Loading Ready Fan Draft.

[Maddrius]

Thanks Sarah. I had been trying to use "they" or the person's user name, (mostly because I think saying "he or she" all the time is awkward, and just draws more attention to it), and had done better in past weeks. So to hear myself backsliding this week was frustrating.

I think Sarinde is a cool username, all the more so to understand the embroidery aspect! I figured the "-de" ending would be pronounced on its own, it was the rest of it I wrestled with. Especially with my tendency to speak too fast and mangle words :- )


Regarding the meteorite again: Hmm. So swapping it for the Miners bane or the shadowcloak? I could see that. The miner's bane trample could be important late game, though the 3 toughness of both creatures can be a little low to things like ulcerate and lightning strike. (The rotfeaster's 5 toughness would be better for that, but the 3 power isn't as aggresive? Hmm).

I think overall you had a good deck, especially given your pool. Having both of our decks be more aggressive also made for a good match up.

Anyway, I hope you are able to join more drafts in the future!

[Sarah]

Ah yeah it can be hard to shake ingrained habits. And I agree that "he or she" is awkward. It still bugs me slightly to use a plural pronoun as a singular one, but I think it's the best one to use.

I'm pretty happy with "Serinde," it goes well with my name and encompasses two of my loves in one word. And there isn't much danger of someone else using the same name.

That is the problem with swapping out the meteorite - I wanted a beefy creature but didn't have many options in red and black. Those two were the only ones I sided in occasionally. I guess I could've splashed a green card or two, that probably would've been easy enough since I had the meteorite and evolving wilds.

I'm glad you think the deck was pretty good! I did think my pool was rather boring, but I had fun trying out an aggressive deck (when I played it properly).

I probably won't be drafting that much, since I don't have much of an income right now. But since I won two packs from this, I might use them to jump into the next fan draft. I miss drafting.

[Juliamon]

Yeah, I caught myself doing that in my game against Juliamon... then stumble my way through a self-correction, and then probably kept doing it and just didn't notice again...

Don't worry too much about it, I'm not offended.

Anyhow, here was my terrible 0-4 deck (and the rest of the cards):

Click to Expand

In retrospect I maybe should have tried U/R instead of U/G, but I ended up being rushed in deckbuilding (thanks, mom) and was pulled in by the allure of actually having a Paragon. Still, half the matches were pretty close and one round I lost specifically because my client did the thing where it wouldn't start the game after sideboarding and I nearly ran out of time and panicked. I'm pretty sure my opponent was double queueing for the first 20 minutes because I was up 10 minutes on him despite not using hotkeys and we both ended up with less than 2 minutes left in the third game.

It's possible I'm also just really bad at fandraft because I've yet to win a round in one. I don't consider myself a "good" player by any means, but I do better with paper.

With all this talk of "too many mythics/Souls" I have now played two prereleases and the Chain Veil is the only mythic I've gotten.

[notomtolose]

Whoa, Juliamon. That is easily the roughest pool I've seen anyone play or post in M15 so far. I mean, Waste Not, Chain Veil, Sliver Hive, and double Jalira with stone nothing to morph anything into! I mean, when Carnivorous Moss-Beast is the second or third strongest creature in your entire pool... Wow.

I think I agree with your postgame assessment but I think the UG is close, might have even played RG depending on the matchup.

Maddrius, I might just take you up on that sometime! I had a lot of fun with my deck and I'm interested in getting more Sealed practice in.

[Lord Hosk]

AdmiralMemo I was going to break down your decks for you in a PM but pretty much everything I was going to say has been said.

Here are some general rules for limited play, there are of course decks and cards that dont fit this but that you play anyways.

1. Bread
Bombs
Removal
Evasion
Attack
Defense
(there are alternate A,D's but the point is the same)

Bombs these are cards that can almost singlehandedly win you a game. If you drop a planewalker on curve your opponent curses. If you drop a Turn 6 soul, or if your opponent drops a Dragon or a hornests nest it changes the game entirely and puts them in the driver seat almost without fail. These arent always rares either, Serra angel is a pretty big bomb 4/4 flying vigilance is pretty hard to deal with.

