The process basically is the same as those of the aforementioned types of bot, though. It is noteworthy that there are a small number of bots, hosted by websites such as www. If you have just started out on Magic Online , this is a nice way to get a few extra cards for your collection without any cost, though admittedly, the cards that such free bots offer are not usually very rare or valuable in terms of event tickets.
Another option includes the so called bulk bots, which sell a specific amount of cards for a fixed price for example, common cards for 1 event ticket. You will see a number of these bots in the classifieds. Therefore, bots allow players quickly to find and purchase cards or boosters they need for their deck, collection, or for drafting. Then, if you need more event tickets, you can quickly sell some cards to a buybot without spending time finding a human who needs the cards you have on offer.
This is a difficult question to answer. Instead of merely naming reliable bot brands, let me describe the attributes I believe a bot should have in order to make it worth shopping at:. While this is not an exhaustive list for what makes a reliable bot, it contains the attributes that really matter.
In most cases, only large dealers with websites and sufficient manpower will be able to ensure all of these criteria. While I can see how a single user can try to outperform on prices, his or her bot will almost certainly have issues with the other points.
Be aware that running a bot is very hard work and requires a dedicated team and expensive hardware to do properly. Half-baked solutions will often lead to frustration for you as a customer.
But beware of tricksters who try to pretend to belong to a reputable chain by including parts of their name in their own ads even though they have nothing to do with the chain. This intentionally misleading practice is common but can often be recognized when opening trade due to bot lacking inventory, featuring unfamiliar menus, or showing an incorrect amount of credit on display.
Most websites will list the exact names of their bots to prevent misunderstanding and confusion. While the short answer to this question may be disappointing, in most cases it is very hard to create a bot on your own. Do not expect to finish something like this in a few weeks while merely working in the evenings. The only other option you will have is to use software made by others for this purpose and to install that software on your computer. While this is a process that works much faster, it also has some major disadvantages compared to a program you would create yourself:.
The verdict is basically that if you are not a very capable programer with a lot of time on your hands, your only option is to use software for rent. I want neither to condemn nor endorse renting MTGO bot software, but you ought to consider seriously the implications of running such a program that has some kind of access to your system or MTGO accounts. There have been incidents in the past that reveal the danger. But even if you manage to handle the programing yourself, or if you are willing to risk running third-party software on your computer, the most time-consuming part of having a bot is maintaining the buy and sell prices for cards.
MTGO has thousands of different cards, and prices can change many times a day especially during events like prereleases. Making sure that your prices are up to date can be an exhausting endeavor. Missing updates will ultimately lead to you losing on card sales or annoying customers with uncompetitive prices. While the general trading mechanic is more or less straightforward, there are still a few things you should be aware of when you are trading with bots.
Intentional or not, a bot may sometimes leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth by doing any of the following:. The bot advertises buy or sell prices in the classifieds that do not match what it offers during the actual trade. This can happen either because the bot owner is changing prices for his bot without taking the time to modify the prices for the cards in the classified ad he uses, or because the bot owner intentionally advertises prices that are lower then the real prices to lure you into opening a trade.
Here we can only recommend carefully checking if the actual price matches the ad, and if it does not, you should close the trade and check back at a later point to see if the adjustments where made. Professional bot owners will try to keep both in sync if they advertise in the classifieds with prices not all do. The bot advertises cards in a classified ad that it does not have in stock. This is an occurrence that happens quite often with understocked bots, but even well-stocked bots run out of a certain card for a period of time, especially if the card is currently a hot item on the market.
Once you have buddied a bot just right click it's screen name in your buddylist and trade with it. Double click any card in the bot's collection to get a price quote on it. After they are buddied just open trade with them and they will give you prices on the cards that you select. The following bots only buy cards on our hotlist, do not share credits with our other buybots but typically pay more for cards we are low on:.
This format consists of the most recent "Core Set" and the two most recent "Block" releases. You won't find expensive cards in these bots, but you'll find some cards to play with and get your start. The following free bots are currently available:.
Free bots tend to be very busy; stay persistent and you'll eventually get in to trade for your freebies. Free Tournaments PREs : Player Run Events, also known as PREs, are a great way to play in tournaments that cost nothing but have prize support generally the prizes are bot credits or gift certificates to dealer shops. There are certain special PREs run throughout the year which typically have much higher prize support, where the winners can win several hundred dollars worth of prizes.
