Honestly, in the better 5-color decks Ive drafted I still go for a two to three color base and a two to three color splash. You simply value defensive cards over aggressive ones. If you dont get lucky and draw your mana fixers then you still are able to cast most of your hand that way and the fact that you play defensive cards means that you get to the late game 5-color bombs.
It'll be ME1 ME2 ME2. It will not bring nearly enough FoW into the system, but then again, quite a bit of FoW price is probably based on phantom demand anyway, so it going down a little is probalby warrnated on even a single pack/draft being opened.
For the math, one pack of MED pack/person/draft means that if 10 of those fire in a day (which may or may be likely), in the two week span ME1/ME2/ME2is available it'll open about 19 Force of Wills.
I expect the ME drafts to be nix packs. So Pack cracking will not factor in.
PS - Force of Will is not going to be in MED3. You can bet your FoWs on it.
You were alluding about taking sphere over non-bonafide bombs, i think it was chapin, but some1 said that sphinx summoner is one of those bombs :) if you already have tower gargoyle, Im pretty sure its safe to say its a bomb lol, as a 3/3 flyer and 4/4 flyer should definitely be enough offense to win the game hehe. Nice draft deck tho, I love when you table everything you want hehe.
Or mentally apply them now? That's what I've been doing, and in five drafts and a handful of casual constructed matches, not having stacked combat damage has yet to change any of my games.
Getting chanted after burning your rituals sucks because you have essentially discarded your hand, not that you have to burn for [x]. If you are starting from an empty hand, it generally doesn't matter what life you are at as long as your opponent can goldfish you in any reasonable amount of time.
That P2P9 Drag Down is amazing. Especially when you consider what else is missing from the pack (Quenchable fire over drag down anyone? Scattershot archer? lol).
MTGO prices generally lag behind the marketplace a bit and I've seen FoW go from a solid 73-75 to 55-60 in the past two weeks. I'm not sure if it's folks selling off afraid of a reprint in ME3 or simply due to the lack of Classic players (which may be related to the lack of events).
Regardless Classic is continually trending down which I hope may bring more players into the format.
You play snakeform targetting the mimic, the mimic becomes 5/3, then the snakeform resolves and turns the mimic into a 1/1 green snake. You can block the oversoul but not trade with it.
I love seeing average value of the cards in a pack / draft set. It would be nice to get Mirage next week (when the Mirage sealed queues are up) and Tempest a couple weeks from now.
Heh I remember all the hub bub over the DTV change over, and still people called in huge numbers when the switch over happened. I say rehashing Magic changes and some thoughts on them seem good idea too me I'm getting my head around it more, and more as I read more about it.
I beg to differ. I love being able to see replays during drafts. The only downside, however, is that if your game is the final one, you only have two minutes to scout your potential opponents.
Most of the time, I do it based on the fact that they say that they will read what is going on on the internet. I sincerely hope that some voicing out would change their minds in some way... because we (the players) are the ones who get most affected by changes that we can't do anything about.
I'm one of the few people who actually write about the format so it's partially my "duty" to voice out what would make the format better. (like seriously, some cards don't have to be banned)
If I don't say it, who else would? If I have 0.01% chance of affecting future decisions for the greater good of the format, I would gladly give up the "professionalism" because I care enough for the format that I hope to see good changes.
Although we do accept any changes (like we have a choice) and adapt fast, some "mistakes" are definitely around which I can safely say that they don't have to happen but what I have is opinions from players, not the people running the show.
Half the functionality of the wishes is downed by the new "exile zone" which would prevent certain backup strategies that are actually based on "saving" or simply reusing cards that are RFGed and this does not really have to be the case by simply letting the wishes work like they would have.
It's a simple matter of declaring "wishes can now pick cards from the exiled zone too" which isn't really too difficult. (I can think of a classic deck that is affected by this change)
I hope you are not offended by my admittedly sad attempts.
