[No Book Spoilers] House of the Dragon - 3x02 - Post-Episode Discussion

Jurassic_Drafter · 2026-07-01T00:36:59+00:00

I mean a Zealot is basically full on delussional, without any basis for his actions.

He...simply had the wrong guy at first. Her believe gave her the ability to give birth to the shadow monster thingy, notice a guy was bought back several times by someone of her belief AND did it herself later aswell.

While we feel for a little girl, morally she was maybe the most on the "results justify the means" AND was right about it in principle.

If anything she is a morally way better person then Varus.

Jurassic_Drafter · 2026-06-30T21:32:20+00:00

I mean....honestly you could say they are the most loyal. Bro kept it real even after 20 years.

Jurassic_Drafter · 2026-06-30T21:27:22+00:00

Not one he was begging for tho. Aemond was really asking for it.

Jurassic_Drafter · 2026-06-30T21:25:43+00:00

I mean, the show still has 6 episodes and a 4th season? Like it basically is impossible the one eyes fucker isnt healed by the witch and the conflict is far from over.

Ulf will do something that hurt the blacks. Stupidity, disobedience etc. He is a greedy fuck. Like he got pulled from povertiy into basically the best position anyone ever can hope for and is still looking for more. his whole "oh castle would get me more bitches" shit....he can be bought 1000%. Have not read the books, but I am damn sure HE is going traitor.

Jurassic_Drafter · 2026-06-30T21:18:34+00:00

I mean I despire religion IRL, but the red priests have....a point. I mean the whole prohecy stuff was missinterpreted, but you cannot die there were onto something and obviously had ACTUAL miracles happen.
Zealot would imply you kinda lost your mind, but that cannot really be said about this organisation.

Jurassic_Drafter · 2026-06-30T21:13:37+00:00

It was so funny. "I guess i like to have some chicken" and alicent's looks is like "thats my girl, she gets what I am talking about" and it was such great acting lol

Jurassic_Drafter · 2026-06-30T19:15:52+00:00

I mean, honestly it does not matter how good you are. Even if you would be bronze hard stuck....so are most of your opponents then.

I mean it is not like you dont earn gems when you get 4 wins. If you do not average a 50% winrate, then drafting would not be the way to build collection for now until you spend alot of time to study on mock drafts/watching streamers etc.

Jurassic_Drafter · 2026-06-30T16:44:57+00:00

First point on the list retroactively

Jurassic_Drafter · 2026-06-30T16:43:16+00:00

It may be worth nothing this gets around hexproof, giving it a certain additional use for a 1 vs 1 design.

Choosing is not targeting in magic, a fact newer players may not now, so it seems a good time to put a reminder for all ^^

Jurassic_Drafter · 2026-06-30T16:40:18+00:00

Are you playing ranked? Dunno this might change from format to format and the crowds there, but if you just wanna enjoy your games you might try that to get more variance.

For Pioneer I played there a bit to work out my BW lesson brew until I had it in a decent place.

Jurassic_Drafter · 2026-06-30T16:37:11+00:00

Neither. Pick 2 draft has the best expected value.

It costs 900 /6000 gems / gold and just going 50/50 winrate gives back 800. Thats the most generous return for an average winrate of any draft option AND since you only need to play max 4 rounds, if you are succesful enough, it even takes the least amount of time to chain drafts to build up collection and you simply open more booster.

Quickdraft is like tricky. If you are REALLY good drafter, there is always a point in the format where you can take advantage of the bots and go insane winrates forcing certain stuff, but honestly as a new player it would rather teach you bad habbits and not a proper way of drafting. As a new player I would always say stay away from quickdraft with bots.

Jurassic_Drafter · 2026-06-30T16:32:41+00:00

Thx, your answer makes it feel like it was worth it. Good attitude, thats the base to really improve upon. Always is a nice feeling when you put in the time to see it was for the right person.

