I'm looking forward to more, so yeah - it's well-done, just trying to give a little more insight ...
I don't disagree about red, necessarily - although I think, honestly, you may have been better off R/u instead of W/u. That's neither here nor there though.
While "tempo" in MTG terms is somewhat nebulous, I think that you're overvaluing the time aspect - trading 1-for-1 with counterspells is not a tempo play unless they're tapping significantly more mana in the deal, and that's simply not happening in this deck (you'll only have open mana early).
Unsummon and Aether Adept are fine tempo plays (particularly the Adept, which is likely the best blue common) - but particularly for Unsummon, you're only getting the better of the deal later on, when you're costing them time and mana (this offsets the card disadvantage).
The key with regard to 4-pack sealed is that a.) you'll see more of your deck and b.) your life total doesn't change, just the deck size. You have to deal 20, but there are limitations brought on by the deck itself - and the potentially lower number of lands makes tempo plays somewhat stronger (they're more likely to only have one play per turn).
You can also take advantage by playing 2 spells yourself - by lowering the curve. You can get the same result, in two different ways.
thats crazy! i did a nms draft and got those 2 same cards! what a coincidence! traded my sword for isd garruck and giest though still happy. and say whatever you want to anyone about whatever you want in the game btw, it is a game. GOOD NITE AMERICA!
I realize the curve for red was kinda ridiculously high, and to be honest, with nothing worth splashing for, I
still feel that red was just too weak short of Flameblast Dragon and Fireball. I know that the tempo gained couldn't gain me much of an advantage, but the tempo offered by Aether Adept, Unsummon, and the gang was ultimately what won the day for me by allowing me to start strong and finish quickly with my flyers. I'll admit, I'm still green to sealed formats, so I may not have the insight into pools like some others. But that's the point of the article really. To improve on my shortcomings and continue to grow as a limited player while giving se of my own insight into the format. Thanks for the comment. :)
I think the biggest thing you missed with the W/r deck had nothing to do with some perceived "tempo"-based blue deck (particularly since the W/u deck had no way to take advantage of tempo beyond 'fliers').
The real issue was that the curve on that deck was absurdly high - you ran a pile of 5s and 6s in a format where you can only play a 6-drop once you have fully half of the lands in your deck in play. 4-pack sealed rewards lower curves - the W/u deck didn't win because it out-tempoed decks, but rather because the counterspells gave it something to actually do before turn 4.
Both W and R in this pool gave you a great late game - the key was finding complementary color(s) to fill in the early game.
Yeah as I said, if I were drafting, SOM block is where it's at. The value rares are much easier to find and if you average an EV of 2 packs, you can break even fairly easily. T
Personally I like drafting NMS.
Majority of the time I make the 2 packs and have drafted enough value to make up the missing pack and 2 tix.
Granted sometimes I brick out round one but it isn't all that common.
Most recently I've hit a virtual brick out as the value cards were ones I planned to keep.
But drafting almost a dozen events and ending up with a Batterskull and a Sword of Feast and Famine for just a one time starter fee is good enough by my reckoning even if I never made the finals.
Mostly due to my own play errors for having drafted too long without sleeping. :/
Not even the luck power of playing magic in your skivvies can overcome poor play choices that you know better than to make. xD
A few things I'd like to point out. Firstly, I will be the first to tell you that while the average player's EV is highest in 4-pack sealed, there is no way it matches the entertainment value and experience of a draft, in which you have control over the cards you'll have to build a deck with. That said, there are plenty of players who only enjoy drafting as long as they're winning and/or having things go their way in the drafting portion. This is akin to opening 4 bad packs in Sealed or not opening any bombs while all your opponents did. Limited will always have its ups and downs for any player. But Sealed is for those people who just want to play some type of limited with the best chance of breaking close or even.
And yes, Merfolk Mesmerist and his milling brethren are quite powerful in here. However, heavy mill can almost always be beaten with a heavy aggro as I've discovered so far. Of course, pulling Jace should basically just put 5 packs in your collection instantly because his 0 ability is just broken in 30 card environments.
Nice article! For the next time I would also publish the opposing deck list, as the cards they are playing (or not) also do have an influence on the matchup %.
I enjoy playing 4 pack M12, but of all the format there are, this is one where luck is a huge factor. When you get down to 4 packs, there is a huge amount of variance in what your pool can contain. I frequently seem to open pools with no deep colors and a plethora of relatively useless rares like dual lands, and if you open a pile like that there is very little you can do about it. You can't easily build a tempo deck unless you have deep enough colors to stick with a two-color deck, and you are unlikely to win the long game unless you have bombs.
