Mtg monster makes the best of these types of vids, better than some of the pros or top streamers and what not, in my opinion.. really good for prepping thanks a bunch
Agreed! I only just stumbled upon this channel today, and instantly subscribed! I like the way she really breaks down WHY certain strategies work the way they do, rather than simply saying they do.
I wanted to share that I got my first 3-0 draft night the other week and I owe it in large part to you. I've had several 2-1 nights and even a couple 2-0-1 nights but couldn't seem to seal the deal until just recently. Watching your gameplay is a huge huge help for learning a set, even when you make mistakes because that still helps me learn how to play better. When I started playing I avoided draft but it's now my favorite way to play. Anyway, love your guides, love your channel, and I look forward to your Duskmourn videos. Thanks.
@mikej0012 Way to go! Depending on the pod you normally play with, breaking into that winner's spot of 3-0 for the first time can be an extremely difficult thing to do. That's wonderful. Many 3-0s will follow! Thanks for letting me know and I'm so glad I've helped grow your interest and knowledge in draft.
Loved the video! Very helpful information and presented in a great way to ingest. Really appreciate your time and effort making this. Will be watching more :)
Hi! First time watching your stuff, but this was super helpful. Also, I’m usually skittish about playing blue because it can be a bit technical(and I’m a noob) but you have me convinced that B/W looks like a lot of fun to play if I can pull the right cards.
Thanks, for the informative video. This helps so much for local pre releases. Out of 30-40 players, maybe 20% of us take the time to familiarize ourselves with the cards and mechanics beforehand.
It really has become a tradition for me to watch your prerelease guides before new set. I haven't seen much other videos about it but I doubt they are as good
@jaredclasper7616 I make these guides for every set. So there will be a new one coming out soon for foundations. You should also know I make these guides before the sets are released and before I’ve ever played the set. So lots of predictions. Usually they age pretty well post-set release but sometimes they will have some “misses”. No one can predict a set perfect pre-gameplay but I feel like I do as well as could be expected. Thanks for the sub.
@Zap2x_93 I feel like I've waited so long for my channel to get huge that I've turned into a skeleton sitting on that park bench, doomed to be waiting forever. Even if it never explodes those who know, know. That's all that matters.
This is my ritual: Get home from work, pack up my bag, eat dinner, watch MTG Monster's prerelease guide, go and place top 5. At least I hope so. Ever since I've started watching your guides, I've been in top five last 4 prereleases.
@nicolasfernandez5572 This set offers more cross synergies and a more diverse range of win cons. It should be much better to draft than Bloomburrow was. I don’t think it will be as good as Outlaws of Thunder Junction was. It’ll probably fall somewhere in between as far as set quality goes.
@AndyGU1TAR Thanks for the kind words. If the legendary creature is currently face down/ manifested you can flicker that and it will enter as the legendary creature side up at the beginning of the next end step. There are tons of ways to manifest and like I said I like Niko in a manifest deck best! But correct, if the legendary creature is on the battlefield face side up you can't flicker that. My favorite target has to be Fear of Burning Alive. It's just too strong with Niko.
@richarddueck1770 I’m just looking forward to moving on past Bloomburrow. This set looks like it has a lot more potential to brew and get creative. I’ve heard a lot of people say they aren’t excited about this set, and that it caters in set design too much for commander. I keep telling them there’s more here than meets the eye. I highly doubt it will be one of the best sets of all time, but won’t be a boring set to draft multiple times due to the diverse win cons and deck builds. That was my main issue with Bloomburrow. Every deck was the same. This set has more range within the archetypes and provides more space to do different things.
