Magic: The Gathering C/D

frogbs i think most of the limited theorists have suggested that in this set you're supposed to abandon your first 5-6 picks in those situations, and that being in the open guild for your seat is worth losing out on a few powerful cards

but if someone else notices it at the same time, yer done for

well that's the trick, you have a very small window to catch the signal in time to cut the person on your left from also catching it

simic is a bit trickier though because of the diminishing returns on evolve creatures - i've moved in on a late shambleshark before and gotten screwed because the simic player to my right passed it because he already had a shambleshark or 2 and needed crocanura more, etc etc

plus this all assumes the that players to your right know what they're doing which is a huge assumption to make at FNM

ha yeah I think that's an underrated aspect of draft strategy, 'knowing whether the people around you are clueless'

Yep I had one draft in which I horned in on Boros, then Simic, then Boros again, then Simic again, and finally Boros. it was maybe the worst draft I've ever done and my deck was awful, Boros with 13 creatures (including a bunch of 4 drops and a Primordial), Riot Gear, Righteous Charge, Beckon Appiritions, 2 Nav Squads. I got berated hard by a Michigan store owner (I got all his personal info off him since I was giving it to him back and he really wanted me to look up how many GP Byes he had or something) after beating him with Righteous Charge which I tried to play as an instant the turn before. I want to post that one on Raredraft because I'm curious how someone with their head on straight would have handled it. Just saying that the "switch after pick 6" strat sometimes really backfires. I remember midway through pack 2 thinking, "I'm 10 cards to Boros and about 9 to Simic, this has to go perfect to be even halfway decent"

a couple weeks ago in a gatecrash draft at FNM my roommate got really frustrated because he was trying to draft well, reading signals, etc and everything went wrong and made no sense in packs 2/3. turned out the guy passing to him was drafting a straight UW deck.

i think my biggest problem in this set is that i prefer forcing than staying open like, philosophically, and staying open is by far the optimal drafting strategy. last week i was passed three solid dimir cards at a live draft p1 and then decided to continue drafting dimir even after it dried up completely because 'dimir is always open' and i didnt want to give up on my horrors and nightwing and rouges even as i was getting like sixth pick firefist strikers and seventh pick homing lightnings.

i think my biggest problem in this set is that i prefer forcing than staying open like, philosophically

there's also the aspect of 'switching to an opposite color pair is proportionally more risky' - ie if you start dimir and boros is open there is no splash deck waiting for you if things don't work out. if you start gruul and boros is open, you're in an okay place either way.

yes but if the open guild shares a color with you then you're less likely to switch in the first place, since a lot of those cards will fit in your deck anyway. early on I try to prioritize the monocolor gems like Mugging, Skyjek, Syndic, Hands of Binding, Grisly Spectacle, Bats etc. over Halbraiders, Skyknights, Kingpins and even the bomb uncommons - if you get three good cards in one color as picks 1-3 then you're in a good spot.

kingpin's pet is too good but agree on the others

kingpin's is the kinda card you want in an esper deck anyway, so its not as all or nothing as some multicolor stuff

I never tried Esper though in theory it should work quite well. Doesn't the Ars Arcanium column say that Orzhov splash tends to fall on its face?

it says lots of totally wrong things

When I was going Dimir all the time I'd always wind up with enough that I wouldn't want to/need to splash. Kingpin isn't good enough for that. If you're heavy Orzjov I can see wanting to splash power uncommons like Dimir Charm, Horror, Call, and maybe Hands of Binding as well. Also Orz is the best with that 5-c Prism so I guess I should be trying this.

bane alley broker

esper is the most natural 3 color splash of the set I think

yep, since they're the 2 control-ish guilds and control tends to splash easier than aggro

plus you have Cipher + Extort. they are both control-ish but they play out in very different ways which is why I think a deck that has like a 4-5 card splash either way is probably best. Dimir that splashes for Kingpin, Orzhov Charm, even Angelic Edit should be good.

the only thing is you have to have really good fixing because control is a bit hard in a format this fast regardless, and if you're stuck w/ useless cards in your hand you really don't have a chance

cider that w/r/b midrange deck has been showing up a fair bit in the dailies, not sure if you guys were really on to something or if lots of people are just hungry for something interesting/new in standard

either way i dont think its really what i want to be playing, although i've done reasonably well w/it

i think it's a fine deck, there's nothing overpowered about it or anything. i haven't actually played it since the PE on sunday, since i decided angel of serenity is well positioned again and have been playing decks with that. just 4-0ed with butakov's junk reanimator build which i think is probably the best one despite not having a single gatecrash card in it, strangely.

i think this is the first standard format ever where i've had better results hopping decks every week than i have just picking one and mastering it

haha i was just thinking that reanimator was probably bad rn when i was going over stuff i could play this weekend. i feel pretty adrift in this standard, the only deck i've really liked playing was the grixis delver list (and to some extent the delver-less tempo BUG w/mayors) but i get too frustrated losing to keep playing those decks. and i think unlike you im like, a step behind this format, im kinda just reacting to it instead of thinking about what might be good going forward? idk.

strangely despite not really liking this format i've had really good limited results and now am at the highest limited ranking ive ever had on mtgo so i feel like i cant be playing that badly, i just dont have a good feel for the standard meta maybe

i've always played best with midrange creature decks so i guess it makes sense that this standard works for me

it is kind of weird to me to realize that in all my years of playing Magic, G/W vaugely comboish decks have been responsible for like 90% of my success

so i was inspired by the chatter about signals and switching. i too have a problem with committing too early, and decided i would take these words to heart. so, today, after picks 1-3 were mugging, massive raid, and madcap, i saw dinrova horror p4 and never looked back. red seriously dried up and i was stuck with an embarrassment of esper riches. i actually passed a syndic that wheeled in favor of a voidwalk (i had dinrova and urbis protector, and figured why not win more, heh heh).

attn iatee: i played a local standard cash tournament today with... three maindeck assemble the legions. i didnt do that well - finished @ 5-2 in like 19th place but people still learned to fear the legion. i also started 3-1 and had a good shot @ top 8 except i had some unfortunate mulls/draws in my win and in.

