MODERN MASTERS - This Sunday

[John Galli]

So Mox Mania is having their Modern Masters drafts starting at 11:30am this Sunday. Although I would have preferred it to be a different day, it sounds pretty sweet.

11:30am, $35, drafting until Mike's 18 boxes are gone or the end of the night comes, whichever happens first. Anyone going to this? I'm on the fence, I have about $85 in store credit that I was planning to save for rotation but this might be a better use of it after seeing the spoiler-

mythicspoiler.com/

[abeckett]

I'm booked on Sunday, sadly. Otherwise I would probably be over there.

I believe Misty is doing a sealed event on Saturday, but Ben was still uncertain about the price.

[Travis Lannoye]

The only thing I need from this set are a set of Goyfs, so I think I'll pass on this one. What are you hoping to gain from going to an event like this?

[abeckett]

The fun experience of drafting with a highly priced set

Honestly, I'm pretty much in the same camp. It would be fun to do a draft of this, but I really have no desire to pay out the nose for a set that's mainly populated by cards I bulked out just a year ago.

The rares and mythics are good for the most part, but the C/UC slot is filled with a ton of chaffe (as I expected it would be) that just happens to be modern legal. There are like three cards that are worth more than what people are charging to draft it, each of which is a mythic.

If anything, I might consider doing a few of these online. For once, drafting on MTGO will actually be cheaper than it is in real life!

[John Galli]

Well for me I thought it might be value, since unlike you two "card snobs" I don't have any of this stuff. Lot of EDH staples in there too.

But from the slamming this is getting across the board from everyone on there it's sounding like the value isn't worth it? Of course at Mike's draft rate it comes out to $11.60 per pack to draft it, not $14 like mentioned on the other thread. Not sure how big a difference that makes. I'm almost positive Mike has added prizes into it too, so you get 3 packs of modern masters that your drafting + prizes.

The only big drawback to me is that I really don't have the stuff to put together for a Modern deck. So if the EDH value is minimal and the financial value is too, I'll probably pass on it and hang on to the bulk of my store credit.

Btw, what is up with the fact that both of you have a ton of Magic cards but never seem to actually play magic?? You guys gotta stop letting those other activities take priority

[abeckett]

If stores were actually going to charge closer to MSRP on this, I would be far more inclined to draft it. This $11-14 a pack stuff is stupid though, especially when I'm hearing that multiple stores will actually be using Rav block packs as prizes. I understand why they are charging what they are. I'm sure they will have no problem selling out without me.

There are many good rares and mythics in this for sure. The problem is that they are rares and mythics. I'm hugely disappointed with the C/UC selection for this set. It has a few gems, but much of this stuff is just modern legal. It has never seen any play, even when it was standard legal.

I realize that they needed to make it draftable and most of the cards they put in here were great for limited in their respective sets, so they win there. As a result though, the usefulness of most of these cards will be nothing after you draft them. If you're looking to build up a modern collection, you would be far better off waiting to see if this lowers any prices on staples and just pick them up on their own. That's pretty much my plan for any EDH foils that are getting a rehash. It's funny that most of the high end foils I still need do happen to be in this set.

And yes, I realize I have a ton of cards and almost never get to play. I blame work and family. I seldom get home on weeknights at a time that would allow me to head out to a 6:30 event. My weekends suffer from busy schedules that I don't get to plan. I don't really have everything for a modern deck either though. I lack most of the money stuff for black/green decks and would still need about $50-100 in cards to play a decent deck of some other color combination. I'm not complaining. I'm more commenting on the fact that the format is not cheap, even if you have been playing for awhile and don't regularly sell off cards when they leave standard.

[Travis Lannoye]

My problem is actually other activities. Right now my week looks like this:
- basketball on Mondays
- bowling on Tuesdays
- starting some online web dev classes on Wednesdays
- I try to make Legacy at Mox on Thursdays
- bar volleyball on Fridays

Weekends usually consist of weddings or vacations or just whatever Jenna wants to do.

In the winter time, I'll probably be able to cross bowling and volleyball off the list, but I'll have MSCR league basketball on Wednesdays. If I'm real lucky I might be able to start winning boxes on Tuesdays after bowling season is over (probably around August).

I do try to keep at least one deck sleeved up for each format, in the event that I'm actually able to make it to an event. Right now, I have Junk Aristocrats for Standard, Melira Pod for Modern, and Deathblade for Legacy. I've actually managed to overlap the three formats pretty nicely: all three use Deathrite Shamans, two of them use Voice of Resurgence, two of them use shock lands, all three use fetches, etc.

