A little too testy

I am about done with Ixalan draft. I'd rather do sealed with it to be honest.

Marshall Sutcliff summed it up best in Limited Resources podcast #412. He summed up the format as something you pick your tribe and either you get the sweet cards you need and trample your opponent, or you don't get there and just lose. I think the overall best decks, if you get the sweet cards, are either Merfolk or Vampires. Either one can just slam the crud out of you and beat down... I've been on the wrong side of each version in draft.

This week, I am taking off from draft for multiple reasons. I thought about it last week, but after getting slapped in the face with "the good stuff," and not being able to play magic... I need a break from losing.


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Thanks to Target for letting me buy the Draconic Domination commander deck for about $28. How did I do that? First, you have to find a store that has the commander decks available. That's a bit tricky. Second, this week only, Target has a 25% off one toy deal. You need to text 827438 'toy' and receive a mobile coupon. Third, go find that commander deck, or the bundle you want, and check out for 25% off MSRP. I went with commander because on TCG, Draconic Domination is at least $41.

Deckbox.org

I joined DeckBox.org in the hopes of finding a bigger trading base, and so far it has been. I am not going to write a critical review of the site, nor a how-to use it. Not my intent. I just want to give some impressions and things I have learned. In my typical fashion, it comes via a bulleted list!

Result of largest trade to date

• Read a trader's profile, it will help
• Trust is earned
• Don't be afraid to ask questions
• Be honest and accurate with your card grading
• People love free stuff, and in my case foil proxies
• Largest trade to date- $80
• I've lost things in the mail, even with tracking
• I am still trying to sort out one right now
• Keeping LGS trades straight vs on-line availability has come down to me taking photos of cards I am trading away to sort out later at home
• Offers will be rejected for many reasons, don't be offended
• Don't feel offended for rejecting someone's trade
• On-line trades almost always want lightly played cards or better, your LGS friends likely don't care as much
• Be sure to poke about in the other person's trade list, you might find something else you are interested in
• The initial entry for your trade list can be daunting
• I've culled A LOT of cards from my trade list
• I'll likely never get most of the cards on my trade list

Would I recommend deckbox? Heck yes. Be patient, be respectful, and be a good trader.

Latest auction results, oh rats.

I got the latest box in today, which was a surprise. Was not expecting it until Thursday- thank you USPS.

First off, the one card I was gambling on- Bartel Runaxe, was not in the condition I was hoping for. Honestly, it is LP- in condition. I might be able to get $20-25 for it. If I am lucky. Which is not what I was gambling on.  *sad face*

However, I got my moneys worth at least. No money loss, even with shipping. The photo from the auction, which showed the better cards, were exactly that- the only better cards found.

Highlights:

• Rhystic Study
• 4x MM Brainstorm
• white bordered Exhume from Battle Royale Box set 
• Propaganda
• Goblin Charbelcher

Nothing huge, nothing worth over $10, other than the Bartel.

Odd find- 3 Unlimited Dwarven Demolition Team. (I hadn't realized they were printed in 8th edition. Huh)

Last note from this buy- the collection was most from the Apocalypse set. Nothing of real value was found though. The other odd thing was that the collector was very interested in creature types and having four of each. For example, there was a run of rats. These are all playsets, x4

• Ravenous Rats
• Razortooth Rats
• Rats of Rath
• Rabid Rats
• Diseased Vermin
• Disease Carriers
• Lab Rats
• Pestilence Rats
• Sewer Rats
• Crypt Rats
• Plague Rats
• Muck Rats

They were all found near each other in the box. Weird. There were some other animal types found together, but not nearly a complete creature type as Rats.

Yea, no.

Well, that didn't work. Not at all.

I attempted a strategy I heard about, but once again I missed out on the bomb or two I needed to complete the strategy.
I drafted black/blue pirates, with treasure to cast off color stuff. Well, in theory it worked. Seriously. I as able to cast the off color- two red damage, and two Hammerskulls. Not the ideal off color 'bombs' I had hoped for.

Not the results I was hoping for.

As per my typical spiral- I was super competitive the first match, completely steam rolled in second, and I should have just dropped in third. It was ugly. I didn't get tilted, just didn't do well. Didn't misplay anything, the deck just did not perform.
It happens. I had outs on several games to pull my butt out of the fire and take wins, but the draws were literally one turn too late. It was painful, the topdeck gods were not in my favor last night. It happens.

Sidelight- I got very little value from the packs. That also happens.

I made minor trades, nothing worth writing home about.

For the record, I still do not like Tribal themes.


On the other side of the coin, I did like the white bordered lands being easier to "spot" or feel out when drawing. Just gave a different feel from everything else being black bordered.

