Interesting deck Michael but why the Deathrite Shamans? You only have one black mana producing land. The Shamans best function (of the 3) is the 2 points of damage it does as it goes along with the nickel and diming your opponent to death. Every deck I see that uses the Shaman uses that function the most compared to the other 2.
Force of Will is a near absolute must to be re-printed in Vintage Masters. (Hopefully they throw in Gravity Sphere too.) Here's why. I have been playing since Beta and watched the evolution from just Magic to Type 1, Type 1.5, Type 2, and so on. Once they created the split formats Type 1(Now Vintage) started fading into smaller and smaller groups because the only way to compete at a tournament level was to have the Power 9. Period. So now today the only people who play Vintage are mostly those who have the Power 9. This concept may spill into Vintage as well. It's great that they are creating a new format and I forsee the Classic format going bye bye because Classic is simply MTGO's Vintage. For those who do not have the Power 9 or don't want to compete in Vintage will still have Legacy which bans the broken cards of Vintage.
Now onto the Force of Will and why it pretty much must be re-printed. Up until Force of Will was printed there was simply no way to stop the "First turn Channel/Fireball kill your opponent who doesn't get a turn" combo. An instant win in a tournament is deadly! Take a look at the card pool today. The mind boggles at the possibilites for "First turn kill your opponent who doesn't get a turn". (Painters Sevant/Grindstone comes to mind). Only one card can stop this program. Force of Will. If they do not re-print it, the Force of Wills out there now will skyrocket in price.
I have been very unimpressed with Nighthowler. Sure sometimes it's a 3 mana 7/7, but so often it's a 0/0 on turn 3 meaning I cannot play it. It is also quite often a 3 mana 1/1. I would guess that whatever BB or 1BB creature is in the next set will replace it.
Well the good news is that, come next July, you'll only *need* one LED since it's restricted in Vintage. So don't feel too bad about missing that boat. Plus it may see a reprint in Vintage Masters.
I'm a Noble Fish enthusiast myself, and I like your list. When I get the chance to watch the videos, I'll be interested to see if Daze worked out. I have never ran it in Classic, because it's pretty bad on the draw, and some of the decks like Shops can play around it rather easily. In Legacy, mana is far more tight, and it has better utility there.
I tried to find the replays, and couldn't in the new client (yes, horror of horrors), so here is what I can remember - I either lost, or almost lost 1 game due to getting greedy vs opponent's guy + open Wxx mana. I had a Deathbellow Minotaur out, and cast the Uncommon lord. Before attackers, he got to Last Breath the lord, and eat my 2/3 as well. I had other options there, and that was the one thing I felt like I genuinely screwed up during the games.
And if it makes you feel any better, I probably would have named Lotus Petal in that second game against Oath as well. Thanks for the shout-out. Always enjoy watching your matches.
It's amazing to me, I'll meet at least one brother at a Grand prix or a Con, I've forgotten everything I ever learned while pledging, but I still get the sinfonia newsletter emailed to me
The RW aggro deck is actually more like a highly synergistic aggro/combo deck than your traditional RDW. it's a fascinating idea and works beatufully when it comes together, but is hideously inconsistent (losing to its own draws/mulligans and any minimal amount of disruption) and I can't really see it sticking around.
The GR deck needs 8 burn for the black deathtouches imo. This is likely to keep the RW deck permanently out of the meta too, because that cheap burn disrupts the deck's combo.
The RWB version might be viable, scry does a lot to ease mana issues and it does have two sets of scrylands.
4x stormbreath is basically essential in the format, it's easily the most versatile creature.
So great when you open an insane bomb like that (that's like, what, rolling a 100 on a d100?) and then get to draw it in games! Xenagos was really eager to play for you. Except at the end, I guess. Very anti-climatic conclusion for the draft.
I think your analysis of the color combinations are correct, although I'm merely an observer, not a practitioner these days (I vicariously live the draft experience through you!).
That thing you said about the Theros Block season starting: do you plan on live recording some dailies where you play Theros Block constructed? You ever did something like that? I'd really like to see it.
I love your decks. As a matter of fact, I used that Rith deck from your very first article as the basis for one of the few Vanguard decks I every put together. Good stuff, and yay Dragon Week!
This is the first single-set block format since Innistrad that I've decided to get in on early, and so far I'm very pleased. I'm going to be following your articles, and I want to share some of my own impressions. I decided to play GR Ramp/Midrange early on before it became the "deck to beat", because I'm playing the same thing in Standard right now so I had to buy most of those cards anyhow.
