The comment was not intended to be rude (as already said). I didn't tell your article was a pile of crap, but i told you I completely disagree. I find it difficult to disagree with you and at the same time to tell you you were right. And if you note, the comment was constructive enough to spend a lot of words and examples, and to give you an anternative way to build a deck that uses the bird.
Apart from that thing, countryside crusher IS an overpriced card that has an high price just because a pro played it. This is a fact, not an opinion: it stayed at 80c/1$ for what, 1,5 years? it wasn't played in any deck that could exploit it, not even reddeckwins for which no lands = burn each turn, etc. And it was not played for some good reasons, 1st if you play it too fast it can screw your mana (but not playing it very fast = not being aggressive enough), 2nd it can be taken out by every burn spell in every format, etc. The same goes for swans of brynn argoll, that can be good, but that have no right to cost 6$ (in fact, they were at 0.80 for 1 years themselves).
And, again... I adviced cheap creatures and cheap cards that will retain their price and that are absolutely powerful, I never told anybody "wow, your deck suck, where are hyerarchs, figures and cryptic commands?"...
Those posters bashed the article, you bashed a large percentage of the people who visit this webpage. Many of us have ratings below 1800 and have never placed in a major event. We read these articles as part of our efforts to elevate our game play.
What I like about this site is the fact that we can all have opinions and display them publicly. I also respect your opinion and feedback. It's always good to hear what others think.
That being said, I suggest learning how to critique writing so others will value your feedback. I suggest a pedagogy class at a university. Your method of critique for this article puts the author on the defensive rather then a chance for productive discussion.
So that being said, I make no guarantees with the decks. This deck won more then it lost for me in the casual room (sure that may have been luck). Is it going to win the next Standard tournament? No. But it's not intended for that. The intent was to make a deck that is fun to play. I don't think the more advanced players will gain knowledge from my articles. My target audience is beginning to possibly intermediate. I'm sure even those players could make it better. But what I gave them was an idea, an idea they can morph and make their own.
As far as the biased towards some cards "will always be junk." Sure that might be true for the tournament, T1, I want to win every time player. I'm not one of those nor do I write for those people. For the casual player, like myself and others it's fun to try and use the "junk." My thought is that if I make a deck for $10 and I play it for five hours, I had just as much fun as that $10 would last at the movies. I am not claiming that the "junk" isn't "junk." I'm claiming give it a try, make deck, have fun.
And yes Sygg, was probably never "junk" in the arbitrary opinion standard of what classifies as "junk." (because it's certainly not cost) So I probably had a bad example. But the point of that segment is, you don't know what the future of the game will hold. So Aven might be pretty worthless today, but what if there is some fantastic synergy "feather counter" cards that come out down the road? Sygg is more of an example of how the game is not static. It's always changing.
And a minor side note, you turn your Bant Sureblade into a 3/1 flier with first strike so they can't evade you. Then you turn their guys into fliers. But as I said, aven takes to long to work properly, so it's more of an endgame thin. And sure mass removal, tokens, and the plethora of foils for this deck are out there but point is not that my deck wins every game, but my deck is fairly decent and didn't cost me a ton of money.
Your comments nothing to write home about either.....
Does it sound like the author is trying to make a cutthroat competitive deck? No, it's a budget article, he talks about building a deck for funsies, off 10 tix or so, theres nothing wrong with that. However your analysis of countryside crusher is a joke, I don't really like making sure I draw a spell every turn, who would want to do that :/
Just a comment on Pack 1 Pick 5, a 2/2 creature for 3 mana has historically been referred to as a (Grey Ogre) and not a Bear, or (Grizzly Bear), which is a 2/2 creature for 2 mana. I mention this because I've seen it a couple of times on this website in different articles this past week. Both creatures showed up in Alpha and were/are the measuring stick by which every creature of the appropriate casting cost is measured. (Hill Giant) covers the 4cc slot, but I think that's where it stopped.
Otherwise, good luck in qualifying! Kudos on continuing to write and to accept analysis and criticism, it looks like it's contributing to your success.
If you keep this up, I honestly think this will be the best Limited article series ever!
I have SCG premium, and always play along with Draft with LSV/Ruel/..., but I learnt so much more from your detailled play analysis than I do from a typical "Draft with" article.
