Did a team sealed practice session yesterday with the old crowd including a couple of National team members (relevant format for WMC). It was incredibly hard to build the decks. Eventually we settled on a G/W aggro deck, an U/R deck splashing W (for Mantis Rider and a couple of Efreet Weaponmasters which, for the record, cannot target itself with the ability, as I learned yesterday!), and finally "the rest", playing almost all the duals & trilands in the pool. As we were two players on the team (Herzog and myself), and we both wanted to play the 5-color deck, we decided to play the other decks first, and whoever won their match would get to play the 5CC deck. I won with the U/R deck despite being down a game and then mulling three times over the next two games, and got to play the sweet deck for the rest of the evening. By the time we were done I was such in love with the deck that I was half ready to propose.
The deck felt kind of unbeatable. I certainly didn't lose any games with it all day. What I really discovered here was how good the various walls were. In particular, the 0/5 flying wall was incredibly important.
Kheru Lich Lord was, as we suspected (but we decided to try him out anyway), decidedly mediocre & I would always attempt to not play it, even though it gets better with delve, since you can just remove all the duds from the graveyard, leaving you with the Abzan Guides of the world instead of 0/5s.
I opened a Polluted Delta, but not much else of any value. Drew Crater's Claws exactly once, used it to kill off a Mer-Ek Nightblade. It did do some important work sorta in another game, though: My finals opponent played Villainous Wealth on me, and revealed it. I was pretty satisfied with that result. Went 4-0, won 11 packs, am happy.
Hi guys, it has been a long time. I haven't been playing magic the gathering lately at all. I finally graduated college a couple months ago and since then I've been pursuing online gaming competitively / professionally and it looks like it is actually going to work out finally. I'm really excited by the prospect of a new 3 color set, since alara was one of my favorites. It is also weird for me that this is now a curse site, since I don't really associate that brand with magic the gathering.
Seems the trend is towards 4-5 color decks. A lot of the fun/skill in Limited is predicting what your opponent has and playing around it. But when people are playing all colors they could have anything and so it becomes a guessing game. It also makes drafting/deckbuilding less interesting as you just play your fixing and the best cards.
Hopefully as the format evolves people will move back towards clan-based synergy decks.
I think only Sealed is about 4-5 color decks, because of the random assortment of gold bombs and lands you're getting. In draft the better decks seem to be 3-color, most often 2-color with a splash.
You really just need to embrace the rage. I keep a small colony of hamsters next to my computer and every time I lose a match to mana screw I throw one against the wall.
Although as with other formats if half the table is trying to draft 5-colour, however unwisely, it causes havoc for the players trying to work out which 2-colour pair is open.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
--
(I'm on on this site much anymore. If you want to get in touch it's probably best to email me: dom@heffalumps.org)
Forum Awards: Best Writer 2005, Best Limited Strategist 2005-2012
5CB PotM - June 2005, November 2005, February 2006, April 2008, May 2008, Feb 2009
MTGSalvation Articles: 1-20, plus guest appearance on MTGCast #86!
<Limited Clan>
I come to your clan with but a simple question. I am currently finishing up a Khans Set cube and have my thoughts perked towards building another, but the main point is recreating the best drafting enviorment. So I am quite stuck between 2 renowned formats plus one that has a small pet feeling.
IPA vs. 3ISD vs. 3CHK
To explain CHK, its due to a friend really loving Kamigawa's flavor and the fact that you can draft a close to combo deck in dampen thought. So I thought about asking the people who love limited to give me advice.
Do you intend to include duplicates? If so, I'd go with Innistrad (I think multiples of certain cards is necessary to validate various archetypes that made the format awesome). If not, I'd go with IPA.
@5-color: Although I did draft 5CC yesterday and won with it, I don't think it's usually as good as most wedges or even 2-color combinations unless the stars align. In sealed, however, I anticipate that my average number of colors will be around 4.1 or some such.
Im essentially doing what the channelfireball article a while back suggested as the hybrid option. Im using a 6-3-1 scale for building, but when time comes, I'll build the packs normally (so as to recreate as close as I can to a normal draft.)
Actually Kamigawa was a really good Limited format IMO, although I think CHK/CHK/BOK was better than 3xCHK.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
--
(I'm on on this site much anymore. If you want to get in touch it's probably best to email me: dom@heffalumps.org)
Forum Awards: Best Writer 2005, Best Limited Strategist 2005-2012
5CB PotM - June 2005, November 2005, February 2006, April 2008, May 2008, Feb 2009
MTGSalvation Articles: 1-20, plus guest appearance on MTGCast #86!
<Limited Clan>
I can never remember how to post images correctly. Here's hoping I did it right.
EDIT: Okay, apparently not. I'll post a decklist in a bit.
