The only heavily-questionable call I see in your picks is taking the borderpost over the 4/4 Grixis critter in P3P5. I could see prioritizing the fixing if you've had none at all so far, but at that point in the draft you're doing decently in that department. With your low critter count I would have gobbled up the body with this pick. I know you want to be able to cast the Ultimatum, but your spheres will take care of that.
Yes, the Nacatl Beats deck is really good. It's a pity there will be just one more Pauper ALA Block event, I think it would have been interesting to see how the meta would evolve with another 5 or so events.
indeed, I have wanted to get into the more fun casual games and formats.. and this was a massive help! Gave me a few ideas to boot... but with the Ernie avatar I MUST build the thallid deck.... looking forward to more Vanguard articles!!
The Nacatl Beats deck is seriously wicked. I ran a version of it in MPDC this week to a top 4 finish. Would have done better if not for a few mistakes (some I noticed and a couple Hokusai spotted). You could easily port this deck into std and play it as is and do well.
I really enjoyed the look at the esper builds, since I run strixy sometimes... great article. Now I will have to play in the next season...
Aw man, you're right. I do not have a girlfriend. I do however have a very supportive wife that allows me to do whatever I want to do. I think your idiotic comment was useless, and really if you are gonna try to be funny, man up and use your name.
'Do I overvalue Armillary Sphere?' I hope that was a rhetorical question. (my answer - it is impossible to overvalue it).
Great article as always.
As I have stated in the past, I am a fan of the 'good' drafters who write doing so in the 8-4s. Of course, if you happen to be online at 5am EST and the 8-4 is not filling, the occasional swiss is acceptable.
P1P1 I thought hard about Thoctar over capsule, but I was ok forcing Naya with this pick. I would like to say I would have been ok abandoning it had Naya not been there. But I can't say for sure.
P1P2 I can understand that.
P1P6 I took the much stronger card in the rakeclaw, and am happy about it. I feel it is much easier to have all three color requirements by turn 5-6 than it is to have them turn 3 for a Thoctar. I feel I made the right decision here and would pick the Rakeclaw again.
P1P7 You are probably right. Angelic Benediction didn't make my deck.
P2P1 lots of people disagree with this pick. I think the relative power levels of Cormorants, Trailblazer and Ember Weaver are all within a reasonable degree. However, once enhanced, Ember Weaver kills Cormorants and blocks Trailblazer all day. I can agree with you on this one.
P2P4 I disagree here. I was thrilled to get the Mystics. I don't consider him a Mediocre flier. Although, after taking the Cormorants, I probably should have grabbed more mana fixing. I took a pick with an ability in a splash.
P3P4 I dislike pump as well, except for Colossal Might can just end games. Vithian Renegades and Deadshot Minotaur are both fine choices. I value Might in decks without Twinclaws as well.
The Eternal Wisdoms will be returning to PUREMTGO very soon. I am the author of this series of articles and I am glad to know that the articles were appreciated/missed.
The series has been on hold whilst we have been reviewing the best way to deliver top quality Classic Material. You will notice that ruckus, Whiffy, Myself, JxClaytor and the Walkerdog will all be producing Classic articles with the aim of delivering high quality articles in a coordinated/strategic fashion.
Expect the next episode of the Wisdoms to be up Mid-August.
Best Wishes,
Under_The_hammer
People who have girlfriends - or wives and children - don't have the time to go to a card store, so they have to play MTGO. That's the correlation between MTGO and relationships.
I actually had the possibility to fully playtest my version of Nocturnus deck above and I can say that it is another Tier-1,5 deck I managed to build. It is incredibly fun to play and it will be the king of the casual room and will rarely lose there. But then it will rarely win in the tournament practice room (strangely it works against Kithkin perfectly though). And such is the fate of all the Tier-1,5 decks.
By the way I think that Unearth is more a Zombie-ish keyword.
And Paul the font I used is called "Metal Macabre". You can download it from www.1001fonts.com. It's free to use by the way.
