On January 12 2018 07:16 Uldridge wrote: After thinking about it a lot, I've concluded that technocratic, meritocratic anarcho-collectivism is the best way to go.
Storms, man, could you just slap more words onto it?
On January 12 2018 07:22 DarkCore wrote:
Also feel that because of said technology, AI overlord is a real alternative. At the very least, taking into consideration data from massive data mining projects to determine people's pressing concerns might be a lot better than only having representative politicians.
I honestly think we should just get ahead of it and create an AI overlord that's benevolent and make it a closed system that can't be manipulated, rather than waiting for a rogue one to show up and take over. It's bound to happen sooner or later so probably better if we can just make it correctly the first time.
On January 12 2018 05:24 iCanada wrote: The problem with any system is the the ability for it to be abused / mistreated.
It's not the system that matters so much, it's ourselves.
There's the bingo. Corruption doesn't arise out of the various systems we've created throughout human history, it always exists and always finds the cracks within them. That doesn't mean don't attempt to come up with better ideas, but anything that wholly revolves around the idea that it can't/won't be abused should pretty much instantly be thrown out because it's going to happen. Our best bet is trying to limit abuse constitution style, we just maybe need to update it because you know, it's old and corruption evolves.
I agree here, except that I would add that even if you do design a good system and put good people in power that goodness can slowly decay over time as it crumples against the steady force of human fallibility and self-interest. Not to mention that a system that's good today can be terrible 100 years from now.
But a good system is definitely better than a terrible system. So trying to make a better system is far from pointless.
But are the systems already in place terrible? Or are they good systems that are being abused? Is it worth trying to tear down what we currently have instead of just flushing them out and cleaning them up?
If you could remove every person from office in every country right now and put a vote up to replace them with new candidates, would that be better or worse than building something new from the ground up?
Yup, those are good questions. I would say that we've got a big government with a lot of terrible, inefficient systems. The problem with tearing them down is that this usually means either a coup or war. The problem with a "flush" (i.e. voting for new politicians) is that the voters don't actually change. Unless those elections follow different rules or something in the environment changes then mostly the same kinds of people would be re-elected.
Basically, mere votes don't change anything if nothing else in the political environment has changed. You need some kind of genie to grant wishes about campaign financing, gerrymandering, and/or our terribly polarized culture.
On January 12 2018 07:22 DarkCore wrote: I honestly think that at the rate technology is advancing, the fundamental laws that govern economics and work will fall apart within our lifetime. So many people are going to lose jobs when automated vehicles become mainstream, not to mention factories are also becoming more and more automated. I've been inside a car manufacturing plant, it's honestly insane what kind of machines we already have at our disposal. What's it going to be like in another two decades? 50 years?
And when that happens, shit is going to break loose. I honestly hope a dystopian future where the rich hide in their impenetrable fortresses from the seething masses doesn't happen, but I also wonder if Universal Income is really just a ploy to continue running an artificial economy so that the rich will stay rich.
Also feel that because of said technology, AI overlord is a real alternative. At the very least, taking into consideration data from massive data mining projects to determine people's pressing concerns might be a lot better than only having representative politicians.
It's gonna be fine. This shift already happened once.
On January 12 2018 05:24 iCanada wrote: The problem with any system is the the ability for it to be abused / mistreated.
It's not the system that matters so much, it's ourselves.
There's the bingo. Corruption doesn't arise out of the various systems we've created throughout human history, it always exists and always finds the cracks within them. That doesn't mean don't attempt to come up with better ideas, but anything that wholly revolves around the idea that it can't/won't be abused should pretty much instantly be thrown out because it's going to happen. Our best bet is trying to limit abuse constitution style, we just maybe need to update it because you know, it's old and corruption evolves.
I agree here, except that I would add that even if you do design a good system and put good people in power that goodness can slowly decay over time as it crumples against the steady force of human fallibility and self-interest. Not to mention that a system that's good today can be terrible 100 years from now.
But a good system is definitely better than a terrible system. So trying to make a better system is far from pointless.
But are the systems already in place terrible? Or are they good systems that are being abused? Is it worth trying to tear down what we currently have instead of just flushing them out and cleaning them up?
