A couple things happened all at once... well, they all came together at the same time.
The new set of Ikoria is not, what I would call, a fun set. Its wonky... its weird. The monsters are very large, and get bigger. One of the mechanics, mutate, is not really good in paper. The other mechanic, Companion, is shattering every single version of constructed. The response, from the grand pooh-bah, Mark Rosewater... was, ummm, not re-assuring. He even admitted the entire mechanic could be banned in Vintage, which seeks only to restrict things.
I tried to enjoy Arena, I really started out to draft. Things changed with Ikoria release, they moved to human drafts and doubled the cost of the virtual currency to support it. Okkkkkkk... thats fine. But I have had less than middling results in my game. They have been downright awful to be honest.
Before you get me to be a neh-sayer, I got to Platinum Tier 1 in Standard on the back of mono-red. Yeah, I'm a sucker. But after 3 drafts of Ikoria and completely crapping the bed on game play, I had enough. I uninstalled the software Saturday night. Haven't even felt the need to go back in.
My preferred constructed format, Legacy, has been under assault due to Ikoria. Well- actually, the Companion mechanic. Yes, on-line meta is different than paper. Yes, I doubt I will ever play in a 50+ tournament any time soon. But to hear the complaints about things being broken from every set that need to be banned, is hard. You either get the cards, play that deck until they ban it, or just sit on the side and wait for sanity. (I'm the later) I play at my local, with friends, etc. I am no grinder. No on-line Twitch streamer. I enjoy that format, but not such that I need to wait for bans. It happened with Wrenn and Six, then Underworld Breach, now an entire mechanic. *sigh*
I will never invest in digital legacy, well, not now. Paper play is the way I prefer. I have cards. There are practical restrictions. There are beers to be drunk with friends. (I'm old) I've done some digital over cam games with people all over the US. Its a nice substitute, but not the real thing. Even for an introvert like me, I enjoy the small slice of away to hang with like minded people and enjoy the game. Heck, there are times I actually get free cards out of the deal by winning. Go figure!
All these things made me pause many of my ingests of Magic content. Arena. Podcasts. YouTube. Blogs. Auctions. Reddit. If I was consuming Magic via it, as of Saturday night, I was done with it. Its been almost 48 hours since I did that, and I'm fine. I need the break to be honest. Lets see how long I can take this break for... its not a challenge. But things are crappy all at once. Thats how these things go.
I can't wait for paper based drafting is possible/safe again. My first draft back will be with my Beta Basics. Hell yes. I need to do that.
Monday, April 27, 2020
Monday, April 13, 2020
A couple games
I managed to play against two more people over zoom in the past few days. The first one was from Denver, he played- I believe a 4c Uro Dark Depths deck. I jammed in there with my Eldrazi Stompy. I won game 1 due to a Sphere. He had the combo in hand, but couldn't produce the 20/20 because of the Sphere affect. He could only jam in the Crop Rotation for the other half combo with Stage. I smashed face and did what Eldrazi does.
Game 2 he just crushed me, I had a middling hand, mulliganed, and found an even worse version of that first hand. *sigh* Nothing going on there, a large spaghetti monster ate my life.
Game 3 I managed to have de-nutz. I wasted him off colored mana, then, at the end of the game, I had a Smasher in play, one in hand, and topped 2 more. The best he could do is Crop Rot for a Maze of Ith, but then die to the multiple Smashers. It was glorious.
My second match was with a nice guy from Ottawa. He mentioned that his deck is not common, and he never plays it on MtGO because of the amount of clicking it requires. He also mentioned he had Astrolabe in it, but removed due to horrible draws. I had no clue what all that meant, but thought it might mean he was on an Oko pile?
We played two matches, and I wound up 4-1 overall in games. Turns out he was on Aluren, and Eldrazi stompy is a poor match up for him. He said he the deck is very good against fair blue decks, mostly those with Delver.
It was fun to learn about this deck because I had NEVER played against it my entire magic career. Very nice guy who walked through what it is trying to do and how it gets there. He felt Stompy was a bad match-up for him, and with OUAT now, it helped even out poor draws, or help dig for that answer it previously missed.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I am a SUCKER for beta basics. I managed to sell something, and after fees and such- I had about $50. What did I buy?
Island B: LP
2 Island A: LP
Plains C: LP
Plains B: LP
Plains A: LP
I am such a sucker... I should have bought a Sylvan Library, or maybe a fetch land maybe.... but nope, beta basics.
Game 2 he just crushed me, I had a middling hand, mulliganed, and found an even worse version of that first hand. *sigh* Nothing going on there, a large spaghetti monster ate my life.