There are a few downsides to PREs. First, they are not widely attended because WOTC does not allow players to advertise them anywhere on the client. Most players don't know about them, so you often have the same folks playing in these events - and they tend to be very experienced PRE players.
Second, unlike WOTC sanctioned tournaments, there is no formal tournament structure for these events - you have to join a chat room, and play your games in the open constructed tables. Third, there is occasionally more drama than one would like to see in events because of the first two downsides. Having said all that, though, these are FREE events with prizes - your expected value to play doesn't really get much better than playing in these events. There are a few components of the expected value:.
Your best resource for these calculations is Goatbots EV Calculator. Of course, the EV is only an estimate that is based on a number of assumptions and the statistical averages on the value of prizes and cards you open. The following assumptions come into play:. For those not interested in getting into the very nitty gritty of the EV of events, Goatbots EV Calculator is a fantastic resource for you to choose the best events for you to keep your cost to play as small as possible.
Pauper Format : Pauper format only allows commons to be played. As you can imagine, this makes the decks significantly less expensive than those allowing uncommons, rares and mythics - but don't let that fool you on two fronts: 1 this format is highly competitive and 2 some cards aren't cheap the most expensive common on MTGO is Daze - more than 13 Tix to purchase.
Despite the expense of some cards, this format is fantastic for the budget-conscious players looking for a competitive format. The Pauper subreddit has information and links for those interested in the format. Penny Dreadful : Penny Dreadful is an incredibly budget format meant to be played solely on Magic Online. In Penny Dreadful, any card that costs 0. The format includes many powerful cards, such as Aetherling, Animate Dead, and Mother of Runes, and it self-regulates.
If a deck becomes too dominant, it will eventually increase slightly in price, and become illegal to play. One thing MTGO is terrible for is finding like-minded players - chatting is difficult on the client, the clan system is buried in the Accounts section, and the official "community" forums have become far less active over the past few years. Luckily, there are many communities in the MTG O community you can find and become a part of.
These communities enable you to share information, test decks, and maybe even loan or give you some cards. If you have any comments, questions, suggestions or any other way to improve this guide, please reach out to us at support cardhoarder. All rights reserved. Magic: the Gathering and its respective properties are copyright of Wizards of the Coast. Cardhoarder is not affiliated with, endorsed, or sponsored by Wizards of the Coast. Pros Play MTG at virtually any time, in virtually any format you wish; High level of competition; Rules engine handles all card interactions according to the rules bugs excepted ; Set your own budget see COST section below ; Ease of trading see BOTS section below ; Cons Non-intuitive interface makes it harder than it should be to learn; Mistakes can cost you games - mis-clicking has lost many a game; As with all online games, some people are just jerks - finding like-minded folks to play with isn't easy though isn't impossible ; No casual trading - this wasn't always true, but the prevalence and ease of trading with bots has all but eliminated casual trading; Windows required to play - Macs can be used with workarounds.
I'm In. What next? What do I need to know before I start? Do not open booster packs Booster packs should either be used to draft or sold for Event Tickets. The expected value of opening boosters online is very low - even lower than the expected value of opening boosters in paper MTG. Do research before you trade Read the economy section before you start trading. Do your research, find the appropriate vendors for you, and stick with them.
Practice before you play paid events Constructed is easier to practice than limited, and at times the practice rooms are no substitute for playing paid events. Be aware that the skill level of those folks playing events is higher than what you are probably used to. Also be aware that playing on MTGO takes some getting used to; events include a timer that causes you to simply lose when it runs out.
You also can make mis-clicks and other mistakes which may cost you games. Definitely take advantage of the "Solitaire" mode available in the client to get used to the interface without playing against another person. Set your stops Before you play anything, you need to set up your stop priority for game play. This will tell the program when to give you priority in a match, and setting it up now will avoid any unfortunate scenarios where it skips important phases in a real match.
