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Another "newbie drafter wants criticism on his drafting" post; I've been out of Magic since the days of Ice Age / 4th ed, dragged back in by DotP12, and my rustiness shows. http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=2v1vl I think I fixed myself into green/white too early, compounded the error by going 16 lands (trusting to the Elves and the dual-land to bail me out), and duly got whomped in three straight matches. What are the more egregious mistakes that I made?
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Aug 11, 2011 05:24
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| # ? Jun 11, 2024 10:02 |
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Vorinclex, the poor man's Alpha Tyranax.
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Aug 11, 2011 05:25
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I came here to post my raredraft, but it appears to be down currently. Just took down an 8-4, and wanted some critiques on my draft. look forward to a future edit! edit: it's back http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=2uzkc once again, critique welcome. The Bandit fucked around with this message at 07:30 on Aug 11, 2011 |
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Aug 11, 2011 06:38
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going to draft ravnica block with irl bros on sunday. I just read a couple posts on it and was like  this should be good!!!
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Aug 11, 2011 07:00
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 Much better pool this time around, beat a GW and GR deck, lost to another BR aggro (inferno titan) and a UW deck that just milled me down in 3 turns each time with Jace. Think Im getting the hang of limited construction, and my 3 standout cards in this had to be Call to the Grave, Throne, and Devouring Swarm all work together to give me a constant stream of chumps to make sure all my good poo poo stayed alive while the enemy whittled down to nothing. Bad luck with the 2 second matchups, but really happy with my deck and performance this time. What do you think?
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Aug 11, 2011 07:05
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Someone will probably come in to say why I'm wrong but I'm not a fan of Blood Seeker. You jack up your curve a little this way but I think you'd get more mileage out of Dark Favor, especially on a Blood Ogre or Devouring Swarm.
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Aug 11, 2011 07:16
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I've never played with Dark Favor, is it good? Anyway, I'd get rid of Swiftfoot Boots and add Fling, probably. Fling is just a surprisingly useful little spell in a lot of situations, and I've been less and less impressed with the Boots as I've played them. Also, for a R/B deck you're actually not doing that great with removal. I'd probably splash Pacifism off a single Plains and the Manalith: your colored mana costs are lenient enough that I think you could easily get away with that.
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Aug 11, 2011 07:21
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Ashenai posted:I've never played with Dark Favor, is it good? The only time I play with something like Dark Favor is if I'm playing UB and I have Aven Fleetwings to put them on and become a serious clock.
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Aug 11, 2011 07:23
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He's got Swiftfoot Boots for hexproof and even before that it's gonna pull a lot more value out of a first striker or flyer. Might also be handy for drawing removal that would otherwise fall on the Sengir or Titan. Enchantments are really the only thing that makes the boots worthwhile I think. You run a pretty big risk of an ugly two-for-one otherwise but you start enchanting a hexproof first-striker and there's not a lot that will get in his way. It's not always going to work but I've never seen Bloodseeker matter. Nehru the Damaja fucked around with this message at 08:13 on Aug 11, 2011 |
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Aug 11, 2011 07:28
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If I was going to cut anything for Dark Favor it'd be the Goblin War Paint, though I suppose with such a low curve there's actually a reasonable shot that Child + War Paint is going to be your turn 4.
