Dies to Removal

Every time nigga's play sealed, they complain and it always comes back to me telling you guys that you suck and you just need to get better or quit playing sealed.

If you don't enjoy it, you're wasting your time/money. If you want to play it and STILL bitch, you're just harassing everyone with your inane whining that nobody wants to hear.

Complaining never gets you anywhere but alienated.

I tend to do well in limited formats even with bad pools because of how awful other people are at it.

I have no doubt in my mind most games at a prerelease were decided by who played their big dragon first and most. The crowd is overwhelmingly new players, many of whom have never seen the cards or a card, and have no way to answer a 5/7 flying lifelink in their deck, if not sealed pool. Even the final rounds are mostly players who got paired well, and even the good players haven't played with the cards before, and many people get caught off guard by cards they would never play in a "real" sealed deck wielded by That One Guy who opened a Sarkhan and maindecked every copy of whatever iteration of Plummet we're on because the set is called Dragons of Tarkir so obviously you have to play all of the removal for dragon cards in your deck.

They made an entire set catering to people who really like dragon cards and you guys are acting like you're not going to hear a lot of people getting bad beats because "The Big Dagrin Ated Me to Death until I died" stories in a room full of people who really like dragon cards.

I have no doubt in my mind most games at a prerelease were decided by who played their big dragon first and most. The crowd is overwhelmingly new players, many of whom have never seen the cards or a card, and have no way to answer a 5/7 flying lifelink in their deck, if not sealed pool. Even the final rounds are mostly players who got paired well, and even the good players haven't played with the cards before, and many people get caught off guard by cards they would never play in a "real" sealed deck wielded by That One Guy who opened a Sarkhan and maindecked every copy of whatever iteration of Plummet we're on because the set is called Dragons of Tarkir so obviously you have to play all of the removal for dragon cards in your deck.

I've seen plenty of instances where a new player did great with a card in limited; therefore he has to stuff his constructed deck with them and expect the same results. It also applies for that one time that really really bad card that somehow won the game due to no one expecting it.

At my shop, the guy that won was playing no rares RG agro.

Unsurprisingly I also consider him to be the best player in Cali if not the west coast.

#skilgame

http://mtgcast.com/mtgcast-podcast-show ... dead-money

Did an interview with Australian Podcast "Wizards of Oz".

It's very easy to just go under all the dragons that people are playing. This set is VERY aggressive which probably lowers the skill threshold once you get to the point where people understand that, but with all new formats, in the interim, the players that do the best are gonna be the guys that understand how limited works and can, you know, leverage a skill advantage both through deckbuilding and playing.

Have you guys ever considered cataloging the amount of times LP name drops or references someone else to make a point, I think no joke it's about 92% of his posts

Speaking of RG, my one loss on Saturday's pre-release was just dumb. The guy pulled Atarka, Surrak, Dragon Whisperer, a bunch of big fatties, two Roasts, three Twin Bolts, Goblin Heelcutter, and two Draconic Roar. I wanted to flip the table.

It's very easy to just go under all the dragons that people are playing. This set is VERY aggressive which probably lowers the skill threshold once you get to the point where people understand that, but with all new formats, in the interim, the players that do the best are gonna be the guys that understand how limited works and can, you know, leverage a skill advantage both through deckbuilding and playing.

I'm sure your farts smell of rose petals.

Speaking of RG, my one loss on Saturday's pre-release was just dumb. The guy pulled Atarka, Surrak, Dragon Whisperer, a bunch of big fatties, two Roasts, three Twin Bolts, Goblin Heelcutter, and two Draconic Roar. I wanted to flip the table.

Oh, dude, you're just bad at limited. Sucks.

Have you guys ever considered cataloging the amount of times LP name drops or references someone else to make a point, I think no joke it's about 92% of his posts

Started doing it as a joke with friends, figured I'd extend it to online to see how long it went till someone noticed.

"As a joke"

My friend LP does it, and he's good at magic so it's ok.

My friend LP does it, and he's good at magic so it's ok.

Does he have a big dick?

My friend LP has a big dick, honestly I'm surprised you haven't heard of him yet. Best dick you've never seen on the west coast.

Speaking of RG, my one loss on Saturday's pre-release was just dumb. The guy pulled Atarka, Surrak, Dragon Whisperer, a bunch of big fatties, two Roasts, three Twin Bolts, Goblin Heelcutter, and two Draconic Roar. I wanted to flip the table.

Oh, dude, you're just bad at limited. Sucks.

