Limited Experiences (the mtg-drafting kind)

So it's been some time since everyone has experienced Rise of Eldrazi limited format and pretty much everyone has a lot to say. The consensus seems to be that Zendikar blew and it is a nice change to go back to a pretty normal format with deck/color synergies with multiple themes. Couple notable deck archetypes being talked about lately are the Green/x ramp, U/W levelers, B/R vamp aggro, and U/b/r control.

The ramp deck is just where you just try to play your big dudes in quick fashion while splashing 1-2 colors for removal. This is my favorite archetype and one of the more powerful ones to play. Drafting ramp decks obviously involves getting all the mana accel, so you have to take them very high. Cards like aura gnarlid aren't high picks when drafting ramp cause you want your bulk of creatures to generate mana or be a huge fatty. Your goal isn't to win in the early turns but you still need to draft defensive cards or removal to stay alive till the later turns where you can dominate. Overgrowth battlement is like the best card in ramp decks, it serves as defense or ramp depending on what you need and should def be a high pick if your deck is leaning towards it. Another thing I've read is that, some of the weaker defenders are worth playing cause they help your deck defend and help accel even more with overgrowth battlement. Battle rampart came up before cause a hasted crusher is way more deadly, but I'm not too sold on that yet. Another one is reinforced bulwark which can be useful in certain decks. Ramp decks get completely exposed by u/w and there evasive creatures, so if you don't have the 1/5 reach spider or removal to deal with them, your going to die before you even cast 1 fatty. So things like reinforced bulwarks prevention shield helps you last a little longer so you can stabilize. Obviously growth spasm, ondu giants are premium picks in ramp but make sure you don't forget to take them extra high if your splashing 1-2 colors for removal. A lot of times you will end up with heavy green, and like 2 red removal and 2 black ones. So to stay consistent, you gotta remember to pick up the rampant growth effects, although you can always fall back on prisms and evolving wilds. Typical fatty is the crusher but you wanna try to get your self the artisan or pelakka wurm (best fatty btw).

U/W is self explanatory by now as everyone has either drafted or died to it many times now. You wanna get your self lots of fliers, lvlers, etc. Be on the look out for teachers, time of heroes, training ground when you can. I always here the discussion of whether to take the support cards early if you see it, or take it only if your established. I'm sure a lot of people have a say and it probably just comes down to preference. But I'm the type who doesn't like wasted picks and only take support cards if I already got the goodies. Be on the look out for oust, wave watchers and totem hartbeest (if you got the auras) as they are both excellent cards that people overlook sometimes.

B/R vamps involve drafting the 1/1 vamp + bunch of eldrazi tokens to feed it. Cards like pawn of ulamog, essence feed, goblin arsonist, the threaten, along with a few others really shine in this deck. Your also b/r, so hopefully you can get a lot of good removal along with aggressive cards like lust for war. I don't have too much experience drafting this deck but you can get the rough idea.

U/b/r is a control deck involving drafting every removal in those colors you see and abusing mnenomic wall and surreal memoir. It runs a ton of spells and tries to pick up cheap cantrip/draw with stuff like see beyond, sea gate oracle to fuel the removal engine and returning it with the 2 named cards above. You run very minimal creatures (6-10) and they all have evasion of some sort so you can finish them easily after you destroy there threats. Cards like the zulaport enforcer is a prime example of creatures they like to run. They also like to run counterspells like deprive just in case they can't stop certain spells. The sphinx wand is also very good in this deck if you see one. This deck is rarely drafted because it requires getting a lot of cards (mainly removal) to make it work.

There are a few other themes I should mention : Kiln Fiend / Fireboar decks using tunnelers, wrap in flame, or using blue for distortion strike is drafted occasionally also. Also remember, you can also draft normal decks and not always force the mention things above. Just cause your green, you don't have to be a ramp deck. I've seen successful aggressive green decks with aura gnarlids and boar umbras, but I prefer ramp every time. I will however mention that white is pretty weak in this format overall and B/W & R/W color combo should be avoided at all costs.

