Question of the Week Thread Refresh
Added 2017-07-28 13:22:08 +0000 UTCThis is where patrons of the show can ask questions to be read on the podcast! Fire away in the comments below :)
Comments
Hi Marshall and Luis! I listened to a podcast episode recently (Revisionist History by Malcolm Gladwell, if you're interested) which used a sports analogy to ask: Is it more important how good the best player on your team is, or how bad the worst player on your team is? I immediately wondered about the obvious Limited Magic version: is it more important how good the best card in a deck is, or how bad the worst card in a deck is?
james anderson
2017-10-27 14:11:11 +0000 UTCGood day Marshall and Cheon's friend! My question involves the level 3 thinking approach to the game. You should actively be thinking about your opponent's "plan" and possible lines of play. My question is this: do you ever state what you think your opponent is going to do out loud during the game? I am a very conversational and engaged player when I sit down for a game of Magic. A few GP's ago, I found myself in round 3 verbally calling what lands my opponent was going to get with his fetchlands and what creatures he was going to play from his hand on turns 2 and 3 of the game. My opponent looked shocked when I called his line of play for the 2nd time in a row, and I could see the gears turning in his head on whether or not this was the optimal line since I saw it coming. Do you think this is rude or is there an edge to be gained by letting them know you have their game plan in mind? Love the content, keep up the good work!
Micah Kilmer
2017-09-16 16:53:57 +0000 UTCHello Marshall and Luis, What makes a good draft set for you guys ? I find I like different sets than you seem to like, so I was kind of curious. Geoff
Geoff Tindall
2017-09-06 12:39:46 +0000 UTCNow I am a professional with a very busy schedule. I would like to get back to playing but am in a situation where I don't really know anyone on the community. Since I am playing mostly online, I am losing out on the feedback that used to be my main way to improve. Resources like this podcast and articles on Channel Fireball are great but it is a lot of information and it; is hard to know where to start! I am not satisfied with my current learning curve and was wondering if you had any advice on how to maximize the benefits of the resources I do have. (For example, are there particular episodes of the podcast that would be helpful to someone in my situation?)
Mary C
2017-08-14 02:28:20 +0000 UTCI am coming back to mtg after a fairly lengthy hiatus. In the past, I played mostly at local game stores. I learned a great deal about how to play by watching and getting feedback from other players. I was never great, but I played well and had fun.
Mary C
2017-08-14 02:19:15 +0000 UTCOnce again I messed up in this thread any how I am writing to see if you guys have any advice for a problem I have been encoutering quite a bit. I have been have a long streak of 1-2 matches and I usually win the first game then go 0-2 it is very debilitating. I have been having this issue ever since the changing of the sets. I know variance and I guess maybe sideboard but is there something I can do to better close out the match after that first game win. Thanks, Garett
Garett Cody
2017-08-13 04:23:31 +0000 UTCHey Marshall and Luis,
Garett Cody
2017-08-13 04:19:07 +0000 UTCHey Guys. Congrats on reaching 400 episodes. My question is - how to separate the good content from the experimental stuff? For example when watching the pro tour I don't expect someone to draft Hour of Eternity because it sounds like a fun card to play. How to filter the information that content makers give us so that we know what is good and when the person is just messing around. I know that the point of online content is to be fun, but how do we approach it when we are also looking to learn and improve our game :)
Tonyo Zhelev
2017-08-10 10:05:15 +0000 UTCHey LR! Do you have any advice for evaluating cards in the middle picks when the bombs are gone, especially around picks 4-9? I've noticed my draft decks tend to have a few really good cards, reasonable curve and spell mix but have a lot of below-average filler so I suspect I'm either valuing synergy over power or committing to a plan too early. Thanks!
James Robinson
2017-08-07 03:36:28 +0000 UTCHi Guys, How much Card Draw is too Much in a limited deck. Sometimes I see people draw and draw but just get more draw cards, compariatively I think I go too light of these types of spells. Whats the optimum for say a blue-green type deck just finding your creatures v a red-blue deck with casting spells matters cards.
Geoff Tindall
2017-08-04 10:04:32 +0000 UTCHey Marshall and Luis ! Just wanna say thank you for the great content you put out each and every week. Been a Patreon since one year and i'm happy to be part of LR success. My question is quite selfish tho, when can i expect my thank you card ;). I know its nothing, but I'd love to receive it one day. Thanks a lot and keep up the great work! Oh and Luis, happy to see you jump in the action again and I tried Eternal and its awesome ! Oh ! Also, Marshall, the commentating on the sick semi-final misplay was a piece of Magic anthology for sure !
Guillaume P.
