Deck Name - Food For Squee. Black and green are allies of red, and everything is either something Squee would eat, or something that would eat Squee. And Squee eats creature removal.
P.S. The 3 Endangered Armodon, 2 Lowland Basilisk, 2 Spike Colony, and 2 Skyshroud Troopers are creatures. Evincar's Justice might have autocarded properly with the apostrophe. I'm sorry for the 3/5 rating but this was a news post anyway.
the article is not supposed to look the way it does now.. not sure what happened but i can't do anything on my side.. sorry for the unaesthetic look and the missing links/pics..
This was a typo on my part. This was not meant to be Gaea's Blessing but Gaea's Balance. I wanted to talk on this a bit more. With the newest version of Terravore from Conflux this card has gotten even better. It drops 5 lands into the yard and you can get full domain right away.
I gotta say, Magister Sphinx is a pain in the butt. You think you are going along just fine at 35 life, then all of a sudden you're at 10. People smell the blood in the water, and you end up dead 2 turns later.
My only issue with combo on MTGO is the length of time it takes people to complete it. Once it's apparent that someone is combo'ing out, if I can't figure out what their kill condition is, I usually ask what it is and if they have it. People are usually pretty up front about it. I'll usually just concede rather than have the player go through the motions at that point.
I don't begrudge people for playing combo though. There are lots of ways to disrupt people, and you have to be prepared. I played a game where someone was using Sedris, and another player dropped a turn 3 Necrogenesis. The Sedris player quit immediately, noting he couldn't deal with the enchantment. The variety that EDH brings means you gotta be prepared for just about anything. Including combo.
I think Squirrel's Nest/Earthcraft is cheesy. There have been far too many times I've lost a game because a player combos off with Epic Struggle in play. The combo player will just wait for the right time to cast Time Stretch followed by part of the combo/tutor and win the game. This is much akin to combo Tooth and Nail decks.
I run Gaea's Blessing in all of my G/x EDH decks but I have never found it useful to achieve domain. Gaea's Blessing has been successful counteracting mill (Tunnel Visions) and graveyard abilities (Genesis).
I have also noticed how 5 color edh decks run rampant on MTGO. Most decks run enough acceleration to find the right lands and cast crazy domain spells (Allied Strategies, Global Ruin, Last Stand, etc.) early in a game. Shard Convergence looks like an additional 4cc land fetcher in this format that can find non-basic lands. I will still prefer straight acceleration and Thawing Glaciers my in 3+ color decks.
As for running combos and other politics, I find players get hated in future games as a result of obnoxious plays. Four player edh is not the same as five player edh. There is one less player that can break your combo and only two other players that will do nothing as long as you do not target them. Often I see players get hated for playing a certain commander or silly combo and games become an hour of seeking revenge.
When one player only targets a certain opponent, that is when four player edh turns into 2hg edh. Either the other two players will go after each other or they will gang up on the first target. I have seen this done in response to Curse of the Cabal, Din of the Fireherd, and Mind Shatter type cards being cast. This is what draws me away from the casual aspect of edh and more into auto-kill games.
Well Palinchron isn't online yet, but when it is, expect to see it :p
I play a five color combo deck with Squirrel Nest/Earthcraft, but it's so slow and disruptable that I don't think it's too unfair. Earthcraft is definitely another potential ban target, though.
The title of your articles should now be Drafting Grixis # ...
P1P2: Blood cultist over bone splinters? Even if you are forcing grixis, this pick is wrong. Bone splinters is very good removal.
P1P4: There are at LEAST 4 (probably 5) cards better than the battlemage in this pack. Tar fiend is not as situational as you might think, and is far better than the 2/2 looter (which sucks if blue is cut from you). And actually the sculler is really good. It sounds like you havent really played a lot with this card. I definitely wouldnt take it here, but it's very solid.
P1P5: I can see why you took the capsule here. If you had taken the splinters or the tar fiend (and definitely if you took both), the blister beetle would be the pick here.
P1P8: I dont know the context of this draft. Is it a 4322 or 84? I would take welkin guide or steward as white is possible open. Remember in pack 5, there was a druid and a rakeclaw, which are both the best cards in that pack.
P1P9: Knight should never wheel, and there was no reason for you not to take it.
P2P1: I guess if thats your preference. I also love fatestitcher, but i dont love it over excap.
P2P4: I think you would rather have zombie. It unearths and since there are probears now, the deathraiders gets a lot worse.