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Aug 11, 2011 07:34
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Citizen Psmith posted:Another "newbie drafter wants criticism on his drafting" post; I've been out of Magic since the days of Ice Age / 4th ed, dragged back in by DotP12, and my rustiness shows. Disclaimer: I have literally drafted three times ever. But I did win on my third time so there's that. P1P2: Sacred Wolf isn't a bad card but green's a rough color to play in M12 draft. I wouldn't push toward it unless I knew I had Overrun, a Primeval Titan or something else that will have an impact. If you do go green, though, Wolf gets a lot of mileage out of Trollhide. P1P3: Chandra's Outrage is begging to be picked. A lot of */4s and under that this will pop, and the red you've passed along is mediocre so far, so it's not like you'd be sending mixed signals downstream. Red's a great color in M12 draft and now would be a good time to get in on it. P1P4: If you're going to go with Green, at least you've got a good selection here. But I'd pick Stingerfling Spider. Arachnus Web can be great but it's rubbish for locking down bigger creatures unless you also have Arachnus Spinner, which would let you recycle them. Stingerfling is a great blocker and drops a flyer upon casting. That's good value. It's also an uncommon, while Arachnus Web is common. You might see it cycle around again and even if you don't, more will probably come along soon. P1P5: There are lots of good blue cards here. The fact that Chasm Drake has made it this many picks would have me strongly considering jumping ship for blue, since it looks like either nobody's playing it or whoever is has no sense of what's valuable. P1P7: Gladecover Scout is nearly pointless. The hexproof bonus only really matters if you're loading up on enchants since then you'll make something they actually want to use spells and abilities on. If you're insisting on G/W, Plummet is at least a good sideboard card. If you had picked up Blue, Ice Cage would be good here and the fact that it still isn't claimed continues to suggest to me Blue is open. P1P9: Picking a defender over a decent (if unamazing) three-drop only makes sense if your deck is shaping up to be a slow trudge toward inevitability. You don't really have any bombs worth waiting for right now, so I think defenders are the wrong posture. Brindle Boar at least has some options. P1P10: Siege Mastadon over Rampant Growth also suggests a slow defensive deck. P2P1: Okay now you're sitting on a bomb that could potentially justify a defensive posture, but there's still no reason not to consider going fast. P2P4: You've got a planeswalker. You want it out quickly. Hunter's Insight will help you get there or, bare minimum, give you some much needed card draw. Siege Mastodon is sharing five-drop space with your planeswalker and you already have two. P3P4: Giant Spider is a pretty cool card but if memory serves, you're hurting for two-drops. You have... I think just one Garruk's Companion? P3P5: Stave Off is pretty good in this as a way to shrug off enchants and as a combat trick, but I'm also a fan of Crumbling Colossus. It's another five but I'd rather have Stingerfling, Colossus and Garruk than Garruk and two Mastodons. P3P6: Phantasmal Dragon's gone this far? Yeah, someone to your left is building a pretty sweet blue deck. P3P8: You've doubled down really heavily on a defensive posture. I don't think the crocodiles fit that. If you're just trying to keep blockers up until Garruk and/or a Carnage Wurm can do some damage, Divine Favor's more in that direction. I don't know that you have anything aggressive enough for Bloodthirst to be a factor. P3P9: I'd honestly consider hate-drafting Ice Cage over the elf.
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Aug 11, 2011 07:58
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e: Here's a question for you all that I've been mulling over in my head for a couple days. In M12, how maindeckable is Naturalize?Citizen Psmith posted:Another "newbie drafter wants criticism on his drafting" post; I've been out of Magic since the days of Ice Age / 4th ed, dragged back in by DotP12, and my rustiness shows. p1p2 Not only is G a pretty poor color to be in, but Sacred Wolf is the third-best green card in the pack. Arachnus Web is very good, especially in G/W where you have access to Auramancer. That said, I'd rather take Arsonist, Ponder, or Warhorse than go into G just for a web. It also happens that U and R both send some good stuff your way later, too (though no Garruk, so who knows). p1p4 I agree with taking the Spider over the Web, though really it'd be better for you if you'd been in U or R instead of G and could grab Drake/Giant. p1p5 Blue is so open! p1p7 Plummet is definitely the pick here. p1p9 Pride Guardian is pretty bad (though I could imagine it being a defensible sideboard option against bloodthirst), Brindle Boar is pretty okay (and goes well with Wrath). p1p10 Rampant Growth is just better than the Mastodon, I think. p1p12 Slaughter Cry is probably better against you, so it's the correct hatedraft. p2p2 You have exactly 1 griffin thus far, and you're running Wrath if you're in W. Rider is very bad; Sentinel is probably the pick. p2p4 Hunter's Insight is really good, a second Mastodon is really not. p2 in general: tons of good R, B, and U is being passed, and pretty much nothing in your colors. Things are going horribly wrong; I'm honestly not sure whose fault it is, but this rather confirms that you should have switched out of at least one of your colors. p3p2 At this point, your deck's pretty bad, so you probably are looking at a gameplan of "stall until you draw your bombs, then play them for maximal advantage". I would take the Roc Egg. You've already got several (admittedly worse) finishers, so the Wurm is somewhat redundant. p3p4 You may be a defensive deck, but Pegasus is so much better than Spider. Overall, it looks like blue was pretty wide open, and you could have made a pretty excellent U/x deck if you'd been able to get into it. I feel fairly certain that you had both a green and white drafter within two seats of you on the left, the white part of which is just bad luck: probably someone opened a bomb and tried to force it. e2: btw, for those of us who as dispirited over being worse than the pros, Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa just posted an article on C-F in which he lists having flying as one of the upsides for Griffin Rider with no griffins out. Mornacale fucked around with this message at 09:36 on Aug 11, 2011 |
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Aug 11, 2011 08:27
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mr. mephistopheles posted:Is there any greater feeling in Magic than opening the most valuable card in the set in your first draft pack, having your first opponent tell you you suck and only won because you got lucky, and then winning the whole tournament? 