2017-08-03 20:28:33 +0000 UTCHey Marshall and Luis, I had a quick question about focus. It's more prevalent on Magic Online, but in paper occasionally too, my opponent goes into the tank and I lose focus on the game. I'm probably losing percentage points from it, but it's tough maintaining focus with an opponent online that uses up twice as much clock as me (not disparaging opponents, it's their clock to use, it just gives me too much downtime) . What do you guys do to keep your mind from wandering when there's frequent breaks in the action? Thanks for the great content!
A.J. Frank
2017-08-03 18:30:41 +0000 UTCThis exact scenario came up at the Dreamhack main event: Pack one, solidly in RG (getting passed good RG cards each pick; 2x ambuscade, 1x open fire, Rhonas's Stalward, Khenna Scrapper, etc). Pack two contains Scarab god (and a few solid RG commons). How good does your deck need to be to not pick the god? Or how bad does it need to be to pick the god.
David Zureick-Brown
2017-08-02 21:35:25 +0000 UTCHey Guys! My question pertains to the Protour and what PVDDR just did. I know that Paulo’s MTG career thus far is insane, but its hard for me to really have perspective. Do you guys think he's the best tournament player ever? Maybe he's just been on a lifetime heater and is getting the good side of variance? What could you compare Paulo’s lifetime achievements to, that would help a non-competitive Magic player understand the gravity and rarity of his accolades? Thanks for the awesome content and humor, Dana B
Dana Billings
2017-08-01 01:22:41 +0000 UTCHi Marshal and Luis, I'm a player who doesn't feel the need to win super hard, but one of the things I enjoy most about this game is learning and getting a better understanding of the game. I've been playing the game off and on for 17 years, so I have a pretty good understanding of the game, but just started drafting at my local FNM in aether revolt. I feel sometimes I have bad drafts, but still have a good record because I have a good understanding of the game. What can I look at other than my win rate to establish where holes are in my drafting skills and what I can do to improve?
Adam Zuravleff
2017-07-31 18:36:14 +0000 UTCHi Guys, Not strictly Magic related but I want to know what other Podcasts (Magic and non-Magic) you'd recommend. I love your podcast and have a lot of room in my life for more. Best wishes -Jethro
Jethro
2017-07-31 17:32:45 +0000 UTCHey Marshall and Luis, and thank you for the great content! As a judge myself, I'd like to get your opinion on best practices regarding judges at event. When to call them, how to do so, what to pay attention to - I obviously have my own opinions on that topic but I'm curious about the point of view of two seasoned and high profile players such as yourselves.
Emilien Wild
2017-07-31 15:58:07 +0000 UTCHi Marshall and Luis, You've spent time giving us tips on 6 player pods in team drafting (great prep for watching team gps and tdsl) but I wondered if you have more general advice for drafting pods with less than 8 people? I play in a small play group and often we only have 6 people for the draft. Are there strategies that should be used in smaller pods to increase your deck consistency (a problem I've found), or should we just be throwing in the towel on 1v1 matches and team drafting instead? (Which we've never done) Thanks for the excellent content, I'm proud to be a patron of the best MTG podcast!
Daniel Gilford
2017-07-31 14:42:52 +0000 UTCHi Marshall, LSV, listener from Italy and long time player here (started in with ABUR) who converted to MTGO only as life went one (work, family). The friday night draft league is a staple of my week now. Been enjoying very much the new HOD format, which I find much more interesting than Triple AKH. A lot of cards in AKH have changed their value, as the format shifted and slowed. Which are in your opinion the three cards from AKH that got better and the three which got worse?
Stefano De Dionigi
2017-07-31 08:38:01 +0000 UTCJust became a Patron, love listening to LR on the road and at the gym. My question is for etiquette on Magic Online. I recently won a match because my opponent timed out. It was a heated match (Hoopoe vs Hoopoe actually) but it was clear that I was going to lose Game 3. I let the clock run out and won the match, but I didn't feel good about it. Should I have conceded out of deference to my opponent's obvious imminent win or was I justified in letting the Magic Online gods do their thing?
Drew Acquaviva
2017-07-31 02:22:07 +0000 UTCThanks for all your work on LR and in the booth. After following LR for two years I finally became a patreon and happy to be giving just a small bit back to you, Marshall and LSV. I hope you'll stick around for a long time. When I'm looking at my plays and my results, I wonder about two things: 1. Why is it I get good results in one format (3-0 in just over 30% in 3xAKH in intermediate leagues) and a lot worse in another format (with about 40 drafts down in 2xHOU1xAKH intermediate draft leagues, I haven't 3-0'd a single one!)? And of course: how can I change that to become more consistent? Attached to that same question: my results at FNM drafts are always better than online, although most players at our shop are constantly playing GP's and pptq's and I'm only playing online and at FNM. How come these drafts are so different than online? 2. When I look at the PT and GP limited coverage, I notice that pro's often wait longer in playing their spells (especially removal and tricks) than I do myself. Any advice on when to hold on to removal/tricks and when to use them aggressively? I have a feeling that both these questions are about control vs aggro playstyles and the specific strategies to follow when you play one deck or the other, but I can't seem to find many guidelines that are almost always correct. Should you want to adress my questions, maybe it's good for you to know I'm a high rated chess player (and I was very shocked when you both compared mtg to chess a couple of podcasts ago... i couldn't help but conclude you were talking about amateur chess and not about top level play and preparation, which 'metagame' is constantly shifting). Thanks again for all your work and please keep it up!