Despite an ok draft (as you admit) the screen shots, questioning different strategies, and explaining mulliganing decisions were all helpful. I'd have made so many mistakes if left to my own devices. ;-)
i totaly agree about the crazyness of coatl. But when i tried it in a more control archetype, i found much much more synergy : Sensei, standstill, remora are the best examples... predict, sylvan library are some others. In fact, in a more control build, you would really make a uber powered finisher with a possible comboish finish (standstill into a Brainstorm into a Gush/Tolarian wind + Berserk = GG)...
i understand your argument Whiffy and maybe (probably) i wasnt enough explicit about my reasonning. I dont think TA must run Wasteland in the current meta i agree with that.
I only want to highlight the fact that the tempo in TA is crazy important and usualy, wasteland/sinkhole and free spells are allowing the TA player to keep the opponent's tempo at range. Wasteland in the usual TA build isnt a tempo problem for you because spells are cheaper than in the present build (Snuff Out, Unmask, wasteland = free mana, sinkhole only CMC2). For sure, if you are attempting to replace these card by real land disrupter currently available, it would be a disaster. But i still believe that replacing these cards by coatl is not the best idea : what about duress, seize ? What about Dryad ? Or if the meta goes on to be aggro red tainted (zoo?), what about hydroblast/chill ? What about stifl, the all star multi-usage card (bye wasteland, bye fetch, bye any othe unexpected triggered ?
I really think to put coatl into this build is not making it better because of loss of tempo, because the loss of disruption, because the deck is loosing to much the control of the board.
Once again, that is only from my humble experience, and i am not sure to be true, that is only what i observed and what i felt after have tested TA with and without Coatl, even in our current meta.
I don't totally disagree about Coatl. He IS a little slow, and hard on the mana, and really, Dryad is probably just better. However, being able to play a 2/2 AND grow him a LOT in response to blocks and/or damage or toughness-based removal is pretty crazy, and so is being able to stack three counters on him with brainstorm. Overall though, the cheaper Dryad is probably better.
I gaurentte that if you took a build with wasteland your will lose so fast your head will spin. What good is killing a land or 2 when the opponent has 3 guys by turn 3? + Gush saves a land from wasteland. No, in the current meta game this is the correct build. If the format were more about control or even agro control then you would be right. However you cant gain tempo against zoo with land disruption, and coatl is another card that says kill me now or you lose the game regardless if the deck was built to fully abuse.
I was quite surprised by the events that took place and that you managed to 3-0 with this deck, as Jund is the way to go none the less in RRR. In regards to all the commenting and bashing .... I'm sure 90% of you don't understand the logic behind a 1st time drafter in such a format and I'm sure your well under 1800 regardless. Some of the picks were questionable no doubt and the consistency factor kinda slid off the track for awhile in this draft yet NONE of you should be talking if you either don't write articles nor let viewers rip apart your drafts.
"Some of the commentary on picks is just so far off..." .... like sorry for the fact that not all draft pods are filled with 'quality' drafters. Your achievements being?
"Isn't knight of new alara a huge bomb in RRR?" .... let's learn a thing in life when your dealing with RRR a GW creature with significant game impact will be dead and thus allowing you to get a 3 for 1 if lucky.
"Sigiled Behemoth at best is a 23th filler, but usually won't even make the cut. I could start listing all the picks I disagree on, but as my preposter just said: it's kind of pointless right now since RRR is not here anymore." honestly I won't even comment on this although in all do respect what events do you consistently play in?
"On another note...rrr drafts are not happening and haven't been for awhile, why is this article even being posted now. If it was posted weeks ago, fine, but its so outdated now its kinda pointless." .... well if that is the case where is your current article on how to succeed at Ala/Con/Reb Sealed Deck or some relevant format?
Seriously for all you posters/viewers if you intend to rip into quality players expect to get destroyed by me .... as it isn't the easiest to write a article and showcase your draft then get grilled for it being out dated etc.
Qualify For A Pro Tour! Then I Might Respect Your Bashing .... Otherwise Zip It!
i would like to comment a bit your deck. Maybe i am wrong, but imho the deck you ran wasnt totaly optimized.