I'm not always correct and make plenty of mistakes so please feel free to disagree with me.

Help from pros - I think it's very useful to read articles on limited written by pros as they have much more insight (there also way better than you lol) into the format. You don't have to agree and mimic their play style or anything, but you can learn a thing or two quite often from just one article.

Channel Fireball / CF Youtube channel (check it out, like 10+ ROE drafts)


I'll leave this off for Tuan with a OH!!!!

NBA CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!

Oh man, game 7 was a thriller and there is no better ending than Lakers repeating and Kobe getting his 5th. I was so frustrated that game, especially in the 3rd when there down 13 but that is where our run came. That and1 play Ron made to tie it 61-61 all was so sick than that 3 from fish, and THAT THREE FROM ARTEST OMFG I LOVE YOU ARTEST HAHAHAHAH. Man, his D was ridiculous too on Pierce, I give him props. Fucken Kobe shot us out of the game 1st half but in the 4th when it mattered, GG. I'm sure Perkins would of helped (cry more BAW BAW BAW BAWSTON) but we grabbed 23 offensive rebounds, GG indeed. Pau had a monster 19-18 game where he just dominated the glass all night. Man this victory felt so good, I LOVE YOU LAKERS !!!!!!


(KOBE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)


(LMAO ARTEST - FROM THE HOOD QUEENSBRIDGE)



(GOTTA TROLL SOMETIMES)


Oh yea, forgot this summer free agency is ridiculous but hey, while you guys are talking with agents, Kobe was "BRB winning championship"


(who knew you can troll a king)

R A G E #2

SERIES TIED 2-2

WTF - this was a terrible loss and lakers deserve it. There bench killed us, especially in the 4th and there is so many things I wanna say. First off, it's really starting to get annoying that BYNUM IS NEVER THERE. I know it's cheap to diss a injured player but come on, he is never there when we need him and we all know how much we hate injury prone players. Bynum not being there at ALL was one of the reasons why they crushed our asses so hard in 08 and now that he shows up randomly does not help us. Our D is so much worse without him and it clearly showed when Big Baby raped our faces for 7-10 shooting with 4-4 at FT line. Bynum's presence in the paint helps in so many more ways than people realize and you also get shot blocking which people seem to forget.

Another thing was ODOM. Cleary Odom left his D back in LA with his nasty wife or something. Big Baby likes to finish on the right base line so why would you let him spin into that position. Come on, that is one of the worst D I have ever seen. He should of cut off that side so he spins left to his weaker side so he either finishes with his left, passes it, or tries to finish with his right (which makes its WAY easier to block). But nope, he was fucken high and was playing Golden State _efense, where you stand and watch the guy finish on his strong side - awesome. Another thing was the box outs. Odom didn't box out baby at all tonight along with some other guys. They killed us on the offensive glass and everyone is to blame - including Kobe. Why doesn't he boxout Rondo, he is a great rebounder and a simple boxout when you can would stop so many of those 2nd chance points but nope. Let's just watch in awe of how crappy our rebounding and energy is today.....FUCK

To help me calm down... I promise Tuan some pics so here we go


(My Wife)

Watch them moving - its better Tuan

R A G E

Lakers fucken lose and my heart is crushed. Why couldn't we just 2-0 and head into Boston in cruise control - fuck. Lakers got beat, our D wasn't that optimal. My friend pointed out that our transitional D was the main culprit on how we got owned today (besides the officals). Speaking of refs..... wtf was that BS call on 1:59. Like KG's palm was on the ball and they review with that new rule (can use video review when game goes below 2 mins in 4th) but the fucken three blind mice on the courts still screw us over. FUCK.

