rear end Catchcum posted:What are some good ways to notice things like that? It's hard since often nowadays packs can be opened with only 3 colors (and this isn't Mirrodin block or something). If you reach, make sure it's a card that isn't locked into a two color strategy. Try not to read too deeply into the first 4 picks, weird poo poo happens due to mythics and the aforementioned pack weirdness. AnacondaHL fucked around with this message at 17:16 on May 10, 2012 |
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May 10, 2012 17:13
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Keep your eyes peeled on what colors have removal vs what doesn't. Odds are getting things like targeted burn or things that say "destroy target creature" are signs the color is not being drafted. People will often take bombs in color and then pass removal when another strategy arises.
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May 10, 2012 17:23
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Yeah, I think the best thing you can do is know what the best commons / uncommons in each color are and see what's been taken from the pack when it's not a rare. It's also a good idea to know which of the best are splashable (Brimstone Volley for example), versus something that isn't (say Mist Raven). One funky thing with DA packs for example, is that tragic slip and fires of undeath were usually in the same pack (side note: also that 2/3 flash bird and griptide). If you see one, but not the other and a common is missing, you can expect the person to your left will be picking off R/B cards. I remember it happening pretty often in Mirrodin Besieged / New Phyrexia where you'd see the same 6 commons in a row very often. That probably won't occur anywhere near as often with large sets though.
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May 10, 2012 17:24
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Thats true - I remember one draft where 4-5 packs in a row all had 7-8 of the same commons (ended up with 5 Dawntreader Elks in that one), but this isn't really a great strategy unless common runs are made public (plus people shuffle packs to deter this, which is stupid) The whole thing is tricky because some packs are just naturally crap - I've first picked cards like Villagers of Estwald or Chapel Geist because there really is nothing good in the pack for your deck. It's much easier to figure out which colors are open (say, a 4th pick Druid's Familiar) than it is which ones are closed
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May 10, 2012 18:57
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Also I think when you draft enough you get a feel for things - in DII draft someone passed me a Flayer of the Hatebound w/ an Uncommon missing - that was quite obviously a Lingering Souls (IMO, I'd rather have the Flayer)
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May 10, 2012 18:59
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I had already decided to switch to black late in the draw but I picked up a 7th pick Blood Artist last week and was like WFT I guess black is pretty open...
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May 10, 2012 18:59
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Also, you can't really ascertain anything the first few weeks of a set's release. During the first few weeks of Innistrad draft, I've seen people first pick Delver of Secrets as a "build around" card. Several cards in this set - like Blood Artist, Bloodflow Con, Thatcher Revolt, etc. are cards that people who have no concept of how the format plays out aren't going to put a high value on.
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May 10, 2012 19:24
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My Thatcher Revolt record is attacking for 15 damage on turn 4 (first turn Stonewright, second turn Kurin Striker bound with the wright, third turn Kurin Striker, fourth turn Revolt and pump up the Striker +1 and attack with everything). Another guy had a Goldknight commander and went across with over 18 but it wasn't as early in the game. It feels like a ridiculous card if you are able to get the synergy it needs.
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May 10, 2012 19:37
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I won on Turn 4 with it - Turn 1: Vexing Devil (4 damage) Turn 2: Kruin Striker Turn 3: Thatcher, swing (8 damage) Turn 4: Burn my opponent's only creature w/ Pillar, Thacter, swing (8 damage) IIRC that's my only Turn 4 kill in draft - I admit it took a slow start for my opponent and a god hand for me
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May 10, 2012 19:44
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Yeah mine was a god hand as well and the opponent didn't realize how crazy TR got and left himself totally open after attacking with all his creatures on turn four when he had 14 or so life left.
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May 10, 2012 19:47
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We just finished up a few office M:TG leagues so we have a ton of cards from INN and DKA lying around. One of my coworkers suggested building a cube out of what we have. Neither of us has ever built a cube before, is it even possible to build a good cube out of just cards from one or two sets? I figure we can at the very least cut out the chaff and maybe fill it with a higher density of fun rares and uncommons, and really emphasize certain archetypes. Anyone else ever done this and have any recommendations?
