What is Project Manchester?

Project Manchester is my attempt to pay for travel, accommodations, and entry to GP: Manchester solely through grinding Constructed events on Magic Online. I figured the best way to introduce the project was through an FAQ structure. If you have any further questions about the project, feel free to ask in the comments here or on Twitter.

How can I keep up with your progress?

You can follow the day-to-day progress of Project Manchester by following me on Twitter at @dieplstks where I will use the #ProjectManchester hash tag, at my blog, or by following the planned three-part series here on Gathering Magic.

Why GP: Manchester?

I picked GP: Manchester for a multitude of reasons:

1. I’ve never been to England before, and it’s one of the places I’ve most wanted to visit.
2. I wanted to make the goal difficult (so a US GP with a cost of under $400 or so was out) but at the same time not unattainable (sorry, GP: Melbourne).
3. I get to hang out with a bunch of awesome people I’ve only interacted with through Twitter, Facebook, and/or MSN.

So, what are your travel plans?

I would like to leave for the UK (most likely flying into Edinburgh) on April 6. My current plans are to spend some time in Aberdeen and then take the train to London, spend some time doing touristy things, and end up in Manchester for the GP April 20, and head back to the US April 23 or 24. The total cost of the trip, if booked today, would be approximately $1,400 ($800 on flight, $300 for lodging, and $300 on train ticket). However, an added challenge to the project is that nothing can be booked before the money for that particular portion is earned (with priority number one being to book the plane ticket—that has the highest tendency to increase in cost substantially in the next week or two).

Now that you’ve told us your travel plans, how exactly do you intend to do this?

As mentioned in the introduction, I plan to grind Magic Online with an event selection consisting of solely Constructed (both Block and Standard) Daily Events and two-mans in order to make the required money.

Why that event schedule?

The long answer can be found here, but the short answer is that Constructed DEs provide the best value on Magic Online, and with Innistrad packs being bought at 4 tickets by bots, Constructed two-mans also have a very good expected value.

What are your starting funds?

My starting funds are around $400 that I’ve cashed out of Magic Online over the past month, 170 tickets, twenty-one packs of Dark Ascension, and my Magic Online collection (which essentially consists of a play set of Standard, so it’s worth approximately $2,000). Although I’d prefer to not sell off parts of my collection to fund this endeavor, I will do so if I find it necessary.

How much do you actually have to earn?

With my starting funds being worth about (400 + 170 × .97 + 21 × 3 × .97) $626, that leaves $774 to earn over seventeen days, for an average of $45.52 a day.

Is this realistic?

At current pack prices, each DE 3–1 is worth $15, a 4–0 is worth $32, and a two-man win is worth $2. That means three 3–1s or a 4–0 and a 3–1 during the course of a day meets the goal; the goal therefore seems to at least be somewhat realistic.

How much do you plan on playing each day?

Too much . . . The current plan is to play in five to six DEs and fill any “downtime” with two-man queues.

Don’t you have higher EV activities you could be doing with your time?

Yeah, basically anything else has better EV (I’m not even sure if Magic Online has EV greater than minimum wage), but I’m doing this as a challenge and to become at least a bit better at Magic.

How do you plan on tracking your status?

I made an Excel spreadsheet to track profits and performance on Magic Online, which I plan to use during the course of this project (and feel free to use it for your own benefit as well; a download link is provided). I plan to make somewhat frequent updates about the status of the project on Twitter @dieplstks), and I will have one or two more pieces on the project here if there’s enough interest.

Is this going to be like your last infamous international trip?

No.

I hope not.

Maybe.

– Chris Mascioli

@dieplstks on Twitter

dieplstks.blogspot.com