119 avsnitt • Längd: 95 min • Månadsvis
Magic Numbers is a podcast about Limited format in Magic: the Gathering. The idea is to use data to try to crack current format, or try to answer longstanding questions in Magic and by answering the questions making the listeners better at drafting, deckbuilding and general strategy. The target audience is intermediate to advanced players, but rest assured, determined beginners will also find useful information that will allow them to level up. The podcast is an audio version of my Twitch seminars, so if some parts are confusing, it was designed to be watched on YouTube or live on Twitch.
The podcast Magic Numbers is created by Sierkovitz. The podcast and the artwork on this page are embedded on this page using the public podcast feed (RSS).
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 will be ready to trophy more and outplay those who rely on guesswork and intuition.
Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else!
Watch this episode and see the slides: https://youtu.be/aWoTNGMbq7E
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
You can get the BulkBox at
if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount! If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website.
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332
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 grading? How can we use our failures to improve the next time? Card evaluation is a skill that can be worked on and it yields results. Hope this episode will help you improving your grading skills. You can find Alex on twitter: twitter.com/Chord_O_Calls Or listen to his excellent podcast, Limited Level-Ups, which you can find on your podcast app or on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@limitedlevel-ups
Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else!
Watch this episode and see the slides: https://youtu.be/s-s-3MdNJv4
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
You can get the BulkBox at
if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount! If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website.
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332
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 the best decks dries out because the knowledge of their strength becomes universal.
Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else!
Watch this episode and see the slides: https://youtu.be/s-s-3MdNJv4
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
You can get the BulkBox at
if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount! If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website.
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332
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 Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else!
Watch this episode and see the slides: https://youtu.be/WD2i1C07EfA
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
You can get the BulkBox at https://www.bulkbox.co.uk/store/ if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount! If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website.
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332
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 and uncommon in DSK and tries to see which caard is good where, at least at the color pair level. Hopefully this helps you finding your footing in the format by adding a lot of context to DSK drafts.
Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else!
Watch this episode and see the slides: https://youtu.be/b2JkWu0AHiY
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
You can get the BulkBox at https://www.bulkbox.co.uk/store/ if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount! If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website. Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332
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.
Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else!
Watch this episode and see the slides: https://youtu.be/s-s-3MdNJv4
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332
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 and Ryan are qualified for the worlds and renowned limited specialists that managed to convert their draft skills to beat on puny constructed players. Springbok7 is a draft grinder extraaordinaire, Tresio rose through the ranks of my patrons to a staple of the skeleton crew. And me, without data, so mainly for comedic purposes and the 6-pack.
You get a 3h extract of our take on the upcoming format - find neat synergies, discuss plans, point to key cards. All in time to prep you for the prereleases.
Watch the episode on Youtube: https://youtu.be/WUzbX_eoZgs
You can find my panel here:
https://www.twitch.tv/springbok7
And work of many others behind the scenes shouldn't go unnoticed
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
You can get the BulkBox at https://www.bulkbox.co.uk/store/ if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount! If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website.
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332
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.twitter.com/chord_o_calls.
Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else!
Watch this episode and see the slides: https://youtu.be/mE5nMC7iY9I This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
You can get the BulkBox at https://www.bulkbox.co.uk/store/ if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount! If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website.
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332
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: https://x.com/ekiltv https://www.twitch.tv/ekiltv
Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! Coaching is now available - reach out through any of those channels. Watch this episode and see the slides: https://youtu.be/JXRjzBZxM0k
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
You can get the BulkBox at https://www.bulkbox.co.uk/store/ if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount! If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website.
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332
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 eventually we identify some problems with his lane and hopefully - his next drafts will be better for it.
You can find Shivam 24.7 on twitter - and it is a joy. A true oasis of positivity in the bitter world of Magic content creation. https://x.com/ghirapurigears
If you are interested in coaching - ping me a message. On Discord. On Twitter. You can find my socials on https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! Watch this episode and see the slides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbviD8zbFaU This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
You can get the BulkBox at https://www.bulkbox.co.uk/store/ if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount! If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website.
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332
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 better. Some cards are more niche. Bloomburrow being a typal synergy decks has some not-so-secret gold cards - cards that work in only one archetype, but not another. But it is not alway obvious. There are "false friends" among us. Some Racoons secretly want to be played with Mice. Some Bats are Lizards in disguise. I go through most commons and uncommons and using data try to figure out best homes from them. And worst homes for what it is worth.
Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! Watch this episode and see the slides: https://youtu.be/MvR7clSuFIg This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
You can get the BulkBox at https://www.bulkbox.co.uk/store/ if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount! If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website.
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332
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 color pair power rankings and look at top, hidden gem and trap cards in each archetype.
Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! Watch this episode and see the slides: https://youtu.be/pD7La6IbEUM
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
You can get the BulkBox at https://www.bulkbox.co.uk/store/ if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount! If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website.
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332
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 develop quirky draft build-arounds. And you are in for a treat here! https://x.com/JasonILTG
Adam (aka Ddavp) - don't get fooled by his joviality, there is a sharp and competitive mind behind the cordial exterior. And jokes that would make many-a-dad blush. https://twitter.com/adam_ddavp
Springbok7 - a second time guest and already an integral part of the team. The level-headed member of the skeleton crew, internally tutting at our shenanigans. You can find them streaming on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/springbok7
Mike, AKA Tresio, this editions newcomer, but entering with a bang. Just showing how becoming a patron and putting some effort can connect you with the creator. Tresio started by asking me question for Magic Numbers episodes and now advanced to co-hosting the show. And pulled their weight fearlessly with some excellent takes! Follow them on https://x.com/tresio
Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else!
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
You can get the BulkBox at https://www.bulkbox.co.uk/store/ if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount! If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website.
Watch this episode and see the slides: https://youtu.be/MsFMWW3nVfo
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332
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 right, so we can improve our card evaluation for the next time.
Alex is one of the leading limited brains on this planet. If you don't follow him or his podcast - Limited Level-Ups - you are missing out. Check out his YT to learn more!
Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else!
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
You can get the BulkBox at https://www.bulkbox.co.uk/store/ if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount! If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website.
Watch this episode and see the slides: https://youtu.be/MsFMWW3nVfo
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332
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 replace a spell or another land with them.
Plus some data on format speed and how to use rarely mentioned metrics from 17Lands.com.
Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else!
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
You can get the BulkBox at https://www.bulkbox.co.uk/store/ if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount! If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website.
Watch this episode and see the slides: https://youtu.be/MsFMWW3nVfo
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332
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 players and find cards that are evaluated differently between then and cards that are having different win rates across those groups. Obviously all based on 17Lands.com and using Modern Horizons 3 as the dataset.
Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else!
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
You can get the BulkBox at https://www.bulkbox.co.uk/store/ if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount! If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website.
Watch this episode and see the slides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuHWGPxfdjk
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332
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 if you are looking into the first two options - I use the early format data to try and find the answer - what to do with the RG and how to beat it, or at least where to start to look for way of beating it.
Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else!
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
You can get the BulkBox at https://www.bulkbox.co.uk/store/ if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount! If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website.
