Sadistic Glee: My creatures all want to go to the graveyard, and Glee would ask me to keep at least one around. This is a mistake.
Fling/Soul's Fire: Win more cards- you do not need them.
COPs: For COPs to be truly effective, they need one Red and one Black. If you have gotten to a point in the game where they have both COP Red and Black and the mana to use it effectively, chances are you have already lost.
Viscera Dragger: I had him in a different slot, but was never impressed. Stinger has to potential to eat life totals AND be a six damage boost in the mid-game thanks to ping-sac-Unearth-ping-sac.
Carnarium is there for turns three and on. Often, when you are playing it on turn two that's just fine because you are setting up Feeder-Fiend for turn three.
Seal of Fire was not there to save mana, but to counteract Shield of the Oversoul. In testing, this proved to be useful but did not come up during the PE.
As far as Reborn, there is not much. I have thought about Kathari Bomber, but chances are that's more of a cute on theme card than one that actually fits the deck.
I'm not a fan of KScope, but this article was very well done. Great use of pictures; not so many that they were distracting, but not so few that the article turned into a giant wall of text.
I agree with tempesteye, because there are no events that require tickets there is no reason for players to break classic tribal. Its mostly casual players looking for some thing different to play than the normal 3 formats Classic, EXT and STD.
I've not seen anyone play Extinction since its been released, I have the card myself but would never think of using it as it would take the fun away from a format I like.
Yea I have to agree with everyone talking about the first draft. You kept talking about these fatties that were going to be great in your deck and had all the tools to utilize them with steward to get them out faster and drumhunter to get card advantage but you continuously passed them up for other cards saying you'd pick them up later. I see the same thing happen to people with fixing. Everyone just keeps putting it off and picking better cards thinking they're deck is going to be great and then towards the end of pack 3 it's too late and they end up with an inconsistent mess that will randomly win you a game because of better card quality but will almost never win you three straight matches.
The think about Classic tribal is; most players aren't trying to break it.
And the ones who *can* break it are usually the ones that like the format enough that they won't.
Believe it or not, I think Blightning is the only card that's sort of "out of place", but it's obvious why you'd want it in. 3cc for 3 damage and 2 cards? umm.. ya
Nice article and congratulations on your place. The list looks much more refined than the last.
Why Stinger over Viscera Dragger or Dragon Fodder? Dragger nets you +1 card and +3 damage (if unblocked). It even costs one mana less than Stinger. The only downside is that he can't be sacrificed twice. Fodder would be Marshalls 5-6.
Why Rakdos Carnarium? Your deck is filled with two drops. If you start with one land and a Carnarium. You've already slowed your deck by an entire turn.
Did the turn one Seal of Fire play really save you that much mana? With only two in the deck and several comes into play tapped lands, it doesn't seem better than something like Shock.
So, if you don't mind, what is the sideboarding for the deck (and I guess targets for the sideboarded cards)?
Duress -
MBC - Take out thier Corrupts? Seems like the corrupts would be the primary thing to worry about with mono-black. Assuming you're keeping a sac outlet open to nullify tendrils.
MUC - Try to snag thier few creatures before they get cast, I guess?
Pyroblast -
Blue decks obviously here.
Ingot Chewer -
Artifacts obviously. Is this pretty much strictly for Affinity? I haven't seen a lot of equipment or other nasty artifacts in most of the other pauper decks I've been looking at. Should the chewers be focused on thier enforcers or the lands? (I know the answer is probably, it depends on the gamestate, but in general..)
Martyr -
I'm assuming this is mostly for Gobbo-Storm, RDW, and Weenie decks in general.
So does this deck pretty much roll over and die to anything packing CoPs, or does it try for the overwhelm with tokens in those situations?
No offense, but I really think this guy is overrated... The decks he really hurts are also the most equipped to answer him, be it with lifegain, early counters, or any number of other answers available from going into all 5 colors. By the time you really want to get him into play, he probably just eats a counterspell. (Or a voidslime if you mean to unearth him.) But more than that, I disagree with your apparent dismissal of tri-color decks (you outright say as much when you state your plans to only run 2 color decks...). The power of stretching into that third color monstrously outweighs the 5 or 6 damage anathemancer is likely to deal...
I must admit that I agree with your dismissal of the Izzet, but something you might take into account is the relative power increase from adding the third color; though certainly not a good two color combination, the potency of the Grixis colors or RWU should not be underestimated.
