Magic: The Gathering C/D

my plan is just to win the last chance mocs on the 22nd so im not gonna try fucking w/legacy tho so ymmv

aluren doesn't run fow? i'd play that

last chance is for 2012 season, this is for the new 2013 season

yeah but if i win the last chance than i will have won a mocs and thus can only play in the ones that are actually fun and not all of them in order to have won a mocs

although realistically i will probably just play a bunch to qualify and then not play the actual event just like i did with every other non-limited mocs event in 2012

lol http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/3377/21c6f0b063ec4d368630026.png

Sol Ring or Ancestral Recall there? Sheesh

Assuming this isn't fake I think it's interesting they're distributing the power in drafts this way, ensures that everyone gets two pieces (except one unlucky guy) rather than risk someone winding up with a deck capable of consistant turn 2 wins

no it's just a collation bug, they're pulling the drafts back down now to fix it

actual lol @ dzy's face in that screengrab

not sure if i'm actually gonna cube this time around, i'm really shitty at the format and i stopped playing it before because i just got frustrated and the payouts were worthless. power cube might be a whole different situation though, its more likely that my gimmick decks will work with all the fast mana.

I'm kind of wondering how skill-intensive cube actually is. When your 15th picks can still win you games it seems the only way to draft a bad deck is to totally crew over your mana curve/color base. On the MTGO cube I really haven't seen the same deck twice, there's a hundred ways to win *and* lose.

how much is a cube draft?

it's 8 tix or 2 tix and 10 Cube tix. if you do Swiss the payouts are in Cube tickets, 16/8/4. So if you go 2-1 in each one it'll be something like 3-4 tix per draft. Obviously there's no way you can make anything (I don't even think the Cube tickets are tradeable) but it's really a lot of fun. I'm doing the power cube now and it's nuts, they don't bring back just the power 9, there's Sol Ring and Mind Twist and pretty much every other banned/busted card in Magic's history.

I'm doing one right now! My deck has 5 Fatties, 4 Signets, 3 Wraths, 2 Monoliths, and a Tooth and Nail (in a pear tree). Lots of fun.

i'm goin Stompy with a red splash for burn with some mana dorks (including Rofellos) and Winter Orb

just getting to play with these cards again is really worth the 3-4$ you have to pay. Deranged Hermit + Gaea's Cradle, how I missed you :(

Just Tooth and Nailed with Entwine for Ulamog and Kozilek. My opponent Bone Shreddered one, Karakased the other and played Elspeth. I played Terastadon to kill Elspeth and the Karakas, he played Moat, I hardcast Ulamog a couple turns later for the win. God I love Cube.

you aren't Palpable are you? because that's what this guy just did to me

Ha, yes! Were you the dude I just described?

no, I was the guy you beat in the final round

I felt real cheap miracling the Bonfire off the Yavimaya Elder, that was really my old out. I screwed up in Game 2, I should have played Winter Orb to cap your mana because at that point all I wanted was for Tooth and Nail to not resolve. Unfortunately I forgot about Coalition Relic adding another mana. I thought it was that RTR artifact that made all your lands go for any color. Also forgot FTK was a "may" trigger

Ah yeah, Winter Orb would have been brutal against me. And I was amused by the Bonfire draw, I always find it funny when they get drawn on the opponent's turn. Those were good games!

they were, I was just kicking myself afterwards because I was thinking "well Tooth and Nail really screws me here but he can get at most 8 mana here so I'm in the clear"...whoops. it's pretty easy to misplay in Cube I'm finding. sadly I know Coalition Relic well, just spaced out there.

well I just pulled the ol' Mana Crypt/Mox/Metalworker into turn 2 Blightsteel Collosus (he Mana Leaked it, no fair)

okay one more post - this is the most insane draft deck I've ever gotten

http://imgur.com/AX5oo

Dunno if I should splash white for Blessing...it hardly seems worth it at this point. Believe it or not those 3 duals were all passed to me, as was the Troll and a Golaith.

