Patreon Questions of the Week Post
Added 2015-08-24 01:45:23 +0000 UTCHey Guys,
Super thankful for all the awesome questions, as you heard on the show we answered a bunch on the show last week.
Here is the place to put your questions for upcoming episodes of the podcast.
Thanks!
Marshall
Comments
Hey guys, I dropped this in your email, bit I found the thing here anyway. Go me! So my question is this: I've been playing Standard for about 2 years now and I've gone to a couple of prerelease Sealed tournaments along where I have narrowly missed Top 8. I'm not the greatest player in the world, but I like to think that I've gotten a pretty good grip of the game so far. I've listened to LR for a while now, but I've only tried Limited a few times. When I go to my local shop to play, the calibre of the other players is that much higher than me that I often find the player to my right has given me a few stacks of cards to work my way through at any given time, meaning that I'm creating a bot of a bottleneck. After each pack, nobody really bothers looking at their cards and most people go straight into the next pack without skipping a beat. Is this normal? How long should players like me who are relatively new to the format take between picks and packs? I don't want to hold the table up, but I feel that if I rush myself I'm not going to be making the best choices along the way. Thanks, and Louis - keep on crackin' :)
Nic Bunce
2015-12-27 17:50:23 +0000 UTCAfter listening to the recent episode on signals, I would like to ask: how specific is your picture of what your neighbors are drafting, and at which stage in the draft? I could say by the end of pack one, for example: "Red is being totally cut off, white is pretty open, the rest are medium". But I've had my neighbor say to me at the end of a draft: "I thought you must be in green/black", and I never reach that level of detail even by the end. How specific can your signal-reading get?
Mark Romanowsky
2015-12-10 00:48:10 +0000 UTCHello Marshall and LSV! I have a question about competitive (day 2) drafts. When I draft on MTGO it's easy to see the curve and what you are missing (similar in regular REL), but when it comes to competitive draft, I find myself having issues memorizing the picks (especially when I have a really close pick, I forget what I picked). I also panic when I have 1 minute to review the picks. When I was in day 2 in Vegas my mind was blanking and thinking about what to do instead of actually reviewing the picks. Do you have any suggestions on how to approach remembering the picks in a competitive REL draft? Do you have any suggestions and techniques on reviewing the picks between packs? (Besides ton of practice). Thanks, love the show, Andrea
Andrea Biaggi
2015-11-27 22:10:22 +0000 UTCHave/do you two play any pauper? Have you experimented with the format at all? (Also, how goes the Canadian Highlander movement, Marshall?)
William McDuff
2015-11-25 21:34:31 +0000 UTCI also missed this until Marshall mentioned it on the last show... so here's my question for the show: Drafting on MODO is great, because you can see your picks and basically build your deck as you go, so I find it much easier to keep on track, watch my curve, avoid picking too many 5-drops etc. In paper though, I've had drafts I thought were going brilliantly until I realised that my BW lifegain deck had 4 Kalastria Nightwatch and not enough ways to gain life... How do you manage when drafting in paper? Is it just a matter of practice, or are there techniques that might help?
Niall Bole
2015-11-16 01:53:53 +0000 UTCOops, I missed the this was where we're supposed to post questions, here's a question I posted separately: I have a question about a sideboarding strategy I sometimes use that wasn't mentioned in the episode. Sometimes when I play a combat trick during game 1 of a match, I'll side the trick out for game 2, figuring that they'll be more likely to play around it now that I've shown it, and therefore I can get more value out of them playing around it when it's not in my deck than by actually having the trick. Do you think sideboarding out cards that you've shown your opponent is a good idea, and if so under what circumstances do you do so?