If you could remove every person from office in every country right now and put a vote up to replace them with new candidates, would that be better or worse than building something new from the ground up?
Yup, those are good questions. I would say that we've got a big government with a lot of terrible, inefficient systems. The problem with tearing them down is that this usually means either a coup or war. The problem with a "flush" (i.e. voting for new politicians) is that the voters don't actually change. Unless those elections follow different rules or something in the environment changes then mostly the same kinds of people would be re-elected.
Basically, mere votes don't change anything if nothing else in the political environment has changed. You need some kind of genie to grant wishes about campaign financing, gerrymandering, and/or our terribly polarized culture.
America in general might just be too big. There are few other countries that govern just as much land and people as we do, and they have... hit or miss governments, let's say.
It would be easier to "flush" the system if people were only concerned with their state/region and there was less at the top.
One of my favourite utopias is a world where one or a few super-states are responsible for very few things; Bureaucracy, long range communication and travel. State laws would be freedom of movement and communication.
Below this super-state there are many, almost countless even, smaller states, each preferably no larger than a megacity . The overarching goal is to have a wide plethora of different ethical, political or other belief systems in each of these states, and that people can move between them.
Do you want free healthcare and food and shelter state? well there's your communist state for you.
Do you want to fulfil your dreams, build your home, family and legacy? well there's your capitalist state for you.
Want something in between? well these are your options.
A few of the hard parts about this is war, weapons, territory and of course how a shift toward this would occur.
On January 12 2018 07:16 Uldridge wrote: After thinking about it a lot, I've concluded that technocratic, meritocratic anarcho-collectivism is the best way to go. Everyone can do what they want, everything is everyone's, state is run by people that know what they do and are guided by technology, as paradigm shifts (ideological, infrastructural, individual) should be solely technology based (space travel/colonization/mining, transhumanism, AI, automation, energy production, ...)
This is basically what we have at the moment in western/northern Europe though. The EU is another great example of this. I'm not quite sure what you want changed in that sense, except for the "everything is everyone's" part, which seems too vague to give a proper reply to.
Nope. Name me a minister that's also a powerhouse in what they're a minister of. We're driving on policy, not technology. Many European Parliamentarians are lousy at their job. Drugs are still not legalized and there's still no decent program based on education instead there's perpetuating scaring. High school education sucks balls. Higher education is an industry. Housing markets keep going up in price, while people entering society can't buy anything unless they already have the money so they have to partner up quick and get 2 working people (oh, we don't want many kids or we'll never have any money) and if you don't have a spouse, you're basically either stuck in the renting spiral or you're living with your parents 'till you're 30. Food industry is private and not efficient at all. You should know how much food waste is made every single day in 1 super market. They're not in the interest of the people, they're in the interest in making profit. I think it's unethical to make profit of a basic human necessity. Health care and insurance are private. Insurance in general is a fucking scam. Literally the most unethical thing that came out of capitalism, next to marketing and 21st century slavery sweat shop style. Top of politics is esoteric at best. We don't know what the fuck is going on, even though they're already documented at their job and being hounded by journalists 24/7. And capitalism is defined by "barely good enough to edge out competition". That isn't meritocratic at all, it is wanting to make a profit though. If meritocracy was truly a philosophy we'd live by, we'd have smartphone companies make phones, just enough for the demand, stop production, have lifelong hardware and software updates come with it. Not a new model coming out every year because you have your consumers drooling incessantly over the extra 1/10th of an inch the next model is going to have in width over the earlier model. Also, I firmly believe that people doing physically hard, dangerous, or irregular (full continuous shifts/night shifts->day shifts->...) labor should be royally compensated for their sacrifice. Meanwhile, CEO's being the poster boys of their company get payed super hard, just to get a huge ass bonus once they leave on top of it. It's fucked up. People don't complain because they don't understand the complete bullshit and unfairness of the situation. They should complain. But they're afraid of getting cut off of the money teat. Universal income is the first thing that should be fixed, with an extra compensation based on what you do (technical, physical, external parameters).