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May 10, 2012 21:38
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There was an article on ChannelFireball called "My Cube is a Block" that was about this specifically. He says it's a really good idea and goes into the details.
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May 10, 2012 21:46
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KidVicious posted:Teach her the BREAK/BREAD system. Bombs, Removal, Evasion, Abilities, Dudes/Krap. I think it's a bit dangerous to group bounce effects with removal, for a beginner relying on a rule of thumb it can mean some skewed picks later on. (Fortunately) Mist Raven is not really Removal & Evasion like say, Skinrender is. Not to say that Mist Raven isn't the best blue common, but that rule of thumb like BREAD doesn't really catch the reason why this is so. Edit: vvv  not working at full speed at 1 am it seems. I can't think from the top of my head any recent common cards that would be both evasive and removal, which I guess is a pretty good thing.Edit: Heartstabber Mosquito! And that this took time to remember probably tells quite a bit about Zendikar limited. Lunsku fucked around with this message at 22:46 on May 10, 2012 |
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May 10, 2012 22:36
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Lunael posted:I think it's a bit dangerous to group bounce effects with removal, for a beginner relying on a rule of thumb it can mean some skewed picks later on. (Fortunately) Mist Raven is not really Removal & Evasion like say, Skinrender is. Skinrender isn't Removal & Evasion because he has no evasion. It would have to be something like Olivia Voldaren, who's an incredibly bomby repeatable removal + evasion + creature theft.
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May 10, 2012 22:40
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CharlieFoxtrot posted:There was an article on ChannelFireball called "My Cube is a Block" that was about this specifically. He says it's a really good idea and goes into the details. I dislike that idea a lot. The entire reason Cube is awesome is because every card is good. This means you never have to scrounge for playables, and can come up with fun and inventive strategies. In Cube, if you pick your niche right, you can easily table cards that are incredible in your deck but no one else wants. Making a full block Cube is basically like regular draft only with more rares and fewer commons, and far more luck-based. Ashenai fucked around with this message at 23:45 on May 10, 2012 |
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May 10, 2012 23:36
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It doesn't have to be that way. If you ignore the usual cube rule of going singleton, you can cut the unplayable stuff and just do something like 3-4 of each useful common, 2 per uncommon, 1 per rare, and probably just ignore mythics unless you want to pimp it out. There's a pretty cool ROE cube on MTGS that's built using this concept and seems playable and fun.
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May 10, 2012 23:59
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whydirt posted:It doesn't have to be that way. If you ignore the usual cube rule of going singleton, you can cut the unplayable stuff and just do something like 3-4 of each useful common, 2 per uncommon, 1 per rare, and probably just ignore mythics unless you want to pimp it out. There's a pretty cool ROE cube on MTGS that's built using this concept and seems playable and fun. You could do some cool stuff with a cube if you avoided the one-of restriction. If you don't, I don't see how it'd be fun. Commonality is a means of balancing the limited format. Removing it just means there's a huge power differential amongst the cards, which is pretty unfun. Also, less on-topic, the tavern draft got cancelled so I guess Edit: welp, that was fast. Fare the well, format. You were not kind to me these past three days. 
rinski fucked around with this message at 02:37 on May 11, 2012 |
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May 11, 2012 00:21
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I cracked a pack from my cube again so let's talk picks:code:
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May 11, 2012 01:25
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Stunted Growth. edit: wait is Creakwood the B/G one? That one I guess. Mob fucked around with this message at 01:34 on May 11, 2012 |
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May 11, 2012 01:27
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weekly font posted:I cracked a pack from my cube again so let's talk picks: city of brass, tutor or vengevine if i felt like loosing.
