Always like seeing these articles. In defence of Emblem of Fealty, being able to dig out basic lands is an ability that all colours are granted to a lesser extent, usually through artifacts or lands. Compare with Solemn Simulacrum, Journeyer's Kite, Wayfarer's Bauble, the Scourge landcyclers, Terramorphic Expanse and Terminal Moraine. Curiously, it was only in Mirrodin block that equipment had coloured transfer costs... :)
I love the feedback article. I tried to make the Necromorphs a undead race that se them selves as the supreme race, even over other undead, by being able to shape change and mock other races' abilities. As far as Cannible corpse, yea I was having issues trying to get the wording right and figued i would get negative feedback on it. I jsut tried to do my best. Thanks for the feedback!.
I think it is okay to underrate cards, I def overrate most removal, even if it is a situational sorcery speed card like Saltblast.
Honestly I think if Pyrohemia is in your pack, and you're not in red, it is okay to run with it. I'd rather have a dead card in my board, than face down a dominating one that I could have stopped and lose to it.
I want to thank you all for the replies, and I am taking this all to heart. You're going to see a brand new donkey in the series to follow, and hopefully this is a donk that can be more than a beast of burden.
However, this will be my last reply for a while. I just had surgery today, it was a success, and now I have no gallbladder. I'm under intense pain meds, and stitting up like I am now for longer than 2 minutes sucks.
I have a laptop, and I have a back load of drafts, I'll write them up tomorrow-Sunday.
I agree it would have made more sense to pick the totem, I think the only thing you have to worry about is ovinize, which did happen to me in a draft a few weeks ago. Weatherseed can almost be considered a removal spell because it most always will be blocked, plus it returns to your hand when it hits the graveyard, if you're lucky enough to get this out turn 3, your opponent will be trying to find answers for it the rest of the game.
Dear Donkey. You are indeed a horrible drafter. But you are a fine writer. Listen to the advise and try again. and more importantly. Think about it. Now. And tonight in bed. And next time you play.
I became a better player with the WWKD method. That is keep saying to yourself (or write a note and stick it to your monitor): What Would Kamiel DO? (Kamiel Cornellisen is out local town magic hero with 200+ pro points, insert your own local hero if appropriate)
why does it work? It makes you THINK just that little longer. Every time you read the WWKD note your brain stops a moment and think. ok BEFORE I click this card or pass priority.. WHAT WOULD KAMIEL DO? would he draft that sliver? NO!
You see, people read 100 articles on the internet, but they forget 90% of what they read. The next time the go to FNM or crack some virtual packs for a draft they make the same mistakes again and again. The Kamiels (Kai's Finkel's, Kenji's etc of this world stopped making those mistakes years ago and they keep getting better and better. because they take the time to think. and reflect etc
How come nobody is actually thinking about the search vs green totem pick? The totem is an absolute house in draft being almost impossible to deal with. Search has lost a lot of its value because its easily replaced with edge of autumn now in FUT. The Totem can win games by itself
To comment on other comments, Marauders is not good unless you have a hyper agressive deck. It does not deal five to their face or trade with a creature. Often late game it bounces off a Dream Stalker or gets murdered by a 5/5 or something. Browbeat again not a good card, only in a very agressive deck will it be worth it and even then I wouldn't pick it super high. In the third pack there were 4 cards clearly better then it and 3 that were toss-ups.
As far as bad signals from passing the black card, I partly agree. However my experance in 4-3-2-2s is that singals mean squat. Take what you want other people will still be forcing a color based on their first pick.
And on switching to Red after the Pyrohemia, that wouldn't have worked out well. He would have ended up with very few Red playables and Pyrohemia is not a good card for a splash.
I actually like the Spirit more than ward. I think ward is pretty playable however. It has a lot of uses, but when I pick between the two, I'm almost always taking the flyer.
I like Mire Boa just fine, he is just really lower on my list of green commons I noticed two chances to take the snake, and the first time I took Sinew over it and Saltblast, and the second time, I took Pyrohemia.
I'm not going to pass that card in most situations.
However, the first pick with the Boa, I should have taken saltblast anyway. I have a lot of respect for a 2/1 with evasion that can stick around and block forever.
Should be fixed now. If you get an error just make sure to check and make sure it's not already posted. Also if you don't mind sending me an e-mail with the error code that would be great so i can get it fixed. -Heath
Apparently I learned nothing from the previous comments. I also apologize for my repeated posts. I got errors every time. Can an administrator clean that up? It's terrible...
I agree that you might be overvaluing slivers. :) It seems to be that you either want to be drafting all Slivers or none. Going up against sliver and non-sliver decks alike with only a small sliver sub-theme is definitely underpowered, in my experience.