P2P5: I would have taken jund panorama here for fixing.
P2P7: Scourge devil is pretty awesome.
P3P6: Since you have 2 alchemists already, the pro green bear is ideal for your deck.
P3P7: I think other people already covered this pick pretty well.
P3P8: Againt should have taken the pro green guy.
I will say, if you had drafted the third pack(and the first pack) a little differently, you could have had a ridiculous deck. Nice early game with blue black guys, and then tempo in the midgame with good removal, followed by nice late game finishers in scourge devil and tar fiend. Your deck ended up ok. The biggest problem i found with this draft is your card evaluations. Like taking a crappy pinger over solid removal, or taking a looter over an awesome card. Ill have to echo earlier comments that it seems like your draws worked out pretty well in all of the games. You mention in the third round that your opponents always hit all of their colors. What you fail to realize is they take cards like armillary sphere, obelisks, and CIPT lands to augment their fixing. You mentioned he got stuck on 3 colors in the third game (so obviously your opponents dont always hit their lands).
Nice article about the trading aspect of Singleton100. For anyone interested in trading check out mtgocardtrader.com for a bunch of trading related articles.
Wow, forcing Grixis and opening a Bolas. Thats lucky
While Grixis is weak most of the time, its awesome if noone else is going near it. I wouldn't force it though. I agree in drafting the astrolabe, its bad on paper but shines in action. Fairly underrated, just like the white overheater in SHA.
Nice overview of blue power
About Esperzoa, i would like to add some comment : this artifact could be a centerpiece of the deck, because it is really synergical with many cards, especialy blue ones. With Strix is really nice (for 3 mana per turn, you give 2 damage & gain 2 life), with kaleidostone is a nice draw engine, with bone saw there is no more drawback, with sanctum is a a permanent regrowth ... and the list is going on.
I am not saying that card is the best one (far from that) but its power and influence is bound to your strategy ... in an esper approach, my feeling is that Esperzoa is a strong card that would be considered definitely as a staple, a card to pick as soon as you can.
interesting draft
I noted that your drafted cards were especially strong ... you choosed a grixis strategy since start and finaly got a Nicol Bolas (!) on conflux pick which was decisive at least in the final ... i think Bolas is one of the 2 best cards to get in Conflux limited as adjudicator is also.So i consider the challenge not so hard, and i usualy prefer to get information about draft that are more difficult to win.
That said, you followed your strategy for the win, reached the victory and that is never so easy.
Far too little commentary for me to really take anything from the article. Also, these articles seem to come much too quickly for what they offer, which is basically just an outsiders look at some guy's draft.
... given my other comments, i suppose you also take Master Transmuter over Esperzoa. And i meant "Sphinx Summoner", not "Magister Sphinx" as the other "pick-over-Esperzoa" in aggro Esper.
Upon reflection, I also suspect Inkwell Leviathan is too slow to consistently take 3rd-5th. If you've got a controllish 5-color deck that needs a big finisher but has lots of walls and the like... or a Master Transmuter... then you happily take it. Otherwise, i think it's essentially unplayable for a deck that has no plan to get to that much mana.
You can't even loot-and-cheat it into play like Kederekt Leviathan.
Yea, I disagree with many of your picks this draft.
P1P1 spearbreaker behemoth has only a handful (2 really) of ways to kill it and can make any other 5 power creature the same, the ambusher can remove any early creature and really increases the clock of any aggro-type deck. Agony warp is still probably the right choice, but it's not automatic.\
P1P4: there are at least 4 better cards in this pack, and you should really take a look at the Green signals that are coming at you. Wild Nactal, Jungle Shrine, and tidehollow sculler are all much better than Grixis battlemage. (Grixis battlemage isn't bad by any means, but there are much better 3 drops).
P1P5: Courier's is realy nice, but Rakeclaw is a very strong 5-power creature. It's nigh-impossible to kill in combat without removal or a combat trick.
P1P7: Rip-clan crasher is much better than pick 7. Another green-red signal
P1P8: Steward of Valeron is also much better than pick 8.
P1P9: Knight of the Skyward eye is one of the BEST non-rare creatures in the format. P9 is simply ridiculous, he's pick 3 worthy.
P2P1: If you had taken the signals and gone naya, then the Branching Bolt here is simply amazing, especially with esper being so heavily drafted.
P2P5: Naya battlemage=better than pick 5. I bet only 1 person drafted naya in this pod.
