General Brainstorming: The RipLab Weekly

Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
Hey guys, I was thinking of seeing if we can get weekly drafts going in the new year. Here was my idea as an initial concept.

4 drafts, each one with a different cube.

Week 1: Penny Pincer
Week 2: Jason Waddell's Cube
Week 3: Eldrazi Domain
Week 4: Safra's Cube

Prizes: Each win you earn gives you a raffle ticket. At the end of the four weeks, I will randomly draw from the (non-me) raffle tickets and give a $25 CFB giftcard to the winner.

Then the next month we can try out the desert cube or whatever.

We would probably advertise this to the greater cube community (read: reddit) to try and make sure we have enough to fire 8-mans each week.

What do you guys think?
 
Kirblinx

Kirblinx

Developer
Staff member
I for one can say that more drafts can never be a bad thing.
Also, now as a proud owner of a MODO penny pincher cube, I feel I have more to do with this process :p

My only concern with introducing it to the wider community is that threat of theft (not that we didn't touch on it last time). I wonder if we can do some kind of screening process or something. Or just PM people that have left decent comments on /r/mtgcube, because if they are invested/dedicated to the craft then you know they will be happy just to be a part of it (and not think about ulterior motives).

Prizes are cool, if not a little unnecessary. I feel that bragging rights and just being in a cube draft is enough of an incentive to play/do well.

EDIT: Also in regards to competitions, I don't remember there ever being a winner announced for the last one >.> <.<
 
B8R

B8R

Jason Waddell said:
Hey guys, I was thinking of seeing if we can get weekly drafts going in the new year. Here was my idea as an initial concept.

4 drafts, each one with a different cube.

Week 1: Penny Pincer
Week 2: Jason Waddell's Cube
Week 3: Eldrazi Domain
Week 4: Safra's Cube

Prizes: Each win you earn gives you a raffle ticket. At the end of the four weeks, I will randomly draw from the (non-me) raffle tickets and give a $25 CFB giftcard to the winner.

Then the next month we can try out the desert cube or whatever.

We would probably advertise this to the greater cube community (read: reddit) to try and make sure we have enough to fire 8-mans each week.

What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

I would love to join and play if you guys would have me, but my question is this: I have an MTGO account, but I've never used it or played online. How much of a learning curve is there for me to get up to speed so that I am a functional participant?
 
Aoret

Aoret

Developer
B8R said:
How much of a learning curve is there for me to get up to speed so that I am a functional participant?
Click to expand...

I can help you get sorted on the technical aspect of how the drafts are done (we can just do a grid draft or something to practice).

As for actually using mtgo... um, well, if you don't mind losing all of your games (like I do) then the learning curve is pretty palatable and it's fun to just be playing online with a cube :) If you're super competitive you'll be pissed about the chess clock and misclicks and such.
 
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B8R

B8R

That sounds great! I don't mind losing as I'm learning the ropes. Coming from a chess background (I quit Magic for 15 yrs, 1997-2012, to play chess), I think I will rather like the chess clock!

How should I proceed?
 
Aoret

Aoret

Developer
B8R said:
How should I proceed?
Click to expand...
Read through this and ping me for questions on anything that doesn't make sense: http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/how-to-participate-in-a-riptidelab-draft.1065/#post-48569

Jason Waddell said:
We would probably advertise this to the greater cube community (read: reddit) to try and make sure we have enough to fire 8-mans each week. What do you guys think?
Click to expand...
I'll echo the theft concerns about this (but hey, they're your cards, man). I think we can probably just grassroots it to hit our 8 each week if we get the time slot figured out.
 
Chriskool

Chriskool

I will try to hit a few of these a month; I've wanted to pinch pennies for a while. Edit: It's worth mentioning that I've been burned lending under 10$ of cards on MTGO in the past to people I'd interacted with for months. Be wary what people will do for a few free (hundred) dollars.

When will E-Domain get its facelift?

B8R said:
That sounds great! I don't mind losing as I'm learning the ropes. Coming from a chess background (I quit Magic for 15 yrs, 1997-2012, to play chess), I think I will rather like the chess clock!

How should I proceed?
Click to expand...
MTGO is quite easy if you play with all of the stops and get a feel for how the program responds to your passing of priority. I use hotkeys with my left hand for all priority passing: F2 yields once, F4 yields until opponent acts, F6 yields turn & to all opponent priority passes (but will give option to attack); never use this if you feel you may have to respond to your opponent. F3 cancels an F4/F6 (if pressed in a timely manner). I always F4 my opponent's turn if I have no planned action but can respond. I usually F4 my own turn after casting whichever mainphase spells I desired.

CTRL+Z is the undo for tapping mana.

If you do not already have an account, I suggest making one and messing around. They might still have a trial mode, but I haven't investigated it since the new client was released (about 18 months ago).
 
