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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.

Latest Episodes:

#145: Aetherdrift Draft Skeletons with the Skeleton Crew Feb 05, 2025

Show notes

The Skeleton Crew is back!!! Me, Jason Ye, Zach Kagan and Jake Browne look at Aetherdrift and try to figure out what are the key themes / synergies and cards in the new set. This is our unique take on a set review where more attention is put on within-set synergies rather than individual card power. We go through all the colorpairs and try to see how we envision decks in those color pairs, what will be important for them and where we expect hits and misses. Watch it to get ready for your prerelease and when the set hits arena and receive the insight into our questionable sense of humor as a "bonus". And I am using the word "bonus " very loosely here. My guests are an exceptional bunch. Worth following them and here is where you can do it: Jason: https://bsky.app/profile/jasoniltg.bsky.social Zach: https://bsky.app/profile/zakagan.bsky.social Jake: https://bsky.app/profile/jakebrowne.com

Watch this episode and see the slides: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Episode #145 vid⁠⁠⁠⁠

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.

#144: Testing Heuristics in Limited Jan 26, 2025

Show notes

We hear the wisdom from experienced players: Always play your two drops, Spend all your mana, and many more. But how do the numbers back those old truths? Do they stand scrutiny of testing them through data? Are they universal? Or are there corner cases? I test several Limited heuristics and hopefully you get to level up your game play through it!

Watch this episode and see the slides: ⁠⁠⁠Episode #144 vid⁠⁠⁠

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.

#143: Birthday Q & A Jan 03, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, I answer a variety of question about Magic, life, cooking and stuff. Mainly MAgic though, so don't worry - you can still get something useful out of it, I am not turning into a lifestyle content creator.

Watch this episode and see the slides: ⁠⁠Episode #143 vid⁠⁠

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.

#142: Early 17Lands.com draft data for Pioneer Masters Dec 16, 2024

Show notes

New set is with us and with it the usual struggles. What to play, which cards overperform, which do badly, what color pairs to prioritise. Fear not - I have most of the basics covered and hopefully you will leave with a solid understanding of the key features of the Pioneer set.

Watch this episode and see the slides: ⁠Episode #142 vid⁠

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.

#141: Draft Good Cards Dec 06, 2024

Show notes

Watch this episode and see the slides: Episode #141 vid

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.

#140: Finding right homes for cards in FDN draft Nov 25, 2024

Show notes

There are some cards that are just great in Limited. You can jam them into any deck and be happy about it. Filling your whole deck with those must be nice. In reality, to find 23 playables we need to compromise a bit. Some cards will be below par. But with some knowledge you can make the most of that. Some cards can be great in one of the color pairs in the format but mediocre in others. Knowing that will help you in putting them only in the right home and thus maximising on their power. Other cards are the opposite - great in most color pairs, but significantly weaker in one. Imagine if W is aggressive in a format apart from WU decks which tend to be controlling. You can imagine cards that will be great in all W decks apart from WU and cards that are specifically great in WU. This is the plan for today's episode - sifting through all the common and uncommon cards in the set to find the ones that need a particular home.

Watch this episode and see the slides: https://youtu.be/fz372F0oTzI

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.

#139: Early 17Lands.com draft data for Foundations Nov 18, 2024

Show notes

New set, new data. How to position yourself well in a new format? Get the best available card evaluations as early as possible. And that is the aim of this episode.

I will look at each color pair through the lens of the key card - surprising hits, reliable performars and shocking duds. Plenty of cards in each category will be discussed throughout the episode.

Hopefully with this information you will be ready to trophy more and outplay those who rely on guesswork and intuition.

Watch this episode and see the slides: https://youtu.be/aWoTNGMbq7E

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 at

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.

Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

#138: DSK Set Re-review with Chord_O_Calls Nov 11, 2024

Show notes

Set reviews are fun but what exasctly do they bring to the table? We grade cards, we speculate wildly and life moves on. This set review is different. We graded the cards before the set was released, and are coming back to our initial grading after the dust has settled. Me, and Alex, AKA Chord_o_Calls use this re-review to learn - what typpes of cards do we miss on? What trends we had during the grading? How can we use our failures to improve the next time? Card evaluation is a skill that can be worked on and it yields results. Hope this episode will help you improving your grading skills. You can find Alex on twitter: twitter.com/Chord_O_Calls Or listen to his excellent podcast, Limited Level-Ups, which you can find on your podcast app or on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@limitedlevel-ups

Watch this episode and see the slides: ⁠https://youtu.be/s-s-3MdNJv4⁠

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 at

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.

Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

#137 - Advanced DSK drafting Nov 05, 2024

Show notes

So, you have your Boros aggro and UW Eerie decks nailed to a fine detail? But perhaps recently the wins are not coming as easy as they did early season? Don't worry - I got you covered there. We will loook at the data of top 17Lands.com users and try to figure out what do they do differently to sustain a solid win rate throughout the format. And what strategies do they lean onto as the well with the best decks dries out because the knowledge of their strength becomes universal.

Watch this episode and see the slides: https://youtu.be/s-s-3MdNJv4

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 at

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.

Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

#136 - What does 17Lands data tell us about successful draft strategy? Nov 05, 2024

Show notes

Forcing, drafting the hard way, drafting with preferences are all different approaches to the draft part of Limited.

What do the numbers tell us about those? Can you optimise your approach to draft through this and how? All in this weeks episode.

Watch this episode and see the slides: https://youtu.be/WD2i1C07EfA

You can get the BulkBox at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.bulkbox.co.uk/store/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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.

Theme song: You Do You, Mana Junkie by essesq (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/essesq/61332⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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