State of the Program for November 22nd, 2023 22 Nov 2023 6:22 AM (last year)
As the chapter closes on PureMTGO, join Joshua for a final State of the Program!
Diaries of the Apocalypse: Final Chapter 22 Nov 2023 6:21 AM (last year)
Tribal Wars endures! Even if this article series will be over.
Constructed Criticism 483: Diving Into Improvement 21 Nov 2023 6:14 AM (last year)
This week on CCMTG the hosts sit down to talk about things they have done to be always improving
Wilds of Eldraine Commander: The Tribal Evaluation 20 Nov 2023 5:04 AM (last year)
Here's the final, small coda to the Eldraine escapade, before delving into the buried mysteries of the Lost Caverns of Ixalan.
Freed From the Real 750: It could have been a big celebratory shebang. 17 Nov 2023 5:51 AM (last year)
Episode 750
Hosts: Paul and AJ
Episode Length: 1h 1m 28s
News:
Our Magic Styles and Philosophies:
What pet cards seem to chase you wherever you go and wait for you patiently at the door?
Paul: For me it used to be Armageddon
, and Wrath of God
. But Mulldrifter
and Reveillark
more recently (for the past decade plus) are cards I try to squeeze into every build even when the colors are completely wrong. I must say I still have a huge fondness for Coffin Queen
and would love to see her reprinted.
AJ: Glimpse of Tomorrow
is very much a pet card, Tibalt's Trickery
was when legal, Cavern of Souls
dukes it out with Cabal Coffers
in lands I’m fond of. Entomb
when I’m in a reanimation mood, Etali, Primal Conqueror
seems to sneak into every ramp deck as an ‘Oh yeah, Mind's Desire
on a 7/7 trampler is good’ kind of way.
Watchya been playing?
Paul: MWM: 3-1 with a mono Black deck entitled “Alchemy is unfun”, featuring Sheoldred of course. Been brewing in Standard with the new set (featuring exile cards and what not via Pia) and waiting to see how things shake down. Was roped into playing the Apocalypse, only to concede/drop round 1. I am a loser, baby… Also have pending Leagues going on in MTGO right now. Will probably scrub drop them both without playing either. Just burning aways those PPs for no good reason.
AJ: MWM: 3-1 with a fun Little Pigs deck that can really bring home the bacon. 2-1 with Noble reanimator at the Apocalypse underdog. Got Paul to save the day by playing. Attempts at doing interesting things with Ixalan cards, finding a combo with Geological Appraiser and 3-mana clone effects in Explorer which scratches my ‘put half your deck on the battlefield turn 3’ itch. Outside of Magic, not a lot.
Questions? Comments? Constructive Criticisms?
Contact us at: freedfromtherealmtgo@gmail.com
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Diaries of the Apocalypse: Tribal Week 667 17 Nov 2023 5:51 AM (last year)
Tribal Wars endures! The format, the players, the decks, and everything else.
Limited Review: The Lost Caverns of Ixalan 16 Nov 2023 10:46 AM (last year)
It's time to dive deep into the land of Pirates and Dinosaurs with some interesting mechanics, but how will it play in Limited?
State of the Program for November 15th, 2023 15 Nov 2023 6:03 AM (last year)
The caverns are being found!
Constructed Criticisim 482: Lost Caverns of Ixalan Pick 2 Set Review 14 Nov 2023 6:50 AM (last year)
This week on CC is the Pick 2 Set Review for Lost Caverns of Ixalan
Freed from the Real 749: Kine or Kindred, what is the difference? 10 Nov 2023 5:12 AM (last year)
Episode 749
Hosts: Paul and AJ
Episode Length: 1:07:41
News:
- Mechanical breakdowns and other sundry Difficulties. Anyone else notice how the rewards for the MWM event this week and last had random no prizes apparently given but a bug in the claim button? We did. We saw people complaining about this on the forums on Steam as well. Apparently when this happened some people did get gems so maybe it is related to the duplicate protection function. – Keep clicking on the claim button until it goes away.
Other issues reported recently are people having trouble logging in at all on Steam. While this is hard to verify, it seems par for the course with Steam games. Sometimes their DRM gets in the way. We recommend installing the game outside of Steam if this happens to you. There also seem to be some connectivity issues with matchmaking of late (“Waiting for Server…”). That is an ongoing problem that does not seem to be solvable for now except to keep trying. - Discord Stuff
- Murders coming in February.
- Arena Stuff
- Stuff
Our Magic Styles and Philosophies:
Carebear or Rattlesnake? What is your approach to (Social) Commander and why?
Paul: I used to run a lot of group hug style cards (Everyone Draws a Card, Everyone Gains a life, etc) but moved more toward rattlesnake (Everyone takes damage if my creatures die, My guys have deathtouch, My guys will hit back twice as hard, etc) over time as I realized many players don’t care if you are helping them or hurting them, so there is no social or political cache for being nice. Being threatening gets the job done more often. However, the drawback is, people will start targeting your threats sooner and may view you as a saber-rattler rather than a baby rattle shaker.
AJ: Ooh. It’s been a while but I like a bit of both, bear hug. I’ve done both widely over the years, enjoyed setting traps, seeming undefended, dissuading my opponents by example, such that they couldn’t know which horrible thing I might do, but there was likely something. I love the political aspect of the game. The social bits, so tended to do my Commander with voice chat or in client conversations.
Whatcha been playin’:
Paul: Dealing with a nasty head cold. Still suffering from it. MWM was a horror show: 3-x where x is far greater than 10. Was using the Giada deck because many of my favorite cards are in it but kept losing to Danitha. So switched to Danitha and finally after x games won a third. Quite horrible. One of the main difficulties I had was that all the decks have a ton of chaff (draft level or worse) cards in them and I seemed to draw those more than the ones with actual value. Another is the amount of ETB Tapped lands was extraordinarily high. In many cases because it is a 2 color deck just basic lands would have sufficed and the starts where I got 2-3 basics were the best starts. Overall I would give the deck building of this event a C- and that’s mainly because they did include SOME good cards.
AJ: 1-2 at the second part of the Apocalypse Halloween special, 3-2 using Danitha in MWM. Not much outside of magic, a few forum and message board games.
Questions? Comments? Constructive Criticisms?
Contact us at: freedfromtherealmtgo@gmail.com
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Donate to Ukraine directly
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