Magic: The Gathering

[Vinyanyérë]

I love Magic. Some other people here play Magic too, but whether you do or don't it is mandatory to read every post in this thread.

Pro Tour Phyrexia starts tomorrow in Philadelphia. I didn't qualify (nor did I try to). I almost went to Philadelphia to play in some of the other events (Sealed PTQ or Pioneer Secret Lair Showdown), but it's been a busy past few weeks so I haven't had time. I am playing in a Sealed RCQ this Saturday at my local store though.

Pioneer is a good format. I top 8'd an RCQ a few weeks ago with UW Control but fell after a disappointing loss to Selesnya Angels. I'm glad that the Pro Tour is Pioneer this time around; I think there will be some good matches.

ONE is a blazingly fast limited format but I've been having a good time with it, partially because I think I've been drafting well by recognizing how fast it is and partially because I've been getting lucky. I've been consistently putting up 7 wins on Arena with either RG, WB, WG, or BG. The only time I didn't draft one of these color pairs was when I drafted UW and went 0-3, so that probably says something.

Anyway I'm going to post about Magic feel free to post too or don't.

[callentournies]

I always post, especially if I have no idea what’s going on.

[Vinyanyérë]

Eaglemut please add functionality to ESOC that lets me name a card and have it show up on mouseover. If deadlines are tight I will also accept a bot that replies to my post with images of the cards. I need this by tomorrow. Thanks.

[Mitoe]

Eaglemut please add functionality to ESOC that lets me name a card and have it show up on mouseover. If deadlines are tight I will also accept a bot that replies to my post with images of the cards. I need this by tomorrow. Thanks.

An extremely reasonable, easy-to-do, no-headaches, low-time commitment request. I'm sure the Godmut could easily add functionality this for all AoE3 cards as well, of course.

[callentournies]

yugiyo is the better card game

[Mitoe]

This should be done for Dominion as well

[Vinyanyérë]

Eaglemut please add functionality to ESOC that lets me name a card and have it show up on mouseover. If deadlines are tight I will also accept a bot that replies to my post with images of the cards. I need this by tomorrow. Thanks.

An extremely reasonable, easy-to-do, no-headaches, low-time commitment request. I'm sure the Godmut could easily add functionality this for all AoE3 cards as well, of course.

Yeah this is a good idea Eaglemut please do this and Dominion too. It's ok if you need an extra day or two for these.

[callentournies]

Eagelmut, corporate called, they need those state flags by EOD

[EAGLEMUT]

ONE is a blazingly fast limited format but I've been having a good time with it, partially because I think I've been drafting well by recognizing how fast it is and partially because I've been getting lucky. I've been consistently putting up 7 wins on Arena with either RG, WB, WG, or BG.

I think I like black+green and black+blue the most. Black is just really good and I'm a poison/proliferation enjoyer.

Eaglemut please add functionality to ESOC that lets me name a card and have it show up on mouseover. If deadlines are tight I will also accept a bot that replies to my post with images of the cards. I need this by tomorrow. Thanks.

Sheoldred's Headcleaver
Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
Whisper of the Dross

Usage:

Code: Select all

[mtg-card]Sheoldred's Headcleaver[/mtg-card]

[EAGLEMUT]

@Vinyanyérë I jumped into a draft right after making above post and this is what I got. Thoughts?

[Vinyanyérë]

What the fuck you actually did it

[Vinyanyérë]

Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Narset's Reversal
Veil of Summer

[Vinyanyérë]

Eaglemut best mut indeed, no question about it

[Vinyanyérë]

That's a pretty good deck. Sheoldred is one of the best cards in the set for draft. The 3 copies of Whispers of the Dross and set of 1-2 mana creatures are also great. I haven't played with Necrogen Communion and understand it to be a pretty weak card, but it probably works in your deck because you have so many flying/deathtouch creatures. Some of your higher MV spells are kinda weak, e.g. Feed the Infection is hard to cast with how aggressive the format is, but maybe it still works with Sheoldred.

[fightinfrenchman]

Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Gustav Max

[Vinyanyérë]

Timing of this thread was coincidental but I managed to pull off the dub in a local sealed RCQ yesterday. In Swiss I went 3-1-1 with RG



Migloz, Maze Crusher is in contention for best limited card in the set and put in a ton of work, but a lot of games were won just by curving out and using Hazardous Blast as a finisher. I only drew Lukka, Bound to Ruin twice in all my of games and cast it effectively zero times, so it's probably good but I really have no idea.

In Draft I went WR:



I took Melira, the Living Cure as P1P1 and felt good when I was passed both Cankerbloom and Slaughter Singer in P1P2, but saw Bladehold War-Whip as P1P4 and decided to keep a pivot into Red open, and ended up taking that pivot. The deck came together pretty well. Looking back at it, Orthodoxy Enforcer probably makes sense in the mainboard as I have nine artifacts and three cards that make artifacts. The tapped sphere lands feel like a trap in a format this fast.

