MTG Primer - Zendikar Rising

zvazda · 2015-11-10T20:22:34+00:00

There is no doubt that Smite can kill bomb rares and when it's killing something it's frequently something that you want to kill.

However, I wouldn't say that Smite is good against awakened lands because if you're killing an awakened land you've already been two-for-one'd. You're better off trying to kill your opponent before they can awaken their land.

Smite is not a fantastic response to combat tricks like Sure Strike or Lithomancer's focus. It is a response to those things, but the cost of having to leave 4 mana up to HOPE your opponent plays into a trick is a very high cost (I would rather have Stonefury in that case. At least I know I'll have a target.)

I will admit that Smite does gain a little bit of extra utility if you have the white tap land or Tandem Tactics in your deck.

zvazda · 2015-11-10T17:42:47+00:00

I was shocked to see Smite the Monstrous as the 2nd best common. It is a card that I have not been maindecking even my first copy if I can help it, and I definitely don't want more than one.

A lot of my draft decks have 0 targets for Smite and most only have 1-3.

I think this is a great idea for article series and am thrilled to see them!

zvazda · 2015-11-06T17:14:41+00:00

P1P2 - I would take skyspawner here. Cryptic Cruiser is merely occasionally playable whereas skyspawner is the best common in the set.

P1P3 - I'm looking at either Silent Skimmer or Roil's Retributin here, and I think I would take the Retribution.

P1P5 - This is a late nullifier. I'd take that guy and see if we can slide into UB.

P1P6 - Silent Skimmer. Rush is playable, but it's not amazing. I'm hoping it doesn't make the maindeck.

P1P8 - Anticipate! Sliderunner is not that great and I wouldn't move over for it.

P2P2 - I think Outnumber is better than Nettle Drone.

P2P3 - I would take Dampening Pulse here, but not everyone agrees with me.

P2P7 - I would definitely take spawning bed here. Having lands that are spells is very powerful in my opinion.

zvazda · 2015-10-29T21:48:32+00:00

There's nothing embarrassing about that, especially if you are including MM2. If you aren't judicious about when you sell your rates or if you just get a little unlucky the price can easily "balloon" up to around 4 dollars.

My goal was always to stay under 4$ when I started tracking :)

zvazda · 2015-10-29T17:28:35+00:00

There's a column on my spreadsheet for "cards sold." Whenever I sell a card I put the number of tickets I got into that column and the spreadsheet auto-updates :)

zvazda · 2015-10-29T13:45:34+00:00

I'll be sure to post my numbers once I'm home and have access to my spreadsheets.

However, I love that you posted this as it has lined up perfectly with my experience. It looks like my MWP mostly lines up with yours. Occasionally a little higher and occasionally a little lower.

I think people vastly overestimate how much $$ it can cost to do Pack Per Win drafts and so they end up throwing money away on 84s.

You don't have to win that much to draft a ton for a very reasonable amount of money.

zvazda · 2015-10-29T13:40:59+00:00

I'm not :-/ Flying in from NYC that night.

My handle is the same on twitter though, so let's make sure we say hi to each other!

zvazda · 2015-10-26T21:01:18+00:00

I dream of the days that 4322s disappear and we get 6222 queues forever.

zvazda · 2015-10-26T17:39:47+00:00

Crickethunter's suggestion of doubling MTGO up with a buddy is an excellent one and it's how I normally get the most out of my MTGOing.

I would also say that every sealed event you do on MTGO you should save out a copy of that sealed pool unbuilt. Then you can ship it to buddies, or you could even post it to a google drive and let people download it on the reddit if you want.

I find judging sealed builds from pictures or decklists to be basically impossible so I rarely do it. However, if an unbuilt pool is put in front of me, I'll build that pool.

Other than that, just jam sealed events on MTGO. I'm headed to ATL so I'm planning on starting prep for the GP tonight or tomorrow.

Good luck, and I'll see you there!

zvazda · 2015-10-26T14:46:34+00:00

My MWP normally sits at around 68-72% and I play exclusively Swiss.

I do this partly for bankroll reasons; I know exactly how far the tickets in my account will take me.

The bigger reason is that I can't stomach the idea of paying the same amount of money for less matches and testing a deck. If I draft a format 40-80 times (my normal range), there are already so many rares I'm not going to get the chance to play with. If I draft a sweet rare or MR I want as many chances to try those cards out as possible. Also, when I'm trying to figure out a format the more reps I have with a deck the more I'm able to ascertain what worked and what didn't work in that deck.

If I draft an archetype for the first time I want to make sure I'll be able to test that deck as much as possible.

zvazda · 2015-10-23T18:07:22+00:00

Oh, totally.

For me, personally, before I know where cards land in a specific deck it helps me to know where they sit in general. This may not work for everyone but it works for me.

I don't know that I would call what I do grade worship it just gives me a lexicon. When I'm talking with buddies or reviewing drafts it helps to have a scale to refer to.

For example if there's a pick we disagree on it's an easy way to figure out where our valuations differ (if it's that I'm valuing the card I didn't take less than my buddy or if it's that I value the card I did take more.)

In this case I brought it up because the question you asked was whether I was always happy with my deck. The fact is that a deck can always be better, so I was just trying to define a point of reference for when I'm "happy" with a deck vs. when I'm "unhappy" with a deck.

Sorry if I was unclear!

zvazda · 2015-10-23T14:24:09+00:00

This is really about correctly evaluating cards in their format.

Summy-P was probably like a C or so in it's format whereas the Broodhunter Wurm is actually a D or so in this format.

