Magic: The Gathering

fourteenwings · 2020-11-08 12:51:12

I also learned worse cases in the Japanese translations

I wonder if there's a thing in some manga about this.

Also the longest card name I've seen.

Shorter than I expected. In Buddyfight cards usually had names like Dragon Strike Arts, Dragonic Kaiser Nova. It isn't as long, but it's close.

Oh something that is as close is Fifth Omni Cavalry Dragon Disciple, Explosive Hammer Fekthar.

English spearkers find the words "señor" and "loco" extremely funny.

This is true.

Stormtroper · 2020-11-09 03:16:21

It occurs to me that Buddyfight's translators could exercise some artistic license, not just in terms of length but those names read like a random assortment of words.

Lest I forget, if silly sets count there's these two. lol flavor text errata

08/11
At first I didn't want to play past the four wins of the day but I did end up playing some more.
2-1 against UW control. I think I could've won that game I lost if I hadn't killed Teferi while my opponent had Elspeth Conquers Death on the battlefield, thus being able to retrieve Teferi.
2-0 against BR Party. Hahah, I didn't expect to see a party deck in constructed, I kinda wanted to see it win, but even after me mulliganing to 5 it wasn't that hard to win, that deck was heavily hurt by me burning/bouncing all those party dudes. Unfortunately on game 2 my opponent got screwed out of black mana.
0-2 against WBR Doom Foretold. I'm not sure what was so different this time but this version of the deck trounced me.
2-0 against UGR Adventures with Obosh, I baaaarely won the first game after my opponent kept ahead of everything I did, untimately that deck isn't very capable of dealing with flyers so I managed to get just enough damage to win. On second game my opponent mulliganed to 5 and so I won handily.

Stormtroper · 2020-11-15 01:13:38

I hadn't updated in a while.

09/11
0-2 against UB mill.
0-2 against UB mill again.
2-0 against WB life gain.
2-0 against UBW Doom Foretold.

10/11
I added Crash Through to my deck. They're not as useful as I expected but not bad nonetheless.
0-2 UB Control
1-2 UW Control, this was the first time I cast a kicked Roil Eruption, on an Archon to no avail.
2-1 WRG Adventures
0-2 UB Rogues
2-0 WUB Control
At this point I reached Platinum rank, that is, the point winning one then losing one sets you back were you started. Even with a good win rate it takes a good amount of time/luck to reach Diamond so I'll probably stay in Platinum.
2-1 UGR Song of Creation, IIRC this was the second time I cast a kicked Roil Eruption, this time it worked.

11/11
0-2 against GB not-sure-how-to-classify-it, some deck with lots of good stuff.
2-1 against UR non-creatures matter, i.e. a mirror match! I won the first game handily, I sided in lots of bounce and burn intending to dry my opponent out of resources. I barely lost game two even though my opponent apparently got a bad hand even after mulliganing. Finally, I won a tight game three, at what could've easily been my final turn I attacked with two Riddleforms while my opponent was at 9, my opponent refrained from blocking with Stormwing Entity, so I cast Raking Claws on one of the Riddleforms and won. My opponent cast Shock so as to show it to me, I didn't make the calculations but I think that would've been enough to kill me off next turn, I suppose that'd be one reason why they didn't block.
2-0 against RG Adventures. I won both games handily, the second one I risked getting my Sprite Dragon killed early on, but my opponent didn't kill it (perhaps due to immediate lack of red mana sources), next turn it became 4/4 thus unable to be killed by a single burn spell at that cost and so after growing a bit more it ended up winning me the game on its own.
2-0 Rogues, I trounced my opponent, first game because they got mana-screwed, second because that's how my deck rolls. I had trouble sideboarding because I won first game before finding out what my opponent was playing.

12-11
Kaladesh Remastered is here! The planeswalkers are in a rush to artifacting in a world of curvy vaguely India-esque inventions. Like Amonkhet Remastered, it's a reprint set based on Kaladesh (though Amonkhet Remastered included loads of stuff not in Amonkhet). Not Standard legal, but still.

But first, some Standard Ranked:
2-1 against WRG Adventures, on the third game my opponent got mana screwed while, although I got a bad hand, I had lucky draws.
2-1 against UW Control, I gotta say I got lucky that third game with my draws.

Being that I'm on a Ranked Standard streak I didn't want to ruin it, instead tried out again the RW Haktos the Unscarred Brawl deck from earlier. I went 6-5 which is nice when you consider that includes games I'd have won hadn't I disconnected.
As for Kaladesh Remastered, hmmm... Sealed looks tempting, if I go 0-3 I get the equivalent of 10 packs for 2000 gems, which works out exactly as buying them from the store (except that in Sealed six aren't actual packs and thus don't have to do with wildcards), it's tempting but purchasing packs for 200 gems is not something I'd do. Also I know next to nothing about the original Kaladesh except that energy and vehicles deck were overpowered.

13/11
In Ranked Standard:
2-0 against GUR ramp
2-0 against GWB Auras
1-2 against UB Rogues
1-2 against BG Adventures. Gosh I hated this, I won game one handily, on game two I messed up and could've beating my opponent handily too, but instead made it such that at best I left them at 1 life, then at a pivotal moment (I draw a non-creature and win, otherwise I likely lose) I got disconnected (being something sudden I belive it was not a problem with my network) and failed to reconnect in time to win the game or play the third match.
2-1 RG Adventures
I'm sure there was another match here that I won
2-1 Monoblack sacrifice

I also played some brawl, ending up 1-1.

14/11
I played quite a bit today.
2-0 Monogreen Aggro
1-2 UB Rogues, IIRC I misplayed by not playing something before attacking, so as to trigger Prowess, failing to hit my opponent for an extra life that ended up making a difference.
1-2 UB Rogues, in this one I attacked with a 1/1 Sprite Dragon into the Soaring Tought-Thief that was about to be played.
2-1 RW Warriors
2-1 WUR Yorion
Forgot what was here. I won two games.
1-2 RG Adventures
0-2 UB Control
1-2 UB Rogues
0-2 RG Adventures, gosh I made such a stupid mistake here, not being aware that the token created with Vivien, Monster's Advocate had reach, instead I decided to burn Edgewall Innkeeper (I didn't even want to burn anything, I just wanted the triggers and draw), and with that blocker there I didn't have enough to finish off my opponent before dying myself.
0-2 UB Rogues

I'm sure there was another game I lost likely for misplaying by ordering wrong cards when scrying, putting Sprite Dragon first then Opt rather than the other way around.
It's disheartening that after all these years of playing this game I still make huge mistakes like those.
So yeah, it wasn't my day. before playing I was Platinum 1 with 0 progress (that is, winning three matches more than I lost would've gotten me to Diamond), but ended up being set back by three matches. I was hoping that with some luck I could reach Diamond (and at one point I was one match away from doing so) but I guess my point of equilibrium is probably around mid-Platinum.
I ended up crafting 3x Mystical Dispute (uncommon), 2x Riverglide Pathway // Lavaglide Pathway (rare) and 2x Ox of Agonas (mythic rare), the Mystical Disputes make quite a difference but I haven't noticed improvements with the others, the Pathways aren't going to be a waste anytime soon but I might have been too impulsive with the oxen, becoming dead draws annoyingly often.
I also played some Brawl with the RW Haktos deck, which I think I'll turn into a Nahiri deck instead. I ended up 3-3, four games being against Heliod lifegain deck and another against a very similar Basri Ket lifegain deck.

There was also Battle for Zendikar, a block which included lots of colorless non-artifacts, cards that require colorless mana to cast, a basic land that provides colorless mana, overall stuff that made "colorless" the closest thing MtG has had to a sixth color. Although from what I know even then "mono-colorless" wasn't a thing.

I've learned that this is super false, not only were mainly colorless decks common, they were overpowered to the point of dominating the Modern format and warranting a ban (Eye of Ugin) during what's now known as Eldrazi Winter. Even if one doesn't count cards with Devoid's fake colorlessness as such, there were still "true-colorless" variations (not counting a few spells you're not likely to spend colored mana on.
The affinity decks down there are almost-colorless, too.

Stormtroper · 2020-11-24 05:58:33

For one reason or another my comment draft got deleted/overwritten and thus missed two days worth of updates, though I don't think I did anything noteworthy in those days. Well, I know I used Nahiri's -3 ability for the first time.
Even without those updates it's kind of long, I guess that's the effect of updating less often.

[Start of draft]

15-11
I only played Brawl, ending up 6-3.
I got chewed by a The Royal Scions deck focused on drawing triggers. Everything went alright for me until one fateful turn that I attacked into two kraken tokens from one trigger of Ominous Seas copied with Lithoform Engine. It was still a good attack but my Goma Fada Vanguard got stomped and without it the math didn't work out, thus I failed to take away the remaining five life.
Then I immediately played that deck again from another player with a worse hand but better understanding of how it works and thus beat it.
Finally, I trounced a BG Grakmaw, Skyclave Ravager deck from someone who spent the game spamming the sleeping hedron emote. In hindsight I should've emoted back right before winning.

16-11
I played quite a bit of Brawl, ending up 10-6 in rather unremarkable games.

17-11
I went 5-something, I stopped counting at some point during my losing streak trying to get that fifth win

[End of draft]

20-11
The FNM event was Historic. I made a quickie monoblue flyers deck not unlike those I made when I was new. I ended up 3-4 (or maybe it was 3-3?) which I suppose isn't a bad result.
I played more Brawl. One such game was against yet another Heliod deck from someone who spent the match spamming emotes, taunting me when things didn't go my way, etc. and for most of the game s/he seems to have the advantage, although not greatly so. Eventually my Paired Tactician is huge, I have a sizeable board and my opponent only has one blocker (Daxos), I get Embercleave with Nahiri and just enough mana to cast it. My opponent conceded right there and somehow didn't feel like emoting anymore.
I ended up 6-5

21-11
Monoblue Baral - I killed their commander on turn two and on turn three my opponent conceded after I cast Duress on them.
UR Adeliz - I got trounced, I had things under control but eventually my opponent played Monoblue Kasmina, I messed up and failed to kill her before she put her two tokens, and got overwhelmed before long.
Monoblue Barrin - Things were going fine until my opponent played Patient Reconstruction, and thus I couldn't stop them from creating a huge board presence that I couldn't breach.
UG Vannifar - My opponent messed up on turn three by playing Hall Monitor before having Vannifar on the battlefield, they Oops!ed and conceded.
WBR Khalia - After a turn four Fires of Invention I quickly got overwhelmed, I messed up thinking Bone Shard was instant and thus I conceded in shame.

I then switched to a Historic version of my Nahiri deck.
Monowhite Thalia - I beat them up from the get-go, but throughout the game my opponent had good removal and blockers, eventually it all came down to Emeria's Call, with which after three turns I could get through the remaining 15 life my opponent had.
Monored Chandra, Acolyte of Flame - For some reason my opponent conceded right after I played a turn three Ahn-Crop Crasher.
WUBRG Niv-Mizzet Reborn - My opponent conceded on my turn four after I attacked with Seasoned Hallowblade and Bonecrusher Giant. My opponent had three lands that produced WURG so it didn't seem that they got mana scwered. *shrug*
UR Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain - It was a combo deck with lots of cheap mana stones and things to reduce cost of artifacts, however I got a very aggressive hand, getting Embercleave and two 4/3s on turn four while my opponent was not ready to go off, next turn I won.
Monoblue Thassa, Deep-Dwelling - I got trounced, I could not set up blockers as they'd be bounced by Barrin, eventually my opponent got a good board presence and I couldn't keep up with it.
WUBRG Niv-Mizzet Reborn - Now I see how this deck works, only with the cards drawn with a turn four Niv-Mizzet my opponent had answers to pretty much everything I had.

22-11
I played lots of Brawl again, I lost one, then had an 8 games win streak, then a 5 games lose streak, then another win and that's it for the day.

23-11
I played lots of Brawl yet again, I was intending to play some Ranked Standard today too but I had a win streak that I tried to feed. Ended up 4-2 in it.
One of those games was against a very interesting mirror match, with both trying to outdo each other with Kargan Intimidator, Veteran Hallowblade, burn/protect spells, Nahiri herself and back-to-back Emeria's Call. My opponent did something I think was a mistake, attacking with Bonecrusher Giant into Hallowblade, perhaps thinking it was unable to be blocked by cowards. In the end I barely won.

So I did play Ranked Standard:
2-1 against Red Deck Wins. I managed to start game two with three Stormwing Entity and the fourth was the second top card of my library, all without the means to play them, and thus I lost.
2-1 against Monogreen Food. It got an extremely slow first game that I won handily, and a fairly aggressive game two that I lost quicly, game three was much tighter with me eventually winning thanks to a streak of non-creature spells on a favourable board.
2-0 against UB Control.
2-1 against RG Adventures. On game three apparently my opponent got screwed out of red mana sources.
2-1 against Rogues. Hell yeah! I beat rogues while on the draw! Finally those Ox of Agonas justified their existence, I guess the trick is to be aggressive in playing your stuff quickly.
2-0 against GB Adventures.
2-0 against Monogreen mutate. My opponent was inconsistent as to whether they were emoting to compliment me or to annoy me, nonetheless after both games bouncing their Auspicious Starrix at critical times, I managed to beat them.

