Editorial Section:
When I went into the Local Gaming Store world I expected some difficult overlapping of responsibilities.  I expected things like splitting time between MTGO and local players.  I expected things like making sacrifices in one area for another... but this week I ran into a situation that I hadn't really expected.  I'll share the email that started the whole chain of events in motion:

"I was thinking about getting into some mtg online and I figured I might ask you about it first. I really just want to do some sealed stuff maybe a couple times a month, and then sell off whatever I win or get to keep. Does mtgo have a good following for this, or should I just invest in some real life cards?"

Hmm.  Conflict of interest, much?  Before I get into how things worked out with that quandary I guess I should cover some particularly hot topics in the world of MTGO.  Namely the setup of the short on sale times for Legacy sets.

A lot of people are wondering what is the deal with the short set release for Urza's Saga.  Just over a year ago there was an announcement by Wizard's of the Coast about them, located here.  The short version can be summed up as so:

"This change supports our classic releases in a few ways.  First, short release windows ensure that classic releases are unique and exciting.  It also allows us increase the duration of classic set release events, often for the entire release period.  Second, a tighter activity focus improves the Magic Online experience for newer players by limiting the number of products they can buy in the store but cannot readily use.  We have seen that after the release window, classic based limited events don’t fire regularly and this can make players feel like the bought the ‘wrong’ product.  By selling classic packs only during release event periods, we can limit how often this happens.  Finally, it gives us the flexibility to have special classic block events in the future.  We plan on bringing back classic blocks for limited engagements so newer players and classic players alike can experience these great sets long after they would have been gone."

• Unique and exciting
• Increased length of events
• Less confusion between releases
• Flexibility in the future

Of all these items, only one directly helps the players and I'll cover that first.  There were many players that would join during the weeks between events.  They would see something like Mirage in the store and buy enough to draft them.  The problem is, as we know, that Mirage would rarely fire between the release of Mirage and Visions.  This would leave players with a very frustrating purchase of product they couldn't use and itch they couldn't scratch (you know... when you want to draft a specific set, you want to draft *it* not something else in its place).  Of all the reasons listed, that is the one that I can seriously get behind.  I've personally run into people who just wound up cracking the packs to build decks after they purchased and failed to utilize them the way they wanted. 

But what of the other reasons?  Personally, I'm not really feeling them.  "Unique and exciting"?  Well, yeah, I guess they are exciting.  In the sense that they routinely excite the player community.  But generally not exciting in the good way.  It seems as if every release gets another crowd of players that are shocked by the lack of time that the items will be on sale in the store.  At this point I think someone in WotC should be weighing the impact of frustration due to between set purchases versus short sales cut-off frustrations. 

And as for future flexibility... I haven't really seen much of that yet but I wouldn't be too surprised to see more of this used in the future.  The closest thing to this that I've seen is the Nix Tix/Nix Pax events, but that could be done anyway.  Granted it has really only been a year since this change came into effect, but even so, there really hasn't been any specific events done to capitalize upon this change.  I have a hunch that WotC will be using the popularity of Legacy Online to sell more of these at periodic times.  That hunch comes from a fairly long line of seeing Wizard's really understand how to create and amplify sales numbers as needed.

So for those curious or upset about the short time that Urza's will be on sale that should give a little background about the how and why things are the way they are. 

Now back to the first part of the editorial section; what to do when my interests collide.  In this case I did what I generally do and spell out the positives and negatives as I have seen them.  As I'm no stranger to pimping the good parts of MTGO (as an aside, I've actually gotten quite a few of my locals into MTGO via helping them with their collections and filling out decks and whatnot, good times) and the awesomeness of 24x7 playing and the fact that more and more people are playing online all the time.  That gives him the benefit of playing whenever he wants.  The flip side is that if someone is looking at funding their experience with their pools alone they are going to have a very difficult time doing so thanks to the fact that so many others are trying to do the exact same thing all the time.  I haven't heard if he's made a decision yet or not about whether to go into MTGO's sealed waters or if he's just going to be hanging out and getting into Standard or Standard Peasant (the current specialty format of my store).  Time will tell, but it's a pretty good time to be into any of the mediums that give you the opportunity to play Magic, be it Paper or Digital.

