0:10

Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode

0:12

of Lords of Limited. My name is Ben Warrenian, and Jeremy on

0:14

the line. As always, is Ethan Sachs. Ethan?

0:17

You are bringing so much good into my

0:19

life. I don't even know what's more important.

0:22

The return Come on in survivors, your

0:24

survivor recap and analysis podcast,

0:26

or just hard carrying Team

0:29

Lord's of limited in the Team Resources and

0:31

Team Lord's of limited showdown. Use three

0:34

ode the

0:34

pod. I don't know what you're doing more for me. Survivor

0:37

or just caring. Look, I bring I bring a lot

0:39

to the table then. You you can you can take your

0:41

pick. Why not both? You can just

0:43

just

0:43

ask. In the glory that

0:45

is my friendship with you, you know. It's a nice

0:47

glow. It's a very warm comforting glow.

0:50

What a what a full weekend of

0:52

magical or wanna expand to the week of

0:54

just a full week of strategy based

0:56

content. We have the premiere of survivor

0:58

season forty four. We have my premiere

1:00

of season forty four of my podcast. We

1:02

had the Lord's versus Resource's twelfth

1:05

showdown that is crazy that we've done. Twelve

1:07

of them, I feel like as those numbers tick up

1:09

and up and up. Hopefully, they keep wanting to do

1:11

them with us. But as the number ticks up and up,

1:13

it's just hard to keep track of. And we

1:15

had the arena open this weekend, which

1:17

you and I just completed our day two draft

1:19

of, but haven't played any rounds of. How are you feeling?

1:22

I'm feeling pretty good about my deck. I'm repping the podcast

1:24

hard, put my money where my mouth is. I have six

1:26

I have malkatories in my in my deck.

1:28

You love to

1:30

see it. You love to eye it.

1:32

You love to eye it. Yeah.

1:35

I had I was going down path of

1:37

it. Maybe we'll we'll see how we have time for

1:40

this at the end of the show today. We got quite a

1:42

lot jammed into the episode, but had a tough

1:44

draft where I navigated myself in pack one

1:46

into a good version of a bad deck

1:48

as I was was telling someone else on

1:50

Discord. I was getting myself into a blue

1:52

red oil deck and then

1:55

hard pivot, pack to pick

1:57

one to the wanderer, So got

1:59

that bomb, lucky me, better luckier than good

2:01

as Ben said. And then and then just

2:03

drafted deck that I've I've never quite

2:05

had before, which is a just full on Jessica

2:07

control deck, and we'll see, this is

2:10

weirdly my maiden voyage in

2:12

Best of Three in this format. Can you believe

2:14

that? That is hard for me to believe. It's return

2:16

home. Yeah. It's return home for me. So hopefully

2:19

hopefully it won't feel quite so far

2:21

in after having done many,

2:23

many drafts a best of one. I often don't

2:25

feel like it's a lot different. You know, I was nervous

2:27

because you were saying playables dry up quickly.

2:29

And that, you know, checks out in the sense of

2:32

I think that's the data bears that out of, you

2:34

know, best of three drafters are usually good

2:37

and then because of how matchmaking works.

2:39

You don't often face, you know, tough competition

2:42

for all three rounds. But luckily,

2:44

I didn't feel like that was super the case,

2:46

but there were I would say, clearer

2:48

signals. And and like I said, maybe we'll get to that

2:50

when we look at my draft.

2:51

How how was your fore ended best of three this

2:53

week? It was good. I've completely

2:56

different about doing the best of three

2:57

drives compared to best of one, honestly was

2:59

having less fun in the format

3:01

because

3:01

-- Mhmm. -- it was a lot harder to get

3:03

a good deck. I feel like every time I queue

3:05

in the best of one, I have the ability to

3:07

end up with very good tight deck. And

3:09

the best of three, I was scrapping for playables. I

3:12

felt like reading the wheel was way

3:14

more important just like picking up

3:16

on small signals, actually

3:18

being true signals, and best of luck

3:20

being willing to trust that a little bit more

3:23

than just, you know, in best of one, usually, if I'm

3:25

close to a pretty good deck, I just assume, well,

3:27

I'll pick up some other cards to fill out my deck. That was

3:29

not necessarily the case in best of 312. Where

3:31

I was just expecting to be able to hold

3:33

on tight because I had a good start to a draft.

3:35

I I really missed out on some signals on the wheel,

3:37

and I think trusting that was was important. And I don't

3:39

think I would have ended up where I ended up today

3:42

had I not practiced those best of three

3:44

drafts, so I'm glad I did. Yeah. You did move off

3:46

of your first couple picks, and I

3:48

I really loved your pivot into the deck and pick

3:50

five as I was looking over your draft before we

3:52

we fired up the show here. Yeah. I

3:54

I totally agree with that sentiment. I think

3:57

the word trust is what I'll latch onto

3:59

there from what you were talking about of, like, I

4:01

often don't trust, best of one drafters.

4:04

I'm just like I'm like, is this really

4:06

a signal? Because, like, you know, I'll I'll feel

4:08

so smart of, like, I noticed a red comment

4:10

is missing here, so I shall move into

4:12

this and then, like, the next pick, there'll be a hex

4:14

gold slash. And I'm, like, Okay. What it what who's

4:16

who's messing around here? Who's who's

4:18

AFK? You know? Yeah. But I agree. I did definitely

4:21

trust the best of three drafters more. Okay. We

4:23

have, like I said, a jam packed show for

4:25

you lots to cover today. So let's get into our housekeeping,

4:27

then get into the episode. First things first

4:29

is the Patreon page. Patreon dot com slash lords

4:32

of limited is where folks can go to get back to the show. If

4:34

they so choose. Got a lot of sweet perks

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4:38

Unlimited Discord. Get access to our

4:40

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You could look at our show notes. You know, subscribe

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to the Patreon. Look at our show notes.

4:49

Record your own podcast on Saturday

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on Sunday. Whatever. Just get it out there. Just

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get the jump. I don't know what I'm just saying. You could do it.

4:55

If you wanna subscribe to that patreon here, you could get

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get that into your earbuds. I just need that six on

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And we, of course, wanna shout out our new patrons

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Drew. DJ Squisher, Trevor,

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Avlian, and Dan. Thank you.

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Thank you. Thank you. We really appreciate your support.

5:28

Yeah. Can I say thank you enough? The people

5:30

really wanna know, when is the Patreon coming

5:32

out for come on as a driver? Because one

5:34

of the people on this call would be

5:37

your biggest patron and really

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needs x as to the episodes before Friday

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morning. Just that that immediate watching

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of survivor and then listening on Thursday.

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That's what I'm

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after. Here's what we need more than a Patreon.

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We need to get Charlie and I

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early episode access. So like he

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and I can watch it on Tuesday

5:55

record the episode. And then it's just we release

5:57

it, like, right after it airs

5:59

on Wednesday night. You

6:00

know? I haven't listened.

6:02

I'm in. I'll call up Jeff Gross. Okay.

6:03

For the for the hundred people that are listening

6:06

that this is relevant for. If you're not

6:08

watching survivor, you should be watching

6:10

survivor and listen to Ethan's

6:11

podcast. I say that as someone who

6:14

Ethan has tried to get

6:15

where he's so skeptical. Yeah. Ethan has tried to

6:17

get me into other things. He's tried to get me to watch.

6:19

I think you should leave and I hated it. This

6:21

is not me, like, fanboying for Ethan. I

6:23

genuinely have fallen in love with survivor because

6:26

of Ethan and his podcast and how analytically

6:28

and strategically they approach it. It's just great

6:31

reality TV. Thank you, sir. Appreciate

6:33

it. Show is also brought to you by TCG player

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our show. Boom. Alright. So today,

7:22

you know, we've done some gameplay episodes in the

7:24

past. We've done. What's the play episodes in the past?

7:26

This time, we're gonna try different approach with one

7:28

is not zero. We're gonna do gameplay,

7:30

but sort of a grab bag of different

7:33

things that happen, different in game decisions in

7:35

a broader sense. I mean, specific in terms

7:37

of cards, but not so specific in terms

7:40

of, hey, try and wrap your head around this board

7:42

state. And I think maybe even if not

7:44

one is not zero in this format, sometimes

7:46

nine is not ten, nine is not ten,

7:48

and that was definitely the case for

7:51

me. Against LSV in the

7:53

Lord's versus resources showdown. Never have

7:55

I ever had a tighter match, I

7:57

think, in those showdowns than against him.

7:59

Like, really, really close games. I

8:01

think all three games honestly,

8:04

and the last game against him came down to

8:07

I was at nine poison, just

8:09

quite closely navigating, sniped

8:11

one of his pestilence siphoners as he swung

8:14

both of them in for lethal poison, sniped

8:16

one of them with a volt charge and then was able to crack

8:18

back for lethal. That

8:20

wasn't my only victory that day, Ben. That was

8:22

not. You ran the tables. Yeah. My my

8:24

sec back to back three o's. I three o'd, the

8:26

bro

8:26

showdown, and three o'd, the one showdown. So

8:28

just formats that people hate, I

8:31

thrive. That's

8:33

how I roll. Well, and your draft was super interesting

8:35

too. Right? Didn't you pivot in the green pack

8:37

too? Yeah. It was a tough draft.

8:40

I wasn't like really sure I was bopping around. I

8:42

think I took prophetic prism pick

8:44

three because I was already sort of feeling like

8:46

this draft seems like it's gonna be a hot mess

8:49

for me. And then I saw the

8:51

Panjekl Pac two, pick one. That's

8:53

the seven man adonis, it's the four

8:55

six with reach, doubles your creature's power and

8:57

toughness each combat, and can be indestructible

8:59

if you sack two things. I

9:02

I was like, you know, in a normal draft,

9:04

I don't care about seven drops. I'm

9:07

off of Kaya. I took a black belly rat over

9:09

a Kaya in a black white deck that I did her

9:11

a CFP and I stand by that decision.

9:13

Seven mana is a lot in this format,

9:15

but I was like going back and forth and I

9:17

let the timer tick all the way down and I finally

9:19

took Zepandrel And thankfully, green

9:22

ended up being open. You know, we don't do

9:24

collated packs as per the request of team

9:26

resources. You know, you can turn those on. On

9:29

the draft simulator that we do on the Heroku

9:31

app, but we don't do

9:33

that. And so just green wasn't really

9:35

present in pack one but then I

9:37

got a pack two pixix Vorac, two

9:40

more Vorac's in pack three, two

9:42

evolving adapters, and what went from

9:44

feeling like a messy, I guess, I'm red,

9:46

blue, maybe splashing black for a few

9:48

things. Turn to, oh, I guess, I'm

9:50

red green now and basically picking up all of my

9:52

green cards in pack three and ended up being

9:55

the only person to run green in their final

9:57

deck. Yeah. That seems great for

9:59

our team. Yeah. It was great. And I had I

10:01

closed matches. I believe I went to three games against

10:04

all three of team resources players,

10:06

but managed to get the w in all three in.

10:08

That brings us up to we're

10:11

only down seven to

10:13

five. Easy in

10:15

showdowns, which I mean, honestly, when we were

10:17

down seven to

10:19

three, feels a lot better to look

10:21

at seven to five. That's close.

10:22

Yes. Much more respectable on our end.

10:24

And how about you? How was your draft? You had

10:26

a a more straightforward, I would say, draft

10:28

seat? Yeah. My draft was fairly straightforward. first

10:30

picked a black card and then got past two great

10:33

black cards. So locked in black

10:35

pretty early and then paired white along

10:37

with

10:37

it. And I ended up drafting black white

10:39

underneath LSV, which is about

10:42

the worst thing you can possibly

10:43

do in Team Direct. But

10:45

my deck ended up quite good. I

10:47

was very happy with how my deck ended up.

