Even expecting a few acts taking stone giants 1.3 doesn't make any sense. Both borderline ranger and assassinate are so much better. At this point I'm not pointing at mono red for obvious reasons. As for 1.8 taking Fire Breathing, I'd rather play another land than that. Really that's way worse than any other do nothing cards. I don't even have evasion guys to make it not completly suck! And the only one I can agree with you is hellhound 3.6.
You sent a lot of signals for green in that first pack which would have had me avoid green.
In Pick 2 and Pick 3 you only really passed 1 black card each that would even come close to being a 'signal'
Therefore the first pick I disagree with is Pick 4 where you took the Ranger over the Assassinates.
Green in general is pretty weak compared to black, plus black feels pretty under-drafted right now.
So I would have picked the Assassinate and ended up building a Red Black deck.
Pick 5 was also a bit weird, picking elves over both Stone Giant and Lava Axe.
I think you maybe undervalue stone giant. 4 mana for a 3/4 isn't that bad for red.
Plus the synergy with Act of Treason and that launching one of your own guys into the sky may very well win a game or two makes it a higher pick in my book.
Still though, I enjoyed reading your article. I always enjoy reading draft articles. You shouldn't let the criticisms in the comments prevent you from writing more articles in the future.
I thought this was a fine read, but a lousy draft... the kind of draft I would've just bailed on. Having said that yeah I take the Stone Giants 1.3, and hope I get a few Act's of Treason. I take the Fire Breathing 1.8, and Fiery Hellhound 3.6, but what an awful draft.
Thanks. I like that kind of criticism. You say what you liked and what you didn't like and actually say something that I and the others can learn something from.
I could have hated the djinn but the sparkmages were really nice. At least 2 times I played 2 on one turn and killed a x/2.
I agree that my drafting wasn't perfect but I'm sure it wasn't horrible. I made the stone giant vs goblin pike mistake and could have taken another stone giant, another act and the firebreathing guy but that's it.
But how did I misbuild? Only thing I could see changing was the kindled fury for wall but the wall is really against the nature of the deck.
I still don't own my online fetchlands yet but instead I play a STD version of the deck with 4x Terramorphic Expanse + 2 Naya Panorama. It's still a blast to play trust me.
"This deck (RW Landfall) is a blast to play, I can tell you that much. The synergy between cards is extraordinary. And also please note that the deck is almost all Commons. A single Lotus Cobra may cost a fortune and a playset of Day of Judgment may be equal to an even bigger fortune. But defeating the players playing those cards with these Commons... well, that is just priceless!!!"
Although most of the business spells are commons, the actual pricetag of the deck is pretty close to the other decks when you need so many (10) expensive Fetchlands. A playset of Arid Mesas is pretty close in price to a playset of Day of Judgements.
I'm probably going to try the RW landfall deck out, but it's going to take me a while to get all those fetchlands. I'm hoping their price will come down to reasonable levels after the release events, however the fetchlands are going to be staples in every format they can be played, so they just might retain their value....
Some harsh comments today....
I thought the draft was ok. I do think you should have grabbed at least one giant, and if you had figured out earlier you were gonna be monored you could have had a much better deck.
Match descriptions were short and to the point. Its m10, mono red, it should play pretty straightforward.
First of all, I'd like to thank you for a thorough report of the draft, deckbuild and gameplay. just can't get enough of these, even...
...if the drafting and deckbuild is a little subpar. Yes, monored isn't very strong, and you certainly didn't make it a whole lot better.
4 Sparkmages, that is... Well, usually at least 2 too many, and only usable in a sick matchup vs looter/pegasus deck. Even with killing a creature, you're only left with a 1/1. In pack 3, i'd hate the djinn over a sparkmage easily.
Haven't got a lot more to add, lazylazy, but even if I think the drafting was a little subpar, do not fear adding more of these :)
There is one thing you can't accuse me: lack of match descriptions. The games that the replay was complete I wrote play by play. I decided to write about this draft because I was successful with monored. I had done the pick analysis when I found out about the replays. And I also expected the replay from round2 to be working. Too bad mtgo v3 still has several bugs.
Anyway so the lack of more games and 2 wronf picks (in my opinion just 1 because I certainly don't pick hill giant over llanowar elves and even if stone giant is better it's just a little better, not even relevant many times). It's really frustrating seeing all the negative feedback because of 2 hill giants.
Since rainin6 mentioned godot: sure his analysis is better but I when he started out I remember him making a few strange/bad picks. Yet no one mentioned them because he made those cute and long analysis. I don't want to point anything at godot. His articles are better than mine. It's just that it's strange that 2 picks seem to be causing so many problems. I guess that if the replays were working and the games had 2 or 3 difficult situations everyone would be overlooking the possible mistakes.
