is it realy being released as a common? All the previews I have seen seem to have a Mythic symbol on all the cards? I asked about this on the mtgo boards and someone said everything in FTV was uncommon :)
You are definitely correct on both points. I don't play much Pauper, so I wasn't really aware of point #1, but I play a lot of Vintage so I just missed big time on #2. Thanks for the info!
Great article, brings back some true nostalgia. I cant count how many times I Channel/Fireballed my brother.
I remember I hated playing my friend because I couldnt kill his force of nature with my puny merfolk.
I just wish I knew what I know now and bought that unlimited lotus for $250 or one of the mox's for $85 droool. Then again at 14 there was no way to come up with that kinda $$
Following BREAD, it's the logical choice. True, Pacifism is also pseudo-removal but there are two fantastic White cards in this pack (Pacifism and Safe Passage). Blue also has two great cards (neither removal but Air Elemental can be argued to be a mid-bomb). However, passing both those great sets of White and Blue cards to your neighbor(s) will let the next two or three folks fight over those colors (I don't think passing an elf, oryx and a slime signal Green is open) which should pay off in P2.
Also, taking Doom Blade cuts Black, which will hopefully help you out with the rest of this pack, and P2.
Doom Blade also puts us in a 2nd color in case Green dries up.
Obvisously we don't know what color the Bomb our neighbor took was, but it was better than Doom Blade.
And, at the VERY least, Blade is splashable. Especially if you stay in Green and can pick up Rampant Growths and Rangers.
1) Kird Ape being released in this set will have a significant impact on MTGO because it is being released as a common for the 1st time ever on MTGO and will thus become Pauper legal. If any single card can have a metagame defining impact on the Pauper format, this iconic 1 drop is among the top of that list. Listing Kird Ape as "definite chaff" doesn't seem to do the card justice for its inclusion in this boxed set...
2) Inkwell Leviathan has another important advantage over Darksteel Colossus since it is blue, it can be pitched to Force of Will in a pinch. Sure, pitching your win condition isn't the best of plans, but it sure is better than having Force and no blue cards and losing the game on the spot.
Mind Shatter and Mind Rot + Rise From The Grave = pretty good. You time it right and you'll end up Rising their bombs. That makes them auto-includes for the "Steal the Game" plays Bazaar was referencing to that this deck needs to do to win.
My white would be a splash of Blinding Mage, Razorfoot Griffin, Serra Angel, Silvercoat Lion, Undead Slayer, and Pacifism. I think the Blinding Mage and Serra give you a better shot at stealing games than a weak group of green guys that will almost certainly be outclassed by other decks you face that are Green. At least White gives you two top class removal spells (Pacificm and Blinding Mage) and one of the better flyers (Serra). Probably run 6 plains 10 swamp and the Expanse.
Dunno though. Id have to run a few games with each and see which one flowed better.
I agree with the majority of the comments on here, but I do think serra angel is the right choice P2P1. Massive Bomb in the colours you're already in, or massive-uber-bomb in another colour (which requires coloured green mana for it's ability)? I'd stick with Serra.
I stopped reading this article when you passed Sleep in favor of a wall. I very nearly halted after the first pick, but figured I'd give you the benefit of the doubt there.
I cannot fathom how you took Undead Slayer P1P1, honestly. That card is nowhere near the power level of Blinding Mage, Magebane Armor (what you should have taken), Gravedigger, Rampant Growth, Divination, or Rise from the Grave. Even Glorious Charge is better.
Remand is fantastic with guile, I'm tempted to add shoals, 16 free counters seems pretty ridiculous, though I'd have to add more card draw to support shoal and FOW.
black creatures 9
1 Dread Warlock
1 Drudge Skeletons
1 Gravedigger
1 Looming Shade
1 Royal Assassin
1 Vampire Aristocrat
1 Vampire Nocturnus
1 Zombie Goliath
black spells 4
1 Consume Spirit
2 Rise from the Grave
1 Weakness
total 16 critters and 7 spells , including 3 removels not great, but the pook sucks..
