First it was Avacyn restored, and not even a full block later we have Gatecrash which will be drafted separately, what is there reasoning on this? I find this very strange. I didn't play during the original ravnica but was the drafting portion also like this?
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Rise of the Eldrazi and Avacyn restored were because they were worried that lands matter and transform would fail so they had the third set as a backup.
Rise of the Eldrazi and Avacyn restored were because they were worried that lands matter and transform would fail so they had the third set as a backup.
I never heard that theory, but it is possible.
Large sets get drafted alone, small sets get drafted with another set. Though I believe when Dragon Maze comes out it will be DM/GC/RTR which will be awkward for a bit.
First it was Avacyn restored, and not even a full block later we have Gatecrash which will be drafted separately, what is there reasoning on this? I find this very strange. I didn't play during the original ravnica but was the drafting portion also like this?
RoE was my favorite draft format of all-time (so far), so I have absolutely no issue with this.
Large sets get drafted alone, small sets get drafted with another set. Though I believe when Dragon Maze comes out it will be DM/GC/RTR which will be awkward for a bit.
I don't know, it makes sense that the set with all 10 guilds will be first so that you know what you're looking for in the next two packs. Also, there just aren't that many gold cards in RTR, and I would assume Gatecrash will be similar. You won't have trouble finding stuff to go in your decks in either pack.
It does make for some interesting decisions involving signalling, though, when your only shot at specific guilded cards will be for sure coming from the right or the left, depending on what you're drafting.
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Large-small-small also disproportionately screws the people who were trying to collect chase cards from the later sets (e.g. Breeding Pool), since, assuming all three draft formats are drafted equally, 6 packs of Large will be opened for every 1 pack of Small3 in draft. By releasing both GTC and RTR as 3x draft sets, Wizards can at least try to stabilize the supply of shocklands.
I would assume there's also an element of experimentation going on with the smaller sets - both RoE and AVR were very unlike a typical draft environment, and their weird little universes would have been difficult to maintain with a 3-block structure.
New Ravnica block is pretty obviously designed so it can give the most even distribution of shocklands. I mean, there's probably other factors that went into coming up with the AAA/BBB/CBA progression, but WotC doesn't want a rehash of old Ravnica where there were simply less of certain shocklands because they were in the last block, especially when they're so important to the big push to get people playing Modern.
If i remember correctly, in the original Rav block, the split was something like 4/3/3, which was horrible for drafting
Woah now, the original RGD format is pretty widely regarded as one of the best, if not the best, draft formats ever. I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone (else?) who played the format extensively that also found it horrible for drafting. It had a lot of depth and strategy, and a lot of unique decks. The format was fun, and very balanced.
Woah now, the original RGD format is pretty widely regarded as one of the best, if not the best, draft formats ever. I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone (else?) who played the format extensively that also found it horrible for drafting. It had a lot of depth and strategy, and a lot of unique decks. The format was fun, and very balanced.
Don't forget Alara block, which was quite similar and also a blast to draft.
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Woah now, the original RGD format is pretty widely regarded as one of the best, if not the best, draft formats ever. I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone (else?) who played the format extensively that also found it horrible for drafting. It had a lot of depth and strategy, and a lot of unique decks. The format was fun, and very balanced.
It was bad for card availability and for people who liked guilds that got fewer cards. That's the main reason that it's 5/5/10.
Woah now, the original RGD format is pretty widely regarded as one of the best, if not the best, draft formats ever. I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone (else?) who played the format extensively that also found it horrible for drafting. It had a lot of depth and strategy, and a lot of unique decks. The format was fun, and very balanced.
plus it supported 5 color decks!
Back on topic, I think it's to ensure more chase rares (namely the shocks) are available to players.
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Woah now, the original RGD format is pretty widely regarded as one of the best, if not the best, draft formats ever. I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone (else?) who played the format extensively that also found it horrible for drafting. It had a lot of depth and strategy, and a lot of unique decks. The format was fun, and very balanced.
