I was a little torn reading Sam's article. His deck suggestions are a little over the edge of the Social COntract, but not too far. It was nice though that he made suggestions for those of us who play more "casual/friendly".
I have to say though I do like the Azusa deck and may make that one. I had been contemplating making a 60land.dec for EDH/commander, but wasn't sure on how to go about it. His deck is what I was looking for.
The elf deck that was played, is not much different, strategy wise, then the stadard Eldrazi green ramp deck currently making waves in standard. Granted some of the cards are different, but essentially it's the same deck strategy.
A good Legacy goblins deck can be made for under 50$. Red has been the color to go to if you were on a budget and wanted to compete. Here is a sample decklist.
And this can be made even cheaper if you want to substitute the piledrivers and lackeys for something else. A deck does not have to be expensive to be a tournament level deck.
Needs Moar Quirion Dryad..actually im not sure if it does or not but those two cards together and add in wake thrasher can lead to some fun huge turns.
I suppose it's possible, but there really are so few common cards that want metalcraft in those two colors that I'm not sure the incentive is there to make it happen very often.
Content great - formatting awful... Many of the writers here don't have a ton of time to make it look pretty, but I would really recommend going this extra step. Heck, find a friend who would be willing to make it look nice.
I was wondering why U/G metalcraft isn't on your list of archetypes. It seems doable, but didn't make your list.
There had to be another red drafter. I passed two Pyromancers and a Lightning Bolt. No doubt I had the luck in the draft, but the only bomb passed to me was the Trikelion. (I think... I can't get Flash to work from this computer) My great picks were all first and second picks. That was very lucky. Also, after the first game, I did play fairly well, but yep, it was a very lucky draft.
I'm a math teacher. The mistake wasn't a math mistake. It was a patience mistake, but really it was a combination of three mistakes. It was my first time playing the Trikelion, and Spitfire. I did not realize that the Spitfire got a +3/+0 EVERY time I did direct damage. For some reason, I thought I could ping from the Triskelion four times (brain fart) and I missed the Chiv's Embrace pump. After the swing, I was so upset from the bad play, I did set my mind to concentrate on all of my plays. I didn't make any of these mistakes again. As a matter of a fact, In R2G2, I made sure to spend my time going through all situtations until I found the correct win condition. In short, I learned from this mistake in time to make use of the lesson and win the next match.
I ended up with two Flings. I could in any draft. At the time, I thought I may have actually found a need for the Ritual. That use would have been that I would end up in Red as a secondary color and want to run a 1RRR Gladiator. It wasn't a bad thought. It wasn't a bad pick at the time. It certaintly isn't 'wow' material.
:)
my problem lies in Wizards creation really... certain tribes (zombies, elves, goblins, mer) were given 3-4 or more lords... I mean hell look at all the possible lords you can have for elves... tribes like that you can just run play sets of each lord and have your creature base
Uhm, I see something strange going on in pack 2... After you passed an air servant, augury owl, 2 quag sicknesses, a gravedigger and a scroll thief I would say that your opponent on the left was most likely to be in blue/black with a possible white splash for the pacifism instead of the owl, then in pack 2 you suddenly get passed 2 azure drakes, an aether adept and another scroll thief...
Also, I agree with the aether adept being better than the drake, a little less with the scroll thief being better than the cloud crusader (in that situation, overall the thief is probably the pick) and I totally agree on the ember hauler not being necessarily a sign that red is open, I would consider the fire servant in that very pack to be a better signal along with the act of treason. The hellhound is not a terrible card also in red heavy decks and it wheeled too, so...
I don't see any particular mistakes in the last game, I would probably have played the air servant instead of the titan but it would have been stolen instead of the pyromancer.
Gratz on your 4 packs anyway.
Actually if I splashed it wouldn't be white because the only card worth splashing was Serra Angel and she has double cost. I would never pick gravedigger over wall of frost in that situation. At that point I'm firmly in blue. The second color is probably red and maybe white. Since I haven't made a final decision on the 2nd color I couldn't risk taking a card that I could splash instead of a card in my main color. Also the wall was what my deck needed: a defensive creature that could hold most ground creatures. I did consider splashing Rise from the Grave but the deck was so good that it didn't need the extra power by sacrificing consistency.