At this point: I reached Diamond rank!

2-0 against RG Aggro
2-1 against Monoblack control with a bunch of colorless stuff (Forsaken Monument, Ugin). The games were loooooong. On game three my opponent conceded immediately.
2-1 against UB Rogues, I won on the draw again! This time the only anti-rogues sideboard cards I drew were two Mystical Disputes.
2-0 against RG Aggro. My opponent spammed emotes early on during game one, though at some point they learned they weren't in a position to be mocking others.
1-2 against RG Aggro. Well, I won game one handily and had game two in the bag (opponent at 8, my turn with Opt, Stern Dismissal and Roil Eruption with almost enough mana to kick it (Edit: and Riddleform on the battlefield), then I got disconnected and could not reconnect in time.

That was a lot of playing, I played well after the point I stop getting rewards for the day. I still had things to do (namely, the Blender Animation) and should be asleep already so I was hoping my streak would end, but not in such an anticlimactic way.

Stormtroper · 2020-12-05 02:39:21

I haven't updated in ages. I haven't felt the same drive to keep track of my MTGA on-goings, as it probably shows from the entries' sizes.

24-11
Ended up 5-3 playing Brawl

25-11
I completely forgot, there's an unranked best-of-three queue that I can join in and play without the psychological effect of there being something at stake. Ended up: 1-2, 2-0, 1-0, 2-1, 2-0, 0-2

26-11
I accidentally joined a best-of-one ranked and lost a rank bar.
Besides, I got trounced over and over, at some point I stopped counting but I ended up something like 6-12 games total playing unranked Standard.

27-11
The FNM was Historic Artisan. I made another monoblue flyers deck. I won IIRC the first three games so I thought I had something on, but eventually my opponents started whooping me. I ended up 4-6, plus another victory playing Brawl with the Nahiri deck, for which I earned a Maul of the Skyclaves as one of the FNM rewards, immediately added it to the deck.

28-11
I didn't feel like playing today, but I still did. Ended up 5-6.

29-11
I hadn't played draft this month/season, and it takes at least one game to receive end-of-season rewards (a booster in bronze's case) so although I didn't feel like it I thought I'd do at least one Quick Draft to get it (I don't need to win at all), so I did:

That's a lot of removal. I had to choose between Relic vial and the second Feed the Swarm, and the second Ghastly Gloomhunter and the third Feed the Swarm, in both cases I picked the Feed the Swarm which by the end I believed was a mistake.
Maddening Cacophony is great and the deck has certain consistency, but I don't have that much hope for it.

UG Kicker - I completely controlled my opponent with 4 Feed the Swarm and 2 Demon's Disciple, they never managed to keep a single creature. Technically I got mana-screwed (third land on turn five or something) but things went so slowly I could still keep up.
UB Rogues - Somewhat similar to the above with the damage dealer being Marauding Blight-Priest. My opponent did manage to keep a couple blockers, nonetheless I still kept it manageable and came out ahead.
UW Something - Things were going fine for me early on, dealt lots of damage with Myriad Construct, but eventually my opponent killed it. I messed up at one point not playing Drana's Silencer before attacking, thus making my opponent not need Relic to kill my Construct, thus saving a counter that ended up coming up later on.
RG Landfall - My opponent didn't have good synergy, they cast a bunch of cheap dudes and fell victim to Mind Drain, never played a sizeable threat and thus I just kept casting and swinging with Cunning Geysermage and Marauding Blight-Priest and ended up winning.
URg Party - My opponent didn't have much in the way of party payoffs, so I just played my dudes and eventually came out ahead.
UB Rogues - My opponent played an early Ruin Crab, I killed it but my opponent recovered it with Blood Beckoning, I then failed to draw another Feed the Swarm or have a party large enough to kill it again with Drana's Silencer, so I ended up getting decked long before I had a chance to beat my opponent.
RG Landfall - I thought I had it in the bag, then my opponent played Pylath (mythic rare, argueably the best card in ZNR draft), I killed it next turn with the Feed the Swarm my opponent knew I had (to which my opponent Oops!ed) but not before it created the tokens and put counters on one, I failed to push through, my opponent was close to getting decked but still beat me before losing.
So 4-3, in hindsight I shouldn't have left Maddening Cacophony in, with how little mill my deck has it's unlikely that it'd make a difference and win me a game. Also I reached Silver rank so that's an extra 500 gold.

30/11
I got reduced to Gold 3 in Constructed and Bronze 4 in Limited.
1-2 against GW Landfall, I won the first game handily and thought I'd be able to beat that deck easily, I was so wrong.
2-1 against BRU steal-creatures-then-sacrifice-them, my Sprite Dragons had little hope of surviving against that (especially not the one I cast when I knew my opponent had Bonecrusher Giant in hand), however the Riddleforms were more or less unanswerable, I drew two on each of the second and first games and so I managed to chew through their life total (despite a huge mistake at the end when I didn't realize Thassa, Deep-Dwelling allowed my opponent to keep my creatures forever).
2-1 against BG something with Garruk, Vivien Reid, some creatures with Mutate

01/12
I played Brawl, ended up 4-2, one of those games was against Heliod lifegain which unlike pretty much any other time I've played against that deck, I managed to overwhelm my opponent with damage. Also I got to use Nahiri's -3 ability.
Bob Ross lands.

02/12
Did I lose my post draft again? Maybe I forgot to write something down. Perhaps this was the time I ended up something like 4-9 and didn't feel like keeping track.

03/12
I reaaaaally didn't want to play today.
1-2 against Monoblack auras
2-0 against URG Adventures
2-0 against some cutesy deck that uses Valakut Exploration to draw stuff and apparently to deal damage, though I found it to be veeeery slow and not very controll-y.

04/12
This week's FNM event was Mastermind, i.e. playing with a premade deck (this time it was one based on artifacts, mainly Kaladesh Remastered stuff) with no lands and each player being able to discard any card to create a land token that adds mana of any color. I find this to be kind of tedious to play, neither player really understands the decks they're playing and have to read the cards very often so it goes by very slowly. anyhows I ended up 2-3.
I also played quite a bit of Brawl, ended up 6-4.
I also played some Standard, one of which was accidentally ranked best-of-one against a cycling deck, which I lost. I also played, IIRC four matches, losing all of them and only winning two games, so 2-8.

Stormtroper · 2020-12-12 07:30:13

05/12
In Standard I ended up: 2-0, 2-0, 1-2, 2-1
Two of those matches I won were against Rogues, one of which was thanks to Midnight Clock, I wonder if I should add the second (or more!). At one point I felt helpless against them but not anymore.

06-12
Played some Brawl, ended up 6-5.

07-12
Ended up Brawl 4-5.
Kaldheim started getting spoiled! I'm not particularly interested in those two cards but I'm looking forward to find out what the new set will offer.

08-12
Two Standard unranked games, 2-0 and 2-1, took me less than an hour, something I wish happened more often.
I'm considering opening my Zendikar Rising boosters, I have 80 which is nowhere near enough to rare-complete the set, however I don't foresee me drafting it more before Kaldheim arrives so that number won't improve much. I don't think I'll draft significantly this week, ZNR's Quick Draft ends this Friday and won't resume until almost the end of the month so that's quite a while to wait for cards. Hmm... I think I'll wait until its Quick Draft opens again and then draft it a lot as a sort of farewell party to what was a great set to draft.
It'll still be possible to draft it in the future (although rarely) but it's not something I'll be able to do without feeling like I'm cheating myself, as pulling a rare that I already have four of gets me very little in return, at that point the entry costs really weigh in.
Lots of people want a "phantom draft" mode, one that's cheaper but you don't get to keep the cards you draft, thus not letting collection considerations get in the way of creating your deck. It's hard to disagree when I'm seeing myself doing these sorts of plans to grow my collection rather than have "normal" fun.

09/12
In Standard I ended up: 2-1, 0-2.
In Brawl I ended up: 2-4
Not a great day.

10/12
Whoo, I won all four (Brawl) games I played today. Three were against Pylath, in all of which by the time my opponent was able to cast Pylath I was able to get through their blockers using creatures with flying. The other was an Orah deck by someone who I felt was a new player.

11/12
This week's FNM is... Historic All Access! (Historic but you aren't restricted to cards in your collection). I took the opportunity to test some budget decks I've been thinking about crafting:

UW Auras:

Got trounced by monowhite lifegain.
Opponent left as soon as game began.
I won against some GWB deck I didn't quite understand.
I disconnected.
I lost against UW control because I forgot Settle the Wreckage exists.
I trounced a colorless deck after buffing a dude and drawing a million cards on turn four or so.
Lesson learned: Don't play auras on a dude you can't protect.

RG Aggro:

Beat Rogues after running out of fuel on turn 2 and not drawing a mountain for a while.
Got beat by WUBRG Niv-Mizzet after Deafening Clarion killed all my stuff, then I played more, then another Deafening Clarion killed all my stuff again, then I played a bit more stuff, then I barely failed to kill my opponent in time.
Beat monored Steam-Kin after being able to deal a million damage on turn 4.
Lost a game to UG Ramp.
Beat some Nicol Bolas, the Ravager deck after killing two back-to-back Bolas with Domri's Ambush.
Lesson learned: No wonder Burning-Tree Emissary got suspended (i.e. banned with the expectation that it'd be unbanned eventually), things can get crazy with the possibility of emptying your hand early on.

Monoblue Tempo:

Got disconnected right at the beginning (what a great start).
GUW Planeswalkers or something which I won handily.
UW Cycling which I lost after ages of both of us drawing cards and countering whatever. Pay-something counterspells aren't that good past turn 12.
GB Energy that I won due to my opponent having no creatures able to block flyers.
Lesson learned: Clearly I'm getting something wrong with this deck if the games are taking so long.

RG Arcanist:

Monoblack aggro that I beat after loads of graveyard shenanigans.
What looked like a GUW deck that makes use of Thassa, Deep-Dwelling, my opponent conceded after the second time I sacrificed one of their creatures to Village Rites.
Monogreen Elves, after turn two Demon token there wasn't much my opponent could do (and a lot I could do).
I got trounced by WUG Collected Company? Some deck with lots of creatures that draw cards, that never ended casting stuff I couldn't deal with.
I won against Monowhite Knights who conceded very early apparently so as to not see me sacrifice their Adanto Vanguard, which I didn't have the means to.
UW-but-mostly-W Auras, my opponent conceded early on after I deleted their hand with two turn 2 Thoughtseize.
Lesson learned: Young Pyromancer is insane. Also, the deck is more complicated than it seems, I kinda want to get good at it.

I also tried a non-budget version of RG Aggro, ending up 2-1 on games that were really one-sided either way.

UW Auras and RG Aggro were as interesting as I expected. Surprisingly, monoblue Tempo was a snorefest. RB Arcanist was super interesting, but I feel it's kind of casual-unfriendly, considering my opponent's early concedes without so much as a "Good Game" they probably felt the same. The non-budget version of Auras isn't that budget-unfriendly either so that would be an easy target to attain.

Well, no target is easy to attain if I also have to craft Historic's rare lands, but I feel like there's something more to look forward in the game. I remembered why is it that I'm looking to have a large collection.

Also, I got a Moraug, I'm not sure if it'll fit in my Nahiri deck but I'll try it.

Stormtroper · 2021-01-03 07:09:51

Speaking of budget deck, it bothers me that these decklists on the internet only take in consideration the rarity of cards used, despite the fact that these decks could use rares/mythics that are included in New Player Experience decks (Temples, Shocklands, Bonecrusher Giant, Embercleave!).

12/12
2-0, 0-2, 1-2, 2-0, 0-2, 2-1, 0-2, 0-2
One of those games was another mirror match, unfortunately in at least one of those games my opponent got a bad hand,, in the end both games were one-sided in my favor.

13/12
2-1, 2-0, 1-2.
I have the feeling each day the matchmaker pairs me with increasingly difficult opponents. With the first few having underwhelming decks or people who seem new at this. Case in point That 2-0 game was against a player who ran something that resembled the New Player Experience GW Adventure deck and who took unusually long to play. Though I almost lost that second game to a misplay on my part, and could've lost it if it hadn't been for a subtle but big mistake on their part (playing their last card before attacking, giving me the information I needed to not make unnecessary blocks and win next turn).

14/12
2-0, 2-0, the first game of each match was fast and clean, but I got mana screwed on game two of both matches, but in the first one their GW something deck was no match for my flyers, and on the second my UB Rogues opponent got screwed as well.

