I’ve watched your guides for the last several prereleases (LOTR->now) and I can say that this is some of the highest quality and relevant magic content on TH-cam. Thanks🙏
@wopperaef4724 Thank you. I'm glad I can produce guides that people trust, and come back to for each set. I appreciate your support and for leaving such a nice comment. It made my day. 🍻
This video is amazing! So good! Clear and informative. This is my 5th prerelease and I always watch videos before to get a better idea for the set. This video is the best one that I have seen.
Thanks for all of the hard work you do in getting these ready ahead of the prerelease date. It's really appreciated and you've been my go to channel for a long time now. Have a great prerelease!
@rdchris6556 Naya is probably the most supported three color build, but even then because it wants to be so aggressive you should look to be base 2 colors with a very light splash of the third. This is so you can curve out starting on turn 1. Maybe I'm crazy, but I'm most eager to try out a Jeskai spells go wide with prowess and token rabbits deck. Making token creatures off sorceries. Pings here and there. Maybe mixing in some valiant and jumbling otters, birds, rabbits, mice and lizards into a crazy brew. Some curve outs in green with paw patch recruit in conjunction with any valiant triggers looks kind of unbeatable. I think this set is a rabbit response set. Curve out make multiple bodies swing with all. Even the best control decks struggle with wide boards that are allowed to land a few key spells. As a challenge I'm determined to make threshold rats work maybe with squirrels. We will see! I like the frogs and birds, but worry it might be a turn too slow and fall behind. I'm sure there is a way to make it so that doesn't happen though. Just gotta play the set and see what I can work out.
@@mtgmonster8755 oh of course on trying to stay to one or two colors and maybe splashing a third for limited. I'll be doing a two headed giant for Pre-Release so we may even be able to lean fully into a single color each. But as far as fun goes, I think mardu life gain/ping deck would be a lot of fun.
@rdchris6556 I agree Mardu ping is a thing. lol you must be newer to my channel or never watch me draft. 2 colors is never a given in limited for me. Cheers!
I think that jeskai valiant birds as you have the aggro from the mice that have some ways to trigger valiant and the birds can keep you in the longer game with bigger creatures and some control. They also can trigger valiant quite well for example giving a mouse flying
@Spiriton10-zi9tr Yep. I agree. Jeskai looks to have a lot of potential. I like it because the birds are good enablers to trigger Valiant on Mice. But on top of that it also has the ability to support a great spells deck. The blue red prowess otter build bringing in white looks like a strong move. White has some amazing spells to bring to the table for those synergies with hop on it, various combat tricks, and rabbit response.
Started to actually draft with thunder junction and watched you ever since. underrated content, every video is very pleasant to watch and as information dense as it gets, awesome job, keep it up!
@vinz4015 Wow. Thank you for such a wonderful comment. I appreciate it. It made my day, and helped me get hyped for the Streamer Event today! It’s just what I needed to hear. I’m always the underdog at the Streamer Event. Even though it’s a casual event, it is filled with the best of the best from mtg pros, streamers, and even employees that designed the set. There is nothing quite like trying out new cards for the first time (live) against all the top players in the game! Always a great time.
@PlatnumCy Thanks. I'm so sad this is looking like an aggressive straightforward set. I've been spoiled with all my brewing capabilities in OTJ. This set just doesn't have that build up to big cool things. It builds up to a rabbit response... sad.
@@mtgmonster8755 We exclusively play Two headed pre-release and this set is looking MUCH less interactive than OTJ. OTJ has a lot of "each opponent" card in red/black and this looks like red black is relegated to "target opponent"... which makes sense for a standard set but makes commander and emperor plays A LOT less impactful. Would love to get your take on the two headed scene and this set.
@PlatnumCy Sure, I’d love to give some 2hg pointers specifically for this set. I don’t play 2hg often but it’s a fun format. If you play this format enough, you’ll already know the words “each opponent” is op. Luckily this set has a ton of cards that have each op on them. So just to name a few: Bandit’s Talent, Coruscation Mage, Dragonhawk, Gev, Glidedive Duo, Hazel’s Nocturne, Heartfire Hero, Hearthborn Battler, Hired Claw, Lunar Convocation, Rottenmouth Viper, Sinister Monolith, Starscape Cleric, Teapot Slinger, Valley Rotcaller, and Wick. Most of these card are found in black red so I think unless you’re really unlucky with your opens one player doing ping control that focuses on the “each opponent” burn could be good. Alternatively, there is really nothing quite like a super aggro build in 2hg. Especially a really wide board. With the right cards having a go wide strategy could be devastating to your opponents. Most of the time for this set I’d look to build one ping player and one wide player with group pumps. But with the right flyers or frogs I could see it being correct for one player to be doing that instead. Or even unblockable rats. I don’t know if you ever do this, but I’m also a huge fan of setting the 2hg decks so that one player is the sorcery speed (mainly creatures deck) and the other being the instant speed player. And you stack the decks that way so maybe one player has 23 creatures and the other only has 5-6... This way one player holds open mana the other does not. Not every pool can do this, but I do sometime like having that difference so there is always instant speed interaction available to the team each turn. Food for thought.
Thanku for the video! One note, since it's important in this set 17:33 : Season of Gathering doesn't target (it would say "Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control...")
@arachezy Fixed! Wow you're right. I just figured it would target. It's really unusual for these effects to not say target and I guess my brain autofilled it in with the word target because the word each wasn't present. I guess they printed it like this so the spell can't get blown out. Still a good sorcery but bummer it's missing the target word. Nice catch. Good thing they make a way to trim videos in youtube! Cheers. Thanks for commenting and helping me out!
This will be my first pre-release. I've just tried a few MH3 drafts, but I'm super excited for the new cards. Thank you for the guide and discussion. I guess I'll go white red then 😅
@RexCogitans First prerelease, nice! Have fun. Always try to stay open minded to the build that is best within the cards you opened. Unfortunately, it won't always be white red. Good luck!
