I'm in the event that started at 3:00 pm EST, and I've got to say I hope they do events like this more often as it is a lot of fun.
I believe (but am not 100% sure) that everyone received packs of the same 10 sets, which, at least for myself, were:
invasion
apocalypse
odyssey
onslaught
legions
fifth dawn
saviors of kamigawa
ravnica
planar chaos
lorwyn
Deck building time is still only 20 minutes however, which is painfully low for sifting through 10 packs of unfamiliar, unsynergistic cards. That said, I managed to submit with 15 seconds left and I'm fairly happy with my deck, managed 2-0 so far with it.
It's definitely a nice break from the much faster formats that modern MtG has shifted towards.
EDIT: Also, just to note they added a few more of the events, though all are still today. There's now one every hour between 3-9pm EST, with one additional at midnight, making a total of 8 rather than the original 4. Considering they were filling up hours in advance, these were likely added due to the ridiculous demand (which hopefully indicates they might do this again in the future!)
Wild Hunger won me at least 2 games, giving that extra power and reach to finish games. Both the white Niblis' were good as well, particularly Niblis of the Urn. Tapping down a defender every turn when you're running an aggressive deck is excellent, and its cheap enough that it doesn't hurt the curve with its weak 1/1 body. My 1 Crushing Vines mainboard nearly always had a target, and I think I boarded in my second in more than half my games.
Including the last game, which I should have lost. You see, my opponent timed out. While in the middle of attacking for lethal. All of our games were very close, and game 3 had been particularly intense (This was the game my Huntmaster got popped by Slayer of the Wicked), and he had the clear board position. My 8/8 Gravetiller Wurm was Bonds'ed, and my Somberwald Dryad was being tapped by his Niblis of the Urn. He only had seconds left however, and was going through his last turns quickly. On the final attack, he had already swung with all his guys and tapped my dryad with about 2 seconds left. He says he was mashing f4 at this point (Note: NOT f6). I had no cards in hand, but thought what the hell and flashbacked my Wild Hunger on his creature. For whatever reason, it was enough to time him out.
I ended up talking to him for about 10 minutes straight afterwords, during which he essentially just continuously called me a jackass. Note that I did give him 3 packs (So it was essentially a 7-7 split between us), since I knew it was a dick move, but he felt this was not enough. Felt that he had deserved the complete win, and my stalling for the timeout was a lack of class.
Personally I believe getting him to timeout is a legitimate strategy. I did nothing beforehand to stall, only the last Wild Hunger when I saw I was dead and his clock was almost out. Had he also been f6'ed rather than f4'ed, I don't think it would have mattered at all. He did mention lag, but that's hardly my fault. Then there's also the fact that my clock was still comfortably at ~3 min. It is a somewhat shadier avenue of victory, but the clock is there for a reason. There's no doubt it was a dick move, but I feel it was justified, and my conscience feels clear in splitting the prize with him.
I'm curious what others think of the situation. Would you have given him the whole win (Him with 10 packs, you on 4), kept all 10 for yourself, or split it?
Regardless, definitely an interesting end to my first Sealed in ages.
Any thoughts on the deck post-banning? Worrying about Post is clearly out.
I just made a budget version on MTGO (I had 9 tickets total at my disposal to get the deck from scratch...had to make some substitutions [i.e. Temple Bell for Font of Mythos, and a much worse switch of Condemn for Path to Exile]), but I haven't run it through anything other than casual games. Seems like a fun deck to play, though without having played against the combos that are running the format right now, I can't say how it might do.
I went with Mono-White, with mill and Luminarch Ascension as win-conditions. My list:
The second Elixir is there just to ensure I can get one down if need be. With no way to recur it, having at least a second copy seemed prudent. Only 1 Leyline as I figure I can draw into it with the card draw if needed, with more in a potential sideboard I have yet to create. Silence is similar, as without a Scepter to equip it to it's not all that exciting.
