Loading Ready Fan Draft.

[Karnasis]

I'm up for sealed pre-release events, simply because it's a healthy change from Drafting, and I've always been a fan of sealed, though I perform worse in them. They rely more on having a sick pool with bombs over being passed cards that help or hinder your deck and deck building. That said you GET 6 packs from the get go, which is more cards overall to start, and there are chances you will win more.

In my experience in previous mtgo pre-releases, you generally don't see prizes unless you go 2/2, or even 3/1. But it isn't an exact science because there had been times where I thought I was getting packs when I didn't and vice versa (I think it might have to do with standings, but again, not sure).

Anyway, I'm just down for a change of pace (if I am able to attend with you folks) also, the pre-releases are if I remember correctly, 16 player events. Given the timing, we could easily fill a pod when one empties, but that means people would have to pay attention if we want a full LRRFan sealed event, becuase they fire faster than normal (limited time and all).

The other problem is cube will be back at the same time, and some may opt to use their phantom points on that instead of pre-release. It's fine, but I feel we should expect that a few regulars may opt for cube instead (sealed isn't for everyone, they may just prefer drafting)

Edit: Also, noticed this just now, Black is prolly gonna be played 90% of the time this time round folks. The promo is gross. 3BB 5/3 flying demon that gives you card advantage on your upkeep unless your opponent sacs a dude or gives up 3 life... the other creatures are 7 drops, 6 drops or in the case blue a 5 drop clone effect.

[notomtolose]

- They're trying a new prize pattern here. As I pointed out, the Friendly queues give two packs to anyone who wins a match. Three for 3-1, five for 4-0.

- Since everyone is receiving a free Hunt entry item, we may not get to choose colours.

(That is, unless you buy your own entry item, but if we're going Friendly anyway, it would be a waste of money to buy an extra item just to get the spikiest colour for the fan event...)

[Karnasis]

Ah fair enough, also that's a good prize payout, so you get 2 packs if you win 1 match, does that mean if I go 2/2 I get 4 packs or do I just get 2 still. And only then do I get 3 packs if I go 3/1 and 5 if I win?

I'm not a pack hunter, I'd just be reusing these to draft later without blowing money

[notomtolose]

Two packs for 2-2, same as 1-3.

[Karnasis]

Ah, so 3-1 is my goal so I can draft more m15

[Lord Hosk]

After seeing what they are doing I fully plan to have the Fan event next weekend be a sealed.

I think we can do it at the same time in a similar manner.

Saturday 6PM PST 9PM EST Sunday 2AM BST 11AM AEST

Meet up in the LRR chat room 10 minutes or so ahead of time so we can all jump together. Now be warned that the pods will be more mixed because prerelease pods tend to fire more regularly. it will probably be more of a "ok everyone get ready"
"everyone set"
"GO GO GO GO"
and everyone jsut starts joining and we hope to dominate a pod, there is no way to do it with as much precision as there is in the slower firing drafts.

[MowDownJoe]

- Since everyone is receiving a free Hunt entry item, we may not get to choose colours.

I believe that we were getting one of each Hunt item. Pretty cool, since I'd be tempting to just always go red elsewise.

Also, strawpoll for friendly vs. competitive. Thought I'd have it ready a few weeks in advance.

[notomtolose]

Heading out to a prerelease now, but I'm planning to come back for the draft tonight if it's on. I might even be streaming (no camera, sorry), mostly so I can review my own play afterward. Still, you never know what people will find interesting, so here: http://www.twitch.tv/notomtolose2

[Karnasis]

I went 1-2 with this deck, had high hopes. Sadly it performed best with 3-4 mana only for some messed up reason >.>

http://imgur.com/OzDPG5o (linked this way so people can't complain about resolution, becuase when I resized last weekes people couldn't read the cards >.>)

Edit: Looking forward to the format(s) change next week (M15 and Sealed), I've gotten jaded by my favorite set

[whatthebus]

http://i.imgur.com/9C7FS4p.jpg?1
My R/B pile. Pack 1 went Broodmaster -> Dictate -> Harness then saw no green for the rest of the pack, no black in BNG and weak black in Theros. Mananged to make the finals somehow, where I was promptly stomped by Laserbeaks and his Dictate of Heliod/Elspeth wombo combo.

[notomtolose]

Karnasis, I like your deck for balance, the thing it seems to be missing is power. You don't have many of the good tricks or the good heroes or the good bestows that the GW deck really wrecks face with.

What it does have is a massive number of small creatures and cheap tricks, so if you draw mostly spells (not many lands) there's a decent chance you can wipe someone out with quantity before quality shifts things back in their favour. That's my assessment, anyhow.

Whatthebus, that deck is bonkers. As a fan of rakdos aggro, that deck looks pretty perfect!

