This is how Sealed works, green enables the greedy goodstuff decks.
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Magic: the Gathering |OT| Guilds of Ravnica - We built this city on blocks of gold
- Thread starter SigmasonicX
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11-3-1 on the Pro Tour and you had to have the commentators tell you what the text on your cards says.
OP
OP
Pro Tour Guilds of Ravnica Top 8 Decklists
Mostly white decks splashing varying amounts of red, a Jeskai Control deck, and an Izzet Drakes deck, so all red. No Goblin Chainwhirler, but lots of Benalish Marshal.
I have to say, I really did not expect Heroic Reinforcements and Pride of Conquerors to see any play, let alone this much. Also, Hunted Witness and Rustwing Falcon.
Mostly white decks splashing varying amounts of red, a Jeskai Control deck, and an Izzet Drakes deck, so all red. No Goblin Chainwhirler, but lots of Benalish Marshal.
I have to say, I really did not expect Heroic Reinforcements and Pride of Conquerors to see any play, let alone this much. Also, Hunted Witness and Rustwing Falcon.
Hunted Witness is sticky. Sticky cards are often underrated.
The red-white deck doesn't seem crazy good, it's just that the metagame going in was ridiculously control-centric with everyone boarding around Izzet Drakes and not having good answers for wide boards and early threats as a result.
Which is funny, because if everyone had kept their ant-Golgari tech boarded in they'd probably be fine against Boros.
Which is funny, because if everyone had kept their ant-Golgari tech boarded in they'd probably be fine against Boros.
What's the deal with the progress bar on the bottom of Arena...?
There's a progress bar that's not connected to anything and it keeps going up when I win in regular Competitive Ladder.
There's a progress bar that's not connected to anything and it keeps going up when I win in regular Competitive Ladder.
The top 8 of a PT is not where you're supposed to look to get a meta snapshot. Limited makes up more than a third of the rounds played.
Wotc will publish standard records alone sometime during the day.
Wotc will publish standard records alone sometime during the day.
OP
OP
Decent mix of all archetypes but UBx control.
RW aggro decks of varying kinds did the best along w/ Drake decks.
Golgari, Jeskai and GW all put several copies into the top 23 as well.
Still not a perfect representation as limited would lead some lists that did okay in constructed not make day 2
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I only just realized there was a Pro-Tour this weekend. I just caught LSV's semi-final match and it was a hoot <3
Glad I caught it. Finals coming up soon.
As an aside, kind of weird that you've got "Red-White Aggro" and "Boros Aggro" facing off each other in the Top8. These decks need better names :(
Glad I caught it. Finals coming up soon.
As an aside, kind of weird that you've got "Red-White Aggro" and "Boros Aggro" facing off each other in the Top8. These decks need better names :(
the almost drop the card and reveal it was really what pushed that over the top as one of the best moments of all time in magic IMO
Dimir and Boros are generally considered the best places to be, but "Not Izzet" is a working gameplan for all the prerelease boxes.
Didn't have a choice it turns out (well, Selesnya was the other choice and I'd like to not have a 1/7 chance of getting a decent rare). Went Izzet and ended up 2-1. I'd have picked Izzet anyway since I think it has the highest chance of drawing something valuable. Of course, I got a Firemind's Research so that was great.
OP
OP
Rabiah Scale, part 1
* Kamigawa and Lorwyn/Shadowmoor are still unlikely to return, since they're unpopular even in recent market research.
* Kaladesh is middle of the road, which surprises MaRo.
* Alara's shards are more popular than Alara together.
* Amonkhet was popular, but people were bummed out by the ending. Finding a way to get back from blowing up the setting is a bigger issue with a return than any problem the audience had.
* Ixalan was popular early on, but lost a lot of it as the sets came out, showing people liked the idea but not the mechanical execution.
* Kamigawa and Lorwyn/Shadowmoor are still unlikely to return, since they're unpopular even in recent market research.
* Kaladesh is middle of the road, which surprises MaRo.
* Alara's shards are more popular than Alara together.
