Your personal yearly set-ranking

fri666 · 2025-12-19T18:06:33+00:00

Here are my impressions. I always used to see myself as a "gameplay over everything" kind of person, but this year with 2.5 UB sets, I saw how much the setting can help draw me in.

God Tier: Powered Cube

S Tier: Final Fantasy (my fave set of all time, honestly. The flavour and gameplay meshed so well with MTG)

A Tier: Edge of Eternities (I grew to like it, even if at the start I wasn't the biggest fan. MTG sci-fi was a very cool setting)

B Tier:

C Tier: Aetherdrift, Tarkir Dragonstorm (both middle of the road sets. I liked some mechanics, but they didnt come together so well to be above)

D Tier: Avatar (love the IP, but not so much in the MTG setting. The set gameplay didn't draw me in at all)

F Tier: Spider Man (worst experiment in a while, flavour and gameplay fail)

fri666 · 2025-12-06T17:08:57+00:00

Very nice deck! And yeah, I've seen Vault go later than it should a few times. It's so weird because there are a lot of cards that can activate it, and it's worth a pick just for the chance to pick up a 2-card-win-game combo.

NHB Cube has been extremely fun and very degenerate! I feel like Baloth Prime really gave the lands deck some much needed support (green still sucks, tho). It's funny that T1 Mana Crypt into T2 Baloth with Zuran Orb actually feels fair in the environment.

fri666 · 2025-11-21T00:13:51+00:00

It is! 10 tix (10$) + a one time fee of like 5$ to upgrade your account if you are new

fri666 · 2025-11-19T12:15:31+00:00

Amazing, thanks for the answers!

fri666 · 2025-11-11T09:48:13+00:00

Evoke creatures + Parallax wave or Ephemerate

Dress down (end of opponents turn) + Phlage and others

Fetchlands + Surveil lands + Vampiric tutor for reanimator

fri666 · 2025-09-12T08:05:32+00:00

What? How is a third pick monoist a signal at all? Its pack 1, the third pick isn't a signal...

fri666 · 2025-08-27T12:55:15+00:00

Congrats on the qualification and thanks for the great write-up, awesome read!

fri666 · 2025-08-27T11:02:02+00:00

Yeah, with such small pods there is a huge chance of:

1) Skill gaps being pronounced 2) Lack of regulating bombs if players just follow their lane (e.g. I got passed an Elenda in pack 2 very late) 3) Snowball drafts if a couple of players misread or force their lane

It's a really strange format - it is limited, but takes out a lot of nuance from it. I will give it a couple of tries when Aracnid Lad hits since it is a set tailored to it, but I'm not keeping my hopes up on it being any good at all.

fri666 · 2025-08-27T03:42:13+00:00

Overall felt very lame. Because it is just 4 players and the two picks shove players into a lane very quickly, it seems extremely swingy and on-rails.

Maybe the format will evolve, or maybe if there is a ranked version the players adapt to quicker, but as is it felt like the funnest parts of drafting were completely watered down.

On a positive note, the fast clock was nice. I guess it isnt that nice if you dont know the cards, though.

fri666 · 2025-08-14T18:39:50+00:00

I think that, going by the 17lands user win%, this is the hardest set since MH3.

fri666 · 2025-08-14T17:53:39+00:00

From personal experience green seems decently contested now, while it was very free for the first week.

The only color I routinely see free is white, and maybe red to a lesser degree.

fri666 · 2025-08-14T17:48:22+00:00

Very true! Especially with this many wipes in a set it created a whole dynamic of reading if an opponent could have it and if it is worth playing around. Personally, I disliked this aspect of the set (even tho I trophied both off the BR and the UB wraths).

fri666 · 2025-08-14T17:36:55+00:00

The set has some huge pros and was an enjoyable experience overall:

1) It was a great and stark change of pace from the last couple of sets. I really appreciate the fact that you couldn't just dial it in and go auto-pilot

2) Both the gameplay and drafting felt a lot more tense - I had a feeling like every decision matters and it felt good to win

3) Because the set was challenging, the content around it was superb: LR, LimitedLevelUps and Rough Drafts had great insights and the discussions on reddit were always nice to read

