Magic Numbers
Sierkovitz
0
Magic Numbers is a podcast about the Limited format in Magic: the Gathering. It uses data to try to crack the current draft format and to answer longstanding questions about the game, with the goal of making listeners better at drafting, deckbuilding and general strategy. The show targets intermediate to advanced players, though determined beginners will also find useful material. It is essentially the audio version of the host's Twitch seminars, so some segments were designed to be watched on YouTube or live on Twitch.
Epizodai
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#195: Early 17Lands.com data for Reality Fracture 06.10.2026 1val 59minFRA is a banger. But a banger that is particularly hard to navigate. Cards can be contextually good, but there are some universal trends. Once you know them - the rest will become much easier. And hopefully by the end of this seminar you will have that baseline knowledge. And the true format discovery process can begin!I started offering coaching on Metafy! Go to my profile to see what's on offer! Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! Watch this episode on YT: 195 -
#194: Reality Fracture draft deck skeletons with the Skeleton Crew 27.09.2026 3val 11minNew set is out soon so why don't you learn the ins and outs of what we think is important in out eccentric, deck-centric set review. Instead of looking at cards, we build decks and show you how we think they might work. With me are The Rosemary Tea - check her awesome streams here. She is one of the most interesting drafters on the market, heavily invested in BO3 - as Garfield intended:https://www.twitch.tv/therosemaryteaAnd Springbok. He is helping a community that organises old drafts online. XMage Draft Historical Society even has software to help playing the games. Miss drafting Tempest? Never tried Conflux? Check them out here:https://discord.gg/tpdSfgdAMcI started offering coaching on Metafy! Go to my profile to see what's on offer! Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! Watch this episode on YT: 194
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#193: How is Pick 2 draft different? 11.09.2026 1val 11minThis week I look into Pick Two draft. Since its introduction it has become a popular variant of Magic, both because of how fast it is, how little it costs and a relatively OK payout structure. So what does it change in drafting and what does having 12 packs in the pod change in the resulting decks? I started offering coaching on Metafy! Go to my profile to see what's on offer! Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! Watch this episode on YT: 193
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#192: Right cards for right decks in Hobbit 26.08.2026 3val 5minThe format has stabilised after 2 weeks of turmoil and now is the time to actually look for solutions. And to do it, you better know what cards make which types of decks and which cards fool you into playing them. I look at all the cards in the set and see what are the best homes for them and while we do it, we discover the rules governing the Hobbit draft. I started offering coaching on Metafy! Go to my profile to see what's on offer! Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! Watch this episode on YT: 192
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#191: Early 17Lands draft data for The Hobbit 16.08.2026 2val 1minNew set, new rules of engagement. How to use the early draft data to understand the latest Magic expansion limited format? General set stats, color power, what makes each color pair tick and what are the traps to avoid. I started offering coaching on Metafy! Go to my profile to see what's on offer! Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! Watch this episode on YT: 191
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#190: The Hobbit draft deck Skeletons 11.08.2026 2val 6minWelcome to my eccentric, deck-centric set review. I look at some general stats for the new set, and fed with that information, set out to build functional draft deck and theory craft how the set might look like in the future. Am I right? Am I wrong - only time will tell. But I can guarantee you will get some nutritious food for thought in your own prep for the new format. Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! Watch this episode on YT: 190
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#189: Right Cards for the right draft decks, MSH Edition 09.07.2026 2val 52minFormat is now well developed and the pick orders stopped evolving - so it is time to start solving a static environment. And what better way to do it that re-evaluation of every card in the set? I look at each card and see how it performs in every color combination where data is available. Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! Watch this episode on YT: Episode #189