If you do not have a stop set on a particular phase, the program automatically assumes you do not want to do anything during that phase and thus skips it entirely without giving you priority; on the other end of the scale, setting stops on every step is not very efficient and could waste a significant amount of your limited play clock. If you do want to try to find a human trade partner, your best bet is to make a post on the MTGO classifieds. Be sure to specify that you are human!
If you do find someone you want to trade with, you can right-click their username to open a chat or the trading page. When interacting with another human, it is considered proper to open a private chat with them before initiating a trade. Making a trade with a human works just like it does when buying or selling with a bot, only you have to discuss your deal with your trade partner in the chat window and make sure they add the correct cards on their side of the deal.
Always double-check a trade before confirming! Paper copies of Underground Sea are worth almost four hundred dollars each, but you can nab a copy for 22 tix online. What gives? Well, most of these discrepancies exist because set releases happen very differently online.
At this point, every significant card in Vintage and Legacy is available on MTGO in some form, though a few older unplayable cards have never been released online. MTGO prices also differ because of flashback drafts. If you head down to your local shop, your options are probably going to be limited to the current draft format. A few weeks ago, Tops were about 4 tix each. Casual cards are much cheaper online. Bulk rares also behave very differently online.
In paper, you can generally get between ten and fifteen cents each for even the worst rares. Online, bulk rares are worth less than a penny apiece. Because you can only redeem cards as complete sets, bulk mythics tend to be worth more online than in paper. Buyouts can happen quickly in paper Magic, but it still takes a few days or sometimes weeks for prices to adjust and settle. After all, paper cards still have to be mailed around the world.
That takes time, which leads to lags in value that can last for days. On MTGO, cards can be bought and sold worldwide in seconds. If a chase rare falls out of favor in Standard, the online price can go into freefall in a matter of hours. If a bulk card starts making waves in a new Modern deck, it might not even take an hour for the price to spike across every bot chain on the program. Much like in paper Magic, singles prices tend to be at their highest during prerelease week.
Because prerelease events are expensive and card supply is low, I recommend selling chase singles you open at the prerelease as soon as possible. The exception to this rule? Bulk mythic foils tend to be at their cheapest during prerelease week. As an MTGO newbie, the important thing is not to overreact in either direction. Play constructed. Yes, buying cards costs money, but constructed tournaments almost always offer better bang for your overall buck.
You should also check the secondary market price of booster packs before joining a draft. This means that digital boosters are often worth more than their paper counterparts, and their contents are often worth less. Set Redemption and Selling Your Collection. This is done through a process called set redemption, where you can pay a fee to transmute your Magic Online cards into physical cardboard.
First, you can only redeem cards in complete sets. A set of Onslaught? How long do you have to redeem a set? Well, Magic Online has a guarantee date and a cutoff date for each expansion. The guarantee date was October 31, The cutoff date is November 2, In my experience, sets are often available for a long time after their guarantee date. If you want to redeem a complete set, I recommend doing so before the guarantee date if at all possible.
Unfortunately, set redemption costs money. Because of that, I highly recommend redeeming multiple sets at once to keep your shipping costs down. Is it worth the anxiety of an unknown buyer for a shot at a couple of extra bucks? Dealers are able to use this in order to make sure they can give you the most accurate offer possible. Under Versions , make sure that show versions separately is checked.
Call it Collection For Sale or something. Make sure it is your Active Trade Binder. Over on the left side of the screen, click reset all filters. This adds all your tickets, avatars, etc. Down at the bottom left, right-click the active binder and hit Export. Make sure you save the document as a CSV file!
This is what the big boys are going to want to see. In my experience, it usually takes a day or two before getting an offer. Much easier than haggling over condition at a Grand Prix, right? Suggested Resources. Here are my favorite resources:. Check here before you start trying to debug your own system. Check here to find out. Looking for the latest crazy take on the metagame?
Start here. Their main site also links to many of the best MTGO articles each morning. Oh, and most of the best players in the world are there as well, writing weekly about all aspects of Magic strategy, both online and off.
A must-visit. Want to level up your draft game? Marshall Sutcliffe and Luis-Scott Vargas have you covered in this weekly podcast. The complete archives are available for free at the iTunes store, too!
Input your match win percentage here, and the site will calculate it for you. This is the place to get the latest on the Pauper metagame. Final Thoughts.
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