I liked this article a lot, as the non-bomb, non-crap rares are always the hardest to evaluate. I agree with most of what you said, but there were a few things I disagreed with. The artifact cards can potentially be very strong (mostly Master and Scourglass). They obviously require a very artifact heavy deck to be good, but in those decks they are quite strong. Master usually doesn't get huge himself, but the +1/+1 ability can be very relevant. It can change a race in a hurry when your Trixes and Gargoyles all suddenly have 3 power.
I like Tar Fiend a little more than you, and Knight-Captain a little less, but I think they are both quite good.
I don't like Goblin Assault very much either, but I think it will improve with the addition of Conflux because more people will be playing 5 colors. They usually spend the first few turns fixing mana, so a turn 3 Goblin Assault backed by a couple of removal spells will go a long way towards winning the game against those decks.
I don't have much to say about Quietus Spike, as I don't have much experience with it. I have had the opportunity to draft it a number of times, but I value it a lot lower than it seems most people do, so I rarely see it in a spot I would be willing to take it.
I don't like Punish Ignorance at all, but that's mostly just because of my general dislike of counters in limited. It's also painfully easy to play around if you've seen your opponent play it in previous games, somtimes even if you haven't seen it.
The last thing I want to comment on is the ultimatums. I think Cruel is good, as my Grixis decks tend to be very controlling and spread out fairly evenly between 3 colors, making the ultimatum castable. Violent is fine, but I usually don't take it highly. I have never played Titanic, and I don't plan on doing so any time soon.
This is a fantastic article. I know about all the decks in standard, but it is still great to see others points of view and especially ACTUAL GAMES. I don't know why more people don't show actual games played, but I LOVE watching games, extremely well done, keep these coming =D
I thought the article was really great. Furthermore I would really like the topic expanded on with the new AAC drafts coming up. Rares tend to be overlooked but can have devistating effects. Most importantly what synergies are there between A rares and C commons and deckbuilds?
A couple of comments:
1 I have found Goblin Ambush to be very good and would highly consider it first pick or possibly late if I already had support. I feel that there is a lot of support between the gharial, rockslide, and drake(which are not top picks) and devour creatures. Low color commitment also(although it is not great in every red shard). Having tons of creatures(even mindless) is frequently just so powerful in a draft situation.
I believe the interaction between Topan Ascetic and the ambush is worth mentioning. If you pick GA early it is a good card to look for. He can hold back your guys and release them when they reach critical mass all while making himself extremely large. It is not super likely but it is worth noting. It has happened to me and basically trashed my opponent.
Cunning Lethemancer: I agree on all points except that the discard is barely relevant. If your deck is likely to be able to discard Connoisseurs and Leotaus, you are gaining significant card advantage. Its even more relevant if your opponent is playing that type of deck that likes to to play an obelisk on turn 3. But yeah, only playable in special circumstances or as card 22 or 23 in a draft gone wrong. It just shouldn't be dismissed completely, especially as a sideboard card.
Master of Etherium: Yeah, maybe I exaggerated when I said I'm never really happy to see it in my hand. Its just that I expected him to be worthy of a first pick, like the Llorwyn lords. But unlike those guys, he's really only worth playing in the most dedicated of esper decks, otherwise its just too likely that he's a 1/1 do nothing idiot.
Kederekt Leviathan: This is what I wanted to know. I'm under 50% win percentage when putting him into play while I'm behind, and most of the games I won I probably could have won without him. I think maybe I've been a bit unlucky in drawing it in situations where I was just a bit too far behind for him to matter.
Sacellum Godspeaker: Why not play him with only 3 5-power guys? I know this format has spoiled us with an abundance of 3 drops that are ahead of the curve, but even vanilla 2/2s for 3 are "playable". Obelisks don't swing for 2 or chump block. Its like comparing apples to oranges.
I'm not saying I scoop him up early ever, but unless my deck is over-saturated with three drops (which I guess isn't that unlikely), this guy is making the cut with 3 or more 5 drops.
