Magic Numbers
Magic Numbers is a podcast about the Limited format in Magic: the Gathering. It uses data to try to crack the current draft format and to answer longstanding questions about the game, with the goal of making listeners better at drafting, deckbuilding and general strategy. The show targets intermediate to advanced players, though determined beginners will also find useful material. It is essentially the audio version of the host's Twitch seminars, so some segments were designed to be watched on YouTube or live on Twitch.
Episodes
#195: Early 17Lands.com data for Reality Fracture
FRA is a banger. But a banger that is particularly hard to navigate. Cards can be contextually good, but there are some universal trends. Once you know them - the rest will become much easier. And hopefully by the end of this seminar you will have that baseline knowledge. And the true format discovery process can begin!I started offering coaching on Metafy! Go to my profile to see what's o
#194: Reality Fracture draft deck skeletons with the Skeleton Crew
New set is out soon so why don't you learn the ins and outs of what we think is important in out eccentric, deck-centric set review. Instead of looking at cards, we build decks and show you how we think they might work. With me are The Rosemary Tea - check her awesome streams here. She is one of the most interesting drafters on the market, heavily invested in BO3 - as Garfield intended:https:/
#193: How is Pick 2 draft different?
This week I look into Pick Two draft. Since its introduction it has become a popular variant of Magic, both because of how fast it is, how little it costs and a relatively OK payout structure. So what does it change in drafting and what does having 12 packs in the pod change in the resulting decks? I started offering coaching on Metafy! Go to my profile to see what's on offer! Ping me for co
#192: Right cards for right decks in Hobbit
The format has stabilised after 2 weeks of turmoil and now is the time to actually look for solutions. And to do it, you better know what cards make which types of decks and which cards fool you into playing them. I look at all the cards in the set and see what are the best homes for them and while we do it, we discover the rules governing the Hobbit draft. I started offering coaching on Metafy! G
#191: Early 17Lands draft data for The Hobbit
New set, new rules of engagement. How to use the early draft data to understand the latest Magic expansion limited format? General set stats, color power, what makes each color pair tick and what are the traps to avoid. I started offering coaching on Metafy! Go to my profile to see what's on offer! Ping me for coaching. Join the
#190: The Hobbit draft deck Skeletons
Welcome to my eccentric, deck-centric set review. I look at some general stats for the new set, and fed with that information, set out to build functional draft deck and theory craft how the set might look like in the future. Am I right? Am I wrong - only time will tell. But I can guarantee you will get some nutritious food for thought in your own prep for the new format. Ping me for coaching. Joi
#189: Right Cards for the right draft decks, MSH Edition
Format is now well developed and the pick orders stopped evolving - so it is time to start solving a static environment. And what better way to do it that re-evaluation of every card in the set? I look at each card and see how it performs in every color combination where data is available. Ping me for coaching. Join the Di
#188: Early 17Lands draft data for Marvel Super Heroes
New format, new opportunities. We can start discovering the secrets of the MSH set, but you've got to start somewhere - and where better than with the early 17Lands data? We look at set statistics, color power levels, best cards at each rarity, key cards and biggest traps in each color pair. This should prepare you for your LGS and get you ready to explore the more subtle interactions and nich
#187: Marvel Super Heroes Draft Deck Skeletons with the Skeleton Crew
Few days before the new set releases on Arena - why not see our vision of draft format before starting to draft? Our eccentric, deck-centric set review is back. We look at format stats, design vision and then instead of grading individual cards we propose 40 card decks skeletons to showcase what we see in each color pair. This time we have Tresiohttps://x.com/Tresio/and Rosemary Teahttps://x.com/T
#186: Journal Club (Mulligan and opening hand data)
This week we are trying something new. A journal club. And the reason for it is very simple - there are not that many Magic-related scientific papers out there. But last week Jess Williams and Zev Goldhaber-Gordon released a very interesting paper on opening hands, land percentages, mulliganing and mana flood. I invited both authors to talk about their findings and what implications they have for