@@mtgmonster8755 interesting! You’re not the only streamer I follow with this opinion of Bloomburrow: Ethan saks said the same thing this morning, lol. I will admit that my skill isn’t high enough to be able to drill down on it that hard, but I value the opinion. I like hearing your initial takes on rooms, and I’m cautiously optimistic. On a side note, I often review old drafts (paper… I’m old), and notice how aggressively I attempted to draft 3+ colours as a result of taking in your content. Some results good, but most bad. It’s great to try new things. At any rate, I continue to encourage players from my LGS to look you up. Carry on
@richarddueck1770 I've heard of Ethan Saks but don't listen to his stuff (I think I played against him in the WOE early access LordTupperware, and he scooped to my Screampuff giving him the business). I've heard people like his stuff though. I think rooms are great value but it's the same question as how many bounce spells do you run in your deck? How many burn spells? How many recursion spells, or spells that put +1/+1 counters on your creatures? It reminds me somewhat of battle value, but the difference is that many of those battles flipped into creatures too. Rooms don't offer too many creature options, more support effects. So I do think there's a threshold where you can have too many rooms and not be impacting the board directly enough. Great value plays. I think almost every deck should run at least one room. Thanks for sharing about your 3+ color drafting experiences. It's something I work on all the time, and there are a lot of "hidden" nuances that make 3 colors work. More importantly, lots of hidden traps that make it fail. It's a very difficult draft skill to master with the confidence and flexibility it requires. Knowing when and how to alter your picks late pack 2 and pack 3 to bring what you have together correctly is not easy, because there are so many different 3 color plus deck. Each of them have different needs. It's a very situation and reactive drafting style. With 2 colors you can memorize what you like. I have these two cards in my 2 drop that are my favorite so I'll pick those first and I like to have these removal cards, and you can try and seek those out hoping you see what you want through cutting it hard enough at the table. Sometimes that works but sometimes that backfires hard. In a 3 color style you're saying, I'll take the best cards first, then I'll take the open lane late pack 1, then I'll figure out what combinations I have in front of me to work with early pack 2, and then you start to ask what am I still missing to make this work? Then you're usually confronted with options to expand or simplify in packs 2 and 3, and it takes a lot of practice to know when you go for that extra greed or you pull in and tighten it up to less. Always riding that line. Always having a safe out. It's a lot to keep track of all at once! Very difficult. I'll keep working hard being the 3+ color specialist that I am, and I am working on that simulation model to show the world I'm not as crazy as I seem. But most importantly I have fun no matter what when I play. That's what is most important. It's a game and you should play in a way that makes you happy. If that's 2 colors play 2. If that's 5 play 5. It's all valid and all beautiful. I try and show that message to everyone. Play what makes you smile. Thanks for all your support and good luck at Prerelease!
@richarddueck1770 I thought I'd update you that I was yet again matched against Ethan Saks (LordTuperware) yesterday in draft during the Early Access and I thought of you. Video will be out later this week. It isn't the 5 color draft, that one has Paul Cheon and some other big name ops. Ethan's match up is in the Bant draft that will be uploaded after the 5 color draft video.
@@mtgmonster8755 I plan to watch it tonight!! It takes me a while to get through content, but I will comment (im old). I’m a big fan, and love how you talk through your choices. I’ve learned a lot and I know others will too. Cheers
Thank you so much for this video!! Very helpful for the prerelease I’m going to later. Quick noob question though: what makes Leyline of Transformation unplayable? Is it just not very good for this format, or just broken?
@Nellanor Almost all of the Leylines are cards I would not play in limited. They are more for constructed. The only Leylines I would even remotely consider playing in limited are the white one and maybe…. Big maybe on the red or black ones. Most likely neither of those. And even the white one, Leyline of Hope, you’d have to have tons of life gain. Then you can play that one. Good question.
@silverse_xyz So, I'm pretty hesitant to make an "evergreen" video about general sealed or draft strategies. The reason for this is I firmly believe that broad statements of this is what you should do every time can lead to worse sealed deck building in the end and drafting. Good sealed building and drafting is almost always an "it depends" situation. I guess I could have a very complex flow chart to map out the series of decisions, but even then sometimes it is best to "break away from the flow chart" and make an alternative choice. I feel like I can give a more useful information when I discussing a specific topic around a specific situation. So in a weird round about way all my drafts and sealed videos are the concept and strategy videos. Ex. In the 5 color wound and rooms video I am able to talk about specifically in that situation why I'm taking the cards I am and how those picks impact the other cards I am leaning towards trying to get and why. It's not just I think I'll play 5 color today. It's a long series of decisions to get where it gets to. But who knows, if there is enough demand maybe I'll try to put together a much more complex and advanced guide to limited in general. I know I have a lot of unique insights that many players would love to hear more details about. Specifically, how I'm doing my 3+ color strategies, and what's my method there. But that video would probably be a 5-8 hour video because of the complexity of my decision making process. You can see the complexity of everything I'm evaluating at once in the Making This Pile Work sealed video. I don't talk for a good while because that pool was such a complex build that I had an overload of everything my mind was processing at once! There was no room left for speech functions. That's a massively complex thought process in and of itself to map out. Explaining in detail every little decision and why I'm even thinking about those specific things can be a web to unravel. Applying those complexities to a general blanket "evergreen" statement of this is what you should do I fear would never be able to capture the true complexity of each unique micro decision and situation you can find yourself in when deck building in sealed.