I think what he meant was that drafting Rav/Rav/Rav or Rav/Rav/Guild was strange because it was not color balanced. For example, Ravnica had 2 white guilds, 1 blue guild, 2 black guilds, 1 red guild, and 2 green guilds. Obviously you would be at a disadvantage if you tried to draft Blue or Red, since there would only be 1 guild with cards of that color.
In practice it was ok because there was such a high proportion of playable commons that it was no problem to draft a decent deck. I think you'd admit though, that the RGD full-block format was much better then RRR.
Don't forget Alara block, which was quite similar and also a blast to draft.
Except Alara introduced cascade, the precursor to miracle in swinging games in favor of the player who had been being dominated until they drop the cascade spell and flip the board position.
RAV block was pretty fair mechanic wise, yes there was a couple mechanics that were worse, but there was more then 1 competitive mechanic.
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It does make for some interesting decisions involving signalling, though, when your only shot at specific guilded cards will be for sure coming from the right or the left, depending on what you're drafting.
Having multicolored cards and more specifically hybred cards makes signals a bit harder to make out in draft.
It is way easier to create a good triple draft set then to draft out a block.
Wizards is still pretty hit and miss with draft, with some formats being awesome and other formats being triple AVR. I think making a decent triple draft set is probably easier then having a good 2 1 or block draft format.
In my opinion, triple draft sets are generally superior to multi-set draft formats, referring to both the exemplary Rise of the Eldrazi and newly-released large sets. Formats of this type are better capable of utilizing block mechanics and supporting unique archetypes; invariably, small set additions weaken format-specific deck types by decreasing the appearance frequency of key archetype cards and replacing them with either generic role-players or narrow, small set specific cards oriented towards playing up small set mechanics and themes which, by their nature, are difficult to support in practice.
Take the examples of Scars of Mirrodin and Innistrad. Triple Scars was a solid, if linear format defined by Infect and Metalcraft, along with niche decks like Furnace Celebration; the addition of Besieged and New Phyrexia not only made niche decks all but undraftable, they largely invalidated the core decks upon which the base set was founded. Infect, by being spread across five colors, had to depend on either an awkward mix of anti-synergistic creatures or very bad mana bases; Metalcraft, with a lowered density of key cards, was all but undraftable as a focused deck. This transition wouldn't have been as bad if the addition of the new sets added new draftable archetypes, but it did not; any new niche cards in the latter sets were only present in one pack and thus could not be reliable core cards in decks, leaving players to pick through packs of narrow, now unplayable cards to throw together awkward, unfocused mid-range and control decks.
The deformation of the Innistrad draft environment was not as dramatic, but it was similar. The triple-pack version of the format featured some of the most interesting archetypes in recent memory (Spider Spawning and its multitude of variants), but the introduction of Dark Ascension, simply because it diluted the pool of key cards, made good versions of the deck much harder to draft, meaning that players were forced more often into the conventional aggro, mid-range, control dynamic (which is a healthy part of most formats, but does not by itself support an interesting draft environment for long). This phenomenon can also be seen in virtually every set that involves a mill subtheme, like Ravnica: City of Guilds.
I'm quite excited about the structure of the the new Ravnica, and I hope that it serves as a model for future blocks. Giving the player a new, fresh, and vibrant draft format with the release of each set, two triple sets and one that gives the player the opportunity to see all the themes and cards of the block in the same environment, fully utilizes the potential of a block without overplaying it or diluting its uniqueness.
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The reasoning behind this one though, is so that Wizards can do 5 guilds, 5 guilds, and then in the small set, have support for all 10 guilds.
If i remember correctly, in the original Rav block, the split was something like 4/3/3, which was horrible for drafting
I never heard that theory, but it is possible.
Large sets get drafted alone, small sets get drafted with another set. Though I believe when Dragon Maze comes out it will be DM/GC/RTR which will be awkward for a bit.
RoE was my favorite draft format of all-time (so far), so I have absolutely no issue with this.
