The value of a dollar is very different to me if I'm the fry cook at McDonalds than it is if I'm multi-billionaire Bill Gates. Somewhat less variance from my first job to my recent ones, but still there's a big difference. No reason a tix, or a mythic rare, is immune to this phenomenon.
If I had 20 million dollars, I'd buy every card I wanted for constructed, in paper and MTGO both, the instant I wanted it. With no concern for price. When I saw a 5th copy during a draft I wouldn't care, and would take whatever card best fit my deck. If I were the fry cook, I'd slam that Jace in an instant, it might mean I could afford to play in one more draft that month, and I wouldn't be able to pay to play in many.
If I'm the millionaire guy, how many drafts I play just depends on how much free time I have left over from all the other stuff I do.
The value of money vs. time, money vs. my personal enjoyment, etc. all are ratios that change depending on how much money I have access to. Magic isn't a game where "value" is determined solely by prizes and cash - how much fun you have enters into it somewhere too! At least I sure hope it does.
As I said in the comments on the draft, I did consider Fling, Mighty Leap, and Deathmark. I think one could consider Stabbing Pain also, though I like Deathmark better in black.
I can't consider a hatedraft to be a high EV pick though, especially when it's not a bomb. Clearly if there's a hatedraft option AND a card for my deck, I should take the card for my deck - I hope you agree with me there.
In the case you suggest, in a pack with no card for my deck, I think a Drowned Catacombs clearly has higher EV than a hatedraft. Consider. If I take the Catacombs, by MTGOTraders current prices, I've gained 90 cents in value. Woot.
Now let's look at the hatedraft. I can buy an M11 booster on MTGOTraders for $4.35, so let's go with that value. Only one player can have that hatedraftable card I'm choosing to pass, so depriving them of it can only possibly get me one extra match win at most. My other two matches would be unaffected.
Of my opponents, 1/7th of them will have that card I passed, 6/7th of them will not. I'm going to play 3 total matches in a Swiss. So there's a 4/7 chance I won't face the guy who got that card, and a 3/7th chance I will. So the EV of denying someone that card is % chance that card swings the match to them beating me, times 3/7, times $4.35.
By that math, if there is a 50% chance that Deathmark will turn a lost match into a won match for that guy, then the hatedraft has an EV of 93 cents, to the 90 for taking the Catacombs. 50% chance of swinging the match is huge, and I think few hatedrafts are going to be that critically powerful and important.
Most hatedrafted cards will be weaker than Deathmark, too. Though Deathmark has the issue of often being in the sideboard for game 1, so it only matters in game 2 (and in some matchups, game 3, if and only if we split the first two games). Recall that in a typical game of limited, you might draw in the ballpark of half your cards. So in a 3 game match the deathmark might on average show up in 1 game, if the match is over in 2 games maybe it only has a 50/50 chance to show up at all. If I get paired with the guy that has it at all.
I just can't buy the hatedraft having higher EV than the 90 cent rare. Might be an easier pick over a 10 cent rare. But I think the Fling has a much higher chance - generally hatedrafting is a very low EV practice, though it's certainly non-zero value and should be done when there's nothing else to do.
Mind, my personal EV is based more on how much I expect to enjoy the card, since I don't sell cards but once in a blue moon. (Actually so far just once ever.) Had I checked and realized I have the playset already, I probably woulda taken Fling there. Still, I can easily trade it for something I will get a buck's wortha fun out of in my casual constructed decks, if not more.
A ticket is essentially a dollar, in my view, or close enough to one. (Worth a little less than a dollar, but more than 90 cents).
How much an actual, real dollar bill is worth to me is very different if I'm making $24,000 a year than it is if I'm making $150,000 a year (don't I wish)! So I don't see why tix should be any different. If I were a multi-millionaire, I would buy playsets of any and all cards I wanted for constructed decks the moment I wanted them, without worrying about the cost. Any draft where I saw a fifth copy I'd shrug and take any card that was a better fit for my deck.
If I was working the french fries at McDonalds, you'd better believe I'd have grabbed that Jace in a heartbeat. I'd be drafting seldom, as it's a moderately expensive hobby for someone on a low income, and selling that Jace maybe means one more draft that month. If I'm stinking rich, on the other hand, how often I draft is determined by "How much free time for it do I have left over from the other things I do".
