Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines - the Grand Prix is about to begin! Are you interested in an interesting Sealed Deck tournament with stakes, played out on Arena? Then let me tell you about the Arena Gauntlet League and our AETHERDRIFT tournament running February 14th - March 28th!

The AGL runs a sealed-deck format we call Gauntlet, which has a unique twist where your deck grows and changes over the course of the tournament. You start by making a 60-card sealed deck from 6 packs, play five Bo3 matches a week against different players, and add a pack to your pool after each loss. These "Comeback Packs" increase deck overall power level as the weeks go on, continuously testing your deck building skill, helping to level the playing field against the leading players, and keeps things interesting over the course of the league.

You’ll play matches each week until you either reach 11 losses or survive to the end where the Top 8 play in a special MegaDraft elimination playoff! All matches are played out on Arena. We have nifty tools to help you find a match, generate packs for the loser, update your pool, with automated tracking of all the stats and standings of the league play. Note we cannot provide the cards on Arena, so you must have the cards you want to use for your deck or be willing to craft them!

Do you win anything? Yes! Each Gauntlet league has a $10 CAD registration fee collected by our partner store Magic Stronghold Games. Entry fees are then distributed out as prizes in store credit to the top finishers. We've given out over $24,000 CAD in credit over the years! Plus we badge all our winners for those sweet bragging rights, including Rookie of the League!

Interested? Great! Check out this league’s specific Rules page for all the details. In our Aetherdrift league, you'll hop in your vehicle or on your mount and speed off in pursuit of the other racers and the finish line. Where you are at in the race (how many wins you have) will determine which bonus sheet your packs will contain - a special curated list of cards to be added to the Aetherdrift play boosters. In addition, if you're feeling like you're lagging a bit behind, you can activate a speed boost on a loss - but be careful, as you only get three!

If this all sounds fun just fill out our registration form before, follow the link to pay the $10 CAN registration fee, and then come join the Discord! Registration closes at 5pm EST Wednesday February 12th. We've had so many new players join us recently and have an absolute blast! Don't believe me? Give this a listen!

https://soundcloud.com/jack-hudson-579468301/agl-testimonial

Pools are rolled soon after registration closes and league matches can start 5pm EST Friday, February 14th. If you have any questions feel free to hop into the Discord, check out our website, or fire away in the comments below. I hope to see you running the Gauntlet with us!

Registration: https://forms.gle/987HGmeEHR7QV82W6
Website: https://f2fleague.wordpress.com
Discord: https://discord.gg/n28wpnaB6n

All you need is yourself, I have everything else! Including tokens, lands, cards, dice, counters, and Prizes for the winners.

Worcester, Ma Sunday, 2/2 12pm - 6pm at Greater good brewing.

Sign up here!

Next event is: Sunday, Feb 16th at 12pm a special love of cube event

Every month I choose a cube built by you and feature it for people to draft.

Event Discord!

Just want to take a moment to appreciate the wild art choices on these new Special Guests from Aetherdrift. Definitely a wild turn from anything we've seen in these slots so far, and word on the street is that this experimentation might continue in future sets.

But what about the actual cards themselves? Which Special Guests are you hoping to open in Aetherdrift Limited, and which ones are going to end up being the "Sacrifice" of the set, the one that makes your eyes pop when you see it pick-5, only to realize it's actually unplayable. Pretty, but unplayable.

We've got a clear winner in Skysovereign, but what else makes the cut?

Any help is appreciated.

https://mtga.untapped.gg/profile/909b978f-f698-48e9-a80a-d728ecb55862/3HOULMJADNF5JHB4ST6IEHEMAE/deck/85b9d8ba-6732-44d0-81a3-ce5231b192dc/draft-replay?gameType=limited&limitedType=ranked&utm_source=uc&utm_medium=app&utm_campaign=view-draft-replay&utm_content=view-draft-replay-button&limitedSet=OTJ

All you need is yourself, I have everything else! Including tokens, lands, cards, dice, counters, and Prizes for the winners.

Worcester, Ma Sunday, 2/2 12pm - 6pm at Greater good brewing.

Sign up here!

Next event is: Sunday, Feb 16th at 12pm a special love of cube event

Every month I choose a cube built by you and feature it for people to draft.

Event Discord! https://discord.gg/SAc2beYP

I go to FNM a lot and I have a quite good winrate and really enjoy it and I’ve always wanted to go to an event and just draft the entire time, I’d probably get my ass handed to me but I think it would be so much fun. What are these events called? How does one enter? How much do they cost? I’m not really into competitive 60 card formats but just drafting against some really good players would be a blast. I’ve played magic for a long time but honestly I’ve never even looked at the tournament level for this sorta thing so im a tad lost. Thank you!

Too long; Won't read: With Aetherdrift looking virtually unplayable, and the other sets listed for release this year sounding equally as bad, are you considering leaving MTG forever?

