Sam Pardee

@TBSdash @MightyLinguine Yes I was ever surprised that Kurt Cobain didn’t come up a single time.

@MightyLinguine @Smdster Did @Smdster watch it raw without any backstory/knowledge of the show?

Can someone please watch nirvana the band the show the movie so @Smdster can talk with you about it - not me 🤣 he’s obsessed

@kanister_mtg @Mengu09 When they locked this promo in I’d guess it was a pretty desirable standard card. Showed up a decent amount in Gruul and a handful of tier 2-3 decks

@Mengu09 Imagine an actual standard desirable card instead! Ouroboroid? Riddler? Cub? A Verge land?

9-5 at #RCTurin. Lessons was oki. There likely was some space to play better and avoid a loss or two. The question remains: why has Innkeeper’s Talent been chosen as the promo? #HareruyaPros

@__Boland__ 0 Stock Up stock Lessons

RCQ win yesterday with stock Lessons 🔥

@SamuelHBlack @TheZvi Im surprised it takes either of you until halfway through an A0 run to know that you’re going to win it.

@TheZvi Also the problem with the board game

I've been reminded again now that we all are starting fresh that the big problem with A0 runs in Slay the Spire (both 1 and 2) is that by halfway through you know you've won and nothing matters.

@SamuelHBlack @MightyLinguine’s 50% Sam conversion rate was way low!

Good day for Sams with Elementals

Won the limited PTQ! Deck was great, I’m great!

@LizardJenny I’d recommend just bringing them in a carry-on. Like a 25% chance they flag the bag and open the deck boxes, but I’ve never had them actually remove cards from boxes or do anything worse than just opening them.

What is the best way to fly with decks? I've heard horror stories about the TSA handling cards but am also loath to check a lot of expensive cardboard and have it get lost for some reason.

@tommartell @MatthewLNass @LiquidSjow Yeah everyone who wasn’t playing it had very good plans against it. It’s blisteringly fast and really crushes anyone who is unprepared, but people came respectful.

@MatthewLNass @LiquidSjow Was there just too much cheap removal? I didn’t see many cub games to see why it was losing.

Standard is pretty crazy in magic theese days. Turn 3 btw 😅

The second most humiliated I’ve ever seen Drake be at a Super Bowl…

@lunaloveee8 @caro_irl I agree with you but don’t really have anything to justify it other than vibes.

@Smdster @caro_irl I feel like the former but I feel like I would need to become a top tier PT player to be a better judge.

how big do you think the chasm between magic pros and "average" players is? in chess, the worst IM would have to have a mid-game stroke for me to win. obviously RNG and decks are a factor, but would a pro have a ~100% chance of beating "FNM 2-1 Andy" in a bo5? bo11? bo21?

@lunaloveee8 @caro_irl Where do you think the delta would be bigger? RC grinder vs consistent PT player Or Consistent PT player vs top tier PT player

@caro_irl I think if a RC grinder who has never played a PT played vs a regular PT player and they played 50 games, switched matchups, and then played 50 more, PT player would win every time.

@Nickthos She also won an RCQ with lessons a week before worlds.

When I was naming decklists for the Portland RC this deck stood out. Though she went 5-4, Hannah was about 80-90 percent of the way to playing the deck that had the breakout performance at the Pro Tour.

@HeezyGame @Ajelenbogen @adambrace29 @InsayneHayne Our team played it at PT Madrid which Steve Rubin won, and we did have a really good win %. There was a different GW Tokens deck (technically Bant) that Sam Black and Sperling(?) played at PT Milwaukee that year that also had a great WR and 0 top 8s, but it was very few pilots.

@Smdster @Ajelenbogen @adambrace29 I am clearly misremembering than I swear like @InsayneHayne played it at a PT where it did not top 8

Not even joking Is spellamentals the best preforming PT deck without a top 8 since GW tokens? Dominance incoming? @Ajelenbogen @adambrace29

@HeezyGame @Ajelenbogen @adambrace29 Are you talking about the Sam Black deck that like 2 people played? If so the answer is also no because there's a ton of decks with that small of a sample that also outperform it.

@Smdster @Ajelenbogen @adambrace29 No it didn’t The first time it was played it didn’t top 8

@HeezyGame @Ajelenbogen @adambrace29 GW Tokens won the PT so no.

@Ajelenbogen @adambrace29 To both right?

@Ajelenbogen Interesting. I don’t think I fully agree. There’s been PTs where I felt like my team agreed and were correct on the matchup spreads for our options, and then people made different choices based on different metagame guesses and based on what they expected they’d enjoy/play well.

@Smdster If we are wrong that is a distinct error to me. Its also a proccess failure but a different sort. I think we should strive to agree on the reality of how the decks line up against each other internally and thus what the best choice is.

For many years I have said that any Pro Tour where my team plays multiple distinct decks I consider a personal failure. For this Pro Tour, for the first time ever, we succeeded.

@CBotelhoMagic I’d describe it as an eyes-open trade off. They certainly knew that it was going to be annoying in exactly the way it is and decided that the flavor win was worth it (I disagree).

So, starting town’s got a pretty weird design element in making you track the first three turns of the game we’ve played with for a while now. Is it fair to call this a design failure compared to fastlands? Seems like added likelihood for GRV errors with no added gameplay value.

Very cool project!

@terribadmtg @DroodHT I think I can get like 28/32 PT and 2 Spotlight/RC winners.

@Smdster @DroodHT People who lost in quarterfinals of a PT this year? thats pretty close I think. I could name more people who top8d a MOCS last year :)

What would you rather do? Win a Spotlight series or top 8 a Pro Tour?