I have definitely played fewer cube drafts than I planned to play because of the payout. That is a major issue in my mind but it's apparently less of an issue for many players because the cube drafts fired at a very fast pace despite the payout.
Whenever I play in a cube draft I feel like the poker player at the slot machines.
You bring up another good point. Many of the cards in the cube are "good in X" but not that great in anything else.
Hopefully in the next iteration of the cube there will be more flexibility and less pre-defined archtypes.
That's the Zen of Cube. Everyone knows what cards are there. http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/927
I'm sure you can tell what cards are what when looking at 15 cards in a 720 card pool. And the next 15. And the next 15. And it becomes a mind and memory game. This appeals to many people.
But, to each their own. Some people like Mozart, others like Motown, yet others like Motorhead. Some people even like Justin Bieber.
It's really hard to go without making bad plays in Cube. I don't even know what a lot of the cards do or how I should build around them. I wish they'd change up the cards inside the Cube...I'm totally not a fan of getting a pack with three mythics and trying to figure out which one breaks the game more.
I loved the Cube the firtst weekend and the first half of this week. But the past couple days have just not been as much fun. Two reasons for that. The payout is GARBAGE. Honestly, you can't even get 7 back for a draft set. Secondly, the whole point of the Cube, in my opinion, to have powerful cards, but games that are not just rehashes. But that's exactly what they've become this week. If I hop into a queue, I can now fully expect to play one of a handful of decks: RDW, Reanimator, Tooth and Nail, etc. I have played Tooth and Nail for the past three first rounds. The worst part is, each player seems to know exactly what they "should" be playing. So literally ALL the Tooth and Nail targets will end up with the guy who took Tooth. It even happens in Swiss. Maybe that's fun to some people, but it just feels like Constructed to me. And if I wanted to play Constructed, I would, you know, play constructed.
I loved the Cube the firtst weekend and the first half of this week. But the past couple days have just not been as much fun. Two reasons for that. The payout is GARBAGE. Honestly, you can't even get 7 back for a draft set. Secondly, the whole point of the Cube, in my opinion, to have powerful cards, but games that are not just rehashes. But that's exactly what they've become this week. If I hop into a queue, I can now fully expect to play one of a handful of decks: RDW, Reanimator, Tooth and Nail, etc. I have played Tooth and Nail for the past three first rounds. The worst part is, each player seems to know exactly what they "should" be playing. So literally ALL the Tooth and Nail targets will end up with the guy who took Tooth. It even happens in Swiss. Maybe that's fun to some people, but it just feels like Constructed to me. And if I wanted to play Constructed, I would, you know, play constructed.
......I'm sorry, when you're given the red god of war that is Koth p1p1, you offer a salute to the mountains, pour petrol over yourself, set yourself alight and charge, screaming, at the enemy.
There's an argument for sword so you don't commit to a colour but seriously - you mentioned there's always a mono red guy in each cube: in this cube you were supposed to be that guy ;] Your point 5) should have been: take PWalkers when you see them, even bad ones are amazing in limited. They affect games unlike any other cards. Bombs like the Bslayer are good but you can often find them 4th+ pick.
look at the next pack: Chandra, after that: goblin guide, arc trail etc. etc.
Yeah milling a 40 card deck 10 cards at a time does not take long to end it...still could be problematic if they get a way to stop you before they are down to the nitty gritty.
Koth is the best card in the pack, but I generally try to avoid the most obvious draft strategy (red burn)and plan on playing against it. I would rather give a really nice "I'm not red" signal with Koth and Skizzik than take it and end up fighting for red. Sword of Mind and Body is the weakest of the swords in my opinion. Of course that opinion is on 100 classic singleton where milling 10 cards from your opponent is often doing them a favor, so my judgement could be a bit off.
I've had reasonably good luck with forcing white because I can then pair white with just about any other color and end up with a decent deck.
White Green Aggro was the plan until I saw Genesis AND Buried Alive wheel around back to me. This tells me that nobody else is interested in reanimator and if I go for WGB with reanimation spells I'll be getting some good picks for the rest of the draft.