I think offcolor cycler is a bit of a stretch, a large % of decks have at least one good target. Artifacts creatures show up often enough in any deck with black, blue or white, not just Esper. You also have oblivion ring and necrogenesis. If all else fails, you can still target an obelisk. Its very strong enough of the time that I'd prefer it to an offcolor cycler.
Either way, I'd definitely be happier keeping it in my sideboard or replacing it with the cycling volcanic submersion. I think its wrong to avoid playing it maindeck at all costs though.
I would never maindeck a naturalize in a draft. I would rather have an offcolor cycler. In sealed that's one thing. You're more likely to face Oblivion Rings and there are more chances of facing artifact creatures in all decks. The reason you see more oblivion rings in sealed than in draft is because each player opens more cards. In draft I wouldn't really like having a dead card. Volcanic Submersion on the other hand cycles when needed and kills most things you'd kill with Naturalize. The thing you'll miss most it not dealing with Ring but that's fine because it's never a dead card.
Very nice article. There are a lot of rares that are very hard to evaluate in AAA.
Cunning Lethemancer: 2/2 for 3 with a subpar ability. Ill take grixis battlemage over this guy any day of the week. The discard is barely relevant. I agree that he is playable, but if i have to play him i don't think my deck is very good.
Tar Fiend: Agreed. I think i like it more than you do, but you have to have the righr deck for it.
Master of Etherium: This card is probably the only one that i believe you are misvaluing. Since when have lords not been susceptible to cheap removal? The thing with master is that he gets bigger as well, which can make a difference. Sure if they remove it they remove it. But if they don't, he can get out of hand quickly.
Kederekt Leviathan: I love seeing this card like 9th pick. Definitely one of the most underrated cards in the set and i dont think ive lost a game where i have cast it or put it into my graveyard.
Sacellum Godspeaker: You would play this guy with only 3 5 power guys? Then he's a really bad llanowar elf. I would actually rather have an obelisk as the godspeaker doesnt even give you other colors of mana.
@Solebush:
I agree on your comment that Naturalize is perfectly maindeckable (and Volcanic Submersion aswell). I always try to maindeck one. But in my last draft (which had lots of premium artifact cards flowing by during draft) two of my oppononts (both 1700+) seemed to be very disappointed that I maindecked it. Their comments: "Maindeck Naturalize? Who does that?" and "Maindeck Naturalize? How lame!".
Well I beat both of 'em so I guess I did something right huh? What's wrong with maindecking 1 Naturalize? Think of all its uses! Its almost a premium removal spell......lol
Maybe it's because I only ran it once and didn't really like it much, but the Sacellum Godspeaker falls short for me. I consistently see this guy slip down to late picks and I think that's where he should be. I mean sure, in an AAA draft you may be in hard Naya with a bunch of fatties, and hope to get this guy in pack 3 or something, but usually even in pack 2 unless he is late you just don't take him. I certainly can see the appeal of dropping some biggies a few turns early, but he just doesn't have much affect on the board after you cast your big guy.
Spearbreaker Behemoth I think you are undervaluing a bit. I wouldn't put him in the bomb category, but if I can support it I will take him quite early. There are only a couple cards in the set that can deal with him (assuming you have the 1 colorless mana free). (Oblivion Ring and Bant Charm are the two I can think of) This is pretty strong as there aren't too many non-fliers that are getting past him, and not too many that can block profitably either. Sure he is really expensive cost wise, which sets him back a bit, but I value him a bit higher than you simply because he creates an immediate concern most games he hits and will often swing board position towards you.
My current list uses the same mainboard. My sideboard is altered as follows:
-1 Okiba-Gang Shinobi, -1 Duress, -1 Distress, -1 Echoing Decay;
+3 Nausea, +1 Death Denied
My sideboard better targets pro:Black creatures Obsidian Acolyte & Order of Leitbur, but I can't say that it is a better choice overall.