In 1993, Dr. Garfield changed gaming and life as we know it for many people. When he released MTG to the world, he found a way to provide a venue for hardcore fantasy enthusiasts and strategy gamers alike. MTG broke down walls and brought people together like never before. Back in the high school cafeteria, you would often see the rich, snobby kids whose parents bought them anything they wanted playing with the less fortunate kids who usually had to steal packs from stores to play. MTG built camaraderie between factions that otherwise would never have had a chance of forming.

Since that day, MTG has only thrived, growing every year and attracting more fans. However, more players also created more differences in opinion. Scaly, badass dragons and decrepit zombies soon found themselves facing little pixies and house cats. More adult children started joining MTG, and its dark and tough fantasy roots seemed to be overtaken by a newer, lighter fantasy crowd. Yet, MTG still prevailed simply because it is the best TCG system. Dr. Garfield engineered MTG's play design so flawlessly that OG MTG players did not care what the card art looked like, as long as the mechanics were fresh and functional. Everyone continued to play, and the future looked bright.

MTG was a locomotive barreling at full speed with no signs of losing momentum, until Cynthia Williams replaced Chris Cooks on February 2, 2022. We had just gone through the golden age of MTG, especially for us Limited players, with Strixhaven being one of the greatest sets of all time. After 39 years of everything Dr. Garfield built, this new administration actively set out to destroy what once made MTG so great. They traded the soul of MTG to let in outside IPs through Universes Beyond, completely abandoning everything that made MTG great. They actively listened to the minority of new fans in the MTG community and, worse of all, catered to Commander players, utterly pushing Limited players to the furthest depths of consideration. Then, when the community finally rose up, they thought putting goofy hats on iconic MTG characters would fix everything.

Well, it sure didn't. So, instead of Cynthia and Mark Rosewater looking in the mirror, they pointed their overpaid fingers at us, the Limited community. Yes, the only community in MTG that cannot use proxies to play and has to physically spend money in order to play was the reason new sets were underperforming, they proclaimed. With their incompetence and resounding unawareness having absolutely no bounds, they took away draft boosters and implemented play boosters, raising the cost of entry for drafters even more while simultaneously destroying sealed.

Thankfully, that was the last straw, and after a tremendous amount of ballyhoo from the MTG community, Cynthia was forced to hang up their goofy hat and was frog-marched out of WotC for good. John Hight took over at the end of April 2024, and we have seen blips of hope. Modern Horizons 3 was an absolute banger; Duskmourn was fire. Heck, even Foundations may not be everyone's favorite set, but commander players didn't like it, and anything commander players don't like is great for MTG, and more importantly, Limited.

Well, any optimism any of us had was crushed when they announced the set releases for 2025. MTG, as we know it, was set to be replaced by SpongeBob, My Little Pony, and several other non-MTG IPs. To the few of us still clinging on, that final shred of hope took a throat punch when Aetherdrift was spoiled this week. Not only is the concept of the set an absolute disaster, the artwork is horrendous, and the mechanics look absolutely horrid. This set, as it looks now, seems completely unplayable for Limited, useless for Standard, and no one cares about Commander. They once again took our iconic characters, slapped race helmets and driving goggles on them, and gave us… this.

My question to you is, where do we go from here? Have the foundations of MTG finally shifted too much to simply dig back down and rebrace? Have Garruk and Jace been forced out of the game by things like Loot? Most importantly, will you even consider drafting any of these sets this year?

Guys help me I have no clue what to cut and I feel like I struck gold.

https://preview.redd.it/jmh8h2l0snee1.png?width=1582&format=png&auto=webp&s=1a49b35a8361e63d84286392684543b9b8e55a8b

https://preview.redd.it/mt5kbprxukee1.png?width=1436&format=png&auto=webp&s=ec1caf12378a11a8bab98d98aace3943a4375dde

Next week, for only the fourth time ever, we at the XMage Draft Historical Society are starting our complete* progression through Magic's history of draft formats! All convenient, online, and 100% free for everyone.

*with a few reasonable edits…we really are becoming exceedingly efficient at it :)

If you’re like us and believe that draft never gets old, the XDHS is the place for you. We are ALWAYS welcoming and happy to have new people join. And now is truly an incredible opportunity to start, with 3x BETA drafts starting again on Wednesday, Jan 29. We host our drafts 6 times a week, all timed to be easy to draft for different time zones. Unless you’re filthy rich, this is basically the only way I’m aware of to experience the full richness of MTG draft history in all its glory. And you won’t get another opportunity to start at this point for at least another two years. One of the big draws of the XDHS is that if you're a fan of limited magic, your options are currently pretty limited, and they all have different downsides. Broadly, the current options for drafting Magic are:

• In paper, organized by your LGS (generally current format only, costs money, doesn’t always fire)
• In paper, organized by a friend group (old sets extremely expensive or impossible to draft, hard to schedule a time and get enough players to actually fire)
• Magic Online (costs money, throwback drafts are scheduled at the whim of WotC (and are increasingly rare), no real social community)
• Arena (generally current format only with occasional throwback options, costs money, no real social community)

Drafting on XMage solves all these problems – we can draft whichever sets we want, whenever we want, all for free – and, best of all, with an amazing community of regular drafters. Using the program regularly also brings us closer to it - we have many community members who contribute code to XMage, and we're genuinely dedicated to making it the best possible way to play Magic.

