Question of the Week Thread
Added 2016-01-04 10:26:38 +0000 UTCHey All,
This is where you can submit your questions for the Patreon Question of the Week. Thanks for all the great questions!
- Marshall
Comments
Hi Guys. I'm pretty good at limited, but horrible at OGW Sealed. I've been trying to qualify for some PTQs and played a few Leagues now so I've played a lot of OGW Sealed (probably 10+ tournaments) and I'm not sure I've ever done better than 3-2, and often much worse. I'm not bad at Sealed in general (I just won a PTQQ playing BFZ Sealed, for example) or OGW draft (I usually go 2-1 or 3-0), just OGW Sealed, for some reason. I have been somewhat unlucky opening packs (so I don't think it is strictly bad play), and I do want to improve, but at this point I am just bleeding tickets (sealed events are expensive!) and obviously losing all the time is not much fun either. Is there a point at which I should just "give up" on a format and wait for the next set? Have either of you ever done that? Thanks!
Galen
2016-03-05 02:12:16 +0000 UTCHey Marshall and Luis, I have listened to you talk about finding what is open in Oath of the Gatewatch and that card evaluation is different or adjusted depending on the synergy that is open, not just which colors. I can normally recognize what is open during a draft at least most of the time, but I can't seem to figure out what is open in Oath. Could this be because there are other drafters that have scewed card evaluation in this format? How do you find what is open if people aren't evaluating the cards well? You can imagine how that can mess things up if you thought a certain color synergy was open and someone else takes pieces to some of it when it's not really part of their synergy. I feel that because of this, I have yet to draft any decent decks in this format... I hope I'm making sense. Any help is appreciated, thanks!
Troy Navarro
2016-03-01 17:38:54 +0000 UTCAfter listening to your step-by-step draft episode, a question came up for me. Assuming an average draft deck to that point, how good does an off-color rare or mythic have to be to take P3P1? I mean, in triple BFZ, I could be in UB Control, but I'm probably going to take that Gideon to splash, monetary value aside. (We rare redraft at our store, so it's more about power than money.)
William McDuff
2016-02-26 22:12:32 +0000 UTCIt is considerably easier for my playgroup to get 6 players for a draft than 8. Because of that, I'm strongly considering team drafting (it sounds like great fun). Could you perhaps do a crack-a-pack (or one of those where you go 4 packs deep) where you highligt how you would pick differently in a team-draft setting?
Søren Lahn Sloth
2016-02-25 08:15:02 +0000 UTCI'm wondering about the best strategy for making the most of an average-to-bad sealed pool? Do you try to build the most consistent deck possible and hope to get there? Build something swingy and hope to get lucky? Lately I've opened a few stinkers (barely made playables across three colors, 0-1 bombs) and am not sure what to do...
Galen
2016-02-12 18:53:31 +0000 UTCIn a set like OGW, where you have two commons (Oblivion Strike & Isolation Zone) that are way above the rest of the commons, and above most of the uncommons as well, is there a concern when opening them in a pack that maybe 3 or 4 people, if not more, at the table are making the same first picks leading to a big fight over those colors? Is this a format where you should be more willing to abandon your first pick than usual for that reason or even consider taking slightly weaker cards in different colors in order to stay out of that mess? Thanks for the advice and the show and big congratulations to LSV on the Top 4 finish. Was pulling for you all the way.
SligoYanks
2016-02-12 10:17:01 +0000 UTCThanks for the show and congratulations LSV on the Top 8. It seems like I have hit a wall recently while playing limited events. The last four drafts I've done online I have only won one match. I try to keep track of my drafts and review replays to see if I can spot any misplays. But it doesn't seem to be working. Have you ever run into a wall while playing? It just seems like I'm not progressing as a player. How do you get overcome that wall? How do you not get discouraged? I used to think I was an above average limited player, but I am having doubts. Thanks for the advice
Richard Scott
2016-02-10 04:48:30 +0000 UTCHi guys, I have a question about learning new limited environments. For the past few sets I've participated in a competitive sealed event like a PPTQ or GP shortly after the set was released. Because the event format was sealed, each time I've attempted to figure out the new format by building and playing lots of sealed pools with friends while almost entirely neglecting draft. However, I am not sure if this is the best approach for learning a new set and wonder if I might be better served by drafting instead. What approach do you think is most effective when it comes to picking up the nuances of new cards quickly?
