MTGO Library 5.61 is out

ML Bot 5.61 has just been released, fixing a problem with the 'buy' command in the Classified messages. In older versions, the 'buy' command (such as #RTR_buy_>8#) could lead to undesired results.

ML Bot 5.61 also introduced a new syntax for PersonalPercentages: the possibility to modify ENTIRE sets in a single line, rather than writing a line for each card of the set. Let's suppose you want to adjust all the rare cards of a set (say RTR) 5%: now you can write in PersonalPercentages.txt a line like:

RTR;RARE;+5%;+5%;-10%;-10%

You basically replace the cardname with one of the following 4 keywords:

• MYTHIC
• RARE
• UNCOMMON
• COMMON

The old syntax of course still holds

ZEN;Chandra Ablaze;+10%;+10%;-10%;-10%

My Trades & My Credits

The functionalities 'My Trades' and 'My Credits' are now available online. These tools allow the users to view their credits and trades among all the bots.

The new logs are better than the old ones and now group the bot in chains, making life easier.

UI Part 1

Unless you live under a rock, you might have noticed that the website got a new interface.  Of course, this has been met with the usual complaints… It looks horrible.  Why change something which works perfectly?  There are missing features.  How is this an improvement?

So let’s look at a few reasons why it is necessary to update the website.

[1] Spaghetti code: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_code

Production code which has been used for quite a long time typically has had many revisions, edits and features added.  Over time, this makes the original code difficult to understand and navigate, and more time consuming to make certain the changes have not introduced new bugs.  So it becomes necessary to do a total re-write of the code just to scrub, clean, and optimize the code.

[2] New technologies aka future proofing:

While  mobile surfing was technically possible a few years ago, not many people did it.  Today, not only is it possible, it is actively encouraged.  Some providers actually encourage their users to stream movies and watch live sports on their mobile devices.  With the advent of HTML 5 and other under-the-hood technologies, it is possible to do things that were not conceived just a few short years ago.

[3] MTGO 4:

Let’s face it, MTGO going to version 4 is going to require total re-write of the code.  Since Library is going to get a re-write, why not do the same thing concerning the website?

So instead of looking at this as a negative, look at the positive.  Yes, there are some problems which will be ironed out.  Just look at this as growing pains.  We’ll be getting the same features, and a few new features with this, so just be patient.  I’ll go over those next time.

DCI Banned Announcement

In Modern Bloodbraid Elf and Seething Song were banned.  Also, in Pauper 3 cards  Empty the Warrens, Grapeshot, and Invigorate were banned affective Feb. 1 2013.

While the rest of the format is quite diverse, the dominance of Jund is making it less so overall. The DCI looked to ban a card. We wanted a card that top players consistently played four copies of in Jund, but ideally was less played in other top Modern decks. That would give the best chance of creating a more balanced metagame. The card that best fits our criteria is Bloodbraid Elf

~ Officially from Wizard of The Coast

While I hate to see Bloodbraid elf go, it was much needed and will change the format a lot. Wizards of The coast is really pushing modern and with the release of Modern Masters on June 7, 2013 it will make playing modern cards less expensive and more accessible for a lot of players. I believe for a lot of players modern is a very nostalgic format as  many of grew up on those sets and Wizards understands that, hence banning Bloodbraid elf and making the format more diverse. Seething song was kind of a random ban but storm being the second top tier deck behind jund I can understand the ban if you are really trying to change the format.

The following cards are banned in Modern tournaments:

• Ancestral Vision
• Ancient Den
• Bitterblossom
• Blazing Shoal
• Bloodbraid Elf (banned effective February 1, 2013)
• Chrome Mox
• Cloudpost
• Dark Depths
• Dread Return
• Glimpse of Nature
• Golgari Grave-Troll
• Great Furnace
• Green Sun's Zenith
• Hypergenesis
• Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• Mental Misstep
• Ponder
• Preordain
• Punishing Fire
• Rite of Flame
• Seat of the Synod
• Seething Song (banned effective February 1, 2013)
• Sensei's Divining Top
• Stoneforge Mystic
• Skullclamp
• Sword of the Meek
• Tree of Tales
• Umezawa's Jitte
• Vault of Whispers
• Wild Nacatl

What does this mean for the future of modern, Honestly I do not know but the following decks will still be very strong:


Splinter Twin
4C Birthing Pod
Boggled Enchantments
Master Affinity


As for pauper its pretty much the same thing, Wizards wanted to make the format more diverse. Lets face it every pauper match that I played recently is either Goblins, infect, or storm and frankly it made me just lose interest. So I believe the banning of Empty the Warrens, Grapeshot, and Invigorate were a good call.

