There isn't an obvious best blue common. Looter can let you splash and run more lands, and is probably the best card in a control deck, but they each have their place. I'm also personally not a big fan of the Griffin Rider Gamble but I agree with walkerdog about divination being pretty mediocre.
That being said, Master Thief over Frost Breath - that pick is just bad. Thief isn't even something I would run main, and frost breath is insane, don't be fooled. Decks cannot just race you when you are running it.
Looter is not easily the best common. It is arguably not the 2nd or third-best even. This set is much more aggressive than past core sets. Look to Zendikar for guidance. How often was the looting guy from that set a top pick? Very rarely; in fact, it almost was a sideboard card at times. Looter gains value in slower sets. In a set like this, people will laugh and swing past (or even offer a trade of something with one toughness) while you try to Loot and catch up. I would take either Drake and AEther adept over Looter.
Divination is similar except that I am allowed to draft more Griffin, so I could end up with as many as two! Sarcasm aside, card advantage and dig have a place in the format, but so far tempo is king.
Good article. I will try to take part on the event on saturday afternoon and never played auction...you have resolved some questions that i had in my head ;)
Passing on Merfolk Looter is a big no-no. Passing on Merfolk Looter four times is unforgivable. It's easily the best blue common in the set because if it isn't killed within a few turns, you will flat-out win every topdeck race. I can understand taking the one Pacifism over it, but the generic fliers you opted for are just flat-out worse on a comparative basis.
Bazzar Dredge is very fun, it's all that other boring magic formats that aren't. Like, red zone is for losers unless you're playing Show and Tell, Tinker, Oath or Bridge from Below. Caw Blade.. lol....
Scar - Thanks. I think Golem is obviously situationally amazing, but sometimes you want to gamble a little.
Paul - I think you have to try to plan your deck as you draft it. Check your curve constantly, look for synergies, and review your draft after ech pack. Other than that, maybe I've just been lucky.
chiz - i don't disagree about Surge entirely, but I have a hard time trying to play a 6cmc bomb that does nothing by itself. Obviously it's heck of a card, and I'll try it next time. I just love getting into UW early on.
I've drafted quite a few of these M12 drafts in paper with much success. In pack 1 pick 2 you passed the warstorm surge for the lawkeeper which worked out fine for you, but from experience the surge is a bomb. I was completely obliterated by it in rd 3 of a draft recently. there are so few ways to remove enchantments in this set and if left alone the surge = GG. Thanks for the article and congratulations on the win.
All I can say about the high speed arbitrage bot is: a:) Im jealous. b) I am sure hammy would have loved to get two cents in on this topic, as he often talked about bot programming and ideas about the MTGO api.
That thread is full of a lot of asides but still interesting to see how people reacted to the idea.
as for the Legends set I would not find it amiss if Lyn Sivvi were reprinted ...in fact Id be thrilled since I have been waiting for her for years. Rebels tribal is just not the same without her efficient fetch and recursion. And (r)Evolutionary Theory is a much better deck with her than without her.
Not a huge drafter, but I do a little core set each year. I've played the Thran Golem. Its a bomb if you get pants on him, but that can be an if. I'm a timmy for aura's so I've used him a bit.
If you compare Meloku to Uyo (for example) you can notice the gender difference of the Moonfolk. Male moonfolk look fairly feminine by human standards, but I think it is fair to say Uyo looks more feminine than Meloku. You can also compare Soratami Cloud Skater with Soratami Mirror-guard and you can still figure out their genders in those cases (other Moonfolk may be hard to distinguish due to lack of detail). I think Erayo is male but I'm fairly unsure on that one.
A remark: Modern's "announcement" made at the convention only reasonably allow us to infer that WotC has kept the name for the official new eternal format. I think it is extremely safe to say the Community Cup format is not going to be the official one. I personally hope they go with a different starting point, but even with Mirrodin as the cut-off the ban list simply has to be changed.
The Overextended format as Gavin has proposed is actually a good representation of what Modern will be - EVEN if WotC stubbornly goes forward with Mirrodin as the cut-off (I obviously believe Invasion or Masques is a better cut-off). The main difference between the two proposals is not the extra blocks that Gavin allowed, but the better thought out ban list that is used.