Watch this episode and see the slides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCFbWHUgWN0
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332
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 realised - while having fun and making silly guess games, we actually managed to create some pretty in-depth episode that, despite looking at OTJ specific, is very useful for your draft strategy independent of the format. With some universal thoughts on how to become better at limited in the unique but successful way that Paul's approach offers.
If you don't know Paul and his content, it is high time you got acquainted.
Paul's YT: https://www.youtube.com/@haumph
Paul's Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/haumph
Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business. You can get the BulkBox at https://www.bulkbox.co.uk/store/ if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount! If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website. Watch this episode and see the slides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pahfhcA52k
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332
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:
And yet still thanks to the sheer quality of my guests this remains one of the defining pieces of content before the release of any set. You can find my guests online elsewhere and you would be well-advised to do so.
Jason: https://www.experimentalsynthesizer.b/... Springbok: https://twitch.tv/springbok7 Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business. You can get the BulkBox at https://www.bulkbox.co.uk/store/ if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount! If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website. Watch this episode and see the slides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pahfhcA52k
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332
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 want to improve in card evaluation - might be useful with MH3 on the horizon. Yes. I went there.
Alex is one of the leading limited brains on this planet. If you don't follow him or his podcast - Limited Level-Ups - you are missing out. Check out his YT to learn more!
Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business. You can get the BulkBox at https://www.bulkbox.co.uk/store/ if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount! If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website. Watch this episode and see the slides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw_7BqDU9sc
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332
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's power in the generic datasets, leading to players undervaluing the color pair. This is an exploit you can use to gain some edge in the late season by evaluating the power of color pairs correctly. And data can help. Here I use data to figure out the plans for each color pair and then use it to identify cards essential for few undervalued color pairs. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business. You can get the BulkBox at https://www.bulkbox.co.uk/store/ if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount! If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website. Watch this episode and see the slides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5OzX00hMn0
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332
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 suggests.
What is the Ikoria philosophy? What are its features? How to tame the micro synergies? How to master the macro-synergies? And what are some of my favourite build-arounds in the set of 1000 build-arounds.
Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business. You can get the BulkBox at https://www.bulkbox.co.uk/store/ if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount! If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website. Watch this episode and see the slides: https://youtu.be/zdYuGdWLxqg
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332
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 light on the most underdrafted archetypes.
Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business. You can get the BulkBox at https://www.bulkbox.co.uk/store/ if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount! If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website. Watch this episode and see the slides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s76bxbfC2I
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332
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? Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business. You can get the BulkBox at https://www.bulkbox.co.uk/store/ if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount! If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website. Watch this episode and see the slides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZhbzd_R4Aw
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Early data from a draft format should be treated with caution, but also gives us some essential information on how to approach the format. I am talking about color power rankings, color pairs in the set to give you a general impression of the power level of each of them. But the real fun begins as I dive into each color pair and give you the best card, the hidden gem and the trap for each of the pairs at common and uncommon. Hidden in that data is some information on what each color pair wants to be doing in order to win. And this is the part where you will find the most surprising findings.
Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business. You can get the BulkBox at https://www.bulkbox.co.uk/store/ if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount! If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website. Watch this episode and see the slides: https://youtu.be/hgW-Yu2IbuY
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332
It is that time of the Magic calendar again. I meet with Jason Ye, Adam (DDAVP) and Zach Kagan to talk about our vision for the upcoming set. Which cards are spiking our interest? Which cards are confusing us? Why do we think some archetypes are going to be great and some are going to be rubbish? We discuss our impressions of the new set, and after a lengthy debate, present our draft "skeletons" - realistically built propositions of decks you might want to try out yourself. From Azorius "I don't wanna cast things on my turn" to "Sultai deck that just wants 12 copies of Murder" - we have quite a collection of solutions. Not surprising really, given the selection of my co-host from among the most unique thinkers in Limited magic. Find my guests here btw:
https://twitter.com/adam_ddavp
Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Watch this episode and see the slides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd4Sqr94LlQ
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This week I answered dozens of questions about data, how to analyse it, me, my pets, philosophy of analysing Magic, and more. Here are all the answers.
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Watch this episode and see the slides: https://youtu.be/9xHqge6vMY4
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In the late stages of the season it is nice to keep things fresh. And drafting a unique multicolor pile of cards might be the new lookout on the format you need to rejuvenate your interest in MKM. But 5 color decks on average have one significant problem. They tend to win less. Today's episode will look at how to make sure your multicolor deck is good. Which cards are essential, how much mana fixing do you need - I look in some detail to all those questions. On top of that, I use this episode to try and answer some more general questions related to multicolor decks. Like what is a better strategy: having a balanced 5C deck with each colors represented evenly, or a lopsided deck - when one color is dominant and other colors act as a support.
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Watch this episode and see the slides: https://youtu.be/XYAMUhMJcrA
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This week we look back at the... BUT WAIT, WHO IS IT behind me with the steel chair!!!! Yes, Alex Nikolic AKA Chord_o_Calls came to visit me all the way from Canada and we used that time to record our set rereview. Set reviews are fun - you can speculate about which cards and colors are good, gives you the opportunity to think about the upcoming format. But usually noone comes back to them. Not us. Our main driving force in playing Magic is continuous improvement. And what better way to improve at card evaluation than see where you got it wrong and wonder why? We look at the cards we missed in evaluation, but, perhaps more importantly, at more general trends - which colors did we underestimate consistently, which colors did we (ok, mainly me) grossly overestimate. I am looking at you black. But this is not only an excercise in card evaluation. MKM proved to be a really good format, and I still draft it regularly. Looking at it through the lens of our review you get a good summary of how our understanding of the set evolved and get some good tips in playing it in the late format. If you don't follow Alex - grave mistake. He is one of the best Limited (imho THE best) educators so check out his YT, Twitter and Podcast.
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Watch this episode and see the slides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmPFetpCAww
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332
This week I have a guest - a Pro Player, caster, Magic theorist Eduardo Sajgalik, AKA Walaoumpa and we talk about his role as the Limited coach for the Pro Tour team Worldly Counsel. What differences and similarities are there in coaching the cream of the crop of Magic players? How can you use their strategies in self improvement - all in the context of MKM draft.
Plus a completely unscripted bonus part with some chat questions and analysis of the current format which is imho an amazing depth insight into the format. Give Eduardo a follow at https://twitter.com/Walaoumpa
Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Watch this episode and see the slides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAm0eF9azXc
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ALSA is a term that gets thrown around a lot in data-adjacent content about Limited. But what exactly is ALSA? And what is the full meaning of the number that hides itself behind those four letters? I take a deeper dive on that metric, looking to answer what it really is. And the first 17Lands data is publicly available so it is time to dive into draft data. Which cards go later in pack 3? What are the best 1st picks? And which cards can you wheel reliably - all that in the episode.
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Watch this episode and see the slides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5SFxNrsvXU
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Limited is hard. You need to be at a decent level of playing, know what is going on in the format, be able to build a coherent deck. Starting to draft can be a scary process. You get so much advice that is unintuitive, conflicting, confusing. A part of that is: advice is usually targeted at a particular group of players, but that group is rarely specified.
Not today though.
I look at the data from different win rate groups of players and try to tailor the advice to people whose win rate is slightly lower than the groups I talk about. You win ~50% of your games? No problem - look at what people winning 55% do differently from you. Winning 55% of the games already? Take a peek at the differences between your cohort and people winning 60% of their games. Winning 60%? No worries - look at some details of what your peers do and try to find your weakness.