I would consider siding in deathmark , and Windstorm depends on the deck im facing
white have some good cards, but its not deep ,
its tempting to go 3 colors with green splash , you only have 2 fixers (Terramorphic Expanse and Rampant Growth) if you have the elf that gets a land , i would go 3 colors with Black and green as main colors and splash white for Pacifism and blinding mage.
Pack 1, Pick 1: I think Sleep is definitely the best card. It basically acts like a Blue Overrun (wins the game for you if you have sufficient creatures), whereas Clone is highly dependent on whether there is a really good creature in play.
Sleep is, in some ways, even better than Overrun because if your opponent uses Safe Passage, Fog, etc, you still have another turn to pummel them (so the spell is not entirely wasted).
Pack 2, Pick2: Guardian Seraph is awesome, but why hate draft when you have the perfect solution (Windstorm) in the same pack? It can also take care of the Serra Angel in the pack, and you seem to be avoiding fliers anyway (in spite of being in Blue)...
Most other picks I either agree with or don't have major issue (although I agree about taking Whispersilk Cloak over Divination).
Evasion is very valuable in M10, since a lot of games get into stalls. Pack 1 pick 1 had a Phantom Warrior, who has better evasion than a flyer - much better pick than Act of Treason. But you have to also consider taking the Merfolk Looter instead. Any game where you resolve a looter early and activate him every turn, you get far more consistency, and draw into your decks bombs, answers, etc. more often. You should generally win most games where you get a looter active for any length of time.
Never pass a sleep either, it's a game-winning bomb!
I think you should try some Urza's Factory instead of Springjack Pasture, it's cheap card and seems great (you wrote you lack good win cons, didn't you?). It perfectly fits what you were looking for - a land that can do something useful when you have spare mana.
Also I think this deck should run cards like Remand (how does it work with Guile? I don't know) or Repeal - to stal game early and cantrip to find cards that will let you handle problem you just delayed (or just draw win condition ;))
Also I am wondering why didn't you include Mana Leak, it's very good counter.
About win con - You should really add some Spire Golems, they are radical. Wasn't it you who said that playing free spells is cool (maybe not as COOOOOOL as stealing spells, but still cool).
Hmm, you had problem with bant - you were lacking for counters in late game. Why don't include 2-3 Spell Bursts? Seems amazing for me.
You could also try Disrupting Shoal, to protect your Guile right after playing it, but I don't know if it is going to do well - you have horribly high mana curve as for extended.
I hope I helped at least a little bit. Keep on good work (I always enjoy reading articles about ext, even casual, even though I am rather competitive player)!
As someone who is trying to learn to draft, this has been a very helpful series of articles. Certainly many of the drafts ended up poorly, like yours did by your own admission, but there is easily as much to learn from a bad draft as a good one.
And I certainly won't profess to have enough knowledge to go through picks and say what I would have done, but something is really really wrong when you end with with ANY, let alone TWO acolytes of Xanthid in your deck.
Regardless I enjoyed the reads and want to thank all of you for taking the time to do the draft and write it up.
A weak pool with no bombs, no great punch, and very susceptible to Sleep/Overrun - sorry. I suspect you didn't list all the blue cards.
Start with playable artifacts, then check for card advantage (black), then with then with your deepest color (in this pool, black), then see what compliments it the best. Since you have Diabolic Tutor and two lands that involve red (Dragonskull Summit and Terramorphic Expanse), it is possible to splash for red, but unfortunately you have no Fireball or Earthquake.
