Thanks for the comment. That does make sense, and clearly first pick should have been Tidings. I don't agree that Wall of Fire belonged in this deck. I guess the argument could be made that it could have helped stall long enough to get Bloodfire online, but even then if the Wall isn't dealing damage, you aren't guaranteed to win at that point. I probably should have played the Vault, but Wall of Fire, I'm still out on.
Why I ran Fear over Phyrexian Vault. That's a good question. The only thing I was thinking in running Fear was pushing through some evasion damage in the end. This may or may not have been a mistake. I think Shatterstorm was a better pick over the Mystic. I would much rather have a 2x sideboard cards for the nasty artifact bombs in the format (loxodon warhammer, platinum angel, juggernaut with whispersilk cloak) than to try and hate draft somebody I may not face. Thanks for the comments.
I will go playtest the deck swapping the vault for the fear against some other draft decks.
Although, I did overlook Tidings, I don't think Blue is the best color in XXX. Even if it is, I would draft Black/Red every time if the removal is there. That might just be a personal preference. I do value highway robbers way too much, first pick was def a mistake.
Have to disagree with the 'angry writing' fans -- I got tired of it early and skipped to the end of the article. To address the point raised about sub-optimal deck choices (aka UGW thresh when the author feels it seems bad), allow me to bring up an oft-stated point about deck selection:
When in doubt, play the deck you are most comfortable with.
There's a good chance the thresh player was just comfortable with thresh... no need to get all boggled about it :P.
and pasted from an old article that BDM wrote on the deck
There are a lot of misconceptions about the deck that would eventually be come to known as Tight Sight and one of them is the idea that it takes a long time to play out a game. I don't know how anyone arrived at that conclusion. The deck uses its blue cantrips to gain threshold while accelerating its mana with Rampant Growth and threshold enabled Far Wanderings. The turn after Future Sight hits the table - as early as turn 4 - the game takes off at a blistering pace as you"draw" so many extra cards that you mill away your entire deck. I have won the game as early as the fifth turn many times.
Since you keep using Far Wanderings, you end up with most of the land in your deck hitting the table. Once your deck is milled away, you set up an infinite loop with two Krosan Reclamations, an Early Harvest, and a Predict by shuffling them back into your deck and being able to play them off of the Future Sight. You use the Predict on your opponent, naming a card you know is not in their deck - drawing two cards could be fatal. Rinse and repeat adding the conditioning treatment of an Early Harvest whenever you are running low on mana.
Is this an attempt to coin your own little saying? If it is, I don't see that I have an option to not use it, as it feels like my options are limited in that you've forced it down my throat about 70 times... err 90
This is not theory. This is 90 incidences of the word "option" without once defining how you are using the term, or what it is that you are trying to accomplish by using it.
At least now I know to stock up on Charms. One card, 3 options, sounds good!
The trouble with Mirrodin's Core is you effectively get one colored mana out of it every other turn. That's not much use if you're curving out a color intensive 2-3-4.
Generally the people buying on eBay are doing it to avoid VAT (over seas folks pay a LOT of tax for 'imported' goods). But I imagine that there will be more people turning back to WotC to buy those tickets if it nets them some free stuff.
Which is good, since it will hopefully serve to drive the ticket prices back down a bit. :)
I wish i was good enough to open defiler and broodmate and have my opponents mulligan to 5 every match because their decks are still better, oh and draw the defiler and broodmate every game
I like it, free stuff for doing what I normally do is cool.
I'm curious what this will do to the secondhand market. When I think about it the reason tickets for cards work is because you can sell tickets for real money. But those buying $100 for 100 tickets on ebay might as well just get the tickets directly from wotc, and get free stuff.
Great article. I was thinking about sideboarding strategies lately and i found out that in some matchups,my win rate is way better with no sideboarding versus sideboarding even i bring some useful cards in.
I think you're onto something with Optional Theory in draft. Are you starting your draft with picks that lead to more, better options than your opposing drafters or are you drafting negative options? Is that 1st-pick Resounding Thunder over Naya Charm leading to more or less options?
I believe, like many other things, that your choice of queue has a lot to do with your expectations and goals. If your primary goal is to play the most rounds of magic (not necessarily winning the most) then that will affect your choice of queue. If your primary goal is test your skills against the best players, that too will affect your choice.
And if your primary goal is to get the best ROI then there are other factors in the decision such as expected win % in a given queue, and amount of time you're willing/looking to invest. This spreadsheet does a very good job of looking at the results of your drafts to help make that decision.
Personally, I try to learn as much about my decks by playing as many games as possible with it. Scrubbing out of an 8-4 because of a bad play and bad luck doesn't provide me with the information I want.
EDIT: I was surpised at the value of the sealed PEs. I love swiss for the information it gives and should make more of an effort to play more of these.
Good Question, playing Fear over Vault, was a mistake. See above.
Thanks for the comment. That does make sense, and clearly first pick should have been Tidings. I don't agree that Wall of Fire belonged in this deck. I guess the argument could be made that it could have helped stall long enough to get Bloodfire online, but even then if the Wall isn't dealing damage, you aren't guaranteed to win at that point. I probably should have played the Vault, but Wall of Fire, I'm still out on.
