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Magic Numbers: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Sierkovitz
Magic Numbers is a podcast about Limited format in Magic: the Gathering. The idea is to use data to try to crack current format, or try to answer longstanding questions in Magic and by answering the questions making the listeners better at drafting, deckbuilding and general strategy. The target audience is intermediate to advanced players, but rest assured, determined beginners will also find useful information that will allow them to level up. The podcast is an audio version of my Twitch seminars, so if some parts are confusing, it was designed to be watched on YouTube or live on Twitch.
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- 3 weeks ago2h 15m
#184: Right cards for right draft decks, SOS edition
Card win rates can be misleading if you don't look at them with some amount of granularity. Two color pairs have a very different base win rate? Card played in both can look middling. Card is only good in one color pair but is routinely played in many? Win rate can look bad. To start correctly assessing card power using data to add extra context is crucial. And if you do it well, you might discover some plans for each color pair that will otherwise remain hidden. Today you can see which card from SOS plays well in which of the colleges. But I will also show you how looking at the win rates of Strixhaven Skycoach and supplementing it with knowledge of the format can point you to less obvious conclusions related to the format. Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! Watch this episode on YT: Episode #184You can get the BulkBox if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount!If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website
- Apr 26, 20261h 58m
#183: Early 17Lands draft data for Secrets of Strixhaven
New set is upon us, and it plays out sweet in Limited. I look at the early 17Lands data in order to figure out what works, what doesn't. But for this one, I think the more important thing is: what are the rules of engagement. What do you have to do in this format in order to start winning that is not typical for all formats. Hopefully the way I present the data will help you figuring that part out. Remember that looking at card win rates will give you a quick boost in your personal win rate, but understanding the format, getting to grasp its philosophy will set you off on the long-term winning streak, independently of how the format corrects in the future.Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! Watch this episode on YT: Episode #183You can get the BulkBox if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount!If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website
- Apr 21, 20263h 0m
#182: Draft deck skeletons for Secrets of Strixhaven with the Skeleton Crew
New set is almost there, so it is time for my eccentric, deck-centric set review with the ever changing but ever wise Skeleton Crew. This time we have Zach Kagan and Tresio and we dive into out hopes and aspirations for the Secrets of Strixhaven set. And what a banger it promises to be. Despite being a 5 guilds set, where only 5 color pairs are supported for draft, the design team tried to seed in fast and slow versions of each of the 5 archetype and we try to figure out how that could work for each of them. We look at cards, but in context of decks and plans rather than evaluating each card in vacuum. Great material to prime yourself for the upcoming set, and I can proudly say - I think it is one of the best Skeleton Crew episodes we did so far. Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! Watch this episode on YT: Episode #182You can get the BulkBox if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount!If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website
- Apr 1, 20261h 15m
#181: Winning against your worst opponent, your own brain
No graphs in this seminar but we are looking at something that will help you in every format you play and, who knows, potentially also in your non-magic part of life. Today we look at some cognitive theory and find ways our own brain tries to make us lose. How does it do it, what can we do about it? How to find a right mix of instinctive reactions and analytical thinking that maximises our intellectual contribution towards our games while letting us play a long tournament without getting exhausted? We also look at some common biases and put them in the context of Magic the Gathering draft. How to create a system that lets us avoid those common cognitive traps? How to build a structured approach that will naturally make us aware of our own brain trying to fool ourselves.Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! Watch this episode on YT: Episode #181You can get the BulkBox if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount!If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website
- Mar 23, 20261h 26m
#180: The secret sauce of Pizza decks in TMT draft
Everything Pizza decks are the open secret of the TMT draft format. Some streamers chain one 5 color deck after another. And there is a good reason for that. Since it has not been covered by any podcasts, the top cards for the archetype, including its namesake, are still going relatively late. And it is by far the best deck in the format. Its win rate averages at 60% - way above WB ninjas. And, if you build it correctly, this can be much higher. Today I will look at dos and don'ts of Everything Pizza 5C piles and hopefully convince you that if you never drafted it - you never truly played the TMT draft format and are missing out on the fun. Also - since it is a format where 5C deck is busted, if you feel afraid of playing 5C in draft - this is probably the best time to try it and learn how to do it in the future as normally 5C deck have a very different set of fundamentals than run-of-the-mill 2C draft decks. Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! Watch this episode on YT: Episode #180You can get the BulkBox if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount!If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website
- Mar 16, 20262h 11m
#179: Right cards for the right decks, TMT Edition
Even with only 5 supported color pairs, some cards are not universally good. And after learning about the best cards in the last episode, figuring out the ones that have only one good home is important. We can fool ourselves by looking at the generic win rates of a card, but sometimes the difference can be massive. Extreme example is the poster boy of this episode, Armaggon, Future Shark. A bona fide bomb in BG decks, improving their win rate by a whooping 12%p, in WB it actually lowers it by 2%p. Reasons are obvious - WB doesn't want an 8-drop and doesn't have tools to cast them. But some cards are less obvious - check out the episode to see which ones are those. Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! Watch this episode on YT: Episode #179You can get the BulkBox if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount!If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website
- Mar 8, 20262h 3m
#178: Early draft data for TMT
New set, new rules and despite its small size TMT looks interesting. There is a variety of diverse strategies which are viable - aggro, control, tempo are all there. And some cards do surprisingly well - check out this episode to see which ones and why. Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! Watch this episode and see the slides: Episode #178This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.You can get the BulkBox if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount!If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website
- Mar 3, 20261h 41m
#177: Draft deck skeletons for TMT with the Skeleton Crew
Our deck-centric, eccentric set review is back - we cover the key aspects of the upcoming Turtle set. Get some head start over the rest of Arena folk by tapping into great minds of Jason Ye and Springbok7. I am also present. How to build the 5 main color pairs, some key cards and good ideas on what is going to be important in the format and what is not. Plus some silliness - but that one is a given with the skeleton crew. Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! Watch this episode and see the slides: Episode #177This podcast is sponsored by mtgazone.com - get your reading fix from the best and brightest Magic writers in the business.You can get the BulkBox if you are in the UK. Remember to use SIERKO10 code for a 10% discount!If you are outside of UK, you can find your local distributor on the BulkBox website
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About Magic Numbers
Magic Numbers is a podcast about Limited format in Magic: the Gathering. The idea is to use data to try to crack current format, or try to answer longstanding questions in Magic and by answering the questions making the listeners better at drafting, deckbuilding and general strategy. The target audience is intermediate to advanced players, but rest assured, determined beginners will also find useful information that will allow them to level up. The podcast is an audio version of my Twitch seminars, so if some parts are confusing, it was designed to be watched on YouTube or live on Twitch.
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