Magic: The Gathering C/D

i'm hopeful that's not the destination for thopter foundry given that ancient stirrings doesn't get it

they should ban ancient stirrings

anyone else trapped in the broken mocs monthly?

i opened chandra and wanted to force red but it was very shallow. ended up with a choice between

http://i.imgur.com/7BmWM4v.jpg

and

http://i.imgur.com/z2rRwr8.png

i haven't had chandra in limited but it seems like she's a bit awkward in WR? i'd play the blue version there but i'm not excited about either one

i started the wr because both builds were only ok and chandra is a real bomb, she can do so much. maybe a mistake because i sided into wu both matches, vs a rampy deck for the more advantageous interaction and vs a flyer heavy deck. 0-2

just ran into an Avacyn in Sealed, that has got to be the most broken card in limited since Pack Rat at least

also - I was playing BG and getting Delirium was easier than I thought. that's definitely the ideal combo for it, unless I'm underestimating the blue cards.

BG is definitely intended to be the turbo delirium colors

sealed league is great though, being able to just crack a sealed pool and mess around with it with no time limit is wonderful, as is the ability to save multiple deck configurations

the friendly league looks intriguing - tough to blow through tickets very fast on those I gather. I assume taking the extra pack during rounds 2 and 3 is -EV, right?

extra pack probably makes your deck a reasonable amount better, I think it'd be tough to win without it especially in the last stage where people have 8 packs

i'm sticking to the normal ("competitive ") queue, 5 matches with 1 pool is about right for me

yeah I can imagine 9 matches being a slog though I would imagine getting the extra pack and potentially rebuilding your entire deck could make it more fun. trouble is I think the competitive queues are going to get harder since a lot of the not-as-good players are going to be moving over to friendlies, and you can blow through tickets really fast in these leagues. I bombed the 2 SOI ones I did, one I had a godawful pool and didn't win a game, the other I started 2-0 but ran into a dude with Avacyn and Jace, round 4 my opponent topdecked to win 2 very close games, round 5 I got hopelessly flooded. what can ya do?

(it is very possible that I just don't get this format yet)

have had a good time with some of the grindier/build around cards in sealed but not sure how well they will carry over the draft. had 4 wins with a very fun 4c spells deck based around the enchantment that gives you a clue when you cast a sorcery/instant and rise from the tides. could rip through the deck very fast and then drop 18+ zombies (doubled with geistblast). tried similar in my first draft and put together a more streamlined version that could go off earlier and was unstoppable against another slower opponent but was completely steamrolled by a pretty run of the mill aggro deck. still feel like potential is there tho.

its definitely been fun to play so far. I like formats where cards that would be unplayable otherwise can suddenly become important pieces in your deck (think Fork in the Road, or that 3-mana Altar's Reap). I know it's unexciting but investigate is really a cool mechanic.

one thing I've noticed is that some of those 2-mana flippies are brutal. both Lambholt Pacifist and Duskwatch Recruiter are a total nightmare if they flip on turn 3, essentially punishing you for getting off to a poor start. at least the 4/2 red one can be traded for, but 4/4s are tough to deal with so early and the Recruiter/Howler can really pile it on - both times its happened (thus far in my favor) it's felt like the game was over before it really started. (the original Innistrad had this issue as well)

innistrad 1 was way more punishing than this format if you missed a play on turns 2-4

freaking silent departure, that card gave everyone nightmares. a turn late on your stabilizing blocker? now you're 3 turns late, good luck

flyers seem really good in this format

yeah that is becoming evident to me as well

just lost my 3rd sealed match to Avacyn, how the hell do people keep opening this card??

other than that the format is really fun

so who's going to gp ny?

'ny'

Any legacy players on ilx?

haha yeah I play more legacy than anything else these days

Aside from the inane platinum changes to next season (which got rescinded already), this PT was probably the best one I remember since, whichever one had Kibler against Finkel in the top 8. This one was probably better actually. Both Standard and Draft seem so good right now, though I usually think Standard is best right after the new large set, before the format settles. Can't wait to dive into drafts more - the format looks to be close to the same level as orig Innistrad, with lots of synergy, several build-around cards, mostly balanced archetypes

I'm glad the PT introduced a bit more variety into Standard when it was threatening to be very narrow. Still trying to sort out what I can plan without going broke. I have a b/w Eldrazi list that I really like, but it's just a bit too weak against the field.

yeah good format so far

draft format isn't that much like innistrad though except for the werewolf tension

anyone on here tried out Hex? graphically, it looks almost like a copy of Duels. A bunch of pros are promoting it, don't know if it is any good though.