Anyway, drafted a Jeskai deck for the first time just now. Seems pretty sweet but I'm not sure if I'm striking the right balance between different elements. Jeskai decks particularly seem really unforgiving of not getting everything nicely proportionate, but I'm not at all sure what the ideal proportions are yet. I had several opportunities to pick up better mana fixing or some good morphs (a la Glacial Stalker) or a Goblinslide that I passed on for various reasons. So I'm curious if people's experience with Jeskai decks lines up with what I've put together here. Should I have been aiming for more/fewer creatures? More prowess guys like Bloodfire Expert/Jeskai Student? Better fixing to run more white?
Post-draft thoughts: I consistently wanted a lower curve in the deck and sided out the Aerialists and Twins for that reason. The games always seemed to be decided before they would come online and they wouldn't have made all that much difference in turning games around by that point anyway. I went 2-1, losing the second match to a guy playing 5-color with a bunch of Alabaster Kirins that I had a hard time dealing with. I already thought that card was pretty good, but I may have to start picking it quite highly.
EDIT AGAIN:
Okay, I'm at a little bit of a loss here, I think. This is what I am able to put together of the deck that won my pod:
This deck makes NO sense to me. I think he must have been playing 19 lands or so because he had a fairly significant commitment to every color but red, even in his main curve. It isn't like he was just playing UG with a splash of every other color. He was playing an actual Sultai/Abzan hybrid deck with a red splash. And yet he was playing a *bunch* of basics. Am I imagining things, or was this deck actually demonstrative of the way the format is going to develop? I watched all his games, and despite the fact that he seemed to consistently get pretty lucky with his mana, he never really seemed to need any particular thing to go right in order to beat practically anything.
That "winning" deck looks... let's be charitable and say "inconsistent".
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
--
(I'm on on this site much anymore. If you want to get in touch it's probably best to email me: dom@heffalumps.org)
Forum Awards: Best Writer 2005, Best Limited Strategist 2005-2012
5CB PotM - June 2005, November 2005, February 2006, April 2008, May 2008, Feb 2009
MTGSalvation Articles: 1-20, plus guest appearance on MTGCast #86!
<Limited Clan>
That "winning" deck looks... let's be charitable and say "inconsistent".
This is a maddeningly complex limited format, and I think it's still too early (for me anyway) to comment on other decks with a high degree of confidence. I agree that deck looks bad but I'm personally having a hell of a time figuring out what's good in this format. I have a very strong suspicion that a lot of success in this format will boil down to two main things:
Hitting the right land drops on time
Making strong in-game decisions
I feel like the vast majority of the matches I've lost (which has been a lot) have been mostly due to these two issues. Like any format mana screw/flood takes its fair share of games, but the problem is compounded in a heavily multicolor environment with lots of cipt lands. Triple Khans games I've won/lost that were decided by mana issues seem disproportionately large compared to other formats (so far).
The other major factor is the extreme multitude of decisions that need to be made each turn. Just figuring out how to spend your mana pratically requires a spreadsheet at times. Do you play that morph, or spend all your mana to unmorph something already in play, or cast a third non-morph creature straight up, or activate outlast, or leave mana up for your trick/removal? What about his morphs? What does he have mana for, what could they be? Should you attack into them or keep your guys back to block? With the amount of mana available to him what tricks and/or unmorphs can he be representing? The decisions are just endless and I know I've lost quite a few matches simply to being outplayed (or out-guessed).
My initial experience with Khans limited has gone something like this:
4-0 a sealed with Jeskai in my first event (news flash, Jeskai Ascendancy is sweet)
Lose my next 10 straight matches (three sealed events and a draft)
Break the slump by winning the last round of a swiss draft
3-0 my very next draft with Temur
How is that for extremes?
All that being said, the format is a ton of fun and I hope to draft a bunch of it. I'll pass on the sealed format, but draft is sweet. Here is my 3-0 Temur (splash black) deck, it played very well. I've listed most of the morphs at the cmc 3 slot:
It's more that people always overvalue removal. Really, if they make a card ":symb:: Sorcery: As an additional cost, get F'd in the A. Destroy target creature." people will say "removal is removal" and first-pick it.
The format is quite fun and quite hard, which is a great thing as far as I'm concerned. I like being challenged, which is part of why I loved Time Spiral block so much - that format was also incredibly difficult. I don't really know what I think is best yet, but the average number of lands in my Khans limited decks so far is around 18.4, which is pretty glorious. Yeah, I'm drafting 5-color control a lot. Monastery Flock is my most drafted card so far, just ahead of Bitter Revelation, Glacial Stalker and Rugged Highlands. For uncommons, it's Opulent Palace over Dragon's Eye Savants and Master the Way.
