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Questions for LR 534 Q&A Episode!

🕑 Added 2020-03-05 02:50:06 +0000 UTC

Comments

RJ Urbance

Oh jeez, well my original line of questioning was highlighting the general fatigue in the community at the end of 2019 and how people were dealing. Then the Great Pandemic and Isolation of 2020 happened. "That escalated quickly" ...and Marshall you are there in Seattle the epicenter. Hope all is well, and you and your loved ones are sheltering safely. Keep up the great limited content, we all will need our great MtG creators to keep us sane while in lock down.

Harry

Most underrated cube cards (Golos notwithstanding)? Building a four colour unpowered cube (no white) and I’m interested in what your favorite sleeper hits are!

Jeppe Birknes

Hey! Long time listener, first time caller. You are awesome. I play casually and I don’t normally advance to more than platinum on Arena (in ranked drafts). But I also do not spend much more than maybe 200$ a year on Arena even though I to some extent prefer best of 3. Of course climbing the ranks take up much time but I nevertheless find myself wondering whether I should try harder. I am not at all focusing on going optimal, but this February I have won enough gems back as to have made more than 20 drafts (half of them best of 3) for the cost of maybe 4-6 ranked drafts. I feel like that is pretty good but wonder if I should not use this as a metric to assess my skillset, because Arena is just blatantly cheap compared to MTGO. Any inputs welcome. Thank you.

William Gross

Do you think there will ever be a Mobile version of Arena and if there was would you play it? Or would you say Magic too complicated to reasonably be playable on a small touch device?

Ryan Glinski

Luis is going to be part of the Rivals league this season. I was wondering what the pace of play is going to be, will there be regular tournaments? Is there a way to watch the matches? Best of luck and show Matt Nass who's boss.

Mike Pierce

Arena question! I draft a ton, and so for the first time ever, I have the cards to play most of the tier 1 standard decks... But it feels like there's nothing to shoot for... I feel like arena is missing the idea of a tournament or qualifier or something. What goals can I seek in standard? Is grinding ranked B01 games to reach mythic the only competitive goal to chase? When I played paper standard back in the day, I could always hope to win a PTQ and foster the dream of spiking a spot at a pro tour. Arena feels like it's missing this goal progression. Huge fan, thanks guys!

Andrew Szukalski

With the growing presence of Arena, and the issues with Bot drafting, can you draft too much of a good thing? A quick example: In my first Arena Theros draft, I was solidly black (3 mire's grasp, a hateful eidolon, a final death, and some filler) going into pack 3. Then a string of 5 consecutive mire's grasps came in. I took each one and attempted to go mono-black but only finished 2-2 because despite all of my removal, my only "finisher" ended up being 3 underworld dreams, which didn't match up well against big green animals and escape cards. So my question is, how many mire's grasps (or equivalent really good card) is too many, and how do you know when to back off drafting them? Thanks for all the amazing content! PS. Extra thanks to Luis and the use of the soundboard. The two cool dudes intro is one of the best things to happen on the show.

Misha Colbourne

Hi Marshall and Luis! I have often heard that Avacyn Restored is regarded as the worst limited set of all time, but not having played it myself, I was wondering whether you could explain why exactly it has earned such a reputation. What was it about the set that made it so bad for limited?

Jason McMullan

Question for both of you about human drafts on Arena: If the devs could get one of these two options working this year, not both, which would you pick? And why? A: Draft pods where you join a queue, wait for it to fill, then have a limited amount of time to make each pick before the system automatically picks a card at random. You draft your entire deck with this pod and must stay connected and attentive during the draft if you want to choose all of your picks. B: Asynchronous drafts where each pack has been seen by humans and each missing card was taken by a human, but there is no pod of people you are drafting with and no timeout issues. You can stop drafting in the middle, come back later, and make your next pick. I think both systems have some clear benefits and drawbacks and I'm interested to hear what you think.

Brandon Plemmons

Marshall, what kind of deck did you draft in the Grand Prix? I plan on attending magicfest Charlotte in a couple months.... it will be my first one! Any pro tips, pointers, etc that I should know before I go?

Daniel Macaluso

What is your favorite deck you ever drafted? Mine is when I was able to pick a Worldknit in Conspiracy draft.

RJ Urbance

I asked this question before, but I'll try to be more concise. When you get exhausted by content creation, do you have methods to recharge? I turn to contrarian authors to sharpen my brain cells. E.g. Nassim Nicholas Taleb (economics / philosophy - "Fooled By Randomness") and Scott Adams (humor / failure / personal growth - Dilbert and "How to Fail at Almost Everything..."). Hang in there, we value your contribution to our daily lives!

