Mike mentioned that our trading apprehensiveness is wildly inaccurate due to the fact our ratings were shown, the only way we'd base a claim as to not trust a person is if they're rating was 1600, as we were never aware if they'd started their account yesterday or years ago and never played in anything tournament wise...
Mike, if you read these boards (or hammy, forward this message) It's simple enough to implement a date joined in the played info, so we can have a better feeling about trading. There ARE Rippers among us, and we truly need a way to discern asshole jack from Johnny Good-Trader.
It'd also be simple enough to help us figure out one way or another to check our opponents ratings, i know it would provide some anger issues, (myself personally have joined a Swiss Queues for AAC Drafts, to find out my first opponent has a rating of 1790, Which is downright Unfair, Swiss is meant for those who aren't the best of Drafters/Players to actually have a chance to win something, and if there are more than 1 players with huge Ratings (i myself joined an AAC and all 3 of my opponents were in the high 1700's to Lowish High 1800's Range) and i honestly felt about just dropping right then and there... Finding that your opponents are just way over your head makes the prospect of the tournament UN-FUN.
I agreed with almost every pick in the Shards packs except the Ultimatum. I think that even after you took it you should have just abandoned it and gone with a G/W/r aggro deck. I disagreed with nearly every pick in the Conflux pack though. Rhox Meditant is way better than Canyon Minatour in a deck that will usually have a green creature in play. It is also much better to keep red to a splash at this point. I think you greatly overvalue Exploding Borders. It's borderline unplayable in my opinion, and certainly not worth a second pick. Aven Squire is the clear pick there, as it's the best common you can get in Conflux for G/W. I would have taken the Might of Alara pick 4 and Celestial Purge pick 5. Sticking to green and white would have made your manabase much better. I think you got very lucky to be able to consistently cast Steward on turn 2 in a deck with 5 Mountains and 3 Swamps. If I'm going to play a 2 drop like that, I usually want 7-8 sources of each color.
As someone who has only recently began playing competitively, and then so only in Sealed, I have to say this manner of presentation couldn't be of more help. Please keep posting articles like this ... for those of us getting ready to jump into drafting they are a godsend.
MED 3. .prerelease.. that seems more likely to me anyways.. I hope it is something on the caliber of what the paper events are that would be neat.. cool interview (even though it was hard to listen to. )
I've never played with talons before, and have not been impressed with it when it was played against me. Like all enchantments, it has that certain 2 for 1 risk, and have had the fear against it.
I'll give it a try though.
As for the ultimatum pick, I punted, should have taken topan, over it. REgardless of how I ended up in the draft, it was not the correct pick.
My thoughts on Meditant are pretty easy too, I've seen that guy go very late, but I have not seen the minotaur stay around in packs. I figured I would get him back.
the word is "prerelease". Presumably starting with M10. This is vaguely cool, but I hope there is no compromise in beta-testing the card implementations. Nothing sucks more than a cool card that doesn't work properly.
Pack 1, Pick 10... How do you take Angel Song over Lightning Talons? That card is an absolute beating on a flyer or trample creature and has pretty much won me some games on its own. Even if u only get one turn of use out of it, chances are your opponent was either forced to chump or take a lot of damage.
by the way.. that's gotta be the most insane first pack of picks i've ever seen as far as what u got passed... 8th pick Gharial??? lol
I agree with Ultimate on every pick except P3p3 (wouldn't have dipped into U). Your naya deck was looking so strong already, I would have gone for consistency with mana over stretching for one card (Violent). As for Minotaur/Meditant, 3/3 is better than 2/4... but not when the 2/4 cantrips. Clarion doesn't even make sense in a committed Bant deck. Mostly, it's just going to fetch you 5 lands, which isn't especially helpful when you've already got at least 7 of them in play.
Those are just the exceptions though, I did like your draft and the reasoning behind your picks for the rest of it. Thanks for the article.
The article editor has an autolink feature. You put the card (in parenthesis) and it automatically inserts the links. However, it may not link to the correct version. This also breaks whenever a card naem has punctuation (e.g. Umezawa's Jitte or Mishra'zs Factory with the annoying little apostrophes.) The only solution is to do all the card links manually. That means highlighting the card name in the article, opening another tab or window and opening MTGOTraders.com, searching for the card to link to, opening the card itself (not the search results), copying the path, clicking back to the article window, clicking insert hyperlink, clicking on the path box, clicking paste and clicking okay. It just takes some time. When I finish writing an article, I usually spend about 20-30 minutes fixing links and the like. Even then, I often miss a few.
Yeah, thanks for the article although I don't agree with a lot of your picks:
Pack 2 Pick 5:
- Violent Ultimatum
Although a strong (game ending) card, it also can destoy your game when you don't get the mana for it. I would've gone for the Topan Ascetic here.