That bring me to my next point, fucken faggot ass trollers man. Seriously, there fucken all over facebook about how lakers lost and fucken hating everywhere. Go fuck your self seriously. No one likes you so why do you do this shit. A lot of these faggot trollers aren't even basketball fans so why do you care. No one is mad at you for not being a Laker's fan, thats your choice and you don't have to be one. But don't be thinking your hawt shit and can troll us people who had to suffer a devastating loss today. A lot of them don't know what there talking about but they still fucken troll us like they think there so kool. A single change in whistle could mean a come back but of course these faggot trolls think it's all irrelevant. Like, are you even a Boston fan. Are you even from Boston or east coast. Why do you random start liking celtics. Oh I know, your one of those band waggon faggots from 08 or some shit. Worst part is, they do this shit all the time behind the internet in the safety of there home, next to faggot figures of gay anime characters in speedos. Man, I see your faggot ass pic on FB, why don't you say this shit to my face.

As my friend puts it - "Trolls are sad ass people that need to make other people worse for whatever reason. That's borderline sociopathic, they have no investment in the situation and would rather do something to piss people off then to just shut up."

TRUTH - fuck you trolls

Updatez

I went to Vegas about 2 weeks ago or so with Dean and had a blast. Vegas has such good food and I pig out like crazy (as if I wasn't a fat ass enough back in cali) until I can't move. I didn't really gamble that much because I don't really know how to play anything except blackjack. I played poker for a bit with Dean where people kept calling us when we have full houses (ding!). We also saw 2 shows while we were in town. One was called Crazy Horse @ the MGM and the other was Viva Elvis @ Aria. Both were great shows and I had a ton of fun watching them both. I know this Vegas story is boring but that's because there was nothing SUPER CRAZY to report. It was just a relaxing trip where you just enjoy the city without worrying about waking up on the floor in your own vomit. Speaking of which, one time I was in Vegas with Dean, he had me doing shots of everything in the mini fridge and started giving me vodka saying "I'll do it with you" so that I don't get drunk alone. Fucker had water in his cup and lied to me (shady) as I drank that shit. Of course I got super wasted and don't recall the night so well as I had even more shots (my tolerance is also shit). So yea..... never trust people who wanna get you drunk forcefully.

LAKERS ARE BACK

We got served in 08 by C's (FAGS) and it's time for revenge. Artest will own Pierce (hopefully) and Kobe is been on fire as of late. I swear if we lose this year again, I'm gonna kill anyone wearing a Boston jersey. Speaking of which, we were at BJ's last friday and we saw some faggot wearing a pierce jersey at the bar (what a douche, seriously). Go be a fag in your own home, not in public dick. I should of just walked over and punched him, even though he had like 5 friends with him. Who knows, maybe ARTEST will tip in at the buzzer again lol. Seriously J - Rich, way to box out. Beating the Suns was also totally sweet cause you get to rub it in Sam's face about it.


(ONE MORE TIME PLZZZZZZ)

TV shows ending - I'm kind of glad they ended cause I have way too many shows I watch and have to keep up with. Now I can go catch up on a few tv shows I haven't been up to date with and not worry about my dvr schedule every day.

Anime - Honestly, I haven't been impressed with anime in a while, basically since Code Geass (SEASON ONE ONLY). I don't really watch that much anymore cause a lot of the new shit is fucken terrible. Full Metal Alchemist just released episode 59 this week and that series has been really good. Also if your a evangelion fan, Movie #2 "you can (not) advance" just came out for download so you should check that out (it's EPIC).


(awesome - now I gotta wait like another year for 3.0 - sheet)

FML

Yea, Sunday was an awesome day until the end. I picked up Dean, went to Bryan's house to watch game one of C's (Fags) vs Magic and watch them fail as they gave up home court advantage (now there down 0-2 to Boston - GG Magic). Had a good session of ball of where me and Dean got to finally play together after like a year. Got a assortment of my post moves on to get some good shots. Than went to go eat at Chipotle where I met some carnitas that made its way into my belly. Ended the night with a draft where I went 2-1. I couldn't continue my streak of 3-0s but 8-1 in 3 weeks is good enough for me. Than I had to drop off Dean at his place where I chilled for a bit before I headed home. I was tired and felt like speeding a little to get home fast and that is where I got fucked.

