Limited Resources #17 – Marshall and Ryan – World Wake-up Call
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This week on LR, Marshall and Ryan discuss how to approach small sets in draft, answer some listener comments, do crack-a-pack, and go over the latest Worldwake spoilers!
Thanks for listening!
Your Host(s): Marshall and Ryan
Show’s Email: limitedresourcespodcast@gmail.com
love the show and it has definately helped my n00b draft skills.
minor correction on this podcast:
when talking about join the ranks you said you could combo it with bala ged theif to make you opponant discard their hand during thier draw step. this is not right neither play receives priority during the draw step.
sorry about no caps. writing this on my phone…
Hey Faithful Listener,
Thanks for the kind words. You must not be an online player, though, because you can absolutely perform actions during the draw step, which is something the online experience really drives home.
If you set a stop for your or your opponent’s draw phase, it starts with the draw of the card, then you can use abilities or cast instants like any other phase. Thus, with instant-speed discard, you can force someone to discard between the start of their draw phase and the start of their first main phase.
Super cruel, but that’s why they don’t typically make discard instants…
-Ryan
Online, the cruelest mistress of them all…
Anyways your opponent will only be discarding their entire grip with that combo only if they have 2 cards in hand. The bala ged trigger will only hit twice, and only discards one card per trigger. Not an exciting combo. I’d radther have Tajuru archer on the board and play Join The Ranks to kill any flyer in the format (except that damn jwar jwar sphinx and perhaps Iona [who we wont be seeing anyway]).
Great show, can’t wait to get our free bonus podcast this week!
Oh, and random comment I’ve been meaning to add in for a while:
Ice Hockey > Singleton Hedron Crab > Basketball
Cheers
I have to say, this is definitely the finest Magic podcast I have ever listened to. I love your insight on cards, drafting, and other elements of limited play. Keep on trucking, I hope to see your next episode soon.
Yeah, that combo with Bala Ged Thief is pretty awesome. It is really tough to be instant speed discard. And even if they have three or four cards in their hand, you are still going to get to pick the cards that get discarded. Of course, there are a lot of sick things that Join the Ranks is going to be doing.
In any case, the cards that are sticking out to me right now are the common spell lands. I don’t like the black one very much, but the others are really cool. The blue one is a great ability to put on a land, and it is relevant in the early game, because it allows you to smooth out your mana draws, and it is good in the late game because it lets you put a card that you need closer to the top.
It is the white one that really has me excited though. A normal scenario is to play it to get an attacker through for some damage, relatively unexciting. But with the white land-blinker, Walking Atlas, Living Tsunami, or Vapor Snare, you get an incredibly good value.
In any case, Walking Atlas looks like an amazing limited card. Being able to get a land into play at instant speed is aweseome. And he is at least going to accelerate you from 3 to 4 mana.
But my vote for top common in the set is Searing Blaze. Wow, that is all I can say. Of course, it does cost RR. And the card that I most want to open? Basilisk Collar. (barring any obvious money cards). That card is insane. You thought Trusty Machete was good? This thing turns everything into Vampire Nighthawks. In any case, I am really excited about Worldwake, if you cannot tell.
Another solid episode, great job guys!
Marshall, you’re the man. You feel like a really good buddy that I’ve never met. =)
Ryan, you are way too humble to be as good as you are at the game. I’m still not convinced that you really exist…
Please keep it up you two!
(I’ve tried to post this comment twice so far today, it won’t go through! Here’s another attempt.)
This is another great episode. I’m new to Limited play, and every time I listen to a new edition of Limited Resources, I’m stunned at how much more there is to understand. You guys squish up my mind grapes every time with a new concept (or concepts!) I hadn’t even thought about.
This week’s amazing gems–Ryan’s points about what rarity in a set truly means about the chances of seeing a card in a draft pack, and how looking for analogues in a new small set can give you an idea how deck archetypes improve are degrade–are great examples. I’ve basically learned how to play this format entirely from your podcast series, and I think anybody else could do the same. It helped that you started with basic concepts like card evaluation and moved up the hierarchy of complexity from episode to episode. (I wonder, did you do that on purpose? Because if not, it was an incredibly beneficial accident. The series so far reads like a textbook on how to draft.)
