Magic: The Gathering C/D

yeah i started playinng at the local store last year and was surprised to find that most of the MTG regulars there are my age instead of highschool/college age like i had assumed, and there aren't any of the stereotypical tantrum-throwing antisocial nerds. its pretty chill

very brief tips for m13:
-the power uncommons that you're looking to first-pick, in no particular order: Serra Angel, Oblivion Ring, Talrand's Invocation, Vampire Nighthawk, Flames of the Firebrand
-the best commons, same deal as above: Searing Spear, Murder, Pacifism, Sentinel Spider (the green serra angel!)
-exalted plays very strong in limited and pretty much every creature with it is a good pick
-there are a ton of 3/3 creatures in the format, and therefore 2/2s get outclassed/brickwalled a lot. i avoid taking 2/2s or smaller unless they have a good ability.
-Chronomaton looks innocent but is actually one of the strongest cards in draft because it has no color commitment and because the games tend to go long enough to grow him real big. i'd pick it below the cards listed above and good rares, but above eveything else

I actually had serra angel, oblivion ring, 2 pacifisms and a murder

I had to pass a vampire nighthawk, I think for uh I forgot what it's called, but the 3/6 black rare that turns creatures into walls

xathrid gorgon!

your deck sounds insane then, that thing is arguably the best card in the entire set in limited

yeah I feel like my deck was 'good' in principle, had like 7 exalted creatures too, I just had really bad luck and maybe needed to play more than 13 creatures

here is the decklist

duress
dark favor
duty-bound dead
essence drain
liliana's shade
murder
public execution
2 servant of nefarox
tormented soul
xathrid
ring of thune
ring of xathrid
2 aven squire
griffin protecter
2 pacifism
obliv ring

then this stuff came in and out depnding on the opponent:
2 ajani's sunstriker
1 captain's call
another griffin protecter
battleflight eagle
ravenous rats

oh and serra angel

Liliana's shade was giving me fits on mtgo last night. Thinking of dropping a couple in my irl deck to try out in f next week.

In fnm next week, that is

that looks good, you definitely seem to know what you're doing - i wouldn't play dark favor maindeck, since exalted decks tend to be medium speed and that card works best in a really fast deck. would play the 2nd griffin protector instead probably, having flying guys is good when you're often turning your opponents stuff into walls rather than killing it

also duress tends to be a better sideboard card than maindeck card, since having a dead card vs like a green-based all-creatures deck is bad

though by all means bring dark favor in vs decks without a lot of removal, sometimes you can win just by slapping it on a tormented soul turn 2

cool they finally made a card that specifically destroys planeswalkers

bunch of RTR spoilers just came out

-shocklands are back (of course)
-new Jace is shockingly not overpowered
-BR: Destroy target creature or planeswalker, wowowow

this set is going to rule

i love the common dual-lands and associated cards

seriously considering buying into a modern deck now since this set's going to lower the barrier to entry by a fair amount and people might actually play the format outside of high-level events. not sure if i really want to drop $100 on a playset of thoughtseizes though..

i should probably be banned from drafting this format http://i.imgur.com/6Rqww.jpg

How long should I expect a local booster draft event to run for?

you should ask the store how many rounds they run - at the store i play at, it's 40 minutes to draft and deckbuild, followed by 3 50-minute rounds, so it works out to around 3 hours total, assuming you play all 3 rounds (people often drop before the last round if they're out of the money, or draw the last round to split prizes if they're in the money)

rounds in MTG events are always 50 minutes plus some overage time (if time runs out, you get 5 more turns to win before the match becomes a draw) so it'll probably be an hour per round plus another 30-60 minutes for the draft itself

most 8-man drafts I've done are around 2 hours in total

welp that's my 3rd M13 4-pack Sealed, went 2-1 every time, every single game I've lost was due to Jace/Sands of Delirium, god damn it

I drafted again

had a red/white burn/token deck that people seemed to think was pretty good but still only went 1-2 due to luck. but I drafted a thragtusk and foil talrand just to sell, which almost paid for the night.