15/12
2-0, 0-2, 2-1

16/12
2-0, 2-0, 1-2

17/12
This week's FNM was Historic Pauper (i.e. commons only). I made a UW flyers deck that I think is terrible but ended up 2-1 with it. I've never really liked Pauper, I feel the game loses a lot from the lack of complexity/"size" of rares (and to a lesser extent, uncommons).

I stopped keeping track of normal games at some point (it got annoying). But I still intend to keep track of drafts.

So it's UW Landfall, which is going to be an issue since that's not a supported archetype, regardless I did pick up several good landfall creatures and some decent mill so I'm not that bummed, though I would've liked to make use of that third pack Zareth San.
First game was against a UW control deck with lots of
UW Mill - The game was very tight, especially near the end where my Makindi Ox and Canyon Jerboa were plowing through their blockers and their Ruin Crab was plowing through my library, in the end I lost the race.
GBw something - I got a very good hand with lots of creatures with Landfall, however I drew no sixth land so it took me a while to finish the game.
UB mix of Rogues and Wizards - a late game Ruin Crab almost single-handedly won me the game, I did almost nothing besides casting it and protecting it and if it hadn't been for my opponent's Mind Drain I'd have had enough fuel to empty my opponent's library.
WR Landfall - Gosh. My opponent made various questionable attacking/blocking decisions, despite that I failed to find the last land I needed to win from two Tazeem Raptors I couldn't deal with.
So 1-3. I got the bonus booster so it wasn't that bad.

01/01

Link: tappedout.net/mtg-decks/03-01-21-eBk-br-draft/?share=f72748815683596b71aaadcec2a9eb39
This is probably the worst pile I've drafted so far, six picks in and I still wasn't clear any of the colors I was going to draft. On the plus side I got four rares, it's the first time I get over three rares since the first round of Quick Draft ended. In the end it turned into a combination of decent-ish landfall stuff with bad party stuff.

Monogreen something - Got trounced by two Skyclave Sentinels, which had +1/+1 counters thanks to Scale the Heights.
UGr something - I got the impression my opponent was new at this, nonetheless they failed to de sdfal with my Skyclave Geopede until it'd done its thing and thus I won.
GB something with Nissa of Shadowed Boughs, it had decent party stuff and it was wacking me quite a bit, I thought they were ahead and was ready to lose to some flyers while I dealt with Nissa but then they randomly conceded.
RW something - this game was scary, both of us got several quality creatures online early on, however by the time I got the third Spitfire Lagac along with Skyclave Geopede it was clear my opponent had to be on the defensive, by that point they were forced to make bad trades during blocking, thus I was in a position to shave off their last 4 lives.
BW Clerics or something? (that's a lot of somethings this draft) - After my opponent played two Cleric of Life's Bonds there wasn't much I could do... actually, I could've refrained from overextending and keep a blocker later in the game, but I wasn't going to win anyways.
BW something, maybe clerics - My opponent did their things while my Skyclave Geoped whomped them, fortunately I never stopped drawing lands to feed it. My opponent apparently either forgot Geoped has trample or believed that it wouldn't trample through if they sacrificed its blocker, though short of some combat trick, they were in range of dying to Kazuul's Fury regardless of how combat went anyways.
BW Clerics - I kept on a hand with three mountains, Skyclave Geopede and three black cards, that proved to be a mistake, I failed to draw a fourth land by turn four and thus couldn't play anything then, which set me back a lot, I had good draws after that. My opponent had enough to block Geopede thus I failed to get through and lost.

I got the bonus booster. So 4-3, that turned out surprisingly well, I think I got lucky in that until that last game I had no obvious bad draws, and I don't think my opponents got good decks either.

So I did another draft:

Link: tappedout.net/mtg-decks/03-01-21-ezY-ug-draft/?share=c8f89d6026e65f89b586872d08077bbf
I have high hopes for this thing, I got lots of goodies with kicker (it was my seventh or so pick that there was no good stuff with kicker for me to pick). Also I got the fourth copy of a card for the first time (Magmatic Channeler), the next time I draft them, they'll turn into gems, which is undesirable.
RB something - I think I messed up by attacking into a blocker when I had reasons to believe my ooponent had Inordinate Rage in hand. I thought it'd be fine since I was about to playa 6/6 Verasol, but nopes, it got removed only after merely copying a Tazeem Roilmage.
UB lost-before-I-could-figure-it-out - I was worried since they played an early Relic Amulet, but I got a nice curve of Gnarlid->Geysermage->Verasol->Ashaya->Kicked Arbormage. My opponent refrained from blocking until it was too late, although with what I had it probably wouldn't have made a difference.
WUB Party - My opponent had decent stuff, Smite the Monstrous is not a good card but it worked more or less fine for them (in once case it forced me to waste a Zulaport Duelist to save my Canopy Baloth), nonetheless the game drew long, which is where I have the advantage, so after a turn where I used Arbormage's ability on my Baloth to trade it for three of their creatures they conceded.
BW Party - My opponent had several really nasty stuff; Nighthack Scavenger, Squad Leader, two Paired Tacticians and miscellaneous stuff. I played my stuff the best I could but couldn't keep up with it. They're probably going to get seven wins.
RG something - My opponent overcommited attacking with a land with Nissa's Zendikon, Cliffhaven Kitesail and Scavenged Blade on it, I played fatties of my own and in the end it turns out my two Turntimber Ascetics' lifegaining is what stopped me from dying to the two Might of Murasa my opponent had in hand. I ended up at 1.
WBR Warriors - My opponent wrecked me early on with Kor Blademaster and lots of equipment, but I held on until I was at low life when I was able to make bad-but-necessary trades, then came in the fatties: again two Turntimber Ascetic's lifegaining saved me, then Ashaya who was able to block without dying, then a humble but useful Riptide and finally a 10/10 Verasol. I was like "oh crap" when my opponent played their first swamp on like turn 12 (so they probably had removal or something they had been sitting on), but nothing came out of it. I still could lose if my opponent had some combat trick somewhere, but when I cast a copied Bubble Snare, that was the end of it. My opponent kept pestering me with "Your Go" emotes, if their purpose was to taunt me then they got told.
UB Rogues - I made a subtle but harsh mistake early on. I played turn one Reclaim the wastes while I had Relic Amulet in hand. If I had waited until having the Amulet in play I'd have been able to kill their Merfolk Windrobber, which is what they used to make their Sure-Footed Infiltrator unblockable. My opponent never stopped drawing cards with it (save for one turn where they attacked before using its ability, and apparently wasn't aware that it wasn't too late to do so) so I ended up losing.
So 4-3 again, not as good as I'd have liked, but not a bad outcome in the least.

I'm not sure if I should bid farewell to Zendikar Rising drafts just yet, I have 51k gold and 7500 gems in reserve for Kaldheim, which sounds like it should be plenty, meanwhile for ZNR I have 60 rares and 95 unopened packs, so nowhere near close for rare completion. Theoretically doing the first round of Quick Drafts should be more profitable, but I may be overdoing it.

Stormtroper · 2021-01-03 07:17:44

Two-parter because it got long.

02/01
So I decided to draft one last time:

Link: tappedout.net/mtg-decks/03-01-21-okx-deck/?share=42888ab82252013e7c15d28c0ac42f94
I've never drafted clerics before, but I'm well aware of how powerful they are. Regardless of the outcome I think I'll have fun with this.

UR Wizards - My opponent had a clearly solid deck, with Relic Amulet and two Rockslide Sorcerer, however I could partially undo its effect with Relic Vial, so although the initial pounding stopped, their life total kept dwindling and I won. Also Arena auto-passed priority on Demon's Disciple trigger even though I wanted to sacrifice it to vial (it was my only creature), I'd have raged if I had lost over that.
RG Something
GB counters - My opponent made the grave mistake of casting Strength of Solidarity, Scale the Heights and Inscription of Might on their Tajuri Blightblade, so although it ended up hitting me for a total of ten damage, those four cards disappeared to a single Bloodchief's Thirst. After that it was only a matter of building up a defense faster than they built their offence, which I did and my opponent conceded after a while.
GW Landfall - I got rekt to a curve of Murasa Rootgrazer, Kazandu Mammoth (!), Farsight Adept (so my Demon's Disciple couldn't kill their Mammoth, kicked Gnarlid Colony then another Gnarlic Colony.
RG Apparently Party - I got trounced, the only creature I cast during the early game was Marauding Blight-Priest who got removed, then by the time I managed to start blocking I was already on my death throes.
RG Landfall or maybe party - I drew Kor Celebrant, three Marauding Blight-Priest and Relic Vial, nonetheless I failed to make good use of them (never drew with vial, although I did get lots of life gain/loss out of all that), my opponent played three Territorial Scythecats that soon grew to become difficult to block, thus eventually I was overwhelmed.

So 3-3. I believe the problem this time was my mana curve, most of my spells cost three mana, so naturally it wasn't often that I got the best use out of my mana sources even though for the most part I had good cards. After the second loss I swapped in both Spare Supplies, but didn't draw them anyways.

I did another draft, which I expect to be the last Zendikar Rising draft in my MtG life.

Link: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/03-01-21-lxg-rg-draft/
So it's an odd combination of warriors and landfall. I had a hard time choosing to which extent to focus on each, but in the end I chose more on the landfall side.

UB Rogues or maybe party - I was worried after I failed to draw the land I needed to win for like three turns, but in the end I did and won.
WB Party - Gosh I had so bad draws, my first real play was Lagac, I got Mind Drained Twice and my Valakut Awakening for two (plus awakening itself) into three mostly useless lands, two late-game Akoum Hellhound and although my opponent only started playing stuff later on, that was more than enough to do me in.
GW Something - My opponent barely played stuff, I was playing carefully as I had a good board that I didn't want to lose to a combat trick, but perhaps that was necessary. Eventually my opponent conceded after apparently misplaying (attacking with the 3/3 kicker elemental into a Lagac).
RG Kicker - we pounded each other, me with two Akoum Hellhound and them with two Vine Gecko, although after a while I played Skyclave Geopede and seemed like I was on the right track to win, a Murasa's Might gave my opponent the edge to win.
GW Something - I pressed early on with Kazandu Mammoth, one fateful turn my opponent tried to kill my Taunting Arbormage with a Murasa's Mighted Fledgeling, but I had a Murasa's Might of my own, my opponent tried hard to mount a good defense but after I cast Bala Ged Recovery to retrieve Murasa's Might it was clear there was nothing they could do.
WB Clerics - A clean turn five victory, with Akoum Hellhound, Skyclave Geopede, Kazandu Mammoth and Synchronized Spellcraft (casting Geopede before Mammoth was a mistake as my opponent could block it with Marauding Blight-Priest, but I was concerned about removal, which in the end my opponent did not have).
UW Party - I played very aggressively, with two Akoum Hellhound by turn two, nonetheless I only got them to 11 life by the time they got a decent defense, helped by the timely removal of my Skyclave Geopede. I tried the best I could but I don't think there was anything I could do.

4-3. I believe four Akoum Hellhound was too much, it happened too often that I ran out of aggro fuel well before I was anywhere close to finishing my opponent off. I'm not sure if adding in more warriors would've helped, maybe?

Anyhows, I don't want to say goodbye to Zendikar Rising draft just yet, but I also don't want to draft. Hmmmm...
Not counting rewards right now I have enough for 18 Quick Drafts, I can assume by the time Kaldheim Quick Drafts are available I will have gotten an extra 45k gold, enough for nine extra Quick Drafts, for a total of 27, assuming I get as average reward enough for half a Quick Draft and I spend those rewards recurrently on more Quick Drafts, that's enough for 54(!) Quick Drafts, less optimistically if instead I only get an average of 1/3 Quick Draft worth of prizes I get 3/2 more Quick Drafts for a total of 40.5 Quick Drafts. The Mastery Pass costs about five Quick Drafts worth of gems, so let's round out say I have enough for 35 Quick Drafts.
Assuming Kaldheim has, say, 55 rares (ZNR had IIRC 61 and it was unusually large) and I get an average of 5 rares per draft (3 from first picks, one as reward booster and the assumption that the average of passed rares + bonus booster won is one, which seems pessimistic compared to the first round of ZNR) and discouting 50 boosters from set mastery (ZNR had 57), 13 from renewal (i.e. having been a player already) (ZNR had 13 too) and 10 from season (2-4 per month) that's 80 packs, so I'll need to get 140 from drafting, that is, 28 Quick Drafts.
All that assumes that all I get are rare cards, i.e. no mythics or wildcards, and also ignores the wildcards I get after opening six packs, I think it's a safe assumption that they cancel each other out, although I'm not that hellbent on completing sets that I'd spend wildcards just for that, and for that reason and the calculations above I think I can spare a few more Zendikar Rising drafts. Now now, though. Also I'm neglecting the possibility that there'll be cosmetics I'll want.

