Table of contents:

Announcements
MTGO Discussion Items
Editorial Section
Server Log In Availability
MTGO Price Movers and Shakers
Public Hide List
Outstanding Issues
Bug Complaints
Conclusion

 MTGO Discussion Items:   

Commander (aka EDH) discussion thread
03-14-08
There have been a few Commander games done by the community lately and the tales of triumph certainly make the format sound intriguing.  I'd recommend that anyone who is interested in a unique Multiplayer Free For All (FFA) format to check out this link Commander Stories

Anything Goes, and how to play it
03-14-08
The 'casual' debate has been raging again, with no consensus formed, yet again.  However, something slightly different evolved from the latest discussion... how to actually get an 'Anything Goes' type of game?  As of right now trying to get a certain level of game is based on equal parts of Game Description and trust in humanity, sprinkled with hopes of literacy.  The results of trying to rely on others to read and comprehend the restrictions have been sporadic at best.  However, the discussion on how to get like minded players together for their games can be found here.

Morningtide Release event PE Stats:
03-14-08
Emoticon has been compiling the results of the Premier Events this week, including packs won, time taken, etc.  He's done a very good analysis of the available data and I'd certainly recommend reading what he's found.  Link is here.

New leagues on hold during Morningtide Events:
03-07-08:
There will be no new non-Morningtide leagues started during the release events.  Details here.

MTGO Community Building Discussion:
03-07-08:
A pretty big discussion item lately is the desire for more community building tools and focus in MTGO.  You can see an article written by meuslix here, and a conversation on the WotC boards here.

V3 Beta is Down
02-28-08 - Current:
Beta is down until at least March 17th (Post Morningtide release).  More information as we hear it.
Update: 03-21-08
According this update: beta is still down and likely will be until early next week.

PRE's, Sponsors, and issues:
03-21-08:
Discussion about Player Run Events and the impacts that their sponsors should have has been a busy topic this week.  If you have some experiences or would just like to discuss it, the thread can be located here.

Scams on MTGO:
03-21-08:
This topic pops up from time to time (usually after someone runs into a bad person on MTGO), and the topic of what WotC should/shouldn't be responsible for pops up.  The newest round of discussion can be found here.

Account limits, and those breaking them:
03-21-08:
It seems that each release event has at least a few people who seem to feel that the rules don't apply to them and that they can keep running multiple accounts as they see fit.  Essentially this turns the SCR's into a self penalizing system where the only ones impacted are those who follow the rules.  Luckily, Worth is around to put the smack down on those who don't feel the need to follow the rules.  Discussion can be found here.

Naming Policy:
03-21-08:
This week a very interesting discussion appeared surrounding the actions against a name.  The name in question was 'Jihad'.  The person who once had this name was recently told that had to change it, which prompted a lot of discussion about the policy for names and what's acceptable and what isn't.  Discussion can be found here.

This month's card: Korlash, Heir to Blackblade

BaCooN #2 Week 4, Korlash: Back to Basics

A Classic Deck 

Creatures 4x Korlash, Heir to Blackblade 4x Solemn Simulacrum m 4x Gravedigger 4x Faceless Butcher 1x Nekrataal 2x Keening Banshee 2x Reiver Demon 1x Mournwhelk Other Spells 4x Tendrils of Corruption 2x Nightmare Lash 2x Corrupt 2x Diabolic Tutor 4x Mind Stone

Lands 19x Swamp 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 2x Diamond Valley 2x Cabal Pit

Prologue:
Last week I regailed you all with my epic tale of epic fail.  This week I turn the tables as I go on a rampage in Cas/Cas.  This deck didn't lose a single game, and most games were over with me above my starting life total.  

Game Logs:Pretty much each game will sound the same, which at first I though was bad.  I mean, this is for my article after all... you all deserve the best and I thought that it would be disappointing to see the same scenario play out of: killed creatures, played fatty, attacked.  However, while I was writing this article it struck me that the deck had achieved exactly what it was meant to do: play consistently.  So with no further ado, here are the game logs.