Edit: Anarcho-collectivism basically means that people have the means of production and distribution and they organize themselves to agree on certain things that are right and not right. This can, but should not necessarily be different from organization to organization. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collectivist_anarchism#Comparison_with_communist_anarchism
On January 12 2018 05:24 iCanada wrote: The problem with any system is the the ability for it to be abused / mistreated.
It's not the system that matters so much, it's ourselves.
There's the bingo. Corruption doesn't arise out of the various systems we've created throughout human history, it always exists and always finds the cracks within them. That doesn't mean don't attempt to come up with better ideas, but anything that wholly revolves around the idea that it can't/won't be abused should pretty much instantly be thrown out because it's going to happen. Our best bet is trying to limit abuse constitution style, we just maybe need to update it because you know, it's old and corruption evolves.
I agree here, except that I would add that even if you do design a good system and put good people in power that goodness can slowly decay over time as it crumples against the steady force of human fallibility and self-interest. Not to mention that a system that's good today can be terrible 100 years from now.
But a good system is definitely better than a terrible system. So trying to make a better system is far from pointless.
But are the systems already in place terrible? Or are they good systems that are being abused? Is it worth trying to tear down what we currently have instead of just flushing them out and cleaning them up?
If you could remove every person from office in every country right now and put a vote up to replace them with new candidates, would that be better or worse than building something new from the ground up?
Yup, those are good questions. I would say that we've got a big government with a lot of terrible, inefficient systems. The problem with tearing them down is that this usually means either a coup or war. The problem with a "flush" (i.e. voting for new politicians) is that the voters don't actually change. Unless those elections follow different rules or something in the environment changes then mostly the same kinds of people would be re-elected.
Basically, mere votes don't change anything if nothing else in the political environment has changed. You need some kind of genie to grant wishes about campaign financing, gerrymandering, and/or our terribly polarized culture.
America in general might just be too big. There are few other countries that govern just as much land and people as we do, and they have... hit or miss governments, let's say.
It would be easier to "flush" the system if people were only concerned with their state/region and there was less at the top.
Canada seems to be doing pretty well.
So does Australia, although they're pretty racist. Maybe we are worse now though.
Also, I firmly believe that people doing physically hard, dangerous, or irregular (full continuous shifts/night shifts->day shifts->...) labor should be royally compensated for their sacrifice.
I agree but the problem is employment: There is no real lack of people who can be hired to do construction, it doesn't require any form of good education and is open to anyone. It's not hard to hire someone for the job. Meanwhile, when a company goes looking for a SysAdmin, they are looking at a small list of people, who are highly educated, high in demand, and are very likely working for someone else already. Only way to get them to come to your company and not get poached is by offering them big incentives. That drives inequality up even further.
It kind of falls back on the problem many societies have with higher education. People send their children to university, no matter how dumb or unproductive they are, expecting them to have well paying jobs in the future. Meanwhile, lack of a degree is seen as a hindrance, when this isn't true. I keep reading how well plumbers and welders are being payed, but lack new entrants.
Dire Fleet Daredevil (promo) Jace, Cunning Castaway Thaumatic Compass Tilonalli's Skinshifter (foil) Sphinx's Decree Deeproot Elite Dire Fleet Poisoner Path of Discovery
In front of me, Etalli and another big bomb on-colour, also UG flipland. To my right, Angrath, chupacabra, foil Polyraptor, Tendershoot Dryad. In front and slightly to the right, Naya mythic + Phoenix + Dryad too. Two spots to my right, black elder dino. I looked pretty poor compared to the rest of our group.
5-6 removable spells in my pool, W and R unplayable, B somewhat weak since no removal... I decided to go UG since I had 9 merfolks and 2 payoffs (rare+lord), splashing R for what I considered my best cards (enrage one and monstrosaur). I felt like I couldn't put the Aggressive Urges in because they wouldn't do enough against big creatures (+ want to try the rare enchant). Jace didn't really hype me, I played against it in XLN pre-release and it looked win-more/to slow to get value by itself. The only change between originally and later was Dreadmaw coming in instead of Sailor of Means as I couldn't clear games before it got relevant/castable anyway.
We had 56 people and had to split up between 2 rooms to sit everyone for matches, and I finished building late so I walked past several ongoing games while reaching my table, with Vraska, Kumena, exploring merfolk, and other strong rares piled all over. Didn't feel too great.