* Amonkhet was popular, but people were bummed out by the ending. Finding a way to get back from blowing up the setting is a bigger issue with a return than any problem the audience had.
* Ixalan was popular early on, but lost a lot of it as the sets came out, showing people liked the idea but not the mechanical execution.
Kaladesh being kinda "meh" is something I get. The planes I personally like usually have some sort of conflict baked into their identity that ties into the design. Innistrad is dark and foreboding. New Phyrexia is a hellacape. Kaladesh feels sort of at peace as a plane thematically. They didn't tie the authority/rebellion conflict to the identity enough for me to really jive with it. Upon resolution, the ruling class was simply deposed and not much else changed, it's the same technology utopia it was when thugs started. I guess it just never felt like anything was in danger there.
predicting tarkir will be similar, people loves more the clans than the broods.
It felt like they did the story in the reverse way they should have. They took well-realized three color groups and reduced them to watered down less versatile versions using the same name. Always felt like a failure to me. The original configuration was superior.
I think that if they take steps to factionalize Alara they could keep the "feel" of the shards. Maybe have the Clans attempt an uprising on Tarkir or something to get them back too.
I'd love to see both of them come back.
I'd love to see both of them come back.
Booooo, Kamigawa and Lorowyn/Shadowmoor are the only two blocks that I am legitimately bummed about missing during my hiatus. They feel more organically MtG than any block from Mirrodin forward. Ravinica as a setting is boring as fuck to me and I can't believe that there are three entire blocks for it. Tarkir or whatever is even worse.
Card mechanics should be designed around the setting/flavor/story and not the other way around..."we need to have all 10 color pairs in this block so GUILDS IT IS" is a shitty way to design the game.
Card mechanics should be designed around the setting/flavor/story and not the other way around..."we need to have all 10 color pairs in this block so GUILDS IT IS" is a shitty way to design the game.
Bottom-up and top-down approaches are both fine. I don't think I'd ever want to see the game where only one of those approaches is utilized.
We're not on the third Ravnica block because of bottom-up design, btw. They've returned to Ravnica because people love Ravnica and they wanted to end the Bolas story there. And because they returned to Ravnica they wanted to do two sets with a guild focus because that's what people expect from Ravnica.
Having missed a ton of sets, I'd love to visit some of them to see what they're all about mechanically. But new worlds are also fine. I'm a little confused as to why they worry about the story and how it works -- the storytelling is interesting, but I'd imagine just about everyone would rather the gameplay be the focus and fit the story to that. It's not like the story itself is actually interesting.
Meanwhile, ravnica is probably the most beloved plane of the bunch :v.
Dragon maze not withstanding.
It's very hard to play with India beyond aesthetics because it's a living culture is the problem you're seeing there.
Yeah solid point. It's probably best to stay away from living cultures then.
DOM sold like fucking gangbusters, we're going back for sure
I'm more interested in New Phyrexia/Mirrodin next time.
Theros return would be cool 'cause we'd probably get Elspeth back. No way she stays dead. Maybe spin that into a return to Alara, she goes back to find Bant on the ropes after the merging.
I say we push it in the other direction. Make the next set about 1980's France.
Ravnica was really groundbreaking when it came out, and it is very easy for players to see themselves in a guild, probably even more than just one color. They did a really good job getting the personalities of those right.
But fuck that, go back to Lorwyn you cowards
But fuck that, go back to Lorwyn you cowards
Fiora is a fine plane, but I'm not sure if I completely agree with Maro's take.
Its strong identity on the "Politics" theme (both mechanically and creative) is its strength, but mechanically that would be much harder for it work in a standard-legal set. And planes are at their best when the mechanics and creative just perfectly together.
But Fiora without its strong politics theme just sorta end up feeling like a guildless Ravnica to me.
So it's not really a plane I really want a standard legal set for.
Its strong identity on the "Politics" theme (both mechanically and creative) is its strength, but mechanically that would be much harder for it work in a standard-legal set. And planes are at their best when the mechanics and creative just perfectly together.
But Fiora without its strong politics theme just sorta end up feeling like a guildless Ravnica to me.
So it's not really a plane I really want a standard legal set for.
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