I'm the worst.

I don't trust non-midnight pre-releases. You can't tell if that's a legit pool or they cheated, but sometimes people are REALLY bad at cheating. Back at the pre-release for Dragon's Maze an opponent hit me with two Boros Charms when he chose Gruul for his guild. Another time someone stuck M14 cards into his pool at the M15 pre-release.

Have you guys ever considered cataloging the amount of times LP name drops or references someone else to make a point, I think no joke it's about 92% of his posts

Started doing it as a joke with friends, figured I'd extend it to online to see how long it went till someone noticed.

Pretty sure I've said it multiple times before

This aussie podcast is great.

My friend LP has a big dick, honestly I'm surprised you haven't heard of him yet. Best dick you've never seen on the west coast.

It's so veiny!

My friend LP has a big dick, honestly I'm surprised you haven't heard of him yet. Best dick you've never seen on the west coast.

It's so veiny!

What would you call that color? Mauve?

This weekend I learned that Mythics still poison limited.Thanks Rosewater.

Atarka is unbeatable and just back breaking on T5 after T4 Explosive Veg. I felt bad every time I did it.

Well, isn't that just a function of a sealed prerelease? I mean 75% of games in my prereleases devolved into "who can grab their bomb first".

Besides, I don't think most of the dragon lords are beatable anyways.

I'll never understand the appeal of a format where Opening bombs >>>>>>>> Tight play.

Bombs are supposed to be swingy, though just having bombs won't guarantee wins. Everyone is guaranteed at least 6 rares out of their packs. Something out of that has to be playable.

My friend LP has a big dick, honestly I'm surprised you haven't heard of him yet. Best dick you've never seen on the west coast.

It's so veiny!

What would you call that color? Mauve?

Men don't use words like that.

I admit I'm trash at limited, but I'm trying to get better.

It's just not fun when it's a game of who can play their Mythic first. Sure, in six packs you'll often get one, but there is a huge disparity between Atarka and say, Risen Executioner. And I say that as a player who opened two copies of Atarka this weekend. It's also pretty ridiculous when someone opens three on colour mythics ( Ojutai, Narset and Ojutai Exemplars, yeah that happened lol).

Before you guys shoot me down, tell me how many answers there are to a resolved Atarka in the format, and how many answers there were to a resolved Ugin in Fate Reforged sealed? Both cards just win the game if you can survive to cast them. Turn five Atarka happened for me a couple times. Part of me loved it, part of me felt like a huge asshole. Same with Silumgar.

I'm trying to get better at limited. I like cube, but that's got a lot less luck involved (maybe draft has less than sealed in general?). I had like a 70% win rate across 5 events, but as mentioned, there were a lot more new players.

Just not sure how to get past the luck factor. I know Magic involves luck and it typically goes to the player who better knows what to do with their luck, but it's still hard to wrap my head around.

Saw somewhere that luck is probability taken personally.

As far as answering atarka, you should be maindecking plumet effects in your pool. Off the top of my head pinion feast and return to earth come to mind.

Cards that look bad need to be evaluated differently in the context of sealed. I have taken many a bomb with diplomacy of the waste. Most decks playing blue should being maindecking at least 1 counterspell.

I'm also certain that everyone who doesn't like limited also isn't sideboarding enough. One reason why I enjoy sultai a lot in khans/fate draft is that I usually end up with around 10 cards that I fully expect to be good in my sideboard across three rounds. I've boarded in everything from rotted mastodon and disdainful stroke to feed the clan, wetland sandbar and even taigma's scheming.

I nearly beat a deck with brutal horedchief, citadel siege, multiple ponybacks and anthems by boarding out of my solid Temur deck into a 5 color deck with atrocious mana because I knew my game 1 deck would just lose repeatedly and I needed to increase the variance to give myself a shot at winning.

I can tell you what to think, but you need to learn how to think. THAT is what will make you good at just about anything.

anthems

Return to Earth was only available in your 1 of Fate Reforged pack.

Enduring Victory, Pacifism, Surge of Righteousness, Contradict, Encase in Ice, Deathwind, Foul Tongue Invocation (Situation), Self Inflicted Wound... I think that'as all at common / uncommon.

A lot more answers than I thought there were. I admit that.

To be fair, even if you remove Atarka, it's already wrath'd your board.

The point isn't even what answers atarka. The point is thinking productively.

