Regardless of whether you drew Chasm Skulker or land or something else, I don't get why you ever choose to discard the land. You absolutely needed a land drop next turn. You already had one. There is less than a 50% chance of drawing a land next turn, so there is no reason whatsoever to assume you will draw another. Why trade 100% chance of something you need for <50% chance of something you need?
My hand was just the In garruk's wake. I decided to activate the looter at the end of my opponent's turn out of fear that the land was the 2nd card on top. I could have discarded the wake, but that would defeat the purpose of the land. Hind sight, I shouldn't have activated the looter, hence a self ownage.
Regardless of whether you drew Chasm Skulker or land or something else, I don't get why you ever choose to discard the land. You absolutely needed a land drop next turn. You already had one. There is less than a 50% chance of drawing a land next turn, so there is no reason whatsoever to assume you will draw another. Why trade 100% chance of something you need for <50% chance of something you need?
My hand was just the In garruk's wake. I decided to activate the looter at the end of my opponent's turn out of fear that the land was the 2nd card on top. I could have discarded the wake, but that would defeat the purpose of the land. Hind sight, I shouldn't have activated the looter, hence a self ownage.
Oh. Statistically, there is no reason to think the 2nd card down is more likely to be a land than the top card. The odds are actually identical at that stage. Looting only helps if you can actually have a chance to keep the top card, otherwise you are basically just doing "mill 1", which doesn't improve your situation at all and CAN leave you in that awkward self-pwnage moment. I guess you could have drawn another out and discarded IGW, but chances are stacked against it compared to trying to draw the land.
Basically, in that situation Looting has statistically no upside. While statistically there's no downside either, it can be devastating for morale to see that 1 milled card being the land you needed.
Regardless of whether you drew Chasm Skulker or land or something else, I don't get why you ever choose to discard the land. You absolutely needed a land drop next turn. You already had one. There is less than a 50% chance of drawing a land next turn, so there is no reason whatsoever to assume you will draw another. Why trade 100% chance of something you need for <50% chance of something you need?
My hand was just the In garruk's wake. I decided to activate the looter at the end of my opponent's turn out of fear that the land was the 2nd card on top. I could have discarded the wake, but that would defeat the purpose of the land. Hind sight, I shouldn't have activated the looter, hence a self ownage.
Oh. Statistically, there is no reason to think the 2nd card down is more likely to be a land than the top card. The odds are actually identical at that stage. Looting only helps if you can actually have a chance to keep the top card, otherwise you are basically just doing "mill 1", which doesn't improve your situation at all and CAN leave you in that awkward self-pwnage moment. I guess you could have drawn another out and discarded IGW, but chances are stacked against it compared to trying to draw the land.
Basically, in that situation Looting has statistically no upside. While statistically there's no downside either, it can be devastating for morale to see that 1 milled card being the land you needed.
Yes, hind sight, it was a terrible move. One of those heat of the moment scenarios that you have a hard time justifying later. But in a sort of Mighty Ducks style of thinking, what if the land WAS the 2nd card?
Phantom M15 sealed. I'm at around 12, while my opponent is at 9. My board is clear other than for a Hornet Nest. My opponent has a lifted Aeronaut Tinkerer and a Bronze Sable. He plays a Frost Lynx to tap my Nest, swings for 4, and passes.
End of turn, I Blastfire Bolt my Nest. On my turn, I play the green Paragon and swing for 10.
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Providing a plethora of pompous and pedantic postings here since 2009.
:dance:Fact or Fiction of the [Limited] Clan:dance:
Signalling is like farting: it's a natural thing that helps people avoid being where you are, and if you try to do it deliberately, things turn to crap fast.
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I hereby found the American Chapter of the Zealots of Semantics. All glory to The Curmudgeon.
I never post here but I am just amazed I won this game. M15 8-4 draft, game 3, I'm playing GW versus a UB artifact-heavy deck.
Opp's T1: Hot Soup
My T1: Sunblade Elf
O T2: Ensoul Artifact on hot soup (5/5 attacker on turn 2!!!), swing for 5
M T2: Plains, swing with 2/2 elf
O T3: Swing for 5.
M T3: Convoke for Living Totem targeting elf
O T4: Swing for 5. I choose not to chump block, bringing me to 5. Casts Aeronaut Tinkerer
M T4: Cast Netcaster Spider
O T5: Tanks, then swings with 5/5. I double block with Living Totem and 3/3 Elf, expecting a blowout. Nothing. He loses his 5/5 to my 1-drop elf.