Further, I haven't gotten too many matches in yet this week, but I believe I'm 1-4 with this list - yikes. At least 3 of those losses were mirror matches. The previous week I was cleaning up in the mirrors, not so much this week (the lists seem to now be better tuned, near matching the list I'm running.) I still feel that they should be 50/50 at best, but perhaps the other MBC pilots are aware of some of the mirror interactions that I'm missing.
I liked it it was a nice walkthough of the metagame, although the videos in the end are just excessive. If they are not directly related to the article, then they aren't really needed.
I have a mono red casual deck based around this card. It goes something a little like this:
4x Quietus Spike
4x Sun Droplet
2x Chandra Nalaar
Lots of pingers
Some burn
I find it really enjoyable to play with and it does pretty well in the casual environment. It's a really cheap deck to make too! :) I've also found Quietus spike to pretty useful in limited play but maybe that's just my experience. Thanks for the article I enjoyed it!
Ack, I forgot to add that link to my first article in the first sentence of this one..... here it is if you want it: http://puremtgo.com/articles/limited-addict-1st-picks
Is there any way of adding this to the article after its posted?
I like that suggestion alot.... I really should have thought of that. As meaningless as I think pick lists usually are, it seems like a very appropriate way of giving a card a relative rating.
It would have been a good way to differentiate between cards I gave praise because I felt they may be overlooked and cards I bashed because I thought they might be overrated. For example, I think Predator Dragon is sooo much better than Hell's thunder in almost any deck that wants to run Hell's thunder, and with some sort of rating system I could have made a point like that clearer.
"It does nothing on its own and its not a game breacking card."
i agree with this, that's true.
however, i think every flying creature (even the littlest) equipped with the spike could be as efficient as other 8 mana threat in ALA (in limited as well). That is why i think that card is good.
Its expansive mana cost is a problem, that is true. But if your deck is based on cheap creature (wild nacatl, squire, drakes...), the situation is very different. Unearthing a creature for 2 or 3 mana + to equip spike = 6 mana for a strong attack ... it is better or worse than to invest 6 mana in a creature summon sicknessed ?
Some cards are really good with the spike : unearth cards, goblin assault, unblockable warrior i forgot the name, hell's thunder ...
I didnt win so much draft, but 2 of my victories directly came from this artifact : that is why i told this about it. Maybe was it unusual, maybe there was a great synergy between my decks & this artifcat, i dont know. but each time i played this artifact (4 time), i had good result in draft, at least i won 1 round... :)
Maybe the spike has not to be picked first all the time, but in many case, it is a good choice imho.
Seaside Citadel is better than the artifact at the 1st pack 1st pick level. You don't commit to forcing a non-synergistic archetype and you open up your choices greatly. Spike looks really good but you spend quite a significant amount of mana (on important turns) doing nothing real until you actually hit something/ a player and even if you do get into the red zone successfully, it does not really mess up the combat math and players can work around it. It's not something you generally want to 1st pick.
1st picks = bombs that wreck games
If I'm forced not to take the land, I'd settle for scourge devil over the spike still.
To solebush: I think u could try giving the rares a pick number to reflect how highly a card should be picked.
For example:
1st pick Broodmate Dragon
3-5th pick Realm razor
I find it an easy way to see how much value the writer places on a card. It's a pity that drafts are mostly covered via walkthroughs nowadays. I used to like reading about draft archetypes and how different cards have had varying values.
I would have picked the land too. In sealed you get much more time to abuse the spike but in draft it's only abusable with pingers. Well I'd rather have a deck with a few pingers and pick this than first pick this and than try to get pingers which I probably won't be able to. Pingers are good without the spike while the spike isn't that good without pingers.
Anyway I liked the article. Just missing some pics and I don't quite agree with his review on Salvage Titan because he only analizes it in an esper deck in a situation you actually don't need anything else.
Thanks for the comment!
Don't forget volcanic submersion! Both volcanic submersion and naturalize (and maybe dispeller's capsule) are perfectly reasonable in the main deck. But yeah, that shouldn't discourage you from playing artifacts.
