Evaluation Tips
In every Limited format there are archetypes. During spoiler season look for archetypes and keywords that support/synergize with those archetypes. However, nothing beats actually playing with the cards.
Sealed: Look for creatures, cards that kill creatures and card advantage. Stick with two colors if at all possible for a stable mana base. Avoid more than 4 mana sources in a third color. Power level is slightly more important than mana curve but doing something productive every turn is key.
Draft: Take the best card and then identify what the second best card was so you can ear mark what color the next player is. Then know that the color is probably closed and avoid those colors moving forward.
The more you draft a set the more you will recognize synergies between cards.
Spending fewer resources than your opponent (when it comes to tricks) is to your advantage.
Don't commit fully to colors based on your first few picks. Understand you might be moved off those colors.
Beginner Tip: Draft two colors. Take the best card in two colors and stick with those.
Healthy living is important. Getting enough sleep is critical. Loading your body with healthy food and avoiding drinking and drugs before the event gives you the best chance possible. You are playing against the best out there and you have to focused and on your game.
Get a team.
Friendship and mutual respect come first and foremost. Then look for people with different strengths. If you are a good deck builder, look for a good sideboarder.
Organization and focus are important. Have a plan of action. Define the environment, build decks that represent the environment and then play against those.
Find what color(s) resonate with you and just focus on that deck.
jgarywise1@hotmail.com - email him article ideas for his Star City Games column
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First Set
Revised (1995)
Good tempo based set that lend themselves to exploitable Limited formats.
Urza's Saga
Brainstorm
Upheaval
Chaos Orb
Contract From Below
Cheatyface
Upheaval for 13 is fun! ;)
Having a $2000 deck stolen was a huge set back. However, this opened Gary up to exploring other formats like Limited.
Making friends with the top player in Canada and playing with his group led to huge improvements in Gary's game.
Making top 8 at the Worlds tournament in Japan.
Being inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Limited
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Rich Hoaen is known for his skill in Limited formats and has one Pro Tour top 8, four Pro Tour 16s, three Grand Prix wins and five other Grand Prix top 8s!! He was also the runner up in the last ever Magic Invitational.
Become intimately familiar with the combat tricks and their casting cost. This is essential for success in Limited play.
Drafting: Figure out what colors the players to your right are NOT in or figure out what color is open at the table. These two methods are the basics of figuring out what colors you should play.
Don't be a jerk and find players that are better than you.
Get a commons box and learn card interactions.
Cockatrice (free tool)
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Let me know what you like and what I can do better so I can make the show the best it can be and continue bringing you valuable content.
I read every single one and look forward to your feedback.
Rich Hoaen is known for his skill in Limited formats and has one Pro Tour top 8, four Pro Tour 16s, three Grand Prix wins and five other Grand Prix top 8s!! He was also the runner up in the last ever Magic Invitational.
Weatherlight
Odyssey block
Battlefield Medic
Coming to grips that he wasn't as good as he thought. It took a better player pointing out his misplays for Rich to realize he had much to learn.
Cheating is totally unacceptable and Rich learned early how abhorring it is when a team confessed to having cheated in a tournament they won.
Winning Grand Prix Montreal (2011)
Limited
Rich only plays when he has to but is currently on a mono red build.
Blaming games on luck. At lower levels players do this all the time, and it's wrong.
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I read every single one and look forward to your feedback.
Dan admits to being a terrible card evaluator but still thinks about cards as they are released and their possible impact on Standard.
Sealed: Identify a deck plan and build around that.
Draft: Be very mindful of your mana curve.
Find A team. Ideally you'll want a team with Pro players but if you can't find one then just get on A team that play tests regularly.
Take good notes and don't waste play testing time. Be mindful of "inbred" play testing.
Invest in Standard and stick with your deck as you improve and move up to bigger tournaments.
The Elephant Method (you just have to read it for yourself)
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I read every single one and look forward to your feedback.
Dan Jordan has 3 Pro Tour top 16s, 4 Grand Prix top 8s, and 4 Star City Games Open wins under his belt. He has also top 75'd another Pro Tour and has cashed in numerous other Grand Prix.
Urza's Destiny
Apacolypse was his first booster pack.
Ravnica: City of Guilds
Dan loved the complexity and depth of the set.
Dark Confidant
The life long friends you make and get to travel the world with is the best part about the game.
Due to an early success, Dan struggled with understanding that you're not going to win every tournament. You have to put in effort and stay on top of your game.
Watching the best players in the world and asking "why are they the best?" "What are they doing that I'm not doing?"
Placing in GP New Jersey.
Legacy; casting Brainstorm is so much fun.
Not practicing enough. Get on Magic Online and play and play and play. Play with people who are better than you.
If you like the show, head on over to iTunes and leave an honest Rating & Review.
Let me know what you like and what I can do better so I can make the show the best it can be and continue bringing you valuable content.
I read every single one and look forward to your feedback.
Compare new cards to old, similar cards. That's why constantly playing Limited is important.
Don't force a deck around pet cards that you like. Be willing to switch colors and ditch your first few picks if another strategy presents itself.
There is no substitute for practice. Use proxies or an online client to get reps in with a deck before you decide to invest in it.
Check out:
Magic: The Gathering Proxy Generator - Input the cards you need and the site will generate card images the perfect size to print, cut out and sleeve up.
Cockatrice - An online client to build decks and play against yourself to test things out.
Organize your board in a consistent way that makes sense to you. ie Creatures by power in descending order. Find something that works for you and be consistent.
Send and receive cards from everywhere! We also talked about how to tell if a card is fake.
LSV set reviews on Channel Fireball
A.E. Marling has won a Modern Star City Games invitational qualifier and has been one game away from the Pro Tour TWICE. He writes the incredibly popular and gratefully useful Foolproof Magic series for GatheringMagic. He is also a cosplayer, a Level 20 flavor judge, and a fantasy author.
A.E. shared some amazing tips all throughout the episode and I'd be remiss if I didn't try to catch them here for you.
Consume Magic event coverage. Watch what the pros are doing and learn from their successes as well as mistakes.
Play your land "in isolation" to create a visual queue that you've played a land this turn. That way you won't accidentally play two lands in a turn.
Organize your board in an easy-to-track way.
Bottom line: Develop a system that works for you and use the Foolproof Magic articles as a spring board into systematic.
The Foolproof Magic suite:
Revised
Innistrad
Arcbound Ravager
The imagery and imagination are so fascinating while the mental sport is captivating.
Feeling like he deserved to win and then tilting when he didn't was A.E.'s biggest struggle. One mistake cost him a tournament when he was young and this drove him away for a time. A.E. eventually realized that losing because you made a mistake is one of the beauties of Magic: The Gathering.
Realizing that your decisions matter and Magic is a game that when you make a mistake you lose. That's awesome because it shows that every choice is important.
Sealed / Draft and Modern
Tilting and not understand why it happens or how to control/curb it. We had a great discussion about stoicism and it's application to Magic.