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May 11, 2012 02:58
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Forgot I got a TPF set from a cube draft the other day, decided to do it tonight. I won the first 2 games (1 round) with this deck so far: I disconnected for one pick during Planar Chaos, which is why I have a random Primal Plasma. I also think I probably made the wrong pick in Death Rattle over a third Riddle with Lightning, but I'm not too sure on that. I know someone else is definitely going to be red, though, because I had to take better red cards over good red cards throughout the draft, and saw quite a few cards I wish I had gotten as well. edit- Lost round 2 to the other guy. He had 3 strangling soots and tons of madness cards. GonSmithe fucked around with this message at 08:59 on May 11, 2012 |
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May 11, 2012 08:16
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Drafted at FNM today again. Started with p1p1 Goldnight Redeemer, followed with p1p2 Pillar of Flame, and proceeded to drop both for UB deck when it felt that W wasn't coming at least and U was definitely open. Some bad picks (1st Bone Splinters over 2nd Barter in Blood, I think I definitely would have wanted to double up, indecision really in the beginning). Ended up with a bit schizophrenic UB with just commons and uncommons. On the one hand I could power out decent evasive beats with double Wingcrafters and pretty regular black beef, double Gryff Vanguard and some other evasion. On the other I had Barter in Blood, and double Maalfield Twins in the top end to play with two Bone Splinters, which I think is a bit more controlly. Mist Raven or two would have been appreciated, but saw none. Had Demonic Taskmaster which was pretty rough for opponent in one game and interesting card, and Homicidal Seclusion which I think I saw once. Would have been pretty devastating had I drawn it at a couple of boardstates. Roughest match was easily again being against aggro deck in the final, RW this time instead of RG. Kruin Striker - Kessig Ringleader - Thatcher Revolt powered starts are just extremely hard, I had good fortune to have my Barter in hand in two games. Zealous Conscripts plus Cloudshifts pretty much made me poo poo myself and I had to do some pretty good tanking not to lose on that. Some single card feels: Wingcrafter definitely feels like something that people are overlooking a bit. Dropping it T1 and pairing it with something like T3 3/2 from black was never bad. With green it should be absolutely key, but I'd think that it fits UR, UB and even UW just fine. I was wondering when the set was spoiled whether Falkerath Noble would really be worth if you strip it's power and evasion. But Blood Artist is definitely the real deal even without that. It was extremely rough to deal with for my opponents and caused pretty big life swing over the game. And I even wasn't on RB that likely can use Thatcher Revolt itself very nicely with it. Nephalia Smuggler was very solid again, even when what I had for him was really just blocking aid and Gryff Vanguard draw engine, plus the normal protecting your guys from removal bit.
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May 11, 2012 22:05
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Question: assuming no other good picks or signals, would you take Seraph of Dawn or Goldnight Redeemer P1P1? I ended up taking Redeemer, but in retrospect that seemserroneous. Also, this format seems... not a whole lot of fun. Granted, I'm basing this on one draft, but it just doesn't seem anywhere near as fun as III or even DII. Maybe I'm just biased because I got stomped in round 1. My deck seemed decent enough: I ended up with three Seraph of Dawn, two Tandem Lookout, and a bunch of flicker spells and ETB guys. I ended up losing to having a high curve and got aggro'd out by red/green. In any case, I'm home early so I guess I'll stream? I'm kinda sick of TPF, but I guess I'll give DII or standard another shot.
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May 12, 2012 01:58
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Lunael posted:
I played him in u/b last Friday and he was easily my MVP. Opponents just ignore him until he enables you to swarm them with a critical mass of fliers.
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May 12, 2012 03:54
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I cannot believe it is still almost two weeks before this set is draftable online (gently caress the prerelease). It sounds like paper players are gonna be done with this format before I even get to start :P
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May 12, 2012 04:07
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Man, I hate limited sometimes. I just lost to the jankiest deck that could only win because it had helvault, and wolfhunter's quiver+typhoid rats... without either of those it was such a bad deck but there was literally nothing I could do about either and he happened to draw one or the other both games
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May 12, 2012 06:14
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Took 2/7 in Avacyn draft tonight playing R/U. Maybe R/G would have been a better choice, but I did okay. Kruin Striker and Thatcher Revolt make a really great pair, but I only got them together once. Lightning Mauler and Tandem Lookout made a nice duo as well. Demolish was super useful because barely anyone was using enough land and I got to cast it at least three times. Only got to play one Miracle. Lost to R/W (finally some angels to use my Thunderbolt on) in 3. Both of our decks were pretty heavy on the humans, so when he cast Riders of Gavony in the last game I only had a couple turns to draw my one Thunderous Wrath.
