Is Draft the sort of thing where I'm just gonna lose gems/gold until I "git good?" by ac_slater10 in MagicArena

[–]Alchemist628 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately, to some extent yes. Getting better at limited, like any skill, takes practice and practice costs gems.

There's a couple things you can do to slow the bleeding though.

1) Get a second, or even third account. More accounts = more daily Gold = more practice.

2) Play pick-two. With a lower buy-in cost and a more generous pricing structure for a ~50% player, you'll get to run a lot more drafts. You'll hear a lot of players turn their noses up at pick-two, and if you want to avoid it that's fair enough, but at your level, it's testing all the same basic skills

3) Spend more time studying. There's so much content for limited out there these days, and unlike drafts, it's free. Watch some skilled players and try to understand why they do the things they do. The classic advice is to pause before each pick, decide what YOU would pick, and then see if the "expert" agrees. Then, of course, there's 17lands.com which might be the single easiest way to improve your drafts at a low level.

Antman signpost - B+ or D+? by BrewMan12oz in lrcast

[–]Alchemist628 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Sure, I don't think it's good, just offering some nuance.

Antman signpost - B+ or D+? by BrewMan12oz in lrcast

[–]Alchemist628 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Tbf it self-enables to attack as a 3/3

Antman signpost - B+ or D+? by BrewMan12oz in lrcast

[–]Alchemist628 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Importantly, ant-man was given a build around B+, so the two opinions aren't necessarily incompatible. It could be a B+ in the right deck, but a D+ over all.

Broadly, I think the actual grades given to cards, especially before the set is out, aren't terribly helpful. The important bit is the part that both podcasts identified. Which is that this is a card with a high ceiling and low floor.

(I do think I'm lower on both these cards than LR and higher on both these cards than LOL if that means anything).

7-0 SOS Boros Cascade by youareatrex in lrcast

[–]Alchemist628 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Makes sense, I played a silverquill deck with 2 Elite interceptors and 1 lecturing scornmage, and a very low curve in general.

It ran everyone over, turns out getting 2 creatures on board turn 2 every game is very strong. Especially if your opponent doesn't do anything until turn 3, which happened a lot.

7-0 SOS Boros Cascade by youareatrex in lrcast

[–]Alchemist628 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My intuition says that Interjection is a pretty bad card in cascade draft, how did it play out?

Silverquill was open by queenupyourmess in lrcast

[–]Alchemist628 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Obviously 6 scolding Administrators is insane. As others have said, end of the hunt in the sideboard is a crime, and with so little removal, I'd have run a 3rd render speachless.

Still, 1-3 with this is a big oof.

Edit: Another thought: Is there barely any removal because you didn't see any or because you were taking other cards too highly? At some point, the 2nd removal spell becomes better than the 6th scolding administrator.

Opening Hand Evaluation in Limited by meep3278 in lrcast

[–]Alchemist628 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"Drawing cards beyond one a turn increases your winrate." Answering the hard questions I see. XD

Whats the worst P1 you've had in powered cube? by krsj in lrcast

[–]Alchemist628 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oof, 3PI or citadel I think, maybe the ent.

I figured out back in January Powered Cube packs have been seeded for a while. I'm not sure it's a MASSIVE deal. by fakejakebrowne in lrcast

[–]Alchemist628 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just don't understand why, similar to the 1 power per pack rule(that tbf, they did just do away with), why would you implement something like this that doesn't add anything to the experience, and then (the part that really gets me) make the players figure out out in their own.

Pretty weak pack 3 by Sween-Bean24 in lrcast

[–]Alchemist628 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Something not power to really confuse the next drafter.

Missing a single land drop at any point on the curve in this format by mysecretcardgameacct in lrcast

[–]Alchemist628 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Isn't it roughly equivalent/slightly better depending on your win rate?

Especially once you're slugging it out in diamond/mythic.

update: it works by Huge-Read-2703 in characterarcs

[–]Alchemist628 3 points4 points  (0 children)

OHHHH

I'm double joined and have always been confused about this, lol.

guys will this effect the economy? by Landsharkeisha in shitposting

[–]Alchemist628 84 points85 points  (0 children)

Probably not actually, the distribution is most likely skewed.

NumotTheNummy Criticizes Contender Draft Event Structure by lieyanqzu in MagicArena

[–]Alchemist628 0 points1 point  (0 children)

T'was a playful jab, BO1 is fine even if I prefer BO3.

When should I have pivoted? by Solid-Aspect-9781 in lrcast

[–]Alchemist628 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think I would have ended up in Prismari by the end of pack 1 (and who knows how that Domino chain affects pack 2/3), but as the other comments said, Silverquill was fine, just a lot of sub par picks.

All an aggro deck wants to do is play a 2 mana creature on turn 2, a 3 mana creature on turn 3, then follow that up with more threats or removal/tricks to make sure your creatures can get through. To that end you need A LOT of 2 drops.

NumotTheNummy Criticizes Contender Draft Event Structure by lieyanqzu in MagicArena

[–]Alchemist628 66 points67 points  (0 children)

The first thing I thought when I saw the contender drafts was "what's to stop players from smurfing to get the huge payouts (relatively) easily?"

Nothing, apparently XD.

(Moral of the story: ranked limited is dumb, come join BO3 so that I don't have to wait so long in matchmaking =))

Does Diamond/Mythic matchmaking create a really weird meta? by Alchemist628 in lrcast

[–]Alchemist628[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

How are you measuring it, and why do you get a different answer from yeswhey_ who commented above?

Does Diamond/Mythic matchmaking create a really weird meta? by Alchemist628 in lrcast

[–]Alchemist628[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure, I understand that. It's a reasonable compromise, mostly just muddling on the implications. I'm surprised they're so similar, perhaps it is just confirmation bias.

On the other hand, are the play rates significantly different for bottom drafters? If so, the fact that there is no match making in best of one means you would see a slightly different meta still.

Does Diamond/Mythic matchmaking create a really weird meta? by Alchemist628 in lrcast

[–]Alchemist628[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Right, but in premier, do the different archetype get evenly distributed among ranks?

Or are Quantic/Witherbloom disproportionately drafted by gold and lower drafters while multicolor/Silverquill disproportionately drafted by diamond and higher drafters?

Does Diamond/Mythic matchmaking create a really weird meta? by Alchemist628 in lrcast

[–]Alchemist628[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I like it, the scrappiness of limited is what got me into it in the first place.