Another piece of advice is just boarding out creatures that line up terrible. If your opponent has multiple copies of that 2/4 for 3 green turtle thing(which is great btw), you should probably board out most if not all of your 3/2s.

If they're on all x/3s, douse in gloom is bad.

They have a bunch of instant speed removal? Reassess what your combat tricks are going to be doing or if you even want them.

Opponents super agro? Bring in all the two drops, cut some of the high end.

etc. etc. etc.

I have a feeling that if i can manage this trip, I'll be asking Kait a ton of questions about limited. What can I say? The man knows his stuff.

I'll raise the boy

I admit I'm trash at limited, but I'm trying to get better.

It's just not fun when it's a game of who can play their Mythic first. Sure, in six packs you'll often get one, but there is a huge disparity between Atarka and say, Risen Executioner. And I say that as a player who opened two copies of Atarka this weekend. It's also pretty ridiculous when someone opens three on colour mythics ( Ojutai, Narset and Ojutai Exemplars, yeah that happened lol).

Before you guys shoot me down, tell me how many answers there are to a resolved Atarka in the format, and how many answers there were to a resolved Ugin in Fate Reforged sealed? Both cards just win the game if you can survive to cast them. Turn five Atarka happened for me a couple times. Part of me loved it, part of me felt like a huge asshole. Same with Silumgar.

I'm trying to get better at limited. I like cube, but that's got a lot less luck involved (maybe draft has less than sealed in general?). I had like a 70% win rate across 5 events, but as mentioned, there were a lot more new players.

Just not sure how to get past the luck factor. I know Magic involves luck and it typically goes to the player who better knows what to do with their luck, but it's still hard to wrap my head around.

That Risen Executioner would be pretty scary with the zombie tokens from Rakshasa Gravecaller. Two cards, a creature to sacrifice, and I could have put 13 power and 15 toughness on the board. By itself, sure the Executioner is not as good as Atarka, but it's not meant to be run by itself. It also costs half what Atarka costs.

Combat tricks like Coat with Venom will kill just about anything. Discard effects can also get rid of things before you have to deal with them. Pacifism is a beautiful thing that stops almost anything as well. Or grab it from them with Lose Calmand beat them to death with their own monster. Powerful effects are worth splashing for, and an extra color opens up a lot of opportunities. One guy did a double take when I dropped a Plains alongside a Swamp and a Mountain, and he suddenly didn't know how to evaluate what I was up to. Hell, I saw one guy throw Islands into his deck to bluff counterspells.

I originally overlooked Secure the Wastes since I had enough to run R/B. I thought it over and included it in the deck along with two Plains. I cannot tell you how often those tokens came in handy, both as blockers and attackers to just go around anything. I took out an attacking Gurmag Angler with an instant speed token and Coat with Venom. And those 1/1 tokens came in handy for Exploit effects.

Magic has a very tangible element of variance to it. You can have all the outs in your deck, but you still have to actually draw them and have them available to use. Sometimes you have the Plummet to deal with Atarka, and sometimes you just die to the big monster.

Filthy Attarka.

We have a guy at our store that gets salty and leaves after taking his first loss at FNMS and such and I feel I've gotten a better understanding of tilt because of him.

People who tilt off like that feel that they deserve...something. Doesn't really matter what it is. Fair and balanced games. Equal distribution of lands and spells. that they can top deck but they're oppoennts can't. Whatever. All that. Specifics don't matter.

The point is that they seek something that they aren't entitled to. That and I think some people just have a misinformed idea of what probability actually is. I mean, you should here some of the logic people use for justifying and mulling certain hands. Weather they're right or wrong, the logic is usually just inane.

Like i said numerous times, expectations lead to disappointment. Which in turn leads to tilt.

The Game is its own reward.

Luck is just probability made personal.

Luck is just probability made personal.

I've read that somewhere...

It was in my Facebook feed shortly after Miami. I read it and took it to heart, especially after i pondered my Game 3 loss to my win and in. I had a 20% chance to win the game by flipping over any of the remaining Stokes or Dragons. It didn't happen. When one of my friends remarked that i had experienced some bad luck, i had to explain that I had a chance to win, that was it. Taking it personal was a waste of time. On the way home, i saw the quote in a meme or something and it resonated.

Someone keep an LP namedropping tally starting now.

At the WMCQ, I had exactly one turn to beat Gerry Thompson in our game 3 and got there with a lightning strike off the top. Spectators said I got lucky but we both engineered the game getting to that point. It's just magic yo. Shrug, shake hands, and move on with life.