Thanks for the feedback. I know I'm far from the perfect drafter and it's always good to have other player's perspectives.
in my opinion there are a lot of 2 drops for Driver in Pauper, but assuming you meant it totally in relation to std then I'd agree... I'm curious to see if it gets any application in the MBC list outside of std pauper
Typically I listen to the radio (either online with Jango.com) or the local classic rock station. Friday night however I was listening to the Eddie Trunk show so lots of metal stuff that I didn't actually notice. Good energy music though.
I was watching that game Keya and kept wondering why you didn't activate jace and then you did and realized he still had cards in his library because he still had like 3 in hand when you did it. I was impressed that you won through all the life gain in that deck.
By the way thank you again for lending me the cards for the event.
RE: Hammybot was having trouble getting on last night and by the time I did I completely forgot what it was that I wanted.
I'll go through this some more, but when you opened Koth and Sword and picked something else, it was pretty bad, especially when Port was in the pack too. Koth is one of the best RDW cards, Sword kills in 4 swings (and can frequently beef up users to swing right through Baneslayer) and Port lets you remain undecided also. Furthermore, when you started talking reanimator despite having much of the core of a Wg beatdown deck leading into pack two, you'd lost me. Going 3-0 means you probably played pretty well, but even as I look through some more of the draft, it seems clear that you were Wg beats. P2P2 is Calciderm, P2P3 is Souls or Metamorph (probably souls since you're expressing interest in some Black),
p4 vigilante, p5 shrine is fine (since you'd have souls...), P6 is fine, although you'd like a 1drop to wheel, P7 is great, P8 is fine, although Trap would be fine too, P9 is wave if you'd been more interested in the Elves, P10 is Solifuge. Pack three is a sweet open! Then you want the GW dual, the Sledge was correct, geist is fine, Baloth is the next pick (since you shouldn't be much BLack, just souls and maybe the WB lifelink land), then Factory, Angel
When Ajani Wheels, you take him.
I loved the presentation of the article though, and I don't hate the Black you took, but it was just unneccessary when you were Wg beats from the beginning.
There is no way WOTC could ever make prize payouts in Tix, it would cross the already thin line of Tix as currency, netting them a heap of trouble with gaming laws in most jurisdictions.
I thought that picking MED packs would be a ++ choice for payout, netting more FOWs, Duals and other Classic/Legacy needed cards into the system. We can only hope.
I love recycle/null profusion effect. I'd pair either with blue to take advantage of Oona's grace to ditch extra land, or Looter to ditch extra Legends/uncastable stuff.
But the deck isn't, which is what I believe is what he was referring to.
That said, building Recycle for casual has always been tricky. On one hand, it's hard to resist the temptation to (potentially) go infinite with free spells and rituals to build up a storm count. Those decks tend to get old quickly and don't leave much room for interactivity. On the other hand, non-combo decks run the risk of not fully the draw engine, turning it into a "win more" scenario by the time it hits mid-to-late game.
I like your decks because they seem to be pretty standard beatdown decks that have a late game plan via Recycle, but might I recommend Elixir of Immortality for any deck cycling through a ton of cards every turn? Also, the threat count for the first deck (10 total) seems kind of low without some kind of recursion or protection. Oblivion Ring also seems like a good fit over (or in addition to) Lignify.
Another idea could be to use Recycle as normal, and then to later Donate it when the opponent's hand is empty. I can see something like a Stunted Growth/Plow Under deck (black and blue have a few of these as well) being nasty with Donate and some random finisher like Meloku (also good for bouncing lands to replay). Edicts and global removal would be great here since they don't target specific permanents.
Going into less savory territory, Fastbond seems obvious, as do cards that untap lands like Frantic Search and Cloud of Faeries. Anyway, good to see articles for casual that actually tackle interesting cards.
Yeah those cards rule. I had no idea until I watched a TPF draft video where the dude took it (Null Profusion) pretty highly and proceeded to destroy every late game that he cast it. It reads bad, but when it's late in the game and you have like 8 land out, you can be drawing and casting 3 or 4 cards a turn.
I think Blippy put it best. It's a personal peference thing.
I have definitely played fewer cube drafts than I planned to play because of the payout. That is a major issue in my mind but it's apparently less of an issue for many players because the cube drafts fired at a very fast pace despite the payout.
Whenever I play in a cube draft I feel like the poker player at the slot machines.
You bring up another good point. Many of the cards in the cube are "good in X" but not that great in anything else.