You may even disagree with me about which is the better cut-off, but I honestly don't think you can reasonably support the Community Cup's ban list proposal as a superior starting point. Banning the artifact lands and Jitte are glaring flaws. Getting Troll banned instead of the more problematic Bridge from Below / Narcomoeba is probably the wrong approach to the Dredge issue, but allowing Hypergenesis just takes the cake. Overall the Community Cup format turns out to be more powerful and closer to Legacy than Gavin's Overextended proposal!
You can see from the decklists doing well at the Overextended PREs that many top tier decks are 100% Mirrodin forward or can be "ported" from Invasion-forward to Mirrodin-forward with minor losses. So regardless of the cut-off being Invasion or Mirrodin, we know reasonably what to expect:
12-post decks are strong (maybe Tooth and Nail as Erman proposes here, maybe just Expedition map mono-blue as is more common to see in the PREs).
Cascade into Suspend cards decks are strong. Hypergenesis needs to be banned, but Living Death or Restore Balance are actually rather strong choices if built properly.
Glimpse Elves is extremely strong. Probably Glimpse (or something) needs to be banned. I think Gavin is going to ban Glimpse in the next bannings announcement.
Zoo decks are very strong and there are many variants, same for red burn decks are strong and quite fast.
Some blue-based control decks and midrange decks with black are strong (or mash them together).
Affinity can do well (as can Dredge) but they can be addressed with a reasonable amount of hate and are not at all dominant. The artifact lands CAN be unbanned and as they have other uses they SHOULD (Trinket Mage for example).
The biggest staples of the format are probably Tarmogoyf and Dark Confidant. Stoneforge and Mind Sculptor are also very ubiquitous but I would say not as much as Goyf and Bob. Jitte is used but is not ubiquitous so it can definitively be unbanned.
Finally, adding the extra blocks (with a reasonable ban list keeping problem cards such as Mind's Desire out) does not increase the power level of the format significantly (I would say the benchmark of power is currently set by Glimpse Elves, Zoo, and 12-Post and Stoneforge decks). But it does add variety - stuff like Chain of Plasma Swans can do well once in a while and is a good thing for the eternal format. Other cards such as Standstill are good options to have. More importantly are perhaps the Onslaught fetch lands, which let the new eternal format start with allied pairings have at fixing as good as the best in the format (Mirrodin-forward only has Zendikar fetches, so the best mana fixing would favor enemy pairings!).
If you want to look at the actual deck lists, there is a wealth of information with 11 weeks of PREs in Gavin's Overextended website (google for MTGO Overextended - that is about 20 PREs there, as he started doing 2 PREs each Tuesday very early. Blippy has also hosted 6 PREs by now.
Enjoyed this. I would have liked to see some test games against one or two of the fast combo decks in the format (e.g. dragonstorm, scapeshift, hyepergenesis) I feel like d-storm and scapeshift in particular might be really bad matchups, as they're similarly fast as this deck (maybe a bit quicker) and run some level of countermagic each?
Obviously i appreciate that you can only test against what people are playing, but those seem like they might be among your tougher matchups?
I think Kiki-Jiki is a she. The card doesn't say something about it but the name sounds female to me. If Kiki would have been male, then her (his?) name should have been Koku-Jiku or something like that. That sounds more male to me.
But then I look at Meloku, the name, the art which all indicate that this individual is a female. And then I read the flavor text which says "he" showing Meloku is actually a male.
So yeah, Kamigawa is a strange place. I can't identify a humans gender by looking at the art so what do I know about a strange and ugly Goblin? So don't quote me on Kiki's gender please! :))
Great work bro as normal and I always look forward to your post but to be honest I hated drafting m12 it sucks,
But it has its moments not to mention I drafted 3 times and got not one mythic rare and that made me sick. Anyway bro great games keep up the awesome work m8.