#185: Reimagining limited deck clustering
This week we say goodbye to SOS and sending it off through testing some new deck clustering approach. This time it is capable of distinguishing sub-color pair builds. And this opens new possibilities of analysing limited data. What happens when a color(pair) is not open? Can we see the symptoms of drfting based on the 1st picks? I think that we can. The method I used here is experimental but based
#184: Right cards for right draft decks, SOS edition
Card win rates can be misleading if you don't look at them with some amount of granularity. Two color pairs have a very different base win rate? Card played in both can look middling. Card is only good in one color pair but is routinely played in many? Win rate can look bad. To start correctly assessing card power using data to add extra context is crucial. And if you do it well, you might dis
#183: Early 17Lands draft data for Secrets of Strixhaven
New set is upon us, and it plays out sweet in Limited. I look at the early 17Lands data in order to figure out what works, what doesn't. But for this one, I think the more important thing is: what are the rules of engagement. What do you have to do in this format in order to start winning that is not typical for all formats. Hopefully the way I present the data will help you figuring that part
#182: Draft deck skeletons for Secrets of Strixhaven with the Skeleton Crew
New set is almost there, so it is time for my eccentric, deck-centric set review with the ever changing but ever wise Skeleton Crew. This time we have Zach Kagan and Tresio and we dive into out hopes and aspirations for the Secrets of Strixhaven set. And what a banger it promises to be. Despite being a 5 guilds set, where only 5 color pairs are supported for draft, the design team tried to seed in
#181: Winning against your worst opponent, your own brain
No graphs in this seminar but we are looking at something that will help you in every format you play and, who knows, potentially also in your non-magic part of life. Today we look at some cognitive theory and find ways our own brain tries to make us lose. How does it do it, what can we do about it? How to find a right mix of instinctive reactions and analytical thinking that maximises our intelle
#180: The secret sauce of Pizza decks in TMT draft
Everything Pizza decks are the open secret of the TMT draft format. Some streamers chain one 5 color deck after another. And there is a good reason for that. Since it has not been covered by any podcasts, the top cards for the archetype, including its namesake, are still going relatively late. And it is by far the best deck in the format. Its win rate averages at 60% - way above WB ninjas. And, if
#179: Right cards for the right decks, TMT Edition
Even with only 5 supported color pairs, some cards are not universally good. And after learning about the best cards in the last episode, figuring out the ones that have only one good home is important. We can fool ourselves by looking at the generic win rates of a card, but sometimes the difference can be massive. Extreme example is the poster boy of this episode, Armaggon, Future Shark. A bona f
#178: Early draft data for TMT
New set, new rules and despite its small size TMT looks interesting. There is a variety of diverse strategies which are viable - aggro, control, tempo are all there. And some cards do surprisingly well - check out this episode to see which ones and why. Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord
#177: Draft deck skeletons for TMT with the Skeleton Crew
Our deck-centric, eccentric set review is back - we cover the key aspects of the upcoming Turtle set. Get some head start over the rest of Arena folk by tapping into great minds of Jason Ye and Springbok7. I am also present. How to build the 5 main color pairs, some key cards and good ideas on what is going to be important in the format and what is not. Plus some silliness - but that one is a give
#176: Right Cards for Right Decks, ECL Edition
Typal sets are tricky to navigate. How are we supposed to know if this particular Kithkin is OK in Elves or not? And how do we even start one of the unsupported color pairs? Well, here is the answer. I look at most cards in the set and try to figure out which cards are good in surprising homes and what cards are letting you stay open to non-canonical color pairs as much as it is possible.We also t
#175: Early 17Lands Draft Data for Lorwyn Eclipsed
New set - new analyses. We look at the basics of Lorwyn Eclipsed - which color pairs are looking good, which are looking sus. Best cards at each rarity all in the sauce of context that will hopefully help you putting those trophies on board and - more importantly - letting you understand what makes the format tick. Ping me for coaching. Join the