Paul Wilkins
2015-11-11 17:24:52 +0000 UTCHi, thanks for this amazing show. I've only become a Patreon, but I did mean to ask you this since I listened to your podcast. Sorry for my english which can sometimes be not quite perfect. In my LGS, and I know in some other LGS in France (where I live), we do what we call "rare redistribution" in our drafts. If you don't know what this is, at the end of the draft we all put the rares and mythics from our drafted decks (and sideboard) on the table, and beginning with the winner of the draft, then the finalist, and so on (following the ranking of the draft), we each chose one rare to win and keep, looping and continuing until are rares are redistributed. The foils (even the Expeditions, yes LSV! :p) have to be announced when opening boosters to keep the count of the rares in the 24 boosters correct. This completely shuts down "rare-" or "moneydrafting", and it adds a very nice reward and incentive to perform at the draft. Did you know about this practice in some drafts? What do you think of it? How do you think this can improve or change in any way the draft experience? Can this be generalized in the Magic Community or even the rules? Thanks!
François Klingler
2015-11-06 23:48:42 +0000 UTCAfter having success with a particular archetype, UW flyers/Awaken, several drafts in a row, I found myself having tunnel vision when it comes to drafting the next time around. Any tips on how I can "zoom out" on the set when I am in this position?
Carl Roedel
2015-10-26 13:36:24 +0000 UTCI am wondering about how to build the best Sealed Deck in a synergy-focused set like BFZ. Should I build one of the synergy archetypes as best I can with the limited pool I am given (knowing that I may be missing some key pieces), or scrap synergy in favor of simply playing the most powerful set of cards I can field? Love the show, keep up the great work!
Galen
2015-10-23 22:13:55 +0000 UTCWould you ever draft a mono color deck? Not in a complex set such as Battle for Zendikar, but a more straight forward two color set such as Magic Origins or an older core set. I see new players try to draft mono color decks for consistent mana bases, but the power level is usually lacking. However, there have been a handful of drafts when I got the feeling (signals) there might be one other drafter of a color at the table or maybe just one other person splashing the color. In one Magic Origins draft I had an otherwise average pack with two solid green cards, Undercity Troll and Leaf Gilder. I took the Undercity Troll and the Leaf Gilder tabled. Is that a strong enough signal to attempt a mono color deck? Love the show. Thanks for all the hard work
Mike Scott
2015-10-22 20:51:42 +0000 UTCAssuming I am an average player, which would have better long term results: a deck drafted by Marshall and played by me OR a deck drafted by me and played by Marshall?
Adam hoffmann
2015-10-22 11:05:23 +0000 UTCI have a question about mana efficiency vs. using removal. Is it ok to use removal, especially less than premium removal, when I have literally no other plays with my mana? Or should I just let the mana "go to waste" and hold on to the removal? Example: Opponent and I are both hellbent and at 15 life, opponent has a 4/4 and I have an 0/6 wall. I draw for the turn and draw Demon's Grasp(certainly non-premium removal). Should I fire off the demon's grasp on the 4/4 so that I am at least doing something with my mana, or should I hold on to it in case I need it later?
Joel Tucci
2015-10-22 08:05:14 +0000 UTCHi, Sealed vs draft in BFZ limited. It's pretty clear that draft is all about synergy over CABs - but how does this change for you guys in sealed? It's basically impossible to put together an archetypical deck so wonder if you should still try or resort to just playing the most powerful cards. I've found Evolving Wilds to be even better in sealed in this regard - close to the best card I can open in my pool. Thanks guys, Chris
Chris Blackwood
2015-10-19 22:33:29 +0000 UTCDo you have any tips for the first draft in a new format? I usually do decently well at the Sealed prerelease of any new set, having listened to the set review and just playing good Magic. However, my first draft of a new set is usually a trainwreck. I have a hard time understanding which directions I could go and what might be open, and I end up with a deck that consists of some cards I considered to be good in sealed. In a set such as BFZ that is about archetypes and synergy, such a deck just doesn't get there. Other people don't seem to have this problem and adapt to a new format more quickly, drafting streamlined decks in their first draft already. How can I get better at this?
Essie
2015-09-30 14:57:47 +0000 UTCQuestion: in limited certain cards encourage holding multiple extra lands (Landfall cards), while others encourage playing them out (Rolling Thunder, Invokers). Do you keep these different types of cards in mind when drafting to avoid this conflict? If you do have a good Landfall creature and something like Rolling Thunder both still undrawn in the same deck, what do you do with your extra land not knowing which will come first? I hit this problem in Origins when I had Molten Vortex and Ravaging Blaze undrawn in the same deck while I was flooding on land...
