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schneko]Hi Folks,

I have a question about how I should proceed with regards to adding cards to my collections via leagues.

I'm currently playing my second league in 9th...and I suck.. think I have a good pool but screwed due to mana and stupid mistakes...still learning a lot.

Now here is my question:

with regards to constructed games (longterm) in which league should I participate?

1. Staying in 9th
2. Fully released sets (i.e. Chk + Bok + Sok) you should need
3. Non fully released set (i.e. Ravnica + Guildpact) you'll need

I want to add cards to my pool via league to have the opportunity to play against decks on the same level, to improve card pool and playing skill.

Tournaments are not good for me because of time lack.

Would drafting be an alternative? How long does a draft usually takes?

I wouldn't suggest playing Chk/Bok/Sok leagues for building your card base. The cards will rotate out of standard in october, and it sounds like you don't want to go into playing Extended any time soon.

Ravnica block has many good cards that will be staple playables in Standard for a year and a half. Note that Ravnica block League pools are very complicated to build because of all the multicolor cards. But it's good practice and you can always ask for help on these boards. Note that Dissension is released on May 30th, and that Release Leagues will start on June 1st. Release leagues are one week long, pay 2x prizes and will give you a participation Avatar (Momir Vig for Dissension).

9th is the best league for beginners, since the card interactions are easier and the decks are usually easier to build. However, the average card quality is usually lower than in the Expert sets.

I wouldn't advise you to doing drafts until you are pretty confidant in your playing skills and your knowledge of the set. If you go rare-drafting, you can usually pick up 5-6 rares out of your 3 boosters, but you can count on being eliminated in the first round. Even if you don't rare-draft, the competition is very fierce and you shouldn't expect any success in your first drafts. Note that drafts are single elimination. The draft portion takes about 20 minutes, and if you lose in the first round, the whole thing will be over in a little over an hour.

To sum that up, my advice would be to either play another 9th league, or wait for Dissension to arrive and try a Release League to see what Ravnica Block Leagues are like. If you need more advice on Limited play, just post in this wrote:

DoomGoblin]Hmm.. Thinking about this the ability to jump in during the last week with the same amount of cards does seem unfair. Lets see... I can play with the mediocre cards I got from my first few packs, or wait until I can put together a decent deck with a wider range of cards. Then maybe I can play 2 colors instead of 3, or I will have the removal cards to beat that jerk who opened (insert fav. bomb) in his first pack. Also if I play all my games in the final week I will avoid losing to said jerk twice since the system only lets you play each person once a week. Yep. I think I'll be waiting until week 4 to get my games in from now on, and maybe practice in solitaire or casual. I think other ppl caught on to this because I'm seeing a ton of ppl with 0 games played, until week 4 of course.

Overall I think that's just a bad idea and I would advice against that:
- other people you will play against will also have a week 4 deck: you have no absolute advantage against them.
- you have no guarantee that your week 4 deck will have developped as a strong deck. It happens to start a league with strong results in week 1 and 2 and suddenly the deck does not evolve good while the other decks improve dramatically.
- building the best week 4 deckfrom your pool is not the easyest thing. You have many cards to choose from, giving you many possibilities (good for sideboard options) but also giving you many opportunities to make the wrong choice. Unless you are a god at deckbuilding you are likely to have worst result in week 4 agaisnt the best players
- as Hamtastic said, the percentage of games played by the very good players in week 4 is much higher than in the first weeks, leading to a worse match up. 2 reasons:
1- some people who have bad results drop from the league (they don't complete their 20 games)
2- even those players with average results will not play Tie Breakers, because tey don't need them (what reason for trying to reach the rank 65 instaed of 128 if you get the same prize?), while the best players will be camping and racing 24/7

The last reason is more psychological and may not apply to you. I think you get much more fun in building your deck and making it evolve from week to week. If you concentrate everything on 1 week and play your 20 games in a rush, then you are more likely to be stressed (how to avoid to play those undefeated people that are camping, I can't lose tis match or I'm on a 0-6 streak, etc...) and not get the same enjoyment of your league.

Just my thoughts of course, but I prefer to share them befor you try that strategy. After this it's your wrote:

Each league runs for a minimum of four weeks, though some leagues may run longer (Release leagues in particular).

Not sure what you talk about here. Does it really exist? Instead I would say something like "Each league runs for 4 weeks, though some leagues (release leagues) may last shorter"

Can I trade my League Cards?
No. The system protects you from completely hosing your sealed pool by trading league cards away. They won't even show up when people view your binder.

I would add: "Once the league is finished, cards become normally tradeable and will show up in your binder"

I'm tied with someone what place do I get?
If you're tied with another player(s), you are both rated at the lowest number. For example if you and 2 other people are tied for 8th, the league standings will show: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 8th, 8th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th ... 128th

Should read 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 8th, 8th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th ... if I'm not mistaken. Also to make it more clear I would say "if you and 2 other people are tied for 6th"

Can I save my league matches to replay them later?
Yes!

Too lazy for checking now, but there are some important steps to not miss in the process. One that comes to my mind is log out but leave the client open before manipulating mygames. You might want to check the original thread article to see the other warnings... if you are less lazy than me

Thanks for setting up the FAQ it's a useful reference to send people to and I use it quite often.