Pack 2 Pick 8:
- Clarion Ultimatum
Yuk, this card stinks. It's a terrible card that stretches your mana base. You already have the Violent one... even without the Violent onze I would not have picked this over Sighted-caste sorcerer.
Pack 3 Pick 1:
Really? Conyon Minitaur over Rhox Meditant?
Pack 3 Pick 2:
Although a reasonable card, not for 2nd picks. Squire here.
Pack 3 Pick 3:
You have the choice in a 3/3 for 4 without flying and a 3/3 for 4 WITH flying. Which would you pick? Indeed: Go Cormorants!
These picks would've put you more solid in White and would've given a more sure turn 5 Battlegrace...
I have an okay UG deck that I have been trying to improve steadily, but I am curious. While it's not hard to replace some of the duals with basics, am I permitted a single copy of Pendlehaven? Otherwise, I can toss in an easily constructed aggressive deck for the budget side. I am also interested in if the packs received are online, or paper? I play online exclusively, so I am curious if I would receive effectively "useless" paper packs.
Post Alara Reborn being Programmed into the Client, I've got a minor Changes, Just for Critique it'd be nice if someone would give the thought.
MD:
-1 Courier's Capsule
-1 Grixis Charm
-1 Arcane Sanctum
+3 Terminate (3 Main decked Removal Spells, and 3 Main decked Spells that Count as Instant Speed Removal, Pump or Bounce, Good in my book. i honestly don't think the deck REALLY needs 25 lands. in fact if it really mattered, i'd cut out the Sanctums and Savage Lands Entirely and put the Borderposts in their place. They provide extra incentive, and don't trigger opposing Anathemancers.)
SB:
-2 Magma Spray
-1 Swerve
+3 Anathemancer (Reasons behind this, it's not only a 2/2 body, but it's also a Price of Progress, with a Targetable Clause, And since Every Block Deck USUALLY plays AT LEAST 6-7 Or More Non-Basic Lands. This Should be MD, But i couldn't think of anything else to remove, honestly. the Sprays, Very Good. But how often are you going to see people using Unearth against you?)
I was thinking of getting the hellion and those pro bears but i chose Id stik with a more fun dek. BR splash blue. Ur dek build seems like an urzas dek i have. sorta... but gota love those hellions.
From WoTCs posting of Top Decks I haven't found a Naya deck running only Noble Hierarch and Sarkhan Vol. The aggressive Naya decks running Cliffrunner Behemoth, like was contained in my previous article, are including Elspeth and are having more and more difficulty winning in a world of "big mana" Naya decks that contain Battlegrace Angel, Martial Coup, and in some cases Caldera Hellion in the main deck.
Coup is certainly not a spell this deck wants to see resolve, but between Countersquall which can counter the spell, Blightning which can knock it out of their hand, and Caldera Hellion which can mop up it isn't by any means hopeless. Furthermore Cruel Ultimatum and Banefire give the deck reach as needed.
Countersquall, Blightning, and Specter give the deck game against 5cc and make the deck a viable choice for the metagame. As Naya decks go bigger and bigger in an effort to gain the upper hand in the mirror, the control decks increase in value.
Orrrr you could run Naya deck which won a ton of PE's over the past few weeks which only substantial investment is Noble Hierarch (although now it has added a couple of Vol).
I do enjoy the irony in 'this deck smashes Naya' next to 4 Countersquall and Blightning which is pretty clearly a non-starter. That and the massive 3 ways to beat a resolved Martial Coup.
Okay,
I def agree with you about the non-ridic fast aggro draws (I just played this in a local T2) I got completely shut down by u/b mill. I was thinking about running Spellbreaker Behemoths(x4) in the sideboard. There is a good chance we have the mana for it (BOP) or we could Mosswort or Dramatic entrance them. I understand they are a little weak, but they make the matchup against counter based decks better.
Also, Primal Command is a card that I am beginning to agree with you on. I dropped it against a sanity grinding deck HA. (with a guttural response to the counterspell). It is a situationally clutch card.
Playing Fast aggro?
Gain 7
Playing Mill?
I get my library back
Playing anything else?
Im gonna search for my Progenitus...
One Last thing, What about Regal Force. We are normally in Top Deck mode by turn 4... Why not put a few of these in...
Confusedmage
I dunno, just sum ideas I've been throwing around.
Mike mentioned that our trading apprehensiveness is wildly inaccurate due to the fact our ratings were shown, the only way we'd base a claim as to not trust a person is if they're rating was 1600, as we were never aware if they'd started their account yesterday or years ago and never played in anything tournament wise...
Mike, if you read these boards (or hammy, forward this message) It's simple enough to implement a date joined in the played info, so we can have a better feeling about trading. There ARE Rippers among us, and we truly need a way to discern asshole jack from Johnny Good-Trader.
