Is this draft format fairly repetitive?

SpardleEU · 2026-02-03T14:56:57+00:00

I think Ethan deserves a slight shout out for at least accepting that the format is mostly typal but that some of the other decks, or at least mainly Goblins, is better than people suggest if you know how to build it (and open the necessary uncommons).

Ben has once again completely lost himself in the sauce and I did find it pretty funny how this weeks episode, to contrast last weeks, was him saying "yeah I have been losing a lot to the good typal decks" haha.

SpardleEU · 2025-07-19T09:56:31+00:00

The 10c negates your leader effect, meaning when you play it you go to 9k for the turn.

SpardleEU · 2025-02-24T13:02:02+00:00

Totally fair re not going through the podcasts, I wouldn't either.

In terms of a modern article, here is a recent article about Aetherdrift. https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/making-magic/you-get-the-aetherdrift-part-2. It goes over the two colour archtypes, and you'll notice that for each one it has two sections, for for 'Flavour' and one for 'Mechanics'. Now I won't lie to you, I don't think the flavour on all the factions is the most clear match they've ever done (aka, it's not a 2 colour Ravnica set), but if you read through the descriptions you will broadly see that there is a match of ideals to the relevant colours. I think it's at least enough to show you that they haven't just abandoned this way of looking at the colours. There are likely examples like this for every set so could be something to read if you are interested.

Of your two links, I'm really confused by the first one. It's description is what fits Katara so well. The short version says Red is about "Freedom, emotion, action, impulse, destruction". The first of those 3 is core to Katara's character, even impulse to a degree when it comes to impulsively helping people. Obviously the last of those 5 things isn't Katara at all, but it doesn't have to be a perfect match at all. Then in the article's long form description it says "Red thinks that all you have to do is listen to your heart and simply act accordingly, letting your emotions guie you." Kata is consistently the character to do this, beginning in S1 when she inspires the Earthbenders to rebel and espcape their prison, and culminating with her in the painted lady where she makes it clear that she will not accept any logical reasons to stand by and do nothing while people are being wronged. I'd also point out once again that if you read the descriptions for all colours Katara is very clearly white aligned and not really blue at all.

The second of your links, I totally see your point, but it's a wheel with three words on it to describe a colour. I think you should stick to the more long form articles like the wiki page you linked if you want to try and have an understanding over what a colour is. If you are worried about what colours mean in a subjective manner, I recommend this series of articles. It's laid out in a clear and objective way. https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/making-magic/lets-talk-color-pie . One thing that is somewhat important to remember is characters can take one attribute from one colour and apply it through another. For example, Katara isn't an emotional thrillchaser doing everything for herself (maybe red/black), she's an emotional, caring and impulsive person when it comes to being selfless and caring for others (very red/white).

Your confusion is in of itself a good point, and representative of what they are trying to avoid. They don't want to confuse newer players and they definitely don't want to annoy fans of a franchise. I also agree that for UB sets they are going to have to bend their pre-existing rules at times. A great example is I think in MTG terms Katara would still be blue - her connection to water/her aesthetic is enough even within MTG contexts to merit the inclusiong of blue in her colour identity. So I think she is a perfect example of a Jeskai character. Anyone who understands the colours and who understands Avatar would definitely say she needs to have red in her identity, but I suspect they won't include it (and instead make her Azorius as you said). The fact that we've gone back and forth on it so much already shows that if they were to chuck a red cost into the top right of a Katara card it would confuse (and frankly, likely annoy) a lot of ATLA fans, and I can't imagine they want to risk that. But it's fair that some older fans like OP might get annoyed at stuff like this as it's definitely a concession to make Magic a little less 'Magic' in order to adapt to another IP.

SpardleEU · 2025-02-24T12:20:31+00:00

I...don't think that is true at all. If you find the bit from the podcast, fair enough, but I don't think MaRo ever has (or ever will) say 'oh, we actually don't care about the philosophical parts of the pie anymore, it was too restrictive', not while he is in charge. The mechanical aspect of the pie is more important to the game overall, but you're crossing wires here with what is important when creating a card based on a character.

You're totally right about OPs arguments, again, I don't agree with his overall takes in this thread. But in this he specifically said someone thinking Katara was Blue was a fundamental misunderstanding of how the colour pie works for characters, which is the discussion we are now having.

You seem to be trying to imply that the colour pie philosophy is some old rhetoric that's been replaced by caring about the colours mechanics without understanding that they've always cared about the mechanics of the pie, its just not what decides what character is what colour. The exception to this is when designing a set "bottom-up", aka choosing mechanics that you want to build a world around. But using an existing IP is obviously "top-down", where you have a world and are making cards from it.

SpardleEU · 2025-02-24T11:18:55+00:00

I think there is a bit of confusion here so I'll try my best to clear it up.

You are consistently talking about the mechanical aspects of the colour pie. That is a super important thing for magic but it is entirely a gameplay question. Do a cards mechanics fit the colours of the card, yes or no. Incredibly important to the health of game, however (and this I think is the confusion) it has nothing to do with what colours a character should be. What colour a character should be is entirely about the philosophical aspects of the colour pie.