Removal not as direct as it sounds but sort of is. Cheap instants that do damage or big sorcerys that eliminate bombs. Example of good verse bad would be Lightening strike Vrs Boulder fall. Sure bolder fall can eliminate 2 3 or even 5 targets, but if you have 8 mana to spend eliminating 5 1 toughness creatures is probably not that relevant, 3 damage for 2 mana, always going to do something. Things to avoid generally or fall into another category would be conditional removal such as clear the path, sure its only 1 red but how often will they have a wall?

Evasive Creatures with flying, unblockable, or land walk. They are very powerful as they are harder to deal with.

Attacking. This goes both for powerful creatures for their mana cost and also for solid combat tricks but keep in mind that you need creatures or your combat tricks are useless.

Defending. creatures with big butts that dont really get through but buy you time to get to your bombs.

2. running the numbers:
23 spells and 17 land 15-17 creatures 6-8 other spells is the generally accepted this means your perfect opening hand will likely get 4 spells and 3 land 3 creatures and one other spell.

You will then get a land about 2 out of 5 draws (these are by far not exact numbers and are subject to randomness) so by turn 6 you will likely have 5 land. Most Draft games run 5-8 turns in my experience most sealed run 8-12 (format dependent)

in draft 2-3 5 or higher CMC normally no more than 1 6 or higher
in limited 2-4 5 or higher CMC again 1 6 or higher

"But I kept 3 land and never got to 4", "But I kept 2 land and flooded!" Yeah thats gonna happen. The reason you see this more frequently or at least people seem to think they see it more on MTGO than in paper is that people rarely truely randomize their decks in paper. In paper you take your cards, and put them back in your deck and shuffle two or three times. That does make it so you dont know where your cards are but there is next to zero chance that you now have 17 lands on top of your deck. on MTGO 17 lands followed by all your spells in collector number order, or all your high drops and no land is just as likely as 2 forests 1 plains a elvish mystic, a oresko swift claw, a kinsbail skirmisher and a titanic growth, thats randomness.

3. There are two type of decks Agro and control but these arent all encompassing types. You need to keep an eye on what your deck type is. In Theros block I would see decks that had 3 constellation 3 heroic, 3 inspired and the rest vanilla. Those cards might be good by themselves but focusing on what you are doing is typically stronger. Passing a oakheart Dyrad for a Centaur Courser may seem like you are missing a opportunity but if you have no other constellation taking the dryad is passing up on 1 power. If you picked up 3 amazing 5 drop and a 7 drop bomb you need the bottom of your deck to stall for time. If you have 5 amazing two drops you probably want the top of your deck to be finishers that let you get in for that last 4 points of damage after you stall.


4. Curve is important.



There are exceptions but try to stick to these rules first and then go outside them as you gain more comfort.

I cant tell you the number of times I have heard things like "UH I had 3 bombs in my hand but I could never cast them"

[AdmiralMemo]

Hosk: Thanks for this. Most of what you said was stuff that made sense to me and I already knew. I also try to go into themes with my decks, and usually know what I'm doing by 1/3 to 1/2 of the way through Pack 1. Triple Journey was a time when I was heavy on going Constellation, and I was happy with that. During BTT, I was usually either going RG aggro or RB minotaurs. Triple Theros, I was Voltron-ing it up as much as I could, unless I was going RW Heroic. But JBT, I really didn't know what I was doing, and had several drafts where I didn't figure out my theme (or sometimes even colors) until the middle of Pack 2. I really didn't know what I was doing in the pre-release, probably because I was half-asleep.

In any case, this is my focus:

23 spells and 17 land 15-17 creatures 6-8 other spells is the generally accepted this means your perfect opening hand will likely get 4 spells and 3 land 3 creatures and one other spell.

You will then get a land about 2 out of 5 draws (these are by far not exact numbers and are subject to randomness) so by turn 6 you will likely have 5 land. Most Draft games run 5-8 turns in my experience most sealed run 8-12 (format dependent)

in draft 2-3 5 or higher CMC normally no more than 1 6 or higher
in limited 2-4 5 or higher CMC again 1 6 or higher

I've learned that 23/17 is the "appropriate" amount from all my LRR draft watching. However, is my downfall the fact that my only source for Magic drafting is LRR, and they're usually going wacky? If so, then I'm not going to improve my game until at least the middle of next year, as I've got too much LRR to catch up on already. (I haven't seen a Feed Dump or Unskippable since before DB7, for one, and two, I'm only up to the beginning of Alex's Dishonored run in my stream re-watching.)

