Posted on by Peter Alonzi

Sealed Report: It’s a wave AND a particle

I’d love to say every game is winnable but it just ain’t so.

I’d love to think every game is lost because of the choices I’ve made, but i just ain’t so.

Sometimes you make the optimal choices and still lose.

Randomness is a thing and this set has a lot of d20s!

This is my first event recap post. I always start out a new format with a sealed event at the prerelease. It’s wild and fun. It is tough to assess because you don’t even know the cards yet but I will do my best. And also take this opportunity to talk about how I review.

I always write down a couple notes on why I won or lost. Let’s take a look at those notes and then give them a second angry look. The key is in the moment to write down why I thought I lost. And then look at those statements to see if I am blaming myself, bad luck, them having better cards, mana, etc. The end goal is to realize when I’m spot on and when I’m not. Thinking this way enables me to identify areas where I can improve.

  • g1 – L – got stuck on 4 mana also minor play mistakes
  • g2 – W – They got mana screwed hard and couldn’t recover
  • g3 – L – I drew lands 5 turns in a row and got on the back foot; they had more powerful cards
  • g4 – W – poor play by opponent; I held back a finisher they didn’t see coming FTW alpha strike
  • g5 – L – I did not know the set and got lit up by set specific tricks (like black creature with flash makes a damaged creature die); they had more powerful cards

What patterns do we see? Do I ever use the same description on win and loss. For example I say “they had more powerful cards” when I lose, but I never say that when I win. Interesting!!!!!!

See wasn’t that fun. Sometimes we are embarrassed to say why we thought we lost publicly. We may worry people will say we are ‘stupid’ or something. But this is how I improve. I take a critical look at why I think I won and lost.

Bonus info: The name at the top in quotes is the name of my deck so if you ever want to duel that deck just friend Nettling Dad#97363 on area and it is on!

Posted on by Peter Alonzi · 1 Comment

PSA: Splashes are free

So I haven’t played since the introduction of treasure. But it is crazy easy to get treasure in this set. So that means you can splash a fun rare like Orcus for free.

And the best part is one of the dungeons has create a treasure token on the second level.

Benalish Dad Commentary

Granted, this needs some “venture” action (White/Blue/Black largely) to dig to that treasure. But you can rely upon it as a game plan! Very reminiscent of knowing that you have Environmental Sciences in the lessonboard from Strixhaven. Count on that treasure!

Posted on by Jed Fowler

Format Review: Strixhaven

Ah Strixhaven, the Harry Potter mash-up that we never new we wanted, but we definitely needed. An interesting return to the ‘guild’ sets where there are only five supported color pairs. How was it?

Trophies

Five trophies is a little above average for me in a given set. Funny how my trophies fell into two camps: either straightforward Silverquill BW aggro or pure Prismari power

Most Drafted

Commons

Three way tie for most-drafted common. And–unsurprisingly–they are all aggressive cards! Expanded Anatomy won the award for “best card that would be mediocre in the 40, but INCREDIBLE in the lessonboard”. The learn/lesson mechanic really rewarded situationally powerful cards and Expanded Anatomy wasa great “slam the door when ahead on board” card. Heck, you can see it turning the Pledgemage into a 5/3 attacking flier.

The Enthusiastic Study shows a bit more of my biases. The card was not widely loved because the +1 toughness didn’t do great with all the x/1s in the format. I saw it as a “win a combat, drive some damage, and draw more fuel”. Again, I might just be a red mage at heart. Alarming!