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May 12, 2012 07:00
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4th of 24 tonight. Firstpicked Emancipation Angel and took Nephalia Smuggler second but the guy to my left still went into U/W  Ended up with kind of a bant aggro with 2 Emancipation, Wingcrafter, Forcemage, Timberland Guide, Howlgeist, and some white 2-drops. Never saw a mist raven the entire draft. Lost to 1st place who was at a different table and got a fully sick deck with 2 seraphs, entreat, captain of the mists, 3 elgauds, and some mill dudes. This format is pretty fast but games can abruptly slow down. The guy to my right cut red hard, I think I picked about the best deck I could but I saw so little good green.
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May 12, 2012 07:37
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Since Magic Draft Sim is down, is there another good site that simulates draft picking? Maybe even one that lets you goldfish with the deck you build?
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May 12, 2012 21:31
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I did a 4-3-2-2 draft earlier today (my first non swiss draft) and managed to win, giving me my second MTGO draft win. The draft didn't start out the best but I ended up in UG and managed to get pretty much the entire backbone of a spider spawning deck out of pack 3 which carried me to victory. I knew spider spawning was good but it did so much work in that draft it was crazy. I only won one game without it and that was just from getting nephalia seakite and stormbound geist down and then just bouncing everything. Here's the draft if anyone wants to comment on it. http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=3975d My Deck: 
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May 13, 2012 07:32
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Just had a guy called KingOfMissplays send his Sidewinder Sliver into my Might Sliver because he forgot how Flanking worked. Conceded with a "oh whatever." It's a pretty good one, but I'm not sure if stuff like that really merits being the king of misplays. I'm pretty sure I could give him a decent run for his money. Of all the times to not be streaming. Edit: you know what, I'll stream this one. I ended up winning that draft and it rekindled my love of TPF limited. rinski fucked around with this message at 02:11 on May 14, 2012 |
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May 14, 2012 00:30
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rinski posted:Question: assuming no other good picks or signals, would you take Seraph of Dawn or Goldnight Redeemer P1P1? I ended up taking Redeemer, but in retrospect that seemserroneous. Seraph of Dawn is in my top three picks in white. It's that good.
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May 14, 2012 01:14
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Bill O'Riley is GENIUS posted:Man, I hate limited sometimes. I just lost to the jankiest deck that could only win because it had helvault, and wolfhunter's quiver+typhoid rats... without either of those it was such a bad deck but there was literally nothing I could do about either and he happened to draw one or the other both games I lost a paper game in AVR draft to a guy running junk and the Falk exterminator and Blessing of nature. There was literally nothing I could do to beat him. I was fortunate he only got it once against me in three games, but he didn't lose a single match outside of me because of those two cards. He was running some strange naya deck with angel's mercy and the flowering lumberknot.