Hopefully in the next iteration of the cube there will be more flexibility and less pre-defined archtypes.
Great Events Blippy thanks for putting in so much time and congratulations to Montolio for being top 8 in both events!!!
Credits from Cardhoarder and ValueBot have been added since this was submitted for publication.
I used to really love the sound fx on the previous version of mtgo. for some reason the current ones are not as much fun.
That's the Zen of Cube. Everyone knows what cards are there.
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/927
I'm sure you can tell what cards are what when looking at 15 cards in a 720 card pool. And the next 15. And the next 15. And it becomes a mind and memory game. This appeals to many people.
But, to each their own. Some people like Mozart, others like Motown, yet others like Motorhead. Some people even like Justin Bieber.
It's really hard to go without making bad plays in Cube. I don't even know what a lot of the cards do or how I should build around them. I wish they'd change up the cards inside the Cube...I'm totally not a fan of getting a pack with three mythics and trying to figure out which one breaks the game more.
Motorhead, of course!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqtNGkSzh1o
I listen to the mtgo game go bing, daduh, and dundadundada. and my wife say "look at this animal" on craigs list and "oh look at this puppy"
I loved the Cube the firtst weekend and the first half of this week. But the past couple days have just not been as much fun. Two reasons for that. The payout is GARBAGE. Honestly, you can't even get 7 back for a draft set. Secondly, the whole point of the Cube, in my opinion, to have powerful cards, but games that are not just rehashes. But that's exactly what they've become this week. If I hop into a queue, I can now fully expect to play one of a handful of decks: RDW, Reanimator, Tooth and Nail, etc. I have played Tooth and Nail for the past three first rounds. The worst part is, each player seems to know exactly what they "should" be playing. So literally ALL the Tooth and Nail targets will end up with the guy who took Tooth. It even happens in Swiss. Maybe that's fun to some people, but it just feels like Constructed to me. And if I wanted to play Constructed, I would, you know, play constructed.
I loved the Cube the firtst weekend and the first half of this week. But the past couple days have just not been as much fun. Two reasons for that. The payout is GARBAGE. Honestly, you can't even get 7 back for a draft set. Secondly, the whole point of the Cube, in my opinion, to have powerful cards, but games that are not just rehashes. But that's exactly what they've become this week. If I hop into a queue, I can now fully expect to play one of a handful of decks: RDW, Reanimator, Tooth and Nail, etc. I have played Tooth and Nail for the past three first rounds. The worst part is, each player seems to know exactly what they "should" be playing. So literally ALL the Tooth and Nail targets will end up with the guy who took Tooth. It even happens in Swiss. Maybe that's fun to some people, but it just feels like Constructed to me. And if I wanted to play Constructed, I would, you know, play constructed.
......I'm sorry, when you're given the red god of war that is Koth p1p1, you offer a salute to the mountains, pour petrol over yourself, set yourself alight and charge, screaming, at the enemy.
There's an argument for sword so you don't commit to a colour but seriously - you mentioned there's always a mono red guy in each cube: in this cube you were supposed to be that guy ;] Your point 5) should have been: take PWalkers when you see them, even bad ones are amazing in limited. They affect games unlike any other cards. Bombs like the Bslayer are good but you can often find them 4th+ pick.
look at the next pack: Chandra, after that: goblin guide, arc trail etc. etc.
I love your article layout though, good stuff :]
I don't like SoBaM very much, but it is widely considered to be a top Sword given 3 hits to deck you (basically).
Yeah milling a 40 card deck 10 cards at a time does not take long to end it...still could be problematic if they get a way to stop you before they are down to the nitty gritty.
Koth is the best card in the pack, but I generally try to avoid the most obvious draft strategy (red burn)and plan on playing against it. I would rather give a really nice "I'm not red" signal with Koth and Skizzik than take it and end up fighting for red. Sword of Mind and Body is the weakest of the swords in my opinion. Of course that opinion is on 100 classic singleton where milling 10 cards from your opponent is often doing them a favor, so my judgement could be a bit off.
I've had reasonably good luck with forcing white because I can then pair white with just about any other color and end up with a decent deck.
White Green Aggro was the plan until I saw Genesis AND Buried Alive wheel around back to me. This tells me that nobody else is interested in reanimator and if I go for WGB with reanimation spells I'll be getting some good picks for the rest of the draft.
