You Make the Set 5

[Thomas David Baker]

We are doing this in our Multiverse app:

http://mv.bluebones.net/

(Old shared Google spreadsheet for this is here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ag7TtjWsLhYkdHBBUHF4RG... )

Channel Fireball just did Top 8 Mechanics:

* Retrace

* Dredge

* Landfall (not for attacking like Steppe Lynx - Grazing Gladehart and Roil Elemental style)

* Scry

* Flashback

* Kicker

* Flying

* Cycling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiNNg5aj-xo

I wonder if we could use that, or some of that, as the basis of You Make the Set 5.  I know that some of you were keen on Landfall.

Not sure when we would play it out but some time in late May probably?

[Thomas David Baker]

I meant that as a guiding principle for deciding what to print, rather than as a specific criticism of Kieran's version.

[Kieran Symington]

Pelakka Wurm is such a complete boss!

Getting two 2/2s over three 1/1s is probably totally fine. They even have the same power total when his pump ability is active, and 1/1 does seem a bit small for a cyclops. Three 2/2s would be a bit good, though.

[Glenn Goldsworthy]

all cyclops were babies at some stage

Kieran Symington said:

Pelakka Wurm is such a complete boss!

Getting two 2/2s over three 1/1s is probably totally fine. They even have the same power total when his pump ability is active, and 1/1 does seem a bit small for a cyclops. Three 2/2s would be a bit good, though.

[Allan Chong]

Yeah, getting two 2/2s is just nice, and works quite nicely with Astral Magus now that he's safe

[Kieran Symington]

Made the cuts and made the new Cyclopean Commander. I think we can probably just go with this for now - though Simon and his printer seem to have disappeared!

[Simon O'Keeffe]

Hey sorry was in mega meeting.

We also have the advantage of not having to stick exactly to our set once handed off to the the printers, we can easily, and probably will, release a beta edition with fixes after some proper play.

[Thomas David Baker]

For the full experience we should probably leave the Tarmogoyfs and Skullclamps in there and make everyone play with them over and over again while we get on with the next set :)

[Simon O'Keeffe]

Okay all printed out, and I've even begun some cutting.

Due to some weird printer glitch I have loads of extra copies of the commons if anyone wants their own copy, and I can pass on the MSE set file so you can get the uncommons and rares.

So we just need to rustle up the extra players.

[Thomas David Baker]

I made a new post to recruit our 8.

Allan, Paul, Ross and any other contributors should get first refusal.

http://demonictutor.ning.com/forum/topics/custom-set-draft-5pm-satu...

Can you make it guys?

[Kieran Symington]

You could always give out the extra commons as prerelease cards! They'll be worth millions once the set is officially adopted by Wizards.

I'll try and remember to bring some scissors tomorrow and some random cards for proxying so we don't end up using a bunch of lands like last time!

[Simon O'Keeffe]

I have cut one whole sheet of commons so far (80 cards), and I have plenty of sleeves. Actually run out of spare basics as they are all in Chaos Badger or You Make the Draft 4, maybe I'll desleeve that.

[Thomas David Baker]

Printed the set out here and ran a five man draft at Superstars (Channel Fireball) yesterday.

*Nobody* played R not even as a splash, which was interesting.  Decks were: Mono W, UB, UB, UG and Bant (with two Tower Relics).

I was one of the UB players and played 21 Portent or Foresight cards with two Mindcoil Serpents as wincons and won all my matches (but not all my games by any means).  Embryo Thief was an all star as was Portentious Shrike.  Ancestral Odyssey is pretty ridiculous.  Portal Thopter is not good enough, though, and I wouldn't play it again.  Putting both my Shimmersprites on top and milling them with Embryo Thief for exactsies when we were both on 2 life and I had a land revealed on top and he had Dreamriver Boa was fun.  I played two Horrifying Visions and they were actually fine/good.  I guess because there was no R player!  The Bant player did the Transubstantiate and regenerate the Boa trick that Nathan found.

People seemed to enjoy the cards.  The UG player in particular liked the "feel" of his deck and said he'd want to play again if I was around in the week.  

The major "issue" was the one we have already identified.  Because basically every card is playable the colors of that the other people on the table go in to is mostly irrelevant and you end up with a surplus of playables no matter what.  Despite being one of four U drafters at a table of 5 I had 2 Deepwater Grasper, 3 Ruminate, 2 Time's Bondage, Ancestral Odyssey, Portentious Shrike, Seerlord of the Blue Tower (not good in my deck!), 2 Mindcoil Serpent, Lostsight Council (didn't remember it even once!), Tower Sentinels.

It doesn't make the decks or the games any less fun but I think it does negatively impact the drafting that the power level is pretty flat and there is almost always a card for you in any given booster.  There is no "wow that is so late".  It became totally obvious that R was underdrafted but there was no temptation to jump into it and reap the rewards.  9 card boosters might be a solution, or that might be horrible, not sure - we could experiment.

Another lesson that we basically already know is that we pushed our themes too hard.  Whatever we do next should probably have a lot more "normal" cards and just a light sprinkling of cards that support special archetypes.  So there is some doubt about whether your deck will "come together" during the draft.  And it would be awesome to find a way to make the power level not flat without having to just design a bunch of cards we know are bad.

Also: http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/28254928483/when-will-we-see-a...