Question of the Week Thread Refresh
Added 2024-08-16 19:06:03 +0000 UTCHey All,
It's that time, submit your questions for the Patreon question of the week here! You can ask basically anything, and if you've asked before but it didn't get answered before post it again here!
THANK YOU!
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Hi both, I recently qualified for my first PT at RC Lille and am excited to play some high stakes limited at Chicago. However, there are only two weeks between prerelease and the pro tour so will not have much time to get used to drafting the new set. Do you have any suggestions on the best way to maximise testing in such a short period of time and if there's anything I can do before the set is released? Thank you for all the work you do on the podcast.
Alfie Bennett
2024-11-15 08:46:06 +0000 UTCHi guys, hope everything is well! Long time listener (started listening around KTK) first time question-asker. I've noticed that I tend to maintain an appreciably higher winrate in Vintage Cube than I do in regular set drafting, despite people usually saying that cube is the "harder" format. The level one explanation for this is just that I've been playing Vintage cube since it was called Holiday cube, a lot more than any one set draft. My question is this: can either of you think of any particular Magic skills that I might be ignoring in cube that could help in set drafting? Thanks for the years of content!
Connor Schmidt
2024-10-04 23:47:13 +0000 UTCHey Marshall and Luis, I'm a long time listener and huge fan of your show. I'm writing to address an issue that I see as a blind spot in Wizards card design and in our community's card evaluation skills, the over-valuing of "spells matter" cards. I feel like this is something that has been happening for a while now. Whenever Wizards does a "spells matter" theme, either in their precon decks or draft formats, it's almost always underpowered. It seems to me that we look at these sweet "spells matter" cards and immediately go to the best case scenario, where we're casting 2-3 non-creature spells per turn. In reality though, that's really hard to do. Even the best spell-focused draft decks are going to be about one-third non-creature spells and only a few of those will draw you more non-creature spells, so in the average game of limited you're only going to be able to put together one or two turns where you really go off with 2-3 non-creature spells. Add to that all the times you end up drawing the wrong mix of creatures, spells, and lands or your payoffs get dealt with before you can go off with them in play, or you just get run over because prowess creatures always seem to fail the vanilla test and can't block well. In reality, "spells matter" is difficult to win with, even when the archetype is well-supported. Bloomburrow is a great example of this. It should have been clear from the set review that the otters deck was going to be weak. Stormcatch Mentor is an F, maybe a build-around D. You guys got it right that the cost reduction is mostly flavor text, so ignore that. The card is a 1/1 prowess haste for two mana, how does that end up in the C range? Two-mana 1/1 haste without prowess is an F, how does prowess add two whole grades to a card? I don't think it should. How many prowess triggers are you expecting to get in an average game? Similar case with Otterball Antics, another 1/1 prowess for two mana. I get that it is a non-creature spell that makes a creature and those are highly valuable in the "spells matter" archetype but it's still a two-mana 1/1. The flashback mode is a four-mana 2/2, also an F. Maybe you can put two F's on one card and end up with a D, add the build-around quality and maybe you get this into the D+/C- range but that's the ceiling on this card. In my opinion, you guys putting this thing in the B range, even with the build-around caveat, is giving way too much value to prowess. In the past, these archetypes worked better because we had more breathing room to set up explosive turns and really make these cards work but in today's highly-pushed formats every turn counts and playing two-mana 1/1s is not going to do it. They don't block well and you're going to be dead before you can turn them into real threats. Thanks for reading my rant, would love to hear any reactions you have to it. Cheers and thanks for putting out such great content!
iLOVEthisGuy
2024-08-24 20:19:57 +0000 UTCHi Marshal and Luis (and of course Producer Jeff)! I often find that when I lose a game due to a difficult decision that I made, it can sometimes be hard to balance trying to learn from my mistakes while preventing falling into results-oriented thinking. For example, when my opponent has the perfect card in hand and I played into it, was I supposed to play around it or was I right to "make them have it"? Do you two have any particular techniques that you like to follow to find that balance and ensure you learn the right lessons?
Radnor
2024-08-21 18:57:07 +0000 UTCHi Guys! I find it unfortunate that all limited RCQ's, as far as I know, start with sealed and if you top 8 then you get to draft. I know I'm not the only one who feels at the mercy of the packs and a lack of agency when confronted with a weak pool. I'm just curious how you feel about that structure and if you understand why it's in place? Is it just logistics? Given the terms of engagement with these competitive tournaments, I wondered if you thought it may be worth dedicating more discussion to specific sealed formats, beyond general sealed heuristics, leading up to RCQ's and Arena Opens? Thanks for all you guys do!
