Can't believe you passed on the Sharding Sphinx. That guy is a massive bomb, you are already RB with agony warp and loads of fixing. Seems like an auto pick to me.
GJ on your t8 (and win in the quarters)! I would have tried splashing black (not blue) into my Naya (well, WR with G solash really) but if the exotic orchard wouldn't give me black g1, I'd have switched to a similiar build to yours.
I think you were fortunate to win your first draft match with your build and mana (cringe, wow thats a lot of panoramas). It is folly to tell you what my picks would have been (butterfly effect etc..) but a few things - yes, wretched banquet is removal but grixis slavedriver is a monster. Sharding sphinx over infest, was surprised you completely passed over it. Blighting over esper charm (as you suspected). Alchemist over worldheart. Shambling remains over another banquet. Strix over Kathari (as you questioned). And a number of late SB picks I would have done differently.
Obv. I like to stay 'tight' (and I had to refocus my eyes, as I am now completely used to ACR, not AAC - I almost always go 2 colors in ACR) but some of the choices I mentioned you may wish to reevaluate for yourself (and your own playstyle).
Again, GJ, GL and looking forward to more articles!
I think you provided us with a deck that has little testing under its belt and is really part one of a much longer article. As someone who was run UG Deep Dog more than most other people in PDC/Pauper, I feel you are missing some key cards, notably Springing Tiger and Aether Burst, both of which address problems you seem to have: dealing with creatures and fighting Affinity. Seriously, Burst is a house.
While I have come around on Daze in this deck, Gush is still, well, pretty bad. You rarely, if ever, want to pick up lands as you are trying to out tempo your opponent and trading two turns for two cards and potentially 4 damage is just, well, too little for the cost. Basically, without Mongrel, Gush is pretty bad in this deck. More than that, Gush has no real interaction with anything else in your deck- if you wanted to build a Gush deck, cards like Okina Nightwatch seem better.
You have a ton of card draw, which falls in line with your idea that drawing cards is incredibly powerful in Pauper. And here is where I am going to get some hate mail, but drawing cards, unless you're doing something broken, is not as good as we all think in Pauper. Mulldrifter is probably the best draw spell right now because you also get a 2/2 Flying Beatstick. Rush of Knowledge is good because you are playing it to draw 7. Storm draw spells help to feed counts and grow lethal spells. Outside of these cards, there are no real great incentives to draw cards, and this is because the power level of Pauper is relatively flat, so drawing more of the same is not as swingy as, say, drawing a Cryptic Command. In fact, the deck that wants card draw the most is MBC simply because it has more bombs to draw into. Exactly what are you drawing into this deck? A Mongrel? Don't get me wrong, I love Mongrel more than most, but running all that draw to get a 2/2 is just a big investment for no payoff.
With regards to Gush/Daze- buy the latter, not the former. Gush shines in formats like Vintage where free spells matter a ton. If we had a card that was basically Maro, then Gush would be so much better. If we had a card that said "whenever you draw a card, X gets +1/+1 until end of turn" Gush would be better. If we had dual lands that would fuel our combo decks, Gush would be better. As it stands, taking the tempo hit in certain matchups can be fatal. Daze, on the other hand, is much stronger as you can hard cast it for a very similar value to its alternative cost and that alt. cost is not nearly as severe (2 is greater than 1 after all). Daze also has wider applications, as it is easier to have one Island in play than two.
It's not supposed to be possible to vote multiple times. I'm betting someone found a way. Just my opinion. It's statistically extremely unlikely for a deck to go from the back of the pack to WAY out in front while the rest of the decks get hardly any votes in the meantime.
I doubt it has anything to do with Europe. Deck #10 is the only deck that has received any votes for a while now as far as I can tell, and it went from less than 10 votes to 38 votes in a very short period of time. It seems very unlikely that it's happening fairly.
OK, certainly no sour grapes or anything here, but I'm going to ask you to take a close look at the votes coming in for deck #10. It just seems unlikely that one deck would be receiving votes at the rate that they're flowing in for that deck.
What do I think? I think you didn't tell us very much. You didn't give any win/lose percentages. You didn't say if it was better or worse than the usual deep dog deck without Daze/Gush. Is this a tier 1 deck or not? Should I rush out and buy Daze/Gush now? Give us the facts.
I think it's funny that he was considered overpowered but there's currently an near reprint of his avatar (the old version), with the upside of randomly giving you extra cards if you're playing high power guys.