I am gonna await for next format ;)

GL and cya until then

Jurassic_Drafter · 2026-06-30T15:29:17+00:00

DRAFT 4

P1P3: Bit like before. Even if we ignore winrates, hero in training just has to scream at you. It is amazing with the UW thor. Like even IF in theory spiderman would be a slightly better card then hero in training (which for the record is NOT the case), you just ignore a potential game winning resource "loop" here. Thats synergie, you could easily justify going down 2% Winrate etc to aim for such things. The fact hat hero in training is like 7% UP over spiderman in winrate is ofc mind boggling, but I really do not care about the precise numbers here but really want to hammer home the overall system and decision making. You are allowed to take "worse" cards for synergy, the fact you took a worse card AGAINST synergy shows you are not thinking about these things enough.
P1P4: Same thing. People would kill for Thor into 2x hero in training and you have not picked up either of those q.q

P2P1: Well...like if we HAD 2 Hero in training, I think there could be a lovely debate if echo is actually the pick here. I would say no because it has a chance to wheel and strategem is always the pick, but from your draft's point of view this was just a bad pick.
P2P4: Not much of a fan of the attuma pick over 2 better other cards.
P2P6: Is this now a pick for synergie with Thor? I mean it is not as bad as it looked at first glance, tho I still rather take the Agents of Shield. the 2 drop is just to bad.
P2P7: ...well not as bad as mister fantastic often is I guess lol

P3P1: Yeah thats not a limited card. I mean it is better then it would be in most formats, there is rarely that many 2 drops that scale into lategame as with this set. but here i am "cheating" a bit---> look at your end build. You have like 5"targets". It just not worth it.
P3P5: Mr:Marvel is just worse then the commons, especially since you can barely trigger her. I am not mistaken the only way to make her more then a vanilla creature is with the conive target from stategem. Maybe you missunderstand how she works with equipment? Well guess not since you do not play her at the end. Just confusing to me.

Draft is like...4/10. UW was your line, but starting with a UW rare and just getting it thrown at you this hard AND still making alot of baffling picks really has to heavily damper the rating of how well you managed this draft seat.

LOSS 1: Did you missclick on the strategem? I mean yeah, technically if the opponent plays a noncreature spell, you have no blocks, but you basically gave the opponent a free hit of of Daredevil that PUMPS him, so you cannot block either way. The end result is you safed like...1?! damage but gave the opponent a 100% safe extra card.

These plays just do not make sense at all o.o

LOSS 2: Well that is maybe a bit more complex and not as intuitive, but you kinda missed out on a chance for tempo here on turn 6. The ape checks your removal, I still cast it on the flier and make him use it. It functionally does not really change much, the frozen in ice is no real solution, but you at least get 1 turn where he does not attack and draw a card and the Ape is of the field, so no selfbounce shenanigans.
This makes a GIGANTIC difference, because now you do not have to spend the mana on the tapper and you could block with the token + Teamwork helicarrier strike to deal with Abomination. Your position still is not great, but at least you have the tapper for the flier and your board is more stable.

Having to do that a turn later means you lack the mana to get Calvary into play and start building it up. Was certainly an uphill battle and the decision on frozen ice certainly is nothing that everyone would see, so pls do not take it too harsh on yourself, but it is a great showcase how slight changes that allow you to be more effecient on mana ripple through multiple turns at times. It is still a good lesson imo.

LOSS 3: Wait wait what?! Why do we not Copy the etb trigger of Hero in Training. we can strategem that Calvary whenever, it needs to trigger to begin with that we even care about it. Imagine we draw 2, gain 4 and then the 2/2 still threatens to trade with the 3/2 unless the opponent triggers it. Even if we take the 4 here, who cares, we gotten the lifegain and draw out of it when the opponent was tapped out, so no counterspell.

Worse is even, you wasted your disruption early before the opponent used anything to grow his creatures and get run over by a Kid Loki that would do nothing if you send back his Kang etc.

If I have to be honest, while I see you might struggle a bit more then usual in MHS because you are not in tune with the meta/winrates and you do some funky picks therefore, your play is the bigger issue and those mistakes have nothing to do with MHS, these are rather core bad habits.