My knock is more that there are a limited number of creatures that this looks really exciting attached too, otherwise its slow and expensive for the effect. Unless your deck is completely jammed packed with them, your opponent probably doesn't need to answer the equipment itself, just the creatures its attached to, gaining massive tempo advantage in the process.
I tried including pictures but I couldn't get the layout to look right. (I wanted the text to next to the cards, so that each pic didn't take up too much space.) Anyone have some tips, so i can incorporate it next time?
I would never first pick Salvage Titan unless the pack was pretty weak but if you're on solid Esper in pack 2 or 3 you'll want it (I wouldn't pick it above an Agony Warp obviously but it wouldn't be that surprising if it got back to you). Sure when you're winning the race with fliers and holding the ground with Puppet Conjurer, Esper Battlemage, Metallurgeon and Tidehollow Strix it's not going to be good. But I guess you don't need anything else if you're in that situation. However you're not always in the best case scenario and Salvage Titan generates card advantage. In a long game it's very likely it will come back for more once or twice and that's usualy good enough. Dealing with a 6/4 once isn't that hard but dealing with it 2 or 3 times won't be easy. Let's say you have 1 or 2 small fliers and your opponent drops the 5/6 reach cycling. Without removal you're in a bad position. Salvage Titan will trade with it and probably be able to come back for more.
Not a bad second article, Sole. 1 recommendation here would be to have used card pics for each of the rares you're addressing. As you pointed out yourself, we don't see these cards much given their rarity (and obscurity?) most are probably unfamiliar with them. I feel it would be a good opportunity to link the pics of the cards for those reasons - let alone the fact that doing so can spice up the article quite a bit too.
I liked this article a lot, as the non-bomb, non-crap rares are always the hardest to evaluate. I agree with most of what you said, but there were a few things I disagreed with. The artifact cards can potentially be very strong (mostly Master and Scourglass). They obviously require a very artifact heavy deck to be good, but in those decks they are quite strong. Master usually doesn't get huge himself, but the +1/+1 ability can be very relevant. It can change a race in a hurry when your Trixes and Gargoyles all suddenly have 3 power.
I like Tar Fiend a little more than you, and Knight-Captain a little less, but I think they are both quite good.
I don't like Goblin Assault very much either, but I think it will improve with the addition of Conflux because more people will be playing 5 colors. They usually spend the first few turns fixing mana, so a turn 3 Goblin Assault backed by a couple of removal spells will go a long way towards winning the game against those decks.
I don't have much to say about Quietus Spike, as I don't have much experience with it. I have had the opportunity to draft it a number of times, but I value it a lot lower than it seems most people do, so I rarely see it in a spot I would be willing to take it.
I don't like Punish Ignorance at all, but that's mostly just because of my general dislike of counters in limited. It's also painfully easy to play around if you've seen your opponent play it in previous games, somtimes even if you haven't seen it.
The last thing I want to comment on is the ultimatums. I think Cruel is good, as my Grixis decks tend to be very controlling and spread out fairly evenly between 3 colors, making the ultimatum castable. Violent is fine, but I usually don't take it highly. I have never played Titanic, and I don't plan on doing so any time soon.
This is a fantastic article. I know about all the decks in standard, but it is still great to see others points of view and especially ACTUAL GAMES. I don't know why more people don't show actual games played, but I LOVE watching games, extremely well done, keep these coming =D
I thought the article was really great. Furthermore I would really like the topic expanded on with the new AAC drafts coming up. Rares tend to be overlooked but can have devistating effects. Most importantly what synergies are there between A rares and C commons and deckbuilds?
A couple of comments:
1 I have found Goblin Ambush to be very good and would highly consider it first pick or possibly late if I already had support. I feel that there is a lot of support between the gharial, rockslide, and drake(which are not top picks) and devour creatures. Low color commitment also(although it is not great in every red shard). Having tons of creatures(even mindless) is frequently just so powerful in a draft situation.
