MTG Salvation

If what you like is archetypes then Draft is probably the format for you, but Sealed has its own skills along slightly different lines.

In Draft, you only make a relatively small number of picks before the cards you already have start to influence your picks from subsequent packs. The more you know about what you're playing, the easier each pick becomes. In Sealed, by contrast, you have to do something you never do in Draft: evaluate two completely different decks and decide which is better.

Sideboarding in Sealed is also very different from Draft and again there are considerations which don't arise in Draft. In particular, sometimes it can be correct to sideboard into a completely different deck!

There's definitely a lot of depth (and consequently skill) in Sealed. I know this because, as with Draft, I've played far more Sealed in some formats than others and got better results the more I played.

Next week's format (ABT 18.1, not 17.4) is as described above, 5CB, no land rule. Designed by Draco9 in the ABT format design thread.

The most important thing to recognise is that different players use these words in slightly different ways.

The way I use the terms is as follows:

* An aggro deck is one which is prepared to trade cards for tempo in the interests of winning quickly.
* A control deck is one which is mainly concerned with preventing the opponent from winning. If it manages this, it will eventually win itself somehow.
* An combo deck seeks to assemble a particular set of cards which either provide an immediate win or a massive advantage that probably leads to a win. (These are really rare in Limited, but do turn up occasionally.)

Everything else - in Limited at least - is midrange.

A "ramp deck" isn't a strategy so much as it is a characterisation of certain decks (usually G/X), which get away with running more expensive cards than usual by running a significant amount of mana acceleration. In theory a ramp deck could be aggro, midrange or control (and is a sort of weak combo if you think about it). In Theros, ramp decks are basically always midrange simply because the aggro decks are faster and most of the big things you can ramp into don't provide much control (Nessian Asp being the notable exception).

But yes, in general decks can fall into multiple categories. Indeed, in Limited it's very common for combo decks to also be control decks, otherwise they lose before they assemble their combo!

Quote from UA lives

The Bow is extremely hard to beat.

What makes you say this? The card looks slow and other players have been saying it's too slow.

Quote from UA lives

Green creatures are most-likely to have trample

For reference, here is a list of all the Green Commons across Theros and Born of the Gods which have trample: Vulpine Goliath.

Oops, no, wait! Silly me, I missed one: Charging Badger. I haven't had a chance to draft it yet, but I'm pretty sure the Bow is insane in mono badgers.

Is Whip even good?

Quote from pierrebai

Basically, helix is card that, if your losing, you'll be losing a slightly bit less for a turn.

Is this the bounce spell equivalent of "dies to removal"?

Quote from Semantics

That's certainly unfair to the new version, as the untap mechanic made Knack absurd, while the new version just seems solid.

You say that, but I reckon the new version might be better! Think about how profoundly great Voyage's End was in Theros, then add to that the ability to tap your own Inspired dudes, shave off one mana and add cheeky combos with Kiora's Follower and Crypsis.

Quote from Lanxal

It has to be done in one turn, but it can be in multiple shots.

The one turn presumably being turn one?

So basically there's two approaches. Either you begin by playing City of Traitors, a Mox and a Black Lotus and then making infinite mana with Auriok Scavengers but the deck mustn't include a way to convert mana to damage or you set up some kind of finite but vast mana engine (probably involving mana echoes) and then X-spell the opponent.

The former sounds more promising to me. Using four cards for infinite mana (I'm assuming this is Vintage so I can't have two Black Lotus) and a 5th to draw my deck leaves me with 55 cards to deal damage. So, suppose I have Intruder Alarm, Fires of Yavimaya and Essence of the Wild in play and an Ancient Ooze enchanted with Elemental Mastery. Tapping the Ooze the first time gives six 6/6 tokens each of which triggers Intruder Alarm, untapping the Ooze six times. The Ooze also grows by 6 with each token because they're all CMC 6...