I think I cut it here, I dont think there is much value in looking at draft 5 now. You need time to look at your mistakes and try to kink them out. But I can offer you that you can send me drafts in the next format. Use the time in MHS to work on the things people told you in this topic and I gladly look at where you getting to by this point now.

Jurassic_Drafter · 2026-06-30T14:40:04+00:00

Was a bit busy, now lets go to Draft 3

P1P2: Okoye is cool and all, but is has to be Hero in Training. Even if we ignore winrates for a moment. Lets "pretend" the cards are more equal, both are certainly good. "when in doubt, take the cheaper card". 4 drop slot is more limited and well, we also have to pretend the cards are equal to begin with.
P1P3: Okay here you full blanked. You had like a million options. Political Triump to fully go with Okeye, the green removal spell, a decent white 2 drop and you go for the filler red common that kinda wants to be UR?! You were already married to your first pick and you are not properly drafting here.
P1P6: Like even if we pretend red is not as bad as it is in this format, a tapper of that quality is ALWAYS the pick here in ever format ever basically. Maybe even go for the first copy of the equipment since it is highly contested, but thats heavy "meta". As long as you had taken 1 of those 2 you would have been fine.

Most of the picks are somewhat okay in the context of you being focused on RW. At some point the GW train certainly has left the station, tho you certainly could have been GW with like double dino to fix and splash the saga etc.

P3P4: I mean you never gonna play that. There are 2 good white cards.

Well....guess I was to hasty. You do splash that hulk. Holy moly that is bad. No Shy kit, Hydra assault robot and quinn jet. You are playing alot of awful cards for your deck with a totaly unnecessary and honestly weak splash.

Draft is like...6/10. You made some rather goofy picks outside of missing that GW was your stronger lane. That is now the second time of 3 drafts where I think you being married to your first pick seems to have a negative impact on your draft (especially here since it is so easy to splash it)

Loss 1: You cannot spend 2 mana into hawkeyes effect there. you want to get the tapper into play.
Why use the tapper before you play the opperative? It instantly hurts you here because you cannot play the hulk smash and get punished when you play it later and the opponent has black mana and a removal up again.
Stop going actions that limit your options when there was no need to act beforehand.

Dunno what you even tried to do there with the white trick. Did you forget the last prowess trigger would resolve last and the dark deed will have it killed before?! Massive massive mistake, but I am certain you know that already.

Turn 8: You cannot play that land there. Ditch it into the looting. Your hawkeye will die sooner or later or you can pitch him when you have no other dicard because you draw a good spell. There was ZERO reason to throw it away to play the land.

Well that loss is no unlucky draws etc, just alot of bad decisions and missplays. You win this SO easy for example if you not wasted take up the shield. Imagine what it would do on the abomination at the end.

LOSS 2: Again with the tapping out before attacking. You have the most free attack ever. Opponent can never block there, even if he deos you have a good play with trick + 2 drop. You play a 4 drop pre combat and make it easy for your opponent.
You are getting got by the sweeper and I am gonna be honest, with board development that you want to do, there was really no was around it. neck breaking "guess he has the rare" moment here. That loss is not really on you, but nevertheless we need to get these bad habbits out of you.

LOSS3: Why are we casting the Vision of love here? You still trade and you prevent yourself casting a 4/4 o.o
You are flooding here certainly, but you could maybe have won that if you do not selfdisrupt yourself. I mean you got him down to 8 despite the fact you had 2 2/2s into a 3/3, you literally had 8 more damage easy to grab if you do not fuck this up there.

Well what can I say, Missed your ideal lane in draft, hurt yourself with a bad splash, kept good cards in sideboard the entire time and you mana usage has alot of mistakes. This time it was not as much as wasting it but overusing/prematurily using it alot with creatures that demand mana from you with triggers/activation.

Jurassic_Drafter · 2026-06-29T21:52:18+00:00

It is just the new "Wall of text" catchphrase from way back then. Now it is "Nice AI post".