I believe the interaction between Topan Ascetic and the ambush is worth mentioning. If you pick GA early it is a good card to look for. He can hold back your guys and release them when they reach critical mass all while making himself extremely large. It is not super likely but it is worth noting. It has happened to me and basically trashed my opponent.
thanks for the feedback!
Cunning Lethemancer: I agree on all points except that the discard is barely relevant. If your deck is likely to be able to discard Connoisseurs and Leotaus, you are gaining significant card advantage. Its even more relevant if your opponent is playing that type of deck that likes to to play an obelisk on turn 3. But yeah, only playable in special circumstances or as card 22 or 23 in a draft gone wrong. It just shouldn't be dismissed completely, especially as a sideboard card.
Master of Etherium: Yeah, maybe I exaggerated when I said I'm never really happy to see it in my hand. Its just that I expected him to be worthy of a first pick, like the Llorwyn lords. But unlike those guys, he's really only worth playing in the most dedicated of esper decks, otherwise its just too likely that he's a 1/1 do nothing idiot.
Kederekt Leviathan: This is what I wanted to know. I'm under 50% win percentage when putting him into play while I'm behind, and most of the games I won I probably could have won without him. I think maybe I've been a bit unlucky in drawing it in situations where I was just a bit too far behind for him to matter.
Sacellum Godspeaker: Why not play him with only 3 5-power guys? I know this format has spoiled us with an abundance of 3 drops that are ahead of the curve, but even vanilla 2/2s for 3 are "playable". Obelisks don't swing for 2 or chump block. Its like comparing apples to oranges.
I'm not saying I scoop him up early ever, but unless my deck is over-saturated with three drops (which I guess isn't that unlikely), this guy is making the cut with 3 or more 5 drops.
I think offcolor cycler is a bit of a stretch, a large % of decks have at least one good target. Artifacts creatures show up often enough in any deck with black, blue or white, not just Esper. You also have oblivion ring and necrogenesis. If all else fails, you can still target an obelisk. Its very strong enough of the time that I'd prefer it to an offcolor cycler.
Either way, I'd definitely be happier keeping it in my sideboard or replacing it with the cycling volcanic submersion. I think its wrong to avoid playing it maindeck at all costs though.
I would never maindeck a naturalize in a draft. I would rather have an offcolor cycler. In sealed that's one thing. You're more likely to face Oblivion Rings and there are more chances of facing artifact creatures in all decks. The reason you see more oblivion rings in sealed than in draft is because each player opens more cards. In draft I wouldn't really like having a dead card. Volcanic Submersion on the other hand cycles when needed and kills most things you'd kill with Naturalize. The thing you'll miss most it not dealing with Ring but that's fine because it's never a dead card.
Very nice article. There are a lot of rares that are very hard to evaluate in AAA.
Cunning Lethemancer: 2/2 for 3 with a subpar ability. Ill take grixis battlemage over this guy any day of the week. The discard is barely relevant. I agree that he is playable, but if i have to play him i don't think my deck is very good.
Tar Fiend: Agreed. I think i like it more than you do, but you have to have the righr deck for it.
Master of Etherium: This card is probably the only one that i believe you are misvaluing. Since when have lords not been susceptible to cheap removal? The thing with master is that he gets bigger as well, which can make a difference. Sure if they remove it they remove it. But if they don't, he can get out of hand quickly.
Kederekt Leviathan: I love seeing this card like 9th pick. Definitely one of the most underrated cards in the set and i dont think ive lost a game where i have cast it or put it into my graveyard.
Sacellum Godspeaker: You would play this guy with only 3 5 power guys? Then he's a really bad llanowar elf. I would actually rather have an obelisk as the godspeaker doesnt even give you other colors of mana.
@Solebush:
I agree on your comment that Naturalize is perfectly maindeckable (and Volcanic Submersion aswell). I always try to maindeck one. But in my last draft (which had lots of premium artifact cards flowing by during draft) two of my oppononts (both 1700+) seemed to be very disappointed that I maindecked it. Their comments: "Maindeck Naturalize? Who does that?" and "Maindeck Naturalize? How lame!".
