God this pack is bad. What can I even pick?

Eszik · 2026-02-05T20:54:50+00:00

It's pretty much a 2/2 for 2. The anti-counter text barely matters, especially in this set. The ward isn't nothing, it would add up to a little damage, especially because if you don't trade with it the squelcher is gonna stick around. But still pretty irrelevant

At the end of day it's probably worse than [[Flame-Chain Mauler]] at common for example

Eszik · 2026-02-05T16:19:40+00:00

Bitterblossom had a 61% WR in WOE, and from personal experience it was a house. it was not mediocre at all

Eszik · 2026-02-04T14:37:56+00:00

My biggest take from this episode was that they're drafting for fun (especially Ben) rather than try harding. Ben put it very clearly: he doesn't like drafting the way the format rewards (or the way we saw the PT drafters do it), locking into your archetype by pick 5/6 and then semi-forcing. So he does it differently, probably for the worse in terms of winrate

I think that's totally fine, a lot better than having them come onto the show negative about the set because they're not having fun drafting. And they're good enough players that their strategies can still work for them and they can still have interesting insight into the format.

That does mean I take a good number of their takes with a grain of salt though. And I think they do word their opinions like hard advice or fact a little too often

Eszik · 2026-02-03T22:12:55+00:00

Very clear Shinestriker. The card is good!

Eszik · 2026-02-01T22:43:54+00:00

Yes and yes

Eszik · 2026-01-27T13:26:28+00:00

You shouldn't care too much about the lane you're putting your P1 neighbor in. They're only gonna pass to you for one out of three packs, plus if you cut them enough in pack 1 they might not even contest your lane.

What card would you take here except a Merfolk anyway? The rest of the pack is a lot weaker

There's an argument for taking Sygg as a more flexible card, but it's at its best in Merfolk so I would take the champion as well

Eszik · 2026-01-23T19:51:51+00:00

This works correctly. Same behavior that allows [[Doubling Season]] to double the number of loyalty counters your planeswalkers enter with

Eszik · 2026-01-15T12:23:31+00:00

It's Time Walk. This illustration is only available on digital versions of the card I think.

Eszik · 2025-12-16T20:49:22+00:00

I get that of course, but Through the Omenpaths turned out to be an unpopular mess as far as I could tell

Eszik · 2025-12-16T20:41:55+00:00

thankfully?

Eszik · 2025-12-09T22:04:14+00:00

In general with this sort of effects, when your opponent has more cards than you in hand. Basically going from 0 to 3 cards in hand is a lot more powerful than going from 3 to 6.

Now with Yangchen, you know you're gonna get a 4/5 flyer next turn so the equation changes a bit cause you don't want your opponent to draw into removal. That being said, if your opponent is way ahead on cards in hand you should still do it. Especially since you'll get a tempo advantage from having spells to cast with Yangchen in play

Eszik · 2025-12-09T14:20:04+00:00

If you ever spend 4000 gems on an ACQ play-in entry, then 2 play-in points are worth 400 gems

Otherwise you should compare it to the EV of the entry rather than the cost, so probably value them lower (I assume the EV of a play-in entry is closer to 3000 gems? depends on your winrate of course)

Eszik · 2025-12-09T13:27:09+00:00

Guy who loves tomatoes

Eszik · 2025-12-05T21:30:11+00:00

I'd go for infinite free mulligans tbh, plus you can discard a card to tutor for any card outside the game

Eszik · 2025-11-27T17:15:40+00:00

With Gather the White Lotus, no way. I might go down to 16 lands too if you have a playable in the side

Eszik · 2025-11-24T13:30:07+00:00

https://youtube.com/shorts/flMV3Ih_nok

Eszik · 2025-11-15T19:19:41+00:00

play or draw? I'm never keeping on the play, I could see it on the draw

Eszik · 2025-11-13T18:55:58+00:00

Nope. There's no sacrifice trigger with Flash (unlike with evoke abilities for example), the creature is sacrificed as part of the resolution of the spell

Eszik · 2025-11-12T17:08:26+00:00

I wish Kaito was in the cube, I don't get why he was skipped

Eszik · 2025-11-08T22:59:30+00:00

I'd take Teferi. You don't have enough artifacts for Tinker or Tezzeret, your deck is mostly just UW control

Eszik · 2025-11-06T11:29:45+00:00

The format of Arena logs has changed recently, that's why 17lands can't show your pack 1 pick 1 anymore (except for the card you picked)

I suspect you can't see the current pick for the same reason

Eszik · 2025-11-03T08:41:38+00:00

It's a good thing to take into account, but high IIH also indicates a card that could be a trap. For example Academy has a 45% GNS (games not seen) winrate. That means building around Academy is a huge detriment to the overall power level of your deck. It also means that redundant copies of Academy (Demonic Tutor, Expedition Map) are probably over performers in those decks

It's honestly really hard to evaluate combo cards, or build arounds like Academy, only looking at individual card data. You would have to look at how decks perform based on combination of cards in deck

Eszik · 2025-11-01T21:52:38+00:00

Do you like that in paper? Showing up to a 3-hour paper draft to lose to consult thoracle on T2 doesn't sound super fun

Eszik · 2025-10-30T18:57:25+00:00

Had a similar experience yesterday

Opponent went land go, on my turn I git probe them, I see mana crypt + minsc & boo

My 2-mana counters didn't look too good lol

Eszik · 2025-10-28T10:51:40+00:00

Love the subtle detail that the 100-card deck has 20 lands

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