Hi! Wow I'm so glad I found your video. Thanks for this! I have a newbie question. How does Optimistic Scavenger -> Grand Entryway -> Elegant Rotunda result in 7 power? I can only count 5. Base 1, Grand Entryway +1->Glimmer token +1, Elegant Rotunda +1->a single counter on the only creature +1. I'm missing triggers, right?
@madelineritchie It's a great question. If that's your 1, 2, 3 play, you'd have Scavenger and Glimmer in play, with 5 counters distributed, at least 2 on Scavenger and at least 1 on Glimmer. 2 counters for grand entryway etb, 3 counters for rotunda unlock, with an added 1/1 creature and 1/1 token = 7 total. Thanks for the question and I'm glad you found my channel!
@roadkillrevenge5716 Thanks. I did not know Niko’s pronouns are they/them. If I’m completely honest I have never been interested in the storyline aspect of mtg, and I don’t read it. But thank you for letting me know, and I am deeply sorry if I offended you or anyone else. That was never my intention. I went ahead and edited out my misuse of the pronouns in this video. I do want to get pronouns right. This was an honest mistake and I appreciate you pointing it out to me so I can make it right. I'll be sure to use they/ them in the future.
@Gaming_Antics I love any time a set prints dual lands. But... I have many thoughts about Kaito, Bane of Nightmares. The foremost one being what a disappointment. Not because I don't like the card. I do like Kaito and think it's a strong mythic, but I'm disappointed that they only printed one other card in this set that's a ninja, Nashi, Searcher in the Dark at rare. Kaito is good enough on its own, but if you are only going to make one planeswalker per set, then make it have synergy in the set at least! Uptick an anthem for Ninjas with no other ninjas is so disappointing. I joked with my friends don't make me consider playing the unplayable, Leyline of Transformation just to get ninjas in this set. We all laughed and I said even with Kaito I still would NOT play Leyline of Transformation. They then joked back that now that I've said that I'm sure to open a sealed pool with both Leyline of Transformation and Kaito, Bane of Nightmares on stream. We laughed and I made a deal that if I opened both on stream I'd play both just for the lols even though Leyline of Transformation is not a card you should play in any deck in limited ever.
Mtg monster makes the best of these types of vids, better than some of the pros or top streamers and what not, in my opinion.. really good for prepping thanks a bunch
@jnor
Thank you.
Agreed! I only just stumbled upon this channel today, and instantly subscribed! I like the way she really breaks down WHY certain strategies work the way they do, rather than simply saying they do.
@brianlinden3042
thanks!
The only draft guide I watch
@Turk1911
Thanks
I wanted to share that I got my first 3-0 draft night the other week and I owe it in large part to you. I've had several 2-1 nights and even a couple 2-0-1 nights but couldn't seem to seal the deal until just recently. Watching your gameplay is a huge huge help for learning a set, even when you make mistakes because that still helps me learn how to play better. When I started playing I avoided draft but it's now my favorite way to play.
Anyway, love your guides, love your channel, and I look forward to your Duskmourn videos. Thanks.
@mikej0012
Way to go! Depending on the pod you normally play with, breaking into that winner's spot of 3-0 for the first time can be an extremely difficult thing to do. That's wonderful. Many 3-0s will follow! Thanks for letting me know and I'm so glad I've helped grow your interest and knowledge in draft.
I’m so thankful you talk about the usability and strengths of each color combination rather than just say “this does recursion” ❤
Great video!! Thanks for making this and for your upbeat attitude. Your love for the game shines through.