Again, it is worth 2 match wins if the ONLY thing you care about is what prizes/boosters/tix you win. Which is, in fact, the case for many people. If you care about the things I care about (and I'm in the minority on several of them), it's not entirely equivalent.
What an epic match! glad we could finally do this. As far as lessons learned, i think it shows that a lot of fun in magic comes from playing with friends and sharing stories, and that control with counterspells always trumps control without counterspells. seriously, the deck construction and matchup theory in this match goes really deep, it just all points to the battle of wits deck winning, so it's not really worth talking about.
who knows, maybe we'll meet in the finals of another tournament someday?
Always good to hear from you guys, better luck in the events Hammy. My philosophy on competition is that one should strive to win but not fear or regret failure as that negativity will often cause more failure than would have occurred in the first place. Some people have that in good balance and need no perspective adjustment but others like myself have a tendency to self-sabotage with frustration. So I think the change to your goals is a good one. The goal should be practice, not result. Results will follow in due course.
You're deluding yourself, and not being objective. If there genuinely is no choice for your deck, the next best pick is a hate pick. Hate drafting has a direct effect on your chances of winning matches.
However, on P1p4, there are decent on-color choices for your deck. You perhaps should have picked the leap. Mantra or fling are both possible 23rd cards too.
At this point of the draft you have 2 white and 1 red cards. It's too soon to be fixed in your colors, and the other colors offer good cards, namely deathmark, call to mind, wall of vines, pain.
I totally see your point. When I played limited 2-3 times a week at NG vs pros I played the way you do, seeking to constantly tighten my skills and understanding of the meta behind each draft. Learning how my opponents thought was as important as drafting well, but being sure to not pass up must haves for my deck in order to get that amazing constructed card was a big deal too.
Nowadays if I draft, it is for fun mostly and if I can profit by getting another draft set out of the money cards I probably will take them. Knowing what is worth taking for tix becomes important and knowing when you have a deck that can 3-0 and which benefits from the +1 bolt vs the +1$$rare is a key skill. So that even if you take the $$rare you have the knowledge that you should have taken the +1 bolt.
I think anything under a tix in value is probably chaff in those terms. On the other hand semi-playables are also chaff.
If your EV is solely based on cash, Jace is the pick and I definitely considered him. But my priority is more focused on "being the very best gamer/magic-player I can possibly be.
If the Lightning Bolt shifts your chances by 5% to 3-0 a pod rather than 2-1, in a swiss draft the value of 5% of one booster is pretty minimal. If you're playing to reach top 8 of a Pro Tour, or you're drafting IN the top 8 of a Pro Tour, 5% of the prize value there is pretty substantial.
Let's be realistic. It's unlikely I'll ever be in that position, I might never even get to play in a Pro Tour. (Though hope springs eternal!) I did almost get to top 8 in my first limited 5K, but I ran into Craig Wescoe in the final round & he knocked me down into top 16, I walked away with a hundred bucks. (Plus the Foil Elspeth in my sealed pool. Sweet.)
If I'd somehow beaten Wescoe, though, I'd have been drafting for a $2000 top prize. (Which he took home, btw.) In that draft, I'd be taking every "strengthens my deck significantly" card over ever "money card" for sure, you'd better believe.
In the end, even if I never get within striking distance at a 5k again, the value of perfecting my gaming skills a little more has more value to me personally than the 7 bucks. Especially since I know that I'm a packrat and would just hold onto my third MTGO Jace rather than selling it. As a professional game designer, getting insight into that "side of the coin" is of a little value to me too.
That said, I fully acknowledge that the vast majority of players should take the Jace there, and lightning bolt be damned. It just depends on what your personal priorities are regarding money, winning, ratings, fun, personal goals for your Magic career/hobby/whatever, etc.
Me, I'm glad I cast that game-winning bolt on his 6/6 after slamming into it with a pumped pegasus. We'll never know if it's the bolt I passed up Jace for, or the other bolt I got "easy". But it's one more minor happy memory for me.
Not that grabbing Jace and selling it wouldn't be. I still remember when I bought and ripped my customary 1 pack of the newest set on MTGO's release monday, and got a foil Maelstrom Pulse. I sold it at near its peak in value, and bought a metric ton of other rares with the proceeds. I figured I could buy a non-foil Pulse with part of it, but I didn't... Why do that when you could have a zillion fun cards instead?
I guess there's a reason my paper constructed rating lags way behind my limited rating. Maybe if I get a high paying job this month I'll buy a tier 1 deck or two & fix that. Maybe.