First of all, let me say that my deck submission was one that was getting alot of votes.
Second of all, let me say that I agree 100% with the decision to change the voting to one vote per person.
When I first read that there was no limit on the number of votes that one person could cast, I was pretty dismayed. I realized immediately that it had become a competition of "who is the most tenacious and can click the most times." It was obvious at that point that other entries had voted for themselves many times, so I started voting for myself and asked some of my friends to vote for me. Being the good friends that they are, they voted alot. Put yourself in my shoes... you have submitted a deck that you honestly think is an outstanding Kaleidoscope deck, and then you realize that others are going to click their way to victory. Would you honestly just stand by and not vote for yourself (or ask others to vote for you)?
All that aside, big thumbs up to JXClaytor for making it a true voting system. I support the decision 100%. And a big thank you to my friends who were voting for me. I hope you'll cast your votes (just once of course!) under the new system. Thanks, and may the best deck win!
I am going to be relaunching the poll with a security measure in a few moments. I've decided that some people have broken the spirit of the competition, and I really do not want this contest to be decided like that.
Everyone has worked much to hard for this to go down like that.
A lot of decks were submitted that shared the same like qualities. The deck presented was the one we picked. Trust me, it's not because we did not like you. The deck presented just pushed itself over the top.
tho i am not a fan of playing against or with necro , i will just go out on a limb here, necro was the best deck in classic to date and classic now needs uraz like never before dammmit
Can't believe you passed on the Sharding Sphinx. That guy is a massive bomb, you are already RB with agony warp and loads of fixing. Seems like an auto pick to me.
GJ on your t8 (and win in the quarters)! I would have tried splashing black (not blue) into my Naya (well, WR with G solash really) but if the exotic orchard wouldn't give me black g1, I'd have switched to a similiar build to yours.
I think you were fortunate to win your first draft match with your build and mana (cringe, wow thats a lot of panoramas). It is folly to tell you what my picks would have been (butterfly effect etc..) but a few things - yes, wretched banquet is removal but grixis slavedriver is a monster. Sharding sphinx over infest, was surprised you completely passed over it. Blighting over esper charm (as you suspected). Alchemist over worldheart. Shambling remains over another banquet. Strix over Kathari (as you questioned). And a number of late SB picks I would have done differently.
Obv. I like to stay 'tight' (and I had to refocus my eyes, as I am now completely used to ACR, not AAC - I almost always go 2 colors in ACR) but some of the choices I mentioned you may wish to reevaluate for yourself (and your own playstyle).
Again, GJ, GL and looking forward to more articles!
I've really been enjoying this article series. This article has been one of the best in terms of format and game description. Keep 'em coming!
Thanks for the kind words- I am glad you like Pauper.
-Alex
I think you provided us with a deck that has little testing under its belt and is really part one of a much longer article. As someone who was run UG Deep Dog more than most other people in PDC/Pauper, I feel you are missing some key cards, notably Springing Tiger and Aether Burst, both of which address problems you seem to have: dealing with creatures and fighting Affinity. Seriously, Burst is a house.
While I have come around on Daze in this deck, Gush is still, well, pretty bad. You rarely, if ever, want to pick up lands as you are trying to out tempo your opponent and trading two turns for two cards and potentially 4 damage is just, well, too little for the cost. Basically, without Mongrel, Gush is pretty bad in this deck. More than that, Gush has no real interaction with anything else in your deck- if you wanted to build a Gush deck, cards like Okina Nightwatch seem better.
You have a ton of card draw, which falls in line with your idea that drawing cards is incredibly powerful in Pauper. And here is where I am going to get some hate mail, but drawing cards, unless you're doing something broken, is not as good as we all think in Pauper. Mulldrifter is probably the best draw spell right now because you also get a 2/2 Flying Beatstick. Rush of Knowledge is good because you are playing it to draw 7. Storm draw spells help to feed counts and grow lethal spells. Outside of these cards, there are no real great incentives to draw cards, and this is because the power level of Pauper is relatively flat, so drawing more of the same is not as swingy as, say, drawing a Cryptic Command. In fact, the deck that wants card draw the most is MBC simply because it has more bombs to draw into. Exactly what are you drawing into this deck? A Mongrel? Don't get me wrong, I love Mongrel more than most, but running all that draw to get a 2/2 is just a big investment for no payoff.
