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© Sierkovitz
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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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New set upon us and it is a challenging one. But worth giving it at least a couple of tries and you want to be prepared for that. What colors tick and which are duds? Which cards overperform and which failed to fulfil their promise? And why are there so many spiders in this definitely in-universe set? Find out the answers to at least some of those questions in my lates episode. 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 #165This 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
New set is upon us so it is time for our unique deck-centric, eccentric set review. Smaller set, smaller crew, so this time me, Sam Pratt from the Rough Drafts podcast and Zach Kagan (see below for their details) go through the specifics of Marvel's Spider-Man and look at which cards we expect to do well, which ones we have little trust in and how would we build each of the 5 supported decks. Which cards will matter and define the format? What can flop and what considerations do we need to take into account when starting with SPD. Check my guest's socials:https://linktr.ee/roughdraftshttps://bsky.app/profile/zakagan.bsky.socialPing 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 #164SlidesThis 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
Today's episode is all about card evaluation. I look at cards from the recent past which were either amazingly good, sneakily good but under-appreciated by the community or traps that looked like they might be good but did not deliver. What vcan we learn from those cards? Are there any common themes? How to recognise a potential trap early or how to pick hidden gems more reliably?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 #163This 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
Today we get a great guest - Sam Pratt from Rough Drafts podcast and we are talking about how to figure out builds, what role does the data play in that process and in the process figure out some key features of successful build-arounds in the format. Sam is someone worth following - you can find their socials / podcast here:https://linktr.ee/roughdraftsPing 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 #162This 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
Week one data can only get you that far in understanding the format. To get a full grasp on it we need to go a bit deeper than the superficial. Today we try to look at cards in the context of their best homes. Yes, some cards are universally good, but some require a bit more thought put into where they belong or - even more tricky - where they don't belong. And through those unique (or uniquely bad) cards, we can also start speculating on the most consistent game plans for each color pair. 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 #161 This 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
New set, early start and people are struggling a bit - this is where data can be truly helpful. Get some ideas on what the format is all about through the lens of numbers. Green looks solid but what makes other colors tick? And what should you be cautious about when interpreting the early numbers?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 #160This 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
The new set is upon us so it is time to reanimate the Skeleton Crew. Our eccentric, deck-centric set review is back!! Through the means of ancient necromancy we have summoned Jason Ye, Sam Pratt (of the Rough Drafts podcast - give it a try) and Tresio to debate Edge of Eternities cards, decks and colors. Invaluable prep for your pre-release or just to hit the drafts running as soon as it gets released on Arena. Someone on Reddit said that this is the best set review format on the market - so it must be true!We built deck skeletons for each color pair in the new set using some arcane and very arbitrary rules and we try to review the set through the lens of those prototype decks. Find my esteemed guests on Bsky: @JasonILTG, @sampratt or on X @tresio 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 #159SlidesThis 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
Once per set I try to explore some new data concepts and try to give you, the viewer, some insight into the research process while trying to answer some questions related to limited Magic that interest me. This week episode is all about openness in draft lanes - something Final Fantasy was mage for as a very well balanced set. And this led me to a new concept - negative space win rates. How does not having a card in your deck impact the win rate. And how is it different from not drawing a card you have in your deck in a game. -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 #158 vidThis 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
Mr Sierkovitz goes to Vegas - in spirit only. I teamed up with Team Cosmos to help them in their Pro Tour prep and you can now see how it went. PT prep needs to be fast and efficient - as there are only few days between the set release and the competition. So this hypercondensed seminar goes through all cards in the set and tries to put as much context as possible in as little time as possible. We go through general power, but also look at best homes for each card is applicable. Working with legends of the game is easy as they will use their own judgement in the best way possible but not all Pros are Limited specialists so I made sure that the talk is also useful to an average Arena player - so if you want to get a good overview of the format - look no further. It is probably the fastest set review ever and a useful one at that as it is not based on uncertainties before the release but on data driven approaches, albeit based on imperfect early data. Bunch of caveats apply - I tried to highlight as many as possible, but use caution all through, particularly for rarer cards where sample size is still relatively small. Thanks to Team Cosmos - it was great to take part in their prep and see the inner workings of a pro team and observe some masters at work. -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 #157 vidThis 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
New set is here, and Final Fantasy looks from the early days like a potential all-timer for us limited folks. And getting into the nitty gritty of it should start with getting some fundamentals - what colors look good (spoiler - all of them), which color pairs should you be playing (spoiler - also all of them) and which cards overperform (spoiler - ok - not all of them, for this you need to watch the episode). I look through each color pair and try to find what is best, what is under-explored but good and warn you of any traps for more successful drafting. -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 #156 vidThis 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.