#174: Lorwyn Eclipsed Draft skeletons with the Skeleton Crew
Our eccentric, deck-centric set review is back. My class guests go through the skeletons of the 5 supported color pairs in Lorwyn Eclipsed, building functional decks using mainly commons and uncommons to keep it realistic. But there is more. Since there are only 5 main builds we let them loose to brew and got such bangers as Reanimator or Burn in the process. This time we have: Sam Pratt (bsky.app
#173: Arena Power Cube Data
Is Arid Mesa better than Black Lotus (no) what cards make reanimator decks tick? What plan B should a Breach / Brain Freeze deck have for more resilience? All that in this weeks special episode on arena power cube. Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for
#172: Best draft cards of 2025
This week time to look at 2025 in retrospective - what cards were the heroes of last year's draft? I use data to highlight some bests in multiple categories. Part to reminisce, part to try and think more about the current designs and player psychology to see if we can get some advice from there. Did you know bonus sheet cards are more likely to be over and underrated? Me neither! Ping me for c
#171: 16Lands Data
Cutting that land is tempting when you build your draft deck. But is it? This time I explore some data on what are the features of a successful 16 land deck, which cards make it tick and which are not pulling their weight.Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for
#170: How I Stopped Worrying And Learned to Love the Draft
How often did you regret a draft pick after the draft? That lingering feeling you should have made a different choice in a 50:50 decision? Well, hopefully today I will convince you to worry less. We will look at the cost of abandoning the picks and I will make a semi-coherent case that if your card evaluation is OK, you will end up just fine. We are also going to learn why pack 1 picks are more im
#169: Drafting Right Cards for the Right Decks in Avatar: The Last Airbender
17Lands win rates we look at the most show us how much a card is winning in all the decks it has been put into. And for many cards, this is enough. They are either generically good and play well in most shells, or generically bad and should be avoided. But what about those exceptions?Well, sometimes the generic win rate can be misleading. Some cards with. low win rate perform very well in one spec
#168: Early 17Lands Draft data for Avatar: the Last Airbender
New set is upon us and it feels great! Drafts are fun, mechanics feel awesome, and there is still plenty left to discover. And this is why we are here: to lok at the early data and give you some pointers on what works so far and where to look for new possibilities. We will look at most powerful colors, cards, and what makes each of the 10 color pairs tick. Ping me for coaching. Join the
#167: Avatar: the Last Airbender draft deck skeletons with the Skeleton Crew
Join out deck-centric eccentric set review. Instead of reviewing individual cards, we are looking at whole decks for each color pair - how would we build them, which cards are we hopeful for and what synergies will be key in the early days of the format once it hits the Arena. My guests this time are SamP (Sam Pratt): https://bsky.app/profile/sampratt.bsky.socialZachy K (Zach Kagan): https://bsky.
#166: Draft signals in pick 2 draft
Spider-Man set has not exactly been a crowd pleaser, but that should not distract us from some positive features it had. As far as I am not impressed by its execution, the idea of a pick 2 draft is interesting and I would love to see it implemented again - in a better balanced set. The concept of smaller pod and picking 2 cards has massive implications on the signals sent and received in the draft
#165: Early 17Lands Draft Data for Through the Omenpaths
New set upon us and it is a challenging one. But worth giving it at least a couple of tries and you want to be prepared for that. What colors tick and which are duds? Which cards overperform and which failed to fulfil their promise? And why are there so many spiders in this definitely in-universe set? Find out the answers to at least some of those questions in my lates episode. Ping me for coachin
#164: Spider-Man draft deck skeletons with the Skeleton Crew
New set is upon us so it is time for our unique deck-centric, eccentric set review. Smaller set, smaller crew, so this time me, Sam Pratt from the Rough Drafts podcast and Zach Kagan (see below for their details) go through the specifics of Marvel's Spider-Man and look at which cards we expect to do well, which ones we have little trust in and how would we build each of the 5 supported decks.
