Mana Club #4 - Scandal
Featuring the new 100 Ornithopters, a look at how Magic teaches Magic, and the family that beat (or manipulated) the odds
Welcome back to a Very Special Mana Club™. Today, we’re revealing the winners of the big giveaway, there are the usual hijinks, but I’m also dusting off my lowercase j “journalism” boots to kick around a story that caught my attention on Thursday night. Don’t worry: it’ll still be a Regular Mana Club after our main story.
I’ve been listening to Limited Resources for probably a decade. At this point, I pay little attention to grades or hot takes because it’s more like hanging out with friends than trying to glean a bunch of draft tips.
When Marshall did the listener question of the week, my ears perked up, because they wanted to know what changes he’d make to the Vintage Cube Live event. Marshall Sutcliffe is not someone I would describe as “hyperbolic.” Game recognize game (I’m hyperbolic). He’s as even keeled as they come for someone who talks about Magic for a living.
It was kind of a thing when he was a little bit pissed off about how fast formats were earlier this year. He probably didn't break a sweat.
Carefully choosing his words when answering the listener, he implied (to my ears) that there were SHENANIGANS DURING THE COURSE OF THE QUALIFIERS. He was very diplomatic about all of it (of course) but when Sutcliffe is even lightly cooking, I pay attention.
How did I miss this? I’m terminally online. I love limited. I played multiple events to try to qualify for Vegas.
Oh yeah. I was in Portugal1. Probably cliff jumping or eating a wet sandwich.
I put out the bat signal on the two platforms I use for Magic. Stories started flooding in. A few people suggested it was that Alex Bertonici—Notorious Person With a Lifetime Suspension That Isn’t a Ban I Guess?—made one of the final qualifiers. Didn’t track for me.
The more probable story was about a family. We love stories about families; that’s all I know about The Fast and Furious franchise. But what if a family… was bad?
What Happened Before Vegas?
(Editor’s note: This section is the result of several interviews conducted on 11/22. Everyone I spoke with asked to remain anonymous. Allegations below are theirs and not mine and, because of their nature, could not be verified.)
One of the three following statements is true:
The Jakobovits family cheated to win tens of thousands of dollars in Magic cards.
The Jakobovits family, while not cheating, engaged in some ethically dubious practices to win tens of thousands of dollars in Magic cards.
The Jakobovits family are the greatest cube players on Earth.
I’ve done a lot of digging, and I’m still unsure which is correct. But I’ve spoken to sources who have given me a much clearer picture of Julian Jakobovitz: How he operates, how he has been successful, and how he allegedly tackled the biggest Vintage Cube tournament ever held.
What I did come away from this ready to say definitively is that he is one of the greatest cube players on Earth. I mean, look at this masterpiece:
If the name sounds familiar, Julian found himself at the center of GenConGate earlier this year because of prize split/equity discussions that may or may not have happened regarding a very expensive Dark Ritual. Most Magic players know him better as JUJUBEAN__2004 or just “Bean.” Or not. I don’t know how anyone knows anyone, but if you make top 8 of the Magic Online Championship Series, your handle usually becomes infamous. Success has translated to paper Magic, too, and any allegations of unfair play online have to reckon with the fact that he’s a two-time Eternal Weekend champion.
He’s an incredibly talented young player who, by the age of 20, has competed at every level of the game short of Worlds. He certainly belonged at the table in Vegas, where players had the chance to draft a physical Vintage Cube for keeps. Instead, he wound up 11-1 and 12-1 in runs where only a clean 13-0 would book your ticket. Or Ultimate Guard booked your ticket. They probably racked up the Delta miles.
13-0 is an incredibly difficult record to accumulate. Only eight people pulled it off. 25% of those eight people were his family members.
His father, Rex, and younger brother Luca actually beat the odds to make it to Vegas. Luca is, by all accounts, a respectable RC-level player. A source tells me he could play on the PT, but he has other interests in life and Magic isn't a passion for him always. Which I get. When I was 18, most of my hobbies were me trying to score jazz cabbage and consuming said cabbage. (Editor’s note: Don’t do drugs, kids.)
Dad, on the other hand?
“Rex is literally like a pre release player.”