We both flood hard game 1 which sucks for me. I'm sandbagging my Claustrophobia for his big dino I won't be able to get through, but when he slams his Dino Forerunner and grabs Etalli (with his friend looking at his deck while he searches and mentioning other potential bomb picks) he also has the Harness out, so Etalli gets at least one attack out... and grabs my flyer off it. Sucks. Then later on when pseudo-indestructible guy locks the ground (with Trove of Temptation to force me to attack anyway so he can double-block and trade a shitter for my stuff) he topdecks Form of the Dinosaur while at 8 life and with 2 flyers out. I scoop.
Game 2 he gets the Forerunner out again and this time grabs Trapjaw Tyrant, aka. "Oblivion Ring combo" He realises afterwards that he doesn't have a second plains yet, and while he'll never draw it of the entire game, I have to sandbag my Dreadmaw to at least be able to block it once it comes down, as it'll be exiled if I play it and my opponent topdecks plains. We go to time and I lose 0-1 while at 1 life, using Spires of Orazca to remove his "enrage shock you" dino from combat and survive. In hand he had Tyrant, Etalli, and the "enrage bolt you" R common from Ixalan.
Dino Forerunner feels so oppressive when they have a bomb to fetch, especially one with an enrage effect. 0-1
Yay mirror. My deck doesn't look great so I'm scared. I get lucky enough to have the Deeproot Elite and Giltgrove Stalker out early, so the "creature too big" + "can't be blocked" combo let me get some damage in before my opponent drops merfolk Forerunner grabbing Jadelight Ranger (explore twice gal) and my bounce spells sits idly in my hand, too much EtB value for me to use it. Hunt the Weak and some Elite triggers help me force trades to shrink his board, I bounce his Dreadmaw to push damage, but he almost stabilises after replaying it because I only have small critters. In the end I manage to go wide enough to kill him over 2 turns. The 4-drop that gives +2/+2 on EtB is super important—I feel like it'd have been a strong common in old formats, but too slow for RIX draft.
This is when I side in my own Dreadmaw. Game 2 my opponent drops an early 2/1 pseudo-flyer and starts beating me down, splashed Mortar kills the 3/2 that followed but I'm getting clocked. I end not attacking to avoid having to chump on the crack-back, low on life, taking a turn to drop the explore enchantment. It almost only gives me non-creature that I keep on top, but in the end it allows me to swing for lethal (21 at once) after slamming Tempest Caller (he didn't know about it since I'd been holding it from way before the enchant). When my RG dino tries to ping down the 2/1, my opponent plays Sea Legs to save it... so really I'd have lost on the crackback if my opponent had reduced one of my creatures' power with it. TL;DR sheer luck. 1-1
Game 1 I go Deeproot Elite -> that 3-drop merfolk that can't be blocked by dinos, and my opponent only plays dinos... I stack the counters on the Elite so it can attack too and force chumps or hit for 4-5, and it goes all the distance. Although my opponent surprised me when he attacked with everything right before I had unblockable lethal, I figured I couldn't die but made some simple blocks anyway... he played Moment of Triumph on a flyer and pumped that 1/2 trample for 1R common twice, and ended up dealing 11 damage to me out of 14 life. I almost got one-shot due to my carelessness.
Game 2 goes Deeproot Elite -> River Sneak -> Giltgrove Stalker (he played the GW unco so even tho it's not a dino it can't block anyway), and kept dumping all the counters from the Elite triggers on the River Sneak. Very interactive, much wow. My opponent could have killed me on the crackback, again, tho I blocked in a more orderly manner that time. I think with Crash the Ramparts he could actually have done it since he had that 5/5 and just needed to trample over my little shits. Jace came on board, plussed, let me loot twice (I kept both cards but it wouldn't have changed anything as I played lord + a 2-drop the next turn, and would have played the freshly drawn lord + a 2-drop not discarded away otherwise), then died immediatly after gaining me 4 life. 2-1
I went away from that one with mixed feelings. Forerunner + bomb feels baaaad. Like, really bad, especially the dino one, and especially when you don't run bombs yourself. Jace is a loot sorcery/bear because all the flying/haste/menace/etc. 2/1s for 2 just don't let you protect your stuff. I got very lucky and it looked like bombs did a lot of work. At some point I looked at the table beside mine and saw a Tetzimoc on board; glanced slightly more to the side and the opposing board was empty of any creature. Ascend could reasonably be reached but still not turbo'd or anything.