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Aug 11, 2011 13:41
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Mornacale posted:e: Here's a question for you all that I've been mulling over in my head for a couple days. In M12, how maindeckable is Naturalize? I have been running at least one type of Enchantment removal main deck if it comes down to my 22nd card. There are a number of pretty decent enchantments like Trollhide that can just be a blowout if you come across one.
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Aug 11, 2011 14:00
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EvilBeard posted:The only time I play with something like Dark Favor is if I'm playing UB and I have Aven Fleetwings to put them on and become a serious clock. Dark Favor is pretty good in the RB and BW too. Or any B/x deck with Tormented Souls and Duskhunter Bats. The risk of getting 2-for-1'd is worth it. Mornacole posted:e: Here's a question for you all that I've been mulling over in my head for a couple days. In M12, how maindeckable is Naturalize? not very. Not many artifacts will be in the average deck and enchantments that are played are usually auras. Naturalize/Demystify are 24th cards, they should hardly ever make the cut. Bring it in against blue/white if you see more than 1 of oring/pacifism/MC but its so poor against red and black that I wouldn't main it.
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Aug 11, 2011 14:45
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Danimo posted:Dark Favor is pretty good in the RB and BW too. Or any B/x deck with Tormented Souls and Duskhunter Bats. The risk of getting 2-for-1'd is worth it. Black at least seems to run Dark Favor semi-frequently, but you're right that those are the two colors that enchantment removal is shakiest against.
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Aug 11, 2011 17:52
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EvilBeard posted:The only time I play with something like Dark Favor is if I'm playing UB and I have Aven Fleetwings to put them on and become a serious clock. T1 Tormented Soul, T2 Dark Favor is an immediate clock.
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Aug 11, 2011 18:04
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Is 4-pack sealed worth trying? It seems like the variance in that would be huge and lead to a lot of janky decks.
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Aug 11, 2011 18:05
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4 pack sealed is amazing cause you run only a 30 card deck. Which would actually equate to about the least variance possible after construction. Considering that 12 lands is the way to go, you are looking at only 18 cards.
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Aug 11, 2011 20:17
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Here is Stovetop posted:4 pack sealed is amazing cause you run only a 30 card deck. It's pretty high-variance in the opens, though. If you get a bomb, it will show up almost every game.
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Aug 11, 2011 21:30
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Yeah, 4-pack sealed actually is a lot like what people imagine Sealed in general to be. It's more about opening well, and less about competent play/deck construction. I played it a couple of times but I'm not a fan.
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Aug 11, 2011 21:41
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I should also state that that tome scour.dec is really viable in 30 card, which is kinda sad. Maybe 4 pack sealed was maro's idea just so that mill would be an almost viable win condition.
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Aug 11, 2011 22:29
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Here is Stovetop posted:I should also state that that tome scour.dec is really viable in 30 card, which is kinda sad. Maybe 4 pack sealed was maro's idea just so that mill would be an almost viable win condition. Sword of body and mind is the bombiest bomb bomb ever in 4 pack sealed
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Aug 11, 2011 23:20
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So I just opened Jace, Memory Adept in a 4-pack sealed. This seems like a good thing
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Aug 12, 2011 03:00
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4 pack sealed should really be marketed towards the people that somehow convince every set designer to imbue milling themes in limited considerations
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Aug 12, 2011 03:39
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...And I just lost a match to someone who milled me (with a Jace's Archivist, even), and then post-board after I bulked up my deck against mill he switched up and threw a bunch of fliers in my face and I died. Great.
