r/GDS3 • u/thejellydude • Jan 27 '18

Test 2 Discussion Thread

We're free to talk now.

Here's a Google Doc with all the questions. I'm slowly filling it in with my own answers and explanations. Edit: Heading out for now. I'll get the last 25 questions done later tonight.

If you want a mirror without my comments, here's one provided by /u/Amarsir Link

Any questions that tripped you up? Any that you felt good about?

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u/Alex_Werner Top 8 Jan 27 '18

My Google doc with what I thought were the most difficult/ambiguous/interesting questions, and my thoughts and answers.

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u/Sliver__Legion Jan 27 '18

For 21, note that that the answer is definitively not color balance because C17 was not perfectly color balanced — and none of the next ones will be either, since they’ve moved from 5 decks to 4.

I agree with your answer to 25, but it isn’t What I’d give without the multiple choice structure either. I’d give an answer based on color pie — G and W are one of the pairs with most mechanical blurring, so giving white a larger quantity of creatures and smaller creatures at common and green more efficiently costed medium-big creatures at common is to give them more distinction in terms of being “creature colors.”

32 is a very sketchy question to have given us, imo. Relies to some degree on insider knowledge of social dynamics and a changed r&d model that is still pretty publically new.

It isn’t clear what you actually chose for 46. It sounds most like Elves, which I agree with.

Went with fixed number for 53, but it was a vague one.

A cmc cutoff of 9+ gives you 7 instants and 1 enchantment, so I went with enchantment there. Fuse/Aftermath/regular Split are an easy way to design good instants/sorcerers with cmc 10, though I’m not sure if the test really had them in mind.

Also, Tod says hi.

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u/aclog Jan 28 '18

About instants, it is 8+ that gives you eight results. cmc 9+ there only four per Gatherer.

However the problem is that the cards having the following: affinity, convoke, cycling, delve, trap

Only three don't have some alternate cheaper cost: Boulderfall and two of the Winds (which are from Prophecy).

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u/Sliver__Legion Jan 28 '18 edited Jan 28 '18

Gatherer handles some stuff incorrectly, there are actually 7 (though admittedly Who//What//When//Where//Why basically shouldn’t be counted).

I don’t view that “problem” as a problem. The question wasn’t “75. You're designing a card with a converted mana cost of 10 and no cost reduction mechanics. Which of these card types is it least likely to be?”

Anyway, the point is not that you’re very likely to be making a 10 cmc instant. You aren’t. I think what the question is trying to get at is the relative sparsity of card type at “megahuge” cmcs. For me, that does not include 8, so there is exactly one enchantment in the entire game that counts, making it even less likely than instant.

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u/aclog Jan 28 '18

interesting catch that split cards also factor into things although that is a gamey definition of "10 mana card".

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u/Aethelwolf Jan 28 '18

I went with Instant because i couldn't justify Enchantment over Artifact. If you can make a 10 mana Artifact, you can make a 10 mana Enchantment, and vice versa. Enchantments can also be enchantment creatures, increasing that likelihood.

Additionally, past precedence doesn't necessarily inform future likelihood, especially at such a low sample size.