10:50

I played some games against Marshall and BK where

10:52

I lost two I got MasterCard and

10:54

Domino's Oh. -- by Marshall, got Master cord

10:56

again by b k. Yeah. Had

10:59

some really tight games against b k that I I possibly

11:01

could have won with some tighter

11:02

play. And then my games against LSVE,

11:04

he just got horrifically landscrewed,

11:07

and we we didn't really play games of magic that were not close

11:09

to close when I beat him. Yeah. And, unfortunately,

11:11

Alex had some technical difficulties, so we

11:13

didn't play out all three of

11:16

his rounds he had to ended up having

11:18

to play against. I think it was Marshall on mobile

11:20

while he was streaming. He was just, like, looking

11:22

down at his phone and announcing all

11:25

the plays he was making to chat, which is just

11:27

hashtag good content. Just practicing for

11:29

coverage, baby. The play by play role. Love

11:32

that. And so we emerged victorious

11:34

at six and two games, so not

11:36

the full nine matches there. And

11:38

I'm feeling good, and we'll see them see them in a

11:40

few months for the mom showdown. For sure.

11:43

And how was your arena open day one? You know, we

11:45

just recapped a little bit about our

11:47

drafts going into day two.

11:49

Hopefully, we'll will be two thousand dollars

11:51

richer next weekend.

11:52

But how is day one for you?

11:55

Not great. I've somehow

11:58

fallen into a weird, mental

12:00

relationship with the Arena Open Day ones,

12:03

they've just not been much fun for me and I don't

12:05

know what the answer is because I'm very competitive

12:07

about it. And I wanna do well, which

12:09

is why I don't stream it. So I feel like

12:11

I'm giving up some equity by streaming

12:13

where you know someone could snipe me. It's and 312. And

12:15

I know if something like that happened, I would

12:17

be beyond tilted. Like, just wouldn't

12:20

be able to handle it, which is why I don't. But

12:22

that amount of equity that I'm giving up if somebody

12:24

does that is probably worth not

12:26

having to do it by myself because I just

12:28

it's not been fun at all, losing, and I've

12:30

lost a lot in the last several of them.

12:32

You know, it's been tough to try to qualify. So

12:35

I've just been sitting in front of my computer, feeling

12:37

sorry for myself, like, trying over and over

12:39

again a queue. And I I could set limits on

12:41

bullets But as a content creator, that

12:43

feels weird. Like, I feel like I should be trying

12:46

my hardest to qualify so that we have content for

12:48

the podcast and things like that. So

12:50

I thought I was gonna get done early. I had a an

12:52

unplayable pool that I dropped with, and then an

12:54

insane pool that I went six to o with

12:57

into six 312, which felt terrible.

12:59

No. Just and I had

13:01

good hands. My point was just had better hands. There

13:03

were some insane decks I played against those

13:05

last three rounds. And then a couple other really bad pools

13:07

and then I ended up getting there on my fifth

13:09

try. My older brother Adam rescued

13:11

me over Discord and we we played

13:13

together and --

13:14

Oh, nice. -- got there at seven and

13:16

two, I think. Yeah. So we had a we were 526272

13:19

with a blue red oil deck. So I was glad to

13:21

get over the hump in about five or six hours

13:24

instead of, you know, having to play all day. But

13:26

I I need to figure out something for myself

13:28

for the day ones to make them more

13:30

enjoyable because it has not been the last couple

13:32

times.

13:33

Yeah. I like this for you. I mean, I think

13:35

it's it's been great to see your your sort of evolution,

13:37

you're sticking to your your New Year's

13:40

resolution for your on stream persona.

13:42

And I have no doubt that I think just

13:44

reassessing or thinking about this the next time

13:46

the arena open comes around

13:47

of, like, Okay. How do I wanna approach this? I think

13:50

you'll do it. Yeah. I think what I need to do is

13:52

just stream it from the get go. Because what

13:54

I told myself this weekend was

13:56

I'm gonna do one and if it doesn't go well,

13:58

off stream. But then once I did the first one off stream,

14:00

I was like, well, then I started having the same conversation

14:03

with myself. I think just need to decide I'm streaming

14:05

them and I'm playing magic for the day and I just need

14:07

to approach it as I'm streaming. If I

14:09

queue, great. If I don't, that's

14:11

okay too. Yeah. Yeah, I had

14:13

only three runs, which feels weird to say

14:15

only with that, but I feel like I often have to rattle

14:18

off a ton. I mean, certainly, I think it was

14:20

in February was the the call time one, and

14:22

I just just fired infinite bullets

14:24

into that and it queued at three AM

14:26

and that was not a good move, but I feel

14:28

similar thing to you. I'm just like, the the

14:30

money doesn't like, the money entry fee

14:32

doesn't feel like that big of a deal for the

14:34

upside of getting to draft

14:37

competitive stakes on day two for those shot

14:39

at some some real cash prizes. So

14:42

I don't like to set a cap for myself on

14:44

day one. I luckily didn't have any,

14:46

you know, open and drop and

14:48

and reopen pools. I went

14:50

one and three with what I thought was a good looking like

14:52

bricks' control deck with a

14:54

kiteau and a cloth planeswalker. And

14:57

then I had a, like, rarer less black white

14:59

deck that honestly performed pretty well, went

15:01

four and 312. And then got just

15:03

the absolute nuts, black white, preconstructed

15:07

sealed pool with, like, black twilight,

15:09

white sun's twilight, ria, that's

15:12

the the three fourth battle cry, just

15:14

like good removal curve. And even that,

15:17

I I started off two and two, and I

15:19

was like, oh my god. Am I really, like,

15:21

what you feel so bad when you're like, am I gonna

15:23

not queue with, like, what's absolutely

15:25

going to be the best pool that I open? And

15:27

then even in game nine

15:30

playing for the qualification had to

15:32

mull again to five on the play. But I felt

15:35

good. I shared my might keep her all hands

15:37

with you and you just snap her like, no. Definitely,

15:39

I'm all again. Those are your four worst cards

15:41

and you're missing a color. You have to mull again.

15:43

So felt good about that. Got there

15:45

on the multi five on the play and

15:48

queued for day two. Love to see it.

15:50

Alright. We're gonna take quick ad break and then we'll be

15:52

back. For the Shmorgasbord of

15:54

Gameplay Decisions. This

15:57

podcast is sponsored by Better Health.

15:59

So Ben, been about two months in

16:01

the new

16:02

year. How is the new streaming persona

16:04

treating you? It's been good. After doing

16:06

a little reflecting on how I was acting on

16:08

stream, which was honestly a bit childish

16:11

and receiving some feedback from our discord, I

16:13

feel like I've returned to a nice healthy

16:15

mental relationship with handling bad beats and

16:17

just some of the variants that comes with

16:19

magic. And as a result, I've been enjoying streaming

16:21

way more. Yeah.

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back to the show. Alright.

17:05

So we have a ton of stuff to talk about here

17:07

and I think starting maybe big picture sort

17:09

of broad strokes like archetype decisions

17:12

or like thinking about your deck's game plan

17:14

is right because deck building considerations

17:17

and we see a lot of this on stream with deck

17:19

deck redemptions and all that stuff. Like, we see a

17:21

lot of folks struggling with these thoughts.

17:23

So what are your broad strokes, deck building,

17:25

archetype decisions that you're thinking

17:27

about? Well, I think first of all, you just have

17:29

to put the right cards in your deck

17:31

to be able to have good gameplay

17:34

decisions or good gameplay experiences.

17:36

So if you if you miss the deck building portion,

17:38

you're gonna have a really

17:40

bad time in the format. So There's a lot of

17:42

rules in gameplay, but you need to

17:44

make a deck that's capable of

17:47

playing by the rules. And if your deck's not

17:49

capable of doing that well, it's just

17:51

gonna go roughly for you in the format.

17:53

And I I wish it weren't that constricting, but

17:56

it is. And I think it's important to just

17:58

accept that and either play

18:00

by the rules or maybe this isn't the format

18:02

for you, which is also okay too. You know, maybe

18:04

you do less drafts than normal, but it is definitely

18:07

difficult to do sweet things

18:09

in the format. And I the first thing I would

18:11

say if people are struggling with deck building or

18:13

just are having a rough go in gameplay

18:16

is that you need to make sure that you play cards

18:18

that pull their own weight. This is very,

18:20

very, very important in the format of my experience. So

18:22

for example, a card like trawler Drake,

18:24

which is tune a blue for A00 and it

18:26

comes into play with an oil counter on it. Power and toughness

18:29

equal the number of oil counters on it. Whenever you cast

18:31

a non creature spell, you could add an oil counter and it's

18:33

got flying. Coming out of the format, I would have

18:35

assumed that would have been a sweet build

18:37

around card for an oil deck, premium,

18:40

high pick, like, very strong

18:42

card. A big reason to do a proliferate

18:44

style deck. Yes. Absolutely. And

18:46

it just isn't in the format because

18:49

it doesn't pull its own weight, and it needs a lot

18:51

of other things to happen to be good. So it comes

18:54

down on turn three as A11 flyer. And then

18:56

on subsequent turns, you're trying to grow

18:58

it to A33, maybe or

19:00

A44, let's say, if you've got some proliferate

19:02

synergies. Meanwhile, on turns four and

19:04

five, your red opponents are just playing three three

19:06

haste. That bring A11 and A45 haste

19:08

that can give another creature haste with

19:10

no work at all. So Trollor Drake

19:12

is just finicky and it it looks

19:14

like the type magic card that would be great in

19:17

most

19:17

formats, but it's just not in this format because

19:19

it doesn't intrinsically pull its own

19:21

weight. Well, and also think it's important

19:24

to tack on a thought about these cards

19:26

that you have here. I couldn't agree more about Traveler Drake,

19:28

but the more your opponents are playing by

19:30

the rules, the worse these cards are.

19:32

Right? The more your opponents recognize how

19:34

good hex gold slash is, and by proxy, how

19:36

good whisper of the drawers is. The more they can

19:39

not only can they outpace this on subsequent

19:41

turns with just raw stats with the

19:43

cards you mentioned, they can just get a

19:45

huge manna advantage by sniping

19:47

it with a one manor removal spell. Yep. Same

19:49

goes for pestilence lifener. Right? The

19:52

one on a black one one flyer with toxic

19:54

one. It has a similar problem

19:56

in that there are spots, and and I think we

19:58

should highlight this about Trollodrick too. There are going to

20:00

be spots in games where this card performs

20:02

well. Right? You're going to face these cards

20:04

and feel like, man, this is snowballing out of control

20:06

and can't deal with it for sure. But then they're

20:08

also going to be games and I've

20:10

had this experience on both sides of the battlefield where

20:12

it comes down and immediately dies or

20:15

it comes down and immediately gets blanked

20:17

by an incisor glider and you're like, oh,

20:19

what the heck am I supposed to do? This was

20:21

supposed to be the fuel for my

20:23

whole game plan of getting them

20:25

corrupted, and it just can't do that.

20:27

Right. Both of them need things to happen and

20:29

or they take a while to do the same pestilence siphoner

20:32

comes down on two, and it doesn't really give you

20:34

the benefit until turn five

20:36

without help from other cards like as far as getting

20:38

your opponent corrupted and that's assuming it goes

20:40

uncontested and they also both suffer from

20:42

the problem of While needing to take multiple

20:44

turns to do the thing, your opponent has time

20:46

to develop their own strategy, and then

20:48

right before they're about to do the thing, snap

20:51

off a removal spell at critical

20:52

point, and mess up your whole game plan.