Mostly I'm looking at the wall of frost pick vs gravedigger, and not splashing the rise from the grave in the final build, these are inclusions I would have made and would rather have had the gravedigger in my pile at that point than the wall of frost. I think you had a mentality because of earlier white picks that you weren't going to splash anything but white and so overlooked other options i picking and building.
pack1 I picked 4 white cards. The last 2 there was nothing else in the pack and I certainly wouldn't pick anything p1p2 other than Serra Angel. And when I picked Crusader there were no good black cards. It was between Crusader vs Thief. How could I have splashed black by giving up on white earlier?
I think as before with you or some other poster that we are not really disagreeing qualitatively but only in the degree to which we choose to emphasize this or that about what we are saying. Having said that it is a logical truth that even given mental and physically ideal states for each of us given enough matches with most any two decks with win conditions that any magic player will beat any other magic player, the same is not true of chess.
I agree that magic is more than both of the other games combined and that a player who has a talent for chess and poker will also probably have a talent for MTG. Of course the best way to get better at MTG is to play more MTG.
I also play a lot of limited or at least I used to before Heirloom. In that arena there is even more variance than in constructed I believe.
I agree I get excited with the though of a new set and it looks good when its spoiled but we have to wait another month to actually play with the cards and by then a lot of the excitement is lost and the top cards are already known from paper events.
I always learn something from your articles.
I was a little torn reading Sam's article. His deck suggestions are a little over the edge of the Social COntract, but not too far. It was nice though that he made suggestions for those of us who play more "casual/friendly".
I have to say though I do like the Azusa deck and may make that one. I had been contemplating making a 60land.dec for EDH/commander, but wasn't sure on how to go about it. His deck is what I was looking for.
The elf deck that was played, is not much different, strategy wise, then the stadard Eldrazi green ramp deck currently making waves in standard. Granted some of the cards are different, but essentially it's the same deck strategy.
A good Legacy goblins deck can be made for under 50$. Red has been the color to go to if you were on a budget and wanted to compete. Here is a sample decklist.
Lightning bolt .15 x4 .60
Flame Javalin .20 x4 .80
Burst Lightning .08 x4 .36
Goblin lackey 2.5 x4 10.00
Gobline Piledriver 6.5 x4 26.00
Siege-gang Commander 1.15 x4 4.60
Goblin Matron .25 x4 1.00
Goblin Chieftan .12 x4 .48
Gempalm Incinerator .08 x4 .36
Goblin Warchief .75 x4 1.5
And this can be made even cheaper if you want to substitute the piledrivers and lackeys for something else. A deck does not have to be expensive to be a tournament level deck.
"It certaintly isn't 'wow' material."
Could not agree less. It's a bad pick, but it happens. I don't see a good way to justify it.
quote: "It certaintly isn't 'wow' material."
That's debatable.
You know I never thought about those two. Looking at it now that could be very crazy and fun. I will defeintly have to try that.
Needs Moar Quirion Dryad..actually im not sure if it does or not but those two cards together and add in wake thrasher can lead to some fun huge turns.
I suppose it's possible, but there really are so few common cards that want metalcraft in those two colors that I'm not sure the incentive is there to make it happen very often.
Content great - formatting awful... Many of the writers here don't have a ton of time to make it look pretty, but I would really recommend going this extra step. Heck, find a friend who would be willing to make it look nice.
I was wondering why U/G metalcraft isn't on your list of archetypes. It seems doable, but didn't make your list.
There had to be another red drafter. I passed two Pyromancers and a Lightning Bolt. No doubt I had the luck in the draft, but the only bomb passed to me was the Trikelion. (I think... I can't get Flash to work from this computer) My great picks were all first and second picks. That was very lucky. Also, after the first game, I did play fairly well, but yep, it was a very lucky draft.
