Magic: The Gathering C/D

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draft aether theorists!

ciderpress, Friday, 11 November 2016 14:31 (seven years ago) link

interesting that you are playing the sealed league, seems like this would be a pretty poor sealed format. is that not the case? i've noticed that in 2-set-block world, the way they have been making them so far at least, the first set is pretty high synergy and poor for sealed and the second set gets watered down to good card decks and is great for sealed.

Roberto Spiralli, Friday, 11 November 2016 14:31 (seven years ago) link

sealed is fine, this set isn't nearly as linear as BFZ or SOI and artifact sets naturally solve some of the other problems with sealed

ciderpress, Friday, 11 November 2016 14:34 (seven years ago) link

renegade freighter is much more obnoxious in sealed where everyone has one though

ciderpress, Friday, 11 November 2016 14:37 (seven years ago) link

sealed league is just good value, you can break even winning like 56% of your matches. It's a decent sealed format though different than the SOI and BFZ formats, where you could often build say a W/G deck and a B/R deck and swap them out depending on matchup - with so many artifacts you often end up with 1 or 2 colors where you have less than 5 or 6 playables.

frogbs, Friday, 11 November 2016 14:51 (seven years ago) link

Huh did not realize the sealed leagues paid that well. I should switch to doing those sometimes. I haven't had to put money into MTGO for a long while now, despite coming close a couple times, but all these 2-1s plus not opening any money cards thus far, is quickly dwindling my ticket supply

Vinnie, Saturday, 12 November 2016 06:26 (seven years ago) link

Or maybe they can just bring back Shards of Alara drafts again. I 3-0d more in that format than I can count, cause apparently no one remembered that you just draft every good card plus fixing

Vinnie, Saturday, 12 November 2016 06:29 (seven years ago) link

https://www.goatbots.com/ev_calculator.php

always a good reference. breakeven is now 59% - guess it went up since many KLD cards went down in price

frogbs, Saturday, 12 November 2016 13:26 (seven years ago) link

Oh yeah totally forgot about that one. Thanks for the reminder, and yes, looks like sealed leagues pay out way better

Vinnie, Saturday, 12 November 2016 13:59 (seven years ago) link

tilttilttilttiltilt

Roberto Spiralli, Sunday, 13 November 2016 01:29 (seven years ago) link

had a fairly disappointing 3-3 performance with W/U flash at another PPTQ yesterday. This included dropping a couple of rounds in match ups that I consider pretty favorable. There was definitely a factor of bad draws, mana screw, and especially mana flood, but I know that this doesn't all just come down to luck. I kept a lot of functional opening hands that were primarily lands plus 3- or higher drops. This led to way too many slow starts, which just isn't going to work in this format. In order to fix this, I'm dropping a land from the deck, bringing the curve down a bit with a few more 2-drop creatures, and working on mulliganing more aggressively if I draw slow hands. The last will be the most difficult because I really don't like pitching hands that are even somewhat playable.

Al Moon Faced Poon (Moodles), Monday, 14 November 2016 15:34 (seven years ago) link

UW flash's main weakness is that it doesn't have cheap interaction, so sometimes it just folds to 1-drop 2-drop + removal for the spell queller that would otherwise block those and/or eat the 3-drop. not sure this is fixable within the colors without putting narrow cards in your deck that can punish you in other ways

ciderpress, Monday, 14 November 2016 15:56 (seven years ago) link

true, it may not be fixable. My answer is to lean a bit more in the direction of tribal by going like -1 Plains, -2 Thalia, -1 Reflector Mage, - 1 Selfless Spirit, + 3 Rattlechains, +2 Nebelgast Herald. Not a huge change, but could help with quicker starts and bit more protection for my spirits. This is a bit softer to delirium, which was already not a great matchup.

Al Moon Faced Poon (Moodles), Monday, 14 November 2016 16:25 (seven years ago) link

i did a couple drafts over the weekend. the one that got me riled i had a decent uw blink/control deck, nothing too powerful but solid and topped with cloudblazer and wispweaver. i lost match 2 to an aggro deck that had perfect curve out and draws all 3 games, which was fine, it was the most likely way i was going to lose. however, it did get to me a little bit and i spewed match 3 playing like a dickhead and that was what really got to me.

and then i drafted this: http://i.imgur.com/Ks7Jltq.jpg
proof again that i'm a match for anyone when i have a bunch of sweet rares in my deck.