I guess this whole comment is just glowing praise for the two of you guys. I just hope you keep coming out of left field with new concepts I haven’t even imagined yet that can improve my game even more. Keep up the good work!
Word, good show again guys see you at the prerelease.
I have to agree with all the praise above. This is one of the best produced (sound) MTG podcasts out there. Also you guys have blown my mind several time and made me really dig deep into limited play. I’ve always loved it anyways and now it just draws me in more! I really want to listed to this podcast for years!
Hey guys! I’ve been listening since the first show; was just trying out some new material for improving my game. Before Limited Resources I’d never had any interest in limited play, but by the end of #1 I was itching for a draft. I’ve been blown away with your podcasts since then and I find the way that you examinine all the facets of limited immensely useful, as do my mates when we practice at the shop over here in New Zealand.
With regards to the show, thought it was really thought-provoking and it was great to hear that another one is coming up so soon. Now that Worldwake is almost fully spoiled, how do you feel the colours are doing? Is red/black still the powerhouse it was in straight Zendikar? Cheers and thanks so much for the episodes – please keep them coming!
Question: Does Spreading Seas “kill” a Celestial Colonnade?
@oraymw: If for some reason your opponent activated their man land in your first main phase, or activated it in response to your Spreading Seas, it would not turn back into a non-creature, it would just turn it into an island that also happened to be a 4/4 vig/flyer until EOT.
Any activated abilities on a land enchanted by Spreading Seas would effectively no longer be there, so it would prevent any further activation.
I heard that with Worldwake, the draft pool will be one Zendikar and two Worldwake packs. In your podcast, you keep saying this is third pack only material… Was my judge at the local drafting place wrong, or did you overlook a change? It seems that some of your analysis of how picking may change when you only get one pack’s worth of cards from Zendikar. How will this change, if it is accurate, alter your drafting strategy in the Zendikar pack, knowing that if you pass a good card, you will be unlikely to pick it up in a second pack?
great show guys keep it up.
This show is pretty sweet. I found it after going through some old videos on channelfireball. So far you guys are the only podcast I can listen to. I tried listening to some of the other ones and either their voices annoy the hell out of me, or they’re just too obnoxious, or they don’t want to be men. Plus, I like the content of the show and the format you guys have.
I’m just getting back into magic after 14 years, ice age was when I quit, and in grade school I really didn’t know anything about magic inthe first place, so the show definately helps. Listening to show of ideas getting kicked around is my kinda show.
Btw, the strangest part of my comeback to magic is that I found out one of my old classmates Bishop O’Dowd ’01 is a magic pro. None other then Louis Scott Vargas, or as he’s known around the community “LSV”. Cracks me up everytime I watch one of his videos.
At any rate just wanted to show my support for the show and am looking forward to the second world wake preview ep since all the spoilers are done now. You guys better have me ready for my first draft and pre-release.
Another fine show. I actually listened to this podcast during a real life poker tournament and I must say I found it much better entertainment than listening to music (which I normally do)
@Marshall
The ‘losing shroud’ drawback to the Snapper is an amazing idea. It really fits flavorwise. Even though I’m more of a Spike (I think that’s the serious tourney player type) and rarely think about or appreciate the flavor of a card, your explanation and elaboration of the turtle-flavor was very entertaining and fitting.
@Ryan
I’m afraid Blazing Torch will not be the answer to the Firewalker for mono-red. The Torch grants the ability to the creature and even though the damage is from the Torch and thus colorless, the Firewalker would need to be targeted by the equipped creature and since it would be red, this wouldn’t be possible. I realize that was just a comment on standard and of little importance to this podcast or it’s audience, just saying in the event it does come up for or against anyone in the upcoming pre-release.
Thanks Ryan. All the manlands in Worldwake are rare, except for one. But it is worth remembering that Spreading Seas effectively kills them.
