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[y2dvd]

I played against this really salty player last night. I ran over his Esper Control with my burn deck in the finals. He was murmuring sarcastically how burn took no skills and how it would be inconsistent at a 10 round event. I told him I've been playing this deck for about a month and it's done well against all the big dogs and won most of the matchups. He says no one really sideboards against this deck. All the more reasons this deck does better than he gives it credit for. Funny thing is he played against this deck last week and got stomped. If he chooses not to thrown in some sb hate for this deck, then who's at fault here?

It's that top tier mentality that goes into disbelief when a lowtier or new deck wins that always cracks me up.

 

[Fragamemnon]

tell him that he should be running more fiendslayer paladin, negate, and/or archangel in his SB.

Burn is a very real deck right now in Standard and you must respect it. Anyone on MTGO expecting to do better than 2-2 in a Standard Daily has dedicated burn hate in their sideboard.

People love to decry burn as "no-skill" and 'inconsistent', but it does require skill/math to play, has some of the roughest mulligan decisions in any format where it's a valid deck. It's only inconsistent because people that play decks that aren't durdling around and are ready for burn will generally beat burn. So it seems inconsistent in events in terms of records and placement, because it requires some degree of fortune to get into a top placement in a big event. News Flash: It always requires luck to get into a top8 in a big event. Even if you have a win rate of 70% (very high) your chance of getting into a top 8 in an event with a large number of rounds in not high.

 

[Firemind]

As a red mage who also likes to draw spells, let me tell you, RDW is incredibly skill intensive. You don't have get out of jail cards like Sphinx's Revelation and have to make do with the resources available to you.

Tsuyoshi Fujita was a red master. I miss him.

So tell people like him to shove it next time.

 

[OnPoint]

It's that top tier mentality that goes into disbelief when a lowtier or new deck wins that always cracks me up.

Yeah, people get attached and get mad. But the metagame is always evolving. If it didn't we'd all have been bored and quit a long time ago.

 

[DixieFlatline]

I played against this really salty player last night. I ran over his Esper Control with my burn deck in the finals. He was murmuring sarcastically how burn took no skills and how it would be inconsistent at a 10 round event. I told him I've been playing this deck for about a month and it's done well against all the big dogs and won most of the matchups. He says no one really sideboards against this deck. All the more reasons this deck does better than he gives it credit for. Funny thing is he played against this deck last week and got stomped. If he chooses not to thrown in some sb hate for this deck, then who's at fault here?

It's that top tier mentality that goes into disbelief when a lowtier or new deck wins that always cracks me up.

Salt from my opponent is my life's blood. It's a great 2 for 1 - they embarrass themselves while simultaneously giving you extra satisfaction. Everyone knows those elitist blue mages get super salty anyway - they hate us red plebeians rolling over their decks after spending half of what they did. Enjoy!

 

[Jeff-DSA]

I gave my co-worker four Celestial Flares for his mono white deck because my black/white and red/green decks were destroying him. Between this and Excoriate (which I also gave him), I clench up every time I attack.

 

[Crocodile]

Just played in a BNG/THS/THS draft. I put together what I thought was a pretty good R/G deck and listened to my friend's recommendation to avoid splashing two extra colours.

I lost horribly; I couldn't aggro fast enough and usually got my opponents down to <5 life before getting overwhelmed by large blockers and bestowed creatures.

Afterwards, I tried doing what my friend insisted against, and played some friendly games with the now four-colour deck.

My army of medium-sized creatures eventually got stopped by a few large defensive dudes as usual. But then BAM down come Ashiok and Phenax, and suddenly my army of creatures means my opponent doesn't have a library any more.

Inconsistent, sure. But fun as hell. Next time I'm just going to ignore my friend and run as many colours as I want

Trying to find the balance between when to splash and when not to splash can be tricky and is very dependent on what you want your deck to actually do, how your opponent's deck is structured, and what your specific game plan is against your opponent's deck. I'd be wary of becoming too "results oriented" however. The podcast, "Limited Resources" is a weekly show dedicated to Limited (draft/sealed) Magic. Ironically enough, this week's episode talks about "results oriented" thinking. If you're the type of person who wants to improve at Limited Magic, I'd make a concerted effort to listen to their show every week.