While Mindwrack Liege is not the most potent liege available, I would say that in practice his ability actually lets him edge out boartusk liege, since dropping any creature into play with relative uncounterability is virtually without peer in the format. (I can't advocate trying progenitus, but simply dropping an unexpected Nucklavee or izzet chronarch is fairly solid. Heck, overrated though he may be, dropping anathemancer into play with the liege is pretty nice too.) Stitch of time is certainly unplayable though... Coin flip effects, regardless of power are always sketchy anywhere that counts.
I certainly agree with most of your guild placements so far though; I just wish you would have considered the power of tricolor decks... Perhaps appraising them is worth its own article...
Though it's not a stellar Esper deck it seems solid to me. Maybe you should consider the possibility that you got knocked out round 1 because you got paired with the draft winner first, and if you had faced some of the other players you might have won a round or two before getting knocked out.
I agree you shoulda had a couple Blister Beetles in there, they're removal. Also Pack 2 picks 5 & 9 you could have considered getting one of the Steelclad Serpents to go with your Master of Etherium over a non-artifact flyer that doesn't pump him or get pumped by him. I like having 1 or 2 serpents for the few games where you need a fattie to punch through or need one to block with. But flyers are Esper's normal win condition so they aren't bad. Pick 3 in pack 2 is a tough call on Agony Warp vs. Sculler, but I think I like the Sculler here. Warp is sometimes a 2 for 1. Sculler always gives you a creature on board and one of their cards gone, so unless they remove him he is very OFTEN a 2 for 1. Even if they remove him much later, you've gained tempo. He gives you complete knowledge of your opponent's hand which is very useful, and in this case he has synergy with Master of Etherium. So I'd definitely take the Sculler there, it's one of the best uncommons not just in block, but in all of Standard right now in my opinion. He can also potentially take out any size threat whereas warp can only kill up to an x/3, and he can take out non-creature threats like an ultimatum or whatever, which the Warp can't do. Just a better card overall.
Most of the picks I agree with, and it seems like a reasonably good Esper deck overall. I would have taken Jund Charm over the early Hissing Iguanar P1/P3, he's not a good splash for an Esper deck, and if I want some kind of backup plan I want the much stronger card. A boardsweeper! If I wanted to be all-in I'd take the Blister Beetle over the Iguanar.
Oh also, in that first draft, with TWO Drumhunters I'd totally have made sure to have more than 4 fatties! If you manage to keep a fattie and a Drumhunter alive for any length of time it's backbreaking card advantage. Even Topan Ascetic can sometimes pump up to 5 by tapping weenies, just to trigger Drumhunter.
I think the main reason Extinction hasn't been banned yet is because it's a more recent addition to MTGO and they haven't noticed it yet. They're probably not paying a lot of attention to Classic Tribal's ban list anyway, since no for-tix tournaments are running in it.
I think the main reason Suleiman's Legacy hasn't been a problem in tribal is because only AJ Impy plays it. At least that I've seen. I remember it being a real beating when he played it against me in the Unnatural Selection league a year or two back, I looked at it & thought "Well I can't possibly win now".
The main positive I'd see to sideboards is people could put in an appropriate amount of artifact and enchantment hate, without dedicating maindeck slots that might be dead draws in many matchups. (Except those lucky few tribes that have creature-based hate that's never totally dead.)
The downside is, I think tribal may have a higher percentage of decks that are really vulnerable to specific hosers, which might render some tribes a lot less viable. Still, there's hosers for dredge, affinity, storm, etc. It's only 15 cards and there's a ton of tribes, so nobody can hate them all out. Plus the most powerful ones tend to draw the hate slots, which helps keep them more under control and makes a more diverse range of decks show up as people leave them to dodge the hate. So maybe sideboard would do more good than harm. There's certainly a lot of narrow cards that rarely see play at all that'd be great sideboard options in the format.
I really do think Suleiman's Legacy is quite bannable though. Because it's not just a cheap one-sided wrath, it's more like a "wrath-ath-ath-ath..."
But it shouldn't be banned until after I make a deck with it and totally pwn a bunch of people with it. THEN it can be banned!
AHAhahaha George - I love you and the article man - but in the pic you look like a retarded Raiden from Mortal Kombat - change that shiz back ASAP :))))
We say the same thing about Anathemancer only with different words. We both agree that it won't effect those mono color decks or two color decks or maybe even some tri-color decks too. We both agree that playing with 24 nonbasics isn't a must for playing Kaleidoscope. Actually somewhere at the upper part of my article I said that Anathemancer is the end of effective (that word underlined) 5 color decks. And I see we agree on that too.