@@mtgmonster8755 thank you, the "I'll go red white" was kind of a joke about being inflexible in sealed. My dream would be to get Ral the plainswalker to 10 at some point during this set, be it sealed, commander, standard or just playing whatever with friends. But doing it on our release would be the best of course. To turn that into an actual question. Do you have any tips for blue red spell slingers in limited this set?
@RexCogitans In my experience a good spell slinging deck is rare to come by in sealed. I'd say you're mainly looking at your pool to see if you have the correct ratios of payoffs (ways to push damage to face) and enablers (spells that help you push damage). I'd also say card advantage (ways to draw more cards) is a must as well. Kindlespark Duo and Coruscation Mages are cards I'd be looking to have many of in my pool to consider this strat. You're also looking for cheap spells that give edges to board advantage or buy you time with bounce and control. Focusing on how you'll refuel your spells is the huge hurdle. One way would be if you have Thundertrap Trainer being flickered repeatedly that could be a nice way to ensure you refuel your spells. But in sealed you would have to have a lot of thing align perfectly with your opens to be able to spell sling with a viable deck. It's why I chose not to cover it too much. It's much more likely to come together in draft.
WOW this is just what I needed!! This sealed draft on Friday will be my first official MTG event in 20 years, haha! Do you have a general rule of thumb for land count for your sealed event decks? Or have you done a video on that by chance? Thanks!😊
@mtgmonster8755 whoa, I crushed my sealed event last night thanks to your tutelage! Went 2-1 with an aggro boros build. Heavily focused on a low mana curve. I mulliganed often to find aggressive starts. So much fun. Thanks again!
@antiheroassociation Great job! Thanks for sharing how your prerelease went. I'm glad that after taking a long time off, your return to mtg went so well.
@usagi5907 For early access I always start with at least one round of sealed, but after that I put it to a vote for what the viewers watching live want to see more draft or sealed. I can promise you there will always be at least one sealed and one draft live on the stream. All live streamed content from early access will be uploaded to TH-cam. Wizards has made the event 24 hrs long again. So after a long break post stream I’ll probably try to get a few rounds of limited in for TH-cam only uploads. There should be lots of opportunities to see me play blb sealed and/or draft before prerelease.
Great Video. Going to a prerelease the first time next week. Hoping to put your tips to great use. What should I bring to such an event? Sleeves, a box and dice are clear, anything else that I should pack? Thanks and I subscribed and looking forward to more.
water bottle for sure! it'll be my first prerelease too, but I've heard they can go on for a while, and i think I'd die if i was thirsty the entire time...
@chinozerus667 Prereleases are extremely casual. Technically you don't need to bring anything! I have several friends at my lgs that walk in empty handed on purpose so they have fewer items to carry around. The prerelease kits are designed for players to be able to walk into the event empty handed and be able to play. The prerelease kit box themselves have cardboard pop out counters, there is a deck box inside, and a spin down life counter. This set doesn't have any double-faced cards so you don't even NEED sleeves if you don't want them. Also, most of the time if you need something and you don't have it someone close by would be more than happy to lend you it. (I'm notorious for asking if anyone has a token I can borrow. 😄) For me personally, I like to bring things... I always have a backpack with a small snack and a water bottle. I bring my own deck box that holds 10 small 6 sided dice, 2 larger 6 sided dice and 4 20 sided dice (I use these for different types of counters). I also have my own sleeves and a pre-sleeved set of 10 lands in each color. You don't need your own lands. Your lgs should have them provided for you. I just prefer the convenience of having my own, and I find joy in being able to pick out my own land artwork. I bring a playmat as well but our lgs has large table mats for prerelease so that isn't necessary to have. Lastly, keeping score. Some people prefer pen and paper. That is the best way. I've found that the Companion app for mtg is extremely helpful if you don't want to go pen and paper. It has a lifetracker on there that is easy to use and a lot of people enjoy its large display for casual games. (I'd say at least half of the tables at my lgs use that companion app lifetracker.) I hope this helps. Most importantly just have fun. Prerelease is a casual, fun atmosphere for players of all skill levels to enjoy, and it's a good opportunity to make new friends. So always put fun first!
@DwarfGames YES! It depends on the number of rounds, but they go long! My lgs runs 4 rounds of swiss so it usually takes almost 6 hours to get everything finished up including prizes etc. Water is essential. Most lgs also sell drinks and snacks, so if you want to bring something besides water (outside food/drink) I'd check with the store first to see how they feel about outside food and beverages. Some don't care some do.
Hey guys! With this set, I’ll be entering my first ever prerelease😬 the one thing I’m scared about, is knowing what colours to use. Is there a clear indicator of what colours to choose? Do I go with colours that have my best card? Or do I go with the colours I pack the most of? Do I go with th colours I’ve played the most with? Thanks in advance guys!☺️
@Harbord Thanks. I usually recommend looking at what your best cards in the pool are. Then look to see where your best curve out and synergies are. Hopefully they overlap. If they don't you need to see if you have fixing to include any of your best cards in the deck with your best synergies and curve out. If not, I lean towards the better deck synergies over the single best card. But, I'll admit I don't always do that. If my best card is so good that it wins the game on the spot on its own I try my hardest to include that in my build whether that's through stretching my mana base or running a deck with more filler to get those colors in. Being good at making deck building choices during sealed takes a lot of practice. I wouldn't worry too much about getting it "right". Just have fun and do your best. If it isn't working in round one change your deck before round two and try to improve your build. There are times at prerelease where I'll play 3-4 different decks from the same pool just so I can try different things out. It's a casual event. Put fun over stress.
Hi! Excelente video! Do you had any videos talking about how to know what other players are picking (colour) on a draft table? Sorry for my bad English, im from Argentina. Thanks!
@crackermancf Thank you and hello in Argentina! I do not have a guide specifically about draft signals. Sometimes in my draft videos I do occasionally mention how I know what colors are open or not during that specific draft. In general, it’s a combination of knowing what cards are going late compared to their power level in the format and counting colors in the packs and seeing how many of the playable cards in that color wheel. I hope this helps.