1) TA : it is a very powerful deck. But a large part of its potence is due to its fast disruption : sinkhole / Snuff Out. But we dont have them online currently. So it is possible to replace these 2 cards by other, but all in all, you are loosing quickness by doing that. Playing blue could provide some solutions but there isnt any really solution in your build to increase quickness with blue, except regarding cards draw... which isnt enough i think. Plus the lack of land disruption (stifle/waste/rain of tears in examples) is not helping the deck to find its stability and a powerful advantage it usual provides.
2) Coatl : this creature is really powerful, that is a fact. But i dont think it fits into TA very well. Coatl is a bit more expansive than the 2 other beater in mana, and easy to kill (even with a simple terror). But TA needs something really fast to work well which coatl isnt really with the tool available in the build : brainstorm is great as well. Ponder is good to organize your game, but its contribution to coatl is low in my experience. Gush is a great tool, but it also disturb your tempo - you probably never played it for 5, so each time you are using it, you also go backward in time by bouncing 2 islands. And without Snuff Out/sinkhole/Unmask, it is pretty harmful to keep the advantage TA is used to get usualy, by slowing you in order to cast Tourach, Coatl, Tutor, counterspell and less smother. That means it is harder vs fast decks (RDW, pure aggro builds...) and not that cool vs control also.
Over the recent tests i made with Coatl, i think this creature is much better in a dedicated build to him (brainstrom, gush yes, but predict, careful study, fact of fiction, winds of change, wind of toleria, sylvan library, phyrexian arena, deep analyzis are some examples and there are probably much more examples i cant fully mention here ...). And to put Coatl in a favorable situation, more controlish deck are usualy a better choice. This involves to me that UWG seems much better than TA UBG to abuse of Coatl.
If the aim of the deck isnt to abuse of coatl, i think there are other card and/or creature than coatl to allow to this version of TA to perform better (creatures like stillmoon, shriekshaw, ascetic with a similar CMC or less seem better to me, as do cards like phyrexian arena, duress/seize/therapy, wasteland, or even Contagion could fit better).
My conclusion is : TA is not the best build to put coatl into. I think the entire build should be oriented around Coatl to run it well, or coatl & its suite (gush ...) should be replaced in TA to make it better.
I am only sharing my opinion and that being said, "who never try never know". Maybe you will find a solution to show me that i am wrong ;)
I wish you all the best for the next PE mate (i hope to participate to it), and cant wait for your next article.
Some of the commentary on picks is just so far off... Sigiled Behemoth as a bomb? Illusory demon as a strong flyer? Congrats on winning... but RRR drafts aren't exactly filled with quality drafters.
REally, i don't like to be a naysayer, but i must say your article is pretty... bad? I don't want to be rude, but it puts things in the wrong light:
- some cards ARE junk, at least at a competitive level; cards like cytoplast rootkin and even aven mimeomancer, 90% of the time, are trash. Sure, they're fun, but they are trash
- some cards are NOT junk, they never was, even if their price was low: trinisphere had not a deck till last year, and it costed nothing, the same for chalice of the void and many others. Sygg, river cutthroat has never been stellar, but it has always been good "on paper": any blight player could use it instead of bob, and gaining the same result in the process, it simply never had any love. But it's not that it has magically become powerful cause it costs 5 tix now... also, it costs a lot just because it was featured in some bad magic article...
- some cards are not THAT powerful, even if they have stellar prices: countryside crusher has a stupid inflated price right now, that does not mirror its real power, just because a bunch of dudes are buying a lot of them cause it was features in a winning deck. Again, not everybody is LSV, and what it is good for him, is not good for everybody, so if you're playing a subpar creature you are not winning, even if it was in the deck of a pro (note that, at the same time, nobody plays knight of the reliquiary that does many more things that countryside, will remain in T2 for more, and always get the lands bonus... this is the perfect example of how the "goyfs" are mostly bad casual cards).
- aven mimeomancer is very good in casual: it is a super budget card that for 3 mana gives you flying and an ability. It should be everybody's goyf for casual decks, it simply is not because there are better 3 drops at the moment and because it has not been pumped by some pro.
- the deck you've featured is quite bad, the mimeomancer's primary ability is to give evasion to your guys, what do you do with all that first strike if the opponent is playing tokens? or mass removal? now, try to put him in a deck that can play it turn 2 (with birds or elvish spirit guides), and pair him with any form of "on damage effect guy" (like vedalken heretic, just to do an example.. by the way, vedalken heretic is really bad...) or with any form of guys with counters (look, the 5/5 lorescatl coatl is not a 6/4 flying dude...) and you have a deck.