Speaking of cosmetics, I bought the France and Japan sleeves that were on sale. Also the other day Wizards gave away the Bob Ross lands for free, something I noticed is that they apply to draft decks by default, which is nice (and the ability to change default is something a lot of people request as a feature), and it also makes pasting decks into TappedOut easier, as it doesn't allow for Arena lands (the previous default).

Stormtroper · 2021-01-30 03:39:32

I should have posted this ages ago.

I was super-certain that Gods Willing had been translated to Spanish as "Con el favor de los dioses", but nope, it was instead translated as "La voluntad de los dioses". I thought about Googling the actual phrase and I learned that apparently "con el favor de Dios" is a very rare phrase in most places.

04/01
So another draft:

I have so low hopes for this deck. As it shows I never had a clear idea as to what colors it had to be, only that it'd include black. I was considering making it mono-black, but opted against it.

RW Party - My opponent had a good start, but that was stopped short by Mind Drain, feeding Relic Amulet and alalowing it to kill Fissure Wizard, then my opponent played Kor Celebrant, thus indicating that the game would run long, which is were mine has the advantage. I had plenty of answers to their stuff and life gain from bat, thus I won.
BW Clerics - Again Relic Amulet and Mind Drain on curve did devastating things. My opponent did mount a sizeable defense and after a while I stopped drawing creatures to finish off my opponent, but with a second Relic Amulet and extra removal it was only a matter of time until I won.
BW Clerics - I kept a hand with no Islands due to having another Relic Amulet + Mind Drain on curve. This game was a race between their Fledgling and some random dudes of mine, one that it wasn't clear I was going to win until the end, then I drew Deadly Alliance and it was a given I was going to win. I didn't use Relic Amulet's ability until the game was practically over, but no doubt it had an effect on what my opponent chose to play.
RG Landfall - This time I did not play Relic Amulet, nonetheless I had a very clean win with Blackbloom Rogue, Mindcarver and Relic Golem, what little my opponent played died to Vanquish the Weak.
RW Party - My opponent played lots of creatures that I was unable to deal with. I had Relic Amulet but not enough fuel to use it property.
GB Landfall, it seems - I played slowly, casting two back-to-back Mind Drain and killing whatever with Vanquish the Weak, a Relic Amulet would've been nice but I didn't need it, in the end I raced with Nimana Skitter-Sneak and although it got close after my opponent started playing decent creatures, I ended up ahead having an easy time getting through with Menace.
BW Party, although it felt more like Rogues - My opponent ate me alive with Shadow Stinger, they killed every potential blocker I had early game, at one point I was at 19 cards in hand with a Vampire Highborn while my opponent attacked, I didn't think of a non-blue rogue with flash but I figured even if it wasn't a bluff and I had forgotten about such a creature, I had to block or my defeat was ensured. Indeed I had forgotten about Nimara Skydancer, thus I lost badly.
BW Party/Rogues - This one was clearly less consistent than the previous one. This time it was me who drew good removal, my opponent played several equipments early on but with me being able to deal with those equipped creatures, that wasn't bad, thus the game drew long and I won.
UB Rogues - The queue got long (almost a whole minute), after the 30 seconds mark the matchfinder gets less strict and will pair me with either considerably stronger or considerably weaker opponents, I decided against leaving the queue but I gott a Platinum rank opponent (I'm still Silver), again I got harassed by an early game Shadow Stinger. After two Mind Drains my opponent didn't have much of a hand, so when they attacked with a Stinger into Vampire Highborne I figured it wasn't likely that they had Zulaport Duelist, thus resulting in a trade (which I wanted), unfortunately that's exactly what they had (probably topdecked). after some removal things got long, I made use of Relic Amulet but turns out this time my opponent's deck was better than mine at the late game, they cast Charix, the Raging Isle and after that there was little hope for me to get through their 18 life total

.
So a very surprising 6-3 with what I think is the worst deck I've drafted (although the RB deck from earlier is a worthy competitor). Since my deck didn't have that many instants or sorceries (and no wizards) I was considering leaving out a Relic Amulet, good thing I didn'. Man how can a single card be so good. It also interacts well with Mind Drain (sorcery that I'm likely to want to play on turn three when my opponent probably hasn't played heavy threats that I'd want to remove, and which serves to slow the game down).
Something that's often said is that rogues can be forced (i.e. you can take cards for a rogue deck even if they're subpar and others are taking those too, and the end result will still be okay), something that maybe would've been useful to do at some point when I picked Blackbloom Rogue (a very good rogue that's okay in other decks) over Soaring Thought-Thief (a super rogue, but requires me to commit to making a rogue deck).
The 850 gem reward is slightly more than enough to do another draft, that means this didn't set me back when i comes to amount of Quick Drafts for Kaldheim (or ZNR for that matter). If things keep going my way as they've been going recently I can do lots more Quick Draft before KHM, at that point I'll instead be limited by real-life time as to how many I can do.
I'm not far from getting to Gold rank, one or two more Quick Draft and it's mine, and the difference in rewards is significant (a pack and 500 gold), so that's a good goal to set as to where to stop.

09/01
Draft:

I didn't get any bomb, but I got a lot of fatties and some ramp that I can make good use for, probably. Also, I now have four Skyclave Relics, so that's two potential wastes of a rare pick.

WR Warriors - I got trounced so badly by turn four, to a Cliffhaven Sellsword and a Paired Tactician. My only play was Relic Vial and Lagac who got immediately removed.
GUW Something, maybe kicker - Apparently my opponent got mana screwed at three lands, played Tazeem Roilmage and Gnarled Colony and not much more, getting easily overwhelmed by two fatties.
WUB Party - It didn't have any especially nasty cards (only an Inscription of Insight), but it did give me some trouble over having combat tricks at the right time, particularly in one occassion they had a Chilling Trap that prevented their side from getting nearly cleared by my Kazandu Stomper plus Spikefield Hazzard plus Khlani Ambush targetting my Spitfire Lagac.
UW Maybe Party - I lost after being unable to block or otherwise deal with a Merfolk Windrobber and a Goma Fada Vanguard (late edit: maybe it was Paired Tactician instead?) equipped with Cliffhaven Kitesail. I added in Broken Wings after this.
WB Party - We both played slowly. One fateful turn I had three fatties and managed to cast a kicked Vastwood Exploration, thus forcing them to trade their creatures and I'd still be ahead, unfortunately for me they had Thwart the Grave, so next turn I was already behind and never recovered. Also, by the end I pumped and attacked with a 11/9 Skyclave Geopede for funsies, and although I'm pretty sure that wasn't lethal damage (I'm almost certain my opponent was at 19), by the end my opponent was at -3, as if it had dealt twice the damage. I had already conceded so it didn't count regardless (that's probably what caused it in the first place) but still weird.

So that's it. I'd say the problem this time was relying too much on big creatures, I did have some ramp but without some way of removing or blocking the smaller dues, too often it was too little too late, even some vanilla 3/3s would've helped.

Stormtroper · 2021-01-30 03:40:20

Split in two because it's long.

Another draft:

WB Party - Things were going my way, I had them at 4 life while I had Marauding Blight-Priest with Relic Vial, but one fateful turn my opponent cast Scavenging Nighthawk and Journey to Oblivion, taking my vial. I drew a Synchroniced Spellcraft, but not before it was too late, my opponent had more than enough life to survive, plus a huge Scion of the Swarm.
GB Landfall? - My opponent got Kazandu Nectarpot and two Scion of the Swarm, I immediately killed one and removed other potential blockers. The remaining Scion of the swarm was a long-term concern but I managed to beat my opponent before it was too late.
WB Party - I got a slow hand, so by turn five I had trouble blocking my opponent's creatures empowered by Sea Gate Banneret, nonetheless I managed to block enough and gain just enough life to survive at almost 0 for several turns, but eventually I died after a while of having to chump-block several creatures then sacrificing them to Relic Vial.
UGb Kicker - This was a very tough game, my opponent played an early Drake Roost, but didn't actually make that much use of it, nonetheless they quickly mounted a huge defense that was slowly killing me through flyers. We both had nearly enough to kill each other for several turns, but in the end Relic Vial's life gain, life loss and ability to sacrifice chump-blockers won me the game.
RW Party or maybe Landfall - It's the second time this draft that my opponents apparently don't realize that Packbeast is a rogue and thus can be tapped for Shadowstinger's ability, and so their Kor Celebrant died to the Stinger's deathtouch. Nonetheless my opponent played two Canyon Jerboa which did their thing and although I tried to block properly and for the most part I did, one fateful turn I had Shadowstinger tapped when I needed it to trade it for Tetterpeak Ambusher and thus had to do bad trades with it. Eventually I lost.

The lack of bombs is really affecting my decks, there's only so much draft chaft can do, even when it's consistent.

Man, I'm still two bars away from Gold rank, but I kinda don't want to spend more gold... okay, one more.

My deck has some good landfall stuff, but not that much of it. I'm concerned about the black splash, I think it'll make me so games are decided more on whether I draw the right lands than on anything else.

GU Something - I blew through my opponent who was unable to properly block Brushfire Elemental, Territorial Scythecat and Spitfire Lagac until turn six with their second Turntimber Ascetic (the first one died to Feed the Swarm). Also, I forgot about Brushfire Elemental's ability that makes Sea Gate Stormcaller unable to block it.
GW Landfall - My opponent had good stuff, but I made very good use of landfall triggers, forcing my opponent to waste creatures trying to kill or surviving Canopy Baloth. One eventful turn both of us triggered landfall twice, me triggering Baloth, Spitfire Lagac and Brushfire Elemental and my opponent Territorial Scythecat and Canyon Jerboa, nonetheless my opponent ended terribly that combat (which is odd, I think they could've blocked better) and by next turn it was clear I had won.
RW Landfall - Whoa, this was an intense game. My opponent was wacking me early on with Cliffhaven Sellsword, I had Shadows' Verdict so I was confident I could deal with it and whatever else, but my opponent also played Valakut Exploration, little by little my life was dwindling, between Verdict, Ascetic and feeding the Exploration to the swarm, I was barely surviving, but eventually I was unable to stop Makindi Ox from tapping Ascetic, my only blocker, thus it was over for me.
UB Party - I got mana-screwed out of green mana sources until turn 7 or so, but the reason I lost is probably becauseI misplayed near the end, confusing Roiling Regrowth with Vastwood Exploration, thus being unable to cast a blocker I needed to survive in case my opponent removed my only other blocker, which they did.
RG Landfall - I got trounced, I got a slow hand while my opponent played a curve of Akoum Hellhound, Scavenged Blade, Territorial Scythecat and Spitfire Lagac. I was already near-death by the time I could sort-of block by turn five, then a Murasa's Might ensured my defeat.

That's the third 2-3 in one session, not good. Oh well,

Alright, so I'm done with Zendikar, though I've decided not to open the 103 boosters I have, so as to minimize the possibility of repeats from individual card rewards. I'm open to changing my mind if there's more cards from ZNR that I could be using (so far that;s only two Riverglide Pathway // Lavaglide Pathway), or if I need the wildcards.

Also, a subreddit for figuring out how to speak Phyrexian.

Stormtroper · 2021-01-30 04:02:04

Finally, the reason I'm posting this today.

29/01
Kaldheim is here! The Planeswalkers are rushing towards a world of snow and vikinging.

So far there's no obvious broken deck, as with Omnath decks when Zenikar Rising was released. UR control decks seem to be the most common, but so far I've mostly just seen players trying whatever out, it feels as if the game got a good dose of fresh air. Also, everything is blue.

I don't know of any card I'd want to put in my deck so far, though I'm also open to craft a new deck entirely if one catches my attention. That'd be after the metagame settles, however.

In terms of collecting, Kaldheim is as large as Zendikar Rising, and is only expected to be current for two months and a half instead of ~four months, so it's much more challenging to collect, nonetheless I think I prepared well and have resources to accrue lots of rares when Quick Drafts become available, provided the early bots are as generous as with ZNR.

The KHM Set Mastery reaches up to level 80, much less than ZNR's 130. I have more than enough to buy the Mastery Pass (in fact, I'd then still have more than enough for Strixhaven's Mastery Pass) but I thought I'd wait until I have leveled up some in case I feel I don't want to play anymore, though from the novelty of having a new set, I feel like I want to keep going. The total rewards is more or less the same as with ZNR (but since it's spread through less levels, in effect it's better), so far each Set Mastery has been less rewarding than the one before, so maybe WotC found their reward sweet spot? Well, there's also a cycle of five rares, each of which is a four-of reward for levels 20, 30, 45, 55 and 65 of the Mastery Pass, AFAIK this is the first time this is so, so with 20 rares as rewards in addition to all the other goodies, that greatly increases the value of the purchase.