Let's discuss the numbers, though. Why 15-17 creatures and 6-8 spells?

Also, how is it that most drafts run 5 to 8 turns? 5 turns means you're dealing an average of 4 damage each turn from the get-go, and that seems like killer aggro to me. I don't actually like playing those decks or playing against them because I like to actually play Magic, not go "Here's a few of my cards, and now you're dead." Why even have the rest of the deck if you're not using it? It's just filler because the minimum is 40 cards? I'm also not a huge fan of counterspells, because it also seems like not playing the game. Removal, I'm fine with, because the things actually hit the table, even if briefly. Sure, you never got to swing with your bomb, but it certainly looked cool on your board state for a minute.

Regarding CMC, yeah, I don't think I usually put any more than 1 6-drop in. (Marshmist Titan doesn't count because he's never coming down as 7.) But, apparently, do I favor 4-drops and 5-drops a bit too heavily, would you say? Also, I'm half-not-counting my pre-release because I was half-asleep while building the deck. (Why do we always have the events so late?)

In summary, I think I would really love to play Conspiracy with some people, because, if the games go anything like those games (or the ones from the LRL stream), then I would love to play it, because it looks like everyone was actually using their decks.
But sadly, I'm back to the "No friends, no transportation, and Conspiracy isn't on MtGO" problem.

[hascow]

I would like to mention that, at least recently, BREAD is a far less useful suggestion than it was before. Draft formats now are far more focused on synergy and curving out for the most part. BREAD is a decent starting point, but you don't want to go "oh, no bombs, take a Sip of Hemlock because it's removal" for 5 picks in a row, because you don't need that many. What you need is to develop your board state.

As far as 5-8 turns, it's because most draft decks have a good, focused plan, and can usually curve out pretty nicely. Nothing turn 1, drop a 2-drop turn 2, attack for 2 turn 3 and drop a 2/3. attack for 4 turn 4 and drop a 3/3 for 4. Attack for 9 on turn 5 and your opponent is on 5. That's really not that out of the question, and it's also not super aggro in any way shape or form. It's essentially the most basic possible curve out with a bunch of generic creatures.


For creature/spell numbers, it's because the way to win in limited is (99% of the time) by playing and attacking with creatures. You need to have enough creatures in your deck that you will consistently be playing creatures on curve(that is, on the turn that corresponds to their converted mana cost). Otherwise, you're going to just fall behind way too much, because that's what your opponent will likely be doing.

[AdmiralMemo]

OK, from what you're saying, hascow... I'm just the wrong person to be doing Limited then? That's saddening to hear. I used to like it. But I maybe should just become a hermit and not interact with anybody since I don't understand anything anymore.

I think I'm totally with Sarah (the blonde) in this comic. I want to play it my way, but I just get trashed by all the Spikes. I hate the Spikes.

[phlip]

However, is my downfall the fact that my only source for Magic drafting is LRR, and they're usually going wacky?

Possibly? LRR will often do some wacky stuff, but their fundamentals are usually solid... even when they're doing their "always take the card 7th from the left when sorted alphabetically by the second word in the name" stuff, they still try as best they can to keep to a reasonable number of colours, keep a reasonable curve, get enough creatures and removal and stuff... What you learn from them should be good, as long as you're able to separate out the "they're doing this to be goofy" from "they're doing this to be correct".

That said, while it's possible to learn from them, they're not exactly going into this to be teachers... so it won't be 100% ideal. Personally, I highly recommend the Limited Resources podcast... it's full of a lot of very useful information and discussion. They had an episode recently about the actual draft process itself, and their common mistakes episode was very good. And if you find yourself with 8 hours to spare and nothing to do, they also do full set card reviews for every new set, which is my primary place for getting information about "but is this card actually good?"

Let's discuss the numbers, though. Why 15-17 creatures and 6-8 spells?

The vast majority of games in limited come down to your creatures vs your opponent's creatures. While you can reduce your opponent's creature count with removal, you can't reasonably remove all your opponent's creatures, so you're going to need to have some of your own to interact with them. While you don't necessarily need to draw as many creatures as land, you still want to get pretty close... over the course of your average (not-drawn-out) game, you're going to want to draw maybe 6 land... and like 4-5 creatures would be nice. And maybe one or two removal spells or combat tricks or whatever. And so you want to balance your deck to maximise the chances of that happening.

