Magic is similar to poker, you have hot and cold streaks, though there is maybe more skill than luck in magic.

Sometimes you will end up in the same colors as both your neighbors because of the way the packs run, your deck is ****, and you lose round 1. The problem with 1 $50 deposit is its basically 4 buyins.

4-3-2-2's seem vv bad for going infinite, if you win and didnt pick any cards worth significant amounts of tickets, you didnt gain anything, just broke even. You need some good profits to make up for round 1 losses.

i thought i already posted this but

4322 drafts are almost impossible to go infi unless there are a ton of money cards

constructed and sealed decks are much easier to break even and can make up for what you lose in drafts.

you need to make sure that you get good value when selecting sealed decks and you can profit nicely from them.

edit:to add that sealed decks obv have a much higher variance than drafts

4322 nix tix TTS drafts are easy to go infinite, but defniitely not in ACR.

All right, so everything seems to be working. I've played about 10 games with the 10th edition precons (some these players are LOL bad), and I feel comfortable with the interface.

I just have one last question: If/when I don't want to play anymore, how hard will it be for me to unload my tix and cards for actual cash?

Not very. Sell cards/packs to CardBuyingBot and CardBuyingBotX where X = 1 through 9. Sell tix to us for the going rate (about .94/ticket now) for Paypal, FTP, or Stars!

How many different bots are there?

Couldnt you just arbitrage between the different bots?

Kind of an embarrassing draft. I was trying to force Naya off the bat but had to audible into blue since it was open.

Is this deck pretty bad, yes. That being said I wanted to get opinions on running the one armadillo cloak and the two RU3 4/4s with only the two non basics and two kaleidostones.

Also wasn't sure how good worldly counsel is, I kind of feel like i should have played it in hindsight to help me get to my bombs like the sledge.

Thoughts?

I think playing Child of Alara is kinda dumb.

Play 1 forest and 1 mountain +naya panorama in your manabase imo, the sledges and thrashes are worth it.

After shopping for opinions this seems to be the consensus. Just an oversight by me.

All right, so I finally start my first draft. Here is the deck I drafted. I know it could be better. What changes should I make?

Wow, that's extremely hard for me to see your pics. Normally you can click on picture to blow it up a little but its not working for me.

I'd probably get another land in there, 16 with the fetch land and no border post is a little light for my taste.

I can't really see every card in your SB but it looks like you are playing every playable.

All right, I cut out a lot of the extraneous parts of the picture. Can you see it now?

I'm playing 1 borderpost (g/w), 1 obelisk (RGW), and 1 panorama (g/w), in addition to 8 forest, 4 mountain, 3 plains. I didn't really know what to cut for the 17th land. Also, since most of my deck is 2 and 3 drops, I figured I could go a little lightish. I dunno though. I usually force UWB or UWG, so this is the first time I've played RGW.

ahh ok yeah i can see it better. Didn't notice you had a border post, 16 land was fine then.

I kind of like lapse of certainly in your deck, epically if you're on the play. That can be a sick turn when you deny them their T4 play after putting a couple threats out.

Oh snap, anyone see the new rules changes with M10?

Biggest one is that combat damage no longer uses the stack. Mogg fanatic is ****ed.

Yeah, I saw them. Mogg Fanatic returns to how people played it in the first place, for the record. There was no "stack" in Tempest.

Anyway, this takes more skill out of the game, as usual. Wizards continually does this with set design and now rules changes - they don't want anything too confusing lest they scare off new people. Meanwhile, pros have less and less to work with and skill plays a smaller and smaller part in the games.

weak, same with getting rid of mana burn

These changes are nuts. Reading about all of them and thinking about playing a game makes my head hurt.

On a side note there were some cool cards in the article. Notably Ball Lightning is coming back, there's a cool 3GG 2/2 deathtouch Creeping Mold guy, and the new duals look pretty strong (cipt unless you control x or y).

I have to say I'm extremely turned off of magic right now. One thing I really, really, really (see: really) enjoy is being able to outplay people via complex combat steps.

This seems extremely dumbed down. Science damn you wizards!

+1

meh its pretty obv wizards wanna make mtg easier for beginners, im not sure how skillbased the game will be w the new rules

btw i dont play vintage but mana drain must be even more insane w/o manaburn. strictly better counterspell now heh

All of the rules changes make sense and do make the game much more intuitive. Battlefield is an absolutely ******ed term though and I hate it.

about the combat phase: It makes sense from a flavor point of view and it makes the game easier to learn. However wizards seems to think that it's entire player base is mentally ******ed. It's not that difficult to figure out how combat works. A new player isn't going to instantly quit the game if someone sacrifices mogg fanatic after damage is on the stack. This is something that is so ingrained in the game that changing it is a mistake. I disagree about it taking a lot of the skill out of the game. I honestly can't think of the last time when someone has make a big mistake or I made a meaningful play after damage was on the stack that couldn't have happened otherwise.

I'd say overall i'm fine with the changes, not too thrilled or too upset.

I don't like these changes much.

There are so many 'tricks' that do nothing now, like Mogg Fanatic (or Qasali Pridemage, Fulminator Mage, Thopter Foundry). Basically every card with a sacrifice effect becomes way worse.

Conversely Giant Growth effects become a fair bit better. Previously if you blocked a 3/3 with three 1/1s, you could only save one with a Giant Growth, now you can save all three.

Not being able to assign non-lethal damage to multiple creatures is a bit annoying as well, like when you have a post-combat Pyroclasm / Volcanic Fallout to play.

I don't think they are some devastating blow to the game but really it wasn't broken or even confusing before, and it was fun, so why change it?

i dont get it... how can you save them all?

The attacker chooses which order to put the 1/1s in as part of the declare blockers action.

You cast Giant Growth on the 1/1 that's first in line for the damage.

The first blocking creature in line is a 4/4, so lethal damage is not assigned to it by a 3/3 attacker, so no further damage may be assigned to any other creature, and all the blockers live.

Why would you block a 3/3 with 3 1/1's and then save one of them with Giant Growth to begin with?

Why wouldn't you just block with a single 1/1 and cast Giant Growth on him?

Though I'm sure a different example can be concocted, I suspect the effect of this rule change on GG effects is not that big.

Like... Say the guy is attacking with a 3/6 and you block with 3 1/1's and GG one of them. Before, your opponent can kill 2 1/1's and now he can't kill any. But how many tourney viable creatures have power/toughness ratios like that?