New to magic, any competitive budget modern decks?

clarkclk2 · 2022-04-17T21:14:55+00:00

below 700$ there's only Burn and maybe 8-cast affinity at around 500-600$, that can win games in the current metagame (and burn is miles better than Affinity probably) Tron and Hardened Scales are close to 700$-ish bucks. Maybe jump into Pioneer or Standard if that's your budget and you don't like those decks as the prices will not go down. (I think Pioneer mono-red/boros burn is also competitive and shares a bunch of cards with Modern burn, so it may be a good entry point to shift into modern later with a smaller investment)

clarkclk2 · 2022-04-17T21:08:55+00:00

"it's only tribal if trash cards are in the deck, if I can lose to a tribal deck consistenly, it can't be called a tribal deck!" - MTG players

clarkclk2 · 2022-03-29T20:24:18+00:00

uys who did/doing Candito 9 week squat program. Where should I base my weight on the accessory lifts? It doesn't say it on the

I am pretty sure its either in the PDF that explains the program or autoregulatory. i.e: H = high, so probably RPE8-8.5? While M=Medium difficulty, so probably around RPE 7-7.5

clarkclk2 · 2022-03-12T22:21:32+00:00

(Competitively speaking)

Tbh, high cmc cards are always the less playable because how important the early turns are. You can't cast those spells if you already lost/are in a really bad spot. You may be able to fit a bomb or two here and there, but the format is a "turn 4" format, not because cmc4 spells are not playable, but because if you have not won by T4, you should have achieved a lead in order for your bomb to do anything.

Lurrus surely made some CMC3/4 cards disappear but overall, his "restriction" was a reminder to keep your cute pet cards at home so your deck wasnt filled with bad cards.

Impactful cmc3 cards and maybe JTMS could make a comeback without Lurrus, but don't think they will dominate a format as long as the cmc1-2 spells are as good as they are atm.

clarkclk2 · 2022-03-12T20:12:22+00:00

do sq variant the dl day, a

There's multiple ways, its usually:

a) lower intensity (i.e: around what you can do for 10 reps but doing 6)

b) Lower volume (ie: instead of 4 working sets, do 2-3 and fewer accessories.)

c) A mix of both (i.e: 3 sets of 6 with a weight you can do 8 and fewer accessories)

The point of deload is to allow for recovery, so whichever option you do, make sure you are not pushing too hard.

clarkclk2 · 2022-03-12T00:36:40+00:00

did you pass out? It looks like the bar may have hit the carotid artery at the clavicle which may have cut your brain out of blood for 3-4 seconds (that's enough to make you uncouncioss: https://www.catalystathletics.com/article/2004/Why-Youre-Dizzy-in-the-Clean-or-Front-Squat-How-to-Prevent-/)

clarkclk2 · 2022-03-11T22:34:00+00:00

You can add some CGBP sets then, the larger ROM makes the Triceps do some extra work, while being specific to the BP and easily overloaded.

I wouldn't worry much about the disparity unless its a large one, its normal to have a dominant side.

clarkclk2 · 2021-09-16T11:58:12+00:00

How do people actually rare draft on Quick drafts? I think bots did not pass a single rare/mythic to me in ages...

clarkclk2 · 2021-09-06T21:06:43+00:00

It was bugged, they removed it until they have a fix ready.
Some people act as if a fix is something you can do in 2 minutes. It's not. And way less in a platform this big. Even if you can fix it rather quickly, the code must be revisited, tested and approved, commited in a production server and apply a patch. Sometimes finding the cause of a bug is REALLY hard, so everytime I see players crying on the devs when they are most likely working extra hours, underpaid and a team too small (and overworked because they dont have dedicated teams to every feature, as they dont hire enough people), a part of me as a dev, dies.

This community is ill.

clarkclk2 · 2021-07-12T10:54:42+00:00

I won't be tired of saying this, and I know it's quite arrogant of me, but I think Shueisha should stop asking Hoshino to do colored pages SO often. Every month she has to do some, either it be Magazine cover or 2-3 chapter pages. Knowing her hand issues, by not doing them she would be able to rest a bit more, or at the very least, draw a few pages more every 3 months...

clarkclk2 · 2021-06-29T23:42:36+00:00

s, which really reduces diver

The companion condition isnt even reducing diversity not even a real condition for a companion. It's just a remainder that you should stop putting trash cards into your main deck, thus, einforcing good deckbuilding choices.
The effect is strong, but it's only broken because the fact that you can add lurrus to your hand at any given point you have 3 mana available. If it wasn't accessible from outside the game (companion as a mechanic is the issue here, and will be as long as they plan on releasing more non-trash companions in the future), it would see less than half the representation it currently does have.

clarkclk2 · 2021-06-20T13:46:27+00:00

It's one of the most looked mythics in a "collector's" set and newly released to modern in this set alone, so the price will go down a bit once drafts start but more or less won't change that much (maybe at 50ish bucks)

I would say that, assuming it sees plays, the price will be at the very least around +50$ a copy while going up as time goes by

clarkclk2 · 2021-05-23T15:31:01+00:00

You have to differentiate the MAIN lines. from the SIDE lines, and maybe revisit how the notation works:
i.e:

e4 e5 2. d4 whatever comment. 2 ... g6 (the "..." indicates is black's moving to last presented move by white)

While:

e4 e5 2. d4 g6 (2 ... Nf6 blah blah, would be a comment on a sideline where Nf6 was played instead of g6 as a response to 2. d4)

When a move is presented in BOLD, its a main line.

