It doesn't have to be with cube where you can adjust pack size and burn cards. My favorite has been five packs of 13 cards with the last 4 remaining cards going to the bin (great for signaling). It also means that you'll see packs only twice (except the one you open, you'll see that three times) and there are 260 cards opened. This leads to decks being very close in power level to thos from a classic eight person draft.
General [SPM] Marvel's Spider-Man
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It doesn't have to be with cube where you can adjust pack size and burn cards. My favorite has been five packs of 13 cards with the last 4 remaining cards going to the bin (great for signaling). It also means that you'll see packs only twice (except the one you open, you'll see that three times) and there are 260 cards opened. This leads to decks being very close in power level to thos from a classic eight person draft.
I got 3rd place in a Spider-Man limited RCQ. Top 8 was a full 8-person draft and it was...wonky. Half of us were in three-color decks because it was very hard to do enemy colored combinations and there weren't enough straight 2-color decks available at most seats. That said, I was able to pull off some nice wheels and felt pretty smart, so I think my deck ended up reasonably good considering:
I had mana issues untreated to color (figures, I only got mana screwed once during Swiss), but the deck got me one game away from an invite, so I can hardly complain.
The whole event made me realize I need to reexamine Mob Lookout which is much better than I really gave credit for. It's fundamentally a 1/4 for 2 -- an incredible stat-line -- in hybrid. It feeds your graveyard, and you can put the counter elsewhere as needed. I feel like almost every power level can appreciate the card, and is worth slotting in even if you don't want it to take up a guild slot.
Even though 8-man was wonky, it felt better than pick 2, just because it reminded me of a normal draft. Spider-Man may not be interesting to me, the set is way too small, and I may think individual cards feel dumb or bad as Magic, but the gameplay in this format is incredibly solid. For all the issues with this set (red being awful is now my #1 qualm), they can still make interesting limited formats. I hope to be able to do an 8-person draft of this set again (and hope to keep opening Morbius and Mysterio in sealed).
I had mana issues untreated to color (figures, I only got mana screwed once during Swiss), but the deck got me one game away from an invite, so I can hardly complain.
The whole event made me realize I need to reexamine Mob Lookout which is much better than I really gave credit for. It's fundamentally a 1/4 for 2 -- an incredible stat-line -- in hybrid. It feeds your graveyard, and you can put the counter elsewhere as needed. I feel like almost every power level can appreciate the card, and is worth slotting in even if you don't want it to take up a guild slot.
Even though 8-man was wonky, it felt better than pick 2, just because it reminded me of a normal draft. Spider-Man may not be interesting to me, the set is way too small, and I may think individual cards feel dumb or bad as Magic, but the gameplay in this format is incredibly solid. For all the issues with this set (red being awful is now my #1 qualm), they can still make interesting limited formats. I hope to be able to do an 8-person draft of this set again (and hope to keep opening Morbius and Mysterio in sealed).
in Cube I absolutely agree with this, but I've been finding in what little watching / 2 drafts on Arena (two too many) I did that "feeding your graveyard" is way less relevant than the last few years have conditioned me to believe:
3 good uncommon payoffs (Prison Break, Morbius the Living Vampire IT'S MORBIN' TIME, and uh, Villain Honest Rutstein)
3 other uncommon payoffs (Damage Control Crew is great but doesn't really need the help, Alien Symbiosis mostly sucks, the Alpha Myr that makes two 1/1s for 6 is probably already gonna get played to block)
1 good common payoff (Doc Ock, Sinister Scientist, I don't even know its Arena name because it's Doc Ock because it cares about 8 - though this is really good, tbf)
2 other common payoffs (the Phantom Monster and the 4B 4/5 deathtouch that let you exile to put counters on stuff)
lacking the GB gold signposts that most sets have at uncommon means that you've got a lot less caring-about-the-yard below rare.
but yes it turns out it's a 1/4 for 2 as long as you always have a spell to ditch. and you often do! especially in a set with Mayhem!
edit: please enjoy that I made a genuine good-faith effort to actually name the goddamn cards in any way I could and still whiffed on not one but both names for, checks notes, "Spider-Slayer, Hatred Honed" / "Goro Rel, Scourge to Spiders" and "Tombstone, Career Criminal" / "Nill, Vessel of Valgavoth" (wasn't she the lady from the Beatles' "Rocky Raccoon"?!) and "Venom, Evil Unleashed" / "Tethex, Gift of Malice" and whatever the hell Beetle, Legacy Criminal is called on Arena