 

[Yeef]

I gave my co-worker four Celestial Flares for his mono white deck because my black/white and red/green decks were destroying him. Between this and Excoriate (which I also gave him), I clench up every time I attack.

Two celestial flares typically won't work if you'r enot overextending too much. The first resolves and you sacrifice an attacking creature. At that point, your devotion is probably too low for the other god, so it's removed from combat and no longer a creature, therefore you don't have to (and, in fact, can't) sacrifice it.

 

[Jeff-DSA]

Two celestial flares typically won't work if you'r enot overextending too much. The first resolves and you sacrifice an attacking creature. At that point, your devotion is probably too low for the other god, so it's removed from combat and no longer a creature, therefore you don't have to (and, in fact, can't) sacrifice it.

No, generally he just catches me with one, I'm just exaggerating a bit there. It's a sucky way to lose a god though. In my G/R, he uses it to remove my Stormbreath Dragons more than anything.

 

[WanderingWind]

Building a functional cube is insanely expensive. What do you guys use for the packs? Or do you just slide the box around and hope people don't pass out from the boredom?

#BorosOverBirdie

 

[narcosis219]

Building a functional cube is insanely expensive. What do you guys use for the packs? Or do you just slide the box around and hope people don't pass out from the boredom?

#BorosOverBirdie

We place all the cards in the middle of the table, then everyone randomly grabs 15.

Boredom? How is it boring?

 

[An-Det]

Building a functional cube is insanely expensive. What do you guys use for the packs? Or do you just slide the box around and hope people don't pass out from the boredom?

#BorosOverBirdie

We shuffle up the cube, then divide into enough packs for everyone. Doesn't take too long and we're shooting the shit while we do it.

I agree about it being expensive though. This is the cube we play with, and even beside the Power the costs add up quick.

 

[WanderingWind]

We place all the cards in the middle of the table, then everyone randomly grabs 15.

Boredom? How is it boring?

Well, the cards are in the holiday box thingy. If I went with my original plan to just pass the box around...

We shuffle up the cube, then divide into enough packs for everyone. Doesn't take too long and we're shooting the shit while we do it.

I agree about it being expensive though. This is the cube we play with, and even beside the Power the costs add up quick.

...but this sounds better.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

Managed to win my third straight FNM draft tonight with GR beats. I'm pretty sure my favorite card to draft in Born of the Gods is Swordwise Centaur; that guy does some serious work (especially when backed up with Aspect of Hydra).

 

[ThLunarian]

In my cube playgroup, usually the owner of the cube creates packs beforehand. Two of each color, two land, two artifacts, two gold as a baseline (16 card packs).

Usually one or two of the slots get switched up to be random, just so signals aren't always totally crystal clear from the get go.

Then there's the rarity cube that my friend built, which has 4 of each common, 2 of each uncommon, and one of each rare and mythic. He does those more by rarity than by color - 10 commons, 3 uncommon, 2 rare, and 1 mythic.

 

[Hero]

Creating packs sounds kind of dumb and a hassle to be honest. Shuffle and make piles of 15.

 

[ThLunarian]

Creating packs sounds kind of dumb and a hassle to be honest. Shuffle and make piles of 15.

We've been doing this for 7 years and started out doing it like you say. Creating packs makes for a much more balanced play experience.

Also, shuffling up hundreds of cards that started out as a bunch of complete decks lined up right next to each other is a nightmare

 

[platypotamus]

We've been doing this for 7 years and started out doing it like you say. Creating packs makes for a much more balanced play experience.

Also, shuffling up hundreds of cards that started out as a bunch of complete decks lined up right next to each other is a nightmare

After cube play wraps up when breaking down the decks we just separate out the basic lands, and then kind of put everything out on the table in a massive heap. Then we kind of swirl it around a bunch like vegas dealers shuffling but less precise. Then we just start grabbing cards and putting them in the box as this happening. Gets the decks nice and broken up for the next draft.

