It's absolutely ridiculous how good your deck would've been if you went esper. You literally were passed 13 above average playables for esper in pack 3. The fact that the esper cormorants tabled tells me that either nobody was playing esper or you were drafting with complete morons.
If you were in esper your pack 3 picks could have been:
drag down
faerie mechanist/absord vis/armillary sphere
esper cormorants
sedraxis alchemist
darklit gargoyle/zombie outlander
faerie mechanist/absorb vis
vedalken outlander
esperzoa
esper cormorants
scornful aether-lich
esper cormorants
lapse of certainty
darklit gargoyle
brackwater
With those cards, tower gargoyle and filler you could've ran over everyone else in the draft. You wouldn't even need to play the flameblast. There's a reason esper is overdrafted and if you get an oppurtunity like this you should thank god and then proceed to run over everyone else in the draft because noone could possibly keep up with a deck with that many aggresive flying creatures. Just something to consider for next time. Also the first pick battlemage is terrible I know that you know that but it still doesn't help take the tri-land and maybe use it to splash at the least.
I agree with solebush. Red is not that strong. Wandering Goblins seems a bad card for me. Dark temper and Fiery fall are the 2 best ones,besides it everything seems quite filler.
I think it may be time to reevaluate your personal preference. I know you liked Jund pre-conflux, but Jund easily has the least amount of help in pack 3. Red is quite weak in conflux, and most of the good black spells go better in grixis or esper (or just straight black/blue).
I strongly disagree with passing the tower gargoyle. Maybe in picks 1 and 2 you can use the argument of not wanting to fight with your neighbors for a potentially overdrafted shard. But receiving one of the strongest signals you could ask for on pick 3 means you are very unlikely to be fighting with your neighbors. The rare is still in the pack, and there is not a single esper card that ranks higher than gargoyle at uncommon or common. And you didn't even pass it for something even close in power! Even if you consider it risky (which I wouldn't as its a pretty clear signal), it has to be worth the risk when the price is a dregger. I think all you need to do is look at the available cards for the first few picks of pack 3 to see how open Esper was from your right.
The other pick I strongly disagree with was blister beetle over esper battlemage. You have exactly 1 card in green, why are you taking such a vastly inferior card? Were you going to be short on playables? Your deck was not gonna miss the beetle and it might even wheel!
Well I agree about the fixing but the Suicidal Charge its an hidden gem for me in Conflux. I'm happy to play 1 or 2
It has de ability to win games either stalled or ongoing. I should have taken the Vis about the manafixing but not has a superior card.
I just want to know why with all your complaining through the picks about lack of mana fixing, you passed up on the opportunity to take Absorb Vis twice. Obviously Suicidal Charge worked out pretty well for you, but overall, it feels kinda clunky to me, and the Absorb Vis is good mana fixing early and a nice finisher late.
P1P1 I would've taken the Seaside Citadel above all else, although IMO Bant has gotten worse with Conflux and that leaves either Naya or Esper as initial Shard options. And if it weren't the land probably the Hissing Iguanar. In this 5ColorDomain and Esper environment Jund is probably the best strategy to fight for, RGb decks tend to be too fast for 5Color and still pack some nice weapons against Esper in the likes of Naturalize and Molting Frame, and in some cases even the often overlooked Volcanic Submersion can become a house agains the puny-little-grey-dudes.
In Conflux i'm still not sold on Suicidal Charge and would've probably taken Absorb Vis or Matca Rioters above them. But like you said... the format is still young and time will tell if its right or wrong.
There was a time where you were still very undefined between jund and grixis or even both but that branching bolt made the diference. It's just better than having a full grixis battlemage and Kederekt Creeper so it seems the right call to me.
i think slivers with the same package as merfolk sans cursecatcher have a edge over merfolk, and why hasent alluren caught on i have it built just too scared to take it out for a spin might get laughed at,
thanx.