I went 2-1 with a fun constellation deck. First picked Doomwake Giant and never looked back. Unfortunately I didn't get to combo off too often, but it was fun anyhow.

The deck: http://imgur.com/fbJirKE

The horrendous first attempt to stream it: http://www.twitch.tv/notomtolose2/profile/pastBroadcasts

If anyone who watched it or watches it in future has any feedback, I'd love to hear about it.

[whatthebus]

I'd love this deck if it had any mid-range. Two strikes and a Bolt help get there, but some actual 3 drops would be nice.
I don't think I'm a very good red player. Haha.

[Karnasis]

Yes, I kinda didn't see any great green/white bomb cards unfortunatly.... however when it worked, it worked. As I stated game 2 of round 1 I won with 3 lands on the field and a voyaging satyr, but next game got mana screwed. Against memo I had a hero of iroas swinging for 6 or 7 with first strike from the arhetype. and my last game vs memo I had a 10/10 Phere's Band Tromper from buffs and swings....

But yeah more power would have been nice

[Lord Hosk]

I missed the fan draft when Littler Lady Hosk was playing, tripped and smacked her head on the fireplace.

I played later drafted a weird blue green pile... and went 6-1 and the one was due to a epid mana flood, I had 15 land on the board when I died one of which had market festival on it.

I sold the cards and got less than a ticket

[Dix]

Now that sir... is the definition of a pile.

[whatthebus]

Just watched your replay Tom, good insights and talking through your decisions. Definitely had the read on cards in hand during our match.
Regarding bolting your guardians pre-combat: if I go to the dome I get 3 and a scry, but if I hit your guy I probably get 3 and a scry, but maybe you misplay and block, and it doing so first main plays around a bounce spell, which would leave me board locked with no scry. And that's not a position I wanted to be in on top-decks against a deck with big flyers and a doomwake.
Also I love running two threaten effects. No one expects the second threaten.

[notomtolose]

Thanks, whatthebus!

THE SCRY, of course... That's what I was missing. I guess it may have helped you get to that Reckless Reveller sooner, so I certainly can't fault the logic of prioritizing the scry.

[Lord Hosk]

The pile

How I won 6 games and only lost one is beyond me.

[notomtolose]

I dunno; 17 decent-to-excellent creatures on a textbook curve, four bestows, card draw and seven different ways to either get through damage or prevent it when your opponent didn't expect it.

I wouldn't peg it for a super obvious 6-1, either, but the potential certainly seems to be there. Get any good stories off that Polymorphous Rush?

[Lord Hosk]

4 vulpine goliaths, one with 4 +1+1 counters

[Karnasis]

Ah, so yeah guys, I know we've been saying this weekend for the pre-release, but it's actually the weekend after.... so JBT this week I assume

[Lurkon]

Ugh. So sad to have missed this weeks. I hope I don't work Saturday night next week.

[MowDownJoe]

You missed something special. Graham joined us!

Anyway, I couldn't get my streaming gear to work, so I shrugged. Got passed multiple U/G bombs and opened a Kiora, but the deck's curve was a mess. Ended up 2-1, losing in R2 because I punted game 1 and forgot to crack my Font on T2 (my opponent was playing 'Murica Heroic... forgetting that was a death knell) and got flooded game 2.

My dumb dumb deck:

Click to Expand

[notomtolose]

I was also planning to stream, but it cut out right after we started and I didn't notice until halfway through the draft, so I didn't bother. I blame The International.

The pack I opened was full of green gas and exactly one very good card from black, blue and white. I decided to take the Reprisal. I got a fair bit of good white, so it was a decent choice, but I was a little late picking up the signal into green, which after passing that first pack probably put a couple of people to my left into it.

Overall, the draft went OK and after getting wrecked the first round by Karnasis playing my obvious weakness, RW aggro, I managed to drag the deck back to a 2-1 finish.

Here it is: http://imgur.com/qcmfuqW

[Maddrius]

Argh. 1-2 this week, including a bye.

I got epically cut on my first pick color (red), and my second pick color choice was also cut (blue). I didn't move fast enough into other colors, so wound up with a funky deck:

Click to Expand

Overall, I had signals that I could/should have moved even in pack one, but need to do a better job at reading them and being flexible to abandon p1p1 colors if needed.

I did have an epic round-one game-one match with MowDownJoe that burned waaaaaaay too much clock, and had some tense (but much faster) games against notomtolose. Not the result I was hoping for, but thanks for the games!

Draft vid: http://www.twitch.tv/maddrius/c/4701108
Replay: http://www.twitch.tv/maddrius/b/549249648



Thanks to Graham for drafting with us! I didn't make the first pod, but it's great to have the LRR team surprise join for the last week of Theros block fan draft :- )