Overall my games were a mix of getting rolled over powerlessly, "oops I win" and racing each other without interaction. Not great, but then again I went merfolk...
And I kept going without having the time to grab a sandwich because a combo of less-experienced/assured opponents and slow trudge from my deck made me almost always go to time. D:
Mastermind's Acquisition (promo) Polyraptor Tocatli Honor Guard Path of Mettle Dead Man's Chest Treasure Map Azor's Gateway
So, yeah, about meh rares... damn, what a run.
The pool just doesn't have enough W to be played, and R has no curve and few cards, while the removal means I have to play Black. After hesitating, I decide that since I'll probably try to draft tempo as hard as I can, might as well give the ramp archetypes a go... ? I thought about going UBr at first tho, splashing for Lightning Strike and the gold uncommon (I don't even have 23 actual playables in UB in that pool). That'd have meant cutting some of the bigger drops, adding Grasping Scoundrel, the 3/3 and maybe the 2/2 menace vampire for 3 too, along with all the U flyers and bounce and maybe Opt, trying to brick people on the ground or just remove anything remotely threatening while my slew of 3-power flyers did the lifting.
As I sat down for my first match, to my left somebody was shuffling and on the bottom of his deck I saw Chupacabra, Champion of Dusk, Trapjaw Tyrant, Impale, Moment of Craving, Dire Fleet Poisoner, Moment of Craving, Martyr of Dusk, Baffling End, Oathsworn Vampire... oh yeah some basic lands too I guess. During a lull in the match, I looked to my right and someone was trying to get Journey to Eternity Flipped with a Chupacabra and Elendra on the board. Yeah... getting bomb rares must feel nice I guess.
We both mull, I kept a hand with double swamp and the "draw 1" vampire, I'm on the draw, things should be fine. Actually I'll draw a 3rd swamp and stay stuck there for 2 turns, meanwhile opp goes menace goblin, squire's devotion on it, then the RW uncommon 3/3. He blows my Pioneer's double-block out with a trick and plays a Sun Sentinel. When I finally get the 4th land, I slam Chupacabra killing the menace goblin, then trade with the Sentinel going down to 3. Knight of the Stampede, pray, bounce the dino, topdeck forest, Knight #2, double-block the dino to clear opp's board (looks like he ran out of has as he started drawing lands too), topdeck 6th land and play Dreadmaw for GG then Dusk Charger as my 10th permanent. Adding a 6/6 trample and a 5/5 for 6 mana is quite the reversal. He draws a couple creatures but that's not enough for me to plow through his 30+ life.
Game 2 has a similar start and he gets me low again, including Hijacking my Dreadmaw when it comes down to lower my life total from 15 to 7. I can't even play my 2nd Dreadmaw because I'm afraid he's got another one now, but I still need to play something with enough toughness to block his bear or prevent enough trampling if there's another Hijack. In the end I finish that match at 2 life but Freebooter around that point showed me that my opponent was topdecking. He arguably had decent starts with an early 3/3 for 2 each game while I stumbled g1, but these games were close and tense for me nonetheless. 1-0
My opponent has little fixing, some double-pips cards, but a lot of decent-to-good removal and the Immortal Sun. From what I understood he likes to brew but actually barely plays outside of pre-releases, so although I've seen him for awhile he's not very experienced with rules (I had to made him tap his creatures when attacking and remind him that blocking doesn't tap them, for example). Game 1 is dumb luck on my part with Thunderherd Migration t2 while holding 2 creatures and 3 more lands, but I still somehow manage to virtually empty my hand down to the exact mana by curving out into Charger, Dreadmaw, Spineback and he can't handle the size.