Also, how is it that most drafts run 5 to 8 turns? 5 turns means you're dealing an average of 4 damage each turn from the get-go, and that seems like killer aggro to me.

Well, the "5 turns" thing is the low end of that range... and usually represents a game where one player played spells, and the other player didn't (mana screw, or flood, or only drew irrelevant spells). Most even moderately aggressive decks can kill on turn 5 or 6 with a decent draw against an opponent who doesn't do anything. Whereas the 8 turns end of the spectrum is games where there's a bit of interaction, but one player quickly ends up on top and wins. Games that end up in a board-stall, or control-deck mirrors can often end up far longer than that, and those do happen, but they're not the norm.

OK, from what you're saying, hascow... I'm just the wrong person to be doing Limited then? That's saddening to hear. I used to like it. But I maybe should just become a hermit and not interact with anybody since I don't understand anything anymore.

I think I'm totally with Sarah (the blonde) in this comic. I want to play it my way, but I just get trashed by all the Spikes. I hate the Spikes.

Honestly, from what you're saying, it doesn't sound like you're "the wrong person" but that you're playing in the wrong environment... MtGO, especially MtGO against randoms, is a pretty miserable experience if you're just after casual play... All I can recommend is to look around for any local game stores, and check them out for FNM, see how the environment there is... hopefully you have one nearby with better people. That's how I got into it... I didn't know anyone nearby who played the game, but started going to my LGS and met a lot of people. I know you said you don't have transport, but still have a look, it's possible there's one close-by.

[AdmiralMemo]

That said, while it's possible to learn from them, they're not exactly going into this to be teachers... so it won't be 100% ideal. Personally, I highly recommend the Limited Resources podcast... it's full of a lot of very useful information and discussion. They had an episode recently about the actual draft process itself, and their common mistakes episode was very good. And if you find yourself with 8 hours to spare and nothing to do, they also do full set card reviews for every new set, which is my primary place for getting information about "but is this card actually good?"

Yeah... Unless LRL shuts down anytime soon, I'll be getting to listen to those in about a year or two.

OK, from what you're saying, hascow... I'm just the wrong person to be doing Limited then? That's saddening to hear. I used to like it. But I maybe should just become a hermit and not interact with anybody since I don't understand anything anymore.

I think I'm totally with Sarah (the blonde) in this comic. I want to play it my way, but I just get trashed by all the Spikes. I hate the Spikes.

Honestly, from what you're saying, it doesn't sound like you're "the wrong person" but that you're playing in the wrong environment... MtGO, especially MtGO against randoms, is a pretty miserable experience if you're just after casual play... All I can recommend is to look around for any local game stores, and check them out for FNM, see how the environment there is... hopefully you have one nearby with better people. That's how I got into it... I didn't know anyone nearby who played the game, but started going to my LGS and met a lot of people. I know you said you don't have transport, but still have a look, it's possible there's one close-by.

See, I thought the Swiss was for those who want to play casually, while the Spikes hit the 8-4s. But I'm guessing that on MtGO drafts, it's like the MtGO constructed, where everyone uses "Just for Fun" and no one hangs out in any of the other ones. That straight pisses me off.

Regarding IRL events, there is this store that I've been into once and it's a few miles away. (The rest are either further away and/or going towards the city, which I'm not doing if I want to continue living.) The store looks really cool. However, unless I get fired from my current job, I'm never going to play Magic there. The problem with FNM is that it's Friday Night Magic. They have FNM at 6:30 PM on Friday, and they also have something for Magic at 7 PM Monday.
So... Not going to either of those since I work Noon to 8 PM on Mondays and 2 PM to 10 PM Fridays.

And I have a couple of Commander decks... They have an EDH League... On Wednesdays at 6:30 PM. When I work 10 AM to 6 PM, and have church (10 miles away) at 7 PM to 9 PM.

So, the only thing I could possibly get to is the Tuesday Modern Event at 7 PM. I work 10 AM to 6 PM, and if I leave right away and frickin' run, I might get there in time... If I miss 2/3 of IDDQDerp and probably StreamBros/Book of Passwords (depending on the week).