Artifacts - Gorgon's Flail (IN - 1)
Black (Automatic) - Gravedigger, Royal Assassin, Consume Spirit, Mind Rot, Mind Shatter, 2 Rise from the Grave, Weakness (IN - 8)
Black (Probable) - 2 Dread Warlock, Dredge Skeletons, Vampire Aristocrat (IN - 4)
Black (Possible) - Looming Shade, Vampire Nocturnus, Wall of Bone, Zombie Goliath, Deathmark, Diabolic Tutor, Duress (IN - 7)
Rise from the Grave will make you overvalue removal, Mind Rot is precious card advantage, threats and board removal are poor but ground defense is stellar. What to pair that with? Green has the best chance to make off-color splashes with Elvish Piper and Rampant Growth (don't forget Diabolic Tutor). Sadly there is absolutely nothing worth splashing for. White and blue offer two of the worst pools I've ever seen. I think you need to lean on surprises to try and steal games. Panic Attack and it's ilk would be best here, but the other playable red cards are too color-intensive. Stick with green and pump instead. Remembering this is in the context of our secondary color, that gives us:
Rampant Growth for acceleration, hopefully not for fixing here. Oryx, normally weak, may get promoted to highlight our stealing games we shouldn't win theme.
I would build something like this:
Artifact - Gorgon's Flail (1)
Green - Deadly Recluse, Elvish Piper, Kalonian Behemoth, 2 Stampeding Rhino, Giant Growth, Nature's Spiral, Awakener Druid, Cudgel Troll, Rampant Growth, Emerald Oryx (11)
Black - Gravedigger, Royal Assassin, Consume Spirit, Mind Rot, Mind Shatter, 2 Rise from the Grave, 2 Dread Warlock, Vampire Aristocrat, Deathmark (11)
Lands - 8 Swamp, 8 Forest, 1 Terramorphic Expanse
(EDIT: +1 Vampire Nocturnus, -1 Emerald Oryx)
Looming Shade is my honorable mention. I think this pool would be lucky to get 2-2; it needs to emphasize that luck aspect, preferring luckier cards like Oryx and Deathmark over more solid cards like Drudge Skeletons and Weakness.
I've gone 18-2 in my last 5 M10 sealed pools, if that helps lend credence.
EDIT: Sorry, I was confusing Vampire Nocturnus with Child of Night - definitely include the Nocturnus which adds a huge boost to the deck.
Undead Slayer was at best the 5th best card in pack 1 pick 1. Taking Soul Warden over Pacifism also defies all logic. And Horned Turtle is no where nearly as good as Merfolk Looter.
It's not the shuffler that prevents players from getting a 2000+ rating online--it's the lack of big K events. When everything is 16 mostly, occasionally at 24, it's vitually impossible to get too high online.
I don't have anything meaningful to add, but if it were me I'd have been sucked into blue pretty early with a
P1P1 Act of Treason
P1P2 Razorfoot Griffin
P1P3 Sleep
P1P4 Wind Drake
P1P5 Wind Drake
P1P6 Divination
When Wind Drake makes it to pick 4 and 5 I'd be thinking no one wants to be in blue as almost everyone at the table has seen these cards by now. Especially knowing that at least one of the blue cards from pack one (Merfolk Looter, Sage Owl, or Phantom Warrior) would almost have to come back around on the very next pick.
the entire contents of exiled has the mythic color. im not sure where you get common kird apes from but im pretty sure you way off on that one.
is it realy being released as a common? All the previews I have seen seem to have a Mythic symbol on all the cards? I asked about this on the mtgo boards and someone said everything in FTV was uncommon :)
You are definitely correct on both points. I don't play much Pauper, so I wasn't really aware of point #1, but I play a lot of Vintage so I just missed big time on #2. Thanks for the info!
Great article, brings back some true nostalgia. I cant count how many times I Channel/Fireballed my brother.
I remember I hated playing my friend because I couldnt kill his force of nature with my puny merfolk.
I just wish I knew what I know now and bought that unlimited lotus for $250 or one of the mox's for $85 droool. Then again at 14 there was no way to come up with that kinda $$
Good article. Love reading these every week.
As for your quiz: Doom Blade.
