Great point... I missed talking about how I basically drafted an extremely situational SB card over two cards that would make the MD (Frost Breath) or maybe make the maindeck (Ice Cage).
Elves can definitively compete without Glimpse - there is a RG aggro Elves list from Overextended with Bloodbraid that is quite strong, for example.
Decks to test? the combo decks that slipped through are some of those. Hive Mind, Dragonstorm, Pyromancer's Ascension are the ones I though about as you already covered 12-Post here.
The strongest aggro decks are sure to be players, not even a question - Zoo (big Zoo probably, with Reliquary and other larger dudes to win the mirror and not die to Punishing Fire). Possibly mono red, the best version is likely Goblin Guides, unearth dudes and burn. Vial Goblins *may* be good as well (probably not considering it did not make waves in Overextended).
I'm not sure if Faeries or any other blue-based control can compete, they got hit pretty harsh and they were never extremely strong against Aggro which is going to be rampant - now they don't have Misstep to keep turn 1 aggro drops in check, they lost their top two card draw choices and TfK without Chrome Mox is not nearly as good as the other two. In the middle of all the aggro decks I expect maybe Vedalken Shackles is not going to be enough despite being such a house, but Zoo has so many options and Pridemage is pretty much a staple choice of theirs. There will be valid anti-aggro control options, black based they don't even auto-lose to combo as they still have discard. Red-based midrange seems pretty strong as well (Firespout can sweep earlier than WoG) - so count on Jund with Bloodbraid and possibly Blightning.
Congrats again Zach. That Satchel was amazing for you. When you picked it I was skeptical, but once I saw it in action all doubt was removed.
As for your mousing, I do the samething when I am waiting in-between turns.
I actually like it a lot, and I think people are just knee-jerking because whatever deck they've already built loses some stuff (or just doesn't work). There's only really mental misstep, chrome mox and golgari grave-troll which I don't understand on there.
Without dread return or cabal therapy in the format, I really don't understand what a dredge deck is even supposed to achieve. I would guess that the grave troll is just on there to pre-empt something in innistrad that re-breaks dredge.
I suspect punishing fire might get banned fairly quickly though. I like that the glimpse and BB bannings turn elves and faeries into relatively fair decks, but I don't think we need every deck in the format to have such a ridiculous answer to them. I expect fire/grove to be in almost every deck in the format (as an aside, I think it should have been in your 12-post deck!).
Anyway, i'm sure we'll get to discussing this next week!
EDIT: If you're still deciding on decks to test for the article, the ones I'm interested in are dragonstorm and mystical teachings. I'm sure faeries and zoo are definitely big decks in this format, but I'm not hugely interested in seeing them played!
Zoo, one of the top decks was untouched. Mental Misstep banned? The only thing making the ban list slightly less ridiculous than the previous one is that they took out Hypergenesis - but between the two ban lists I'm not even that sure the previous one was the worse. They were EXTREMELY harsh on Control and Combo. I find it hard to imagine how it will be possible that this format is starting off as all-out aggro deck (with Zoo as the king) and extremely dedicated anti-aggro decks (I don't even want to call them control though). 12 post was left untouched though, I guess that could work...
I totally agree.
As walkerdog himself reminded, tempo is a must here, and Frost Breath was clearly a better pick; even Ice cage was better than thief.
As for the looter, I agree with walkerdog; in my drafts tempo was much more game-turning than card advantage, the only time I got to play the looter his role was marginal at best and ended up trading with an x/1.
It is stupid. No girl I know would allow that in public. It is very rare to see in NYC, As a matter of fact I have never seen a woman walked on a leash in public in my life here.
Your habit of constantly twiddling the mouse between two of your opponents lands makes me want to punch my monitor whenever I watch your vids. Crazy draft though with double walkers.
I see you guys constantly winning with draft pools similar to ones I have drafted, and I keep losing.
I just don't get it. I can say that there have been some errors and bad keeps on my part, but how's a man catch a break?
Anyway, good work. I enjoy reading your draft reports, I just have a little "I bet those golden tickets make the chocolate taste terrible" (Charlie-Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) mind set.
I've been playing a lot of UB lately (not Ali's exact list, but close based on the CF UB lists). The UB vs. Ascension matchup is not that bad at all from UB's perspective - especially if you know what you are playing against. The only games where it is a real blowout are when UB is on the draw w/o discard and Ascension is landed on T2 w/o an into the roil to answer from UB. Otherwise it is pretty easy to sit on counter and use discard to disrupt Ascension long enough to play a 6 drop before the Ascension is active.
...of course I also have 3 Memoricide in the board which makes the SB games a lot easier.
Looking forward to the UB vids this week. I've also had some success with UB Tezz varients, but you lose the darkslicks, Jaces and some of the edges in those. The upside being the ability to function on ~23 land but still play 27 mana sources and have a diversity of threats.
Ive been using Audacity for sound recording for years. Top notch opensourceware.
Great point... I missed talking about how I basically drafted an extremely situational SB card over two cards that would make the MD (Frost Breath) or maybe make the maindeck (Ice Cage).
I thought that at first, but there was no costume, just a crappy 2 dollar black fake leather leash.
I grew up in Ohio, spent lots of time in Columbus as I'm a diehard Buckeye fan and I'm pretty sure I don't remember seeing this on a common occurance.
But, we are both entitled to our opinions on the matter, I gave everyone mine, thank you for sharing yours.
The prize for 16th place wasn't great, 8 Scars Boosters, 8 MBS and 8 New Phyrexia Boosters.
7th and 8th got 1 Italian Legends, 1 Italian Revised and 1 Chinese 3 Portals from what I understand.
