The Planeswalker's Stronghold

So I managed to not attend a Prerelease even, and some how I survived. I don't even feel like I really missed out on anything. My Sealed skills have been so poor for so long, I mostly saved myself the frustration of watching my pool laugh at me all day long. I've been giving the card selections for the new set a bit of thought. I've found that I can get a un/common set for about $35. Given that the one playset I know I want will run $20, this seems like a good way to go, and all but eliminates the need to open packs, or attempt to draft the set. In other words, for the cost of one playset, and one draft, I can have the whole set. Seems good. I'm also thinking about doing the release event, but will most likely come down to what Tater wants to do. The draft could be a lot of fun for us both, and the promo card seems like a good addition to both of our collections.What ever excess cards we happen to get, could simply go to tater's box, as fodder for what ever deck...

I titled this article this way, because for the life of me I can't remember what this set is called. After all the hype about who would win the war, and what this set would look like, I don't even know what it's called. I find that this is really indicative of my overall attitude about this set: I just don't care. I really just don't care. There is hardly a handful of cards which even peek my interest. The cycle of Praetors seem kinda cool and swingy, but I think I can pick most of them up in trade. The fact that 60% of the Mythics in the set are Legendary (Karn) sends a clear signal that my suspicion about the next block will be Legendary matters is correct. Batterskull seems like a great equipment, but Standard not withstanding, is not worth it's current price. If Stoneforger Mystic rotates, it should drop like a rock. I really think there is a good case to be made that Stonforger will be reprinted in M12, but nothing definitive. The Sword is the last piece ...

That's right folks, no typo there. I used a $25 store credit to pay my entry, and despite not opening any super chase cards, I still managed to open or trade for $32 in cards specifically on my shopping list. Of course, that is in addition to the $11 in trade-bait rares I added to my binder, and the more then 70 un/commons for my personal collection. This was a definitive win value wise, unfortunately that did not translate to match results. It has long ago come to my attention that Sealed is not my format, having not produced a winning record since the release of Xth edition. Yes really , it's been that long. My seemingly limitless lack of skill, coupled with my need to maximize my value/cost relationship of my Magic efforts, I tend to not play in these events unless there is a clear value added. This most often comes in the form of the special foil promo card distributed for participation. The card of this event, Hero of Bladehold, having a $10 value and already being on my...

In the new set M11, the five original planeswalkers, Jace Berlin, Ajani Goldmane, Garruk Wildspeaker, Chandra Nalaar, and Liliana Vess all have been reprinted along with two new cards that go with each planeswalker. If you can get all three cards in play, things will get crazy. Lets see an example: Turn 2. Play Ajani's Pridemate. Turn 3. Play Ajani's Mantra. Turn 4. Gain 1 life because of The Mantra, the Pridemate gets +1/+1 (3/3) . Play Ajani Goldmane. Use his +1 ability to gain 2 more life, Pridemate gets +1/+1 (4/4) . Turn 5. DO IT AGAIN! Like I said, things get crazy. There is one card in this set that looks very impressive. Oh, what the heck THIS LITTLE SUCKER IS AWESOME!!! Meet the Miotic Slime (4/4) . When it dies, It splits down the middle and makes two little 2/2's! And then when they die, yes, they split down the middle and make itty-bitty little 1/1 slime's!I also love the Vengeful Achron. A 7/7 flier for 4 WWW? Plus a kick butt ability that redirects dam...

Morning folks, and welcome back to our discussion on repack drafting. In our last installment, we discussed the creature aspect of the draft in some details. I promised to next discuss the concepts of interacting with your opponent, and in this format that means removal. I briefly touched on the fact that this format tends to be very removal lite. The reasons for this tend to become clear, when you examine the common level removal across popular formats. The simple fact is there is not a lot of removal at the common level, and what there is tends to be very good, and often "chase" level cards. To illustrate this point lets take a look at the common removal in M10. Red and black tend to be the best options for removal, and here we find the following. Assassinate- conditional, spot Doom Blade- conditional, spot, chase Tendrils of Corruption- spot, dedicated Lightning Bolt- spot, chase Seismic Strike- spot, dedicated So these five, good removal options account for about 5% of a...

Repack Drafting originally finds it's inspiration from a conversation years ago. The topic was Final Exams at great schools of Wizardry, like Urza's own Tolarian Academy. The idea was that students would have participated in a draft exam with spells from through out the known multiverse. It also turns out that this offers a wonderful budget alternative to the drafting concept. The cost of a repack draft ends up being roughly the same cost as a new pack of retail product, but nets you a drafted collection of 45 cards. Now because of these two factors, this draft environment becomes completely different than what most mages are used to. First off, Rare Drafting as a concept is out. Secondly, block drafting strategies are out the window too. There simply is not enough valuable cards, or single block cards to make either of these a viable option. Beyond that, most of your general draft strategies will still apply. You want to keep most of your drafting to two colors. Draft decks of...

Like everyone else on Tuesday, I spent some free time playing around on the new mothership . All in all, I am pretty impressed, although I did find the new navigation a little hard to figure out. I think minor learning curve adjustments should settle that out. One thing I was most impressed with is the new draft simulator. I applied my patent pending draft tech to the simulation and got some remarkable results. I was able to draft $72 in binder worthy cards. I win! Who cares at this point if you scrub out in the first round? I walked with 2 pain lands (both in colors), 2 relentless rats, pithing needle, Squee , Beacon of Immortality , and Windborn Muse, and nine other cards worth a $1 trade value or more. I was able to build a some what clunky BWU deck featuring a number of good creatures for limited like Nantuko Husk, Festering Goblin, Phantom Warrior, Tundra wolves, Severed Legion, and Phyrexian Rager . In the JohnnieK limited theory, I did well with 15 creatures, but came up ...

Everyone is familiar with the concept of rare drafting, but doing it well is really an art. The reflex responce to rare drafting is hatred, or misunderstanding. Most people don't like the concept of rare drafting, and don't understand why people do it. If you find your self in this lot you should read this article by Abe Sargent . In a nut shell, rare drafting almost guaratees you won't come in first (or in many cases even in the top half), but you may walk away with some cards you wanted. If you want to become a better drafter in the traditions sense, you are reading the wrong article. Almost anyone who does any trading, or much competative playing in standard is going to be familiar with the bomb rares of the latest set. You pretty much are going to take a bomb-value rare if you open it, or have it passed to you. Inversly, most similiar players are going to know the dog rares when they see them, and will only take them if there really is nothing of interest in the pack. ...