Pack 1 Pick 3 I think was a mistake, I'm not too high on Stomper Cub, and I should have whole-heartedly jumped out of green at that point. Mul Daya Channelers is good, but not good enough to keep in Green. A true bomb like Deathless Angel p1p1 would have probably kept me in the color for the duration.
Well , I can see your point about selling rares and $200 for 149 drafts seems like a great bargain to me also
What i was looking for is the justification for 8-4 , 4-3-2-2 or Swiss
It looks like Swiss and 8-4 are the way to go for a playing with your drafting skills, and not 4-3-2-2 (whice i find odd)
I think you are a very good drafter and i learn alot from your reports and i wait every day for a new one from you (so keep them posted :)
thanks for your comments about the $$ gain by selling all these rares and mythic cards
Pack 1 pick 1 I like the Treespeaker. After reading Pro Tour San Juan reports from the beachhouse Paulo and LSV were at, apparently one of the debates there was whether you take 1st pick Treespeaker over Staggershock or not, with some advocates on both sides. It's such a powerful turn 1 play if they don't kill it that apparently the pros will take it over most cards. Ulamog's a fine fattie to accelerate into, but a ramp deck is likely to end up with 3 fatties that will get the job done. Whereas you're not necessarily gonna see ramping that good, and you pass a much better signal to get you more good cards for the archetype in pack 2.
The amount of removal and control in the final deck is very nice. It is unfortunate to have only 3 accelerants in the deck to go with the 11 cost guy, though! I think it's easier to find use for the Treespeaker without enough fatties than it is to find use for an 11 mana dude without accelerants, making the Treespeaker more versatile. Certainly that Wildheart Invoker benefits nicely off a quick ramp to 8 mana.
It seems like you got passed good green throughout the whole draft, and your first pick was a good green card. Whyd you audible pick 2 and then basically audible back into green again pick 3?
I definitely agree with most of the comments concerning my manabase, I should have played 18 land including another forest. This would have raised me to 8 sources of green for Pelakka Wurm(including Growth Spasm) which is certainly fine for a deck as controlling as this. The manabase isn't actually that bad on this deck as it simply wants to stall out anyway and can afford to wait for land to come.
I do have to take a second to defend Reinforced Bulwark, however. I feel like everyone that savagely hates this card has never tried it in a super controlling deck. It actually does exactly what this deck needs: defends any kind of early attack while still being (fairly) relevant in the lategame. Furthermore, a deck with a less than stellar manabase is glad to have a couple colorless cards. Lastly, if I played Lay Bare and Fleeting Distraction instead of the Bulwarks this deck, it would have essentially two board-affecting cards it wants to play in the first four turns(Domestication and Tuskcaller), one of which isn't likely to be played on turn 2. This format is slow, but not that slow. Reinforced Bulwark is a little evil, but its a necessary evil and I definitely recommend trying it before you knock it.
On threats: sure this deck isn't winning any speed races, but Skeletal Wurm is actually an incredibly hard card to answer even if it is easily chump blocked for a while. Plus this deck has two Regresses with double Mnemonic Wall back-up in case they have infinite Narcolepsy/Guard Duty. It is definitely low on threats, but I wouldn't want more than two more or I would risk clogging up my hands early on.
glad to see to you're doing a rith based on my recommendation. I'm SO excited! I think all those tri-dragons are worth making decks for..3 colors decks are most fun!
Another way to look at it is that I bought every rare listed, multiple playsets of all commons and uncommons, and 357 matches of Limited Magic for about 400 hours of entertainment (considering the draft part and rounding) for $842. This doesn't include the hours of fun I have playing casual Constructed, either.
Also, I've also sold 363 tickets worth of rares since I started tracking in January (the draft spreadsheet goes back to October '09), and have still kept plenty of money rares for decks. I probably have another 150+ tickets worth of rares I could sell fairly easily (more? A quick glance at my drafted-but-unsold money mythics shows 2x All Is Dust, Gideon, Lotus Cobra, Avenger of Zendikar, Kargan Dragonlord, 3x Ulamog, Kozilek, 2x Sorin, and then I have playsets of Zendikar fetch lands, and countless rares in the 2-3 ticket range).
Anyway, it can look like a harsh number all in a big pile, but if you subtract the sold rares, and figure there were both more rares sold in the unrecorded period and more that I could sell now, the overall cash shelled out falls to the ~$200 range. $200 for 149 drafts seems like a great bargain to me!
I've said many times that "going infinite" in drafting alone is something only a rare few are good enough to pull off, but a reasonable player can reduce per-draft costs to very manageable levels.