There is a stretch on the 134 freeway (few miles) before you meet the 2 freeway where it is PITCH black. There is no street lights like most freeways so all you can rely on is your headlights and those little divider shits that separates the lanes. I was going 80 when out of no where in pitch black, fucken headlights suddenly popped up right behind me and I see the CHP sirens turn on to pull over. I exited the next exit where he eventually gave me a ticket (FML). I was speeding so I deserve it but it just sucks I got owned like that. I'll admit its a pretty good spot (more like fucken shady) for cops to hide out and pull over cars speeding in that section of freeway (complete darkness). I like to speed quite often on freeways but I'm usually careful and watchful of cops hiding and such. But if he is hiding in complete blackness, what can I do. I know I'm bitching but I know I deserve the ticket so whatevez. I just know I'm fucked from my dad cause this shit is probably gonna cost 400 or some shit. Man, I remember when I got my 1st ticket at 16 and shit cost 120 or something. How did it jump up 3 times that much in under 10 years.

On a positive note, I've been watching GLEE non-stop and it's totally fucken awesome. Oh man, the singing is amazing and there is so much talent on that show its insane. If you love music and your looking for something new to watch, PLEASE PLEASE WATCH GLEE!!


(William McKinley High GLEE Club)

NBA - Where _efense Happens

Yea, I know how to spell defense but I gotta take the D out of it cause teams forgot how to play D (especially in the post season).

Let's wrap up some playoffs -

LA VS OKC / LA wins 4-2

We knew we were gonna win, but I didn't think it would be this hard vs a 8th seed. OKC has proved there damn good and play great defense even without a true center starter. Luckily RON RON played some D on KD but Russel Westbrook burned us until game 5 when Kobe played some D-efense (basically cutting off layup lanes and daring him to shoot). Of course, who can forget the Pau tip in on game 6 to win the series (although I was 100% sure Kobe was gonna make that shot).

THX BLACK MAMBA

(wait wtf.... white mamba?? wtf is this fag shit)

coach-less _enver vs THE SLOAN-ERS / JAZZ 4-2
Yea, i know how to spell D-enver too, but they don't deserve a D cause they ain't got no defense as of late. They are missing Coach Karl to cancer (I actually hope he recovers) and had to rely on some random black dude so no wonder they lost.


(uh, who are you again? seriously)

All kidding aside, Adrian Dantley was damn good, don't believe me? Check out his stats, and stats dont lie (sometimes they do).

Sam's favorite team (Nash-y Suns) vs Injured.team / PHX 4-2
I actually thought this was gonna be a crazy series till around game 5 I was like, this series is over cause Portland sucks and had too many injuries this year. Even with Roy back, it was too late and the better team rose to the next round (like most cases).


(We all know Nash gave u that pass to dunk, you can't do shit on your own)

Mark Cuban vs Oldies / Spurs 4-2
Yea, Cuban actually did what he could to make a team good enough to make a push in the playoffs. Too bad it wasn't enough to beat Tim Duncan's 45 year old knees. Spurs actually impressed me that series in what they did to beat Mavs. There starters played well and George Hill definitely stepped up to the challenge in that series playing very solid - especially that 11-16 shooting one game.


(Better luck next year yea??)

Man, you know how after like a bad possession (like a 24 shot clock violation) they love to show the coach's face of the team that committed such poor play. You always see either a face palm or a face that wants to strangle his players. Well ESPN has stepped it up one notch as of late. They love to show a bad turnover or some bad foul committed by the team and show the owner's face and see how he reacts. By owners I mean MJ and Cuban. They always show there faces and you always see them yelling at refs or getting mad about calls lol. Well, they been doing that too Cuban for a while now so I guess that is nothing new but getting it done on the legendary Jordan is pretty funny.


(Michael, calm down man, the series was over before it started)


So, Dean is finally coming back to US for a visit (for those of you that know him). He's gonna be here for like 2 weeks or so hopefully a lot of us will get a chance to smoke him while driving to the lane cause he has a strong understanding of the _EFENSE.


(love Mormon cheerleaders)