First Pick? Ok, I could go either way here. Embrace is a fine pick. Second Pick? Here's where I think you went wrong. You already passed a Sudden Death, putting at least one guy to your left in heavy black. With both Butcher and Syphon-Mage in this pack, there's no way you can now cut it. Even if you take Butcher, they'll likely take the Mage, and now you're fighting for Black with a creature that requires heavy Black. If you take the Sudden Shock here, you're sending a clear signal that Black is open, putting at least one guy in Black and maybe two, plus a decent signal that Red and Green are not open, as Wurm, Web, and Shambler are mid-late picks. This should clear you up to get good stuff in PLC, as one or more guys to your left will be heavily favoring Black, due to Death, Butcher, Mage, and Withering. I would have passed the Butcher, and every subsequent Black card.
Next, in Planar Chaos, you get Pyrohemia. It's still early enough to do WgR or RGw. Not that you could have known at the time, but you could have followed that pick with Meteor, Spider, Membrane, Shaman, Spider, Charm, and Marauders*. FUT obviously didn't see much Red, but that's because you passed so much good Red in PLC.
I also would have hate-drafted before picking 2 Augur il-Vecs. You were passing some decent stuff and getting nothing yourself.
* Don't underestimate Keldon Marauders. 90% of the time, it's a Lava Axe for 1R. Otherwise, it's "Destroy target creature and deal 2 damage to its controller." Even if you don't draw it early, it can still deal the final 2 damage to kill your opponent, or trade with one of their guys on the ground.
Always like seeing these articles. In defence of Emblem of Fealty, being able to dig out basic lands is an ability that all colours are granted to a lesser extent, usually through artifacts or lands. Compare with Solemn Simulacrum, Journeyer's Kite, Wayfarer's Bauble, the Scourge landcyclers, Terramorphic Expanse and Terminal Moraine. Curiously, it was only in Mirrodin block that equipment had coloured transfer costs... :)
well of course you know this is going to impact RS a bit. :) stay tuned to see how!!! lighting bolt mmmmmmm
I love the feedback article. I tried to make the Necromorphs a undead race that se them selves as the supreme race, even over other undead, by being able to shape change and mock other races' abilities. As far as Cannible corpse, yea I was having issues trying to get the wording right and figued i would get negative feedback on it. I jsut tried to do my best. Thanks for the feedback!.
I think it is okay to underrate cards, I def overrate most removal, even if it is a situational sorcery speed card like Saltblast.
Honestly I think if Pyrohemia is in your pack, and you're not in red, it is okay to run with it. I'd rather have a dead card in my board, than face down a dominating one that I could have stopped and lose to it.
I absolutly love this train of thought, and looking at it from your point of view, it is correct.
Very good idea.
I want to thank you all for the replies, and I am taking this all to heart. You're going to see a brand new donkey in the series to follow, and hopefully this is a donk that can be more than a beast of burden.
However, this will be my last reply for a while. I just had surgery today, it was a success, and now I have no gallbladder. I'm under intense pain meds, and stitting up like I am now for longer than 2 minutes sucks.
I have a laptop, and I have a back load of drafts, I'll write them up tomorrow-Sunday.
Thanks again you all. I do appreciate it.
I'll gladly take responsibility for any and all decks created from this article. :)
Entertaining, oh, and you are the one responsible when I come up with a deck that uses Animate Wall now, fear my attacking Illusionary Wall. >_>
I'll try to add them as soon as beta is up.
[MED] cards aren't in the MTGO Traders database yet, so there's no autocard for them at the moment.
I agree it would have made more sense to pick the totem, I think the only thing you have to worry about is ovinize, which did happen to me in a draft a few weeks ago. Weatherseed can almost be considered a removal spell because it most always will be blocked, plus it returns to your hand when it hits the graveyard, if you're lucky enough to get this out turn 3, your opponent will be trying to find answers for it the rest of the game.
Dear Donkey. You are indeed a horrible drafter. But you are a fine writer. Listen to the advise and try again. and more importantly. Think about it. Now. And tonight in bed. And next time you play.
I became a better player with the WWKD method. That is keep saying to yourself (or write a note and stick it to your monitor): What Would Kamiel DO? (Kamiel Cornellisen is out local town magic hero with 200+ pro points, insert your own local hero if appropriate)
why does it work? It makes you THINK just that little longer. Every time you read the WWKD note your brain stops a moment and think. ok BEFORE I click this card or pass priority.. WHAT WOULD KAMIEL DO? would he draft that sliver? NO!