Now if you want to draft three times a week AND have multiple top-tier Constructed decks, you are gonna pay. I personally don't keep 10+ ticket rares unless they are vital to a fun deck that I love...
glad you liked the deck. Oblivion stone is definitely worthwhile. If you go with this token version I would also add skullclamo. Can't believe I missed that one. Also as jeans pointed out reclamation is better than the cemetery so I would make that switch as well.
Paul- interesting deck. I'm on my phone right now so I will try more detailed later. Dragonmaster outcast is a one drop to consider but loam lion and the ape and nacatl can be better. Interestingly recursion theme also. But you lack grave hate for opponents so that may be an issue. Like you said I'm going with tokens so the decks are going to be different. But dragon broodmother is worth a look.
Yeah that is probably true though I was thinking of it is as a deck with road blocks rather than a beat my ops senseless on turn 2. Each of the creatures I went with are fairly tough and to be honest I really wanted other 1 drops but my collection is still at that point where I don't always have the appropriate card. Skullclamp was in the token generator version. I took it out because I wasn't playing as much weenies. As far as build your own aka Voltron (cf chimeras), sometimes I do bring decks like that but this was really meant as a contrast to the Rith deck I expect Mike to bring. I left some holes for him to fill but mainly just wanted to see his response to this different type of deck.
Hehe Paul No worries with Westane as a mentor I am certain you will not be a scrub long enough to worry about losing your job. He will just have to start respecting you. :p
Man, that is a ballsy deck build. Running the Pelakka on 4 Forests + Prism seems like a disaster waiting to happen.
I probably would have ran 1 Swamp (which is really 4 black mana sources with Evolving Wilds, +Prism, +Growth Spasm) to cast your four black spells (all requiring 1B mana). That allows you to run two more Forests to make the Pelakka a bit more reasonable.
Eight critters (I'm not counting the awful Bulwarks) makes this deck look pretty bad. But maybe it's controlling enough to survive until your fatties hit? If your Cryptologist + Tuskcaller get Fork Bolt-ed, might as well concede on the spot.
Very nice man. I do like some of the cards you picked out. Definitely some new things to consider. Though I did pick up Damnation and Earthquake and Decree of Pain. Having those certaibly helps. Maybe an O-stone for enchantments is my next choice.
It's about turn 5 of game 1. We'd traded a couple of random creatures and not achieved a lot. I'm playing G/W/b, and my opponent's playing U/G. I played out a serra angel on turn 5 and it got mind controlled, I doom bladed it on my next turn, and played out a warlord's axe. On my opponent's turn he played time reversal, shuffling back both of our hands and graveyards and drawing us seven each. I got my protean hydra! I play him out with 6 counters, and pass the turn, feeling smug. My opponent plays out a deathtouch basilisk, but my hydra cares not (damage is prevented!). I have a basilisk of my own, but decide to play around giant growth (which would kill my hydra) by equipping my hydra (prevent all damage + static toughness boost = sweet). My hydra goes in and gets blocked, so at the end of the turn he grows to a 12/10 who can't be killed by damage. On my opponents turn, I discover that the "shuffle graveyard back in" part of time reversal has got him his mind control back!
Ouch.
I do eventually pacify the hydra, but it's way too late by then!
As it happens, I managed to claw the win out in the remaining two games, but this one was certainly the most memorable.
Use f4 to pass priority until the next trigger or spell is played- it won't stop if he does nothing,so remember that if you need EoT and if he goes right to combat it will stop at declare blockers if you had not any plans to do anything with combat-.
Are those 2 games in the casual room? They aren't what anyone plays in events. The Ascension deck was RoE era so it was recent (which isn't played now)and so was the Conscription-Bant(Also inferioir to the RoE meta Bant lists) as well. Only match that could possibly be older than the past 2 months would be that BG something deck.
Barring a few minor exceptions, I was with you through most of the second draft. That said, I think you made some major mistakes in deckbuilding. First of all, I would not have played the Bulwarks. I'd definitely cut both of them for either the Fleeting Distraction or the Lay Bare plus a land. I might side them in against certain opponents, but given the nature of the format I can't imagine doing that often at all.
The other major problem that you have is your mana. Your green is basically a splash, not a main color. The problem is that two of your splash cards (the Tuskcaller and, more importantly the wurm) require a lot of green to work well while the other two are mana fixing (the growth spasm) and really weak in your deck (Jaddi Lifestrider with 10 total creatures and only one token producer). The black splash is a little easier with two vendettas and a last kiss. I can see why you are running the skeletal wurm -- it's not at all ideal, but you are badly hurting for finishers. The resulting manabase is a big mess though. You need more forests to make Pelakka Wurm viable, but it's hard to justify more forests for only four green cards. I'd definitely run 18 lands in this deck without question.