One area where there is less variance is the actual games. Since the decks are very small, they will often play out fairly similarly. The bad thing about this is that if your opponent opened deep colors and bombs, you are going to get consistently hammered.
Because of the relatively lack of synergy present in a smaller pool like this, card advantage is huge in this format, so draw and discard are both very good. Second, because of the small decks, decking cards like the Merfolk Mesmerist are unusually powerful, and visions of beyond is ancestral recall, plain and simple.
I'm sure the variance evens out at some point, but this format is an unusual bird and takes some getting to. Your EV may be slightly higher than drafts, but the experience overall is in many ways inferior, as it is less skill-based and you don't have the many interesting choices that you get from pack to pack in a draft.
Hi again. Last days i have worked to make my Cephalid tribal deck better. And cause its unplayed tribe at tribal wars i like to introduce it here, so maybe you can get it more visible if you want. The Deck contains three diffrent combo, so change to getting something happened is almost great. First combo is familiar for Legacy players; Cephalid Looter + Nomand en-Kor. you basicly self mill your deck, then use Dregscape Zombie´s unearth ability to get third nessesary creature to cast Dread return at Suttured Ghoul. Ghoul enters battlefield something like 20/20 atleast and get Dragon Breath enchanment to gain haste. Then just flashback one Artful Dodge to get it trough. Second combo is Looter what you use to try find killing combopieces, just drop Liliana´s caress or two at the table and start using looters your enemy. He will die sooner than you think. Third combo is defensive one. Try to equip Cephalid Constable and again use Artful Dodge to get it trough. it might bounce FIVE! permanents back just round four... and after that you have no difficulties to make your win to happened. It also gives too much cards to your opponents hand that he can suffer liliana´s caress at her discard pahse. Shapesharer can boost looting, sometimes even targeting illusionist, but most of time copying enemy´s most nastiest creatures. And here is the decklist: (and as always, you can use this deckidea later at your articles.) This deck is´n best choise when your opponent have great amount of creature hate, but that is combos problems usually in tribal world ;)
Why don't you kill his beacon hawk in D1M1G1? Bring back disembowel, make mana with vesper ghoul, kill the hawk, attack for 5? Yes? Deal more damage, have a better board position?
The guy punted SO goddamn hard earlier, and punted SO HARD AGAIN on the next turn when he saved his guy instead of killing you with a guildmage activation.
You would have lost anyway because he top decked like a champ, but the right play is the right play.
Here is a list I recently compiled of most of the "Expensive" (more than .5tx) commons on MTGO. The prices are a couple of weeks old, but the list shows which cards to watch:
Expansion Name 6-Feb
5DN Condescend 1
AP Standard Bearer 1.94
CSP Rite of Flame 0.73
DDD Serrated arrows 4.41
IN Ancient Spring 1.2
IN Armadillo Cloak 0.7
IN Crimson Acolyte 2.89
IN Exclude 2.24
IN Geothermal Crevice 0.74
IN obsidian acolyte 0.65
IN Prohibit 2.23
IN Sulfur Vent 1.67
JUD Prismatic strands 1.05
ME2 Gorilla Shaman 4.61
MED Hydroblast 3.2
MED Pyroblast 3.45
MI Benevolent Unicorn 0.69
MI Choking Sands 1.64
MM Accumulated Knowledge 1.35
MM brainstorm 1.67
MM Gush 1.08
MM Invigorate 2.44
MRD Cloudpost 0.55
NE Daze 3.73
OD Innocent Blood 1.1
ON Earth Rift 1.19
PS Nightscape Familiar 1.97
PS Sunscape Familiar 2
SHM Manamorphose 1.19
TE Diabolic Edict 0.47
TE Lotus Petal 5.36
TE mogg raider 2.15
TOR Cabal Ritual 0.89
TOR Deep Analysis 1.07
UL cloud of faeries 3.11
UL Rancor 2.74
UL Snap 1.52
UL Unearth 1.14
VI Crypt Rats 3.16
VI Fireblast 3.64
VI Impulse 1.3
VI Quirion Ranger 2.85
WL Spinning Darkness 1.69
I think that you're right about the mana base raising red flags for people. This is the first 3 color deck I've played in a long time that had all the duals, in addition to off-color fetch lands. That's the only thing that could have set people off.
Infernal Tribute acted as a slower Skullclamp for me in this deck most of the time, and also helped recover from sweepers. Like I said, pleasantly surprised at its effectiveness.