#163: Learning card evaluation from the extremes
Today's episode is all about card evaluation. I look at cards from the recent past which were either amazingly good, sneakily good but under-appreciated by the community or traps that looked like they might be good but did not deliver. What vcan we learn from those cards? Are there any common themes? How to recognise a potential trap early or how to pick hidden gems more reliably?Ping me for c
#162: Breaking the format with Sam Pratt
Today we get a great guest - Sam Pratt from Rough Drafts podcast and we are talking about how to figure out builds, what role does the data play in that process and in the process figure out some key features of successful build-arounds in the format. Sam is someone worth following - you can find their socials / podcast here:https://linktr.ee/roughdraftsPing me for coaching. Join the
#161: Right homes for right cards in EOE draft (based on 17Lands data)
Week one data can only get you that far in understanding the format. To get a full grasp on it we need to go a bit deeper than the superficial. Today we try to look at cards in the context of their best homes. Yes, some cards are universally good, but some require a bit more thought put into where they belong or - even more tricky - where they don't belong. And through those unique (or uniquel
#160: Early 17Lands draft data for Edge of Eternities
New set, early start and people are struggling a bit - this is where data can be truly helpful. Get some ideas on what the format is all about through the lens of numbers. Green looks solid but what makes other colors tick? And what should you be cautious about when interpreting the early numbers?Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord
#159: Edge of Eternities draft deck skeletons with the Skeleton Crew
The new set is upon us so it is time to reanimate the Skeleton Crew. Our eccentric, deck-centric set review is back!! Through the means of ancient necromancy we have summoned Jason Ye, Sam Pratt (of the Rough Drafts podcast - give it a try) and Tresio to debate Edge of Eternities cards, decks and colors. Invaluable prep for your pre-release or just to hit the drafts running as soon as it gets rele
#158: Data stories: Openness and negative space win rates
Once per set I try to explore some new data concepts and try to give you, the viewer, some insight into the research process while trying to answer some questions related to limited Magic that interest me. This week episode is all about openness in draft lanes - something Final Fantasy was mage for as a very well balanced set. And this led me to a new concept - negative space win rates. How does n
#157: Data goes to Pro Tour; Limited meeting for Team Cosmos
Mr Sierkovitz goes to Vegas - in spirit only. I teamed up with Team Cosmos to help them in their Pro Tour prep and you can now see how it went. PT prep needs to be fast and efficient - as there are only few days between the set release and the competition. So this hypercondensed seminar goes through all cards in the set and tries to put as much context as possible in as little time as possible. We
#156: Early 17Lands.com draft data for Final Fantasy
New set is here, and Final Fantasy looks from the early days like a potential all-timer for us limited folks. And getting into the nitty gritty of it should start with getting some fundamentals - what colors look good (spoiler - all of them), which color pairs should you be playing (spoiler - also all of them) and which cards overperform (spoiler - ok - not all of them, for this you need to watch
155: Final Fantasy Draft Skeletons
I am joined by a motley crew of Limited sickos for our eccentric deck-centric set review. We look at some basic info about the upcoming Final Fantasy set and then present our deck skeletons - 40 card functional? decks in each color pair in order to showcase what we think is going to be good in the format. We look at cards in context, as pieces of a synergistic whole, to try and think beyond raw ca
#154: Card evaluation
New set is upon us and we have an impossible task of figuring out which cards are grerat and which are traps without the advantage of having them ever in our hands. Data won't solve that problem but it can definitely help, by looking at the general trends in card power across mana values, colors, etc. Also we can look into the amazing #P0P1 initiative from MTG_DS, where hundreds of people put thei
#153: Acing the open
Sealed data - the title sort of says it all ;) - will edit later (or will I?)
#152: Right cards for the right draft decks, TDM edition
This week we try to add a little bit context to the Tarkir: Dragonstorm drafts. Yes, some cards have high win rate, but who cares? That doesn't mean you should cram them in any deck. Some cards have a low win rate - again - that doesn't make them unplayable. They just need the right home. Today, with some 17Lands numbers I try to figure out what cards make the 6 main color combinations of
#151: Tarkir: Dragonstorm Early draft data from 17Lands.com
This week we dive into the new set - what is the big picture data? What are the key cards in each color, how to approach the early data and wht makes the 3C combinations tick. Also - how to pick fixing in TDM. Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon
#150: How to navigate 17Lands data in the early format?