And speaking of which, in the few games I've played, the scepter has really been quite nice. Putting a fog effect of Dawn Charm or Haze effectively stalls the game for you as you either build up more fogs in you hand, tick up ascension, or drop down some more card draw. Silence lock is also obviously good. With 9 targets and a good engine going, there's only a small chance it will be dead, and even getting a few activations or turns out of it makes it worth it.
EDIT: Oh yes, and I didn't see Safe Passage mentioned much here, perhaps because of the slightly prohibitive cost, but since it also doubles as Grapeshot protection it seemed like a natural inclusion. It can't fit on the scepter though unfortunately.
Thanks for the advice guys. I'm certainly open to criticism, as I know and often realize myself soon afterwards that I do make some mistakes.
The suggestion of starting with the newer formats is also pretty sound, and in fact I've just uploaded a draft from New Phyrexia. It's a NPH, MBS, SOM 8-4, not sure what the short acronym for the 3 of those are (PBS? NMS?). Regardless, as usual I would appreciate any comments.
Inspired by the influx of MTGO draft videos that seem to be popping up, I thought I would go ahead and try one of my own. It's certainly harder than it seems to keep a steady stream of conversation flowing throughout one of these, but in that regard I don't think I left too many blank spaces. Granted though, I think nerves might have led to a few mistakes I might not otherwise have made. I will forewarn you that I am by no means a Magic Pro. My Limited rating on MTGO is at about 1850 following this draft, if that means anything to you.
I went for the Urza Block for this one, I tend to enjoy those sets (most any other sets really) more than Scars.
The next 5 are all separate quizzes with the same theme: Try to guess the card names shown only the artwork. Posting them in reverse order since the newer ones are a bit cleaner looking.
As I was playing earlier today I came across an odd situation. I had a Sedraxis Specter in play, and across the board from me my opponent had an Elspeth. I attacked the planeswalker, and was caught a bit off guard when he asked me whether or not he had to discard. It hadn't occurred to me earlier that as the Specter was technically not attacking my opponent directly, it might not actually activate his ability. However, I know that Blightning can in fact hit a planeswalker while still retaining its discarding goodness.
Is this only because of the interaction between spells and planeswalkers, i.e. the fact that the spell targets the player itself and then redirects to a planeswalker? In the case of the specter, I would be attacking the planeswalker directly, with no roundabout redirection, leading me to believe it would not prompt a discard. No harm in asking those in the know however, it can't exactly make the situation worse for me.
I've never been entirely clear on the intricacies of priority.
Say for instance my opponent plays a Rampaging Baloths. I, wary of the fact that he has not yet played a land this turn, immediately attempt to Doom Blade it. He however wishes to play a land first, thereby netting himself a 4/4 before the Baloths is killed.
How does priority work in that situation? I know I would be given priority as he cast it in case I had a counter, but after it hits the Battlefield would I have the opportunity to play my Doom Blade before he could play his land?
Thanks for the quick reply. Guess I can't get everything I want out of that combo. Also not sure if you saw my added question to the first post. I wasn't expecting such a fast response, my first query was answered before I could even edit the post to add in the 2nd, haha.
I recently made myself a cleric deck, and in considering some good methods of playing the deck I found myself considering abusing "damage on the stack" with Starlit Sanctum. My confusion with this tactic is whether or not I would gain the life from the lifelink of Doubtless One were I to follow through with this plan. Could I allow a say 4/4 Doubtless One to attack, damage on the stack, sac it with Starlit Sanctum to get in for 4 life on my opponent, then gain 4 life from the lifelink of the Doubtless One from the combat damage still on the stack?
And while I'm asking questions, here's another. If I were to use Pyrrhic Revival, bringing back a Benalish Missionary and a Cabal Archon, could I use the Archon's ability to sac the Missionary before it died due to the -1/-1 counter? If no, would this have worked if the Cabal Archon was already in play?
