I don't think you made bad choices, but if it was me, in pack 1, I would have gone:
1: Herald of Torment
2: Akroan Skyguard or possibly Archetype of Imagination
3: Akroan Skyguard
4: Elite Skirmisher
5: Fall of the Hammer
6: Elite Skirmisher
7: Oreskos Sun Guide
8: Nyxborn Shieldmate
9: Dawn to Dusk
10: Glimpse of the Sun God
11: Impetuous Sun Chaser
12: Scouring Sands
- and then the last 3 same picks.
In pack 2 I would have started with the Wing Steed Rider. This I think would have cut white pretty hard in pack 1, and perhaps opened it up more (though you did end up playing 3 decks with white in them). Double Skyguard and double Skirmisher makes for the start a strong Wx heroic deck. Of course the rest of the packs would all be different as would picks 9-15 in pack 1 possibly. I wouldn't be married to red or black yet in pack 2 - I would see which flowed and go from there, but probably tried for RW. It's always easier in hindsight, and I do love the Wx heroic deck if it's there.
If I had second picked the Archetype of Imagination over the Asphyxiate - which is also a very reasonable second pick after the Herald, the base blue route you took is pretty solid (obviously).
Agree re Bow, I think it's a real oversight that there has been virtually no graveyard interraction printed in a set which has a lot of built in g/y synergies. I hope JIN or, at the very least, M15 addresses this or else it could be quite a problem in the future standard once ooze rotates out.
It is a shame they cancelled PTQs, but my tickets are a bit grateful for that XD I do have a local PTQ at the end of the month I believe so I'll still prepare for that.
Thank you! :D I actually don't mind starting the 3/7 in either draft or sealed. He's a bit better in sealed since the format is slower, but he can block a lot of non Nessian Asp creatures just fine. He makes it so that your opponent has to have a trick in order to attack, so you get a little bit of value just by knowing that.
I think Brimaz isn't good because it's really just a 3/4 that isn't evasive or have protection for anything. Most of RG or RGW can just play a better creature (Polukranos, Crusher, Dragon, Courser) and dies to the black removal (Gild, Downfall, Agent). It might be better as a 4/3, but then it just dies to Lightning Strike, so I don't know how to make it good right now. It's possible he's not good because in the decks you want to play Brimaz you'd rather go Voltron on a Favored Hoplite or Fabled Hero. As for GB/GBW, it's probably the best deck right now. It beats RBW and has a good matchup with RG/RGW (or it's actually bad and I'm just getting unlucky with RGW). There's no graveyard hate and it can go through its deck fairly quickly and set itself up to win. It probably doesn't have a great aggro matchup since it's more like midrange/control than a ramp deck and it takes it a few turns to get set up. Chained to the Rocks might just be the best removal spell right now since you can take the threat and not have to worry about it coming back. I think BWR can have a better GB matchup if it starts using Chained to the Rocks either in the main or side. The GB deck makes me wish that Bow of Nylea could work on both graveyards, not just your own.
Nice pickup simon, I guess that makes fated return even better and I'd definitely want at least 2 and possibly 3 in the board currently. Andrea - I have seen various esper decks place, they're sitting on the fringe at the moment but do have potential. Yankem, agree that this is an awesome deck if you expect a lot of mono black. The only card they have with > 3 toughness is Gary, most of their deck just folds to you.
Good point paul on the apparent disconnect between scry lands/cornucopia, the problem is that most players just don't let you get value from your sweepers. Fated retribution is too expensive against anything other than GR decks, against mono black or UW you're basically forced to use spot removal before you get to 7 mana - even with acceleration - which makes it a 1 for 1 or maybe 1 for 2 at best if you're lucky (and watch out for bestow). The only thing cornucopia is really good at is getting you to elspeth a turn early, and gild just does that better. At the very least, I'd want the 4th gild before the first cornucopia, and most lists are cutting back to 2-3 gild given that maindeck artifact removal becomes necessary against the dredge/whip deck.