As far as I know writing for the site is open to anyone. Maybe the writer has moved on, or quit magic. If there is something you feel missing maybe you could put pen to paper and fill the void. I like reading every article from the crazy and wacky, to someones experience in magic, to the thought provoking and insightful. Even if it is an article I do not agree with, you at least get to then discuss it with other readers/players.
Whiffy's classic articles are always great. Unfortunately there has been some time I don't see the "Eternal Wisdom", which used to be my favorite column in this site. I hope they haven't cut the guy to favor other poorly researched/written content...
Vampire Nocturnus has been my personal chase rare ever since I first saw the M10 spoilerlist. I'm not sure he'll ever be fit for tourneys, but he'll be a top casual card at least. Nice decklists too.
Oh, and why don't Vampires have Unearth? Would be a perfect fit...
You forgot something important thing, "play the game see the world".
I play mtgo a lot, and find it very convenient, but it woulnd't replace all the good times with friends all around the world.
Good point for the girlfriend btw, it's much easier to play online than leaving twice a weak to play cards. Even if they usually don't complain too much when they have gone to hawaii, NY, LA, San Franciscco, Kyoto, Tokyo,... because of their boyfriend's hobby ;)
Um... Great article - what it tried to do, it did. Props for the attempt. I saw a LOT of divine dual decks in cas when it first came out, and they are somewhere... assisting people with that deck with a few tweaks is great. The question of whether or not you could do a better deck by building on the plains from divine deck is redundant. That is not what you tried to do, and so your success can't be measured against that.
I do agree, however, that $5 is a limited budget, and that for maybe $10 - you may have been able to offer a couple of different builds with a variety. A BW combined build might be interesting also.
Awesome as always. I always feel like I learn a little bit from each of your articles. I then fail to implement any of the knowledge, draft a pile and loose Rd1, but that's not your fault.... lol
I'm curious about this format. I have a few questions about it:
Are there any budget decks that still preform well? (For example, Elves in Classic)
Are there staples in the format? (Any card you deck must play if it's in that color, or have to splash for)
The only heavily-questionable call I see in your picks is taking the borderpost over the 4/4 Grixis critter in P3P5. I could see prioritizing the fixing if you've had none at all so far, but at that point in the draft you're doing decently in that department. With your low critter count I would have gobbled up the body with this pick. I know you want to be able to cast the Ultimatum, but your spheres will take care of that.
Can't wait to see how you fared.
Thank you for your comment!
Yes, the Nacatl Beats deck is really good. It's a pity there will be just one more Pauper ALA Block event, I think it would have been interesting to see how the meta would evolve with another 5 or so events.
indeed, I have wanted to get into the more fun casual games and formats.. and this was a massive help! Gave me a few ideas to boot... but with the Ernie avatar I MUST build the thallid deck.... looking forward to more Vanguard articles!!
The Nacatl Beats deck is seriously wicked. I ran a version of it in MPDC this week to a top 4 finish. Would have done better if not for a few mistakes (some I noticed and a couple Hokusai spotted). You could easily port this deck into std and play it as is and do well.
I really enjoyed the look at the esper builds, since I run strixy sometimes... great article. Now I will have to play in the next season...
I'm not seeing anything repeated here.
no idea as to why it's repeated.. =(
Aw man, you're right. I do not have a girlfriend. I do however have a very supportive wife that allows me to do whatever I want to do. I think your idiotic comment was useless, and really if you are gonna try to be funny, man up and use your name.
'Do I overvalue Armillary Sphere?' I hope that was a rhetorical question. (my answer - it is impossible to overvalue it).
Great article as always.
As I have stated in the past, I am a fan of the 'good' drafters who write doing so in the 8-4s. Of course, if you happen to be online at 5am EST and the 8-4 is not filling, the occasional swiss is acceptable.
Glad to hear it hammer!
P1P1 I thought hard about Thoctar over capsule, but I was ok forcing Naya with this pick. I would like to say I would have been ok abandoning it had Naya not been there. But I can't say for sure.
P1P2 I can understand that.
P1P6 I took the much stronger card in the rakeclaw, and am happy about it. I feel it is much easier to have all three color requirements by turn 5-6 than it is to have them turn 3 for a Thoctar. I feel I made the right decision here and would pick the Rakeclaw again.