Dylan Critchfield-Sales
2024-08-18 15:02:55 +0000 UTCHi team, I love the show every week, thanks for being so consistent! A question this time for Luis. I was a huge SBB fan and have been loving Once Upon a Galaxy! How are you involved with the game? Can you give us any updates on plans for official release? Will there be any other opportunities to acquire the swag that was part of the cancelled kickstarter?
Nathan S
2024-08-17 16:07:55 +0000 UTCHi Resources, as I have grown and evolved as a magic player I have liked cubing more and more. I know from listening that both of you are huge cube fans. I have particularly enjoyed hearing Luis talk about maintaining his personal cube and his considerations for rotating cards and archetypes. As I have started putting together my own vintage cube, my question is this: what cards or archetypes are no longer in the vintage cube that you miss the most? I realistically will not be updating my cube all that often and I’m trying to get as close as I can to the most fun and nostalgic (if not necessarily powerful) cube that I can. Thanks for keeping me company on a lot of long drives and up to speed on limited!
KFDM
2024-08-17 01:20:43 +0000 UTCOne more! Patreon announced some changes due to Apple squeezing them in a pretty anticompetitive way. From first read it looks bad for you guys, given the way you handle patreon subs. (If you move to Substack I’ll follow)
Douglas Cox
2024-08-16 21:27:33 +0000 UTCHey guys! We’ve talked a few times in the past about the greatest limited formats of all time (e.g., Original Innistrad, IPA, MH1, Mirrodin, Khans of Tarkir, Strixhaven), But I feel we’ve had less discussion about what *makes* these great limited environments. For example, are there things that they have in common that are lacking in other sets?
Luke Johnson
2024-08-16 21:07:02 +0000 UTCLong time listener, first time caller. We know some of the stories of you two playing together in the community cup and the Magic (if I'm not mistaken). But how often have you played against each other? Either on purpose or by chance? :)
Simon Plum
2024-08-16 20:55:44 +0000 UTCHi guys. This question is for Luis. My name is also Luis, I live in Madrid, Spain. As Luis is not a common name in an english speaking contry and I see that you use 2 surnames. I wanted to know if Scott is your fathers surname and Vargas your mothers surname and if you know how speak spanish. Have a nice Day!
Luis Acosta
2024-08-16 20:23:49 +0000 UTC2nd question, with power creep taking over a bit more each year, what will Magic look like in Year 50? Will it be nothing more than over powered 1 drops?
Matt Jeziorski
2024-08-16 20:13:48 +0000 UTCHey guys, hope you are all doing well! My question is, should an opponent choosing to mulligan ever affect your own decision of whether to do so? I often find myself re-evaluating this decision in my head once I see an opponent take the mulligan, but then I think to myself... shouldn't their decision not effect my own in this case? Always enjoy the Q and A episodes, thanks for doing them!
Ryan Inwards
2024-08-16 20:01:39 +0000 UTCHey guys; thanks for all the great content. I subscribed the first day LSV joined LR, and have been a dedicated listener ever since. Having spent so much time playing and dissecting sets, what conclusions have you come to about what makes a set great versus just okay? Based on things you've said over the years, I'd guess that you'd highlight having good build-arounds, and the time for those build-arounds to matter; LSV, you've also been talking recently about the important of including cards that are excellent for one archetype but won't get touched much by others. Is there anything else you'd highlight? Thanks again, Nick Branstator
Nick Branstator
2024-08-16 20:00:14 +0000 UTCDo you ever think the old Alpha and Beta cards will be traded like stocks? Cards would be assigned a serial number and registered to the owner. There weren't very many of them printed. Then some are lost over time. It seems like we are headed there already with so many more cards being graded. Now that the game is 30 years old it doesn't seem so crazy to think that's possible.
Matt Jeziorski
2024-08-16 19:59:00 +0000 UTCWhen drafting what percentage of the time do you feel like you drafted a great deck? a mediocre deck? a train wreck?