Well I beat both of 'em so I guess I did something right huh? What's wrong with maindecking 1 Naturalize? Think of all its uses! Its almost a premium removal spell......lol
Maybe it's because I only ran it once and didn't really like it much, but the Sacellum Godspeaker falls short for me. I consistently see this guy slip down to late picks and I think that's where he should be. I mean sure, in an AAA draft you may be in hard Naya with a bunch of fatties, and hope to get this guy in pack 3 or something, but usually even in pack 2 unless he is late you just don't take him. I certainly can see the appeal of dropping some biggies a few turns early, but he just doesn't have much affect on the board after you cast your big guy.
Spearbreaker Behemoth I think you are undervaluing a bit. I wouldn't put him in the bomb category, but if I can support it I will take him quite early. There are only a couple cards in the set that can deal with him (assuming you have the 1 colorless mana free). (Oblivion Ring and Bant Charm are the two I can think of) This is pretty strong as there aren't too many non-fliers that are getting past him, and not too many that can block profitably either. Sure he is really expensive cost wise, which sets him back a bit, but I value him a bit higher than you simply because he creates an immediate concern most games he hits and will often swing board position towards you.
I liked the article, keep it up.
Slashrus's winning list from the PE:
22 Creatures
4 Chittering Rats
4 Crypt Rats
2 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
4 Phyrexian Rager
4 Twisted Abomination
4 Warren Pilferers
14 Spells
4 Corrupt
4 Diabolic Edict
3 Distress
3 Tendrils of Corruption
24 Lands
24 Swamp
Sideboard
1 Death Denied
1 Distress
3 Dross Golem
4 Duress
4 Echoing Decay
1 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
1 Tendrils of Corruption
My current list uses the same mainboard. My sideboard is altered as follows:
-1 Okiba-Gang Shinobi, -1 Duress, -1 Distress, -1 Echoing Decay;
+3 Nausea, +1 Death Denied
My sideboard better targets pro:Black creatures Obsidian Acolyte & Order of Leitbur, but I can't say that it is a better choice overall.
Further, I haven't gotten too many matches in yet this week, but I believe I'm 1-4 with this list - yikes. At least 3 of those losses were mirror matches. The previous week I was cleaning up in the mirrors, not so much this week (the lists seem to now be better tuned, near matching the list I'm running.) I still feel that they should be 50/50 at best, but perhaps the other MBC pilots are aware of some of the mirror interactions that I'm missing.
Can u post your mbc build, please?
I liked it it was a nice walkthough of the metagame, although the videos in the end are just excessive. If they are not directly related to the article, then they aren't really needed.
I have a mono red casual deck based around this card. It goes something a little like this:
4x Quietus Spike
4x Sun Droplet
2x Chandra Nalaar
Lots of pingers
Some burn
I find it really enjoyable to play with and it does pretty well in the casual environment. It's a really cheap deck to make too! :) I've also found Quietus spike to pretty useful in limited play but maybe that's just my experience. Thanks for the article I enjoyed it!
You cant but one of the editors may if they see this comment or if u email them directly or even catch them in mtgo.
Ack, I forgot to add that link to my first article in the first sentence of this one..... here it is if you want it: http://puremtgo.com/articles/limited-addict-1st-picks
Is there any way of adding this to the article after its posted?
I like that suggestion alot.... I really should have thought of that. As meaningless as I think pick lists usually are, it seems like a very appropriate way of giving a card a relative rating.
It would have been a good way to differentiate between cards I gave praise because I felt they may be overlooked and cards I bashed because I thought they might be overrated. For example, I think Predator Dragon is sooo much better than Hell's thunder in almost any deck that wants to run Hell's thunder, and with some sort of rating system I could have made a point like that clearer.
"It does nothing on its own and its not a game breacking card."
i agree with this, that's true.
however, i think every flying creature (even the littlest) equipped with the spike could be as efficient as other 8 mana threat in ALA (in limited as well). That is why i think that card is good.