So all in all you have some very strong removal but will struggle to close out games with only the incredibly hard to cast Pelakka Wurm, Skeletal Wurm, and the very fragile Kazandu Tuskcaller as real ways to win the game. You have a ton of card advantage, but if your opponent has multiple removal spells you are basically screwed.
You're right, and it's probably just old habits. I guess you could say sitting in my room or at a table shuffling up and running random scenarios in my head is something of an old past time, so I'm a little jaded. Also, I haven't had an established playtest group in this side of a decade, so I should probably start working on that...
I am liking Phyrexian Reclamation ($0.15) over Oversold Cemetery in my builds now ... 2 life is hardly anything to get to do away with Cemetery's restrictions.
... also, Skullclamp ($0.65) definitely belongs in a deck with tokens/sac effects.
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@ Paul ... it looks like you are going an aggro route here ... which is an uphill battle
for me ... drawing a Loam Lion or Kird Ape on like turn 8 would feel horrible ... they just don't do enough ... this is why even Tarmpgoyf is viewd as sub-par in EDH ... just a dude with no special abilities.
I would suggest adding guys with "troll-shroud" and having more of a build a monster type deck, where you load them up with equipment and enchants with totem armor ... more of a Kor Spirit Dancer theme'D deck ... also ... you too need more Skullclamp :)
I was your round 5 matchup with vial Bant...
Game one you got moat down and I couldn't find a predator or pridemage to finish you off before you got Jace and jaced me out.
Game 2 I got turn 2 goyf and you got humility down which unfortunately I had no answer to as I failed to pack Krosan grips in my sideboard. You recurred explosives until I ran out of threats.
Pack 1 Pick 3 I think was a mistake, I'm not too high on Stomper Cub, and I should have whole-heartedly jumped out of green at that point. Mul Daya Channelers is good, but not good enough to keep in Green. A true bomb like Deathless Angel p1p1 would have probably kept me in the color for the duration.
Well , I can see your point about selling rares and $200 for 149 drafts seems like a great bargain to me also
What i was looking for is the justification for 8-4 , 4-3-2-2 or Swiss
It looks like Swiss and 8-4 are the way to go for a playing with your drafting skills, and not 4-3-2-2 (whice i find odd)
I think you are a very good drafter and i learn alot from your reports and i wait every day for a new one from you (so keep them posted :)
thanks for your comments about the $$ gain by selling all these rares and mythic cards
Pack 1 pick 1 I like the Treespeaker. After reading Pro Tour San Juan reports from the beachhouse Paulo and LSV were at, apparently one of the debates there was whether you take 1st pick Treespeaker over Staggershock or not, with some advocates on both sides. It's such a powerful turn 1 play if they don't kill it that apparently the pros will take it over most cards. Ulamog's a fine fattie to accelerate into, but a ramp deck is likely to end up with 3 fatties that will get the job done. Whereas you're not necessarily gonna see ramping that good, and you pass a much better signal to get you more good cards for the archetype in pack 2.
The amount of removal and control in the final deck is very nice. It is unfortunate to have only 3 accelerants in the deck to go with the 11 cost guy, though! I think it's easier to find use for the Treespeaker without enough fatties than it is to find use for an 11 mana dude without accelerants, making the Treespeaker more versatile. Certainly that Wildheart Invoker benefits nicely off a quick ramp to 8 mana.
It seems like you got passed good green throughout the whole draft, and your first pick was a good green card. Whyd you audible pick 2 and then basically audible back into green again pick 3?
edit: i looked at the draft again and i see why
Darigaaz would be another pick as well..jund colors are great and his ability is sick.
I definitely agree with most of the comments concerning my manabase, I should have played 18 land including another forest. This would have raised me to 8 sources of green for Pelakka Wurm(including Growth Spasm) which is certainly fine for a deck as controlling as this. The manabase isn't actually that bad on this deck as it simply wants to stall out anyway and can afford to wait for land to come.
I do have to take a second to defend Reinforced Bulwark, however. I feel like everyone that savagely hates this card has never tried it in a super controlling deck. It actually does exactly what this deck needs: defends any kind of early attack while still being (fairly) relevant in the lategame. Furthermore, a deck with a less than stellar manabase is glad to have a couple colorless cards. Lastly, if I played Lay Bare and Fleeting Distraction instead of the Bulwarks this deck, it would have essentially two board-affecting cards it wants to play in the first four turns(Domestication and Tuskcaller), one of which isn't likely to be played on turn 2. This format is slow, but not that slow. Reinforced Bulwark is a little evil, but its a necessary evil and I definitely recommend trying it before you knock it.
