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Affinity for Numbers: Champions of the World

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Magic is a game of numbers: sixty cards, 20 life, draw two cards, take 7 damage, and add three counters. There are even more numbers surrounding the game—facts and figures, prices and trivia, they are everywhere. In Affinity for Numbers, I uncover and highlight some of the more interesting numbers in Magic.

0 Copies

Stoneforge Mystic was absent from the Legacy Championship Top 8 during Eternal Weekend, and only four copies were played in the entire Top 32. More copies of Splinter Twin (four) were played in the Top 8 thanks to this deck:

Is this a leading indicator of Splinter Twin making a move into Legacy? Seems possible.


$2.17 Per Card

This is the average card price from the Zendikar set today, the second highest from a Modern-legal set after Future Sight ($3.34). Third place is Worldwake at $1.96, which really says something about the original Zendikar block. Here are the top ten:


6 Affinity Decks

One quarter of the field at the Magic World Championship chose to play Affinity in Modern, including three of the eventual Top 4 of the tournament: Samuel Black, Paul Rietzl, and Owen Turtenwald. Collectively, the six Affinity players went 13–11, for a 54% win percentage.


15–1

This is Seth Manfield's dominating record in the Magic World Championship. His only loss was to Martin Dang during the Modern portion of the tournament. Seth beat Yuuya Watanabe twice on day one and Owen Turtenwald twice on day two in route to the final four and ultimate victory.


18 Cards

This is the number of Battle for Zendikar cards previewed by Wizards last Saturday at PAX Prime. Wizards of the Coast has had its preview-season tease down to an art form for a while, and PAX is a big part of that. This time, they revealed a new cycle of dual lands with alternate, full-art versions, new versions of Gideon and Ulamog, and Zendikar Expeditions—special, non-Standard-legal versions of shock lands and fetch lands designed to really push you to buy a bunch of boosters (or boxes). Check out a full recap of the event here, including all the cards previewed.


28 Copies of Mantis Rider

Jeskai was the Standard deck of choice for seven of the twenty-four players in the World Championship, and each played four copies of this flying, vigilant, and hasty monk. The red, white, and blue has retooled and returned, claiming a respectable slice of the metagame since Magic Origins came out. Jace, Vryn's Prodigy gives Jeskai a better chance to get out ahead in an Abzan world.


36%

This percentage of top Magic Online Pauper decks include Preordain. It is best buddies with fellow awesome blue commons Delver of Secrets and Ponder in a bunch of decks. Take my favorite Pauper archetype for example:

Pauper is cheap and fun—the above deck costs 2.75 tickets for example—but if you get PTSD flashbacks anytime you see Delver of Secrets, stay away. Delver variants make up a good portion of the metagame.


142 Pro Club Members

Magic players reach Pro Club status by earning a minimum of 20 professional points in a season. Points are awarded for competing in Wizards sanctioned events. The Top 8 players receive Pro Points based on rank. Others are awarded points based on their match-point total at the end of the event.

Earning 20 points puts you at Silver level. If you want to go Gold, you have to earn 35 points, and those with aspirations toward Platinum status must reach 46 points.

Unsurprisingly, most pros are at Silver level and hail from the U.S. Here're some graphs to break it down because everybody likes graphs.


3,000 Players

That refers to how many Wizards is planning to support at the Magic Online launch of leagues for Battle for Zendikar Standard. A league is an online tournament that will take place over days or weeks, offering players a more flexible way to compete.

Wizards updated the Magic Online software to support leagues during an extended downtime last week:

There was some slowness when MTGO came back up:

Things remained rough for a while:

Wizards plans to do some testing between now and the new set. Let's hope the kinks get worked out.


$50,000

That's how much Seth Manfield earned for his 2015 Magic World Championship victory. That's a lot of cash, and it’s the most you can win at a Magic tournament—taking down a Grand Prix is worth $4,000, and a Pro Tour winner takes $40,000. It also nearly doubles Seth's lifetime winnings; he was at $55,480 coming into the World Championship.

 


 

Those are all the numbers I have for you today. If you also have an affinity for numbers and have one you think I should share, let me know on Twitter @MrVigabool.


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