Timothy Rice
2016-02-08 19:43:33 +0000 UTCSo, about Bone Saw... In a "Surge" deck, it seems not unreasonable to compare it to Dark Ritual: you spend a card, gain a couple of mana, and play another card ahead of curve. Many Surge discounts are 2-3 mana, so the size of effect is about the same. The mana benefit from Bone Saw can only be spent on certain cards, unlike Dark Ritual, but you do at least end up with a small Equipment afterwards. I have three small questions: (1) Is Dark Ritual usually playable in a draft set? (2) Would Dark Ritual be playable in Oath of the Gatewatch draft? (3) If this isn't a close comparison, can you comment on the differences?
Mark Romanowsky
2016-02-04 01:02:30 +0000 UTCHey guys! Thanks for all the great work on the show. I don't know if you've ever considered doing a 'cast on something like 'The Anatomy of a Game,' but I would love to hear a break down Game 3 of Severson vs Carleton-Barnes from the quarter finals of GP Vancouver. Aside from being white-knuckled, edge-of-the-seat Magic, it is the type of game that might cause many limited players to throw in the towel and call it quits. It's the type of game that makes me want a clinic on playing to your outs, the will to win, and half a dozen other things that I probably missed while watching. Thanks again! -Andy
Andy Rogers
2016-02-01 07:26:51 +0000 UTCHey guys, first I want to thank you, I made it to day 2 of GP Nagoya despite my horrible pool, thanks to LSV's mantra of always having a plan(even if said plan involves multiple Zulaport Chainmages). Anyway, as primarily a magic online player, I found myself often not correctly evaluating game states, such as creature's power/toughness when they have counters etc at the GP. Do either of you have any tips for a someone who primarily plays online on how to better maintain game state in my head when playing in paper?
Joel Tucci
2016-02-01 02:26:34 +0000 UTCHey guys, long time patron, first time caller...
Scott Ruppel
2016-01-31 22:16:44 +0000 UTCHi guys, Do you have feel you are slightly less critical of a bad set due to both having a vested interest in MtG? For example, putting out the opinion that a set is bad could cause there to be lower card sales at CFB. You have also both been employed by Wizards on coverage and such. Does the idea of speaking negatively about the product of a potential employer affect how you publicly talk about a set? Finally, you both have lots of friends at Wizards who I imagine are quite proud of their work. Do you feel you ever pull your punches when criticising a set as you don't want to upset/offend friends? I get the feeling the answer to all this is simply "no; everyone involved is a professional and feedback is good" but I still find the discussion interesting. Thanks, Neil
Neil Logan
2016-01-28 10:33:38 +0000 UTCCan you compare & contrast Marshall & LSV's view on double queuing? I completely see the rationale- drafts are slow with a lot of dead time, especially swiss. But i absolutely lose % points double queuing. Is it worth pursuing as a skill to get better at to eliminate dead time, or is it just too bad for win rate?
Mike Pierce
2016-01-22 05:01:56 +0000 UTCLast year was my first year back to Magic after about a six year hiatus. I finished Top 150 in Limited on MTGO, but I'm unhappy with my play recently. I feel like I've reached a point where I fall into bad habits/auto-pilot. How do you guys reset, or have you reached a point like this and how would you approach continuing to improve? Thanks for the great work!
Braden Bronson
2016-01-11 22:53:07 +0000 UTCIn many games, there is a point at which I am so far behind that I feel I can't afford to play around any spells my opponent has. For example, I may set myself up for a two-for-one by double blocking, or I may go for lethal damage with a combat trick even though I would get blown out by a removal spell. I've noticed pros making these types of decisions also. How do you decide when to take these risks and go "all-in"? Right now, it just seems like I'm guessing based on intuition, but it would be good to hear your thoughts. (Thanks for the content, and Marshall, it was great to meet you at the GP!)
Devang Amin
2016-01-11 21:35:12 +0000 UTCI'll second the MTGO suggestion. I've probably done about 30 official drafts over the past 5 months (plus countless casual drafts), and while the podcast does help A LOT, playing a few MTGO drafts really helps clear things up as far as card interactions and triggers, and it helps you draft a better deck since all of the cards you've drafted so far are laid out in front of you. This helps you keep your mana curve/archetype in perspective for each of your picks.