@tedhand6237 No. I think it's a good match for your other creature options in white. If you're going UW fliers you'll have a hand full of ground creatures you'll want to play as 1-3 drops anyways. It's not nearly as finicky as squirrels.
New to your channel, great video! It’s the first time I will play a prerelease since original Zendikar and im too excited! Also I know I will lose a bunch but im trying to get prepared… any tips for the format? Thanks!
@selvanegrra I'm sure you will do much better at your prerelease than you think. It's been my general experience that even more casual players, despite a 10+ year break, can jump back in and still do very well. You might lose a game or two during the adjustment, but you'll adjust quickly. It'll be like you never left. I don't really have too many extra tips other than what was covered in the video. The play boosters in sealed do pinch you a bit in terms of number of cards in your pool, and restrict your building options a bit more than draft boosters did. Other than that it isn't a format that should give you too many difficulties.
@cjb3527 Dreyleader does need to carry the team for squirrel tribal. I chuckle because it is one of the few squirrels that don’t forage. I have no doubt that if someone has the perfect squirrel curve out and plays this on turn 3 as a 4/4 that grows. It’ll be a serious threat that at minimum will require your op to use a removal spell to deal with it. My issue with cards like this is how hit and miss they can be as games unfold. Even a bad opening hand in a good squirrel decks could be staring at a 1/1 on turn 3 for 3 mana as their first play of the game! Ouch… That is not great. The card has big upside but also some liabilities. Especially in sealed, the problem is that the number of squirrels/ food you’d have to open to make this card great is so high (minimum 10ish I’d be looking to be 14 or more). It’s not a realistic expectation for any sealed pool to see that number of good squirrel/ food cards. Could happen though. We will see. Expect squirrels to do better in draft than in sealed. *same with otters and spell slinging. Both win cons have similar issues of being finicky and you’d have to have a crazy distribution in your pool of cards opened to make them do the things they want to do well and as intended. That doesn’t mean there won’t be a few pools that can pull it off, but expect it to be a less likely build to open.
@@mtgmonster8755 that's fair, I'd probably try sneak the 1 drop frog into the deck as well (assuming you have it available). Most likely in a pre release you'll have to have multiple creature types. But one can dream. Especially of a full frog simic deck. The true magical Christmas land opening: Turn 1: Valley Mightcaller Turn 2: Pond Prophet Turn 3: Long River Lurker
Awesome vid! I'm looking to have some fun at prerelease after a long time not playing. Anything different for the ratio of cards in your deck for prerelease? It's been awhile since I built decks though I have gotten some great experience playing Spellslingers (rip)
@purple-blaze Thanks. Nothing that different. I always think players overthink their returns to mtg. (You’ll pick it back up like you didn’t leave.) I’ve taken many long breaks from mtg. I never personally had issues on return. My advice is play what you know you like and do it in a way you know works. Start there and have fun. Welcome back!
That’s an extremely complex question that I can’t possibly do the answer justice in a comment response. In sealed you don’t make picks. You just open packs, so you either opened fixing or you didn’t. As far as how to properly splash a third color/ play a third color that’s complicated as well. Lots of it depends scenarios. It depends how late/ early in the game you need to land the spell in the off color. It depends how many of the off color spells you want to play etc… one day I will make a video addressing mana bases. This is a common question but to answer properly I’d need at least a 2 hour video! 🤣 As a quick not very good answer, if you have one card that you plan on playing in the late game for your third color splash, then 3 mana sources for it are advisable. These can come from treasure, mana creating creatures, artifacts and/ or lands. If the third color is not a splash and you are straight out 3 colors then mana gets complicated… I think I have some videos where I talk about mana base decisions involving 3 colors. If I’m remembering correctly I have some interesting 3 color drafts from LCI where I pivoted to include a third color late. Those weren’t splashes though, but I do touch on things you’re looking to hear about maybe a bit in some of those drafts.
Other than the banner, I think I saw only one other any color source in a green creature, and only one treasure generator at mythic. I am looking forward very much to draft a lot of this set. I expect to see a lot of dual colors decks in the beginning but gradually see more zany 3 colors. How many 1 drops do you think it's going to be healthy to have in deck? Awesome content. Keep it up!
@xVoydx Thanks. Uncharted Haven and Hidden Grotto are common lands that fix. Three Tree Mascot is a terrible artifact creature at common that filters mana color as well. The Fountainport Bell is deceptively okay fixing at common. 2 mana fetch a land of any color is playable if needed. There are a few rare lands that fetch/fix but those aren't reasonable to expect to pick up. I almost always run 3+ color decks. I am proudly a 3+ color specialist. Even during the Early Access event it is normal for me to try and push the boundaries of the set with 3, 4, or 5 color builds. If you're curious to see how I'm going about it I encourage to catch the stream or watch the reruns of the stream that I post to TH-cam in the following days after the event. For one drops it depends on your build, but in general I think 1-2 creatures in that slot will suffice. All the rare one drops seem great. There are a few one mana tricks/ removal cards that are also very much worth while. So your one slot could look like 1-2 creatures and 2-4 tricks and removal spells... Hope this helps!
Aggro is my favorite, but I’m a little worried that this set might be TOO MUCH aggro. Wilds of Eldraine was a cool format because aggro was a viable option (again, my favorite) but wasn’t so dominant that other strategies got less viable. This set looks so fast tho that it might cut out control strategies and just becomes “who got the best red cards” the format
@collardcow4183 I’m excited to see how this goes. In general I like slower formats more, because I love playing 3+ color decks that do cool things. I do think sealed will feel slightly slower than draft for this format, but there will still be insane curve out potential there too. I’ll try out a variety of builds tomorrow at early access and try to get a feel for what slower decks are able to pull off in time. But who knows maybe those attempts will all lose to aggro. Looking forward to giving a variety of strategies a go either as aggro myself or trying my hand at putting the stop against aggro decks.
