I'm actually playing a lot of Magic these days. I'm playing 3 consecutive GP within a 4 week time span (Madrid 2 weeks ago, Strasbourg last weekend, and Milan in 2 weeks). For one or two years now I hadn't played much at all, just played the occasional GP and didn't get anywhere, so I decided a couple of months ago I'd prepare well for these three GP's and try to get a top 8, because they were formats I enjoy (Modern and Limited). Unfortunately I didn't quite get there (yet). I made t64 in Madrid and last weekend I was 133rd in Strasbourg. One of my drafts was a complete trainwreck. I wanted to force control but I got trapped by opening Siege Rhino. Butakov was also taking all the lands and going 5c goodstuff (stealing many of my cards) so I don't know how I could've salvaged it, but I should have just passed the Rhino and drafted the deck I wanted to draft anyway. At least my second draft deck was sweet.
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.
@Tahn, that draft deck is insane. Well done. Sorry draft one didn't go as well. The deck doesn't look too bad though.
I'm happy to finally hear confirmation of what everyone assumed: MM2! The only bummer is that the MM2 GP weekend is my school's graduation weekend. Ah, well. I just hope that it's half as fun to draft as the first Modern Masters was!
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.
(attacking with the 2/1 instead of holding Stubborn Denial comes to mind)
Without knowing the context, this sounds like it could just as easily have been the mistake to me. After all, there's no way your opponents wouldn't have put you on Stubborn Denial if you had declined to attack for two and instead chosen to keep up one mana. I mean, there's no other card you're representing, is there? Maybe Magma Spray?
In any case, I think you can be pretty happy with the performance. I'd say the team was decent, but consisted of players who all used to be better than they are now, and used to put more time into competitive Magic than they do now. That's my understanding anyway!
Yeah, we were very happy with our perfomance after our terrible 1-3 start. I think most of us were a bit rusty, but we made a few too many mistakes. Got to play a lot of cube though, so it wasn't all bad!
Thanks - always fun to look at. The "trainwreck" you describe is a phenomenon I've thought about a lot. What should one do when there's a player taking everything you need?
Good to hear you're playing a lot of Magic. I quite like Khans as a format, but weirdly I'm finding I don't want to play very much. During the Autumn I didn't feel like playing anything much, and even now I'm feeling better I'm finding I prefer games with shorter play sessions. Three hours for a draft feels hard to arrange.
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<Limited Clan>
Thanks - always fun to look at. The "trainwreck" you describe is a phenomenon I've thought about a lot. What should one do when there's a player taking everything you need?
Good to hear you're playing a lot of Magic. I quite like Khans as a format, but weirdly I'm finding I don't want to play very much. During the Autumn I didn't feel like playing anything much, and even now I'm feeling better I'm finding I prefer games with shorter play sessions. Three hours for a draft feels hard to arrange.
Mmm. I'm unsure why it's the case, as Khans is a good format and all, but for some reason I don't find it as fun as I think I should. I dunno. Could be due to the fact that most of mye experience with it has been on Modo, and that Modo is making the experience less pleasant than it could be.
But I got to arrange the first cubedraft in roughly forever this week! It was quite fun. The most memorable thing that happened was Ral Zarek's ultimate. I activate it, call "even" on the dice roll, and all of them come up odds. Fantastic. Manage to win the game anyway by the skin of my teeth. Then, in the next game, I'm in the same situation again. I loudly declare that logically, this time, I should get five evens; it's a statistical certainty. I promptly roll five evens and collect my extra turns, and bash for exactsies with Celestial Colonnade. It was pretty funny.
I loudly declare that logically, this time, I should get five evens; it's a statistical certainty. I promptly roll five evens and collect my extra turns, and bash for exactsies with Celestial Colonnade. It was pretty funny.
I don't know about statistics, but the laws of comedy MUST BE OBEYED!
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(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>
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.
Signups for Duplicate Draft #2 (for real this time) are up, get in there!
