So I am about to start my first Magic Online experience and I have heard horror stories of how awful misclicks can be as well as the fact that the interface seems to be designed for people who are not from Earth. I thought that perhaps a blog taking you through what I encounter might be useful for those who haven't used MTGO and I may even find things that seasoned veterans might want to know about, though that is unlikely. I am going into this with an open mind.
So getting the account was easy. I like that. They give me a free pack. Sweet. It is M12. Not so sweet. But still, I can just get 2 more M12 packs and join a draft queue. It is either that or hope to open Garruk and that is likely not happening. Well, I joined for the increased limited availability. Let us draft!
My packs were all boring. My deck is decent but not full of bombs. I essentially rare drafted instead of taking functional sideboard cards. Hopefully even if I do poorly I will be able to move some of the things I got for tickets to keep drafting. I also grabbed some of the buddy lands. If I do decide to ever actually play on MTGO, they might not be bad to have. Oh! Round One is up. Let me see if I misclick my way through everything. Be right back.
Okay so I won games 1 and 2 against a white green aggro deck. That was kinda cool. 1 pack, in the bag. Now lets see what happens next. I did Paulo and mis mulligan though. oh well. In paper magic, my opponent usually asks me if I want to keep. If I want to keep, I say yes. MTGO asks me if I want to mulligan. This may take some getting used to. We were the last match to finish so I am off to the races again. Wish me luck. Yeah, I know this already happened. Just do it.
So I lost round 2 in what felt like an unwinnable match up. I blame you, readers, for not wishing into the past well enough. Hexproof is pretty good, turns out. I did not pick up a pack, looks like I will not be going infinite off of this. Maybe my rares will get me there but unlikely. I also feel like 17 lands may be too many, which is odd. I was rather flooded for those games.
Round 3, I proceed to not win any die rolls. That I can handle. This deck is starting to feel like the extra card might not be too bad. Maybe I will pick up a pack here. [about 29 minutes go by] This is what raging via blogging looks like. I am annoyed. I did not mess up my mulligan but I do need to put more stops in. Stops pause the game whenever priority shifts, ensuring you have a chance to respond. When you are tapping things down, to ensure that you do not lose, and you foolishly did not have a "Enter Combat" stop placed, you just lose. Womp Womp. That was totally my bad. I'm learning.
So I have a single M12 pack. What should I do with it? Buy more M12 and draft again or just open it? Open it, you say? That will save me from drafting M12 again and I love that idea. Oh look, Throne of Empires. Value. Oh well. Perhaps I will have better luck in Innistrad Swiss.
Alright kids. Instead of step by stepping this one for you, I will instead tell you the things I learned from my first Innistrad Swiss Draft.
Firstly, 15 land plus a Traveler's Amulet is totally enough. MTGO, it would seem, shuffles better than humans do. When it rains, it pours. You will either have too few or too many land. This works well for the present format as you can build a deck that goes: 1 drop, 2 drop, 3 drop, Beat-Beat-Beat and never need more than three land. I feel like that is where you want to be.
Secondly, there is a button upon your keyboard that will save you approximately all the time if you know about it. However, if you do not, be quick clicking through your stops. I actually lost a match due to time out in game three when I was literally about to beat for lethal. This magical button is "F6". No, not the car, snow ski, or plane. Just a button. And when I finally remembered it, my turns went so much more quickly. However at one juncture I became a little "F6" happy and maybe, kinda, just a little bit missed a land drop. Derp.
All in all, MTGO seems like a good resource for those of us who may have to travel and for the Holidays but I cannot imagine giving up paper magic for this. To me, it is comparable to jonesing to play some Skyrim and instead enjoying some sweet Rapala Tournament Fishing. While also a nature simulator, it isn't what you wanted.
Well guys, thanks for reading. Hopefully you learned something besides the fact that I eventually get tired of drawing land after land. You can, as always, contact me via Twitter. If you just can't get enough of what I have to say, when you are done rereading my brilliant blog you can listen to the dulcet tones of my voice in Planeswalker Asylum, a podcast about how awesome we are and occasionally Magic: the Gathering.
Until next time, keep your sleeves clean and your lands right on time.
No comments:
Post a Comment