Matt Bagels
2016-01-10 22:03:02 +0000 UTCtldr; How would you adjust your drafts with only 6, or even 4-5, players in the draft? Also, bring in Brian as a guest! Hey LSV (since I assume Marshall has stopped reading now), We're often not the full 8 when me and my friends are playing. Reading online I've understood that's quite common. We usually play the current set or cube, so cube specific tips are appreciated too. How do you adjust your draft for playing shorthanded? Signaling (1st and 2nd pack), preference for certain strategies, hate drafting (which I hate), etc. I added the tldr since I've understood Marshall will barely read something with 144 characters. Thanks for the show! (Also, when will you invite BWong? We miss him!)
Ted Meyer
2016-01-07 19:37:39 +0000 UTCHey guys, new player here. A few guys from my lgs introduced me to your podcast and I am loving it. As a new player, I understand that it takes time to learn the mechanics and rules of how to play and that the only way to get better is to play. However, as a new player, it also gets discouraging because more often than not, I lose most of the drafts I am in. I have tried to incorporate most of the things I have been learning by listening to this podcast and reading articles. My question is, is it normal for someone new to the game to lose a lot when they first start out? I've been actively playing for about 4 months now. So for example in that time I've played in 12 events (most draft, two of them were pre-release) and my record from those have been 18 losses, 6 wins, and 4 draws. I was also in League at my lgs with 10 people and my record from that was 9 losses and 1 win (and the win was due to a guy dropping out). So you can see how this can be discouraging. I will say that I feel like things are starting to click for me. I'm just curious how long it takes the average n00b to start getting more wins than losses. Thanks.
Jon
2016-01-07 08:11:44 +0000 UTCI've been running across a lot of players, both online and in person, who aren't just disinterested in Limited, but actively dislike it. The most common reasons I've heard is they see it as being "forced" to play with "bad" cards and being higher variance compared to Constructed. How would I refute these arguments in a rational manner?
Eric Wong
2016-01-06 23:00:14 +0000 UTCHow about a 2-Headed Giant primer in light of the upcoming prerelease?
Ryne Vauss
2016-01-06 21:05:12 +0000 UTCI can't wait until my son is old enough to start learning Magic! I will also echo your statements about Marshall and LSV being excellent mentors and role models for magic players of all ages. :)
Elise
2016-01-06 15:01:33 +0000 UTCHey Marshall and LSV, LR frequently suggests staying open. You don't want to commit to your first pick, you don't want to start a draft with a particular color or deck in mind, etc. It's certainly the safest thing to do, and I try to follow your advice. But, if we take a step back, let me introduce a very strange and extreme draft scenario. Let's say all 8 drafters are identically staying open. Nobody is committing to any color, everyone is hedging on every pick, simply taking the best card in the pack. They all end up with piles of rainbow junk. In other words, the "staying open" technique relies on your neighbor(s) to commit, and therefore send a signal to you, at which point you can more assuredly go into a particular color. In this particular scenario of 8 open drafters, the advantage will be given to the first person who says, "Screw staying open, I'm gonna start taking all the [color] cards." That drafter commits first, and forces his/her neighbors to react. The signals then get sent down the line one pick at a time, until the final person starts receiving signals 8 picks later. Now, I understand this is a crazy scenario, but isn't there some merit to being the first person at a table to commit? Aren't you losing some value if you choose to react to your neighbors rather than making them react to you? Cheers, Jesse
Jesse Cramer
2016-01-05 17:27:57 +0000 UTCI started playing magic in college in the early to mid-90s and only casually, but I really hadn't played for almost 20 years until my son, Dylan, who is 12, started to get into it over the past 2 years. He and I listen to LR together, and draft on MTGO together, and I generally support his magic habit. He loves magic but he is well rounded and is a pretty normal kid. He's athletic, does well in school, etc. It is becoming apparent that Dylan is a unusually good magic player, and not just for a 12 year old. Question is this: having seen a lot of people devote their lives to the game for years at a time, what advice do you have for Dylan as a kid getting serious about magic at a relatively young age? How do you balance being a kid (or a person, really) with a game that we know can completely absorb you? Is there a path that you can recommend where Dylan could play high level competitive magic, even at a fairly young age, and still maintain that balance? P.S. I really appreciate that you keep LR clean and appropriate for kids. I view you two as mentors for my son, not just in magic but in life. Your perspectives on competition, fun, sportsmanship and human relationships, expressed humorously, articulately and sincerely, and that just happen to be about a topic that my son loves, are incredibly valuable to me as a parent. Probably not the audience you intended, but it really is great for kids. Thanks! CW
chris weinmann
2016-01-05 07:57:59 +0000 UTCI am currently assembling a Khans of Tarkir set Cube, so my friends and I can draft Triple Khans into infinity. Any advice on putting together a project like this? (Besides omitting terrible rares like Ugin's Nexus & Altar of the Brood, that's already happening) I am starting with 4 of each common, 2 of each uncommon, and 1 of each rare/mythic and seeing what happens from there.
