Board 8 > Magic the Gathering Gopic (Ikoria is here!)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Cube is, in fact, the best way to play magic (even though the arena cube isnt necessarily the greatest representation)

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I'll admit I'm not good at cube, went 2:3 on my free play. It was fun though, will do it again.

What are some of the key differences in selecting cards as compared to normal draft?

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BlackDra90n posted...

I'll admit I'm not good at cube, went 2:3 on my free play. It was fun though, will do it again.

What are some of the key differences in selecting cards as compared to normal draft?

masterplum posted...

The secret to cube is value cards that are good against insane cards higher. Disdainful stroke goes from near unplayable to I just second picked it

You basically want cards that augment insane bombs and insane bombs. Stuff like scorching dragon fire is near unplayable. You want things like teferi, quench and chart a course. Not stuff like Trostani

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Well, in a token deck with a bunch of anthem effects you do kinda want trostani!

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The Mana Sword posted...

Well, in a token deck with a bunch of anthem effects you do kinda want trostani!

I would never play a token deck!

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I dunno, thats what I ended up in last night with Tristani, Miraris Wake, Ethereal Absolution, Harmonious Archon and a bunch of good token makers and weenie cards. It worked out pretty well. To be fair a lot of that was probably on the back of people being bad at cube but still, you do have that luxury here. Its not my usual preferred archetype but it can absolutely be good.

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Haha I actually stomped a deck that looked exactly like that.

Honestly I think it went well because Archon and Etheral Absolution are just great. I play both those cards.... just on a blue control shell

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Yeah, Trostani was definitely one of the weaker anthem effects but it still does the job.

Funny, the only game I lost yesterday was to a blue based control deck because I forgot Settle the Wreckage existed.

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I think one of the things that annoy me about this cube is green is literally never open. Not once in the 6 or 7 drafts I've done so far

Maybe its Arena drafters are terrible at card evaluation and green cards look sexier for some reason, but its kind of annoying knowing I am going to be U/B U/W or U/R every draft

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I won't be doing any cubes as the big message that tells me I don't get to keep the cards is like...why bother
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because its fun

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also first one is free

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Sorry that came off as like, "lol you guys wasting your time doing cubes" I didn't mean it like that. I meant it for me personally.
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That kinda put me off at the beginning too but then I realized I already had like every Ikoria card anyways so it's not like I was gonna get any new cards from that either.

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Couldn't you still get vault progress towards wildcards?
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masterplum posted...

I think one of the things that annoy me about this cube is green is literally never open. Not once in the 6 or 7 drafts I've done so far

Maybe its Arena drafters are terrible at card evaluation and green cards look sexier for some reason, but its kind of annoying knowing I am going to be U/B U/W or U/R every draft

How does green not being available translate to, I have to draft blue every time?


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Whoa, shrines.

I don't think I've ever been more excited for a core set.

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They've done a pretty good job with the core sets since they brought them back as far as having exciting reprints and interesting new cards (we'll ignore Field of the Dead and Veil of Summer).

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Scooze is both a good reprint to fight the cat and titans and also a bad reprint because it fits right into Uro.dec

The shrines are pretty funny, good cards

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So there I am with two swamps and a mountain, claim the first born in hand, a gutterbones in the yard.

I'm like, I wanna get gutterbones out and then play him onto the field again right? So I tap my mountain and another thing to pay bones' activation cost...and it taps my untapped swamp and leaves a red mana floating.

I can't believe the game doesn't automatically prioritize floating mana over untapped lands even if you have a playable card in hand.

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Sometimes the autotapper guesses wrong. The rule of 'prioritize tapping lands that allow the player to cast an available spell' isn't such a bad one. You just have to learn not to take it for granted.

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Huh, weird. I've never had that happen to me. Whenever the autotapper highlights the wrong lands tapping them manually seems like it does the trick.

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Yeah, it's super frustrating when it doesn't, but the auto-tapper does work well enough 99% of the time.

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pjbasis posted...

So there I am with two swamps and a mountain, claim the first born in hand, a gutterbones in the yard.

I'm like, I wanna get gutterbones out and then play him onto the field again right? So I tap my mountain and another thing to pay bones' activation cost...and it taps my untapped swamp and leaves a red mana floating.