Roberto Spiralli, Monday, 14 November 2016 20:55 (seven years ago) link

very nice deck

ciderpress, Monday, 14 November 2016 21:00 (seven years ago) link

oh my god that deck is stupid

frogbs, Monday, 14 November 2016 21:04 (seven years ago) link

my #2 key to this format, after drafting sweet rares, is to bump everything with scry up in your evaluation.

Roberto Spiralli, Monday, 14 November 2016 21:14 (seven years ago) link

yup. #3 rule is prophetic prism is better than whatever you're considering against prophetic prism

ciderpress, Monday, 14 November 2016 22:00 (seven years ago) link

Saheeli was pretty bad, in my experience, the one draft I had her. I also had an opponent play her and I ignored her and won easily. I mean, certainly still playable, but I think worse than a lot of commons. I can't imagine picking her up at the place where she's worth taking (mid-pack), because I never see planeswalkers go that late. Curious what you thought of her, Roberto

Vinnie, Tuesday, 15 November 2016 00:42 (seven years ago) link

i was passed her maybe 4th pack 2. i had her in play 3 times, and two of those occasions i was getting m/l the most my deck could out of her, one game scrying behind creatures and the other making an innovator a couple times. the planeswaker effect is real though, you can ignore her for sure but instead my opponents put a premium on getting her off the table. the +1 is honestly the best ability, the -2 is super slow and there are not many creatures in those colours you can get significant value from ETB

Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, 15 November 2016 02:04 (seven years ago) link

she's pretty good, not nearly as good as whirler rogue but better than a 2nd or 3rd of your color's good commons i'd say

ciderpress, Tuesday, 15 November 2016 02:07 (seven years ago) link

http://i.imgur.com/8VnWofd.jpg

went 1-2 with this deck though I thought it was pretty solid. seem to be getting these sorts of builds a lot.

frogbs, Tuesday, 15 November 2016 03:10 (seven years ago) link

that deck does not look good to me. the black cards aren't particularly good, i would cut them all except aetherborn marauder and maybe die young, then just play 1 swamp (which is still 6 black sources) and run some of the red cards from your sideboard.

ciderpress, Tuesday, 15 November 2016 03:52 (seven years ago) link

Hazardous Conditions no good? Can see removing Tidy Conclusion, I just liked the straight removal.

frogbs, Tuesday, 15 November 2016 03:58 (seven years ago) link

but yeah Conclusion for Pyrohelix kind of a no brainer in retrospect, the whole deck is about bashing with a 2 drop

frogbs, Tuesday, 15 November 2016 04:03 (seven years ago) link

hazardous conditions is pretty garbage except as a sideboard card or in the hardcore GB counters deck. here it's just going to kill all your 3/2s

ciderpress, Tuesday, 15 November 2016 04:12 (seven years ago) link

yeah indeed. forgot I played two Quicksmiths.

but you're right, the deck wasn't very good. I think my first pick was the Marauder and 2nd was the Cub. Had to flip over to red and wound up with this.

frogbs, Tuesday, 15 November 2016 04:21 (seven years ago) link

xp yeah PWs can be great when the opponent has to make bad attacks or stop attacking you in order to take them out. I just don't see Saheeli being worth it to take out. I agree that the Scry is the best ability, but the other two are extremely situational. I'd put her on about par with Aether Theorist, but as a two-color card obviously that's worse. but if she worked well for you, Roberto, then maybe I need to try her more

frogbs, I think you have a pretty good deck hiding in there. I love Attune with Aether in energy decks, but you want to be running more Forests if you are using those to cut lands. yeah I'd cut exactly the cards cider mentioned and play Pyrohelix, Whirlermaker (sick with Handicraft and Geniuses), and maybe Bomat Courier. I don't even think Hazardous Conditions is that great in a dedicated counters deck, it just doesn't kill enough stuff - so many 3-toughness creatures and vehicles in this format. I've never even sided it in but I could see a theoretical matchup where it shines

Vinnie, Tuesday, 15 November 2016 10:19 (seven years ago) link

never considered Whirlermaker - hasn't been good against me but yeah I can see it as a good late game card

reason why I ultimately played Hazardous Conditions is because of the two Quicksilver Geniuses - can just pitch it if you won't get an advantage. I've played sealed leagues where it's been a one-sided Wrath but ultimately I think you guys are right, it just ain't that good. plus with all the Fabricate stuff they can play around it.

frogbs, Tuesday, 15 November 2016 13:43 (seven years ago) link

I don't think your deck is a great fit for Whirlermaker, but has some synergies, and there aren't any other RG creatures to put in. If you had any other two/three drop creature, I'd put that in instead

Vinnie, Wednesday, 16 November 2016 03:29 (seven years ago) link

Put another way, 12 creatures is very low for a deck that wants to be aggressive. That might even be a bigger problem than your being split between 3 colors

