Heath and PureMTGO/MTGOtraders

MTGOtraders and PureMTGO have done quite a bit for the MTGO and PDC communities. Very helpful, contributes to the community and sponsors various events.

They have PureMTGO.com out of Beta and it is really nice. This is a wonderful resource for the MTGO community and I suggest everyone take a look at the website, its articles and forums.

Rock on everyone!
-tw

The fun with WW ExtraSlivas

I am having a lot of fun with WW slivers in PDC right now. Its not FutEx - more of a regular extended group of cards. For PDC format it qualifies directly in the Classic PDC set.

I will post later about this deck but fair to say it has a solid win rate against decks of all types. Including decks with, *gasp*, rares!

Thank you to 535n1 for really helping me tune it up last night.

Rock on and Avian Changling ftw.

Amazing response - wonderful folk

The folks over at pdcmagic.com have worked hard to get the word out on pdc happenings.

I just registered there and posted my first post:
http://www.pdcmagic.com/forums/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=6354#6354

Give them a look and check out what may be when Paupers Come Together

Its been nearly 6 months...

....Since my last post. And I've come back to MTGO. We're close to V3 launch (shudder). It will launch without some V2.x capability but I hope in exchange we get much stronger stability and the ability to have more concurrent users live at the same time.

Lets hope this gets rolled out right. Since Optimus Worth (Worth Wolport) is the MTGO team manager - it should be okay.

And a big thanks to GSG, Z, AJ and ToM for welcoming me back.

I'm rebuilding my 4x commons so that I can build and play PDC decks again. I sold my entire collection off last fall in fear of job loss/layoff.

Update - its been awhile

The whole Tiago-esque problems reported in MTGO seem to have calmed down. There have been clarifications, communications and an apology from the magicthegathering.com's Limited Info writer.

There was a lot of heated debated. Nary a dozen posts but hundreds even thousands of replies in total. Basically it boiled into 3 groups: "I dont care about jaywalking - its not like DCI paper tournaments", "Its wrong - its a crime/problem/violation and people should stop.", "MTGO doesnt have the ability to patrol these violations so who cares?".

In the end Optimus Worth (Wotc_Worth), Brand Manager for MTGO at Wizards of the Coast, stepped in and dealt with the writer, the issue and the community. Thank you for doing that.

In this whole big debate - it got heated and ugly. A few folks, previously friendly, were tartishly rude when I drew a Law and Order line in the sand stating it was 100% wrong and bad for folks to encourage "cheating/breaking/bending rules".

Bottom line - the rudeness of some, the cavalier ignoring of basic rules of others and such have burned me out a bit.

I stopped playing again. I stopped posting mostly. I will stop by once a week. There are some real life issues as well (mainly dental and such) so its a good thing. Like Tobold, I am drawn back to WOW. If I don't like a Horde breaking the law - I can smite them down. In MTGO - too many smug sharks/shark guilds think its OK "Anything Goes".

I may return - depends on how I feel.

Integrity and being true to oneself is something you shouldn't tread upon lightly. No belief system, no respect for rules or honesty and well - people stop spending time with you. And the ones that do hang around - well vultures hang around the dying and decrepit all the time.

Integrity meltdown at MTGO...

It appears that over the 5 years of MTGO - a few have violated the Terms of Service in MTGO. When you login to MTGO - before signing in -- you have to Accept the TOS. In the TOS there are a variety of legal issues addressed. A simple one is - do not share your account.

Now its hard, if not impossible, to properly regulate and police people using their own accounts. WOTC even had a paid writer (a British pro with the initials QM) on magicthegathering.com actually admit to taking over a friend's draft in MTGO. Its a TOS violation. Against the rules.

Seems as if there are 3-5 threads AFIRE with this issue on the MTGO general boards.

KUDOS TO WORTH AND GAMERZERO FOR INVESTIGATING - but the fires are burning.

There is no integrity or trust left in MTGO at this time. Too many users I thought I could trust now think cheating or "breaking the current rules" or "breaking an unenforceable rule" is pretty darned ok.

Well its not.

MTGO is a trading card game. Its the online version of MTG. Richard Garfield, a mathematician, invented or co-invented it. He was very proud of its rules structure and following the rules are important. If a rule needs to be changed or modified - thats fine - but until then its there for a reason.