I am not sure I entirely buy the "Cornucopia is bad, but Scry lands are good" theory. It is true: I am not a block player but I think if the block is slow enough to tolerate a decent amount of scry lands in your deck then 1-2 cornucopia shouldn't be a terrible strain. I do see that if you are way behind in development you will just never catch up but having Sweepers means you don't mind if a turn is dropped one way or the other, especially if that turn is spent ramping up to that sweeper.
The real downside to Cornucopia is that it a) signals a very slow start to your opponent which may lead to them bum rushing you with their guys while holding back something special to save against the eventual sweeper. b) does nothing in and of itself to forward your position (other than making Elspeth or Fated Retribution easier to cast). If you want to say it is bad for that reason then fine I guess that is a matter of trial/error experience. Gild is definitely superior in this regard as it helps to ramp AND slows your opponent's roll. (But at sorcery speed may be too slow to stop some shenanigans.)
Interesting! I didn't think the draft was that bad, but good to see you get there. The one pick I wasn't too sure about was P1P2 where you didn't even seem to consider Archetype of Imagination. I feel that this card isn't too far off of bomb status, especially in a deck where you end up with the Horse.
Top notch as always! Another sideboard move I like to make is bringing in a big toughness guy in certain matchups. A prime example is the Pheras-Band Centaurs. Some decks can't do much of anything against a 3/7. Rarely a guy you wanted to start, but can be very good in certain matchups.
Lol yeah go see Dr Fixit. :p I don't think I have ever met a real life vorthos before if that's what it entails.
I have always thought you were a hybrid like me (S/J/T admixture). The main thing is you are good at the brewing of Mad Science. I built a variation of your Storm decks using one of my pet cards Unexpected Results thus naming the deck Unexpected Storm. It really confounds Control (particularly UW), stalls most aggro and just dies to Mono Black Devotion unless they falter, in which case it comes much closer.
Actually I'm a bit of everything. Definitely a Johnny mainly but my old articles are all about some tourmanent repots where I try this or that weird deck of mine in Daily events.
I also have a Timmy side; this I discovered recently. I really do like big creatures.
And finally I am a serious Vorthos as well. My basic lands always have to be the same art. Or if I'm playing UW for example and my Islands are from Ravnica, then my Plains' also have to be from Ravnica as well. Next week I will be talking about a Bant colored deck and please check the screenshots for basic lands; all Alara basics with Bant ones chosen of course!
But there's even worse. I was recently working on a deck that had Ral Zarek in it. I also added Jace to it. But then I remembered that I read somewhere that Ral was trying to kill Jace in Ravnica story. As a result I removed Jace from the deck.
Do you think I should see a doctor? :)
Thanks all for the comments and see you next week.
I doubt Gwendlyn di Corci is Italian, with a first name like "Gwendlyn". Maybe she's Swiss.
I see you didn't comment on what's notoriously happening in Gwendlyn's art. Because this is a family site. I still don't get how they approved that one. That guy's even a priest!
Minor isn't a creature type. Oracle ruling established it's just the "name" of the token. It's just a demon called "Minor". Friends call it "Minnie".
"the 3-mana Dauntless Dourbark": that would be Dungrove Elder.
I have to argue with you on one thing, though. A player who just randomly puts Possibility Storm in his or her deck and see what happens is not a Pure Johnny. A Pure Johnny does exactly what you did. A Pure Johnny needs for his deck to be an elaborate web of mind-blowing interactions. Otherwise got bored. A player who uses Possibility Storm as it is, without trying to combo with it or take advantage of it, is... I don't know, just a bad player? Careless? Inexperienced? Not that much into the game?
Another thing: it's a common misconception that only Spike wants to win. While Spikes clearly put winning at a higher priority level than Timmys and Johnnies, that's sort of a minor aspect to the psychographic profiles. Every player plays to win (except possibly Vorthos, but that's a different kind of profile entirely). The main difference is HOW they want to win. What they want to do with their decks. Spike is about sheer efficiency. Timmy is about splashiness. Johnny is about complexity. So, yeah, Pure Spike wins more because efficiency is more likely to win you games than splashiness or complexity. And adding a certain amount of Spike to your profile helps to put a limit to the inherent idiosyncrasies of Timmy and Johnny, therefore improving their winning ratio.