Game 2 an early Freebooter takes Bombard in the hopes that he'll use Divine Verdict on it to get back his removal, since Bombard won't kill my fatties. I take longer than him to get my stuff online and I send the first Dreadmaw in knowing it'll die. But later on when I swing for lethal (Chupacabra and Impale did work on his board) he kills the 2nd Dreadmaw with Blazing Hope... which I'd seen with Freebooter, but I'd discounted it. Also fatigue, I'm definitely tired at that point, but still. I ping the last few points with Freebooter, realizing that with his removal and tricks/trample creatures, he wasn't actually that far from stabilising or even turning things around.
Apparently he won his first match off the back of the Immortal Sun, but he never drew it there. 2-0
The woman with Journey to Eternity + Elendra is at the top table, along with one of the top3-4 local drafters, one from our group who pulled a couple bombs, a guy with Phoenix + that Forge flip card and a ton of UR tempo plays, and a guy with 2x Champion of Dusk and enough removal that according to him he beat a deck with 2x Tetzimoc round 1. I knew I was out of my league and got there through lucky pairings, but dang, my deck really felt ouf of place here.
My opponent beat me with 3 (well, 0K, 4) cards game 1: the 2/1 pseudo-flying pirate, Storm Fleet Aerialist, pseudo-Drag Under, and the UB uncommon (that you can't trade with because 4 toughness is such a logistic nightmare in this format, while I'm half-flooding, so I accept that his deck is most likely stronger to be in the 2-0 bracket and I'm gonna have a horrible time against a tempo/flyers deck when mine is slow and super vulnerable to bounce with its fatties, and side out Strength of the Pack for Plummet.
Game 2 he goes t2 Grasping Scoundrel, t3 Cutlass, t4 Deadeye Rig-Hauler to punish me not blocking, and then the UB uncommon again. I'm trading but the damage lost from the bounce bought him the one turn of clock he needed before I have to chump. Freebooter took his bounce spell too and I know if I ever have to give it back to him I'm dead. Also I'm sitting on Plummet has he plays no flyer at all this time. At that point I have 3 power in the air and 6+ mana so Strength of the Pack would actually have won me the game. Welp. With 6 mana and Spineback in hand whatever I draw is good for me and I threaten lethal next turn, wee! I get a land and play the fatty, but he's hellbent and topdecks Impale. Oh well, I lose.
Turns out he's actually mostly playing Red and I only saw one mountain and Ixalan's UR uncommon game 2 (he's got an uncommon in each pair, RIX's BR one too), he just didn't draw a mountain for the red cards he didn't need to cast game 1 anyway, and never drew a red card game 2, despite the colour being a good half of his deck. So it wasn't a tempo flyers deck, but a low to the ground aggro deck, which was a horrendous match-up for me too and I flooded with something like 6 spells and 9 lands so blegh. His deck was stronger anyway, the lack of luck I had with sideboarding was made up for with his lack of luck in not drawing his 1-drops or his red. 2-1
I didn't draw Polyraptor or Azor's Gateway once, blegh.
Takeaways: I really felt the lack of build-arounds or cool jank things when building, or looking at people's decks. It's really mostly just bashing in each other's face. Also Forerunners are broken with bombs and I can smell all the feelsbads from here. The dino one is ridiculous to get rid of tokens too. Speaking of bombs, so many rares in the set are (and a fair number are duds too), and a number of them can't be dealt with through most damage-based removal or pacifisms too (bunch of big butts, or abilities that don't require attacking). Holding onto your "unconditional" removal looks to be crucial... ... unless you can just bust through and kill them. Works too, so many little shits are evasive at common for 1/2-drops so the damage starts piling up super fast and the flyers just keep coming through.
Form of the Dinosaur (promo) Huatli Rekindling Phoenix Journey to Eternity Silverclad Ferocidon Kinjalli Sunwing Tendershoot Dryad
You can also add Marauding Looter for excellent/splash-worthy gold cards. So, looks like I got 3 bombs to make up for yesterday's pools, sadly my only removal were Impale, Moment of Craving, Pounce and Hunt the Weeak. Literally, nothing else. So R had no 2-drops and few dinos/pirates for synergies, and Phoenix can't be splashed. W had 10 playable cards including 7 creatures and nothing noteworthy so Huatli would have to be splashed. U had a bit more cards but only 3 2-drops, counting Silvergill Adept and that 1/3 merfolk I'd need to run to hope making it a 2-drop, so really I only had 2, a Sailor of Means, and rest was 4+ cmc. So, uh... double-black, double-red, splash green and don't splash Huatli?