Thanks for the comment GMoney. I think that a wiser plan on my part (or our part) after thinking about it would have been some sort of white-based answer in the SB, given the rampant red presense in the tournament.
"Sigiled Behemoth is another bomb", yeah right....
Sigiled Behemoth at best is a 23th filler, but usually won't even make the cut. I could start listing all the picks I disagree on, but as my preposter just said: it's kind of pointless right now since RRR is not here anymore.
Also counting of rounds won and lost isn't right, should be:
2-1, 1-0
4-2, 2-0
6-3, 3-0
Congrats on the 1800 though. Always nice to read draft caps but especially when it's still relevant.
illusory demon is just plain horrible in limited. otherwise your deck is decent.
On another note...rrr drafts are not happening and havnt been for awhile, why is this article even being posted now. If it was posted weeks ago, fine, but its so outdated now its kinda pointless.
Man what a bummer that tourny was! I came in 9th by .0020 breakers. This deck is a heck of a lot of fun and in the current meta game is actually well positioned to be in.
As walker said I talked him out of finks. The reason being only playing with 3 green sources and finks being very color intensive. Maybe its just me but whenever I face zoo I either play magic and the inherrent strenghts of my deck over zoos more blunt approach ussally take the day. However when I am being wastelanded out of the game an extra guy or 4 life just dosent matter. On top of this Im pretty confidant from back in the days of stifle/wasteland builds that TA is just plain awful against rdw so i felt that devoting sb space to a hopless match was a nonbo. Instead I had extirpate and it singlehandily won me 2 matches. although i did lose to rdw.
The comment was not intended to be rude (as already said). I didn't tell your article was a pile of crap, but i told you I completely disagree. I find it difficult to disagree with you and at the same time to tell you you were right. And if you note, the comment was constructive enough to spend a lot of words and examples, and to give you an anternative way to build a deck that uses the bird.
Apart from that thing, countryside crusher IS an overpriced card that has an high price just because a pro played it. This is a fact, not an opinion: it stayed at 80c/1$ for what, 1,5 years? it wasn't played in any deck that could exploit it, not even reddeckwins for which no lands = burn each turn, etc. And it was not played for some good reasons, 1st if you play it too fast it can screw your mana (but not playing it very fast = not being aggressive enough), 2nd it can be taken out by every burn spell in every format, etc. The same goes for swans of brynn argoll, that can be good, but that have no right to cost 6$ (in fact, they were at 0.80 for 1 years themselves).
And, again... I adviced cheap creatures and cheap cards that will retain their price and that are absolutely powerful, I never told anybody "wow, your deck suck, where are hyerarchs, figures and cryptic commands?"...
Those posters bashed the article, you bashed a large percentage of the people who visit this webpage. Many of us have ratings below 1800 and have never placed in a major event. We read these articles as part of our efforts to elevate our game play.
What I like about this site is the fact that we can all have opinions and display them publicly. I also respect your opinion and feedback. It's always good to hear what others think.
That being said, I suggest learning how to critique writing so others will value your feedback. I suggest a pedagogy class at a university. Your method of critique for this article puts the author on the defensive rather then a chance for productive discussion.
So that being said, I make no guarantees with the decks. This deck won more then it lost for me in the casual room (sure that may have been luck). Is it going to win the next Standard tournament? No. But it's not intended for that. The intent was to make a deck that is fun to play. I don't think the more advanced players will gain knowledge from my articles. My target audience is beginning to possibly intermediate. I'm sure even those players could make it better. But what I gave them was an idea, an idea they can morph and make their own.
As far as the biased towards some cards "will always be junk." Sure that might be true for the tournament, T1, I want to win every time player. I'm not one of those nor do I write for those people. For the casual player, like myself and others it's fun to try and use the "junk." My thought is that if I make a deck for $10 and I play it for five hours, I had just as much fun as that $10 would last at the movies. I am not claiming that the "junk" isn't "junk." I'm claiming give it a try, make deck, have fun.