I dont know how much tou do with standard, but do you think Jund "landfall" will be viable? My brain is brewing something with Iridescent VineLasher and Freestrider lookout
@nasodianlord4802 I am a limited specialist. I do not play constructed unless I absolutely have to. When I play standard or modern I just play decks other people throw at me. 🤣 Sorry I wish I could be of more help, but I just don’t follow constructed formats that closely.
@BlackLotusGaming89 My best first impression guess on color power is that any deck with green white or red white at its base should perform well. Splashing any color as the third color should be good as well in sealed. So green white base splashing blue fliers could be good. Fewer pools might have a strong black white base splashing a third color, but the highest odds for me have been opening a good green white or red white base bringing in a third color as needed. I’ve done many draftsim pools in prep for the event on Wednesday by now and more times than not I have been ending up in Naya, Mardu, or Abzan. Occasionally I have ended up in Bant, Sultai, Esper, Jund, or Jeskai. These are also just my tendencies without ever playing with the cards. My evaluations could be leading to these biases. But yes, in general more times than not I’ve noticed a tendency in sealed for me to gravitate towards white green or red white bases with splashes when needed.
@@mtgmonster8755 oh ok makes sense! Say you happen to pull all the great cards for green white blue do you think it would preform well? Kinda like you make a ton of bunny tokens to use as blockers or maybe save them up to end it and then each turn keep flying over your opponents with birds while they can’t get through to you cause you just chump block with bunnies. Say within that scenario if you got all the cards you needed for that do you think it would perform well? Also what’s the draftsim you use? I was trying to find some but couldn’t.
@BlackLotusGaming89 draftsim.com/ is what I use to get some build reps in before the Early Access Streamer Event. Obviously, as I play Wednesday I'll have a much better idea of what's working and what isn't. The only thing that gives me slight pause on the flyer plan is that red has a common lizard, Frilled Sparkshooter, that is likely to enter as a 4 mana 4/4 with reach and menace. If you're on the draw with flyers and your op plays this card on turn that could put a stop to your flying attack plans quickly. You'd need interaction to push through at that point. But, overall I think flyers always do well with tempo and time. Bunnies could certainly buy some time.
@@mtgmonster8755 thanks! True that would be bad but luckily blue has a bit of removal in this set! Yeah if you could let me know how it goes on Wednesday and stuff!
@BlackLotusGaming89 I live stream on twitch starting at 1 pm EST and go until I get tired. After the stream I usually post videos of the stream to TH-cam in the following days. You should have lots of opportunities to see how it went. If you join the live stream you can chat and ask questions live. Anyone can post in my chats on twitch. You don’t need to be a subscriber or donate. It’s free to watch and ask questions there. 👍 Hope this helps.
@TheTurtleGamer This set in particular I think you’ll feel the 1 fewer card in play boosters vs draft boosters. Without a cool bonus sheet slot AND no playable lands (they are all basic lands in the land slot) you’ll feel like you opened fewer good cards in each pack. OTJ did a good job making you feel like there were always great choices with the lands 50% of the time being a desert you weren’t upset to see lands. In fact, the desert slot half the time were actively good picks, and the breaking news cards helped you have extra chances at rares and mythics in each pack. I will say this one positive thing about this set, BLB, though. It’ll be a good introduction to magic set. We haven’t had one of those is a long time. The mechanics are relatively simple. The strategies are much easier to see due to creature type clues. If you have someone that has never played magic and you want them to start, this set is the one to try and bring them into mtg on.
@@mtgmonster8755 i agree but having this released after mh3 feels like a bummer plus having just lands even the commander for booster fun doesnt seem fun i liked having more variables and cooler stuff to see. even the special guest is bad it contains little value has a smaller chance of seeing and only rats.
@@mtgmonster8755 of course im gonna be in the prerelease. tbh me and my buddy designed a set just for fun. thats somehow realy close to this one(we did it 4 years ago and sent it to wizards)
The video is a bit all over the place in terms of explaining the mechanics, synergies etc (they could be categorized to attract attention) but overall great video with 2 cards at a time to see what is what
@Hacibeyrocks I do organize my video differently than anyone else! This is on purpose. You will see. When you go to build you will have more information retained from this than you thought, and card pairing synergies will come easier to you as well when your brain goes to recall the information. I put a lot of thought into how I organize the most important information to maximize retention. Other videos take a long time to show only 3 or 4 cards from an archetype and they drone on with words for minutes on that one thing. This is not the best way to maximize your brain’s potential to learn and retain. My card pairings I show while explaining key information go about a more dynamic way of teaching you how to build various decks with all the cards needed without having to spend minutes to do so. It may seem a bit all over the place, but you should walk away with an easier time recalling more cards that go well together in the future. 👍😎
I’ve watched your guides for the last several prereleases (LOTR->now) and I can say that this is some of the highest quality and relevant magic content on TH-cam. Thanks🙏
@wopperaef4724
Thank you. I'm glad I can produce guides that people trust, and come back to for each set. I appreciate your support and for leaving such a nice comment. It made my day. 🍻
I found your channel 3 sets ago and love the prerelease guide videos. Always look forward to them to get prepped for FNM. Cheers!
@markagrabowski
Thanks! 🍻
First time on your channel! I'm only a couple minutes into the video and this is really high quality. Keep it up; I'm subscribing.
thank you for the great intro into bloom burrow drafts!
This was wonderfully done. I like the images sooo much and the volume and tone of the video was pleasant. Good job and Thank You.
@lonsmithicus
thanks
This video is amazing! So good! Clear and informative. This is my 5th prerelease and I always watch videos before to get a better idea for the set. This video is the best one that I have seen.
@thriftypsgr
thank you
Thanks for all of the hard work you do in getting these ready ahead of the prerelease date. It's really appreciated and you've been my go to channel for a long time now. Have a great prerelease!
@SoDefCallidus
Thank you. I hope you have a fun prerelease today as well!
this was a really good in-depth look into sealed, brilliant video!
@Mj-Riku
Thanks
Naya definitely seems to be the premier colors and archetypes for this set. I think blue functions best as a secondary or tertiary splash color.