Too bad about Milan. I'm assuming you have insurance so you'll at least get your money back? Anyway, so this was my first year since 2006 where I didn't attend any GPs. I'm roughly 95% sure I'll attend at least one next year though, probably at least two. Planning to go to the Modern Masters insanity GP thingy as well as the Team GP in Florence. But I'm still saving up for a house, and frequent GP attendance will serve to delay that purchase. I'm currently looking at buying sometime around January-February 2016, so after that I'll presumably have more money for travelling a bit. Depends on how I feel about it then, of course, but now I'm fairly excited about the prospect of playing in tournaments again. It's been a while.
I filled in a form to get my money back, but I don't have much hope. Airline companies are very good at not returning money in such cases. Also, a national strike is a case of what is called "overmacht" - no idea what the English term for that is, but it means it's something they have no control over and couldn't stop happening, and therefore they don't need to pay you back.
HOWEVER. Apparently I managed to win the GP Milan lottery where they give away random cards to people. And I didn't just get a Wasteland like the other raffle winners - I got the main prize, an Underground Sea. So I managed to find the most convoluted way of not going to a GP and going break even (there's a very simple way to achieve the same result ).
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.
I just Q'd for the PTQ. Went 5-1 in Sealed with a deck I thought looked bad, but in hindsight it was quite nice. Then I drafted the bestest deck ever and swept it without dropping a game.
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.
--
(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>
There will be a lot of confusion surrounding manifest, and the issue with end-of-game revealing of morphs will be intensified, but I think it could be pretty fun.
I don't like Dash a lot either; the one-dimensional design of red in recent years isn't one I'm a fan of. But the Goblin Heelcutter guy definitely seems very good. Probably one of the top red commons in the new set.
Manifest is going to definitely be weird. Now I see why they printed morph tokens, as keeping track of the difference between morph cards and manifest cards will lead to some confusion (especially if this continues to be an environment filled with clogged board states).
A friend did point out that if you manage to manifest Hooded Hydra, you can flip it for GG. That could be fun.
--
(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 was hoping there wouldn't be much Manifest at common, since it's a pretty complex mechanic, but unfortunately a whole batch of them got spoiled today. I don't get it, they finally got morph right, with the "nothing eats something else for less than five mana" rule, and now we get the "don't even bother guessing what it is" mechanic.
This set is looking very unfun for Limited so far. At this point I'm really afraid it may ruin a great format, and it'll even stick around for the next one.
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.
Yeah, I'm disappointed as well; Manifest is inherently very random mechanic, as it's basically random whether you get a creature you can turn up or a land (or noncreature spell), and it's not going to be easy to pick up on. I mean, you're probably not going to play around the opponent randomly hitting a Bellowing Saddlebrute or whatever, but when they do, you're going to get blown out & there's little you can do about it.
Once the full set is spoiled, we'll discover that Lens of Clarity is suddenly the highest pick in KTK.
Seriously, though, I can actually see this being a format where it could be worth a card. I mean, if you judge a card by how willing your opponent would be to go out of his way to destroy it, I can think of a lot of situations where Lens passes that test, now.
Well, I mean, the upside is potentially very high. Being able to arrange to manifest something like a Chief of the Scale (or avoid playing into one from the opponent), for example, is probably game swinging some non-trivial percentage of the time. And not needing to play carefully around manifested lands/sorceries is also a nontrivial upside. I'm not saying it rises to the level of being worth an actual card, but it is certainly better than it used to be. This format is inevitably going to have a lot of blowouts in it - that's guaranteed - and I can imagine a whole bunch of times when someone could find themselves saying "if only I had topdecked my Lens :(".
Also, I don't think Manifest is going to ruin Limited. Sure, there's a bit of swinginess, but it's no worse than the swinginess of drawing cards (where a land is often nearly blank for half the game). And on the flipside, the ability to plan around the various cards a Manifest morph might represent might turn out to be quite skill-testing.
