Editorial Section:
We just got a great new update from Gordon Culp... the Collection Server change is on its way to MTGO and is currently being tested in the open beta (the open beta, for those that are curious is the the routine set beta)!  Despite the fact that Gordon said that the players shouldn't notice the change and that it should be transparent.  If this works, I don't think the change will be transparent to the perceptive folks of MTGO.  We're pretty used to struggling through the few weeks before each new release.  You know the time-frame.  The time when they have to shut down the paid queues sporadically.  The time when trading lags to the point of madness.  To say that these things will be transparent is rather humorous to me at this point in time.  The world of MTGO has often had a hard time keeping up with the amount of product opened over the course or a release event.  This was made far, far worse when V3 went live thanks to the way that the collection states were held and updated in the database behind the scenes.  Seemingly simple things like a straight up trade between two accounts would take many calls back and forth between the database and each client.  Add in the internet lag, database lag, and it becomes more and more apparent how that could become a problem.  What the new solution *should* do is bring that down to two or so call... total.  

This should not only make every-day trades faster, but it should eliminate the issues we see each release where they have to stop pay events and trading (you know, the super-happy-fun-time-no-pay-mode).  

Also in this update is the fact that they have "chosen the vendor" for the new UI.  I have to admit this one was a bit of a surprise.  Not only for the news that it's on schedule, but that the development is being done out of house.  My gut instinct would be that SOE might be involved since they already have done a lot of work on the Duels of the Planeswalkers interface.  Of course, that's just a guess based on the people outside the MTGO world that have contacts into WotC and have the experience.  It certainly could be any number of contractors, of course, but my first thought goes to Sony Online Entertainment.

Multiplayer was also mentioned in this update, and that warms my heart.  WotC has spent a lot of time pushing, pushing, pushing multiplayer lately as an attempt to grow the casual player base.  Those are really great things that we are sorely missing online right now.  My big caveat towards this is that just working on some half of it really doesn't fix the deep issues that the Multiplayer folks have to deal with.  So much is missing, like Voice Chat, that true "casual" is really hard to achieve on MTGO.  Despite that caveat I am very excited for anything that can improve the flagging MTGO Multiplayer formats is a-okay by me!

What wasn't said...
if you read closely you'll see that LEAGUES wasn't mentioned... at all... in that update.  Given the high level of visibility for the league option it was strange that Gordon avoided the topic completely.  Last we heard was that leagues were behind the Collection Server and probably slated for 2011.  However, that last estimate was based on Multiplayer being way low on the totem poll.  As that's no longer the case we certainly could use some information about leagues...

Discussion Items:
Discussion of the Status Update:
Some good discussions about the new Status Update from Gordon.  Lots of interaction about the details of the update.

Expense of Eventide:
Thanks to the time frame of the set, the Eventide set is disproportionately high for the cards and what they do.

Card Price Discussion:
Prices are all over the place with M11 impacts pushing old cards down, old cards up and old cards sideways.  Also the influx of new cards in the Online Nix tix and celebration events have largely been absorbed and the prices of the cards that dipped heavily with new supply have started their return to previous prices now that supply has dried up again.  There will certainly be more and more price fluctuations as we move forward with this

Card Price Tables:

Card Price Graphs::
force of will chart
underground sea chart
pernicious deed chart
aluren chart
grim monolith chart
wasteland chart
intuition chart
phyrexian dreadnought chart
price of progress chart
goblin welder chart
aluren chart
rancor chart
mountain (half art) chart
island (half art) chart
mountain (half art) chart
forest (half art) chart
island (half art) chart
imperial recruiter chart
rogue elephant chart
price of progress chart
"elspeth, knight_errant" chart
entomb chart
vengevine chart
tarmogoyf chart
eldrazi monument chart
time warp chart
baneslayer angel chart
master of the wild hunt chart
snuff out chart
lotus cobra chart
"avatar _ radiant, archangel" chart
devastating summons chart
polymorph chart
cast through time chart
cruel ultimatum chart
raven familiar chart
awakening zone chart
victimize chart
ghost quarter chart
magma jet chart