 

[Hero]

We've been doing this for 7 years and started out doing it like you say. Creating packs makes for a much more balanced play experience.

Also, shuffling up hundreds of cards that started out as a bunch of complete decks lined up right next to each other is a nightmare

If a cube is properly balanced and shuffled then the chances of any sort of improper shifting is extremely low in terms of percentages. Not to mention if I know every pack is supposed to contain a certain breakdown then I will know what colors people are generally going.

 

[ThLunarian]

Again... Seven plus years of a rotating group that adds up to over 30 people drafting once or twice a week.

Keep doing what you're doing and more power to you, but what my group is doing works.

 

[The Technomancer]

Yeah crazy stuff is always going to happen in kitchen table commander games, but I'm still feeling pretty fucking awesome about using Xenagos the god to boost up a 5/5 to 10/10, then playing Prime Speaker Zegana and duplicating her twice with Riku of Two Reflections and Strionic Resonator so that I drew 36 cards

And had spellbook out, so I got to keep them

 

[y2dvd]

Oh man I would've love to flash in my Notion Thief then and there! >

 

[MjFrancis]

So for all of you who warned me that UR Storm in Modern is really difficult to play - you are absolutely 100% spot on. It is really difficult to play. I'll work on it.

This primer should eventually prove helpful:

http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/established-modern/511602-ur-storm

I'll continue to goldfish and read, read, read then play, play, play. It's not so much that I even desire to compete with it, I just want to simply understand how to work it. Coming from a kitchen table & draft background, it's a welcomed challenge.

 

[Fragamemnon]

Playing Vintage today. Deck includes a copy of Mikokoro, Center of the Sea. We're going deep, and we're going to win.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

So for all of you who warned me that UR Storm in Modern is really difficult to play - you are absolutely 100% spot on. It is really difficult to play. I'll work on it.

This primer should eventually prove helpful:

http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/established-modern/511602-ur-storm

I'll continue to goldfish and read, read, read then play, play, play. It's not so much that I even desire to compete with it, I just want to simply understand how to work it. Coming from a kitchen table & draft background, it's a welcomed challenge.

Just don't listen to those guys who tell you that it's acceptable to play Faithless Looting.

Storm is such a bizarre deck. When you first start playing it, it feels completely impenetrable. Then you get fluent with it, and you wonder what was so hard about it in the first place. Then you watch Finkel play some matches with it, and realize that there's a level of play that you didn't realize was there.

As much as I miss Seething Song, the deck did get more interesting to play without it. You don't get the free wins that you used to. Although it was a lot of fun to Epic Experiment for 13...ahh the memories...

 

[Fragamemnon]

Playing Vintage today. Deck includes a copy of Mikokoro, Center of the Sea. We're going deep, and we're going to win.

I didn't win it, but I did make top 8 with junk bears featuring Spirit of the Labyrinth, which was great all day.

I have a few other tweaks to make-the Mikokoro was terrible-and after the changes I would suggest this:

Creatures:

3 Tarmogoyf
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Qasali Pridemage
3 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Dark Confidant
4 Spirit of the Labyrinth

Spells:
1 Vampiric Tutor
4 Thoughtseize
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Abrupt Decay
1 Nature's Claim
1 Swords to Plowshares

Mana:
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
2 Bayou
2 Savannah
2 Scrubland
3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas

sideboard:

1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Karakas
2 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Nilhil Spellbomb
4 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Disenchant
1 Nature's Claim

The Knights are additional mana accelerator / disruption engines that also work as a creature trump in the mirror. This 75 is well positioned I feel and very easy to play. Spirit of the Labyrinth is what holds the deck more or less together-the 3/1 body gets there in Vintage, and provides for some solid disruption against a lot of decks.

 

[keeblerdrow]

On the Open stream, how did that guy pay for a quicken + Supreme Verdict with 4 mana on the board? Am I missing something?

 

[OnPoint]

On the Open stream, how did that guy pay for a quicken + Supreme Verdict with 4 mana on the board? Am I missing something?

Floated mana from a destroyed land

 

[keeblerdrow]

Floated mana from a destroyed land

Ahh. Yeah, that was an implied action I never saw on board. That was a fun game to watch.

