pretty much all the pro players and top MTGO players are on twitter but none of them are singularly interesting off the top of my head.
most MTG articles are about constructed decks or are boring tournament recaps; the few limited articles that exist are mostly unhelpful, with a couple exceptions which are behind the paywall on starcity, plus the Ars Arcanum guy who i've linked in here before and only writes when a new set is out.
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 16 January 2013 20:02 (eleven years ago) link
that sucks
my friend told me about the limited resources podcast, I kinda like it
― iatee, Wednesday, 16 January 2013 20:03 (eleven years ago) link
have you all chosen guilds for prerelease yet?
I'm probably going Gruul and Orzhov.
― Moodles, Wednesday, 16 January 2013 20:07 (eleven years ago) link
the best twitter follow is probably @mtgaaron who's the head of magic r&d and tends to be pretty forthright rather than hype-y marketing-y like some of the other WotC people
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 16 January 2013 20:07 (eleven years ago) link
Gruul is my fav guild so i'll definitely be running that at the midnight prerelease, not sure if i'll do 2 prereleases this time since that was a lot of magic for one weekend when i did it at the RTR one
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 16 January 2013 20:10 (eleven years ago) link
You can get any and all questions about MTG design answered at http://markrosewater.tumblr.com
― Moodles, Wednesday, 16 January 2013 20:11 (eleven years ago) link
ciderpress can you start a blog where you post long articles about limited and then I will read it
that arcanum guy's stats post seems pretty otm in retrospect
― iatee, Wednesday, 16 January 2013 20:11 (eleven years ago) link
Luckily the store I'm going to is holding their prereleases in the early evening on Saturday and Sunday. I can't manage the midnight events.
― Moodles, Wednesday, 16 January 2013 20:13 (eleven years ago) link
oh yeah limited resources is pretty solid, i don't like podcasts in general though so i rarely listen to it.
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 16 January 2013 20:18 (eleven years ago) link
i used to think limited resources was good but then i watched loucks stream and realized hes actually p terrible
― once & future (Lamp), Wednesday, 16 January 2013 20:19 (eleven years ago) link
Mark Rosewater's tumblr is a good read; even if you disagree with some of his philosophies, he's pretty clearly an expert in game design
― frogbs, Wednesday, 16 January 2013 20:19 (eleven years ago) link
haha yeah mark rosewater seems to have been constructing near religious beliefs about the game over the last decade
― iatee, Wednesday, 16 January 2013 20:21 (eleven years ago) link
i think Sam Black and Ari Lax are the most insightful current pro players but sadly their articles are behind the paywall on starcity
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 16 January 2013 20:22 (eleven years ago) link
Rosewater's also very prompt about answering questions. I sent one in and he answered later the same day.
― Moodles, Wednesday, 16 January 2013 20:23 (eleven years ago) link
i like the gamestate guys - although they deal almost exclusively with constructed formats i think theyre generally really good at dissecting why certain things work and metagame stuff
agree that sam black is a good writer/thinker - his draft streams are p good too although he hasnt really been streaming much since rtr started
― once & future (Lamp), Wednesday, 16 January 2013 20:26 (eleven years ago) link
sam black's article on m13 limited changed the way i approach drafting in general and i've done much better ever since, lemme see if i can find it
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 16 January 2013 20:26 (eleven years ago) link
yeah I def disagree w/ the things they say all the time but I still like it as entertainment
― iatee, Wednesday, 16 January 2013 20:27 (eleven years ago) link
ok here's the article, shouldnt be behind paywall anymorehttp://www.starcitygames.com/magic/generallimited/24692-Draft-The-Cards-You-Want-To-Play.html
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 16 January 2013 20:28 (eleven years ago) link
weirdly, all the commas have vanished from old SCG articles when they migrated to the new site layout
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 16 January 2013 20:33 (eleven years ago) link
that's a great article!
― iatee, Wednesday, 16 January 2013 20:34 (eleven years ago) link
it feels like an inspirational speech, he should be giving it to a huge crowd of players who then break out in a standing ovation
― iatee, Wednesday, 16 January 2013 20:41 (eleven years ago) link
lol!
that period where loucks, owen, sam and a few others were regularly drafting and streaming M13 and watching each others streams probably did more to help my limited game than anything else
― once & future (Lamp), Wednesday, 16 January 2013 20:45 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah that one is incredible, I'd say it's a must read. I hate the articles that people like Conley Woods put out whenever a set is spoiled where he goes through each common and writes stuff like "2.5, I guess this is okay, kind of expensive but it blocks well", and then "welp, there's your pick order". It's been a while since draft has been so simple! I have a similar "weakness" with 5cc counterspells like Fall of the Gavel or Lost in the Mist. I realize they are bad but I love them as 23rd cards and I have won plenty of games with them. In RTR if I'm going well with Selesnya I'll start picking up stuff like Sundering Growth over Towering Indrik because the Growth is incredible against the guy with Stab Wounds and Deviant Glees.