The stats would certainly back this up, with Rex having last played competitive Magic in 2019, ending a three-event stretch with a day two at GP Seattle playing MH1 sealed. His performance in Vegas certainly didn’t silence any of the critics, who were quick to catch that the man was reading cards that any Cube enthusiast should know by heart. Honestly, the majority of Commander players know what Polluted Delta does. He read everything, but his actions said everything.
Is there anything more pre-release coded than offering to let your very good opponent read Chandra?
Listen: I can’t tell you what was going on in his head when he picked up the card. It’s entirely possible that he didn’t recognize that printing in a blinged out cube. That he didn’t recognize most of the cards. That he was being extra cautious. It’s a stressful environment for a lot of money and you want to give people the benefit of the doubt.
(Editor’s note: Credit to LSV for doing just that and keeping an open mind during the draft, even as BK literally fell out of his chair. An absolute show of professionalism from the man my wife thinks is literally named Little Space Vixen.)
It could have been a brilliant mental game. “Don’t mind me. I’m just the boomer who doesn’t know what Ragavan does. Go ahead and underestimate me.”
The old rope-a-dope. He has a Ph.D. in computer science and has founded multiple technology companies. He has a multi-million-dollar house in Hawaii and two sons who play Magic: the Gathering, a maddeningly expensive hobby if you’re competing at Eternal Weekends. Rex Jakobovits is not a “slow” man.
According to sources, this isn’t the elder Jakobovits catching fire and reigniting his love for Vintage Cube in an epic run, however. They say it’s all part of Julian’s plan.
Multiple instances of MTGO running at the same time. Coordinating on queues. Entering the same events to gather as much info as possible.
One source claims that Julian has a pattern of behavior that involves doing whatever is needed to get ahead. When friends were competing in the MOCS, there was a plan hatched to beat the system. To ensure players weren’t cheating by receiving outside information, the organizers asked competitors to have a camera on and to share their screens.
“Basically even though you are screen sharing and have your camera on, they had guys standing in the corner of the room one [for] each person who was playing.”
When it comes to the Vegas tournament, a source describes Julian’s play setup, with multiple accounts (for example, his account and his dads) running in the same draft pods. He and his brother can account for three of the eight seats in a pod. Being 37.5% of a draft would give a massive advantage. You know what each other is doing. You control everything your “virtual dad” does, a future I’m sure AI Guys are working hard to deliver outside of Magic.
But let’s take a quick second to explain how this tournament worked because it has dawned on me some of you might not have a clue what I'm talking about:
Draft a deck against 7 random strangers and go 4-0? Advance to stage two.
Draft two decks and go 6-0 against 63 other players? Advance to stage three.
Draft one final deck and go 3-0 against 7 very strong players? Advance to Vegas.
There’s an obvious benefit to drafting strong decks in stage 1: getting a ton of entries into stage 2. Since you don’t have to play against the people you draft with in Stage 1, there is absolutely no downside. You control when you enter games, so you never face anyone you’re colluding with.
If this was what the Jakobovits were doing, it would be a massive advantage. One of the strongest drafters at the table (and, again, in the world) only gets stronger when he theoretically has deep information about what the other seats are doing and can pass the best cards to his other decks that need them more. Magic Online should be able to see how many times they entered the same queues.
The bonus in stage 2 may seem less obvious, but if you can wind up in the same pod with a family member, given the skill level and information you have, it’s more likely you’ll make the final table, even if one of you has to fall on your sword for the other. With an abundant amount of entries, this isn’t as painful as it may seem. I don’t have the data on how many tournaments they entered together, but Magic Online would have records of that.
It doesn’t appear that they ever drafted against each other during stage 3.
Once you make it to Vegas, placing multiple people in a heads up draft has massive benefits. Of course, this only works if you know how to draft. You can watch the picks via LSV’s costream here and come to your own conclusions.
Let’s look back on the three possibilities I laid out:
The Jakobovits family cheated to win tens of thousands of dollars in Magic cards.
The Jakobovits family, while not cheating, engaged in some dubious practices to win tens of thousands of dollars in Magic cards.
The Jakobovits family are the greatest cube players on Earth.
This boils down to:
Julian allegedly colluded with Luca, running multiple accounts in drafts and collaborating on which cards were being passed to achieve a measurable advantage.
All three family members played their own accounts, collaborating at every step of the way, potentially discussing drafts and backseating each other.
