Magic: The Gathering C/D

my prediction (of course) is that rivals will be a significant improvement and the legacy of the 2 set block era going into the 1 set block era will be that the BBA formats were all, or nearly all, better than the respective AAA formats

so far i don't think it's that bad, just average

It seems bad in comparison to HOU drafts which were great. Cycling really is the most interesting mechanic.

Most of my success in XLN draft so far has come from black red pirate aggro, but I think blue green tempo is the strongest archetype. Dinosaur decks seem way too slow.

have been doing a few sealed leagues because i'm planning to play the mocs monthly on sunday. unsurprisingly, a synergy set does not make for a great sealed format. you can actually get a reasonable amount of fixing in green and blue especially but the synergy focus plus the depressed power level means you can easily have a pool with nothing powerful in it to splash. so far i actually think the best colour combo might be golgari, which is funny given that pair's technical omission from the set.

speaking of the omitted colour pairs, i'm sure everyone has figured this out now but favorable winds is the missing WU 'gold' common. that deck is very good. i guess the chupacabra is the BG one, although grim captain's call kinda sorta fits too. i'm not rushing the break the BG explore archetype in draft anytime soon tho.

hey did any of you guys end up going to gp pvd? how did you get on?

haha yeah my team flamed out and couldn't convert 5-2 to d2. we def put too many lands in two decks. I think explore and treasures make it really hard to have 'the right' manabase in this format.

oof sorry man. v much agree on the challenge with land count.

what decks did you put together?

we had one very good dinosaurs deck w/ huatli + settle the wreckage, one pretty good BR pirates deck that I played and one mediocre UG merfolk tempo deck that could steal matches from bad players but was underpowered. my deck needed to be 16 lands and the merfolk deck actually needed to be 15 lands. I got pretty unlucky regardless - I had some good rares (captivating crew, barrage) but I was basically never in a spot to really benefit from them - I had captivating crew on board twice over 9 rounds, once as a chump blocker, and once in a game where he resolved the draw 7. I drew into 9/10 lands so many times in the tournament that I lost count.

I think our cardpool was solid, so mostly bummed about misbuilding our decks / getting fairly unlucky. I didn't even feel like I made many in-game misplays since I just didn't have any opportunities to. with such an enormous sideboard I think there's lots of room to 'misplay' in not boarding in the right 8 cards - I think that's the area where the pros really get their edge in this format.

one weird thing was how everyone seemed to match our seating configuration - our dino deck was center, and he played against like 5-6 dino decks. I played pirates and played against 5-6 pirate decks.

huh that is weird. and i guess the way the tribes are distributed you are almost guaranteed everyone has 1 dino deck, 1 pirate, and then whatever's best out of what's left. also, variance in team sealed for this type of set has to be huge, some people are just going to open disgusting full-on synergy decks.

ha yeah we sat next to PGO r7 at 5-2 and next to PVD/Stark/Efro r8 and I was like "well if these guys are doing horribly too, maybe all that matters is whether you open up an insane tribal pool" - d2 results seemed to suggest otherwise...

I'm thinking of locking in ramunap as my deck choice for the pt, it seems like the format probably won't be broken in any other direction by then and the deck seems easier to play than temur emergy.

as long as people aren't maindecking hate i think that deck will be good

It's a reasonable choice, although I think energy is stronger. But then I've been playing an assortment of control varieties, so what do I know?

I feel like red gives me the best chance at just getting lucky and hazoreting people out, whereas energy requires playing super well. I have still played 0 games of standard in my life fwiw, though I'm gonna start grinding leagues soon I guess.

my other plan is to have everyone pass me this deck again:

https://i.imgur.com/qAG9AfB.jpg

I think Ramunap is a good choice for someone with not much experience. I played Block Constructed Robots at PT Nagoya for the same reason: I never play constructed, it was easy to play, it required little format knowledge. OTOH, my 4-color control deck at the next PT was a train wreck because I never knew what was a threat. If I ever make it back to the PT, I'm just playing the easiest deck

i suspect this red deck is harder to play than most standard RDWs

seems like all the pros are pretty dismissive about remunap now...