@rdchris6556
Naya is probably the most supported three color build, but even then because it wants to be so aggressive you should look to be base 2 colors with a very light splash of the third. This is so you can curve out starting on turn 1. Maybe I'm crazy, but I'm most eager to try out a Jeskai spells go wide with prowess and token rabbits deck. Making token creatures off sorceries. Pings here and there. Maybe mixing in some valiant and jumbling otters, birds, rabbits, mice and lizards into a crazy brew.
Some curve outs in green with paw patch recruit in conjunction with any valiant triggers looks kind of unbeatable. I think this set is a rabbit response set. Curve out make multiple bodies swing with all. Even the best control decks struggle with wide boards that are allowed to land a few key spells.
As a challenge I'm determined to make threshold rats work maybe with squirrels. We will see! I like the frogs and birds, but worry it might be a turn too slow and fall behind. I'm sure there is a way to make it so that doesn't happen though. Just gotta play the set and see what I can work out.
@@mtgmonster8755 oh of course on trying to stay to one or two colors and maybe splashing a third for limited. I'll be doing a two headed giant for Pre-Release so we may even be able to lean fully into a single color each.
But as far as fun goes, I think mardu life gain/ping deck would be a lot of fun.
@rdchris6556
I agree Mardu ping is a thing. lol you must be newer to my channel or never watch me draft. 2 colors is never a given in limited for me. Cheers!
I think that jeskai valiant birds as you have the aggro from the mice that have some ways to trigger valiant and the birds can keep you in the longer game with bigger creatures and some control. They also can trigger valiant quite well for example giving a mouse flying
@Spiriton10-zi9tr
Yep. I agree. Jeskai looks to have a lot of potential. I like it because the birds are good enablers to trigger Valiant on Mice. But on top of that it also has the ability to support a great spells deck. The blue red prowess otter build bringing in white looks like a strong move. White has some amazing spells to bring to the table for those synergies with hop on it, various combat tricks, and rabbit response.
Started to actually draft with thunder junction and watched you ever since. underrated content, every video is very pleasant to watch and as information dense as it gets, awesome job, keep it up!
@vinz4015
Wow. Thank you for such a wonderful comment. I appreciate it. It made my day, and helped me get hyped for the Streamer Event today! It’s just what I needed to hear. I’m always the underdog at the Streamer Event. Even though it’s a casual event, it is filled with the best of the best from mtg pros, streamers, and even employees that designed the set. There is nothing quite like trying out new cards for the first time (live) against all the top players in the game! Always a great time.
I look forward to this video for all the pre-releases. Thanks for dropping it!
@PlatnumCy
Thanks. I'm so sad this is looking like an aggressive straightforward set. I've been spoiled with all my brewing capabilities in OTJ. This set just doesn't have that build up to big cool things. It builds up to a rabbit response... sad.
@@mtgmonster8755 We exclusively play Two headed pre-release and this set is looking MUCH less interactive than OTJ. OTJ has a lot of "each opponent" card in red/black and this looks like red black is relegated to "target opponent"... which makes sense for a standard set but makes commander and emperor plays A LOT less impactful.
Would love to get your take on the two headed scene and this set.
@PlatnumCy
Sure, I’d love to give some 2hg pointers specifically for this set. I don’t play 2hg often but it’s a fun format.
If you play this format enough, you’ll already know the words “each opponent” is op. Luckily this set has a ton of cards that have each op on them. So just to name a few: Bandit’s Talent, Coruscation Mage, Dragonhawk, Gev, Glidedive Duo, Hazel’s Nocturne, Heartfire Hero, Hearthborn Battler, Hired Claw, Lunar Convocation, Rottenmouth Viper, Sinister Monolith, Starscape Cleric, Teapot Slinger, Valley Rotcaller, and Wick. Most of these card are found in black red so I think unless you’re really unlucky with your opens one player doing ping control that focuses on the “each opponent” burn could be good.
Alternatively, there is really nothing quite like a super aggro build in 2hg. Especially a really wide board. With the right cards having a go wide strategy could be devastating to your opponents. Most of the time for this set I’d look to build one ping player and one wide player with group pumps. But with the right flyers or frogs I could see it being correct for one player to be doing that instead. Or even unblockable rats.
I don’t know if you ever do this, but I’m also a huge fan of setting the 2hg decks so that one player is the sorcery speed (mainly creatures deck) and the other being the instant speed player. And you stack the decks that way so maybe one player has 23 creatures and the other only has 5-6... This way one player holds open mana the other does not. Not every pool can do this, but I do sometime like having that difference so there is always instant speed interaction available to the team each turn. Food for thought.
Always look for your prerelease videos when new sets come out. Thanks for making great guides!
@joefritz3776
Thank you, and thanks for the sub over on twitch. I hope you enjoyed the stream.
As always, great insight and tips. Hoping to place first this time! Good luck at your own prerelease!
@PontificatingPanda
Thanks and good luck.
Thanks for the great guides with each new set! 🙌
Thanks for this video. I was looking for it for the last few days and really enjoy your pre draft guidance!!!
@petermc4651
Thanks
Thanku for the video!
One note, since it's important in this set 17:33 : Season of Gathering doesn't target (it would say "Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control...")
@arachezy
Fixed!
Wow you're right. I just figured it would target. It's really unusual for these effects to not say target and I guess my brain autofilled it in with the word target because the word each wasn't present. I guess they printed it like this so the spell can't get blown out. Still a good sorcery but bummer it's missing the target word. Nice catch.
Good thing they make a way to trim videos in youtube! Cheers. Thanks for commenting and helping me out!
As expected, another great job!
@Zap2x_93
Thanks
Been watching your prerelease videos for a couple sets now. I really appreciate your insight and perspective. Keep up the good work.
@afrowegish
Thank you.
Nice tips, thanks
This will be my first pre-release. I've just tried a few MH3 drafts, but I'm super excited for the new cards. Thank you for the guide and discussion.