The Jakobovits Family Card Rankings is the best piece of Vintage Cube content out there
Does anything in #2 rise to the level of cheating? Not in a demonstrable way. It’s perfectly legal to give someone advice while they play as long as they’re the one playing. If Dr. Jakobovits took the time out of his (I presume #$%*ing busy) schedule to grind what was probably 10+ hours of Magic Online, his sons are free to do everything but move the mouse for him. If Julian was playing his account for him that’s against the terms of service.
It’s an impossible thing to prove because it would be impossible to MTGO to enforce without some seriously draconian measures. I don’t want to give a saliva sample and retina scan to grind a 64. There are no guard rails in place. The best they could do would be:
Ban any player who is using the same MAC address in a tournament. There’s no reason a single computer needs to be running multiple instances of the client.
Make it illegal to collude on when to enter draft queues. If the same players are repeatedly finding themselves magically drafting against each other, that’s a problem.
Return Stage 1 to pod play rather than league play. It’s hard to rack up wins in these “feeder” leagues if your three accounts are knocking each other out.
Even these suggestions aren’t perfect fixes. A desktop and a laptop next to it do the same work. If players generate multiple accounts, it’s easy to swap between them to prevent the appearance of impropriety. And honestly, top-level players will find a way to grind some money out of this game.
As with the GenCon/prize splits controversy, this isn’t just a Julian thing. Several names came up while I was talking to people (I could not verify any of them), but it’s not unheard of for people to ghost-drive an account to victory. I’ve personally been asked to win Arena Direct events for people before. These things happen.
So why did Julian get singled out?
First, his dad did him zero favors by showing up looking like he hadn’t touched a card in five years. Watching the replay for the first time, I felt some degree of empathy for the guy if he was being trotted out to win his kids some Magic cards without a clue what he was doing. He also probably makes in a month what I make in a year and took home tens of thousands of dollars in Magic cards, so the empathy only extends so far.
Second, Julian is damn good. Good enough to almost secure invites to 37.5% of the table at one of the hardest tournaments of the year if this truly was a scheme. People naturally start asking questions when Hall of Famers couldn’t get themselves a single seat. “What is he/are they doing that no one else is?” It’s hard for people to believe the narrative that one family got that lucky. Even if there's a Jakobovits Pick Order that's better than anything anyone else thought of and also they didn't seem to adhere to at the final table. *Which makes sense, a Rochester table is going to be weird when there's that kind of money on the line
Third, I think people really bought into dream of paying $6 to play for a seat in Vegas.
You want to sign up for a thing, give it a shot, and not face a shadowy cabal of unlimited decks that are the result of collusion between a couple of people who will do whatever it takes to bounce you out. You want to play against stiff competition, but not the same stiff competitor multiple times over different accounts.
This isn't just a story of pay-to-play being inequitable, though. In my opinion, based on what I saw in those videos, you could give Rex Jakobovits 1,000 entries into the 64 player tournament and he fails to make six wins 1,000 times. No knock on him. They're tough.
His recorded win percentage in Vintage Cube is 72.3%, though. That's obscene. Those are, in my opinion, Julian numbers.
In terms of what actually happened this summer? Only the Jakobovits family can answer that. But I suspect that the suggestion by Ultimate Guard to call it the Jakobovits Invitational will likely be shelved.
Julian Jakobovits declined to comment for this story.
The Rest of the Show
100 Whatevers, I’m In
Magic Data Science is one of my favorite follows because I’m a friggin’ nerd. (Kids, don’t repeat that.) The person who runs the account is much better at numbers and data vis than I am and the content is A+. That being said, I have no idea where this chain of Tweets came from:
To be clear, I know where 100 Hedron Alignment inspo came from. The breakout star of CubeCon was 100 Ornithopters, a cube by Andy from Maryland with a frankly egregious number of a Magic card people dunk on and ways to make them rule. These are the only creatures. The two-minute primer is great and you should watch it right now:
100 Hedron Alignments is a different ballgame. Everyone has to be some amount of blue unless we’re going Eureka on people. Does red need to hope for a lucky hit (or non-hit) off of a Reckless Impulse? Is 100 Hedron Alignments even enough, or do you pick them up late inevitably? Is Tranquility worth P1P1’ing?