@BOBBAKAKE
Agree - although I did just play another draft where I went B/R aggro and it was even more absurd (3 stormblood berserks.... WTH)
@vaarsuvius
Absolutely, aggro in this format has seemed to trump ALL other strategies. I agree on the long silences and I hope to work on that in the future. I am starting to very much enjoy talking to 'myself' during these recording... I believe my wife is starting to think I am crazy!
I plan to have another article come out this week, focusing on a few drafts I did in U/B - including an INSANE $ draft.....
Inner-Flame Acolyte > Urabrask the Hidden, unless there is a tapper, or a mangara, but you wont need the T&N to give haste to your fatties. Anyway i wouldnt maindeck summoning trap playing less than 10 guys.
Thanks for the article.
Please play with or vs UW stone-jace(format crusher) next time vs decks not so improvised from older ones then i may think is a competitive format.
It shows this was your first draft (and everybody elses) as people didn't value aggro cards high enough. For example the 4/4 giant for 5 is a lot worse than various 1 and 2 drops because you either draft bloodthirst or need cards to defend against their aggressive start.
Comment wise, you should try to explain a bit more what you are thinking, a little more than: "I'll pick card A because I think it's pretty good." So why do you think that?
Also sometimes the silences were a bit long. And try not to be so upset when you have to mulligan or he topdecks..
I also had a few laughs during the draft.. Thanks for making these videos.
Thanks! Yeah, I'm surprised more people haven't been playing Ascension; it's quite good for a deck so underrepresented. UB is actually one of the easier matchups, game 1 is so practically unwinnable for them that Ali and I just joked before the match that he should just scoop game 1 to save time. It gets harder games 2/3, but not so much to be unmanageable.
I have been through tempered steel, U/B control, G/W failed control, mono black, caw blade and a couple others. I just got back into playing magic within the last 2 weeks and this is the first deck I have FULLY enjoyed playing. Thank you.
There isn't an obvious best blue common. Looter can let you splash and run more lands, and is probably the best card in a control deck, but they each have their place. I'm also personally not a big fan of the Griffin Rider Gamble but I agree with walkerdog about divination being pretty mediocre.
That being said, Master Thief over Frost Breath - that pick is just bad. Thief isn't even something I would run main, and frost breath is insane, don't be fooled. Decks cannot just race you when you are running it.
Looter is not easily the best common. It is arguably not the 2nd or third-best even. This set is much more aggressive than past core sets. Look to Zendikar for guidance. How often was the looting guy from that set a top pick? Very rarely; in fact, it almost was a sideboard card at times. Looter gains value in slower sets. In a set like this, people will laugh and swing past (or even offer a trade of something with one toughness) while you try to Loot and catch up. I would take either Drake and AEther adept over Looter.
Divination is similar except that I am allowed to draft more Griffin, so I could end up with as many as two! Sarcasm aside, card advantage and dig have a place in the format, but so far tempo is king.
Not to mention passing a 7th pick Divination for a Griffin Rider when he had like 1 Griffin.
Good article. I will try to take part on the event on saturday afternoon and never played auction...you have resolved some questions that i had in my head ;)
Passing on Merfolk Looter is a big no-no. Passing on Merfolk Looter four times is unforgivable. It's easily the best blue common in the set because if it isn't killed within a few turns, you will flat-out win every topdeck race. I can understand taking the one Pacifism over it, but the generic fliers you opted for are just flat-out worse on a comparative basis.
Bazzar Dredge is very fun, it's all that other boring magic formats that aren't. Like, red zone is for losers unless you're playing Show and Tell, Tinker, Oath or Bridge from Below. Caw Blade.. lol....
Scar - Thanks. I think Golem is obviously situationally amazing, but sometimes you want to gamble a little.
Paul - I think you have to try to plan your deck as you draft it. Check your curve constantly, look for synergies, and review your draft after ech pack. Other than that, maybe I've just been lucky.
chiz - i don't disagree about Surge entirely, but I have a hard time trying to play a 6cmc bomb that does nothing by itself. Obviously it's heck of a card, and I'll try it next time. I just love getting into UW early on.
Awesome dude, but needs moar Legacy!!!!!!!!!!