Aaron Bochenek
2016-01-04 23:21:38 +0000 UTCHey Luis and Marshall, I find myself improving my game a lot by listening to the show and playing as much as possible. However, when I'm in a draft I tend to take worse cards over good cards because I'm not 100% comfortable with playing those colors. Do you have any advice on how to be more comfortable with playing different colors outside of just just moving into it? Thanks so much for the show guys!
Jeremiah Ratliff
2016-01-04 20:15:27 +0000 UTCHey guys Long time listener, I seldom interact with you or the community you've created, but I want to do it more often. First step, submitting a couple of questions. 1) I tend to forget about a particular game very easily, so it is difficult for me to go back and think about the mistakes I've made or analyze what went right or wrong in a particular game. I have tried taking more notes or making a quick analysis after each game, but this proves to be too time consuming and eliminates a little bit of my focus. Are there any tips or tricks you have to make sure I can identify the key points of a game and my mistakes, and learn from them, after the fact? 2) As I moved abroad and there, I am now away from my usual play group, I want to start streaming. In the couple of instances I've tried, I tend to loose to time more often, and also, have problems commenting while playing when there is a particular tough decision. Again, any tips or tricks on how to tackle these situations? Thanks a lot in advance,
Karel
2016-01-04 20:03:15 +0000 UTCHey guys! I'm interested in your thoughts on linear vs synergistic draft strategies as we draw near the end of a set. Some sets seem to encourage certain "on rails" strategies with keywords, incentivized color combinations, etc. However, later in the format, small synergies between otherwise unrelated cards start to emerge. Sometimes it seems like new (and strong!) synergy decks show up, like Spider Spawning and Gnaw to the Bone in Innistrad draft. But BFZ seems to illustrate the strength of good Grixis brews simply pushing most of the linear strategies out of the format entirely. Early on I was able to compete with a UW fliers deck or the BW lifegain deck. Now it seems like those decks are predestined to 0-3. Obviously, we should want all of our decks to be synergistic. Still, when is it right to abandon Landfall for "all the good red and blue cards" or Exalted for "Esper artifacts?" Thanks and I'll see you guys on the Twitch streams! =) -Andy
Andy Rogers
2016-01-04 19:42:45 +0000 UTCHey guys, what do you think of Surge? It seems like Wizards is pushing the two-headed giant format a lot harder with actual "teammate" focused abilities. How do you think Surge stacks up when triggering it solo vs. off a teammate, with some of the cards revealed so far? And, do you think teammate-focused formats will ever see play in the professional sphere, beyond pre-releases?
nullward
2016-01-04 18:27:49 +0000 UTCHello, Luis and Marshall, I am interested in historic booster draft formats. Is there a place where I can go online to look up historic formats by set? For example, as a relatively new player, I would like to be able to look up the draft format for Born of the Gods or Gatecrash. Set entries on MTG Salvation Wiki do not consistently list the draft format, and trying to find the information on Wizards's website is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Any tips on where I can go to look up this information? Thanks!
Tom Rose
2016-01-04 17:03:32 +0000 UTCI played an Eighth Edition draft in Magic Online's "Year of Modern Flashbacks" and I found myself playing some very bad cards to complete the deck. It is common knowledge that creatures were much weaker on average in those days, and we have many such Modern Flashback formats to go. After the draft, I was unsure whether my colors weren't open or whether playable creatures really are just that scarce in the format. If you are used to present-day sets, how should you adjust your card-evaluation habits and drafting strategy in older formats whose average creatures are so much weaker?