I can't believe the game doesn't automatically prioritize floating mana over untapped lands even if you have a playable card in hand.

Did you have a red card like a Shock in hand or something? Only thing I can think of but that still seems pretty bad.

In general the autotapper doesn't take new information into account like the fact that you're going to put Gutterbones into your hand, and it might try to prioritize something it already knows you can cast. Same thing happens if I cast Lurrus for example - it doesn't look at my graveyard to see what I could cast next and so might tap the wrong lands.

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The thing is I tapped my lands manually, but it didnt use that mana.

And yes I had claim the first born in my hand so I get the logic, but only if it autotapped for me.

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Did it do the "auto tap solution has changed" thing? I've gotten myself into trouble with that too

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pjbasis posted...

The thing is I tapped my lands manually, but it didnt use that mana.

And yes I had claim the first born in my hand so I get the logic, but only if it autotapped for me.

Oh, that is bad then, I misunderstood. I thought it would prompt you to choose floating mana.

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just hit mythic rank in limited thanks to lucking into the most absurd r/u aggro deck that went 7-0

im officially good now
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That's pretty incredible in my book. Congrats on the achievement, man

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thanks!

here's the 7-0 draft deck that got me there

https://i.imgur.com/aL3gZ74.png

it's kind of ridiculous how much evasion is in the format
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Man Jumpstart is also more exciting than I thought it would be.

Wizards is really going after my money huh.

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Jumpstart has sounded fun to me since it was announced, but I'm sad we won't get to play any kind of in-person release event. It's going to seriously shake up Historic.

Speaking of Historic, I switched to it today from Standard. Even with a 55%+ win rate I was still losing ranks pretty quickly. Since switching to mono blue tempo (historic) earlier today I've only lost twice and I've been climbing right back up since STD and HIST use the same ranked ladder.

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I hit diamond last night. Highest I've ever been. Using a Lurrus Knights deck.

I want to make a Historic deck but I told myself I'll wait until M21 is out...and now Jumpstart looks to be a much bigger deal, but isn't releasing until after that.

Maybe I'll just build Scapeshift anyways. Surely some variation of Uro.dec will still be good

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ChichiriMuyo posted...

Jumpstart has sounded fun to me since it was announced, but I'm sad we won't get to play any kind of in-person release event.

Yea, I keep getting excited about it and then I remember I'm probably not playing in store for it.

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Bump for M21's Arena release tomorrow.

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lol just started my first sealed and got Basri and Mangara in my pool

first game playing M21 and I already did a planeswalker ult. Feeling good.
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I just want the dog cat
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PLAYM21 for the free packs btw.

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Thanks!

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just got absolutely stuffed by that hexproof from blue spider playing a mostly blue draft deck

hexproof still a bad mechanic

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Just used the deal of the day draft token for my first M21 draft and went 7-1 with mono green. Hunter's Edge + Sabertooth Mauler is sick.

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I ended up buying the Chandra Spellbook and my foil was Young Pyromancer. Not great but also not terrible. Just glad I didn't get Cathartic Reunion.

I also got a prerelease kit too, seeing if some of my friends want to play so I haven't opened my packs yet but my promo was a Temple of Malady, which again isn't great but that's life I guess.

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The Mana Sword posted...

just got absolutely stuffed by that hexproof from blue spider playing a mostly blue draft deck

hexproof still a bad mechanic

At least they stopped slapping protection on uncommons after the blunder last year.

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I really have not liked this draft format.

it seems like the gulf between good cards and bad cards is way too high. Ive had pick 1s with zero cards I wanted to play more than once already, or in other words zero playable cards in either of my colors and often only one good card in the entire pack.

not good for a format Ive only drafted around 4 times, especially considering some of the bombs are still amazing.

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yeah the format is pretty bomby

Ive found it... fine so far but not particularly exciting. I have issues with the mill deck too. It doesnt come together every time, but when it comes together its extremely difficult to combat in best of one queues.

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my sealed pool I just started has two palladium myrs and three Warden of the Woods

turn four warden of the woods is cruel and I love it

(the odds of getting three of the same uncommon in six packs must be crazy low, right?)
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oh also heres a hot tip: if you multi block Gloom Sower you lose two life for each creature blocking it

I just did eight damage to a dude because he quadruple blocked it
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