Hopefully seeing what types of cards better players prefer and thinking about why do they prefer them will aid you in your development as a drafter and make the process of learning to play Limited less scary.
Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Watch this episode and see the slides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAm0eF9azXc
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New format is pretty complicated and it may be tricky to find your footing in the first days. But fear not - the data is here to help us and I dive deep into card win rate to test what makes each color pair tick, which cards over-perform, and which are traps you should avoid. We look at the general picture of the format, speculate on what can the next few weeks bring and explore archetypes and what do the y want to be doing in the context of MKM.
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Watch this episode and see the slides: https://youtu.be/-UbCRz2Faf0
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Magic has surprisingly lot of similarities to cooking and today, we are moving to haute cuisine. Deck-building theory-crafting. While waiting for the new set to be released I spend an amount of time I can't really excuse thinking about build-arounds in this formats. All those thoughts can't go to waste so this week we are looking at how I imagine some potentially fun off-piste decks in this format. Lot of it is theoretical, but aside from this, I lay out a framework for anyone on how to approach limited theory crafting. A great excercise to improve your Limited skills without spending a single gem. I look at three separate builds. One centered around Insidious Roots, Golgari enchantment that generates Plant tokens and grows them as creatures leave your graveyard. The second one is trying to turn Case File Auditor and Case of the Shattered Pact from a 5 color dream to a 5 color reality. Thirdly I look at how to make UR artifact sacrifice built around a powerful combo of the Case of the Filched Falcon and Gleaming Geardrake that lets you attack for 5 in the air on turn 3. But how to make that deck resilient when you don't draw the combo? We also talk a bit about Arena Economy, but following my philosophy of learning from the best - why not look at this article I mentioned in the seminar that dives deep into how to make Arena cheaper to play: https://www.cardmarket.com/en/Magic/Insight/Articles/inside-the-new-arena-economy
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Watch this episode and see the slides: https://youtu.be/71ekmv-eRlM
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Me, JasonILTG, Tajoordan and DDAVP look at the upcoming set and try to figure out how would we want a deck in each color pair to look like. To do so we first explore the format synergies and the cards we like and later assemble them in simple limited deck with some reasonable limitations (1-2 rares, 6-8 uncommons and rest just commons). Check this out if you are prepping for the prerelease and want to exercise your brain before the format hits Arena. My esteemed guests are all accomplished limited players:
JasonILTG - https://twitter.com/jasoniltg
Check out their site with some great articles: experimentalsynthesizer.blog/articles
Adam AKA DDAVP - https://twitter.com/adam_ddavp
And Tajoordan: They all stream so check their links in their Twitter bios.
Slides for this episode are available for everyone at https://www.patreon.com/posts/slides-for-106-97522251 so you can look through our builds in your own time, or even modify them
Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
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My guest this week needs no introduction (he still gets one, though), being one of the game's all-time greatest players. But apart from his pro player credentials, LSV is a cube fanatic, and I tap into his vast expertise to look through the latest edition of Arena Cube and see which cards and which strategies I, a cube rookie, should focus on over the following days. A side effect of that - you might learn something too. We look at some data from previous cube iterations and at the changes that were made to try and figure out what is going to improve and what is nerfed this time. You can find LSV and his vintage cube exploits on his popular YT channel: https://www.youtube.com/@LSVargas
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Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the YouTube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://youtu.be/O4Ka3nGvW0c This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
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This episode I am looking into what does it mean for a set to be prince or pauper and how do recent sets align with different definitions of that term.
Because there are plenty definitions. Some will focus more on the power of rare cards, some on the power (or lack thereof) of the commons and uncommons.
A data exploration episode - most useful if you want to spend some time thinking on how rarity shapes limited formats.
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Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the YouTube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://youtu.be/bVMUfPwCIi4
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
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This week I am joined by Limited content behemoth, Chord_O_Calls AKA Alex Nikolic to talk about out set reviews for LCI from the perspective of an almost finished format. I was always thorn about set reviews. On the one hand, they are useful to get accustomed to cards before the format starts, but on the other, they are frequently based on wild speculations and - to my knowledge - rarely scrutinized for their accuracy. To change that, my set reviews are reversed. I invite a guest and review the set with them but do not release it. Instead of that, our grades wait locked up for the format to end. Then we can see what we got wrong and right. Where are the typical mistakes and how can we avoid them in the future. And who to do it better than one of the best card evaluators in the business? See how we did and what we missed in LCI. Also - this is a sort of a send off of the format - in wait for the previews to hit. You can find Alex on Twitter, Twitch, and YouTube.
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Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTR35T-8rdU
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
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Time of the year to sum up 2023 and look at best commons, uncommons in each color, most desired cards, most played color, etc. Not 100% serious with Uncle Cardboard on special day for both - as we are birthday neighbours as well. But don't be fooled by fooling around - between bad puns you get to think about set design and why some designs are more successful than others, which types of cards prove to be generally successful, etc.
Follow Jake on Twitter
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Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTR35T-8rdU This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
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Finding the right strategy for a color pair is a key element to winning more. Many drafts were lost when a player tried to play controlling game in a color combination that doesn't support it well, or trying to be aggressive using cards that are just not good in doing that. This week I look at the game duration data in LCI to try and figure out what should you be focusing on when drafting your decks. Why Azorius is not particularly good in being aggressive? Why RG Dino decks are more aggro than you might think? And why control decks struggle and how can future design address that problem. Plus I look at key cards for selected archetypes and try to find out what it means for your future drafts. If you are interested in getting to know me better - I have a discord now. Join to chat about data, limited and see my futile attempts to make food that looks as good as it tasted. Also - cat and dog pictures.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbfX_QNrvEE This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business. Discord: https://discord.gg/druhnK8yXn
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz
Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
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This week we look at the new set on Arena: Khans of Tarkir. Is it new though? Released in 2014, Khans is considered to be an all-time best draft set by many Limited experts. But 2014 is the time I was happily retired from Magic, so in order to get some valuable information and correct me where I am wrong in my evaluations, I invited a multi-Limmie award winning magic historian and pro player, Ben Seck. Yes. THE Ben Seck. You may and even should know him from being a regular guest in Limited Resources, the episodes where they talk about older sets. The result is a 2h talk on KTK, Limited in general, differences in set design over the years, mechanics, predictions and many more. I couldn't have wished for a better way to celebrate my 100th episode. You can find Ben on Twitter: twitter.com/TBSdash
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbfX_QNrvEE This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business. Discord: https://discord.gg/druhnK8yXn
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz
Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
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Improvement in Magic is hard. Where to start? Diagnosing the problem can be a daunting task. Today I look at how to measure your draft strategies and figure out how you draft - are you a forcing type of a drafter or a durdly drafter who bobs and weaves for too long before making a decision to settle on a path. Both strategies have their pros and cons, so finding the right balance should improve both your win rate and in some cases also the trophy rate.
