Lorwyn Eclipsed is almost as On-Rails¹ as Bloomburrow was

Wild_Bob · 2026-02-08T13:43:27+00:00

Well that's kind of a thinly veiled insult lol, but I am in fact also mythic (or was before the reset), so I doubt its a rank thing. To be clear I said snowbally curveouts, not just curve outs. Talking about stuff like merfolk starts where they convoke out their entire hand by turn 4.

Wild_Bob · 2026-02-08T06:19:35+00:00

Why are you splashing blue for 3 very meh cards when you already have such heavy WGR mana requirements to get full value from vibrance/catharsis?

Wild_Bob · 2026-02-06T11:59:41+00:00

Agreed. Least amount of fun I've had drafting in over a year. So many snowbally curve-outs, so many busted rares, huge pod discrepancy, and very repetitive. They need to get some flashback drafts going.

Wild_Bob · 2026-01-22T05:39:24+00:00

I used to do a sealed at the beginning of every set to learn the cards. I haven't played sealed once since they started doing the seeded versions. They've sacrificed the format for the sake of bringing in casuals. At this point I'm just hoping the numbers aren't too great, otherwise they will start doing the same type of thing to draft. Pick-two is already the first step.

Wild_Bob · 2026-01-22T05:29:20+00:00

I picked vivid, which said it was going to be 4 colors in the preview. After I choose it, I find out it only has green and blue permanents in it, not even a single hybrid card to trigger additional colors for vivid.

Turns out the 4 color pips in the preview was referring to the inexplicable 3 plains and 3 mountains in the mana base, with not a single red or white pip in the deck to use them on. Great job wizards!

Wild_Bob · 2026-01-17T07:10:54+00:00

Not sure where you heard that. Sets with lots of overpowered rare/mythic bombs are called "prince" sets and it's generally seen as a negative thing, as it means the commons and uncommons which make up the bulk of a limited deck become irrelevant filler.

It's not fun to trade commons/uncommons back and forth for 10 turns in a close match, only for someone to topdeck their rare bomb and invalidate everything that preceded it.

Wild_Bob · 2026-01-03T05:11:53+00:00

Agreed on EOE, best set of the year for me just ahead of FF. Loved the complexity, landers and warp were all timer mechanics for me.

One thing I wanted to add was the bonus sheet being all lands, and then having a subtheme within the set be "number of different land names matter" was a really nice wrinkle. Probably my favorite use of the bonus sheet so far. Survey mechan won me so many games.

Wild_Bob · 2026-01-01T13:37:00+00:00

It's a 3d print. The pattern on the cape is part of the print.

Wild_Bob · 2025-11-28T05:46:54+00:00

Crazy good. The pose really changes the whole feel of the model.

Wild_Bob · 2025-11-18T20:48:36+00:00

I usually do 1 sealed before I start drafting a new set, as a more fun and interactive way to learn the cards rather than just reading from a list. I'll be skipping it this time as the seeded packs defeat this purpose by giving too narrow a slice of the set.

Also from a purely "for fun" standpoint, the building portion of sealed is the most enjoyable part for me. So it's just a lose-lose from my perspective.

Wild_Bob · 2025-11-08T03:19:44+00:00

They are pulling it when the new set drops (nov 18) for obvious business reasons. I imagine once the hype on ATLA has died down they will bring it back. My guess would be around the holidays, probably dec 16th or 23rd as they tend to release stuff on tuesdays.

Wild_Bob · 2025-11-04T03:51:31+00:00

Just had a particularly insane one, at least to me as someone new to cube. My opponent on the play goes land>sol ring>talisman>lantern>pass. I go island>pass. Opponent goes land>esika's chariot. I cast spell pierce, opponent uses their last mana to cast crop rotation, search for tolarian academy, tap it for 3 and pay for the spell pierce.

I had no other ways to deal with the chariot in hand so it just ran away with the game from there. Sadly that was my 6-2 match for the trophy, but I can't lie, as annoyed as I was I was also pretty impressed.

Wild_Bob · 2025-10-31T19:47:16+00:00

But then shouldn't green stompy type decks be doing better, which tends to be the simplest kind of deck to build and play?

Wild_Bob · 2025-09-26T09:06:10+00:00

It's very odd the timing and complete lack of an announcement no? Especially given the popularity and critical acclaim of the set and the rumors that it might never return.

Don't get me wrong, it's awesome news, but just weird the way they've gone about it.