I didn't say I found your joke offensive. On the contrary, I tried to ironize myself in my reply but apparently it came out as I was mad. No I wasen't at all and in fact I even found it funny.
Wow. I will remember not to make tiny and not remotely offensive jokes again.. Seriously, you both know perfectly well that was just a tiny gest about a repeated phrase, and does not warrent an argument.
About sphinx v ascension;
How realistically can you hold off vampires damaging you for 4 turns (7 if they have a hexmage)? I know you're running a lot of removal, but won't bloodghast just hit you anyway, even if you can kill everything else?
In non-vampires matchups, isn't sphinx better against a lot of the other decks you've posted, as the format looks to be reasonably aggressive to me, and in the sparse testing i've done, I haven't had a lot of luck getting ascension active, and have noticed that vampires is the only deck with an edict effect, so against non-vampire decks, sphinx would be easier to protect?
w.r.t. conquerors pledge, it's just something i'm testing, but i think it's disadvantages outweight it's advantages overall.
One final thing; what're the 2 scalding tarns for? Is it just for ior-ruin expedition or am i missing something? I see that they work nicely with sphinx, but what about in the other list?
As I said in my last post, I like your article, and I have no idea why my posts keep getting interpreted as rude. I simply want to discuss some ideas for the U/W deck, as I have been testing something similar.
yeah not that good of an article and your match descriptions don't really give much depth. i would try to pick a draft where replays are available or make note of certain situations that come up that are particularly difficult. what can i say, godot has set quite a standard for draft analysis....
Poorly written with no point to make. I wasted my time reading this. Next time, write if and only if you have something to contribute. Also, picking the piker and llanowar over the stone giants was, as the posters above pointed out, absurd.
It's true. I dismissed stone giant a bit taking goblin piker over it but if I went RG I'm pretty sure llanowar would be better as it ramps me to probably better green creatures.
Even expecting a few acts taking stone giants 1.3 doesn't make any sense. Both borderline ranger and assassinate are so much better. At this point I'm not pointing at mono red for obvious reasons. As for 1.8 taking Fire Breathing, I'd rather play another land than that. Really that's way worse than any other do nothing cards. I don't even have evasion guys to make it not completly suck! And the only one I can agree with you is hellhound 3.6.
You sent a lot of signals for green in that first pack which would have had me avoid green.
In Pick 2 and Pick 3 you only really passed 1 black card each that would even come close to being a 'signal'
Therefore the first pick I disagree with is Pick 4 where you took the Ranger over the Assassinates.
Green in general is pretty weak compared to black, plus black feels pretty under-drafted right now.
So I would have picked the Assassinate and ended up building a Red Black deck.
Pick 5 was also a bit weird, picking elves over both Stone Giant and Lava Axe.
I think you maybe undervalue stone giant. 4 mana for a 3/4 isn't that bad for red.
Plus the synergy with Act of Treason and that launching one of your own guys into the sky may very well win a game or two makes it a higher pick in my book.
Still though, I enjoyed reading your article. I always enjoy reading draft articles. You shouldn't let the criticisms in the comments prevent you from writing more articles in the future.
I thought this was a fine read, but a lousy draft... the kind of draft I would've just bailed on. Having said that yeah I take the Stone Giants 1.3, and hope I get a few Act's of Treason. I take the Fire Breathing 1.8, and Fiery Hellhound 3.6, but what an awful draft.
Great job Hammy
Thanks. I like that kind of criticism. You say what you liked and what you didn't like and actually say something that I and the others can learn something from.
I could have hated the djinn but the sparkmages were really nice. At least 2 times I played 2 on one turn and killed a x/2.
I agree that my drafting wasn't perfect but I'm sure it wasn't horrible. I made the stone giant vs goblin pike mistake and could have taken another stone giant, another act and the firebreathing guy but that's it.
But how did I misbuild? Only thing I could see changing was the kindled fury for wall but the wall is really against the nature of the deck.
I still don't own my online fetchlands yet but instead I play a STD version of the deck with 4x Terramorphic Expanse + 2 Naya Panorama. It's still a blast to play trust me.
LE
Zendikar is going to be drafted *really* heavily. I wouldn't worry about prices being too high.
See MED3 for a partial example.
"This deck (RW Landfall) is a blast to play, I can tell you that much. The synergy between cards is extraordinary. And also please note that the deck is almost all Commons. A single Lotus Cobra may cost a fortune and a playset of Day of Judgment may be equal to an even bigger fortune. But defeating the players playing those cards with these Commons... well, that is just priceless!!!"
Although most of the business spells are commons, the actual pricetag of the deck is pretty close to the other decks when you need so many (10) expensive Fetchlands. A playset of Arid Mesas is pretty close in price to a playset of Day of Judgements.
