Are pick comments not working for you? I commented out every relevant pick (including every question you asked above), and the comments should pop up when you click "next pick" and reveal what my pick was. I would think you couldn't actually progress through the picks as you clearly did without seeing the comments, so I'm wondering if they aren't showing up for some due to settings or something...
Great work as always, but I must say I miss the pick by pick analysis. As useful as your match report play choices are for the duration of a limited format, your pick selection is even more relevant in the early stages, and something I've come to rely on.
For example, I would've loved to read about:
P1P3: You picked Growth Spasm over two amazing White picks in the invoker and the leveling glorious anthem. Are you not a fan of GW ramp so far in this format (because I think it can be very good), or was this just a further attempt to cut green and pass signals that white is open.
P2P1: I know how good Aura Gnarlid is because I have twice opened 3 in a sealed and both times went 4-0. But you don't yet have any Auras and there are other options in this pack that would be just as reasonable. Was this an easy pick?
P2P2: I know it is fun to play with rares, especially when a format is just beginning, but do you think Gigantomancer's a legitimate bomb? Or were you just interested in trying it out. There is another Aura Gnarlid in this pack that could go a long way towards building a consistent green-based Aggro deck. Am I right to think this was a tough pick?
I could go on and on, which is why I would love to see some commentary on your pick decisions. I have followed your walkthroughs for their entire duration on this site and I always walk away with something. Thanks for continuing to put out quality material.
Nice coverage. I would agree that more decklists would help, but readers will never be satisfied until you type up every decklists played, along with full data on how evert list performed - and even then readers woudl be asking for the alternative lists players considered and rejected.
I did have issues with one comment: "Unlike California where one can't get to any other qualifier within reasonable means (and if you're from Northern California, any qualifier at all),..."
Ask Hamtastic how far he would have had to travel to get to a Regionals under the old system. Bemidgi to Chicago - the closest Regionals under the old system - is a 11+ hour drive. Sacremento to LA is 6 hours or so. CA had it great, now they have what the rest of us have had for a decade.
I *completely* missed that potential interaction! I'm so used to those abilities being combat-damage triggered that I just didn't stop to think about it. I honestly don't know if the opportunity presented itself in the remaining games of this draft, but I know I never took advantage of it if it did. I'll be keeping an eye out moving forward, though...
My apologies about that. I had to leave in a hurry so I only had time to jot down the decklists of the two qualified for Nationals.
In terms of the extra invites, the way the Californian Regionals worked the past couple of years is that they would have 4 invites and then have that number upgraded to 8 if a certain attendance number was met.
I feel such a system should be in place for the future.
Those are his lands of course. The way he gets them in his draft is by saving the draft deck after building it then, opening it in the deck editor (instead of the draft builder) and replacing the lands then saving and reloading the deck into the draft editor. Then when has made sure of his build he submits.
those introspection moments are just awesome.
and I have a question - how do you add those fancy unhinged lands to the deck? I can't seem to find an option like this anywhere.
I'm assuming by Zendikar you mean Zen Block. I managed to get 4 of the mana elves from ROE. So far I haven't done much with them sadly. Perhaps someday.
Aren't all vanguard games casual by now? I mean there is no more official tourney form if I understand things correctly. Where is the deck list man? I was expecting a decklist after the break down. :/
One critique I have is that you assume we know the decks of the competitors. Marc Besso's for instance with this line "Marc boards out his Conscriptions, a couple of (Dauntless Escorts), and Jace, and brings in his entire sideboard minus Mind Controls." This only works if you include the sideboard in the discussion so we know what it is minus Mind Controls he brought in. Not that it was relevant in the games but it is interesting info anyway. In fact being an antifan of standard in general I don't know the archetypes at all and would have liked to see all the deck lists mentioned. But alas I know that might be difficult unless they were published already somewhere else.
My condolences on missing the top spots. I was also a bit confused on where you thought the extra invites should go. NYC? Conn? Boston? Don't we (the east coast) get a lot of invites already? Or did you mean places in Cali where you normally are?
Thanks for the match reports. I know it is a pain to cover matches when they are fast paced and furious.
NOOOOOOOOOO!! Friday is a long time for this amount of excellence. This is by far the most drawn-in article you have since written. Thanks and cant wait for the ending.
well they would have to be currently erroneous, he is using the prices from when the cards were in standard, though whether or not those are even accurate i am unsure
I am not understanding how you arrived at the figures you are using. Are they just samples so that you can make some kind of point? If not they are currently erroneous.
Something that people tend to forget when talking about Mythics, is that they're not any harder to pull from packs than Stuffy Doll or Hallowed Fountain were. New Mythics and old rares are 2-3 (2 and-a-fraction) per case on average. That's not a lot!
