I am writing a series of articles that explores the casual metagame, which is far more vast than any given competitive metagame. Any competitive metagame will have only a handful of decks at the top at any time. Even the best metagames, with a variety of solid, winnable decks, would probably not have more than a third of the Subtypes listed in the Framework, if that.
Picture the scene: everybody at the local store hates Coldsnap, seeing it (erroneously) as a shameless moneymaking scheme from Wizards despite their releasing a summer set for three consecutive years now, and as a consequence you just can’t ever get drafts in. Worse, you’re staring at the pack and seven first-pick quality cards are looking you right back in the eyes. What on earth do you do?
It’s cold in here! Either my thermostat’s broken or Coldsnap just became Standard legal. In other news, terrible jokes have been put on a moratorium for the rest of the article.
Craig turned up half an hour late. I mulliganed in games 1, 2, 3, and 4… and because that wasn’t enough, game 2 again. I drew lots of land. Craig mulliganed to three in game 3, and still got a turn 2, 3, 4, and 5 Watchwolf. Across four games I saw two Rakdos Guildmages, no Ribbons of Night, one Last Gasp and one Pyroclasm, and something in the district of forty-six lands.
So I beat Talen… big deal. To be honest, there was no winner here. Mana issues can cripple the mightiest fighter. Still, the deck performed well enough… wanna see how?
I’m going to take two Dailies to do this. The first – today’s, for those of you that need it spelled out real clear – is going to cover several of the archetypes in trips CS that you may or may not know about, since the format is an awful lot like Constructed and there is an actual metagame you’ll need to learn how to deal with.
And we’re back with the second instalment of Tribal Bible, the most cleverly named series in the history of Magic, as written by the world’s most devastatingly bald… er… handsome writer. Or perhaps a child left to be raised by monkeys in a meth lab. You never can tell.
Today I want to tell you what I think about Limited formats and how to size them up and be a better drafter. This is for the person picking up their first draft set to those who are proficient but want to improve.
Blisterguy shares the ups and downs of the Magic Online metagame, and his personal price guide for all things MTGO. Plus, he spins more tales from his Nationals tournament. Ever drafted a deck so bad that you can’t even burn the cards? Blisterguy sympathises…
We’re all going to make play mistakes, we’re all going to get out-topdecked, we’re all going to want to beleaguer our friends with some horribly tedious bad-beat story that makes them fantasize about how nice it would be to bore a corkscrew into our brains and shut us up. Despite all that, though, research has shown that retroactively winning the game in our heads by drawing one of our 43650345621 outs instead of that pesky basic land does not actually count as a win to the DCI.
Joshua, determined to improve his Limited game, presents an admittedly-disastrous triple-Coldsnap draft experience… and begs for your help. Where did it all go wrong? Where could Mr. Claytor have salvaged things? And what could be done with the resultant forty-five cards of shame? Come to the forums and share your views!
With a Standard rotation much closer than we’d perhaps like, Chris takes a timely look at the cards of Kamigawa that have passed us by. With a little re-evaluation, and maybe a kick up the rear from Coldsnap, are these forgotten gems now ready to shine on like crazy diamonds?
After four months’ absence, this is all I can muster. I’m really slipping. Must be all that time hanging around Tim Aten and bathing in a fountain of pure unadulterated apathy. I’ve already learnt better than to try and berate myself in the presence of The Master Himself, and without an avalanche of self-loathing I realized that my writing is completely bereft of content. But I’m assigned to a daily, so I have to try.
Last article, I wrote about the cost of Magic, specifically Standard. In the forums, the debate developed two sidetracks; the “you just hate dual lands” and “play Vintage, it’s cheaper in the long run.” The first sidetrack is just stupid — read the fu- err, fine article, I don’t hate the duals. As for the second sidetrack, well, let’s do the math…
I’m starting up a week off, capped off by Grand Prix: Hiroshima. Lord knows, I’ve got enough writing on my plate at the moment. The fact that my builds haven’t had actual battle testing irks me, so I’ll note that my next installment will cover a Top 8 Sealed deck helmed by myself. A little taste of victory enlivens the writer’s wit. (It has nothing to do with bragging. No, not in the slightest.)