I played RW Aggro in single-set Innistrad, but the RW Aggro deck in Theros looks awful to play. Anger of the Gods is just beastly to go up against. Even if that weren't in the format, you still have to work SO HARD to make those combat tricks worth a card. It might be the toughest aggro deck to play well in a long time. If you're a skilled limited player, you might be able to do a lot with it, because it can also be very hard to play *against*. If RW Aggro gets you into a legitimate ground war, things can get very complex. There's this odd tension when you're defending against RW. First you have to figure out what you can or cannot play around. Then you have to figure out blocks, keeping in mind that a combat trick played on any one of the heroic guys -- other than Akroan Crusader -- will impact all your other blocks. Say you have Polly or a Colossus, and they're swinging in with a few heroic guys and a couple Soldier tokens with counters on them, are they just pushing through damage? If so, block the heroic guy. If they have white open, do you block the Soldier tokens so they have to "waste" a God's Willing on a non-heroic if they want to save it? Playing against RW Aggro is probably doing a lot to increase my play skill, which is not something I thought I'd ever say about piloting ramp against aggro!
The mono-black deck is also proving troublesome. I expected Thoughtseize to be good against Ramp, it usually is. But I wasn't thinking about the horde of deathtouch guys they are throwing out there. My initial list has only 4 Magma Jet in the maindeck as non-creature removal, and I've been having to throw guys into deathtouchers or lose Polly's fighting them.
Because RW Aggro and mono-black are going to be popular budget choices, which as you point out will make them over-represented on mtgo relative to their actual strengths. I think biasing the maindeck a bit for those matchups is the way to go. My next revision of the deck is going to add a set of Lightning Strikes to the maindeck for those two matchups.
I haven't faced the R/W/x control decks yet. The mana on the Dega (RWB) version looks horrible, I just can't imagine that deck being a *consistent* performer.
I've found Nylea to be good in every matchup, but I still don't want to go over 2 copies. Xenagos is really swingy, and there's no one matchup where he's consistently awesome or consistently worthless. Mistcutters are so bad I'm not even keeping them in the sideboard anymore, there's no blue anywhere, and they are just abysmal against stupid 1/1 deathtouchers clogging the ground. I was trying to make do with only 2 Stormbreath Dragons, but am now thinking I need the full set in every matchup -- maybe I'll use the proceeds from writing my Dragon article appropriately to buy them :-)
Pretty sure broodmates are siblings. (A brood is a collection of eggs (or hatchlings even), aka a clutch) So yeah Boyfriend brother, or Girlfriend sister would be crossing some taboo boundary somewhere.
i liked the article as it is, if you want to write up the matches for this draft that is fine, if you want to keep it mind for future drafts that is also fine!
But the spell refers to just one of them. "Summon Broodmate", singular. Whose broodmate? If it was called "Dragon Brother" (as opposed to "Dragon Brothers"), wouldn't it sound a little strange?
That is solid criticism - I felt that the 2/2 might actually be relevant at times if I curve 2/3/4, but you might be right that I should be sucking it up to 17 lands.
It's also fair to ask for the matches. I can write them up tonight if that's interesting - I don't usually write up matches that are paint-by-numbers, but I'll try to do that tonight. I know that I like it when, even if the matches are boring, I get "closure" at the end of someone else's writeup.
I think you should've gone 17 land in this deck. You have mana sinks in Polis Crusher and Nemesis of Mortals and I'm sure you'd want to Monstrosity them every single game if possible. Your fixing is good, I don't think you even need Burnished Hart when you have 3x Nylea's Presence to fix, and if you really needed the land, I'd rather play a 17th land rather than risk getting screwed by Pharika's Cure/Magma Jet/Lightning Strike/Time to Feed.
Also, even if the matches weren't great, it's still good to talk about them. Even if you think the choices weren't "interesting", you still made choices and they impact the outcome of the match. That in itself should make it interesting enough.
Interesting deck Michael but why the Deathrite Shamans? You only have one black mana producing land. The Shamans best function (of the 3) is the 2 points of damage it does as it goes along with the nickel and diming your opponent to death. Every deck I see that uses the Shaman uses that function the most compared to the other 2.