Alexander Zaitzeff
2024-08-16 19:52:11 +0000 UTCHey guys - ever appreciative of the work you do and the content you put out. I know the usual counterpoints to "getting milled is bad" is that 1) the placement of your cards in your deck is random, a mill could just as easily lead to you drawing your bomb sooner as it is to mill it and 2) getting milled has no effect on the board or life totals, it only matters when your last card is milled and you lose to decking. But thinking about cards like Patient Naturalist in OTJ and Daggerfang Duo in BLB - both formats having graveyard decks, but not every deck caring about/getting value out of its graveyard - I've started to question this age-old wisdom. What would you say - do you run a card like Naturalist in a GW Mounts deck in OTJ, when the replacement is comparable but perhaps slightly less powerful (like Inventive Wingsmith)? Could Daggerfang Duo be more of a liability in WB Bats or BR Lizards when another off-theme and slightly less powerful 3-drop (Thistledown Players or Roughshod Duo, for example) is available? Thanks as always, you two cool dudes. And big congrats to Luis and Gaby on the twins!
McNerdy27
2024-08-16 19:51:33 +0000 UTCGreetings, Resources most Limited! While Bloomburrow is fun, I think a lot of us are focused on the Vintage Cube Live as our upcoming super bowl, as you two put it. During a recent attempt, I ended up in a funny position where I had a pretty solid strategy for one deck, but had the entire led, brain freeze, underworld breach combo passed to me. I know those three cards or an automatic win combo on their own, but I hadn't built the deck around it by the time I got all the pieces in Pack 3. So my question is how willing should we be to just shove powerful combinations like this into a deck, regardless of synergy? Is there a certain threshold of power where it's totally fine to have an off topic win condition, even if it's otherwise unsupported by the rest of your draft? Thank you both, and especially lsv for giving me videos to watch as homework for this exciting event.
Spencer St. James
2024-08-16 19:42:21 +0000 UTCA recurrent thought when I listen a new Set Review episode is that you both seem to value token makers higher than me (for example, I prefer a 4/4 than 3/3 plus a 1/1). Perhaps this has to do with some previous experience on board stalls, or creatures with large toughness. Can you elaborate (or at least speculate) why some people have different perception on this matter?
Vinicius Santos
2024-08-16 19:38:35 +0000 UTCI always wanted to hear from you about chaos draft. Can you comment on it, whether you like it or not, variations, do's and don't's, etc? Perhaps this would deserve a whole episode, but I would like to give you the opportunity to talk a little about it.
Vinicius Santos
2024-08-16 19:33:35 +0000 UTCHi Marshall and Luis. I know most of the community has really bounced off Alchemy. I'm sure there are some purists who would never be happy with digital only mechanics, but it also seems like a lot of people are just unhappy with the implementation/ design of the specific cards. I think there is an opportunity to have an interesting and enjoyable format. What types of designs should wizards explore or lean into to make it better, especially for limited? Which types are the worst mistakes?
Charles
2024-08-16 19:24:54 +0000 UTCHey guys, what player (current or former) do you wish received more credit for their ability ( could be play skill, deck building, drafting skill, or anything else? Thanks for a great show. P.S. I was the guy that interrupted your delicious Great State Burger meal. Thanks for being gracious.
MB
2024-08-16 19:21:21 +0000 UTCHow important is BREAD in today's limited environment. Seems to me that bombs are still vital but removal has fallen off a bit and just having combat tricks and solid creatures is the way to go from time to time. Removal is still vital but to what level of importance. Thanks as always guys.
David Bruno
2024-08-16 19:17:43 +0000 UTCHey guys, huge fan of the show! Besides limited, the format I spend the most time playing in is Competitive Commander. With the growth of a competitive scene in commander (SCGCon Main Events, Topdeck.gg creating a very successful invitational circuit, etc) there’s been increasingly louder calls for Wizards to embrace commander as a possible option for competitive play. My question for Luis is in the hypothetical world where Competitive Commander is selected as a PT Format, how would you approach testing and deck construction? Would you look to existing decks that have performed at Topdeck/SCG/etc events or would you work from the ground up? How do you think Commander “politics” and multiplayer dynamics would function at the pro level? Thank you guys!
Dylan Skorish
2024-08-16 19:13:03 +0000 UTCQuestion for Marshall - now that we’re a month out so post pro tour MH3, how are you feeling about abstaining from international coverage trips? Do what’s best for you but I really missed your commentary in the booth
Douglas Cox
2024-08-16 19:08:43 +0000 UTC