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May 14, 2012 04:41
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I had a pretty interesting game, he topdecked Entreat the Angels and played for 5, then I topdecked Devastation Tide. Ohhh yeah  One thing I'm looking out for now is if Black is getting underdrafted...a lot of players I play with are obsessed with Flicker and Soulbound, and Black is usually wide open. B/U loner decks seem pretty weak but with the right cards they can be insane. Lots of card advantage everywhere, plus having two 'destroy any creature' cards like Bone Splinters and Death Wind in common is pretty boss in this format. And YES Blood Artist is as good as you'd think. Maybe even better. Take it from a guy who played Thatcher Revolt into one not knowing that the tokens are actually sacrificed and not removed from the game
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May 14, 2012 14:35
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Black is stupid underdrafted right now, at least where I play. A few weeks ago I was able to change into black midway through the second pack and still got everything I needed. I only lost because I got mana flooded five games in a row. My friend went black on last Friday in a different pod than me and was able to get two homicidal seclusion, two demonic taskmasters and a bunch of red and black removal without even trying. Likewise he only lost out on first place because of getting stuck on one swamp during a match. Homicidal seclusion is so good in limited at least its bonkers, especially with the right backup. No one seems to know anything about it but my friend and I have been letting people in on the secret (after they have to deal with high power life linked stuff hitting them every turn). Also at my first sealed I played a Thatcher's Revolt against a guy with that vampire that gets +1/+1 counters which was pretty dumb but I pulled out a win somehow anyway. Eggplant Squire fucked around with this message at 14:49 on May 14, 2012 |
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May 14, 2012 14:46
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Yeah, Black/Red w/ Bloodflow and Blood Artist and Thatcher seems really degenerate right now Also I want to point out that Ghoulflesh and Guise of Fire are stupidly underdrafted right now. I didn't like them either but when complimented with other removal they're great - getting rid of Wingcrafters, Kruin Strikers, and Nightshade Peddlers without using a Death Wind sure is nice!
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May 14, 2012 15:41
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Radish posted:Black is stupid underdrafted right now, at least where I play. A few weeks ago I was able to change into black midway through the second pack and still got everything I needed. I only lost because I got mana flooded five games in a row. My friend went black on last Friday in a different pod than me and was able to get two homicidal seclusion, two demonic taskmasters and a bunch of red and black removal without even trying. Likewise he only lost out on first place because of getting stuck on one swamp during a match. Black is criminally underdrafted right now. I ended up going mono-black for my first ever mono- deck in limited. I went 4-0 in matches, 8-0 in games. The removal is so good, and Homicidal Seclusion is the nuts, IMO. Again, I think the people I was playing against were not very good (last week I was Bg and went 3-0) playing some suboptimal cards but I won a couple of games with three cards: Turn 3 Demonic Taskmaster, turn 5 Homicidal Seclusion, some swamps. He holds off a few attacks on his own and then you just start beating in for 7 flying lifelink damage. What. He was also a pretty fun play to get an Undedad Executioner down to take out utility guys. Not the most efficient, but hey, you take what you can get. Butcher Ghoul is the key enabler. He's the engine that makes Barter, Bone Splinters and Bloodflow Connoisseur run - and can make Blood Artist do some serious work. Corpse Traders was surprising for me this time around: he's got a solid body and his ability rocks. Had a dude miracle the Wheel of Fortune against me while I had him out. I ripped his loving hand apart and it was awesome. The instant speed removal still really, really surprises people because they is so little of it. A mid-combat Human Frailty (which is awesome because every color has relevant humans) on a soul-bound guy led to a few complete blowouts. Death Wind can still work as 1:1 removal even when you can't get lethal, the fact that it debuffs power as well makes it a great trick.
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May 14, 2012 19:25
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I've also found seclusion to just be the actual stone nuts. At first glance, and even now, when I think about it, I really want it to be bad because, well, 5-mana-do-nothing-enchantment, but... it just owns.
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May 14, 2012 21:52
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I got to live the dream with Homicidal Seclusion and Yew Spirit. I was at about 110 life by the time I swung in for the win due to his chump blocks.
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May 14, 2012 21:57
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I've just started doing some online drafts after nearly 10 years away from the game and could use some help. Are there any decent youtube videos where good players record themselves drafting AVR while discussing their picks? I have tried watching a bunch now but for all I know I'm watching some hopeless newbie instead of someone I should be listening to. Also, if you are drafting a White/Blue deck and have to choose between Rebuke or Silent Departure which would you pick? In the few drafts I've been in the "return target creature to hand/library" type-cards seem to be snapped up before outright removal and I'm not sure of why. Lastly, holy hell how could they not have updated the online software yet? I don't think it has changed in the last 10 years and back then it was considered a piece of crap already.
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May 15, 2012 01:27
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