What about calling the next reprint set not MED? Hello FoW :-)
I would never keep an expansive card like Fow, Jace 2.0 etc. for a long time. Every new WoC announcment can cut there prize into pieces (What I do like to have more people play formats that need those cards).
Great article, didn't know that Legends were designed before Alpha, strange...
Force of will was not "banned from reprints" to protect its price. It was stated to never be reprinted in a med set to make it expensive. Worth Wolpert was and is the guy in charge of Modo, and he likes the idea of expensive cards in eternal formats. There is a quote somewhere but im too lazy to find it.
Sure its great that my Forces are worth 70 and have a legitmate chance to never go down, but so what. I payed 17 for mine, and ive won hundreds of boosterpacks playing with them. Please reprint it. Get more into the hands of the players so that legacy/classic does better. Its still Force of will and med1 versions would still retain some value. (Eternal players generally like the pimpest version of a card)
Plusssss there is nothing stopping them from making it a mocs promo or a teir 8 9 10 player rewards card.
Also i would love white bordered duals in med4. I kept my 40 duals as i enjoy playing them and it would be nice if they were more easily distingished as "original" copys.
5CC is an interesting deck type. It plays so many "enters the battlefield tapped" lands and therefore at least on paper, the deck looks rather slow. But my experience with the deck tells me otherwise.
I mean, of course it is a slow deck without doubt but not slow as in "too late". I went 4-0 with that deck and two of my matches were against mono Red. I mean MONO RED!! I won one game 2-1 and the other 2-0. I'm not saying those games were easy but I'm saying that the deck can handle the speed of such Aggro decks pretty well.
Midrange and Control are rather easy match-ups as they allow you to build your manabase in calm. I played against a Violent Ultimatum deck in that tournament and if I remember correctly my opponent hit me twice with his ultimatum and I still managed to recover and won the match.
All I can suggest you is to build it and see the power of it for yourself. It's such an amazing deck.
I'll start off by saying that I know this draft came before last week's, but there are a lot of picks here that I would disagree with, and that are just flat-out wrong. I think you've addressed this already, but it seems that you have a tendency to get tunnel vision with your first 2 or 3 picks, and stick with that regardless of better opportunities that come your way (a la the Volition Reins).
I'm excited to see your next draft, especially after all the feedback that was posted last week.
4 Koth of the Hammer
4 Grasp of Darkness
4 Arc Trail
2 Mimic Vat
2 Memoricide
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
12 Mountain
10 Swamp
sideboard is ever changing but includes ratchet bomb, contagion clasp, galvanic blast, shatter, and wurmcoil engine. I like it becuase over half the cards can be a 2 for 1. Problem is that you need a good draw and need to pressure the U/W control decks early otherwise they will get the upper hand. Since the metagame is so heavily U/W right now that is a problem.
UW probably is the best deck right now, probably. That's kind of why I'm veering away from it though, I hate nothing more than playing that particular mirror match >.<
Cool article Fragoel. I'm not sure I agree with Grasps and Skinrenders in the side and Skithiryx and Corpse Cur as four-ofs, but someone striking the topic of Infect in block was well overdue. The only concern I have with the deck is that it's so, so cold to Arc Trail. That's where green helps give the deck longevity, which is well-needed against a lot of the red decks in the format (not that they're very dominant, I guess).
I had a bad luck streak myself awhile back in SOM, though that may have been in part due to playing while I had a cold, which made me a bit fuzzy headed. Nonetheless, I think infect decks make this format a bit prone to bad luck, since it is a bit risky to try to draft infect, but if you get a good infect deck it is probably the strongest deck in the environment, as witnessed by the winners of a number of pro events (who had infect decks). A high risk, but potentially high payoff strategy increases the luck factor in drafts. Also, if you get any sort of a slow start against poison, you are dead, which also tends to increase the luck factor a bit as well. In particular, the infect/untamed might combo can often kill immediately - it's a bit like the old channel/fireball effect.
That said, I enjoyed your draft, though I would have taken those volition reigns myself. The cards were also there for you to build a poison deck of your own, since most of your picks had a poison deck card present in the pack.
The article deals with hypergeometric distribution, a neat tool that allows you to design your manabase based of your manacurve (how many land drops I have to get in order to play my deck) and timing (when do i need to cast certain spell).
This will help you to discriminate between mana fixing solutions. For example I've got a 5 color domain deck, and I tested a lot of land ramping spells, and it came down to sakura tribe elder and, either; harrow or cultivate.