I also agree that control is still alive but it has to adjust itself. Castigate and Sculler are both excellent as you say. In fact Orzhov is excellent. Just wait Part II to read what I wrote about them.
As for Putrid Leech: I said that Golgari has also good Aggro options but just didn't name this one. Actually I didn't name any card at that part other then Sapling of Colfenor but that doesn't have any specific reason. Most probably I did so because I was short on space at that part of the article :)) (yeah, sometimes the most serious questions can have such stupid answers).
I just can't convince myself that Master of Etherium over Agony Warp was the right first pick. The Master is good, but not great, and passing an Agony Warp makes a pretty good chance that your neighbor will grab it and draft Esper too. I've drafted Master of Etherium many times, and he's just never as impressive as he seems to be.
AJ you know that I respect you a lot (and if you didn't know that, now you do) as a player and a deckbuilder and as a person. But please allow me to say one thing:
You and I have some differences. When I say Izzet is bad, I say so from a Spike's point of view. I know that you're a hardcore Johnny. And as I said in the article, Izzet is the guild for Johnnies.
But with all due respect, I'm the one playing in 2mans non stop so please please please trust in me when I say that Izzet is the worst guild in terms of serious high level games.
Cheating a Progenitus into play with Mindwrack Liege sounds a lot fun but that doesn't happen in competitive games. And I just tried to say that about Izzet. For fun games they're number one. Flipping a coin and getting an extra turn if we win with Stitch in Time is a lot of fun! But for serious games, they simply have nothing to offer.
As far as softening the blow against Anathemancer, I think the Ravnica Bouncelands will see a reasonable amount of play. I've played in 33 2-man Kaleidoscope matches with 25 wins and 8 loses. I submitted an article based on my first 10 matches on May 4th but apparently it's not going to be published. I've seen a fair amount of Ravnica Bouncelands and I've seen a fair amount of 2 color combos with a splash. Yes, some people who bought the expensive rainbow mana-base will have to go back to the drawing board, but I think it will have less impact on the format than you think. If anything it makes Kaleidoscope easy to play in because you don't need to have a 5 color mana base to be competitive, and some of the strongest cards in the format are commons and uncommons.
Yes, Anathemancer will have an impact on the format, but a lot of the decks out there will shrug it off, because they'd rather have an opponent play an Anathemancer than a Blightning, Hit/Run, or even Fulminator Mage.
Red/Blue - Really needs a splash color for something to do in the first two turns, you're right it's probably the worst 2 color combination.
Blue/Black - It at least gets Esper Stormblade as a decent two-drop 3 power flyer. I think it will be heavily paired with white for Sculler, Castigate, and Meddling Mage
Blue/White - I've found that in my WB deck, Mirrorweave is a fairly decent answer to the Stillmoon Cavaliers and Oversouls of Dusk. I don't see why it can't be a competitor in UW. I'm also surprised you didn't mention that blue/white gets Meddling Mage back. Also there is the Sureblade for the skies strategies, and the Sureblade to hold off the R/G hordes.
Blue/Green - You're dead on with blue/green. It needs white to push it over the top in terms of power. It can be quite fast though.
Black/Green - Putrid Leach, Green/Black's biggest problem was that it couldn't put any early pressure on an opponent. This card alone changes that, and you didn't even mention it. This guy allows you to play Woodlurker Mimics without worrying about finding enough green/black cards to play with it.
There's no doubt, Alara Reborn shifts Kaleidoscope towards more aggressive decks, but there is still a lot of options for control in the form of hand control. Castigate and Sculler will remain strong.
For the second draft, you mentioned it was "a wreck", but didn't analyze the picks at all. I definitely would like to learn from what makes a draft bad - at the point I'm at I'd learn more from knowing what went wrong, than what went right. But with no comments on the second draft, I couldn't know which picks were mistakes, which weren't, etc.
Excellent question.
I was expecting a far more aggressive meta, with more GW Hate style decks. Against these, Duress is far worse than Seal and Stinger. Looking toward the Top 8, I would have wanted Duress in only two of the matchups (Storm and MUC). So, while the decks I played in the Swiss would have been better targeted with Duress main, my deck would have been more apt a facing the elimination rounds.
Sadistic Glee: My creatures all want to go to the graveyard, and Glee would ask me to keep at least one around. This is a mistake.
Fling/Soul's Fire: Win more cards- you do not need them.