I appreciate the article, but (and this goes to most of the recent articles on this) please stop begging WotC to make cards work the way they used to!
a) It's not going to happen.
b) It makes you look unprofessional.
Wishing for RFG'd cards is another one of those elbow grase 'props for knowing the rules) tricks which is exactly like combat damage on the stack and adds nothing important to the game. Wishes are not crippled by the Exile change and they will still be played by hundreds of players, just maybe not as much in tournaments (and they won't even be legal in many anyway).
So, please, R.I.P. obscure rules tricks and let's not complain about it anymore.
I'm curious... what source do you use for the card prices? I'm thinking about possibly creating a flash thing that could render graphs in real-time (or as fast as the source data is updated basically), but it depends on how easy it would be to extract the numerical data from the price list.
Being the round three opponent i think my play of allowing the three 3 lands off covenant of minds lost game 1 at that point i thought you were grixis splashing white for tower gargoyle and 3 lands seemed better than 5 cards of gas.
You were a very friendly opponent which is not usual for mtgo. Good article keep up the good work
Not to undermine your drafting ability but it did not seem like the other players in your draft pod were very experienced. A solid removal spell like drag down should never table. I agree with most of your decisions but you should value soul manipulation higher, it's an easy 2 for 1 and good even as a remove soul in a 5cc deck that doesn't mind running counterspells anyways
A lot of fun to read, typos and all! Forcing 5 color seemed to work out here. I'm not an experienced drafter by any means, so you may well see some bitter "you got lucky" or "man it's SO easy to draft this format" comments. Regardless, you should be proud of both the draft and the article, great job, man.
Honestly, in the better 5-color decks Ive drafted I still go for a two to three color base and a two to three color splash. You simply value defensive cards over aggressive ones. If you dont get lucky and draw your mana fixers then you still are able to cast most of your hand that way and the fact that you play defensive cards means that you get to the late game 5-color bombs.
-M
It'll be ME1 ME2 ME2. It will not bring nearly enough FoW into the system, but then again, quite a bit of FoW price is probably based on phantom demand anyway, so it going down a little is probalby warrnated on even a single pack/draft being opened.
For the math, one pack of MED pack/person/draft means that if 10 of those fire in a day (which may or may be likely), in the two week span ME1/ME2/ME2is available it'll open about 19 Force of Wills.
I expect the ME drafts to be nix packs. So Pack cracking will not factor in.
PS - Force of Will is not going to be in MED3. You can bet your FoWs on it.
You were alluding about taking sphere over non-bonafide bombs, i think it was chapin, but some1 said that sphinx summoner is one of those bombs :) if you already have tower gargoyle, Im pretty sure its safe to say its a bomb lol, as a 3/3 flyer and 4/4 flyer should definitely be enough offense to win the game hehe. Nice draft deck tho, I love when you table everything you want hehe.
Or mentally apply them now? That's what I've been doing, and in five drafts and a handful of casual constructed matches, not having stacked combat damage has yet to change any of my games.
Getting chanted after burning your rituals sucks because you have essentially discarded your hand, not that you have to burn for [x]. If you are starting from an empty hand, it generally doesn't matter what life you are at as long as your opponent can goldfish you in any reasonable amount of time.
5 color drafting in ACR is very fun! I often play it because de decision are easier, you go for the big bomb whatever the color.
That P2P9 Drag Down is amazing. Especially when you consider what else is missing from the pack (Quenchable fire over drag down anyone? Scattershot archer? lol).
I think ME ME ME draft will go on the summer... thats why FoW is dropping.
MTGO prices generally lag behind the marketplace a bit and I've seen FoW go from a solid 73-75 to 55-60 in the past two weeks. I'm not sure if it's folks selling off afraid of a reprint in ME3 or simply due to the lack of Classic players (which may be related to the lack of events).
Regardless Classic is continually trending down which I hope may bring more players into the format.