I guess I'll go white red then 😅
@RexCogitans
First prerelease, nice! Have fun. Always try to stay open minded to the build that is best within the cards you opened. Unfortunately, it won't always be white red. Good luck!
@@mtgmonster8755 thank you, the "I'll go red white" was kind of a joke about being inflexible in sealed. My dream would be to get Ral the plainswalker to 10 at some point during this set, be it sealed, commander, standard or just playing whatever with friends. But doing it on our release would be the best of course.
To turn that into an actual question. Do you have any tips for blue red spell slingers in limited this set?
@RexCogitans
In my experience a good spell slinging deck is rare to come by in sealed. I'd say you're mainly looking at your pool to see if you have the correct ratios of payoffs (ways to push damage to face) and enablers (spells that help you push damage). I'd also say card advantage (ways to draw more cards) is a must as well. Kindlespark Duo and Coruscation Mages are cards I'd be looking to have many of in my pool to consider this strat. You're also looking for cheap spells that give edges to board advantage or buy you time with bounce and control. Focusing on how you'll refuel your spells is the huge hurdle. One way would be if you have Thundertrap Trainer being flickered repeatedly that could be a nice way to ensure you refuel your spells. But in sealed you would have to have a lot of thing align perfectly with your opens to be able to spell sling with a viable deck. It's why I chose not to cover it too much. It's much more likely to come together in draft.
WOW this is just what I needed!! This sealed draft on Friday will be my first official MTG event in 20 years, haha! Do you have a general rule of thumb for land count for your sealed event decks? Or have you done a video on that by chance? Thanks!😊
@antiheroassociation
Thanks. Depending on the deck I like running 16 or 17 lands. No video on it. Hope this helps. Welcome back after 20yrs, nice! 👍
@mtgmonster8755 whoa, I crushed my sealed event last night thanks to your tutelage! Went 2-1 with an aggro boros build. Heavily focused on a low mana curve. I mulliganed often to find aggressive starts. So much fun. Thanks again!
@antiheroassociation
Great job! Thanks for sharing how your prerelease went. I'm glad that after taking a long time off, your return to mtg went so well.
Heres hoping you do some sealed as well as draft!
@usagi5907
For early access I always start with at least one round of sealed, but after that I put it to a vote for what the viewers watching live want to see more draft or sealed. I can promise you there will always be at least one sealed and one draft live on the stream. All live streamed content from early access will be uploaded to TH-cam. Wizards has made the event 24 hrs long again. So after a long break post stream I’ll probably try to get a few rounds of limited in for TH-cam only uploads. There should be lots of opportunities to see me play blb sealed and/or draft before prerelease.
Great Video.
Going to a prerelease the first time next week. Hoping to put your tips to great use.
What should I bring to such an event? Sleeves, a box and dice are clear, anything else that I should pack?
Thanks and I subscribed and looking forward to more.
water bottle for sure! it'll be my first prerelease too, but I've heard they can go on for a while, and i think I'd die if i was thirsty the entire time...
@chinozerus667
Prereleases are extremely casual. Technically you don't need to bring anything! I have several friends at my lgs that walk in empty handed on purpose so they have fewer items to carry around. The prerelease kits are designed for players to be able to walk into the event empty handed and be able to play. The prerelease kit box themselves have cardboard pop out counters, there is a deck box inside, and a spin down life counter. This set doesn't have any double-faced cards so you don't even NEED sleeves if you don't want them. Also, most of the time if you need something and you don't have it someone close by would be more than happy to lend you it. (I'm notorious for asking if anyone has a token I can borrow. 😄)
For me personally, I like to bring things... I always have a backpack with a small snack and a water bottle. I bring my own deck box that holds 10 small 6 sided dice, 2 larger 6 sided dice and 4 20 sided dice (I use these for different types of counters). I also have my own sleeves and a pre-sleeved set of 10 lands in each color. You don't need your own lands. Your lgs should have them provided for you. I just prefer the convenience of having my own, and I find joy in being able to pick out my own land artwork. I bring a playmat as well but our lgs has large table mats for prerelease so that isn't necessary to have. Lastly, keeping score. Some people prefer pen and paper. That is the best way. I've found that the Companion app for mtg is extremely helpful if you don't want to go pen and paper. It has a lifetracker on there that is easy to use and a lot of people enjoy its large display for casual games. (I'd say at least half of the tables at my lgs use that companion app lifetracker.)
I hope this helps. Most importantly just have fun. Prerelease is a casual, fun atmosphere for players of all skill levels to enjoy, and it's a good opportunity to make new friends. So always put fun first!
@DwarfGames
YES! It depends on the number of rounds, but they go long! My lgs runs 4 rounds of swiss so it usually takes almost 6 hours to get everything finished up including prizes etc. Water is essential. Most lgs also sell drinks and snacks, so if you want to bring something besides water (outside food/drink) I'd check with the store first to see how they feel about outside food and beverages. Some don't care some do.
Hey guys! With this set, I’ll be entering my first ever prerelease😬 the one thing I’m scared about, is knowing what colours to use. Is there a clear indicator of what colours to choose? Do I go with colours that have my best card? Or do I go with the colours I pack the most of? Do I go with th colours I’ve played the most with? Thanks in advance guys!☺️
Thanks for the great video btw! So many helpful tips in here!☺️
@Harbord
Thanks. I usually recommend looking at what your best cards in the pool are. Then look to see where your best curve out and synergies are. Hopefully they overlap. If they don't you need to see if you have fixing to include any of your best cards in the deck with your best synergies and curve out. If not, I lean towards the better deck synergies over the single best card. But, I'll admit I don't always do that. If my best card is so good that it wins the game on the spot on its own I try my hardest to include that in my build whether that's through stretching my mana base or running a deck with more filler to get those colors in. Being good at making deck building choices during sealed takes a lot of practice. I wouldn't worry too much about getting it "right". Just have fun and do your best. If it isn't working in round one change your deck before round two and try to improve your build. There are times at prerelease where I'll play 3-4 different decks from the same pool just so I can try different things out. It's a casual event. Put fun over stress.