On threats: sure this deck isn't winning any speed races, but Skeletal Wurm is actually an incredibly hard card to answer even if it is easily chump blocked for a while. Plus this deck has two Regresses with double Mnemonic Wall back-up in case they have infinite Narcolepsy/Guard Duty. It is definitely low on threats, but I wouldn't want more than two more or I would risk clogging up my hands early on.
With the Fallen Angel avatar, Goblin Bombardment plus the new Mitotic Slime equals 21 point life swing (-14 for them, +7 for you)!
Agreed, im thinking of making a deck around Darigaaz or Karrthus.
glad to see to you're doing a rith based on my recommendation. I'm SO excited! I think all those tri-dragons are worth making decks for..3 colors decks are most fun!
Another way to look at it is that I bought every rare listed, multiple playsets of all commons and uncommons, and 357 matches of Limited Magic for about 400 hours of entertainment (considering the draft part and rounding) for $842. This doesn't include the hours of fun I have playing casual Constructed, either.
Also, I've also sold 363 tickets worth of rares since I started tracking in January (the draft spreadsheet goes back to October '09), and have still kept plenty of money rares for decks. I probably have another 150+ tickets worth of rares I could sell fairly easily (more? A quick glance at my drafted-but-unsold money mythics shows 2x All Is Dust, Gideon, Lotus Cobra, Avenger of Zendikar, Kargan Dragonlord, 3x Ulamog, Kozilek, 2x Sorin, and then I have playsets of Zendikar fetch lands, and countless rares in the 2-3 ticket range).
Anyway, it can look like a harsh number all in a big pile, but if you subtract the sold rares, and figure there were both more rares sold in the unrecorded period and more that I could sell now, the overall cash shelled out falls to the ~$200 range. $200 for 149 drafts seems like a great bargain to me!
I've said many times that "going infinite" in drafting alone is something only a rare few are good enough to pull off, but a reasonable player can reduce per-draft costs to very manageable levels.
Now if you want to draft three times a week AND have multiple top-tier Constructed decks, you are gonna pay. I personally don't keep 10+ ticket rares unless they are vital to a fun deck that I love...
glad you liked the deck. Oblivion stone is definitely worthwhile. If you go with this token version I would also add skullclamo. Can't believe I missed that one. Also as jeans pointed out reclamation is better than the cemetery so I would make that switch as well.
Paul- interesting deck. I'm on my phone right now so I will try more detailed later. Dragonmaster outcast is a one drop to consider but loam lion and the ape and nacatl can be better. Interestingly recursion theme also. But you lack grave hate for opponents so that may be an issue. Like you said I'm going with tokens so the decks are going to be different. But dragon broodmother is worth a look.
Yeah that is probably true though I was thinking of it is as a deck with road blocks rather than a beat my ops senseless on turn 2. Each of the creatures I went with are fairly tough and to be honest I really wanted other 1 drops but my collection is still at that point where I don't always have the appropriate card. Skullclamp was in the token generator version. I took it out because I wasn't playing as much weenies. As far as build your own aka Voltron (cf chimeras), sometimes I do bring decks like that but this was really meant as a contrast to the Rith deck I expect Mike to bring. I left some holes for him to fill but mainly just wanted to see his response to this different type of deck.
Hehe Paul No worries with Westane as a mentor I am certain you will not be a scrub long enough to worry about losing your job. He will just have to start respecting you. :p
Man, that is a ballsy deck build. Running the Pelakka on 4 Forests + Prism seems like a disaster waiting to happen.
I probably would have ran 1 Swamp (which is really 4 black mana sources with Evolving Wilds, +Prism, +Growth Spasm) to cast your four black spells (all requiring 1B mana). That allows you to run two more Forests to make the Pelakka a bit more reasonable.
Eight critters (I'm not counting the awful Bulwarks) makes this deck look pretty bad. But maybe it's controlling enough to survive until your fatties hit? If your Cryptologist + Tuskcaller get Fork Bolt-ed, might as well concede on the spot.
damn these cliffhanger endings... what happens?!?
sucks about the gideon misplay. i hope you sold him immediately after the draft... out of spite.
Wait, I don't get this. In a total of 149 drafts, Godot lost 142 packs and 274 tix?
Moral of the story: If you don't want to lose a bunch of money, only do nix tix drafts?