I will definitely have another Classic article coming sometime soon. I've been working on one for a while but it turned out to be very, very long. It's coming!
Mulldrifter is really good, and tap out can work. I want to point out that it probably works better when you tap 5 and drop Meloku or something like that :) It is important to position such a play in a certain way. In pauper you can tap out for Mulldrifter and get blown out despite the 2 cards drawn. That's far less likely when you were running Meloku or Keiga as tap outs (Meloku has strong offense and very strong defenses built-in, Keiga is a 5/5 flier, and both of them were bound to get you some significant board advantage even if they get destroyed shortly after - of course Mulldrifter is already giving you the two cards up front as well).
Ok, I see your point but I think that Tap Out Blue decks should be more aggro-focused. A good example would be Mono-Blue/UW/UB Skies (with cheap faeries, ninjas and some bounce/counters). And if I wanted to play a more or less pro-active blue control deck, I'd choose Teachings even though I'm a huge MUC fan. Still a nice list though, it just needs some tweaking imo.
Only 5 targets in the deck, though. There are tons of expensive things but only 5 X-spells. Maybe a singleton would be fine?
I'm a classic player too, and I don't care much for standard. But that Naya Ramp deck looks Timmylicious! :D I'd play that.
Esper Bounce House is my second favorite. It looks like a novel deck. I'd put an Atog in there if I could. It seems like it would be powerful and I think it's hilarious to have an Atog eating people. (But why stop there? Artifact lands! Bounce a Needle, play an Mindslaver. Or bounce a Winter Orb during their end step. Hehehe.)
breakfast will have as much impact as dredge does maybe less since i think its a turn slower and more suceptible to stp
loam is gonna be huge! mox diamond for 30, and stronghold for 10
counterslivers is a little harder for me to read. Meat hooks dosent do that well in legacy and i would expect that our meta would be even a little harsher on the horde. but i could be off. at least the cards we need for it are unc so we wont feel bad if it was a sleeper hit and you had to pay about 6-8 for the cards you need for it.
I like the idea of deck sketches. It gets your brain working on a new card and helps whith your abilaty to evaluate new cards. for those of you who want to know how the decks play or stack up to the meta you should try this exercise and if the idea is enough to your liking you may actually try a similar deck out. Lord knows i have dozens of classic decks i have never even played just becuase i wanted to see on paper how different cards interact.
my request is for another classic article there steve lol, and if your gonna try any of these sketches out i would vote for bounce house(in classic?)
Great article. I agree about your summation about painter decks. The hate in the sideboard against other decks works great against painetrs decks. I feel its a more fragile combo. Im very interested in checking out the natural order progenitus deck. My favorite deck that ive topped 8 five times with is a various verisons of dreadstill or UG dreadstill. See you on the boards.
If I were not running any Mind Stones, I would agree that I need more land, but with 23 land, 3 Stone, and 4 Visions, I have never had a problem hitting every land drop in a timely fashion. Visions helps me find the land I need at the end of turn and allows me to "draw" a land when I need to do so.
I tried to take a step away from the old versions of MUC where you just play a reactive game until you can stick a Golem- Mulldrifter has been absolutely fantastic. Yes, most of the time you won't pay full price until you have nine land in play, but it is worth the cost; Evoking it early is not bad either.
I could see running Trickery main, perhaps in the Repeal slots.
This deck is markedly different from the old PDC MUC lists in that it is not wholly reactive (much as that list was). I feel this deck is much more in the vein of Tap Out Blue control. It has a different set of guiding principles (what can they do to answer this?) than Lul's version of MUC. Looking at this version through that lens will, of course, show a suboptimal "Lul" list.
-Alex
It's absolutely ridiculous how good your deck would've been if you went esper. You literally were passed 13 above average playables for esper in pack 3. The fact that the esper cormorants tabled tells me that either nobody was playing esper or you were drafting with complete morons.