I bought a big batch of GTC rares to fill out my various casual guild decks this past week including sets of Assemble the Legion and Spark Trooper for my son's Boros deck. Now I'm regretting it because those cards can be real back breakers.

I think the trooper has potential for competitive play because connecting for a 12 point swing can be absolutely devastating. If you don't counter or kill it immediately, you will suffer.

i'm kind of surprised that armada wurm is only $3, i can easily imagine some future standard metagame where it's the premier high end creature

i guess it gets trumped by angel of serenity from the same set though

i'm thinking of rebuilding Seance and Armada Wurm feels like a neat fit there. I feel like the card was made to be abused in some way - $3 seems awfully low for such a powerhouse mythic.

btw those phantom sealeds are super soft and I have yet to not get to 2 wins (so worse case is 4 tix for a pack). forgoing bots entirely and just phantom sealeding for packs then drafting feels like the future for me

http://www.mtgquiz.com is a neat little time-waster, it starts with RTR/GTC only and unlocks other sets in reverse chronological order as you progress. i can get back to alara block most of the time but then i start getting stuff i haven't really played with and lose.

has anyone had any success drafting the prophetic prism/verdant haven/greenside watcher decks in gatecrash yet? i know one guy who just crushes draft after draft with them, but whenever i try it i either flood out or get the wrong mix of blockers/removal/trumps. trying to figure it out still, since people are so allergic to taking the 6-7 mana bombs in this format and that has to be exploitable.

i had a lot of fun drafting these decks in RTR but that set had cards like coursers accord and voidwielder and even isperia's skywatch that were good at pushing the board back in your favor in the midgame by handling 2 of their attackers the following turn with 1 card. this set doesn't have anything quite that obvious.

I've tried it a few times with limited success. Does that guy set out to do this from the beginning? Because I feel it's a big risk - the prism, greenslade, haven, and a lot of gates all seem essential to this archetype. I did it once as a 4-color deck (everything but red) and it worked fine, but ultimately I had 22 mana-producers in my deck which left you real prone to flooding out. You're right that the set doesn't really have that Courser's Accord card advantage-generating big mana common and a lot of your big mana rares can be taken care of with a Grisly Spectacle, 1000 Lashes, Angelic Edict, etc. As I see it you really have to have a lot of things go right, even if your draft is good. You have to get the Greenslade, and either a Prism or the right Gates early on. Your opponent can't have a fast Boros start because if you start to trade things, you're not going to be set up well. And once you get all the mana stuff out, you can't flood out. I'd be curious to see how that guy does it.

anyway. can someone tell me how the MOCS works? I have 10 QPs now and I think I can get 15 by the 20th. Where do I register to get the promo card? Do you just play in the preliminary, and that's it?

I had 3 greenside watchers and a verdant haven in a simic deck today tho ramp wasn't really my thing

the problem is you need the watcher, the haven and a gate before you even have...the setup for what could then be a good deck?

frogbs: you get the promo card automatically at the end-of-season server downtime (so on 3/20 for this one). the prelims are fixed 6-round events that friday/saturday and cost 15 QP to enter, then pay out 35 QP to everyone who goes 5-1 or 6-0. 35 QP is the entry fee for the finals the following weekend.

i see. it's GTC sealed - if I have the 15 QP and enter, do I get to keep my cards? if I don't enter...I get the promo card anyway, correct?

its phantom sealed, you don't get cards

you'll get the promo card regardless of whether you sign up

Where do I register to get the promo card? Do you just play in the preliminary, and that's it?

you get the promo after the first downtime when the seasons over iirc - you can score additional copies of the promo by doing well in the prelim, you get those at the end of the tournament

the problem with the verdant ramp deck is that you still have to make a good curve. higher-than-normal, sure, but you still need early drops. i think if you can land a frilled oculus or two, go for it. but, like all decks, those colors have to be open and you need legit bombs. i steamrolled a draft the other day drafting one of those. admittedly, i lucked into a p3p1 biomancer that helped make my p1p4 ooze flux work without a lot of evolve creatures, but yeah. 2 oculi to sink my mana into, among other treats. it was a fun deck in open colors, which was, of course, the key.

one game, i got the biomancer/ooze flux combo online and started cranking out oozes that were 3/3, 4/4, etc. a turn after my first ooze barrage he dropped high priest of penance. next turn, i topdecked sapphire drake. it was a good look.

started listening to limited resources podcasts the other day - they're quite good, i'm learning a lot, if you guys don't already you should tune in

I actually had biomancer and ooze out tonight. so much math.

my opponent took a picture of the board afterwards

thanks for the info guys. dunno what an alt-art dual could be worth but it's definitely worth grinding out a few more.

btw if you're really into odd boardstates in GTC limited, here's one you will probably never see again:
http://i.imgur.com/hUrgYtb.jpg

i thought the mocs S3 promo was the gp lotus cobra?

my fav part about that picture is how close the dude is to all his removal. what's that expression for those grapes that are just out of reach again?

yeah it's lotus cobra for this season. savannah is next.