Hi! Excelente video! Do you had any videos talking about how to know what other players are picking (colour) on a draft table? Sorry for my bad English, im from Argentina. Thanks!
@crackermancf
Thank you and hello in Argentina! I do not have a guide specifically about draft signals. Sometimes in my draft videos I do occasionally mention how I know what colors are open or not during that specific draft. In general, it’s a combination of knowing what cards are going late compared to their power level in the format and counting colors in the packs and seeing how many of the playable cards in that color wheel. I hope this helps.
@@mtgmonster8755 Thanks a lot!
Helpful primer as always! Do you think the UW payoffs that require a flier and a groundling are going to be too finicky?
@tedhand6237
No. I think it's a good match for your other creature options in white. If you're going UW fliers you'll have a hand full of ground creatures you'll want to play as 1-3 drops anyways. It's not nearly as finicky as squirrels.
New to your channel, great video! It’s the first time I will play a prerelease since original Zendikar and im too excited! Also I know I will lose a bunch but im trying to get prepared… any tips for the format? Thanks!
@selvanegrra
I'm sure you will do much better at your prerelease than you think. It's been my general experience that even more casual players, despite a 10+ year break, can jump back in and still do very well. You might lose a game or two during the adjustment, but you'll adjust quickly. It'll be like you never left.
I don't really have too many extra tips other than what was covered in the video. The play boosters in sealed do pinch you a bit in terms of number of cards in your pool, and restrict your building options a bit more than draft boosters did. Other than that it isn't a format that should give you too many difficulties.
Hyped!
Squirrel's may be hard to beat, with Dreyleader and all the black removal
@cjb3527
Dreyleader does need to carry the team for squirrel tribal. I chuckle because it is one of the few squirrels that don’t forage. I have no doubt that if someone has the perfect squirrel curve out and plays this on turn 3 as a 4/4 that grows. It’ll be a serious threat that at minimum will require your op to use a removal spell to deal with it. My issue with cards like this is how hit and miss they can be as games unfold. Even a bad opening hand in a good squirrel decks could be staring at a 1/1 on turn 3 for 3 mana as their first play of the game! Ouch… That is not great. The card has big upside but also some liabilities. Especially in sealed, the problem is that the number of squirrels/ food you’d have to open to make this card great is so high (minimum 10ish I’d be looking to be 14 or more). It’s not a realistic expectation for any sealed pool to see that number of good squirrel/ food cards. Could happen though. We will see. Expect squirrels to do better in draft than in sealed. *same with otters and spell slinging. Both win cons have similar issues of being finicky and you’d have to have a crazy distribution in your pool of cards opened to make them do the things they want to do well and as intended. That doesn’t mean there won’t be a few pools that can pull it off, but expect it to be a less likely build to open.
@@mtgmonster8755 that's fair, I'd probably try sneak the 1 drop frog into the deck as well (assuming you have it available).
Most likely in a pre release you'll have to have multiple creature types. But one can dream. Especially of a full frog simic deck.
The true magical Christmas land opening:
Turn 1: Valley Mightcaller
Turn 2: Pond Prophet
Turn 3: Long River Lurker
Awesome vid! I'm looking to have some fun at prerelease after a long time not playing. Anything different for the ratio of cards in your deck for prerelease? It's been awhile since I built decks though I have gotten some great experience playing Spellslingers (rip)
@purple-blaze
Thanks. Nothing that different. I always think players overthink their returns to mtg. (You’ll pick it back up like you didn’t leave.) I’ve taken many long breaks from mtg. I never personally had issues on return. My advice is play what you know you like and do it in a way you know works. Start there and have fun. Welcome back!
When to pick mana fix? How to properly splash a third color?
That’s an extremely complex question that I can’t possibly do the answer justice in a comment response. In sealed you don’t make picks. You just open packs, so you either opened fixing or you didn’t. As far as how to properly splash a third color/ play a third color that’s complicated as well. Lots of it depends scenarios. It depends how late/ early in the game you need to land the spell in the off color. It depends how many of the off color spells you want to play etc… one day I will make a video addressing mana bases. This is a common question but to answer properly I’d need at least a 2 hour video! 🤣 As a quick not very good answer, if you have one card that you plan on playing in the late game for your third color splash, then 3 mana sources for it are advisable. These can come from treasure, mana creating creatures, artifacts and/ or lands. If the third color is not a splash and you are straight out 3 colors then mana gets complicated… I think I have some videos where I talk about mana base decisions involving 3 colors. If I’m remembering correctly I have some interesting 3 color drafts from LCI where I pivoted to include a third color late. Those weren’t splashes though, but I do touch on things you’re looking to hear about maybe a bit in some of those drafts.
Other than the banner, I think I saw only one other any color source in a green creature, and only one treasure generator at mythic. I am looking forward very much to draft a lot of this set. I expect to see a lot of dual colors decks in the beginning but gradually see more zany 3 colors.
How many 1 drops do you think it's going to be healthy to have in deck?
Awesome content. Keep it up!
@xVoydx
Thanks. Uncharted Haven and Hidden Grotto are common lands that fix. Three Tree Mascot is a terrible artifact creature at common that filters mana color as well. The Fountainport Bell is deceptively okay fixing at common. 2 mana fetch a land of any color is playable if needed. There are a few rare lands that fetch/fix but those aren't reasonable to expect to pick up. I almost always run 3+ color decks. I am proudly a 3+ color specialist. Even during the Early Access event it is normal for me to try and push the boundaries of the set with 3, 4, or 5 color builds. If you're curious to see how I'm going about it I encourage to catch the stream or watch the reruns of the stream that I post to TH-cam in the following days after the event.
For one drops it depends on your build, but in general I think 1-2 creatures in that slot will suffice. All the rare one drops seem great. There are a few one mana tricks/ removal cards that are also very much worth while. So your one slot could look like 1-2 creatures and 2-4 tricks and removal spells...
Hope this helps!