And yes Sygg, was probably never "junk" in the arbitrary opinion standard of what classifies as "junk." (because it's certainly not cost) So I probably had a bad example. But the point of that segment is, you don't know what the future of the game will hold. So Aven might be pretty worthless today, but what if there is some fantastic synergy "feather counter" cards that come out down the road? Sygg is more of an example of how the game is not static. It's always changing.
And a minor side note, you turn your Bant Sureblade into a 3/1 flier with first strike so they can't evade you. Then you turn their guys into fliers. But as I said, aven takes to long to work properly, so it's more of an endgame thin. And sure mass removal, tokens, and the plethora of foils for this deck are out there but point is not that my deck wins every game, but my deck is fairly decent and didn't cost me a ton of money.
Precisely what I was trying to say. In less words! I think you should write here.
Inspired me to jump into an ACR swiss and had a blast even though I went 1-2. Keep playing and showing us how it works.
Your comments nothing to write home about either.....
Does it sound like the author is trying to make a cutthroat competitive deck? No, it's a budget article, he talks about building a deck for funsies, off 10 tix or so, theres nothing wrong with that. However your analysis of countryside crusher is a joke, I don't really like making sure I draw a spell every turn, who would want to do that :/
Just a comment on Pack 1 Pick 5, a 2/2 creature for 3 mana has historically been referred to as a (Grey Ogre) and not a Bear, or (Grizzly Bear), which is a 2/2 creature for 2 mana. I mention this because I've seen it a couple of times on this website in different articles this past week. Both creatures showed up in Alpha and were/are the measuring stick by which every creature of the appropriate casting cost is measured. (Hill Giant) covers the 4cc slot, but I think that's where it stopped.
Otherwise, good luck in qualifying! Kudos on continuing to write and to accept analysis and criticism, it looks like it's contributing to your success.
Just had to echo the comments above.
If you keep this up, I honestly think this will be the best Limited article series ever!
I have SCG premium, and always play along with Draft with LSV/Ruel/..., but I learnt so much more from your detailled play analysis than I do from a typical "Draft with" article.
Despite an ok draft (as you admit) the screen shots, questioning different strategies, and explaining mulliganing decisions were all helpful. I'd have made so many mistakes if left to my own devices. ;-)
Please keep up the article series!!
Thanks
i totaly agree about the crazyness of coatl. But when i tried it in a more control archetype, i found much much more synergy : Sensei, standstill, remora are the best examples... predict, sylvan library are some others. In fact, in a more control build, you would really make a uber powered finisher with a possible comboish finish (standstill into a Brainstorm into a Gush/Tolarian wind + Berserk = GG)...
i understand your argument Whiffy and maybe (probably) i wasnt enough explicit about my reasonning. I dont think TA must run Wasteland in the current meta i agree with that.
I only want to highlight the fact that the tempo in TA is crazy important and usualy, wasteland/sinkhole and free spells are allowing the TA player to keep the opponent's tempo at range. Wasteland in the usual TA build isnt a tempo problem for you because spells are cheaper than in the present build (Snuff Out, Unmask, wasteland = free mana, sinkhole only CMC2). For sure, if you are attempting to replace these card by real land disrupter currently available, it would be a disaster. But i still believe that replacing these cards by coatl is not the best idea : what about duress, seize ? What about Dryad ? Or if the meta goes on to be aggro red tainted (zoo?), what about hydroblast/chill ? What about stifl, the all star multi-usage card (bye wasteland, bye fetch, bye any othe unexpected triggered ?
I really think to put coatl into this build is not making it better because of loss of tempo, because the loss of disruption, because the deck is loosing to much the control of the board.
Once again, that is only from my humble experience, and i am not sure to be true, that is only what i observed and what i felt after have tested TA with and without Coatl, even in our current meta.
I don't totally disagree about Coatl. He IS a little slow, and hard on the mana, and really, Dryad is probably just better. However, being able to play a 2/2 AND grow him a LOT in response to blocks and/or damage or toughness-based removal is pretty crazy, and so is being able to stack three counters on him with brainstorm. Overall though, the cheaper Dryad is probably better.
lours.