Also the Kaldheim battlefield is beautiful.

Good times ahead.

glennmagusharvey · 2021-01-30 17:58:01

You're reminding me that I haven't played 100% Orange Juice in a while now.

Stormtroper · 2021-01-31 03:11:14

Understandable. 100% Orange Juice uses the same rewards-for-playing-daily, right? It gets addictive.
Speaking of which, I spent a lot of the day reading up on whatever MtG thing there was, I thought I had gotten over that habit but it only took a new set to get back to it.
Oh, lest I forget, Kaldheim's release turned out nicely from a technical point of view, the servers did not misbehave and there are no apparent bugs, although I've noticed twice now that after the server reconnects (without restarting the client) I become unable to target players (the emote/mute menu comes up instead).

glennmagusharvey · 2021-01-31 18:40:49

I wrote up a description of how 100% OJ's play rewards work, but I'm gonna post it in the 100% OJ thread.

How do MtGA's play rewards work?

Stormtroper · 2021-01-31 22:32:44

I see, it's actually significantly different. The tl;dr is that MTGA greatly rewards playing daily, but doesn't reward well playing a lot.

There are two currencies, gold (the usual one) and gems (the one you buy with real monies). For reference, each pack usually costs 1000 gold or 200 gems, and contains 1 rare (potentially, a mythic rare), two uncommons, four commons and wildcard wheel contribution (tl;dr: about 1/6 of a rare of your choice). Most players give very little value to commons and uncommons.

Note that unlike lots of freemium games, there aren't many things that can only be bought with the real-money currency, and can be obtained with relative ease with gold through draft events (the thing I've been spamming this thread with).

In terms of gold:

Each day there are daily rewards for winning: For the first win it's 250 gold, then for the next three wins it's 100 gold, then intermittently it's 50 gold or a random uncommon (potentially a rare or mythic) for the next five wins, then the same except it's 25 gold for the last six wins, then no more.

Notice how the rewards for the first four wins are much better than for the remaining eleven, so most players set their goal to get those four wins and stop, which should usually take less than an hour and rarely over two hours.

Also, every day there's a quest (e.g. play 20/30 blue or red spells) that get done easily in the process of normal play, each reward either 500 gold or 750 gold. Quests don't have to be completed the day they're assigned, but you can only have a maximum of three due.

In terms of experience:

Every set (i.e. for about three months) there's the set mastery, a progression system where as you gain experience doing stuff, you level up and get rewards for each level. There are two paths, the free one and the Mastery Pass one which costs 3400 gems, a steep cost but generally worth it. Despite what "level up" may suggest, all the rewards are "things" (cards and cosmetics) rather than character progression.

It looks like this.

Each level requires 1000 experience. I'd value the rewards as half a pack every level for the free path and one pack every level plus cosmetics for the Mastery Pass path. There's a limit, however, if you play daily you'll reach the maximum level about 3/4 of the way until the next set when it resets. Note that if you have the Mastery Pass, you still have access to the free path rewards.

You get 500 experience per completed quest, plus 25 per victory up to a maximum of 9 per day, plus 250 per victory up to a maximum of 15 per week.

In addition, there's daily deals at the store, always involving cosmetics but now and then it also has discount booster packs or free gold/gems, further encouraging logging in daily.

So all in all, you can count on about two boosters worth of rewards if you play daily, significantly less than that if you only play every three days (even if the actual playing time is the same), and much less than that if you play less often.

It's also worth noting that since the game changes quite a bit with new sets getting released, having a large collection and getting new stuff quickly is useful for competitive play.

Edit: It seems that the metagame is starting to shape up. If that's a reliable view of what things will be like, then it shaped up fast. I heard the metagame started to settle much faster since MTGA came out, I now see why.

I haven't seen that Rakdos yet in Kaldheim Standard, though it was also in Zendikar Rising and I saw it in ranked all the time. I got beat by the Boros one today, and beat a similar monowhite one yesterday. I beat a Naya one easily. I've faced several Izzet ones and it seems to be a bad matchup for me. Haven't seen the Jund one yet.

Edit edit: Also I'd like to clarify that commons and uncommons aren't valued highly not because they're not useful (they are) but because they're easy to get. A new player with a small collection is very likely to find them valuable, I certainly did.

glennmagusharvey · 2021-02-01 01:29:09

Comments/questions:

1. So, do you only buy packs using in-game currencies, not directly via real money?

2. Seems like the Quests tons of gold you're talking about are similar to 100% Orange Juice's daily tasks that give bunches of oranges. (100% OJ's dailies are things like "Play a match as character A or character B" or "Play a match on map A or map B" or move a total of X panels in completed games" or "place Y trap cards in completed games" or "win one game".)

3. Are there rewards that the Mastery Pass gets that the free path never gets?

Stormtroper · 2021-02-01 05:39:30

1. So, do you only buy packs using in-game currencies, not directly via real money?

You can buy packs through gems, which you can get through real money.

2. Seems like the Quests tons of gold you're talking about are similar to 100% Orange Juice's daily tasks that give bunches of oranges. (100% OJ's dailies are things like "Play a match as character A or character B" or "Play a match on map A or map B" or move a total of X panels in completed games" or "place Y trap cards in completed games" or "win one game".)

Yeah, that's what quests are like.

3. Are there rewards that the Mastery Pass gets that the free path never gets?

Yes, each Mastery Pass path has loads of cosmetics that aren't available elsewhere, except on other Mastery Pass paths later on and as daily deal offers once every blue moon.
That's in addition to extra packs/golds/gems and the expensive draft voucher, but those can be obtained elsewhere. Kaldheim also introduced several cards not available in boosters, but those too can be obtained in other ways (namely, wildcards, which allow you to craft cards of your choice).

Stormtroper · 2021-02-13 19:29:45

12/02
Kaldheim's Quick draft is here! I've been waiting for this.

Draft 1

So GR Somethign it is. I heard this combination is terrible, but we'll see.

GW Something - My opponent whacked me several times with a Masked Vandal with counters and Raven's Wings on it, leaving me at 8, I was hoping my opponent didn't have Mammoth Growth to finish me off along with the 3/4 vandal, but turns out it doesn't grant +4/+4 as I thought, thus I won.
WGB - I think my opponent misplayed, thinking that my Gladewalker equipped with Dwarven Hammer enchanted with Rune of Might did not trample.
Wur Runes? I didn't expect this, a monowhite deck except for several runes, which they cast using Runeforged Champion, and then I found myself getting trounced by several flyers. I drew Battle Mammoth but I failed to finish my opponent in time. Also I forgot that Battle Mammoth has Foretold.
GB Elves - Both of us got slow hands, my opponent cast Harald, which didn't do much against my Dwarven Reinforcements. I just kept attacking and playing dudes and before long my opponent was too low to stand a chance.
WUGr Something - My opponent had a very slow deck, things were going fine for me until a Valkyrie's Sword and Icebind Pillar that I had a hard time getting through, then an Icehide Troll. We both misplayed several times, too.
GBR Something - I failed to stop getting hit by Vengeful Reaver, and failed to get through Esika's Chariots and its tokens, it took several turns but after a while it was clear I wasn't going to win.

So 3-3. When I was 2-0 I thought my deck had something to it, but nopes, it turns out just okay. From what I saw, it seems the archetypes are much less rigid than they were during ZNR. When I got passed a pack the first time and it wasn't a rare, I was worried that this wasn't going to be like during ZNR's first Quick Draft sessions, but I did get an extra rare later on so that's a relief.

Draft 2

It was clear from the get-go that I was going to play elves, but I couldn't decide what other color until much later on, when things oriented towards those three colors.

WR Something - This was tense, early on my opponent was pecking me with flyers, first with a bare-bones Battlefield Raptor, then with the same Raptor and Stalward Valkyrie, fortunately I drew removal for these. Things turned to a standstill but with the Elvish Warmaster I played on turn two, its copy from Littjara Mirrorlake and several miscellaneous elves and changelings, I had an army of elves that with the Warmasters' activated abilities could end my opponent in one turn.
UW With a bunch of flyers - I thought my opponent was being overly aggressive, but in the end it turned out they had just enough to win the damage race against my elvish dudes.
WB Cast-more-than-one-spell-each-turn - Things went really bad for me, I was at 8 and my opponent was in a good position, including Dread Rider, but I then cast Burning-Rune Demon and between the removal against said Rider, me having a large flying dude and Glade-Warding handing out counters like candy, I ended up winning.
GB Something with several elves and creatures with Boast. I got smana screwed, keeping a hand with two forests on the play then not drawing a land until... five? six? turns in. My opponent's deck was quite slow but still defeated me handily.
WR Control - My opponent was playing super awkwardly, not playing anything for several turns while having nothing but five lands and a Giant Ox to block my dudes, for this reason I suspected they had Doomskar or something so I was being very cautious, yet I forgot about this and played Burning-Rune Demon. Indeed my opponent cast their foretold Doomskar, killing my dudes but still having plenty of things to do to bring down my opponent from 13 to 0.
GR Something - I got a very slow hand, my opponent didn't have a fast play either but still I failed to come up ahead with my changelings and a yeti, ending up vulnerable to whatever my opponent equipped with Raven's Wings.

So 3-3 again, not bad I guess, I can't complain at all after picking six rares

Draft 3

Again GR

WBg - I was worrying that I wouldn't draw white mana sources that I needed to play a bunch of white stuff I had, fortunately I had both The World Tree and five other lands, played two Doomskar Oracle and a Beskir Shieldmate that allowed me to stand a chance while at low life, eventually coming up ahead. My opponent ended up playing very little, perhaps they were screwed out of green mana sources?
WBG Something - I almost threw the game by not killing Fynn in response to getting equipped with Draugr's Helm (for some reason I thought one Demon Bolt would suffice afterwrads), but I still won due to lucky draws and Tormentor's Helm enchanted with Rune of Speed. And I managed to get good use out of Doomskar. Also I almost got disconnected.
WB Aggro with a bunch of flyers - things were going my way until Doomskar Oracle + Tormentor's Helm + Rune of Speed got killed, it'd have been fine as long as I had other things to do but then I proceeded to draw nothing good for several turns while my opponent brought me from 20 to near death, I tried to survive but that was not possible.
GBR Berserkers with a bunch of elves - I played a fair amount of dudes, but I couldn't keep up with that aggro, I managed at first but after my opponent played the BR saga with one other berserker on the battlefield, all was lost.

I must have forgotten a game here, I'm pretty sure I ended up 2-3. I got the extra pack so that's extra good.

Draft 4

At first my deck didn't seem like it'd make sense, but in the end it came out as something of a flyers aggro-control deck.

GW Go wide - I drew several answers to would-be blockers of flyers, so although it took a while, I managed to get through all those creatures, while using Icebind Pillar to protect myself from an Axgard Braggart that would've wrecked me otherwise.
GBR Something - At first my opponent was just trying to kill me through poison counters from Fynn, I didn't try to avoid that until I was at 8, then I bound it in gold, Everything was going well for me afterwards until my opponent played Torski, I insta-blocked everything and although the trades turned in my favour, a Jarl of the Forsaken later my last blocker is dead and my opponent is about to draw a million cards, thus I had no hope.
GW Some rather slow deck with lots of good blockers, things were going my way at first but then my opponent managed to get lots of good flyers blockers, it got into a standstill and eventually I succumbed, in part due to a big mistake on my part, attacking into a creature with Reach.
GW Go wide - I got destroyed, first the saga, then the legendary uncommon, then Clarion Call leaving me to near death in a single turn.

1-3. Well, this one was terrible. I did get the second pack so that's something.

Deck list links pending.

Stormtroper · 2021-02-14 04:43:19

(WRG deck above: I forgot to mention that that was almost the first time my deck is not the color of the (edit: non-land) playable first pick rare, I seriously considered not adding green, but after these two days of draft I now know that it's not a big deal drafting a third color in Kaldheim.)

13/02
Draft 5

Whoo, seven rares. I've read that Masked Vandal is not that good, but I've find in this set I very often want to deal with artifacts, so I considered taking a second or even a third.

GR Something - I lost to a good assortment of decent creatures. I though Jaspera Sentile was terrible but it served my opponent well.
UW Foretell - My opponent's deck was very slow, I didn't have a fast hand either but by the time they got a decent amount of blockers, I had enough controlly stuff to deal with it, in particular Brinebarrow Intruder messed up with a double block, and next turn Run Ashore dealt with what little else they had.
GUR Snow - We each played our stuff, I tried to control my opponent's creatures and got some hits in, I thought we were even but out of the sudden my opponent conceded.
GUB Something - I misplayed terribly, thinking that Rune of Flight grants +1/+1 like some other runes do, thus getting my Glade Guardian killed to a Yeti. I couldn't mount a proper defense afterwards.
WB Play-two-spells-per-turn - I 'unno, I just played my dudes and won. I was worried since my opponent had a million foretold cards. After a while my opponent apparently attacked blindly into Berg Strider!Moritte, after that it was downhill for them.
UB Snow - Things quickly turned into a standstill, between Icebind Pillar and Narfi I couldn't get through, little by little my opponent built their board precense while I used Berg Striders to keep things under control. I got some hits from Sculptor of Winter with Rune of Flight (that for some reason my opponent refrained from tapping) but before long my opponent had too much stuff for me to deal with.