Some meta stuff today. How to read data. What traps to avoid and what does data tell us about reading data. Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree
#149: Tarkir: Dragonstorm Draft Skeletons with the Skeleton Crew
Yet again our ever changing lineup of limited virtuosos takes on out unique deck-centric and excentric take on a set review. What to expect from the new set, what are we going to be playing, trying to draft, avoiding and dreaming of assembling. You can find my guests on Bsky:https://bsky.app/profile/jasoniltg.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/r-condon.bsky.socialor Elon Musks X.com platform:http
#148: Luck and Skill in draft
Today I look at the impact of luck in Aetherdrift draft. How much of the games outcome is determined by the luck in the pod? And how do great players deal with that? And how you, my dear viewer can become, if not great, at least better. I also talk about vehicles. And cards played in multiples. Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord
#147: Right homes for Aetherdrift cards in draft
Some cards are just great. They have it all - they fit like a glove to any deck you drafted. But some are amazing in one place, but a detriment elsewhere. The generic Win Rate metsrics for those cards can be misleading because they will be impacted by the cards bad performance in some decks so you won't see it is actually good in a more niche home.This week I look for those cards that have one
#146: Aetherdrift: Early 17Lands.com draft data
New set and this time the rules of engagement changed. And early data tells that story very well. Avoid the traps and start winning by being ahead of the curve. Might come in handy - either on Arena, your LGS or, dare I say, upcoming PT. I go through all the colors, color pairs, highlighting key cards and adding some context and describing the game plans that seem to give good results.Ping me for
#145: Aetherdrift Draft Skeletons with the Skeleton Crew
The Skeleton Crew is back!!! Me, Jason Ye, Zach Kagan and Jake Browne look at Aetherdrift and try to figure out what are the key themes / synergies and cards in the new set. This is our unique take on a set review where more attention is put on within-set synergies rather than individual card power.
We go through all the colorpairs and try to see how we envision decks in those color pairs, what
#144: Testing Heuristics in Limited
We hear the wisdom from experienced players: Always play your two drops, Spend all your mana, and many more. But how do the numbers back those old truths? Do they stand scrutiny of testing them through data? Are they universal? Or are there corner cases? I test several Limited heuristics and hopefully you get to level up your game play through it!
Ping me for coaching. Join the
#143: Birthday Q & A
In this episode, I answer a variety of question about Magic, life, cooking and stuff. Mainly MAgic though, so don't worry - you can still get something useful out of it, I am not turning into a lifestyle content creator.
Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon
#142: Early 17Lands.com draft data for Pioneer Masters
New set is with us and with it the usual struggles. What to play, which cards overperform, which do badly, what color pairs to prioritise. Fear not - I have most of the basics covered and hopefully you will leave with a solid understanding of the key features of the Pioneer set.
Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up fo
#141: Draft Good Cards
"Draft the good cards" is one of the basic pieces of advice you will get when starting to play limited. But just how effective is that advice? I dived deep in 17Lands.com data from BO1 Foundations drafts to measure just that. Turns out that this advice is solid. Over the course of the episode I will try to make you understand how and why does it work and how to best apply it, especially if you are
#140: Finding right homes for cards in FDN draft
There are some cards that are just great in Limited. You can jam them into any deck and be happy about it. Filling your whole deck with those must be nice. In reality, to find 23 playables we need to compromise a bit. Some cards will be below par. But with some knowledge you can make the most of that.
Some cards can be great in one of the color pairs in the format but mediocre in others. Knowing
#139: Early 17Lands.com draft data for Foundations
New set, new data. How to position yourself well in a new format? Get the best available card evaluations as early as possible. And that is the aim of this episode.
I will look at each color pair through the lens of the key card - surprising hits, reliable performars and shocking duds. Plenty of cards in each category will be discussed throughout the episode.
Hopefully with this information you
#138: DSK Set Re-review with Chord_O_Calls
Set reviews are fun but what exasctly do they bring to the table? We grade cards, we speculate wildly and life moves on. This set review is different. We graded the cards before the set was released, and are coming back to our initial grading after the dust has settled.