Apart from this we have a collection of data from LCI draft dataset of 17Lands.com - great first picks, what can be wheeled reliably etc. If you are interested in getting to know me better - I have a discord now. Join to chat about data, limited and see my futile attempts to make food that looks as good as it tasted. Also - cat and dog pictures. https://discord.gg/druhnK8yXn
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHGxUdSFaN0 Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
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This episode we look into the early draft data of the new format. Which colors started off strongly, which cards make each archetype tick. I look into each color pair and talk about best common and uncommon, hidden gems in each archetype (cards that surprised me or cards that still go late in the draft but perform very well), and traps (cards that look like they should fit in but data suggests they don't). Based on those I try to analyse what makes each color pair tick and what doesn't to give you an early boost in LCI drafts. Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCjv0VQZBcI Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
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This week we look at the upcoming set: how will the synergies play out, what do I consider good and bad before we dive into proper drafting. Where can you find some synergies and how to theory craft a Caves deck. Plus a couple of cute two card combos you might be interested in! This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business. There is a companion article to this primer that talks about all the removal in the set - make sure to visit it:
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCjv0VQZBcI Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
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New set is upon us - time to theory craft all 10 2-color decks in the new set and speculate on what we think is going to be great and what is doubtful in Lost Caverns of Ixalan. And to do that I lean on the expertise of my illustrious guests: A 100k sealed tournament winner, JasonILTG Freshly from winning a Mox Jet, Zakagan Winner of the most recent tournament back home, ddavp_mtg And me after 2-1ing a 6 person modern tournament in my LGS Discussions were furious, heated, and full of insights into what will be a hit and what will be a dud. Watch and be entertained, informed, and hopefully amused. You can find my guests on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jasoniltg
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://youtu.be/qXipvj1b0iI Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
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Going back to original set review and re-evaluating it based on how the set played out is an under-appreciated activity. Me and Trumpetman come back to our pre-release evaluations and try to look at cards we got wrong, and speculate why. Which cards are harder to predict, which ones are easy and why - we try to answer those questions based on our successes and failures from WOE. Just in time to draw some lessons on card evaluation for the LCI set coming out on Friday.
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://youtu.be/2KOn_SOr1Qs
Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
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This week we look at the data of the most drafting person in 17Lands - which almost certainly means, most drafting person on Arena, period. Pasta Pirate does an average of 9-10 drafts a day. What can we learn from his data? What can he learn from it himself?
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKGtbn2PEGw Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
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Players focus a lot on how to build a deck, but i think most improvement in win rate for starter/intermediate players that is easy to achieve comes through good draft navigation. This week I give some (hopefully) useful tips on how picks differ depending on the pack number, which picks will make your deck more frequently. I also talk about learning how to wheel specific cards - how to select the card as your pick 1 in such a way, that you give yourself a good chance of getting another decent card as your pick 9 from the same pack. We also answer some Patron questions!
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF6pYSmwE9g
Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
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This week I have a very special guest: Rob Conroy, AKA Viralmisnomer - Mr 17Lands himself. And there is a great reason for that. 17Lands has a whole bunch of new patron-only features and Rob and I will show you why you should seriously consider getting them not only to support the site we all love and cherish, but also in your own interest. From a great card evaluation tool, through personal data up to a tool that lets you improve your mana-base building skills - all the new toys make me excited to get my paws on the final results of them! And hopefully after watching this, you will get excited too!
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF6pYSmwE9g
Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
Drafting in Magic: the Gathering is not easy. There re dozens of factor you need to try and synchronise in your head while the ruthless clock continues ticking. But data can help!
Today I look at what the best of the best do differently. Which cards do top players draft higher than others? Which cards do they use more efficiently and win with more than it would result from just the average win rate difference between top players and the rest?
Identifying those cards is a key to unlocking strategies and solutions top players use to dominate Arena draft queues.
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYpOARqJoZA&t Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
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New format is upon us and time to look at what can early data tell us about it. Which cards are key, which ones are traps, what do decks want to be doing and what do other Arena drafters leave open for the cunning grinders to abuse.
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAiaA6M25_o Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
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Before we dive into the new format - I look from theory point of view at the set design. What looks as if it is possible, how do the set mechanics intertwine, what to look out for in the first days, and what sweet build-arounds does the set have to offer.
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://youtu.be/rA4mBJdYCiY Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
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In my opinion the most interesting part of set review is not the review itself, but returning to it after the format has passed and reevaluating your grades in order to see where did you miss, where did you hit and try to answer why this happened. This is why our set reviews with Trumpetman are designed in such a way as to easily reanalyse them after the format is done. They are linked to 17Lands.com win rates so we can see how large was our miss for each card.
Today we look at our review performance for the LTR looking what trends do we observe - did our misses link to bad evaluation of one color, which cards are we most likely to miss on and why - all those questions will be answered.
You can follow Trumpetman at https://twitter.com/Trumpetman__
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbA8bw3ecVw Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This episode was originally recorded in December 2022 but never appeared in the podcast feed. Now you can use it before the Arena Open this week as a unique window into the mind of one of the best (or looking at 17Lands.com data - the best) cube players in the world. Apart from iteration-specific arguments lots of general theory surrounding this format with someone who is a true expert theorist of the game and an all round nice person.
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KeYwaMLuNU Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
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This week I look at how LTR drafts changed over time. Which cards, color pairs fell in and out of favour with the Arena users. And how did the player win rate impact those preferences. But doing just a retrospective of one format can be a bit boring - what universal trends can we draw from LTR evolution? Can some color pairs be more resilient to metagame shifts and if so - why?
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgBOExMmzLY Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
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The biggest level up from a decent drafter to a great one is realising that drafting good cards is not enough to become an exceptional player. Truly great drafters are able to sacrifice power for synergy and know exactly when to do it and when not to. This ability lets you get more out of the cards in your decks and win games because of those synergistic interactions and consistent goals and plans across every card in your deck. But easier said than done. Today I look at the ways to use game data from 17Lands.com in order to figure out, what are the plans for different archetypes and how to use that data to improve your understanding of different archetypes and individual cards.
This episode is particularly data-heavy, so if you want to look through the graphs, I made the slides accessible to all, find them here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/slides-for-magic-86086797 Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzM0Ehn7p7w Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
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Drafts are hard. There is plenty going on and to navigate it well, you need to think not only of your own deck, but about what are other people doing. In limited content you will often hear that something is a signal - but what are signals exactly? And how can you read and interpret them? And perhaps more importantly - do signals mean anything and can you draw some actionable conclusions from reading them? I immersed myself in 17Lands.com data for 2 weeks trying to answer those questions and here is a summary of what I found. This episode is particularly data-heavy, so if you want to look through the graphs, I made the slides accessible to all, find them here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/slides-for-magic-86086797 Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJkT96MOgYU Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
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There are multiple good reasons why top players win more. A lot of it has to do with game play, but not everything. Learning how to navigate draft and evaluate cards is an easier way of boosting your win rate and drafting best cards and being able to pick the right lane will aid you also in improving your game play later.
Here are some lessons from top 17Lands.com user data that will help you become a better limited player.
