Editorial Section:
My format has a first name, it's M O M I R.
My format has a second name it's B A S I C.
I love to play it every day, and if you ask why I'll saaaayyyyyy
Because Momir Basic has a way with B O L O G N A!

Okay.. I'll admit I kind of slaughtered that jingle.  Sadly, there aren't too many Magic terms that are seven letters and ending in 'A', so I had to improvise.  Oddly enough the term 'balogna', kind of fits the Momir Format, depending on who you as.

If you're relatively new to MTGO (say, the last year or so), you may not know about a very peculiar format called Momir Basic.

The premise is simple enough.  You take one copy of the Momir Vig, Simic Visionary (http://www.mtgotraders.com/store/VAN_Avatar_-_Momir_Vig_Simic_Visionary.html) Avatar and add 60 Basic lands of whatever configuration.  Your deck building is complete.  Seriously.  That's all the deck building you'll need to do, ever.  You can choose to focus your mana base if you'd like, but there's no requirement to do so.  To verify, you can check WotC's Official Momir Basic definition: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/Article.aspx?x=magic/rules/momirbasic.

Okay, now, moving onto the game play of Momir Basic.  This is where people love or hate the format.  The avatar reads as follows:
X, Discard a card: Put a copy into play as a copy of a random creature card with converted mana cost X. Play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery and only once each turn.

Again, the premise is simple.  Pay X, discard a card, you get one random creature from EVERY MTGO CREATURE available.  Think about that for a second.  You could get a Meddling Mage for 2 mana, (not that it would actually do anything...) or a Chimney Imp on three mana.  At seven mana, you could get Platinum Angel or (Phage, the Untouchable). That randomness can sometimes snatch a win from the jaws of defeat or just as likely perform digital seppuku.

I did some digging (okay, I typed "Momir Basic" into a search box) and found some good resources for Momir Basic Strategy.

The first is: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/fk18
Frank does a lot of his usual superb breakdown and analysis of the format, as well as gets some good input from the top players of the time.

The next is: http://puremtgo.com/node/926
Some good general details about what to watch out for.

And some mo' momir http://puremtgo.com/node/942
A specific look at Morningtide's impact to Momir.

And last, but not least: http://puremtgo.com/node/192
Which does a similar breakdown as Karsten's above, but has some additional information as well.

Once you've built a deck you may want to have some competitve fun with it.  Well, you're in luck!  There are two free kind of competitive events that you can take part in.  The first is a weekly Momir Basic PRE, details can be found here.  The second is a Momir Basic "ladder", which can be found here.

If you've never played Momir, it's a pretty easy format to get into, but playing it takes more skill than some would realize.  Most games come down to creature combat, and not falling prey to on board 'tricks'.  However if the format is interesting to you I'd strong suggest asking around for avatars in /join auction or in the MTGO Classifieds.

Discussion Items:
Would you buy it? -
A new booster type was recently announce.  It's a six card booster pack.  Yep, you read that right.  Six cards.  While I am nowhere near the target audience for this product, it seems like a good way to nab some extra impulse spending at the big retailers.  We haven't heard if it's coming to MTGO, but I'd have to assume not.

Conflux Combos -
Conflux is just around the corner... get hyped up for it in above thread!  There are some pretty interesting combos already coming out of the set, do you have a favorite one that's not listed?

Effect of rarity changes -
Some good discussion about the impacts of Mythic rares on overall set value (about the same) as well as individual card value (more skewed) than before.

February Promo Cards -
They've already distributed the January promotional cards and have announced February's.  Some solid cards for this month!

Avatar Updates -
Finally!  We're getting some more 'fresh' 2D avatar art to replace the old 3D avatar art that was, shall we say, suboptimal.  A preview of the new Momir Vig avatar is at the top of this article.  SWEET!

Trouble with Sell Bots -
Some bots appear to not be keeping track of credits that are owed to the seller of cards quite right.  As usual, I caution people to be wary of whom they place their trust when it comes to money.

Prices:

Top selling cards for the week:

Editorial Rewind:
Last week I covered the average expected values of a draft format (like MVW, Tempest Draft, etc) and made some rather horrible blunders.  First of all, I wasn't calculating the Mythics even close to properly.  I needed to get a sample size that would include a Mythic, then figure out the rest based on that. Secondly I forgot to list the average for ME2 drafts.  Thanks to bubba0077 and grubb from the ClassicQuarter.com forums for pointing out my mistakes.  Here are the up real numbers from last week's averages: 

Putting them all in context like this makes a lot more sense and shows a much closer grouping of draft values.  Sorry for the mistakes!

This week I'm switching up my charts.  Instead of my regular increasing chart per card, I'm going to show off some cards that have dropped, dramatically, lately.    First up, Undermine!

Next up, (Detructive Flow):

Now, Haunting Echoes:

And last, but certainly not least, is Ye Olde Spiritmonger!

And what week would be complete without a glimpse at the 1x price for each and every card on MTGO? 

Conclusion:
And that's it for this week!  Thanks for reading and be safe!

~hamcrest out