Following BREAD, it's the logical choice. True, Pacifism is also pseudo-removal but there are two fantastic White cards in this pack (Pacifism and Safe Passage). Blue also has two great cards (neither removal but Air Elemental can be argued to be a mid-bomb). However, passing both those great sets of White and Blue cards to your neighbor(s) will let the next two or three folks fight over those colors (I don't think passing an elf, oryx and a slime signal Green is open) which should pay off in P2.
Also, taking Doom Blade cuts Black, which will hopefully help you out with the rest of this pack, and P2.
Doom Blade also puts us in a 2nd color in case Green dries up.
Obvisously we don't know what color the Bomb our neighbor took was, but it was better than Doom Blade.
And, at the VERY least, Blade is splashable. Especially if you stay in Green and can pick up Rampant Growths and Rangers.
These are all my opinions, obviously. YMMV.
Take care.
couple things i'd like to add:
1) Kird Ape being released in this set will have a significant impact on MTGO because it is being released as a common for the 1st time ever on MTGO and will thus become Pauper legal. If any single card can have a metagame defining impact on the Pauper format, this iconic 1 drop is among the top of that list. Listing Kird Ape as "definite chaff" doesn't seem to do the card justice for its inclusion in this boxed set...
2) Inkwell Leviathan has another important advantage over Darksteel Colossus since it is blue, it can be pitched to Force of Will in a pinch. Sure, pitching your win condition isn't the best of plans, but it sure is better than having Force and no blue cards and losing the game on the spot.
Mind Shatter and Mind Rot + Rise From The Grave = pretty good. You time it right and you'll end up Rising their bombs. That makes them auto-includes for the "Steal the Game" plays Bazaar was referencing to that this deck needs to do to win.
My white would be a splash of Blinding Mage, Razorfoot Griffin, Serra Angel, Silvercoat Lion, Undead Slayer, and Pacifism. I think the Blinding Mage and Serra give you a better shot at stealing games than a weak group of green guys that will almost certainly be outclassed by other decks you face that are Green. At least White gives you two top class removal spells (Pacificm and Blinding Mage) and one of the better flyers (Serra). Probably run 6 plains 10 swamp and the Expanse.
Dunno though. Id have to run a few games with each and see which one flowed better.
I agree with the majority of the comments on here, but I do think serra angel is the right choice P2P1. Massive Bomb in the colours you're already in, or massive-uber-bomb in another colour (which requires coloured green mana for it's ability)? I'd stick with Serra.
So your advice on M10 drafting is just to rare-draft as much as possible, and randomly get passed an entire green deck? Works for me!
I stopped reading this article when you passed Sleep in favor of a wall. I very nearly halted after the first pick, but figured I'd give you the benefit of the doubt there.
I cannot fathom how you took Undead Slayer P1P1, honestly. That card is nowhere near the power level of Blinding Mage, Magebane Armor (what you should have taken), Gravedigger, Rampant Growth, Divination, or Rise from the Grave. Even Glorious Charge is better.
Remand is fantastic with guile, I'm tempted to add shoals, 16 free counters seems pretty ridiculous, though I'd have to add more card draw to support shoal and FOW.
Green have its playables , but GW will be lacking of removal beside Pacifism, so i would go GB
thats the deck i would build.
Green creatures 7
1 Awakener Druid
1 Cudgel Troll
1 Deadly Recluse
1 Kalonian Behemoth
1 Runeclaw Bear
2 Stampeding Rhino
green spells 3
1 Entangling Vines
1 Giant Growth
1 Rampant Growth
black creatures 9
1 Dread Warlock
1 Drudge Skeletons
1 Gravedigger
1 Looming Shade
1 Royal Assassin
1 Vampire Aristocrat
1 Vampire Nocturnus
1 Zombie Goliath
black spells 4
1 Consume Spirit
2 Rise from the Grave
1 Weakness
total 16 critters and 7 spells , including 3 removels not great, but the pook sucks..
I would consider siding in deathmark , and Windstorm depends on the deck im facing
white have some good cards, but its not deep ,
its tempting to go 3 colors with green splash , you only have 2 fixers (Terramorphic Expanse and Rampant Growth) if you have the elf that gets a land , i would go 3 colors with Black and green as main colors and splash white for Pacifism and blinding mage.