Thanks for the feedback. I know I'm far from the perfect drafter and it's always good to have other player's perspectives.
in my opinion there are a lot of 2 drops for Driver in Pauper, but assuming you meant it totally in relation to std then I'd agree... I'm curious to see if it gets any application in the MBC list outside of std pauper
Typically I listen to the radio (either online with Jango.com) or the local classic rock station. Friday night however I was listening to the Eddie Trunk show so lots of metal stuff that I didn't actually notice. Good energy music though.
I was watching that game Keya and kept wondering why you didn't activate jace and then you did and realized he still had cards in his library because he still had like 3 in hand when you did it. I was impressed that you won through all the life gain in that deck.
By the way thank you again for lending me the cards for the event.
RE: Hammybot was having trouble getting on last night and by the time I did I completely forgot what it was that I wanted.
I'll go through this some more, but when you opened Koth and Sword and picked something else, it was pretty bad, especially when Port was in the pack too. Koth is one of the best RDW cards, Sword kills in 4 swings (and can frequently beef up users to swing right through Baneslayer) and Port lets you remain undecided also. Furthermore, when you started talking reanimator despite having much of the core of a Wg beatdown deck leading into pack two, you'd lost me. Going 3-0 means you probably played pretty well, but even as I look through some more of the draft, it seems clear that you were Wg beats. P2P2 is Calciderm, P2P3 is Souls or Metamorph (probably souls since you're expressing interest in some Black),
p4 vigilante, p5 shrine is fine (since you'd have souls...), P6 is fine, although you'd like a 1drop to wheel, P7 is great, P8 is fine, although Trap would be fine too, P9 is wave if you'd been more interested in the Elves, P10 is Solifuge. Pack three is a sweet open! Then you want the GW dual, the Sledge was correct, geist is fine, Baloth is the next pick (since you shouldn't be much BLack, just souls and maybe the WB lifelink land), then Factory, Angel
When Ajani Wheels, you take him.
I loved the presentation of the article though, and I don't hate the Black you took, but it was just unneccessary when you were Wg beats from the beginning.
I think I don't mention Tix ever in the article as payouts. What are you referring to?
Hopefully, at least WOTC will rotate the payouts to other (read underdrafted) classic sets.
There is no way WOTC could ever make prize payouts in Tix, it would cross the already thin line of Tix as currency, netting them a heap of trouble with gaming laws in most jurisdictions.
I thought that picking MED packs would be a ++ choice for payout, netting more FOWs, Duals and other Classic/Legacy needed cards into the system. We can only hope.
Duplicate post.
I love recycle/null profusion effect. I'd pair either with blue to take advantage of Oona's grace to ditch extra land, or Looter to ditch extra Legends/uncastable stuff.
But the deck isn't, which is what I believe is what he was referring to.
That said, building Recycle for casual has always been tricky. On one hand, it's hard to resist the temptation to (potentially) go infinite with free spells and rituals to build up a storm count. Those decks tend to get old quickly and don't leave much room for interactivity. On the other hand, non-combo decks run the risk of not fully the draw engine, turning it into a "win more" scenario by the time it hits mid-to-late game.
I like your decks because they seem to be pretty standard beatdown decks that have a late game plan via Recycle, but might I recommend Elixir of Immortality for any deck cycling through a ton of cards every turn? Also, the threat count for the first deck (10 total) seems kind of low without some kind of recursion or protection. Oblivion Ring also seems like a good fit over (or in addition to) Lignify.
Another idea could be to use Recycle as normal, and then to later Donate it when the opponent's hand is empty. I can see something like a Stunted Growth/Plow Under deck (black and blue have a few of these as well) being nasty with Donate and some random finisher like Meloku (also good for bouncing lands to replay). Edicts and global removal would be great here since they don't target specific permanents.
Going into less savory territory, Fastbond seems obvious, as do cards that untap lands like Frantic Search and Cloud of Faeries. Anyway, good to see articles for casual that actually tackle interesting cards.
Yeah those cards rule. I had no idea until I watched a TPF draft video where the dude took it (Null Profusion) pretty highly and proceeded to destroy every late game that he cast it. It reads bad, but when it's late in the game and you have like 8 land out, you can be drawing and casting 3 or 4 cards a turn.