COPs: For COPs to be truly effective, they need one Red and one Black. If you have gotten to a point in the game where they have both COP Red and Black and the mana to use it effectively, chances are you have already lost.
Viscera Dragger: I had him in a different slot, but was never impressed. Stinger has to potential to eat life totals AND be a six damage boost in the mid-game thanks to ping-sac-Unearth-ping-sac.
Carnarium is there for turns three and on. Often, when you are playing it on turn two that's just fine because you are setting up Feeder-Fiend for turn three.
Seal of Fire was not there to save mana, but to counteract Shield of the Oversoul. In testing, this proved to be useful but did not come up during the PE.
As far as Reborn, there is not much. I have thought about Kathari Bomber, but chances are that's more of a cute on theme card than one that actually fits the deck.
-Alex
I have to agree. This article has excellent formatting for something such as this.
+1
I have to agree. This article has excellent formatting for something such as this.
Duress doesn't allow you to grab a creature.
I'm not a fan of KScope, but this article was very well done. Great use of pictures; not so many that they were distracting, but not so few that the article turned into a giant wall of text.
I agree with tempesteye, because there are no events that require tickets there is no reason for players to break classic tribal. Its mostly casual players looking for some thing different to play than the normal 3 formats Classic, EXT and STD.
I've not seen anyone play Extinction since its been released, I have the card myself but would never think of using it as it would take the fun away from a format I like.
The comments about the second draft will come up next week.
Yea I have to agree with everyone talking about the first draft. You kept talking about these fatties that were going to be great in your deck and had all the tools to utilize them with steward to get them out faster and drumhunter to get card advantage but you continuously passed them up for other cards saying you'd pick them up later. I see the same thing happen to people with fixing. Everyone just keeps putting it off and picking better cards thinking they're deck is going to be great and then towards the end of pack 3 it's too late and they end up with an inconsistent mess that will randomly win you a game because of better card quality but will almost never win you three straight matches.
The think about Classic tribal is; most players aren't trying to break it.
And the ones who *can* break it are usually the ones that like the format enough that they won't.
ok ok as soon as i can port a new pic to my comp ill change it. untill then i guess you have to deal with me in my orange hoodie.
Believe it or not, I think Blightning is the only card that's sort of "out of place", but it's obvious why you'd want it in. 3cc for 3 damage and 2 cards? umm.. ya
Nice article and congratulations on your place. The list looks much more refined than the last.
Why Stinger over Viscera Dragger or Dragon Fodder? Dragger nets you +1 card and +3 damage (if unblocked). It even costs one mana less than Stinger. The only downside is that he can't be sacrificed twice. Fodder would be Marshalls 5-6.
Why Rakdos Carnarium? Your deck is filled with two drops. If you start with one land and a Carnarium. You've already slowed your deck by an entire turn.
Did the turn one Seal of Fire play really save you that much mana? With only two in the deck and several comes into play tapped lands, it doesn't seem better than something like Shock.
What Alara Reborn cards are you considering?
Me again :) Thanks for the info.
So, if you don't mind, what is the sideboarding for the deck (and I guess targets for the sideboarded cards)?
Duress -
MBC - Take out thier Corrupts? Seems like the corrupts would be the primary thing to worry about with mono-black. Assuming you're keeping a sac outlet open to nullify tendrils.
MUC - Try to snag thier few creatures before they get cast, I guess?
Pyroblast -
Blue decks obviously here.
Ingot Chewer -
Artifacts obviously. Is this pretty much strictly for Affinity? I haven't seen a lot of equipment or other nasty artifacts in most of the other pauper decks I've been looking at. Should the chewers be focused on thier enforcers or the lands? (I know the answer is probably, it depends on the gamestate, but in general..)
Martyr -
I'm assuming this is mostly for Gobbo-Storm, RDW, and Weenie decks in general.
So does this deck pretty much roll over and die to anything packing CoPs, or does it try for the overwhelm with tokens in those situations?
No offense, but I really think this guy is overrated... The decks he really hurts are also the most equipped to answer him, be it with lifegain, early counters, or any number of other answers available from going into all 5 colors. By the time you really want to get him into play, he probably just eats a counterspell. (Or a voidslime if you mean to unearth him.) But more than that, I disagree with your apparent dismissal of tri-color decks (you outright say as much when you state your plans to only run 2 color decks...). The power of stretching into that third color monstrously outweighs the 5 or 6 damage anathemancer is likely to deal...
I must admit that I agree with your dismissal of the Izzet, but something you might take into account is the relative power increase from adding the third color; though certainly not a good two color combination, the potency of the Grixis colors or RWU should not be underestimated.