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://youtu.be/L4h4dGahSWc Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
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New set, new possibilities! This week I give a general overview of which colors are good, what cards fuel them and which cards are essential in every archetype. And which cards absolutely are not - I looked through biggest traps too, so you don't have to. Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsmRuFCDmok
Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
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Set reviews are tricky bits of content. Based on limited information, prone to errors and quickly out of date. This is exactly why me and Trumpetman designed out set review structure in such a way that we can easily confront our predictions with the reality. Since we predicted the win rate of cards, we can match our guesses with the end of the format results. This way we know exactly where were our biggest misses and where we were bang on. This episode is looking at our successes and failures and based on those we are trying to see what aspects of card evaluation we got wrong, how to improve the next time. The episode is particularly valuable for those of you who want to improve your card evaluation skills and understand how sets pan out. Trumpetman is a host of 40 Card College podcast (a must-hear content for all the Limited fans out there). You can follow him at https://twitter.com/Trumpetman__
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loFjD_ual2U
Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
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Limited is a hard format. It is not easy to start winning reliably. Today I look at several ways to quickly improve your Limited draft and deck building skills using the 17Lands.com data. I analyze why beginners can have problems with winning reliably, but most importantly, I try to give actionable advice on how to solve the problems I identify. This video is primarily aimed at beginner to intermediate players, at least I tried to make it so. After watching it, you should be able to: - identify bad cards in the format - identify good cards in the format - know how to check for good and bad cards specific for a given color pair - know how to recognise a plan of a deck and how to draft in a way that enhances that plan rather than undermining it - learn the importance of using community support as a learning tool
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loFjD_ual2U
Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
5C strategies in Limited are undoubtedly fun. But they are also tricky to execute, hard to master and laden with mana issues, which lower your win rate. This episode I look at the 17Lands data of 4 and 5 color decks in MOM to try and figure out, what makes a 5C strategy tick. Key cards, how much fixing is enough, reasons to go 5C and traps associated with this approach.
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyAednqwXVA Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This episode I look at the data on the new card type. How many Battles should you play in your draft deck? Which ones are over and underperformers? What is the impact of the number of battles you have in your deck? And does it vary with color pair you are playing? And if so - why? Plenty to unpack but on top of everything I also had to somehow do this while my cat and my dog were, very aptly, fighting a battle against each other.
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEEmCWTzt0s Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This episode I look at the data of different win rate user tiers on 17Lands.com. In 17L data you can look specific at top win rate players group, a bunch that has a ~60% win rate across multiple formats. What do those players do differently? What color pairs, cards are they high on compared to the rest of the users? How do they use battles compared to the rest? But aside from looking at the top users I am asking: is it always worth to try and copy best players and the way they draft? And my conclusion is: not necessarily. Some cards will play amazingly in the hands of a seasoned grinder, but players who are still learning can actually harm their win rate by trying to replicate best players' strategies. And data can point us to which cards can be trickier to use and which strategies are more accommodating to beginner level drafters.
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format. https://youtu.be/aY9fAt8GKO4 Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
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New format is upon us and first day data, even if based on smaller sample sizes is an excellent way of getting an edge over less invested players by identifying best colors, color pairs, cards that surprised and disappointed us in the first few days. And guess what? That is exactly what I will be talking about today. Get your edge against the people who ignore the draft data. But pretty please - do not fall into a trap of thinking that early data means the format is solved. Those are excellent indications but if you don't approach them flexibly, you may fall into a trap of not evolving with the format as a player.
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format. https://youtu.be/8fp2oRrfk08
Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
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Before each set I will now try to make an episode on theory crafting. MOM looks like a fantastic set to build around. In this episode, I explored the types of buildaround, how to design buildarounds, give some practical examples and try to speculate on some interesting cards from MOM that have a buildaround potential.
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format. https://youtu.be/6il6AqdkfD8
Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This week I had a great pleasure to have a very special guest: Numot the Nummy. A streamer extraordinaire, with Pro Tour credentials and most importantly, a limited specialist. We looked at Numot's ONE data - a format he didn't like and performed somewhat under par for his standard (still an insane win rate of over 60%, but some people have higher standards than that). Which cards did he overdraft, which cards did he value too low, which cards proved successful in his builds? All of that available in the seminar.
We also learned that Numot is a true "drafting the hard way" drafter - unlike my many previous guests, and applies that approach to a great success, so if you think you, like me, use preferences in draft a little bit too much, it is worth looking at this episode and following Numot to see how he does it. You can find him at https://www.twitch.tv/numotthenummy or follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NumotTheNummy And if you still don't, I highly recommend it. He was an awesome, well informed and generous guest, and his streams are among the best in business.
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format. https://youtu.be/4rYDlC5Qf8U
Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This week I look at the impact lords, creatures giving power and/or toughness bonuses to a tribe, give to the archetypes they are printed in. But that is not all, we look into week 2 of SIR and have a reverse engineering approach on the MOM spoilers.
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kMLfuhSIfY
Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
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First dive into the data of the new-old format. What is peculiar about SIR packs, which colors are the strongest, most open and underdrafted. Which color pairs do best and what cards allow them to do so. I look at the best cards in each color / color pair, at the hidden gems that have high win rate but Arena users are not drafting them highly. At least not yet.
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format. https://youtu.be/C8e_K98o8Lc
Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This episode looks at a relatively understudied aspect of limited: sideboarding. I look at general trends in sideboarding - when people do it, when they don't and how much sideboarding is a good thing.
I also dive into recent few years of limited formats to find the star cards in terms of sideboarding. The ones who are almost exclusively sideboard cards, the ones that are the most effective as sideboard cards and the ones that are potentially sideboarding traps. Based on those cards I also try to speculate on the general idea of what makes a good sideboard card.
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbv0-w6gYGw
Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
Time to look at the draft deck composition data and look at the secret successful sub builds in ONE. In this episode I look at the ONE decks in each color pair and cluster them based on how similar they are. After doing that, I calculate the win rate of each deck and its closest relatives. Based on that I can find clusters of successful sub-builds in each color pair. Using the archetypist tool I developed with Pekka Pulli, you can explore that data set on your own. Some sub builds are logical and intuitive: there is a WB toxic deck, RG oil deck. But some will raise a few eyebrows, because not many know RW Toxic is a thing - but it does exist, is successful, even if you will only have it open in your pod every 50 drafts or so. Enjoy the seminar, but if you want to explore the tool, visit https://archetypist.netlify.app/
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format. https://youtube.com/watch?v=v747a-JxcQY
Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
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Lot has been said about the unique speed of ONE draft format. But is there a good basis to vilify this format as something that is extremely fast? I look deep into format game length data and try to unravel what is driving the speed of ONE and how does it compare with other formats. I also look at the cards that allow you playing long games and what can be useful in making control decks in ONE limited.
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p5BKxDVPco
Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
ONE Quick Draft is available on Arena now and it may be a good idea to play a couple of those, as they will offer you a fresh look on the format. Why? The bot and human metagame are sufficiently different from each other to offer a slightly different experience. I talk about what is special about bot draft and offer some advice on how to abuse those differences for your benefit. How to conceptually approach bot draft and in what ways it is a different form of Magic. Color power in a format is a combination of card power and card availability, and as far as the power doesn't change, the availability does. In what ways in ONE bot draft different? Which colors, strategies, cards are more and less available and what does it mean for you?
Patreon: https://patreon.com/sierkovitz to get extra access, perks and the good feeling of supporting my work.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9ds2IXonGo
Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This week I look at why ONE is different from all other recent formats. Why there are so few great commons? What causes the imbalance in color power and why I strongly believe white is by far the most powerful color at common in the set and also why you still should draft preferentially red.