P1P7 You are probably right. Angelic Benediction didn't make my deck.
P2P1 lots of people disagree with this pick. I think the relative power levels of Cormorants, Trailblazer and Ember Weaver are all within a reasonable degree. However, once enhanced, Ember Weaver kills Cormorants and blocks Trailblazer all day. I can agree with you on this one.
P2P4 I disagree here. I was thrilled to get the Mystics. I don't consider him a Mediocre flier. Although, after taking the Cormorants, I probably should have grabbed more mana fixing. I took a pick with an ability in a splash.
P3P4 I dislike pump as well, except for Colossal Might can just end games. Vithian Renegades and Deadshot Minotaur are both fine choices. I value Might in decks without Twinclaws as well.
P3P11 Fair enough.
Thank you for your in depth comment.
In response to the supportive words above:
The Eternal Wisdoms will be returning to PUREMTGO very soon. I am the author of this series of articles and I am glad to know that the articles were appreciated/missed.
The series has been on hold whilst we have been reviewing the best way to deliver top quality Classic Material. You will notice that ruckus, Whiffy, Myself, JxClaytor and the Walkerdog will all be producing Classic articles with the aim of delivering high quality articles in a coordinated/strategic fashion.
Expect the next episode of the Wisdoms to be up Mid-August.
Best Wishes,
Under_The_hammer
People who have girlfriends - or wives and children - don't have the time to go to a card store, so they have to play MTGO. That's the correlation between MTGO and relationships.
Thanks again for all the comments.
I actually had the possibility to fully playtest my version of Nocturnus deck above and I can say that it is another Tier-1,5 deck I managed to build. It is incredibly fun to play and it will be the king of the casual room and will rarely lose there. But then it will rarely win in the tournament practice room (strangely it works against Kithkin perfectly though). And such is the fate of all the Tier-1,5 decks.
By the way I think that Unearth is more a Zombie-ish keyword.
And Paul the font I used is called "Metal Macabre". You can download it from www.1001fonts.com. It's free to use by the way.
LE
As far as I know writing for the site is open to anyone. Maybe the writer has moved on, or quit magic. If there is something you feel missing maybe you could put pen to paper and fill the void. I like reading every article from the crazy and wacky, to someones experience in magic, to the thought provoking and insightful. Even if it is an article I do not agree with, you at least get to then discuss it with other readers/players.
RagMan
Whiffy's classic articles are always great. Unfortunately there has been some time I don't see the "Eternal Wisdom", which used to be my favorite column in this site. I hope they haven't cut the guy to favor other poorly researched/written content...
Vampire Nocturnus has been my personal chase rare ever since I first saw the M10 spoilerlist. I'm not sure he'll ever be fit for tourneys, but he'll be a top casual card at least. Nice decklists too.
Oh, and why don't Vampires have Unearth? Would be a perfect fit...
You forgot something important thing, "play the game see the world".
I play mtgo a lot, and find it very convenient, but it woulnd't replace all the good times with friends all around the world.
Good point for the girlfriend btw, it's much easier to play online than leaving twice a weak to play cards. Even if they usually don't complain too much when they have gone to hawaii, NY, LA, San Franciscco, Kyoto, Tokyo,... because of their boyfriend's hobby ;)
Um... Great article - what it tried to do, it did. Props for the attempt. I saw a LOT of divine dual decks in cas when it first came out, and they are somewhere... assisting people with that deck with a few tweaks is great. The question of whether or not you could do a better deck by building on the plains from divine deck is redundant. That is not what you tried to do, and so your success can't be measured against that.
I do agree, however, that $5 is a limited budget, and that for maybe $10 - you may have been able to offer a couple of different builds with a variety. A BW combined build might be interesting also.
Awesome :) Enjoyed it a lot, and I'm sure gonna try out that Vampire deck :)
Awesome as always. I always feel like I learn a little bit from each of your articles. I then fail to implement any of the knowledge, draft a pile and loose Rd1, but that's not your fault.... lol
*chuckles* perhaps so. Or maybe a cousin?
I'm diggin' that discard deck.
Must be the same guy who didn't like AJ's hat...