...but before we do that we might also want four copies of Doubling Season in play, four copies of Primal Vigor in play and four copies of Copy Enchantment copying Doubling Season. We also probably want three more Ancient Ooze each with its own Elemental Mastery. That's 22 of our 55 cards accounted for. An N/N Ooze becomes 24577N/24577N on activation and results in 16384 Ooze untaps. So for every other creature our deck can generate we increase the Ooze size by 24576^16384.

That's not very good. We can do much better. Suppose that instead of adding all those multiples of cards we just add one Doubling Season and an Opalesence. Then we'll have a copy of Shapesharer and a copy of Conspiracy. That's much better. Now each new token we make can be turned into a copy of Doubling Season instead of being a boring old Essence of the Wild. So and N/N Ooze makes N^X more Doubling Seasons and untaps N^X times, where X is the number of Doubling Seasons that were there before. Since N is roughly X, that means our pile of tokens is growing at the rate g(N), where g(N) means applying the function f(X) = X^X a total of N times starting from N.

But wait, we can play better! After a certain point each copy of Intruder Alarm achieves more than each copy of Doubling Season. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the point at which this becomes true is with only two Doubling Seasons in play. It's complicated because their CMC is different. But certainly you want no more than four Doubling Seasons. Now our pile of tokens grows at the rate more like h(N), which means applying g(N) N times (very roughly).

OK, so that's eight more cards, leaving 47 to play with. At this point our engine is so powerful that all we care about is looping the same engine more times. So, which eleven cards in Magic make the most creatures without going infinite?

* Nomads' Assembly, Parallel Evolution, Devout Invocation and Saproling Symbiosis are the obvious four, since each of those adds another layer of doubling to the engine.
* If we add one Dryad Arbor then Avenger of Zendikar, Howl of the Night Pack, Beacon of Creation, Ulasht, the Hate Seed, Waiting in the Weeds and Last Stand all make the cut.
* Elvish Promenade works because we can make almost everything into an Elf when it resolves.

OK, so that's 58 cards after adding Arbor and four copies of each of the others. The last two should, I think, be copies of Springjack Shepherd. Because Opalescence is White we can make it work a bit like Elvish Promenade by turning almost everything briefly into copies of Opalescence.

That's 60. Hope that helps.

LazyBuffalo defeats bateleur 2-1.

(And that's despite some poor luck on my opponent's part!)

Quote from Promatim

Don't you still have to learn C++ before you can learn Lua and so-forth? Or should I just start with something like Lua?

My recommendation would be to do one of two things:

1) Start with Unity, using either C# or UnityScript.

2) Start with straight Lua and then once you have the basics move on to an engine that supports Lua scripting (you can get it working with the Unreal engine, for example) before eventually learning some C++ for yourself in a year or two.

The thing about C++ is that it's hard to overstate how powerful it is. It's very fast and it can do anything and there are more game-related libraries for C++ than any other language and it's been ported to many platforms. However, the downside is that a C++ programmer generates finished code at literally 1/10 of the rate of a similarly experienced programmer working in a higher level language. Just watch devlogs on any indie forum for confirmation of this. At about the time a Flash project ships, a Unity project of similar complexity will be in Beta and the C++ project will still be mired in horrible bugs and makefile woes with no level editor and the audio still not working on Linux.

Where is it written that rares have to be P1P1s in Limited?

Came home from the WMC, we made day 2 but struck out to end up in the top 32. The limited nation of Norway went 2-4 in Khans team sealed, and our decks were pretty weak for the most part. We had some okay decks, but nothing special, which does not bode well in Team Sealed. Unfortuantely our decks weren't really well suited for the team unified standard either. We had one deck which was definitely weaker than the others (which we also got featured with). Our feature match was terrible and we had some decisions which I did not agree with. I definitely think we could've had a game in the feature match if we made some different plays, a judge kept pestering us with "having to make a play" which was definitely stressful (attacking with the 2/1 instead of holding Stubborn Denial comes to mind). I didn't play much Magic but went 3-1 in constructed and sat on the bench for all the limited matches. I felt i had a decent understanding of the limited format, and the cards in it, which allowed me to help out were it was needed.