While Mindwrack Liege is not the most potent liege available, I would say that in practice his ability actually lets him edge out boartusk liege, since dropping any creature into play with relative uncounterability is virtually without peer in the format. (I can't advocate trying progenitus, but simply dropping an unexpected Nucklavee or izzet chronarch is fairly solid. Heck, overrated though he may be, dropping anathemancer into play with the liege is pretty nice too.) Stitch of time is certainly unplayable though... Coin flip effects, regardless of power are always sketchy anywhere that counts.
I certainly agree with most of your guild placements so far though; I just wish you would have considered the power of tricolor decks... Perhaps appraising them is worth its own article...
Another card I think I would have to have would be Fling
Though it's not a stellar Esper deck it seems solid to me. Maybe you should consider the possibility that you got knocked out round 1 because you got paired with the draft winner first, and if you had faced some of the other players you might have won a round or two before getting knocked out.
I agree you shoulda had a couple Blister Beetles in there, they're removal. Also Pack 2 picks 5 & 9 you could have considered getting one of the Steelclad Serpents to go with your Master of Etherium over a non-artifact flyer that doesn't pump him or get pumped by him. I like having 1 or 2 serpents for the few games where you need a fattie to punch through or need one to block with. But flyers are Esper's normal win condition so they aren't bad. Pick 3 in pack 2 is a tough call on Agony Warp vs. Sculler, but I think I like the Sculler here. Warp is sometimes a 2 for 1. Sculler always gives you a creature on board and one of their cards gone, so unless they remove him he is very OFTEN a 2 for 1. Even if they remove him much later, you've gained tempo. He gives you complete knowledge of your opponent's hand which is very useful, and in this case he has synergy with Master of Etherium. So I'd definitely take the Sculler there, it's one of the best uncommons not just in block, but in all of Standard right now in my opinion. He can also potentially take out any size threat whereas warp can only kill up to an x/3, and he can take out non-creature threats like an ultimatum or whatever, which the Warp can't do. Just a better card overall.
Most of the picks I agree with, and it seems like a reasonably good Esper deck overall. I would have taken Jund Charm over the early Hissing Iguanar P1/P3, he's not a good splash for an Esper deck, and if I want some kind of backup plan I want the much stronger card. A boardsweeper! If I wanted to be all-in I'd take the Blister Beetle over the Iguanar.
Oh also, in that first draft, with TWO Drumhunters I'd totally have made sure to have more than 4 fatties! If you manage to keep a fattie and a Drumhunter alive for any length of time it's backbreaking card advantage. Even Topan Ascetic can sometimes pump up to 5 by tapping weenies, just to trigger Drumhunter.
I think the main reason Extinction hasn't been banned yet is because it's a more recent addition to MTGO and they haven't noticed it yet. They're probably not paying a lot of attention to Classic Tribal's ban list anyway, since no for-tix tournaments are running in it.
I think the main reason Suleiman's Legacy hasn't been a problem in tribal is because only AJ Impy plays it. At least that I've seen. I remember it being a real beating when he played it against me in the Unnatural Selection league a year or two back, I looked at it & thought "Well I can't possibly win now".
The main positive I'd see to sideboards is people could put in an appropriate amount of artifact and enchantment hate, without dedicating maindeck slots that might be dead draws in many matchups. (Except those lucky few tribes that have creature-based hate that's never totally dead.)
The downside is, I think tribal may have a higher percentage of decks that are really vulnerable to specific hosers, which might render some tribes a lot less viable. Still, there's hosers for dredge, affinity, storm, etc. It's only 15 cards and there's a ton of tribes, so nobody can hate them all out. Plus the most powerful ones tend to draw the hate slots, which helps keep them more under control and makes a more diverse range of decks show up as people leave them to dodge the hate. So maybe sideboard would do more good than harm. There's certainly a lot of narrow cards that rarely see play at all that'd be great sideboard options in the format.
I really do think Suleiman's Legacy is quite bannable though. Because it's not just a cheap one-sided wrath, it's more like a "wrath-ath-ath-ath..."
But it shouldn't be banned until after I make a deck with it and totally pwn a bunch of people with it. THEN it can be banned!
Have you considered trying Sadistic Glee?