Draft 6

I said earlier that I had heard GR isn't good, but in my experience it makes for solid decks. I was concerned about Old-Growth Troll, with the triple green cost I figure I must be very careful lest it end up being a dead card, but I don't know what "being careful" entails. Also I'm concerned about the fact that I seem to be picking up lots of unplayable rares, before long I'll have four Sanctums and Tibalt's Trickeries, reducing the profitability of drafts.

GBur Something - I got a very violent hand, while my opponent got a slow one with a couple creatures that I could deal with and a Raider's Karve that I didn't have to worry about.
GW Warriors? - I got another violent hand, not so much as the previous one but still. My opponent quickly had to go on the defensive, as my Axgard Cavalries made sure I kept hitting for more than what's warranted each turn, before long they had to do unfavourable trades, thus in the end I finished up ahead.
GW Something - I almost lost due to a disconnection, when I came back I did not know I had lost my turn, then wasted Frost Bite to not kill a Champion, I would've lost if my opponent had Mammoth Growth, my opponent had brought me to low life by means of flyers.
RB Aggro - I got stuck at two lands for a couple turns, though I didn't need more that much, but I still failed to mount up a good defense and died to Dwarven Reinforcements plus two Karfell Kennel-Masters. Axgard Cavalries can only do so much.
WG Something - I got another aggressive hand, but things stalled by the time my opponent was at 7, but I was counting on Svella. One awkward attack later and my opponent was left untapped, my opponent cast Bound in Gold which would've left me without lethal damage, but in response I used her ability and cast Dwarven Reinforcements, which in addition to my Mammoth Growth allowed me to win.
GBu Things got tight, we both started playing large dudes, but in the end I fell victim to Battle Mammoth's trampling. Also I severely misread Skemfar Avenger, thinking its trigger applies only to itself, no wonder my opponent was reluctant to let it die.
URG Snow - Gosh I played like an idiot, casting Frost Bite on the wrong Littjara Kinseeke, again failing to make good use of Rootless Yew, which spend most of the game tapped by Icebind Pillar. In the end I lost to a Svella-decided standstill.

4-3. My worries about Old-Growth Troll's mana cost were overstated, in practice it was a four mana bomb.

Draft 7

I don't have much hope for this deck. I was undecided as to whether I should splash red, but with five red mana sources I figured it would be alright. Also I considered not playing black at all after the first pack had next to no good black stuff, but the others made up for it.

WR Aggro - Well this sucked, my very slow hand/deck vs. their fairly fast play that included a Fearless Liberator that I did nothing to deal with.
BR Something - I got a surprisingly aggressive hand, playing The Bloodsky Massacre and two Karfel Kennel-Masters all while having more than enough stuff so that my attacks would get through. My opponent may have been screwed out of red mana, that would explain why they played so little and with no good answers to my stuff.
WR Not-Aggro - Gosh again I played like an idiot, failing to make good use of Dream Devourer. Things got into a standstill after my opponent cast Cinderheart Giant, which for some reason I thought damaged the opponent, still I managed to make good use of the blockers I hand and after a while I could get to attackin without dying for it. Also one combat went awry for me due to not knowing that Weight Down is a sorcery.
WR Some sort of aggro control - I kept a hand of three lands and failed to find another until five turns in, needless to say I lost. Also my opponent made good use of cards I dismissed as useless, namely Shackles of Treachery and Seize the Spoils. Meh I still think don't think they're good.
WR vehicles - Gosh again I played terribly, I let my Valkyrie die even though I had the chance to equip her with Draugr's Helm. I immediately drew Draugr's Return, but never had enough mana to equip her in addition to do the other stuff I needed to survive.

2-3 may not be a super good record, but I wasn't expecting much.

Stormtroper · 2021-02-14 04:43:38

Two parts because it's long.

Draft 8

I got several bombs. Yet again I had doubts about having a third color but with the experiences I've had I think it'll probably be fine.

RG Something - Toski completely ran away with the game, it drew two cards on turn four, and every single of my combat phases turned out awfully for my opponent, with me never coming anywhere close to running out of aggro fuel. I wonder what my opponent thought about losing the game over a single card.
BG Something - This time I couldn't run away with Torski, though I did draw some cards with it anyways and forced some bad trades, nonetheless my opponent topdecked Mammoth Growth, which in addition to me missing the fact that my opponent could equip their Elven Bow on some other dude meant they had enough to finish me off.
RB Control - My opponent played almost nothing but one Crush the Weak and one Frost Bite, I just played some dudes, three got killed but all in all plus one Run Amok I had enough to win plus a million other things to do with my hand.
UR Snow - This time Draugr Necromancer ran away with the game, my opponent cast Bind the Monster on it, but after one of my opponent's Grim Draugr died it was a snowball effect of my opponent being unable to trade. My opponent did what they could to keep up, and lasted quite a bit, but I had too many dudes to survive.
WBG Something - I got mana screwed badly, keeping a hand with two lands and not drawing a third until turn five. My bombs can only do so much if I can't play them. In the end I died to getting whacked by a Courser which I could not block.
UR Giants - Again Toski ran away with the game, my opponent had what seemed like a slow deck and while I didn't have that many creatures to draw with, that was still more than enough to keep adding pressure.
RG Something - All spell cards I drew were red, and it was all on curve and allowed me to consistently deal damage early on, With two Demon Bolts and one Squash I had enough to survive until my Craven Hulk and Calamity Bearer were able to do their things, all while being hasted by Axgard Cavalry.
UB Snow - I got another explosive hand with Toski and eventually Calamity Bearer, but I failed to make good use of it, my opponent killed Toski with Weigh Down (which they drew?) and my opponent was at almost 20 when the time came to cast bigger stuff, eventually I was forced to trade with Narfi over and over, which of course resulted in me losing.

5-3 is of course a good record, but I feel I could've done more, with three bombs like that it's easy to imagine getting 7-x. I wonder when will I get another deck like this.

Draft 9

Before I began drafting I was hoping I'd get a UR Giants deck, finally it's here. I smiled when I got a Battle of Frost and Flame on pack 2.

UW Something - I kept a hand with Battle of Frost and Flame, but was forced to use it after my opponent cast Niko Aris, only killing two permanents. The game came to something of a standstill with my opponent whacking me with Starnheim Courser and gaining life with Doomskar Oracle and me hitting them now and then with Berg Strider. Unfortunately at some point I misplayed, attacking with both Strider and a Giant token, thus letting myself get hit for life that I needed to win the race.
WUR Something - Couldn't tell what it was, my opponent got mana screwed. I got a slow but solid hand with giants and Battle of Frost and Flame.
UBR Something played by some rude brat. I got screwed out of red mana for the entirety of the game and IIRC, I did what I could to withstand, helped by the fact that I "only" drew two dead cards, but still.

1-3. Well, that was a disappointment. Also apparently I forgot another game.

Draft 10

I have good hopes for this deck, so far the aggro decks I've made has been so without me actively trying to make an aggro deck, but this is the exception.

WR Something - Things were going my way until my opponent cast Craven Hulk then next turn Calamity Bearer, I managed to deal with those at the cost of four of my creatures, so things turned to a standstill which I eventually lost to an Axgart Broggar with Dwarven Hammer.
UGR Something - For hand I got several creatures and a good setup for The Bloodsky Massacre, but that still wasn't enough to make a good defense nor did I get the chance to use Massacre, eventually I got over whelmed by Augury Raven and Berg Strider.
Bg - I got stuck for several turns at three lands, I needed the fourth for several things I wanted to do, by the time I got the fourth it was a mountain but I needed a swamp for Tergrid's Shadow, meanwhile I stomped by two Draugr Recruiters recurring each other.

Well, that was a disappointment, this is the first time I end up at 0-3, and that's with what I thought was a good deck. Perhaps I should content myself with the fact that even with that record it's still a good use of my gold, though I'm concerned that I may not have as much of a leeway for rare collecting as I thought I did. Economics aside I wish I knew how to really get good at this, it's disheartening that after all these years I still make mistakes and have doubt about my decisions.

Stormtroper · 2021-02-18 00:14:53

Since there are so many lists I figure it'd be good if I put them witin toggle tabs too.
14/02
Draft 11

I'm liking this deck. I passed the fourth Tibalt's Trickery in favour of Dwarven Hammer, argueably the best uncommon in the format, I hope I don't end up regretting it. I had bad experiences with Ascendant Spirit last time so I left it out this time, but perhaps I'm wrong and four snow mana sources is enough?

WR Aggro - I got eaten by a Battlefield Raptor with several things equipped on it, I thought I could tap it with Goldmaw Champion during their turn but of course I forgot that's a Boast ability, so I lost.
WB Angels - Things were going my way with a turn one Usher of the Fallen that ended up creating two tokens thanks to Goldmaw Champion's aid, but things quickly turned around after my opponent cast Firja's Retribution, killing much of my stuff so I lost.
UBw Play-two-spells-each-turn - Gosh I forgot to use Usher's Boast ability before it died, then I forgot something else I forgot about, then I forgot that I have Vega on my deck this it's better if I use the Glimpse the Multiverse in my hand rather than the one in my graveyard, why do I keep doing these mistakes. My opponent mulliganed to 5 and still beat me.

0-3 again. I think I'm getting tilted over the fact that I make simple mistakes, resulting in making more mistakes.

Draft 12

Again I'm driven by UG.

UG Something - I went more aggro than I should have, I got outraced by Harald, King of Skemfar and Vengeful Reaver. I think things would've turned out better if I had drawn the fifth land for Berg Strider, but perhaps I shouldn't count on that?
WB Cast-two-spells-each-turn - Things got into a standstill, I had to be wary of my opponent Bloodsky Berserker and Axgard Braggart while I got a few hits in and tried to make use of Horizon Seeker, and my opponent had Tergrid's Lantern so I had to act quick. And of course I messed up by 1. not realizing I could sacrifice my treasure tokens for Tergrid's Lantern, and 2. I removed an equippment from my damaged Horizon Seeker, causing it to die.
UR Giants - I kept a hand with three green mana sources and lost a turn over that, but still drew one just in time to avoid losing, things got into a stall that I'd say was in my favour, but yet again I messed up, casting Blizzard Brawl in a hurry on Draugr Thought-Thief against Calamity Bearer despite being well aware that I didn't have three snow permanents.

Yet again 0-3. I guessed it was a good time to go do something else so I did my dailies by playing constructed instead and left it at that.

15/02
Draft 13

First pick Niko clearly decided which two colors I'm going to include.

WRG Something - Things got quickly into a standstill with my opponent having Esika's Chariots, its tokens, two Giant Oxen and a couple other small dudes, a standstill which I dealt with by casting Crush the Weak, leaving me with a clear board advantage, then I cast Niko so it was clear time was on my side, but my opponent played some stuff quickly, it then became clear my opponent was out for Niko blood, two huge combats later, both of which went awry for them due to me using a combat trick and I'm left with loads of creatures, cards, and a Niko low on loyalty but still present, in the end I let my opponent kill Niko since they left themselves open for lethal, perhaps that's what they wanted anyways?
WR Auras - My opponent tried to batter me quickly with Battlefield Raptor, but with Story Seeker it was clear I was going to win any race, by the time they started playing defensively I had access to enough controlly stuff that I could get through whatever my opponent did, especially since much of it was casting an aura on a blocker I was about to make useless.
UGB Snow - I messed up as soon as the game started by casting Bind the Monster on Avalanche Caller, thinking that its ability requires tapping, my opponent never activated its ability anyways, so even if it required tapping it wouldn't have been a good idea, it's now clear I needed it for other threats, In the end the dudes I played were not enough to not get killed.
GBU Snow - I was concerned because I kept a 6-card hand with two lands, but thanks to Behold the Multiverse I drew what I needed. I had lots of control cards, which was useful to turn the game into a standstill until one eventful turn where my opponent attacked with Littjara Kinseekers and Koma's Faithful while I had Sigrid, God-Favored in hand, after such a terrible combat I just swung for a couple turns and won.
RGB - Things got into a standstill, one which I tried to break by tapping some blockers one fateful turn, however due to my opponent having Mammoth Growth things went not-awry-just-okay fo me, and I ended up losing the resulting race. Also I messed up badly on my second to last turn due to not casting Doomskar Oracle which I needed to potentially win next turn, however besides the Oracle I only drew lands so it didn't matter.
WB Cast-two-spells-this-turn - I risked it and kept a hand with two lands on the draw, I only drew one other land but did get to do something, nonetheless I failed to find the mountain I needed to control my opponent, who with two Infernal Pets and a Scorn Effigy for blocking, ran nearly unopposed and beat me.