In Khans we did two crucial mistakes, one against Denmark on day one and one against England on day two. Against Denmark we'd seen a suspension field and we unmorphed our Rider even though we had Waterwhirl in our hand when our opponent had the 4/5 flying hexproof. This turned out to be disasterous as our opponent had the field and quickly punished us. Against England we had a terrible deck and our opponent had the stone cold nuts (double abzan guide, double pinewalker, duneblast, good removal etc.) but we're able to grind him down and he's down to one card in hand at 16 life and has Sultai Flayer in play. We have 4 lands, 9 life and our hand is Efreet Weaponmaster, Arrowstorm, 2/1 flying prowess, feat of resistance and we draw a land. We end up playing the 2/1 and trying to feat it when he attacks. He has Throttle (which we had seen in game 1 or 2) and when we deploy two threats the turn after he has debilitating injury and a Shambling Attendant.

I feel like we might have been greedy in the last match and it really cost us, especially since we'd seen a Throttle in game 1 or 2, even though i feel there are a number of cards that validates the play.

Still, I had a great time and we were super happy to day two with a starting 1-3 record. We were definitely a bit underprepared, but I had 4 exams in two weeks and couldn't get down to Nice until the night before the tournament, which wasn't ideal. Hopefully I'll get on the team next year and be able to redeem us.

KTK has a really good pace. Or rather, KTK has the tools to set the pace based on your preference. This is the biggest thing I like about the set: the slow decks aren't stronger than he fast decks and vice versa. They've struck a really nice balance there.

The complexity of the format is nice, but I don't think it's the biggest selling point. DGR was a complex format but I was bored by it pretty quickly. But I do like that I can get to the end of a game, knowing that I had to make specific choices but not knowing even by the end of the game which choice was best. That keeps the game fresh for me in a way that very few formats have done.

There's also the general lack of bombs. Other than a guy I played a couple days ago with double Duneblast in his deck, most plays seems pretty beatable if you read the board carefully and play around what you've seen in previous games. There aren't any cards that you can play in the early or mid-game that just decide the game several turns before it actually ends, and that has been a significant problem with almost every format for a long time.

I'd say, in order of importance to me, the things that make KTK good are:
1) narrow band of power
2) good pace
3) genuinely difficult gameplay decisions
4) tremendously relevant sideboards

I do think the lateral drafting strategies like Secret Plans or Goblinslide could have been afforded a bit more, but I always think that. I was the guy who always tried to draft Rooftop Storm decks.

Hey clan, I'm throwing this out there very early to allow people plenty of time to plan ahead.

There is a limited Grand Prix in Madison, WI the weekend of Oct 10-11, 2015. I don't know the last time you all checked the "Location" line under my avatar but I just so happen to live in Madison. I obviously plan on playing in the event, and I hope some of you do too! The timing of the GP is pretty sweet as it should be one of the first big tournaments after next year's big fall set of the new block, and there is a Pro Tour just down the road in Milwaukee the following weekend.

I would like to make a legitimate offer to host at my home anyone coming from out of town who needs a place to stay. If you are at all interested or thinking you might attend please PM me and we can discuss. If you plan on being at the event and don't need a place to stay, let me know anyway because I want to meet you! I'm looking forward to the opportunity to show anyone whose never been here around Madison, it is an awesome city.

If anyone is curious or has any questions about the area as the event approaches don't hesitate to ask. As I said, the event is still a long ways off so I plan to make reminder posts as it draws closer and people firm up their plans.

Quote from bateleur »

This is true, but the trouble there is that trading with Awaken is a 1-for-1 trade, so even if they think you have it they might well still block. The same is not true of Dragonscale Boon

Agreed, but Awaken the Bear also punches through damage (a good amount of the time), and so while the trade is 1-for-1 and you don't gain a lasting bonus from it like Boon, it negates a block much more efficiently. I like Boon more in Abzan decks where the 2 counters are more than just a permanent boost, but my guy also gets first strike or lifelink. I think both have their home in this set, and both make the Grizzly an intimidating force. with untapped mana.