With regards to Gush/Daze- buy the latter, not the former. Gush shines in formats like Vintage where free spells matter a ton. If we had a card that was basically Maro, then Gush would be so much better. If we had a card that said "whenever you draw a card, X gets +1/+1 until end of turn" Gush would be better. If we had dual lands that would fuel our combo decks, Gush would be better. As it stands, taking the tempo hit in certain matchups can be fatal. Daze, on the other hand, is much stronger as you can hard cast it for a very similar value to its alternative cost and that alt. cost is not nearly as severe (2 is greater than 1 after all). Daze also has wider applications, as it is easier to have one Island in play than two.
-Alex
He has 39 clan members?
It's not supposed to be possible to vote multiple times. I'm betting someone found a way. Just my opinion. It's statistically extremely unlikely for a deck to go from the back of the pack to WAY out in front while the rest of the decks get hardly any votes in the meantime.
But it's not even possible to vote multiple times right?
It could be some European guy with clan members voting or some....seems legit though.
I doubt it has anything to do with Europe. Deck #10 is the only deck that has received any votes for a while now as far as I can tell, and it went from less than 10 votes to 38 votes in a very short period of time. It seems very unlikely that it's happening fairly.
It'll probably chance as soon as people in VS wake up.....its daytime in europe.
Maybe this has got some to do with it?
OK, certainly no sour grapes or anything here, but I'm going to ask you to take a close look at the votes coming in for deck #10. It just seems unlikely that one deck would be receiving votes at the rate that they're flowing in for that deck.
Awfully surprising that deck #3 wins a heck of a lot of games for me if it doesn't hold a legitimate chance against a well tuned deck...
;)
Vote for #3 by the way!
@Doomhed:
Please, I'll take on your challenge every second of the day ;-)
If I win, you vote for my deck ok?
What do I think? I think you didn't tell us very much. You didn't give any win/lose percentages. You didn't say if it was better or worse than the usual deep dog deck without Daze/Gush. Is this a tier 1 deck or not? Should I rush out and buy Daze/Gush now? Give us the facts.
honestly, none of these look remotely like the decks that are actually doing well in this format online.
where is the Orzhov midrange decks?
where are the G/R/b aggro?
where are the 5c sweeper decks?
I dont think a single one of these holds a legitimate chance against a well tuned deck in this format
my vote goes for number 3
I think it's funny that he was considered overpowered but there's currently an near reprint of his avatar (the old version), with the upside of randomly giving you extra cards if you're playing high power guys.
First of all, let me say that my deck submission was one that was getting alot of votes.
Second of all, let me say that I agree 100% with the decision to change the voting to one vote per person.
When I first read that there was no limit on the number of votes that one person could cast, I was pretty dismayed. I realized immediately that it had become a competition of "who is the most tenacious and can click the most times." It was obvious at that point that other entries had voted for themselves many times, so I started voting for myself and asked some of my friends to vote for me. Being the good friends that they are, they voted alot. Put yourself in my shoes... you have submitted a deck that you honestly think is an outstanding Kaleidoscope deck, and then you realize that others are going to click their way to victory. Would you honestly just stand by and not vote for yourself (or ask others to vote for you)?
All that aside, big thumbs up to JXClaytor for making it a true voting system. I support the decision 100%. And a big thank you to my friends who were voting for me. I hope you'll cast your votes (just once of course!) under the new system. Thanks, and may the best deck win!
@JXClaytor,
Thanks for actually listening to your readers and great job on creating the new poll!
This will make the contest way more fun for everyone!
May the best deck win.....
I trust the human spirit too... I trust it to be selfish and dishonest whenever it thinks people aren't watching :).
I haven't tried 100CS, but articles keep making me want to try it out. This one makes me want to go home right now and build a deck!
From last night to 1106pm EST have been thrown out. One extra day of voting will happen. Voting will now end at 1159 pm est Saturday June 6th.
Thank you for your understanding and sorry for the inconvenience.
I am going to be relaunching the poll with a security measure in a few moments. I've decided that some people have broken the spirit of the competition, and I really do not want this contest to be decided like that.
Everyone has worked much to hard for this to go down like that.
A lot of decks were submitted that shared the same like qualities. The deck presented was the one we picked. Trust me, it's not because we did not like you. The deck presented just pushed itself over the top.
I'm on it.
tho i am not a fan of playing against or with necro , i will just go out on a limb here, necro was the best deck in classic to date and classic now needs uraz like never before dammmit