3-3, so that's okay. Normally I wouldn't be relieved for this result but it leads credence that the three 0-3s in a row were a fluke.

I had no time for a full draft so I played constructed instead for the last daily win reward.

Stormtroper · 2021-02-18 00:15:31

16/02

Draft 14
I have good hopes for this GWR semi-aggro deck.

UW Aggro - A turn one Usher of the Fallen on the play and it and the two tokens it created were enough to overwhelm me, as I failed to draw a forest and had nothing to block with, merely a Cfr
RG - I was racing my opponent through damage, they were racing me through poison counters, I let myself get hit until I was at 8 counters, I was expecting a combat trick so I triple-blocked it, unfortunately I forgot deathtouch's interaction with trample, thus a Run Amok later and my opponent has enough to kill me.
GW Aggro - Again I got screwed out of green mana sources, by the time I could do something besides cast Story Seeker my opponent had a Valkyrie Sword token out, ensuring that I would not make use of lifelink, thus I lost.

0-3 yet again. I gotta ask what happened so suddenly that I've started losing like nobody's business. I did get a second pack, tho.

Draft 15

This RW aggro deck kinda resembles stuff I've seen from streamers recently. The very first Kaldheim limited game I played was against a runes deck with Runeforge Champion so I'm not going to forget easily how badly it trounced me. Nonetheless I really wish I had picked up more runes and equipment, however. Also, I almost refrained from picking Tyrite Sanctum in favour of Dwarven Hammer and Tybalt's Treachery in favour of... I think it was the RW snow land? Nonetheless I resisted the temptation.

RB ? - I got a good hand with Battlefield Raptor and Goldpick Hammer, my opponent only played Fearless Pup which would've been useful to block my dwarf tokens if I hadn't Frost Bitten it.
RB - I got a not-good hand, but I drew Goldvein Pick and Runeforge Champion, which did wonders turning the Pick into a better Crystal Slippers, a couple bad trades from my opponent and I won.
GUb and maybe r snow - Things quickly turned to a standstill thanks to Fynn, I then proceeded to draw several lands while my opponent cast flyers that I couldn't block, Icebind Pillars and some fatties. Naturally I lost.
GW go wide - This game showed why Warhorn Blast is not a bad card, I put in several dwarf tokens through Dwarven Reinforcements and Fearless Liberator, until one whooping attack that left my opponent at 5 and killed several of their important stuff, including Maja (should've used her to crew Funeral Longboat instead, my opponent tried to make a return, we tried to put in as many creatures as we could but in the end my third Dwarven Reinforcements settled it.
GW plow.dec - I thought I was doing fine bringing my opponent to near death, and managed to deal with a crew-able Giant Plow with Rune of Sustenance on it with Frost Bite and Battlefield Raptor, but Ravenous Lindwurm brought them out of lethal, then again with two other Plows, thus I ended up losing. Also I saw no Giant Ox.
WRB Something - Another timely Warhorn Blast, unfortunately I could not build enough of a board presence for it to be decisive, but I did force my opponent to a race they weren't going to win easily, nonetheless a Weigh Down and Tergrid's Shadow later and we're both out of nonland permanents, but my opponent settled that quickly with Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor, winning the game real quick.

3-3, can't complain.

Draft 16

So UW, I knew I should've taken more green cards. I don't have much hope for this deck. We'll see. Regardless, I don't like the fact that I only got four rares.

WUBG Snow - My opponent mulliganed to five and still fought back, nonetheless with Raven Wings and Goldvein Pick, I was going to get enough value from whatever creature I played that I was going to win anyways.
RBG Aggro, although they never played a black card - I hadn't realized how powerful Gods-Hall Guardian is with a Raven's Wings equipped. Things went awry for me after my opponent cast Run Amok and Mammoth Growth on both his dwarves from Dwarven Reinforcements, leaving me at 5, a 4-for-2 combat in my favour and we're out of cratures on the board, fortunately I had Littjara Kinseekers and miscellaneous stuff to make up for it and thus won.
GUW Aggro - We raced, their Fynn vs. my 4/5 Scorn Effigy, nonetheless after a turn in which they played Usher of the Fallen and some other stuff, I was done for.
UB Something - This was a weird race, my opponent kept hitting me with The Omenkeel crewed by a Mistwalker while I hit them with some small dudes, I was being overly careful with not playing too much stuff from my hand, something I found out when I realized I was at 5 life, nonetheless I still won with a million answers in my hand.

(I played the following games the next day.)

17/02

UR Something - I beat 'em by means of a large, lifelinking eventually flying Gods-Hall Guardian.
WBR Auras - My opponent aggroed me quickly, though as my defenses mounted up it showed that on a stall their deck can still manage to do its thing, recurring things with Knoll (notably including their Goldmaw Champion enchanted by my Bind the Monster). At one point I forgot about this and double-blocked a Fearless Pup, to which I got a mean-spirited 'oops' from my bratty opponent.
GW Aggro - I tried the same strategy of racing with Battlefield Raptors enchanted with whatever, and although that seemed to be working out, eventually my opponent started putting in better stuff, to which I succumbed.

4-3. There's clearly some inverse relationship between how good I estimate my decks to be and how well they perform, Nonetheless I feel this would've been a much better deck with more equipments and maybe a rune or two more.

glennmagusharvey · 2021-02-18 07:18:47

Is "Subete no jinrui wo Hakai Suru. Sorera wa Saisei Dekinai." the manga that's about Magic the Gathering?

Stormtroper · 2021-02-18 12:44:31

It translates to something like "Destroy All Humans. They Can't Be Regenerated", yeah, that's one of them.
There's also Wizard's Soul, the drama manga involving not-MtG, and Koi-iro Magic (Love-coloured Magic), the one involving actual MtG.

Stormtroper · 2021-02-19 04:06:28

I need to draft about ten more times to guarantee that I'll be close to rare-complete in Kaldheim.

Draft 17

I really like this deck. Also it's the first time I skip a rare over having four of it already (Blooodsky Masacre).

GRU Aggro - Despite being aggro, my opponent failed to form a significant presence, eventually dying to Calamity Bearer, Basalt Ravager and some angels.
RG Aggro - Things were going my way with an early Battlefield Raptor, equipping it on turn three with Goldvein Pick, but then Gnottvold Recluse could block it, then I got stuck at three lands, then Ravenous Lindwurm could attack me, then I lost.
RGwb Something - My opponent kept poisoning me with Fynn, but I mounted up a good defense and was prepared to set myself up for dealing damage with Battlefield Raptor and Dwarven Hammer, unfortunately my opponent cast Firja's Retribution (and forgot to kill one of my creatures with its chapter 2) then Immerstrum Predator and that was it for me.
RG Dunno - That's a lot of RG for this draft. My opponent only got to cast Demon Bolt and a Rune of Might on a land before a heavily equipped Calamity Bearer (with Run Amok in hand) and a backup Stalwart Valkyrie made it clear I was going to win.
WGB Something - Turn three unblocked Colossal Plow combo and I thought I was going to lose already, though next turn it died to Doomskar Oracle. Several trades later and the game is on a standstill, which after a lengthy time bringing my opponent down from 28 with some flyers, I won.
UR Aggro - I got stuck at three plains, I had lots of flyers but my opponent had Mistwalker to block them, it didn't take long for it to be clear I wasn't going to win any race, and with a couple large dudes that I wasn't going to win any standstill either.

3-3. I hoped for more but I guess I can't complain.

Draft 18.

I don't have much hope for this. I wanted to make it aggro but drew very few creatures, nor much to make up for the white splash.

WR Aggro? 19 cards later and I never drew a green mana source, I died a slow and grueling death to whatever.
A couple deck changes later.
RG Aggro - Turn three Old-Growth Troll from my opponent, turn eight or so my first red mana source with a million red cards in hand,. My
WRG Fatties - I got trounced so bad, I ran out of fuel and eventually had to do bad trades. In hindsight I should not have traded my 5/5 Sarulf's Packmate with their Rootless Yew, I could deal with it but not with the several other fatties that at the time I didn't know I was dealing with and that I had no more answers for.

0-3. Not again. I know I had little hope for the deck at first but even then is too bad a result.

Draft 19

Whenever I get things like Firja and her Retribution as the first two (flavorful!) picks I feel I have a duty of some sort to perform well in the draft. The deck did not turn out quite how I envisoned it at first, I would've liked at least a rune (note the two Runed Crowns) and more cast-two-spells payoffs, but this will have to do.

WB - My opponent aggroed me early on, but with FIrja's Retribution and Vengeful Reaver in play, it was a matter of time until my board presence was overwhelming.
RG Who knows- A non-game where my opponent got stuck at three forests and didn't get to play anything. Things like this reminds me I should probably not complain too much about mana screws.
UR Giants - My opponent played aggressively, I got hit early on by Fearless Pup, which is fine but on turn five when things went downhill as my opponent cast Goldspan Dragon, then Calamity Bearer, then the uncommon UR legendary.
WBGU Something - My opponent missed their fourth land drop and had a million foretold cards, I thought that was weird (I only saw green and white mana sources) so I thought they had foretold Doomskar, thus I played very conservatively, nonetheless that was more than enough to beat my opponent who apparently was stuck without mana of the appropriate colors.
RG Fatties - Once again I got mana screwed, this time out of three mana while I had Feed the Serpent and Firja's Retribution and a huge need for removal, by the time I drew the fourth by turn seven it was already too late.
GB Elves - I think it's the first time I see elves. Sigrid, God-Favored single-handedly won me the game, my opponent attacked with four pumped elves under chapter 3 of Harald Unites the Elves (perhaps it wasn't a good idea to attack like that), but she dealt with two of them and my other creatures took the other two out without trading, thus paving the way for me to win two turns later.
I'm Platinum Rank!
WB Equipment - My hand wasn't anything to celebrate, I got a 5/5 Infernal Pet on turn four but that's about it, I had to relying on it not dying, which is exactly what happened (Iron Verdict), then I had to deal with Koma's Faithful, Valor of the Worthy and Halvar, God of Battle, naturally I lost.

4-3. I don't think I made any big mistakes during games this time, so that's good, though clearly the real mistake was that I kept forgetting to take away that Immerstrum Skullcairn, this came up during that last game though I most certainly would've lost anyways.

Besides drafting, Strixhaven info is out! Some stuff is cringey tbh, like the scroll gun or the mathemagic stuff written by somebody who isn't into math. Nonetheless it does look interesting.

MtG moves really fast these days.

Edit: Oh yeah, I've been watching videos from Luis Scott Vargas, my biggest takeaway is that players who are better than I'll ever be make significant mistakes, too. I've been learning quite a bit from him, and to a lesser extent to the Nizzahon Magic dude too.

Zennistrad · 2021-02-19 18:18:24

Losing my shit over the monocled bear in the pack art

Stormtroper · 2021-02-20 04:48:52

Hello there, haven't seen you in a while!
I find the bear oft-putting, I'm not sure why. Perhaps it's because human-like bears are a rarity in the game and I'm not used to them?
I'm really digging the art direction, that of Strixhaven itself as well as the Mystical Archive. The Japanese ones are also gorgeous.
Also, I wonder what species that Prismari girl is.

On more draft/set-completin matters, let's see. When it comes to Kaldheim, I have 93 rares (and 6 mythics), 44 packs in stock, 20 packs left on both Set Mastery paths, 5-12 packs left as season rewards (I'd say it's 11), I'd estimate 25 more packs for the Mastery Passes of the upcoming six sets, and whatever miscellaneous rares I get as individual card rewards (daily rewards and FNM), I'll guesstimate it's 25 from Kaldheim (without quintuple protection) until it rotates out of standard. There are 64 unique rares in the set, five of which are not from boosters, so that's 236 rares to pick, all in all that means I'm approaching the time I should consider not drafting anymore. Assuming no mythics or wildcards from those packs, that's 125 rares in addition to the 93 I already have, for a total of 218.

Draft 20

I have so-so hopes for this deck.

RG Snow - My opponent played more creatures than I did and before long I had no option but to accept bad trades. Not helped that at one point I forgot to use my BW sac land, which got blown up by their RG sac land.
UG Snow - I drew what I thought was a good black hand with Egon, Bloodsky Berserker, Draugr Helm and Rune of Mortality, nonetheless I failed my opponent's flyers from killing me.
RG Aggro - This time I was daring by keeping a hand with only two lands but otherwise it's good. I messed up early on when I attacked too impulsively and left no blocker able to kill an attacking Fearless Liberator, but none of it really mattered after I drew several red cards and no red mana sources.