Greyes3 said it perfectly. Of course Jace Beleren is playable in Standard right now; hence the 7 tix price tag. Rare Drafting in a tournament setting could prove ruinous, but in a Swiss setting, picking Jace is pretty much the equivalent of 2 match wins. Even the pros would say that the correct pick is the Planeswalker.
How much money you make/have/whatever really should have nothing to with this choice. The best way to look at the pick is to assess which card will give you the most return value on it, period. Jace isn't going to win you a lot of games but it's a guaranteed 7 tickets, where as the Lightning Bolt may or may not help you win 3 games, which in turn could translate into a possible 12 tickets. Emphasis on could. Assuming you win the 3 matches with Jace as the pick, you're up to 19 tickets which is putting you ahead more than the Bolt ever could have done for you. In the context of the event you're in, Jace had to be the pick; which was mentioned above.
If this was a bigger event and there was a lot more at stake, then Bolt is clearly the pick since it's obviously the better card for your deck, and winning a single game as opposed to losing, may net you a significantly larger return.
The skill of "winning with bad cards" can't be that bad of a skill to develop either.
Id rather use Top over ball but a more budget version would be Temple Bell which is a political item as people love drawing extra cards. The downside of course is it gives away pure advantage. The rest of your picks I totally concur with. They make a huge difference in $$ and allow a budget deck more oomph.
Great article, I'd often wondered how the preconstructed decks would play.
I like your choices, although I would make a couple of substitutions for new players who might want to keep costs down a bit more.
Enchantress Presence ($2.75) replace with Mind's Eye (.70)
Land Tax (3.00) replace with Journeyer's Kite (.35)
Runed Halo (2.50) replace with Mystifying Maze (.15)
Idyllic Tutor (3.25) replace with Crystal Ball (.20)
Wrath of God (2.00) replace with Martial Coup (.60)
Karmic Justice (3.00) replace with Sunblast Angel (.30)
Doing this will save you a little over $14. Plus, the eye, kite, maze, and ball are almost auto-includes for any commander deck so they will get a lot of use. Wrath is cheap enough now that you could keep it in or replace it with any cheaper destroy all creature effects (I chose Martial Coup because it fits the token creature theme). Karmic Justice would be the hardest to replace, I don't know of any other card that does what it does (which is why I'll have to pick one up for myself). I'd probably replace it with another wrath type spell or targeted removal. I chose the Sunblast Angel because she's cheap and can often take out opponent's creatures while leaving yours safe.
I don't see how the deadness of the format matters? The Jace is actually playably in current Standard, for that matter. Anyway getting good at Magic is getting good at Magic, improving my skills in the current format hopefully keeps carrying over to future formats. Certainly the skill of "resisting temptation to weaken my deck to make a few bucks" is relevant in every draft format ever.
If I don't get the job offer I'm expecting, that 7 bucks might start to look like a couple juicy cheeseburgers to me, and I might regret it. But things are looking fairly good on that front right now, so let's hope! If I get a high salary I might actually play some tier 1 decks in Standard someday, who knows? Or I could blow it all on steak and world travel. Stay tuned.
Not to be a downer, I just don't like Rebecca Guay's work. Not saying what she does is bad, I am just not into her style. I like vibrant colors and detail. I have always been a Ron Spencer fan myself.
If your not sure of his work he has done Yawgmoth's Will, Bone Shredder, and Diabolic Edict to name a few.
I don't find that inconsistent. When I have to pass up something that improves my deck & my chances of winning as much as lightning bolt, don't raredraft. If it's a very minor playable or no playable, do raredraft. If your primary focus is on winning & improving your skills, the card quality matters more than if it's a 20 cent raredraft or a 20 dollar raredraft. I'm trying to keep my focus so I can keep getting better at Magic.
Rhys the Redeemed for doubling tokens.
Doubling season for doubling tokens
Elspeth Tyrel, life gain, token gen, and non token wrath.
Hour of Reckoning, Nontoken wrath.
The value of a dollar is very different to me if I'm the fry cook at McDonalds than it is if I'm multi-billionaire Bill Gates. Somewhat less variance from my first job to my recent ones, but still there's a big difference. No reason a tix, or a mythic rare, is immune to this phenomenon.