I believe (but am not 100% sure) that everyone received packs of the same 10 sets, which, at least for myself, were:
invasion
apocalypse
odyssey
onslaught
legions
fifth dawn
saviors of kamigawa
ravnica
planar chaos
lorwyn
Deck building time is still only 20 minutes however, which is painfully low for sifting through 10 packs of unfamiliar, unsynergistic cards. That said, I managed to submit with 15 seconds left and I'm fairly happy with my deck, managed 2-0 so far with it.
It's definitely a nice break from the much faster formats that modern MtG has shifted towards.
EDIT: Also, just to note they added a few more of the events, though all are still today. There's now one every hour between 3-9pm EST, with one additional at midnight, making a total of 8 rather than the original 4. Considering they were filling up hours in advance, these were likely added due to the ridiculous demand (which hopefully indicates they might do this again in the future!)
I technically went 4-0, though I should have lost the last match. I'll get to that.
I went G/W/r, splashing for Wrack With Madness, Huntmaster of the Fells, and flashback on Wild Hunger off 1 mountain, 1 Terramorphic Expanse, and 1 Traveler's Amulet. I didn't have much trouble hitting the mountain, and drew WwM and WH multiple times, but only got the Huntmaster once unfortunately. And he immediately died to a Slayer of the Wicked:-/.
Other notable cards: Kessig Cagebreakers, Burden of Guilt, Wolfbitten Captive
Wild Hunger won me at least 2 games, giving that extra power and reach to finish games. Both the white Niblis' were good as well, particularly Niblis of the Urn. Tapping down a defender every turn when you're running an aggressive deck is excellent, and its cheap enough that it doesn't hurt the curve with its weak 1/1 body. My 1 Crushing Vines mainboard nearly always had a target, and I think I boarded in my second in more than half my games.
Including the last game, which I should have lost. You see, my opponent timed out. While in the middle of attacking for lethal. All of our games were very close, and game 3 had been particularly intense (This was the game my Huntmaster got popped by Slayer of the Wicked), and he had the clear board position. My 8/8 Gravetiller Wurm was Bonds'ed, and my Somberwald Dryad was being tapped by his Niblis of the Urn. He only had seconds left however, and was going through his last turns quickly. On the final attack, he had already swung with all his guys and tapped my dryad with about 2 seconds left. He says he was mashing f4 at this point (Note: NOT f6). I had no cards in hand, but thought what the hell and flashbacked my Wild Hunger on his creature. For whatever reason, it was enough to time him out.
I ended up talking to him for about 10 minutes straight afterwords, during which he essentially just continuously called me a jackass. Note that I did give him 3 packs (So it was essentially a 7-7 split between us), since I knew it was a dick move, but he felt this was not enough. Felt that he had deserved the complete win, and my stalling for the timeout was a lack of class.
Personally I believe getting him to timeout is a legitimate strategy. I did nothing beforehand to stall, only the last Wild Hunger when I saw I was dead and his clock was almost out. Had he also been f6'ed rather than f4'ed, I don't think it would have mattered at all. He did mention lag, but that's hardly my fault. Then there's also the fact that my clock was still comfortably at ~3 min. It is a somewhat shadier avenue of victory, but the clock is there for a reason. There's no doubt it was a dick move, but I feel it was justified, and my conscience feels clear in splitting the prize with him.
I'm curious what others think of the situation. Would you have given him the whole win (Him with 10 packs, you on 4), kept all 10 for yourself, or split it?
Regardless, definitely an interesting end to my first Sealed in ages.
That he's a solid card is only a bonus.
I just made a budget version on MTGO (I had 9 tickets total at my disposal to get the deck from scratch...had to make some substitutions [i.e. Temple Bell for Font of Mythos, and a much worse switch of Condemn for Path to Exile]), but I haven't run it through anything other than casual games. Seems like a fun deck to play, though without having played against the combos that are running the format right now, I can't say how it might do.
