snafu… it’s like they didn’t even bother to hire a usability expert when they were designing it… and it looks like something fresh out of the late 90s or early naughts.

”I am more going to be focused on speculation rather than value trading. I traded 2-3 times with friends/humans before and it was a real pain in the ass

The new client looks promising and shows that WOTC puts effort in there

I totally agree I have to see MTGO as a complete different planet with no reprint policy and preventing myself falling in some common traps, I thank you for highlighting some of them!

Hey Matt, thanks for your comments!

I expect to make many mistakes and since I will just start out small with like 100-200 tickets depending how much I can get below <1 ratio.

I am more going to be focused on speculation rather than value trading. I traded 2-3 times with friends/humans before

Not to mention Promos (never buy these for Standard cards unles you want to play with them and never be able to trade them), foils, fluctuating pack prices, and on into infinity.

Be prepared to drop $200 that you will never see again and constantly infuse that based on your activity levels.

Don't get me wrong, I love MTGO and it is my primary source for the game these days, but you will be shocked at how spartan and cold the client is.

Good luck!

The nut is that it is true speculation.

I have played IRL for a very long time but only got in to MTGO in 2010. The learning curve is pretty steep and I feel like a lot of paper players over pay for cards because they can't get away from the price memory of paper. They are COMPETELY DIFFERENT. I cannot stress that enough.

For instance, IRL, you probably have multiple copies of your favorite utility cards for EDH that way you don't have to switch them between built decks. This causes increased demand for a card that really may not have much demand. Online, you can play any card you own in any deck you build, so you only need one copy to be able to play it as a singleton is every deck you build.

Contact me for those boxes. PM through forum works.

Obviously, i am no "author", per se… But if there's room for the common layman to jump in the pool…? Might give folks a good chance to see how speculation can go horribly wrong? Hah.

I'd be up for that, as i was considering doing some sort of journal thing to help track my mtgo progress anyhow!
I think i am going to be almost exclusively trying to work mtgo penny stocks. Or maybe keep two accounts, one for just pennies, one for more traditional specs.

Hey Chad! It would be cool to have several authors doing this and maybe talk about each other picks & have some sort of discussion? What else could we be doing to improve our speculation by communicating with each other?

That would be in theory possible but I would do excessive research for before jumping in on anything. I find doing a review video much better or in some kind of form. I wouldn't just write ''Bought x cards at 11-09'' in whatever form but also try to explain it to us why I made that move, therefore If someone disagrees ( I hope because I'm here to learn MTGO ) then we can have a discussion

Great article too 🙂

Thank you guys for your comments! I was pondering between making notes of my Speculation moves only starting with an x amount of tickets.

But there is also the option that I just start with – again – x amount of tickets but also can play from it in +EV events (that is Release Events RtR , Constructred Daily events) . For QS I think it only makes sense for me to write everything I encounter when on the trading floor. I can even make a video about it as showing the client with screenshots looks a bit too static.

Keep the suggestions coming please! 🙂

Being profitable by playing is also possible, mostly playing constructed, but it takes way more time.

The MTGO project is intriguing. I wonder…how hard is it to make profit in MTGO? Innistrad Duals will surely increase online just as it has on paper, so it seems like many of the paper trends should hold true. Plus, I wouldn't mind having the ability to play Magic when it is convenient for me rather than Friday nights for example. Certainly thinking about it…

About the trades, we used an Index to make it all easier. Yes some cards were over/underpriced due US demand instead of European demand. My primary reason to trade was acquiring it for my EDH deck. However it is also handy to now when you can trade it away just in case one does not need it anymore in his/her EDH deck. I found an UK Legacy community but also a really active UK marketplace where I can put it up

I will be doing this MTGO diary starting out as a MTGO novice. I played the first online PTQ last week as I wrote but I did not wrote down that I won 2 matches (7-3 record) with just 5-10 seconds on the clock… But i'm excited in how I am going to work it out.

I know 2 sellers in NL that sell boxes for 82.5 each, contact me if you'd like to know which shops they are. I'm thinking they get their stock from Germany as I've seen boxes as low at 80 there (but shipping cost sort of rules out buying there unless you are getting large volumes).

In the trade that Forge looks a bit high. I would probably prefer that side anyway as it's bound to remain more steady in price than the other side which is mainly based on the Huntmaster and Geist that I see going down when they eventually rotate. I think you might have asked for a few extra throws because of that high priced Forge. Though maybe they move very well in your area?

I'd be interested in your MTGO diary, I've been considering obtaining full sets on MTGO rather than buying boxes, but I know little about the MTGO world. While Matthew's articles are great, I think I need more of an introductory course at this stage ;). I could imagine that with some speculation based on the forum and articles here it might be doable to get a full playset online for little more than what I would normally pay for packs.