I gaurentte that if you took a build with wasteland your will lose so fast your head will spin. What good is killing a land or 2 when the opponent has 3 guys by turn 3? + Gush saves a land from wasteland. No, in the current meta game this is the correct build. If the format were more about control or even agro control then you would be right. However you cant gain tempo against zoo with land disruption, and coatl is another card that says kill me now or you lose the game regardless if the deck was built to fully abuse.
I was quite surprised by the events that took place and that you managed to 3-0 with this deck, as Jund is the way to go none the less in RRR. In regards to all the commenting and bashing .... I'm sure 90% of you don't understand the logic behind a 1st time drafter in such a format and I'm sure your well under 1800 regardless. Some of the picks were questionable no doubt and the consistency factor kinda slid off the track for awhile in this draft yet NONE of you should be talking if you either don't write articles nor let viewers rip apart your drafts.
"Some of the commentary on picks is just so far off..." .... like sorry for the fact that not all draft pods are filled with 'quality' drafters. Your achievements being?
"Isn't knight of new alara a huge bomb in RRR?" .... let's learn a thing in life when your dealing with RRR a GW creature with significant game impact will be dead and thus allowing you to get a 3 for 1 if lucky.
"Sigiled Behemoth at best is a 23th filler, but usually won't even make the cut. I could start listing all the picks I disagree on, but as my preposter just said: it's kind of pointless right now since RRR is not here anymore." honestly I won't even comment on this although in all do respect what events do you consistently play in?
"On another note...rrr drafts are not happening and haven't been for awhile, why is this article even being posted now. If it was posted weeks ago, fine, but its so outdated now its kinda pointless." .... well if that is the case where is your current article on how to succeed at Ala/Con/Reb Sealed Deck or some relevant format?
Seriously for all you posters/viewers if you intend to rip into quality players expect to get destroyed by me .... as it isn't the easiest to write a article and showcase your draft then get grilled for it being out dated etc.
Qualify For A Pro Tour! Then I Might Respect Your Bashing .... Otherwise Zip It!
:D
Great article mate !
i would like to comment a bit your deck. Maybe i am wrong, but imho the deck you ran wasnt totaly optimized.
1) TA : it is a very powerful deck. But a large part of its potence is due to its fast disruption : sinkhole / Snuff Out. But we dont have them online currently. So it is possible to replace these 2 cards by other, but all in all, you are loosing quickness by doing that. Playing blue could provide some solutions but there isnt any really solution in your build to increase quickness with blue, except regarding cards draw... which isnt enough i think. Plus the lack of land disruption (stifle/waste/rain of tears in examples) is not helping the deck to find its stability and a powerful advantage it usual provides.
2) Coatl : this creature is really powerful, that is a fact. But i dont think it fits into TA very well. Coatl is a bit more expansive than the 2 other beater in mana, and easy to kill (even with a simple terror). But TA needs something really fast to work well which coatl isnt really with the tool available in the build : brainstorm is great as well. Ponder is good to organize your game, but its contribution to coatl is low in my experience. Gush is a great tool, but it also disturb your tempo - you probably never played it for 5, so each time you are using it, you also go backward in time by bouncing 2 islands. And without Snuff Out/sinkhole/Unmask, it is pretty harmful to keep the advantage TA is used to get usualy, by slowing you in order to cast Tourach, Coatl, Tutor, counterspell and less smother. That means it is harder vs fast decks (RDW, pure aggro builds...) and not that cool vs control also.
Over the recent tests i made with Coatl, i think this creature is much better in a dedicated build to him (brainstrom, gush yes, but predict, careful study, fact of fiction, winds of change, wind of toleria, sylvan library, phyrexian arena, deep analyzis are some examples and there are probably much more examples i cant fully mention here ...). And to put Coatl in a favorable situation, more controlish deck are usualy a better choice. This involves to me that UWG seems much better than TA UBG to abuse of Coatl.
If the aim of the deck isnt to abuse of coatl, i think there are other card and/or creature than coatl to allow to this version of TA to perform better (creatures like stillmoon, shriekshaw, ascetic with a similar CMC or less seem better to me, as do cards like phyrexian arena, duress/seize/therapy, wasteland, or even Contagion could fit better).
My conclusion is : TA is not the best build to put coatl into. I think the entire build should be oriented around Coatl to run it well, or coatl & its suite (gush ...) should be replaced in TA to make it better.