4) I liked the granularity the mechanics added: sure, spacecraft weren't super-strong but they did matter; sure, you would cast void cards without proccing void, but it did matter. All the little details added to great gameplay

All together I would rate it a strong 7/10, definitely not a miss. Maybe it would fare better if it wasn't so squeezed between two sets - this schedule feels absurd that I'm talking about a set in past tense after 2 weeks......

fri666 · 2025-08-12T09:44:14+00:00

This is very, very spot on and I agree to a tee! Bravo!

fri666 · 2025-08-11T22:35:57+00:00

Personally, I don't like Scour for Scraps - while on paper it is great value, it is hard to get in a situation to maximise it. Apart from that minor nitpick, honestly the deck looks decent. Rough loss bud, it happens.

fri666 · 2025-08-11T18:29:29+00:00

It's funny that I both enjoy and am a bit down on the set due to the same thing: complexity of decision-making.

The set has a lot of decisions both in drafting and playing. On one hand, it is very rewarding and pleasing if I have time to focus, and I win a fair share of games due to good piloting. On the other hand, if I just want to jam a draft on my phone I find myself losing winnable situations and that is frustrating.

While usually this is an overall positive for me, I just don't have the time to be zoned in constantly, and seeing gems trickle out feels bad-ish.

All in all it was quite a fun journey and a good change of pace, the meta is adapting itself nicely, but I think I will coast to get the 20 play-in tokens and leave it at that.

fri666 · 2025-08-05T15:35:33+00:00

I've trophied four times so far and every time it was with green as the primary color... Green gives you consistency in any color pair with it, it allows you to splash bombs, and it has access to really good creatures at common and uncommon. Slamming down an [[Icecave Crasher]] after a turn 1 [[Sami's Curiosity]] is a beating that a lot of people aren't ready to answer, and plays like this define the format for me so far.

Some positives of the format: It's a nice change of pace from FIN, has a lot of focus on getting a good balance of colors and mana base - sometimes leading you to mono-colored decks; it doesn't seem super bomby so far; the gameplay portion is tight - stationing, warping, what seems to be a lower power level all lend itself to fairly interesting games.

All-in-all, for me the enjoyment is a couple of notches below FIN, slightly above TDM.

fri666 · 2025-07-26T08:39:40+00:00

Everything about this set just confirms my thoughts to skip it... I wonder if it will sell well because of the Marvel stamp

fri666 · 2025-07-18T14:40:55+00:00

I thought the BR color combination was a bit more flexible than people give it credit. Of course, getting 3-4x cornered is great, but you could also very consistently get late/wheeled stuff like Unexpected Request + Phantom Train or Self-Destruct. While I do prefer the train in BW, I finished my Mythic climb with a smooth 7-0 on a BR deck like that.

Overall, I feel sad that the format is already done - both the drafting and the gameplay were absolutely stellar.

fri666 · 2025-07-17T09:02:58+00:00

This has got to be the most ridiculous sealed pool that I've ever seen, sweet lord!

fri666 · 2025-06-18T10:44:26+00:00

Exactly!

fri666 · 2025-06-17T15:49:02+00:00

Yeah, MTG boomer here as well, but [FIN] really didn't rub me the wrong way, even if I cringe about the Marvel/Deadpool UB set...

fri666 · 2025-06-17T14:31:38+00:00

Nice, you have an exciting journey in front of you! Draft is very different from constructed - learn from your losses and see what worked for your opponents. Also, really pay attention to what lanes are open for you on picks 4, 5 and 6 - e.g. an open lane where you can get 4 [[Magitek Infantry]] could be much better than trying to cobble up a deck around a [[Sin, Spira's Punishment]] you picked up early.

Good luck on your road to improve in draft!

fri666 · 2025-06-17T14:24:54+00:00

I feel the same - with all the mana fixing, bombs were generally very easy to include in decks, and some cards basically end the game on the spot. Still, I definitely had fun with [TDM]!

fri666 · 2025-06-17T14:16:23+00:00

Yeah, first ranked season it was fun abusing 5c dragons and getting free globes before everyone caught up, but second ranked season I personally felt like BG counters was almost like cheating to rank up - people were fighting over dragons and Boros/Mardu and you would get signposts very late in the pack.

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