okay I mostly unilaterally decided on stronghold as our next set
(next week's option is open...someone pick it)

http://imgur.com/a/7sJgR
order in reference to above page
1. iatee 2. lamp 3. gravel 4. cider 5. frog 6. vinnie

I'll type them out later

about to play this ridiculous 11-round mocs event instead of finishing my christmas shopping

dead at 2-2, embarrassingly timed myself out thinking i was on a game 3 and could use the rest of my clock when it was actually game 2 and i decked myself with a minute left on timer

yo lamp, you are in toronto right? do you know which stores do weekday drafts? i'm at my parents' for the holidays; me and my old friend are reconnecting over our mutual rediscovery of magic. apparently 401 does sunday sealed but sealed is gross. i also kinda feel like a huge nerd playing magic in a city i don't live in... i'm telling myself that there are people out there who travel for tournaments.

Ha! I was wondering the same thing about Indianapolis, where I'm staying for the week. Unfortunately got here a day too late to try my hand at GP Indy, but I'm sure there must be other stuff going on later on the week.

Sorry, haven't even built my deck yet, let alone played games against you all. Will try harder this week.

do you know which stores do weekday drafts?

dueling grounds has a weekly swiss draft for $15($10 packs/$5 prize pool) on thursdays @ 6:30. its just west of dufferin station

401 games has a swiss draft for $13 ($10 packs/$3 prize) for fnm. starts around 6. they also have single elim drafts on sundays @ 4 for like $10 - prize structure of these has varied seemingly every time ive played one. oh they're on yonge st. just north of gerrard.

you can also try harry t north and/or heavy support - ive never been to either since theyre p far from where i live/work but i know they have weekly drafts and heavy support is supposed to have the best singles prices in the city

stronghold packs

iatee:
Mindwarper
Constant Mists
Stronghold Taskmaster
Fanning the Flames
Mob Justice
Mogg Flunkies
Cloud Spirit
Brush with Death
Crossbow Ambush
Spined Wurm
Spirit en-Kor
Overgrowth
Spindrift Drake
Shock
Honor Guard

lamp:
Jinxed Ring
Flame Wave
Scapegoat
Hibernation Sliver
Rabid Rats
Youthful Knight
Mind Games
Foul Imp
Mob Justice
Venerable Monk
Skyshroud Archer
Cloud Spirit
Lowland Basilisk
Brush with Death
Endangered Armodon

gravel:
Pursuit of Knowledge
Bullwhip
Wall of Essence
Ransack
Honor Guard
Morgue Thrull
Flowstone Blade
Endangered Armodon
Lowland Basilisk
Spike Colony
Dungeon Shade
Craven Giant
Rabid Rats
Tidal Warrior
Mana Leak

cider:
Grave Pact
Mask of the Mimic
Crystalline Sliver
Mind Peel
Brush with Death
Crossbow Ambush
Lab Rats
Cloud Spirit
Honor Guard
Mlch
Skyshroud Falcon
Tidal Warrior
Hammerhead Shark
Samite Blessing
Change of Heart

frog:
Spitting Hydra
Mind Peel
Crystalline Sliver
Corrupting Licid
Leap
Hammerhead Shark
Dungeon Shade
Fling
Morgue Thrull
Mob Justice
Tortured Existence
Skyshroud Falcon
Crossbow Ambush
Dream Prowler
Spike Colony

vinnie:
Hidden Retreat
Flame Wave
Bottomless Pit
Temper
Bandage
Provoke
Crossbow Ambush
Spike Worker
Mind Games
Youthful Knight
Cannabalize
Contempt
Flowstone Shambler
Spirit en-Kor
Duct Crawler

Looks like the Simic mechanic is Evolve:

Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, if that creature has greater power or toughness than this creature, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.

seems kinda underpowered tho I guess it depends on what they put that on

seems quite strong to me especially if it's on any cheaper creatures. having your early plays grow over the course of the game is a huge deal.