Draft land set

After acquiring my nearly complete set of pre-sleeved draft lands in Beta... I am thinking about another set. It was after watching Marshall Sutcliff's Ixalan pre-release video. Specifically this point. He mentions being able to just glance at an opening hand and knowing what land you have, how familiar the lands are. While he talks about having Beta basics, I think I wanted to try a different try.

Three sets of draft lands- full art, beta, and revised.

All ready for my whims. ;)

All Magic sets are black bordered now, that was not always the case. Back in my day, which is to say when I learned in the 90s, only expansions were black bordered. Core sets were white bordered. Unlimited, revised, 4th edition. It wasn't until 10th edition (2007!) that all frames would be black bordered.

I think it might be fun, to try an all white bordered land set for draft... I might try some revised lands first. (still the WORST printing of all time, in terms of color and vibrancy) Though I am thinking that getting 10 lands of each type, the same image, in Unlimited might be the best compromise in my book. Old school, great quality image, and white bordered.



Side note- you can tell I don't care much for this draft set as I am durdling around with draft land. lol.

Ixalan draft, another auction?

It looks like my gamble on Merfolk did not pay off last night, I went 1-2. I will admit I totally misplayed a critical moment in the 2nd round. *sigh*

I had gone in to the draft with a bit of knowledge. For some reason, I am not a big fan of tribal sets. Thus, this set has me on my back foot already. I did decently at sealed the other two times I played Ixalan. So that was nice. For my first and only draft so far, I had determined to stay open to what was available. Trying to remain draft agnostic.
We had 12 people, so it was 2 pods of 6. Made for a slightly higher rate of cards that could help you out. I went in to Merfolk off some early cards being passed my way. I durdlered around for the first 3 cards, and landed firmly in Merfolk after that. Post matches I realized I missed out on never saw a couple key cards that would have sent the deck in to hyper-drive. I had most of the gears in place to make the deck hum, just not the over the top cards to make it work. (e.g. Four River Heralds' Boon) I had zero removal, which REALLY hurt. I was gambling I could "sneak" in huge chunks via flyers or unblockable. It works the first match, but petered out in round two with a mana screw game 1, worked like a champ game 2, and a HUGE misplay in game 3.
The 3rd match was embarrassing against vampires, he went wide and I could just not deal. *sigh*
I drafted nothing of value, but did trade for a Growing Rites of Itlimoc. I have no real desire to keep it, just decent trade fodder for larger material. Honestly, almost no standard stuff appeals to me, I ought to just sell it all as a lot.


Auction update time:

I found another auction which had a TON of Magic material. I think this auction had a clue what was going on because they really broke it out well- for example- dual lands, Force of Wills, and Power Artifact were all separate auctions. I settled on bidding for 3 things, an Invasion version of Flooded Strain, which I was thankfully outbidded on because my bid was practically the value of the card. Second was a playset of Tempest Wastelands... I had that up to about 2 hours at the end of the auction. Lost out, didn't want to attempt more on it. Third, was a 700 card lot from a box. There were several of these lots with inviting cards laid out.
I quickly realized there was one card that most people likely didn't realize might help pay off the lot: a Legends Bartel Runeaxe. Thanks stupid Legends buyouts! There was about $100 worth of cards shown in front...I don't expect much else in the box to be honest, but I will report if anything else of note slips in.

Ixalan kickoff- sealed

My LGS hosted a kick off event for Ixalan- a sealed event. About 20 people showed up, and that's pretty good for the shop. Four rounds complete with door prizes- mostly packs. I actually won the second to last door prize- an FNM Fatal Push promo. Yes, I wound up getting three of them for various events at the store. I still have 2 of them.



Sealed is a fickle beast, mostly luck, some skill... and more luck. I was somewhat lucky in which I had a decent pool for R/W dinos. Turns out, it was pretty darn aggressive for the format. I was done my matches in pretty darn record time. I cleaned the board with the first two opponents in plenty of time to do some trading. w00t.



My third round proved otherwise, he had dinos and a slightly better deck... also, his lands showed up appropriately, mine did not. Mana screw is always a threat, but nothing much you can do about it but sit back and admire your playmat.



Fourth round was a bit tricky. I was playing a guy who was 3-0. If he won, he would have been first place... so we made a little decision to see how the games went. I wiped the playing field with him. Good grief... we played a third game for grins, and my lands disappear again.



In the end- I got 3 packs, a FNM Fatal Push, and some ok pulls from 6 packs. My 3 winnings got me a nice $7 rare to be traded off.




The bigger factor were the trades. I got myself a Dark Depths finally... the guy did want more things I had, so hopefully he is there again Friday so I can throw some more of my recently found collection his way to get another Dark Depths off him.
There were other possible trades, but the other person couldn't find the cards they wanted.... it happens.




Lastly, I decided to put my Leovold, Emissary of Trest up for trade. Just realized it can do me more good with other cards than I could ever use it in some random deck I will likely never really play outside of kitchen table games. Turn that $40 value in to usable stock!