... Stalemate for a few turns ...
O T9: He gets another Ensoul Artifact on a Darksteel Citadel, making a 5/5 indestructible. I luckily have Pillar of Light...
M T10: Swing for win with two pump spells.
Faced a turn 2 5/5 attacker, and somehow I won! I was lucky I had a fast hand too, and then later had Pillar of Light. But if my opponent didn't make the mistake of attacking into my defenders on T5, he could've defended a lot better.
I can't help but laugh super hard at this. I'm just imagining a bowl of soup with legs, running across the board and punching someone in the face for 5 every turn.
The problem with defining this format by what is "fun" is that everyone seems to define fun as what they don't lose to. If you keep losing to easily answered cards, that means you should improve your deck. If you don't want to improve your deck, then you should come to peace with the idea that you are going to lose because you chose to not interact with better strategies.
I can't help but laugh super hard at this. I'm just imagining a bowl of soup with legs, running across the board and punching someone in the face for 5 every turn.
This was a long time ago in the old AVR draft format, I was a naya comboy sorta deck. I don't remember the exact board state as it was years ago.
But it played out something like this:
Game 1: Stalls out till like turn 10(like most AVR block games)
He has a silverblade in play(along with other jank), he casts pathbreaker wurm and pairs the two together.
On my turn I cast zealous conscripts taking sliver blade, cloudshift my conscripts and take pathbreaker pair the two and swing for lethal.
Game 2: Same thing game stalls out, but this time I played consripts earlier and he killed it so it was in my yard. he has silver blade and an archangel in play, I draw Angel of glory's rise, cast it bringing back my, goldnight commander and zealous conscripts stealing his silver blade, cloud shift taking his archangel and proceed to swing for lethal.
Needless to say, that was the best deck I drafted in that format and i had sooooo much fun playing it. I ended up going 4-0 at the release event, not all the games were like that but there was one game like that each match... I just felt bad for this guy because it happened to him twice in a row haha.
The green splash was for the foil Sigarda I opened.
and I cast necropotence to turn devotion back on and win.
Aha! So Necropotence is good for something after all!
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Forum Awards: Best Writer 2005, Best Limited Strategist 2005-2012
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MTGSalvation Articles: 1-20, plus guest appearance on MTGCast #86!
<Limited Clan>
I drafted Jeskai with a splash for Bloodsoaked Champion and Sagu Mauler. I'm playing against G/B.
I manage to tempo him and he's down to 4, and I hadn't drawn an Island. I had Bloodsoaked Champion and a morph creature, he has a morph creature. He ends up Arc Lightninging and 2 for 1's me, un-morphing a Woolly Mammoth guy. He also gets his Bloodsoaked Champion. I hadn't take damage so I just draw morph doods and pray to get an island, I have a Jeskai Charm in hand. I manage to play a morph guy, he plays Trumpet Blast and Awaken the Bear to drop me to 1. It's either I draw an Island and kill him, or I don't and lose. I close my eyes and say "Trust the heart of the cards," and then shout "YU-GI-OH!" and drop the Island I topdecked onto the field.
I know topdeck PWNED plays are lame, but this was too amazing to not post.
Breaking news.
There will be no Tibalt, Tamiyo, Tezzeret, Garruk, Chandra, Liliana, mini-Jace, big-Jace, Garruk again, or Sarkhan in Theros either.
There will also be no Black Lotus.
I was playing Mardu in the finals of an FNM draft against a Sultai deck with TWO copies of Villainous Wealth. I lost game 1 because he drew into the lands to play all the relevant spells in his hand, while I drew 11 lands in a row (no joke; I counted). He couldn't believe that he had won the game despite being mana screwed, and I told him that mana screw beats mana flood every time. He said, "But I had to draw TWO lands, not just one," and I respond by saying "Well I had to draw 5+ relevant spells IN A ROW just to stand a chance, which is certainly less plausible than having to draw two lands."
The problem with defining this format by what is "fun" is that everyone seems to define fun as what they don't lose to. If you keep losing to easily answered cards, that means you should improve your deck. If you don't want to improve your deck, then you should come to peace with the idea that you are going to lose because you chose to not interact with better strategies.
Opponent did this to me twice, the second time after I knew he didn't have it, only to have him promptly top-deck it.