Other than Fan Drafts (which are friggin' late), I normally play MtGO in the mornings before I get to work. Why is there no Morning Magic thing I could attend?

[Duckay]

It depends on how you're defining your terms, AdmiralMemo. A lot of spikes (where I am defining that as people who are good and want to get even better and win good prizes for being good) grind 8-4s because they have the best prize support and where there are better opponents. In my experience, too, 8-4s fill up fast so it's definitely not that no one plays them. I have not really noticed people deliberately playing in Swisses to beat people, though I wouldn't be surprised if there's a couple. The point is, it's far from everyone.

But the difference is, Swiss isn't exactly "casual" - it's "not as competitive as 8-4", and there's a lot of room in that to still be a competent player and take the game seriously (maybe they're not confident in their own abilities, maybe they're a good player in paper and still learning MTGO, whatever). Depending on what you're looking for, that might be the problem you're seeing.

[hascow]

I play in Swiss because I play Magic to...play Magic. I have no interest in drafting a deck, getting crushed in 8 minutes due to variance, and then having to draft another deck. I think I could do ok in 8-4s. I mean, I feel like I'm a fairly good player and drafter, but I don't have any interest in anything except Swiss.

But yeah, I agree with Duckay. It's not "casual", regardless of what LRR's MTGOAcademy drafts might make you think. It is, however, the best way to improve. Heck, I draft silly theme decks often as well. But the best way to know how to do that successfully is to know how to draft a nice, solid deck first. I think that M15 will be the best way to do that. It's a more basic "spells and dudes" format, at least that's what I've seen from it so far. It's far easier to build a deck of just real solid dudes and practice your play.

[Duckay]

I will also note though that I am a bit biased right now because I've been playing in Swisses these last few days because some part of my brain just Does Not Get M15 yet. In Theros block I did pretty well in the single-elimination drafts but it's taking me a while to get M15, so I'm playing Swiss events instead.

[Maddrius]

(Sorry for the wall o' text. I added a TL'DR at the end)


Just to add my two cents to the current discussion:

The 23/17 spell/land split has taken awhile for me to get used to as well.

"Back when I used to play ... " (what feels like a million years ago), I was used to playing 60 card standard decks with a 40/20 split, so 17 land in a 40 card deck seems crazy high to me.

But it works fairly well. When I came back to magic recently (thanks to following the LRR Thursday night drafts and MTGOAcademy shenanigans), I was shocked at the level of play and theory-craft that had become prevalent. I had to watch a lot of streams to start getting a feel for what the game had become. Particularly Kenji, and now SGDoc. Sometimes even just watching the drafting section, if I can't watch the whole stream, has been helpful.

I agree with hascow regarding BREAD. While helpful in a general sense, it hasn't really helped me when drafting compared to just trying to fill certain buckets for a workable deck. "Do I have enough creatures? Do I have ways to remove/bounce/pacify my opponents more problematic creatures? Do I have (or need) a win condition if we board-stall? Am I aligning to a particular arche-type, (Aggro? Control? Ramp? Reanimator?), or a general balanced deck?"

Regarding focus on creatures: Mostly because they persist. While most spells have an effect and then poof, the creatures stick around to continue affecting the battlefield and the game. A deck of all creatures and no spells isn't necessarily the best, as there are often some great spells that can win you a creature fight, put your opponent behind, or otherwise improve things. But having all spells in your hand and no creatures to interact with can be awkward.



I prefer playing limited rather than constructed just because I am less likely to come up against the broken as hell, "you lose on turn two" decks that cost mad cash to build. While you can certainly play "fun police" style decks even in limited, you don't have to, and is personally something I generally try to avoid. I also enjoy the challenge/puzzle of trying to assemble a working or interesting deck from a pool of cards with others.

Is it competitive? I suppose it can seem so depending on perspective. But I like the fan drafts, because while I am certainly trying to win, I get to play the game in a fairly relaxed setting, we all make punts to various degrees, and I get to table talk with a real human and not some power-tripping rager (or an AI non-feeling bot, as Phlip mentioned earlier).

I think most of the games I've played in the fan drafts, barring people getting land screwed, have been fairly close, with some back and forth. I'm still frustrated when I lose of course, but I get to play magic with some cool people, so it seems worth it to me.

