Magic: The Gathering

[Weltall]

Full set was just leaked earlier. Some good commons/uncommons, but the rares other than the 2 mana artifact one are pretty bad. The mythics are the worst of any set IMO.

Big creatures that just get outclassed by cheaper Titans, yay. They would have been interesting if Wizards wasn't reprinting Titans.

[Nama]

Hmmm glad I opted out of buying a box Ill just go with any packs I manage to win from drafts and bide time till M12 then

Is it confirmed titans are back for M12? I saw there was titan promos for duel of the planewalkers2012 but didn't see anything for sure that they were being reprinted.

[Qalbert]

so I'm fairly new to MtG, bunch of friends are doing a draft tonight, which I haven't done before, how do those typically work/what should I be expecting?

[Myrrh_Quetz]

Drafts are fun. You get 3 packs. The drafts here are usually 1 Scars and 2 Besieged. You open 1 pack first, pick 1 card and pass....to your......left first I believe, then you pick 1 card from the person who passed to you, and repeat till there are no more cards from that pack, open another pack, pick 1, and pass to your right, repeat, open 3rd park, pick 1, pass to your left again. You'll want to make a 40 card deck tops. I usually go to about 26-28 nonland cards and 12-14 land cards. And don't worry about jumping for the Rare right away. Depending on the rare it might be better to pick a common or uncommon depending on what you have in mind for a deck. Though, if it's like any of the Swords or something, then you pick the fucking swords lol.

I try to either do White or Infect in drafts as for me those are the safer routes. My friends like to jump around and mix shit up. Drafting raw power like Green or Red can be a good idea since not a lot of people will get many cards to deal with beat sticks.

That's my advice, might not be the best but that's what works for more me.



edit:
I was doing a cutthroat match last night and I was using my B/U infect deck Vs this persons Ally deck.
Match 1, I kicked their ass. I have never drawn cards so perfectly before. Was awesome.
Match 2, they draw their 7 cards, mulligan down to 6, then 5, then 4, then 3, then they quit.

I'm like "badass, I went 2/0. Yay me." I go to report my wins, I turn around. They are ripping up every single card in their deck. I mean all 60. I looked in the trash and I was seeing Seachrome Coasts and shit. Actually money cards just torn to shit because they lost so bad. I laughed the entire night.

[Ragnus]

Allies are one of those things that look good at first but then not so much.

@Qualbert: The way my friends and I do drafts are that we each get 6 boosters from a set and we make our decks from that. We play one game and then decide if we want to play again or draft more cards. I'm not that great at trimming decks down so mine always end up around 60-70 cards including lands. I usually go with (nonlands * 0.5) for choosing how much mana to play. The most important thing that can screw you is the shuffle. Make sure your cards are mixed well or you'll find yourself in a mana drought or mana surge.

Right now we're working on a set of "Farnsworth Parabox" rules as an experimental game type for fun.

As always, feel free to comment on any rules I have as well as any additional rules you would like to see added.

Parabox Set-up Guidelines:

*

Each player is given one parabox @ random
*

Each player selects 3 cards from their box per Knowledge Pool (KP) and places them face down prior to building their deck
*

After each player has built their deck, the selected cards are placed under the various KPs
*

Proceed with chaos



Parabox gameplay rules:

*

No basic lands may enter any KPs for any reason
*

KPs can't be destroyed, targeted, animated, or otherwise changed outside of their “normal” abilities
* If for whatever reason, a KP is placed in a KP, it MUST be the next card played from the pool. As such, the new KP will be considered a normal artifact and may be targeted, destroyed, etc.
* At the beginning of the game, the player who starts the game must roll a D10. The number rolled will determine the KP delay time. During that player's subsequent upkeeps, they will reduce the number on the die by one. Once the count reaches 0 KPs will be in full effect. This will allow players to set up a deck with some strategy behind it, as well as set up defenses prior to shenanigans occuring. If the player rolls a 5 or less on their initial roll, they have the option of rerolling once more.

Banned cards:

* Gaddock Teeg - Limits amount of spells that can be played, thus limiting KP usage.
* Iona, Shield of Emeria - Same as Gaddock
* "X" Spells - As a magic rule if you play anything with a mana cost with X in it without paying its mana cost, X becomes set to 0, thus rendering them useless like so many a goggle for Radioactive Man.
* Platinum Angel - Not being able to lose sorta makes the game un-fun especially when multiple players can't lose.
* Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir: Opponents can't play cards as long as Terferi is in play. Enough said.

A parabox is a box of 500 random cards that from a bunch of different sets across the years.

[Myrrh_Quetz]

Rag, is that the way you and your friends drafts or the stores in your area draft?

[Weltall]

What Rag stated is not even close to your normal booster draft. You need to start with the basics, and pro tour standard method.

You get 3 boosters:

1. Open first booster, take a card, pass to the left until all are gone.

2. Open second booster, take a card, pass to the right until all are gone.

3. Open third booster, take a card, pass to the left until all are gone.

You want to keep your deck at exactly 40 cards. The land will fluctuate from 16-20 depending on your average casting cost and taking into consideration any mana producing spells or creatures, such as Myr. I usually go with 17-18 lands max.