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Ambush Krotiq makes me laugh so much. I keep rereading the card and it keeps not having Flash. In what sense is this an ambush again? I just have visions of this huge Krotiq poorly concealed in some bushes, feeling slightly sad that his carefully planned ambushes never seem to work.
I was playing Mardu in the finals of an FNM draft against a Sultai deck with TWO copies of Villainous Wealth. I lost game 1 because he drew into the lands to play all the relevant spells in his hand, while I drew 11 lands in a row (no joke; I counted). He couldn't believe that he had won the game despite being mana screwed, and I told him that mana screw beats mana flood every time. He said, "But I had to draw TWO lands, not just one," and I respond by saying "Well I had to draw 5+ relevant spells IN A ROW just to stand a chance, which is certainly less plausible than having to draw two lands."
The problem with defining this format by what is "fun" is that everyone seems to define fun as what they don't lose to. If you keep losing to easily answered cards, that means you should improve your deck. If you don't want to improve your deck, then you should come to peace with the idea that you are going to lose because you chose to not interact with better strategies.
I've argued with people over the number of cards in a deck many times, and I feel that having a high number of "good cards" is better than having a small number of "really good" cards. I laugh at the people who argue that with a smaller deck you're more likely to draw what you need, because if you get in that situation you're gonna NOT end up drawing it many many more times than you would.
After taking a couple of good cards (Mirari's Wake, Dimir Doppelganger], I see a Vent Sentinel and decide to try the defender.dec. Especially with those Cinder Walls going unnoticed around.
Every single game I begin with a mountain and one Cinder Wall in hand. If not, mulligan.
My first turn:
T1: Mountain, play Cinder Wall, flip all three conspiracies, find other four Cinder Walls - they give mana and have haste - chain all Cinder Walls on the battlefield, last one is untapped.
T2: I have six (seven with another land drop) mana available, five of them of any color. Play whatever I have in hand
The best thing is that with so much 3/3 defenders on the table since turn 1, people really thought twice before attacking me, losing their early drops for the price of depriving me of the mana. One game they ganged up on me anyway, just to eat two consecutive Syphon Souls, each for 4 and giving me 24 life.
And as soon as Vent Sentinel hit the table, it was basically over for them. There is few point removal - basically Swords, Tragic Slip and Assassinate.
To add an insult to injury, one game someone managed to take out one Sentinel. I topdecked another and added Extract from Darkness, ending the turn with two of them (hitting both for 7 ATM)
Conspiracy draft, too.
I decided to go for all those draft-altering cards, start with Agent of Acquisitions, use it two boosters later to 'lastpick' Lurking Automaton and get another Automaton in the second pack. My colours were all over the place, but I was lucky enough to pick up a Worldknit to take care of that issue.
First game was super stupid. I bring out Selvala on turn 3, follow up with Vedalken Orrery. A turn later, when I have 2 lands untapped, an opponent swings at me. I Parley with Selvala, get 3 mana, drop the 15/15 automaton onto his attacker and swing right back at him. Before my next turn, I land a Traveler's Cloak on the automaton, notice everyone is playing Mountains and stomp the rest of the table with an unblockable 15/15.
Cube draft, it's my turn 4. I had started the game with a turn 1 Library of Alexandria, and I had Ancestral Recall in hand just in case. The board currently consists of only a 2/1 on my opponent's side of the board. I cast Oath of Druids.
I have four creatures in total in my deck: Inferno Titan, which is in my hand, Angel of Serenity, which I discarded in case I'd draw a reanimation spell, Griselbrand, and Inkwell Leviathan. I figure either of my remaining creatures should be enough to win the game, since even if it's dealt with I can then reanimate my Angel or something and I'm just far ahead on cards. Upkeep, I go straight down to three cards in my library and get Griselbrand. So my Library now does nothing, my Ancestral does nothing, Griselbrand's ability does nothing. My draw step gives me Inkwell Leviathan. So I can't possibly win the game anymore: I'll only get two swings with Griselbrand before I'm decked, and I have no way to do the remaining 6 damage. I don't have the lands in my deck to cast the Titan anymore. I can't possibly win this game at this point.
In my opponent's turn, he casts Show and Tell. He puts Elesh Norn into play, I put Leviathan. I attack two times for 10.
You really just need to embrace the rage. I keep a small colony of hamsters next to my computer and every time I lose a match to mana screw I throw one against the wall.