Force of Will is a near absolute must to be re-printed in Vintage Masters. (Hopefully they throw in Gravity Sphere too.) Here's why. I have been playing since Beta and watched the evolution from just Magic to Type 1, Type 1.5, Type 2, and so on. Once they created the split formats Type 1(Now Vintage) started fading into smaller and smaller groups because the only way to compete at a tournament level was to have the Power 9. Period. So now today the only people who play Vintage are mostly those who have the Power 9. This concept may spill into Vintage as well. It's great that they are creating a new format and I forsee the Classic format going bye bye because Classic is simply MTGO's Vintage. For those who do not have the Power 9 or don't want to compete in Vintage will still have Legacy which bans the broken cards of Vintage.
Now onto the Force of Will and why it pretty much must be re-printed. Up until Force of Will was printed there was simply no way to stop the "First turn Channel/Fireball kill your opponent who doesn't get a turn" combo. An instant win in a tournament is deadly! Take a look at the card pool today. The mind boggles at the possibilites for "First turn kill your opponent who doesn't get a turn". (Painters Sevant/Grindstone comes to mind). Only one card can stop this program. Force of Will. If they do not re-print it, the Force of Wills out there now will skyrocket in price.
I have been very unimpressed with Nighthowler. Sure sometimes it's a 3 mana 7/7, but so often it's a 0/0 on turn 3 meaning I cannot play it. It is also quite often a 3 mana 1/1. I would guess that whatever BB or 1BB creature is in the next set will replace it.
Well the good news is that, come next July, you'll only *need* one LED since it's restricted in Vintage. So don't feel too bad about missing that boat. Plus it may see a reprint in Vintage Masters.
I'm a Noble Fish enthusiast myself, and I like your list. When I get the chance to watch the videos, I'll be interested to see if Daze worked out. I have never ran it in Classic, because it's pretty bad on the draw, and some of the decks like Shops can play around it rather easily. In Legacy, mana is far more tight, and it has better utility there.
I tried to find the replays, and couldn't in the new client (yes, horror of horrors), so here is what I can remember - I either lost, or almost lost 1 game due to getting greedy vs opponent's guy + open Wxx mana. I had a Deathbellow Minotaur out, and cast the Uncommon lord. Before attackers, he got to Last Breath the lord, and eat my 2/3 as well. I had other options there, and that was the one thing I felt like I genuinely screwed up during the games.
I will defo use some, or all, of those for future columns. :)
Sorry Oath of Druids is of course Tempest Block and should therefore be reprinted in Vintage Masters.
And if it makes you feel any better, I probably would have named Lotus Petal in that second game against Oath as well. Thanks for the shout-out. Always enjoy watching your matches.
You could have named the column any of the following:
Sex, Slugs and Rock n' Roll
Two Slugs to the Head
Slugs and Kisses
As always, I'm glad that you are showcasing a different piece of the Modern pie than I am.
Also, is it just me, or is Delver arguably the worst card in Delver Loam?
It's amazing to me, I'll meet at least one brother at a Grand prix or a Con, I've forgotten everything I ever learned while pledging, but I still get the sinfonia newsletter emailed to me
Awesome comment, thanks.
The RW aggro deck is actually more like a highly synergistic aggro/combo deck than your traditional RDW. it's a fascinating idea and works beatufully when it comes together, but is hideously inconsistent (losing to its own draws/mulligans and any minimal amount of disruption) and I can't really see it sticking around.
The GR deck needs 8 burn for the black deathtouches imo. This is likely to keep the RW deck permanently out of the meta too, because that cheap burn disrupts the deck's combo.
The RWB version might be viable, scry does a lot to ease mana issues and it does have two sets of scrylands.
4x stormbreath is basically essential in the format, it's easily the most versatile creature.
So great when you open an insane bomb like that (that's like, what, rolling a 100 on a d100?) and then get to draw it in games! Xenagos was really eager to play for you. Except at the end, I guess. Very anti-climatic conclusion for the draft.
I think your analysis of the color combinations are correct, although I'm merely an observer, not a practitioner these days (I vicariously live the draft experience through you!).
That thing you said about the Theros Block season starting: do you plan on live recording some dailies where you play Theros Block constructed? You ever did something like that? I'd really like to see it.
No way! That's awesome! I joined the Mu Xi Chapter at Stephen F. Austin State University. I graduated May '12 but going back for graduate school.
When I went to University of Louisville I was in Zeta Kappa (the chapter there obv), when I transferred to WKU, I never thought about rejoining.
I love your decks. As a matter of fact, I used that Rith deck from your very first article as the basis for one of the few Vanguard decks I every put together. Good stuff, and yay Dragon Week!