If I had 20 million dollars, I'd buy every card I wanted for constructed, in paper and MTGO both, the instant I wanted it. With no concern for price. When I saw a 5th copy during a draft I wouldn't care, and would take whatever card best fit my deck. If I were the fry cook, I'd slam that Jace in an instant, it might mean I could afford to play in one more draft that month, and I wouldn't be able to pay to play in many.
If I'm the millionaire guy, how many drafts I play just depends on how much free time I have left over from all the other stuff I do.
The value of money vs. time, money vs. my personal enjoyment, etc. all are ratios that change depending on how much money I have access to. Magic isn't a game where "value" is determined solely by prizes and cash - how much fun you have enters into it somewhere too! At least I sure hope it does.
As I said in the comments on the draft, I did consider Fling, Mighty Leap, and Deathmark. I think one could consider Stabbing Pain also, though I like Deathmark better in black.
I can't consider a hatedraft to be a high EV pick though, especially when it's not a bomb. Clearly if there's a hatedraft option AND a card for my deck, I should take the card for my deck - I hope you agree with me there.
In the case you suggest, in a pack with no card for my deck, I think a Drowned Catacombs clearly has higher EV than a hatedraft. Consider. If I take the Catacombs, by MTGOTraders current prices, I've gained 90 cents in value. Woot.
Now let's look at the hatedraft. I can buy an M11 booster on MTGOTraders for $4.35, so let's go with that value. Only one player can have that hatedraftable card I'm choosing to pass, so depriving them of it can only possibly get me one extra match win at most. My other two matches would be unaffected.
Of my opponents, 1/7th of them will have that card I passed, 6/7th of them will not. I'm going to play 3 total matches in a Swiss. So there's a 4/7 chance I won't face the guy who got that card, and a 3/7th chance I will. So the EV of denying someone that card is % chance that card swings the match to them beating me, times 3/7, times $4.35.
By that math, if there is a 50% chance that Deathmark will turn a lost match into a won match for that guy, then the hatedraft has an EV of 93 cents, to the 90 for taking the Catacombs. 50% chance of swinging the match is huge, and I think few hatedrafts are going to be that critically powerful and important.
Most hatedrafted cards will be weaker than Deathmark, too. Though Deathmark has the issue of often being in the sideboard for game 1, so it only matters in game 2 (and in some matchups, game 3, if and only if we split the first two games). Recall that in a typical game of limited, you might draw in the ballpark of half your cards. So in a 3 game match the deathmark might on average show up in 1 game, if the match is over in 2 games maybe it only has a 50/50 chance to show up at all. If I get paired with the guy that has it at all.
I just can't buy the hatedraft having higher EV than the 90 cent rare. Might be an easier pick over a 10 cent rare. But I think the Fling has a much higher chance - generally hatedrafting is a very low EV practice, though it's certainly non-zero value and should be done when there's nothing else to do.
Mind, my personal EV is based more on how much I expect to enjoy the card, since I don't sell cards but once in a blue moon. (Actually so far just once ever.) Had I checked and realized I have the playset already, I probably woulda taken Fling there. Still, I can easily trade it for something I will get a buck's wortha fun out of in my casual constructed decks, if not more.
A ticket is essentially a dollar, in my view, or close enough to one. (Worth a little less than a dollar, but more than 90 cents).
How much an actual, real dollar bill is worth to me is very different if I'm making $24,000 a year than it is if I'm making $150,000 a year (don't I wish)! So I don't see why tix should be any different. If I were a multi-millionaire, I would buy playsets of any and all cards I wanted for constructed decks the moment I wanted them, without worrying about the cost. Any draft where I saw a fifth copy I'd shrug and take any card that was a better fit for my deck.
If I was working the french fries at McDonalds, you'd better believe I'd have grabbed that Jace in a heartbeat. I'd be drafting seldom, as it's a moderately expensive hobby for someone on a low income, and selling that Jace maybe means one more draft that month. If I'm stinking rich, on the other hand, how often I draft is determined by "How much free time for it do I have left over from the other things I do".
Again, it is worth 2 match wins if the ONLY thing you care about is what prizes/boosters/tix you win. Which is, in fact, the case for many people. If you care about the things I care about (and I'm in the minority on several of them), it's not entirely equivalent.