Olle Öman

People in my weekly draft group are very talented. One thing I have been thinking about is that they after the draft can tell to a pretty good degree what colors people at the table were drafting. How do they reach these conclusions. How do you learn it, is it worth learning and is it worth thinking about while drafting?

Ryan

What’s your favourite Sealed format of all time? What makes a great sealed format?

Max Brett

Have either of you tried drafting conspiracies in Cube and if so, what is your conspiracy power ranking and which ones complete with the P9?

NicolaiBolas

What is one non-magic life goal that you are currently working on?

James Bozek

Marshall what is it like to work with the GOAT in LSV?

Ed Stackler

Two quick draft q's, in case either interests you fellas: First, how do you think about the five-drop slot? Do you hold it to a higher standard or look for a particular function for it (depending on whether your deck's more control or aggro)? and 2) How do the deckbuilding demands of Bo1 and traditional draft decks differ?

Andrée

You did an episode way back where you talked about buying your first condo and not evaluate your progress game to game but overtime. This was so good that I have listened to it several times and even shared it with non magic players. So my question is if you have plans to revisit that topic?

Cory Enriquez

If you could top down design any TV show or Movie to an MtG set, what would you choose? It is completely off brand, but I would be down for something along the way of Firefly/ Serenity

Dan Kanivas

This question is for Marshall. From Twitter, we know that you beat two(!) decks in a row at GP Reno that had both Ashiok and KBTSG. What was your strategy to defeat bombs like these with your deck? Thank you to you and Luis for all you do for the Magic community!

Ben Clifford

I've never quite grasped counter spells in limited. How can I tell when I should play a permanent 2nd main vs when I should leave open a counter?

Gene Chandler

Magic is a game with a great deal of variance, it’s why we love it. But it’s also something that can really eat at you. When you spend months testing and preparing for a big event like GP Reno and don’t do well how do you let yourself not be discouraged by the things you couldn’t control and re-center yourself for the next event?

Andaho

What is the most interesting dining experience you've had? Can be a new food, a cool restaurant, your fellow diners or friends, etc.

TS

Hello! What's the best way to keep track of the cards you've taken so far while drafting? Thanks!

David Keeton

My wife and I love your show, thanks for helping us enjoy our shared hobby even more! I find that I rarely deviate from “safe” picks or strategies for fear of having a totally non-functional deck. Decks I make feel very boring and average, and think that not only I am missing out on win percentage points by playing it so safe, I’m also missing out on fun play experiences offered by less conventional decks. My question: how should I evaluate when it’s correct to “go for it” in the draft or deck construction portion? And how do you personally factor fun into the equation?

Toni Mohr

Hello sirs! I have a younger co-worker who loves Commander, and we talk about it all the time. I want to get him into Limited, but if he's used to drawing eight cards a turn and counterspelling everything I don't know how to sell it. Any advice is much appreciated!

mugenkokoro

Howdy guys! Marshall, I hope you had fun courtside at the Kings game the other night! My question is about a topic near and dear to your hearts: burritos! I started making my own breakfast burritos as meal preps and then freezing them, and it’s been incredible. But two questions: 1. Do you have any burrito folding techniques or tips? It’s the toughest part about making them. 2. What are your ideal breakfast burrito ingredients? (I think Luis has answered this before but I forgot) Love the show, thanks for the hundreds of hours of awesome content over the years. —Matt in St Paul

Santino Maher

Hey guys, love all your content and the work you do, even got to draft with you once at GP Sydney marshal. Anyway my question is, how do yous feel about white in theros limited? Does it seem to be a higher pick choice apposed to previous recent sets where it has been a flop. Why is this? Cheers

Ryan Chen

I still feel like I need your opinions on the very important discussion: If you stack a lasagna on top of another lasagna (both baked to completion), is it one lasagna or two?

Sean Kelly

If WOTC decided to end the ReserveList, and remaster the sets chronologically: How would you make the sets fun in limited? And would constructed be fun if there was a "Time Machine" format that only allowed the cards from the pool of reprints. Essentially the Standard of 1994, and then 1995, etc.

wantondevious

My 12 year old son Elliot hoped you would do an episode on side-boarding for Limited, but right now he'd like to know when to take a hard counter to a specific type of card such an anti-flying, anti-enchantment , etc. Would you take them above playable filler that might make the cut.

Jordan Selesnick

Hey Marshall and Luis! Any tips on how to get your feet wet into the industry of game design?