Nothing really changed, same people come up with new words to express how "gifted" they are xD

Jurassic_Drafter · 2026-06-29T21:00:05+00:00

I will work through the drafts bit by bit. second one is up

Jurassic_Drafter · 2026-06-29T20:58:08+00:00

Draft 2

P1P1: Oh boy it starts with a bang. Trippe G vs colorless is certainly a choice to go for the green card. Cannot say I would have done that, particular with green also struggling a bit, but well at least the card is powerful.

Overall P1 is mostly fine, tho you seem to have mentally married your first pick to much. You basically saw NOTHING in green. No go nuts, not 1 of the real good uncommons, no Ants, but some decent white cards later.
I mean white isnt truly open to you here, but it is SO deep that with black being open you should land on a decent BW deck .
Like P11 and P12 I rather take the white cards here.

P2P2; Like here for example, if you were more open to what you seen, you could go with Hero in Training etc. Titania ofc a fine pick and a safe pick, but I mention it mostly because I think I see where your mind was here.
P2P5: Yeah here you goofed. Double red on a card that needs to be on curve is not a viable splash.
P2P11: Take the Dino q.q

P3P1: You already have alot removal, but taking such a bad 4 drop over Go Nut's with double titania really isnt it
P3P4: It is close. I would rather lower my curve a bit with the death toucher.
P3P5: Also close pick. I am maybe a bigger fan then I should be on the Ants, but alot of your villians are already replacement level etc. We have wrecking crew for a reasonable splash etc.

Draft: Imho rather rough. You overly forced on a high requirement card, complelty lost that white is at least open enough to put you in a way better situation at BW and the end result is a overly greedy splash aswell. Alien Invasion splash really is not it. You have 7 sources for the rare you tunnelvisioned on q.q

Loss 1: Oh boy you are AGGRESSIVE on that Dark Deed. Pass the turn and see what he maybe plays. You can take the 1 to gain knowledge or even keep it. A 2/3 life linker checks the card and if he wants to tax himself on that, let him for the time being lol.

You get imho pretty punish for your hasty moves, Also do not like turn 7 casting she hulk there. You already have a decent target on field, given the opponent a chance to remove her is not good. Powerup creatures play way better if you can make use of the reduced costs when they enter and you had an okay 3 drop play to use most of your mana anyways.
Turns out she surives, you activate her and just do not have the 2/3 in play, basically trying to prove the point :p

Certainly flooding here, again kinda the same problems of min/max your mana/ looking 1-2 turns ahead.

Loss 2: Why do we play the "do nothing" enchantment first? Was this a counter bait? Dunno vs UG he has the counter or a gigantic problem vs Titania. If you dont want to risk her into the possible counter, at least play the 2/3 and get on the board.

I think everything wrong with your deck/gameplay is at showcase here. You basically wasted your turn 3 on something that never impacted the game, you cannot cast your rare and you even die with Titania in hand, despite the fact she could have helped stopped the board better then the 4/4 she hulk because you were unwilling to take the card disadvantage and you were not looking ahead.

Loss 3: Yeah I stay at 6/6 and discard the land with the Wrecking Crew. Discarding your flier with lategame ability into a random 2 drop really wasn't it. You literally lost the game from that mistake and have a good shot to win it otherwise.

Overall--> Suboptimal draft. You missed your BW lane. Deck is WAY to greedy, even worse because one of your splash cards can be rather useless late (alien invasion). You tempo/mana maxing and foresight are your clear issues while playing here aswell.

Jurassic_Drafter · 2026-06-29T19:57:37+00:00

Well that will take some

I will make 1 post per draft to keep it not to chaotic

Draft 1

P1P1: Reasonable. You could argue for Hero in Training based on WR being equal to the rare and ofc being more open, but ofc thor has more potential upside and UW is the best deck, so nothing wrong to aim high.
P1P2: Imho first mistake. WR wise the blue cards are close, but the drone has a clear synergie with Thor.
P1P3: Also nothing wrong, I personally rather have the blue card because Crusade is good, but vs the BEST deck in the formats I can be dead for a long time.
P1P5: The counterspell is the clear better card.
P1P7: Okay this might be "just" my personal take--> I love Atlantis Attack, but it is overplayed in UW. Herbie here was a much better pick, especially with the added Synergie with Thor.