@LilArquebus
Thank you
Loved the video! Very helpful information and presented in a great way to ingest. Really appreciate your time and effort making this. Will be watching more :)
@vexytaylor
Thanks
Love your Limited Videos, Good Stuff 🙏
Hi! First time watching your stuff, but this was super helpful.
Also, I’m usually skittish about playing blue because it can be a bit technical(and I’m a noob) but you have me convinced that B/W looks like a lot of fun to play if I can pull the right cards.
@SelfAwareWolfe
Thanks
Thanks, for the informative video. This helps so much for local pre releases. Out of 30-40 players, maybe 20% of us take the time to familiarize ourselves with the cards and mechanics beforehand.
your videos and assessment are always the BEST, cheers!
@mymarshlands
thanks
It really has become a tradition for me to watch your prerelease guides before new set. I haven't seen much other videos about it but I doubt they are as good
@Jellyboy334
I'm honored to be part of your new set prep tradition. Thanks!
been watching these guides since march of machines! always look forward to your videos :)
@simpjuice9707
Thanks for making me part of your new set prep tradition.
Not a ton of “sealed” content out there! This was very helpful and well thought through!! You’ll be a hit in no time :)
You earned a subscriber :)
@jaredclasper7616
I make these guides for every set. So there will be a new one coming out soon for foundations. You should also know I make these guides before the sets are released and before I’ve ever played the set. So lots of predictions. Usually they age pretty well post-set release but sometimes they will have some “misses”. No one can predict a set perfect pre-gameplay but I feel like I do as well as could be expected. Thanks for the sub.
The best prereleases and draft guides. Even if you're a small channel you'll be huge one day!
@Zap2x_93
I feel like I've waited so long for my channel to get huge that I've turned into a skeleton sitting on that park bench, doomed to be waiting forever. Even if it never explodes those who know, know. That's all that matters.
Thank you a lot for the video! I always watch it before the pre-release. I love the way you analyze the cards and the archetypes.
@croma86
Thank you for your continued support throughout the sets.
This is my ritual: Get home from work, pack up my bag, eat dinner, watch MTG Monster's prerelease guide, go and place top 5. At least I hope so. Ever since I've started watching your guides, I've been in top five last 4 prereleases.
Okay got 4th tonight. Not bad.
@PontificatingPanda
Love the prerelease ritual! Top 5 again… that’s fantastic!
Great short but impactful guide! Thanks!
I went 4-0 at my prerelease last night against some good deck builders! Thanks for the tips 👍🏽
@Mr_Dylll
Awesome. Congrats!
What a fantastic video thank you! So what go to for pre release then? I have 4 to go to :)
Amazing video! Cant wait for this set to arrive. Bloomburrow draft is not as fun as I thought it will be.
@nicolasfernandez5572
This set offers more cross synergies and a more diverse range of win cons. It should be much better to draft than Bloomburrow was. I don’t think it will be as good as Outlaws of Thunder Junction was. It’ll probably fall somewhere in between as far as set quality goes.
Fantastic as always
this guide is perfect, thank you
One of the best! Keep going!
Appreciate the hard work and insight!
Great work and analysis as always!
@tg781
Thank you
The sweats at the prerelease gonna love this one
Great Vid! Reminder that you can only flicker non-legendary creatures with Niko!
@AndyGU1TAR
Thanks for the kind words. If the legendary creature is currently face down/ manifested you can flicker that and it will enter as the legendary creature side up at the beginning of the next end step. There are tons of ways to manifest and like I said I like Niko in a manifest deck best! But correct, if the legendary creature is on the battlefield face side up you can't flicker that. My favorite target has to be Fear of Burning Alive. It's just too strong with Niko.
Thanks again!! Looking very much forward to pre-release.
@richarddueck1770
I’m just looking forward to moving on past Bloomburrow. This set looks like it has a lot more potential to brew and get creative. I’ve heard a lot of people say they aren’t excited about this set, and that it caters in set design too much for commander. I keep telling them there’s more here than meets the eye. I highly doubt it will be one of the best sets of all time, but won’t be a boring set to draft multiple times due to the diverse win cons and deck builds. That was my main issue with Bloomburrow. Every deck was the same. This set has more range within the archetypes and provides more space to do different things.