It'd also be simple enough to help us figure out one way or another to check our opponents ratings, i know it would provide some anger issues, (myself personally have joined a Swiss Queues for AAC Drafts, to find out my first opponent has a rating of 1790, Which is downright Unfair, Swiss is meant for those who aren't the best of Drafters/Players to actually have a chance to win something, and if there are more than 1 players with huge Ratings (i myself joined an AAC and all 3 of my opponents were in the high 1700's to Lowish High 1800's Range) and i honestly felt about just dropping right then and there... Finding that your opponents are just way over your head makes the prospect of the tournament UN-FUN.
I agreed with almost every pick in the Shards packs except the Ultimatum. I think that even after you took it you should have just abandoned it and gone with a G/W/r aggro deck. I disagreed with nearly every pick in the Conflux pack though. Rhox Meditant is way better than Canyon Minatour in a deck that will usually have a green creature in play. It is also much better to keep red to a splash at this point. I think you greatly overvalue Exploding Borders. It's borderline unplayable in my opinion, and certainly not worth a second pick. Aven Squire is the clear pick there, as it's the best common you can get in Conflux for G/W. I would have taken the Might of Alara pick 4 and Celestial Purge pick 5. Sticking to green and white would have made your manabase much better. I think you got very lucky to be able to consistently cast Steward on turn 2 in a deck with 5 Mountains and 3 Swamps. If I'm going to play a 2 drop like that, I usually want 7-8 sources of each color.
I would definitely take Tombstalker out vs the mirror. Pox too.
As someone who has only recently began playing competitively, and then so only in Sealed, I have to say this manner of presentation couldn't be of more help. Please keep posting articles like this ... for those of us getting ready to jump into drafting they are a godsend.
MED 3. .prerelease.. that seems more likely to me anyways.. I hope it is something on the caliber of what the paper events are that would be neat.. cool interview (even though it was hard to listen to. )
I've never played with talons before, and have not been impressed with it when it was played against me. Like all enchantments, it has that certain 2 for 1 risk, and have had the fear against it.
I'll give it a try though.
As for the ultimatum pick, I punted, should have taken topan, over it. REgardless of how I ended up in the draft, it was not the correct pick.
My thoughts on Meditant are pretty easy too, I've seen that guy go very late, but I have not seen the minotaur stay around in packs. I figured I would get him back.
Some mistake surely?
"One word: pre-release"
the word is "prerelease". Presumably starting with M10. This is vaguely cool, but I hope there is no compromise in beta-testing the card implementations. Nothing sucks more than a cool card that doesn't work properly.
Leagues?
Leagues??
Leagues???
Leagues????
Leagues?????
Leagues??????
Leagues???????
Leagues????????
Pack 1, Pick 10... How do you take Angel Song over Lightning Talons? That card is an absolute beating on a flyer or trample creature and has pretty much won me some games on its own. Even if u only get one turn of use out of it, chances are your opponent was either forced to chump or take a lot of damage.
by the way.. that's gotta be the most insane first pack of picks i've ever seen as far as what u got passed... 8th pick Gharial??? lol
I agree with Ultimate on every pick except P3p3 (wouldn't have dipped into U). Your naya deck was looking so strong already, I would have gone for consistency with mana over stretching for one card (Violent). As for Minotaur/Meditant, 3/3 is better than 2/4... but not when the 2/4 cantrips. Clarion doesn't even make sense in a committed Bant deck. Mostly, it's just going to fetch you 5 lands, which isn't especially helpful when you've already got at least 7 of them in play.
Those are just the exceptions though, I did like your draft and the reasoning behind your picks for the rest of it. Thanks for the article.
The article editor has an autolink feature. You put the card (in parenthesis) and it automatically inserts the links. However, it may not link to the correct version. This also breaks whenever a card naem has punctuation (e.g. Umezawa's Jitte or Mishra'zs Factory with the annoying little apostrophes.) The only solution is to do all the card links manually. That means highlighting the card name in the article, opening another tab or window and opening MTGOTraders.com, searching for the card to link to, opening the card itself (not the search results), copying the path, clicking back to the article window, clicking insert hyperlink, clicking on the path box, clicking paste and clicking okay. It just takes some time. When I finish writing an article, I usually spend about 20-30 minutes fixing links and the like. Even then, I often miss a few.
Yeah, thanks for the article although I don't agree with a lot of your picks:
Pack 2 Pick 5:
- Violent Ultimatum
Although a strong (game ending) card, it also can destoy your game when you don't get the mana for it. I would've gone for the Topan Ascetic here.
Pack 2 Pick 8:
- Clarion Ultimatum
Yuk, this card stinks. It's a terrible card that stretches your mana base. You already have the Violent one... even without the Violent onze I would not have picked this over Sighted-caste sorcerer.
