Welcome Guest Login or Signup
The Collectible Game Player Community
MY ACCOUNT -:- BLOGS -:- USERS -:- GALLERY -:- FORUM -:- GROUPS -:- POLLS -:- QUIZZES
RoninX
 PROFILE   GALLERY   BLOGS   GUESTBOOK   FRIENDS   FAVORITES  
 


RSS
Post- Prerelease Thoughts on Lorwyn Limited
Posted On: 10/01/2007 12:19:07

Clash in Limited

 

Well I'm not sure that there will a standard "competitive clash deck" but I'm sold on the mechanic as an intriguing one. Its impact on the limited environment is a huge one. In a typical game this weekend players clashed 4-5 times giving each player the option of seeing 4-5 more cards per game than they would have otherwise. That is 10%+ of your cards in a limited deck exposed when they wouldn't other be.

 

These extra cards smoothed mana draws on a day when many players started the day playing tribes spread across three colors. Clash also dug deeper into decks unearthing planeswalkers and greater elementals across tables all day long. In sealed this gave the impression of the format being even "bombier" than others, since the chances of an otherwise weaker deck finding its board sweeping bomb was even greater.

 

However in Draft it seemed to have the opposite affect: pushing the most synergistic and interactive decks to the top of the tables. It is possible that as players learned the format and cards over the course of the day they were able to take better advantage of the set's interactivity. None the less I believe Clash had a very substantial impact on the way this limited format played out.

 

All in all, at the start of the day, players were moaning and groaning about more luck being added to the equation with the advent of Clash. Yet, I went away convinced that the randomness Clash inserts in terms of individual card effects is at least counterbalanced, and possibly far outweighed by the "chance" it removes in the form of giving both players greater card selection for a nominal price.

 

A Little on Colors vs. Tribes

 

Oh the temptation. The temptation to play more than two colors in limited is always strong and this formats temps you down the three color road as well. It is easy to fall into two colors and two tribes, and then begin bleeding into the third color of your tribes' affiliation. This is fine as a draft strategy, but as a deckbuilding strategy you can get into trouble (despite Clash smoothing) if you run more than a splash. The winning strategy on prerelease day seemed be to settle into a tribe and then add then best cards from the 1-2 other tribes that overlap your colors.


 



Bookmark:



Viewing 1 - 4 out of 4 Comments

From: RoninX
10/03/2007 15:58:14

More on clash:

 I posted this in the forum thread on "Anybody Else Hate Clash?"

 

It doesn't make the game more random - it changes what is random about the game. It makes one aspect more random (a card's effect), but in exchange your draws are less random.



If anything, at least at the prerelease the net affect in terms of how
I felt about how my decks played was that the exchange was worth it. I
would happily trade some variablility in card effects for less random
topdecking. This isn't backed up by any math (yet) but is basically
just how I felt while playing.



The only clash card I think wizards really screwed up on was gilt-leaf
ambush. That card is WAY to swingy, most other don't offer game turning
effects, but rather relatively small boosts to the expected effect.



From: Credendo
10/02/2007 20:11:36

Nice to see some evidience for clash being a, if not great at least a viable adition to magic. I have to say that in constructed I've not really found a place for clash in my deck testing, but I'm primariy testing GW Kithkin right now and clash is pretty bad in a deck like that (as we expected.) Once I feel I've worked enough on the Kithkin deck, I think I'm going to try some pure control type decks (not sure what) just to see if control is hurt as badly in this set as it seems. I figure thats where clash may shine better.

I may post a blog on the results of my control experiment once I fall out of love with the Kithkins (who may be getting a blog post soon) 

From: RoninX
10/01/2007 17:23:46

I agree and disagree. I think settling into one solid tribe is the biggest key. But drafting color complimentary tribes is also important. If you draft Kithkin and merfolk to start with you will like end up with a strong white base even if the merfolk dry up and you end up going W/R or W/G.

Tribes are not more important than color but they at least stand on equal footing. Too many people at the prerelease got caught up in playing "their" tribes! Especially in the sealed flights I saw a lot of people playing RBU Goblins/Faeries (for example). But in order to get all their goblins and faeries into their 23 they ignored strong giants and elementals that may have been substantially better than goblin/faerie number 18 and 19.



From: Ertai_Footshove
10/01/2007 13:56:16

I think clash does work alot better in limited, just because of the amount of cards though. The difference between 40 and 60 cards stand out alot more with it from my experiences.


Two colors seems outright solid in this format... the three color bind a bit of a strange prospect. The color fixing is there, but it all depends on the tribal cards of course. I know it's been said, but i'd just like to highlight it... you seem to hint and say it alittle, but in this format, tribes are much more important than colors all things considered IE look at the creature type-not the casting cost for the next few months.


*** MyTCGplayer ***