Game 1: Budget R/G Big Mana

He starts off by tutoring up basic lands of the Forest and Mountain variety.  However, my threats are more threatening than his answers and he has to use a Blaze to kill a Korlash while I'm tapped out, however, my Korlash doesn't stay dead thanks to the help of his old college buddy Gravedigger.  He finally plays out a couple of Big Green Creatures, but his creatures are smaller than my swamps in play and Tendrils of Corruption send them packing.  An 8/8 Korlash finishes the job shortly thereafter.

Results: 1-0

Game 2: W/U Aggro-ish

When I see a Plains followed by an Island I start to get nervous.  Since my deck doesn't run any discard I need to play around counter spells if I suspect them.  My fears disappear when he plays a couple of weenie fliers as my deck can handle those pretty easily.  I kill the few real threats with Tendrils and keep swinging with my ever growing Korlash.  A few fun land searches later and he's out of creatures that can absorb the Korlash beats.

Results: 2-0

Game 3: B/W Life Gain

Again, the tone of the game was set early on when he plays Benediction of Moons haunting a (Plagued Rusalka).  So long as I don't have to worry about counter spells my deck should win any long game based around creatures.  We trade damage back and forth, but my Keening Banshee that kills a Rusalka and then suits up with a Nightmare Lash really puts on the pressure.  He tries to stem the bleeding with a Blind Hunter, but it alone is no match for my removal suite and I ride the bad mamma-jamma to victory.

Results: 3-0

Game 4: U/B/w Reanimator

I've faced this type of deck a few times before and generally consider it to be a 'drive by' deck.  It preys on the lack of sideboarding to utilize its graveyard as a win condition.  However, the good news for me is that I can pretty much kill off whatever he puts into play with my 2x Faceless Butchers in hand.  He starts in the typical reanimator fashion of dropping a Thought Courier and putting a Blazing Archon into play.  Meanwhile I've been slow rolling my hand and building up an army that will be ready to attack as soon as he gets the Archon into play.  Sure enough, he Vigor Mortis's one into play on turn six, and I respond with a Faceless Butcher.  I beat him down for a bit then finish him off with a Corrupt to the face.  

Results: 4-0

Game 5: B/W/r/u Control

I'm not exactly sure what the crux of the deck was but I saw the following cards:
Blood Crypt
Afterlife
Kukemssa Serpent
Urborg Panther
Dimir Aqueduct ... returning his only Island and killing his own serpent...

I ended up using the Spirit token his Afterlife gave me plus the Nightmare Lash I played to kill him, that seemed to work pretty well.  

Results: 5-0.  Flawless Victory.

 I've got a smorgasboard of charts from last week's chart requests.  First up, a chart for not only Standard's Ham Jones Industrial Average, but each format's cards:

 

So what do we find here?  The largest decrease (both percentage and overall) was in Standard based cards, not Extended based cards.   Standard has lost -12.77%, whereas Extended has dropped -4.01% and Classic, staying ever vigilant lost only -0.66%. If we look at value lost for the past four weeks we see: -$150.53, -$105.76, -$4.22 for Standard, Extended and Classic, respectively.

 

The next up is price per card, which was also requested last week, and I'm going to post it and the 1x value back to back to show the symmetry: 

 

 

 

 

So what's it mean?  It means that they're all tied very closely together and when one drops or gains a lot it moves the other charts along with with it.

 

Next up, PureMTGO's one and only Card Price movement chart!

 

