I have to say that simply learning that we could watch replays of passs rounds was worth its weight in packs. I've been using it lately and knowing in advance what to expect and reserve removal for is such an incredible advantages. I have to say I'm impressed by your ability to always have good starting hands. :)
Eternal Hammer (winner of Classic Quarter's ME3 In-or-Out Contest, no less) has written a nice piece about the differences between the Classic format in MTGO and the Vintage and Legacy formats over at PureMTGO. If you are interested in Classic, and what the future holds, Eternal Hammer puts on his Nostradamus hat to make a few guesses about the future of ‘Eternal’ formats in Magic Online. Only time will tell if his predictions come true.
In fairness, the holy strength could have been a sideboard play to try to do exactly what it did - protect a small flyer from the pingers. Not saying it's the strongest sideboard play out there, but if your strategy is to gum up the ground and serve the beats with the 2/1 and/or 2/2 flyers, a pair of pyromancers wrecks that.
Now maindeck, yeah, sucky. But after siding, I don't know, sometimes you look at your sideboard, consider what you faced, and have to shrug that your only sideboard play is something you normally wouldn't do.
I had that book and remember it fondly. I made the R/G aggro deck with Kird Apes for a local tournament and got my butt whooped by a control deck with force field in it. It wasn't long before it was out dated, and I remember briefly thinking that this hobby would get expensive if they kept coming out with a new set each year.
Not only is your deck amazing from the horrible picks other people did, but you can tell the opposition is soft when your finals! opponent plays holy strenght. Tireless tribe indeed.
I believe this is the first time I've read your collumn and it is the best "Drafting With" out there short of the video comentary done by LSV. This has that same feel but can be done with hindsight where as the video format has the advantage of imprinting in memory more naturally.
Keep up the good work I will definitely be comming back.
-Eric
I will watch them real fast between rounds to see if I can pick up on any bombs, but it really bugs when when I start round 2 and I have to sit there for 5 mins while the guy I'm playing watches my round one game. MTGO already takes up too much of my time.
Interesting Advice. I found some of the wording to be funky but the content is straightforward. I am a little disappointed you did not flesh each section out a bit more with illustrations etc but perhaps that was too much to expect. The best approach to this sort of article I think is to give the advice and then the example so building a deck while showing how the advice applies is a great way to teach the tips therein. (And perhaps show games between tweaks to the deck to display how the deck improves overtime.) Other than that it was a fine read.
Hi Zimbardo. I do own 1 Moat and I know it saves life but somehow didn't consider it for any of those decks. I didn't put it in the second deck because if Grindstone combo fails, I go for the Tezzeret route. And Moat hurts those 5/5 artifacts (same for the third deck). But for the first one, yes, maybe I should replace Martial Coup with Moat.
Shaterri, combining the two WUB decks is of course possible and even without too much effort. Just remove some monsters from the first deck and add the combo pieces of the second deck and there you have it. But I don't think that Grindstone combo needs the Chant lock and therefore didn't combine those two decks. But of course as you also say, it is absolutely possible to do.
Thanks for the comments guys, I really do appreciate them.
Excellent write-up as ever. Post-draft, any cold analysis of a game is going to reveal opportunities for improvement on the actual plays, but in most cases here any slight mis-plays were only such by small percentages. Still, very informative and a great way to learn better limited strategy.
Good call on Lim-Dûl's Vault. I'll have to try that out in my artifacts deck. It's always interesting for me to see what other people come up with when they build some sort of UBW artifact deck, because I'm obsessed with them. Did you try Moat? It's a house.
Good point. I should have said that one deck wants the Infantry more. I could see it affecting the pick if you're in pack 3 and are still short of 6 bears and it's pick 6 where the dude is unlikely to wheel.
That said I don't think it's wrong to pick the bear. Aggro decks love consistency and paying 5 mana to not affect the board doesn't fit their plan. But, draft decks rarely are at the consistency level of constructed decks so more often than not picking the plan is ok.
Actually you can also try White/Blue for that idea. White is very important as it provides protection, removal and tutors. And then you can add Time Warp, Capture of Jingzhou, Savor the Moment, Temporal Manipulation, and Walk the Aeons. And then you may tutor for Mirror Sheen and copy all those Time Warps over and over again.