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(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>
Yeah, it's probably not going to, but given the option, I'd almost certainly choose to not have it be a part of the format. We'll see though. I wasn't originally planning to play the prerelease, but a friend of mine who lives a while away is coming down for it, so it's an opportunity to hang out with him for a bit.
I know this isn't a constructed forum, but I just thought up a combo deck that might be interesting to try to build, and I was wondering if anyone had any input.
Is this too much like a worse Whip deck or a black devotion deck to be interesting, or does anyone else think this looks like fun? It needs another sacrifice outlet and some interactive stuff/card draw to actually be able to go off; not sure how to finish building it.
Decklists, for those interested:
1 Kheru Spellsnatcher
1 Monastery Flock
1 Mystic of the Hidden Way
1 Glacial Stalker
1 Mardu Heart-Piercer
1 Salt Road Patrol
1 Whirlwind Adept
1 Warden of the Eye
1 Pearl Lake Ancient
1 Cancel
1 Jeskai Ascendancy
1 Jeskai Charm
1 Weave Fate
1 Bitter Revelation
1 Smite the Monstrous
1 Throttle
1 Blinding Spray
1 Crater's Claws
1 Mardu Banner
1 Sandsteppe Citadel
1 Nomad Outpost
1 Scoured Barrens
1 Bloodfell Caves
1 Dismal Backwater
1 Saltwater Cliffs
6 Island
3 Mountain
3 Plains
1 Archer's Parapet
3 Sagu Archer
1 Alpine Grizzly
3 Longshot Squad
1 Mer-Ek Nightblade
1 Siege Rhino
1 Swarm of Bloodflies
1 Kill Shot
1 Murderous Cut
1 Throttle
2 Dragonscale Boon
1 Roar of Challenge
1 Scoured Barrens
6 Forest
4 Swamp
5 Plains
2 Pearl Lake Ancient
1 Cranial Archive
1 Goblinslide
1 Quiet Contemplation
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Cancel
1 Crippling Chill
3 Weave Fate
1 Blinding Spray
1 Rakshasa's Secret
1 Bring Low
1 Throttle
2 Murderous Cut
1 Rite of the Serpent
1 Dead Drop
1 Bloodfell Caves
8 Island
6 Swamp
2 Mountain
I'm happy to finally hear confirmation of what everyone assumed: MM2! The only bummer is that the MM2 GP weekend is my school's graduation weekend. Ah, well. I just hope that it's half as fun to draft as the first Modern Masters was!
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.
Without knowing the context, this sounds like it could just as easily have been the mistake to me. After all, there's no way your opponents wouldn't have put you on Stubborn Denial if you had declined to attack for two and instead chosen to keep up one mana. I mean, there's no other card you're representing, is there? Maybe Magma Spray?
In any case, I think you can be pretty happy with the performance. I'd say the team was decent, but consisted of players who all used to be better than they are now, and used to put more time into competitive Magic than they do now. That's my understanding anyway!
Good to hear you're playing a lot of Magic. I quite like Khans as a format, but weirdly I'm finding I don't want to play very much. During the Autumn I didn't feel like playing anything much, and even now I'm feeling better I'm finding I prefer games with shorter play sessions. Three hours for a draft feels hard to arrange.
(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>
Mmm. I'm unsure why it's the case, as Khans is a good format and all, but for some reason I don't find it as fun as I think I should. I dunno. Could be due to the fact that most of mye experience with it has been on Modo, and that Modo is making the experience less pleasant than it could be.
But I got to arrange the first cubedraft in roughly forever this week! It was quite fun. The most memorable thing that happened was Ral Zarek's ultimate. I activate it, call "even" on the dice roll, and all of them come up odds. Fantastic. Manage to win the game anyway by the skin of my teeth. Then, in the next game, I'm in the same situation again. I loudly declare that logically, this time, I should get five evens; it's a statistical certainty. I promptly roll five evens and collect my extra turns, and bash for exactsies with Celestial Colonnade. It was pretty funny.
I don't know about statistics, but the laws of comedy MUST BE OBEYED!