[fightinfrenchman]

In Swiss I went 3-1-1 with RG

This means straight up nothing to me

[Vinyanyérë]

In Swiss I went 3-1-1 with RG

This means straight up nothing to me

In Swiss - Describing a period during which I played a type of tournament system described by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss-system_tournament

I went - Referring to myself and I property that I had in the past

3-1-1 - 3 wins, 1 loss, 1 draw

with - using

RG - Abbreviation for red and green, which are colors in the 625–740 nm and 495–570 nm wavelengths respectively

[aligator92]

This thread is a lucky find for me. I used to play in the past but without anyone around me that played, I lost interest. And I don't want to start putting time into it online. If we were however able to host some kind of online draft with forum members I would be all for it

[Goodspeed]

I like magic sometimes and have actually spent a non-insignificant amount of money on it. I have about 100 unopened packs from years ago to draft with but my friends haven't been interested in a while. It's a fun game but there's a bit of a glaring problem which is RNG. Ok yeah I complain about RNG a lot but I don't actually hate it, just in this case, hear me out.

There is massive variance i.e. you need a best of X where X > 100 to actually determine who the better player/deck combination is and especially on a higher level with the lower variety in decks and players being relatively good you would need an ungodly amount of games to determine who's the better player in 1 sitting. Magic tournaments are often single elim best of 3s which is like ok you just gave up I guess, makes sense, but it does feel slightly pointless. And sure there's a pro tour and there's probably many tournaments that lead to you qualifying etc idk the format but regardless, it's just not even close to enough games to account for the massive statistical variance.

Poker has this figured out in that it accounts for variance by having a different reward system. Tournaments are as pointless when it comes to determining the best player as in M:TG but this is known and fine because ultimately it's for money and over many tournaments the better players are more often going to win money than weaker players. The best poker player isn't the one who won the world series this year it's the one who won most money playing the game. And there's cash games where you just play against each other for money, no elimination needed. The big RNG factor is then compensated for through sheer volume.

The fix: Play M:TG for money. Tournaments can stay the same but every game you play is for money. You can have low stakes and high stakes. Best players will end up on the higher stakes, then the richest player is the best gg

My favorite card is Birthing pod and I'm mad that it's banned in modern, or would be if modern was a thing in arena/will be when it becomes a thing.

[Vinyanyérë]

This thread is a lucky find for me. I used to play in the past but without anyone around me that played, I lost interest. And I don't want to start putting time into it online. If we were however able to host some kind of online draft with forum members I would be all for it

I can think of 8 ESOC users that I could possibly convince to do a draft - the logistics might be tricky though.

Magic tournaments are often single elim best of 3s which is like ok you just gave up I guess, makes sense, but it does feel slightly pointless. And sure there's a pro tour and there's probably many tournaments that lead to you qualifying etc idk the format but regardless, it's just not even close to enough games to account for the massive statistical variance.

Relatively small correction but most tournaments that I know of use Swiss instead with a cut to a single elimination top 8. In smaller tournaments, it's usually enough rounds of Swiss that a score of X-1 or better is guaranteed top 8, and X-1-1 or X-2 can sometimes make it in depending on the tiebreakers. Larger tournaments like GPs or the Pro Tour use more rounds so that X-3 or sometimes X-4 can get there - obviously, though, there's a lot of variance.

[Goodspeed]

This thread is a lucky find for me. I used to play in the past but without anyone around me that played, I lost interest. And I don't want to start putting time into it online. If we were however able to host some kind of online draft with forum members I would be all for it

I can think of 8 ESOC users that I could possibly convince to do a draft - the logistics might be tricky though.

This isn't possible in Arena right? Where else would you do it?

[Vinyanyérë]

This thread is a lucky find for me. I used to play in the past but without anyone around me that played, I lost interest. And I don't want to start putting time into it online. If we were however able to host some kind of online draft with forum members I would be all for it

I can think of 8 ESOC users that I could possibly convince to do a draft - the logistics might be tricky though.

This isn't possible in Arena right? Where else would you do it?

There's a few different options

- Everyone flies, drives, uses glorious public transportation, or walks to a common location, we pick up some packs and draft (pros: actual draft; cons: expensive)
- Everyone queues up for an Arena draft, does the draft, and then direct challenges each other with the decks (pros: simple; cons: people don't draft within the same pod which is less fun and less balanced)
- Everyone drafts on a third-party drafting client, crafts the cards on Arena, then does direct challenges (pros: real draft; cons: makes people use up wildcards which are valuable)
- Everyone drafts on a third-party drafting client then plays on a third-party MTG client (e.g. Cockatrice) (pros: real draft and free; cons: UX is probably miserable)

Ultimately I find a lot of the fun of drafting is the tabletop experience and drafting within a single pod. Anything trying to mimic it won't be as fun. I'd still do it because I like Magic but idk.

[Goodspeed]

It seems like a bit of a missed opportunity for MTGA. You should be able to draft with a custom group of people. Maybe one day

[EAGLEMUT]

Yeah that is unfortunate.
I'd rather not play through Cockatrice ever again.
Option 3 would presumably exclude some people from the draft, as they just won't have the wildcards.
Option 2 seems like the most realistic one.