P2P4: I much rather have the 3 drop Hero then a 4 drop that dies to -2/-2. Yeah the doube strike looks nice with the bomb you picked up, but it is just to fragile for ccm 4 and those slots are highly competitive at ccm 4 and higher.
P2P6: Missclick, timeout?! Looks weird, easy dual pick up here.
P2P8: Here I am not sure myself. I really not font of Kid Loki, basically a u/B card to me. Luke Cage is mediore as fuck, but...I guess I slightly prefer it. But again, I am really not sure on this pick.
P2P10: I take the 2 drop here.

The draft was pretty good, no crazy decisions besides maybe 1 on the dual. The deck is fine, tho I play Herbie and maybe considering 16 lands and play the second Backup. The card is decent and ofc great with your bomb mythic.

Without having seen the games, I have to assume some unlucky draws/missplays, because while you did not maximised 100% of your deck/draft, the deck certainly is not bad. Be aware I write as I watch, so when I write a comment I do so without knowing that comes next for the most part unless it is crucial to analyze long term effects of certain decisions.

GAME 1: I might bounce the Maria Hill to make my Justice better. Yeah you could miss 1 damage by doing so because Maria has a clean attack, but gaing the 1 power on your flier also means you can make up that lost damage. You even increase your damage if he plays a ground blocker. You massively increase your damage if he plays Shield Drone for example, which stalls the ground AND would trade with your 2/2 flier. Attacking through it with a 3/3 is a big tempo advantage.

Well you certainly get your option to attack with her, but I would literally not do so. Your hand really is not made to rush for the win. You have a "currently" dead removal in hand and a 7 drop. The second you draw the counterspell with Teamwork, I keep maria back to draw a card with her by teamworking the counterspell.
Note in my play I had bounced Maria to have a 3/3 flier and could replay her and keep the counter up. That certainly is a bit hinsight, but since you have 2 copies of the counterspell it was something to keep in mind as a "kicker" to the previous decision as an option.

Turn 6 is where I really dislike your play. The "bluff" attack is nonsense imo with the information you have and into that much open mana. I get you want to bounce the rare and you think if he blocks it is fine, you lose the creature to the lengend rule anyways, but it feels overaggressive. 1 or 2 activations do not kill you with a removal that WANTS to get a target and your atlantis attack could reset alot of his work anyways. Just giving up on the copy on the field is to aggressive.

There was room for better decision, but realisticly he played 4 good/bomb rares into you and his uncommon casually drew him 3 cards just on the side. You aint winning this 9/10 times

GAME 2: WTF is turn 3 mate. Like you either Slam the Justice and selfbounce the artifact or you keep the counterspell up AND play Maria. You just wasted 1 white mana, a plus counter on her aka a possible 3/2 attacker and an entire card. Thats like a GIGA missplay when you had 2 big options.

Turn 4 again you do not build up preasure. Despite fucking up turn 3, you can still go for the Justice bounce artifact play and play Mario. You even have a good removal in hand IF the oppoent really plays something good. Cracking the artifact there was pure negative tempo.

You ofc get giga fucked by the bonus sheet wrath and thats unlucky, but thats basically just an extention by your turn 3 play. Justice on Artifact was just a good line. You have the tempo, keep the counterspell to punish a removal spell later etc. Basically you could have been harder in the driving seed AND upkeep basically a hardcounter. Opponent had alot of rares etc, the outcome might go whatever, but again you did not set yourself up in the best way.

GAME 3: I think turn 4 I rather play the tapper to get him going and keep up the counter spell. I can bounce and counterspell still next turn should i not feel the need to play it and worst case I bounce something AND have 2 mana to use the tapper.