If you were in esper your pack 3 picks could have been:
drag down
faerie mechanist/absord vis/armillary sphere
esper cormorants
sedraxis alchemist
darklit gargoyle/zombie outlander
faerie mechanist/absorb vis
vedalken outlander
esperzoa
esper cormorants
scornful aether-lich
esper cormorants
lapse of certainty
darklit gargoyle
brackwater
With those cards, tower gargoyle and filler you could've ran over everyone else in the draft. You wouldn't even need to play the flameblast. There's a reason esper is overdrafted and if you get an oppurtunity like this you should thank god and then proceed to run over everyone else in the draft because noone could possibly keep up with a deck with that many aggresive flying creatures. Just something to consider for next time. Also the first pick battlemage is terrible I know that you know that but it still doesn't help take the tri-land and maybe use it to splash at the least.
magic rocks
I agree with solebush. Red is not that strong. Wandering Goblins seems a bad card for me. Dark temper and Fiery fall are the 2 best ones,besides it everything seems quite filler.
red is weak? wandering goblins and dark temper have been nothing but me.
I liked the article, jsut a few comments.
I think it may be time to reevaluate your personal preference. I know you liked Jund pre-conflux, but Jund easily has the least amount of help in pack 3. Red is quite weak in conflux, and most of the good black spells go better in grixis or esper (or just straight black/blue).
I strongly disagree with passing the tower gargoyle. Maybe in picks 1 and 2 you can use the argument of not wanting to fight with your neighbors for a potentially overdrafted shard. But receiving one of the strongest signals you could ask for on pick 3 means you are very unlikely to be fighting with your neighbors. The rare is still in the pack, and there is not a single esper card that ranks higher than gargoyle at uncommon or common. And you didn't even pass it for something even close in power! Even if you consider it risky (which I wouldn't as its a pretty clear signal), it has to be worth the risk when the price is a dregger. I think all you need to do is look at the available cards for the first few picks of pack 3 to see how open Esper was from your right.
The other pick I strongly disagree with was blister beetle over esper battlemage. You have exactly 1 card in green, why are you taking such a vastly inferior card? Were you going to be short on playables? Your deck was not gonna miss the beetle and it might even wheel!
Email is wilson771@bellsouth.net. Forgot about that!
Excellent drafting report. Keep it up.
Well I agree about the fixing but the Suicidal Charge its an hidden gem for me in Conflux. I'm happy to play 1 or 2
It has de ability to win games either stalled or ongoing. I should have taken the Vis about the manafixing but not has a superior card.
I just want to know why with all your complaining through the picks about lack of mana fixing, you passed up on the opportunity to take Absorb Vis twice. Obviously Suicidal Charge worked out pretty well for you, but overall, it feels kinda clunky to me, and the Absorb Vis is good mana fixing early and a nice finisher late.
P1P1 I would've taken the Seaside Citadel above all else, although IMO Bant has gotten worse with Conflux and that leaves either Naya or Esper as initial Shard options. And if it weren't the land probably the Hissing Iguanar. In this 5ColorDomain and Esper environment Jund is probably the best strategy to fight for, RGb decks tend to be too fast for 5Color and still pack some nice weapons against Esper in the likes of Naturalize and Molting Frame, and in some cases even the often overlooked Volcanic Submersion can become a house agains the puny-little-grey-dudes.
In Conflux i'm still not sold on Suicidal Charge and would've probably taken Absorb Vis or Matca Rioters above them. But like you said... the format is still young and time will tell if its right or wrong.
All in all a nice article. Keep'em commin'!
Very useful article, as always =)
Thank you Andrea!!
nice article. This article will definitely help me in my next drafts.
Agree on that. Branching Bolt makes all the difference, nice deck, again, good playing quality, wanna read more things from you!
There was a time where you were still very undefined between jund and grixis or even both but that branching bolt made the diference. It's just better than having a full grixis battlemage and Kederekt Creeper so it seems the right call to me.
i think slivers with the same package as merfolk sans cursecatcher have a edge over merfolk, and why hasent alluren caught on i have it built just too scared to take it out for a spin might get laughed at,
thanx.