Why I ran Fear over Phyrexian Vault. That's a good question. The only thing I was thinking in running Fear was pushing through some evasion damage in the end. This may or may not have been a mistake. I think Shatterstorm was a better pick over the Mystic. I would much rather have a 2x sideboard cards for the nasty artifact bombs in the format (loxodon warhammer, platinum angel, juggernaut with whispersilk cloak) than to try and hate draft somebody I may not face. Thanks for the comments.
I will go playtest the deck swapping the vault for the fear against some other draft decks.
Although, I did overlook Tidings, I don't think Blue is the best color in XXX. Even if it is, I would draft Black/Red every time if the removal is there. That might just be a personal preference. I do value highway robbers way too much, first pick was def a mistake.
I do like grixis charm over agony warp most of the time because it's ability to kill a tougher creature or just bounce any permanent.
Thanks for the walkthroughs. The devour/infest interaction seemed to really work out well for you.
I winced at the thought of passing up the two drag downs for the rares, but I understand the monetary reasons behind the decisions.
Have to disagree with the 'angry writing' fans -- I got tired of it early and skipped to the end of the article. To address the point raised about sub-optimal deck choices (aka UGW thresh when the author feels it seems bad), allow me to bring up an oft-stated point about deck selection:
When in doubt, play the deck you are most comfortable with.
There's a good chance the thresh player was just comfortable with thresh... no need to get all boggled about it :P.
and pasted from an old article that BDM wrote on the deck
There are a lot of misconceptions about the deck that would eventually be come to known as Tight Sight and one of them is the idea that it takes a long time to play out a game. I don't know how anyone arrived at that conclusion. The deck uses its blue cantrips to gain threshold while accelerating its mana with Rampant Growth and threshold enabled Far Wanderings. The turn after Future Sight hits the table - as early as turn 4 - the game takes off at a blistering pace as you"draw" so many extra cards that you mill away your entire deck. I have won the game as early as the fifth turn many times.
Since you keep using Far Wanderings, you end up with most of the land in your deck hitting the table. Once your deck is milled away, you set up an infinite loop with two Krosan Reclamations, an Early Harvest, and a Predict by shuffling them back into your deck and being able to play them off of the Future Sight. You use the Predict on your opponent, naming a card you know is not in their deck - drawing two cards could be fatal. Rinse and repeat adding the conditioning treatment of an Early Harvest whenever you are running low on mana.
This has been bothering me. Can someone tell me how that deck wins?
Is this an attempt to coin your own little saying? If it is, I don't see that I have an option to not use it, as it feels like my options are limited in that you've forced it down my throat about 70 times... err 90
This is not theory. This is 90 incidences of the word "option" without once defining how you are using the term, or what it is that you are trying to accomplish by using it.
At least now I know to stock up on Charms. One card, 3 options, sounds good!
I can send you the actually spreadsheet if you like.
The trouble with Mirrodin's Core is you effectively get one colored mana out of it every other turn. That's not much use if you're curving out a color intensive 2-3-4.
Imo you could easily go UBr with the milling deck, and replace the Glimpse w/ X2 Blightning. I find
Mirrodin's Core are as good as vivid lands.
Generally the people buying on eBay are doing it to avoid VAT (over seas folks pay a LOT of tax for 'imported' goods). But I imagine that there will be more people turning back to WotC to buy those tickets if it nets them some free stuff.
Which is good, since it will hopefully serve to drive the ticket prices back down a bit. :)
I wish i was good enough to open defiler and broodmate and have my opponents mulligan to 5 every match because their decks are still better, oh and draw the defiler and broodmate every game
I like it, free stuff for doing what I normally do is cool.
I'm curious what this will do to the secondhand market. When I think about it the reason tickets for cards work is because you can sell tickets for real money. But those buying $100 for 100 tickets on ebay might as well just get the tickets directly from wotc, and get free stuff.
Yep. :(
USA Only. Evidently there's a lot of legal things with it being based out of the USA and sending stuff to other countries based on reward items.
Great article. I was thinking about sideboarding strategies lately and i found out that in some matchups,my win rate is way better with no sideboarding versus sideboarding even i bring some useful cards in.
I read only for ppl living in usa? =(
You dressed up like a pirate for your wedding!
I must say that is pretty cool.
Funniest thing was Jamuraa joking about Roots, two days before the green cards were added to the spoiler. St. Jams?
My vote is that you are an all the time idiot (just kidding).
I think you're onto something with Optional Theory in draft. Are you starting your draft with picks that lead to more, better options than your opposing drafters or are you drafting negative options? Is that 1st-pick Resounding Thunder over Naya Charm leading to more or less options?
Keep it up!
I believe, like many other things, that your choice of queue has a lot to do with your expectations and goals. If your primary goal is to play the most rounds of magic (not necessarily winning the most) then that will affect your choice of queue. If your primary goal is test your skills against the best players, that too will affect your choice.
And if your primary goal is to get the best ROI then there are other factors in the decision such as expected win % in a given queue, and amount of time you're willing/looking to invest. This spreadsheet does a very good job of looking at the results of your drafts to help make that decision.
Personally, I try to learn as much about my decks by playing as many games as possible with it. Scrubbing out of an 8-4 because of a bad play and bad luck doesn't provide me with the information I want.
EDIT: I was surpised at the value of the sealed PEs. I love swiss for the information it gives and should make more of an effort to play more of these.