Been working on the DA review, and my guess is that I'm not going to be changing your mind. I've seen other people talking about how many Commander bombs are in this set, and, ummm.... yeah. Of course, I'm always a little negative when looking at new sets...
AFAIK, Gorilla Shaman is the priciest pauper card.
I'm also fairly certain the price of everything but Primeval Titan fell due to people selling extra mythics to do release events. People scramble hard for tickets at this time. Karn just isn't seeing play in enough numbers or enough decks to justify a big change in price regardless, he was already in the ramp decks, and rare is the deck that wants more than one, and he is designed to be impossible to cheat into play.
The threat of of crucible+strip is only as bad as the person wielding it. Some can be trusted not to abuse it, but many can't. It always has a big target on it as far as I am concerned. Still everyone should be running some ways to deal with problem lands.
The money deck thing is funny. I think that perception is entirely tied to peoples mana bases. I know when I see someone running out tons of pricey duals and fetches and what not, it sends up red flags. Often people with the cut throat super decks have the powerful mana bases to match. So while your deck itself is not that crazy, you have the lands of a killer lol.
Any way seems like a neat deck. It is interesting to see you so highly praise Infernal Tribute. The times I used it a was underwhelmed. I think the mana cost just burned me to often. I may have to give it another try.
I am Looking forward to your DA review. Personally I have found very little in it for my decks. Perhaps you can change my mind a bit though.
In my Xaihou Dun build I use Grim Discovery for getting back stuff like coffers/strip mine.
Haven't had any complaints, I guess when you are spending 6+ mana each time it's less of an issue? *shrug*
You need to show what pack prices are to get an accurate EV for drafts and sealed. You did for M12, but SOM is more expensive than that.
I'm looking forward to more, so yeah - it's well-done, just trying to give a little more insight ...
I don't disagree about red, necessarily - although I think, honestly, you may have been better off R/u instead of W/u. That's neither here nor there though.
While "tempo" in MTG terms is somewhat nebulous, I think that you're overvaluing the time aspect - trading 1-for-1 with counterspells is not a tempo play unless they're tapping significantly more mana in the deal, and that's simply not happening in this deck (you'll only have open mana early).
Unsummon and Aether Adept are fine tempo plays (particularly the Adept, which is likely the best blue common) - but particularly for Unsummon, you're only getting the better of the deal later on, when you're costing them time and mana (this offsets the card disadvantage).
The key with regard to 4-pack sealed is that a.) you'll see more of your deck and b.) your life total doesn't change, just the deck size. You have to deal 20, but there are limitations brought on by the deck itself - and the potentially lower number of lands makes tempo plays somewhat stronger (they're more likely to only have one play per turn).
You can also take advantage by playing 2 spells yourself - by lowering the curve. You can get the same result, in two different ways.
thats crazy! i did a nms draft and got those 2 same cards! what a coincidence! traded my sword for isd garruck and giest though still happy. and say whatever you want to anyone about whatever you want in the game btw, it is a game. GOOD NITE AMERICA!
faithless looting pitching a phoenix seems ok.
Because we really need an answer to Panglacial Wurm in every format where it's legal.
:)
I realize the curve for red was kinda ridiculously high, and to be honest, with nothing worth splashing for, I
still feel that red was just too weak short of Flameblast Dragon and Fireball. I know that the tempo gained couldn't gain me much of an advantage, but the tempo offered by Aether Adept, Unsummon, and the gang was ultimately what won the day for me by allowing me to start strong and finish quickly with my flyers. I'll admit, I'm still green to sealed formats, so I may not have the insight into pools like some others. But that's the point of the article really. To improve on my shortcomings and continue to grow as a limited player while giving se of my own insight into the format. Thanks for the comment. :)
Why are you keeping Journey to Nowhere in deck against an opponent you know has Capsize and possibly Echoing Truth? It's a virtually dead card.
Side in more relevant removal like the other Unmake and pseudo counterspells like Prismatic Strands no?
I think the biggest thing you missed with the W/r deck had nothing to do with some perceived "tempo"-based blue deck (particularly since the W/u deck had no way to take advantage of tempo beyond 'fliers').
The real issue was that the curve on that deck was absurdly high - you ran a pile of 5s and 6s in a format where you can only play a 6-drop once you have fully half of the lands in your deck in play. 4-pack sealed rewards lower curves - the W/u deck didn't win because it out-tempoed decks, but rather because the counterspells gave it something to actually do before turn 4.
