Every newish player who played the format was so slow in playing. It seemed as if every time I played someone that said they never played RAV block drafts they went to time or pretty darn near time. I understand the format is slow, but with these new people playing its even more so.
I also noticed all the triggers in old RAV block limited. I am wondering if RTR will be like this also.
RGD wasn't an easy format. Planning out your turns is hard in the early game because so much depends on what kinds of lands you draw, and the sheer number of mechanics makes it very difficult to check for interactions. Stuff like Convoke, Replicate, Haunt, and Graft don't lend themselves to easy, quick spellcasts, since there are tons of ways to use them, and Dredge and Transmute and Forecast slow down other parts of the turn even more. That's just tacked on to the fact that it's a block full of cards people don't know very well, if at all, which means stopping to read stuff. And since so many cards have effects while not in play, that increases the time needed for reading, as well.
Wit's End is the PERFECT answer to your opponent's Monomania however.
Just hold on to your Wit's End when they Monomania, so you can Wit's End them on your next turn!!!
I think this is fairly reminiscent of the "Jace Battles" we have seen in past standards.. My guess is we will soon witness the great Monomania-Wit's End battles.
RGD is probably the most complicated draft format to process. It feels like every other card has an activated ability or a trigger, or you have competing multicolored costs and you have to stop and figure out exactly which combinations you can support with your mana. It's very mentally demanding.
Shards was similar in the mana department, except it had half the number of "tribe" keywords and most decks were only focusing on one of them. In RGD it's expected that you're playing a 3-color, 3-guild combo.
If these are the same people who are supplying me with 12th pick Izzet Chronarchs then I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest they're new to the format, in which case a certain amount of careful thought seems quite reasonable to me.
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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>
MTGO RGD is slower and more annoying than IRL RGD for three main reasons, at least for me:
1. Graft. Obviously wizards forgot about MTGO when designing this one.
2. The high number of tricks, on-board or otherwise, means you can't f6 unless you are tapped out.
3. If you habitually cast spells before tapping mana, like me, it makes signets and bouncelands much more painful to use because you have to spend a bunch of time clicking mana symbols and tapping your mana sources in the correct order.
As its been said, the biggest time sink for RGD online is actually the mana. In many decks, a good third of the mana base makes two mana, which makes it very hard to cast spells quickly (and even harder if you want to use the two mana from a signet to cast two different spells).
Especially if someone's only been drafting for a few years, Ravnica is certainly the most complex block they've ever drafted. Besides having to digest an entire (old-school-sized) block's worth of cards at once, Ravnica has all kinds of crazy mana shenanigans, pre-shards levels of triggers and on-board complexity, and ten mechanics, including one that makes you mentally index the cards in your deck based on their mana cost (fun times with a block's worth of cards you're not so familiar with), one that gives you options at the time of draw and makes you have to care about the graveyard, one that lets people play tricks and stuff when they're tapped out, one that makes you make a decision (that's annoying to click through) every time a creature comes into play, one that makes spells affect a random different subset of the creatures on the board depending on what you target, and one that grafts random death triggers onto creatures. Depending on the matchup, you have to be conscienscious about the number of cards someone has in hand, which creatures have +1/+1 counters on them, what's in the graveyard, and so on. It's a fun format, but that's just a massive amount to digest if you're not already pretty familiar with the cards.
I can attest to this. This week was my first time doing RGD drafts ever, and I definitely had to take my time. It was a lot of fun but there was a lot going on. Tapping for mana was a challenge every time haha. I never ended up going to time but I did get under 10 minutes almost every match which for me is pretty low.
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I also noticed all the triggers in old RAV block limited. I am wondering if RTR will be like this also.
Shards was similar in the mana department, except it had half the number of "tribe" keywords and most decks were only focusing on one of them. In RGD it's expected that you're playing a 3-color, 3-guild combo.
(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>
1. Graft. Obviously wizards forgot about MTGO when designing this one.
2. The high number of tricks, on-board or otherwise, means you can't f6 unless you are tapped out.
3. If you habitually cast spells before tapping mana, like me, it makes signets and bouncelands much more painful to use because you have to spend a bunch of time clicking mana symbols and tapping your mana sources in the correct order.