@@mtgmonster8755 interesting! You’re not the only streamer I follow with this opinion of Bloomburrow: Ethan saks said the same thing this morning, lol. I will admit that my skill isn’t high enough to be able to drill down on it that hard, but I value the opinion. I like hearing your initial takes on rooms, and I’m cautiously optimistic. On a side note, I often review old drafts (paper… I’m old), and notice how aggressively I attempted to draft 3+ colours as a result of taking in your content. Some results good, but most bad. It’s great to try new things. At any rate, I continue to encourage players from my LGS to look you up. Carry on
@richarddueck1770
I've heard of Ethan Saks but don't listen to his stuff (I think I played against him in the WOE early access LordTupperware, and he scooped to my Screampuff giving him the business). I've heard people like his stuff though. I think rooms are great value but it's the same question as how many bounce spells do you run in your deck? How many burn spells? How many recursion spells, or spells that put +1/+1 counters on your creatures? It reminds me somewhat of battle value, but the difference is that many of those battles flipped into creatures too. Rooms don't offer too many creature options, more support effects. So I do think there's a threshold where you can have too many rooms and not be impacting the board directly enough. Great value plays. I think almost every deck should run at least one room.
Thanks for sharing about your 3+ color drafting experiences. It's something I work on all the time, and there are a lot of "hidden" nuances that make 3 colors work. More importantly, lots of hidden traps that make it fail. It's a very difficult draft skill to master with the confidence and flexibility it requires. Knowing when and how to alter your picks late pack 2 and pack 3 to bring what you have together correctly is not easy, because there are so many different 3 color plus deck. Each of them have different needs. It's a very situation and reactive drafting style. With 2 colors you can memorize what you like. I have these two cards in my 2 drop that are my favorite so I'll pick those first and I like to have these removal cards, and you can try and seek those out hoping you see what you want through cutting it hard enough at the table. Sometimes that works but sometimes that backfires hard. In a 3 color style you're saying, I'll take the best cards first, then I'll take the open lane late pack 1, then I'll figure out what combinations I have in front of me to work with early pack 2, and then you start to ask what am I still missing to make this work? Then you're usually confronted with options to expand or simplify in packs 2 and 3, and it takes a lot of practice to know when you go for that extra greed or you pull in and tighten it up to less. Always riding that line. Always having a safe out. It's a lot to keep track of all at once! Very difficult. I'll keep working hard being the 3+ color specialist that I am, and I am working on that simulation model to show the world I'm not as crazy as I seem. But most importantly I have fun no matter what when I play. That's what is most important. It's a game and you should play in a way that makes you happy. If that's 2 colors play 2. If that's 5 play 5. It's all valid and all beautiful. I try and show that message to everyone. Play what makes you smile. Thanks for all your support and good luck at Prerelease!
@richarddueck1770
I thought I'd update you that I was yet again matched against Ethan Saks (LordTuperware) yesterday in draft during the Early Access and I thought of you. Video will be out later this week. It isn't the 5 color draft, that one has Paul Cheon and some other big name ops. Ethan's match up is in the Bant draft that will be uploaded after the 5 color draft video.
@@mtgmonster8755 I plan to watch it tonight!! It takes me a while to get through content, but I will comment (im old). I’m a big fan, and love how you talk through your choices. I’ve learned a lot and I know others will too. Cheers
Great breakdown.
Thank you so much for this video!! Very helpful for the prerelease I’m going to later.
Quick noob question though: what makes Leyline of Transformation unplayable? Is it just not very good for this format, or just broken?
@Nellanor
Almost all of the Leylines are cards I would not play in limited. They are more for constructed. The only Leylines I would even remotely consider playing in limited are the white one and maybe…. Big maybe on the red or black ones. Most likely neither of those. And even the white one, Leyline of Hope, you’d have to have tons of life gain. Then you can play that one. Good question.
Great prerelease vid, as always.
Have you considered making a video around must sealed concepts and strategy? Deckbuilding and/or playing
@silverse_xyz
So, I'm pretty hesitant to make an "evergreen" video about general sealed or draft strategies. The reason for this is I firmly believe that broad statements of this is what you should do every time can lead to worse sealed deck building in the end and drafting. Good sealed building and drafting is almost always an "it depends" situation. I guess I could have a very complex flow chart to map out the series of decisions, but even then sometimes it is best to "break away from the flow chart" and make an alternative choice.
