andrew

cross-posted from [email protected]: https://mtgzone.com/post/380788

Key points for RVR draft:

All the cards in the set are reprints from previous sets happening on Ravnica. If you’we been around for a while, you know what that plane is all about. If not, there’s a single most important thing to keep in mind: There are ten 2-color guilds, each with its own signature theme.

So, in the vast majority of drafts, you want to be drafting a 2-color deck. However, it’s perfectly reasonable to splash a bomb, from a adjacent guild. For example, say you’re playing Selesnya (green-white). You could easily play Assemble the Legion. That’s possible, as there’s plenty of mana fixing available.

Keep in mind, that each card in your deck should ideally met at least one of the following criteria:

• It works well with your guild’s theme, or;
• It’s just a strong card on its own.

Obviously, if both conditions are met, that’s especially great. So, let’s take a look at the archetypes and figure what each archetype is trying to do.

Key points for RVR draft:

All the cards in the set are reprints from previous sets happening on Ravnica. If you’we been around for a while, you know what that plane is all about. If not, there’s a single most important thing to keep in mind: There are ten 2-color guilds, each with its own signature theme.

So, in the vast majority of drafts, you want to be drafting a 2-color deck. However, it’s perfectly reasonable to splash a bomb, from a adjacent guild. For example, say you’re playing Selesnya (green-white). You could easily play Assemble the Legion. That’s possible, as there’s plenty of mana fixing available.

Keep in mind, that each card in your deck should ideally met at least one of the following criteria:

• It works well with your guild’s theme, or;
• It’s just a strong card on its own.

Obviously, if both conditions are met, that’s especially great. So, let’s take a look at the archetypes and figure what each archetype is trying to do.

Gavin Verhey, one of the lead designers at Wizards, posted an interesting question on Twitter:

"You get to pick one Magic keyword mechanic to return in 2024. What is it?"

What are we bringing back?!

Paul Cheon seems to have been included in the layoffs 😞 Huge bummer for all of the laid off employees given how well MTG itself seems to be doing.

KTK is coming back to Arena! TL;DR on draft strategy:

There are a couple of ways you can try to approach Khans of Tarkir drafting. My favorite strategy is to position myself for a 5c/good stuff pile early on, then move into a specific archetype/clan if I keep getting passed good cards.

Some of the best strategies from the Draftsim guide:

• BWr Warriors
• Simic Bear Punch
• Ugx Morphs
• BGx Toughness Matters
• Practically any clan combination

Timeless is a new non-rotating, Constructed format where every card on MTG Arena is legal. This includes digital-only cards, the upcoming Khans of Tarkir set release, and any future set releases. Timeless will use the re-balanced versions of all digital-only cards, but the original tabletop printings of all non-digital cards.

Timeless will be the first format on MTG Arena to have a restricted list. If a card is on the restricted list, only a single copy of that card may be included in your deck and sideboard. Cards will have to earn their place on the banned and restricted list, and only those cards that have proven to be negative fun or far too powerful will be added.

The initial restricted list for Timeless includes only the following three cards:

• Channel
• Demonic Tutor
• Tibalt's Trickery

MaRo on complaints about competitive Magic:

Here’s a good place to voice it. I should stress that we’re spending just as many resources as we always have (if not more) on competitive play. Yes, we added a casual play design team, but never shrunk the competitive ply design team. In fact, we added people to it.

in reply to:

Hi Mark. I hope you're having a nice Monday. I think it's great that you guys are focusing more on Commander and the casualty side of Magic, which has historically been more in the background. However, I think the health of competitive is formats is being neglected. Many of the formats I used to enjoy no longer have the same compelling and engaging gameplay that they used to. At first I though it was just me, but many people feel the same way. Is there anywhere I can voice this concern? Thanks.

TL;DR:

Standard has gotten less fun as players [via Arena] create solved formats at a breakneck pace unseen before in Magic history. Combine that with a shuttering of play due to a pandemic that led to players finding non-rotating formats they could invest in due to uncertainty for when Magic play would return and you get all-time lows in Standard play.

We have three MagicCon events taking place in 2024, and each will feature a Premier Play event:

• February 23-25, 2024 – MagicCon: Chicago featuring Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor
• June 28-30, 2024 – MagicCon: Amsterdam featuring Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3
• October 25-27, 2024 – MagicCon: Las Vegas featuring Magic World Championship 30

We have a new Matrix chat channel!

We set this up for anyone in the community interested in more real-time discussion or to get to know other community members.

This post links to the space to join. Right now there's just one room, which you can access directly here: https://matrix.to/#/#mtgzone:matrix.org

All feedback welcome, as always!

cross-posted from: https://mtgzone.com/post/240277