I've drafted quite a few of these M12 drafts in paper with much success. In pack 1 pick 2 you passed the warstorm surge for the lawkeeper which worked out fine for you, but from experience the surge is a bomb. I was completely obliterated by it in rd 3 of a draft recently. there are so few ways to remove enchantments in this set and if left alone the surge = GG. Thanks for the article and congratulations on the win.
All I can say about the high speed arbitrage bot is: a:) Im jealous. b) I am sure hammy would have loved to get two cents in on this topic, as he often talked about bot programming and ideas about the MTGO api.
That thread is full of a lot of asides but still interesting to see how people reacted to the idea.
as for the Legends set I would not find it amiss if Lyn Sivvi were reprinted ...in fact Id be thrilled since I have been waiting for her for years. Rebels tribal is just not the same without her efficient fetch and recursion. And (r)Evolutionary Theory is a much better deck with her than without her.
Not a huge drafter, but I do a little core set each year. I've played the Thran Golem. Its a bomb if you get pants on him, but that can be an if. I'm a timmy for aura's so I've used him a bit.
If you compare Meloku to Uyo (for example) you can notice the gender difference of the Moonfolk. Male moonfolk look fairly feminine by human standards, but I think it is fair to say Uyo looks more feminine than Meloku. You can also compare Soratami Cloud Skater with Soratami Mirror-guard and you can still figure out their genders in those cases (other Moonfolk may be hard to distinguish due to lack of detail). I think Erayo is male but I'm fairly unsure on that one.
A remark: Modern's "announcement" made at the convention only reasonably allow us to infer that WotC has kept the name for the official new eternal format. I think it is extremely safe to say the Community Cup format is not going to be the official one. I personally hope they go with a different starting point, but even with Mirrodin as the cut-off the ban list simply has to be changed.
The Overextended format as Gavin has proposed is actually a good representation of what Modern will be - EVEN if WotC stubbornly goes forward with Mirrodin as the cut-off (I obviously believe Invasion or Masques is a better cut-off). The main difference between the two proposals is not the extra blocks that Gavin allowed, but the better thought out ban list that is used.
You may even disagree with me about which is the better cut-off, but I honestly don't think you can reasonably support the Community Cup's ban list proposal as a superior starting point. Banning the artifact lands and Jitte are glaring flaws. Getting Troll banned instead of the more problematic Bridge from Below / Narcomoeba is probably the wrong approach to the Dredge issue, but allowing Hypergenesis just takes the cake. Overall the Community Cup format turns out to be more powerful and closer to Legacy than Gavin's Overextended proposal!
You can see from the decklists doing well at the Overextended PREs that many top tier decks are 100% Mirrodin forward or can be "ported" from Invasion-forward to Mirrodin-forward with minor losses. So regardless of the cut-off being Invasion or Mirrodin, we know reasonably what to expect:
12-post decks are strong (maybe Tooth and Nail as Erman proposes here, maybe just Expedition map mono-blue as is more common to see in the PREs).
Cascade into Suspend cards decks are strong. Hypergenesis needs to be banned, but Living Death or Restore Balance are actually rather strong choices if built properly.
Glimpse Elves is extremely strong. Probably Glimpse (or something) needs to be banned. I think Gavin is going to ban Glimpse in the next bannings announcement.
Zoo decks are very strong and there are many variants, same for red burn decks are strong and quite fast.
Some blue-based control decks and midrange decks with black are strong (or mash them together).
Affinity can do well (as can Dredge) but they can be addressed with a reasonable amount of hate and are not at all dominant. The artifact lands CAN be unbanned and as they have other uses they SHOULD (Trinket Mage for example).
The biggest staples of the format are probably Tarmogoyf and Dark Confidant. Stoneforge and Mind Sculptor are also very ubiquitous but I would say not as much as Goyf and Bob. Jitte is used but is not ubiquitous so it can definitively be unbanned.