I am only sharing my opinion and that being said, "who never try never know". Maybe you will find a solution to show me that i am wrong ;)
I wish you all the best for the next PE mate (i hope to participate to it), and cant wait for your next article.
Some of the commentary on picks is just so far off... Sigiled Behemoth as a bomb? Illusory demon as a strong flyer? Congrats on winning... but RRR drafts aren't exactly filled with quality drafters.
REally, i don't like to be a naysayer, but i must say your article is pretty... bad? I don't want to be rude, but it puts things in the wrong light:
- some cards ARE junk, at least at a competitive level; cards like cytoplast rootkin and even aven mimeomancer, 90% of the time, are trash. Sure, they're fun, but they are trash
- some cards are NOT junk, they never was, even if their price was low: trinisphere had not a deck till last year, and it costed nothing, the same for chalice of the void and many others. Sygg, river cutthroat has never been stellar, but it has always been good "on paper": any blight player could use it instead of bob, and gaining the same result in the process, it simply never had any love. But it's not that it has magically become powerful cause it costs 5 tix now... also, it costs a lot just because it was featured in some bad magic article...
- some cards are not THAT powerful, even if they have stellar prices: countryside crusher has a stupid inflated price right now, that does not mirror its real power, just because a bunch of dudes are buying a lot of them cause it was features in a winning deck. Again, not everybody is LSV, and what it is good for him, is not good for everybody, so if you're playing a subpar creature you are not winning, even if it was in the deck of a pro (note that, at the same time, nobody plays knight of the reliquiary that does many more things that countryside, will remain in T2 for more, and always get the lands bonus... this is the perfect example of how the "goyfs" are mostly bad casual cards).
- aven mimeomancer is very good in casual: it is a super budget card that for 3 mana gives you flying and an ability. It should be everybody's goyf for casual decks, it simply is not because there are better 3 drops at the moment and because it has not been pumped by some pro.
- the deck you've featured is quite bad, the mimeomancer's primary ability is to give evasion to your guys, what do you do with all that first strike if the opponent is playing tokens? or mass removal? now, try to put him in a deck that can play it turn 2 (with birds or elvish spirit guides), and pair him with any form of "on damage effect guy" (like vedalken heretic, just to do an example.. by the way, vedalken heretic is really bad...) or with any form of guys with counters (look, the 5/5 lorescatl coatl is not a 6/4 flying dude...) and you have a deck.
Thanks for the comment GMoney. I think that a wiser plan on my part (or our part) after thinking about it would have been some sort of white-based answer in the SB, given the rampant red presense in the tournament.
Isn't knight of new alara a huge bomb in RRR? Seems like turn 2 blade turn 3 blade turn 4 knight is gg
"Sigiled Behemoth is another bomb", yeah right....
Sigiled Behemoth at best is a 23th filler, but usually won't even make the cut. I could start listing all the picks I disagree on, but as my preposter just said: it's kind of pointless right now since RRR is not here anymore.
Also counting of rounds won and lost isn't right, should be:
2-1, 1-0
4-2, 2-0
6-3, 3-0
Congrats on the 1800 though. Always nice to read draft caps but especially when it's still relevant.
illusory demon is just plain horrible in limited. otherwise your deck is decent.
On another note...rrr drafts are not happening and havnt been for awhile, why is this article even being posted now. If it was posted weeks ago, fine, but its so outdated now its kinda pointless.
Congrats on breaking 1800 Limited. That's quite an accomplishment.
Man what a bummer that tourny was! I came in 9th by .0020 breakers. This deck is a heck of a lot of fun and in the current meta game is actually well positioned to be in.
As walker said I talked him out of finks. The reason being only playing with 3 green sources and finks being very color intensive. Maybe its just me but whenever I face zoo I either play magic and the inherrent strenghts of my deck over zoos more blunt approach ussally take the day. However when I am being wastelanded out of the game an extra guy or 4 life just dosent matter. On top of this Im pretty confidant from back in the days of stifle/wasteland builds that TA is just plain awful against rdw so i felt that devoting sb space to a hopless match was a nonbo. Instead I had extirpate and it singlehandily won me 2 matches. although i did lose to rdw.
Good!
Look at this list. It's apparently not as uncommon as you make it out to be.
http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=24155
Very nice article, as well as a cool name. Waiting for Godot is awesome!