(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 hate unions.
Too bad about Milan. I'm assuming you have insurance so you'll at least get your money back? Anyway, so this was my first year since 2006 where I didn't attend any GPs. I'm roughly 95% sure I'll attend at least one next year though, probably at least two. Planning to go to the Modern Masters insanity GP thingy as well as the Team GP in Florence. But I'm still saving up for a house, and frequent GP attendance will serve to delay that purchase. I'm currently looking at buying sometime around January-February 2016, so after that I'll presumably have more money for travelling a bit. Depends on how I feel about it then, of course, but now I'm fairly excited about the prospect of playing in tournaments again. It's been a while.
HOWEVER. Apparently I managed to win the GP Milan lottery where they give away random cards to people. And I didn't just get a Wasteland like the other raffle winners - I got the main prize, an Underground Sea. So I managed to find the most convoluted way of not going to a GP and going break even (there's a very simple way to achieve the same result ).
1 Tranquil Cove
1 Sandsteppe Citadel
1 Rugged Highlands
1 Mountain
7 Island
6 Plains
1 Jeskai Elder
1 Dragon's Eye Savants
1 Jeskai Windscout
2 Monastery Flock
1 Abzan Battle Priest
2 Alabaster Kirin
1 Salt Road Patrol
1 Sage-Eye Harrier
1 Mystic of the Hidden Way
1 Glacial Stalker
1 Sagu Mauler
1 Pearl Lake Ancient
1 Jeskai Charm
2 Kill Shot
1 Crippling Chill
1 Weave Fate
1 Master the Way
1 Icy Blast
1 Nomad Outpost
1 Wind-Scarred Crag
1 Bloodfell Caves
1 Tranquil Cove
1 Swiftwater Cliffs
4 Plains
4 Mountain
2 Island
1 Mardu Banner
1 Goblinslide
1 Quiet Contemplation
1 Jeskai Student
1 Seeker of the Way
1 High Sentinels of Arashin
1 Whirldwind Adept
1 Wingmate Roc
1 Warden of the Eye
2 Weave Fate
1 Bitter Revelation
1 Treasure Cruise
2 Jeskai Charm
1 Kill Shot
1 Bring Low
1 Utter End
1 Burn Away
Wow - that manabase! It's like a Cube deck!
(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 don't like Dash a lot either; the one-dimensional design of red in recent years isn't one I'm a fan of. But the Goblin Heelcutter guy definitely seems very good. Probably one of the top red commons in the new set.
A friend did point out that if you manage to manifest Hooded Hydra, you can flip it for GG. That could be fun.
4 Soul Summons
2 Ethereal Ambush
4 Congregation at Dawn
4 Momentary Blink
4 Through the Breach
2 Ixidor, Reality Sculptor
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
etc.
(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>
This set is looking very unfun for Limited so far. At this point I'm really afraid it may ruin a great format, and it'll even stick around for the next one.
Seriously, though, I can actually see this being a format where it could be worth a card. I mean, if you judge a card by how willing your opponent would be to go out of his way to destroy it, I can think of a lot of situations where Lens passes that test, now.
OH NO
You didn't just say that!
The angry hordes of the Limited sub are going to run you over now.
(and I really don't see it being worth a card)
Also, I don't think Manifest is going to ruin Limited. Sure, there's a bit of swinginess, but it's no worse than the swinginess of drawing cards (where a land is often nearly blank for half the game). And on the flipside, the ability to plan around the various cards a Manifest morph might represent might turn out to be quite skill-testing.
(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>
4 Sultai Emissary
4 Returned Reveler
4 Grim Haruspex
4 Mogis's Marauders
2 Black Cat
3 Liliana Vess
2 Champion of Stray Souls
1 some other stuff
Is this too much like a worse Whip deck or a black devotion deck to be interesting, or does anyone else think this looks like fun? It needs another sacrifice outlet and some interactive stuff/card draw to actually be able to go off; not sure how to finish building it.