Me, and Alex, AKA Chord_o_Calls use this re-review to learn - what typpes of cards do we miss on? What trends we had during the
#137 - Advanced DSK drafting
So, you have your Boros aggro and UW Eerie decks nailed to a fine detail? But perhaps recently the wins are not coming as easy as they did early season?
Don't worry - I got you covered there. We will loook at the data of top 17Lands.com users and try to figure out what do they do differently to sustain a solid win rate throughout the format. And what strategies do they lean onto as the well with
#136 - What does 17Lands data tell us about successful draft strategy?
Forcing, drafting the hard way, drafting with preferences are all different approaches to the draft part of Limited.
What do the numbers tell us about those? Can you optimise your approach to draft through this and how? All in this weeks episode.
Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreo
#135 - Duskmourn Draft: Putting right cards in right decks
One of the traps of looking at card win rates is simplifying a complex problem. Yes, a card can have a decent win rate but this may meaan many things. It can be universally good, but it can also be very good in some decks and not so in others. 17Lands.com users often will intuit it, play that card in good decks and skew the data towards a hight win rate.
Today's episode loooks at each common a
#134 - Early 17Lands draft data for Duskmourn
New format, new learning curve, new possibilities. Today I look at the early data for DSK to try to figure out which cards are surprisingly good or worse than anticipated to give you that small edge in the new format. We go through some color pair data, looking at best commons, uncommons, cards that are sneakily good and cards that trap players into playing them when they probably shouldn't.
Pi
#133 - Duskmourn draft deck skeletons with the Skeleton Crew
Draft decks, not cards, they say. Why do we review cards before the set release then? Our unique take on reviewing a new sets is to talk about the big picture and based on those thoughts and discussions, we just build decks. Sometimes to show what designers want us to do, sometimes to show we can defy their goals and build something more off-piste.
And what a "we" do we have. Jason an
#132 - BLB set re-review with Chord_o_Calls
We say goodbye to BLB with revisiting our set review. This is an excercise in card evaluation and a farewell to all the critters in BLB. We look at what we got wrong before the set was released. Individual cards, color biases, what did we not get based on pure card evaluations.
Chord_o_Calls is a limited streamer, coach, podcaster. You can find more of his excellent content at https://www.twitt
#131 - Personal data with Ekil
This week we are going to look at BLB draft through the lens of Ekil, a prolific limited streamer specialising in BO3 drafts. What does he do differently that the rest to win 73% of his games and all that while playing exclusively on stream?
We go through his draft habits, look at color preferences and try to figure out what makes him successful.
You can find Ekil on Twitter and Twitch:
http
#130 - Causal Magic with Shivam Bhatt
Today, a different episode. I started offering coaching, and to give you the insight into my method, I invited a Commander legend, Shivam. He told me he was struggling a bit with BLB draft (aren't we all) and wanted a second pair of eyes on his drafting. We go through his draft and try to identify where the potential problems lay.
As it is Shivam, plenty of anecdotes in between, but eventua
#129 - Why top Limited players win more? Bloomburrow Edition
Some players win more consistently. Surely there is more to that than pure luck? I look at the data of the top 17Lands.com users from Bloomburrow BO1 draft to try to see - what cards do they prioritise and what cards do they win more with. And try to speculate why that might be so.
But wait, there's more! Some cards are generically good and will make the vast majority of decks they are in b
#128 - Early Bloomburrow Draft Data
Early data for every format is a bit of a minefield. On one hand it provides valuable information, on the other, can be misleading as it is largely based on the decks where players were still finding their footing in the new format.
Join me in trying to decipher the data and find some cards that are obviously good or bad and some that may still be flying under the radar.
I look at color and
#127 - Draft archetype analysis for Bloomburrow with the Skeleton Crew
My traditional set review. Which is also a star-studded panel discussion. But instead of looking at individual cards, we look at the decks. How do we see decks in the upcoming format, what cards are we hopeful and what synergies excited about.