20:55

Not only that, but they also play

20:57

defense so poorly. Right?

20:59

You're on the back

21:00

foot, you're on the draw, these

21:02

two and three Manta plays are not

21:04

cutting it. Yes, completely

21:06

agree. And compare those to something like mandible just

21:08

this year. One on white, two one, whenever an artifact

21:10

enters the battlefield under your control, it gets plus one

21:12

plus one and it's got lifelink. If you would

21:14

have told me at the start of the format that I would be picking

21:17

mandible just to see our over both pestilence,

21:19

siphoner and crawler Drake, I would have told you

21:21

you were crazy, but I would be doing that quite

21:23

happily in a pack one, pick one scenario

21:25

right now. Mhmm. Which manageable drink just does everything

21:27

you want on its own. It's a two drop. It's got Lifelink,

21:30

so it's gonna be very good against some portion

21:32

of the decks. And then it's also got

21:34

synergy possibilities with other

21:36

artifacts in blue white or even just

21:39

self contained within white.

21:40

There's a lot of artifacts that combo well with Yeah.

21:42

I mean, I think just your your point here at the end

21:44

here of you build a deck that doesn't play by

21:46

the rules. And we we keep talking about this

21:48

and hopefully we've outlined this enough, but the rules

21:50

of, like, streamlined archetypes, synergistic,

21:53

you know, cheap. You have to be able to affect

21:55

the board, etcetera, etcetera, you know, mulligan

21:57

decisions that we'll get to in a little bit. You're just

21:59

gonna have a bad time. You just like you're

22:02

going you're leaving win rate equity

22:04

on the table by just deciding,

22:06

oh, I don't need to do that. I don't need to

22:08

treat this format differently than other

22:11

limited

22:11

sets. And not we're not talking small

22:13

amounts of win rate. It's difficult to

22:15

win period. If you don't play

22:17

the art by the

22:18

rules, I think. I totally agree.

22:20

There are lots of considerations and we, you know, touched

22:22

on this last week with the sort

22:24

of secret gold cards of what decks,

22:26

what style of decks might cause you to pick a

22:28

card. And I think that even translates to deck

22:31

building of, you know, when you're slotting in, okay, maybe

22:33

you've got a really good core for a

22:35

black, white, toxic deck. Well, how are you

22:37

going to support that. Maybe

22:39

it got a little contested or, you know,

22:41

you've got some filler ish or filler

22:43

plus cards that you're thinking about. Combat

22:46

tricks come into play. And I feel like there's quite

22:48

a few combat tricks in the format and there's

22:50

some contextual ones that I wanted to

22:52

shout out or considerations I have.

22:54

Because I often will see people being like, you know, if

22:56

I'm in a green red oil deck, I'm trying to

22:58

figure out what I wanna do when people go, well, what about

23:01

Titanic growth? It's not really a card that's

23:03

on my radar when I'm building a

23:05

green red oil deck. But if

23:07

I'm in a toxic deck, if I'm in green,

23:09

black, toxic or green, white, toxic, Tidanic

23:12

growth is one in a green plus four plus four until

23:14

end of turn, gets more interesting

23:16

to me because not because I think it's a

23:18

great card or anything, but I anticipate my

23:20

toxic decks wanting to push

23:23

damage, wanting to make attacks that

23:26

either are Trump attacks in some way to

23:28

get my opponent corrupted, to get my opponent poison

23:30

counters. Some way that

23:32

I'm going to be pushing damage or making attacks

23:34

that seem, you know, like freebies. Like,

23:36

even just you're so much more incentivized to

23:39

attack with your two two into their one three

23:41

in a toxic deck. And your opponent sort

23:43

of has to call your bluff there no

23:45

matter what, even if they want their one

23:47

312. If they want their incisor glider to live,

23:50

they still probably have to block and be like fingers

23:52

crossed if you don't have something. So you can often

23:54

get them with a titanic growth, you know, offering

23:56

mortality, I think, is the death such a destructible

23:58

trick. Again, that's the sort of twenty second,

24:00

twenty third type card that I'll play in my

24:02

black decks. You know, obviously, complete devotion,

24:05

I think, as we'll talk about a little later,

24:07

that gets a pass. Like, that's

24:09

better. Like, it's a synergistic clearly

24:11

synergistic card for the toxic decks as,

24:13

you know, it it draws a card and and wins

24:15

your combat doom blade

24:16

draw card. But there are certainly combat

24:18

tricks that I don't understand in the format.

24:21

Yeah. I would say with regard to

24:23

combat tricks in your decks coming from

24:25

primarily best of one drafting, I haven't

24:27

found that you really need to stoop

24:30

to playing combat tricks a lot. Like, I

24:32

think if you've drafted well and you found the right

24:34

lane, usually you just got a good synergistic

24:36

deck with removal spells as your

24:38

slots for your non synergy pieces.

24:41

But I will say it it's felt different in

24:43

best of 312. Like, have felt the

24:45

need to find playable cards. And certainly, the

24:47

narrative for the PT seemed to be, you know,

24:49

aggressive combat tricks mattered a lot, you

24:51

know, from the people that were commenting and that sort of

24:53

stuff. So I'm sure, like, when you're in

24:55

more competitive pods, you're playing these cards more

24:57

often. But in best of

24:59

one, I haven't felt the need to play

25:01

those types of cards that often. Yeah.

25:03

I think the the exception for me in that spot

25:05

and I largely agree with you is complete devotion

25:07

for toxic acts. And I quite

25:09

like free from flesh depending on the

25:11

kind of oil based that I'm in. That's

25:13

the single red plus two plus two to oil

25:16

counters. You know, the more I care about oil,

25:18

the more I certainly have those variable

25:20

power and toughness cards like evolving adaptive

25:23

that, you know, free from flash is evolving adaptive's

25:25

best best friend. I mean, Ideally

25:28

free from Flesh would play great with Troll or Drake

25:30

too, but you don't really want

25:32

to end up in that spot as I said earlier. And I think

25:34

blue red oils is one of the worst archetypes

25:36

in the format. III sort of shouted out, Sierra,

25:38

and for Chimera in your list of, like, cards

25:41

you want to do the thing on their own.

25:43

Like, Chimera looks like it should

25:45

be, like, okay, that's the build around.

25:47

That's the signpost uncommon. But,

25:49

like, it's so slow. It's so slow.

25:52

Four minute two four. Like, comes

25:54

down, can you really engage that

25:56

in combat if your opponent attacks with A33?

25:58

Are you blocking? Like, not

26:00

if you want it to live And then what

26:02

are you doing? Like, how quickly can you get the three

26:04

oil counters on it? I don't know. Two

26:06

turns later. It's just so slow.

26:08

It's not gonna do the thing that you want often

26:11

enough.

26:12

Right. Yes. Significantly worse than just something

26:14

like a taxi enraptor that comes down a turn

26:16

earlier

26:16

that is

26:17

more flexible on offense and defense.

26:19

have found I have a new found love for Gataxine

26:21

Raptor this week. That's the the three manual

26:23

one four flyer, three oil counters, and then

26:25

you can remove an oil counter to give it plus or minus

26:28

one. Like, the amount of times that I

26:30

felt like, oh, this can just swing in as

26:32

a three man, a three or four powered flyer,

26:35

and then just sits back and blanks

26:37

so many attackers. It's not like

26:39

I I I'm not again, I don't so don't feel like it's

26:41

the best blue common because I don't think

26:43

it's quite synergistic enough. But

26:45

I have been impressed by it. And I do have quite a

26:47

few in my day tour we had open

26:50

deck, so hopefully that'll pull its weight yeah,

26:52

I wanna I wanna talk to you about TapLANs, the

26:55

Spheres, and Terramorific Expanse,

26:57

because I have found a

27:00

choke point between the two, and I

27:02

have found TAP Lands perhaps the most. I'm

27:04

usually big champion of, yeah, run

27:06

run some TAP Lands, whatever. It's not a big deal unlimited.

27:09

I have found myself resistant to

27:11

that mentality a lot in these

27:13

decks. What what are your thoughts on the tap lens?

27:15

Yeah. I think, Terrence expands. I'm always

27:17

playing the first copy of. And certainly the

27:19

spicier you get. Like, if you're splashing or running

27:21

three colors, you know, you're gonna have to run

27:23

multiple terra morphic expanses and you're probably

27:25

doing so quite happily. Think if you are

27:27

running multiple parametric expanses, that probably

27:30

means you don't get around any of the

27:31

spheres, which

27:32

are the lands that stacked a draw card. And

27:34

I think in best of one or, you

27:36

know, an aggressive deck that wants to come down

27:38

and curve out, I'm running max

27:40

one sphere. If I as certain archetypes,

27:43

I'll run two, but I think two is

27:45

about my max.

27:46

Yeah. Blackgreen is a a archetype

27:48

that I often because I often don't wanna cut

27:50

lands in that deck. And I'm curious

27:52

what your thoughts are on on land count. We we sometimes

27:54

talk about that, sometimes don't. I found myself running

27:57

often sixteen lands more

27:59

often than not. And that it's an eight

28:01

eight split and so or or

28:03

whatever, eight seven plus a terra morphic

28:05

expanse. Shout out to I

28:08

can't I don't know what's happened, but I have been intercepted

28:10

a little bit by the dude mover meme

28:13

train at the street. Not a meme. It's

28:15

You know what's not a meme? It's a good card.

28:17

I get it.

28:18

Well, yeah. Is is that am I hearing golden

28:20

egg award winner? You are not hearing

28:22

golden egg award winner, but perhaps an honorable

28:25

mention, perhaps a runner-up. The people have told

28:27

me that I should stand firm, perhaps a silver

28:29

egg. Do you truly believe in your heart of hearts

28:31

that it's more of a golden egg than Barbara

28:33

Beatrice? I do you think I'm coming

28:35

around to that? Yes. Well, wait.

28:37

It's I think it depends how quickly we

28:39

do the fifty day service. How

28:41

how much I'll be willing to budge? On

28:44

that or not. Because if if the trajectory

28:46

of this week is any indication, I could see it.

28:48

I could see it for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I

28:50

got my thoughts. But yeah. So sixteen

28:52

lands usually pretty even split

28:55

usually be not because I'm

28:57

so weighted evenly, like, throughout

28:59

a distribution of my deck, but so weighted evenly

29:01

in the early turns. Like, I just look at my one

29:04

drop, my two drop slot, and I go, oh,

29:06

I've got such an even mix. Alright. I always

29:08

wanna make sure I can cast these cards and

29:10

these cards that I want that even split

29:13

of of those lands. And

29:15

I have just found, like, the amount of

29:17

one drops in the format that are playable

29:20

makes me really dislike

29:22

the tap lands that much. So, yeah, I'd say

29:24

Sometimes, I'll play some spheres if I'm in like a black

29:26

green deck. I need a little bit of velocity in

29:28

those decks. I'll play a

29:30

sphere or two, and I'm seventeen lands in those

29:32

decks. But If I'm if I'm in the sixteen

29:34

land range, I'm I'm not looking for those fears.

29:36

I agree. Yep. Okay. You've got some really

29:39

excellent thoughts about some

29:41

broad in game decisions. First up being

29:43

determining who is ahead or behind. Yeah.

29:46

And I think acting accordingly

29:47

also. Like, sometimes, it's so

29:49

tempting in the format to be behind and

29:51

think well, I can't block. I've got a

29:54

race. And I just don't know that that's

29:56

necessarily right. So I think starting from

29:58

the beginning, Ideally, you're going

30:00

to be ahead in games of Flexiall will be one.