 

[OnPoint]

Game 2 was even crazier. I can't believe the UW player lost that lol

 

[bigkrev]

]Just don't listen to those guys who tell you that it's acceptable to play Faithless Looting. [/B]

This is like the second most important lesson in learning how to be a better Magic player after learning that straight lifegain cards are unplayable. It shocks me that there are people who still use this card, and probably hurt their win %s by using it.

The other thing you need to do is test SB games- not just what others bring in against you, but drawing your actual SB cards can hurt the combo!

 

[rCIZZLE]

Played in a small tournament this evening with Scapeshift for the first time and ended up taking first with a 4-0, 8-0 in games. Victory feels tainted though given the first 2 rounds were against players new to the format who definitely didn't have tiered decks lol. Round 3 and 4 were against much better players and harder matchups (jund and twin) so that redeems it a bit.

Really glad I finally finished the deck and will likely be playing only it for the foreseeable future.

I didn't win it, but I did make top 8 with junk bears featuring Spirit of the Labyrinth, which was great all day.

I have a few other tweaks to make-the Mikokoro was terrible-and after the changes I would suggest this:

I could build this except for the power. There's really no vintage community at all within reasonable driving distance though.

 

[An-Det]

Fantastic, my friend Jeffrey Pyka is on camera at 10-0 and first in standings right now at GP Cincinnati. Edit: now 11-0. Edit again: 12-0, the only undefeated now. Pretty much guaranteed Top 8 now.

 

[phazedplasma]

How does everyone sort they're sealed deck?

Any tips or strats?

 

[rCIZZLE]

How does everyone sort they're sealed deck?

Any tips or strats?

How I usually do it:
1. Sort by colors (as I'm opening)
2. Remove unplayables.
3. Check for bombs.

After that it varies very much depending on what was opened. It's best to have ~23 playables with bombs in only 2 colors but that doesn't always happen.

 

[OnPoint]

Loving this god damned Food Chain deck in the SCG Open. I built a similar one when Avacyn came out but this one is super optimized. JELLY!

Fantastic, my friend Jeffrey Pyka is on camera at 10-0 and first in standings right now at GP Cincinnati. Edit: now 11-0. Edit again: 12-0, the only undefeated now. Pretty much guaranteed Top 8 now.

Awesome man, let's hope he takes it home!

 

[Yeef]

How does everyone sort they're sealed deck?

Any tips or strats?

I typically sort out the rares first, then sort the rest by color. After that, I separate out the removal and fixing. I look at the removal, fixing and rares to see if there's anything worth building around and/or splashing for. Then I check my curve to see if those build-arounds are viable. Then I just draw nothing but lands and lose.

 

[An-Det]

Loving this god damned Food Chain deck in the SCG Open. I built a similar one when Avacyn came out but this one is super optimized. JELLY!



Awesome man, let's hope he takes it home!

He ended up losing in the quarterfinals, but it's still pretty great since the whole top 8 q's for whichever PT this feeds. We were all rooting for him.

 

[OnPoint]

UG Food Chain noooooooo

 

[TestMonkey]

So for all of you who warned me that UR Storm in Modern is really difficult to play - you are absolutely 100% spot on. It is really difficult to play. I'll work on it.

This primer should eventually prove helpful:

http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/established-modern/511602-ur-storm

I'll continue to goldfish and read, read, read then play, play, play. It's not so much that I even desire to compete with it, I just want to simply understand how to work it. Coming from a kitchen table & draft background, it's a welcomed challenge.

I've been playing T.E.S. for years so I know a thing or two about storm.

• When you're first starting out the most important thing to practice is clean accounting. Carry dice or take notes for counting your exact storm count and how much mana you currently have floating.
• You must clearly explain every action you take to your opponent and be prepared to answer a question at any point and then resume where you left off without getting flustered. I've gotten wins off opposing Storm players by asking their exact storm count at the moment and then asking how much mana they have floating. If either answer is incorrect or they forget where they left off you can call a judge and get a free win.
• When you're goldfishing the deck go through the motions every time until you can do it perfectly. Storm is a performance piece.