In regards to Iona’s Judgment. It never was mentioned but to me this is a clear analog to Arrow Volley Trap because the trap is generally a 1-for-1 removal when you leave 5 mana open and pass to your opponent. Perhaps early on in Zendikar limited or maybe against a poor player you can still get a 2-for-1 or better but if you’re playing that caliber of player, you already have a great edge and should be favored to win.
Further, a good player that suspects an AVT will generally send their 2nd or 3rd best threat making your either blow the trap on a sub-optimal creature or continually take damage and further pressure to their life total while having to keep 5 mana up.
So the Judgment is an upgrade over the AVT in that it’s a common, splashable, actually gets the threat that you want and is much more proactive since it can clear the way whenever you like rather than waiting on your opponent to attack. Much like AVT, though, multiples will be awkward in jamming up your curve and I don’t think I would EVER run more than two in any circumstances.
As a one-of or possible two-of, it’s quite an upgrade to the AVT which is decent teir-2 removal.
I just went 3-0 in Swiss for the first time while listening to Limited Resources #11. You guys rule so hard, I owe it all to this podcast.
Just read your comment, Eklypze. I’m in exactly the same boat as you–I quit right when Fallen Empires released and only started playing Magic again a couple of weeks ago. I was an eighth-grader when I quit, I didn’t understand the game at all back then. And I hadn’t played any kind of tournament at all, let alone Limited, until this month.
I’m also getting fired up for the prerelease by studying up with LR. It’s my first prerelease and my first sealed event, I hope to crush some hopes and dreams.
@elambert: Equipped creature has “{T}, Sacrifice Blazing Torch: Blazing Torch deals 2 damage to target creature or player.”
So it is actually the Torch that is doing the damage, so it can kill a Firewalker.
Given one of the thrusts of your response to my email about Luminarch Ascension, I feel I should clarify one of my points. You guys mentioned that my strategy of chumping with Windrider Eel, using Journey on a random 2/2 dork, etc. to get counters on the Ascension would backfire if, following that, I failed to get the all-important 4th counter. This is true. I guess I thought it was obvious that I meant you’re willing to do those types of things if you can tell, from your hand the board, etc., that those plays are going to eventually, and with some amount of certitude, get you the 4 counters that you need. This sounds way more difficult than it actually is.
I’d recommend you pull up a few random games from your log in MODO, go to somewhere in the middle of the game, and then pretend one of your topdecks is Ascension. Give a look over the board, and see if you can foresee ways to get it active over the course of several turns. I think you’ll be surprised how often getting four counters looks very, very managable, if you’re willing to chumpblock, etc. to do it.
Clearly the card is unplayable in heavy aggro decks (I said as much in my email), and in normal midrange decks I would only consider it a solid playable. But in a control deck, it’s pretty amazing.
And for the record, I almost always agree with you guys about avoiding cards that require a lot to go right for them to have a real impact on the game (you might remember the pictorial game walkthrough I emailed you a while back when you had your first big Hedron Crab discussion). I’m constantly trying to convince my friends around here to avoid cards like crab, Blade of the Bloodchief, Quest for the Gemblades, etc., that look neat but too often end up being blanks in practice. Luminarch Ascension, I don’t think, qualifies, and I recommend you give it a try sometime and find out for yourself.
Eric in Roanoke
By the way, I want to echo all of the praise from the other commenters this week. You guys really do a great show, and it’s much appreciated.
@oraymw
That’s exactly my point. The damage would kill the Firewalker since it is colorless but the red creature equipped with the Torch can’t target the Firewalker to ‘sling’ it at him.
Blazing Torch grants the creature an ability that targets, in addition to any other abilities it may have but it’s still the creature that has to target the Firewalker and a red creature simply can’t do that.
Novablast Wurm’s nickname will surely become Goku, at least at my shop, who’s with me here.
@Kirby
good luck to you too man. I’m actually thinking about driving the 40minutes to Super Stars Game Center to get my ass handed to me, so it should be a blast.
@Dalton Medd
Or at least Kamehameha Wurm…