Johan De Ryck
2017-07-30 17:37:16 +0000 UTC??? Fpo
Sage Aguilar
2017-07-29 19:51:03 +0000 UTCThis is exactly what I was getting at in my question -- your GF is clearly not FPO.
Hogan Long
2017-07-29 19:04:17 +0000 UTCI originally tried to post this as a level up question but it was in the wrong place or phrased wrong or maybe I'm just wrong in my assumptions -- in any case you didn't cover it then. My assumption is this -- it is based on person experience having played for a long time (maybe to long which would cause it to be a wrong assumption): When drafting it is more often than not the case that you don't use your pick in Pack 1 Pick 1. I can't count the number of times I won a draft and talking with other players after the draft (as everyone does) they would ask me which card in my deck was P1P1 and I would say -- "Oh, that's in my sideboard it is ---". I'd say when I'm at the top of my game at least 80%, if not more, of my draft decks don't include P1P1. There are exceptions to this of course -- I go in wanting to try a color or combination of colors, I first pick a build around, or I'm just feeling lazy. This is an important point -- In my philosophy of draft it takes a lot of work to pick the right colors in the first pack and at every card you need to re-evaluate your choices. Going with your first pick colors can be the right choice -- but probably isn't -- but maybe you just don't want to bother to understand the table -- then you will probably get an "OK" deck. This is the easy way out. So my questions (finally) is this -- First, is my philosophy still correct? It was honed over years of playing, but Magic changes, has the design of Magic changed over the years and I just don't play enough now to realize daft is not the same as it was 15 or 20 years ago? Second, does the crack-a-pack segment put to much emphasis on the first pick? If I'm right about this (and I'm fairly sure I am) then crack-a-pack is really only covering something that is going to give you an advantage in 1 draft in 10. Finally, as an aside (going deeper), I often hear in the crack-a-pack you picking one card over another because that card is most often going to lead to good picks later. This might be at the expense of a better card. Seems to be a mistake -- you are taking a worse path to make the first pick "good" as opposed to knowing often you won't use the first pick. It seems over-valuing the first pick in this way is leading to a strategy which results in worse decks. Another aside -- it might be there are "First Pick Oriented" (now know as FPO) sets and non-FPO sets. It could also be a style thing, some drafters do it and some don't -- as in "I'm a not FPO and I like CABS". A comment I would say to anyone who will listen to me. Thanks for the great show -- My week isn't the same without you. Hogan
Hogan Long
2017-07-29 18:31:50 +0000 UTCLSV and Marshall, thanks again for all the advice! Do you have any tips for efficiently managing sideboarding and resetting a deck during a sealed PPTQ or other competitive format? (Especially when boarding out just one color.) It feels like changing 15+ cards, including lands, leads to a lot of room for error and inefficiencies compared to just running a variation of the original deck when you're often pressed for match time in a longer/grindy format such as Sealed.
Parker
2017-07-29 04:47:12 +0000 UTCI drafted a WB flyers + life gain deck this week. It seemed really good, but I've only drafted this strategy once, and my deck had above average rares. Have you tried this and is it a legit archetype alternative to zombie tribal for WB drafters? Thanks guys!