I'd say you're about 85% Johnny, 15% Spike, considering you seem to enjoy casual play more than competitive play (and that's again transversal: it's maybe hard to be a casual Spike, but you can be a competitive Timmy or a competitive Johnny, or at least a competitive player who's predominantly a Timmy or a Johnny. Show and Tell is a competitive Timmy card; Birthing Pod is a competitive Johnny card).
yeah I am experiencing that now as an opponent brought the super obvious heroic (white weenies) auras deck that has been circulating "Just for Fun" lately. (Or Red White/Blue White/Green White) Auras as long as it is some kind of tongue-biting eye-squinting voltron build. I think what I just said about that kind of deck is WHY that wasn't discussed here in conjunction with storm.
Aww, nothing on Rohgaah of Kher Keep? Have you never given him to an opponent them cast Mirrorweave at a Kobolds of Kher Keep with his trigger on the stack? Is that just me?
Brilliant exposition of an idea, again Nafiz! :D I came up with a fun Borbor Enter deck a while ago but it was overshadowed by other decks by the time it came time to do my articles. I never did consider possibility storm with it. Guild feud is actually a great card if you build it with fun in mind. I am a little surprised you dismissed it so quickly/casually. 6 mana is no great hurdle. (Especially if you are getting it into play with something like Unexpected Results. :p)
I particularly love the post and worldspine decks. to echo Blippy, bravo!.
I don't think you made bad choices, but if it was me, in pack 1, I would have gone:
1: Herald of Torment
2: Akroan Skyguard or possibly Archetype of Imagination
3: Akroan Skyguard
4: Elite Skirmisher
5: Fall of the Hammer
6: Elite Skirmisher
7: Oreskos Sun Guide
8: Nyxborn Shieldmate
9: Dawn to Dusk
10: Glimpse of the Sun God
11: Impetuous Sun Chaser
12: Scouring Sands
- and then the last 3 same picks.
In pack 2 I would have started with the Wing Steed Rider. This I think would have cut white pretty hard in pack 1, and perhaps opened it up more (though you did end up playing 3 decks with white in them). Double Skyguard and double Skirmisher makes for the start a strong Wx heroic deck. Of course the rest of the packs would all be different as would picks 9-15 in pack 1 possibly. I wouldn't be married to red or black yet in pack 2 - I would see which flowed and go from there, but probably tried for RW. It's always easier in hindsight, and I do love the Wx heroic deck if it's there.
If I had second picked the Archetype of Imagination over the Asphyxiate - which is also a very reasonable second pick after the Herald, the base blue route you took is pretty solid (obviously).
Cheers and thanks for the posting.
Agree re Bow, I think it's a real oversight that there has been virtually no graveyard interraction printed in a set which has a lot of built in g/y synergies. I hope JIN or, at the very least, M15 addresses this or else it could be quite a problem in the future standard once ooze rotates out.
Cornucopia has been pretty outstanding in the decks I have played it in.
It is a shame they cancelled PTQs, but my tickets are a bit grateful for that XD I do have a local PTQ at the end of the month I believe so I'll still prepare for that.
Thank you! :D I actually don't mind starting the 3/7 in either draft or sealed. He's a bit better in sealed since the format is slower, but he can block a lot of non Nessian Asp creatures just fine. He makes it so that your opponent has to have a trick in order to attack, so you get a little bit of value just by knowing that.