Very nice man. I do like some of the cards you picked out. Definitely some new things to consider. Though I did pick up Damnation and Earthquake and Decree of Pain. Having those certaibly helps. Maybe an O-stone for enchantments is my next choice.
In order of air date:
Ant Queen (Casual) > RbDW (TP) > Pyromancer Ascension (TP) > Mythic Bant (TP, uploaded 7/12)
Mildly Entertaining prerelease story:
It's about turn 5 of game 1. We'd traded a couple of random creatures and not achieved a lot. I'm playing G/W/b, and my opponent's playing U/G. I played out a serra angel on turn 5 and it got mind controlled, I doom bladed it on my next turn, and played out a warlord's axe. On my opponent's turn he played time reversal, shuffling back both of our hands and graveyards and drawing us seven each. I got my protean hydra! I play him out with 6 counters, and pass the turn, feeling smug. My opponent plays out a deathtouch basilisk, but my hydra cares not (damage is prevented!). I have a basilisk of my own, but decide to play around giant growth (which would kill my hydra) by equipping my hydra (prevent all damage + static toughness boost = sweet). My hydra goes in and gets blocked, so at the end of the turn he grows to a 12/10 who can't be killed by damage. On my opponents turn, I discover that the "shuffle graveyard back in" part of time reversal has got him his mind control back!
Ouch.
I do eventually pacify the hydra, but it's way too late by then!
As it happens, I managed to claw the win out in the remaining two games, but this one was certainly the most memorable.
Use f4 to pass priority until the next trigger or spell is played- it won't stop if he does nothing,so remember that if you need EoT and if he goes right to combat it will stop at declare blockers if you had not any plans to do anything with combat-.
Are those 2 games in the casual room? They aren't what anyone plays in events. The Ascension deck was RoE era so it was recent (which isn't played now)and so was the Conscription-Bant(Also inferioir to the RoE meta Bant lists) as well. Only match that could possibly be older than the past 2 months would be that BG something deck.
Barring a few minor exceptions, I was with you through most of the second draft. That said, I think you made some major mistakes in deckbuilding. First of all, I would not have played the Bulwarks. I'd definitely cut both of them for either the Fleeting Distraction or the Lay Bare plus a land. I might side them in against certain opponents, but given the nature of the format I can't imagine doing that often at all.
The other major problem that you have is your mana. Your green is basically a splash, not a main color. The problem is that two of your splash cards (the Tuskcaller and, more importantly the wurm) require a lot of green to work well while the other two are mana fixing (the growth spasm) and really weak in your deck (Jaddi Lifestrider with 10 total creatures and only one token producer). The black splash is a little easier with two vendettas and a last kiss. I can see why you are running the skeletal wurm -- it's not at all ideal, but you are badly hurting for finishers. The resulting manabase is a big mess though. You need more forests to make Pelakka Wurm viable, but it's hard to justify more forests for only four green cards. I'd definitely run 18 lands in this deck without question.
So all in all you have some very strong removal but will struggle to close out games with only the incredibly hard to cast Pelakka Wurm, Skeletal Wurm, and the very fragile Kazandu Tuskcaller as real ways to win the game. You have a ton of card advantage, but if your opponent has multiple removal spells you are basically screwed.
You're right, and it's probably just old habits. I guess you could say sitting in my room or at a table shuffling up and running random scenarios in my head is something of an old past time, so I'm a little jaded. Also, I haven't had an established playtest group in this side of a decade, so I should probably start working on that...
But if he does that I'll be out of a Job! ~Paul
(the ant queen deck was mine :D )
I am liking Phyrexian Reclamation ($0.15) over Oversold Cemetery in my builds now ... 2 life is hardly anything to get to do away with Cemetery's restrictions.
... also, Skullclamp ($0.65) definitely belongs in a deck with tokens/sac effects.
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@ Paul ... it looks like you are going an aggro route here ... which is an uphill battle
for me ... drawing a Loam Lion or Kird Ape on like turn 8 would feel horrible ... they just don't do enough ... this is why even Tarmpgoyf is viewd as sub-par in EDH ... just a dude with no special abilities.
I would suggest adding guys with "troll-shroud" and having more of a build a monster type deck, where you load them up with equipment and enchants with totem armor ... more of a Kor Spirit Dancer theme'D deck ... also ... you too need more Skullclamp :)
I was your round 5 matchup with vial Bant...
Game one you got moat down and I couldn't find a predator or pridemage to finish you off before you got Jace and jaced me out.
Game 2 I got turn 2 goyf and you got humility down which unfortunately I had no answer to as I failed to pack Krosan grips in my sideboard. You recurred explosives until I ran out of threats.