Scot Martin
2015-09-24 21:20:54 +0000 UTCOr maybe just a couple extra lands to put us at 42-43 in a focused landfall deck?
Brien Howard
2015-09-23 22:04:00 +0000 UTCIs BFZ a set we should be considering increasing our average deck size for? perhaps 45-50 cards to mitigate Ingest running us out in the long games, with extra lands to supplement landfall / awaken?
Brien Howard
2015-09-22 23:16:32 +0000 UTCI do a 4 player draft with my wife, sister, and brother-in-law. We still draft 3 packs each, they just all go around twice as many times. Once we've built our decks, we play one GAME with each other player. I've suggested best of 3 matches, but the others do not really want to play that much more Magic before they lose interest. I'm wondering what advice you might have for this specific meta; should you draft differently with fewer players, and how do I evaluate cards that are traditionally "sideboard only" if we're not going to play any sideboarded games?
Evan
2015-09-18 15:19:33 +0000 UTCHere's an MTGO-specific question. I've been in a few close games where my opponent is ahead but has run down their clock. In some of these situations I find that if I take a more defensive or conservative line, which may not be the correct play, I could gum up the board enough that it will become very difficult for them to win before their timer runs out. Do you consider that a potential "win condition" that I could look out for or should I just focus on playing the best games that I can? Thanks for all the work you do with the podcast!
shelby
2015-09-10 18:46:03 +0000 UTCNot a question, but I didn't know where else to write this. Crushing loss in the finals of the MOCS, Luis. I haven't been more upset about a MTG loss in a long time. And it wasn't even my match!!! I don't know who your opponent is, but they certainly earned their slot. Was just really, really hoping you'd make it. You will make a fantastic addition to the MTGO Championship, and I hope you spike another MOCS soon to get there.
Andy Rogers
2015-09-10 03:30:48 +0000 UTCHi guys! amazing Podcast! Could you share some tips on how to play faster in MTGO (key shortcuts, game setup tips etc). I always find myself 5-6+ mins behind my opponent going into game 3 which makes it hard for me to play with much time for thought as I am worried about timing out. I'm trying to play fast, so I think I am missing something in the control set-ups and mechanics. It would be nice to know how you have your game optionS set-up for example. Also, any other tips to cut-out miss-clicks etcs. Thanks so much, Will
Will Curley
2015-09-06 23:17:15 +0000 UTCI really loved the Fundamental Approach to Limited podcast! I'm a numbers person and it got me to thinking about how the way Wizards designs each set and the colors interacts with this Fundamental Approach. If a solid, hitting doubles approach is looking at good creatures, some combat tricks, and removal where possible, does the fact that the colors are uneven in removal and efficiently costed creatures (and numbers of creatures overall in set) warp a Fundamental Approach so that it slightly favors certain pairs over others. I'm not saying that it means certain colors are "the best" or that someone learning a Fundamental Approach should force certain color pairs. Just that for someone starting out, and especially as they learn to shift from set to set, that some color pairs throw fewer curve balls when a new set comes out and it may be easier for a player to really grasp these approaches before moving on to more inconsistent pairs.
Logan Ferree
2015-09-05 23:02:36 +0000 UTCSimple question, what basics do you guys use any why?
Matt Carr
2015-09-05 08:50:43 +0000 UTCWe always get general advice on this podcast (for a reason). But it would be interesting with a more specific example. We all know a bit about how Marshall plays... So Luis, if you could give Marshall one advice on how he can improve his game, what would it be? (Go with a few more suggestions if you want to)
Ted Meyer
2015-09-04 06:31:04 +0000 UTCDear Marsh Hulk and Elesh V, I'm having trouble during my drafts in Deckbuilding. I understand to stay 2 colors and build a curve/have a plan during the draft, but my brain goes all 'bear on a bicycle" when it comes time to build my mana bases. I've seen lots of pros gloss over it in videos, saying things like "this looks like a 10-7 deck" etc. I can comprehend the idea that you need access to both your colors, but when I'm looking at my actual deck, I generally can't tell how extreme my mana base should bare. Right now I mostly stick to what MTGO suggests, but I know i have room to improve in this area. Should I default to 9-8 in favor of my most numerous color/the color I need in the first few turns most? What does it look like when I have a 10-7 deck? Or an 11-6 deck? I'd appreciate if you could give some guidelines to ape.
