Magic: The Gathering C/D

yeah this is definitely a fun Limited format, I think it beats the last two. though I second cider's complaint that there are a ton of uncommons that feel like rares. and the snow mechanic feels kind of weird, it feels like a quarter of Coldsnap made it into the set somehow. though I suspect it plays much better in draft than Sealed

yeah it doesn't seem like a great sealed set because of how snow works - you either want lots or none and sealed gives you something in the middle

some of the snow stuff still works in Sealed, don't forget about all the common snow taplands. that said I kinda view it as a positive since the snow decks look incredibly frustrating to play against

well in draft the non-snow decks have higher power level too, it works out

fwiw I do suspect that in a couple weeks half the decks in Sealed will be 4-color snow

Yeah I usually like how snow plays out in draft (including in this set) but don't like it in sealed or constructed formats. Still undecided how much I like Kaldheim but I do miss the Zendikar Modal DFC

Obv I mean the ones that are lands on one side

I miss them too, with this set comes the realization that sometimes a one-land hand is just a one-land hand

this set feels very Cube-ish, not just in that it's swingy but also because there are a ton of powerful, high-impact cards at uncommon - very good legendary creatures, the Sagas which can be tremendous value, even the lands which can sacrifice for a pretty big effect. also it kind of welcomes playing 3 or 4 colors so you see a lot of decks that can do a ton of crazy shit.

not wild about the fact that there are 2 board sweepers, was kind of nice that the last set didn't have any

also I strongly suspect in a week or two the format's gonna be all 4-color snow & W/R aggro boast decks

by which I mean Equipment decks, as the RW uncommon legend & the Runesearching equipment are pretty nutso

As a weaker player I love and rely on the board-sweepers.

also I just found out that Valki is going for 92 tix (!!!!!!) so I am really trying to scrub out of this league fast so I can sell it

everyone switched to arena for draft so mtgo has supply issues for new cards playable in modern/legacy

also why is Tibalt's Trickery valuable? what are people planning do to with it?

people are playing gimmick decks where they use it to cast a turn 2 ugin in standard, or cascade into a turn 3 emrakul in modern. these decks fizzle half the time and auto-lose to any counterspell but some folks just want to flip coins for wins

hah best of luck to 'em

gotta say I dig the "randomly mill 1-3 cards" thing, makes it feel like blackjack

to clarify, the modern deck is: 4 violent outburst, 1 tibalt's trickery, 4 emrakuls, and then 51 lands of various utility (cycling, etc). you mulligan to violent outburst and then cast it on turn 3 and it hits trickery which counters it and turns it into an emrakul. if you can't find a violent outburst you lose, if your trickery gets countered you lose.

obviously if you get thoughtseized you probably lose too, have to draw another one of your 3 outbursts

yeah I cannot see that deck having any tournament success once it's out in the wild

and yet if I worked for the DCI I'd ban it for being too stupid

this might be the most skill intensive non-Cube limited format I've ever played. there are so many weird little things you have to keep track of. even how you tap your lands matters a lot.

yes. there's a great many subtleties and i haven't quite got it wired. i've made a couple entries into this weekend's arena open and gotten wrecked.

the snow decks are really strong but its a headache to play through the board stall-y mirror matches they create so i've mostly been drafting aggro

I've only played the format a small amount so far, but I've been disappointed by how many long board stall games I've had. I used to enjoy that type of game more but Arena has really changed my preferences

Also I was shocked to start seeing Strixhaven previews. I know we're not in preview season yet but I don't think I even know all the Kaldhiem cards yet!

the relentless barrage of new sets plus the constant overly pushed cards that require bannings has really put me off of playing in general. The main thing I miss at the moment is the social aspect of drafting in person, and that's not happening any time soon.

theres still the same 4 "real" sets per year as there always was, they just do a million supplemental products now. i ignore them

this is true, and I mostly ignored the other stuff too, but the ramping up on Modern-relevant sets made that more difficult

I've only played the format a small amount so far, but I've been disappointed by how many long board stall games I've had. I used to enjoy that type of game more but Arena has really changed my preferences

― Vinnie, Saturday, February 20, 2021 5:00 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah definitely noticed I have to leave like 40 minutes open to play a match, I’ve had to concede a few cuz they took way too long and I had things to do

One thing that makes this set extra complex is a bunch of creatures have types like “Elf Berserker” where both elves and berserkers have their own tribal shit going on

most of the tribal cards are at rare so you don't have to pay attention to it much unless you take one to draft around. the only playable common that cares about tribal is Squash

got destroyed at the Open today, very discouraging

I suppose it doesn't help that every other uncommon has like 3 paragraphs of text on it

its certainly been a real trial by fire set to get back into drafting with. not a favorite but i don't think it's a stinker either

Sad that I missed the first limited Arena Open (I really, really miss limited GPs) but the timing of the Opens is always a little rough for me here in Asia. But I probably couldn't have helped myself from rebuying like five times, so guess I saved myself some money?

i qualified for day 2, and, yes, i think it was like the fifth try lol smdh @ myself. here in honolulu, entry for the second day is from 4am — 6am, so i will be pulling an all-nighter. ahaha, aha. god help me.

Congrats! I think you've got a worse time zone than me for this

thank you. yea, 4am is just about the least convenient time... 25 minutes until showtime and i am inebriated enough to not give a shit that the format is sealed deck and luck is going to be the major deciding factor ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

i don't really understand why they have a 2 hour window to check in when you can play the matches at any time during the day

that struck me as odd, too. i'd guess it might be to get people in the door early so players won't be waiting around for pairings, but idk.

or, more likely, it's because it's (up to) 7 best-of-three matches, and that could take close to 10 hours including breaks and such

went 4-2. almost every match was super close. i had a really good pool, but my own sweeper ended up losing it for me in the last one, owing to my forgetting about that dumb troll that can make itself indestructible. ah well. it was lots of fun. it turns out i like this level of play. this was my first time and i'm probably going to do more of these.

i'm looking forward to the next constructed one now that i have some decks. not a huge fan of sealed in most sets and this one's no exception

just lived the dream and 0-9'd a Sealed league

I've kinda gotten back into the groove of enjoying long matches, so now I'm *thumbs up* on Kaldheim. Though still probably happier when RW comes together and I can finish the draft in half the time

kaldheim definitely plays against my strengths as a drafter since some of the 'open lanes' are just really weak even when you're getting all the cards e.g. WB midrange is always open but can't beat much. in most sets after my initial exploration i like to find an underappreciated deck and get really good at drafting it but i haven't found one here.

basically, battlefield raptor + goldvein pick, tuskeri firewalker + run amok, and icehide troll + berg strider are the only 3 winning ideas at common, everything else requires specific higher rarity cards to come together

sarulf's packmate is the best common by far because the power level is high and you can put it in all 3 of those decks

Yeah I get what you're saying. You do get forced into W-based aggro, R-based aggro, or snow most of the time (I'd also add UR to that, which sometimes goes more controlling), and so far I've had no success with black except as a secondary color, usually for powerful uncommons/rares. Feed the Serpent would usually be a top 5 common in a set, but the double black commits you to a color you just don't want to be in. In spite of that, I have felt there's enough variation in the play of the games to enjoy it. Snow in particular can draft and play quite differently depending on what you open

So, we get five Standard-legal sets this year. For the first time ever, I think? Wonder if it will become the new norm

because of the double innistrad set? they still haven't explained how that's going to work have they, or is it actually just two completely separate sets? i figured they'd share a common foundation like a pokemon red vs blue thing