This is the first single-set block format since Innistrad that I've decided to get in on early, and so far I'm very pleased. I'm going to be following your articles, and I want to share some of my own impressions. I decided to play GR Ramp/Midrange early on before it became the "deck to beat", because I'm playing the same thing in Standard right now so I had to buy most of those cards anyhow.
I played RW Aggro in single-set Innistrad, but the RW Aggro deck in Theros looks awful to play. Anger of the Gods is just beastly to go up against. Even if that weren't in the format, you still have to work SO HARD to make those combat tricks worth a card. It might be the toughest aggro deck to play well in a long time. If you're a skilled limited player, you might be able to do a lot with it, because it can also be very hard to play *against*. If RW Aggro gets you into a legitimate ground war, things can get very complex. There's this odd tension when you're defending against RW. First you have to figure out what you can or cannot play around. Then you have to figure out blocks, keeping in mind that a combat trick played on any one of the heroic guys -- other than Akroan Crusader -- will impact all your other blocks. Say you have Polly or a Colossus, and they're swinging in with a few heroic guys and a couple Soldier tokens with counters on them, are they just pushing through damage? If so, block the heroic guy. If they have white open, do you block the Soldier tokens so they have to "waste" a God's Willing on a non-heroic if they want to save it? Playing against RW Aggro is probably doing a lot to increase my play skill, which is not something I thought I'd ever say about piloting ramp against aggro!
The mono-black deck is also proving troublesome. I expected Thoughtseize to be good against Ramp, it usually is. But I wasn't thinking about the horde of deathtouch guys they are throwing out there. My initial list has only 4 Magma Jet in the maindeck as non-creature removal, and I've been having to throw guys into deathtouchers or lose Polly's fighting them.
Because RW Aggro and mono-black are going to be popular budget choices, which as you point out will make them over-represented on mtgo relative to their actual strengths. I think biasing the maindeck a bit for those matchups is the way to go. My next revision of the deck is going to add a set of Lightning Strikes to the maindeck for those two matchups.
I haven't faced the R/W/x control decks yet. The mana on the Dega (RWB) version looks horrible, I just can't imagine that deck being a *consistent* performer.
I've found Nylea to be good in every matchup, but I still don't want to go over 2 copies. Xenagos is really swingy, and there's no one matchup where he's consistently awesome or consistently worthless. Mistcutters are so bad I'm not even keeping them in the sideboard anymore, there's no blue anywhere, and they are just abysmal against stupid 1/1 deathtouchers clogging the ground. I was trying to make do with only 2 Stormbreath Dragons, but am now thinking I need the full set in every matchup -- maybe I'll use the proceeds from writing my Dragon article appropriately to buy them :-)
Yeah, it does.
The PMA in your name stand for Phi Mu Alpha?
Pretty sure broodmates are siblings. (A brood is a collection of eggs (or hatchlings even), aka a clutch) So yeah Boyfriend brother, or Girlfriend sister would be crossing some taboo boundary somewhere.
i liked the article as it is, if you want to write up the matches for this draft that is fine, if you want to keep it mind for future drafts that is also fine!
But the spell refers to just one of them. "Summon Broodmate", singular. Whose broodmate? If it was called "Dragon Brother" (as opposed to "Dragon Brothers"), wouldn't it sound a little strange?
That is solid criticism - I felt that the 2/2 might actually be relevant at times if I curve 2/3/4, but you might be right that I should be sucking it up to 17 lands.
It's also fair to ask for the matches. I can write them up tonight if that's interesting - I don't usually write up matches that are paint-by-numbers, but I'll try to do that tonight. I know that I like it when, even if the matches are boring, I get "closure" at the end of someone else's writeup.
I think you should've gone 17 land in this deck. You have mana sinks in Polis Crusher and Nemesis of Mortals and I'm sure you'd want to Monstrosity them every single game if possible. Your fixing is good, I don't think you even need Burnished Hart when you have 3x Nylea's Presence to fix, and if you really needed the land, I'd rather play a 17th land rather than risk getting screwed by Pharika's Cure/Magma Jet/Lightning Strike/Time to Feed.
Also, even if the matches weren't great, it's still good to talk about them. Even if you think the choices weren't "interesting", you still made choices and they impact the outcome of the match. That in itself should make it interesting enough.
Haha, that's perfect! Good times.
Each of them is one broodmate. It's grammatically like saying they're both peers, or both brothers.