It's more that people always overvalue removal. Really, if they make a card ":symb:: Sorcery: As an additional cost, get F'd in the A. Destroy target creature." people will say "removal is removal" and first-pick it.
Wish I had more free time at the moment. I've barely had a chance to play Khans yet.
I do think they've made a better job of the morphs this time round. They're still pretty good, but far fewer games seem to be decided by a single wrongly guessed morph.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
--
(I'm on on this site much anymore. If you want to get in touch it's probably best to email me: dom@heffalumps.org)
Forum Awards: Best Writer 2005, Best Limited Strategist 2005-2012
5CB PotM - June 2005, November 2005, February 2006, April 2008, May 2008, Feb 2009
MTGSalvation Articles: 1-20, plus guest appearance on MTGCast #86!
<Limited Clan>
I'm currently splitting my Magic time between Limited and Modern. There are two Modern GP's in the upcoming months (Madrid and Milan) and I'm actually testing a lot for those. I've bought my Modern deck online (it's relatively cheap) and I've now cashed nine out of ten Daily Events with it. That's quite insane I think - I don't know if I've ever had such a high win% with a Constructed deck. It also means I've already won more than the price of the deck, so it's doing good things for my MTGO finances.
In between there's also a Limited GP coming up, so I'm also drafting a bit. I still have much to learn in this format though. I really need to restrain myself from drafting 5cc every draft, because I want to learn to draft other archetypes as well. But it's really hard to imagine what a nonblue deck looks like.
You really just need to embrace the rage. I keep a small colony of hamsters next to my computer and every time I lose a match to mana screw I throw one against the wall.
I'm in the same boat as Bateleur with the lack of time to draft as much as I'd like. Definitely enjoying draft much more than sealed, I think sealed is much more reliant on your pool than most limited formats.
My personal results remain at both extremes. Other than one Swiss draft where I went 1-2, all of my events have either been winless or undefeated.
It's more that people always overvalue removal. Really, if they make a card ":symb:: Sorcery: As an additional cost, get F'd in the A. Destroy target creature." people will say "removal is removal" and first-pick it.
I'm in the same boat as Bateleur with the lack of time to draft as much as I'd like. Definitely enjoying draft much more than sealed, I think sealed is much more reliant on your pool than most limited formats.
I agree with this. I'm still enjoying the draft format, but I'm really hating Sealed.
Yeah Sealed seems to be problematic. I've done 3 Sealeds now, once I had 9 lands and got to play the fun goodstuff deck. Once I had 5 lands (no trilands, and 4 of them allied) and basically couldn't play anything and had to go for a very underpowered 2 color deck. And once I had also only 5 or 6 lands, but two of them were Abzan trilands (plus one dual in those colors) and I had decent card quality in Abzan and therefore a good deck. Those seem to be the 3 situations that can commonly occur, and getting in that second situation is no fun at all. The lands in the Sealed pool seem by far the most important cards.
Anyway, did a draft last night, fully intending to NOT draft the control deck. Obviously the gods of Magic conspired against me, as my first pack contained End Hostilities AND Goblinslide, which is clearly a setup. So this beauty happened:
Whirlwind Adept has quietly moved from "I guess this works if I find nothing better" to "this card is crucial for the archetype and I want as many as I can".
You really just need to embrace the rage. I keep a small colony of hamsters next to my computer and every time I lose a match to mana screw I throw one against the wall.
Whirlwind Adept has quietly moved from "I guess this works if I find nothing better" to "this card is crucial for the archetype and I want as many as I can".
Wow! I've been tabling those!
So is this just because the aggro decks mess with your blockers so much that Hexproof is the only way to keep a viable blocker?
Regarding non-Blue decks: W/B would be the obvious choice here if it wasn't overdrafted. But possibly at a GP people will be good enough drafters that they won't force it quite as much as people seem to on MtGO?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
--
(I'm on on this site much anymore. If you want to get in touch it's probably best to email me: dom@heffalumps.org)
Forum Awards: Best Writer 2005, Best Limited Strategist 2005-2012
5CB PotM - June 2005, November 2005, February 2006, April 2008, May 2008, Feb 2009
MTGSalvation Articles: 1-20, plus guest appearance on MTGCast #86!
<Limited Clan>
That's normal, the card isn't particularly good. It just works in this deck, which nobody drafts.
So is this just because the aggro decks mess with your blockers so much that Hexproof is the only way to keep a viable blocker?
No, it's because I want to put every possible removal spell or card draw spell in my deck, which leaves very few slots for kill conditions. The hexproof means it's a pretty safe kill condition, and it's the only common that works for this. The reason I've liked having multiples is that, if I have them early, I can simply play one and trade for a creature without having to worry about getting stuck without kill conditions. So having extras essentially gives me more flexible use of them.