Its expansive mana cost is a problem, that is true. But if your deck is based on cheap creature (wild nacatl, squire, drakes...), the situation is very different. Unearthing a creature for 2 or 3 mana + to equip spike = 6 mana for a strong attack ... it is better or worse than to invest 6 mana in a creature summon sicknessed ?
Some cards are really good with the spike : unearth cards, goblin assault, unblockable warrior i forgot the name, hell's thunder ...
I didnt win so much draft, but 2 of my victories directly came from this artifact : that is why i told this about it. Maybe was it unusual, maybe there was a great synergy between my decks & this artifcat, i dont know. but each time i played this artifact (4 time), i had good result in draft, at least i won 1 round... :)
Maybe the spike has not to be picked first all the time, but in many case, it is a good choice imho.
Seaside Citadel is better than the artifact at the 1st pack 1st pick level. You don't commit to forcing a non-synergistic archetype and you open up your choices greatly. Spike looks really good but you spend quite a significant amount of mana (on important turns) doing nothing real until you actually hit something/ a player and even if you do get into the red zone successfully, it does not really mess up the combat math and players can work around it. It's not something you generally want to 1st pick.
1st picks = bombs that wreck games
If I'm forced not to take the land, I'd settle for scourge devil over the spike still.
To solebush: I think u could try giving the rares a pick number to reflect how highly a card should be picked.
For example:
1st pick Broodmate Dragon
3-5th pick Realm razor
I find it an easy way to see how much value the writer places on a card. It's a pity that drafts are mostly covered via walkthroughs nowadays. I used to like reading about draft archetypes and how different cards have had varying values.
OLLLDDDD :)
I would have picked the land too. In sealed you get much more time to abuse the spike but in draft it's only abusable with pingers. Well I'd rather have a deck with a few pingers and pick this than first pick this and than try to get pingers which I probably won't be able to. Pingers are good without the spike while the spike isn't that good without pingers.
Anyway I liked the article. Just missing some pics and I don't quite agree with his review on Salvage Titan because he only analizes it in an esper deck in a situation you actually don't need anything else.
Thanks for the article. I don't think I've seen a similar review of rares for AAA drafting. This is very useful!
Thanks for the comment!
Don't forget volcanic submersion! Both volcanic submersion and naturalize (and maybe dispeller's capsule) are perfectly reasonable in the main deck. But yeah, that shouldn't discourage you from playing artifacts.
My knock is more that there are a limited number of creatures that this looks really exciting attached too, otherwise its slow and expensive for the effect. Unless your deck is completely jammed packed with them, your opponent probably doesn't need to answer the equipment itself, just the creatures its attached to, gaining massive tempo advantage in the process.
I tried including pictures but I couldn't get the layout to look right. (I wanted the text to next to the cards, so that each pic didn't take up too much space.) Anyone have some tips, so i can incorporate it next time?
I would never first pick Salvage Titan unless the pack was pretty weak but if you're on solid Esper in pack 2 or 3 you'll want it (I wouldn't pick it above an Agony Warp obviously but it wouldn't be that surprising if it got back to you). Sure when you're winning the race with fliers and holding the ground with Puppet Conjurer, Esper Battlemage, Metallurgeon and Tidehollow Strix it's not going to be good. But I guess you don't need anything else if you're in that situation. However you're not always in the best case scenario and Salvage Titan generates card advantage. In a long game it's very likely it will come back for more once or twice and that's usualy good enough. Dealing with a 6/4 once isn't that hard but dealing with it 2 or 3 times won't be easy. Let's say you have 1 or 2 small fliers and your opponent drops the 5/6 reach cycling. Without removal you're in a bad position. Salvage Titan will trade with it and probably be able to come back for more.
Not a bad second article, Sole. 1 recommendation here would be to have used card pics for each of the rares you're addressing. As you pointed out yourself, we don't see these cards much given their rarity (and obscurity?) most are probably unfamiliar with them. I feel it would be a good opportunity to link the pics of the cards for those reasons - let alone the fact that doing so can spice up the article quite a bit too.
Keep it up.