Magic: The Gathering C/D

thats fun, draw your one out and still lose cuz the card is that good

anyway one thing about that list is that Olivia isn't necessarily a game winner on its own, you need stuff in your graveyard which may not be there for a number of reasons.

Wedding Announcement can be a pretty nutso card - feel like I never lose when I play it

That's a good point about Olivia and maybe it belongs in the second list, but I think it's very common to have at least one creature in the graveyard by the time you get Olivia down. Last week, my opponent played Olivia, pulled a Diregraf Scavenger out, drained me, and I traded with the Scavenger. Then I realized that the creatures Olivia brings back only get exiled when Olivia dies, not if you kill them. So next turn they did it again haha

Yeah I've never beaten Wedding Invitation and I've won every game I've played it

funny enough I just had a match where I had Hullbreaker in hand and was certain I was gonna win, until I got trucked by...his own Hullbreaker. then Game 3 I was looking good until Olivia came in and whipped my ass. But there was good news - apparently Olivia has a bug on double-sided cards in MTGO, once I untapped and killed Olivia the creature still remained. typically in MTGO when you lose to a bug like that (can't say for sure I would've won otherwise, but it was probably 50/50) you get your whole entry fee returned, so actually this megabomb benefitted me greatly

on a later match I managed to pitch Hullbreaker, play Runo to put it back on top of my library, flipped it into Krothuss, then later played the Hullbreaker, copied it TWICE with Krothuss (didn't know it did that), then played a Bleed Dry and bounced three creatures. my opponent in the chat was like "wait, what is happening here"

ooh another card you can add there - Dollhouse of Horrors. Turns out repeatable reanimation for a single mana is pretty good!! Is there a constructed deck built around this card yet? If I still played Standard I'd be all over this thing

one thing I do appreciate about this set is how many abilities on permanents are sorcery speed only, having a bunch of weird combat tricks on board is never fun

can't believe there's 6 1/2 weeks left of this format. Draft may be interesting but Sealed seems to have devolved into endless B/R vs B/R matches. obviously the other archetypes are viable but a lot of times it seems a mediocre B/R deck is on par with a great G/W humans/counters one. not only does B/R have nearly all the good removal, it also has a lot of access to Blood tokens to smooth things out. in addition a huge chunk of the really troublesome rares and mythics are in those colors.

I'm still trying to figure out how to make the Training deck work. you have to go like...2 drop, then 3 drop, then attack with both on turn 4, but by then a 2/3 probably isnt getting through. I like the flavor of it but it just like...doesn't play well

yeah draft actually has good color balance this set compared to the last few. RB is the most popular because it's the most obvious and has the most first-pick commons but none of the 10 pairs is performing significantly better or worse than anything else

the 1/2 training guy isnt particularly playable, for the reasons you're describing. try using the flier or the 1/4

yeah it's too bad because that 1/2 guy seems like the glue that would hold a deck like that together. the 1/4 is easier to build up and the reach is very helpful. not super convinced by the flyer...unless you got the 3/1 1W spirit you can't really train on turn 4. I kinda feel like the point of that deck is to use cards like Travelling Minister to beef up your creatures to get the trigger. It doesn't work super well though. You always feel one turn behind. Even the 2GW 4/4 dude is not quite as good as it looks.

like Radiant Grace is maybe supposed to be the sort of card you play here

I've had times where the 1/2 has helped me run away with the game, but it usually involves removal on turn 4. Turn 2 Training guy, turn 3 3/3, turn 4 removal, can be enough on its own. I like the card more in RW than GW for that reason. Often it trades with a 3/2 leaving behind a counter, which is a solid exchange. And sometimes it's dead. So yeah not a high pick but it often makes my aggro decks. A 2-mana 2/3 is much better than most two-drops

That said, I haven't played this format in a couple weeks now. I probably played 20 drafts total and I've had my fill until Kamigawa. Despite the balanced colors, this has been my least favorite draft set in some time

wait a sec is the next one gonna be the vaporwave set

Pretty much

Lol read that as vaporware and thought they never actually finishedthe set or something