Game 3 I managed to have de-nutz. I wasted him off colored mana, then, at the end of the game, I had a Smasher in play, one in hand, and topped 2 more. The best he could do is Crop Rot for a Maze of Ith, but then die to the multiple Smashers. It was glorious.
My second match was with a nice guy from Ottawa. He mentioned that his deck is not common, and he never plays it on MtGO because of the amount of clicking it requires. He also mentioned he had Astrolabe in it, but removed due to horrible draws. I had no clue what all that meant, but thought it might mean he was on an Oko pile?
We played two matches, and I wound up 4-1 overall in games. Turns out he was on Aluren, and Eldrazi stompy is a poor match up for him. He said he the deck is very good against fair blue decks, mostly those with Delver.
It was fun to learn about this deck because I had NEVER played against it my entire magic career. Very nice guy who walked through what it is trying to do and how it gets there. He felt Stompy was a bad match-up for him, and with OUAT now, it helped even out poor draws, or help dig for that answer it previously missed.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I am a SUCKER for beta basics. I managed to sell something, and after fees and such- I had about $50. What did I buy?
Island B: LP
2 Island A: LP
Plains C: LP
Plains B: LP
Plains A: LP
I am such a sucker... I should have bought a Sylvan Library, or maybe a fetch land maybe.... but nope, beta basics.
Friday, April 10, 2020
Passing the time
Lock down, gatherings are gone, paper card play seems almost quaint.
Thats how magic is as of right now. The last time I played paper magic was 4 weeks ago when Mystery boosters came out. I was hyped about it. I wanted to draft the heck out of that set. I really did. Was super looking forward to it.
Most of my magic play over the past month has been via Arena. I broke down and bought Gems twice so I could draft. The first time I did, I drafted twice a day for like 4 straight days. I gained enough new gems to keep jamming drafts, it was great fun. Even if I didn't do so great.
This last week, with gem purchases, I discovered that Arena had a "cube" system. For 600 gems, or 3000 gold, you get 6 packs of cards you are unable to keep. Winning generated gold up to the final win which got you 600 gems. Winning also got you cards to keep in your collection, mostly Historic format cards. That has been GREAT fun to do... so I have been torn between Draft and "Cube" play. Both are fun, but I dragged myself away from the Cube thing to do some more drafts in order to max out my rares/mythics. Yeah, I doubt I will ever get the whole set but its something to shoot for.
A new development has popped up, legacy via video chat. (Zoom for what its worth) I have played legacy twice- both over video conferencing software Zoom on a wonky setup.
As you can see in my photo, I suspend my phone over my play area and have an old iMac which allows me to see my opponents board. I learned that within Zoom you can pin a certain display, so that you stay on THAT camera. (Zoom has this annoying habit of switching between which ever camera has the audio at that moment. It was never setup for game play like this, so pinning allows staying on the board.)
My first two players I got to jam Legacy against was Seth from Causal Ponderings podcast. Then Jerry Mee from Leaving a Legacy podcast.
Heck of a start, and now that I feel much more confident in my setup and chances, I am going to be jamming many more games like this while the lock down is in place. Highly recommend the paper magic discord server if you want to join in.
Thats how magic is as of right now. The last time I played paper magic was 4 weeks ago when Mystery boosters came out. I was hyped about it. I wanted to draft the heck out of that set. I really did. Was super looking forward to it.
Most of my magic play over the past month has been via Arena. I broke down and bought Gems twice so I could draft. The first time I did, I drafted twice a day for like 4 straight days. I gained enough new gems to keep jamming drafts, it was great fun. Even if I didn't do so great.
This last week, with gem purchases, I discovered that Arena had a "cube" system. For 600 gems, or 3000 gold, you get 6 packs of cards you are unable to keep. Winning generated gold up to the final win which got you 600 gems. Winning also got you cards to keep in your collection, mostly Historic format cards. That has been GREAT fun to do... so I have been torn between Draft and "Cube" play. Both are fun, but I dragged myself away from the Cube thing to do some more drafts in order to max out my rares/mythics. Yeah, I doubt I will ever get the whole set but its something to shoot for.
As you can see in my photo, I suspend my phone over my play area and have an old iMac which allows me to see my opponents board. I learned that within Zoom you can pin a certain display, so that you stay on THAT camera. (Zoom has this annoying habit of switching between which ever camera has the audio at that moment. It was never setup for game play like this, so pinning allows staying on the board.)
My first two players I got to jam Legacy against was Seth from Causal Ponderings podcast. Then Jerry Mee from Leaving a Legacy podcast.
Heck of a start, and now that I feel much more confident in my setup and chances, I am going to be jamming many more games like this while the lock down is in place. Highly recommend the paper magic discord server if you want to join in.
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