Both W and R in this pool gave you a great late game - the key was finding complementary color(s) to fill in the early game.
Yeah as I said, if I were drafting, SOM block is where it's at. The value rares are much easier to find and if you average an EV of 2 packs, you can break even fairly easily. T
Personally I like drafting NMS.
Majority of the time I make the 2 packs and have drafted enough value to make up the missing pack and 2 tix.
Granted sometimes I brick out round one but it isn't all that common.
Most recently I've hit a virtual brick out as the value cards were ones I planned to keep.
But drafting almost a dozen events and ending up with a Batterskull and a Sword of Feast and Famine for just a one time starter fee is good enough by my reckoning even if I never made the finals.
Mostly due to my own play errors for having drafted too long without sleeping. :/
Not even the luck power of playing magic in your skivvies can overcome poor play choices that you know better than to make. xD
Thanks for the comment, Unspeakable.
A few things I'd like to point out. Firstly, I will be the first to tell you that while the average player's EV is highest in 4-pack sealed, there is no way it matches the entertainment value and experience of a draft, in which you have control over the cards you'll have to build a deck with. That said, there are plenty of players who only enjoy drafting as long as they're winning and/or having things go their way in the drafting portion. This is akin to opening 4 bad packs in Sealed or not opening any bombs while all your opponents did. Limited will always have its ups and downs for any player. But Sealed is for those people who just want to play some type of limited with the best chance of breaking close or even.
And yes, Merfolk Mesmerist and his milling brethren are quite powerful in here. However, heavy mill can almost always be beaten with a heavy aggro as I've discovered so far. Of course, pulling Jace should basically just put 5 packs in your collection instantly because his 0 ability is just broken in 30 card environments.
Thanks for reading! I'll be sure to do that next time.
Nice article! For the next time I would also publish the opposing deck list, as the cards they are playing (or not) also do have an influence on the matchup %.
I enjoy playing 4 pack M12, but of all the format there are, this is one where luck is a huge factor. When you get down to 4 packs, there is a huge amount of variance in what your pool can contain. I frequently seem to open pools with no deep colors and a plethora of relatively useless rares like dual lands, and if you open a pile like that there is very little you can do about it. You can't easily build a tempo deck unless you have deep enough colors to stick with a two-color deck, and you are unlikely to win the long game unless you have bombs.
One area where there is less variance is the actual games. Since the decks are very small, they will often play out fairly similarly. The bad thing about this is that if your opponent opened deep colors and bombs, you are going to get consistently hammered.
Because of the relatively lack of synergy present in a smaller pool like this, card advantage is huge in this format, so draw and discard are both very good. Second, because of the small decks, decking cards like the Merfolk Mesmerist are unusually powerful, and visions of beyond is ancestral recall, plain and simple.
I'm sure the variance evens out at some point, but this format is an unusual bird and takes some getting to. Your EV may be slightly higher than drafts, but the experience overall is in many ways inferior, as it is less skill-based and you don't have the many interesting choices that you get from pack to pack in a draft.
Hi again. Last days i have worked to make my Cephalid tribal deck better. And cause its unplayed tribe at tribal wars i like to introduce it here, so maybe you can get it more visible if you want. The Deck contains three diffrent combo, so change to getting something happened is almost great. First combo is familiar for Legacy players; Cephalid Looter + Nomand en-Kor. you basicly self mill your deck, then use Dregscape Zombie´s unearth ability to get third nessesary creature to cast Dread return at Suttured Ghoul. Ghoul enters battlefield something like 20/20 atleast and get Dragon Breath enchanment to gain haste. Then just flashback one Artful Dodge to get it trough. Second combo is Looter what you use to try find killing combopieces, just drop Liliana´s caress or two at the table and start using looters your enemy. He will die sooner than you think. Third combo is defensive one. Try to equip Cephalid Constable and again use Artful Dodge to get it trough. it might bounce FIVE! permanents back just round four... and after that you have no difficulties to make your win to happened. It also gives too much cards to your opponents hand that he can suffer liliana´s caress at her discard pahse. Shapesharer can boost looting, sometimes even targeting illusionist, but most of time copying enemy´s most nastiest creatures. And here is the decklist: (and as always, you can use this deckidea later at your articles.) This deck is´n best choise when your opponent have great amount of creature hate, but that is combos problems usually in tribal world ;)
Creatures:
4 Nomands en-Kor
4 Cephalid Illusionist
4 Shapesharer
1 Dregscape Zombie
4 Cephalid Looter
4 Cephalid Constable
4 Cephalid Broker
Spells:
3 Adventuring Gear
3 Artful Dodge
4 Liliana´s caress
1 Dread return
1 Sutured Ghoul
1 Dragon Breath
Lands:
4 Arcane sanctum
4 March Flats
4 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Waterly Grave
3 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
Why don't you kill his beacon hawk in D1M1G1? Bring back disembowel, make mana with vesper ghoul, kill the hawk, attack for 5? Yes? Deal more damage, have a better board position?