Due to the fact that I had a 88% probability of having a 2cc spell on my hand during turn 2 (considering original 7 cards + a card drawn), and only a 23% probability of having a 5cc spell on turn 3, I went with harrow. If I had had more 5cc spells on my deck, and less 2cc spells, I would probably had gone with Cultivate.
You could use similar math, to pick between Terramorphic Expanse v/s one of the Panoramas.
By the way, I'm an Arts major, so I could say that I'm mathematically challenged, but, the technique described in the article can be done using MS Excel or OpenOffice spreadsheets, so do not be afraid of the maths!
I would have to check the date on the draft file, but I think it is about three weeks old. You caught me at a time when my opinion of this card was at its zenith. I think I'm closer to where you are now.
I'm not as high as you are on the Rust Tick, however. That's probably results oriented thinking, though. What does everybody else think of Rust Tick? I've had them really sing, then I've gone up against decks that have just laughed at them (and I didn't have better cards to sideboard in.) The double Rust Tick deck I had was in blue, and I was very underwhelmed by its lack of finishing power.
Yes, I was getting a strong "Blue is open" signal, then red. But, once I passed up the first Reins, it was hard to go back. I made a committment to red by the third pick.
I think the Bloodshot Trainee deck is legit, and not a theme deck. I've faced it before... multiple times. The equipment I was getting was too expensive to pull it off, and I didn't realize it at the time. Darksteel Axe is pretty key. I was in to it pretty early, so I think it was worth the risk, and almost worked.
BYOS Tribal sounds a lot fun. ONS/LRW/M11 Elves and UZ/ZEN/M11 Goblins are obvious choices but I'm sure there will be better decks than those. I'm looking forward to that event! My Walls deck did very well in the last event so I may be tweaking it for this event as well.
Wow. That comment ended up longer than I realized! As I said though, I really enjoyed the article (and I also tend to enjoy discussing draft picks, because I'm weird like that).
This was a pretty cool article. Draft articles always seem far more interesting when the drafter picks up some kind of unusual off-the-wall strategy, and this is the first time I've seen anybody try to build bloodshot trainee.dec!
If you were trying to win though (as opposed to drafting a cool deck!), I have a few questions;
You say that you've been under-rating trigon of rage and that it's an easy first pick, but I just don't see it(!). I think it's probably a good third pick from that pack, but I can't see picking it over rust tick or sylvok replica. Rust tick, in particular, gives you no colour commitment, and is as good in aggro as it is in control. It's even good in poison! I'd definitely be first picking it. I think picking the trigon here is slightly dodgy, and seemed to lead your whole draft off on a crazy theme deck plan. This definitely made for a more interesting article than my draft would have, but I think I prefer my pick!
I really feel like the guy to your right was trying to signal you into blue in the first pack. Like, about as strongly as you could possibly signal! You interpret the cerebral eruption as a signal into red which it might be, but it might equally be that they just don't like the card. It's one of the most disagreed cards in the set due to it's very high variance (I hate it personally, but I know people who will first pick it). I know it's easy to use hindsight, but after pack 1 you'd've had;
2 rust tick
2 volition reins
1 sky-eel school
2 off-colour myr
1 darkslick drake
and some other stuff
That seems like it's a really strong base to build your deck around, and you could expect to see lots of blue in pack 2 (as well as not having comitted to a second colour).
In the games themselves, I can only assume that the loxodon attack was supposed to bluff seize the initiative which I guess would have made your block bad if he had it, but it doesn't seem like a particularly worthwhile bluff, so maybe he was just playing badly!
The first thing that comes to mind for your sideboard that you don't have in main deck is sweepers. Also Steel Hellkite is a huge beating against slower decks.
Have no fear I have a cunning plan and I intend to bring you other articles in between the Tribal Articles (although these Tribal articles may contain more than tribal content going forwards). Moving them to monthly gives me a lot more prep time for this and the other articles I will be bringing you in the future.
It's all very exciting and when you see what I have planned for the future I hope it's something you will enjoy reading as well.
i said more easily distingished. a glaring white border is much easyer to see then a small gold blur.
They are. It's called an expansion symbol. Magic cards have had them since what...6th edition?
What about calling the next reprint set not MED? Hello FoW :-)
I would never keep an expansive card like Fow, Jace 2.0 etc. for a long time. Every new WoC announcment can cut there prize into pieces (What I do like to have more people play formats that need those cards).
Great article, didn't know that Legends were designed before Alpha, strange...
Force of will was not "banned from reprints" to protect its price. It was stated to never be reprinted in a med set to make it expensive. Worth Wolpert was and is the guy in charge of Modo, and he likes the idea of expensive cards in eternal formats. There is a quote somewhere but im too lazy to find it.
