General Is this results oriented thinking? (I lost.)

[Grillo_Parlante]

I think to get an actual answer to his question we would need the removal as-fan (go over the cube and count up the removal spells); the reason being that if he is not drafting the entire cube, he could end up with removal light, sweeper light, or spot removal light drafts. Those bomby cards might be fine when you have ample access to removal in a draft to pass the removal check, but can quickly become GRBS if you happen to be in a draft light on the removal you need.

In that instance, it might even be correct to hate draft, which I think says a lot.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

In that instance, it might even be correct to hate draft.

I just wanted to point out that you are probably wrong. Even when hate drafting looks like it's the correct choice, it often isn't.

 

[Hathaway]

I won a Mirage sealed event in high school thanks to opening three Incinerate and three Dark Banishing and some non-zero number of Kaervek's Torch. I wasn't very good, but I knew enough to play all of the removal. I traded in my box of Mirage prize for store credit, which I'm quite sure I spent on Shivan Dragon and Lord of the Pit. Good times.

 

[Hathaway]

I think to get an actual answer to his question we would need the removal as-fan (go over the cube and count up the removal spells); the reason being that if he is not drafting the entire cube, he could end up with removal light, sweeper light, or spot removal light drafts. Those bomby cards might be fine when you have ample access to removal in a draft to pass the removal check, but can quickly become GRBS if you happen to be in a draft light on the removal you need.

In that instance, it might even be correct to hate draft, which I think says a lot.

I will get the removal number together for you. You need it separated by color?

 

[Eric Chan]

Were there actual stores than ran tournaments in your areas, back in those days? As high school students in the Ice Age era, we would all hang around the local Magic store whenever they got a new shipment of singles - finally, my fourth Lightning Bolt to fill out my green red fat creature deck!!! - but I don't know that either we nor they had heard of the concept of "sanctioned tournaments".

No one I knew had internet in 95-96, either, so it was on us to keep up-to-date on prices and new deck ideas with Scrye and Inquest magazines. I didn't hear about the bustedness of Necropotence until at least 1997, and even after knowing of its existence, I don't think anyone locally could make heads or tails of it.

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

No, the raw numbers are fine.

 

[FlowerSunRain]

Were there actual stores than ran tournaments in your areas, back in those days? As high school students in the Ice Age era, we would all hang around the local Magic store whenever they got a new shipment of singles - finally, my fourth Lightning Bolt to fill out my green red fat creature deck!!! - but I don't know that either we nor they had heard of the concept of "sanctioned tournaments".

Our local store ran 2 weekly tournaments. They weren't sanctioned, but 16 players was a pretty regular turnout. They had a sanctioned event once. Amy Weber and Douglas Schuler were there signing cards. My dad won a T-Shirt for reasons I can't remember (We all scrubbed out of type 2 by the second round so it wasn't for that. Anyway, I never truly accepted "standard" as a real format because wtf you can't play Kird Ape that isn't real Magic!?). He wore that thing for years on his off days. There was no Friday Night Magic so all of the sanctioned events were "big things". I went into NYC once to play in one of them. I don't remember was at stake, but there were hundreds of players. Anyway whatever the main event was standard so of course I scrubbed out in the second round, but there were a billion side events so I had a lot of fun anyway. I finished third in the speed tournament, because Kird Apes were legal.