I guess it all depends on what they're putting it on. like a 2/2 for 3 wouldn't be that great. I guess a 1/1 for 1 is prob inevitable and I guess that's pretty playable on your first turn.

even just a 1/1 for 1G with this ability seems like it'd be a high pick in limited

1/1 for 1 mana would be champion of the parish territory, and champion is arguably the best 1-drop in standard right now

yeah and if its g/u even higher

Evolve mechanic seems like an awful lot of fun. The fact that it's power OR toughness is quite interesting. So something like Hover Barrier (a 0/6 wall) would trigger evolve. Meaning Simic decks in draft probably could use some walls. Also the two spoiled cards both do something with the +1/+1 counters. The challenge is going to be building a deck that balances Evolve with bigger creatures to evolve from as a deck that's full of 1/1 or 2/2 guys with Evolve is going to be useless.

Two other mechanics were spoiled though they don't look as interesting. Boros has a mechanic that triggers if you attack with three creatures. I would imagine this would be very susceptible to removal but getting a bunch of these creatures together is going to be massive. Gruul seems to be discard for a temporary p/t boost, kind of the opposite of Scavange. It's interesting but seems real frustrating to play against, knowing your opponent could be full of combat tricks like that.

yeah i'm a bit disappointed that gruul got a pretty straightforward pump mechanic again, that spoiled borborygmos was giving me hope that there would be some sort of land subtheme this time around to give the guild more mechanical depth than 'big creatures smashing'. hopefully there still is.

I have the feeling it's not going to appear on a whole lot of cards for Limited reasons. RTR really had a divide there, some guilds were really based around their keyword like Populate and Unleash, while others like Overload and Detain tied into the guild's identity, but weren't real "build around" mechanics. I think the Gruul mechanic will be like that, while I would imagine a good portion of Simic's cards are based around making Evolve work.

the boros card they showed today is a home run though i think, it's in that sweet spot of not super powerful but still cool.

orzhov tomorrow presumably, which was the weirdest/most unique guild mechanically in the old rav block so i'm hoping they came up with something interesting this time too

Here's where I brag that I may have created the Evolve mechanic. WotC had a contest a couple years back where they would hire the winner as a card designer. For the first round of the contest, one of the finalists needed mechanics that involved evolution, and I pitched a mechanic to him that he ended up heavily using for the rest of the contest. He won the whole thing and worked on Gatecrash, which suspiciously has that same mechanic, name and everything. Only difference is that the one I made (and the one used in the contest) only checked power, not toughness. Very possible that WotC came up with it independently, but I prefer to think of this as my 15 minutes of uh self-recognized fame.

Boros mechanic looks very fun, but the Gruul one seems annoying to play against. Whether it's a "build-around" mechanic or not doesn't change how often it will show up, right? As a guild mechanic, we should see at least 3-4 commons that have it.

Interested to see the last two because Orzhov and Dimir weren't straightforward strategies in original RAV.

yeah if you're talking about Ethan Fleischer, this is confirmed to intentionally be his GDS mechanic, tweaked. do you know him irl or was this just an internet thing? pretty neat either way

i suspect dimir will get the requisite instant/sorcery mechanic, but who knows

overload was lifted from the older GDS contest, as well. they're definitely not shy about using/reusing good ideas, which is good i think

ilx is magic famous

Yep, Ethan. Don't know him personally, but helped out him and a couple of the other finalists via the Wizards site during the beginning of the contest.

Actually, come to think of it, the Boros mechanic showed up in the GDS as well. Totally forgot about that. Guess they are Amanda Palmering sets from now on.

well this is kind of a feelgood traditional block so straightforward/familiar mechanics work well. innistrad had some left-field mechanics like the double-faced cards and miracle, and i suspect they'll go back in that direction next year.

I think Overload was Ken Nagle's idea, who was one of the winners, so it makes sense that it showed up in what I believe was his first design lead. Still the Great Designer Search is kind of a dubious idea since I'm guessing all the contestants were getting help from outside sources. I know if I had tried it and made it that far I'd be asking every Magic player I know to help me think of a good mechanic. Either way, congrats!

I read Maro's tumblr from time to time and he admits they are using or plan to use a decent amount of the GDS submissions they got. Also that some suggestions from tumblr will make their way into future sets. Like cider says I think this is a good thing.