― frogbs, Wednesday, 16 January 2013 20:48 (eleven years ago) link
pretty interesting stuff spoiled today, including a 4cc 4/4 flying Dark Confidant for both players, really like that and think it'll be a 4-of in something
― frogbs, Thursday, 17 January 2013 05:20 (eleven years ago) link
also a Ball Lightning with Lifelink
― frogbs, Thursday, 17 January 2013 05:22 (eleven years ago) link
duskmantle seer is incredible
― ciderpress, Thursday, 17 January 2013 14:45 (eleven years ago) link
kinda ridiculous
― iatee, Thursday, 17 January 2013 14:47 (eleven years ago) link
i wanna play that in a Skies-type deck so badly
― frogbs, Thursday, 17 January 2013 14:57 (eleven years ago) link
i never preorder cards but if this one is like $10 or less to start, i will be very tempted
― ciderpress, Thursday, 17 January 2013 15:21 (eleven years ago) link
4 delver 4 snapcaster 4 duskmantle seer 4 ??? creature22 lands 22 spells
i want to try this but that one threat slot really needs a good candidate, preferably at 1U or UB. not sure invis stalker is aggressive enough, since you really want to have them low on life by the time you drop the seer or they can rip their way out of it
― ciderpress, Thursday, 17 January 2013 16:52 (eleven years ago) link
You guys think Seer is that good? Bloodgift Demon is really similar, except only you get the card advantage, and it sees almost no play. I guess if there's an aggro deck where the idea is to refill your hand while punishing your opponent for their expensive cards, it might find a home, but I can't remember a UB aggro deck... ever.
― Vinnie, Thursday, 17 January 2013 18:07 (eleven years ago) link
I'd expect a good 2-drop with evasion in this set. Maybe even a reprint of the hybrid 2/1 unblockable from Ravnica. Dunno if that's good enough but it does have synergy with Cipher at least.
I realize that it's similar to Bloodgift but I will say this - one, the extra mana matters a LOT, and two, I think Bloodgift is definitely very playable but there hasn't been a deck to fit it in. I do see how this one may run into the same problem but it also seems like it may work in Modern. I dunno, cards like this tend to find good homes somewhere.
― frogbs, Thursday, 17 January 2013 18:15 (eleven years ago) link
i don't think seer is 'that good' i just like it a lot. i do think it's more likely to see play than bloodgift demon though, 5 is a lot more mana than 4 and the extra reach when they flip a 4 or 5 drop will win some games
― ciderpress, Thursday, 17 January 2013 18:35 (eleven years ago) link
is 5 really 'a lot more' in this meta?
― once & future (Lamp), Thursday, 17 January 2013 18:37 (eleven years ago) link
i guess its less of a jump when there aren't good counterspells, but the type of deck that wants this effect is going to have to be very compact
― ciderpress, Thursday, 17 January 2013 18:41 (eleven years ago) link
final UG mythic is spoiled but its not very exciting
2UG for a 2/4 that makes all your creatures ETB with extra +1/+1 counters equal to its power (usually 2)
― ciderpress, Thursday, 17 January 2013 18:42 (eleven years ago) link
the only card that i really want to open is a thespian's stage. i guess the r/w mythic although i don't know how useful itll be
i hope r/w aggro is good but i have a feeling it won't be
― once & future (Lamp), Thursday, 17 January 2013 18:51 (eleven years ago) link
that ball lightning w/ lifelink is pretty good...
― iatee, Thursday, 17 January 2013 18:53 (eleven years ago) link
its obv way too good at 3 but i really, really wanted it to cost 3
― once & future (Lamp), Thursday, 17 January 2013 19:06 (eleven years ago) link
it's way too good at 4!
― iatee, Thursday, 17 January 2013 19:07 (eleven years ago) link
naw its fine
― ciderpress, Thursday, 17 January 2013 19:14 (eleven years ago) link
you don't think that's too swingy for limited games?
― iatee, Thursday, 17 January 2013 19:36 (eleven years ago) link
its essentially one activation
― frogbs, Thursday, 17 January 2013 19:38 (eleven years ago) link
there the difference between 3 and 4 isn't much...ball lightning effects usually aren't great in limited. it's tough to get a great balls-out start in limited because the really good aggro stuff is usually at uncommon or rare.
― frogbs, Thursday, 17 January 2013 19:40 (eleven years ago) link
I just feel like that 12 point life swing pretty much defines the game if it's in your opening hand
― iatee, Thursday, 17 January 2013 19:45 (eleven years ago) link
it depends on the format though
― once & future (Lamp), Thursday, 17 January 2013 19:47 (eleven years ago) link
definitely playable in Limited and probably a high pick but I actually think those types of cards tend to play better in Constructed
― frogbs, Thursday, 17 January 2013 19:52 (eleven years ago) link
if that's not a first pick for most packs I don't want to see the rest of the set
― iatee, Thursday, 17 January 2013 19:53 (eleven years ago) link
playing that w/ boros charm...
― iatee, Thursday, 17 January 2013 19:55 (eleven years ago) link
12 point life swing is a lot but you need to capitalize on it, if you being down a card means you end up surrendering the board then it doesn't matter how far ahead you are on life totals. you can certainly first pick it but i can imagine being in R/W and opening it pack 3 and not wanting it if your deck isn't streamlined aggro already
― ciderpress, Thursday, 17 January 2013 19:56 (eleven years ago) link