MTGO Library: The Magic Online Bot

We host the first of a series of articles from our friends blog http://www.mtgeconomist.com , a blog dealing with mtg and mtgo economics.

You can read the original article here: 

http://www.mtgeconomist.com/en/bot-de-magic-online-parte-6-1/

As I said in the previous chapter, the following chapters of this series will be focused on one of the most famous and important Magic Online bots: MTGO Library. Although management of this software is not difficult, you need some experience to obtain all its performance. Therefore, I will create a sub-series of chapters to learn this essential tool so you may obtain the maximum profit from your Magic Online collection.

What is a Magic Online bot?

A bot is a software that performs tasks on your operating system automatically. If you know what a macro is, the previous definition has no difference with macros. However, the bot, unlike the macro, performs the actions as if it was the user who executes them. For example, you could write a simple macro to run the Notepad application with a single command, whereas the bot would use the mouse or a key combination to obtain the same result.

Therefore, a Magic Online bot is a tool that acts as if the user with a single purpose: to obtain cards for your collection. Why use an application like this to automate a shop in Magic Online? There are two main reasons:

Wizards does not provide an official application to create your own store. The Magic Online client is a closed software, so the only way to interact with your collection is by using that UI like a human does.

General description of MTGO Library

In the absence of official tools to trade cards without staying in front of your computer, MTGO Library was born as a Magic Online bot to meet that necessity. The cover image of this post (obtained from the MTGO Library official site) sums up the main feature of this software: add cards to your collection.

Both the application and its manual can be downloaded directly from the official website. However, you must create an account on MTGO Library if you want to activate and use the software, which is completely free of charge. Once the MTGO Library account is created, you must associate your Magic Online account you want to use as a store to buy/sell cards automatically.

MTGO Library features

This Magic Online bot has many advantages to create a store for buying/selling digital cards. Personally, the most important for me are the following:

• It is “FREE”, you don’t have to pay a cent of real money. 
• Customizable ads from the bot tool itself or on your profile at MTGO Library site. Y
• ou may own several bots and share the credits of a user among them. 
• Own pricelist which can be automatically upgraded (for an additional fee). 
• Complete customization with your own prices. 
• Ready to work with the future version 4 of the Magic Online client.

The point that probably gets your attention is that the bot costs you nothing since the beginning. But how is that possible? Well, you really do have to pay a commission of 2.5% of the value of each transaction you make, but with tickets instead of real money. The bot has a record of each transaction and their corresponding commissions. When the amount exceeds the value of 1 ticket, a special account from MTGO Library collects the fee from your bot. As it is supposed that you get a higher percentage with those transactions, you still receive a benefit. And, as I previously said, you never are forced to pay with real money.

The main problem to use a bot of Magic Online is that you must keep a computer switched on 24 hours/day, which is a considerably expense on electricity. Besides, as the bot uses the mouse it prevents you from running personal applications. Luckily, there is a technique to avoid this problem that will be discussed in future chapters of this series.

Security at MTGO Library

One of the most critical topics of MTGO Library, from the safety point of view, is that you must provide the password of your Magic Online account so the bot can automatically log on without your intervention. For years there has been controversy with this topic. I have read forum threads (correct me if I’m wrong) opened by competitors to create distrust in this popular application, and others opened by some affected users that lost their accounts/cards, but afterwards it seemed that they were poorly grounded. There were also attempts to steal accounts via password hack. After that, MTGO Library changed the password policy and now you cannot a password shorter than 8 chars.

Let me be clear with this topic. I have no evidence to confirm or deny these claims. What I can say for sure is that, in my personal experience with MTGO Library for more than three years, I have never had problems with theft of cards, account passwords or whatever. The only problem I’ve had is that rarely the bot can make a mistake in a buy/sell transaction due to an error with reading the price, but this is very rare and any lost for that transaction is quickly compensated by the overall benefits. Be clear that the robot always act as yourself at Magic Online, so their actions on the digital platform are as if you had done it.

So, in conclusion, what do you recommend?

MTGO Library is a highly tested Magic Online bot over the years and nowadays it works perfectly. For this reason and my personal experience, I recommend you give it a try and follow the advices I will publish in this series. The first one: use strong passwords (capital/small letters alternating numbers).