I dont know whats the general consensus on Inferno Elemental but he has been great for me most of the time.
Whereas the Aristocrat has been somewhat poor for me especially with the new M10 combat rules.
I'd have gladly the Elemental over the Vampire.
Pack 1, Pick 1: I think Sleep is definitely the best card. It basically acts like a Blue Overrun (wins the game for you if you have sufficient creatures), whereas Clone is highly dependent on whether there is a really good creature in play.
Sleep is, in some ways, even better than Overrun because if your opponent uses Safe Passage, Fog, etc, you still have another turn to pummel them (so the spell is not entirely wasted).
Pack 2, Pick2: Guardian Seraph is awesome, but why hate draft when you have the perfect solution (Windstorm) in the same pack? It can also take care of the Serra Angel in the pack, and you seem to be avoiding fliers anyway (in spite of being in Blue)...
Most other picks I either agree with or don't have major issue (although I agree about taking Whispersilk Cloak over Divination).
Good luck in the future!
Sean M. Dorsey
Prodigal Pyromancer + Gorgon Flail trumps the Goblin Artillery + Flail combo. Just as deadly, without costing you life each time.
If you throw on a Lifelink enchantment though, then the Artillery is better. But who wastes a pick on Lifelink? :D
Evasion is very valuable in M10, since a lot of games get into stalls. Pack 1 pick 1 had a Phantom Warrior, who has better evasion than a flyer - much better pick than Act of Treason. But you have to also consider taking the Merfolk Looter instead. Any game where you resolve a looter early and activate him every turn, you get far more consistency, and draw into your decks bombs, answers, etc. more often. You should generally win most games where you get a looter active for any length of time.
Never pass a sleep either, it's a game-winning bomb!
thanks for the explanantion on springjack pasture, i never really looked at the second part about saccing goats for mana to bust out huge turns.
Yes, Looter should have been the correct pick P1P4. Sad noo more good blue came around.
Still a pretty nice Deck you gathered and good job on going 3-0. Bad you had to pass the chase rares.
I think you should try some Urza's Factory instead of Springjack Pasture, it's cheap card and seems great (you wrote you lack good win cons, didn't you?). It perfectly fits what you were looking for - a land that can do something useful when you have spare mana.
Also I think this deck should run cards like Remand (how does it work with Guile? I don't know) or Repeal - to stal game early and cantrip to find cards that will let you handle problem you just delayed (or just draw win condition ;))
Also I am wondering why didn't you include Mana Leak, it's very good counter.
About win con - You should really add some Spire Golems, they are radical. Wasn't it you who said that playing free spells is cool (maybe not as COOOOOOL as stealing spells, but still cool).
Hmm, you had problem with bant - you were lacking for counters in late game. Why don't include 2-3 Spell Bursts? Seems amazing for me.
You could also try Disrupting Shoal, to protect your Guile right after playing it, but I don't know if it is going to do well - you have horribly high mana curve as for extended.
I hope I helped at least a little bit. Keep on good work (I always enjoy reading articles about ext, even casual, even though I am rather competitive player)!
As someone who is trying to learn to draft, this has been a very helpful series of articles. Certainly many of the drafts ended up poorly, like yours did by your own admission, but there is easily as much to learn from a bad draft as a good one.
And I certainly won't profess to have enough knowledge to go through picks and say what I would have done, but something is really really wrong when you end with with ANY, let alone TWO acolytes of Xanthid in your deck.
Regardless I enjoyed the reads and want to thank all of you for taking the time to do the draft and write it up.
A weak pool with no bombs, no great punch, and very susceptible to Sleep/Overrun - sorry. I suspect you didn't list all the blue cards.