Strong decks still will be:

Goblins
White Winnie
Affinity

I am excited to see some  new decks being introduced with the release of Gatecrash this week and the banning of the new cards.


The Pauper banned list is:

• Cranial Plating
• Empty the Warrens
• Frantic Search
• Grapeshot
• Invigorate

Modo handle: Teamstoge


Please comment any thoughts that you may have on future decks or the banning themselves.

 

Bot Raiders

It has come to my attention that a few bot owners feel that Wiki prices only attract scammers that buy at your lowest price and sell to you when you are the highest price. This is only partially true, Wiki also does provide a lot of good buyers to your bots as well.

Ways to protect yourself :

1: Keep your prices updated. I suggest at minimum every 24hours, therefor you can keep up with current market trends

2: Use the email feature to your advantage.  Make sure the email that you have registered with Mtgolibrary.com goes to your mobile device. This way you can see and regulate every transaction with your bots.

3. Use the Black list option. Below I will talk about how to identify a bot raider, once you have identified yours, include their name in the blacklist file.


How to identify a "bot raider"

1: If a person buys or sells just 1 card at a time to you multiple times. They do one card at a time because wiki prices is not 100% up to date meaning they don't want to buy a card from one bot at $1.30 and sell it to you at $1.40 if you have already reached your buying max for that specific card.

2: If you notice a person buying always at your lowest prices or selling to you always at your highest prices. Says for instance you noticed Tropo sold you 4 Chromatic lanterns for $.36 do a wiki search on it. If people are selling less than that, then he is a scammer.

I am a botter and personally review every transaction, I have created a nice blacklist to keep bot scammers away from my bots, just PM me to have it, maybe it can help.

Modo handle: Teamstoge

MTGO Library Bot 5.60 is out

ML Bot 5.60 is out, fixing a minor crash of 5.59. It's just a maintenance build.

MTGO Library Bot 5.59 is out

ML Bot 5.59 has just been released. It fixes a problem partially already addressed in version 5.44.

If someone opens a trade while the bot is in the 'Collection' tab of Mtgo, Magic Online displays the usual "trade request window" but the bot ignores it, moving to the 'Classified' tab. At this point your account is no more able to receive trades - it will appear as constantly "in trading", even if it is not. In a nutshell, your account will be locked and unable to trade.

ML Bot 5.59 fixes the problem by constantly monitoring the two tabs, and eventually accepting the trade request even in the 'Collection' tab.

Last but not the least, ML Bot 5.59 support the DDJ set (Duel Decks: Izzet vs Colgari). The updated price list is already available online - your bot will also automatically download it for free during the update process from version 5.58 to 5.59.

How to draft Gatecrash?

The Gatecrash set features 274 cards. Prerelease have already started. New set brings new cards and new loves. With GTC there is no different. Basing on acronym B.R.E.A.D which is very useful way to grade cards in limited  I have selected commons and uncommons worth drafting in Gatecrash. I ignored rares and mythic cards, because these cards are quite easy to evaluate and to point out the best possible pick. 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 Aggro, D is for Dregs. Basing on B.R.E.A.D  Here we go:

• White: Daring Skyjek, Court Street Denizen, Boros Elite, Guardian of the Gateless, Knight of Obligaton, Urbis Protector

• Blue: Totally Lost, Hands of Binding, Leyline Phantom, Aetherize, Agoraphobia, Rapid Hybridization, Sapphire Drake, Simic Fluxmage

• Black: Grisly Spectacle, Death’s Approach, Devour Flesh, Corpse Blockade, Killing Glare, Smog Elemental, Undercity Informer

• Red: Mugging, Massive Raid, Madcap Skills, Act of Treason, Cinder Elemental, Firefist Striker, Homing Lightning

• Green: Slaughterhorn, Disciple of the Old Ways, Crocanura, Adaptive Snapjaw, Crowned Ceratok, Rust Scarab.

• Multi: Pit Fight, Wojek Halberiders, Kingpin's Net, Drakewing Krasis, Deathcult Rogue, Skynight Legionnaire, Zhur-Taa Swine, Bane Alley Broker, Boros Charm, Dimir Charm, Dinrova Horror, Elusive Krasis, Ghor-Clan Rampager, Ground Assault, Gruul Charm, Nimbus Swimmer, One Thousand Lashes, Orzhov Charm, Simic Charm, Skaarg Guildmage, Sunhome Guildmage, Truefire Paladin, Urban Evolution, Zameck Guildmage, Arrows of Justice,

• Artifacts: Prophetic Prism, Keyrunes

• Lands: Gate cards, Duals

Good luck!