I love that these are questions we can ask in the year of our Lord 2024. Someone, please make a list.
Also, I want to see a Harmless Offering cube after seeing Pact do a modicum of work in Standard. “No, YOU have it.” Sound off if you think you have ideas. Frankly, I’d like to see you try.
I’ve Been Confidently Wrong!
I read this tweet, copied it, and made the note: “No one says BUH-LER-EN. Stop it.”
I then started writing this section, figured I’d pick out a dunk or two, only to find out that Ashley was RIGHT ALL ALONG. As a Bell-Uh-Ren sayer for years now, I’m kind of glad no one corrects anyone about how cards are pronounced. Never happened to me ever, especially on a very public Tweet. Anyway, I’m going to start saying Bell Airin and do the Carlton. Stop me.
We Don’t Deserve The Misprint Community
You know who’s underrated? The good folks who love the freakish mutants created by the Capitalist machine that prints the game we play. Misprint people, this one’s for you.
We simply gotta stop treating them like the local state Lotto officials where we can cash in our big ticket. Especially when some of us can’t count the cherries and horseshoes and actually hit a big ‘ole nothing. This isn’t a misprint, it’s probably your actual sweat.
Anytime something rare is collected there’s a weird, seedy market for it and I love both of those things. But maybe exhibit a modicum of chill? You show up with your dog#$%^ cellphone photos and go “WHAT’S THIS WORTH?!” when there is absolutely no answer to that question. It’s not a prize ticket at an arcade you can swap for a plush.
Good Lord, they’re gracious. You don’t get fleeced there unless you’re greedy. If you have something worth their time, they always tell you to:
Go to the Facebook group
Don’t accept offers via DM
You try to turn a Scry Land with a weird holo stamp into a million dollars and they don’t kick you somewhere personal. At most, they might correct your terminology, because believe it or not, “misprint” is pretty vague and doesn’t cover most issues with cards. Only a fraction! Look at you, learning!
But please, if you take nothing else away from this rant, just do this: listen. Otherwise, you’ll try to get a $1 card slabbed and waste two weeks of your life.
A Bold J24 Call
I do not claim to know why Foundations Jumpstart is currently printing money but I’m also not questioning it. Two different $10+ uncommons? Anime reprints holding value? This is approaching Magical Christmasland thinking (I know I just butchered that).
We’re in a bloodbath for sellers as the alarm started going off early last week and vendors raced to crack as much J24 as possible. I imagine we’ll see an influx of Near Mints hitting the market over the weekend.
My completely anecdotal advice: wait on Rev.
One thing I’ve heard consistently is that everyone is trying to open Scythecat Cubs and instead hitting the Rev lottery. I pulled 3x the Revs in my case compared to the pretty kitty. I have a hunch and it’s that this isn’t the next Ashcoat. Plus what do you need a Hill Giant for anyway?
Lionize Me
I won two Foundations boxes with this:
I did go gem-neutral twice (5-2) and had a 4-2. I do not want to talk about my 0-2 or 1-2. That’s -73000 gems for $272 in product. Not awful. But then I had to come here and do this, so say something nice.
How Not To Teach Magic
Last summer, I was obsessed with teaching people how to play Magic. I talked about it in MC#1 (erroneously titled “Welcome to Mana Club” like a real schmuck) and I made playgroups and had testing sessions with my theoretical decks.
Then, the news came down the pipeline that WotC was going to make their own New Player Product and I lost all of the wind from my sails (and other places). It sucked. Awful day. I cried tears.
I didn’t think about what that product would be until I saw a reddit post with one of the Foundations “Kits”? Literally don’t know what this is called, but behold:
Let’s ignore the fact that this deck is not presented in the order described on the sheet and that is itself a nightmare for the average new player. Let’s just look at the cards.
We have creatures. Solid, would. We have interaction (I had to look up Angelic Edict but not Pacifism). Cool. We have a combat trick. One? Okay.
We also have DON’T SHUFFLE shouted at us three times and we have a deck that’s called a library but my big problem is we have no PIZZAZZ.
When I started teaching people Magic, it was too straightforward for folks with game experience. Make any game too linear and it’s just War, where someone is eventually going to flip the right thing at the right time. People got kind of bored with it. Then I had a conversation with Ben from Draft Chaff (very nice man, listen to his podcast) that blew everything open.