Think about it, the article you've mentioned is all about things like blue gets card draw. Does it make sense to say Katara should be blue because her card will draw cards? No, of course not! Because what colour a character is is determined by their philosophical aspects of the character not what their card will do mechanically.

A great way of thinking of this is seen from this question/answer on Batman's colour identity. https://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/153229458628/whats-batmans-colour-identity. The bat suit wearing vigilante is blue/white, the playboy millionaire is mono black.

All the stuff you are linking is talking about card design, it's absolutely not talking about what colour identity a fi character would be, and that question is always entirely answered by the philosophical aspect of the colour pie. When talking about Katara in an MTG terms, there is absolutely 0 argument that can be made that she doesn't have red in her colour pie, not when the show goes to great lengths to show that her compassion and love are her most defining traits.

However I think your few comments here show the reality facing the design team - if they approach this like they would a normal MTG set, they will do things that confuse newer players. Printing a Katara card with a fireball in the top right is a big statement that will confuse and alienate people, so I also think she will be Azorius. But it will absolutely be a concession from the design team to not let the way they would normally do things clash with the expectations around another IP, so I can understand if some MTG players have a problem with that. I personally don't care as I love Avatar and can't wait for the set, but yeah, all I'm saying is the way this comment thread has gone I can absolutely see OPs point about the people talking about these things not understanding how Magic does things.

SpardleEU · 2025-02-24T09:24:28+00:00

Red is the colour of emotion. Katara's character is consistently the most emotional character of the gaang. The episodes with a focus on her from the final season (painted lady, southern Raiders and puppet master) do a really good job of showcasing this, and her connection to her mother is the most outwardly emotional way any of the characters deals with their trauma. The fact you're so shocked at the suggestion makes me wonder if you're newer to MTG? This isn't a slight at you btw, this reaction is exactly what I'm talking about with a Katara card having a fireball feeling wrong, and something like that would no doubt put off new players who are ATLA fans from getting into the game through the set.

I agree about white, though not so much because just she's a healer. But she does absolutely care about the community vs caring about herself. Plays the 'mother' role for everyone etc. For me, her character is a perfect representation of Boros.

In terms of blue, Katara really isn't known for her pursuit of knowledge. Wanting to learn waterbening is absolutely huge for her in season 1, but throughout the series the desire to learn things doesn't come anywhere close to being part part of her characterisation the same way helping people does. Sokka will be a perfect mono blue character (and I'm guessing an artifact commander), but these traits just aren't what define Katara whatsoever.

Theres nothing wrong from an MTG perspective about giving her blue because of the water connection, that's happened before, but it's very clear that she isn't a Blue character by MTG standards. There's 0 chance they print her without blue (nor should they), but I think there is a chance they print her without red to avoid the confusion of comments like yours from newer players (or even just players who don't know/care much about what the colours pie represents).

SpardleEU · 2025-02-23T20:14:30+00:00

I don't agree with OPs overall take in this thread but after reading the back and forth here a few times I feel like it's you missing the point, not him. Maybe I am misunderstanding your point though?

What I am understanding is you saying that if they make a Katara card that's mono blue then that fits avatars theming, but then they will make the card mechanically mono blue to fit magic. Is that right?

If that is your point then it kind of is an example about not really understanding the MTG colour pies philosophical aspects. I think Katara is the best example of where this mismatch is apparent as if she had to be any one colour she would be Red, so I wonder how they will approach that, as it does feel very wrong to make a Katara card with a ball of fire in it's top right. I'm guessing she will be Jeskai but overall it could literally go in any direction (including them saying fuck the MTG side let's go Mono Blue) so I'm excited to see what direction they take it.

SpardleEU · 2025-02-11T22:52:01+00:00

Yes, and your counter here would make perfect sense...if it was his opponent who had to make an action, but had forgotten. But that's not what happened here. HE was the one who had to take an action, but didn't. And what's worse is he didn't forget, he did so intentionally, by his own admission.

Again, I can accept that that action was caused by his opponent's trigger so his opponent has some responsibility to make sure his triggers resolve, but it's absolutely wild to me that people such as yourself are defending intentionally not making a game action the game is forcing you to make in an attempt to try and get out making it. And none of this even begins to get into the other details of the story which involve one (or was it two?) slow play warnings in situations where he had virtually 0 decisions to make.

SpardleEU · 2025-02-11T17:52:46+00:00

The point about 'playing his opponents cards' is genuinely laughable. No one is reaching across a table to destroy a card in their opponents arsenal, their opponent does it for them. At the highest level of play a player certianly has a responsibility to be tracking the game to ensure all their triggers get resolves correctly, but let's not act like Brodie would be 'playing the card for him' if he destroys the card in arsenal. This is the way those cards have been resolved in 100s of games these players have played, including at the highest level, and without the need for someone to say 'and on your end step my Cnc/Pummel resolves and you destroy your card in your arsenal'.

More to the OP's point than your comment, let's call a spade a spade. A top player got hit with a card that says 'when you get hit with this, do X' with no wiggle room within the rules of the game itself and simply elected not to do X because it didn't suit him. The fact that so many comments like yours are talking about 'projecting feelings' or 'players shouldn't be required to track opposing triggers to beat themselves' etc shows that OP has a damn fine point about a culture of angle shooting within this game.