New webserver is running!

The new server is up and running, everyone should be able to login as usual. Still, if you have any problem, just send me an email (staff@mtgolibrary.com) and I will be happy to help :-)

The new server is not just a nice UI - it's a whole new server, with new code, build with the latest technologies to offer stability and performance. But - most important - it's easy to expand and plug new functionalities. In the close future you will see many new features, things impossible on the old server. We are ahead of a very exciting period.

To close, I want to show you how responsive the new UI is: you can view the website on a large 22'' screen as well on a tiny smarthphone - and it will always render properly.

Gatecrash Pre-release tips!

The much anticipated set Gatecrash is finally here and boy am I excited,  Introducing 5 new mechanics Evolve, Cipher, Battalion, Blood rush, and Extort. In this article I will go over a few basic sealed deck strategies and point a few of the top commons and uncommon in the set.

Sealed deck tips:

1. You DON'T have to play your best card. Say for instance your guild is Simic (UG) and you open a Obzedat, Ghost Council in your regular packs, don't feel obligated to play it, most likely it will offset your mana curve.

2. Read the cards. Lots of times people make mistakes and play sorceries as instants not knowing or maybe knowingly. Angelic Edict is a sorcery but for 5 mana I could see someone easily trying to pull that as an instants.


3. Study the spoiler. The most important thing to remember from a spoiler is removal and playable tricks. If you take in account the opponents untapped land, colors they are playing  and play hesitation, you can quickly figure out what they maybe holding in their hand.


All and all have fun! Remember in the Pre-Release its an even playing field so following these 3 steps could give you that slight advantage to victory.

Below are my top 8 common and 5 uncommons to keep an eye out for in no particular order.

Uncommon

1.Boros Charm - So good!
2.Elusive Krasis - early blocker, late game winner.
3.Ghor-Clan Rampager - 4/4 tramper for 4 or a titanic growth your call.
4.One Thousand Lashes - not quite stab wounds but maybe better in some aspects.
5.Simic Fluxmage - Just seems good.

Don't get me wrong some of the charms and guildmages are much better, but I figured that was common sense.

Common

1. Crocanura - reach is always good and one that grows is better.
2. Drakewing Krasis - meh!
3. Executioner's Swing - can kill almost anything in the set.
4. Grisly Spectacle - just good removal and could go with some deck themes
5. Mugging - there a ton of 2 and 1 toughness creatures in this set. plus cant block feature is great
6. Pit Fight - "FIGHT"
7. Prophetic Prism - cantrip, mana fixing.
8. Smite - "Sure, today of all days, he asked to borrow my boots!"

Good luck this weekend for paper magic players and good luck Modo players starting Feb. 9th.

Next post I will going over drafting tips for Gatecrash.

Modo Handle: Teamstoge

Prepare for something big....

Later on, between Tuesday and Wednesday, mtgolibray.com will have a short downtime for maintenance..... let's prepare for something big.
Sorry for the downtime btw, that will be necessary



Albert

Future-Proofing: Thought Patterns

As I close this series on Future-Proofing, I think it is time to discuss the one thing that we really can not control, or even adequately plan for: changing thought patterns.

First off, let me define what I mean by changing thought patterns: They are a change of the way we think, but not so much in the obvious sense, but more subtler.  This usually takes a long time to happen and notice.  It’s also has a society component.  I guess I should give a couple of examples.

I bought my house a decade ago.  When I bought it, I made certain every room in the house had a telephone jack.  Today, if I am going to buy a house, I do not particularly care about making certain each room having a telephone jack.  I know there are people who would be content if their house had no telephone jacks at all.

So what happened?  Did my views on telephones change?  Not really.  But the world around me has changed.  Cell phones are so ubiquitous that people no longer have desk phones but one that more or less has become attached to their bodies and as a result, the way we look at communication is different.  No one planned this.  No conspiracy theory to remove all desk phones and land lines.  Just happened.

Another example: large families.  Back in the day, it was common to at least know someone who came from a large family, having say five (5) or more siblings.  These days, at least in the United States and Western Europe, the concept of a large family is completely foreign.  I only know of one family with more than two (2) children. 