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Aug 12, 2011 04:33
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Don't worry Charlie, at least you opened a good card. My rares: Dungrove Elder, Manabarbs, Visions of Beyond, Quicksilver Amulet. I opened a Mind Control and Belltower Sphinx with horrible other blue cards (well not horrible but mana leaks and cancels are useless if you have literally no creatures). My best color is probably Green but I don't have anything with power greater than 2. My best creatures are the Elder, a Sengir Vampire with terrible black, and the aforementioned Sphinx. My only playable card in white is Reinforcements. e: Match One I played a guy with Flameblast Dragon, Primeval Titan, and Volcanic Dragon. Match two I played a guy with Primordial Hydra, Mind Control, multiple Pacifisms, and more. M12 really is the worst format. Daunte Vicknabb fucked around with this message at 04:52 on Aug 12, 2011 |
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Aug 12, 2011 04:47
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M12 draft video up! http://www.youtube.com/luluscards#p/c/8BE85028E46EB514/0/GtOphGakIP0
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Aug 12, 2011 04:49
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I forgot -- did you not pick Unsummon? If you have it, why wouldn't you board it in knowing his only bomb you've seen is Mind Control? Edit: And a few games in, the guy with the huge Tormented Soul clock. This is why Unsummon is killer. It saves your guys, it's tempo-setting, it robs a turn, it clears tokens, it wipes out auras. I think you're heavily undervaluing the card. Nehru the Damaja fucked around with this message at 06:12 on Aug 12, 2011 |
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Aug 12, 2011 05:33
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Daunte Vicknabb posted:Don't worry Charlie, at least you opened a good card. Sorry, man  It really does seem like a crapshoot based on what you open since you draw into your bombs so easily. Here is Stovetop was right and everybody seems desperate to mill -- I ran into another mill deck in Round 3 and almost got decked again but luckily he didn't hit my Jace like the other guy did, and once I was able to cast him it was over. Game 2 I didn't even need him and just managed to curve out with beaters and draw removal when I needed it. I ended up winning two rounds out of three, and yeah it was mostly because of Jace, but I did manage to blow out one guy by Doom Blading his Griffin Sentinel as he was putting Angelic Destiny on it, so there's that  I think I went in completely the wrong direction with my original build in that I was also drawn to green because of the heavy hitters, but they're all top-heavy right where Jace would be, and I didn't have early drops to shore up against aggro. Every sideboard I would do a full swap of green out and bring white in (everything minus Lifelink) and the games tended to go more smoothly. Is U/W what you guys would have done? Red looked pretty decent too but I was building around Jace and it didn't look like they would have meshed well. 
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Aug 12, 2011 05:44
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Just drafted this which I thought was pretty sick as it is, but made more so considering that I got some of my better cards (outcasts, 5th pick doom blade, tabled aven fleetwings, 7th pick azure mage) extremely late. edit: won the draft. didnt need to run dark favor but it might have been better over divination, which i actually did not draw once. most of my wins were off the back of chasm drake and vampire outcasts with azure mage as the little draw engine that could. The Nastier Nate fucked around with this message at 08:05 on Aug 12, 2011 |
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Aug 12, 2011 05:46
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I've never seen Consume Spirit cast for more than 5 in a dual-color deck. I'm personally against having it in, I would probably play another Rusted Sentinel over it. Edit: Hell, you should really play Dark Favor. You have some excellent targets (Child of Night, Vampire Outcasts, Aven Fleetwing) for it.
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Aug 12, 2011 05:54
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I'm still not a fan of auras that aren't troll hide, angelic destiny (and to a lesser extent spirit mantle) that let you walk into 2 for 1s but i might side it against a removaless deck. Consume Spirit is ok for 2 or 3. I'd pay 4 mana for a 2 pt drain life, especially in this kind of deck where I want to stall as long as possible to accrue card advantage or draw my powerful beaters. Won round 1. I got mana screwed game 1 drawing 6 swamps, all blue cards and then pentavus , then him game 2, then we actually had a decent match.
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Aug 12, 2011 06:12
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A 5/3 hexproof flyer isn't going to be walking into many two-for-ones. Any situation where you would choose to is probably worth it anyway.