You see, people read 100 articles on the internet, but they forget 90% of what they read. The next time the go to FNM or crack some virtual packs for a draft they make the same mistakes again and again. The Kamiels (Kai's Finkel's, Kenji's etc of this world stopped making those mistakes years ago and they keep getting better and better. because they take the time to think. and reflect etc
good luck
How come nobody is actually thinking about the search vs green totem pick? The totem is an absolute house in draft being almost impossible to deal with. Search has lost a lot of its value because its easily replaced with edge of autumn now in FUT. The Totem can win games by itself
Autocard links would be really nice... otherwise, nice overview of all the new toys we'll be getting soon. :)
Maybe I underrate Saltblast, but I would have taken Mire Boa over both it and Sinew Sliver.
And Pyrohemia is ridiculous, but if you had known you were going to end the draft as GW, would you still have hated the Pyrohemia over the boa?
I would have taken the Boa in both situations.
It was just a generic IE error: page not found, I think, which I found strange...
To comment on other comments, Marauders is not good unless you have a hyper agressive deck. It does not deal five to their face or trade with a creature. Often late game it bounces off a Dream Stalker or gets murdered by a 5/5 or something. Browbeat again not a good card, only in a very agressive deck will it be worth it and even then I wouldn't pick it super high. In the third pack there were 4 cards clearly better then it and 3 that were toss-ups.
As far as bad signals from passing the black card, I partly agree. However my experance in 4-3-2-2s is that singals mean squat. Take what you want other people will still be forcing a color based on their first pick.
And on switching to Red after the Pyrohemia, that wouldn't have worked out well. He would have ended up with very few Red playables and Pyrohemia is not a good card for a splash.
I actually like the Spirit more than ward. I think ward is pretty playable however. It has a lot of uses, but when I pick between the two, I'm almost always taking the flyer.
I like Mire Boa just fine, he is just really lower on my list of green commons I noticed two chances to take the snake, and the first time I took Sinew over it and Saltblast, and the second time, I took Pyrohemia.
I'm not going to pass that card in most situations.
However, the first pick with the Boa, I should have taken saltblast anyway. I have a lot of respect for a 2/1 with evasion that can stick around and block forever.
You seem not to like Mire Boa. Why is that?
I don't really like hate drafting unless there is not much for you in the pack.
In both the tendrils and warpride cases I approve becasue there was nothing for you.
My big weakness is that I can never remember what was in apack 8 picks ago becasue Tendrils so late means black is really open.
If you switch to R/B remember that you need creatures. Idef think that was the open combination.
I also think cannonade is better than Tolarian becaue at that stae I was not that excited about your blue.
Warrens is still good becasue of Grinning Ignus but Kavu (and Sulferous Blast) are better.
/me shakes fingers at editors
Is Flickering Spirit better than Pentarch Ward? It's been pretty bruising, in my experience.
Should be fixed now. If you get an error just make sure to check and make sure it's not already posted. Also if you don't mind sending me an e-mail with the error code that would be great so i can get it fixed.
-Heath
Apparently I learned nothing from the previous comments. I also apologize for my repeated posts. I got errors every time. Can an administrator clean that up? It's terrible...
I agree that you might be overvaluing slivers. :) It seems to be that you either want to be drafting all Slivers or none. Going up against sliver and non-sliver decks alike with only a small sliver sub-theme is definitely underpowered, in my experience.
First Pick? Ok, I could go either way here. Embrace is a fine pick. Second Pick? Here's where I think you went wrong. You already passed a Sudden Death, putting at least one guy to your left in heavy black. With both Butcher and Syphon-Mage in this pack, there's no way you can now cut it. Even if you take Butcher, they'll likely take the Mage, and now you're fighting for Black with a creature that requires heavy Black. If you take the Sudden Shock here, you're sending a clear signal that Black is open, putting at least one guy in Black and maybe two, plus a decent signal that Red and Green are not open, as Wurm, Web, and Shambler are mid-late picks. This should clear you up to get good stuff in PLC, as one or more guys to your left will be heavily favoring Black, due to Death, Butcher, Mage, and Withering. I would have passed the Butcher, and every subsequent Black card.
Next, in Planar Chaos, you get Pyrohemia. It's still early enough to do WgR or RGw. Not that you could have known at the time, but you could have followed that pick with Meteor, Spider, Membrane, Shaman, Spider, Charm, and Marauders*. FUT obviously didn't see much Red, but that's because you passed so much good Red in PLC.
I also would have hate-drafted before picking 2 Augur il-Vecs. You were passing some decent stuff and getting nothing yourself.
* Don't underestimate Keldon Marauders. 90% of the time, it's a Lava Axe for 1R. Otherwise, it's "Destroy target creature and deal 2 damage to its controller." Even if you don't draw it early, it can still deal the final 2 damage to kill your opponent, or trade with one of their guys on the ground.