Why did this happen?  The experts and planners will spout things like population control, (there are too many people on the planet), decreasing infant morality (Used to be having ten children meant that two would survive to adulthood..  Nowadays, not needed.) and the high cost of having children.

I’m using these two examples to show what changing thought patterns are.  (So do not nit-pick the examples themselves.)  It shows that we should never be complacent about things.  We should expect that something may happen which will totally change the way we run out business.  Sometimes, it is planned, like MTGO v4.  Other times, well, you get my point. 

MTGO Library Bot 5.58 is out

ML Bot 5.58 is out, fixing a bug introduced in 5.57. The bug concerned the prices replaced in the Classified Messages, not correct ones.

MTGO Library Bot 5.57 is out

The new version of ML Bot, 5.57, contains many bug fixes and improvements.

First of all, the reading of the "You Get" / "You Give" columns is more reliable and avoids a common "scrolling problem" - a problem causing the bot to be unable to "scroll down" the columns (and thus read all the cards).

V 5.57 is also faster in replacing the Classified commands (such as #RTR_sell_>10#) in the advertisement messages. The replace is now 5 times faster, and this results in the bot posting the messages in less time.

Finally, ML Bot 5.57 marks all your "trade screenshots" with a timestamp in GMT+0 (see picture) to offer you an absolute time reference, even if your Windows Menu bar is minimized and the system clock is hidden.

Gatecrash: new mechanics, part 2/2

In one week time we will be pleased to take part in prelease event of Gatecrash. Thus, I decided to introduce you the new mechanics. Every guild have its special abillity. Like in Return to Ravnica we will have 5 guilds: Orzhov, Dimir, Gruul, Boros and Simic.

The Dimir guild: cipher. As a spell you control with cipher resolves, you may exile it and choose a creature you control. The cipher card is then encoded on that creature, and whenever that creature deals combat damage to a player, its controller may copy the encoded card and cast the copy without paying its mana cost. Usually, the creature's controller will be you, but if another player takes control of your creature (due to something like Act of Treason, for example), it takes the encoded spell with it to its new master.

The Gruul guild: bloodrush. Bloodrush is an ability word that marks a particular kind of activated ability you can use when a creature card with bloodrush is in your hand. Each bloodrush ability has a cost of paying some amount of mana and discarding the creature card. It targets an attacking creature, which means it can be activated only during combat and only targeting a creature that's currently attacking. The actual bonus is different on each card with a bloodrush ability. Zhur-Taa Swine is a 5/4, and it gives the attacking creature +5/+4. For instance, a card Viashino Shanktail is a 3/1 with first strike, and its bloodrush ability, correspondingly, gives the attacking creature +3/+1 and first strike. A bloodrush ability isn't a spell and can't be countered by things that only counter spells. It uses the stack and can be responded to normally.

Future-Proofing: Competitive Advantage

In our soon-to-be complete series on Future Proofing, I wish to further explore the topic I brought up last time, the topic if competition and how it will look when MTGO 4 comes online.

The first thing that this will probably happen during a routine downtime on Wednesday morning PST.  This will make the transition as smooth as possible for the players.  However, when play resumes, it will be a new environment… not just because of the visual changes, but that not one bot will be on MTGO.  This is because all the routines, how to confirm trades, how to select cards, and so on will be different.  This also does not include any new changes that will appear.

But we also know that it will not stay that way.  There is simply too much profit to be made and the crew at MTGO Library is going to be writing a new bot as will as others looking to get into the game.  There may be some who simply do not wish to go through this process.  Yatbot never made the transition from version 2 to version 3.  But the bottom line here is that Library will be making the transition.

Let’s assume that it takes two (2) weeks to get Library v4 stable enough to make trades.  What should we be doing in the meantime? 

First off, I would suggest doing upgrades on the hardware.  MTGO v4 is going to be more resource hungry than v3.  This means any physical machine which runs Library is going to need a minimum of a Gig of RAM, and more hard drive space allocated to it.  This same advice will also be applicable to virtual machines or VM’s. 

Secondly, do hardware maintenance.  Shut the machine totally down.  Unplug your computer, open up the case and take a can of air to the inside and splash all accumulated dust outside.  Do the same with the power supply, although I do not recommend opening that up.