2 Colors is the max you want to play, unless you are splashing 1-2 cards of a third color, such as Fireball or Lightning Bolt. Never stick to a single color deck. No matter how good the packs are, you should never have 22-23 playables in a single color to make a single color deck viable. Maybe 2/100 times that would happen.

Removal spells are generally the best cards to take unless you get a bomb Mythic or Rare card.

[zoobernut]

What rag is talking about is limited sealed. It is different from drafting in that you open 6 booster packs and you build a 40 (or more but who would be crazy enough run more) card deck out of those booster packs and play. Drafting is what Weltall described where you take a card and pass.

The rest of the advice from Weltall is spot on for a draft.

Welt I had the exact opposite reaction to the new set than you did. I am very excited about it now. I think it is going to be amazing in limited and really fun at the pre-release, there are a ton of amazing cards in it for EDH, and a small handful of cards that are absolutely playable in constructed.

At the very least I see this new set shaking up the meta a bit and making b/u control even more viable, mono black control a powerhouse, and possibly u/w tempered steel decks playable. It also seems like mono green or green/white infect might be playable too but I haven't looked through the whole spoiler yet.

[Myrrh_Quetz]

I am crazy excited for the new set. This shit looks fun. a 1/1 infect for 1 is the tits, not to mention all the other power house mobs. 5/5 for 4 black, that 4/5 or 5/4(I forget the exact power/toughness) Golem for 2. I'm glad I preordered a box. It'll be like christmas :D

[Nama]

New set does have some interesting stuff theres alot of great commons/uncommons for Limited and nice things for EDH. Constructed not so much since alot of the rare/mythics arn't viable in standard currently but when Zenidkar rotates out there could be alot of interesting stuff popping out of this set.
On a positive note the rumored "banning" of Jace TMS has brought him back down to the $80s and theres several cards that can screw with Jace well in New Phyrexia. I'd like to think hes gonna drop more since hes rotating out but cards tend to spike with the PTQ season so hes probably gonna go back up again before he goes down some more.

[Weltall]

For Limited sure, the new set is a powerhouse, probably the strongest ever. I prefer constructed T2 over all formats, and for that, not much there where there isn't already cheaper/stronger options.

I agree about MBC. I have been planning to test it out since I seen the Obliterator creature. That guy is a house.

[Qalbert]

we did it like weltall described, I did a white mono deck with a few artifact creatures. won 7 of my 9 games.

[Myrrh_Quetz]

Pull any good cards? I usually get 1-2 Mythics in my drafts. Last one I did I pulled a foil Glissa and a Skittles. One before that, I got a Foil Elsbeth, and a Blightsteel.

[Qalbert]

only mythic was eternity vessel and another guy was undefeated and got it on first pick. my friend bought 4 packs, 3 for the draft and one for him and the one for him had a foil Sorin in it.

[Weltall]

You should all be prepared to see Batterskull in....every T2 deck for the next year? lol

[Ragnus]

Sorry, that's the way my friends and I draft. Not the stores in the area.

My New Phrexia draft with my friends is coming up the Saturday after next and I'll get back on how it went.

[zoobernut]

I am headed to the local shop tomorrow night to do a two headed Giant limited sealed tournament. Hopefully my friend and I do well. I think we will get 5 or 6 boosters to build from mix of Scars of Mirrodin and MBS packs. Should be fun.

Can't wait till the pre-release sealed tourney for NPH it is going to be epic.

[Man0warr]

The way my crew drafts is usually randomized 3v3s. Sit so there is a non team-mate between each person.

Every person plays every person on the other team, so 9 matches total. First team to win 5 matches wins all the rares. Then the person on the winning team with the best record picks a rare, 2nd best record picks next, 3rd guy picks last. Keep doing that until no one wants any of the rares/foils left then turn the rest face down and game them (each person turns a card face up, highest CMC wins all 3 cards, if 2 cards are tied, all 3 people flip another card, and so on).

This is just one step below money drafting, and it keeps people from rare drafting. Also everyone is trying hard to win and make the best deck otherwise you get nothing.

[Qalbert]

so I want to buy a bunch of the Zendikar full art land cards, anyone know a place where I can get them for relatively cheap? the ebay buy it now auctions are like $30-35 for 100, which is more than I'd like to pay.

[Tomiko]

You should all be prepared to see Batterskull in....every T2 deck for the next year? lol

I could be wrong, but I don't think it'll see play past October since Stoneforge is rotating out and cheating it into play with that is the best play for it. Otherwise 5 mana just doesn't seem worth it, especially when 1 more mana gets you a Titan or Wurmcoil and if playing white you get Baneslayer (if reprinted again) which has evasion.

so I want to buy a bunch of the Zendikar full art land cards, anyone know a place where I can get them for relatively cheap? the ebay buy it now auctions are like $30-35 for 100, which is more than I'd like to pay.

How many are you looking for, what types and do you care what picture? If you just looking for ~100 (~20 of each) and don't care about the picture I can just send you some. I still have a sealed pack of the lands from the fat pack a friend gave me and some other extras floating around I'm not using.