Topic: Magic Draft Interest/Discussion (Read 3510 times)

Büge · « **Reply #20 on:** August 01, 2009, 04:34:37 AM »

You know Envy, I was going to suggest a ???/Fallen Empires/Homelands draft. Maybe Onslaught, cause it kinda synergizes with FE.

Or Onslaught/Fallen Empires/The Dark

Or Onslaught/The Dark/Homelands

The only caveat is that each of these will favour players who stick with Goblins... But The Dark has Tividar's Crusade.

Hey, if we want to try something really "old," we could go Ice Age/Alliances/Coldsnap. I dunno, I just want to try a draft of something that's really difficult to organize in real life.

jsnlxndrlv · « **Reply #21 on:** August 01, 2009, 09:10:27 AM »

Voted Time Spiral block. Urza's block gets pretty crazy. I quit playing during Mercadian Masques, so I have no idea what drafting that's like; ditto Odyssey or Onslaught or whatever the other option was. Time Spiral block has a ton of mechanics and a ridiculous range of cards thanks to the extra timeshifted sheet, and I'm actually familiar with the draft environment.

yyler · « **Reply #22 on:** August 01, 2009, 01:13:54 PM »

I realized when I woke up this morning that because the Urza's block was so powerful, MM was underpowered, and I realized it isn't fun to draft. It does have Fading, though, which is neat.

We could draft the Ice Age block, but I am honestly starting to think Time Spiral would be best. If I could change my vote from MM to TS, I would.

yyler · « **Reply #23 on:** August 01, 2009, 10:54:34 PM »

Okay, who of you 9 voters are playing? We're doing the Time Spiral block, so I figured I should tell you all how to get prepared.

Firstly, you want Magic Workstation, because this is how we'll be playing. Here is a link to a direct download of the installer. Install it normally. If you are running Vista, put it in C:\MWS rather than in Program Files. I didn't do that, and it works fine, but you may have to. Now, download and install the latest card database (direct link again).

Now you have MWS installed, and the card data is there. On the side you should see a list of like every card ever, starting with "Ach! Hans, Run!" from Unhinged. It probably isn't showing you the correct picture. Want pictures? Yes, you do. If you never plan to use this program again, you can just get images for the sets we'll be using here, courtesy of me. If you want nearly every picture, including tokens, you'll need to download this torrent. "Cropped" refers to only the card art. "Full" means it's a scan of the entire card. Get what you want. If you're going the torrent route, you probably have an idea what you want to do.

Unzip whatever you have, and open the folder MWS is installed in. Go to C:\...\YourMWSFolder\Pics\ and drag your unzipped folders into that folder. Do not change anything about the folder names or file names. Restart MWS and you should have pictures. If at any point you're unclear or need more help, consult this guide and the accompanying site but you should be fine.

Second, register an account on this website. It is free, fast, and there is no spam or confirmation email; only a thanks for registering note. Then go to the drafting page and familiarize yourself with starting a draft.

Go down to "Create a New Draft Queue". Retitle it if you like. Make a password no one will guess so no one joins you, and mess with options if you want (you may want to change players to 2), and then change the sets. You want Time Spiral, Planar Chaos, and Future Chaos. Leave the others alone. Create the queue. It'll refresh and your queue will be at the top. Click the button that says "Fill with bots" and the draft will start.

From this point you have 120 seconds to choose a card, but forget about that. So that you don't want to kill yourself, go to the new draft interface. (The new interface also doesn't make noise.) Pick cards FOR REAL or JUST TO GET THROUGH THE DRAFT, it doesn't matter. At the end, you'll be able to make a deck. I usually choose to show card pictures and arrange by color, but find out what you like.

Finally, when you are done, submit the deck. For purposes of learning how this works, your deck can be a single card--it doesn't check to see if your deck is legal as far as I know. On the next page there will be a link in the top right of the main area that says "Export as..." and give you several options. You want MWS, duh. It'll download. Simply open MWS and go to File > Open Deck, and open what you downloaded. It should load fine.

As for playing, click Game > Connect To Opponent. A box will appear! You want to connect to mws.magic-league.com, which IS NOT a default choice. Paste it in. If you want MWS to remember this address, click the ellipsis and paste it onto the top line, and it'll be default. This server is good because it is often empty, so no one will mess with us while we try to find each other, and it won't be hard to find each other. One of you will have to open a table, or whatever the lingo is, and the second will join.

Some quick tips for actually playing the game:

Play cards by double clicking them.
Tap cards in play by double clicking them.
Drag cards onto other cards to enchant them or equip them.
Right click and drag to make a red arrow indicating targeting.
When your opponent hits the End My Turn button in chat, hit Ctrl + Enter to change to your turn.
Ctrl + U untaps everything at once
Ctrl + D draws one card
Ctrl + S shuffles your deck. THIS IS CLOSE TO D. DO NOT CHEAT OR FAKE CHEAT WITH THIS.
Ctrl + I rolls a die.
The P/T of a card can be set by right-clicking. Counters can also be added this way.
While playing a game, go to Game > Preferences and change your name to something we'll recognize. MWS will remember it after that.

Play around in solo mode to figure out how to search your library, graveyard, etc. The easiest way to pull things out is to simply drag the card into your hand or the battlefield. Right clicking is your friend. When cards want you to reveal the top card of your library, right click, look at the top 1 cards, drag it to the field. This is the best way.