My opponent plays Savage Punch on his 4/3 and my 4/3 Abzan High Priest. Luckily, his creature wasn't green, so Feat of Resistance naming red means that the Savage Punch still resolves, but my creature wins the fight and gains me 5 life in the process.
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My hand was just the In garruk's wake. I decided to activate the looter at the end of my opponent's turn out of fear that the land was the 2nd card on top. I could have discarded the wake, but that would defeat the purpose of the land. Hind sight, I shouldn't have activated the looter, hence a self ownage.
Oh. Statistically, there is no reason to think the 2nd card down is more likely to be a land than the top card. The odds are actually identical at that stage. Looting only helps if you can actually have a chance to keep the top card, otherwise you are basically just doing "mill 1", which doesn't improve your situation at all and CAN leave you in that awkward self-pwnage moment. I guess you could have drawn another out and discarded IGW, but chances are stacked against it compared to trying to draw the land.
Basically, in that situation Looting has statistically no upside. While statistically there's no downside either, it can be devastating for morale to see that 1 milled card being the land you needed.
Yes, hind sight, it was a terrible move. One of those heat of the moment scenarios that you have a hard time justifying later. But in a sort of Mighty Ducks style of thinking, what if the land WAS the 2nd card?
End of turn, I Blastfire Bolt my Nest. On my turn, I play the green Paragon and swing for 10.
:dance:Fact or Fiction of the [Limited] Clan:dance:
Opp's T1: Hot Soup
My T1: Sunblade Elf
O T2: Ensoul Artifact on hot soup (5/5 attacker on turn 2!!!), swing for 5
M T2: Plains, swing with 2/2 elf
O T3: Swing for 5.
M T3: Convoke for Living Totem targeting elf
O T4: Swing for 5. I choose not to chump block, bringing me to 5. Casts Aeronaut Tinkerer
M T4: Cast Netcaster Spider
O T5: Tanks, then swings with 5/5. I double block with Living Totem and 3/3 Elf, expecting a blowout. Nothing. He loses his 5/5 to my 1-drop elf.
... Stalemate for a few turns ...
O T9: He gets another Ensoul Artifact on a Darksteel Citadel, making a 5/5 indestructible. I luckily have Pillar of Light...
M T10: Swing for win with two pump spells.
Faced a turn 2 5/5 attacker, and somehow I won! I was lucky I had a fast hand too, and then later had Pillar of Light. But if my opponent didn't make the mistake of attacking into my defenders on T5, he could've defended a lot better.
I can't help but laugh super hard at this. I'm just imagining a bowl of soup with legs, running across the board and punching someone in the face for 5 every turn.
"YEAAAAAAAAAA SON, MONO-SOUP BEATDOWN"
Its a Souper effective strategy.
I'll see myself out....
But it played out something like this:
Game 1: Stalls out till like turn 10(like most AVR block games)
He has a silverblade in play(along with other jank), he casts pathbreaker wurm and pairs the two together.
On my turn I cast zealous conscripts taking sliver blade, cloudshift my conscripts and take pathbreaker pair the two and swing for lethal.
Game 2: Same thing game stalls out, but this time I played consripts earlier and he killed it so it was in my yard. he has silver blade and an archangel in play, I draw Angel of glory's rise, cast it bringing back my, goldnight commander and zealous conscripts stealing his silver blade, cloud shift taking his archangel and proceed to swing for lethal.
Needless to say, that was the best deck I drafted in that format and i had sooooo much fun playing it. I ended up going 4-0 at the release event, not all the games were like that but there was one game like that each match... I just felt bad for this guy because it happened to him twice in a row haha.
The green splash was for the foil Sigarda I opened.
Turn 1: Elvish Mystic
Turn 2: Midnight Guard
Turn 3: Raise the Alarm + Living Totem (counter on the elf)
Turn 4: Feral Incarnation
Turn 5: Sanctified Charge
(I'm on on this site much anymore. If you want to get in touch it's probably best to email me: dom@heffalumps.org)
Forum Awards: Best Writer 2005, Best Limited Strategist 2005-2012
5CB PotM - June 2005, November 2005, February 2006, April 2008, May 2008, Feb 2009
MTGSalvation Articles: 1-20, plus guest appearance on MTGCast #86!