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Aug 12, 2011 06:22
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Yeah I think hexproof creatures being a decent bit prevalent make auras a bit more palatable. I mean, Sacred Wolf + Trollhide is so good, like disgustingly good. Same thing goes for Fleetwing Aven or whatever it's called.
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Aug 12, 2011 06:24
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I battered down deck after deck with Swiftfoot Boots on a Blood Ogre with Trollhide. Hexproof and auras is goddamn great, especially if you can pair it with some kind of avoidance or other "I win" skill. Even in an instance where you don't get to, it's going to pull so much extra value out of Vampire Outcasts that the eventual two-for-one probably isn't going to outweigh the benefit. I'll eat the card loss from a Chandra's Outrage -- edit: Wait, that's five toughness now. All the more reason -- if I got to swing for 7 damage and 7 lifelink even once. And if he hasn't eaten a white enchant at the first opportunity at 4/4, you've probably got enough time for a few swings. Nehru the Damaja fucked around with this message at 06:38 on Aug 12, 2011 |
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Aug 12, 2011 06:29
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I just passed 2 Sorin's vengeance's in order to play some goblin fireslingers in an otherwise almost mono blue deck. Construction just ended and I feel like a loving moron, those things would have rounded out my deck perfectly because I'm basically all tempo and card filter without any actual ways to win!!!! I could even Djinn of wishes out the vengeance for hilariousness.
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Aug 12, 2011 07:04
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I just lost to LSV in the finals of an RGD draft. He pulled the craziest topdeck to turn the game around, which I think is proof that high profile players have cheat codes or game genies or something.  I might make a video of it this weekend if anyone cares to watch me play awful cards and finally get my comeuppance.
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Aug 12, 2011 08:55
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So, having just come back to MTG after playing from Revised<->Mirage, I played my first ever 4 booster sealed TNMO thing last night and did terribly for a whole bunch of reasons. I pulled this:-  And build a W/B deck with lawkeeper and Crown to stall for me to pull out the Angel or Vampire, before second guessing myself just before deck submission and switching to a G/R/B low curve aggro deck (Elves/Soul/Fireslinger/Scout into Berzerker/Bears/Skinshifter with Trollhide and 2 Rhinos as my wincon), then immediately regretting it. First game I got screwed on the draw, drawing a 6 land hand, mulling to a no land hand, then keeping a 3 land hand which only had a play on turn 4 and got wrecked by a U/W deck with a bunch of flying Griffins. In sideboard I go back to the original B/W concept and totally switch decks, and manage to hold him to a totally stalled board, both on 7 life, both with big flyers out (Angel for me, Vampire for him) and both with a Lawkeeper to keep the other one tapped down. He wins because of his Alabaster Mage farming him up a bunch of lifelink life and because he draws his removal before me. Of course, because I had submitted the 3 colour aggro deck at the start of the tournament, I start game 2 against U/B with it and win on turn 4 as I make my curve perfectly and I have 4 creatures on the board and he has no answer. Thinking I should maybe stay with it for game 2, I get hosed on mana again thanks to his Acidic Slime killing the one non-mountain land I had found, and I sat with a pile of green and black cards I couldn't cast while drawing down to my last 10 cards, 8 of which were lands or the Manalith that would have got me back in the game. I try to sideboard in the B/W deck but the client crashes as I am sideboarding and I am stuck with the G/B/R deck. My opponent Mana Leaks my T5 Rhino, Mind Rots my other Rhino out of my hand, and then pecks me to death with some lovely fliers and I lose my second match. I won the third match, curving out again in the tricolour aggro deck game 1, and then switching to B/W turn 2 and stalling for long enough to get Angel and winning. Overall, it was a fun but frustrating experience and I feel I should have stuck to my guns more, the RGB deck was a terrible idea and I was kicking myself all game. Looking at my card pool, were there any obvious choices I missed?
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Aug 12, 2011 09:49
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Difficult pool. I'm pretty sure your first instinct was right, though, and W/U flyers is the right call. The fact that you have a pretty scary milling Plan B is gravy (and yeah I think Mesmerist is good in 4-deck Sealed.)
Ashenai fucked around with this message at 10:29 on Aug 12, 2011 |
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Aug 12, 2011 10:21
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