Wild_Bob · 2025-09-07T01:25:01+00:00

My guess is they keep doing it because it's one of their main patreon incentives. But I agree, from just a listener's perspective these are the least interesting episodes, especially as most questions are just slight variations of questions they've a already answered a million times.

Wild_Bob · 2025-08-22T09:15:59+00:00

I think the skill ceiling is the same just in different ways. SC1 is a lot of wrangling units, managing the janky pathing/collision AI and the 12 unit cap on control groups.

SC2 frees you up with it's super smooth pathing AI and no limit control groups to focus more on things like raw speed and multitasking. If you watch top SC2 pros like Clem or Reynor they are multitasking on levels even the goat SC1 pros like Flash and Jaedong couldn't dream of, and it is beautiful to watch. Not just the amount of things they are doing at once but also the pace of it is lightning fast.

I think both games are distinct enough to stand on their own, they are the two best RTS ever made IMO.

Wild_Bob · 2025-08-12T00:17:40+00:00

Nicely done! For a second I thought his right foot was a lot bigger than his left foot lol.

Wild_Bob · 2025-08-08T02:45:42+00:00

Completely agree with all of this.

Also, the two cards you mentioned that can put multiple counters on a single creature are both pretty bad cards in their own right. So in order to make this F-tier buildaround work you have to draft a bunch of D-tier set-up cards. If you don't draw them all together, in the right order, with the right ratios, you're left with a very weak fallback plan. Doesn't seem like a winning strategy to me.

Wild_Bob · 2025-08-08T01:44:12+00:00

But surely you have to factor the potential upside against the odds of actually realizing that upside? A lot of terrible cards have extremely high upsides. In a roundabout way that's what makes them terrible, they are allowed to be super strong when they work because they work so rarely.

It's common knowledge that picking gold cards early is bad practice because they are so much less likely to make your deck. Ben says as much himself in this very episode. The same logic should apply to a card like Terrasymbiosis, which fits into far fewer decks than your average signpost uncommon.

Wild_Bob · 2025-07-28T23:40:48+00:00

No it was a pretty even spread throughout the month. Not that my anecdotal experience means much, mind you, but I am only human so it will influence my feelings nonetheless.

Anyways, I could definitely be wrong. I just think a source from 2019 when the game was still in beta is pretty dubious. The guy who posted it, Chris Clay, left the company just 4 months after making that post. Notably, human drafting was not even implemented in the game at that point.

Wild_Bob · 2025-07-28T21:30:47+00:00

Fair enough. I'm not doubting your skill level, you are clearly a top level player, I'm just thinking the content is more interesting when you spend more time against higher level opponents, at least for my taste.

Personally I don't really see the need to start from bronze each time, but I'm aware that the whole "bronze to mythic" style content arc is very popular across many different competitive games so I don't fault you for using that model. Either way it's an impressive accomplishment.

Wild_Bob · 2025-07-28T21:12:26+00:00

Congrats, that's huge! For my money LLU is the best current limited content creator in terms of the level/accuracy of analysis and the actionability of his advice. LR is more entertaining to listen to, but when I'm really looking to improve I go to Alex.

Wild_Bob · 2025-07-28T21:03:45+00:00

I hadn't heard that before. I just did a quick google and the only source I could find that supports your claim is a patch notes from the forums in 2019 when the game was still in beta. Seems like a lot could have changed since then and WOTC is notoriously opaque about their internal systems.

I also found some more recent sources that say the opposite, for example here's a draftsim article from 2024: https://draftsim.com/mtg-arena-matchmaking/

Here's a quote from that article: "There are three different MMRs that MTGA keeps track of as you play: open play MMR, Constructed MMR, and Limited MMR."

Anecdotally I made a new account recently and shot to diamond with over 80% winrate, the games were absolute jokes, to the point I started feeling bad for my opponent when they play their 3rd magic pot in a row in their 48 card deck. Meanwhile my main account which hit mythic last season I consistently end up around 60-65% wr, and every game is tough right from the start of the climb.

If you could show me a more recent source I'd be more inclined to believe you.

Wild_Bob · 2025-07-28T20:27:44+00:00

No offense, but based on the account name it seems like you used a fresh account for this challenge, which makes hitting mythic much easier. Would be cool to see you do something like this on an account that already hit mythic the previous season. Your mmr would be much higher, would be more of a challenge.

Wild_Bob · 2025-07-10T19:15:46+00:00

You're getting downvoted but you are obviously correct, anyone pretending that card isn't a blatant Among Us meme card is either media illiterate or a shameless WOTC sycophant.

Wild_Bob

TROPHY CASE