I went with Mono-White, with mill and Luminarch Ascension as win-conditions. My list:
19 Plains
4 Reliquary Tower
Artifacts (12)
4 Howling Mine
4 Temple Bell
2 Elixir of Immortality
2 Isochron Scepter
4 Ethereal Haze
4 Dawn Charm
4 Safe Passage
4 Day of Judgment
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Condemn
2 Luminarch Ascension
1 Silence
1 Leyline of Sanctity
The second Elixir is there just to ensure I can get one down if need be. With no way to recur it, having at least a second copy seemed prudent. Only 1 Leyline as I figure I can draw into it with the card draw if needed, with more in a potential sideboard I have yet to create. Silence is similar, as without a Scepter to equip it to it's not all that exciting.
And speaking of which, in the few games I've played, the scepter has really been quite nice. Putting a fog effect of Dawn Charm or Haze effectively stalls the game for you as you either build up more fogs in you hand, tick up ascension, or drop down some more card draw. Silence lock is also obviously good. With 9 targets and a good engine going, there's only a small chance it will be dead, and even getting a few activations or turns out of it makes it worth it.
EDIT: Oh yes, and I didn't see Safe Passage mentioned much here, perhaps because of the slightly prohibitive cost, but since it also doubles as Grapeshot protection it seemed like a natural inclusion. It can't fit on the scepter though unfortunately.
http://www.sporcle.com/games/Kazaxat/mtg_art5
The suggestion of starting with the newer formats is also pretty sound, and in fact I've just uploaded a draft from New Phyrexia. It's a NPH, MBS, SOM 8-4, not sure what the short acronym for the 3 of those are (PBS? NMS?). Regardless, as usual I would appreciate any comments.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PLD3E79293647D4E23
I went for the Urza Block for this one, I tend to enjoy those sets (most any other sets really) more than Scars.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PL12EDFBC245DF90B1
Comments or criticisms are fully welcome.
A second draft now posted, ME4 this time.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PL0A962A6BE382ACDB
Any comments at all would be appreciated. I'll take a 'You suck!' over dead silence.
Doublepost merged.
Name every MTG Fatty(Creature with power OR toughness 10 or greater)
http://www.sporcle.com/games/Kazaxat/mtg_fatties
The next 5 are all separate quizzes with the same theme: Try to guess the card names shown only the artwork. Posting them in reverse order since the newer ones are a bit cleaner looking.
http://www.sporcle.com/games/Kazaxat/mtg_art5
http://www.sporcle.com/games/Kazaxat/mtg_art4
http://www.sporcle.com/games/Kazaxat/mtg_art3
http://www.sporcle.com/games/Kazaxat/mtg_art2
http://www.sporcle.com/games/Kazaxat/mtg_art
Let me know what you think, or if you have ideas for more.
Is this only because of the interaction between spells and planeswalkers, i.e. the fact that the spell targets the player itself and then redirects to a planeswalker? In the case of the specter, I would be attacking the planeswalker directly, with no roundabout redirection, leading me to believe it would not prompt a discard. No harm in asking those in the know however, it can't exactly make the situation worse for me.
Thanks.
Say for instance my opponent plays a Rampaging Baloths. I, wary of the fact that he has not yet played a land this turn, immediately attempt to Doom Blade it. He however wishes to play a land first, thereby netting himself a 4/4 before the Baloths is killed.
How does priority work in that situation? I know I would be given priority as he cast it in case I had a counter, but after it hits the Battlefield would I have the opportunity to play my Doom Blade before he could play his land?
Thanks for the clarification.
And while I'm asking questions, here's another. If I were to use Pyrrhic Revival, bringing back a Benalish Missionary and a Cabal Archon, could I use the Archon's ability to sac the Missionary before it died due to the -1/-1 counter? If no, would this have worked if the Cabal Archon was already in play?