Drafts, Leagues and Premier events in MTGO cost real money. Prizes are awarded and can be sold/traded eventually for REAL MONEY. When REAL MONEY is on the line - TRUST and INTEGRITY are important.

Some really dont care, dont see the point or just enjoy Winning at All costs.

This is costing MTGO a lot of trust now.

MTGO is basically unable to host PRO level events because of this and the lack of DCI enforcement.

Its a Casual place like a Virtual Bar to hang out with friends, play some casual gaming but do not put any serious money into it - people cheat and get away with it.

Our first FNMO/Friday Night Magic Online went...

..pretty good. We had a few dozen folks visit /fnmo throughout the day. Dragonmage65 hosted the earlier trivia events which went well (hourly trivia related to Magic/MTGO/WOTC).

Later when I logged in at 4:55 PM Pacific - we got 4 rounds of Magic related trivia and prizes (thank you MirrorMage for your donations!) and then I hosted a Paupers 2hg Classic with a twist (only Cranial Plating was restricted, rares/uncs banned, artifact lands no restrictions).

We had 7 players so I joined in. Two tables for round one and the 2nd round had the winning team from each table face off.

It went well, people had fun and we're going to do more next week (6/22/2007) in /join FNMO.

Hope to see you there

If you are new to MTGO - a few suggestions

I constantly see the following:

"I'm new to Magic Online, but I've played paper Magic for a while...

..Once I have the software installed, and when/if I shell out the $9.99, how should I get started?"

And here is what I recommend:

Actually with the 9.99 you get as a coupon - you can get started in MTGO - in PDC.

What's PDC? Thats Pauper Deck Challenge, 100% commons gaming.

You could take your 9.99 coupon and buy 9 Event Tickets (we call them TIX in MTGO). Thats the MTGO world currency.

Use the event tickets and buy bulk commons, uncommons, rares from traders/sellers/etc:

Bulk commons run about 128 per tix.
Bulk uncommons run 20-32 per tix.
Bulk rares run 3-6 per tix.

Chase cards (Terminate, Eternal Witness, Wrath of God as examples) cost more. Check websites for values .

Getting into MTGO via commons gives you an inexpensive way to test the waters.

If you need some help with commons or land see me in game (tharionwind) and we'll help you get started.

Welcome to MTGO!

MTGO survived Future Sight release events.

...With only one major crash and some lag occasionally. There are some good commons in the set and for the block PDC looks to be gaining some interesting tech.

I participated in one FUT release league event - went 1-4. So goes my rust - I needed some WD40 to clear it out. The league games got me back into tech and building decks.

I look forward to 10th coming out and will be posting some stuff as I find out if any chase commons are in the base 10th set (sometimes, rarely, sorry for the pun).

Serious concerns about whats going on in MTGO - but overall things were decent during the release events.

Concerns on V3

MTGO live is currrently at version 2.x. There is a new version of MTGO coming out called V3.

I have concerns how the user interface, chatting, chat rooms and gameplay/card viewability is handled.

I think they are going to release it live without fixing some core concerns. My only hope is that:

A) They consolidate both the 2.x live and V3.x beta teams together for more resources on one project.

B) With the added resources they work and ramp up fixes/updates each week fixing as much as possible.

C) That we do not lose a signifcant portion of the MTGO userbase during this change.

D) That MTGO/WOTC communicates things well during this painful change/growth process.

The low risk/high reward of PDC

MTGO is a very fun game. Can be amazing to play with people from around the world. We're on V2.5 and sometimes it crashes when there are too many people on (ie when there are over 3000 on at any one time).

They have a v3 beta and you can check the boards for info on that. Its ok - I'm not happy on the UI but if its stable - thats a start.

I digress though - even with these problems MTGO can be fun and you *DO* meet people from around the world. Especially in PDC - great people to play with. Getting/collecting 4x commons (for you don't need more than 4 of any non-basic-land in MTGO to build decks) in MTGO is a lot less than going for rares and uncommons - esp high powered decks.

Casual and tournament fun in PDC gives you so much more "bang for the buck" also because most of the PDC tournaments (if not all) are free: They are Player Run Events. Rarely will you see a charge for a PDC tournament/event.

A note of sadness

My heart and prayers are in Virgina this week. To mourn the loss of life that occurred at Virginia Tech. God bless to all the families out there at this time.

Kinda takes the wind out of my pdc thoughts at this moment in time.