AHAhahaha George - I love you and the article man - but in the pic you look like a retarded Raiden from Mortal Kombat - change that shiz back ASAP :))))
All the best - ch
We say the same thing about Anathemancer only with different words. We both agree that it won't effect those mono color decks or two color decks or maybe even some tri-color decks too. We both agree that playing with 24 nonbasics isn't a must for playing Kaleidoscope. Actually somewhere at the upper part of my article I said that Anathemancer is the end of effective (that word underlined) 5 color decks. And I see we agree on that too.
I also agree that control is still alive but it has to adjust itself. Castigate and Sculler are both excellent as you say. In fact Orzhov is excellent. Just wait Part II to read what I wrote about them.
As for Putrid Leech: I said that Golgari has also good Aggro options but just didn't name this one. Actually I didn't name any card at that part other then Sapling of Colfenor but that doesn't have any specific reason. Most probably I did so because I was short on space at that part of the article :)) (yeah, sometimes the most serious questions can have such stupid answers).
LE
I just can't convince myself that Master of Etherium over Agony Warp was the right first pick. The Master is good, but not great, and passing an Agony Warp makes a pretty good chance that your neighbor will grab it and draft Esper too. I've drafted Master of Etherium many times, and he's just never as impressive as he seems to be.
AJ you know that I respect you a lot (and if you didn't know that, now you do) as a player and a deckbuilder and as a person. But please allow me to say one thing:
You and I have some differences. When I say Izzet is bad, I say so from a Spike's point of view. I know that you're a hardcore Johnny. And as I said in the article, Izzet is the guild for Johnnies.
But with all due respect, I'm the one playing in 2mans non stop so please please please trust in me when I say that Izzet is the worst guild in terms of serious high level games.
Cheating a Progenitus into play with Mindwrack Liege sounds a lot fun but that doesn't happen in competitive games. And I just tried to say that about Izzet. For fun games they're number one. Flipping a coin and getting an extra turn if we win with Stitch in Time is a lot of fun! But for serious games, they simply have nothing to offer.
LE
As far as softening the blow against Anathemancer, I think the Ravnica Bouncelands will see a reasonable amount of play. I've played in 33 2-man Kaleidoscope matches with 25 wins and 8 loses. I submitted an article based on my first 10 matches on May 4th but apparently it's not going to be published. I've seen a fair amount of Ravnica Bouncelands and I've seen a fair amount of 2 color combos with a splash. Yes, some people who bought the expensive rainbow mana-base will have to go back to the drawing board, but I think it will have less impact on the format than you think. If anything it makes Kaleidoscope easy to play in because you don't need to have a 5 color mana base to be competitive, and some of the strongest cards in the format are commons and uncommons.
Yes, Anathemancer will have an impact on the format, but a lot of the decks out there will shrug it off, because they'd rather have an opponent play an Anathemancer than a Blightning, Hit/Run, or even Fulminator Mage.
Red/Blue - Really needs a splash color for something to do in the first two turns, you're right it's probably the worst 2 color combination.
Blue/Black - It at least gets Esper Stormblade as a decent two-drop 3 power flyer. I think it will be heavily paired with white for Sculler, Castigate, and Meddling Mage
Blue/White - I've found that in my WB deck, Mirrorweave is a fairly decent answer to the Stillmoon Cavaliers and Oversouls of Dusk. I don't see why it can't be a competitor in UW. I'm also surprised you didn't mention that blue/white gets Meddling Mage back. Also there is the Sureblade for the skies strategies, and the Sureblade to hold off the R/G hordes.
Blue/Green - You're dead on with blue/green. It needs white to push it over the top in terms of power. It can be quite fast though.
Black/Green - Putrid Leach, Green/Black's biggest problem was that it couldn't put any early pressure on an opponent. This card alone changes that, and you didn't even mention it. This guy allows you to play Woodlurker Mimics without worrying about finding enough green/black cards to play with it.
There's no doubt, Alara Reborn shifts Kaleidoscope towards more aggressive decks, but there is still a lot of options for control in the form of hand control. Castigate and Sculler will remain strong.
For the second draft, you mentioned it was "a wreck", but didn't analyze the picks at all. I definitely would like to learn from what makes a draft bad - at the point I'm at I'd learn more from knowing what went wrong, than what went right. But with no comments on the second draft, I couldn't know which picks were mistakes, which weren't, etc.
Excellent question.
I was expecting a far more aggressive meta, with more GW Hate style decks. Against these, Duress is far worse than Seal and Stinger. Looking toward the Top 8, I would have wanted Duress in only two of the matchups (Storm and MUC). So, while the decks I played in the Swiss would have been better targeted with Duress main, my deck would have been more apt a facing the elimination rounds.
-Alex