30:02

The best cards are aggressive. It's way easier

30:04

to leverage tricks when you're ahead. It's

30:06

way easier to leverage removal to your advantage

30:08

when you're ahead. And so I think that starts

30:11

with mulligens, and we're gonna do a whole

30:13

section on keep our mullins. But

30:15

you you can't keep sketchy hands in this

30:17

format just as a broad starting sense.

30:19

And one card just really doesn't

30:21

matter that much. It's much more important to get out

30:23

to a good start than it is to have one extra card because

30:26

the cards are also

30:26

powerful. The cards are intrinsically powerful

30:29

and they're good at ending games quickly. Well,

30:31

and the games are not going

30:33

long enough, generally, where

30:35

one card matters. Right? Like, where

30:38

that sort of war of attrition of resources

30:40

and I'm ahead by one. That's just

30:42

not how these games are playing

30:44

out. I would argue that's not really how games are playing

30:47

out in general unlimited. It's why I don't

30:49

think the sphere lands being subpar

30:51

or suboptimal or non desirable

30:54

in this format is particularly unique.

30:56

Think back to the dual skry

30:58

lands from Strictshaven. You're just like,

31:00

yeah, if I get one fine, but like

31:02

these largely games are not

31:04

you

31:04

know, being won or lost off the back of Pink

31:06

Foremanna and dumping in that into

31:08

Scribe one at the end of your opponent's turn, you

31:10

know? Yes. Usually, my opponent cracking their

31:13

sphere means I'm about to win the game and I feel

31:15

pretty

31:15

good. And the best is when they're

31:17

on, like, they're on five mana

31:19

They have three cards in hand and main

31:21

phase they crack a

31:22

sphere. I'm just, like, fist pumping

31:24

and dancing around the room. I can't

31:27

believe that that's what you're doing because I'm, like, so

31:29

ready for the worst thing to happen, you know. Yep.

31:31

And so I

31:32

think, you know, on this macro who's

31:34

ahead, who's behind determining whether or not

31:36

you're ahead and If you are ahead,

31:38

how far ahead you are is so

31:40

so so important. So I think it's

31:42

possible to overextend or

31:45

decide to race when you shouldn't. And I think

31:47

you get punished for choosing wrong.

31:49

Like, there's so little room for air because

31:51

the games are so tight. And I think

31:53

trying to anticipate what your opponent's

31:55

going to do is really

31:58

important as well. So decks have really clear

32:00

game plans. Right? If your opponent plays swamp

32:02

island, instantly I'm trying to protect

32:04

myself from poison counters. And

32:06

once I met like five to six poison

32:08

counters, I'm trying to think Do I

32:10

have one turn left? Do I have two turns left?

32:12

Like, I'm always trying to anticipate how

32:15

many turns are left in the game. And

32:17

I usually air on the side of it ending

32:20

one turn sooner than I

32:22

expect, you know.

32:23

Mhmm. And so you can see what your opponents

32:25

game plan is. The decks are really defined

32:27

and then try to use that to your advantage

32:29

when you're in

32:30

the game. Well, and and poison I think really

32:32

puts such a fine point on this because

32:35

you know, I I don't think it's fair to say that

32:37

it, like, accelerates the games because, you know, your

32:39

life toll starts at ten or whatever. I don't think that's

32:41

quite right. But because of

32:43

that poison race, because of the dynamic between

32:46

your life total and and your your poison count,

32:48

I think that determining

32:51

who's ahead, who's behind, counting

32:53

backwards from zero or counting backwards

32:56

from ten as yourself for

32:58

your opponent and for yourself from your opponent's

33:00

perspective. Those are things that are going to make

33:02

or break these close games. And that's

33:04

how the games so often feel.

33:06

It wasn't like my match against LSV in the showdown.

33:09

Well, I was like, wow. What a crazy match

33:11

for this format where I'm at nine

33:12

poison, but I still win. That happens

33:14

a lot in the set. Yeah.

33:17

Where, like, it's the difference of one

33:19

half of a turn cycle, you know? Yes.

33:22

I agree. And when you say counting backwards from

33:24

zero, you're talking about, like, okay, I can

33:26

do five damage this turn. Okay. I can do

33:28

five damage the next turn that type of

33:30

thing. Right? Or --

33:31

Mhmm. -- you know, I'm they're at eight poison. I can push a poison

33:33

this turn and I can push the poison. Like, I tend to think

33:35

about it in terms of turns that are

33:37

left as opposed to

33:38

counting. Yeah. Whatever works for your head. I'm definitely

33:41

thinking about that in terms of, okay, the damage

33:43

race here is happening how. I almost punted

33:46

with my Nutso black white deck yesterday

33:49

where I left my self dead

33:51

on upkeep because I cast a scrubs

33:54

hive, because I got my opponent

33:56

to corrupted. Then I was like, oh, I'm gonna want LifeLink

33:58

turn, cast the scrubs high and I was like,

34:00

oh, no. I

34:03

don't need to cast this right now because the game is

34:05

gonna be over. I don't need to get the one,

34:07

you know, token next turn. What I need is

34:09

to not take that one damage next turn

34:11

because I was facing the IRBASK's Forge,

34:13

the thing that was making the trample token.

34:16

And because I cast that, I needed

34:18

to jump with a creature that turn

34:20

to not put myself to

34:21

one, to subsequently put myself to zero. So

34:23

it was a huge punt there. But that's just the

34:26

kind of, like, very specific focus

34:28

on the numbers that you need to be doing

34:30

because that's just like that one little click

34:33

is the difference between when you're losing. Right. And

34:35

however you're calculating it, the important thing

34:37

is to know how many turns you expect

34:39

to be left in the game. Correct.

34:41

And I think so getting back on

34:44

the offense defense line, if you're

34:46

behind, you have to play defense.

34:48

I think. Like, just trying to race when you're

34:50

expecting to lose the race is just a bad plan.

34:53

So yeah, it feels bad blocking,

34:56

but I think you should just be blocking pretty

34:58

aggressively when you're behind, either

35:00

try to protect your poison, your

35:02

life total, or your actual life total

35:05

And sometimes that means you know your opponent

35:07

has complete devotion and you block and they get

35:09

a two for one you with complete devotion. The

35:12

difference in card is not that big

35:14

of a deal in this format. If you're behind, you

35:16

have to play in the combat tricks and that's okay.

35:18

I think the only time I'm not trying

35:20

to play around combat tricks is if I

35:22

know on a subsequent turn, I can

35:24

set up a blowout with instant speed removal.

35:26

Otherwise, if I'm behind, I'm blocking. And

35:28

sometimes I'm gonna have it, and that's okay. And sometimes

35:31

I don't. And you feel great about blocking. You feel like

35:33

a champ. But I think when you're behind in

35:35

general, you should be a calling station

35:37

in this format. Because what happens if you don't block

35:40

is, like, let's say your opponent has, you

35:42

know, a black belly rat or whatever. And you've

35:44

got A13, and you expect they've got

35:46

complete devotion. You don't block. You take

35:48

a poison and then they get to spend their

35:50

turn playing another toxic creature. And then the

35:52

next turn, you're facing down two toxic creatures

35:54

and your opponent still has complete devotion in hand.

35:56

Right? Like, you just have to get combat

35:59

tricks out of your opponent's

36:00

hand. I think when you're behind. I mean, Blackbelly

36:02

Rad is such a great example because it

36:05

the difference between that card dying and you're probably

36:07

having no poison counters and the difference between

36:09

that card dying and still, you know, if you just

36:11

think about poison as too damaged. Right?

36:14

That car dying and dealing two to you, two

36:16

two points of unhealable damage. Right?

36:18

Because no way to remove poison counters.

36:21

It it's such a huge difference there. Totally

36:24

agree. And I am constantly constantly

36:27

cycling between the kinds

36:30

of tricks my opponent could have. Right? So blazing

36:32

crescendo versus free from flesh.

36:35

And if there's a even slight

36:37

difference of blocking, complete devotion is a

36:39

great way to think about this too. If there's a slight difference

36:41

of, okay, the damage doesn't really matter.

36:43

I could block this porcelain's wallet or I could block

36:46

this other card that has toxic,

36:48

let me just on the side of blocking the porcelain's

36:50

out. So if they do have complete devotion, they don't

36:52

get the card. I mean, what Ben is saying about, you know,

36:54

them getting the card not mattering is largely

36:57

true. But I think if you can make some tiebreakers there

36:59

of like, okay, if they do they

37:01

free from flesh or blazing crescendo here? Well,

37:03

if it's free from flesh, I would rather

37:05

the oil beyond this creature rather than

37:07

this creature. Like, those kinds of

37:09

small thought processes is

37:12

really if you're not thinking about

37:14

that, you want to be thinking about that. Yes.

37:16

And I think when you're behind, if you're

37:18

blocking cards with higher power,

37:20

are gonna block way better against

37:23

tricks. And this is one of the reasons why Gitaxine

37:25

Raptor is so good as

37:28

a vendor because it's a one for So

37:30

blocks all the three threes running around. It blocks

37:32

the two twos running around. It blocks pestilence hyphener

37:34

in there. It blocks everything. But the other

37:36

thing it does that's hidden that

37:39

It was not obvious until you've played with and against

37:41

the card a lot, is that if your opponent tries

37:43

to force through it with a trick, you just

37:45

turn it into a four powered creature and train.

37:48

So I'm almost hesitant. You'd mention, like,

37:50

you can, you know, force in three damage

37:52

earlier and then it sits back as A14 blocker,

37:54

which is great. I like keeping the oil on it.

37:56

Because once there's oil on it, it

37:58

essentially says your opponents can't force

38:00

through creatures with combat tricks because when they try

38:02

to pump their thing, you can turn into a four power creature

38:05

and still trade, you know, with A22 or

38:07

A33 that's gotten plus three plus one or

38:09

whatever. So your opponent almost has to two for

38:11

one themselves with a trick. When you're

38:13

blocking with high powered creatures. I think

38:15

it's another reason that Testament Bear has gone quite

38:18

a bit up in people's estimation lately. That's

38:20

the the three to black four one that when it dies, you gotta

38:22

look at three, put one in your hand, and the rest in your

38:24

graveyard. Those those high power blockers

38:27

really make tricks significantly

38:28

worse. Yeah. No. I think that's totally fair.

38:30

And that's all just about, like, what is the, you

38:32

know, the tempo of the game? What how is it

38:35

playing out? Or what's your position in it? Do you

38:37

feel like you can get an attack in? Do you

38:39

have proliferate in your deck? Do you need to leave an oil

38:41

counter on the wrap or all that stuff? Those are their

38:43

questions. I'm gonna get to that. The proliferate thoughts

38:45

a little later. But I but totally agree with you.

38:47

I mean, I I had an awesome game earlier

38:49

this morning where I just read my

38:51

opponent for hex cold slash early because

38:54

of the arena pause. And so

38:56

I just chipped in with the Raptor as 312 every

38:58

turn as they left up one red

39:00

banner. I was like, oh, I see I see what you're

39:02

trying to do here and you're not gonna get me.

39:05

Yeah. Feels good. Then, you know, we're talking

39:07

about a head behind. All this stuff doesn't

39:09

matter if you haven't built a deck that can

39:11

get ahead or that can turn the tempo

39:13

of the game

39:14

around. Right? So you really need to come

39:16

with the cards to play if if you want the stuff

39:18

stuff we're talking about this episode to matter. I

39:20

know we really largely talk about

39:22

commons and uncommons because we're limited podcast.

39:25

think in this format, it is important to shout

39:27

out both White Sun's Twilight and

39:29

the Wandering Emperor as

39:32

rares that drastically change

39:35

the tempo of the game that drastically

39:37

punish you for overextending. That

39:40

I have you know, sometimes you can just sort

39:42

of chalk it up to, oh, I'm never beating that card.