But I can certainly understand if some people find it not quite their cup of tea. I almost wish there was a way to setup pauper drafts or similar relaxed events we could play between friends on MTGO, but the closest we might be able to do is organize a casual card night or something. I don't currently have a commander deck, but that might be worth investigating for LRR fans for whom the current draft meta doesn't work.



While people talk about "don't play 41. Draft BREAD. Aggro, Aggro, Aggro!", and you may increase your win percentage that way, if you hate it, you don't necessarily have to take it that seriously.

I found things like understanding how my deck curve affects what I draw during the game, and learning to value certain cards differently after playing games with them, has helped me feel like I had something to do during my turns, even if I eventually lost to a better deck, or to a better opponent.

And I appreciate the other folks here helping each other to get better at being in that position during a game, where you have things to do and feel like you are interacting with the game. I think that's ultimately my measuring stick on whether I am enjoying the game or not.


Anyway ... just wanted to share my thoughts ...





TL;DR: While winning is usually more fun than losing, I don't feel like winning at all costs is the only way to play. Or that there is only one right way to draft.

And draft certainly isn't the only way to enjoy magic. Perhaps there are some ways to organize an alternate to the fan draft at some point, or perhaps we can build up some MTGO fiends lists for commander or more relaxed constructed play.



@Lord_Hosk: I love those curve diagrams! I think that's an awesome, and easy to grasp, way to explain what people talk about with "a good deck curve". I wish there was some way to sticky that for new fan drafters somehow ... hmm ...

[AdmiralMemo]

What I think I'm getting, at least in drafting, is that I can't read the signals, and I just decide on my deck within the first 5 cards or so, and draft that regardless. Not being able to read signals seems about right for me, since I can't read body language, subtle facial expressions, etc. due to my condition. I take things at face value and am like "What do I take from here?" instead of "Why am I getting these cards specifically?"

[Duckay]

Reading signals is an excellent skill to learn, but I think judging from the decks you've posted here (and please take this in the spirit intended; I'm trying to help) the biggest consistent problem is that you don't seem to have a great grasp of what cards are good in the context of a draft. The advice that others have given you about what to look for and what traps to avoid (e.g. the ornithopter trap) will help, and I think that reading signals will actually come rather organically out of that. Once you have a grasp on what cards are good in the format, reading signals becomes a matter of taking the time to look at each card in the pack and say to yourself, "Is this a good enough card that I would have expected someone else to take it by now?"

It's a bit easier said than done because learning to look at the pack and make those assessments in a timely fashion comes with practice. At the moment I would say consider the advice that others have offered you on card assessment and you should start to see improvement from there.

[Dix]

I know there's probably not a ton of time to listen to them, but Limited Resources does have a few podcasts on topics like reading signs (Namely this one: Draft Navigation Strategy)

[Karnasis]

Memo, you sound like me in this regard. Can't read signals, lose a lot. Man I know how that is.

While I have nothing really of note to add to the conversation (mostly because it's all been said before) I know where you are coming from.

It's only been recently with the fan drafts that I've come to enjoy drafting, before the fan drafts I would consistently go 0-3 or 1-2 in Swiss on mtgo. It's aggravating, and while I got some advice (that eventually helped) I was consistently losing, and blowing tonnes of money doing it. I think when I stopped counting I had 72 0-3's, 10 1-2's, 2 2-1's, and 1 3-0 on mtgo.

A lot of the advice I got was "Read the signals" "Listen to the LR podcast" "watch other streamers". Reading the signals took a long time for me (not saying it will for you), I didn't and still don't listen to LR podcast (Disclaimer, I tried once, it didn't give me any info I didn't already know, but I respect their knowledge and the effort they go through to inform the Magic community ) And I've watched Kenji once or twice and LRR a lot.

I'd say honestly the biggest thing for me was learning how evaluate cards beyond "That's a big creature, I'll pick that" to "What does that creature do for me beyond swinging in" and "Flyers, my deck is weak to flyers, main board that shredding winds" to "I'll sidebaord shredding winds just in case".

Also Kathleen talking about vanilla tests in some podcasts during crack a pack of older sets, where you would see Vanilla 2/3's for 4 or 5.