Discussion items:
As you may have guessed by now there has been a lot of discussion about the way the current "Legacy" sets are released (i.e. Urza's et al) and the ramifications from that breakdown.
Upset about Legacy Release dates-
There is some very heated discussions in this thread (and most of them, actually) about what exactly the benefit is to these temporally challenged release events.  The above is a direct discussion but the following two are very similar:

What to do with Urza's Cards version 1, and version 2.
I haven't spent a lot of time thinking about this particular topic, but my initial reaction is as follows: Buy anything banned in Legacy and restricted in Classic.  Namely because they should be very cheap and IF they should ever get unbanned/unrestricted, their price will sky rocket.  Secondly, to get anything with a particularly niche application or focus.  You know, like Tolarian Academy and Ill-Gotten Gains.  Cards like that are strong and when they get broken or put to use they are amazing investments.

Another interesting thread is the one that is asking for pack advice.  I found this so interesting because it's something that many players run into and may not apply much thought to it.  Namely, the issue of what to do with old packs that don't have a queue anymore...

7th Edition Sealed Event:
Get your Promo Pillages!  And, um, other 7th Edition stuff... I guess.  For those curious the prices go as follows:
Earthquake
Wrath of God
City of Brass
Crypt Rats
Howling Mine
And then we're down into the sub-three-ticket range of cards. 

PTQ Schedule for PT: Amsterdam announced!:
Starting on April 18th 2010 the Pro Tour Qualifiers on MTGO for Pro Tour Amsterdam begin!!!  Probably a good time to get your cards for your decks of choice right now!

Card Price Discussion:
For yet another week we had more Legacy increases, which isn't particularly a surprise, I don't think.  And from the looks of it, Ichorid is going to be the next deck of focus for MTGO Legacy players.  If you're heading into a tournament be sure to have at least some plan for dealing with that deck.  Tormod's Crypt, Leyline of the Void, Ravenous Trap, and Relic of Progenitus are always good things to have in the sideboard, I imagine.

As for what has been moving down... that's a bit more complex and somewhat bizarre I think.  We have Urza's dropping a bit which is somewhat strange based on both the extra Legacy demand (although Tolarian is already banned in Legacy, obv) and the knowledge that Urza's is only on sale for a short time longer.  Regardless of those facts though, it has indeed taken a bit of a hit this week with the strong turnouts for sealed and draft that Urza's has been creating.  I would consider this to be the time to buy into Urza's singles if you haven't already. 

Other oddities moving down is Noble Hierarch and Knight of the Reliquary.  While their time in Standard is limited we are right on the edge of the MTGO Standard based PTQ season.  I would have to assume that demand for Standard singles is going to jump higher and higher in the very near future!

Card Price Graphs:
wasteland chart
force of will chart
bridge from below chart
ichorid chart
vindicate chart
taiga chart
entomb chart
lion's eye diamond chart
natural order chart
underground sea chart
tarnished citadel chart
cephalid coliseum chart
eureka chart
ichorid chart
goblin ringleader chart
city of solitude chart
goblin piledriver chart
sapling of colfenor chart
vigor chart
city of brass chart
tolarian academy chart
gaea's cradle chart
exploration chart
dark depths chart
noble hierarch chart
knight of the reliquary chart
engineered explosives chart
serra's sanctum chart
show and tell chart
sneak attack chart
hidden stag chart
pariah chart
crater hellion chart
drifting djinn chart
sunder chart
argothian wurm chart
thran quarry chart
priest of gix chart
sporogenesis chart
soul sculptor chart
;

Card Price Tables:
First of all I should probably clear up some confusion I created last week by not labeling my table.. at all.  The following table is the EV (of the best case sale scenario) of the respective packs and formats.

So what that means is that for Alara, the Expected Value of the cards in the pack this week is 1.698985 tickets if you were to resell them at dealer's prices.  The draft value of the packs of Alara Block would be 6.544485, and so on.