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#188: Early 17Lands draft data for Marvel Super Heroes 29.06.2026 2val 4minNew format, new opportunities. We can start discovering the secrets of the MSH set, but you've got to start somewhere - and where better than with the early 17Lands data? We look at set statistics, color power levels, best cards at each rarity, key cards and biggest traps in each color pair. This should prepare you for your LGS and get you ready to explore the more subtle interactions and niche builds later in the format - in the end you can't do that without some solid fundamentals. Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! Watch this episode on YT: Episode #188You 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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#187: Marvel Super Heroes Draft Deck Skeletons with the Skeleton Crew 21.06.2026 3val 55minFew days before the new set releases on Arena - why not see our vision of draft format before starting to draft? Our eccentric, deck-centric set review is back. We look at format stats, design vision and then instead of grading individual cards we propose 40 card decks skeletons to showcase what we see in each color pair. This time we have Tresiohttps://x.com/Tresio/and Rosemary Teahttps://x.com/TheRosemaryTea/And we are in for an interesting discussion. MSH looks like a jazz improvisation set rather thn paint-by-numbers drafting prevalent in the last few sets and I am all in for it. It is also a polar opposite of SOS - a creature and permanent centered design after instant and sorcery themed SOS so expect to re-evaluate your evaluations. Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! Watch this episode on YT: Episode #187You 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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#186: Journal Club (Mulligan and opening hand data) 15.06.2026 1val 42minThis week we are trying something new. A journal club. And the reason for it is very simple - there are not that many Magic-related scientific papers out there. But last week Jess Williams and Zev Goldhaber-Gordon released a very interesting paper on opening hands, land percentages, mulliganing and mana flood. I invited both authors to talk about their findings and what implications they have for Magic players. We will be talking about BO3 mulligan rates, links between player win rate and mulligan rate, causes for any trends in that. We will also look at a neat method of estimating optimal land composition, and impact of both mana screw and flood. Jess and Zev are both PhD students with impressive scientific pedigree, but also Magic players with notable successes under their belts, so they combine the rigour needed for those sorts of analyses with understanding of the game. You can follow them here:Jess Williams: https://x.com/mtg_jessZev Goldhaber-Gordon: https://bsky.app/profile/zergog.bsky.socialAnd - most importantly find the paper here in its simplified version (the link to the full paper can be found in there too):https://medium.com/@mtg_jess/opening-hand-evaluation-in-limited-executive-summary-8360a819e2e6Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! Watch this episode on YT: Episode #186You 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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#185: Reimagining limited deck clustering 09.06.2026 1val 48minThis week we say goodbye to SOS and sending it off through testing some new deck clustering approach. This time it is capable of distinguishing sub-color pair builds. And this opens new possibilities of analysing limited data. What happens when a color(pair) is not open? Can we see the symptoms of drfting based on the 1st picks? I think that we can. The method I used here is experimental but based on this pilot run, I will incorporate it (and much earlier in the format) for other sets. Key aspect of this episode is testing the novel approach so be generous with comments and suggestions!Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else! Watch this episode on YT: Episode #185You 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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#184: Right cards for right draft decks, SOS edition 12.05.2026 2val 15minCard 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
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#183: Early 17Lands draft data for Secrets of Strixhaven 26.04.2026 1val 58minNew 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
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#182: Draft deck skeletons for Secrets of Strixhaven with the Skeleton Crew 21.04.2026 3valNew 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
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#181: Winning against your worst opponent, your own brain 01.04.2026 1val 15minNo 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
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#180: The secret sauce of Pizza decks in TMT draft 23.03.2026 1val 26minEverything 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
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#179: Right cards for the right decks, TMT Edition 16.03.2026 2val 11minEven 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
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#178: Early draft data for TMT 08.03.2026 2val 3minNew 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
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#177: Draft deck skeletons for TMT with the Skeleton Crew 03.03.2026 1val 41minOur 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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#176: Right Cards for Right Decks, ECL Edition 11.02.2026 2val 36minTypal sets are tricky to navigate. How are we supposed to know if this particular Kithkin is OK in Elves or not? And how do we even start one of the unsupported color pairs? Well, here is the answer. I look at most cards in the set and try to figure out which cards are good in surprising homes and what cards are letting you stay open to non-canonical color pairs as much as it is possible.We also talk about meta strategy - what are the dominant ideas on how to navigate ECL drafts and where do i stand on the topic. 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 #176This 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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