On top of that we look at all the color pairs and figure out their best cards, their hidden stars and traps at both common and uncommon level. Spoiler - you will see a lot of Annex Sentries as top uncommons.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9ds2IXonGo
Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
I look at the speed of the format: is it lightning fast and what may be the reasons for it. I also look at color pair win rates and the rate they are played at. Are some color combinations hidden gems? Are the most played ones successful?
On top of that I look at best commons and uncommons in each color and in each color pair. To be able to relentlessly mock myself (with a couple of taps on the back for good measure) I compare the current top 5 cards in the format with the top 3 lists I made before the release and speculate - why was I wrong in case of some cards I picked and why some cards did perform better than I predicted.
I use the top cards so far to also try and figure out what do they have in common looking at potential mana curves you want to have in your deck and themes connecting top cards in the format.
REMINDER: Early data is not perfect. Format didn't stabilise yet, and players don't always fully know how to build decks, early day opposition can be softer than the one later in the format, good cards go later than normal. All this impacts the data and introduces biases. Use early data as a tool to ask more questions, not as a source of absolute answers. Early data can prepare you to solve the format later, but it is by far not a solution itself.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM8DdVmT0Ag
Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This episode me, SLKerstens, JasonILTG and TaJoordan talk about our pre pre-release impressions of ONE and how we would build simple deck skeletons from each color pair.
You can find my co hosts at:
twitter.com/SLKerstens
twitter.com/JasonILTG
twitter.com/TaJoordan
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6P9l6y3iAY
Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
A deep look at the mechanics of the set. How does the card pool for each of the existing mechanics impact possible game play plans you can draft around? Should you try to kill with poison counters, or is it a pipe dream? How to maximise your proliferate and just how many ways to do it are there. I also walk you through my thought process of theory-crafting a deck, from the first idea through the core card selection, contingency planning up to building a deck archetype skeleton.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdvqQLcUEWE
Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This week I look at the personal data of the one and only Sam Black. we look at Brother's War through his drafts. What was his approach towards the format, what cards made it possible. Sam possibly discovers a new type of deck by thinking about his BRO draft decks - mid-term. A deck that can't win early, loses longer games but is excellent in winning the games in the middle stages due to being powerful enough to deal with controls and out-resourcing aggro (which makes it different from mid-range, which can switch between aggressive and controlling strategies and has both early and late game. Tapping into Sam's expertise is a roller-coaster but with a rational train of thought. It is also a good way of reflecting on your BRO season and on what went well and maybe less well for you.
You can find Sam at: twitch.tv/samuelhblack and twitter.com/samuelhblack
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZrVR12fs_c
Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
How is sealed different from draft? Can we actually measure that difference? And what does it mean to your Arena Open attempt? I talk sealed, KHM sealed and what cards should you re-evaluate in this format compare to what you remember from drafting the set.
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format. https://youtu.be/zy2abY9idlI
Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This episode I look at the builds within each color pair. To do so a bit of maths was needed. I converted decks into numbers and plotted them based on what cards are inside. After that we look at the clusters of similar decks that win a bunch - this way by checking what is inside them we can figure out what makes them tick. Some color pairs have a one type of successful build, but some have multiple sub-archetypes that are very distinct from each other. Archetypist tool lets you figure that out on your own.
The tool, made by Pekka Pulli, is available here: https://archetypist.netlify.app/
This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuerL0VL-7o
Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
Early format is the best time for hot takes and sweeping statements. Keeping that in mind I dedicate this episode to show what are the dangers of hot takes and sweeping statements and how to look at the early format in a more granular, subtle way. In the second part I look at the data from all the 10 color pairs. Which cards are the stars, which ones are traps, are there any hidden gems you should consider drafting higher. Lots of hot takes and absolute statements so you can later copy them with conviction!
Sponsored by mtgazone.com. Check out my articles at https://mtgazone.com/authors/sierkovitz
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format. https://youtu.be/eRWfEQjqpdg
Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
I take a look at removal stats of the Brothers' War set and try to convince you on how to use the self-milling cycle of creatures. On top of that, I dive into early format data: what makes each color tick and which colors do tick so far which ones still need some work from our side to be figured out.
Sponsored by mtgazone.com. Check out my articles at https://mtgazone.com/authors/sierkovitz
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format. https://youtu.be/mafrQcp7T3g
Find all other things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
Time to say goodbye to DMU draft data, and what better way than to look at the vast personal data of the all-time 17Lands.com trophy leader, Floridamun? We look at 175 drafts Chris played over the duration of the format in quest to find out what makes him such a good player. How does he manage to keep up such an impressive win rate across so many games. We look at his draft habits, pick preferences, card win rates and much more.
Check out Chris's Twitch (twitch.tv/FloridaMun) and podcast The Draft Lab
Sponsored by mtgazone.com. Check out my articles at https://mtgazone.com/authors/sierkovitz
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format. https://youtu.be/0ykqh6Mtfq8
Find all things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This weekend we will have an opportunity to play for some real $$$ on Arena and the format is Dominaria Sealed. You read it well - Dominaria without United. Since the set came out in 2018 you might need a refresher or maybe you never played it before. I talk about the available data on Sealed in this format: how many colors should you try to play, what are the must-play bombs and which colors are the best. On top of that I go through top commons and uncommons in each color and look at some recent trophy decks to give you a good impression of what should you be aiming at in order to get to day 2 and give yourselves a chance of spiking some cash!
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format. https://youtu.be/ho-UUAG3SiU
Sponsored by mtgazone.com so please give them a visit!
Find all things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
Dominaria United full data hit a bit late in the season but still it is interesting to look at the data even late in the season as they show a format so different from any other. This episode I look at the new tutoring data from 17lands.com, rank the kicker spells - which ones don't need to be kicked, should be kicked and work best when you can reliably kick it every time, preferably in a 2 color deck? I also look at how important being 5 color it was for each domain card.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP8RV-k2DGw
Sponsored by mtgazone.com so please give them a visit!
Find all things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
Today I look at the data of top, middle and bottom win rate tiers among the 17Lands users. Who are the top players, and what sets them apart from the rest? Which cards can the players maximize? And which cards are universally good across different levels? But that is not all. I also look at why, to become a good player, you need to go through several stages of development. Just knowing that top players win more with card X is not enough to replicate their success. It will speed up your journey through rank, that's for sure, but maximizing the output of a card is a process that takes time and effort. I look at the successful cards at each stage of development - so you can better position yourselves, where you are on your journey, and get a good idea of where to go next.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94KAFhYEXOM
Sponsored by mtgazone.com so please give them a visit!
Find all things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
What is the point of using draft data if we don't get actionable advice from them? Today I look at the drafting data from DMU (and from some other sets) and propose three new drafting heuristics related to drafting mana fixing, multicolor spells and combat tricks.
I also look at the wheeling stats of DMU cards, show you how draft tables respond to number of dual lands that were open in the pod and which cards are the best first picks in terms of future win rate if you manage to draft a deck around them.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFtQb34VHUw
Sponsored by mtgazone.com so please give them a visit!