The guy punted SO goddamn hard earlier, and punted SO HARD AGAIN on the next turn when he saved his guy instead of killing you with a guildmage activation.
You would have lost anyway because he top decked like a champ, but the right play is the right play.
good read keep em comin
Thanks! Not sure I'll track all of them, but it will give me a good place to start.
Here is a list I recently compiled of most of the "Expensive" (more than .5tx) commons on MTGO. The prices are a couple of weeks old, but the list shows which cards to watch:
Expansion Name 6-Feb
5DN Condescend 1
AP Standard Bearer 1.94
CSP Rite of Flame 0.73
DDD Serrated arrows 4.41
IN Ancient Spring 1.2
IN Armadillo Cloak 0.7
IN Crimson Acolyte 2.89
IN Exclude 2.24
IN Geothermal Crevice 0.74
IN obsidian acolyte 0.65
IN Prohibit 2.23
IN Sulfur Vent 1.67
JUD Prismatic strands 1.05
ME2 Gorilla Shaman 4.61
MED Hydroblast 3.2
MED Pyroblast 3.45
MI Benevolent Unicorn 0.69
MI Choking Sands 1.64
MM Accumulated Knowledge 1.35
MM brainstorm 1.67
MM Gush 1.08
MM Invigorate 2.44
MRD Cloudpost 0.55
NE Daze 3.73
OD Innocent Blood 1.1
ON Earth Rift 1.19
PS Nightscape Familiar 1.97
PS Sunscape Familiar 2
SHM Manamorphose 1.19
TE Diabolic Edict 0.47
TE Lotus Petal 5.36
TE mogg raider 2.15
TOR Cabal Ritual 0.89
TOR Deep Analysis 1.07
UL cloud of faeries 3.11
UL Rancor 2.74
UL Snap 1.52
UL Unearth 1.14
VI Crypt Rats 3.16
VI Fireblast 3.64
VI Impulse 1.3
VI Quirion Ranger 2.85
WL Spinning Darkness 1.69
Glad it's working out for you, I've always found it useful.
I think that you're right about the mana base raising red flags for people. This is the first 3 color deck I've played in a long time that had all the duals, in addition to off-color fetch lands. That's the only thing that could have set people off.
Infernal Tribute acted as a slower Skullclamp for me in this deck most of the time, and also helped recover from sweepers. Like I said, pleasantly surprised at its effectiveness.
Been working on the DA review, and my guess is that I'm not going to be changing your mind. I've seen other people talking about how many Commander bombs are in this set, and, ummm.... yeah. Of course, I'm always a little negative when looking at new sets...
But, as nonsensical as it is, the actual name of the SCG Standard winner is Lauren Nolan.
jvs
AFAIK, Gorilla Shaman is the priciest pauper card.
I'm also fairly certain the price of everything but Primeval Titan fell due to people selling extra mythics to do release events. People scramble hard for tickets at this time. Karn just isn't seeing play in enough numbers or enough decks to justify a big change in price regardless, he was already in the ramp decks, and rare is the deck that wants more than one, and he is designed to be impossible to cheat into play.
The threat of of crucible+strip is only as bad as the person wielding it. Some can be trusted not to abuse it, but many can't. It always has a big target on it as far as I am concerned. Still everyone should be running some ways to deal with problem lands.
The money deck thing is funny. I think that perception is entirely tied to peoples mana bases. I know when I see someone running out tons of pricey duals and fetches and what not, it sends up red flags. Often people with the cut throat super decks have the powerful mana bases to match. So while your deck itself is not that crazy, you have the lands of a killer lol.
Any way seems like a neat deck. It is interesting to see you so highly praise Infernal Tribute. The times I used it a was underwhelmed. I think the mana cost just burned me to often. I may have to give it another try.
I am Looking forward to your DA review. Personally I have found very little in it for my decks. Perhaps you can change my mind a bit though.
In my Xaihou Dun build I use Grim Discovery for getting back stuff like coffers/strip mine.
Haven't had any complaints, I guess when you are spending 6+ mana each time it's less of an issue? *shrug*