haha, next time we meet up you'll have an edh deck

iatee msg me if you want to practice draft m13 ive drafted it a lot and think i have a reasonable handle on it

also it could be p fun

through what? magic online or is there another way we could do it? it would be fun tho, I still need some familiarity w/ lotsa cards, at this point I still prob make my color decisions too early

theres a p decent draft sim that ive used to practice its not as a good as a real draft but its decent for like discussing pick vs pick stuff and general deck-building things

ive never tried team drafting on mtgo although ive seen people do it so it is theoretically possible

is it a program or a site? remember I'm ipad-bound, tho I can steal the lady's laptop on weekends.

its a site

i think wizards also has one on their site as well actually iirc

oh cool

let's do that sometime this week

now that I have actual cards again I am tempted to try to teach gf, esp since her sister actually plays w/ HER bf, but her sister is also more tomboyish

well u know how manly playing mtg can be

wowowow at the new planeswalker

http://media.wizards.com/images/magic/tcg/products/rtr/yn1n1r28cd_en.jpg

seems a lot like Gideon to me in that it's gonna be a total bitch to get rid of. that ultimate is just bizarre but super awesome anyway

yall are serious about this shit huh
i finally tried this about a week ago, been dicking around on the ipad. kinda fun
kinda obsessive

wowowow at the new planeswalker

yeah i was p excited abt her too - not really sure how good shell be rn but im not great at predicting stuff like that. jund seems p crazy given the currently spoiled stuff tho

im p glad i built jund for block rn tho

I don't think she's as good as Gideon but I like her because she's good in any situation. That ultimate is one of the neatest I've ever seen on a walker.

Gotta say I'm not really a fan of stuff like Dreadbore or that new Smother being rares

i like that planeswalker a bunch but i don't think its super powerful - she doesn't really press an advantage very well if left unchecked

it's still amazing to me how much people overpay to preorder planeswalkers that will be $10-15 a month or 2 down the line

This one went from $30 to $40 quick. My guess is that she'll settle in the $20-25 range. I do agree that the thing doesn't really do much by just building to an ultimate but Rock-type decks (which love to press small advantages like these) will probably go nuts over a card like this.

Gotta say I'm not really a fan of stuff like Dreadbore or that new Smother being rares

yeah the GB spell spoiled today is probably the best or at least most useful card spoiled yet but its shitty that its a rare instead of an uncommon

i'd snap short it at $20

considering lilliana of the veil was briefly like $15 thats probably right

whats the most expensive pw in standard rn? the new ajani?

yeah and that's under $20 already

I dunno, Karn is $15 even though it's about to rotate out and only really saw play as a 1-of. Planeswalkers have a lot of appeal across every format. It looks like BG/Jund is going to be a new thing and even if this is just a Lux Cannon that starts with five counters, that's really strong. I feel like this will just be one of those walkers that really is better than it looks because it helps in a lot of situations. That said I'm a little surprised that it's preordering at $40 while new Jace is only $25.

On the plus side, I can't wait to grind out drafts on MTGO, it looks like there are a bunch of money rares already. Abrupt Decay is preordering at $14, and you know the shocklands will be probably $10 apiece. Actually in general I think it may be a good idea to short-sell everything from this set as it's pretty much guaranteed to be the highest selling set in Magic history. Just sayin'.

the average magic player is horrible at evaluating cards, is what it comes down to. if it was possible to short sell cards you could make a fortune (this is essentially what the big online retailers do by selling preorders)

yeah considering ive done several hundred m13 drafts i cant imagine how many ravnica ones ill end up doing so im not rushing to buy singles atp but sometimes stuff like the azorius mythic seems like decent value @ like $3

but i am one of those people who is terrible at evaluating cards i mean i thought tibalt might be good so

I think Tibalt is actually okay, there just isnt a deck for him yet. But everyone who think he's godawful probably isn't understanding that a two-mana planeswalker kinda has to suck.

do you guys compete in local constructed events? is the only way to win these to have a deck full of $20 cards?