Sure its great that my Forces are worth 70 and have a legitmate chance to never go down, but so what. I payed 17 for mine, and ive won hundreds of boosterpacks playing with them. Please reprint it. Get more into the hands of the players so that legacy/classic does better. Its still Force of will and med1 versions would still retain some value. (Eternal players generally like the pimpest version of a card)
Plusssss there is nothing stopping them from making it a mocs promo or a teir 8 9 10 player rewards card.
Also i would love white bordered duals in med4. I kept my 40 duals as i enjoy playing them and it would be nice if they were more easily distingished as "original" copys.
You know for a flower that ending was rather sarcastic :p But I laughed so I should not complain.
Cryptic Commands and Reflecting Pools are both starting to climb =)
5CC is an interesting deck type. It plays so many "enters the battlefield tapped" lands and therefore at least on paper, the deck looks rather slow. But my experience with the deck tells me otherwise.
I mean, of course it is a slow deck without doubt but not slow as in "too late". I went 4-0 with that deck and two of my matches were against mono Red. I mean MONO RED!! I won one game 2-1 and the other 2-0. I'm not saying those games were easy but I'm saying that the deck can handle the speed of such Aggro decks pretty well.
Midrange and Control are rather easy match-ups as they allow you to build your manabase in calm. I played against a Violent Ultimatum deck in that tournament and if I remember correctly my opponent hit me twice with his ultimatum and I still managed to recover and won the match.
All I can suggest you is to build it and see the power of it for yourself. It's such an amazing deck.
LE
I'll start off by saying that I know this draft came before last week's, but there are a lot of picks here that I would disagree with, and that are just flat-out wrong. I think you've addressed this already, but it seems that you have a tendency to get tunnel vision with your first 2 or 3 picks, and stick with that regardless of better opportunities that come your way (a la the Volition Reins).
I'm excited to see your next draft, especially after all the feedback that was posted last week.
Good luck!
I am still clinging to R/B for block SoM. My current list is this:
4 Skinrenders
4 Oxida Scrapmelters
3 Kuldotha Phoenix
3 Carnifex Demon
4 Koth of the Hammer
4 Grasp of Darkness
4 Arc Trail
2 Mimic Vat
2 Memoricide
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
12 Mountain
10 Swamp
sideboard is ever changing but includes ratchet bomb, contagion clasp, galvanic blast, shatter, and wurmcoil engine. I like it becuase over half the cards can be a 2 for 1. Problem is that you need a good draw and need to pressure the U/W control decks early otherwise they will get the upper hand. Since the metagame is so heavily U/W right now that is a problem.
UW probably is the best deck right now, probably. That's kind of why I'm veering away from it though, I hate nothing more than playing that particular mirror match >.<
Cool article Fragoel. I'm not sure I agree with Grasps and Skinrenders in the side and Skithiryx and Corpse Cur as four-ofs, but someone striking the topic of Infect in block was well overdue. The only concern I have with the deck is that it's so, so cold to Arc Trail. That's where green helps give the deck longevity, which is well-needed against a lot of the red decks in the format (not that they're very dominant, I guess).
I had a bad luck streak myself awhile back in SOM, though that may have been in part due to playing while I had a cold, which made me a bit fuzzy headed. Nonetheless, I think infect decks make this format a bit prone to bad luck, since it is a bit risky to try to draft infect, but if you get a good infect deck it is probably the strongest deck in the environment, as witnessed by the winners of a number of pro events (who had infect decks). A high risk, but potentially high payoff strategy increases the luck factor in drafts. Also, if you get any sort of a slow start against poison, you are dead, which also tends to increase the luck factor a bit as well. In particular, the infect/untamed might combo can often kill immediately - it's a bit like the old channel/fireball effect.
That said, I enjoyed your draft, though I would have taken those volition reigns myself. The cards were also there for you to build a poison deck of your own, since most of your picks had a poison deck card present in the pack.
As usual, a great read. ;-)
For the sideboard, you need to consider cards that allow you to "just win" against the decks that give you trouble.
Also I would like to point you towards another useful article:
Probability: Drawing Cards From a Deck
http://www.kibble.net/magic/magic10.php
The article deals with hypergeometric distribution, a neat tool that allows you to design your manabase based of your manacurve (how many land drops I have to get in order to play my deck) and timing (when do i need to cast certain spell).
This will help you to discriminate between mana fixing solutions. For example I've got a 5 color domain deck, and I tested a lot of land ramping spells, and it came down to sakura tribe elder and, either; harrow or cultivate.