Sorry if I ranted, did nothing to help but I wanted you to know you'll get there eventually. I'm not THAT good of a drafter, but I've had enough bad experiences drafting that I finally got it through my thick head how to draft right lol.

Edit: Huh, I listened to that draft navigation podcast.... not bad advice. I've been inadvertently doing some of the things they say not to do, and other things (like staying open for the first couple picks) I have been, it also explains why I have seen lots of cards in my color in Pack 1 and then nothing in pack 2 and then all of it in pack 3..... I actually enjoyed that podcast .

[Lord Hosk]

I...
Got...
WRECKED!

[Arakasi]

Observe my deck ye-mighty and dispair. I call it "Can't touch this".

Click to Expand

I got to do pretty much everything I wanted with it. I played Illusiory Angel (such value), delayed a green deck for entire games with the Slyblade (really good card, damn), pathmaged to victory, used the polymorphist to turn the Coral Barrier's squid into a 2/2 carrion crow at the opponents endstep, AEthersprouted someone's killing move (gave me several more turns but still lost) and Endless Obedienced the Slyblade when my opponent finally managed to kill it.

I went 2-1, won both round 1 games, lost both round 2 games (Karnasis got some insane value) and won both round 3 games. Pretty good, and to think I was afraid of drafting blue/black again.

[hascow]

I went 2-1 this week with a red/white aggro deck:

Click to Expand

Lost in round 1 in a really good match. Almost got there in game 3, but he stabilized with a couple Nimbus of the Isles.

[Maddrius]

So, finally made it to my first 3-0, although mostly due to bad draws by Korvys in the final. I also wound up running a fun police deck, so my apologies to my opponents!

After listening to the LR podcast that Dix posted above, I tried to stay more open this time around during the draft, and ran into trouble most of the way through pack two. I feel like a lot of people in pod two were fighting over the same colours (all of my opponents were in red-somthing, and my P1P1 was red as well). Wound up with the following:

Deck:

Click to Expand

Sideboard:

Click to Expand

Draft vid: http://www.twitch.tv/maddrius/c/4807735
Replay: http://www.twitch.tv/maddrius/b/553967043


I would have KILLED for a "waste not" with this deck. I also felt that if my deck was going to wind up as it did, there were a few cards that I passed that I wished I'd had back (a second rats, a fourth mindrot?), as well as another few solid creatures.


Either way, thanks again to my opponents! (Sorry again for the "fun police" deck)

Under_score
MadTheorist
Korvys


I am really liking M15 a lot more than M14 for some reason. Not sure if its just because I've got a little more magic experience now or what, but I definitely like the way this set plays.

[Karnasis]

http://imgur.com/zqs12ic

So round one was Laserbeaks_fury, who lost do to kinda bad draws tbh

Round Two as Arakasi, sweet deck, almost got me with aetherspout but I was happy I didn't get rid of rummaging goblin

Round Three I just didn't pull it together and whatthebus just had the answers.

Good games all around and I'm glad my drafting skill has improved overall, as I was worried it would go away when we switched formats. I'll be happier when I finally go 3-0 in m15 (current record for drafting twice is 2-1 each time first time in a random queue and second in fan draft)

[Dix]

Worth/ING SHUFFLER can eat a dick.

Seriously.

Got placed in Pod 2 and frankly, the signals for the draft were all over the place as I was going RB at first then switched into RG when it was apparent green was open and got passed a Hornet's Nest R2P2.I got land screwed/flooded so many of the rounds I was streaming it wasn't funny. That, coupled with a opponent disconnect on round 1 for a win and my own computer bluescreening... ugh. This was not a super fun draft but I love the 15 or so viewers I got for my stream. I went 1-2 with a deck that probably could have gone 2-1 had my draws even been halfway decent for rounds 2 and 3. Here's my pile of RG called Gruul and Unusual Punishment (name thanks to CantWearHats):

Click to Expand

[whatthebus]

http://i.imgur.com/J52iwMf.jpg
3-0 despite some iffy moments against Hosk and Karnasis. Got milled out one game in R2, so that's where your mind sculpts went, Hosk. Turns out Jorbai Murk-Lurker + Shadowcloak Vampire/Necrogen Scudder is Realgud™. Also Master of Predicaments is a fun card.