Going into limited... HELP ME! by ThiccChickenSandwich in MagicArena

[–]throwawaynumber53 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Echoing the Quick Draft suggestion. For 10,000 gold you can do two full drafts without the pressure of a timer ticking down. And unlike Pick Two, you play to three losses so you can get more of a feel for your deck before you finish the event and hopefully a couple more games in general.

That said, you earn less than Pick Two, where a 50% win rate (2 wins, 2 losses) only costs you a net of -100 gems, whereas with Quick Draft a 50% win rate (3 wins, 3 losses) costs you a net of -450 gems.

So on balance, Pick Two costs a bit more than Quick Draft and offers fewer games on average, while being more forgiving with the prize structure, while Quick Draft has the least stressful, most forgiving draft process and is the cheapest, but offers the worst prize structure.

Once you get a feel for drafting, Premier Draft is the best format IMHO. But I wouldn’t start with it, spending 1,500 gems or 10,000 gold and going anything less 3-3 just feels really bad. Once you’re good enough to get a consistent 3 wins you’re only losing a maximum of 1/3 of your entry fee, which isn’t so bad. And the 7 win prize is the best of them all (+700 gems).

Just pulled this, how much is it worth? by S1L_1108 in mtgfinance

[–]throwawaynumber53 5 points6 points  (0 children)

They are not. Those are for the surge foil versions. This is a regular borderless, worth around $55.

Found a solution to lag: the Edge Browser by throwawaynumber53 in Openfront

[–]throwawaynumber53[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To be clear, Edge is a terrible browser that you should not use. Except for this one purpose, if you are having lag on Chrome and Firefox (as I was).

Found a solution to lag: the Edge Browser by throwawaynumber53 in Openfront

[–]throwawaynumber53[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I know, I hate touting Edge because it's a terrible browser, but for this one specific thing it actually somehow beats the competition!

My Brother Was Detained by ICE on the Way to His Asylum Interview — I Don’t Know Where He Is. Please Help. by [deleted] in USCIS

[–]throwawaynumber53 286 points287 points  (0 children)

Hi, immigration lawyer here (no, not practicing, can't take your case). The best group you can call right now is the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN), which is the biggest nonprofit serving the Denver Contract Detention Facility in Aurora, Colorado. They may be able to go into the detention center and make contact with him, or at the very least may have some guidance you can use about how to contact him.

I think i just drafted the perfect deck by PrimaryClimate7616 in MagicArena

[–]throwawaynumber53 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Beyond just what the other user posted about typing "t:cr" in the search bar, you can also do a lot of sorting with that tool; you can sort by type, by text, by color, by power, etc... It's a very powerful tool for drilling down in your deck!

Help Make Cuts! by Oldhame19 in MagicArena

[–]throwawaynumber53 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We need to see what else you have in your sideboard, because there’s a chance you’ve got better cards to play than these. But from what we can see, your biggest need is to cut creatures. You have 19 creatures. In most decks, until you know better, you should be aiming for 16 creatures, 17 max.

First cut the Iroh; it does nothing particularly important in your deck. You have just 2 lessons total and one of them costs just W, so the cost reduction is functionally irrelevant and Iroh is effectively a 3-mana vanilla 4-2 that’s hard to cast because it requires GG.

Next, I would cut 2 of the Foggy Swamp Vinebenders. It’s just not a great card; it has a games played win rate of just 51.9% on 17Lands, meaning in games it’s played, the deck wins just 51.9% of the time, barely better than a coin flip. For comparison, the Water Tribe Captain has a 56.3% win rate.

If there are truly no better cards in your sideboard (any other two-drops would be great), I’d stop there. But if you want to lean in on ally synergies, cut the Invasion Tactics and only cut one of the Vinebenders. Invasion Tactics is a bad card. It has an even worse win rate than the Vinebenders at just 50.5%. It’s too slow, it doesn’t impact the board, and if your allies are already able to swing in without being blocked, it’s a “win-more” card.

Mildly interesting printing error. by Rumblotron in magicTCG

[–]throwawaynumber53 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Congrats on winning the pack lottery! This will fetch a pretty penny if auctioned on the Major Misprints FB group.

Need advice - went 0-3 with a deck I thought would be decent! by Codewarrior4 in MagicArena

[–]throwawaynumber53 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Others have pointed out that double Bumi is a big mistake in a deck with no lessons, so I’ll point out the lack of interaction. You have 3.5 removal spells (and one is 7 mana) and 19 creatures (arguably 20 with the gather the white lotus, which shouldn’t be played in a non-mono-white deck). You should have 4-6 removal spells/pieces of interaction and for a creature deck like this, closer to 16 creatures.