Went with that, curve was terrible especially since B only had one bear, rest were 1/1 with upside. I splashed Hunt the Weak, Dryad and Journey to Eternity.
He actually had a killer U-based flyers deck. Either UW with some removal, the 2/1 vampires to stall the ground and lifelink auras + flyers and some removal, or UB with Wanted Scoundrels and some (less, sadly) creatures, but a lot of more removal and the "kill everything and the flyers will end it" approach. Instead he wanted to be BW splashing for Azor since he had a bunch of vampires, but ended up adding Sailor of Means, etc. and went 3c
Game 1 I made my creatures bigger with Hunt the Weak on a 3/3 to kill a 1/4 and not be bounced anymore (March of the Drowned blegh), so he didn't block it at some point and since I had another 4/4, I cast Buccaneer's Bravado on the 4/4 pirate to get him from 14 to 0 (I'd punched more but his deck has a decent amount of lifegain).
Game 2 I kept Dusk Legion Zealot, Journey to Eternity, Dryad and 3-4 lands, figuring I had outs for the nuts. Then I draw the Phoenix so I drop it t4 instead... but he's got a Pacifism for it, RIP. There's a Walk to the Plank in my yard I'd have loved to use on it instead now. t5 Dryad, but he kills it. Please use swap your removals next time. :> In the end I drop a 3/1 flyer and Journey on it to prevent my opponent attacking in the air, and the next turn Cannonade the board just to flip the enchantment and reanimate the Dryad at the end of my opp's turn. From there it looks locked but I know he has Zetalpa, I'm at 10 life and he's at 25+ so my revenant can't race his 2/3, and I can't even exhaust his board because his 1/4s bounce all my stuff ('cept the zealot but I'd lose a bunch of life if I kept looping it, thanksfully opp is afraid of me drawing cards and lets it through). It takes until I actually have 10+ tokens that I can start swinging for non-negligible amounts of life while still having blockers. 1-0
1-drop, 2-drop, Shapers of Nature. I could stop there because really that's how game 1 ended, although Fiery Cannonade got me a 2-for-1 it doesn't matter when Shaper would be a strong card with its statline alone but has that "I win" button. I managed to play the Dryad thanks to a treasure and stabilised at 3 life because 2 bodies per turn is absurd; still couldn't replay it if bounce spell, and after a couple turns my opponent just started turning merfolks into counter from Deeproot Elite into cards. Or just "5UG: draw a card" at eot. He drew the 3/2 unblockable right after the turn I could start attacking while leaving enough blockers, so I had to go for alpha and would have won off that swing... 'cept he kept 3 mana up so I already knew he had Depths of Desire and I was dead.
I sided in Arterial Flow because fuck your dudes and Grasping Scoundrel to race him. Went 1-drop, 2-drop (but Zealot so...), 3-drop, tapland + Arterial Flow, 5-drop (4/4 for 5 dino). Looks good? He had 2-drop into Shapers again. So unless I killed him without leaving him a single turn's worth of breathing room, he'd stabilise and I'd lose. So when I finally had a 4/4 to Hunt the Weak the Shapers without making it a 1-for-2 if he pumped it, I'd still probably lose the game if he just bounced my 5-drop in response. I got lucky and he didn't have bounce.