The real problem with mythics is how far down they pushed the value of every other rare. Basically, what we have now is a rarity system that is kind of like "R / U1 / U3 / C". The cards you see with a gold expansion symbol aren't really rares anymore.
In a healthy set the value of the set is more evenly distributed across the chase cards in that set.
TSP Example (bear with me)
Magus of the Scroll - $10
Vesuvan Shapeshifter - $8
Stuffy Doll - $6
Ancestral Vision - $6
Lotus Bloom - $5
Bogardan Hellkite - $5
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir - $5
Dralnu, Lich Lord - $4
Living End - $4
Vesuva - $3
Ten or so other cards - $1
WWK Example
Jace, the Mind Sculptor - $70+
Abyssal Persecutor - $6
Celestial Colonnade - $4
Raging Ravine - $4
Avenger of Zendikar - $4 nothing else is worth snot
Now that the normal rares are mere U1s, and they are necessarily abandoned by the redemption process, they're not holding up to the mythic prices. There's just too few of them in a small set, and thus too many of them in circulation.
Luck has a huge role in Magic, but making the best of what luck (be it good or otherwise) gives you is what sets apart the skilled players from those not so skilled.
I was much happier when 50% of the cost of the deck was in the mana base, as per Hamtastic's first examples.
Firstly, there was less demand for rare lands as casual players didn't need them as much. With chase mythics, they are awesome, and everyone knows they're awesome, so hold on to them for dear life.
Secondly, even as a tournament player, you could substitute for basic lands/inferior versions without losing much win %, unlike mythics Jace/Elspeth/Gideon etc, where they are so powerful your deck will lose much power or even be unplayable without them.
Thirdly, chase mythics are impossible to trade up for, as they cost so much more than rares. When the fetches/day of judgement cost ~4 tix and Jace costs >70 tix how do you trade for that without a chase mythic of your own?
Are pick comments not working for you? I commented out every relevant pick (including every question you asked above), and the comments should pop up when you click "next pick" and reveal what my pick was. I would think you couldn't actually progress through the picks as you clearly did without seeing the comments, so I'm wondering if they aren't showing up for some due to settings or something...
Great work as always, but I must say I miss the pick by pick analysis. As useful as your match report play choices are for the duration of a limited format, your pick selection is even more relevant in the early stages, and something I've come to rely on.
For example, I would've loved to read about:
P1P3: You picked Growth Spasm over two amazing White picks in the invoker and the leveling glorious anthem. Are you not a fan of GW ramp so far in this format (because I think it can be very good), or was this just a further attempt to cut green and pass signals that white is open.
P2P1: I know how good Aura Gnarlid is because I have twice opened 3 in a sealed and both times went 4-0. But you don't yet have any Auras and there are other options in this pack that would be just as reasonable. Was this an easy pick?
P2P2: I know it is fun to play with rares, especially when a format is just beginning, but do you think Gigantomancer's a legitimate bomb? Or were you just interested in trying it out. There is another Aura Gnarlid in this pack that could go a long way towards building a consistent green-based Aggro deck. Am I right to think this was a tough pick?
I could go on and on, which is why I would love to see some commentary on your pick decisions. I have followed your walkthroughs for their entire duration on this site and I always walk away with something. Thanks for continuing to put out quality material.
From their twitter I assumed they were both playing flores's grixis but then I read some facebook s**** and found out that bdm played the naya deck.
Nice coverage. I would agree that more decklists would help, but readers will never be satisfied until you type up every decklists played, along with full data on how evert list performed - and even then readers woudl be asking for the alternative lists players considered and rejected.
I did have issues with one comment: "Unlike California where one can't get to any other qualifier within reasonable means (and if you're from Northern California, any qualifier at all),..."
Ask Hamtastic how far he would have had to travel to get to a Regionals under the old system. Bemidgi to Chicago - the closest Regionals under the old system - is a 11+ hour drive. Sacremento to LA is 6 hours or so. CA had it great, now they have what the rest of us have had for a decade.
Just saying.
I *completely* missed that potential interaction! I'm so used to those abilities being combat-damage triggered that I just didn't stop to think about it. I honestly don't know if the opportunity presented itself in the remaining games of this draft, but I know I never took advantage of it if it did. I'll be keeping an eye out moving forward, though...
Haha fast paced and furious...
My apologies about that. I had to leave in a hurry so I only had time to jot down the decklists of the two qualified for Nationals.
In terms of the extra invites, the way the Californian Regionals worked the past couple of years is that they would have 4 invites and then have that number upgraded to 8 if a certain attendance number was met.