Due to the fact that I had a 88% probability of having a 2cc spell on my hand during turn 2 (considering original 7 cards + a card drawn), and only a 23% probability of having a 5cc spell on turn 3, I went with harrow. If I had had more 5cc spells on my deck, and less 2cc spells, I would probably had gone with Cultivate.
You could use similar math, to pick between Terramorphic Expanse v/s one of the Panoramas.
By the way, I'm an Arts major, so I could say that I'm mathematically challenged, but, the technique described in the article can be done using MS Excel or OpenOffice spreadsheets, so do not be afraid of the maths!
Hope it helps ;-)
I would have to check the date on the draft file, but I think it is about three weeks old. You caught me at a time when my opinion of this card was at its zenith. I think I'm closer to where you are now.
I'm not as high as you are on the Rust Tick, however. That's probably results oriented thinking, though. What does everybody else think of Rust Tick? I've had them really sing, then I've gone up against decks that have just laughed at them (and I didn't have better cards to sideboard in.) The double Rust Tick deck I had was in blue, and I was very underwhelmed by its lack of finishing power.
Yes, I was getting a strong "Blue is open" signal, then red. But, once I passed up the first Reins, it was hard to go back. I made a committment to red by the third pick.
I think the Bloodshot Trainee deck is legit, and not a theme deck. I've faced it before... multiple times. The equipment I was getting was too expensive to pull it off, and I didn't realize it at the time. Darksteel Axe is pretty key. I was in to it pretty early, so I think it was worth the risk, and almost worked.
BYOS Tribal sounds a lot fun. ONS/LRW/M11 Elves and UZ/ZEN/M11 Goblins are obvious choices but I'm sure there will be better decks than those. I'm looking forward to that event! My Walls deck did very well in the last event so I may be tweaking it for this event as well.
LE
At the time I was either red-black or red-blue. The duel land is fixing that makes it easier to play a third color. That's all I was saying.
good article. I have been loving block. I think thia good starting point for me when Jace rotates out of standard.
UW is the best deck.
Monoblack infect has a game and is a lot of fun.
In the version I'm running now, I have replaced the Kor's with the Hoard-Smelter Dragon and it is a big game finisher for sure.
sorry, but i don't get, how a BR duEl land could let you to play U spells (p2p6)...
Wow. That comment ended up longer than I realized! As I said though, I really enjoyed the article (and I also tend to enjoy discussing draft picks, because I'm weird like that).
This was a pretty cool article. Draft articles always seem far more interesting when the drafter picks up some kind of unusual off-the-wall strategy, and this is the first time I've seen anybody try to build bloodshot trainee.dec!
If you were trying to win though (as opposed to drafting a cool deck!), I have a few questions;
You say that you've been under-rating trigon of rage and that it's an easy first pick, but I just don't see it(!). I think it's probably a good third pick from that pack, but I can't see picking it over rust tick or sylvok replica. Rust tick, in particular, gives you no colour commitment, and is as good in aggro as it is in control. It's even good in poison! I'd definitely be first picking it. I think picking the trigon here is slightly dodgy, and seemed to lead your whole draft off on a crazy theme deck plan. This definitely made for a more interesting article than my draft would have, but I think I prefer my pick!
I really feel like the guy to your right was trying to signal you into blue in the first pack. Like, about as strongly as you could possibly signal! You interpret the cerebral eruption as a signal into red which it might be, but it might equally be that they just don't like the card. It's one of the most disagreed cards in the set due to it's very high variance (I hate it personally, but I know people who will first pick it). I know it's easy to use hindsight, but after pack 1 you'd've had;
2 rust tick
2 volition reins
1 sky-eel school
2 off-colour myr
1 darkslick drake
and some other stuff
That seems like it's a really strong base to build your deck around, and you could expect to see lots of blue in pack 2 (as well as not having comitted to a second colour).
In the games themselves, I can only assume that the loxodon attack was supposed to bluff seize the initiative which I guess would have made your block bad if he had it, but it doesn't seem like a particularly worthwhile bluff, so maybe he was just playing badly!
Thanks for the comments. I'm terribly sorry for my late reply. I will write a detail comment later today and answer some questions.
Thanks again.
LE
The first thing that comes to mind for your sideboard that you don't have in main deck is sweepers. Also Steel Hellkite is a huge beating against slower decks.
On tip for a finisher could be Hoard-Smelter Dragon
Have no fear I have a cunning plan and I intend to bring you other articles in between the Tribal Articles (although these Tribal articles may contain more than tribal content going forwards). Moving them to monthly gives me a lot more prep time for this and the other articles I will be bringing you in the future.
It's all very exciting and when you see what I have planned for the future I hope it's something you will enjoy reading as well.
If not I have a back up plan as well.