Game 3 he kept a land with 2-drop, 3-drop (not Shapers this time), Polyraptor and 4 lands. He drew a trick 4 more lands by the time I killed him, I didn't have much either. Luck again and not exactly a satisfying game, but it kinda felt good considering the trash early curve my pool has and getting almost boned by double t3 Shapers (explore showed he had a Dryad too). 2-0
I wonder how he played... what he showed me wasn't as absurd as my previous opponent in terms of overall quality, and I had to remind him to draw with Silvergill Adept both times he played it game 1. Mulligan, Silvergill Adept, 3-drop merfolk, bounce Silvergill with Storm Sculptor, replay it (along with Strider Harness) revealing the brainstorm merfolk. So yeah he's on the play and mulls but still has enough card advantage that he just gets ahead by playing decent bodies. Fuck that shit. I took a bunch of damage because I drew 0 early creatures and wanted my Swaggering Corsair to be a 3/3 to wall his merfolk, so my first creature was t4 Vampire Revenant, and t5 Phoenix, t6 finally Swaggering Corsair. My opponent played Deathgorge Scavenger, gained 2 life, equipped it for haste, swung and exiled a non-creature for hasty 4-mana 5/4 gain 2 life. I chose to take, figuring I'd try to either double-block, or chump the following turn with enough ground blockers (2 incoming) while the Phoenix was still a 3-turns clock. Opp just untaps slams OwtW on the Scavenger and I say "Let's go to game 2." Even if I'd played my 2/2 on turn 3 I'd have lost to that.
Game 2 I sided aggressively again and kept a somewhat land-heavy hand, figuring I'd find one of my 3-drops since I also had Dusk Zealot, and with all my colours and Hunt the Weak in hand even a bear would eat basically any merfolk. So obviously I drew 4 lands in a row and my opp dropped the 4/2 for 2G dino so I couldn't even trade without a 1-for-2 creature-wise. On one hand I should probably have double-block anyway since Zealot replaced itself. On the other hand my opponent had a hand choke-full of fucking gas since he stopped at 4 lands and could play everything but his Dreadmaw in it by the end of the game, gas turn after turn. I drew 9 lands and 4 spells, wee.
Also annoyed to have him show me 5+ merfolks in game 1 and the Scavenger so I side out Walk the Plank but he only plays one merfolk and 4-5 other creatures zzz. 2-1
I mentioned it on skype chat, but basically my take away from the pre-release was that the majority was either playing bomb rares or a rather streamlined aggro deck that didn't leave room for blocking (flying, menace, or straight "can't be blocked" on a 2/1 for 2 isn't great). On paper you could take some damage by not blocking anyway to stabilise later turns but there isn't nearly enough lifegain (or beefier creatures) to allow it, life as a resource seems to have a lot less value for slower decks.
And most importantly I barely saw any "cool cards", build-arounds, or funky stuff. In previous sets what I liked to see was the jank people would come up with, or the fun but situational/medium cards that you'd choose to run anyway because it looks like a good time to play them. I didn't really find any card of the sort in the full spoiler, and the guy who chose to go Esper over basic "flyers + removal and/or stall and mindlessly bash your face in" to play his splashy rares was one of the only examples of that kind of stuff I saw the whole week-end. Made the whole experience rather disappointing, there wasn't marveling at the shiny stuff, more feeling concerned about whether or not you can play a 6+ cmc card because your pool lacks 2-drops to deal with the aggression.
On the other hand the fact that I'm doing better (as in my losses come later so I face theorically stronger opponents in the middle/late rounds) and that we're only doing 3-rounds pre-releases and not the old 5+ giant ones maybe means that I'm facing a lot more spikes or people who care more about "playing the meta of the set/block" than I used to, colouring the matches I get to watch.
Aside from a ridiculous pack (Divine Verdict, Waterknot, Bombard, and some other stuff) the packs I opened and checked looked kinda straightforward for me... and Kitesail Corsair was always in the top3 picks (removing the rare obv.). I'm not sure what to think (I was also wondering whether I'd rather load up on 2-drops or still take Waterknot over it, the way taking Unquenchable Thirst in HOU made someone see Spellweaver Eternal as a signal; and whether Crashing Tide placed high enough. We'll see in draft!)
first pool wasn't great bomb-wise but i could salvage a decent aggro deck and kill people. second pool was a literal pile of garbage, worst i've ever had (or seen for that matter), literally only unplayable rares, no good uncommons, no removal, even the commons flatly spread across all colors so no matter the build it was guaranteed to suck. whew lad.
draft of this format is going to be lightning speed if sealed is this fast already.
I mean, I can do it in blogs too if it annoys more people here than there are who read it. I'd say I've gotten better at shortening my match recaps, but I know that'd just be baiting a "Do you mean 'less long'?" :< Can't make it that easy for you guys.
EPT