Ferritovore

Ferritovore

I got MTGO and it seems pretty easy to learn using the mostly-worthless New Player Points. You will probably lose your first match to timing out, but get the hang after that.
 
Aoret

Aoret

Developer
Chris: MTGO Academy said:
MTGO is quite easy if you play with all of the stops and get a feel for how the program responds to your passing of priority. I use hotkeys with my left hand for all priority passing: F2 yields once, F4 yields until opponent acts, F6 yields turn & to all opponent priority passes (but will give option to attack); never use this if you feel you may have to respond to your opponent. F3 cancels an F4/F6 (if pressed in a timely manner). I always F4 my opponent's turn if I have no planned action but can respond. I usually F4 my own turn after casting whichever mainphase spells I desired.

CTRL+Z is the undo for tapping mana.

If you do not already have an account, I suggest making one and messing around. They might still have a trial mode, but I haven't investigated it since the new client was released (about 18 months ago).
Click to expand...

These sorts of MTGO protips are suuuuper helpful for those of us transitioning from paper. I've also been curious what stops people end up settling on when they graduate from "all of them". Are there some you toggle on and off? Would love to hear from a handful of expert level MTGO users. Also could use a primer on weird stacking shit and multiple scry and stuff like that. All these little mini windows pop up and I freak the fuck out because I'm on a chess clock and streaming and generally look like an idiot.
 
Ferritovore

Ferritovore

Stops in that free program wherein rule 1 is not to talk about fight club, work almost the same way as MTGO. You could duel the AI to practice setting stops... but it's pretty much just "in which phases do you want to receive priority and have the opportunity to cast/activate stuff?" Play a non-blue deck and you can play mighty fast!
 
Dom Harvey

Dom Harvey

Contributor
If there are multiple triggers, click the one you want on the bottom of the stack first, then repeat

I have most stops except draw step (only turn on for V Clique) and end of combat
 
safra

safra

Also if you just want mana from your dual lands and don't care what colour it is, holding 'm' as you click will fill your mana pool with the first colour that land produces. It's great with painlands, duals, or Urborg on the field.

I usually keep stops active during attacks, blocks, my main phases, my opponent's end step, and use F4 to respond to stuff otherwise.
 
Kirblinx

Kirblinx

Developer
Staff member
Aoret said:
These sorts of MTGO protips are suuuuper helpful for those of us transitioning from paper. I've also been curious what stops people end up settling on when they graduate from "all of them". Are there some you toggle on and off? Would love to hear from a handful of expert level MTGO users. Also could use a primer on weird stacking shit and multiple scry and stuff like that. All these little mini windows pop up and I freak the fuck out because I'm on a chess clock and streaming and generally look like an idiot.
Click to expand...

So I am no expert by any means, but I seem to never timed out from the chess clock. Some tips I can give:
  • Turn off animation of summoning sickness and foils. Your computer will love you for it (it is in the account section).
  • Use the 'F2,F4,F6' shortcuts. They save a lot of time. I have never personally used F4 (I live on the edge with F6). Chris described each of these well, you can see the other keyboard shortcuts in accounts -> Input Settings.
  • Try not to have your finger hovering over these F keys too often. There have been instances where I have used a fetchland and accidentally hit F2, which makes you fail to find. Whenever I do any searching I keep my fingers far away from the keyboard.
  • You can attack with everything by right-clicking the battlefield. It should be the top option. Saves a lot of clicking in swarm decks.
  • Sick of having to F2 through your Soul Warden Trigger? Just right click the ability when it is on the stack and choose auto yeild then you don't have to worry about it again.
495Bpcv.png

  • Here is my setup for pauses during each of the phases. These work for me 95% of the time. When I want to do something in the opponents upkeep/Draw Step (eg. Vendilion Clique), on my own main phase I click the little triangle above 'draw' to turn it on. So once I get to that point it will stop and I can cast my Clique, then I turn it back off.
PyGWx7b.png

  • You can hold priority by holding control when casting your spell. This will not matter 99% of the time, but I play modern Ad Nauseum and you need to know this otherwise you never get a chance to throw lands into your Lightning Storm. Without this it would usually just pass priority to the opponent, they pass priority then you only do 3 damage :(
 
Aston

Aston

Anyone want to try and fire a draft this weekend? I think it's GP Vancouver so we might be missing a couple of regulars.
 
Kirblinx

Kirblinx

Developer
Staff member
I thought about attempting another penny pincer draft since the last one didn't fire. It might be a hard to get a decent amount of people at this late notice. Plus if I was going to run one it would be on Saturday again (Still can't do Sundays) which makes it even worse. Timezones suck :(

ps. I think that means I am up for a draft on Saturday only.
 
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