P2P6: ambusher pick 6?! Seriously
P3P2: Sacellum archers are under rated. They're incredibly powerful defenders that can completely halt 2 toughness creatures and trade with 4 toughness creatures. They can also stop double/triple blocking vs your fatties.
P3P6: Yet another undrafted naya fattie in macta Rioters.
p3P7: Armillary sphere is amazing fixing. It's not color-dependent, and gives you any 2 colors. Yes it's slow, but it's still very useful.
I'm not saying that your strategy was "wrong" or didn't work, but Naya really, really seemed like the stronger pick here. You could have kept a good portion of your removal while picking up some incredibly potent creatures.
Hey Man, I'm glad that you enjoyed the article, and I really appreciate the comments - just wanted to respond to what you had to say a little.
I think you absolutely right when it comes to Master Transmuter, when I had written this article, it was still as something of a matter of first impression as Conflux had only been out a couple of days, and this is one of those cards that I definitely missed the mark with. As long as you have a few artifacts, she worth picking high, and thinking back, I would say 1st is no stretch.
I also agree about the Brackwater and the Cumberstone.
View from above is trash, no doubt - In thinking back, the only reason it doesn't sink up with the Illusionist is that I wrote the article over the course of a couple of days, and it looks like my scale for bad cards changed a bit - when I write the White review next, I'm going to try and standardize how/where I place cards - but yeah, looking back - no doubt View is one of those cards that I might take the basic land over.
When I said to take Esperoza 5-7 I was thinking along the lines of if you had a semi-artifact based deck, that could probably support the Esperoza, but where it probably wouldn't be able to shine either.
Finally, about the Scepter of Insight - I think I like this card a bit too much, as it is expensive to get going, but its one of those cards that I'd use thinking towards the late game, at which point the mana is just throwaway, and the extra cards should be enough to win it. While some games/decks get to this point, there are a lot of times when this card will just be too expensive to do much good.
Username: Katastrophe
Deck Name - Food For Squee. Black and green are allies of red, and everything is either something Squee would eat, or something that would eat Squee. And Squee eats creature removal.
P.S. The 3 Endangered Armodon, 2 Lowland Basilisk, 2 Spike Colony, and 2 Skyshroud Troopers are creatures. Evincar's Justice might have autocarded properly with the apostrophe. I'm sorry for the 3/5 rating but this was a news post anyway.
the article is not supposed to look the way it does now.. not sure what happened but i can't do anything on my side.. sorry for the unaesthetic look and the missing links/pics..
I agree, this card doesn't need any skill to win a game.
Cumberstone is 2nd-5th.
This was a typo on my part. This was not meant to be Gaea's Blessing but Gaea's Balance. I wanted to talk on this a bit more. With the newest version of Terravore from Conflux this card has gotten even better. It drops 5 lands into the yard and you can get full domain right away.
I gotta say, Magister Sphinx is a pain in the butt. You think you are going along just fine at 35 life, then all of a sudden you're at 10. People smell the blood in the water, and you end up dead 2 turns later.
My only issue with combo on MTGO is the length of time it takes people to complete it. Once it's apparent that someone is combo'ing out, if I can't figure out what their kill condition is, I usually ask what it is and if they have it. People are usually pretty up front about it. I'll usually just concede rather than have the player go through the motions at that point.
I don't begrudge people for playing combo though. There are lots of ways to disrupt people, and you have to be prepared. I played a game where someone was using Sedris, and another player dropped a turn 3 Necrogenesis. The Sedris player quit immediately, noting he couldn't deal with the enchantment. The variety that EDH brings means you gotta be prepared for just about anything. Including combo.
I think Squirrel's Nest/Earthcraft is cheesy. There have been far too many times I've lost a game because a player combos off with Epic Struggle in play. The combo player will just wait for the right time to cast Time Stretch followed by part of the combo/tutor and win the game. This is much akin to combo Tooth and Nail decks.
I run Gaea's Blessing in all of my G/x EDH decks but I have never found it useful to achieve domain. Gaea's Blessing has been successful counteracting mill (Tunnel Visions) and graveyard abilities (Genesis).
I have also noticed how 5 color edh decks run rampant on MTGO. Most decks run enough acceleration to find the right lands and cast crazy domain spells (Allied Strategies, Global Ruin, Last Stand, etc.) early in a game. Shard Convergence looks like an additional 4cc land fetcher in this format that can find non-basic lands. I will still prefer straight acceleration and Thawing Glaciers my in 3+ color decks.