39:44

But I have also really kicked myself

39:47

for man, I I just was so,

39:49

like, I was doing my thing and I was curving

39:52

out and they were stumbling. How sick is this?

39:54

And then they land the eternal wanderer

39:57

and I go, I didn't need to play that last

39:59

creature. Like, I could've

40:01

I if I was actually thinking about

40:03

what was happening over there and noticing, that

40:05

my opponent had planes, planes, or that maybe

40:08

they've got a sketchy database. Right? Maybe that maybe

40:10

they led on swam, swam, forest

40:12

planes, planes, and I'm like, oh,

40:15

What's what's a way they could get back in this game?

40:17

Oh, it's one of those cards. Like, I

40:19

really think those should be on your radar specifically

40:22

against white opponents. Who are maybe not

40:24

affecting the board. And if you can, and this is only, of

40:26

course, if you can afford to

40:29

play around it, to not overextend into those

40:31

cards. You may be able

40:33

to, you know, reward yourself by going,

40:35

okay, actually, if I hold this, then I've got

40:37

something that can attack the eternal wanderer

40:39

on the following turn. Right? Got something that can then

40:41

block the mites from the white sun's twilight. You

40:43

know? Yeah. For sure. Alright. I wanna talk to you about

40:45

the great poison question because you alluded

40:47

to this slightly about like against a blue black

40:50

player, if I see my opponent go, swamp

40:52

island. I'm I'm really, really

40:54

thinking about, certainly once you get into that five or

40:56

six poison range, I'm like, okay, how many

40:58

turns do I have left, but that's a

41:00

deck where I'm

41:02

really trying to not get the first poison

41:04

counter because I know how well that deck

41:06

can operate on the proliferate plan.

41:09

Well, yes. And one of the things the Blue Black Tech

41:11

does best is bait you into

41:13

racing and thinking that you can

41:15

win the race And then they're

41:17

like, oops, just kidding. Here's three poison counters.

41:19

Right. No. I totally agree. Against

41:22

black, white, And if I if

41:24

I see swamped planes, I'm less concerned

41:26

about the proliferate life, but

41:28

I am very concerned about getting corrupt So

41:31

maybe I'll let them, you know, give me the first

41:33

poison counter. Maybe I'll let them give me the second

41:35

poison counter, but I'm really trying

41:37

hard to not let them get

41:39

that third one on if I can afford

41:41

it, if that's how the game is playing out.

41:43

Right. Well, Anne, Lightbelly

41:45

rat too, you'd mentioned it earlier, but even

41:48

against Black White, if their first player

41:50

is White belly rat, I'm again trying hard

41:52

to stop the first poison counter. Right? Because once

41:54

you get the first one, you're so close to corrupted

41:56

once Blackbelly rats on the battlefield? Correct.

41:58

And then other archetype considerations

42:00

like, let's say, black green or green white,

42:03

I'm a little more lenient because

42:05

I know that those decks don't have to operate

42:08

so hard on corrupted and

42:10

don't have to operate so hard on getting me to ten

42:12

poison counters. They can be more of

42:14

a a good card, good stuff deck, they can

42:16

be more of a beat down deck. So I'm a little

42:18

less concerned, might say, Alright. Look, if

42:20

you happen to have a ton of corrupted payoffs

42:22

in your deck, good for you.

42:24

But otherwise, I might just

42:26

ignore this pestilence Cyphener against

42:28

a black green deck, you know? Yeah. No. I think that's

42:31

totally fair. I do think the exception is sometimes

42:33

in black decks like gulping Scraprap,

42:35

aka mirrors outright. I

42:37

think we both agreed on that analysis or that

42:39

analogy last week. It can be

42:41

a huge problem, like, that comes down

42:44

your eight poison or whatever and you're like, okay.

42:46

So now what do I do? Am I am I

42:48

just letting this hit me for four every

42:50

term? Am I starting to jump but not

42:52

trade with it. There there's been weird spots where

42:54

I've that have come up with, I want to

42:57

not trade with a kind of card.

42:59

Scrap trap being one. I had this really interesting

43:01

spot playing against cacophony Scamp

43:04

other day, where I read my opponent for Titanic

43:06

growth. And so I didn't remove

43:08

a counter from Lattice Blade Mantis

43:11

to make it

43:11

A54. So that if they wanted to block

43:13

and use their trick, that my creatures wouldn't

43:15

trade. So then they wouldn't be able to deal five to

43:17

something

43:18

else, which is just like, there's just

43:20

such weird little math things

43:22

about power and toughness and trading

43:24

or not trading or jumping in the format

43:26

that just keep, you know, keep impressing

43:29

me honestly in the in that, like, there's fun

43:31

little puzzles to solve in every

43:32

game. Yes. I think the gameplay is great when

43:34

both people are able to play by the rules and

43:36

get on board early and stuff like that. There's just a lot

43:38

of exciting scenarios that come up. And think

43:41

even in addition to these poison questions, just

43:43

against all of the decks in the format, you

43:45

should be trying to think how your opponents

43:47

planning to win. And just do what

43:49

you can to stop that. Like, use your removal accordingly

43:52

to try to stop your opponent from how they're

43:54

planning to

43:55

win. And Usually, that means, I think, firing

43:57

your removal off early and often. Isn't

43:59

that crazy? Like, we you know, usually,

44:01

you're like, I can take this damage or whatever, but the snowball

44:04

effect of this format I think, does dictate that

44:06

you wanna fire off your removal earlier,

44:08

more often than not. And I think,

44:10

you know, you keep talking about anticipating or

44:12

thinking about how the game is gonna play out. You know, we're talking

44:14

about poison counters here,

44:16

I think talking about haste in the format

44:19

is really important too. When you feel like you're

44:21

racing, you know, the difference between leaving

44:23

back that one one goblin from

44:25

your chimney rattle or not is huge

44:27

if your opponent is red or not. Do you anticipate

44:30

a hasty chimney rattle from them? Do you anticipate

44:33

a furnace dryder from them that you're gonna

44:35

need to jump or they're not in red and you go?

44:37

Alright. Well, if you have Taranix atrocity good

44:39

for you, but I'm not gonna play around that. But

44:41

maybe you should be. You know, like, maybe, like, how far

44:43

ahead or behind are you where you wanna

44:46

be thinking about those kinds of niche cards. You know,

44:48

my opponent's on black white. We keep talking about tricks.

44:50

I'll play around complete devotion way more than

44:52

I play around the the deathtouch and destructible

44:55

trick. But if I,

44:57

like, think there you know, if I can

44:59

afford to, I'm gonna think about

45:01

both. But I assume people are playing the

45:03

complete devotion way more than they play the other

45:05

one. Yes, I agree. And, you know, speaking

45:07

of playing around things, we've got a whole section down

45:09

later in our show notes and stuff like this. You've

45:11

mentioned creatures with haste. Like, if your opponent's

45:13

red, you just need to assume that they have

45:15

chimney rabbles and furniture striders and

45:17

how that's going to dictate what's

45:19

happening in future turns about who's gonna

45:21

be ahead or behind? Like, are they gonna

45:24

be able to turn around the tempo of the game if they have junior

45:26

rebels and furnished riders? They playing in a way

45:28

that suggests they have that card? If so, you

45:30

should assume they have it if they're red. Like,

45:32

you're gonna be playing against those cards. And

45:34

I think another big one for red is hazardous

45:36

blast. So if you're putting red

45:39

and the board is stalling out, you

45:41

really need to try to force trades so

45:43

that you don't just die at a hazardous blast. Right?

45:45

That's a more common thing that's happening

45:48

in games as people are getting better in the format,

45:50

and you play your dudes, you trade, you play your dudes,

45:52

you trade, and eventually nobody's got really profitable

45:54

attacks, and the board's build out. But

45:57

if your opponent has hazardous blast, they're thrilled

45:59

about that. You should not be sometimes you

46:01

just need to try to force some trades to

46:03

not die to your opponent's hazardous

46:04

blast. If the board is stalling out and

46:06

your opponent has mountains and you are

46:08

not constantly adding

46:11

up the power on their board and

46:13

subtracting that from your life total to see,

46:16

okay, how, like, am I dead next turn?

46:18

And my dead next turn to hazardous blast?

46:20

Like, you're leaving equity on the table

46:22

again.

46:23

Yep. Chrome problem. There's another one. I mean, this

46:25

one's little more obvious, but Chrome

46:27

Power exists as a card. Don't attack,

46:29

you know, one powered things into your

46:32

opponent's three open manner if they're blue. And if

46:34

they've got eye of malcaturals, be aware

46:36

that they can turn them on on blocks with a chrome

46:38

prowler flashing it in as well. Mhmm.

46:40

Yeah. That that's a big one. And I think as

46:42

chrome prowler sort of proven itself to be

46:44

I think just good certainly good in in

46:46

in synergy based decks. But, you know, that

46:48

that is a a card that can help catch you up

46:50

a little bit in terms of tap down a thing.

46:52

Then do you wanna attack and do it and trade, whatever?

46:55

But yeah. Like, it's just absolutely devastating

46:57

when your opponent just decides, oh, yeah. I'll attack

46:59

in with by breastfine

47:00

cultivator. It's already got an oil counter on it.

47:03

Oops. How yeah. I think

47:05

just the last one to talk about when you're playing around

47:07

stuff is removal. Think everybody's packing

47:09

removal. And again, this is like,

47:11

if you're ahead, how far ahead are you?

47:13

Does that change if your opponents got removal

47:15

spell or two, as far as, you know, race

47:17

sing and things like that. But just

47:19

how your plays are gonna be affected by your

47:21

opponent's ability to interact. And so

47:24

often a thing that comes up on turn four is deciding

47:26

between chimney rattle and lattice blade

47:28

mantis. Right? Like -- Mhmm. -- it travels

47:31

a little more defensive honestly

47:33

despite having haste because it leaves the one

47:35

one blocker behind it's just so much

47:38

less vulnerable to removal than

47:40

Lattice plate mantis. But Lattice plate mantis

47:42

is gonna crack in harder. Like,

47:44

lattice play matches is almost the more aggressive play

47:46

because you're playing it and assuming that it's

47:48

gonna live and then being able to attack it

47:50

as A54, also playing chimney rabble

47:52

the following turn. Right? If you do it in the opposite

47:55

order, it's way more conservative. But just

47:57

small decisions like that all the time

47:59

come up, especially in Redgreen about

48:01

how you're gonna sequence your creatures and which ones

48:03

are better at putting max pressure on

48:05

and which ones are better at kind of hedging your bets

48:07

a little bit like you put a little bit of pressure while

48:09

also still having some wiggle room if your opponents

48:11

got

48:12

interaction. I've also had the sequencing

48:14

question come up of furnace Strider

48:16

on five versus center slash ravager on

48:19

five. And, like, the the sort of, like, face up

48:21

thing as well as you play your furnace Strider now, it's

48:23

gonna be AC four five. Then you play your rabbit

48:25

or next turn, you give adhaste, and now you're attacking

48:27

with two subsequent hate creatures. But

48:29

like how important is the one damage from the rabbit

48:31

or this turn? How likely

48:33

is your thing with an oil counter on it

48:36

to live for you to be able to then

48:38

play the rabbit or next turn for the same cost?