What an epic match! glad we could finally do this. As far as lessons learned, i think it shows that a lot of fun in magic comes from playing with friends and sharing stories, and that control with counterspells always trumps control without counterspells. seriously, the deck construction and matchup theory in this match goes really deep, it just all points to the battle of wits deck winning, so it's not really worth talking about.
who knows, maybe we'll meet in the finals of another tournament someday?
-Ty
Miss Havisham on MTGO
Really good advice, btw. Applicable to everything and not just MtG.
Right now there isn't any talk from the Commander rules committee on banning SDT in Commander.
Always good to hear from you guys, better luck in the events Hammy. My philosophy on competition is that one should strive to win but not fear or regret failure as that negativity will often cause more failure than would have occurred in the first place. Some people have that in good balance and need no perspective adjustment but others like myself have a tendency to self-sabotage with frustration. So I think the change to your goals is a good one. The goal should be practice, not result. Results will follow in due course.
X-
+1 RareDraft viewer.
+1 Take Jace. When you took the bolt, I thought this was an 8-4.
Nice write-up. Makes me want to go back to M11, as SoM has become tiresome.
You're deluding yourself, and not being objective. If there genuinely is no choice for your deck, the next best pick is a hate pick. Hate drafting has a direct effect on your chances of winning matches.
However, on P1p4, there are decent on-color choices for your deck. You perhaps should have picked the leap. Mantra or fling are both possible 23rd cards too.
At this point of the draft you have 2 white and 1 red cards. It's too soon to be fixed in your colors, and the other colors offer good cards, namely deathmark, call to mind, wall of vines, pain.
I totally see your point. When I played limited 2-3 times a week at NG vs pros I played the way you do, seeking to constantly tighten my skills and understanding of the meta behind each draft. Learning how my opponents thought was as important as drafting well, but being sure to not pass up must haves for my deck in order to get that amazing constructed card was a big deal too.
Nowadays if I draft, it is for fun mostly and if I can profit by getting another draft set out of the money cards I probably will take them. Knowing what is worth taking for tix becomes important and knowing when you have a deck that can 3-0 and which benefits from the +1 bolt vs the +1$$rare is a key skill. So that even if you take the $$rare you have the knowledge that you should have taken the +1 bolt.
I think anything under a tix in value is probably chaff in those terms. On the other hand semi-playables are also chaff.
If your EV is solely based on cash, Jace is the pick and I definitely considered him. But my priority is more focused on "being the very best gamer/magic-player I can possibly be.
If the Lightning Bolt shifts your chances by 5% to 3-0 a pod rather than 2-1, in a swiss draft the value of 5% of one booster is pretty minimal. If you're playing to reach top 8 of a Pro Tour, or you're drafting IN the top 8 of a Pro Tour, 5% of the prize value there is pretty substantial.
Let's be realistic. It's unlikely I'll ever be in that position, I might never even get to play in a Pro Tour. (Though hope springs eternal!) I did almost get to top 8 in my first limited 5K, but I ran into Craig Wescoe in the final round & he knocked me down into top 16, I walked away with a hundred bucks. (Plus the Foil Elspeth in my sealed pool. Sweet.)
If I'd somehow beaten Wescoe, though, I'd have been drafting for a $2000 top prize. (Which he took home, btw.) In that draft, I'd be taking every "strengthens my deck significantly" card over ever "money card" for sure, you'd better believe.
In the end, even if I never get within striking distance at a 5k again, the value of perfecting my gaming skills a little more has more value to me personally than the 7 bucks. Especially since I know that I'm a packrat and would just hold onto my third MTGO Jace rather than selling it. As a professional game designer, getting insight into that "side of the coin" is of a little value to me too.
That said, I fully acknowledge that the vast majority of players should take the Jace there, and lightning bolt be damned. It just depends on what your personal priorities are regarding money, winning, ratings, fun, personal goals for your Magic career/hobby/whatever, etc.
Me, I'm glad I cast that game-winning bolt on his 6/6 after slamming into it with a pumped pegasus. We'll never know if it's the bolt I passed up Jace for, or the other bolt I got "easy". But it's one more minor happy memory for me.
Not that grabbing Jace and selling it wouldn't be. I still remember when I bought and ripped my customary 1 pack of the newest set on MTGO's release monday, and got a foil Maelstrom Pulse. I sold it at near its peak in value, and bought a metric ton of other rares with the proceeds. I figured I could buy a non-foil Pulse with part of it, but I didn't... Why do that when you could have a zillion fun cards instead?