As for running combos and other politics, I find players get hated in future games as a result of obnoxious plays. Four player edh is not the same as five player edh. There is one less player that can break your combo and only two other players that will do nothing as long as you do not target them. Often I see players get hated for playing a certain commander or silly combo and games become an hour of seeking revenge.
When one player only targets a certain opponent, that is when four player edh turns into 2hg edh. Either the other two players will go after each other or they will gang up on the first target. I have seen this done in response to Curse of the Cabal, Din of the Fireherd, and Mind Shatter type cards being cast. This is what draws me away from the casual aspect of edh and more into auto-kill games.
Well Palinchron isn't online yet, but when it is, expect to see it :p
I play a five color combo deck with Squirrel Nest/Earthcraft, but it's so slow and disruptable that I don't think it's too unfair. Earthcraft is definitely another potential ban target, though.
Palinchron and Reveillark combos are quite common and pretty unfun. I would nominate them to be banned. Gifts Ungiven is a bit too good too, IMO.
The title of your articles should now be Drafting Grixis # ...
P1P2: Blood cultist over bone splinters? Even if you are forcing grixis, this pick is wrong. Bone splinters is very good removal.
P1P4: There are at LEAST 4 (probably 5) cards better than the battlemage in this pack. Tar fiend is not as situational as you might think, and is far better than the 2/2 looter (which sucks if blue is cut from you). And actually the sculler is really good. It sounds like you havent really played a lot with this card. I definitely wouldnt take it here, but it's very solid.
P1P5: I can see why you took the capsule here. If you had taken the splinters or the tar fiend (and definitely if you took both), the blister beetle would be the pick here.
P1P8: I dont know the context of this draft. Is it a 4322 or 84? I would take welkin guide or steward as white is possible open. Remember in pack 5, there was a druid and a rakeclaw, which are both the best cards in that pack.
P1P9: Knight should never wheel, and there was no reason for you not to take it.
P2P1: I guess if thats your preference. I also love fatestitcher, but i dont love it over excap.
P2P4: I think you would rather have zombie. It unearths and since there are probears now, the deathraiders gets a lot worse.
P2P5: I would have taken jund panorama here for fixing.
P2P7: Scourge devil is pretty awesome.
P3P6: Since you have 2 alchemists already, the pro green bear is ideal for your deck.
P3P7: I think other people already covered this pick pretty well.
P3P8: Againt should have taken the pro green guy.
I will say, if you had drafted the third pack(and the first pack) a little differently, you could have had a ridiculous deck. Nice early game with blue black guys, and then tempo in the midgame with good removal, followed by nice late game finishers in scourge devil and tar fiend. Your deck ended up ok. The biggest problem i found with this draft is your card evaluations. Like taking a crappy pinger over solid removal, or taking a looter over an awesome card. Ill have to echo earlier comments that it seems like your draws worked out pretty well in all of the games. You mention in the third round that your opponents always hit all of their colors. What you fail to realize is they take cards like armillary sphere, obelisks, and CIPT lands to augment their fixing. You mentioned he got stuck on 3 colors in the third game (so obviously your opponents dont always hit their lands).
Article is very appreciated. Congrats on the win.
sphere is some good. use it.
Username- Lotus_Tek
Deck name- Revenge of the Wurms
Nice article about the trading aspect of Singleton100. For anyone interested in trading check out mtgocardtrader.com for a bunch of trading related articles.
Wow, forcing Grixis and opening a Bolas. Thats lucky
While Grixis is weak most of the time, its awesome if noone else is going near it. I wouldn't force it though. I agree in drafting the astrolabe, its bad on paper but shines in action. Fairly underrated, just like the white overheater in SHA.
Lush Decay
Lush Death
Life and Decay
Growth and Decay
mtgo: maqifrnswa
Nice overview of blue power
About Esperzoa, i would like to add some comment : this artifact could be a centerpiece of the deck, because it is really synergical with many cards, especialy blue ones. With Strix is really nice (for 3 mana per turn, you give 2 damage & gain 2 life), with kaleidostone is a nice draw engine, with bone saw there is no more drawback, with sanctum is a a permanent regrowth ... and the list is going on.