Okay. I think this is everything. It seems hard, but it is not. I did all this in about an hour and I have had it down pat since. Make sure you are ready for whenever your game is (all games are TBD atm).

jsnlxndrlv · « **Reply #24 on:** August 01, 2009, 11:12:24 PM »

Ah, excellent. I've used MWS in the past; shouldn't take me long to get back up to speed.

Koah · « **Reply #25 on:** August 01, 2009, 11:15:36 PM »

Pfffff, it's been ages since I've played Magic but sure, I'll give it a go.

yyler · « **Reply #26 on:** August 01, 2009, 11:23:29 PM »

You'll be fine. As discussed earlier, this uses old cards as well as new ones. However, not all are direct reprints. Scroll Rack is now on a creature, for example.

Cards like that, with white titles, means they are old cards in a new color.

This one, obviously, is Giant Growth.

yyler · « **Reply #27 on:** August 02, 2009, 02:37:28 PM »

So it looks like we've got
yyler
Newbie
Envy
Büge
Kabbage
Dogstar
O. Hak
Niku? (there will be slivers)

If Niku plays, that's 8, and that's good. If he doesn't, I'll give someone a free win (if we are doing Single Elim). Probably O. Hak, since it seems he hasn't played in the longest time, and may need it.

There is a poll up for what kind of tournament you want to do--

If we do Round Robin, we'll be keeping track of wins and losses, and whoever has the most wins at the end wins. So if I go 2-1 against Büge and 0-2 against Newbie, I'd have 2-3, and someone with 4-0 would beat me. Make sense? You should all know how this works, I think. I just don't want to take chances, so excuse me if I ever sound condescending.

Single Elim is a strict bracket tournament. We pair up, play, and whoever wins goes on. The winner of this is the person left at the end.

Finally, there is one more question, and this one I need you to answer in the thread to avoid poll fatigue: when we play, should we (A) draft before every match with a set number of bots, or (B) draft once and use that deck for every match?

With (A), it gives someone who drafted a shitty deck in their first match up a chance to get a better deck; however, the inverse is also true. With (B) that doesn't happen, but then every player isn't picking from the same pool of cards as they would in a real draft.

I think (A) for Round Robin and (B) for Single Elim. Yes?

jsnlxndrlv · « **Reply #28 on:** August 02, 2009, 02:56:01 PM »

I like Round Robin, and I like the idea of drafting multiple times. That is what I am voting for.

Envy · « **Reply #29 on:** August 02, 2009, 03:18:32 PM »

Question. Do we get one of each pack or do we mix and match a certain number of packs?

yyler · « **Reply #30 on:** August 02, 2009, 03:30:40 PM »

We'll do one pack from each set. The order doesn't matter; just make sure you have the right block.

In my experience the only reason not to do that would be if the entire block isn't out, but we don't have that issue.

Envy · « **Reply #31 on:** August 02, 2009, 03:54:39 PM »

I've seen some pick your pack drafts before. As long as they are from the same block that everyone else is drafting. I was just curious though.

yyler · « **Reply #32 on:** August 02, 2009, 04:04:19 PM »

We will all be using Time Spiral/Planar Chaos/Future Sight for every round. Each person mixing packs would make things too complicated.

Cait · « **Reply #33 on:** August 04, 2009, 07:17:10 AM »

Doom said it wasn't too late to post interest in this, so: posting interest in joining this.

yyler · « **Reply #34 on:** August 04, 2009, 07:54:40 AM »

Okay you're in. That makes nine of us, so we'll each have 8 matches, and that's a kickin' number.

Remember that this starts tomorrow. I built a (currently empty) score table that you can look at here which I'll use to track everything in a nice looking way. What fun!

Make sure you've all become familiar with Magic Workstation and have an account at ccgdecks.com!

Cait · « **Reply #35 on:** August 04, 2009, 08:06:40 AM »

Pending Niku's confirmation, that is. If we do have 9, I propose we split into two pods of 4 and 5, since the site supports smaller groups, and no bots. Bots are a terrible thing to impose on a drafter.

yyler · « **Reply #36 on:** August 04, 2009, 08:08:52 AM »

Oh, Niku's in, I PMed him.

If we can get 4 and 5 people online at the same time to draft, I am all for it, but the bots really aren't a problem. I've been using their draft interface about 15 times a day for about a week now (I used it before that too, but lately I have had a lot of free time) and the bots don't seem to do anything extremely malicious.

Cait · « **Reply #37 on:** August 04, 2009, 08:20:05 AM »

It's not malice, it's the lack of intelligence. Whomever sits behind the bot is going to get fed completely at random.

yyler · « **Reply #38 on:** August 04, 2009, 08:36:56 AM »

I know what you meant, but I have been doing two man drafts with 3 packs and 2 bots (four players total) and never been screwed. Trust me, it is a non-issue.

Cait · « **Reply #39 on:** August 04, 2009, 09:02:00 AM »

Can you force seating? Like make it Human > Bot > Human > Bot? If it was that way, most of the problem would be blunted.

News:

Poll

Tournament style?

Author Topic: Magic Draft Interest/Discussion (Read 3510 times)