Zack Houser
2015-09-04 03:01:16 +0000 UTCI'm currently stuck at what I think may be a common barrier to leveling up for a lot of listeners. I think I've mastered CABS & having a plan within games. But my decks are suboptimal because I don't know how to have a plan while drafting, especially in a format like Origins where the on-the-rails synergies are not great. I'm sure there's more I can do than take the best CABS card from each pack but I don't know what it is.
Trevor
2015-09-03 21:45:59 +0000 UTCHi Luis, and Marshall I guess. As we all know the recommended and standard way of drafting is with 8 players. Unfortunately my group (and I bet a lot of other ones too) don't always have that many players. How would your way of drafting change if you were only 6, 5 or even 4 players at the table? I'm not sure how to handle signaling, depth of colors and thinking about what I'll "wheel". Cheers, Tes
Ted Meyer
2015-09-03 06:29:07 +0000 UTCAhoy! (insert appropriate platitudes here- you guys rock, great show, etc.) What's the tipping point Pack 1 Pick 1 where you'll take a lesser powered card to avoid fighting over a color? Do you always just grab the best card, since the drafter(s) you're passing to have less influence on your draft? Or is there a critical density where you know a pack will put at least two, if not three, other drafters into a color and you don't want to be in that fight?
Nick Nelson
2015-08-30 07:06:38 +0000 UTCHi LR, I was wondering what the deal with shuffling your packs after picking your card in a draft? I know a lot of people do it, but I've never understood it. It doesn't seem to change any information that you are giving to other people. Could you guys cover the purpose of shuffling packs and what your stances on it are? Keep up the great work!
Netbattler11
2015-08-28 22:46:26 +0000 UTCHi guys, thank you for teaching me about draft after a 19 year hiatus from Magic. For the last year, I've an after school Magic club and hosted/unofficially judged events that have brought up to 24 students together on a Friday night. My question is: what can I, or anyone who knows a kid Interested in MTG, do to help younger players do more than play out their cards and attack into bad situations? Are there any concrete visuals or suggestions I could use?
Taylor Goodland
2015-08-28 10:25:40 +0000 UTCHi Marshall and Luis, Firstly thanks for the show! I've been listening for 2 years now and your advice is incredibly helpful. However, in all that time, I've never got the hang of drafting or playing Blue. I've never gotten the hang of evaluating tempo cards or figuring out when is the optimal time to cast them. I also don't really know when it is correct to play counterspells. Any tips?
Adam the Mad Scientist
2015-08-27 15:57:48 +0000 UTCI've been playing a lot of Origins draft recently, and I feel my skills are improving steadily. However, I've managed to lose first round in 6 of the last 7 drafts. Do you guys ever have losing streaks like that? If so, what is your next step? Take a break? Throw yourself back into it? Thanks guys, love the show!
Trevor Andersen
2015-08-27 15:32:33 +0000 UTCI wanted to get your thoughts on the new Legacy Cube Sealed format on MTGO. It feels very different from any other Sealed format I've played, so I'm pretty unsure of how to build my decks. A couple of specific questions: How many colors should I play? I've been leaning towards two colors with a splash, since I haven't felt like I had amazing fixing, but obviously this has meant leaving a lot of great bombs in the sideboard. Should the decks be more synergistic, like cube draft decks, or are they going to look more like "typical" limited decks with much higher card quality? I've had success so far with straightforward creature beatdown decks, but I don't know if this will continue as people figure out the format more.
