This week we bring you something a
little different- triple Alara Reborn.
This set was part of MTGO's Pot of
Gold, St.Patrick's Day draft. What makes this set interesting to
draft is that it is entirely composed of gold cards, there isn’t a
single mono-coloured card in the set.
We debated whether or not to draft this
set for our channel seeing as neither of us have ever interacted with
it before, save for the odd single card. In the past we have heard
criticism about our drafting sets that we are unfamiliar with. People
who do have experience have gotten frustrated when we take bad
cards, miss bombs or fail to play the meta of the day.
While we can certainly understand that
sentiment, we decided to try it anyway. We both love any opportunity
to play magic, and as we are playing more and more magic outside
of the current set, it's a great chance to see cards we haven't seen
before.
That fact alone, was enough reason to
give this a whirl but after drafting, I realized other strong reasons
for playing older formats, ones that have an impact on our current
limited play.
When we approach unknown sets we
generally do a quick internet search, looking for the sets mechanics,
checking for mana fixing so we know how many colours we can safely
draft and we often take a peek at the sets deck archetypes. It's a
lot of information to absorb in a few minutes and we generally get
little more that a cursory understanding. We often say after the
draft that next time, we'll spend more time doing research, set
reviews and read articles, but the truth is, MTGO generally has these
special events going for a very short span and we just can't find the
time.
It occurred to me that this isn't
unlike what happens at the beginning of a new set. As I write this,
it's release day for Dragons of Tarkir and our first chance to draft
the new format. Granted, I have spent much more time reviewing the
cards for this event than I would have for Alara Reborn, but the
experience will be quite similar.
We have a general idea of what COULD be
a thing- Manifest Deck, Dash Deck, Warrior Deck, but it's mostly
untested. The best we can do is draw on the things we already know
about playing the game, make the best decisions we can, and pretty
much play on the fly. There will be a ton of cards that we just have
no idea how they will interact from our, and our opponents side of
the board in a real game situation, just like when playing an older
set that we don't really know.
Being able to make strong decisions
becomes more about our core game playing skills than our memorized
knowledge about card interactions and meta game, and a good place to
strengthen these skills is to play sets we don't know.
While seeing us stumble and miss
obvious plays and cards can be frustrating for you, our viewers, we
hope that you enjoy the draft for it's entertainment value, and also
understand that for us, this channel has always been about learning,
growing and becoming better magic players, and doing drafts like this
helps us do those very things.
Thanks for watching,
~Tams
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