My guests are:
Jason Ye, a Pro Tour star and one of the brains behind the Slogurk decks. But we all know that in reality, Jason only wants is to deve
#126 - MH3 set re-review with Chord_o_Calls
As with every set, at the end of the format me and Chord_o_Calls come back to the grades we gave each card in the format and see how far off were the grades from the card's actual performance.
Did we nail our pre-release predictions? If not - where were the most mistakes? Were there any trends in colors, rarity? And with that information we try to speculate - what went wrong and what were
#125 - How to optimize lands in MH3 draft decks
MH3 has the most complicated land system in ages. A whooping 1/8th of all the cards you see during draft will be lands and that means they play an important role in the deck building process.
Today I talk about how to make sure you have the right number of landscapes and what is the best way of sneaking Modal Double-Faced Cards (spells with land at the back of the card) into decks: should you r
#124 - Learning to draft according to your level
In all areas of life we know that learning process is a progression. You start with simpler tasks and as you get better, take on more complicated ones building on your growing skillset.
But Magic often has universal advice to all players without taking the individual level characteristics into account. Todays episode will try to at least identify some trends between different win rate groups of
#123 - Early dive into Modern Horizons 3 Draft Data
If you like a story with a good villain, MH3 delivers. Writhing Chrysalis is the best common we have seen by win rate and keep in mind - it all happens in a high power set. It will define the format - no doubt about it. Question is - what will you, the player do. Will you embrace it? Find a way to beat it? Or get angry with the format?
If it is the latter - this content is not for you. However i
#122 - Personal Data with Paul Cheon
This week I have an immense pleasure of hosting a real legend and, if Magic were a country, a national treasure, Paul Cheon.
We look through the data of Paul to try to figure out what was essential to Paul's incredible win rate in OTJ. But wait, there's more. Anecdotes, stories, general insights, some thoughts on the upcoming format and many more.
I had fun recording, but after that I
#121 - Modern Horizon Draft Archetype Skeletons
New set preview time. Me, Jason Ye and a newcomer Springbok7 look at the MH3 and try to predict how each color combination would look like. Instead of traditional card review, we look at the set's fundamentals and build a skeleton of a deck using realistic assumptions (some rares, some uncommons, lots of commons) for each color pair.
Plus many bonuses that include:
my cat stopping the str
#120 - OTJ set re-review with Chord_o_Calls
This week me and Alex, AKA Chord_o_Calls, come back to our prerelease predictions of the OTJ set. We evaluated every card then - but how did our predictions pan out?
This review is not design to pat ourselves on the back - we focus on mistakes and try to figure out why we made them. Do we have one-off issue or is there some systematic bias in how we assess the cards.
This episode is key if you
#119 - Figuring game plans using data
Some draft archetypes are relatively straightforward. This will naturally mean that the data related to those archetypes will be of high quality as people are playing right cards in those decks.
But some color pairs turn out to be more elusive for Arena users. And this means that a lot of the data related to those archetypes is based on badly built decks, which will underestimate the color pair&
Bonus: How to Draft Ikoria on Arena
Ikoria is coming back to Arena for a week. It is my favourite draft format of all the ones I played. The definition and a gold standard of a high synergy format, fun, unique in so many ways - I would not be myself if I didn’t preach its merits. And there are so many. Hopefully after listening to this bonus episode you can try it and learn that it has so much more to offer than the common knowledge
#118 - Drafting OTJ
This episode we look at the pack composition of OTJ play boosters. How many rares are there acually? What is the common frequency and how often do you get the cards from each of the many bonus sheets?
On top of that - How should we approach pack one? Is sticking to one color a sustainable strategy? Should you diversify?
And we look at the most attractive wheel targets, which also sheds some li
#117 - Learning to draft OTJ from top players
Some strategies in draft are easier to reproduce at any skill level than others. In this episode I look at the cards, color pairs and strategies that top 17Lands.com users mastered but the general population still struggles with. What are the secrets of the best players? How do they build the decks others struggle with?
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