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I don't know, it makes sense that the set with all 10 guilds will be first so that you know what you're looking for in the next two packs. Also, there just aren't that many gold cards in RTR, and I would assume Gatecrash will be similar. You won't have trouble finding stuff to go in your decks in either pack.
It does make for some interesting decisions involving signalling, though, when your only shot at specific guilded cards will be for sure coming from the right or the left, depending on what you're drafting.
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New Ravnica block is pretty obviously designed so it can give the most even distribution of shocklands. I mean, there's probably other factors that went into coming up with the AAA/BBB/CBA progression, but WotC doesn't want a rehash of old Ravnica where there were simply less of certain shocklands because they were in the last block, especially when they're so important to the big push to get people playing Modern.
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Woah now, the original RGD format is pretty widely regarded as one of the best, if not the best, draft formats ever. I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone (else?) who played the format extensively that also found it horrible for drafting. It had a lot of depth and strategy, and a lot of unique decks. The format was fun, and very balanced.
Don't forget Alara block, which was quite similar and also a blast to draft.
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It was bad for card availability and for people who liked guilds that got fewer cards. That's the main reason that it's 5/5/10.
plus it supported 5 color decks!
Back on topic, I think it's to ensure more chase rares (namely the shocks) are available to players.
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I think what he meant was that drafting Rav/Rav/Rav or Rav/Rav/Guild was strange because it was not color balanced. For example, Ravnica had 2 white guilds, 1 blue guild, 2 black guilds, 1 red guild, and 2 green guilds. Obviously you would be at a disadvantage if you tried to draft Blue or Red, since there would only be 1 guild with cards of that color.
In practice it was ok because there was such a high proportion of playable commons that it was no problem to draft a decent deck. I think you'd admit though, that the RGD full-block format was much better then RRR.
Except Alara introduced cascade, the precursor to miracle in swinging games in favor of the player who had been being dominated until they drop the cascade spell and flip the board position.
RAV block was pretty fair mechanic wise, yes there was a couple mechanics that were worse, but there was more then 1 competitive mechanic.
Having multicolored cards and more specifically hybred cards makes signals a bit harder to make out in draft.
Wizards is still pretty hit and miss with draft, with some formats being awesome and other formats being triple AVR. I think making a decent triple draft set is probably easier then having a good 2 1 or block draft format.
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Take the examples of Scars of Mirrodin and Innistrad. Triple Scars was a solid, if linear format defined by Infect and Metalcraft, along with niche decks like Furnace Celebration; the addition of Besieged and New Phyrexia not only made niche decks all but undraftable, they largely invalidated the core decks upon which the base set was founded. Infect, by being spread across five colors, had to depend on either an awkward mix of anti-synergistic creatures or very bad mana bases; Metalcraft, with a lowered density of key cards, was all but undraftable as a focused deck. This transition wouldn't have been as bad if the addition of the new sets added new draftable archetypes, but it did not; any new niche cards in the latter sets were only present in one pack and thus could not be reliable core cards in decks, leaving players to pick through packs of narrow, now unplayable cards to throw together awkward, unfocused mid-range and control decks.
The deformation of the Innistrad draft environment was not as dramatic, but it was similar. The triple-pack version of the format featured some of the most interesting archetypes in recent memory (Spider Spawning and its multitude of variants), but the introduction of Dark Ascension, simply because it diluted the pool of key cards, made good versions of the deck much harder to draft, meaning that players were forced more often into the conventional aggro, mid-range, control dynamic (which is a healthy part of most formats, but does not by itself support an interesting draft environment for long). This phenomenon can also be seen in virtually every set that involves a mill subtheme, like Ravnica: City of Guilds.
I'm quite excited about the structure of the the new Ravnica, and I hope that it serves as a model for future blocks. Giving the player a new, fresh, and vibrant draft format with the release of each set, two triple sets and one that gives the player the opportunity to see all the themes and cards of the block in the same environment, fully utilizes the potential of a block without overplaying it or diluting its uniqueness.
One third of the set is gold. That's pretty high.