0-3. Platinum rank (and high-gold) has been clearly having its effect. I also only got three rares for some reason, I got two boosters so it's so-so whether it was worth it depends on whether I think 50 gems are worth three ticks of the wildcard wheel.

Draft 21

I have high hopes for this deck. At this rate "high hopes" means something like 3-3.

RW Aggro - I had to mulligan to 5 and got stuck for a while at three lands, although Goldvein Pick's treasures helped. Nonetheless by the time I mounted up a decent defense my opponent's flyers were already closing in on the game.
UB Snow - Again had to mulligan twice, I did what little early aggro I could but that was cut short soon enough. One fateful turn I cast Sigrid during the end phase (should've done so in combat but I forgot how Sigrid works) then cast Doomskar Titan and attacked, thinning my opponent's blockers but still far from winning. Another fateful turn I went all-out with a Warhorn Blast in hand, although the way my opponent blocked would've been terrible for them, a Village Rites and it was sort of even anyways. My deck has several flyers, nonetheless I hadn't drawn any, but for whatever reason my opponent conceded.
WBR - My opponent was constantly on the defensive, I had a terrible hand but good draws, I kept being able to deal with their Gods-Hall Guardian that they really needed, notably once with Sigrid to remove it then next turn Doomskar Titan for 8. My opponent had good removal on their own but that wasn't enough.
WR Something - My opponent got stuck at three lands, I went wide with Usher of the Fallen, which paid off one eventful turn where I killed most of their blockers at no cost to me thanks to Warhorn Blast, to which my opponent wouldn't recover.
WUbRG Snow - Turn one Usher of the Fallen and the fact that my opponent insisted on ramping meant I brought them to very low by the time they were able to do decent blocks, at which point I had a million flyers in my hand, so despite my opponent's efforts to stom them, I won.
WUBRG Snow - I'm not sure to what extent the fact that I got stuck at three lands was involved in my defeat, nonetheless my opponent had a million burn spells so my dudes never lasted long on the battlefield, it took a while for my opponent to ramp but I had a very slow hand so that didn't matter.
RB Something - Turn two Dragonblood Berserker and my hopes of having Usher of the Fallen win me the game were shattered. I tried to go wide to win on one large attack, and in fact I almost succeed if I had had enough mana to cast a foretold Doomskar Titan and a foretold Warhorn Blast, nonetheless I did not have it and lost when the dragon damage really added up.

4-3, so that's good.

Draft 22

Gosh, I feel like an idiot, I realized a split second too late that I was passing a rare, I'm not sure what it was except that it was blue. In my defense IIRC I took Dwarven Hammer over that so that's a significant benefit. Nonetheless I expect to get a decent result with this deck.

RG Aggro - We both played exactly the same at first, Axgard Cavalry and equipping it with Goldvein Pick. One fateful turn my oppnent cast on it both Harald's Revenge and Blizzard Brawl with it, clearly knowing that I could have something in response but counting that I didn't, but I did (foretold Demon Bolt). After that early 3-for-1, my opponent conceded.
UR Giants - Mistwalker and Icebind Pillar really slowed down my attacks, nonetheless between the threat of Dwarven Hammer, Clarion Spirit and Battleshield Warrior on a large board I had the advantage on this stall, eventually my side grew huge and unless my opponent had Crush the Weak or Battle of Frost and Flame, they weren't going to win no matter what they drew.
UBR Something - First, Sarulf ate my two Axgard Cavalries and Tormentor's Helm, then next turn Vorinclex was eating my face. That's one player who's going to reach seven wins.
UG Something - I won thanks to Dwarven Hammer, I used it to equip whatever that could fly, my opponent never managed to use a removal spell on them and either couldn't block or could only chump-block them, so after a long while, I won. Also I messed up again by not hasting my Courser before the Declare Attackers phase.
WUG Something - Things seemed to be going my way, I kept hitting them with equipped dudes they couldn't block profitably thus I brought them to low life early on, but eventually my opponent went wide by casting two Elderfang Mentors and got a couple more hits that left me at a life total I had to be careful with, eventually casting Run Ashore thus messing up my side of the board and winning. Also I disconnected mid-match and lost a turn.
Blue something - If my opponent played a color besides blue, they got stuck with four islands. My opponent had a Mistwalker for blocking, and they Raven Formed my Doomskar Oracle so I thought I'd have trouble making use of the early aggro lead I had, I only had small dudes who wouldn't be enough to finish my opponent off if I went all out but then they conceded.
GRurb Something - My opponent stopped my attacks with Sarulf Packmage, not long after that they killed my Clarion Spirit with Arni Slays the Trolls, then a couple fatties later it was clear I wasn't going to win.

4-3. I notice my results turn out better when I make white decks involving small creatures and equipment, and am conscious about

So that's ten more rares and four more boosters, I'm closing in on this.

Stormtroper · 2021-02-22 02:16:02

so that's 236 rares to pick

Nopes, the 256 figure is the total rares to acquire from boosters (with mulitplicity). Also I didn't account for the number of discount packs in store, which I always buy but perhaps they aren't as good as Quick Drafts? All in all that means I'm still significantly far from being rare-complete, I'll need several more drafts until I'm in a comfortable place.

Anyhows, numbers:

Wins: 3, 3, 2, 1, 3, 4, 2, 5, 1, 0, 0, 0, 3, 0, 3, 4, 3, 0, 4, 0, 4, 4. Accumulatively: 3-3, 6-6, 8-9, 9-12, 12-15, 16-18, 18-21, 23-24, 24-27, 24-30, 24-33, 24-36, 27-39, 27-42, 30-45, 34-48, 37-51, 37-54, 41-57, 41-60, 45-63, 49-66, or 49/115, or ~42.6%.. I'm disappointed, I thought I'd get at least 50% of wins but I guess not. I'm not sure how to account for the rank that I'm probably overranked due to playing so much limited. Even then, although a week ago I thought I was at least average, I no longer believe so. I guess Zendikar Rising pampered me? I really feel pick and deck building decisions are much more important and harder to evaluate than back then.

Accumulated results and their rewards:
0-3: 6 (300 gems)
1-3: 2 (200 gems)
2-3: 2 (400 gems)
3-3: 6 (900 gems)
4-3: 5 (1800 gems)
5-3: 1 (650 gems)
Total: 4250 gems for 16500 gems worth of entry fees. Ouch, I knew I wasn't getting close to getting an average of half of an entry fee that I was hoping for, but putting that in numbers... yeah, 26% is pretty bad.

Nonetheless, I had lots of fun at this, in fact I probably shouldn't have played as much as I did so as to keep playing over the course of the following week.

I've learned several lessons drafting Kaldheim. I now find educational value (and entertainment!) in watching streamers draft. I now know I should not overly rely on Draftsim's pick rankings, there are loads of dubious decisions in there, and if some players (including myself) contradict it, I should let my intuition guide me instead. I now know the worth of synergy is variable, it may not have been a huge deal outside some obvious cases back in ZNR, but it really was important in KHM, I shoul let my aggro decks be aggro, my X deck have lots of X and payoffs (including implicit payoffs) and so on. While it wasn't a given that I'd have enough decent cards to form a deck in ZNR, in all but one of my drafts I'd have more than enough to get something, meaning I didn't have to commit as hard to a color and leavecan opportunity for a future splash, and could also take "free value" picks in the form of lands.

I can't wait to do the same for Strixhaven. At less than 5k gold and 8100 gems I don't think I'll be anywhere close to having as much resources for (STX?) as I did for KHM, though that's influenced by the fact that KHM was a large set that'll last for short.

Draft 23

So berserkers it is.
I messed up, I paid the entry fee in gold instead of gems, meaning I have no gold left for whatever daily deal comes up. Also, I only got to pick three rares.

RB Aggro - I could not deal with my opponent's Craven Hulk equipped with Raven Wings, followed by Immerstrum Predator, after a final attack hoping '
RB Something - I got stuck at two lands for a while, never drew a fourth land nor a black mana source (although that wasn't that big of a problem), eventually I lost due to my opponent playing whatever. Perhaps I should get in the habit of playing 18 lands more often?
GBU - I wanted to aggro at first, but with some decent blocking that was cut short. My Skemfar Avenger died several times but kept coming back thanks to Koll, Shepherd of the Cosmos and Return Upon the TIde. I lowered my opponent's life with flyers and eventually got wide enough that Doomskar Titan won me the game, though I'd say Raven Wings contributed more. Also my opponent forgot Koll recurs equipped creatures.
WR Aggro - Oof, I mulliganed to five and it seemed like I'd be stuck at two lands, but managed to deal with using two-mana creatures and several equipments. Koll definitely won me this game. Also my opponent forgot Dragonkin Berserker has first strike.
GBw Something - Things would've been going my way if it hadn't been for the fact my opponent had Tergrid's Lantern, I tried my best but the 1-2 activations per turn was too much for me to keep up with. I was trying to go wide but that didn't happen.

2-3, can't complain. I don't think I made glaring mistakes, except perhaps I should've mulliganed some hands that I didn't.

I watched my brother play a draft, he got 7-1 effortlessly with what I thought was a subpar decks. I don't want to disparage people who for all I know are new at the game, but his opponents were clearly less adept at the game than what I'm used to, this leads me to believe that I should let my rank decay rather than to keep grinding against people who from the statistics seem to be above me.

With that in mind I think it's time to wrap up on drafting, I'll stop now and save money for Strixhaven, although I'll probably draft again to qualify for seasonal rewards on March and April, either more Quick Draft or spend one of the many tokens I have on Traditional Draft (i.e. the unranked one). I'll purchase the Kaldheim Mastery Pass soon.

Zennistrad · 2021-04-05 04:11:27

Full Strixhaven spoiler is out:

https://scryfall.com/sets/stx?order=set&as=grid

Stormtroper · 2021-04-05 05:41:55

tfw I'm not the one to update this thread with Strixhaven info, I've been meaning to but then I don't.
I'm hyped about it, the flavour is nice and I've never played through any of the Ravnicas, Alara or Tarkir. It seems low-powered but after Eldraine, that doesn't sound too bad.
Who couldn't like cards with names like First Day of Class or Divide by Zero?
Also, the Mystical Archives art is gorgeous, especially the Japanese ones, gosh I want some.

As for Arena:

I wanted to make the monowhite aggro deck that's currently competitive, but I was missing lots of cards, so I did the unthinkable; I opened the 114 Zendikar Rising boosters I had.

I got (Name of what I wanted, how many I got/how many I wanted):

Legion Angel, 1/4
Maul of the Skyclaves, 3/3
Skyclave Apparition, 0/1
Luminarch Aspirant, 2/4
Riverglide Pathway // Lavaglide Pathway, 1/1
Shatterskull Smashing, 2/1

Only time will tell if this was a good idea.

I drafted:

So it's GU with lots of fatties and ramp. I'm not having a lot of hope for this deck but I've been super wrong before. That The Bloodsky Massacre is a fifth copy, the first one I draft ever, I was unsure if it was a good idea to pick it up (thus get 20 gems) but the rest of the pack wasn't great either, and I was unsure of what colors I'd play besides green.

UBG Snow - I cast a couple fatties by turn five, fortunately my opponent's deck wasn't fast either. After a couple turns of my opponent trying to set up a defense, they cast Blood on the Snow for which I fortunately had a Disdainful Stroke saved up throughout the whole game.
UB Something - This was a tight game, my opponent hit me for quite a bit with small dudes equipped with Goldven Pick as well as a Mistwalker that doubled as a good blocker, nonetheless with two Struggle for Skemfar and some fatties I managed to scrape enough power to get through.
WGB Something - I disconnected and lost a turn over it, I thought that'd make me lose but with Egon and then Starnheim Unleashed, that's what made me lose.
BR Berserkers - I started with a hand I thought would get me through the game, with a Toski with the potential of running with the game, but after a copied Dwarven Reinforcements that seemed increasingly difficult, then the Berserker Saga, then Skemfar Berserker and it was clear I wasn't going to win this one either.
(Didn't continue draft until the following season)
BR Berserkers - Both of us played aggressively, me for the sake of drawing cards with Toski, my opponent for the sake of killing me before I overwhelmed them with card advantage. Things were tight the whole game, at one point I managed to pop Path to the World Tree and my opponent did the Shackles of Treason + Village Rites combo, but eventually my opponent brought me to zero while at one life with an aggressive Demonic Gift on a Fearless Liberator equipped with Dwarven Hammer. I could've survived (and won) but I messed up untapping some dual snow land with Sculptor of Winter rather than a forest enchanted with Shimmering Frost, that would've let me cast a bigger dude and survive.

I was hoping for more, but eh...
I can't wat to draft Strixhaven. Besides that...
It occurs to me that "reckless" should more often be translated as "atrevido".
I learned that on Brave Browser, typing something like "scryfall.com o:Adventure" will automagically search Scryfall using the provided filters.

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