48:40

You know? Like, these things come up and

48:42

and you can really, like, get yourself

48:45

into a bind if you

48:47

suddenly are like, oh, no. The ravager

48:49

is more expensive than I thought because I wasn't

48:51

paying attention to those little small details

48:54

on the

48:54

board. Right. And think that is one of

48:56

cool things that I do like about the format is those decisions

48:59

matter. They matter a lot because the games are

49:01

so

49:01

tight, yeah, for sure. There's a lot

49:03

of sequencing stuff that comes

49:05

up in this format. First thing that I I wanted

49:07

to shout out, just a lot of stuff with, like, specific

49:09

cards. One is I have Malkothor on

49:12

turn three. I've had this a lot of times,

49:14

like, you have I have Melcatura. And certainly,

49:16

if that is your deck's game plan, you've

49:18

got 345, if your Ben's Day two,

49:21

a reopened deck, you've got six. Do

49:23

you play the next eye of

49:25

Malkothor on turn four and leave

49:27

a man stranded? Do you then play your

49:29

Cephalopod century or your Tamiroza mobilizer?

49:32

And Maybe that's a little bit more of a defensive play

49:34

and then you try and chain together stuff later. Like,

49:36

it obviously depends on a lot

49:38

of details in the game, but it's not

49:40

just clear like, oh, I have an ion

49:42

312, I just start training those together. Sometimes

49:44

that's right. Sometimes being more beneficial is

49:47

better. Sometimes getting a block down

49:49

is better, but sometimes that blocker being

49:51

put down gives them a window to

49:53

kill that blocker and swing the tempo back in

49:55

their favor so that subsequent eyes

49:57

are now worse for

49:58

you. You know? Yep. There's a lot.

50:00

I have market doors definitely a dangerous one.

50:03

Why does BladeMantis is another one that comes up, just

50:05

when to remove a counter from that card?

50:07

And again, figuring out how many turns are left

50:10

in the game, figuring out maybe you wanna leave

50:12

a counter on it if you've got

50:13

proliferate? Is it gonna change how your opponent

50:15

blocks? Do you need it back as a blocker?

50:17

There's just all kinds of interactions that come up with

50:19

lattice blade mantis? Wanna talk about skull bombs

50:22

because I think there's a wide range

50:24

of opinions about all of these cards. Maybe

50:26

we should have put this back in deck building a little bit because

50:29

I have AAA pretty clear

50:31

thought in my mind about when I

50:33

like these cards. So the the blue

50:36

skull bomb I think is is still in my

50:38

mind. Blue's best common, though

50:40

you don't have to draft it like it is. It

50:42

gives blue that, like, can't tripping way to interact

50:45

and synergy in the artifact decks. And so I'm

50:47

often running as as many of those as I

50:49

can get in my blue decks depending

50:51

on what kind of a deck it is. The next

50:54

one for me is the red one, the furnace skull bomb.

50:56

Because sometimes, again, sort of thinking

50:58

of it like free from flesh, you know. If I'm

51:00

in those sort of non creature based

51:03

matters, oil matters, kinds of deck,

51:05

that the blue red, the temur kind

51:07

of deck, sometimes red, green as well.

51:09

I like playing that. Draw Skolbaum,

51:11

the black one, I usually like one

51:13

of in my black green

51:15

decks, maybe my black, white decks

51:18

that have a bomb in them, whatever. And

51:20

then I'm basically hoping to never

51:23

play the white or the green one. Like, maybe white

51:25

if I'm like in mono white and need playables

51:27

or in blue white and just like need one

51:29

more

51:29

artifact, but the green one for

51:32

sure, I'm hoping to never play. I think the white

51:34

one's okay in the artifact stack if you

51:36

don't have blue ones or whatever. But yeah, I agree. These

51:38

columns are generally not great outside of the blue

51:40

one.

51:40

Anything important to to recognize when they

51:42

do have a home. And I've definitely had people

51:45

ask specifically because the blue and the red ones are

51:47

the ones I play the most. Certainly, the blue one

51:49

of, like, do you ever hold it? Unturn one? Like,

51:51

let's say you've got icosynthesizer in

51:53

your hand. You know, do you hold the skull bomb

51:55

to get that counter? Or let's say

51:57

you know that you do have those

51:59

cards in your deck. You've got I have Melcaturra's

52:02

that you may wanna trigger. You've got those synthesizers

52:04

or whatever in your deck that you wanna get oil counters

52:06

on from non creature spells. Do hold

52:09

them? My general stance is no, honestly.

52:11

And, like, or, like, do you hold the blue skull

52:13

bond so your opponent doesn't know that you have

52:15

it? Generally, no. I'm, like,

52:17

that the default should be, if you have

52:20

a way to use your

52:21

mana, you have to have a really good reason to

52:23

not do it. Yes, I agree. Because mana

52:25

efficiency so important in this format.

52:28

And if that's the small advantage

52:30

you get from getting an oil counter on something that cares

52:32

about a non creature spell, is so

52:34

much less impactful than not being

52:36

able to activate your blue skull bomb because

52:38

you choked yourself on manor

52:39

accidentally. Mhmm. This next

52:42

one is is one I've I've really started doing

52:44

over the past week or two, which is leaving

52:46

oil counters on cards if

52:49

you have proliferate. Like realizing

52:51

that removing that removing that last counter

52:54

from Acxiom engraver to rummage or

52:56

making the last golem with incubation sac

52:59

is not always correct because

53:01

if you've got AAA lot of ways

53:03

to proliferate in your deck and you don't need

53:06

to make that three three right now. If you don't need

53:08

to rummage away a card right now.

53:10

You may regret it because you don't have a way to put

53:12

oil on the

53:13

thing, but you do have a way to add oil

53:15

to those cards. Well,

53:16

and especially if you've got cards that care about

53:18

permanence having oil on them as well.

53:20

Well, that's a great segue into the next point about

53:22

the oil matters triggers from cards like

53:25

urbasca an ointur or oil gorger

53:27

troll. Like, those cards

53:30

ask you to be very mindful of

53:32

not only removing the last

53:34

oil counter from

53:35

permanence, but also about trading off

53:38

cards that have oil counters on them. You

53:40

know? Do you know what I just read in

53:42

the Lord's Unlimited Discord today? No.

53:44

The Filagry Stylex, where you remove

53:46

ten oil counters, it's from among

53:48

permanence you control. I did not know

53:51

that. I thought Filagry Stylex had to have ten

53:53

oil counters on then reading rares

53:55

in twenty twenty

53:56

312, still not still not happening.

53:59

So

53:59

you knew that? Yeah. I didn't know that. Thought

54:01

that was a revelation. I thought this card had to have

54:03

ten oil counters on it. I don't read all of it at

54:05

the bottom of verse. It's been well established at this point,

54:07

but blew my mind. But it still still

54:09

happens. Yeah. I I still don't know how

54:11

to is that hard good still? Seems quite slow

54:13

to me. I'm much more excited about it knowing that, like,

54:15

in a red, green oil deck or something. Or

54:17

the blue oil

54:18

deck, like, get those microsensitizers that end up

54:20

with eight oil counters on them. Someone

54:22

did share with us a screenshot of them twenty

54:25

in their opponent with Solfom, the the

54:27

red dominance that doubles non

54:29

combat damage from your permanent.

54:31

So pretty sick that that they got that.

54:34

You'd love to see it. You'd love to see it. Speaking

54:36

of

54:36

oil, have you had Tamios a Mobilizer

54:39

versus Tamios Mobilizer Wars? I

54:41

have

54:41

not had those wars. No. That's whoever's

54:43

ahead wins the war. Right? Well,

54:45

the important thing to note here is that Tammy

54:47

Ozemobilizer taps, creatures, or

54:49

artifacts. And so what you get

54:52

to do and this should be on your radar, especially

54:54

yes. And what you're saying is if you're ahead, but

54:56

certainly if you're the first person to stick

54:58

the immobilizer, what you can choose

55:00

to do is just lock down your

55:02

opponents a mobilizer with yours

55:05

so that then your best creature is still

55:07

free to attack. On your turn. So your

55:09

mobilizer takes out your opponents. And I

55:11

definitely had my opponents sort of missed

55:13

that interaction. Like, they have theirs

55:15

first. I have mine second. They think

55:17

they're still tapping my creatures and I go, oh, no. No.

55:19

No. This is now about this is artifact on artifact

55:22

tape now. This is not about this is

55:24

not about creatures. So just make sure that that's in

55:27

your back pocket. Because being able to go tap

55:29

the immobilizer, then on my turn, tap

55:31

your best blocker swing is

55:33

a really good way to win a

55:34

game.

55:34

Yeah. That's like when there used to be good

55:36

creature tappers, like creature tappers. Right. Whoever's

55:39

ahead is significantly favored when

55:41

both people have creature tappers. Correct.

55:43

Have you had issues with sequencing

55:46

your one drops in one

55:48

drop heavy deck? Specifically, Redgreen, I would

55:50

say, is where I end up with, you know, you could have

55:52

eight one drops in those

55:54

decks? Not

55:56

a ton, but I think what's important

55:58

and I have found myself thinking about is with one

56:00

drops or two drops. Like, a lot

56:02

of times you end up choked on one

56:04

column. Right? So, like, maybe on turn

56:07

three or turn four, depending on what you

56:09

choose to play on turn one or turn two,

56:11

makes a difference in, you know, if you know you're

56:13

gonna have double green available to you but not

56:15

double red, like setting

56:17

up a double spell on a future turn

56:19

for turn three or turn four or turn

56:21

five, you know, without needing to draw second

56:23

color of a different manner. Yeah. Or, like, you

56:25

know, to sort of snap running out my rest fine

56:27

cultivator on one because I'm like, well, that's

56:30

the one drop I want to snowball the most. I wanna

56:32

get that oil counter next. So was like, oh, no. What I

56:34

actually should have done was play my

56:36

evolving adaptive first, or maybe that's not a

56:38

great example, but play like something else first.

56:40

So then I could double spell the

56:42

following turn with a green

56:44

and a red

56:45

because, you know, I have a bunch of green one drops

56:47

in my hand and only this one red one drop,

56:50

you know. Yeah. It hasn't come up for me with one drop.

56:52

So specifically, But I would say the

56:54

similar thing that has happened to me more is just

56:56

being aware of which color of manna I'm

56:58

choked on and trying to make sure I

57:00

can still set up double spells

57:02

if I can with the color of manor

57:04

I'm not choked

57:05

on. This is I 312 it back to an interesting

57:07

discussion we had about a play that you had on your stream,

57:09

but it's Come up for me for sure,

57:12

which is with ambulatory edifice, this is

57:14

the tune of Black 312 two. ETBs you can pay two

57:16

life to give a creature minus one minus one until

57:18

end of turn. I mean, sniping x ones is

57:20

great with this card. Finishing creatures

57:22

off from combat is great in your second

57:24

main phase, but there honestly might

57:26

be sometimes when you are

57:28

toxic, which your black decks often will be,

57:31

when you want to be able

57:33

to force through an attack. Right?

57:35

You don't want your opponent, you know, let's say, you're

57:37

attacking your Blake Bellyrat into their

57:39

two 312. And you're like, oh, I'll just finish it

57:41

off post combat with my edifice. Well,

57:43

you actually may want to shrink their thing

57:45

pre combat in say, hey, you can

57:47

jump if you want, but I'd rather just

57:50

force through this poison counter

57:52

now so that I get to set up my turns

57:54

more effectively in the

57:55

future.

57:56

Yeah? All makes perfect sense to me. Have you gotten

57:58

to mess around with first strike and corrupted?