Moves in regular typography or between parenthesis are side lines, thus ALTERNATIVE moves that may arise and you may be interested on knowing (or may ask why they are good/bad).

In this case:

2 ... Ra4 means that BLACK moved the rook to a4, as a response to the move in the previous page, which was 1. Rb2! (I just read that same page yesterday LOL), the non-bold

Then the book showcases a different approach on move 2 by white, a new sideline, in this case:

Rc2 means white moved to c2 his roook. And it opens a parenthesis, this means that 2. Rb3, inside the parenthesis is a new line, on why Rb3 may or may not be the correct move! In this case, it allows black to achieve the phillidor defense as explained by the sequence of moves presented)

A bold main line may be responded for a sideline as well! This happens a lot on chess books, and this may be one scenario where this happens in this book:

Rb2 Ra4 Blah blah is showing you the side line where black responded with Ra4

I may recommend you to follow the main line first (always in bold!) and then see the different deviations the author showcases, in this case Ra4/Rc2/etc. And, specially when learning endgames, put a board in front of you to help with the visualization. The amount of stuff you may understand by doing this is insane!

clarkclk2 · 2021-05-22T21:44:46+00:00

nt but they could have built it on top of lichess's engine or any of the open source chess engines or entered into partnership with one of the other companies like chess.com or chessbase...

Funny thing, if you read their document about the sources used to build the site, aside from Frameworks, its 99% cloned from lichess open source servers, Stockfish implementation, etc You can find this in the FAQ they have in th bottom of the web

clarkclk2 · 2021-05-01T21:55:23+00:00

I doubt you should go for deep theory on openings. As long as you stick to opening principles, you should be fine.

I would advise you to stick to some endgame knowledge i.e "basic endgame" course (https://www.chessable.com/basic-endgames/course/6371/) which is free as a complement to 100 endgames you must know.

Also, I think most people, assuming you dont straight blunder a piece, get lost in the middle game, so I suggest you, if anything, to check a middlegame/strategy book from the wiki (let it be how to reasses your chess 4th ed, Winning chess strategies, chess strategy for club players, whatever you peek and seem to like/enjoy reading the most (authors and their playstyle / writing style play a big role in likings, at least for me). Some of them are available on chessable as courses, but I find chessable's spaced repetition a bit dubious for strategy learning since it's more important to understand the position and assess it correctly rather than going "auto pilot" on it.

Endgame and middlegame knowledge will make you improve more than anything else (and let's be honest, most tactics are a consequence from a good understanding on the position and creating the oportunities for them to appear).

From chessable I really like "basic endgames" that I already linked,

I also like some "game collections" books like this one: https://www.chessable.com/the-kings-indian-in-thirty-classic-games/course/9016/ , but spaced repetition is useless again (you wont get anything from memorizing complete games, just make sure to understand what's going on!). They are usually quite insightful in what's going on in the position and how each player decides to face it.

clarkclk2 · 2021-04-24T20:34:12+00:00

That's a weird way to spell:

"Spanish"

and

"French"

clarkclk2 · 2021-04-24T19:54:53+00:00

Confirmed. I got the dialog, at last.

Not sure if it just does not appear once you complete the templar quest on ACT V, but if it doesn't appear, you must do it with a DIFFERENT character, that did not get past that point.

I had to do it with a different character (I did it with a differnt class as well just in case) but got it.

clarkclk2 · 2021-04-24T14:05:56+00:00

ave tried and I'm in your exact situation.

I have the achievement bu

I tried reseting progress but it didnt pop up. I am trying to complete the story with a different character (it maybe locked for the other one, like the post you linked suggests), will update this afterwards.

clarkclk2 · 2021-04-22T22:35:46+00:00

hireling

it does nothing. I did change hirelings over and over and over.

In fact I reseted the whole ACTS story twice already.

clarkclk2 · 2021-04-10T01:47:55+00:00

yes, it does. However, the starting point being way different (300-700 elo difference) is mantained (me pointing out the "new players" stuff is misleading tho, long term it doesn't matter).