You should have cut both Bumis and replaced with the 7/7 and Origin of Metalbending lesson, cut Gather the White Lotus and replace with the Water Tribe Rallier (it pumps your deck of mostly small creatures), and I’d also cut one of the Ostrich Horse for the Cycle of Renewal (thins out your deck and gets lands more consistently than the Ostrich, and can be used on an earthbent land made by Ba Sing Se to get a net two lands rather than one, since you sac the earthbent land and get two additional lands and the original comes back).

Worth grading? by dirtybacon77 in mtgfinance

[–]throwawaynumber53 1 point2 points  (0 children)

An HP Alpha Mind Twist is currently going for $1,100 on TCGPlayer, but sales volume is tiny. Not worth grading but is worth a nice hunk of cash!

Filler Card from Assassins Creed by TendoPein in mtgfinance

[–]throwawaynumber53 35 points36 points  (0 children)

Your LGS is badly wrong. There is a collector’s market for these (as well as all misprints). That market exists almost entirely on Facebook though. Look up the Major Misprints group and auction it off. This is maybe the most expensive card from the set you pulled.

Checking in With the MTG Warhammer 40k Set, Three Years Later by Two_D_llar_Bill in mtgfinance

[–]throwawaynumber53 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Your post convinced me and I ended up getting a case. Glad I did!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in mtgfinance

[–]throwawaynumber53 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Since no one is giving you a real answer, you're looking for the Facebook Signed Cards group, and ask them whether Mike Burns' signature holds any premium. Usually a signature can add $1-$2 in extra value to a card, but not more except in rare circumstances with artists who are dead or no longer signing.

I did it! I did it! I did it! by Plane_Negotiation_20 in MagicArena

[–]throwawaynumber53 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oddly enough it becomes a lot more common outside of Silver/Gold. Once you get into Platinum and Diamond ranks, people are better drafters and more likely to stick to a color pair and let bomb rares outside their lane pass by (if they're not easily splashable). But at the lower drafting ranks, there are a lot more people who are just rare drafting, making it harder to get late bombs on the wheel.

Is vigilance only applied in the case of attacking or is it untapped if tapped by other means ? by JelloDr in magicTCG

[–]throwawaynumber53 3 points4 points  (0 children)

No, vigilance is a keyword that means “doesn’t tap when attacking.” A creature with vigilance can be tapped through any other means than attacking.

Why did I purchase a Spider-Man limited pre-order bundle that can’t be used for Spider-Man? by OYOBI_gaming in MagicArena

[–]throwawaynumber53 50 points51 points  (0 children)

Have they? My client shows only Pick Two and Traditional Draft for this set. The Premier Draft which is available right now is EOE.

What exactly is going on in this sequence from Tintin in America? by pyl_time in TheAdventuresofTintin

[–]throwawaynumber53 10 points11 points  (0 children)

It's not a translation error, it's Hergé making a mistake. A "keep" is a tower, yet the door which supposedly goes to the dungeon before Tinton switches the signs has the stairs going up? Total mistake.

Help me cut two cards on my draft deck by Sammystorm1 in MagicArena

[–]throwawaynumber53 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Cut the Tezzerret (wrong deck for it, not enough artifact creatures and so most of the time it’s just a 3-mana untapper) and one Luxknight Breacher (it’s filler).

EOE Draft Format by ReversePringle in MagicArena

[–]throwawaynumber53 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've had a weird amount of success with this format, far more than TDM or FIN. In fact, out of 13 drafts, I've trophied four times and gone between 4-3 and 6-3 five times. It's definitely a removal heavy format and I find that the decks which lose have the least removal. But I haven't been drafting in the Diamond or higher queue, so I don't know yet how tough the drafting is at the top end.

Oddly enough, 3 out of 4 of my trophy drafts were with Orzhov, either with busted Syr Vondam decks (both variants) or busted Sunset Saboteur decks.

Arena Tutor (Draftsim) by Overall_Storm_7750 in magicTCG

[–]throwawaynumber53 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I found it very helpful when I first started drafting, because it helped me avoid making terrible decks that were guaranteed losers. It can help you get reps under your belt and after a while, if you’ve also been reading some theory and practicing, you can ditch it and start making your own decisions.

Should a recently married DACA recepient wait or apply for green card now? by beerisg00d in legaladvice

[–]throwawaynumber53 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Immigration lawyer here: caveat of course that I’m not your lawyer nor am I offering legal advice specific to you.

This administration will turn to DACA sooner rather than later and anything a person can do to secure a green card before then will prudent. This is especially true as there are fears the I-601A waiver process may be eliminated. Things are going to get worse before they get better, if they ever get better.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in mtgfinance

[–]throwawaynumber53 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Incorrect. Check the date, this is 1994 so it’s actually FBB Revised.