Pack 3 Pick 1:
Really? Conyon Minitaur over Rhox Meditant?
Pack 3 Pick 2:
Although a reasonable card, not for 2nd picks. Squire here.
Pack 3 Pick 3:
You have the choice in a 3/3 for 4 without flying and a 3/3 for 4 WITH flying. Which would you pick? Indeed: Go Cormorants!
These picks would've put you more solid in White and would've given a more sure turn 5 Battlegrace...
Just my opinion ofcourse!
Good Luck in future drafts....
Leagues?
Multiplayer?
Mother in Law?
Cholesterol?
Loft insulation?
Capybara?
I'm at work and can't listen. Someone fill me in, if you can get past the new registration system.
I have an okay UG deck that I have been trying to improve steadily, but I am curious. While it's not hard to replace some of the duals with basics, am I permitted a single copy of Pendlehaven? Otherwise, I can toss in an easily constructed aggressive deck for the budget side. I am also interested in if the packs received are online, or paper? I play online exclusively, so I am curious if I would receive effectively "useless" paper packs.
Post Alara Reborn being Programmed into the Client, I've got a minor Changes, Just for Critique it'd be nice if someone would give the thought.
MD:
-1 Courier's Capsule
-1 Grixis Charm
-1 Arcane Sanctum
+3 Terminate (3 Main decked Removal Spells, and 3 Main decked Spells that Count as Instant Speed Removal, Pump or Bounce, Good in my book. i honestly don't think the deck REALLY needs 25 lands. in fact if it really mattered, i'd cut out the Sanctums and Savage Lands Entirely and put the Borderposts in their place. They provide extra incentive, and don't trigger opposing Anathemancers.)
SB:
-2 Magma Spray
-1 Swerve
+3 Anathemancer (Reasons behind this, it's not only a 2/2 body, but it's also a Price of Progress, with a Targetable Clause, And since Every Block Deck USUALLY plays AT LEAST 6-7 Or More Non-Basic Lands. This Should be MD, But i couldn't think of anything else to remove, honestly. the Sprays, Very Good. But how often are you going to see people using Unearth against you?)
I was thinking of getting the hellion and those pro bears but i chose Id stik with a more fun dek. BR splash blue. Ur dek build seems like an urzas dek i have. sorta... but gota love those hellions.
From WoTCs posting of Top Decks I haven't found a Naya deck running only Noble Hierarch and Sarkhan Vol. The aggressive Naya decks running Cliffrunner Behemoth, like was contained in my previous article, are including Elspeth and are having more and more difficulty winning in a world of "big mana" Naya decks that contain Battlegrace Angel, Martial Coup, and in some cases Caldera Hellion in the main deck.
Coup is certainly not a spell this deck wants to see resolve, but between Countersquall which can counter the spell, Blightning which can knock it out of their hand, and Caldera Hellion which can mop up it isn't by any means hopeless. Furthermore Cruel Ultimatum and Banefire give the deck reach as needed.
Countersquall, Blightning, and Specter give the deck game against 5cc and make the deck a viable choice for the metagame. As Naya decks go bigger and bigger in an effort to gain the upper hand in the mirror, the control decks increase in value.
Orrrr you could run Naya deck which won a ton of PE's over the past few weeks which only substantial investment is Noble Hierarch (although now it has added a couple of Vol).
I do enjoy the irony in 'this deck smashes Naya' next to 4 Countersquall and Blightning which is pretty clearly a non-starter. That and the massive 3 ways to beat a resolved Martial Coup.
Thank you very much for you help. Now I can play MtG Online. It's great game :)
have you tested this build at all? It looks interesting but I would guess more removal is needed.
Okay,
I def agree with you about the non-ridic fast aggro draws (I just played this in a local T2) I got completely shut down by u/b mill. I was thinking about running Spellbreaker Behemoths(x4) in the sideboard. There is a good chance we have the mana for it (BOP) or we could Mosswort or Dramatic entrance them. I understand they are a little weak, but they make the matchup against counter based decks better.
Also, Primal Command is a card that I am beginning to agree with you on. I dropped it against a sanity grinding deck HA. (with a guttural response to the counterspell). It is a situationally clutch card.
Playing Fast aggro?
Gain 7
Playing Mill?
I get my library back
Playing anything else?
Im gonna search for my Progenitus...
One Last thing, What about Regal Force. We are normally in Top Deck mode by turn 4... Why not put a few of these in...
Confusedmage
I dunno, just sum ideas I've been throwing around.
If you search under Kaleidoscope in the MTGO Field and search your collection at <=0 you can see what's legal in the format.
Thanks guys. Not sure why the formatting farted out on me. The techy mer list wasn't out when I'd submitted the article.