Finally, adding the extra blocks (with a reasonable ban list keeping problem cards such as Mind's Desire out) does not increase the power level of the format significantly (I would say the benchmark of power is currently set by Glimpse Elves, Zoo, and 12-Post and Stoneforge decks). But it does add variety - stuff like Chain of Plasma Swans can do well once in a while and is a good thing for the eternal format. Other cards such as Standstill are good options to have. More importantly are perhaps the Onslaught fetch lands, which let the new eternal format start with allied pairings have at fixing as good as the best in the format (Mirrodin-forward only has Zendikar fetches, so the best mana fixing would favor enemy pairings!).
If you want to look at the actual deck lists, there is a wealth of information with 11 weeks of PREs in Gavin's Overextended website (google for MTGO Overextended - that is about 20 PREs there, as he started doing 2 PREs each Tuesday very early. Blippy has also hosted 6 PREs by now.
Ivo.
Good to see another Dungrove fan, and I'm glad you're enjoying the deck, darksky. Let me know if you keep running it and have some success!
Enjoyed this. I would have liked to see some test games against one or two of the fast combo decks in the format (e.g. dragonstorm, scapeshift, hyepergenesis) I feel like d-storm and scapeshift in particular might be really bad matchups, as they're similarly fast as this deck (maybe a bit quicker) and run some level of countermagic each?
Obviously i appreciate that you can only test against what people are playing, but those seem like they might be among your tougher matchups?
Anyway, I'll repeat, good stuff!
Enjoyed the m12 draft videos, looking forward to more.
I think Kiki-Jiki is a she. The card doesn't say something about it but the name sounds female to me. If Kiki would have been male, then her (his?) name should have been Koku-Jiku or something like that. That sounds more male to me.
But then I look at Meloku, the name, the art which all indicate that this individual is a female. And then I read the flavor text which says "he" showing Meloku is actually a male.
So yeah, Kamigawa is a strange place. I can't identify a humans gender by looking at the art so what do I know about a strange and ugly Goblin? So don't quote me on Kiki's gender please! :))
LE
Great work bro as normal and I always look forward to your post but to be honest I hated drafting m12 it sucks,
But it has its moments not to mention I drafted 3 times and got not one mythic rare and that made me sick. Anyway bro great games keep up the awesome work m8.
Clan eternal rules
@BOBBAKAKE
Agree - although I did just play another draft where I went B/R aggro and it was even more absurd (3 stormblood berserks.... WTH)
@vaarsuvius
Absolutely, aggro in this format has seemed to trump ALL other strategies. I agree on the long silences and I hope to work on that in the future. I am starting to very much enjoy talking to 'myself' during these recording... I believe my wife is starting to think I am crazy!
I plan to have another article come out this week, focusing on a few drafts I did in U/B - including an INSANE $ draft.....
Thanks again for the comments!
Zach/The_Hoff
Is Kiki a she? Vorthos wants to know...
Inner-Flame Acolyte > Urabrask the Hidden, unless there is a tapper, or a mangara, but you wont need the T&N to give haste to your fatties. Anyway i wouldnt maindeck summoning trap playing less than 10 guys.
Thanks for the article.
Please play with or vs UW stone-jace(format crusher) next time vs decks not so improvised from older ones then i may think is a competitive format.
Hi
It shows this was your first draft (and everybody elses) as people didn't value aggro cards high enough. For example the 4/4 giant for 5 is a lot worse than various 1 and 2 drops because you either draft bloodthirst or need cards to defend against their aggressive start.
Comment wise, you should try to explain a bit more what you are thinking, a little more than: "I'll pick card A because I think it's pretty good." So why do you think that?
Also sometimes the silences were a bit long. And try not to be so upset when you have to mulligan or he topdecks..
I also had a few laughs during the draft.. Thanks for making these videos.
That's a good point, plus Urabask doesn't die to a single lightning bolt or helix.
Thanks! Yeah, I'm surprised more people haven't been playing Ascension; it's quite good for a deck so underrepresented. UB is actually one of the easier matchups, game 1 is so practically unwinnable for them that Ali and I just joked before the match that he should just scoop game 1 to save time. It gets harder games 2/3, but not so much to be unmanageable.
I have been through tempered steel, U/B control, G/W failed control, mono black, caw blade and a couple others. I just got back into playing magic within the last 2 weeks and this is the first deck I have FULLY enjoyed playing. Thank you.