 

[bigkrev]

I've been playing T.E.S. for years so I know a thing or two about storm.

• When you're first starting out the most important thing to practice is clean accounting. Carry dice or take notes for counting your exact storm count and how much mana you currently have floating.
  [*]You must clearly explain every action you take to your opponent and be prepared to answer a question at any point and then resume where you left off without getting flustered. I've gotten wins off opposing Storm players by asking their exact storm count at the moment and then asking how much mana they have floating. If either answer is incorrect or they forget where they left off you can call a judge and get a free win.
• When you're goldfishing the deck go through the motions every time until you can do it perfectly. Storm is a performance piece.

SUPER IMPORTANT! I would also recommend doing this from time to time if you are ever being combo'd out by a deck like Storm or Eggs- if you actually know, and your opponent gets it wrong, you can get a free win. While it may look really stupid, using an Abacus can really help you out and is easier than fumbling around with a die.

Also, I continue to be super happy that there are sportsbooks taking action on Magic

 

[kirblar]

SUPER IMPORTANT! I would also recommend doing this from time to time if you are ever being combo'd out by a deck like Storm or Eggs- if you actually know, and your opponent gets it wrong, you can get a free win. While it may look really stupid, using an Abacus can really help you out and is easier than fumbling around with a die.

Also, I continue to be super happy that there are sportsbooks taking action on Magic

Thats cause pinnacle has hired a lot of former Magic pros, lol.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

SUPER IMPORTANT! I would also recommend doing this from time to time if you are ever being combo'd out by a deck like Storm or Eggs- if you actually know, and your opponent gets it wrong, you can get a free win. While it may look really stupid, using an Abacus can really help you out and is easier than fumbling around with a die.

At the very least, if you want to use dice, get some spindown D20s and learn how to use them. Fumbling about with D6s just isn't practical. One guy at Richmond had an iPhone app he was using - that works too.

Also - while we're talking about how to operationally execute Storm: make sure it's obvious which cards have flashback from PiF and which ones don't. Make separate piles in your yard or something. And when you exile cards, separate them from your yard. Don't just turn them sideways. If someone does judge call you, you need to be confident and correct.

 

[keeblerdrow]

So this fall, I'm facing my first actual product rotation where I have a substantial amount of cards headed out to pasture in terms of standard play. This has made me start to think long and hard about my organization methods and what amount of what cards I'm keeping. I'd really like some input about this.

I'm a very visual brewer in Magic. I need to browse cards to effectively create ideas and interactions. For this reason I'm thinking about using binders for my collection. I have 2 or 3 Ultra-Pro Binders at the moment and I'm thinking about putting my organization scheme into them.

My plan:
Each Binder holds 1 expansion. Each Binder has 360 slots, each one can hold between 4-6 copies of a single card. It's been a while since there has been a set that even approaches 300 individual cards so I'll have left-over slots for cards I want even more multiples of.

Within each binder, I organize first by color, then by spell type, then by converted mana cost. I'm not sure how I'll account for some cards I've just never seen a copy of (there are usually 2 or 3 per set), but I should be able to set this up at the beginning of every set rather quickly.

Keeping each expansion in a binder would help immensely in two main goals: visual read of my available cards & rotations or block play being easier. I think initial organization is going to be a bitch, but if I keep this up I should be able to organize new cards for new sets easily as I get them.



Right now all of my cards are in cardboard boxes and holiday gift boxes. If I want to brew, I need to pull the card out of my memory/ass. I don't really like the set up other than ease of organization.


I have 2 concerns: 1) Can Ultra-Pro binders and their pages easily stand up to holding multiple cards, maybe up to 8 in one slot, and to cards being pulled and re-inserted often. 2) What will I do if I have everything organized and then find out I'm missing 4 or 5 cards in a set and need to make room: NIGHTMARE.



Any ideas?

 

[blindrocket]

I brew by building a deck on deckbox.org
It's great for getting a visual, and it has all of the cards available so you don't actually have to own them to come up with something.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

All I do is draft. And I have a huge pile of draft chaff sitting on a bookshelf. I really need to get a cardboard box or trade/sell the bulk or something.

