I am the legit worst RTR drafter of all time

I agree with these changes but disagree that Skywatch is "bad".

By the way, even if we take blue as a given, there is no reason to play basic Island. 5 blue sources is plenty given how late game most of the blue cards are, and Inaction Injunction should probably be cut in that case (the card is decent, but part of its strength is being able to "cycle" it in early to mid game).

wall.dec is nice afaik

I actually love wall.dec

I lost to a doorkeeper deck at the GP.

So, interesting comments. I ended up 3-1 for whatever that's worth. I ended up siding somewhat substantially for most games, taking out like Skywatches and Cremate and Battherhorn, putting in like the additional Injunctins and Deviant Glee and Lobber Crews. Some combination like that.

The deck was good. I dunno if I should have maybe just dropped blue completely, definitely would have been OK that way. But it was cheap to "splash" with the 3 guildgates. And injunction actually turns out to be pretty great.

Anyway I was happy with my first RtR experience.

I would just like to confirm that u/r aggro riding Pursuit of Flight is a real thing.

Just drafted as my creature base:

3x Gore House Chainwalker
2x Frostburn Weird
2x Nivix Guildmage
2x Goblin Electromancer
2x Splatter Thug
2x Stealer of Secrets

plus a few random cheap filler dudes, plus:

4x Pursuit of Flight

Ended up sailing to an easy 3-0 despite getting no access to any removal other than 1x Izzet Charm and 2x Traitorous Instinct.

Had several games that went as follows:

Turn 2: Gore House Chainwalker.
Turn 3: Pursuit of Flight. Attack for 5 in the air.
Turn 4-6: My opponent does things that involve not being able to deal with a 5/4 flier, and that's it.

Especially in what is a fairly removal-light format, a lot of decks have very few answers to this kind of open. Vs. decks that do (like u/w) avoid getting blown out by azorius charm/daring rescue by dropping dudes until they tap out to start making blockers, then suit up and go to the air. Even if they bounce it next turn, smashing for that much is still going to put them in a bad place.

The great part is that while you have to really prioritize chainwalkers and Rakdos Cacklers, a lot of the cards that are very good for you (Stealer of Secrets, Pursuit of Flight, Frostburn Weird, Clobberbrute) go really late.

In a weird way it almost feels like the arcane-milling deck from Kamigawa Limited: It's probably not a good idea to start out with the idea of drafting it, but if you see it coming along, you can take all the junk no one else wants and put it in a tournament-winning pile.

I doubt Frostburn Weird will continue to go late as the format is established. 4 is a "magic" toughness for a blocker in this format, and it's not like the thing is bad on offense either.

I got rolled by that red/blue deck in one of my first RTR matches. I'm not sure what to make of the format yet only being on my second draft, but is this a draw first format? Aside from Rakdos it's pretty slow and grinding, so I can see the extra card being valuable. Being the last one with a relevant card is a good way to win at limited.

It's going to depend a lot on your deck, I think. There seem to be a fair number of decks in the format that are very adept at staying ahead when they get ahead, but if they get behind, suddenly the matchup totally changes. Rakdos is the worst like this, but also u/w and u/r (can be) really tempo oriented and just work so much better on the play. u/w control and b/g can probably afford to start on the draw, but with so many of the other decks really, really wanting to play first, I don't really want to be the second one playing a creature with those decks, either.

My basic strategy has been to play first, and just make sure I'm packing card advantage to let me pull away in the late game. There's not much in the way of pure card advantage, but cards like Nivix Guildmage will let you pull way ahead in card quality, and basically anything with populate or dredge will make sure you're getting way more than one card worth of value out of your spells.

I think it'll continue to go pretty late. People are starting to realize its value, but the thing is, it's still pretty clunky on the casting cost if you're not in u/r, and u/w and r/b both have a strong amount of excellent two drops.

Just had the most epic experience in a scheduled six pack sealed event.

I looked at my pool and it was low on playables but big on bombs including Pack Rat, Cyclonic Rift, Mercurial Chemister, and two Explosive Impact. I had to add two Isperia's Skywatch and a Zanikev Locust, but I didn't see any other options so I saddled up with 18 land, an Izzet Keyrune, a Chromatic Lantern, and figured I would just let my bombs do the heavy lifting.

So, cut to the matches and I see my deck has 140 cards in it. Due to some kind of MTGO error, it put all the cards in my pool in my main deck, added an appropriate amount of land, and shuffled me up. An orc said I could ask for reimbursement, but they couldn't fix it now, I had to play every game 1 with the 140 card mess, then I could sideboard back to my real deck for games 2 and 3. He informed me that I could still play, it wouldn't affect my chances of getting reimbursed.

Well, screw it then. I started playing, and had a blast. Won game 1 in three of my four matches, twice with turn 2 pack rats going the distance, and once just purely by not getting mana screwed and getting the correct colors of mana and on-color cards despite having a 140 card five color deck (man, my opponent was stumped when he lost that one, as I've got five colors of mana on the board while beating him down with Bellows Liazrd, Golgari Longlegs, and Hussar Patrol).

Ended up going 4-0. Don't think I'll be applying for reimbursement.

Lol epic! +EV Sealed Release events for PTQ /GP practice are always good

lol **** wizards, get the $ back too

how they haven't built a real client in a decade despite buckets of money coming in is so tilting. then i remember only 3 sites had ever built working software with even more $ around to be had.

That should be an official format where you just have to play a big pile of random cards (and good to see pack rats is broken in that format too...I've played 3 drafts and lost just to that card in two of them)

Apply for reimbursement, don't be results oriented. You'll get double your prizes.

140 card deck goes turn 2 pack rat with a 50% success rate.

FFFUUUUU.jpg

I 2-2ed with a pretty great rakdos deck, including Pack Rat, earlier today. Was annoying. After doing some sealed deck, I really feel like Selesnya is good in that format.

I've received reimbursement once before (client dropped me and woulldn't let me rejoin the game) and was told via e-mail that the policy for reimbursement is to remove any prizes won in that event from my account, then return the amount of the entry fee, so it's exactly like you never signed up for the event.

So in this case, I'd actually lose packs by getting reimbursed. ^^

I have definitely been reimbursed in events where I won packs and not had them removed from my account.

I've also never had anything taken when reimbursed, no matter what I've won/opened.

Odd. Maybe I'll apply anyway, and just be up front about it and see what happens.

I have applied for and received reimbursement many times. The policy is that they will refund your entry minus any prizes you won in the event and you keep the cards you opened. They don't take back the prizes you won.

So if you enter a 4-3-2-2 for 3 packs+2 tickets, and win 2 packs from the event, they give you 1 pack+2 tickets.

Is there protocol on what to do when you see TSG at Bellagio?

game 1: I turn 1 centaur's herald, turn 2 packrat vs his UU board, he concedes.

game 3: lose to eLOLcutors with 22 life to his 4.

Anyone else going to GP Philly?

I think I undervalued those guys a bit at first, but they've turned out to be quite good. I have yet to win directly from them, but I've had a fair number of games where the board is stalled and they accumulate 3-4 counters, forcing my opponent to make poor desperation attacks and break the stall unfavorably.

When is Philly?