
Advertise on podcast: Magic Numbers
Rating
4.9from
This podcast has
176 episodes
Language
EnglishPublisher
SierkovitzExplicit
No
Date created
2022/01/10
Latest episode
2026/10/19
Average duration
149 min.
Release period
13 days
Description
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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Check latest episodes from Magic Numbers podcast
#196: Right cards for right decks
2026/10/19
Today I look at card win rates in each color pair. After week 1 we know much more about the format, so we can start exploring much more complicated questions. For example - which cards are universally good, which need a specific home. By analysing that, we can not only find cards that have low win rate but have a good home, but also figure out which plans work better than others. Alas, in order to do this - we need to see the whole spoiler so apologies for 4h episode. What needs to be done - needs to be done.
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:
196
#195: Early 17Lands.com data for Reality Fracture
2026/10/06
FRA 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
2026/09/27
New 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/therosemarytea
And 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/tpdSfgdAMc
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:
194
#193: How is Pick 2 draft different?
2026/09/11
This 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
#192: Right cards for right decks in Hobbit
2026/08/26
The 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
#191: Early 17Lands draft data for The Hobbit
2026/08/16
New 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
#190: The Hobbit draft deck Skeletons
2026/08/11
Welcome 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!
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190
#189: Right Cards for the right draft decks, MSH Edition
2026/07/09
Format 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!
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Episode #189
#188: Early 17Lands draft data for Marvel Super Heroes
2026/06/29
New 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 #188
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
#187: Marvel Super Heroes Draft Deck Skeletons with the Skeleton Crew
2026/06/21
Few 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
Tresio
https://x.com/Tresio/
and Rosemary Tea
https://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 #187
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
#186: Journal Club (Mulligan and opening hand data)
2026/06/15
This 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_jess
Zev Goldhaber-Gordon: https://bsky.app/profile/zergog.bsky.social
And - 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-8360a819e2e6
Ping me for coaching. Join the Discord, sign up for Patreon, and use this Linktree for everything else!
Watch this episode on YT:
Episode #186
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
#185: Reimagining limited deck clustering
2026/06/09
This 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 #185
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
#184: Right cards for right draft decks, SOS edition
2026/05/12
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 #184
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
#183: Early 17Lands draft data for Secrets of Strixhaven
2026/04/26
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 #183
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
#182: Draft deck skeletons for Secrets of Strixhaven with the Skeleton Crew
2026/04/21
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 #182
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
Podcast reviews
Read Magic Numbers podcast reviews
Sake Fan 2025/04/08
Gold standard for data in limited Magic
The best source for how to use data to understand and improve your limited Magic game.
WPLB66 2022/01/10
Smartest mtg podcast
Great uses of data, including explanations of what the data can and can’t show. Frankly this is at least as valuable as a college class in statistics.
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