 

[blindrocket]

I pretty much only buy singles with the very rare booster pack purchase. I call it playing the Lotto.

 

[WanderingWind]

So this fall, I'm facing my first actual product rotation where I have a substantial amount of cards headed out to pasture in terms of standard play. This has made me start to think long and hard about my organization methods and what amount of what cards I'm keeping. I'd really like some input about this.

I'm a very visual brewer in Magic. I need to browse cards to effectively create ideas and interactions. For this reason I'm thinking about using binders for my collection. I have 2 or 3 Ultra-Pro Binders at the moment and I'm thinking about putting my organization scheme into them.

My plan:
Each Binder holds 1 expansion. Each Binder has 360 slots, each one can hold between 4-6 copies of a single card. It's been a while since there has been a set that even approaches 300 individual cards so I'll have left-over slots for cards I want even more multiples of.

Within each binder, I organize first by color, then by spell type, then by converted mana cost. I'm not sure how I'll account for some cards I've just never seen a copy of (there are usually 2 or 3 per set), but I should be able to set this up at the beginning of every set rather quickly.

Keeping each expansion in a binder would help immensely in two main goals: visual read of my available cards & rotations or block play being easier. I think initial organization is going to be a bitch, but if I keep this up I should be able to organize new cards for new sets easily as I get them.



Right now all of my cards are in cardboard boxes and holiday gift boxes. If I want to brew, I need to pull the card out of my memory/ass. I don't really like the set up other than ease of organization.


I have 2 concerns: 1) Can Ultra-Pro binders and their pages easily stand up to holding multiple cards, maybe up to 8 in one slot, and to cards being pulled and re-inserted often. 2) What will I do if I have everything organized and then find out I'm missing 4 or 5 cards in a set and need to make room: NIGHTMARE.



Any ideas?

All I will say is that after much experimentation, the best system I have found is to have 2 boxes. One for standard stuff in rotation, one for non standard stuff and a binder with the super valuables. Both the boxes I separate by colors (obviously) but then again with the immediately playable cards in the front, with the "I doubt I'll ever play these, but hey one day I may need a copy of Search the City."

When I moved recently, I had my stuff sort of scattered. Now, I'm missing a deck somewhere that has at least my Fiendslayer Paladins. Organize now, before it's too late.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

I have a personal policy to only draft mono-red in cube if I get a Sulfuric Vortex in the first couple of picks. I see that as a sign from the cosmos that it's time to be the fun police. This deck 3-0d an MTGO cube draft easily, only dropping one game in the process:

In a way I felt bad. But at the same time I just wished I had a Strip Mine somewhere in there too...

 

[JulianImp]

How does everyone sort they're sealed deck?

Any tips or strats?

When opening packs, I sort by color, then aphabetically once theyre all open to ease registration (makes spotting duplicates way easier).

After deck swap's done, I sort by color, then filter out unplayables for each color and set them aside. This gives me a general sense of how deep each color is.

A third step is checking the colors for bombs and splashable cards, and if I have good cards I can splash for, I check to see if any other colors can offer me ways to get my splashes. Bombs are great, but if they're unsplashable and in a shallow color, I often end up dropping them altogether.

Once I have settled on the two or three best colors, I sort cards by mana cost and see both how the curve looks and what my creature-to-spell ratio is. I check to make sure the cards I'm considering support my gameplan (ie: small creatures are good for heroic aggro decks, but more controllish builds with late-game bombs could probably use some vanilla 2/4s instead).

Finally, I sort my cards by color and count their colored mana symbols (both in CMC and abilities they might have) to see how many of each land I'll be running. This is just a rule of thumb, since there're many cases where I might have, say, more red symbols than white, but desperately need to play some two-drops that cost WW, so I end up running more plains than mountains. The place of each color in the mana curve also decides which lands I'll be running, since packing blue for some great late-game cards doesn't warrant lots of islands if my only early blue card is a Divination.

I also tend to keep all the remaining cards of a color in front of the rest for sideboarding, plus any other cards of colors I might consider splashing, as well as a few lands of those colors just in case I end up needing them.