I'm probably going to try the RW landfall deck out, but it's going to take me a while to get all those fetchlands. I'm hoping their price will come down to reasonable levels after the release events, however the fetchlands are going to be staples in every format they can be played, so they just might retain their value....
Some harsh comments today....
I thought the draft was ok. I do think you should have grabbed at least one giant, and if you had figured out earlier you were gonna be monored you could have had a much better deck.
Match descriptions were short and to the point. Its m10, mono red, it should play pretty straightforward.
Did I learn anything from this draft? No, not really. But man was it fun to read.
If y'all want serious business, go to Channel Fireball for LSV's drafts. I had fun, so I'm fine, man. Thanks.
But seriously. Stone Giant is one of the best Red cards in the set. Om nom nom.
First of all, I'd like to thank you for a thorough report of the draft, deckbuild and gameplay. just can't get enough of these, even...
...if the drafting and deckbuild is a little subpar. Yes, monored isn't very strong, and you certainly didn't make it a whole lot better.
4 Sparkmages, that is... Well, usually at least 2 too many, and only usable in a sick matchup vs looter/pegasus deck. Even with killing a creature, you're only left with a 1/1. In pack 3, i'd hate the djinn over a sparkmage easily.
Haven't got a lot more to add, lazylazy, but even if I think the drafting was a little subpar, do not fear adding more of these :)
Tony
There is one thing you can't accuse me: lack of match descriptions. The games that the replay was complete I wrote play by play. I decided to write about this draft because I was successful with monored. I had done the pick analysis when I found out about the replays. And I also expected the replay from round2 to be working. Too bad mtgo v3 still has several bugs.
Anyway so the lack of more games and 2 wronf picks (in my opinion just 1 because I certainly don't pick hill giant over llanowar elves and even if stone giant is better it's just a little better, not even relevant many times). It's really frustrating seeing all the negative feedback because of 2 hill giants.
Since rainin6 mentioned godot: sure his analysis is better but I when he started out I remember him making a few strange/bad picks. Yet no one mentioned them because he made those cute and long analysis. I don't want to point anything at godot. His articles are better than mine. It's just that it's strange that 2 picks seem to be causing so many problems. I guess that if the replays were working and the games had 2 or 3 difficult situations everyone would be overlooking the possible mistakes.
Are you sure? E.g. what about the cards only found in the 2 Commander decks?
1) Not a card. Just another version of an item that EVERYONE has.
2) Not the rarest. That's an honor of some version of Dirtcowl Wurm.
of course then making it the rarest card in all of mtgo...nice
its the internet, lol we dont have sarcasm font yet, so watch it
I didn't say I found your joke offensive. On the contrary, I tried to ironize myself in my reply but apparently it came out as I was mad. No I wasen't at all and in fact I even found it funny.
LE
Wow. I will remember not to make tiny and not remotely offensive jokes again.. Seriously, you both know perfectly well that was just a tiny gest about a repeated phrase, and does not warrent an argument.
About sphinx v ascension;
How realistically can you hold off vampires damaging you for 4 turns (7 if they have a hexmage)? I know you're running a lot of removal, but won't bloodghast just hit you anyway, even if you can kill everything else?
In non-vampires matchups, isn't sphinx better against a lot of the other decks you've posted, as the format looks to be reasonably aggressive to me, and in the sparse testing i've done, I haven't had a lot of luck getting ascension active, and have noticed that vampires is the only deck with an edict effect, so against non-vampire decks, sphinx would be easier to protect?
w.r.t. conquerors pledge, it's just something i'm testing, but i think it's disadvantages outweight it's advantages overall.
One final thing; what're the 2 scalding tarns for? Is it just for ior-ruin expedition or am i missing something? I see that they work nicely with sphinx, but what about in the other list?
As I said in my last post, I like your article, and I have no idea why my posts keep getting interpreted as rude. I simply want to discuss some ideas for the U/W deck, as I have been testing something similar.
are there people still playing vanguard? be it standard/classic/casual?
yeah not that good of an article and your match descriptions don't really give much depth. i would try to pick a draft where replays are available or make note of certain situations that come up that are particularly difficult. what can i say, godot has set quite a standard for draft analysis....
Poorly written with no point to make. I wasted my time reading this. Next time, write if and only if you have something to contribute. Also, picking the piker and llanowar over the stone giants was, as the posters above pointed out, absurd.
Stopping by the event info booth at PT Austin.
Opposition is up thanks to Core Set Constructed.
Not sure about Probe though...
yea, how did you get the alt serra avatar?
It's true. I dismissed stone giant a bit taking goblin piker over it but if I went RG I'm pretty sure llanowar would be better as it ramps me to probably better green creatures.