Aggro is my favorite, but I’m a little worried that this set might be TOO MUCH aggro. Wilds of Eldraine was a cool format because aggro was a viable option (again, my favorite) but wasn’t so dominant that other strategies got less viable. This set looks so fast tho that it might cut out control strategies and just becomes “who got the best red cards” the format
@collardcow4183
I’m excited to see how this goes. In general I like slower formats more, because I love playing 3+ color decks that do cool things. I do think sealed will feel slightly slower than draft for this format, but there will still be insane curve out potential there too. I’ll try out a variety of builds tomorrow at early access and try to get a feel for what slower decks are able to pull off in time. But who knows maybe those attempts will all lose to aggro. Looking forward to giving a variety of strategies a go either as aggro myself or trying my hand at putting the stop against aggro decks.
I love your voice. That's all
I dont know how much tou do with standard, but do you think Jund "landfall" will be viable? My brain is brewing something with Iridescent VineLasher and Freestrider lookout
@nasodianlord4802
I am a limited specialist. I do not play constructed unless I absolutely have to. When I play standard or modern I just play decks other people throw at me. 🤣 Sorry I wish I could be of more help, but I just don’t follow constructed formats that closely.
well made video
@Zone659
Thanks!
good guide! :3
@DeWillpower
Thanks
Do you think blue green white bunnies go wide/ bird fliers would work well?
@BlackLotusGaming89
My best first impression guess on color power is that any deck with green white or red white at its base should perform well. Splashing any color as the third color should be good as well in sealed. So green white base splashing blue fliers could be good. Fewer pools might have a strong black white base splashing a third color, but the highest odds for me have been opening a good green white or red white base bringing in a third color as needed. I’ve done many draftsim pools in prep for the event on Wednesday by now and more times than not I have been ending up in Naya, Mardu, or Abzan. Occasionally I have ended up in Bant, Sultai, Esper, Jund, or Jeskai. These are also just my tendencies without ever playing with the cards. My evaluations could be leading to these biases. But yes, in general more times than not I’ve noticed a tendency in sealed for me to gravitate towards white green or red white bases with splashes when needed.
@@mtgmonster8755 oh ok makes sense! Say you happen to pull all the great cards for green white blue do you think it would preform well? Kinda like you make a ton of bunny tokens to use as blockers or maybe save them up to end it and then each turn keep flying over your opponents with birds while they can’t get through to you cause you just chump block with bunnies. Say within that scenario if you got all the cards you needed for that do you think it would perform well?
Also what’s the draftsim you use? I was trying to find some but couldn’t.
@BlackLotusGaming89
draftsim.com/ is what I use to get some build reps in before the Early Access Streamer Event. Obviously, as I play Wednesday I'll have a much better idea of what's working and what isn't. The only thing that gives me slight pause on the flyer plan is that red has a common lizard, Frilled Sparkshooter, that is likely to enter as a 4 mana 4/4 with reach and menace. If you're on the draw with flyers and your op plays this card on turn that could put a stop to your flying attack plans quickly. You'd need interaction to push through at that point. But, overall I think flyers always do well with tempo and time. Bunnies could certainly buy some time.
@@mtgmonster8755 thanks! True that would be bad but luckily blue has a bit of removal in this set! Yeah if you could let me know how it goes on Wednesday and stuff!
@BlackLotusGaming89
I live stream on twitch starting at 1 pm EST and go until I get tired. After the stream I usually post videos of the stream to TH-cam in the following days. You should have lots of opportunities to see how it went. If you join the live stream you can chat and ask questions live. Anyone can post in my chats on twitch. You don’t need to be a subscriber or donate. It’s free to watch and ask questions there. 👍 Hope this helps.
🎉🎉🎉
man the play booster nerf is a bummer
@TheTurtleGamer
This set in particular I think you’ll feel the 1 fewer card in play boosters vs draft boosters. Without a cool bonus sheet slot AND no playable lands (they are all basic lands in the land slot) you’ll feel like you opened fewer good cards in each pack. OTJ did a good job making you feel like there were always great choices with the lands 50% of the time being a desert you weren’t upset to see lands. In fact, the desert slot half the time were actively good picks, and the breaking news cards helped you have extra chances at rares and mythics in each pack.
I will say this one positive thing about this set, BLB, though. It’ll be a good introduction to magic set. We haven’t had one of those is a long time. The mechanics are relatively simple. The strategies are much easier to see due to creature type clues. If you have someone that has never played magic and you want them to start, this set is the one to try and bring them into mtg on.
@@mtgmonster8755 i agree but having this released after mh3 feels like a bummer plus having just lands even the commander for booster fun doesnt seem fun i liked having more variables and cooler stuff to see. even the special guest is bad it contains little value has a smaller chance of seeing and only rats.
@TheTurtleGamer
I feel the same way, but I’m going to give the set a fair chance.
@@mtgmonster8755 of course im gonna be in the prerelease. tbh me and my buddy designed a set just for fun. thats somehow realy close to this one(we did it 4 years ago and sent it to wizards)
Yay!!!
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The video is a bit all over the place in terms of explaining the mechanics, synergies etc (they could be categorized to attract attention) but overall great video with 2 cards at a time to see what is what
@Hacibeyrocks
I do organize my video differently than anyone else! This is on purpose. You will see. When you go to build you will have more information retained from this than you thought, and card pairing synergies will come easier to you as well when your brain goes to recall the information. I put a lot of thought into how I organize the most important information to maximize retention. Other videos take a long time to show only 3 or 4 cards from an archetype and they drone on with words for minutes on that one thing. This is not the best way to maximize your brain’s potential to learn and retain. My card pairings I show while explaining key information go about a more dynamic way of teaching you how to build various decks with all the cards needed without having to spend minutes to do so. It may seem a bit all over the place, but you should walk away with an easier time recalling more cards that go well together in the future. 👍😎
@@mtgmonster8755this is the way my brain works.
turn off the shitty voice mod and maybe i would sit through more than the first 10 seconds
JUST NOW realized that abilities trigger Valiant 🥲
@loganardodvinci2465
lol 🤣