Thirdly, this is going to be a good time to rethink your bot empire’s plan.  What are your short term, medium term and long term goals for the bots?  While there will still be a limited and professional version of Library, making huge changes here will not be as difficult to configure during this time than once you have your bot(s) up and running.

|Finally, make certain you get some good rest and enjoy the break from botting.  When Library v4 becomes available, there is going to be a learning curve to learn its nuances and to configure Library to our specifications.  It will be best to do that from a relaxed state than a restless state,

MTGO Library Bot 5.56 is out

ML Bot 5.56 just fixes a minor crash of version 5.55

MTGO Library Bot 5.55 is out

ML Bot v 5.55 has just been released, fixing a bug with the "Limit" Tab.

The "don't buy rares" limits did not work properly, and caused the bot to purchase rare cards even if the limit was correctly set.

Gatecrash: new mechanics, part 1/2

In one week time we will be pleased to take part in prelease event of Gatecrash. Thus, I decided to introduce you the new mechanics. Every guild have its special abillity. Like in Return to Ravnica we will have 5 guilds: Orzhov, Dimir, Gruul, Boros and Simic.

The Orzhov guild (WB): extort. Whenever you cast a spell, the extort abilities of permanents you control will trigger. As the trigger resolves, you'll be given the chance to pay  W or B . (All extort cards, regardless of color, let you pay either color). If you decide not to pay, nothing happens. But if you do have a spare mana to pay, each of your opponents will lose 1 life, and you'll gain that much life. Each trigger lets you pay up to one mana; you can't pump more mana into it.
 
The Boros guild (WR): battalion. Battalion is an ability word that marks a particular kind of triggered ability. A creature's battalion ability triggers when it and at least two other creatures attack. The bonus from battalion abilities varies from card to card, but the trigger is always the same.
Battalion abilities use the stack and can be responded to normally.

The Simic guild (UG): evolve. Evolve is a triggered ability that triggers whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control. At the time that happens, you compare the new creature's power to the evolve creature's power and the new creature's toughness to the evolve creature's toughness. If either or both of those values is higher for the new creature, the ability triggers. It only triggers once for each creature that enters the battlefield, even if that creature's power and toughness are both higher. After the ability has gone on the stack and players have a chance to respond to it, it resolves. If the new creature still has a higher power and/or toughness, you'll put a +1/+1 counter on the evolve creature. If multiple creatures enter the battlefield at the same time—say, because they're tokens—evolve triggers separately for each, and the triggers resolve one by one.

Future-Proofing: Competition

"And what does that mean for us?  Much more business!"

Or much more competition as the bot/human ratio keeps growing. - Carlos Lazaro

Carlos’ comment from my last entry is a rather depressing one, and one that I’d like to dispel. 

First of all, we do not fear competition.  Competition is what makes us stronger, as a community and as business owners.  If there were only five (5) bots on MTGO, what would we see?  Outrageous prices and constantly busy servers.  If there were five thousand (5,000) bots on MTGO, what would we see?  Very realistic prices, and an easy way to trade unwanted cards for products the customer does want.

So how does that help us?  More bots means less profits for all.

Because when a player gets a good trade experience, be it from our bots or another bot, the player will keep playing Magic.  If there was a bot monopoly, there is a chance that players will leave the game, and they might not return.  It is very difficult for us to make a profit when there are no players logged into MTGO.

Let me illustrate using a recent example: Remember when Microsoft said that they were no longer going to work on Internet Explorer.  After all, why should they spend money improving a product (Explorer 6) that is given away at no charge and that browsers are done, ie completed.

This lasted awhile and then some high school student takes a chunk of code and re-works it into what we now call Firefox.  Then Google decides to jump into the browser field with Chrome.  Should I mention the plethora of browsers which now exist? 

And what has that done for us?  We have features that we couldn’t even conceive a few years ago.  We are more productive, get more enjoyment, and can be safer by using now-standard features like tabbed browsing, a slew of addons and community-based rating systems like Web of Trust.

Competition has made the browser programs better.  And in this same manner, competition makes us better botters.  Next time I will explore the competition question in more detail.

Managing your bots from distance Part 2

Managing your bots from distance

Today I will be telling you a very good way to tackle the problem of being away from your bots.

Although MTGOLibrary's Control panel allows you do do many things, such as changing the messages, changing credits and so on; none of these will really help you in the eventuality of a system error, unexpected restart (if you run bots on VMs) or many other problems which may occur.

My tip will be to run remote assistance software on your botting machine. With the booming technology developments in mobile phones/tablets, there are now many different apps that allow you to easily do anything on your PC via your mobile phone/tablet/laptop. This way you can restart your PC, run your antivirus software, adjust your personalprices.txt, or anything you would normally do while at work, holiday or wherever you are, as long as you have access to the Internet.