I had been teaching Chess without the Queen. And like, Knights and probably only had one Rook.
People love when they feel like they unlock something counterintuitive in games. It tricks you into thinking you’re smarter than you are. Each deck needed a little puzzle to solve that made players go, “Ohhhhhhhh.”
This became the Stampeding Wildebeests Rule. Didn’t hurt that they had a fun name.
To a new player, this makes no sense. “I want, no, I demand my creatures stay out of my hand.” They’re Magic empty nesters.
But then they have an Elvish Visionary and that suddenly becomes actual Splinter Twin. “Ohhhhh. Cards are good.” If you kill their Elvish Visionary you are a war criminal.
Arena’s opening tutorial is nice and low-stakes which works because it is free. I vaguely remember that it lets you win the first few games. Computers take losing well, don’t get bored, don’t need a smoke break and then magically find something we should really watch.
If I crack open a box that tells me where my deck that is actuallllly a library goes and does or does not have dice to represent counters and it’s all in here, I want more action than Jazai Goldmane offers. And ffs, start at 20 life like we’re adults.
On the flipside, we absolutely must stop teaching new players with Commander decks. This is abhorrent behavior. Oh, you’re an advanced reader for your grade? Here’s Gravity’s Rainbow. (The dad of a girl I was dating once did this to me and that book still haunts me if you could not tell)
We have floaties to learn to swim and we should be teaching Magic with simple(ish) cards. 1v1, too, unless you want to totally overwhelm someone like a Vegas Sportsbook TV wall. Actual Commander games are a nightmare for rookies.
I have a lot more thoughts on how I think it should be done but that’s probably a longer post for another day when I am not so crabby. I sound crabby, right?
Little Bits
The venerable Frank Karsten, noted Lorcana enthusiast, has the first Metagame Mentor post-Foundations. Feels like the format is wide the eff open. Good.
Mike Provencher with some quality nuance over at MTG Scribe RE: Commander not being a “part” of Arena but likely integrated somehow, someday.
Jason Ye and cftsoc launch the most qualified stream in 2024 Magic, kicking it off with the Otters I talked about earlier this week. If you want to get better at constructed or I assume deck building, check it out.
Good advice from one of the best in the biz Would it be winter without Eldrazi? But this time, make it aggro.
If a name has more than three colors, I’m just saying all the colors, which is the worst because that’s when you need a cute little name the most. I don’t need a fast way to say Blue Red. I need a fast way to say Blue Black Red Green. We should just give ‘em human names. “Should I play Renee or Bertrand?” Anyway good luck:
This is from a post called the Reverse 32 challenge. I like it. From the author:
“Whenever you take out an opponent of a color combination you haven't crossed off your list, note the Commander and the date of this encounter. This is not only a fun way of 'collecting wins' but it would also lead to some crazy backstab against an 'alliance' you made. Because you needed that rare WUBR Commander you finally found.”
The Winners
You couldn’t possibly believe I’d just launch into it, right? No, first I must thank you for being on this journey with me. I haven’t written this much in years, am having a blast doing it, want to have a heart attack at my keyboard at 102 years old doing it.
So thank you. Thanks for dropping me little messages every now and then telling me you’re digging it. Thank you so damn much.
If you were just here for the contest, could I suggest that instead of leaving, you just… ignore me? I think that’s better for my Substack numbers. Be indifferent.
I’m also going to be giving away something most weeks but some weeks will be kind of weird and none of them will be as good as this, so you’ve been warned.
Okay, congrats to Augusto C, Andrew C, and Taylor M on their respective wins of the Terror, Secret Lair, and Mox Diamond. We didn’t get close to 1,000 subs so I’m keeping the pony mat per the rules, tough t***ies.
And I’m the real winner, because I think there’s only one international shipment.
Passing the turn,
Jake
Bonus Seymour Of The Week
Yes, I was still trying to qualify for Vegas even though I knew my wife and I were headed to Portugal. She could “Eat, Pray, Love” her way through Europe if I was going to Vintage Cube Live.
as the person that lost to rex in the finals of the top 8, it was not the same person who played in the live event. 0% chance.
Thrilled to see the Wildebeasts. I still have my very first Legacy deck (type 1.5 at the time) that ran 4x and a bunch of spike feeders and weavers