I joined the XDHS almost three years ago after reading a post very similar to this one, and it's become one of the primary ways that I play Magic. I'm a bit of a freak for experiencing limited Magic in all its forms, and it's been fascinating to see how Magic has evolved over the years, for better and worse. It's been a wonderful experience starting with one of our semi-regular rotisserie drafts, getting sucked in at the start of the last rotation, and just running from there. At my peak I was playing 3-4 regular drafts a week, and the ritual of it is now something I schedule my weeks around. It's also been lovely going from a regular community member to a draft host to an XDHS admin, and it feels good to be able to give back to the community.

Speaking of the community, the XDHS has a great social atmosphere! The anticipation and buzz created by our world-class format guides before a new format hits. The pre-draft banter as we’re waiting for the pod to fill. The memes, the emojis, the inside jokes. The heartfelt journey through draft logs and deck builds. Unbelievable screenshots of game states never before dreamed possible in draft. Becoming stronger limited players by lifting each other up, helping each other out, being good sports and playing the long game of generally being excellent to each other rather than angle shooting for a quick TKO win against a nameless and faceless opponent you were never going to see again.

I'm truly proud of this whole community and what it's accomplished over the three years I've been here, and the full six years it's been around. We have an amazing admin team of 17 people, who all work together to help the XDHS run cleanly and smoothly like a well-oiled machine.

As of January 2025, the list of accomplishments is astounding:

• 1800+ member Discord server
• 1400+ drafts successfully completed
• 550+ unique players who’ve played at least one match
• 240+ unique formats played
• Almost 20,000 matches played(!)

So come on down and join our friendly and welcoming draft community on our Discord server! 4 of our 6 weekly drafts are true historical draft formats, and we also host two bonus slots for two different time zones that host a wide range of formats. Some of these are chosen by our team, and others are chosen by community members as devotion drafts, rewards for playing with us and being a dedicated part of our little corner of the Magic community!

Starting today (Jan 22, 2025), we are finishing up our third chronological progression with a community chosen slate of four Shadowmoor (SHM) drafts. Shadowmoor is a popular (and wild to play) limited format, and is a good middleground between early Magic design and current Magic design if you want to get a taste of what it's like! Helpful veterans will also be standing by to assist you if you need any help.

TL;DR:

• The XDHS is starting over its chronological progression with 3x Beta drafts the last week of January 2025 – a once every two years opportunity to join at the start of a progression.
• XMage is like a free version of MTGO with a full draft and rules enforcement engine.
• Join our Discord to start playing today: https://discord.gg/Aymy7xpwep

Mark Rosewater’s teaser for Aetherdrift has been revealed, and among the usual sneak peeks at card names, new creature types, and intriguing lines of rules text, there are a few interesting mentions that stick out, namely a couple of new cycles from the upcoming set.

First, we have the new Gearhulks, one of which was already revealed and gives us a good idea of what the whole cycle might look like. They’re multicolored this time, but these were stone-cold bombs in Kaladesh. Second we have… a cycle of vanilla legendaries? That’s intriguing, to say the least, but is there some sort of Limited gimmick that's going to make them work, or will they just be over-statted creatures?

What do you expect from these two Aetherdrift cycles? Will the Gearhulks live up to the originals’ names? Is there something special going on with the vanilla legends?

The only draft options on Arena right now are Duskmourn and two different queues for Pioneer Masters. Given that Foundations is supposedly a gateway for new players and is the current set in standard, am I crazy for thinking it would be available to draft in some way?

Building a 'booster simulator' DGR cube, looking for input on what rares to include.

Stipulations:

Nothing over 1$ ish

Nothing that sucks to play against

(The big intimidate creature, Master of your life pool is now 1, Rift, Missium Morter, etc.)

I'm going to include Aetherling (because fun) but will take it out if players dont enjoy the 4ish turn clock thats nigh impossible to interact with.

Also the complete pool needs to be color balanced. Think something like one of each mono color and two of each multicolor guild cards.

So we are gonna end up with a pool of 15 or so rares from Dragons Maze (to make 6 packs for 3v3 team drafts specifically)

Then the same for 6 Guildcrash packs

The the same for 6 RTR packs

I also want to pick rare pools to run the cube as triple Gatecrash or triple Return to Rav. if anyone wants to be an overachiever and pick a pool for those too…

TLDR: what are the strongest two cards in each color / color combo that arent gamebreaking ?

Thanks for any help!

Wasn't expecting to trophy with this deck but the low curve just felt great every game. I transitioned to green late so these were all of my playable cards and the Armasaur Guide as well as Quick-Draw Katana actually did some serious work in this deck.

The Ajani planeswalker wasn't great in this deck since most times you don't want to play it turn 3 due to the loss of tempo. There was a crazy 40-long minute match where it won me the game but I played it in both of my losses and it was underwhelming. Scavenging Ooze was easily the MVP, the card is insane.

https://imgur.com/a/x9G2o9m