And what to do with all those turns? Well, it's up to you :)).
I have been trying out the idea of U/G time warp deck. Ramp affects+ multi Time warp affects+ recursion=Win. Probably easy to stop with graveyard removal, however the deck ive been testing does win most of the time because of the sheer rogue affect of WTF holistic wisdom+time warp.
While this is a pretty good article overall, I'd disagree with your contention that the two UB decks will make different picks in the outlined situation. Part of the reason the aggro deck is so good is *because* the bears go late -- you can reasonably pick Brilliant Plan there and have reasonable expectation of your 2/1 dork tabling (or at least of picking up others later on). And even aggro decks want a reload and something to do at the top end of their curve; I'm pretty sure that in a vacuum (i.e., unless you already have maybe 2 Brilliant Plan in your pile or you're crazily short on guys) the card draw spell is virtually always the right pick here.
It seems like you could profitably combine your first two decks -- rather than having a single 'target' combo, since so many of the same cards support the Painter's Grindstone and Scepter-Chant engines, why not simply run both of them in the same deck with a similar swath of control and tutor elements? That way if you draw any of the four cards you have a game plan to find the other piece of the puzzle (yes, Stick-Chant really wants Teferi, but you still have a lot of profitable action without the Legendary finisher).
@Kha: The Winter Orb deck is performing well so far but you might also want to consider adding green. Tarmogoyf is an excellent beater but more importantly green gives the deck Garruk. Garruk not only creates (kind of) endless 3/3's but more importantly allows you to untap your lands and create even bigger mana. I'm currently considering adding green, as well as moving Martial Coup to the main deck.
@pierrebai: Actually the only equipment of yours I countered was Worldslayer. I knew you were up to something! And maybe the second game seemed a little bit one sided but definately not the first one.
When I'm playing this format, I find there are two categories of cards that I tutor/dig for. I have a different take on Plan A/B.
Plan A cards are those that have an immediate swingy effect, or do something profound to the game state that it turns the tide back to your favor. Wrath of God, Time Warp, and Grindstone are these types of cards.
Plan B cards are those that have an incremental effect on the game. Cards like Elspeth & Jace are more in line. Creates with Enter the battlefield effects also fall into this category. These types of cards are very important in a format like 100c singleton, where you don't have the consistency of 4 of's and about twice as big of a deck to find them.
My deck had an extreme flaw: I adapted it from my Sharuum EDH deck and failed to realize 100CS allows sideboards. Ooops. It also has the painter / grindstone combo in it... the other combo is stonehere giant fetching shield of kaldra and worldslayer, but I cut that combo off since then. Nice writeup though: it make it seems like I had a fighting chance, when I felt you had thouroughly beaten me up both games.
BTW, I play pull from eternity just for the case where my combo pieces get exiled. I think it should be a sideboard card instead, but, like I said, I didn't know I was allowed one.
I've tried the RG aggro route after that game, but forgot once again to put a sideboard in and got beat up by turn 2 CoP:R while getting stuck on mana.
Good article and solid decks. The third one particularly interested me as i've been working on a similar idea myself for the past week or so (but on a self imposed budget), so it was nice to see someone elses take on things (i'd totally missed Mudslide, but had looked for Smoke).
I must admit I wasnt sure what was going on in game 2 from the lands played I expected a non casual deck but it never went off. I wish now I had asked what the deck actually was about.
In regards to game 5 I'd never seen this combo before which is strange as I've been playing a lot of classic games in the TP room latley trying to find a deck that I would like to play in a daily event...I've still not found one I'm happy with that dosent include FoW.
Hi Cotton. I assume you mean the last deck. What I call Plan A is always something I prefer over other options. Like Painter's Servant / Grindstone combo. But the last deck doesn't have such a Plan A.
I mean, my Plan A is always the win condition I draw first. If I have my Tezzeret the Seeker in hand then he is my Plan A. If I draw Chandra Nalaar, then she becomes my Plan A. I don't prefer any one of them over the others. That's why I call them all Plan B.