The basic lands for this set look amazing. I love when they put out things that don't even really look like Magic cards. Can see those fetching a decent price in 10 years. Otherwise based on the ten or so spoiled cards it looks like a predictable set of returning mechanics - Ninjutsu and Channel are in, Sagas are back again, and there appears to be a 5-color theme. Also one of the spoiled cards has Bushido without actually having Bushido, lol. Guessing they're gonna ditch the Splice/Arcane stuff though I still think there's something interesting there.

nah arcane makes even less sense to do when its in 1 of 8 standard sets instead of 3 of 7. i wouldn't expect it to be a major part of the set if its even in there at all

Yeah I am pretty sure it won’t show up at all but the idea of chaining/combining spells is something they’ll probably revisit at some point

One interesting thing I noticed is that any creature that is enchanted, equipped, or has a counter on it is now called “modified”

they did splice onto instant in one of those modern horizons sets

I haven’t so much as glanced at the spoilers yet, but I did win two entries into the Arena Decathlon finals so there’s a chance I’ll win the full (Arena) set this weekend :D

the lands look awesome indeed

basics, I mean

there's a Supreme Vintage draft on MTGO right now, where you get 18 packs and two picks from each one. its absolutely insane, everyone plays crazy blue artifact decks and twice I've had someone play a Time Walk AND a Mind Twist before I even got to play my first turn. immensely dumb format but it's fun to play high powered Magic sometimes.

That is my kind of format.

it's definitely worth trying a couple times. I always found it interesting how every step from Regular Set -> Modern Masters -> Cube -> Vintage Cube you have to re-evaluate what types of cards are good and this is yet another level beyond even that. Like I think in this format the planeswalker that prevents your opponent from drawing more than one each turn may actually be better than Jace. From my very limited experience I think you really do want discard and hard counterspells. And Time Walk/Time Warp obviously. Half the games seem to come down to someone just saying fuck it and playing a Time Spiral. It rules.

(fwiw I haven't noticed any Storm cards in the pool because I suspect those would be insanely broken. I didn't see Force of Will either but who knows, that might be the top pick)

love the look of the lands in kamigawa.

playing MTGA like an absolute madman these days. I made Mythic in constructed again this month, after doing it for the first time last month. still absolutely stink at limited, even though I much, much prefer that. oh well.

semi-looking forward to double feature. although with such a large pool of cards it feels like making synergies happen will be more difficult? might be best just to look for the best cards when drafting?

I lost interest in it all of a sudden, I started getting inspired to work on music again and MtG had been acting as a replacement when I was burned out.

same thing happened to me, I just haven't had mental space for MTG for the last couple years

the constant parade of OP cards that get banned after months of feel bad play wasn't helping either, but I do miss in person booster drafts

I have a little crew I do drafts with every set or so. it's a lot of fun. was my introduction to magic a few years ago - in my mid 30s, maybe this is an odd time to start this up - but I'm addicted to MTGA. I suppose because is was a big gamer as a younger man and have really jettisoned that part of my life - own no consoles, don't have a computer that can play games on it (just a work laptop I can't download things on).

Kamigawa releases on Arena later today! I'm glad that red isn't seeming like the dominant colour for the first time in a while. I'm really looking forward to playing some irritating Dimir Ninjutsu and Azorius vehicle decks in limited.

I've been playing Magic Arena on and off for about a year now and I'm still quite bad at it. It still feels difficult to gauge early on in a set what the right things to invest in are, and by the time I've caught up, everyone has shifted focus... If I can make diamond in standard and platinum in limited this set, that will be enough.

the Pilot token does not look like something from Magic: the Gathering

XP to Jim: Very normal stuff. MTGA is SO addictive, by design and everything. And I accept that.

Maybe I will try a sealed tourney or two, today. Kamigawa looks like fun.

on my first sealed league, so far pretty fun, tons of synergy across the board and all the modular stuff will make this a high skill level format. feels nothing at all like the original Kamigawa which I'm guessing was on purpose

I've been watching a lot of streams of people playing with the new set and it finally sucked me back in after uninstalling a couple of months ago. It definitely looks like a complex and fun set to draft!