Mark Donaldson
2015-08-27 05:35:00 +0000 UTCHi Marshall and Luis, here's my question: Drafts at my LGS vary in size, sometimes firing at the 9, 10, or 11 person mark. I consider myself a competent drafter capable of reading signals in an 8 person pod but I really seem to struggle in these larger drafts. What type of advice would you offer to players attempting to navigate these larger drafts? When drafting in a larger pod what needs to be prioritized?
Korey Pasch
2015-08-26 20:18:59 +0000 UTCHow do you guys tackle changing colors mid draft? I'm sure it depends on a lot of things, but for example: an off color pack 3 pick 1 bomb, is it usually too late to switch at that point?
Kavan Kucko
2015-08-26 19:27:32 +0000 UTCWhen you see someone in a high stakes tournament play a card that you think is somewhat unplayable (like Faerie Miscreant), what do you think? What do you think when they play another equally unplayable card?
Jonathan Little
2015-08-25 22:14:20 +0000 UTCI tend to have a 1900 rating in draft online when I am drafting the "expert" sets, but when the core sets come out, that rating usually drops to around 1750. What am I missing? Is there more variance in the core sets because they are simpler or am I likely being a bit too concerned with synergy? Thanks for everything you do!
Jonathan Little
2015-08-25 22:10:31 +0000 UTCCould you go through your process on how you decide on how many of each basic land type you add to your draft decks? To what extent do lands like evolving wilds and come into play tapped dual lands affect your basic land choices? Recently in origins, I wasn't sure how to adjust my colored mana sources when I added colorless lands like foundry of the consuls.
Pyrs
2015-08-25 21:15:33 +0000 UTCThere's a side bar on the LR reddit with all of the "level up" episodes! its super helpful
alex nikolic
2015-08-25 19:59:04 +0000 UTCMy LGS has recently started firing off chaos drafts at a pretty high frequency. I find them very enjoyable, but I am doing much worse than I usually do in standard drafts. Do you have any tips for effectively chaos drafting?
Patrick Kenkel
2015-08-25 18:16:26 +0000 UTCI'd like your thoughts on the balance between perfect play and card evaluation in terms of how to allocate one's time for improvement. Personally, I believe that I could increase my edge by a few percentage points at most by improving my card evaluation skills, but by perhaps double that with perfect play at all times. I tend to spend my improvement time going over lines in replays or visualizing pivotal misplays in live games to try to refine my approach, rather than poring over pick orders or draft simulations. Do you think in general players are better served by studying card evaluation or perfect play? Is the focus on card evaluation in the limited community simply due to the relative difficulty of discussing lines of play after the fact, or is it really the better use of time for most players? Thanks!
Joel Barnes
2015-08-25 01:03:17 +0000 UTCI have been playing Magic for quite a while (I was 7 when I bought my first starter pack and Ice Age boosters). I love drafting, but my play group evaporated so I play pretty much exclusively online now. I find that I do quite well at the beginning of draft formats but by 2 months into the format I consistently can't seem to make good picks P1P1-P1P5, get cut, and wind up with terrible decks. Do you have any advice for how I can level up my game to carry my high initial win percentage all the way through a format?
Taylor Tan
2015-08-24 23:14:17 +0000 UTCYou often emphasize on the show how the draft signals you're receiving are more important than the signals you're passing. I agree. However, a truly great drafter will surely pay close attention to both and be hyper-aware of what they're passing, especially in pack 1. How do you recommend going about keeping track of the signals you pass? I always take note when I pass a bomb or hyper efficient card, but don't know where to draw the line of what signals to keep track of, particularly when I'm passing C+ through B- material.
Jaeger
2015-08-24 22:34:10 +0000 UTCI seem to be plateauing in my MTG abilities at the moment - but I still have a ton of room to improve. The problem is I'm not sure what to focus on. In regard to my play style, how can I identify what needs improvement the most? I don't play online so recording isn't really an option for me :\
Brien Howard
2015-08-24 18:14:13 +0000 UTCIf you could travel back to the start of LR 300 episodes ago or so, what would you tell yourself? Both about what to learn about doing a podcast, but also what to expect about the future of Magic? Also discuss the dangers of time travel and knowing the future.