You play snakeform targetting the mimic, the mimic becomes 5/3, then the snakeform resolves and turns the mimic into a 1/1 green snake. You can block the oversoul but not trade with it.
I love seeing average value of the cards in a pack / draft set. It would be nice to get Mirage next week (when the Mirage sealed queues are up) and Tempest a couple weeks from now.
In the general sense, supply and demand determines card prices, ;-D
I'm not certain how Hamtastic does it, but I suspect his info comes from mtgotraders.com .
Heh I remember all the hub bub over the DTV change over, and still people called in huge numbers when the switch over happened. I say rehashing Magic changes and some thoughts on them seem good idea too me I'm getting my head around it more, and more as I read more about it.
What determines card prices? I'm just curious.
Hopefully this trend of classic cards taking price cuts extends into August when I can get back into it.
I beg to differ. I love being able to see replays during drafts. The only downside, however, is that if your game is the final one, you only have two minutes to scout your potential opponents.
Most of the time, I do it based on the fact that they say that they will read what is going on on the internet. I sincerely hope that some voicing out would change their minds in some way... because we (the players) are the ones who get most affected by changes that we can't do anything about.
I'm one of the few people who actually write about the format so it's partially my "duty" to voice out what would make the format better. (like seriously, some cards don't have to be banned)
If I don't say it, who else would? If I have 0.01% chance of affecting future decisions for the greater good of the format, I would gladly give up the "professionalism" because I care enough for the format that I hope to see good changes.
Although we do accept any changes (like we have a choice) and adapt fast, some "mistakes" are definitely around which I can safely say that they don't have to happen but what I have is opinions from players, not the people running the show.
Half the functionality of the wishes is downed by the new "exile zone" which would prevent certain backup strategies that are actually based on "saving" or simply reusing cards that are RFGed and this does not really have to be the case by simply letting the wishes work like they would have.
It's a simple matter of declaring "wishes can now pick cards from the exiled zone too" which isn't really too difficult. (I can think of a classic deck that is affected by this change)
I hope you are not offended by my admittedly sad attempts.
Having replays back is just great. Not sure that I like being able to see draft replays while the tournament is still on, though.
quetzilla- We should be happy we don't live in a world of "Yes Men" no?
:)
I appreciate the article, but (and this goes to most of the recent articles on this) please stop begging WotC to make cards work the way they used to!
a) It's not going to happen.
b) It makes you look unprofessional.
Wishing for RFG'd cards is another one of those elbow grase 'props for knowing the rules) tricks which is exactly like combat damage on the stack and adds nothing important to the game. Wishes are not crippled by the Exile change and they will still be played by hundreds of players, just maybe not as much in tournaments (and they won't even be legal in many anyway).
So, please, R.I.P. obscure rules tricks and let's not complain about it anymore.
I'm curious... what source do you use for the card prices? I'm thinking about possibly creating a flash thing that could render graphs in real-time (or as fast as the source data is updated basically), but it depends on how easy it would be to extract the numerical data from the price list.
Being the round three opponent i think my play of allowing the three 3 lands off covenant of minds lost game 1 at that point i thought you were grixis splashing white for tower gargoyle and 3 lands seemed better than 5 cards of gas.
You were a very friendly opponent which is not usual for mtgo. Good article keep up the good work
Not to undermine your drafting ability but it did not seem like the other players in your draft pod were very experienced. A solid removal spell like drag down should never table. I agree with most of your decisions but you should value soul manipulation higher, it's an easy 2 for 1 and good even as a remove soul in a 5cc deck that doesn't mind running counterspells anyways
I'll keep up the articles when I have time, and actually have material to write about. I don't like to spam randomness :).
A lot of fun to read, typos and all! Forcing 5 color seemed to work out here. I'm not an experienced drafter by any means, so you may well see some bitter "you got lucky" or "man it's SO easy to draft this format" comments. Regardless, you should be proud of both the draft and the article, great job, man.