58:00

Like having some attacks where, let's

58:03

say, you've got the dual a deep faith

58:05

or the jaw bone dualist and something like

58:07

bone picker

58:08

skirt. And so then that gets to

58:10

connect with your opponent, give them the third

58:12

counter and all of a sudden your bone picker

58:14

skirt still gets to be a death touch

58:16

creature? I have not had that

58:18

come up mostly because I haven't played toxic that

58:20

much. I bet of how many drafts I've

58:22

done, I bet. Fifteen percent of them

58:24

I've been playing toxic. Wow. Get

58:26

some Britney Spears in your your buds

58:29

and and draft some toxic text,

58:31

my friend. Cricophanescamp,

58:35

a card that I love. A card that I was happy to see was

58:37

also beloved by team resources in

58:39

the showdown because I feel like it gets disrespected

58:42

quite a bit in in the best

58:44

of one queues. This is the single red, uncommitted.

58:47

When it deals combat damage to a player, you can sack it.

58:49

If you do proliferate, when it dies the deal's

58:51

damage equal to its power to any target,

58:53

you can do some sweet things with this. Deathtouch

58:56

from Attracks' skitter fang. Oh, I'm

58:58

interested. Our better fist lets

59:00

you build your own shock. I mean, certainly

59:03

Vol shock splitter's best friend making it A31

59:05

that just is really tough to deal with in

59:07

combat. But that the death touch trick is

59:10

is really I mean, obviously, that's too uncommon, but

59:12

just keeping your an eye out for that kind of

59:14

thing is important for sure. This is an

59:16

uncommon. So maybe you have red all the way to the bottom

59:18

here. Churning reservoir, the single red

59:21

way to put an oil counter every turn on

59:23

a non token permanent you control

59:25

or non token, non land permanent you control.

59:27

And then if an oil counter is removed from permanent

59:29

control or a creature with an

59:31

oil counter died, anywhere,

59:34

leaves the battlefield anywhere, your side, your opponent's

59:36

side, that lets you make A11I didn't know

59:38

that. I didn't know that it triggered from your opponent's stuff

59:40

leaving. No chance I would ever remember

59:43

that in paper. I mean, on arena, it lights

59:45

up nicely for

59:46

you. So I learned the first time

59:48

it lit up and my opponents thing died.

59:50

And I was like, oh, that's nice. Thank

59:52

you, Arena. And I I'm sure there's

59:54

more, you know, single card

59:57

interaction things to think about. Those

59:59

are just a handful that I feel like come up for me often

1:00:01

enough that I wanted to shout them out. Yeah. That's

1:00:03

awesome. This next section is just excellent.

1:00:06

Cards that change the tempo of the game. This

1:00:08

is a way that I never think

1:00:10

about cards or that I would never

1:00:12

think about cards, but when I see the

1:00:14

list of them and I see you put a title on it.

1:00:16

It's just like, yep, that's exactly what these are

1:00:19

and they're so so

1:00:20

important. Yep. So important because

1:00:22

one of the ways that you win games in this

1:00:24

format is by turning the tempo around when your opponents

1:00:27

ahead or when your head,

1:00:29

figuring out how to not let your opponent.

1:00:32

Turn the tempo of the game around. So just a list

1:00:34

of cards that are really good at doing it. Carlin

1:00:36

Chorus, a big one for white. That's the single white

1:00:38

one one that dies into a toxic mite.

1:00:41

And it's just blanks a bunch of

1:00:43

x ones. It sort of is hex

1:00:45

gold slash esque in that,

1:00:47

you know, it lets get onboard early. If your opponent's

1:00:49

not doing anything, great. You get to corrupt them or

1:00:51

get them some poison counters. But when it gets

1:00:53

in those early chip damage poison counters,

1:00:56

it makes it so hard for the opponent

1:00:58

to be aggressive later in the game because

1:01:00

then you're always cracking in for more poison. And

1:01:02

especially when you combine it with other

1:01:05

cards that are toxic. After you've gotten

1:01:07

in those first hits, it blocks so well and

1:01:09

makes it so difficult for your opponent

1:01:11

to attack almost in a vampire spawn like

1:01:13

way, which was the the two and black two three that

1:01:15

drains two. Like, once you

1:01:17

get ahead, it's harder for your opponent

1:01:20

to be aggressive. And then you've gotten in a couple

1:01:22

of toxic kits, and then maybe you play a basilica shepherd,

1:01:24

the the three white, white, three three that makes two mics. And then

1:01:26

all of a sudden, it's even harder for your opponent

1:01:28

to be aggressive. And so stinking

1:01:30

high master in black has the sort of the same

1:01:33

effect as crawling

1:01:33

cores. That's the two black three three that dies. That's

1:01:35

the two in a black three two that dies into A11

1:01:38

mite. Obviously a lot less good because

1:01:40

it costs three mana, but similar effects

1:01:43

there. Well, and if you've backed up Hivemaster

1:01:45

with a one or a two drop, it makes

1:01:47

it lot harder because your opponent

1:01:49

goes, man, do I really want If I attack into

1:01:51

that, we trade, and

1:01:54

then they get to attack me back with A11

1:01:56

mite. And get me a poison counter. And in those

1:01:58

spots, the one one might acts

1:02:01

as A21. Right? When it connects,

1:02:03

and gives your opponent a poison counter. Again,

1:02:06

that's that, like, two points of uncountable damage

1:02:08

or unremovable damage that we talked about and

1:02:10

how you think about those poison counters. So yeah. LiveMaster

1:02:13

needs a little bit of work or little bit of setup,

1:02:15

but it it definitely acts in a similar

1:02:17

fashion when when you

1:02:18

do. And then cheap removal, hex gold

1:02:20

slash whisper the drawers, I think doing a

1:02:23

good enough impression of hex gold slash

1:02:25

the single black for the instant minus one minus

1:02:27

one and proliferate. And then the other cheap

1:02:29

removal is a stuff that costs two is

1:02:31

really good at setting up double spells

1:02:33

to potentially try to turn the tempo of

1:02:35

the game

1:02:36

around, you know, on turn four, turn five, turn

1:02:38

six, all of those things are critically important

1:02:40

to have access to in the format. Just a note about

1:02:42

Whisper of the draw, because it's a card I've I've come

1:02:44

up quite a bit on and I've been playing quite a bit the

1:02:46

past couple weeks. Don't get

1:02:48

greedy. Like, there's so oftentimes

1:02:50

where I'm like, yes,

1:02:53

I could snipe this pestilence knife in her now.

1:02:55

But wouldn't it be great to get max

1:02:57

value and proliferate in two

1:02:59

turns with it? Like, surely can take

1:03:01

a hit or two from the siphoner wrong?

1:03:04

Don't do it. Just take it

1:03:06

out of the

1:03:06

skies, just get your, you know, tempo

1:03:08

advantage from the one manor versus two manor.

1:03:11

And don't worry about getting the max some amount

1:03:13

of value from your your one manna trick.

1:03:15

Yep. This is not a value format. This is a tempo

1:03:17

format for sure. Jimmy

1:03:19

Raul, Furnistrider, two great ones we've already

1:03:21

mentioned in red. Don't think I can

1:03:24

say enough about chimney Rabbles ability to

1:03:26

play offense and defense. I was probably

1:03:28

too low on the card early on in the format.

1:03:30

I still don't think I'm quite as high

1:03:32

on it as everyone else's. But one of

1:03:34

the things I'm appreciating about it more and more,

1:03:36

the more I play with it, is how well it plays

1:03:38

both offense and defense.

1:03:41

And furnished rider, to a lesser extent, plays

1:03:43

offense crazy well, but chimney

1:03:45

rattle pulling double duty is is super

1:03:47

important. Even though it's not synergistic card.

1:03:49

I got a suggestion from one of the folks

1:03:51

in my discord about a a way for us to

1:03:53

award chimney rattle something

1:03:55

and to start out with a sort

1:03:57

of not quite a golden egg, a sort of the

1:03:59

opposite of golden egg award that chimney

1:04:02

rattle will be receiving in the fifty takes.

1:04:04

Oh, I like it. Yeah. Anacentry,

1:04:07

another one. I mean, this is uncommon and obviously

1:04:09

busted. But it's easy to just say,

1:04:11

yeah, Anacentry is great. It's more important

1:04:13

to think about why anaccentries great.

1:04:15

Similarly to Gataxion Raptor, like,

1:04:18

it's a three drop that comes down and just

1:04:20

once it comes down, if your opponent was

1:04:22

aggressive, they're no longer nearly

1:04:25

as good at being aggressive unless they have hex

1:04:27

gold slash to snap it off. But, I mean,

1:04:29

you can't ask much more from a card that changes

1:04:31

the tempo of the game than an x entry. Totally

1:04:34

agree. And then lastly, basilica Shepard, I already

1:04:36

mentioned this, but I've played with this one a lot more recently.

1:04:39

And it it weirdly plays defense

1:04:41

well despite the creatures of making not

1:04:43

being blockers again because it makes it

1:04:45

hard for your opponent to be

1:04:47

super aggressive if you've already given them some poison

1:04:50

counters. Right. That's the weird thing is that,

1:04:52

like, it's so funny that chimney

1:04:54

rattle, the one one, is your blocker,

1:04:56

is your defensive car. With basilica

1:04:58

Sheppard, the three three, it's your defensive

1:05:01

card. And because your opponents like,

1:05:03

well, do really wanna attack into that and then

1:05:05

leave the way open for these to mites?

1:05:08

No, not really. And so if you've if

1:05:10

you've done the work, if you've leaned into

1:05:12

white being a toxic aggressive

1:05:15

kind of corrupted deck, then

1:05:17

that's exactly how it plays

1:05:19

out. And it plays out well. Yep. And I think that takes

1:05:21

us to the next section of cards. And I just think

1:05:23

we should shout out because we haven't talked about them much

1:05:25

on the show, but cards that are good at stabilizing

1:05:27

and then leveraging an attrition

1:05:30

battle. There's a lot of cards that are for

1:05:32

mana ish that do a really

1:05:34

good job of two for one in your opponent.

1:05:36

And assuming that you're playing the ones, twos, and three

1:05:38

drops to go along with them, these four

1:05:40

drops can have you be the person that

1:05:42

ends up with gas. When the dust settles.

1:05:44

So testament bearer is one that's gone up recently. That's

1:05:46

the three in black four one. Just a built in

1:05:48

two for one that can attack well depending

1:05:50

on the game state, but also blocks

1:05:52

very, very well, indoctrination attendant

1:05:55

as A34 that makes A11 might, like

1:05:57

similar effect to Vasilyka Shepparden that

1:05:59

makes a blocker and also kind of

1:06:01

discourages your opponent from attacking with

1:06:03

a toxic mite that it creates. The

1:06:05

four Myrden cards, if you're trading those off,

1:06:08

you know, you're left with a piece of equipment that's gonna

1:06:10

make your future creatures just a little bit better

1:06:12

than your opponents. And then Acxiom

1:06:14

engravers, another huge one. And I think the the word

1:06:16

is out on Acxiom engraver at this point, but just

1:06:19

has such a scrapwork like effect on

1:06:21

game in terms of when you play Acxiom

1:06:23

engraver, you get on the board and then

1:06:25

you're sure you're not going to flood and it

1:06:27

also helps you hit land drops if

1:06:29

you need to hit land

1:06:30

drops. When it also has like kind of

1:06:32

keyword bad in that, you know,

1:06:34

less less so within size or glider, I'm like,

1:06:36

do I really wanna block my glider

1:06:39

against their, you know, blank belly rat? Because

1:06:41

maybe the glider is really important to me.

1:06:43

Unless you're like stuck on lands or whatever. Acxiom graver

1:06:45

isn't that important to you. So you also like can

1:06:47

snap off blocks with it and be

1:06:49

like, yeah, I'll trade with the trick whatever. Sure. Yeah.

1:06:51

For sure. And I think oil girdle control also belongs

1:06:53

in this category of cards. It's just great as a two

1:06:55

for one, gains you some life, that sort of thing.