Logan Ferree
2015-08-24 17:51:35 +0000 UTCWhat do you recommend to someone who seems to be going backwards with skill. When I first started listening I started listening to LR (back when Jon was still the co-host), I have watched my rating rise from slightly below 1600 to 1750 on MTGO, and held there steadily for a while. Since Fate Reforged though I have watched it slide from that down to 1633. I keep trying to give myself a "whack" (As per "A Whack on the Side of the Head") to try and change how I might be viewing things, but still not breaking out of it.
Nick Cler
2015-08-24 15:02:18 +0000 UTCAfter this Wednesday's downtime, 2-player Sealed Legacy Cube queues are going to be running on MTGO. Whenever I hear that any form of cube will be available on MTGO my ears perk up and while I would rather draft a cube, this format does seem interesting. Do Marshall and/or LSV plan to try out this format? What do you expect this format will be like? Do you have any insight, tips, and strategies?
Matthew
2015-08-24 14:37:11 +0000 UTCHi Marshall and LSV, Could you give me some suggestions for navigating drafts with 6 people instead of the usual 8? Sometimes I get a really sweet deck (e.g. when no one else is in green) and other times I end up with powerful double coloured cards it two colours and a difficult mana base. Any pointers would be much appreciated, especially with regard to Origins draft. Thanks very much for all that you do. P.S. I love LSV's hilarious Magic stories!
George Wright
2015-08-24 13:48:23 +0000 UTCHey Marshall, congrats on the 300 episode milestone. Here's to another 300. I discovered the LR podcast right at the end of khans when I was looking for whatever edge I could gain about Fate Reforged. I found your in depth set review with LSV and ate it all up. I did reasonably well during Fate drafting, and I've been listening to a lot of your older shows to apply some of the general theories into drafts. My question is, for newer listeners of the show, do you have an episode recommendations list on learning some of the "level up concepts"?
indigo
2015-08-24 11:34:25 +0000 UTCGreetings! I love your work! My question is specifically for LSV. I am a armature game designer, as well as magic player, and wonder what advice you have on getting into that industry? Thank you.
Corran132
2015-08-24 05:19:45 +0000 UTCHuge fan, guys. Absolutely love the show. My question is this: which LR co-host from history would win in each of the following competitions: Hot Dog Eating, triple Avacyn booster draft, Best Signoff, arm wrestling, and Rock Paper Scissors? Thanks guys, keep being awesome.
Kyle Collington
2015-08-24 02:53:21 +0000 UTCHey guys, great work on the show and thanks for taking time to answer some great questions. My question is: when splashing for a powerful card (probably a 5 or 6 drop) how much fixing are you willing to put into your deck? In some formats like Khans, lands fill this roll with little cost, but in some older formats (Theros, Innistrad) cards like Traveler's Amulet could slow you down and took a slot.
Stan Roper
2015-08-24 02:07:15 +0000 UTCI really enjoyed the "mail bag" show last week, lots of interesting discussions. I'd vote for fitting one of those in frequently if it fits with the rest of the show schedule, maybe once a month, something like that. Question: Is it reasonable to stick cards that have a lot of raw power into a deck where they are not a great fit in terms of the deck's synergy/path to victory. For example would you put a Mage Ring Responder into an aggressive RW deck with lots of 2-drops and combat tricks where the curve ends at 5 mana except for the Responder?
Jason McMullan
2015-08-24 02:01:26 +0000 UTCWhat are the ideal mana curves (like approximately 6 two drops, 8 three drops etc) for aggro, midrange, and control decks in limited?
Eric Dingler
2015-08-24 01:51:59 +0000 UTCMy friends are having a Magic Origins Rotisserie draft. The general agreement that Hangarback Walker was the obvious first pick. But the second overall pick was more disputed. What would you pick second overall in a six-person Magic Origins Rotisserie? (Or alternately, why wouldn't you pick Hangarback Walker first?)
William McDuff
2015-08-24 01:48:39 +0000 UTC