Uncommon

More mountains! ALARMING. Academic Dispute I loved since it enabled attacks & magecraft AND learn. Rootha–not an aggro card!–just made for a bunch of super fun things in the set. Everybody loved Rootha.

personal lessons

Similar to the “always identify two cards in a pack: fit & power”, Strixhaven really helped drive home the “speculate on a different lane” move. Since there are only five lanes (fewer if you count how badly Lorehold missed), it is vital to find the proper lane for your seat. Thus practicing being open-minded, taking that P1p5 Killian after four green/blue cards juuuust to make sure that you aren’t supposed to be Silverquill. Interesting that I’m much better at this than the ‘flat, cube/Kaldheim-esque create-your-lane’ style drafting

overall record

# DraftedWin Rate
Lorehold356%
Prismari967%
Quandrix450%
Silverquill776%
Witherbloom350%

Overall, I clocked in at a 60% win rate over 28 drafts and 5 trophies. Not bad!

Summary

I really enjoyed Hogwarts: The Gathering but I tend to really love the guild sets with the clearer channels. The Lesson/Learn mechanic was a clear headliners for the set and a really good one. Balancing when to draft which half was fun and the flexibility for which lesson to pick during gameplay was also enjoyable. Honestly, it is kind of remarkable how enjoyable Strixhaven was given how badly Lorehold missed (the graveyard dynamic whiffed so it was really just budget Silverquill aggro) and Witherbloom was mediocre, needing uncommons to get there. Final Jed-Grade: B+ set.

Posted on by Jed Fowler · 1 Comment

A Terrifying Glimpse of the Future

I think an interesting tweak in parenting is the rise of the balance bikes over the tricycle/training wheels. Since the tricky part of riding a bike is the counter-steering (that you steer left to shift the balance right), it makes sense to be practicing that first and then add the pedals. They’ve probably been doing this in Germany for the past twenty years for all I know. But the results are indisputable: Chandra is pedaling at age 3. The Benalish Dad only got on a bike with extreme reluctance at age–ah–eight. After being shamed by his little sister zipping around.

Posted on by Jed Fowler · 1 Comment

Post-Game: 6-5-21

This will be a deep dive into a draft that I got trapped and didn’t see the trap until it was way, way too late. I should have been in Silverquill but instead I ended up with a Sultai pile. But it was a trap! 4 out of 5 Admiral Akbars agree with me on this.

Draft log

Read more
Posted on by Jed Fowler · 1 Comment

Post-game 5-12-21

Going to try something new and start with the end and then work backwards to see what happened. Bad draft? Lost equity on gameplay? I’m still bouncing around a 50% win-rate on Strixhaven, which is certainly lower than I want to be.

1-2

Read more
Posted on by Jed Fowler · 1 Comment

Post-Game: 5-8-21

Had a great coaching session with LordTupperware (nee Ethan Saks) where we spent some time going deeper on draft and weighing picks. There was a great argument early in pack 2:

Returned Pastcaller is a B+, just a powerful 2:1 that has a real ethreat. Combat Professor has been climbing the ranks and is probably the top mono-white card at B-/C+. But we’re midway through pack 2, so context matters more. (Note 17lands wasn’t installed on my laptop due to corporate firewalls). At this point I had a good base of aggressive white cards but still not settled. Also: I did not have an Environmental Sciences.

I argued with Ethan a fair amount and I think he was right I was wrong. I wanted the Pastcaller because I wanted to increase my ceiling. Ethan argued for the Combat Professor because, while there were whispers of red, it wasn’t super open and I had no splashing tools. Thus the odds that it sits idle in the sideboard are significant. And lo and behold, that’s what happened.

This gave rise to my latest homework assignment: recognizing in draft when the values of the cards change because of context. In the example above, the Returned Pastcaller dropped in value to a B- while Combat Professor in an aggressive white shell rounds closer to B.

Raw Card Power x Likelihood of Playing – (Compromised Pick to Enable Splash)

Draft log

Read more
Posted on by Jed Fowler · 1 Comment

Post-Game: 4-30-21

One of the difficulties of a blog like this is balancing the “gosh isn’t it fun to write about Magic cards” versus “…but not as much fun as actually playing with Magic cards, amirite?” But there was an overnight at the grantparents and–in addition–to sleeping in until 8am, there was also a loosening of the tight trade-offs of available time. To the drafts!

Draft log

Read more