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2 years ago ::
Jul 14, 2008 - 4:11PM
#1
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This thread is for discussion of this week's Limited Information, which goes live Tuesday morning on magicthegathering.com.
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2 years ago ::
Jul 15, 2008 - 12:20AM
#2
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You seem to forget about this article when you play your limited games, almost like your writing is an afterthought instead of a well-planned experiment. We would get so much more information if you remember to keep in tact what we would want to see as students of the limited environment.
Quit using the word "forget" as an excuse and give us the FULL SCOOP next time. You're a great player and should know better than to be so "absent-minded!"
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2 years ago ::
Jul 15, 2008 - 1:27AM
#3
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The draft multiplier seems like a valid concept. Obviously it gets higher the narrower and more selective the types of synergy in the format are. Thus Lorwyn, with colors and tribes, is more selective than Shadowmoor, but less selective than Coldsnap, which had a variety of cards you wanted lots of copies of. Coldsnap would probably have a very high draft multiplier. Ravnica Block, on the other hand, had synergy but fewer linear themes, and enough fixing that you could probably play your best spells even if they were different colors. I would guess it might have a relatively low multiplier.
In fact, I'm going to go ahead and suggest that sets with linear mechanics tend to have higher multipliers than sets with modular mechanics.
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2 years ago ::
Jul 15, 2008 - 4:13AM
#4
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still waiting for the promised draft walkthrought...
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2 years ago ::
Jul 15, 2008 - 6:38AM
#5
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The "Draft Factor"? It was the first thing that popped into my head. Kinda rolls off the tongue. Anyways, this article just really underlined why I love Shadowmoor (I've yet to get a taste of EVE). Aside from being able to totally screw up a draft and still be able to play it, you have so many options with each pick that it's just pure fun. And going mono colored never felt so good. I think the [card=Flame Javelin]mono colored hybrids[/card] may be a little stronger with the introduction to EVE, as more people are going to try to stick closer to a single base color, rather than an allied pair and possibly be thrown off. Obviously, the Power of Fire deck got weaker because less Power of Fires or Presence of Gonds. However, it gained Banishing Knack and some interesting Q'ers. The Lieges also dropped a little bit. Not that they're bad, there's just going to be less guys getting +2/+2.
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2 years ago ::
Jul 15, 2008 - 7:29AM
#6
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I can definitely see how drafting Shadowmoor Block might be less efficient than playing it Sealed, but I think that has more to say about how vastly improved the Sealed is rather than making any actual statements about Draft. This is a format where, if the hybrid symbols in your pool line up the right way, you can play all five colors using only one type of basic land and thus never be color-screwed. That makes a large portion of your pool potentially playable in a way that even artifact-heavy Mirrodin block couldn't quite achieve. Some cards will suffer for it (the two cycles of "if you pay both" spells*, the witches, and the hedge-mages), but when you open Oona, Queen of the Fae , Sapling of Colfenor , and Divinity of Pride and can run all three (because they're all black/x hybrids) that's just crazy -- and yes, I saw someone do exactly that during the Prerelease this weekend. *Bonus points to the R&D teams for making the Shadowmoor cycle all Sorceries and the Eventide cycle all instants. When my friends and I realized that last night we thought that was neat.
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2 years ago ::
Jul 15, 2008 - 8:00AM
#7
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I think it's very insightful to realize that there is a relation between the card pool for draft and sealed that varies with the set being played. Conventional wisdom is that draft decks are always more powerful, but really that does depend a lot on how big the sealed deck pool is and how important card synergy is. I don't think it will be very useful to try and nail down precise factor ratios for specific sets, but I think it's a useful concept if used broadly.
While the discussion of the detailed games was missed, there was plenty of meat to the article, both in terms of the draft multiplier and the object of having a core color for your draft deck that avoids the person feeding you for most of the draft. Normally you have to worry about a color pair, but with this set things are a little different.
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2 years ago ::
Jul 15, 2008 - 8:34AM
#8
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I don't understand what the purpose of determining the draft multiplier of a particular format is. Say you play a lot of sealed and play a lot of drafts and through experience are able to hone in on a pretty accurate range of draft multipliers. Congratulations, you have now approximately determined the power-level ratio of one format to another. Who cares? Does knowing this number somehow help you win more at either?
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2 years ago ::
Jul 15, 2008 - 9:05AM
#9
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- BCP5 Worldbuilding Lead
- I'll take Dreamblade for 200, Alex
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2 years ago ::
Jul 15, 2008 - 10:32AM
#10
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I think this has more to do with the power of Eventide than anything else. Compare the cycle of Shadowmoor 4CC "hill giants" with Noggle Bridgebreaker and Harvest Gwyllion . Retrace makes for repeatable board/card advantage (save Monstrify , which I no longer think is that good anymore). Eventide has good removal at common (Snakeform, Soul Reap, Puncture Blast, Unmake). Also, the EVE mimics are very synergystic with EVE cards; the more EVE you get, the more opportunity you have to take advantage of that. The nice thing about S-E sealed is that (at least for my pool) you had options not only for initial build but also for sideboarding. For example, one color (white, black) will be good at taking care of big things while another color (red, sometimes green) will be really good at taking care of lots of small stuff. Depending on your opponent's deck you can board in/out color removal suites to take care of your opponent's deck. I don't know if that's so true about draft; usually you try to focus your deck in draft rather than diversify.
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