I'm a math teacher. The mistake wasn't a math mistake. It was a patience mistake, but really it was a combination of three mistakes. It was my first time playing the Trikelion, and Spitfire. I did not realize that the Spitfire got a +3/+0 EVERY time I did direct damage. For some reason, I thought I could ping from the Triskelion four times (brain fart) and I missed the Chiv's Embrace pump. After the swing, I was so upset from the bad play, I did set my mind to concentrate on all of my plays. I didn't make any of these mistakes again. As a matter of a fact, In R2G2, I made sure to spend my time going through all situtations until I found the correct win condition. In short, I learned from this mistake in time to make use of the lesson and win the next match.
BW Panda Tribal Deck ftw
I ended up with two Flings. I could in any draft. At the time, I thought I may have actually found a need for the Ritual. That use would have been that I would end up in Red as a secondary color and want to run a 1RRR Gladiator. It wasn't a bad thought. It wasn't a bad pick at the time. It certaintly isn't 'wow' material.
:)
my problem lies in Wizards creation really... certain tribes (zombies, elves, goblins, mer) were given 3-4 or more lords... I mean hell look at all the possible lords you can have for elves... tribes like that you can just run play sets of each lord and have your creature base
When I said that I gave that away, I meant I screwed up the play, not conceeded, if that is what you thought.
Thanks but I lost in the second round so no packs for me :(
Uhm, I see something strange going on in pack 2... After you passed an air servant, augury owl, 2 quag sicknesses, a gravedigger and a scroll thief I would say that your opponent on the left was most likely to be in blue/black with a possible white splash for the pacifism instead of the owl, then in pack 2 you suddenly get passed 2 azure drakes, an aether adept and another scroll thief...
Also, I agree with the aether adept being better than the drake, a little less with the scroll thief being better than the cloud crusader (in that situation, overall the thief is probably the pick) and I totally agree on the ember hauler not being necessarily a sign that red is open, I would consider the fire servant in that very pack to be a better signal along with the act of treason. The hellhound is not a terrible card also in red heavy decks and it wheeled too, so...
I don't see any particular mistakes in the last game, I would probably have played the air servant instead of the titan but it would have been stolen instead of the pyromancer.
Gratz on your 4 packs anyway.
Actually if I splashed it wouldn't be white because the only card worth splashing was Serra Angel and she has double cost. I would never pick gravedigger over wall of frost in that situation. At that point I'm firmly in blue. The second color is probably red and maybe white. Since I haven't made a final decision on the 2nd color I couldn't risk taking a card that I could splash instead of a card in my main color. Also the wall was what my deck needed: a defensive creature that could hold most ground creatures. I did consider splashing Rise from the Grave but the deck was so good that it didn't need the extra power by sacrificing consistency.
I'm pretty sure we've already gone over that
Mostly I'm looking at the wall of frost pick vs gravedigger, and not splashing the rise from the grave in the final build, these are inclusions I would have made and would rather have had the gravedigger in my pile at that point than the wall of frost. I think you had a mentality because of earlier white picks that you weren't going to splash anything but white and so overlooked other options i picking and building.
X-
I take it you don't play much chess then.
pack1 I picked 4 white cards. The last 2 there was nothing else in the pack and I certainly wouldn't pick anything p1p2 other than Serra Angel. And when I picked Crusader there were no good black cards. It was between Crusader vs Thief. How could I have splashed black by giving up on white earlier?
Those are definitely very very negotiable.
I'd probably take scroll thief over crusader, but i'd take azure drake over aether adept a lot of (if not all of) the time.
Hey Paul,
I think as before with you or some other poster that we are not really disagreeing qualitatively but only in the degree to which we choose to emphasize this or that about what we are saying. Having said that it is a logical truth that even given mental and physically ideal states for each of us given enough matches with most any two decks with win conditions that any magic player will beat any other magic player, the same is not true of chess.
I agree that magic is more than both of the other games combined and that a player who has a talent for chess and poker will also probably have a talent for MTG. Of course the best way to get better at MTG is to play more MTG.
I also play a lot of limited or at least I used to before Heirloom. In that arena there is even more variance than in constructed I believe.
X-
Oh there will be a special theme week towards the end of November that will be Endangered Tribal, more details will be posted nearer the time.
I'm quite sad and have worked out all the events up to the end of January.
I agree I get excited with the though of a new set and it looks good when its spoiled but we have to wait another month to actually play with the cards and by then a lot of the excitement is lost and the top cards are already known from paper events.