There are some good options for lifegain, good answers to Hazoret, and ways to blow up their deserts
All combined, red is definitely weaker in current standard.

rdw is always better than people say it is

yeah also everyone agreeing that it's bad might actually make it a good time to play it

https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/mono-red-at-worlds/

pvddr comments at the end basically boil down to red is still just fine, tier 1, although he wouldn't necessarily recommend it

I'm thinking of locking in ramunap as my deck choice for the pt, it seems like the format probably won't be broken in any other direction by then and the deck seems easier to play than temur emergy.

i honestly don't know how true that is - the rug decks mostly rely on landing a single threat that you're opponent can't answer and then just riding it to victory whereas red requires you to make some real tough decisions about sequencing. also i think there's more skill to the mirror. i think its a good deck - its likely what im playing at nationals this wekend - but like most standard decks it has real play to it

fwiw i wouldnt lock in my deck this early - there's almost no benefit to doing it this far out and nothing in standard is complex enough that you couldn't pick it up closer the the event and still become proficient. also format knowledge as a whole is more important than deck knowledge imo so just playing lots of ~this standard~ with any reasonable deck has real value. finally a lot of yr % is going to come from the flex slots you use to tune yr deck and you're going to make better choices just playing the format for three weeks and not having blinders on

also if you want to borrow standard cards on mtgo msg me ive been playing lots in prep as well

I 5-0d my first standard league with it monored so clearly it's the best deck haha. I def got a sense of how the deck has nuanced sequencing decisions, though I think that's probably a skill that's fairly transferable from the decks/formats I play a lot, more than like, midrange mirror sideboarding in standard would be. I may take you up on borrowing stuff, I have access to red/temur on a friend's account but not control stuff. I'm all ears on advice in general.

anyone have any deep thoughts on standard? I've been brewing this deck with a friend who's also going: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/801143#paper

it has okay temur/red matchups but gets super wrecked by that stupid abzan token deck, which I keep playing again and again online. not sure deep down if it's a better call than monored, or maybe even mardu vehicles. I don't really want to play temur.

I do feel like I have a pretty good sense of standard after grinding a ton of leagues online, though I really have no clue what to play.

tokens deck seems like the sort of deck thats overrepresented online due to being cheaper than other decks + gimmicky

Mono red has pretty much dried up over here. I've been seeing tons of both temur and sultai energy, a fair amount of control variants, and then just dribs and drabs of other decks. Tokens is absolutely not a big player IRL.

lamp, any chance you have mardu vehicles stuff online? (or anyone else)

okay I've decided to lock in monored

I'm doing alright with it online and the temur matchup isn't unwinnable or anything

yeah i came to the same conclusion though there might be a good heart of kiran deck too

Modern GPs in Hartford, Providence and Toronto next year, maybe it's time for me to relearn that format

yeah modern seems kinda fun right now actually, that new humans deck is cool. I think unclaimed territory might open up some other tribal strategies eventually. the format still has the same core issues it always has w/ super linear strategies / sb cards etc. but overall the meta is a little less 'burn/tron/valakut/affinity' than it used to be.

well i'm one of the valakuts so

you don't have to be...

sorry iatee i dont look at ilx v much anymore - coincidentally i have been playing vehicles this week and can lend you the deck on mtgo if you still want

are you preparing for this anyone btw? i can ask abt adding you to our group chatz if you want

I have 2 guys that I'm going with so kinda, but we're not a formal team or anything. I'd be up for joining your chat if it's nbd.

how are you feeling about vehicles? the sense I've gotten from playing against it is that it's a little too clunky after rotation, also has pretty bad mana. but it does play a lot of sledgehammer cards. I've liked monored in testing, I don't feel like the temur matchup is unwinnable or anything.

the online meta is weird though, I think it might be really misleading. competitive leagues are...not really that competitive.

there's been a lot of players - even really good players - trying extremely fringe-seeming strategies in the comp leagues. i've been playing against u/b/x tezzeret decks all standard season and they've basically put up no 5-0 lists which makes me think its eitger a) they really are bad or b) are so good that ppl are deliberately conceding to conceal info

of all the hazoret decks i think its the most versatile and powerful. the mana is better than last season's although its still worse than your other options. unclaimed territory is legit good and dragonskull summit also helps. i played a small warm-up tournament and two leagues with it and have only lost once and convinced someone else to play two leagues to a 9-1 record but im the only one in our group that really likes the deck still because it can just be so clunky and poorly-matched based on how it draws. conversely it nuts really hard and feels unbeatable with a good draw

I think I can actually just make the deck online, I have monored and can just rent hearts / courtyards.

do you have a list you like?

I just top 8'd the Hong Kong GP! My top 8 draft deck was excellent - thought I had a shot of winning the whole thing (I think they'll have it up on the website soon.) Lost in the quarterfinals in three close games, even after my opponent mulled to 5 game 3. I think I could have played a bit differently, and luck played a part, but obv the weekend was a success on the whole

that's fantastic, congratulations!

congrats vinne!

whoa congrats

awesome, great job!

Thanks y'all

damn homie gj. ilx takes over the pt

iatee - I'm on my phone but I'll send you a list I liked. I 5-0d a league this wknd but idk how good the deck is. when do you leave for NM?

thurs morning - I'm prob just gonna play monored tbh, since it's what I know and I'm not gonna have a lot of time to test in the next few days