1:06:57

I would caution a little bit about

1:07:00

playing this style of deck because I think you

1:07:02

open yourself up to the bombs more.

1:07:04

You know, if you're looking to stabilize get to

1:07:06

the late game without your own bombs, but sometimes you're

1:07:08

gonna need to draft the style of

1:07:10

deck. And I think it's important to be aware of these cards

1:07:12

and what they offer you in the format. I think

1:07:14

the last thing on the system we don't talk about is something we've

1:07:16

touched on in weeks prior, which is keep

1:07:18

our mulligan decisions because the rules

1:07:21

for that in this format are so much different.

1:07:23

You know, so often we say, look for reasons

1:07:25

to keep hands, not mull again, you know, like,

1:07:27

what's good about the hand? Going down

1:07:30

resources is so bad, you know, your wind percentage

1:07:32

plummets when you mulligan. You you

1:07:34

just can't keep a lot

1:07:36

of hands in this

1:07:37

format, or there are lot more kinds of hands I

1:07:39

should say. That you can't keep in this format.

1:07:41

Yes. I would say, just to lay out the rules

1:07:43

very clearly, on the play, you

1:07:45

definitely have to affect the board by turning

1:07:48

three with preferably a fairly

1:07:50

substantial body, like something like a contagious

1:07:52

war rack or something like that if your first

1:07:54

plays a three

1:07:55

drop. Yeah. And that Card is a

1:07:57

really interesting line because play versus draw

1:07:59

matters so much. Like

1:08:01

Vorac as my first play of the game

1:08:03

on the play, I'm okay with that.

1:08:06

Vorik has my first play of the game on the

1:08:08

draw.

1:08:09

I'm less okay with that. Yeah.

1:08:10

I think you're mauling hands like that. Yeah.

1:08:13

Like, there are some kinds of cards

1:08:15

that can catch you up like Anacentry. Right?

1:08:17

That's an okay card and fingers crossed.

1:08:19

They don't have hex gold slash, but that can, like,

1:08:21

provide a blocker plus remove

1:08:23

an attacker as

1:08:24

well. Like, that's a a clear two for one

1:08:26

in that sense. But otherwise,

1:08:29

I really, really think you need to affect

1:08:31

the board on turn one or two on the

1:08:33

draw and certainly one two or three

1:08:35

on the play. Yeah. One two or three on the play. One one

1:08:37

or two on the draw. And then the exception think is what

1:08:39

you mentioned, annex entry or something that some

1:08:41

hand that would be absurdly good at catching

1:08:43

up if your first plays on turn three

1:08:45

and your opponent curves out well. But the other thing think

1:08:47

that's important to be aware of is I've also

1:08:50

gotten punished pretty hard by keeping hands

1:08:52

that are reactive on the plate. Yes. If you have

1:08:54

a hand that's got, you know, two or

1:08:56

three removal spells and no way to pressure

1:08:58

your opponent. Like, that's really dangerous too

1:09:00

because then all of a sudden you're just assuming

1:09:02

that your removal lines

1:09:03

up, which is not a great assumption.

1:09:05

You know, some decks are really resilient to removal

1:09:08

if your opponent has crawling choruses or things

1:09:10

like that. There's just a lot of cards that are

1:09:12

resilient. You can also have hands where you're,

1:09:14

like, swamp, swamp,

1:09:17

whisper the drawers, annoy with the friction,

1:09:19

and then, like, basilica shepherd, basilica shepherd

1:09:21

or something like that. And you're like, yeah, I've got,

1:09:24

you know, one color. I can do some stuff in the early

1:09:26

turns. So it's like, yeah, but then what are you

1:09:28

hoping is gonna happen? Once these

1:09:30

first two turns, he'll peter

1:09:32

out and you're forced no

1:09:34

matter what to fire off these

1:09:36

removal spells. And let's say Whisper

1:09:38

of the drawers isn't relevant, like say

1:09:40

they don't play amandable just this year and they're

1:09:42

in red green and whisperer the draw isn't actually

1:09:44

that good against them. Like, once that happens,

1:09:47

you're both hoping for lands and spells

1:09:49

and specific lands at

1:09:50

that? I don't know. Seems a little

1:09:52

dicey to me. Yeah. No. I completely agree.

1:09:54

Basically, I want my opening hand to have

1:09:57

effect the board early and have a reasonable game

1:09:59

plan. And if it

1:10:00

doesn't, I'm mulling it most of the time.

1:10:02

Yeah. I think that's true. I'm just I'm much

1:10:04

more and maybe it's because

1:10:06

of the compacted nature of the games

1:10:08

where I like I really feel like my opening

1:10:10

hand represents so much of

1:10:12

the things I get to do that I am much

1:10:15

more strict with myself or

1:10:17

at at my best, I'm strict with myself

1:10:19

about, okay, do I really need to send

1:10:21

this hand back? Does this enact my decks game plan

1:10:23

as as I had in game nine yesterday

1:10:25

of the arena open day one where I qualified? My

1:10:28

opening hand, I was on the play. I had I had

1:10:30

a way to affect the board on turn two. I

1:10:32

only had one color of mana and had my

1:10:34

worst four cards in my opening

1:10:36

hand. I was like, I think I

1:10:38

can do better. And then, certainly, once I

1:10:40

had my second hand of three swamps, four

1:10:43

white cards, I was like, oh, no. What what

1:10:45

did I What did I what I done? Yeah. Right. Like,

1:10:47

I take it back. I take it back. But, like, then

1:10:49

my multi five, was able to just craft a game

1:10:51

plan. Got a little lucky, obviously, with your optics

1:10:54

as you have to do when you multiply it. But,

1:10:56

you know, being able to craft that game plan of,

1:10:58

like, I have a two drop. I have a a catch tripping

1:11:00

combat trick to back that up with. Etcetera.

1:11:03

You

1:11:03

know, that's just going to lead to

1:11:05

better games more often. Yep. So the other

1:11:07

other types of hands you wanna think a lot about

1:11:09

are hands that only have one color of mana

1:11:12

and maybe one play of that

1:11:14

color of mana, which I think generally

1:11:16

I would keep in most formats assuming that I'm gonna

1:11:18

get there on my second color at some point.

1:11:20

And I can use that one card to, you know, buy

1:11:22

me some time. You really can't afford

1:11:24

to stumble in this format. So would think long and hard

1:11:26

about hands like that and I generally air on the side

1:11:28

of mulling them. And then also just hands

1:11:30

that are functional, but have your worst cards, you know,

1:11:32

kinda what you were alluding to in your earring

1:11:34

open run. Yeah. For sure. Totally agree. I

1:11:36

would say the one exception to that are decks

1:11:39

that really need to hit land drops. Like, if you've got cards

1:11:41

that want you to get to six, seven mana, you know,

1:11:43

you've got internal longer, you've got those

1:11:45

blue sun's twilight's, the white sun's twilight,

1:11:47

those decks don't mull again quite as well

1:11:49

because you really want to hit your land

1:11:51

drops. Oh, something that I have noticed, this

1:11:53

is just occurred to me as we're thinking about cards

1:11:56

or decks that wanna hit land drops. I've

1:11:58

also noticed because Acxiom Raver ends up in

1:12:00

my deck so much. You know, certainly

1:12:02

if I have another two drop or whatever,

1:12:04

when you're moly getting to six and you're

1:12:06

putting a card back, Acxiom engraver

1:12:08

often goes away for me because

1:12:12

well, yes, it's really, really good at,

1:12:14

you know, finding stuff for you, and this is

1:12:16

certainly contextual, but on its

1:12:18

face. Like, it's much less

1:12:20

good when you're down resources.

1:12:22

Yes. I completely agree with that. And certainly,

1:12:24

like, whatever, sending back combat tricks, like, you

1:12:26

wanna send back situational cards. You want

1:12:28

to send back cards that aren't going to do

1:12:30

the thing on their own that need help or

1:12:33

whatever. You know? Okay? You've got an air

1:12:35

breath, it's an oyster, but are you gonna need to

1:12:37

trade off your two drop with oil? And this is just

1:12:39

a four man or four two? You know, those are the kinds of

1:12:41

things you wanna think about when you're mulling and what card

1:12:43

you're putting Alright. Lots

1:12:45

of gameplay knowledge dropped. Boom.

1:12:48

Any final thoughts before we go?

1:12:50

No. I've given all of my thoughts. Good luck

1:12:52

to you. In day

1:12:54

two of the run, you better get that money, buddy.

1:12:56

We'll see. I'm I'm hoping to be able to rep.

1:12:58

I have Melcador. Good luck to you as well, and good luck to

1:13:00

everybody that's competing in day two. Today. For sure.

1:13:02

Alright. Great place to wrap us up. Thank you as always

1:13:04

to salty pretzels for our intro and natural music. Make

1:13:06

sure you give it a

1:13:06

listen. Thank you so much to TCG player

1:13:09

for sponsoring this pod cast if you're heading over

1:13:11

there for any and all purchases or signing up

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for a TCG player subscription to read our

1:13:15

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1:13:17

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1:13:19

yourself there via our affiliate link at lords

1:13:21

of limited dot com slash TCG player.

1:13:24

You can check us out streaming on the twitch dot tv

1:13:26

slash Lord Tupperware. Ben is a twitch

1:13:28

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1:13:30

is spelled out. We're both under those same usernames

1:13:32

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1:13:35

of Limited. If you've got any feedback about the show or

1:13:37

any questions, shoot us an email at lords of limited

1:13:39

at gmail dot com. Thanks so much for

1:13:40

listening, and we'll catch you next week for another episode

1:13:43

of lords of Limited. Thanks, everybody. See you

1:13:45

later.

1:14:39

Alright, everyone. Coming out to you today with not a blooper

1:14:41

and unfortunately not a another

1:14:43

dramatic interpretation of

1:14:46

a parody model I've written by a fan.

1:14:48

But for a little report about

1:14:50

how the Arena Open Day two went and

1:14:52

I am happy to report that I got

1:14:54

the Max two k prize

1:14:56

there. Blue red deck, splashing,

1:14:59

planar disruption, and the eternal wanderer played

1:15:01

out really, really well. I got the four

1:15:03

o. Actually, it was funny enough

1:15:06

in in one of the matches that I played. I

1:15:08

played against a really good red green deck with 312 at

1:15:10

the top of the curve. And I had a

1:15:13

Blue Sun's Twilight. In hand, I'd gotten

1:15:15

it back from with a melt web curator,

1:15:17

and I was planning to snag one of

1:15:19

my opponents creatures following

1:15:21

turn, this was late in the game and be able

1:15:23

to copy

1:15:23

it. But what I didn't put

1:15:25

together was they had A33A33,

1:15:28

and A22, and I was at eight.

1:15:31

And the only way that I was gonna lose that game

1:15:33

was a hazardous blast, but I realized it

1:15:35

a half turn too late. I

1:15:37

should have just fired off the Blue Sun's Twilight

1:15:40

of one of their three three tokens. But

1:15:42

instead, I got got by the Hazardous

1:15:44

Blast. Luckily for me, they got they

1:15:46

got color screwed in game 312. So

1:15:49

I got the w there. Got the four o with the

1:15:51

Jessica control deck and then just drafted a really

1:15:53

nice green white deck. Through

1:15:55

my toxic deck, I guess I'd say, with

1:15:58

triple vorac as well in

1:16:01

in my second draft going four one

1:16:03

they are getting the the two

1:16:04

k. So happy to report that, hope

1:16:06

that you all were successful out there and it

1:16:08

was pretty darn good, weekend of magic

1:16:11

for me with the showdown and the arena open.

1:16:16

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