If you want to see how is the current stock of my Magic Online bot, you can check out the store shop_ruby to get an idea of ​​how it works from the point of view of the customer. This way, you will also have a preview of how your collection of digital cards can grow when using MTGO Library (I started with an investment of 50 tickets). I am convinced that when you try it you won’t want to leave.

Momir Basic, part 3

We continue the Momir Basic strategy.

Play or Draw? The advantage for each is obvious: on the play, you get to make the first creature of each converted mana cost. On the draw, you get an extra card, so you get to make an extra creature or land-drop. Which is better? This question is certainly open to debate, but I prefer to play first. Even though your opponent will get the first creature, you will be able to match with a larger creature on turn 4 most of the time. The only time the drawing player has a real advantage is when they get a mana producer or card drawer on turn 2, letting them surge ahead of you in development.

As I discuss later, the 8-drop is the most important mana cost, which means that on the play, you get to make the first 8-drop, and on the draw, you only have to skip one creature instead of two to be able to make 8 drops.

Tips and Tricks
1. Play your creatures before attacking, since you may get a creature with a combat-helping ability, or a creature with haste.
2. If you already have a legend, avoid making more creatures with that mana cost if possible. You do not want to waste two turns when both of your Spirits of the Night go to the graveyard. Conversely, remember that you can remove your opponents' legends by playing copies of them.
3. The first time your opponent uses their avatar, right click on the ability, and choose to permanently auto yield to Momir Vig. It will save you a few clicks throughout the game.

In the last paragraph I made list of best possible creautes. Sundering Titan, Ashen Firebeast, Avatar of Woe, Bloodfire Colossus, Vampiric Tutor, Hoverguard Sweepers and the card we do not want to see is obviously Phage the Untouchable.

Enjoy!

Momir Basic, part 2

This part is about Momir Basic Strategy. You may ask yourself what strategy could possibly be in deck full of basic lands, but in my opinion strategy is equal to luck in momir decks. Let’s start with deck building. Some basic lands are better than others. Surprised?

Naive manabase might consist of either 12 of each basic land, or 60 or all the same basic land. Neither is ideal. While creatures have activation costs and upkeeps of all different colors, mana cannot usually be spent early using any abilities; you are too busy summoning larger monsters. Later in the game, though, creature abilities get much more powerful. At the seven-mana-plus level, practically no creatures use Blue or White mana. A few use Green, but the most powerful abilities are Red and Black. I would recommend playing as many Mountains early in the game as possible, other lands if you hit creatures needing the mana, and Swamps if you run out of Mountains. My current recommended decklist: 15 Mountains, 13 Swamps, 11 Forest, 11 Island, 10 Plains. When playing your lands, try to keep the option of dropping colors like blue or green back until you get a creature that needs that color of mana, otherwise, you could end up with a landwalking liability and no color-specific gain for your trouble.

While a significant percentage of the time games will be decided by one player out-randoming the other, many games will come down to large creature stalls. In situations like these, generating another eight-mana creature might not be your best bet. You need to know what creatures are available at each mana level, and choose how much to spend based on what you really need. About this in next part. See you soon.

Momir Basic, part 1

I am going to continue the casual series. This time I will tell you more about format which is available only online - Momir Basic. The funniest format ever, where every game is different. That’s what makes Momir Basic so great. It requires an absolute minimum of investment, and your deck is competitive with every other deck in the tournament. First, let’s review the rules. Momir Basic decks consist of the following: exactly 60 Basic Lands (Swamp, Island, Forest, Mountain, Plains) and exactly 1 “Momir Vig” Vanguard card. No snow lands, no dual lands, only 60 basics allowed. No sideboard. The most leeway you have on this is that your lands can be from any set, and have any artwork.

For those unfamiliar with Vanguard magic, the concept is that you pick one avatar card that gives you some additional ability, and then build your deck with that ability in mind. The Momir Vig avatar allows you to start with 24 life, and grants the following ability: X, Discard a card: Put a token into play as a copy of a random creature card with converted mana cost X. Play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery and only once each turn.

I would like to emphasis that creatures put into play are tokens. It is very important. Any ‘bounce’ is equal to removal. Creatures trigger goes to graveyard effect when they die, but they do not stay in the graveyard, so reanimation is a bust (sorry Reya). Remember that you can only use this avatar once per turn. Even if you somehow draw X extra cards, they will be pretty useless.

While the format may seem trivial or impractically random, there is a surprising depth to the strategy involved. Next part is going to be about strategy.