I will definitely have another Classic article coming sometime soon. I've been working on one for a while but it turned out to be very, very long. It's coming!
Mulldrifter is really good, and tap out can work. I want to point out that it probably works better when you tap 5 and drop Meloku or something like that :) It is important to position such a play in a certain way. In pauper you can tap out for Mulldrifter and get blown out despite the 2 cards drawn. That's far less likely when you were running Meloku or Keiga as tap outs (Meloku has strong offense and very strong defenses built-in, Keiga is a 5/5 flier, and both of them were bound to get you some significant board advantage even if they get destroyed shortly after - of course Mulldrifter is already giving you the two cards up front as well).
Ok, I see your point but I think that Tap Out Blue decks should be more aggro-focused. A good example would be Mono-Blue/UW/UB Skies (with cheap faeries, ninjas and some bounce/counters). And if I wanted to play a more or less pro-active blue control deck, I'd choose Teachings even though I'm a huge MUC fan. Still a nice list though, it just needs some tweaking imo.
Nine targets, actually: 4 Hydras, 4 Banefire, 1 Martial Coup.
Only 5 targets in the deck, though. There are tons of expensive things but only 5 X-spells. Maybe a singleton would be fine?
I'm a classic player too, and I don't care much for standard. But that Naya Ramp deck looks Timmylicious! :D I'd play that.
Esper Bounce House is my second favorite. It looks like a novel deck. I'd put an Atog in there if I could. It seems like it would be powerful and I think it's hilarious to have an Atog eating people. (But why stop there? Artifact lands! Bounce a Needle, play an Mindslaver. Or bounce a Winter Orb during their end step. Hehehe.)
breakfast will have as much impact as dredge does maybe less since i think its a turn slower and more suceptible to stp
loam is gonna be huge! mox diamond for 30, and stronghold for 10
counterslivers is a little harder for me to read. Meat hooks dosent do that well in legacy and i would expect that our meta would be even a little harsher on the horde. but i could be off. at least the cards we need for it are unc so we wont feel bad if it was a sleeper hit and you had to pay about 6-8 for the cards you need for it.
I like the idea of deck sketches. It gets your brain working on a new card and helps whith your abilaty to evaluate new cards. for those of you who want to know how the decks play or stack up to the meta you should try this exercise and if the idea is enough to your liking you may actually try a similar deck out. Lord knows i have dozens of classic decks i have never even played just becuase i wanted to see on paper how different cards interact.
my request is for another classic article there steve lol, and if your gonna try any of these sketches out i would vote for bounce house(in classic?)
I want to fit Rosheen Meanderer into that Naya ramp deck somehow.
Great article. I agree about your summation about painter decks. The hate in the sideboard against other decks works great against painetrs decks. I feel its a more fragile combo. Im very interested in checking out the natural order progenitus deck. My favorite deck that ive topped 8 five times with is a various verisons of dreadstill or UG dreadstill. See you on the boards.
If I were not running any Mind Stones, I would agree that I need more land, but with 23 land, 3 Stone, and 4 Visions, I have never had a problem hitting every land drop in a timely fashion. Visions helps me find the land I need at the end of turn and allows me to "draw" a land when I need to do so.
I tried to take a step away from the old versions of MUC where you just play a reactive game until you can stick a Golem- Mulldrifter has been absolutely fantastic. Yes, most of the time you won't pay full price until you have nine land in play, but it is worth the cost; Evoking it early is not bad either.
I could see running Trickery main, perhaps in the Repeal slots.
This deck is markedly different from the old PDC MUC lists in that it is not wholly reactive (much as that list was). I feel this deck is much more in the vein of Tap Out Blue control. It has a different set of guiding principles (what can they do to answer this?) than Lul's version of MUC. Looking at this version through that lens will, of course, show a suboptimal "Lul" list.
-Alex