Card name:	Amount Changed	Percentage Changed	Final Price
Abeyance	$2.00	20.00%	$12.00
Crovax, Ascendant Hero	$0.80	160.00%	$1.30
Mogg Fanatic	$0.75	27.27%	$3.50
Gaea's Anthem	$0.50	33.33%	$2.00
Rites of Flourishing	$0.50	22.22%	$2.75
Mogg Fanatic	$0.50	16.67%	$3.50
Ravenous Baloth	$0.50	16.67%	$3.50
Patriarch's Bidding	$0.50	12.50%	$4.50
Adarkar Wastes	$0.50	11.76%	$4.75
Llanowar Wastes	$0.50	10.00%	$5.50
Wrath of God	$0.50	5.41%	$9.75
Wrath of God	$0.50	5.26%	$10.00
Wrath of God	$0.50	5.26%	$10.00
Dawn Elemental	$0.35	77.78%	$0.80
Goryo's Vengeance	$0.30	50.00%	$0.90
Card name:	Amount Changed	Percentage Changed	Final Price
Tarmogoyf	-$7.00	-16.28%	$36.00
Vindicate	-$6.00	-10.34%	$52.00
Pernicious Deed	-$5.00	-10.00%	$45.00
Mutavault	-$1.50	-8.11%	$17.00
Bitterblossom	-$1.50	-9.68%	$14.00
Meddling Mage	-$1.00	-2.86%	$34.00
Reveillark	-$1.00	-11.76%	$7.50
Kinsbaile Borderguard	-$1.00	-25.00%	$3.00
Mind Shatter	-$1.00	-36.36%	$1.75
Chameleon Colossus	-$0.75	-8.82%	$7.75
Murmuring Bosk	-$0.75	-13.04%	$5.00
Taurean Mauler	-$0.75	-21.43%	$2.75
Grimoire Thief	-$0.75	-27.27%	$2.00
Scapeshift	-$0.60	-34.29%	$1.15
Countryside Crusher	-$0.50	-8.33%	$5.50
Card name:	Amount Changed	Percentage Changed	Final Price
Life/Death	-$0.25	-14.29%	$1.50
Oona's Blackguard	-$0.25	-16.67%	$1.25
Mishra's Bauble	-$0.25	-20.00%	$1.00
Allied Strategies	-$0.25	-20.00%	$1.00
Obsidian Battle-Axe	-$0.25	-25.00%	$0.75
Card name:	Amount Changed	Percentage Changed	Final Price
Mogg Fanatic	$0.75	27.27%	$3.50
Mogg Fanatic	$0.50	16.67%	$3.50
Faerie Conclave	$0.25	9.09%	$3.00
Ghitu Encampment	$0.15	30.00%	$0.65
Warped Devotion	$0.05	25.00%	$0.25

 

Which brings me to a few interesting points, but first, a quick "Who's who" of non-foil card prices:

#7 Vampiric Tutor: $29.70
#6 Meddling Mage: $33.61
#5 Tarmogoyf: $36.50
#4 Force of Will: $41.58
#3 Orim's Chant: $42.25
#2 Pernicious Deed: $43.21
#1 Vindicate: $44.50

This shows me three things of interest.

Tale of Interest #1: Tarmofgoyf.  In print this card is holding the #5 spot in the list.  'It's unbaweavable!!!'  I can't think of any other card to ever do so.  I don't expect this card to ever drop lower than about 20 tix ever, ever, ever.  Not even post rotation... just never.  I expect it will drop a bit post rotation of course, but it just will never get worse in the old format.  

Tale of Interest #2: Force of Will surpasses an IPA 'big four' card.  This happened much faster than I thought it would.  Force shot up and settled around $40 the week after MED went off sale.  Meanwhile, IPA has started to fall with the upcoming Extended rotation looming around the corner.  These two market forces led a very fast convergence of prices.  It's also within striking distance of the other three cards in the list

Tale of Interest #3: Vampiric Tutor.  Technically the population of this card quadrupled when it was restricted, and yet, it's selling for almost $30.00.  I'm not sure if it should or shouldn't be, but this is about the lowest price you'll find for these cards so I have to assume that the market is either holding them at this price or the price no one is willing to sell them for less than this.  Or maybe there's just so few entering the system that it doesn't make sense to lower them as there's no competition.  I'm not really sure, but I just find it strange that effectively quadrupling a cards availability hasn't reduced it more than this.

Outstanding Issues:

 

PayPal payments not going through for some users:

10-12-07 through Current:

Overseas Paypal issues have been experiencing many issues trying to order product from the Magic Online store via PayPal.  Since WotC has no control over what PayPal does they're stuck until PayPal gets it fixed.