I am joined by a motley crew of Limited sickos for our eccentric deck-centric set review. We look at some basic info about the upcoming Final Fantasy set and then present our deck skeletons - 40 card functional? decks in each color pair in order to showcase what we think is going to be good in the format. We look at cards in context, as pieces of a synergistic whole, to try and think beyond raw card power. My guests this week are Tresio, Springbok7 and SamP - all Limited fans, all great drafters. They debate and discuss their builds with me playing the role of a moderator and an annoying nitpicker. A role I do truly love.You can find Tresio athttps://x.com/TresioSpringbok7 at https://www.twitch.tv/springbok7and SamP at https://bsky.app/profile/sampratt.bsky.socialor you can check out his excellent podcast: Rough Drafts:https://open.spotify.com/show/4OnYIYmoCdnnlC7pUVyM0APing 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 #155 vidThis 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.
New set is upon us and we have an impossible task of figuring out which cards are grerat and which are traps without the advantage of having them ever in our hands. Data won't solve that problem but it can definitely help, by looking at the general trends in card power across mana values, colors, etc. Also we can look into the amazing #P0P1 initiative from MTG_DS, where hundreds of people put their bets on the best cards in a set before its release (which mtg_ds kindly shared with me). This let me look at the wisdom of the crowd - what cards were widely liked but turned out to be duds, which cards nobody saw coming. Why some cards fly under the radar, while some lure us into the trap?Here is the example fo P0P1 results from TMD for reference - make sure to give MTG_DS a follow - in the end it stands for Magic Data Science, you should be interested!https://x.com/mtg_ds/status/1920641850546815335Ping 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 #154 vidThis 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.
Sealed data - the title sort of says it all ;) - will edit later (or will I?)
This week we try to add a little bit context to the Tarkir: Dragonstorm drafts. Yes, some cards have high win rate, but who cares? That doesn't mean you should cram them in any deck. Some cards have a low win rate - again - that doesn't make them unplayable. They just need the right home. Today, with some 17Lands numbers I try to figure out what cards make the 6 main color combinations of this format tick. 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 #152 vidThis 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.
This week we dive into the new set - what is the big picture data? What are the key cards in each color, how to approach the early data and wht makes the 3C combinations tick. Also - how to pick fixing in TDM. 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 #151 vidThis 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.
Some meta stuff today. How to read data. What traps to avoid and what does data tell us about reading data. 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 #150 vidThis 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.
Yet again our ever changing lineup of limited virtuosos takes on out unique deck-centric and excentric take on a set review. What to expect from the new set, what are we going to be playing, trying to draft, avoiding and dreaming of assembling. You can find my guests on Bsky:https://bsky.app/profile/jasoniltg.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/r-condon.bsky.socialor Elon Musks X.com platform:https://x.com/TresioPing 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 #149 vidThis 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.
Today I look at the impact of luck in Aetherdrift draft. How much of the games outcome is determined by the luck in the pod? And how do great players deal with that? And how you, my dear viewer can become, if not great, at least better. I also talk about vehicles. And cards played in multiples. 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 #148 vidThis 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.
Some cards are just great. They have it all - they fit like a glove to any deck you drafted. But some are amazing in one place, but a detriment elsewhere. The generic Win Rate metsrics for those cards can be misleading because they will be impacted by the cards bad performance in some decks so you won't see it is actually good in a more niche home.This week I look for those cards that have one home where they are great. Or decent. So you can start including them where they belong.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 #147 vidThis 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.
New set and this time the rules of engagement changed. And early data tells that story very well. Avoid the traps and start winning by being ahead of the curve. Might come in handy - either on Arena, your LGS or, dare I say, upcoming PT. I go through all the colors, color pairs, highlighting key cards and adding some context and describing the game plans that seem to give good results.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 #146 vidThis 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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