Elves can definitively compete without Glimpse - there is a RG aggro Elves list from Overextended with Bloodbraid that is quite strong, for example.
Decks to test? the combo decks that slipped through are some of those. Hive Mind, Dragonstorm, Pyromancer's Ascension are the ones I though about as you already covered 12-Post here.
The strongest aggro decks are sure to be players, not even a question - Zoo (big Zoo probably, with Reliquary and other larger dudes to win the mirror and not die to Punishing Fire). Possibly mono red, the best version is likely Goblin Guides, unearth dudes and burn. Vial Goblins *may* be good as well (probably not considering it did not make waves in Overextended).
I'm not sure if Faeries or any other blue-based control can compete, they got hit pretty harsh and they were never extremely strong against Aggro which is going to be rampant - now they don't have Misstep to keep turn 1 aggro drops in check, they lost their top two card draw choices and TfK without Chrome Mox is not nearly as good as the other two. In the middle of all the aggro decks I expect maybe Vedalken Shackles is not going to be enough despite being such a house, but Zoo has so many options and Pridemage is pretty much a staple choice of theirs. There will be valid anti-aggro control options, black based they don't even auto-lose to combo as they still have discard. Red-based midrange seems pretty strong as well (Firespout can sweep earlier than WoG) - so count on Jund with Bloodbraid and possibly Blightning.
Ivo.
Congrats again Zach. That Satchel was amazing for you. When you picked it I was skeptical, but once I saw it in action all doubt was removed.
As for your mousing, I do the samething when I am waiting in-between turns.
I actually like it a lot, and I think people are just knee-jerking because whatever deck they've already built loses some stuff (or just doesn't work). There's only really mental misstep, chrome mox and golgari grave-troll which I don't understand on there.
Without dread return or cabal therapy in the format, I really don't understand what a dredge deck is even supposed to achieve. I would guess that the grave troll is just on there to pre-empt something in innistrad that re-breaks dredge.
I suspect punishing fire might get banned fairly quickly though. I like that the glimpse and BB bannings turn elves and faeries into relatively fair decks, but I don't think we need every deck in the format to have such a ridiculous answer to them. I expect fire/grove to be in almost every deck in the format (as an aside, I think it should have been in your 12-post deck!).
Anyway, i'm sure we'll get to discussing this next week!
EDIT: If you're still deciding on decks to test for the article, the ones I'm interested in are dragonstorm and mystical teachings. I'm sure faeries and zoo are definitely big decks in this format, but I'm not hugely interested in seeing them played!
The new banned list is ridiculous and I will talk about it in great detail next week. Some cards I do understand but some are unbelieveable!
LE
Zoo, one of the top decks was untouched. Mental Misstep banned? The only thing making the ban list slightly less ridiculous than the previous one is that they took out Hypergenesis - but between the two ban lists I'm not even that sure the previous one was the worse. They were EXTREMELY harsh on Control and Combo. I find it hard to imagine how it will be possible that this format is starting off as all-out aggro deck (with Zoo as the king) and extremely dedicated anti-aggro decks (I don't even want to call them control though). 12 post was left untouched though, I guess that could work...
Ivo.
I think the woman being walked around on a leash was at least cosplaying something. What it is I have no idea.
awesome article. i havent been to gen con since 1996. it was a blast. anyway, what was the prize payout for 16th place?
I totally agree.
As walkerdog himself reminded, tempo is a must here, and Frost Breath was clearly a better pick; even Ice cage was better than thief.
As for the looter, I agree with walkerdog; in my drafts tempo was much more game-turning than card advantage, the only time I got to play the looter his role was marginal at best and ended up trading with an x/1.
It is stupid. No girl I know would allow that in public. It is very rare to see in NYC, As a matter of fact I have never seen a woman walked on a leash in public in my life here.
how do u draft the good cards like that?
"and finally to guy herding around his woman on a dog leash. Seriously dude, she isn't an object, she is a human being and should be treated as such."
It's a life style choice. Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean its wrong.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collar_(BDSM)
Long story short here in Columbus Ohio it's actually a pretty common scene in the right social circles.
Your habit of constantly twiddling the mouse between two of your opponents lands makes me want to punch my monitor whenever I watch your vids. Crazy draft though with double walkers.
Pretty sure they were compliments of the previous guests lol!
Cosplay or LARPing?
It's been forever since I went to GenCon... soooo jealous.
Wait.... there was a woman on a leash? Tell me more. And were all those condoms compliments of the hotel?
Thank you, yes Ooze is pretty stinkin' awesome!
Nice read and congrats on top 16. Scavaging Ooze is a house.
I see you guys constantly winning with draft pools similar to ones I have drafted, and I keep losing.
I just don't get it. I can say that there have been some errors and bad keeps on my part, but how's a man catch a break?
Anyway, good work. I enjoy reading your draft reports, I just have a little "I bet those golden tickets make the chocolate taste terrible" (Charlie-Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) mind set.
I've been playing a lot of UB lately (not Ali's exact list, but close based on the CF UB lists). The UB vs. Ascension matchup is not that bad at all from UB's perspective - especially if you know what you are playing against. The only games where it is a real blowout are when UB is on the draw w/o discard and Ascension is landed on T2 w/o an into the roil to answer from UB. Otherwise it is pretty easy to sit on counter and use discard to disrupt Ascension long enough to play a 6 drop before the Ascension is active.
...of course I also have 3 Memoricide in the board which makes the SB games a lot easier.
Looking forward to the UB vids this week. I've also had some success with UB Tezz varients, but you lose the darkslicks, Jaces and some of the edges in those. The upside being the ability to function on ~23 land but still play 27 mana sources and have a diversity of threats.
Sunday Victor :)