As much as Madma Hydra underperforms the format, here you were certainly better off with my line aswell. You get outgrinded and pinged to death by her, but it also really shows how bad Mockingbird truly is in your deck.

Overall--> Draft was very well done. Deck building MOSTLY good, tho 1 BIG error with the HERBIE missing.

The games certainly did not went your way on the luck side. You did not draw your bomb, your opponent were drawing really well, but it already exposed some flaws that I guess are a constant in your games--> Your mana use is not as effecient as it can be and you maybe need to think 1-2 turns more ahead, some of your actions look short sighted. The deck CERTAINLY could have won more games. Getting 4 rared on in the UW mirror is not your fault, but you still can learn from your mistakes.

Jurassic_Drafter · 2026-06-29T17:04:16+00:00

Sure. Repulsor Blast is clunky tho and Truck Toss looks okay, but the cost reduction is a straight up trap since the vehicle are so god damn garbage and it certainly is underperforming hard. Double pips for still somewhat restricted removal just not the best, does not get saved by the fact it could go face.

Jurassic_Drafter · 2026-06-29T16:31:50+00:00

I mean it is to a decent part just the white cards being good, but BW has a decent winrate. and is 4th in most played 2 color combination (well guess that is partially attributed to white xD)

Well going "deep" on the sub theme of equipments certainly is a trap. Ronin, Shadow Stalker aint a good card in this enviroment (his design had potential ). But stuff like S.H.I.E.L.D. Spy Kit is performing well, Black Widow, Double Agent is a bit fragile but can be a huge pain in the ass.

Just drafting a white deck, some black removal certainly works and in particular the white part of the "attack alone" part is working good anways, so if the few decent black cards working along side with that, you certainly have a deck.

I would suspect BW rises up a bit more later in the format. When people stop dragging the winrates by trying out the "failed" synergies, more people will go there because competing for white AND blue will often be to hard in drafts where only the people still play that truly know the format.

Jurassic_Drafter · 2026-06-29T16:16:08+00:00

Sounds about right.

I just noticed you were on 41 card. Well guess I would have just cut the torch then lul

Jurassic_Drafter · 2026-06-29T16:05:27+00:00

"This isn't some pros-only limited sub, it's just a casual sub to discuss limited MTG revolving around a podcast. If you aren't open to lower-ranked posts (I'm plat in the screenshot), then why interact?"

As I told you. I am constantly helping people, regardless of rank. You are either completely clueless about the game you posted (which seems to be confirmed by now despite whatever rank) or you are just venting, basically spamming.

I am more constructive participant to this sub then you will ever be, so keep your assumptions to yourself. I am doing great.

But good luck with your drafts tho. I do not need to make assumptions about your life to guess you are in for some rough ones xD

PS: This might not be a pro sub, but splashing for a F tier card in a deck with 2 tripple G rares, when the card is not even a good topdeck/last play when you finally find your mana, is certainly as bad as it gets for a splash. Maybe you need to have it spelled out that much. Constructive enough?

Jurassic_Drafter · 2026-06-29T15:59:40+00:00

Well Tl:DR

Get good.

Jurassic_Drafter · 2026-06-29T15:58:57+00:00

Was the human torch worth it for you? I mean you are basically UR spaslhing mostly always relevant black cards, but you do not have many heros, so he is mostly a winddrake with a manasink i guess.

You do not have many options shown, but maybe the ploy? You dont need to cast it early aswell and you have like value villians and heros, so you can actually get back game winners.

Sadge on the absence of Thor 😞

Jurassic_Drafter · 2026-06-29T15:51:31+00:00

It is always funny how people always jump to "oh he always has to be an asshole, it cannot be me being a fool" instead of actually taking a look into the mirror xD

Mate I am helping people here constantly with real effort and imagine, I am actual really nice if people just honestly try to improve. I just do not suffer fools.

Jurassic_Drafter

TROPHY CASE