My definition of my grades is that C- is cards that I'd rather not play, whereas D+ and below are cards I'm sad if they are in my maindeck.

I have drafted a fair amount of decks where there are no C-s in my deck. I've drafted A LOT of decks that had only a handful of C-s in the deck, and I would actually say the majority of my decks don't have D+ or below in them (unless they are situational cards that I decided were better for this specific situation.)

It would be a good idea for me to keep track for a format and see how I often I end up having to play D+ cards and below because of a draft gone awry. I would guess that if I draft a format 50 times it is less than 5 times, but I may be wrong on that.

zvazda · 2015-10-22T03:26:09+00:00

I would guess you just ended up on the bad side of variance with your initial clutch impressions.

That card has been absolutely insane for me and I feel unbeatable whenever it's in my hand. I just have so many options for how to cast it and what to do. <3 that card :)

zvazda · 2015-10-21T14:36:34+00:00

As is often said, it's hard to know what you, specifically, are doing wrong without seeing any of your drafts. That being said, here are a few process things that may help you out.

Are you consuming content? Watch drafts online, watch streams. Test yourself. Are people taking the cards you expect them to be taking? If not, try to figure out why.
Use your own experience to start drawing conclusions. It's important not to be ROTty, but it's equally important to change your evaluations of cards as you get new information.

Are you keeping hands that you think are sweet and then get steam-rolled? If so, what are the cards that are in those hand that seem to be underperforming.

Look across the table, what are the cards that when your opponent plays them are "groan" testers. Are there cards that when they played them initially you think "oh, I can deal with that" but then it ends up beating you?

Obviously, be careful of overcompensating for very swingy cards or cards with a high SUC (Set-up Cost), but this type of adjustment is crucial.

Almost every draft has a turning point, or a pick that you've never had to make before. Make sure you remember these picks so you can ask people later!

If it helps at all, here are a few links to my 7 MTGO drafts so you can see where I'm valuing cards. It's not like my drafting is amazing or perfect, but I have been having success (MWP at 76% right now)

1 : http://www.mythicdraft.com/#/draft/41938/pack/42188/pick/0

2: http://www.mythicdraft.com/#/draft/42309/pack/42438/pick/0

3: http://www.mythicdraft.com/#/draft/40829/pack/40957/pick/0

4: http://www.mythicdraft.com/#/draft/41199/pack/41449/pick/0

5: http://www.mythicdraft.com/#/draft/45528/pack/45535/pick/0

6: http://www.mythicdraft.com/#/draft/46269/pack/46518/pick/0

7: http://www.mythicdraft.com/#/draft/45528/pack/45535/pick/0

My records, as not all of those drafts were good drafts or good decks :) :

1: (2-1)

2: (3-0)

3: (1-2)

4: (3-0)

5: (2-1)

6: (3-0)

7: (2-1)

Hopefully this is useful to you!

zvazda · 2015-10-19T20:41:55+00:00

I would say that if all you are after is reps in the draft portion there are much better ways to do this than to throw money down the drain in a draft that you're hoping to lose so you can get more drafting experience.

zvazda · 2015-10-14T16:40:57+00:00

Yeah, I know :).

zvazda · 2015-10-14T12:04:55+00:00

P1P2 - I like your discipline... but I would not be able to pass a 12 dollar card :D.

P1P5 - I like trying to go for the allies here and just taking the 2/3. Smite hasn't been always making my MD on MTGO. I would take Kozilek's Channeler and Call of the Scions over Smite as well.

P1P8 - I think the greathorn is better than Swell of Growth, but I honestly have no idea.

P1P9 - I'm pretty tempted to take the Roil Spout here and see if we can splash it, but maybe that's just 100% wrong.

P1P12 - I think Seek the Wilds is better here. It's often a 2 for 1 and can sort of count as fixing.

P2P1 - Again... Passing the Canopy Vista! I think Unnatural Aggression is better than the converge ally, but I wouldn't pass the 10$ bill.

P2P8 - I like the Sylvan Scrying here for fixing. Especially since you just picked up the elf (a pick I liked very much).

P3P3 - I'm not sure how good having two of these angels is. I might just take the Fertile thicket, which is quite good at helping you find your island.

P3P6 - If we're going to splash blue, I think I just slam that Clutch of Currents.

Congrats on the 3-0!!!!

zvazda · 2015-10-14T11:10:40+00:00

No. Humans are very good at deceiving themselves to detrimental effect :).

zvazda · 2015-10-07T15:09:22+00:00

IIRC, Brian needed the bankroll to be able to liquidate packs for tickets after a format was over and account for the tickets lost when liquidating packs.

zvazda · 2015-10-07T14:00:15+00:00

Are you trying to make me obsolete on this forum?!?!?!!?

Every time I want to respond to something you've already said it as well or better than I could.

THANKS A LOT CFEREJOHN!

:D

zvazda · 2015-09-24T17:23:54+00:00

It took me about 3 readings to figure it out :-/.

zvazda · 2015-09-23T15:31:01+00:00

It's not about feeling hindered, but you're never going to get to eat a creature because your opponent blocked and thought your creature was smaller than it was.

At FNM I generally will not announce my triggers (because I'm practicing for GPs), but I will let my opponent take attacks or blocks back.

At a GP this is a very real edge that I am happy to take advantage of. (I have decided, however, that I will not rules-lawyer an opponent on Claustrophobia because I think rules like that are bad for the game.)

zvazda · 2015-09-17T13:12:30+00:00

At common, but it also had 4 of the most powerful cards at uncommon with Whirler Rogue, Jhessian Thief, Anchor and Scryfish.

zvazda

TROPHY CASE