Just remember to make sure you don't skip any security step, such as setting strong passwords to access your machine etc.

MTGO Library Bot 5.54 is out

ML Bot 5.54 fixes a couple of minor bug of version 5.53

MTGO Library Bot v.5.52 and 5.53 are out

The newest versions of ML Bot, 5.52, and 5.53, have just been released.


They fixes a launch problem on some computers, with messy launch interface (see at right)

Motivation

This article will be about motivation. It is a crucial aspect of running business to be fully involved and absorbed in doing what you have to. Especially, old fogeys like me who are doing it for several years.

To be all the time motivated like it was your first day of botting. Do you remember this day? You made big plans, had big hopes and expectationes, saw first profits, but as the time went by you maybe dedicated less time to bots. For instance, updated prices less often.

In this job its imporant to be focused and don't neglect your duties. One month ago we experienced an unpleasant event connected with changing server by Albert. For sure, you did notice that after this break you had less trades than you had normally. It was caused by your absence and if a potential customer cannot get what they want to in this moment from your bot they will get it somewhere else. This situation demonstrates really well what would happen if you had updated your prices once per two days or updated your classifieds message just once a day or go for vacation.

The customer opens a trade with your bot and would like to buy a Snapcaster Mage, because he saw your ad on classifieds, but then he realized that there is no Snapcaster Mage in your collection, because you didn't update classified message. And if you don't have a will to do so now, stop it. Don't force yourself or face with a fact you will never be a successful botter. The conclusion is simple, the more often you pay attention to your bot, the better it is for your business. If you don't pay enough attention your regular customer will migrate to other botters, who are better than you. In this business there is no room for average botters. The competition is too big. Old, good v2 times gone where bots were not as popular as it is in v3. Unless small profits are satisfying you. Remember, providing the lowest prices won't make you number 1. It is all about repeating customers. CardBot has the highest prices, but all his bots are always busy.  Keep it in mind and tell me what are still doing here. Get back to your bot(s)
;)

MTGO Library Bot v.5.51 is out

Happy 2013 to everyone!

ML Bot version 5.51 has just been released, fixing an annoying bug at the begin of the trades. On slow computers, if the initial phases lasted more than 60 seconds, the bot used to abort the trades...... The timer has now been removed.

Future-Proofing: Magic the Gathering

Today we begin a new year.  As with any new year, people make resolutions and about half of them are already broken.  As we near the conclusion of this series on Future-Proofing, last time I described my succession plan and how it hinges on just one thing.  It also happens to be the one thing I, nor any of us, can control, what the future of MTGO actually is.  So let’s look at MTGO and its future.

Five years ago, MTGO accounts numbered between 1,000 and 2,000 users on at any given time.  This is a particularly small number when compared to the number of actual players.  But we can dismiss this as MTGO at the time, could only host 2,000 users maximum and there were a large amount of bots slowing things down.  In computer terms, the architecture was not scalable, meaning there was an upper limit.

In 2008, times were fairly good; the Great Recession didn’t hit and WotC was actively reworking their architecture to allow many more simultaneous users.  While it was annoying at the time, it is fine now, with 4,000 to 5,000 active users on at any given time.  While this is an increase of up to 500%, that MTGO is scalable means there is no limit to growth.  Things slow down, just add a server.  Lag gets to be an issue, just open up another Internet pipe.

So the capacity is not going to be a problem in the foreseeable future.  What about the health of the card game itself?  While people moan about four sets being released annually, people do purchase the new sets, and draft these sets.  This is a good thing for Magic.  It is also good that players can leave and return at any time, and with just some minor retraining, can jump straight into a draft and be competitive.  Old cards from Tempest, Ice Age, etc, are still playable as the core game mechanics are the same.  A fifteen year old deck can still play against any Standard deck today. 

Another thing has changed: people are accustomed to online transactions and digital objects.  Ten years ago, this was a controversial topic of discussion.  These days, only nit-pickers complain that they could lose their investments in digital items. 

People are also realizing the value of online entertainment.  A movie provides only two (2) hours of entertainment.  A dinner at a restaurant only an hour.  A draft can take three (3) hours and if played well, can provide even more.  You even get to keep the cards!

So what is the bottom line?  As the lines between physical and online Magic blur, as more cross-promotions are done, as more and more people get into the game, and when this economy improves, the number of players will increase.  Seeing 10,000 simultaneous users in five years should not be unexpected.  25,000 should be what WotC is going after.  And what does that mean for us?  Much more business!