PayPal issues

 

Bugs:

 

Bug Fixes:

Again, a big 'thank you' to Solice for getting a hold of this information and posting it with the Server Maintenance thread.  
03-21-08Bug fixes:

• Stinkdrinker Bandit no longer produces phantom triggers after killing an attacking unblocked rogue.
• Lignify does not remove protection from Elves (Nath's Buffoon can be destroyed by elf spells).
• Stenchskipper no longer triggers (heads to GY) when only it and (Boggart Shenanigans) are in play.
• Updated 'Recent Sets' to be MOR, LRW, WL (In collections, scroll down tab)
• Implemented a fix for a bug reported on technical forums here: http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1003545 (Thank you for taking the time to report!!) Copying an effect that refers to the power of the source of the effect no longer crashes the game.
• Fix for kinship triggers not doing anything if kinship source is killed before the trigger resolves.

 

03-14-08
Chains of Mephistopheles + Anvil of Bogardan/Forced Card Draw:
01-25-08 through  02-27-08:
Chains is causing entire hands to be emptied due to its own effect when forced to draw from another source.  This bug impacted the last Classic tourney and is probably going to happen again if it isn't fixed soon. 

03-14-08 Update: Chains should now be functioning properly.

Eyes of the Wisent tokens:
12-28-07 to Morningtide Release
The tokens from this card say that they have 'Flying', but they actually do not have flying.  This is only a textual bug, but has already caused lost games through the confusion.
03-14-08 Update: These tokens should now be produced correctly.

Shah of Naar Isle No card draw:
The fix is going out with the 3/12 update.

Collective Restraint / Ghostly Prison Crashing games
Fixed with the Morningtide updates.

A Lignify'd Thoughtweft Trio can no longer block more than one creature.

Stonehewer Giant now shuffles your library only once.

Rhox now always asks it's controller about how to deal it's damage. Previously, it could ask another play

Fix for bug with Bridge from Below.

Fix for bug with Stalking Vengeance

Bug Complaints:

 

Spawnbroker Crashing Games:
Spawnbroker has been crashing games with his trade ability.  It's recommended not to use him at all at the moment.

(Authors note: this was added after going live 03-21-08)

Retether Randomly Working:
Retether has been bugged since day one, in one way or another.  Right now it appears to randomly work and randomly do a steaming pile of nothing.  Use at your own risk.

 

Thieves' Auction only returning one permanent:
http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?p=15148181#post15148181

Graveyard Choice Cards Crashing the game:
Play any card that targets cards in a graveyard from the game. Note that it must be optional to target them, like with Shred Memory or Decompose. Then don't choose any targets, and just hit OK. Until you concede all you can do for the rest of the game is hit the OK button with the card on the stack.  (Quoted from authenticsimpsonian).  According to a developer, this should be fixed when V3 goes live.  Newest thread located here.

Shielding Plax + Targeting:

11-30-07 through Current:
Shielding Plax is not granting untargetability correctly.

Colfenor's Plans + extra draw:
11-30-07 through Current:
Colfenor's Plans is not handling extra draw actions properly.  Link

Lignify + Layers:
11-23-07 through Current:
Lignify + Spirit Loop does not appear to follow the correct rules for timestamps and loss of abilities. More information can be found here. 

Sutured Ghoul + Tarmogoyf
10-19-07: through Current:
Sutured Ghoul + Tarmogoyf doesn't pump the Ghoul correctly. And before anyone starts to yell about the Ghoul not caring about the Goyf's dynamic power, look up the Future Sight rules update information.  Or better yet, you can read about this question here and here.

This interaction is still broken.  And based on the latest Pro Tour results, this will be a popular deck in Extended and likely Classic.  This is not the first time that an MTG rules update has lagged far behind on MTGO and thereby invalidated a deck type.  Phyrexian Dreadnought, Flash and suspend cards like Lotus Bloom have had similar issues in the past year. 

Update: this is currently being investigated by the devs for a fix.  I don't have any ETA as to when it wil be resolved, but rumor has it that this is in the works as we speak.

  Conclusion:

Whew.  One of my most active State's to date.  A lot of new stuff, changes to old stuff, and just pretty much all sorts of stuff.  Hopefully you'll check out the Commander format (deck format information is in your Client's Deck Editor->Stats button) as it's shaping up to be a blast to play!

~Erik