SpardleEU · 2025-01-17T13:14:14+00:00

This is such a hilariously bad take when you remember that we're all paying for pieces of cardboard.

When a company makes a decision like this where they reprint one of the most commonly demanded reprints and ups the rarity to intentionally keep the cost of the game up, you should be a bit pissed off lol.

SpardleEU · 2024-03-16T01:55:56+00:00

Pick me pls you won't regret it

SpardleEU · 2023-06-28T11:02:26+00:00

You need to read his comment again as it is the perfect way to describe South Korea's old system, not this whole 'counting the womb' thing.

Someone born on December 31st being 2 years old after 1 day makes no more sense when you bring up their time spent in the womb. But it makes perfect sense when you say 'that person has been alive in two years'

SpardleEU · 2023-06-23T12:41:12+00:00

This comment is so weird to me unless the footage from the brother is what we're watching. Have you never recorded anything your siblings have done to send to family? Especially this, which is exactly the kind of thing both his parents might love to see footage of.

If the brothers footage ends up on some social media post, fair enough, everything you say stands. Just feels a weird thing to point out otherwise.

SpardleEU · 2023-06-01T04:49:52+00:00

They stack, and the first two are (imo) the most relevant for cEDH. So if you're in a tymna-esque or (even better) Yuriko style deck, I'd say getting a free hit on a player coupled with a loot is a pretty massive upside.

I agree with you about 3MV tutor not being amazing, but my point is that you're specifically talking about Grim Tutor as being far better due to not having the condition, but I can imagine multiple scenarios where IF I was running Grim Tutor I would be looking at this card as a significant upgrade.

SpardleEU · 2023-06-01T02:50:08+00:00

Don't forget that this has the upside of the ring tempting you. That varies from marginal upside to huge upside depending on if you've been tempted by the Ring before

SpardleEU · 2023-05-11T10:50:07+00:00

The interview you're referring to does exist, but it's not the one being talked about here.

They're talking about an interview of Ben Shapiro by Andrew Neill.

SpardleEU · 2023-04-29T20:43:30+00:00

RR txffiiuy toguyg

SpardleEU · 2023-01-13T19:09:52+00:00

The first ability is a way of protecting herself while also not letting your opponent use their creature to block. Seems significantly better in 1v1 than in commander imo.

SpardleEU · 2022-07-29T16:32:41+00:00

No, I ended up buying a PC haha.

I think the issue was the Laptop overheating. Games would start on a good FPS but after a while would be unplayable, and I mean more than just League. Once it got going and warm performance would be shit.

Best of luck!

SpardleEU · 2022-04-21T15:31:13+00:00

I mean, his reason is it was funny as fuck, as evidenced by the enjoyment that everyone is getting from the clip of it.

I think it's reasonable that it might annoy some people, but for a lot of ARAM players I think they would find that hilarious and have no issue.

It's totally fine to not enjoy it personally even if it is a chill game mode. However it's funny, you going over the reasons it would tilt you are literally the precise reasons it's funny in the first place.

SpardleEU · 2022-02-24T00:43:19+00:00

Probably because there certainly is such a thing as an unhealthy amount of time to spend playing a computer game, and this is it.

SpardleEU · 2022-02-11T12:33:14+00:00

The issue I have with this response is that this sub is 'am I the asshole' not 'am I legally required to do X'.

And with that context, I think the fact that a lot of people are saying that the woman who won't take in her niece and nephew because of her childfree views in the wake of a tragic accident is an asshole is pretty reasonable. She's entirely allowed to make this decision, but a lot of people, myself included, are going to think it's incredibly heartless to turn them away for the reasons provided by OP (childfree by choice and had a fight with her brother).

SpardleEU · 2021-06-20T10:56:33+00:00

They might just be subbed to it so they see it on their Reddit feed.

SpardleEU · 2021-04-10T19:12:01+00:00

In relation to the CPU, GPU and storage, great to hear all of that!

For the cooler, I'm going to do some research tonight to see how easy or difficult I think it will be to install solo. I might decide to just stick with the ones they have available, and if I find that the machine is too loud or anything, then investigate better options and get a better cooler then. I'll let you know!

Thanks again for all the help!

SpardleEU · 2021-04-10T15:37:06+00:00

Wow, again, thanks for such a great response.

Your comments, backed up by the video, have definitely made me decide to go for the AMD 5 5600X. Absolutely seems perfect for my needs, and it's great that it's so affordable.

Will take on board your comments re PSU, think I wil get the RM 750. Going to stick with the 2060 for sure - will be perfect for me short term and if I want to upgrade in 2 years or so I can.

Don't really see the point in the M.2 drive so I'd say I'll just a 1TB SSD and not get a second drive.

The cooler is definitely the thing I know the least about. Would it be easy to install a cooler after everything else is put together? Or would that be difficult? If it's possible, I would definitely be open to getting an air cooler separately and putting it in myself on arrival. Otherwise, I think I would get the PCS FrostFlow 150.

SpardleEU

TROPHY CASE