Start with playable artifacts, then check for card advantage (black), then with then with your deepest color (in this pool, black), then see what compliments it the best. Since you have Diabolic Tutor and two lands that involve red (Dragonskull Summit and Terramorphic Expanse), it is possible to splash for red, but unfortunately you have no Fireball or Earthquake.
Artifacts - Gorgon's Flail (IN - 1)
Black (Automatic) - Gravedigger, Royal Assassin, Consume Spirit, Mind Rot, Mind Shatter, 2 Rise from the Grave, Weakness (IN - 8)
Black (Probable) - 2 Dread Warlock, Dredge Skeletons, Vampire Aristocrat (IN - 4)
Black (Possible) - Looming Shade, Vampire Nocturnus, Wall of Bone, Zombie Goliath, Deathmark, Diabolic Tutor, Duress (IN - 7)
Rise from the Grave will make you overvalue removal, Mind Rot is precious card advantage, threats and board removal are poor but ground defense is stellar. What to pair that with? Green has the best chance to make off-color splashes with Elvish Piper and Rampant Growth (don't forget Diabolic Tutor). Sadly there is absolutely nothing worth splashing for. White and blue offer two of the worst pools I've ever seen. I think you need to lean on surprises to try and steal games. Panic Attack and it's ilk would be best here, but the other playable red cards are too color-intensive. Stick with green and pump instead. Remembering this is in the context of our secondary color, that gives us:
Green (Automatic) - Deadly Recluse, Elvish Piper, Kalonian Behemoth, 2 Stampeding Rhino, Giant Growth, Nature's Spiral
Green (Probable) - Awakener Druid, Cudgel Troll, Rampant Growth
Green (Possible) - 2 Bramble Creeper, 1 Emerald Oryx, Mist Leopard, Runeclaw Bear, Entangling Vines
Rampant Growth for acceleration, hopefully not for fixing here. Oryx, normally weak, may get promoted to highlight our stealing games we shouldn't win theme.
I would build something like this:
Artifact - Gorgon's Flail (1)
Green - Deadly Recluse, Elvish Piper, Kalonian Behemoth, 2 Stampeding Rhino, Giant Growth, Nature's Spiral, Awakener Druid, Cudgel Troll, Rampant Growth, Emerald Oryx (11)
Black - Gravedigger, Royal Assassin, Consume Spirit, Mind Rot, Mind Shatter, 2 Rise from the Grave, 2 Dread Warlock, Vampire Aristocrat, Deathmark (11)
Lands - 8 Swamp, 8 Forest, 1 Terramorphic Expanse
(EDIT: +1 Vampire Nocturnus, -1 Emerald Oryx)
Looming Shade is my honorable mention. I think this pool would be lucky to get 2-2; it needs to emphasize that luck aspect, preferring luckier cards like Oryx and Deathmark over more solid cards like Drudge Skeletons and Weakness.
I've gone 18-2 in my last 5 M10 sealed pools, if that helps lend credence.
EDIT: Sorry, I was confusing Vampire Nocturnus with Child of Night - definitely include the Nocturnus which adds a huge boost to the deck.
Undead Slayer was at best the 5th best card in pack 1 pick 1. Taking Soul Warden over Pacifism also defies all logic. And Horned Turtle is no where nearly as good as Merfolk Looter.
You guys know that Merfolk Looter is a first pick right?
It's not the shuffler that prevents players from getting a 2000+ rating online--it's the lack of big K events. When everything is 16 mostly, occasionally at 24, it's vitually impossible to get too high online.
I don't have anything meaningful to add, but if it were me I'd have been sucked into blue pretty early with a
P1P1 Act of Treason
P1P2 Razorfoot Griffin
P1P3 Sleep
P1P4 Wind Drake
P1P5 Wind Drake
P1P6 Divination
When Wind Drake makes it to pick 4 and 5 I'd be thinking no one wants to be in blue as almost everyone at the table has seen these cards by now. Especially knowing that at least one of the blue cards from pack one (Merfolk Looter, Sage Owl, or Phantom Warrior) would almost have to come back around on the very next pick.