I feel such a system should be in place for the future.
I was pretty unsure of BDM playing Grixis, so I figured he was on GerryNaya because of Snare
Just a minor correction,
BDM qualified with Naya and not Grixis.
Finally, somebody with an answer :)
Would have been nice to see the Vent sentinel + Snake umbra combo. Umbra does not say 'combat damage', he?
Those are his lands of course. The way he gets them in his draft is by saving the draft deck after building it then, opening it in the deck editor (instead of the draft builder) and replacing the lands then saving and reloading the deck into the draft editor. Then when has made sure of his build he submits.
those introspection moments are just awesome.
and I have a question - how do you add those fancy unhinged lands to the deck? I can't seem to find an option like this anywhere.
thanks
I'm assuming by Zendikar you mean Zen Block. I managed to get 4 of the mana elves from ROE. So far I haven't done much with them sadly. Perhaps someday.
Aren't all vanguard games casual by now? I mean there is no more official tourney form if I understand things correctly. Where is the deck list man? I was expecting a decklist after the break down. :/
One critique I have is that you assume we know the decks of the competitors. Marc Besso's for instance with this line "Marc boards out his Conscriptions, a couple of (Dauntless Escorts), and Jace, and brings in his entire sideboard minus Mind Controls." This only works if you include the sideboard in the discussion so we know what it is minus Mind Controls he brought in. Not that it was relevant in the games but it is interesting info anyway. In fact being an antifan of standard in general I don't know the archetypes at all and would have liked to see all the deck lists mentioned. But alas I know that might be difficult unless they were published already somewhere else.
My condolences on missing the top spots. I was also a bit confused on where you thought the extra invites should go. NYC? Conn? Boston? Don't we (the east coast) get a lot of invites already? Or did you mean places in Cali where you normally are?
Thanks for the match reports. I know it is a pain to cover matches when they are fast paced and furious.
NOOOOOOOOOO!! Friday is a long time for this amount of excellence. This is by far the most drawn-in article you have since written. Thanks and cant wait for the ending.
Yes I meant I don't think those prices were ever accurate. Also if it is a sample it is a strange one.
well they would have to be currently erroneous, he is using the prices from when the cards were in standard, though whether or not those are even accurate i am unsure
I am not understanding how you arrived at the figures you are using. Are they just samples so that you can make some kind of point? If not they are currently erroneous.
I dont get it...every rare you listed was $10 or under...
the playable chase mythics still push $50-$70+...
I dont get the comparison at all
Something that people tend to forget when talking about Mythics, is that they're not any harder to pull from packs than Stuffy Doll or Hallowed Fountain were. New Mythics and old rares are 2-3 (2 and-a-fraction) per case on average. That's not a lot!
The real problem with mythics is how far down they pushed the value of every other rare. Basically, what we have now is a rarity system that is kind of like "R / U1 / U3 / C". The cards you see with a gold expansion symbol aren't really rares anymore.
In a healthy set the value of the set is more evenly distributed across the chase cards in that set.
TSP Example (bear with me)
Magus of the Scroll - $10
Vesuvan Shapeshifter - $8
Stuffy Doll - $6
Ancestral Vision - $6
Lotus Bloom - $5
Bogardan Hellkite - $5
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir - $5
Dralnu, Lich Lord - $4
Living End - $4
Vesuva - $3
Ten or so other cards - $1
WWK Example
Jace, the Mind Sculptor - $70+
Abyssal Persecutor - $6
Celestial Colonnade - $4
Raging Ravine - $4
Avenger of Zendikar - $4
nothing else is worth snot
Now that the normal rares are mere U1s, and they are necessarily abandoned by the redemption process, they're not holding up to the mythic prices. There's just too few of them in a small set, and thus too many of them in circulation.
Luck has a huge role in Magic, but making the best of what luck (be it good or otherwise) gives you is what sets apart the skilled players from those not so skilled.
Great read by the way.
-comment removed by author-
I was much happier when 50% of the cost of the deck was in the mana base, as per Hamtastic's first examples.
Firstly, there was less demand for rare lands as casual players didn't need them as much. With chase mythics, they are awesome, and everyone knows they're awesome, so hold on to them for dear life.
Secondly, even as a tournament player, you could substitute for basic lands/inferior versions without losing much win %, unlike mythics Jace/Elspeth/Gideon etc, where they are so powerful your deck will lose much power or even be unplayable without them.
Thirdly, chase mythics are impossible to trade up for, as they cost so much more than rares. When the fetches/day of judgement cost ~4 tix and Jace costs >70 tix how do you trade for that without a chase mythic of your own?
luck is where chance and opportunity meet.