DNS Security (Part 2 of 4)

Last time I referenced an article which states that hundreds of thousands of users may lose Internet connectivity on July 9th. 

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/05/25/google-warns-hundreds-thousands-may-lose-internet-in-july/

So what is this DNS anyway?  The best way to look at DNS, (Dynamic Name Server), is what many of us use our smartphones for.  When you decide to call John Smith, you tell your phone to not dial “John Smith” but a phone number associated with John Smith.  So you select John Smith and your phone redirects that request and dials 212-555-6789. 

DNS works the same way.  You put in www.mtgolibrary.com and your browser translates that into an aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd Internet address.

So what does this piece of malware do?  It just sits there, monitoring which DNS requests are made and if a high-value site is requested, this malware will intercept the valid request and substitute a fake answer in its place.  So instead of legitimately going to aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd for your bank, you’ll go to vvv.xxx.yyy.zzz instead.

Now what the bad guys will do is set up a site which looks and feels like your bank at vvv.xxx.yyy.zzz so that to the casual user, they’ve reached their bank.  The bad guys will even pull images from your bank’s real webpage to make the façade appear more authentic.  You then log into your bank and now the bad guys have your credentials and can now make a sizable withdrawal from your account.

So what can we botters do to deal with this silent but nasty threat?  We’ll touch on that next time.

DNS Security (Part 1 of 4)

I was going through my daily websites when I came across this headline:

Google warns hundreds of thousands may lose Internet in July:

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/05/25/google-warns-hundreds-thousands-may-lose-internet-in-july/

Well, that certainly caught my attention and warranted closer examination.  At first glance, I thought it may have to do with the running out of IPv4 addresses, of which there are people who can not be reached on the Internet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv4_address_exhaustion

But this article certainly does not indicate that.  Instead, it references a piece of malware which alters DNS such that the Internet appears normal but upon going to certain high-valued sites, notably banks, the user goes to a site which looks like their bank but is not.

This piece of malware isn’t always detected properly by anti-virus and anti-malware programs; so as such; various alphabet soup agencies of the United States government have been trying to get the word out about this.  But this is 2012.  If it isn’t viral on Youtube or some app, no one is going to notice.

So I’m going to go a short series on DNS, what this malware actually does, and most importantly for us botters, what we can do to make certain that this piece does not affect our business.

MTGO Library Bot 4.97 is out

The ML Bot 4.9y has just been released.

It fixes a number on minor bugs and features better and higher quality trade screenshots (you won't notice the jpg artifact when zooming in the screenshots).

Mtgolibrary.com restyled !

Yesterday mtgolibrary.com got a restyle to make it more readable.

Amont the others, the new style features increased font size (from 10px to 12px) and enlarged central columns.

You will also see that the logs are much more readable, that the form elements (such as the login fields or the wikiprice search field) have a more usable design and that the screenshot images are larger and of better quality.

How to draft Avacyn Restored?

Acronym B.R.E.A.D is very useful way to grade cards in limited. Every letter from this acronym symbolize one group of cards. Therefore, B is for Bombs, R is for Removal, E is for Evasion, A is for Advantage,  D is for Dudes. Basing on B.R.E.A.D I have prepared list of commons and uncommons worth drafting in Avacyn Restored. I ignored rares and mythic cards, because these cards are quite easy to evaluate and to point out  the best possible pick.

• White:  Banishing Stroke, Emancipation Angel, Archangel,  Goldnight Redeemer, Nearheath Pilgrim, Seraph of Dawn, Cloudshift, Defang, Righteous Blow, Moonlight Geist
• Blue: Fettergeist, Latch Seeker, Tandem Lookout, Vanishment, Nephalia Smuggler Mist Raven, Gryff Vanguard, Ghostly Flicker, Amass the Components, Scrapskin Drake
• Black: Barter in Blood, Demonic Taskmaster, Evernight Shade, Homicidal Seclusion, Marrow Bats, Blood Artist, Death Wind, Corpse Traders, Searchlight Geist, Soulcage Fiend, Undead Executioner, Ghoulflesh
• Red: Falkenrath Exterminator, Vigilante Justice, Gang of Devils, Thunderous Wrath, Havengul Vampire, Pillar of Flame, Hanweir Lancer, Thunderbolt, Thatcher Revolt, Mad Prophet
• Green: Blessing of Nature, Druid's Familiar, Howlgeist, Triumph of Ferocity, Wolfir Avenger, Trusted Forcemage, Joint Assault, Borderland Ranger, Wandering Wolf, Nightshade Peddler

The best creature and non-creature uncommon card from every color are bolded.
Good luck in drafts!

What about Green (Part 22 of 22)

Last time we created a finishing card for Green, a 10/10 Hexproof Trample.  Today we’re going to look at why such creatures are not printed.  First off, paying 10GG for this is not going to be a problem.  While this is clearly a late-game card, any game that lasts long enough for this to be cast can surely cast this, even in limited formats.

First off, non-Green mages would be looking for all sorts of tricks to get this bad boy into play instead of hard-casting.  Zombify for instance.

But more importantly, this card appears “unfair” to many other players and one thing WotC wants is to make the game fair and that large creatures should be rare and have ways to deal with them.  So rarely does any color get anything with a toughness higher than five (5). 

So why not make him a 5/5 Hexproof Trample and make it cost 5GG?

I wouldn’t have a problem with that.  It isn’t quite as Stompy as I would like but the effect is the same.  This could be killed in combat, but at a high price. He’s strong but not overly insanely strong.  In limited formats, this creature would probably be easier to deal with because of the sheer number of creatures played in limited.

But there seems to have been a decision made at WotC not to have a plethora of Green stompies populate the battlefield.  That decision is why Green is not considered a viable color.  Green, the color of creatures, is not permitted to have viable creatures.  One (1) and two (2) toughness creatures are acceptable, plus the three (3) toughness ones now that Lightning Bolt has been brought back into the fold. 

When one thinks of Green, there are Elves, and then Beasts. Every other color has multiple tribes associated with this.  Green needs another tribe, a tribe which can actually be more than snakes.  Why not create a sentient simian race?  This way, three (3) and four (4) toughness apes can be made and Planewalkers can encounter them only in Forests.  Except for the unique Simian Planeswalker of course.

This concludes this epic treatise on Why Green stinks.  The next series I tackle will be shorter.  What will that be?  I have not decided.   This series gave me time to come up with new topics to write about. 

Intermediate and Advanced settings

If you have been running the bot for some months, you should have grown a good collection with around 3000-4000 rares/mythics. This is very good, yet not the final goal. For a bot to be sustainable, it needs a larger collection, thus it's the time to accelerate and grow more. I prepared some settings: you can download them here (user.data) and here (buyerSetting.data).

After you reach 10'000 rares/mythics, you can then switch to these settings: here (user.data) and here (buyerSetting.data)

 Instructions:
- stop the bot 
- download the files 
- copy the files in the bot folder, overwriting the old ones 
- launch the bot and set again your bot name, mtgo password and mtgolibrary.com password 

 These settings are safe and will work well in the majority of the cases. You can of course play with them and change them at your needs. If you need help or have any question, just ask me at staff@mtgolibrary.com