What I'm doing today is a run down of the Commons in M10 draft/sealed. Why M10? It's being distributed again, so drafts are sprouting up everywhere. Also do note this is more of an entry-level player article, which seems appropriate for the Core set.
The months before a new release are like sailing in tepid waters. The intricacies of the last limited format have been (over)developed, their mystique lost into the murky depths of monotony. Then the new set enters on a tidal wave. All over the world, players hold new cards for the first time. Marveling at the art, analyzing the abilities, feeling the bit of adrenaline that comes with noticing their pool has some power. Knowing they have a chance.
Last weekend was the M10 Release draft at our store, an event that I was craving ever since I judged at the Prerelease and got to watch all those happy faces playing with the new cards. I wanted to play Magic, too. So I tore up my Launch Party with Golgari shenanigans. Read on!
If you've been living under a rock, then you may not have heard about the sweeping rules changes coming with Magic 2010. Actually, you might have heard about them even if you've lived under a rock, since the constant arguing, flaming, and kvetching has left no stone unturned. Here's some insight on how these changes affect cube building and drafting.
Cube drafting is the most popular pastime to be cubic since Emo Rubik sprang his eponymous Cube onto the world. Magic players have long embraced variant formats, most of which are casual in nature. From Elder Dragon Highlander to 5-Color to Cube, you can see these formats played at the back tables of big events, or at the paint-stained tables of your local game store. Cubing is easy, fun, and will attract many players.
I had this past weekend off, so I decided to head over to my old apartment in Grand Rapids to support my roommate in his efforts to qualify for the MTGO Champs event, which could have potentially sent him to Worlds. He ended up, well, not getting there, but that's neither here nor there. Needless to say, there was a fair amount of Magic played that weekend, though nothing could top what we got ourselves into Sunday afternoon: Mirage Block Sealed.
Greetings, fellow Magic junkies. I was planning on having this article be a report on Regionals for you, but that won't work very well. Why? Well, my Regionals experience was, how do you say, total crap. But, I'll tell you the little that I can, and I'll finish this article off with a report on a Shards of Alara/Conflux/Alara Reborn draft I got to do last Friday.
Howdy Internet goers! As many of you know, the Prerelease and Release events have come and gone, and that means I've gotten another chance to play Limited Magic (doesn't happen often enough, sadly). My original intention was to give you a report on my store's Release tournament, which was 46 players, five rounds of swiss, but really, how useful is it to read about a Shards of Alara/Alara Reborn/Alara Reborn draft? I mean, now that the aforementioned events are over, will anyone draft like this ever again? The answer is probably yes, but they won't be playing for anything more than the chance to gloat over their friends.
Kyoto feels like both a success and a failure to me at this point. On one hand, I top 16'ed my first Pro Tour. Read on for details of my Pro Tour experience.
What does basketball have to do with Magic: the Gathering? 99.9 percent of the time the games go somewhat normally. But it's that .1% of the time that I would argue is why we play Magic. That one time the unexpected happens and it gives you a story to tell for years and years to your friends.
I could tell it wasn't a normal draft by the stacks of cards in sleeves they had before them. I could tell this was something special. My mouth dropped agape as he picked up his pack. Inside were 15 cards I had never seen before.
In spite of the recent changes in the prerelease structure, I made an effort to seek out a "big" prerelease this past weekend, heading out to Superstars' new location in downtown San Jose. I entered the building with a feeling of indifference, and left with a sensation that can only be described as jubilant.
At the Lorwyn Prerelease, I went 3-0-1 and took second. I took first at both the Morningtide and Eventide Launch Parties using the "Go Blue" strategy, and I took second at the unsanctioned Midnight Madness my local store held for Shadowmoor - could I do it again for Shards of Alara?
My record in the club's weekly drafts in the final semester began to border on supernatural. Now, astute readers might have noticed all the past tense in that paragraph. Here are the lessons I learned returning to the world of Limited.
The question of how good a removal spell is does not constitute an end in itself. We care about it only as a means to an end: deciding when it is correct to pick a removal card over some other attractive card in the same pack...
Setting: Outpost Ghent, game store. Action: Lorwyn draft (16K). Mission: assembling three points of Limited rating.
I've come from Leuven to Ghent to secure a third bye for Grand Prix Stuttgart, in mid-December. For that I need three more points, which, calculations have revealed, equals one win against a 1775+ player or two wins. I'm willing to drop as soon as I reach my target.
You see here the classic paradox of drafting. A color (or, equally, an archetype) can only be good or bad depending on how many players are drafting it. This is a topic well known to most good players, but seldom discussed. And the main reason it isn't discussed is because it's very hard to get enough information about what everyone at a draft table was doing. Particularly since most drafts happen online. I realised if I really wanted to take a closer look at the whole matter of color selection and (by extension) color forcing, I was going to have to analyze a real life draft. With real cards. And real people.
I logged on to Magic Online and scrolled down the list of users in the draft room. Quite a few of the usual suspects were there. Apparently Americans aren't just insomniacs; they get up in the night and draft because, like badgers, they live in a different timezone. (Check it on Wikipedia if you don't believe me.) So anyway, I saw this one username that looked vaguely familiar but I couldn't think who it was. So I went to click on 'info', but accidentally hit 'download'. And that's how I ended up downloading Dave.
Another set, another limited format, ey? Always an exciting time, and as always, those who have a lot of experience drafting have an advantage over beginners (so much is obvious). However, those of us who were drafting, oh, fiveyearsago had a particular advantage this time around, because, you see, Tribal sets draft differently than normal ones, and if you were already familiar with the style from Onslaught block, you had a leg up on the competition at the prerelease.