I feel like I can give a more useful information when I discussing a specific topic around a specific situation. So in a weird round about way all my drafts and sealed videos are the concept and strategy videos. Ex. In the 5 color wound and rooms video I am able to talk about specifically in that situation why I'm taking the cards I am and how those picks impact the other cards I am leaning towards trying to get and why. It's not just I think I'll play 5 color today. It's a long series of decisions to get where it gets to.
But who knows, if there is enough demand maybe I'll try to put together a much more complex and advanced guide to limited in general. I know I have a lot of unique insights that many players would love to hear more details about. Specifically, how I'm doing my 3+ color strategies, and what's my method there. But that video would probably be a 5-8 hour video because of the complexity of my decision making process. You can see the complexity of everything I'm evaluating at once in the Making This Pile Work sealed video. I don't talk for a good while because that pool was such a complex build that I had an overload of everything my mind was processing at once! There was no room left for speech functions. That's a massively complex thought process in and of itself to map out. Explaining in detail every little decision and why I'm even thinking about those specific things can be a web to unravel. Applying those complexities to a general blanket "evergreen" statement of this is what you should do I fear would never be able to capture the true complexity of each unique micro decision and situation you can find yourself in when deck building in sealed.
@@mtgmonster8755 thanks for the detailed response!
Hi! Wow I'm so glad I found your video. Thanks for this!
I have a newbie question. How does Optimistic Scavenger -> Grand Entryway -> Elegant Rotunda result in 7 power? I can only count 5. Base 1, Grand Entryway +1->Glimmer token +1, Elegant Rotunda +1->a single counter on the only creature +1. I'm missing triggers, right?
@madelineritchie
It's a great question. If that's your 1, 2, 3 play, you'd have Scavenger and Glimmer in play, with 5 counters distributed, at least 2 on Scavenger and at least 1 on Glimmer. 2 counters for grand entryway etb, 3 counters for rotunda unlock, with an added 1/1 creature and 1/1 token = 7 total. Thanks for the question and I'm glad you found my channel!
@mtgmonster8755 Oh! I get it. Thanks for your effort
Excellent assessment
thank you for the guide!
@DeWillpower
I appreciate your support as always.
Such a great an insightful analysis, looking forward to the prerelease!
Did want to mention, though, that Niko's pronouns are they/them
@roadkillrevenge5716
Thanks. I did not know Niko’s pronouns are they/them. If I’m completely honest I have never been interested in the storyline aspect of mtg, and I don’t read it. But thank you for letting me know, and I am deeply sorry if I offended you or anyone else. That was never my intention. I went ahead and edited out my misuse of the pronouns in this video. I do want to get pronouns right. This was an honest mistake and I appreciate you pointing it out to me so I can make it right. I'll be sure to use they/ them in the future.
@@mtgmonster8755 all good honest mistakes happen! Just wanted to point it out in case you didn't know.
The 2 things I like about Duskmourn are the dual lands and the Ninja planeswalker, everything else is a meh.
@Gaming_Antics
I love any time a set prints dual lands. But... I have many thoughts about Kaito, Bane of Nightmares. The foremost one being what a disappointment. Not because I don't like the card. I do like Kaito and think it's a strong mythic, but I'm disappointed that they only printed one other card in this set that's a ninja, Nashi, Searcher in the Dark at rare. Kaito is good enough on its own, but if you are only going to make one planeswalker per set, then make it have synergy in the set at least! Uptick an anthem for Ninjas with no other ninjas is so disappointing. I joked with my friends don't make me consider playing the unplayable, Leyline of Transformation just to get ninjas in this set. We all laughed and I said even with Kaito I still would NOT play Leyline of Transformation. They then joked back that now that I've said that I'm sure to open a sealed pool with both Leyline of Transformation and Kaito, Bane of Nightmares on stream. We laughed and I made a deal that if I opened both on stream I'd play both just for the lols even though Leyline of Transformation is not a card you should play in any deck in limited ever.