Ryan Skonnord
2016-01-04 16:58:03 +0000 UTCWe have a limited tournament at work, we go 4 rounds of sealed but we finish with a cut to the top 8 for a draft to determine the winner. The problem I run into is that this ends up being a pool of drafters with WIDELY mixed experience; some people are very very good and some are complete draft newbies. Trying to read signals in this context is really difficult, what strategies would you employ in this context?
Matt Weislley
2016-01-04 15:06:55 +0000 UTCIt has been mentioned that LSV is an intuitive player, with some game decisions not based on analyzing a particular board state line by line, but having a feeling for what the right play is. As an intuitive player myself, I often find it's difficult to go back and pinpoint the mistakes I made since they weren't necessarily tied to a specific critical thinking process. Has LSV shared this experience when he first started? Are there some suggestions for how to identify mistakes and refine a player's intuition?
Nathaniel Walker
2016-01-04 13:59:54 +0000 UTCMost of the magic I play is at my kitchen table with a few of my friends. I love limited, but booster draft doesn't work that well for three or four. We've tried sealed, but miss the synergistic decks you can build with draft. We've also tried Winston, but that is a little klunky with 3 or 4 players and produced decks similar to sealed. Any suggestions for a good limited format for 3 or 4 players?
Kyle Whipple
2016-01-04 13:38:34 +0000 UTCHow important is spoiler season in regards to judging the playability of cards?
Brett Bookbinder
2016-01-04 13:31:37 +0000 UTCHey guys, recently started watching, and I hear a lot about previous set cards, and what you can see in the card functionality, like Prey Upon to Unnatural Aggression. Is there an easy way to determine how good these cards are before you play them, or do you just have to play them?
Stefan Hopkins
2016-01-04 13:25:28 +0000 UTCHey guys, what are you looking to when a new set/block is being released? What gets you the most excited? Is it new mechanics, new synergies, or something else? Also, with OGW getting closer and closer, what do you wish the most to see? For me it's probably green being viable again :P
Pier-Luc Tremblay
2016-01-04 13:18:31 +0000 UTCFor the transition from BFZ to OGW, just how good does Green have to be in OGW to justify drafting it in Limited given that you're still dealing with the bad pack from BFZ? Does Green "just" have to be "playable" in OGW, and you hope you can focus on your other color in BFZ, or does it have to be above average? What are the playable Green commons and uncommons in BFZ that we could see in Limited if Green recovers?
Logan Ferree
2016-01-04 12:43:26 +0000 UTCHi guys. Long term listener here. I was wondering, now that LSV is in the hall of fame and is focussing on the coverage side of things and Marshall doing the same thing, do you still enjoy the game as you did when there was a world to be won?
Michiel
2016-01-04 12:07:32 +0000 UTCHow do you salvage a trainwreck draft? I.e., your P1P1 is a build-around-me card, you get some cards for the archetype, but in the middle of pack 2 you realize it's not going to work. How do you fix it, especially on Pack 3?
Celso Távora
2016-01-04 11:33:39 +0000 UTCMarshall, Luis, good day. What offerings/ceremonies to you appease the magic gods with? When you need that one out, the sneaky top deck, the running lands from your opponent, who do you invoke? What are your more successful incantations? Respectfully, Abe.
Abe McKinnon
2016-01-04 11:24:17 +0000 UTCHi guys, one of your oldest new fans here (over 40 in age, 1 year in LR). When you speak of traps like hand disruption spells that are a 1-for-1, exceptions apparently exist like Transgress the Mind. Was that a case of "exile matters" or was this card playable because the format was slower? How does one know when a limited trap is no longer a trap?
Taylor Goodland
2016-01-04 11:18:37 +0000 UTCHi, I've recently moved to Switzerland where my local store uses German cards for the prerelease. Do you have any tips for playing with and against foreign language cards and against players you might not share a language with? (I'm assuming you've had this experience at GPs or PTs)
Cecilia Roes
2016-01-04 10:40:40 +0000 UTC