Find all things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
Dominaria United is a draft format like we didn't see in a long time. Formats supporting 2 color, 3 color and multicolor strategies with little win rate penalty was something Wizards were avoiding in their recent design. But that is not the case in DMU. One in 16 decks is a 4 color or more concoction. That is 2 times more than any other format since ZNR. Almost 50% of all decks have 3 or more main colors. And, as a result, only 1/5 is pure 2 colors. So which multicolor decks are the best? Which cards are important to make them win? And, perhaps equally importantly - are there traps 17Lands users routinely fall into? I use data to try to answer those and many other questions about the nature of multicolor decks in Dominaria United.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://youtu.be/HLpfOVWW2dw
Find all things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
First dive into 17Lands data for the new set, Dominaria United. This is a set where data analyses should be done very carefully as it is a set we unlike anything we had before. What about it is so unique? Which colors are the best, which color combinations work best and, perhaps most importantly, how many colors should you play? All those questions will be answered in this episode. But wait! There's more! I look at 5 most winning two color pairs and most winning three color combinations and see which cards make them tick and which should be avoided.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format.
Find all things Sierkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
All you need to know about the new format. OK, maybe not all but quite a lot. Includes removal guide and an overview of color pair specific cards. Just the thing to do to kill the time while waiting to dive into the new set.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://youtu.be/zYbxvtj2XIw
Find all things Serkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
In this Episode me, SLKerstens, JasonILTG and Tajoordan discuss the DMU draft format before the release. We share our initial thoughts and draft deck archetypes we want to play with in the early days of the format.
See the slides here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/13xJrmt9KtlyIxxNhpDO8QHGDOfuYvLR5Fg-cjEoVjyE/edit?usp=sharing
Find all things Serkovitz here: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This week we look at the personal data from BO3 HBG drafts of a streamer, podcast host and a limited grinder, Jamie Topples. With a tough season behind her, we are trying to see if the personal data explains her trials and tribulations in the Baldurs Gate.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format. https://youtu.be/myMLJ69a_88
A refresher course in Kamigawa limited. But not only. I also look at the differences between the first run of the format and the flashbacks
Check the YouTube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://youtu.be/jZH06lH_Xok
Find all things Sierkovitz: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This week we look at the art of wheeling. How to use 17lands data to reliably predict which cards you open in a draft can return to you doing the full circle. That way you can maximise your draft outcomes and create a great way to produce your own draft signal. We also look at what cards do high win rate players draft more aggressively and which ones do they actively avoid.
Check the YouTube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86f2CmgtusU
Find all things Sierkovitz: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This week's episode is about being up to speed. Up to speed with the changes in the format. How not to fall into a trap of playing week one drafts in week 3 and how to update your format fundamentals without losing too much time on it? How to know which archetypes are more open than others at any given point in time. But that is not all. HBG is the fastest non-cube draft format in Arena history. How to deal with the speed of Mardu color combinations and how to look at the game length data through the lens of game speed? Which color combinations are fast and which ones are quite successful despite being slower?
Check the YouTube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://youtu.be/eXZm-deDPbs
Find all things Sierkovitz: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
First peek into Alchemy Horizon's: Baldur's Gate Draft data. What is the big picture of the format? Its speed? Which color combination do best? Then I take a slightly deeper dive into each archetype and try to figure out which cards are stars, hidden gems and traps. NOTE: Due to release schedule, episode #42 will only be available on YouTube.
Check the YouTube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://youtu.be/SfPX2NPvf1A
Find all things Sierkovitz: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This week we dive into the personal SNC draft data of Carl Chase, AKA twoduckcubed, a prolific limited grinder and a co-host of Mystical Dispute podcast, one of the best limited podcasts in existence (seriously, give it a try). Personal data lets you look at your own strengths and shortcomings and improve based on the information you can extract and looking at one of the top players in the game and seeing where are his blind spots can be very helpful for you when you introspect your own data. We look at Carl's draft preferences, his own individual card win rates and his tendencies in mulliganning, deckbuilding etc. Even though the episode is SNC specific, many of the discussion points are universal to draft as a format altogether.
Check the YouTube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZatDvMf1cmU
Find all things Sierkovitz: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
What builds for each draft archetype in SNC are the most successful? Which cards are essential for success and which themes win more than others? To answer those questions I look at the similarities between decks and use some fancy maths to cluster the decks together and find clusters that win more than the others. A side benefit of this episode is a tool that lets you explore each archetype and see for yourself what made each color combination tick. Feel free to explore the tool here: https://archetypist.netlify.app/ This episode would not be possible without the help of Pekka Pulli, the developer of the archetypist tool.
Check the YouTube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsiWMPq_Pac
Find all things Sierkovitz: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
Theros Beyond Death will soon be back to Premier Draft queues. What is the format about, what are the archetypes about and what does the data say about the winning strategies? Speed of the format, best cards in draft and how to avoid pitfalls of THB draft. All in a manageable 2 hour chunk.
Check the YouTube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWorMx1f4wo
Find all things Sierkovitz: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
What does the data tell us about Best of Three drafts in Streets of New Capenna? Best of Three is different from Best of One in multiple aspects. There is no hand smoother, which leads to worse curve-outs, more mulliganning, which damages deck consistency. There is also sideboarding between the games, which makes some cards unplayable in BO1 valid choices for games 2 and 3 once you have seen some key cards from opponents deck. I look at, which colors do well in BO3, which cards perform differently in BO3 than in BO1 drafts. One hypothesis is that draft pods in BO3 are populated by, on average, stronger players. I test this hypothesis using the format data. I also look at mulligan stats, and at the cards that are used as sideboard cards and evaluate their utility as such.
Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics. Check the you tube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format.
Check the YouTube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://youtu.be/0nFpc71hbts
Find all things Sierkovitz: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This week I look into what makes top 17Lands.com users win more in draft than others do. From their color preferences, pick orders, which cards they prioritise, include in their decks, there are hints on what is the key to their success in draft and I try to unlock them digging through the data. Also I get attacked by my cat. Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics.
Check the youtube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format. https://youtu.be/jBGlI0vr3ic
Find all things Sierkovitz: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This week we look at the data related to Brokers family in SNC Drafts. Brokers (also known as Bant) and related color pairs (WUG, WU and WG) are the menace of SNC draft format, having significantly higher win rates than other color combinations. But as the colors become more contested over times, time to look at what cards in other color combinations do well against the Brokers. Which colors have higher win rate against Brokers? Which cards perform better against them? What bigger picture can we draw from this data? And why formats with very strong commons can be even more annoying than bomb laden sets. Enjoy! Reminder: This podcast is a recording of a stream, which relies heavily on graphics.
Check the YouTube recording of it to see any graphs that are hard to imagine in the audio-only format: https://youtu.be/tOBzVbYcsWA
Find all things Sierkovitz: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This episode focuses on what are draft signals and how to find the best way to read them. You will hear a lot of content creators talking about "strong signals" or "signal X is open" during draft, but what exactly are signals? I try to define exactly that and go even several steps further. I look at SNC draft data and try to figure out what is a meaningful signal during the draft. On my quest to do so, I find plenty of things that are NOT a strong signal when you look at thousands of drafts, and some of them are quite surprising (to me at least). But don't worry, eventually I get there and find a pretty good way to predict color openness during draft.
Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeZFlfWx_J0
Find all things Sierkovitz: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This time we look at the new limited format of the Streets of New Capenna. Which color combinations are the most successful? Which color combinations are the most open? How to build a good mana base for the 3 color decks popular in the format? Which cards are the format all stars, and which ones over-perform in a particular color combination. All answered by exploring the data from ~23 000 drafts and nearly 150k games.
Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz5SQXIZoFE
Find all things Sierkovitz: https://linktr.ee/sierkovitz
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This week we preview the Streets of New Capenna. Traditionally before each set release we meet at SLKerstens twitch channel to discuss the format in our pre-release set review. But instead of looking at each card, we build our versions of each deck, based on pure theory crafting. This time SLKerstens, JasonILTG, Tajoordan and me talk about our hopes and expectations o the new set, cards to watch, cards that may fly under the radar for the first weeks, etc. The episode is also available on youtube and the slides can be accessed.
See the slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10C-DIgOxZzm6gqw7ygduUuFDfuyv-LBFz3aG3yCg_qU/edit
Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CQA3_K3OjM
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This week I look at the advantage of being on the play. Why do we win more when on the play, why starting gives you the advantage in later game and how does this advantage look like depending on the game length. Choosing to be on the play is a good heuristic, but I also look at when would it be theoretically good to choose to go second. And try to use 17Lands data to find decks that would, at least in theory, be better off going second. What types of cards are leading to those types of deck? What is the density of those types of cards that would prompt you to go second? In the end I show a simple model that lets you decide exactly that. Still in majority of cases you should chose to go first, but roughly 13% of decks are at least as good on the draw as on the play. In Best-of-3 this means you can get an extra edge as your opponent would typically choose to be on the play. This means you will always end up starting the game in a privileged position. I also look at the specific analysis of Azusa's Many Journeys, the card that inspired me to do this analysis.
Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fImR8FDq7BQ
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This week I have a special guest, Alex Nikolic, AKA Chord_o_Calls. A streamer, podcaster, great limited player and, imho the best card evaluator in the game. I got all his 17Lands data, analysed them and this episode is a great reveal. I show Alex what I learned from his data, we compare self-perception to numbers, and explore the uncharted world of personal M:tG data. We look at the totality of limited data range, from color preferences before the draft starts, through 1st pick preferences, pick orders, deck staples and cards never played, up to mulliganning trends and individual card personal win rates of Alex. I had a blast and Alex was on fire, which makes for a great episode, something I will rarely say about my own creations. If you are interested in potential of personal data - this is what you were looking for.
Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxEhRoefHXg
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This episode I am talking about the effect a copy number of a card has on its win rate. All based on 17Lands data for Kamigawa Neon Dynasty. Which cards are best as one-offs, which ones you want as many as you can and everything in between. But the episode is not only NEO-specific. I am trying to see which types of cards (e.g combat tricks, graveyard recursion) fall predominantly to a certain category, so that in future sets you can try and apply those findings directly, before enough data is collected. On top of that I looked at all the data related to Okiba Salvage - my pet bad card of the set.
Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww_6Z466lfw
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This episode is all about the ecology of the deck and Archetypist: a tool developed by Pekka Pulli and me that lets you visualise deck similarity and a localised win rate of similar decks. This allows to show clusters of particularly successful builds for each archetype. I look at clusters of each each archetype and try to figure out what makes those decks tick, what is missing from the less successful builds, etc. You can explore the data yourself at https://archetypist.netlify.app/ using a simple set of parameters you can manipulate.
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
Today I will be looking at differences between how late you will see cards in Pack 1 and Pack 3 of the draft. We will look at the 17Lands ALSA measure to find those differences. What is ALSA you might ask? Well I will describe it in detail and even visualize it. Looking at differences between P1 and P3 may seem unnecessarily deep, but there are big differences between how we draft pack 1 and pack 3 and knowing how it works could give you a nice edge. Which cards are almost ungettable in P1 but will travel further in P3? Which cards are relatively easy to get in P1 but get trickier to get in P3? I also look at the impact of playing your first pick. Do you get a boost from playing it or not? Spoiler: the boost is tiny, which means that all the advantages of sticking to your first pick are eaten by the drawbacks of forcing the 1st pick when you should pivot. I will also look at the anatomy of draft decks. Do trophy decks differ from others in terms of playing the first picks? Maybe they play more later picks? Well, only one way to find out.
Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/watch?v=MVvuwXsNz6I
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
Today I look at the early evolution of the Kamigawa draft format. How did Arena users' evaluations change over the first two weeks? What does it mean to your drafting? I also try a new method of quantifying if a deck is aggro, midrange or controlling and look at the colour combinations from that perspective to see what do they "want" to achieve. And I shed some light on the Neon Dynasty worst-kept secret. Look at that clickbait. Ok, it is about the numbers behind Kami of Terrible Secrets, I can't bait.
Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqjTgIhPYnc
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This week I look at the differences between NEO Draft and Sealed - which cards do differently, which cards to consider more carefully while building your pool. Apart from that, I look at the Artifact-Enchantment spectrum within the format. What are the optimal numbers of those two types in your deck, are there any trends in relation to the number of cards of those types you play? Based on that I also look at some of the interesting cards in Kamigawa and try to provide numbers that will help you decide whether you should play them or not.
Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeOO8Lb8ukU
Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
Today we look into the early data from Kamigawa BO1 drafts. I try to explain how Ninjas can sneakily influence win rates of other cards and how to see just how naughty they have been with the data (spoiler: the effect is not that big but can lead you to thinking some cards are a bit better than they really are). I also look at which color pairs are open and speculate a bit on which colors can improve in the future. I also talk about each color pair, their MVPs and cards that have surprisingly high win rates. As always, all the data is courtesy of 17Lands.com
Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeVw5PSGO84
You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This episode is a primer for the new set, Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. I look at the vital statistics of the set, look at how the removal aligns with the creatures and compare it with some previous sets, to get you up to date on which conditional removal is particularly interesting and which can be potentially a dud. Then I go through all 10 archetypes, looking at cards that are key to them and trying to find some overlooked pockets of synergy and two card interactions.
You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
A bonus episode: audio of the Kamigawa Neon Dynasty skeleton discussion between myself, SLKerstens and JasonILTG. Cards to watch, combinations to test and a good general overview of what NEO has to offer. And it seems it has to offer a lot.
VOD of the stream can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6et5lk3Mr0&feature=youtu.be
You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
This week I look at the numbers behind Double Feature drafts on Arena based on 17Lands data. Which colour pairs do best, why splashing sometimes matters, what cards over and underperform, what are the top commons and uncommons for each colour and why. I also look at each colour pair and talk about best signpost, best cards and overachievers worth mentioning for (almost) each of them.
Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRLDgbY95RM
You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
Look at the VOW draft from the perspective of the whole format and a general look at the format evolution. What are the stages of the format getting mature? How can you use data to position yourself well in a more settled format? What numbers should you be looking at and at what stage? How does card evaluation change and how does it impact color pair strength?
See the episode slides: https://bit.ly/magicnumbers20
Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5ECEW5O_pg
You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
How does BO1 hand smoothing work? Based on +500k first hands from 17Lands.com, I could decipher what is going on. And knowing what it does and how it differs from paper/BO3 will help your deckbuilding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8ijQCd55hI
You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
I look at Evidence Based Forcing: When and how to force decks, plus how to use data to do it in an organised fashion. Drafting the hard way is hard, but actually proper forcing is not easy either.
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26QC8Vzgw9Y
You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332 Ft: Mana Junkie
En liten tjänst av I'm With Friends. Finns även på engelska.