Draft thus far has been really fun, I love formats that make you reevaluate cards that wouldn't be playable in other sets. A good example is Macabre Waltz, or the 1/1 W dude where you can discard to tap a creature. Some of the madness-oriented decks are crazy - I've won and lost a few games on god draws, which strangely I kinda missed.

b/r mad vamps in soi is by miles the highest variance archetype since i started playing. i guess i appreciate its role in the limited environment but i can't stand playing it and find it super aggravating to lose to.

yeah, having some early discard outlets is very important. Makes something like Tormenting Voice a much higher pick than something like Murderer's Axe.

insolent neonate the 1 drop sac/discard/draw guy in your opening hand is either a turn 3 5 drop or a mulligan.

btw - this is a pretty useful tool for MTGO players wondering how the events stack up in terms of EV:

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

basically, you need to win 64% of the time for the competitive league to be better EV than the friendlies (among harder competition too) - does anyone have a winrate that high?

some of the pools i have opened, if i saw 9 games stretching out in front of me i would uninstall mtgo and get on with my life

b/r mad vamps in soi is by miles the highest variance archetype since i started playing. i guess i appreciate its role in the limited environment but i can't stand playing it and find it super aggravating to lose to.

yeah madness is a fun mechanic but at the same time if you have a discard outlet, 'draw a card, cheat something into play' just feels a tad overpowered for fair limited play. and if you don't have a discard outlet you play with a bunch of underpowered cards.

yeah i'm not a big fan of cost reduction madness in limited, doesn't feel necessary to make the mechanic good. would rather madness cost was just always the same as the normal cost

madness already adds instant speed and generally puts you up a card, that's good enough!

running GW tokens deck list for game day this weeknd XD

it's gonna be my first entry into standard since type ii was a thing

had very mixed results with the vampires deck in ltd. seems like a few decks want the key cards so it's hard to get it to come together

I got wrecked by a madness deck at the prerelease. Reckless Scholar is insane if the rest of your pool supports it. I might play some draft next week, it does seem a lot of fun.

Standard actually seems fun now, judging by the PT. I liked both Brad's GR Goggles deck and LSV's BG Aristrocrats deck. But I don't it looks fun enough to shell out the $$$.

I've just started buying into Legacy, built a Solidairty (reset-tide) deck and am now putting together a UW Stoneblade deck.

I don't know where anyone here is located, but I'll probably be playing Modern this Sunday at Channel Fireball.

think you might be the only west coast person on this thread.

yeah this is the first time since innistrad/rtr where I've actually been interested in multiple standard decks, but I don't have enough time to both play it + other formats regularly, so I'm still not gonna buy a deck.

Seasons past is a sweet one, such an absurd card

I had Seasons Past in my prerelease pool. Won all the games that I drew it. It is crazy and great.

Yeah Seasons Past is nutty. Just lost my deciding final match for prize in a sealed league cause of that card

tried drafting RB vampires again last night as it seemed open. i ended up with a cohesive deck with a good curve, but it kept running out of gas and i went 1-2. might've missed a play or two that could've swung a match my way, but all 3 matches were so close. i'm wondering what the contrarian drafting strategies might be. my experiment with UW failed, but i haven't tried the RB spells deck yet. my opponent drew that BW enchantment that gives his creatures skulk all three games, so it was the bane of my existence for that match.

anyway the set seems really well balanced over all. idk, maybe winning just depends on how well you can read what gets passed to you and balancing that with how pushy you can be to force a deck, if you open bombs.

i've done well so far mostly with GB delirium decks, and i had one good UR spells deck too

gonna draft with some actual good players today, curious to see what they're prioritizing

I've had success with B/W, not a very 'natural' pairing for this set but it works better than I thought. The white guy that lets you discard to tap something can lead to some insane blowout games if you got the right Madness cards.

oh yeah, I forget about the GB delirium deck, haven't tried it yet. seems like lots of fun. and B/W is certainly not as bad as it's cracked up to be. good luck, ciderpress, let us know how it goes!