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After a lengthy break for the festive period, Jed and Brent return with another podcast episode. We examine another double crack-a-pack of Khans of Tarkir, but this time look into the future and contemplate what drafting might look like after the release of Fate Reforged.

Which cards will be better and which will be worse? Can we envision a world where we don't pick Secret Plans? Who would want to? Find out in this week's ep.

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The gang returns with what will surely go down in history as an all-time classic podcast episode. Jed and Pete duke it out playing Oddsmakers with Brent as the host, moderator, judge, and jury.

Who will prevail? What happens when the contestants pick the same odds? Who will ingratiate himself to Brent best? Find out in this week's episode.

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Pete, Jed, and Brent return after a Thanksgiving break with the never-before-attempted Double Crack-A-Pack. In episode 5, the fellas discuss everyone's favorite 4/5 again and make the first two picks for both seats of a pretend two-man draft pod.

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On episode 4, the gang argues about raw power versus consistency, then discusses the merits of staying flexible in pack one and how to draft like the pros draft. There is even a little Arabian Nights talk thrown in for the old-timers.

Toodle-oo!

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Our intrepid hosts welcome a special guest to episode 3 of The L is Silent, physicist Dr. Jonathan <REDACTED>.

The boys chat about Heisenberg's morph, value-based drafting, Winchester Winston drafts, play "In or Out" with Khans 23rd cards, and go deep on whether you should Scout the Borders or not.

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Khans of Tarkir Sealed PTQ Report: Midwest Edition

As mentioned in an earlier post, earlier this week I made my way to the only PTQ within hundreds of miles of my new home.

Actual PTQ map. These are not the small states.

<SPOILER ALERT>

It did not go well. But now that we have that out of the way, I want to dig deeper into my pool and deck construction, see what I could have done better in hindsight, and share with the class some of my lessons learned.

</SPOILER ALERT>

Going into the day, I wanted great mana, tricky instants, and evasive threats. In my experience at these kind of events, you don't want to lose to your own manabase, you want to give yourself the chance to outplay your opponent, and you want to have ways to push through damage. Let's get to the pool and see what Lady Luck has in store for us.

Not so Magical Results

Your hero moved to Saint Louis earlier this year, so this marks his first limited PTQ season in a new geo-political region. It turns out that there is one (1) PTQ within a 4-hour drive, so today was my only shot this season.

Khans Sealed Deck #1 - Deck Construction

For the first time in quite a while, I fired up the old MODO machine and hopped into a Khans of Tarkir sealed deck release event. Let's get right to the pool:

Sweet fetch, bro

In this format, the first thing I'm going to look at is the fixing. I included the banners because they are cards if just barely. If we want to go full 5 color, then we have 5 red, 5 green, 3 blue, 3 white, and 2 black, plus 10 basics to split up. That doesn't feel like quite enough for my taste, although if the pool pushes us that way, it might be possible. By clan, there are 4 Temur fixers, 3 Mardu, 2 Sultai, 2 Jeskai, and 2 Abzan. Essentially our fixing is spread out across all colors.

On to the real cards...

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It's been a long time coming but we finally have our first podcast ready for prime time. On today's episode Pete and Jed do a crack a pack from the new set Khaaaaaaaaans of Tarkir. Enjoy! 

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Khans of Tarkir Prerelease Report: Midwest Edition

Big Fall Set Time, so Brent went to the local game store to battle some sealed at a Khans of Tarkir prerelease. [Side note: I cannot keep the clan names and abilities straight. Am I getting older or are these less evocative names than Shards or Ravnica?]

Which clan are you?

I picked Temur, because I like beef with a side of trickery. The Ferocious ability does little to tickle me, but I don't intend to build a whole strategy around it. If I see powerful cards with Ferocious, I will treat it strictly as a bonus. Recall that Naya in Shards was about big dudes, not the bonus you get for having big dudes.

In my pool, there is not much too exciting besides a Flooded Strand (what a lucksack) and the new five-mana Wrath. My promo card is the Temur mana-elf-morph, which is fine, but not a bomb.

I also own a whole bunch of the Onslaught fetches, so I have that going for me, which is nice.