As an aside, I kind of with that they had reprinted Burst of Strength in this set. It fits here so much better than in Gatecrash. Perhaps we will see it later in the block as the combat tricks are a little sparse right now.

I can never remember how to post images correctly. Here's hoping I did it right.

EDIT: Okay, apparently not. I'll post a decklist in a bit.

Anyway, drafted a Jeskai deck for the first time just now. Seems pretty sweet but I'm not sure if I'm striking the right balance between different elements. Jeskai decks particularly seem really unforgiving of not getting everything nicely proportionate, but I'm not at all sure what the ideal proportions are yet. I had several opportunities to pick up better mana fixing or some good morphs (a la Glacial Stalker) or a Goblinslide that I passed on for various reasons. So I'm curious if people's experience with Jeskai decks lines up with what I've put together here. Should I have been aiming for more/fewer creatures? More prowess guys like Bloodfire Expert/Jeskai Student? Better fixing to run more white?

EDIT:

Post-draft thoughts: I consistently wanted a lower curve in the deck and sided out the Aerialists and Twins for that reason. The games always seemed to be decided before they would come online and they wouldn't have made all that much difference in turning games around by that point anyway. I went 2-1, losing the second match to a guy playing 5-color with a bunch of Alabaster Kirins that I had a hard time dealing with. I already thought that card was pretty good, but I may have to start picking it quite highly.

EDIT AGAIN:
Okay, I'm at a little bit of a loss here, I think. This is what I am able to put together of the deck that won my pod:


This deck makes NO sense to me. I think he must have been playing 19 lands or so because he had a fairly significant commitment to every color but red, even in his main curve. It isn't like he was just playing UG with a splash of every other color. He was playing an actual Sultai/Abzan hybrid deck with a red splash. And yet he was playing a *bunch* of basics. Am I imagining things, or was this deck actually demonstrative of the way the format is going to develop? I watched all his games, and despite the fact that he seemed to consistently get pretty lucky with his mana, he never really seemed to need any particular thing to go right in order to beat practically anything.

Quote from BadMcFadden »

Quote from bateleur »

Quote from the_cardfather »

Right. I think a defensive Sultai, Temur style deck can draw, but everyone else should want to be on the play.

This sort of comment gets made about formats every so often... but literally cannot be right.

The reason is simple: if I want to be on the play and you want to be on the draw, one of us must be wrong. Whether you play or draw cannot, therefore, be mostly a function of your deck type.

Not sure I agree with this logic. Why isn't it possible that both decks obtain the advantage available to them from drawing/playing (thus making it a wash)?

If it's exactly a wash, it's irrelevant whether you are on the play or the draw. If deck A gets 10% stronger on the play, and deck B gets 10% stronger on the draw, it doesn't matter which one you chose - either both decks become 10% stronger, or neither do. However, the chance that it's exactly the same is very small. If deck A gets 12% stronger on the play and deck B gets 10% stronger on the draw, the optimal choice is to be on the play - also for deck B. That's the point bateleur is making.

Of course, that's all really abstract, because you can never quantify that like in this example.

Quote from Foam-Dome »

Quote from HornOfAmmon »

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

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....

Quote from bateleur »

Players who like Block tend to do so for the "unsolved" feel it has at the start of a season.

Well, for me, I always liked Block because of the accessibility of it. I guess now it'll be more accessible than ever, but I think I'll be a little disappointed if people stop caring about it or trying to optimize decks for the format. Even if it was already overly simple, it made matchmaking for my leftover limited decks a little less unbalanced while still letting people explore some more constructed-level synergies.

Basically, when introducing someone to deckbuilding I never had to say "Hey, here's a deck you can start collecting cards for if you start buying 8 different sets." I'm not sure they're liable to be as interested in my pitch now.

Quote from PhanTom »

Just chiming in to remind bateleur that, as he predicted, MaRo thinks Theros block was overall a success. :/

Has he ever said anything else?

For all I know, it might be true, but I also heard that Magic's growth reversed during this period (according to a Hasbro quarterly report):

These gains were offset by declines in several brands, including TWISTER, DUEL MASTERS and MAGIC: THE GATHERING.