<Limited Clan>
I manage to tempo him and he's down to 4, and I hadn't drawn an Island. I had Bloodsoaked Champion and a morph creature, he has a morph creature. He ends up Arc Lightninging and 2 for 1's me, un-morphing a Woolly Mammoth guy. He also gets his Bloodsoaked Champion. I hadn't take damage so I just draw morph doods and pray to get an island, I have a Jeskai Charm in hand. I manage to play a morph guy, he plays Trumpet Blast and Awaken the Bear to drop me to 1. It's either I draw an Island and kill him, or I don't and lose. I close my eyes and say "Trust the heart of the cards," and then shout "YU-GI-OH!" and drop the Island I topdecked onto the field.
I know topdeck PWNED plays are lame, but this was too amazing to not post.
₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪
(W/B) Teysa, Orzhov Scion (W/B)
G Devoted G
(U/R) Scramblefun (U/R)
(W/U) Heh, Birbs (W/U)
Game 2, he only had an Archer's Parapet and some other creature in play, while I had a Disowned Ancestor, two Salt Road Patrols, a Mardu Hordechief, and four Warrior tokens. All I really need to wrap up the game is my copy of Raiders' Spoils. My opponent topdecks a Villainous Wealth and casts it for four. He hits:
Land
Raiders' Spoils
Utter End
Land
I cry.
Opponent did this to me twice, the second time after I knew he didn't have it, only to have him promptly top-deck it.
62 trample damage coming in! )))
It sounds like you're still way ahead that game.
Not at all. Especially not when he draws nothing but spells while I'm only hitting lands.
After taking a couple of good cards (Mirari's Wake, Dimir Doppelganger], I see a Vent Sentinel and decide to try the defender.dec. Especially with those Cinder Walls going unnoticed around.
I end up the draft with 5 Cinder Walls, Secrets of Paradise, Secret Summoning and Immediate Action all set to Cinder Wall. Three Vent Sentinels. And just for good measure, Double Stroke for Syphon Soul and Muzzio's Preparations for Barbed Shocker.
Other highlights: Wakestone Gargoyle (Cinder Walls are destroyed only when blocking :-)), Wake, Doppelganger, Extract from Darkness. Four Tyrant's Choices.
Every single game I begin with a mountain and one Cinder Wall in hand. If not, mulligan.
My first turn:
T1: Mountain, play Cinder Wall, flip all three conspiracies, find other four Cinder Walls - they give mana and have haste - chain all Cinder Walls on the battlefield, last one is untapped.
T2: I have six (seven with another land drop) mana available, five of them of any color. Play whatever I have in hand
The best thing is that with so much 3/3 defenders on the table since turn 1, people really thought twice before attacking me, losing their early drops for the price of depriving me of the mana. One game they ganged up on me anyway, just to eat two consecutive Syphon Souls, each for 4 and giving me 24 life.
And as soon as Vent Sentinel hit the table, it was basically over for them. There is few point removal - basically Swords, Tragic Slip and Assassinate.
To add an insult to injury, one game someone managed to take out one Sentinel. I topdecked another and added Extract from Darkness, ending the turn with two of them (hitting both for 7 ATM)
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
I decided to go for all those draft-altering cards, start with Agent of Acquisitions, use it two boosters later to 'lastpick' Lurking Automaton and get another Automaton in the second pack. My colours were all over the place, but I was lucky enough to pick up a Worldknit to take care of that issue.
First game was super stupid. I bring out Selvala on turn 3, follow up with Vedalken Orrery. A turn later, when I have 2 lands untapped, an opponent swings at me. I Parley with Selvala, get 3 mana, drop the 15/15 automaton onto his attacker and swing right back at him. Before my next turn, I land a Traveler's Cloak on the automaton, notice everyone is playing Mountains and stomp the rest of the table with an unblockable 15/15.
I have four creatures in total in my deck: Inferno Titan, which is in my hand, Angel of Serenity, which I discarded in case I'd draw a reanimation spell, Griselbrand, and Inkwell Leviathan. I figure either of my remaining creatures should be enough to win the game, since even if it's dealt with I can then reanimate my Angel or something and I'm just far ahead on cards. Upkeep, I go straight down to three cards in my library and get Griselbrand. So my Library now does nothing, my Ancestral does nothing, Griselbrand's ability does nothing. My draw step gives me Inkwell Leviathan. So I can't possibly win the game anymore: I'll only get two swings with Griselbrand before I'm decked, and I have no way to do the remaining 6 damage. I don't have the lands in my deck to cast the Titan anymore. I can't possibly win this game at this point.
In my opponent's turn, he casts Show and Tell. He puts Elesh Norn into play, I put Leviathan. I attack two times for 10.