I think Brimaz isn't good because it's really just a 3/4 that isn't evasive or have protection for anything. Most of RG or RGW can just play a better creature (Polukranos, Crusher, Dragon, Courser) and dies to the black removal (Gild, Downfall, Agent). It might be better as a 4/3, but then it just dies to Lightning Strike, so I don't know how to make it good right now. It's possible he's not good because in the decks you want to play Brimaz you'd rather go Voltron on a Favored Hoplite or Fabled Hero. As for GB/GBW, it's probably the best deck right now. It beats RBW and has a good matchup with RG/RGW (or it's actually bad and I'm just getting unlucky with RGW). There's no graveyard hate and it can go through its deck fairly quickly and set itself up to win. It probably doesn't have a great aggro matchup since it's more like midrange/control than a ramp deck and it takes it a few turns to get set up. Chained to the Rocks might just be the best removal spell right now since you can take the threat and not have to worry about it coming back. I think BWR can have a better GB matchup if it starts using Chained to the Rocks either in the main or side. The GB deck makes me wish that Bow of Nylea could work on both graveyards, not just your own.
Thanks for the feedback guys.
Nice pickup simon, I guess that makes fated return even better and I'd definitely want at least 2 and possibly 3 in the board currently. Andrea - I have seen various esper decks place, they're sitting on the fringe at the moment but do have potential. Yankem, agree that this is an awesome deck if you expect a lot of mono black. The only card they have with > 3 toughness is Gary, most of their deck just folds to you.
Good point paul on the apparent disconnect between scry lands/cornucopia, the problem is that most players just don't let you get value from your sweepers. Fated retribution is too expensive against anything other than GR decks, against mono black or UW you're basically forced to use spot removal before you get to 7 mana - even with acceleration - which makes it a 1 for 1 or maybe 1 for 2 at best if you're lucky (and watch out for bestow). The only thing cornucopia is really good at is getting you to elspeth a turn early, and gild just does that better. At the very least, I'd want the 4th gild before the first cornucopia, and most lists are cutting back to 2-3 gild given that maindeck artifact removal becomes necessary against the dredge/whip deck.
I am not sure I entirely buy the "Cornucopia is bad, but Scry lands are good" theory. It is true: I am not a block player but I think if the block is slow enough to tolerate a decent amount of scry lands in your deck then 1-2 cornucopia shouldn't be a terrible strain. I do see that if you are way behind in development you will just never catch up but having Sweepers means you don't mind if a turn is dropped one way or the other, especially if that turn is spent ramping up to that sweeper.
The real downside to Cornucopia is that it a) signals a very slow start to your opponent which may lead to them bum rushing you with their guys while holding back something special to save against the eventual sweeper. b) does nothing in and of itself to forward your position (other than making Elspeth or Fated Retribution easier to cast). If you want to say it is bad for that reason then fine I guess that is a matter of trial/error experience. Gild is definitely superior in this regard as it helps to ramp AND slows your opponent's roll. (But at sorcery speed may be too slow to stop some shenanigans.)
Otherwise, nice article.
I think this is the deck to play, with so much Black running around.
I agree. I was on the fence on playing in a few of them, but I think it's unfortunate that they are not going to be available.
It's a shame that they cancelled ptqs on mtgo :( You did good work with this!
Interesting! I didn't think the draft was that bad, but good to see you get there. The one pick I wasn't too sure about was P1P2 where you didn't even seem to consider Archetype of Imagination. I feel that this card isn't too far off of bomb status, especially in a deck where you end up with the Horse.
Good job!
Top notch as always! Another sideboard move I like to make is bringing in a big toughness guy in certain matchups. A prime example is the Pheras-Band Centaurs. Some decks can't do much of anything against a 3/7. Rarely a guy you wanted to start, but can be very good in certain matchups.
Lol yeah go see Dr Fixit. :p I don't think I have ever met a real life vorthos before if that's what it entails.
I have always thought you were a hybrid like me (S/J/T admixture). The main thing is you are good at the brewing of Mad Science. I built a variation of your Storm decks using one of my pet cards Unexpected Results thus naming the deck Unexpected Storm. It really confounds Control (particularly UW), stalls most aggro and just dies to Mono Black Devotion unless they falter, in which case it comes much closer.
Actually I'm a bit of everything. Definitely a Johnny mainly but my old articles are all about some tourmanent repots where I try this or that weird deck of mine in Daily events.