I guess there's a reason my paper constructed rating lags way behind my limited rating. Maybe if I get a high paying job this month I'll buy a tier 1 deck or two & fix that. Maybe.
Interesting cast. Glad to hear Runeliger still casting occasionally. Loved the end.
Greyes3 said it perfectly. Of course Jace Beleren is playable in Standard right now; hence the 7 tix price tag. Rare Drafting in a tournament setting could prove ruinous, but in a Swiss setting, picking Jace is pretty much the equivalent of 2 match wins. Even the pros would say that the correct pick is the Planeswalker.
Top and ball work even better as a pair, but isn't SDT getting the axe soon?
How much money you make/have/whatever really should have nothing to with this choice. The best way to look at the pick is to assess which card will give you the most return value on it, period. Jace isn't going to win you a lot of games but it's a guaranteed 7 tickets, where as the Lightning Bolt may or may not help you win 3 games, which in turn could translate into a possible 12 tickets. Emphasis on could. Assuming you win the 3 matches with Jace as the pick, you're up to 19 tickets which is putting you ahead more than the Bolt ever could have done for you. In the context of the event you're in, Jace had to be the pick; which was mentioned above.
If this was a bigger event and there was a lot more at stake, then Bolt is clearly the pick since it's obviously the better card for your deck, and winning a single game as opposed to losing, may net you a significantly larger return.
The skill of "winning with bad cards" can't be that bad of a skill to develop either.
No one uses Hookahs anymore...they smell funny.
Id rather use Top over ball but a more budget version would be Temple Bell which is a political item as people love drawing extra cards. The downside of course is it gives away pure advantage. The rest of your picks I totally concur with. They make a huge difference in $$ and allow a budget deck more oomph.
Great article, I'd often wondered how the preconstructed decks would play.
I like your choices, although I would make a couple of substitutions for new players who might want to keep costs down a bit more.
Enchantress Presence ($2.75) replace with Mind's Eye (.70)
Land Tax (3.00) replace with Journeyer's Kite (.35)
Runed Halo (2.50) replace with Mystifying Maze (.15)
Idyllic Tutor (3.25) replace with Crystal Ball (.20)
Wrath of God (2.00) replace with Martial Coup (.60)
Karmic Justice (3.00) replace with Sunblast Angel (.30)
Doing this will save you a little over $14. Plus, the eye, kite, maze, and ball are almost auto-includes for any commander deck so they will get a lot of use. Wrath is cheap enough now that you could keep it in or replace it with any cheaper destroy all creature effects (I chose Martial Coup because it fits the token creature theme). Karmic Justice would be the hardest to replace, I don't know of any other card that does what it does (which is why I'll have to pick one up for myself). I'd probably replace it with another wrath type spell or targeted removal. I chose the Sunblast Angel because she's cheap and can often take out opponent's creatures while leaving yours safe.
I was just thinking it, you came out and said it. :D
and hookers
I don't see how the deadness of the format matters? The Jace is actually playably in current Standard, for that matter. Anyway getting good at Magic is getting good at Magic, improving my skills in the current format hopefully keeps carrying over to future formats. Certainly the skill of "resisting temptation to weaken my deck to make a few bucks" is relevant in every draft format ever.
If I don't get the job offer I'm expecting, that 7 bucks might start to look like a couple juicy cheeseburgers to me, and I might regret it. But things are looking fairly good on that front right now, so let's hope! If I get a high salary I might actually play some tier 1 decks in Standard someday, who knows? Or I could blow it all on steak and world travel. Stay tuned.
Not to be a downer, I just don't like Rebecca Guay's work. Not saying what she does is bad, I am just not into her style. I like vibrant colors and detail. I have always been a Ron Spencer fan myself.
If your not sure of his work he has done Yawgmoth's Will, Bone Shredder, and Diabolic Edict to name a few.
I don't find that inconsistent. When I have to pass up something that improves my deck & my chances of winning as much as lightning bolt, don't raredraft. If it's a very minor playable or no playable, do raredraft. If your primary focus is on winning & improving your skills, the card quality matters more than if it's a 20 cent raredraft or a 20 dollar raredraft. I'm trying to keep my focus so I can keep getting better at Magic.
Some suggestions for the deck.
Rhys the Redeemed for doubling tokens.
Doubling season for doubling tokens
Elspeth Tyrel, life gain, token gen, and non token wrath.
Hour of Reckoning, Nontoken wrath.