Jaeger
2017-07-29 03:43:30 +0000 UTCTwo questions specific to Hour of Devastation (feel free to separate them if you like): 1) There are so many sweepers in this format! I count at least 7 at rare worth keeping in mind: Hour of Devastation and Revelation, Chaos Maw, Bontu's Last Reckoning, Sweltering Suns, Rags/Riches, Heaven/Earth, maybe you count minor ones like Archfiend of Ifnir. It seems like most sets have 0-2. Is this quantity enough that you start playing around sweepers, sight unseen? If not, is there any quantity at which you would? 2) Suppose you open pack 2 and see the Scarab God, but you have no important black or blue cards so far. When would you pick the God and try to make it work, versus staying the course and passing it (probably with gritted teeth)? Thanks! -- Mark
Mark Romanowsky
2017-07-28 23:01:44 +0000 UTCDo you have any comments about "drafting the medium way"?<a href="https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/drafting-the-medium-way/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/drafting-the-medium-way/</a>
David Zureick-Brown
2017-07-28 20:37:22 +0000 UTCLuis - as you pointed out to a five year old girl a few weeks ago - you ARE one of the best players in the world. Which got me thinking - If you were playing an average FNM magic player who listens to LR, even if you had the exact same deck- I'm going to assume you would win most of the time. What would you be doing differently than the average player? And secondly, in how many games out of 100 would the average player beat you (in other words - how much variance and luck is built into MTG. - thanks ! - Will
Will Henson
2017-07-28 19:22:12 +0000 UTCHi Marshall and Luis, when should i play out my bomb cards? In ahmonket i had a glory bound initiate and a gust walker in my opening hand - both 2 mana cards. I wanted to get the initiate down and online asap so played it and it was killed the following turn. Was i wrong to have played it? Should you keep good cards till later to avoid removal? Love the show, Ed malone
Malo
2017-07-28 16:20:41 +0000 UTCHi Marshal & Luis, I'd love to hear your advice on mulligans. I find myself incredibly uncomfortable with my decision to mulligan or not. I know the strategy to mulligan can vary between deck archetypes. It would be great to hear a few general rules of thumb, plus some specific advice on archetypes relevant right now. A solid opening hand can make or break matches! thanks again for all the work you all put in to this show, it means a lot of us, and has really helped improved my play and strategic thinking.
Chris Davis
2017-07-28 15:28:11 +0000 UTCAs an aspiring mtg tournament player, how do you strive to always push yourself to the next level and improve your game? I feel as though I've outgrown the local gaming store, as almost every week is a 3-0 victory... but going day 2 in GPs and winning PPTQs seems difficult. I'm not sure if my skill in draft has increased to a point where FNM is easy, or if I just know how to local players play/ make mistakes. Currently playing MTGO competitive league once per week and going 2-1, 1-2 or sometimes 3-0 (twice in HOU) Great show, and thanks for reading the question! From: #Limited_Al
Alistair Williamson
2017-07-28 15:24:33 +0000 UTCWith a lot of skills there is a benefit to breaking it down into digestible packages and focusing on one aspect at a time (for instance when learning poker you might focus on one situation at a time whether it is 3 betting frequencies, or how to play medium hands on wet boards etc). With Magic and especially limited magic I've rarely heard anyone break down learning the game one skill at a time. Is there a benefit to learning limited magic by focusing on one aspect of the game at a time, or even in learning a format one archetype at a time?
Jasper Burch
2017-07-28 14:44:44 +0000 UTCHey Marshal and Louis, how can I improve may sequencing and awareness? I make plays confident that I’m doing the right thing only to notice immediately that there is a clearly better play sitting in my hand. I’ve gotten to the point where I can swallow my pride and make the correct but out of sequence follow-up play. I want to bang my head against the keyboard though because I know I’m giving up percentage points that I don’t need to. You guys put on a great show. Thank you, Alex.
Alex Gaudet
2017-07-28 14:36:24 +0000 UTCWhat would you say is a fair number of games to play before you can determine whether or not your deck is "good"? I've heard you use phrases like "confirmation bias," as well as suggestions to re-play your saved Draft decks against others... so I'm curious if you have any thoughts to avoid the former, and/or advice to better guide the latter. Thanks! As a total aside, I'm actually a significantly bigger Constructed player... but your podcast is so dang good (AND so full of holistically great advice, regardless of the format) that I'm here every week and just generally enjoy the heck out of the show. Easily, the best content out there, so thanks!
Daniel Ward
2017-07-28 14:09:39 +0000 UTCHey guys first off shout out to yah girlfreind and I have both consistently 3/0ed our local draft pods since we became regular listeners ((turns out lsvs sweet dulcet tones make for a relaxing night in)). So she and i draft a little differently and i was hoping you guys could help us out she prefers to take the best card in the pack till about the 3rd pick of pack 2 were sbe decides what shes building whereas I prefer to memorize the decks in a draft format and actively look for signs ans commit early. Witch method do you feel is better and why? Thanks guys!
Sage Aguilar
2017-07-28 14:08:58 +0000 UTCHi guys. I was wondering - in the early days of a format, do you ever deliberately make sketchy environment-based plays to suss out how likely it is that the trap you suspect you're playing into is real? For example, my opponent passes with 2W up and only ground blockers, and I have a 3/1 flier and a 5/4 archfiend of ifnir. It smells like sandblast or farm, and the archfiend is fairly important to the game due to its ability, but I attack in with it anyways mostly as a way to test if my spidey sense was properly calibrated to the situation. I wind up losing short term EV like this, but my gut says that it's worth it for the long run to help solidify confidence in my instincts. Do either of you do this, or can you speculate on whether this is a worthwhile exercise? I just kind of fell into it over the last few blocks and am unsure what to make of it. Thanks, Alex.
Alex Wolf
2017-07-28 14:00:33 +0000 UTC