Vinnie, Wednesday, 16 November 2016 03:31 (seven years ago) link

Indeed, was really hoping for more than solid 2-drops

This, on the other hand...

http://i.imgur.com/Fvyds1H.jpg

deck is ultimately a bit slow but thus far it's doing well

frogbs, Wednesday, 16 November 2016 03:43 (seven years ago) link

Yeah that looks sick

Vinnie, Wednesday, 16 November 2016 08:25 (seven years ago) link

i have an early report on the draft league split. played a friendly league, drafted a p mediocre uw deck, 3-0 6-0, in the 2nd game of finals got stuck on 3 lands and my opponent cast dubious challenge and gave me a riparian tiger that i rode to victory

Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 17 November 2016 18:48 (seven years ago) link

no one was in the competitive one yet last night, i had to wait a while for a draft whereas they fire instantly in friendly

ciderpress, Thursday, 17 November 2016 18:50 (seven years ago) link

getting the chandra prestige avatar might be harder than i thought

ciderpress, Thursday, 17 November 2016 18:50 (seven years ago) link

yeah it was like 1000 ppl on competitive vs 5500 on friendly when i went on

Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 17 November 2016 18:55 (seven years ago) link

1000 is a lot more than the 120 that were in it when i was on

obv because of single elimination it'll show fewer people in the league at any one time though even if the throughput is the same

ciderpress, Thursday, 17 November 2016 18:57 (seven years ago) link

i have an early report on the draft league split. played a friendly league, drafted a p mediocre uw deck, 3-0 6-0, in the 2nd game of finals got stuck on 3 lands and my opponent cast dubious challenge and gave me a riparian tiger that i rode to victory

Dubious Challenge and Madcap Experiment are my two most opened rares by far in this set (still waiting on that Smuggler's Copter) so I'm glad someone's at least trying one of em out :)

as much as I like the payout structure of the competitives it looks like a bad run can shred through a ton of tickets very quickly. I do enjoy the friendly leagues giving you a gimme match every once in a while

frogbs, Thursday, 17 November 2016 19:02 (seven years ago) link

i'd be fine with just playing the friendly leagues if they hadn't moved the QPs and rewards to competitive only - i still kind of want to play in the MOCS events despite my long string of brutal failures in them a few years ago

ciderpress, Thursday, 17 November 2016 19:18 (seven years ago) link

yeah i liked always having enough tix whenever a limited mocs monthly came around. i do think it was the correct decision to move qps out of friendly tournaments tho. my aim will be to play competitive if there are enough ppl but i will be realistic about switching if i am getting murdered. i think it will be v format dependent for me.

Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 17 November 2016 20:14 (seven years ago) link

i don't recommend playing the competitive draft league yet unless you don't mind waiting 5-10 minutes for matches

ciderpress, Friday, 18 November 2016 00:04 (seven years ago) link

Ugh that's disappointing to hear. As I'm in a time zone with few MTGO players to begin with, that translates to like 15-20 minutes for me, I'd bet

Vinnie, Friday, 18 November 2016 02:27 (seven years ago) link

i'm hoping by the weekend more ppl will have moved over, i want to see closer to 1k in the league (which would probably be equivalent to 2-3k in friendly league due to single elim) before i try again

ciderpress, Friday, 18 November 2016 02:48 (seven years ago) link

since the trophy counts have carried over for friendly i'm wondering if there might be some investment in that for grinders who otherwise would flip to competitive. that can't be huge numbers of ppl tho.

Roberto Spiralli, Friday, 18 November 2016 03:02 (seven years ago) link

you dont get anything for friendly league trophies after your 5th though, its just showboating after that

ciderpress, Friday, 18 November 2016 04:33 (seven years ago) link

but yeah i do wonder if it will take a new set reset to fully get everyone playing the 'right' queue for them

ciderpress, Friday, 18 November 2016 04:34 (seven years ago) link

just as an FYI, KLD pack prices are starting to bottom out, you can snap them up for about 2.50

effectively this makes the Sealed Leagues a total of 19 tix, if you've got the tickets you can just stockpile play points now.

frogbs, Friday, 18 November 2016 14:14 (seven years ago) link

realized yesterday that it is exactly 2 months until the release of aether revolt. meanwhile, eldritch moon was around for about 2 months total. mtg release calendar is really something.

Roberto Spiralli, Monday, 21 November 2016 16:08 (seven years ago) link

yeah I'm kinda overwhelmed by it lately

iatee, Monday, 21 November 2016 16:18 (seven years ago) link


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