I've been quarantined, then on vacation, then sick so I've also only watched streams but this new set looks great and I can't wait to do some drafts

yeah it's great. one of those sets that makes it feel like a new game entirely. I particularly love the Sagas that turn into creatures, that's a pretty clever way to do Suspend/Planeswalker-type things on a whole new card type.

not sure how much I've figured limited out, seems like a format you can easily splash in (3-4 color decks are pretty common) so there are a ton of archetypes I've seen crop up. R/W Samurai/Warrior decks are pretty good and maybe what you should aim to start with if you don't know the format. Ninjutsu decks are decent but depend on a lot of good uncommons. Kappa Tech-Wrecker is probably the best Uncommon in the set, it's surprisingly tough to play around

Re: ease of splashing/mana-fixing in this format, last week I watched Jim Davis on Twitch get wrecked by his opponent ramping into a turn 5 Kami War (the 1WUBRG saga). Not every day you see that in Limited!

I'm still just playing Sealed while I get a feel for the cards. My coolest play so far came when I topdecked a Futurist Operative (uncommon ninja that's an unblockable 1/1 when tapped but can untap anytime for 2U), used it to crew my Mindlink Mech (rare vehicle, 4/3 flyer that gains the abilities of the creature that crews it) and attack past my opponent's giant Branch of Boseiju for the win.

there's a lot of neat ninjutsu stuff you can do with the 1/1 flyer for U that taps something when it enters play. I think the best Limited formats resemble Cube in how there are all sorts of cool plays that you kinda just discover on the fly. in Sealed playing 3-colors & just stuffing your deck with cool uncommons and rares seems to produce a lot of cool results.

Ecologist's Terrarium looks like the Farfinder of this set; junk at first glance but maybe one of the most important commons in the set. It fixes your mana, provides an artifact which you can use for a number of things, and gives you a +1/+1 counter which can be used to hit the "modified" triggers

Ninja's Kunai seems similarly underrated. It's a cheap artifact to play on turn 1, a cheap modified enabler, something to do with extra mana in the mid-to-late game, and unlike the Silent Dart variants we're used to seeing it can go face.

17lands data seems to think Black is the best color. the two best "win rate when in hand" cards are Virus Beetle, which I like, and Okiba Reckoner Raid, which I thought was pretty bad. It also likes Imperial Oath a lot, which is nice because I've wondered a lot about if that card is good or not.

Most underrated cards in draft seem to be: Imperial Oath, Searchlight Companion, Suit Up, Season of Renewal, Harmonious Emergence, and Tamiyo's Safekeeping. Overrated cards seem to be Kami's Flare (!), Greater Tanuki, Intercessor's Arrest, Wanderer's Intervention & Befriending the Moths. All those cards are obviously good but I think the implication is (unless I'm understanding this wrong) removal is not quite as good as it is in other formats.
.

reckoner raid is good, it does a huge amount of stuff for 1 mana

some more data: Blossom Prancer, Kappa Tech Wrecker & Behold the Unspeakable are the 3 best uncommons, on par with the best rares/mythics. Experimental Synthesizer also seems to be very underdrafted, even if red in general is overdrafted. B/G seems to be the best combo.

I think what people are maybe missing with Experimental Synthesizer is you can sac it in other ways besides paying the 2R

i don't put too much faith in the 17lands data but blossom prancer and behold the unspeakable are obviously "mythic uncommons"

synthesizer is at its best when it's being sacrificed to other stuff yeah. a slow 2/2 is simply the fallback option. the first time i read it i missed that it 'draws' a second card on exist

*on exit

Iron Apprentice seems to be another card that is playable along those lines

After 10 drafts or so, I'm loving this set. Most of the color combos seem viable and the mechanics are all fun. Many cool synergies and opportunities to outplay. The flavor is also great, a nice bonus. We'll see how I feel after another 10 drafts but this is comfortably better than the last three sets for me

I've been enjoying it a lot too, it seems to have a lot of legs. outside of the R/W deck what you see now is a lot different than what you got matched up against at the start. in Sealed I see a lot of 4-color decks that splash a lot of goofy shit. it helps that this format has a lot of cool individual cards that really make you think. I love the design of The Reality Chip, for instance.

my only complaints are 1) the Legendary Dragons are way too good (though at least you have Tamiyo's Compleation to deal with them) and 2) the board states get insanely complex sometimes. when both players have 7 creatures out and you have to keep track of which ones are artifacts and which ones are enchantments and which are "modified", not to mention all the Sagas which have goofy interactions...idk there are a lot of "whatever, lets see what happens" moments