I also find random half-hour pockets of time to jump on Cockatrice and play a few games (usually Standard or Modern) just to keep things from getting too stale.

[John Galli]

What your saying makes sense, I wasn't too enthused over the commons and uncommons either and I guess you have to hit the jackpot on the rares you pull to make it even marginally worth it. It does look fun to draft, although now that Travis has his cube assembled it's basically a watered down version of that.

We should try to plan an EDH night, I know my brother hasn't played much outside a few standard events because he prefers EDH as well, and honestly I miss kicking it back with our crew. Maybe if we plan it ahead of time we can try to avoid "clearance" issues with all the other crap in our busy lives.

Typically Thursdays are good for me, I wouldn't mind a weekend night as long as it's planned and we have enough confirmed ahead of time and there isn't a logjam of stuff already in the way. I think all of us have busy lives, I know I do just as much as you guys, and the easiest way to get ahead is people actually making an effort to plan it and then not say at the last minute that "something came up".

What about next Thursday, June 13th at 7pm? Preferably at someone's house, although it's tough on my end to host because Christy usually is home and we don't have doored off rooms

[Travis Lannoye]

I could do something on June 13th.

[abeckett]

I'll see what next week looks like for an EDH night. I'm kind of in a holding pattern right now because of state budget coverage. I'm pretty sure there's a floor session on Thursday, which would probably make me a no go.

After next week, my life should be getting a little easier for the rest of the summer.

[John Galli]

Andrew I'm in the opposite situation, after next week my schedule is going to be even more full for several weeks. Is there a different day next week that would be better or are you basically on call?

[abeckett]

I'll have a better idea on Monday. It really just depends when they are bringing the budget to the floor in the Assembly.

[John Galli]

Btw, found out yesterday that Mox is giving modern masters packs as prizes for the draft. I think 2 packs per player, so each draft would have 16 packs for prize support with first getting 7 packs I believe he said. Makes the incentive a little greater.

[abeckett]

So, how did the drafting go for people? Did not manage to get one in this weekend.

[John Galli]

Mine was awful. For one, this format is insanely challenging, there's about a dozen archetypes the designers purposely put in there, others you can stretch for, and then just drafting typical good stuff. And the obvious value incentive of just picking up cards. It equates to a really interesting process that isn't easy for anyone unless you just force and hope for a good string of what you need.

My thoughts going in were that while storm looked very viable and strong, I had heard of others in Madison drafting it and its one of those archetypes that you don't want to fight with another drafter over. Thus, I ignored it and appaerrently so did everyone in my pod as we saw 5-6 empty the warrens, grapeshots, glacial rays, and rift bolts go by. Uttke drafted it in his pod and easily 2-0 ID'd.

Anyhoo, I opened a foil Reveillark in pack 1, and being that I already had an inclination to draft white I rolled along with him. My next few picks were sanctum gargoyles, Marsh flitters, executioner's capsules, festering goblins, 3 mana fliers, and one drops to try and craft an aggressive flying deck backed up by valuetown. In my 2nd pack I opened a Skeleton Vampire (or whatever the guy who makes bats is) and got some other notables like flickerwisp and the 2/1 who can tutor up rebels. My removal aside from excaps were drag Downs and a Warren's wierding.

In round 1 I drew had 5 swamps in play both games and was able to cast maybe 3 spells. It wasn't magic. I lost to a guy who had only played a few games in his life before.

Tested against Uttke in-between rounds and my deck proceeded to unload guys followed by reveillark recurring Marsh flitters for insanity.

Round 2 I get rolling. I played against a tough green/white deck with the absolute bomb common prenumbra spider (2/4 reach makes a copy when he dies) and quite a few thalids. He took game 1, but in game 2 I had 6+ fliers on the board, removal for his reach guys, and in game 3 I opened on 3 one drops into a 3 mana haste flier and took care of it.

Round 3 I played against a similar deck, and drew about ten straight lands in games 1 and 3 to end up 1-2 on the day.

Otherwise, the format is pretty cool, there's a lot of valuable cards (although all the decks I saw were mostly the less valuable / better draft cards). I saw a ton of durdly ground wars with 12+ creatures on the board on both sides. Not sure if this was due to their resilience or a lack of control archetypes but it was more than normal.