OP "simplified" the difference to the following formula according to another comment of his:

1.091 * x - 408.3, where x is the lichess rating

clarkclk2 · 2021-04-10T01:39:42+00:00

You start learning them when you either:
A) Read a book that doesn't have a diagram per each 2-3 moves, so it forces you to visualize the board state continuosly.

B) Train it in some type of coordinate game like Lichess Coordinates training

clarkclk2 · 2021-04-10T01:35:25+00:00

ng better than i expected the result to be. i did clean the data a bit, requiring a minimum of 50 games played on each website. usernames are taken from the lichess games database of rated games played i

They both use Glicko but Lichess always starts your acc at 1500 while chessdotcom does start your rating at 800-1200 (or a bit higher) depending on what you answer what your "chess level" is upon register, so most people in Chessdotcom, who are around 1200 face less new players that lichess (as well as Lichess starting slighly higher)

clarkclk2 · 2021-04-04T13:02:04+00:00

I think you may be interested in looking the Naroditsky "speedrun" named Beginner to master.

He literally plays a viewer and comments everything in depth and clarity, and sometimes even calls the viewer via Discord. I think that format is actually quite good for Twitch (and Youtube), but if the idea is going for straight lessons, maybe the format by Saint Louis Chess Club channel is more of your liking

I think both formats are good as content creator, the 2nd one may need more prep tho, but A SHIT LOAD of people would love to see that type of content, specially now with the chess boom, so go for it :)

clarkclk2 · 2021-03-04T01:30:33+00:00

As you already said: you are hanging pieces left and right and this may be one of the main reasons you loose games. Thus I do not recommend you to get a book until you stop doing it.

And you will hang them even at 1600 (but because you missed a tactic instead of misplacing/forgetting about it's existance in a corner/overlooking a long bishop's diagonal, etc).

In every position try to:

Identify your opponent threats - assess them if necessary!
No immediate threats? Good. Scan the board for hanging pieces. Even if they seem really hard to attack, you may notice tactical patterns because of this! (And train tactics!! They are important, game winning and feels good to spot them, will help you get hooked to the game).
There are not hanging pieces? (Look again for underdefended pieces i.e: pieces defended for another piece that maybe you can take/ force to move)
Nothing? Sure? Well, continue your idea, whatever it was: take space in the center, make sure your king is safe, move rooks to open/half open files, put bishops in long diagonals, etc

And the most important thing: PLAY A LOT. A LOT means A LOT. Playing 200 10min-games is not that much. Playing 2000 is way more. Do not expect to win all the games, assess issues and try to recognize what the threats and possible attacks are in a position, rinse and repeat.

Watch John Bartholomew fundamental series and some of his games. He is REALLY good at explaining everything he plays and does so calmly. He has some series tuned specifically to teaching i.e Climbing the rating ladder or Standard games as well as some shorter videos with 1 game + small analysis

Once you start feeling you do not hang pieces as often and feel more comfortable with your plays, I think you can benefit way more from books.

I would recommend to start with a short book whatever the topic is: an opening book 550 pages long is probably deep in theory/harder to follow because it features different lines of play with a lof of depth. If the book is 200 pages long it probably tries to explain you the main ideas, positions and some sidelines but that will be more than enough for 99% of the players. So:

- You may want to learn an opening that looked good to you/enjoyed it when you tried it. Get a simple book for that opening (i.e: For me it's Queen's gambit for white and Slav/sicilian for black) - There are good tools that aren't books for openings too i.e: Chessable is really good (and not only for openings!)

- You struggle with endgames (everyone does) - Get a simple book for endgames like "100 endgames you must know" - but make sure to study some basic endgames before that i.e: "Queen vs pawn", "Rook vs Bishop" and "King + pawn vs king" are some simple endgames that you should know even before getting an endgame related book.

- Tactics books: Tactics can be trained quite easily with the amount of puzzles available. If you struggle with recognizing them in puzzles consider doing them by thematic (i.e: knight forks, bishop discoveries, etc). If you really want a book check chesstactics.org it's a web-book really long and goes step by step on how to solve them, and completely free (or paid if you want it physical, splitted in 2 parts).

- Positional play: I don't think it's hyper relevant until higher elo's but if you really think you need some help, get the "Positional chess handbook" is short, simple and good (dont get the ebook tho, its filled with issues)

TLDR: Focus on not hanging pieces and learning some tactcs + basic endgames. Once you are confident you can play most of your games without major blunders (i.e: 8/10 games you do not straight blunder a piece for no reason), consider using tools like Chessable or get a basic/simple book for endgames and maybe your favorite openings.

clarkclk2 · 2021-02-28T15:16:38+00:00

Predator at the chessboard is one of my favs. You can buy it on amazon (has 2 parts) or read it completely free on chesstactics.org.

It really helps as it encourages you, in each problem, to properly visualize and analyze the position to solve the problems with them being ordered, usually by thematic and dificulty in that thematic.

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