I also have a Timmy side; this I discovered recently. I really do like big creatures.
And finally I am a serious Vorthos as well. My basic lands always have to be the same art. Or if I'm playing UW for example and my Islands are from Ravnica, then my Plains' also have to be from Ravnica as well. Next week I will be talking about a Bant colored deck and please check the screenshots for basic lands; all Alara basics with Bant ones chosen of course!
But there's even worse. I was recently working on a deck that had Ral Zarek in it. I also added Jace to it. But then I remembered that I read somewhere that Ral was trying to kill Jace in Ravnica story. As a result I removed Jace from the deck.
Do you think I should see a doctor? :)
Thanks all for the comments and see you next week.
That was Cotton's point, no? Remove Soul is still around untouched because they still functional reprint it.
I doubt Gwendlyn di Corci is Italian, with a first name like "Gwendlyn". Maybe she's Swiss.
I see you didn't comment on what's notoriously happening in Gwendlyn's art. Because this is a family site. I still don't get how they approved that one. That guy's even a priest!
Minor isn't a creature type. Oracle ruling established it's just the "name" of the token. It's just a demon called "Minor". Friends call it "Minnie".
"the 3-mana Dauntless Dourbark": that would be Dungrove Elder.
That was just excellent.
I have to argue with you on one thing, though. A player who just randomly puts Possibility Storm in his or her deck and see what happens is not a Pure Johnny. A Pure Johnny does exactly what you did. A Pure Johnny needs for his deck to be an elaborate web of mind-blowing interactions. Otherwise got bored. A player who uses Possibility Storm as it is, without trying to combo with it or take advantage of it, is... I don't know, just a bad player? Careless? Inexperienced? Not that much into the game?
Another thing: it's a common misconception that only Spike wants to win. While Spikes clearly put winning at a higher priority level than Timmys and Johnnies, that's sort of a minor aspect to the psychographic profiles. Every player plays to win (except possibly Vorthos, but that's a different kind of profile entirely). The main difference is HOW they want to win. What they want to do with their decks. Spike is about sheer efficiency. Timmy is about splashiness. Johnny is about complexity. So, yeah, Pure Spike wins more because efficiency is more likely to win you games than splashiness or complexity. And adding a certain amount of Spike to your profile helps to put a limit to the inherent idiosyncrasies of Timmy and Johnny, therefore improving their winning ratio.
I'd say you're about 85% Johnny, 15% Spike, considering you seem to enjoy casual play more than competitive play (and that's again transversal: it's maybe hard to be a casual Spike, but you can be a competitive Timmy or a competitive Johnny, or at least a competitive player who's predominantly a Timmy or a Johnny. Show and Tell is a competitive Timmy card; Birthing Pod is a competitive Johnny card).
yeah I am experiencing that now as an opponent brought the super obvious heroic (white weenies) auras deck that has been circulating "Just for Fun" lately. (Or Red White/Blue White/Green White) Auras as long as it is some kind of tongue-biting eye-squinting voltron build. I think what I just said about that kind of deck is WHY that wasn't discussed here in conjunction with storm.
I meant in conjunction with Possibility Storm, Paul. It would give you double heroic triggers.
He did. Just not in this article.
Removal Soul = Essence Scatter...
And here I thought you would have done something with Heroic and/or cipher
Aww, nothing on Rohgaah of Kher Keep? Have you never given him to an opponent them cast Mirrorweave at a Kobolds of Kher Keep with his trigger on the stack? Is that just me?
Brilliant exposition of an idea, again Nafiz! :D I came up with a fun Borbor Enter deck a while ago but it was overshadowed by other decks by the time it came time to do my articles. I never did consider possibility storm with it. Guild feud is actually a great card if you build it with fun in mind. I am a little surprised you dismissed it so quickly/casually. 6 mana is no great hurdle. (Especially if you are getting it into play with something like Unexpected Results. :p)
I particularly love the post and worldspine decks. to echo Blippy, bravo!.
Bravo! Author! Author!