I am not saying that card is the best one (far from that) but its power and influence is bound to your strategy ... in an esper approach, my feeling is that Esperzoa is a strong card that would be considered definitely as a staple, a card to pick as soon as you can.
interesting draft
I noted that your drafted cards were especially strong ... you choosed a grixis strategy since start and finaly got a Nicol Bolas (!) on conflux pick which was decisive at least in the final ... i think Bolas is one of the 2 best cards to get in Conflux limited as adjudicator is also.So i consider the challenge not so hard, and i usualy prefer to get information about draft that are more difficult to win.
That said, you followed your strategy for the win, reached the victory and that is never so easy.
Far too little commentary for me to really take anything from the article. Also, these articles seem to come much too quickly for what they offer, which is basically just an outsiders look at some guy's draft.
Yea. No reason to take blightning over magma spray, although blightning is a great card.
Magma spray being a removal spell is superior to blightning.
why on p1p3 do not pick blightning?
... given my other comments, i suppose you also take Master Transmuter over Esperzoa. And i meant "Sphinx Summoner", not "Magister Sphinx" as the other "pick-over-Esperzoa" in aggro Esper.
Upon reflection, I also suspect Inkwell Leviathan is too slow to consistently take 3rd-5th. If you've got a controllish 5-color deck that needs a big finisher but has lots of walls and the like... or a Master Transmuter... then you happily take it. Otherwise, i think it's essentially unplayable for a deck that has no plan to get to that much mana.
You can't even loot-and-cheat it into play like Kederekt Leviathan.
Yea, I disagree with many of your picks this draft.
P1P1 spearbreaker behemoth has only a handful (2 really) of ways to kill it and can make any other 5 power creature the same, the ambusher can remove any early creature and really increases the clock of any aggro-type deck. Agony warp is still probably the right choice, but it's not automatic.\
P1P4: there are at least 4 better cards in this pack, and you should really take a look at the Green signals that are coming at you. Wild Nactal, Jungle Shrine, and tidehollow sculler are all much better than Grixis battlemage. (Grixis battlemage isn't bad by any means, but there are much better 3 drops).
P1P5: Courier's is realy nice, but Rakeclaw is a very strong 5-power creature. It's nigh-impossible to kill in combat without removal or a combat trick.
P1P7: Rip-clan crasher is much better than pick 7. Another green-red signal
P1P8: Steward of Valeron is also much better than pick 8.
P1P9: Knight of the Skyward eye is one of the BEST non-rare creatures in the format. P9 is simply ridiculous, he's pick 3 worthy.
P2P1: If you had taken the signals and gone naya, then the Branching Bolt here is simply amazing, especially with esper being so heavily drafted.
P2P5: Naya battlemage=better than pick 5. I bet only 1 person drafted naya in this pod.
P2P6: ambusher pick 6?! Seriously
P3P2: Sacellum archers are under rated. They're incredibly powerful defenders that can completely halt 2 toughness creatures and trade with 4 toughness creatures. They can also stop double/triple blocking vs your fatties.
P3P6: Yet another undrafted naya fattie in macta Rioters.
p3P7: Armillary sphere is amazing fixing. It's not color-dependent, and gives you any 2 colors. Yes it's slow, but it's still very useful.
I'm not saying that your strategy was "wrong" or didn't work, but Naya really, really seemed like the stronger pick here. You could have kept a good portion of your removal while picking up some incredibly potent creatures.
Hey Man, I'm glad that you enjoyed the article, and I really appreciate the comments - just wanted to respond to what you had to say a little.
I think you absolutely right when it comes to Master Transmuter, when I had written this article, it was still as something of a matter of first impression as Conflux had only been out a couple of days, and this is one of those cards that I definitely missed the mark with. As long as you have a few artifacts, she worth picking high, and thinking back, I would say 1st is no stretch.
I also agree about the Brackwater and the Cumberstone.
View from above is trash, no doubt - In thinking back, the only reason it doesn't sink up with the Illusionist is that I wrote the article over the course of a couple of days, and it looks like my scale for bad cards changed a bit - when I write the White review next, I'm going to try and standardize how/where I place cards - but yeah, looking back - no doubt View is one of those cards that I might take the basic land over.
When I said to take Esperoza 5-7 I was thinking along the lines of if you had a semi-artifact based deck, that could probably support the Esperoza, but where it probably wouldn't be able to shine either.
Finally, about the Scepter of Insight - I think I like this card a bit too much, as it is expensive to get going, but its one of those cards that I'd use thinking towards the late game, at which point the mana is just throwaway, and the extra cards should be enough to win it. While some games/decks get to this point, there are a lot of times when this card will just be too expensive to do much good.
Thanks again for the comments man -