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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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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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Legacy Cube Draft #1

Wizards introduced a new online format a while back called "Phantom" events. These events accept a second virtual currency, phantom points, or regular event tickets, but the prize payout is in phantom tickets and you don't get to keep the digital objects you draft. It is a way to play events for the fun of playing without necessarily incurring the high cost of drafting at retail price and selling the rares after the fact, which is right up my ally.

Wizards generously added a large allotment of phantom points to all active accounts over the summer in a "Please test out the version 4 client" move. I didn't use mine then, so this event (and a few more) will be on the house, which makes me feel better about using the v4 client and losing to clock because of the interface.

For more info on the Legacy Cube, read here, or check out the full card list here. There are plenty of oldies and goodies in this, what amounts to a Greatest Hits draft. The major difference is that only Legacy-legal cards are in, which means no Power Nine. And with that preamble out of the way, let's dive into a Swiss Legacy Cube event with the pick-by-pick replay.

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.

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Episode 2 introduces listeners to another of our blog contributors, Brent Archer.

Brent and Pete follow up on unresolved Ugin and Ivorytusk Fortress issues  from episode 1, then crack another Khans pack and give you the lowdown on a great resource for starting your MTGO journey.

The L is Silent should now be available for all major podcatching technologies. Use the feed http://feeds.feedburner.com/thelissilent-magicanotes

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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.

Local Game Store M15 Draft

Howdy, everybody!

After literally not playing a single game of Magic since the paper Born of the Gods prerelease, I went down to my local game store to make some friends in my new town draft.

This place has two drafts on Saturdays, FNM draft and a draft on Friday afternoon at 3PM. I call that one "the unemployed special". With my current state of joblessness, I biked over to do some afternoon draft.

There were not enough players to do a sanctioned draft so we put together a six-man pod and everyone else vetoed my moneydraft suggestion.

First pick was unexciting, I took a Spectra Ward over not much else, then second picked Siege Wurm. I remember this guy from Ravnica 1.0 and I hear convoke is good in this set. There would be no more green to be had for the entire draft. I picked up a couple decent white and black cards but then white dried up completely as well. There was a little late blue, so i dipped a toe in there and finished pack one with some black, some white, and some blue.

After the first three picks, pick order is approximate/fully from memory.

Pack two I opened nothing exciting. I take Gravedigger, then some artifact and black creatures. Sweet! The black is flowing and now I need to decide white or blue, depending on what comes. The end of pack two is not that helpful, with a late Divination, but no other useful blue and just a couple mediocre white cards.

The three-slot is getting a bit heavy.

In the last pack, I luck into opening Liliana, so I slam that. I follow up with a second black paragon, since it looks like I will be heavy black. Then the signal (finally) comes. Third pick Triplicate Spirit. I am in white now and good luck moving me off it. Fourth pick Devouring Light. Fifth pick Triplicate Spirit! Hooray for staying open and flexible. I fill out the pack with more junk and never get tempted by a strong blue card again.

A little expensive, but I won't say no to Sextuplicate Spirits

As deckbuilding progressed, we deconstructed the draft a little. The guy I was passing to cut white hard in pack one. The guy passing to me cut green hard. I stayed pretty open in white/black. Then the late blue came and we all three made a grab for it. I took a few blue cards, but the second pack I was being passed from a white/blue drafter, so there was little of either coming my way. Third pack, I was getting leftovers from a green/blue guy, with no white on that side of the table.

My only guess as to why Mr R/W would pass Triplicate Spirits is because he was balls-out "15-land" aggro.

My deack was quite heavy on three-drops, with little removal, but this is core set and I'm not exactly sure how much removal there is in the New Magic World Order. Wall of Limbs and Xathrid Slyblade were both terrible. I sided them out for Necrobite and Crippling Blight.

Needs more removal

In round one, I played the Green/Black drafter. Villain's deck had all the Typhoid Rats my deck could have used. I won game 1 on the back of Spirits plus Selfless Cathar then Sign In Blood you for the final point. In the second game, our boards were very close on turn 6 except I used all my cards and Villain had no forests yet and a grip with 5 green cards. When he did draw a forest, it was game over for our hero. Game three I got quite lucky. Lilliana Vampiric Tutored me a Triplicate Spirits, then Villain cut the second copy to the top of my deck, followed immediately by Selfless Cathar. I won that one.

Round two, I get paired down against the Blue/White drafter who hates me because I took "his" spirits in pack three. This Villain is mentally not in it at all after losing "in five minutes" round one. We play out our first few turns then on turn 5 I drop my fifth land, attack into an empty board with only one of my two creatures and he scoops. I had the Triplicate Spirits, but he didn't even make me show him. He says he only had one flier in his (Blue/White) deck. Game two he mulligans into oblivion and I get a reasonable curve-out.

Round three, the pairings break because the 0-2 Blue-White guy took his cards and went home. A 1-1 player gets a bye into third place, but at least the 2-0s play each other. The other finalist is the Blue/Green drafter passing to me in packs one and three. This game afforded me the chance for the sweet play of Lilliana, discard your last card, please. Then on seven land, Vamp Tutor up Spectral Ward to the top of my deck, Sign in Blood to draw it and cast it on my Will-Forged Golem. The pro-all colors 6/6 took Villain from 18 to 0 in three turns while my other guys were on chump duty for his bigger green creatures. Game two, he kept a sketchy two forest hand because it had Naturalize and I showed him artifact targets and a sweet enchantment. I curve out while he draws forests and blue cards from what I can tell. The only spell Villain plays all game is Natualize on my Spectra Ward, but the 3/2 lifelinking Child of Night and the Midnight Guard made quick work of his life total.

I took it down and earned 6 packs for my trouble, but no planeswalker points. I never drew Gravedigger or Oppressive Rays, but I could imagine a world where the one-white aura is quite good. As I said earlier, Wall of Limbs was not very good and Xathra Slyblade did everything Marshall and bwong said it would: sometimes it was unblockable with threat of activation, but definitely super scary when the Villain has open mana. If they block it, they probably have a trick and you have to use that four mana then get blown out. No, thank you. When I draft again, I will watch more for curve considerations. Too many threes should not work out so well.

I think this format is one where you can stay open and find the color that is flowing. So far with a sample size of two, Loreto and I both found this to be true. Also, I am an old man and I don't like change, but put me down for "no" on the new card frame. The frame just looks like the layout editor was drunk and didn't realize it was off-center. And double-U tee eff is up with this font?

blech

Hearthstone: the Gathering

Someone translated all existing Hearthstone cards into MTG frames and rules templates.

Most of these are pretty sweet mashups, although I admit there are also some that are a stretch.

Cone of Cold was my favorite so far.