I have to say that simply learning that we could watch replays of passs rounds was worth its weight in packs. I've been using it lately and knowing in advance what to expect and reserve removal for is such an incredible advantages. I have to say I'm impressed by your ability to always have good starting hands. :)
Eternal Hammer (winner of Classic Quarter's ME3 In-or-Out Contest, no less) has written a nice piece about the differences between the Classic format in MTGO and the Vintage and Legacy formats over at PureMTGO. If you are interested in Classic, and what the future holds, Eternal Hammer puts on his Nostradamus hat to make a few guesses about the future of ‘Eternal’ formats in Magic Online. Only time will tell if his predictions come true.
Quote from the MTGO Announcements :_)
In fairness, the holy strength could have been a sideboard play to try to do exactly what it did - protect a small flyer from the pingers. Not saying it's the strongest sideboard play out there, but if your strategy is to gum up the ground and serve the beats with the 2/1 and/or 2/2 flyers, a pair of pyromancers wrecks that.
Now maindeck, yeah, sucky. But after siding, I don't know, sometimes you look at your sideboard, consider what you faced, and have to shrug that your only sideboard play is something you normally wouldn't do.
I had that book and remember it fondly. I made the R/G aggro deck with Kird Apes for a local tournament and got my butt whooped by a control deck with force field in it. It wasn't long before it was out dated, and I remember briefly thinking that this hobby would get expensive if they kept coming out with a new set each year.
Not only is your deck amazing from the horrible picks other people did, but you can tell the opposition is soft when your finals! opponent plays holy strenght. Tireless tribe indeed.
I believe this is the first time I've read your collumn and it is the best "Drafting With" out there short of the video comentary done by LSV. This has that same feel but can be done with hindsight where as the video format has the advantage of imprinting in memory more naturally.
Keep up the good work I will definitely be comming back.
-Eric
I will watch them real fast between rounds to see if I can pick up on any bombs, but it really bugs when when I start round 2 and I have to sit there for 5 mins while the guy I'm playing watches my round one game. MTGO already takes up too much of my time.
Interesting Advice. I found some of the wording to be funky but the content is straightforward. I am a little disappointed you did not flesh each section out a bit more with illustrations etc but perhaps that was too much to expect. The best approach to this sort of article I think is to give the advice and then the example so building a deck while showing how the advice applies is a great way to teach the tips therein. (And perhaps show games between tweaks to the deck to display how the deck improves overtime.) Other than that it was a fine read.
Hi Zimbardo. I do own 1 Moat and I know it saves life but somehow didn't consider it for any of those decks. I didn't put it in the second deck because if Grindstone combo fails, I go for the Tezzeret route. And Moat hurts those 5/5 artifacts (same for the third deck). But for the first one, yes, maybe I should replace Martial Coup with Moat.
Shaterri, combining the two WUB decks is of course possible and even without too much effort. Just remove some monsters from the first deck and add the combo pieces of the second deck and there you have it. But I don't think that Grindstone combo needs the Chant lock and therefore didn't combine those two decks. But of course as you also say, it is absolutely possible to do.
Thanks for the comments guys, I really do appreciate them.
LE
Excellent write-up as ever. Post-draft, any cold analysis of a game is going to reveal opportunities for improvement on the actual plays, but in most cases here any slight mis-plays were only such by small percentages. Still, very informative and a great way to learn better limited strategy.
Good call on Lim-Dûl's Vault. I'll have to try that out in my artifacts deck. It's always interesting for me to see what other people come up with when they build some sort of UBW artifact deck, because I'm obsessed with them. Did you try Moat? It's a house.
Cinder Storm is a bomb in any deck! I love it, and hate losing to it. Especially game 1, after which I'm forced to fear it for the next 2 games.
Good point. I should have said that one deck wants the Infantry more. I could see it affecting the pick if you're in pack 3 and are still short of 6 bears and it's pick 6 where the dude is unlikely to wheel.
That said I don't think it's wrong to pick the bear. Aggro decks love consistency and paying 5 mana to not affect the board doesn't fit their plan. But, draft decks rarely are at the consistency level of constructed decks so more often than not picking the plan is ok.
Actually you can also try White/Blue for that idea. White is very important as it provides protection, removal and tutors. And then you can add Time Warp, Capture of Jingzhou, Savor the Moment, Temporal Manipulation, and Walk the Aeons. And then you may tutor for Mirror Sheen and copy all those Time Warps over and over again.