Thomas Cuff

Pointed a bit more at Marshall; going back to Throne of Eldraine, I recall you being fairly warn out Eldraine limited rather quickly, and I shared the same sentiment. What do you think it was that caused this feeling? Because when I look at the set, the cards/mechanics were sweet. It didn’t feel bomb-y, but whenever I’d finish a draft at fnm and get to the games, it felt lackluster despite playing out what looked like good limited games.

Spencer St. James

Dear Doctors Limited, I find myself questioning my attachment to this game as of late. After far outstripping my friends' Interest in this game, I proceeded to try out a few GPs and local tournaments (limited only; I don't have the funds or patience to keep up with constructed). However, I've had a dreadful run of opening mediocre-at-best pools and burning out on Day 1 every time. I know my sample size is small, but how do you combat that sensation that you're just not lucky enough to compete on any meaningful level of the game?

Jeremy Church

I have been loving TBD draft! I feel that Wizards has been knocking it out of the park over the past year or so with super fun draft sets. My draft experience greatly increased a little over a year ago due to me finding an LGS that does a draft every FNM. So my question is, with the increase in quality of sets how has card evaluation changed over the past couple years? A couple more questions: Sometimes it has been correct to play more than 40 cards in this set. Does that apply in sealed too? Also, has this ever happened in any other sets? Was there a deck in an older set that needed more than 40 card? Battle of Wits?

Grayson

How do you two feel about rares that are extremely strong in draft but see little-to-no play in Constructed? I have gotten a little fatigued by recent sets because rares like Kiora Bests the Sea God are almost win buttons, and yet they don't seem to have much relevance in constructed formats, so it just feels like a card that exists to make limited less interesting.

Professor Miner

Hello, I am a Magic: The Gathering judge in training and I'm aiming to become an L1 within the next month. I am mostly going to be judging at FNM's and Pre-releases at my local game store, and I was wondering if I could get some advice. Are there any things that you guys find annoying or otherwise negative relating to judges at Regular REL events? I ask so that I may avoid those things and hopefully make my local Magic community better because of it. Thanks and I love the show, Patrick

DLP

My local cube group is of the opinion that the Conspiracy card "Backup Plan" is the best card ever printed in cube. As a reminder, this card gives you a super-mulligan where you draw two seven card hands and keep one, every single game. They think if you're drafting vintage cube and see one, you should pick it over a Mox, Sol Ring, even Black Lotus. I disagree. What do you think? (My Analysis -- which I don't expect you to read if you pick this question, but I'd be happy if you did -- follows.) Their reasoning is that the few percentage points of free equity you get from is worth more, due to the 100% consistency, than the potential of having a Black Lotus draw. I'd much rather be able to draw Black Lotus than draw the better of two hands that don't have Black Lotus, because it's a tremendous headstart that can allow me to beat draws I could never beat otherwise. Who do you think is right?

HighContrast

I don't know if you are taking non-limited questions but I saw that Luis had a perfect run in the Arena tournament with Temur Adventures!! What does he think of the deck and the matchups? Was there any good stories from the perfect run?

Matt Cromartie

Other than Magic, what games (video, board or card games) did you love playing growing up? What's your second favorite strategy game now?

Michael Vredevoogd

How do you think the rare-drafting of bots on Arena affects the viability of different types of decks? For example, is the 5-color good stuff deck just weaker on Arena because you are unlikely to get passed rares in pack three? For context, GRN bots let players see an average of 5.6 rares/mythics per draft (5th copy protection was added after GRN), but in THB it's 4.02 per draft (on average you only see one rare/mythic that you didn't open).

A.J. Frank

Hey Marshall and Luis, thanks for everything you do. My question is, have you both left Arena draft behind until they implement human drafts? I know you'll both do a handful when the set is new, but otherwise unless I'm mistaken you both go to Magic Online for your drafting needs. What would need to happen for bot drafting to keep your interest?

John Hitchings

What was the most fun/interesting limited archetype you’ve ever played that just didn’t quite “get there”, and what cards or kind of card would you design to make it awesome?

Shivam Bhatt

I've been drafting for a long time, and I find that i'm most comfortable with aggressive and midrange strategies. One thing i've never been able to figure out is Control. How do you know you're in a control deck? When in the process of a draft do you figure this out? And once you do, what is the general feel of cards you're looking for? When i think control, i basically think walls, counterspells, and then some big dumb sea monster to finish the job eventually.

Nicholas Frega

What “speed” do you think is best for a limited format? I imagine it’s somewhere between Zendikar (too fast) and Rise of the Eldrazi (too slow), but what speed is best?

Andy Nash

How highly do you count synergies like flicker of fate + dreadful apathy or final flare + portent of betrayal? Does the expensive combined mana cost lower the value or are the cards good enough on their own?