And what to do with all those turns? Well, it's up to you :)).
LE
O yeah, main deck gaea's blessing ftw
I have been trying out the idea of U/G time warp deck. Ramp affects+ multi Time warp affects+ recursion=Win. Probably easy to stop with graveyard removal, however the deck ive been testing does win most of the time because of the sheer rogue affect of WTF holistic wisdom+time warp.
While this is a pretty good article overall, I'd disagree with your contention that the two UB decks will make different picks in the outlined situation. Part of the reason the aggro deck is so good is *because* the bears go late -- you can reasonably pick Brilliant Plan there and have reasonable expectation of your 2/1 dork tabling (or at least of picking up others later on). And even aggro decks want a reload and something to do at the top end of their curve; I'm pretty sure that in a vacuum (i.e., unless you already have maybe 2 Brilliant Plan in your pile or you're crazily short on guys) the card draw spell is virtually always the right pick here.
It seems like you could profitably combine your first two decks -- rather than having a single 'target' combo, since so many of the same cards support the Painter's Grindstone and Scepter-Chant engines, why not simply run both of them in the same deck with a similar swath of control and tutor elements? That way if you draw any of the four cards you have a game plan to find the other piece of the puzzle (yes, Stick-Chant really wants Teferi, but you still have a lot of profitable action without the Legendary finisher).
oh man this UGfaeries.dec can't wait for Rancor to get on MTGO!
@rukcus: I agree with everything you said.
@Kha: The Winter Orb deck is performing well so far but you might also want to consider adding green. Tarmogoyf is an excellent beater but more importantly green gives the deck Garruk. Garruk not only creates (kind of) endless 3/3's but more importantly allows you to untap your lands and create even bigger mana. I'm currently considering adding green, as well as moving Martial Coup to the main deck.
@pierrebai: Actually the only equipment of yours I countered was Worldslayer. I knew you were up to something! And maybe the second game seemed a little bit one sided but definately not the first one.
LE
When I'm playing this format, I find there are two categories of cards that I tutor/dig for. I have a different take on Plan A/B.
Plan A cards are those that have an immediate swingy effect, or do something profound to the game state that it turns the tide back to your favor. Wrath of God, Time Warp, and Grindstone are these types of cards.
Plan B cards are those that have an incremental effect on the game. Cards like Elspeth & Jace are more in line. Creates with Enter the battlefield effects also fall into this category. These types of cards are very important in a format like 100c singleton, where you don't have the consistency of 4 of's and about twice as big of a deck to find them.
That game against me was my first 100CS game. :)
My deck had an extreme flaw: I adapted it from my Sharuum EDH deck and failed to realize 100CS allows sideboards. Ooops. It also has the painter / grindstone combo in it... the other combo is stonehere giant fetching shield of kaldra and worldslayer, but I cut that combo off since then. Nice writeup though: it make it seems like I had a fighting chance, when I felt you had thouroughly beaten me up both games.
BTW, I play pull from eternity just for the case where my combo pieces get exiled. I think it should be a sideboard card instead, but, like I said, I didn't know I was allowed one.
I've tried the RG aggro route after that game, but forgot once again to put a sideboard in and got beat up by turn 2 CoP:R while getting stuck on mana.
Good article and solid decks. The third one particularly interested me as i've been working on a similar idea myself for the past week or so (but on a self imposed budget), so it was nice to see someone elses take on things (i'd totally missed Mudslide, but had looked for Smoke).
I must admit I wasnt sure what was going on in game 2 from the lands played I expected a non casual deck but it never went off. I wish now I had asked what the deck actually was about.
In regards to game 5 I'd never seen this combo before which is strange as I've been playing a lot of classic games in the TP room latley trying to find a deck that I would like to play in a daily event...I've still not found one I'm happy with that dosent include FoW.
Hi Cotton. I assume you mean the last deck. What I call Plan A is always something I prefer over other options. Like Painter's Servant / Grindstone combo. But the last deck doesn't have such a Plan A.
I mean, my Plan A is always the win condition I draw first. If I have my Tezzeret the Seeker in hand then he is my Plan A. If I draw Chandra Nalaar, then she becomes my Plan A. I don't prefer any one of them over the others. That's why I call them all Plan B.
LE