Regarding non-Blue decks: W/B would be the obvious choice here if it wasn't overdrafted. But possibly at a GP people will be good enough drafters that they won't force it quite as much as people seem to on MtGO?
I'd expect WB to be overdrafted at a GP as well. Don't overestimate the play level at a GP; also, if people have to 3-0 they might be more willing to go for the best archetype.
Anyway, it's entirely possible that I'll go into the GP intending to force this deck.
You really just need to embrace the rage. I keep a small colony of hamsters next to my computer and every time I lose a match to mana screw I throw one against the wall.
I very much agree @ Khans sealed, unfortunately. Well, I've only played a couple of them, but they were both fairly miserable. In the first I had a really terrible deck (not enough playable cards for two colors, not enough fixing for more) and went 2-2, losing to other mediocre decks without fixing. In the second I didn't have a deck and promptly dropped after getting mauled by a guy with four colors and no fixing that I saw. I actually thought sealed with the seeded pack worked better for Khans than regular sealed, as that pack lets you actually play three colors/have enough playables in two. The prereleases I played in (IRL & on Modo) were quite fun.
Have any of you been following the cheating scandal from the SCG Open in Worcester? It's kind of fascinating. Here's the relevant reddit thread about the incident: link
A player has caught on camera in the top 8 stacking his opponent's deck. I think the thing that was most shocking to me is that the judges there watching the match never seemed to notice or care that he could clearly see his opponent's cards while he was shuffling. I know I don't always watch my opponent when they are shuffling, but at least once I've had to ask an opponent to change their grip on my deck because I was afraid they could see my cards. I was also surprised to see how easy this trick is to learn. I watched a video and tried the mechanics. I would need to practice, but I'm sure I could make it pretty smooth with time. (Note: I do not intend on learning this and cheating. I simply wanted to learn more about how it worked.)
But the key here is that he had to be able to see the cards to do this correctly, and apparently he has been doing this for years. That is the crazy thing for me, that he had the stones to do this so many times, and frankly in what should have been an obvious way.
Also, changing the subject, drafting Khans is really hard. My current win percentage is 50% (whereas for the year my drafting win percentage is 62%).
1 Bloodfell Caves
1 Blossoming Sands
2 Dismal Backwater
1 Frontier Bivouac
2 Jungle Hollow
1 Nomad Outpost
2 Opulent Palace
1 Rugged Highlands
1 Scoured Barrens
1 Thornwood Falls
2 Plains
3 Island
2 Monastery Flock
1 Dragon's Eye Savants
2 Abzan Guide
1 Snowhorn Rider
1 Warden of the Eye
1 Archer's Parapet
1 Sultai Scavenger
1 Kheru Lich Lord
1 Abomination of Gudul
1 Ruthless Ripper
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Dig Through Time
1 Abzan Charm
1 Mardu Charm
1 Sultai Charm
1 Throttle
1 Debilitating Injury
1 Duneblast
1 Death Frenzy
1 Kill Shot
The deck felt kind of unbeatable. I certainly didn't lose any games with it all day. What I really discovered here was how good the various walls were. In particular, the 0/5 flying wall was incredibly important.
Kheru Lich Lord was, as we suspected (but we decided to try him out anyway), decidedly mediocre & I would always attempt to not play it, even though it gets better with delve, since you can just remove all the duds from the graveyard, leaving you with the Abzan Guides of the world instead of 0/5s.
1 Archer's Parapet
1 Chief of the Scale
1 Smoke Teller
2 Ainok Bond-Kin
1 Abzan Falconer
1 Salt Road Patrol
1 Abzan Guide
1 Grim Haruspex
1 Alabaster Kirin
1 Longshot Squad
1 Sagu Archer
1 Sultai Scavenger
2 Feat of Resistance
1 Abzan Charm
1 Murderous Cut
1 Debilitating Injury
1 Crater's Claws
1 Kill Shot
1 Incremental Growth
1 Scoured Barrens
1 Wind-Scarred Crag
1 Bloodfell Caves
1 Frontier Bivouac
1 Jungle Hollow
2 Sandsteppe Citadel
4 Plains
3 Forest
3 Swamp
2 Smite the Monstrous
I opened a Polluted Delta, but not much else of any value. Drew Crater's Claws exactly once, used it to kill off a Mer-Ek Nightblade. It did do some important work sorta in another game, though: My finals opponent played Villainous Wealth on me, and revealed it. I was pretty satisfied with that result. Went 4-0, won 11 packs, am happy.
Seems the trend is towards 4-5 color decks. A lot of the fun/skill in Limited is predicting what your opponent has and playing around it. But when people are playing all colors they could have anything and so it becomes a guessing game. It also makes drafting/deckbuilding less interesting as you just play your fixing and the best cards.
Hopefully as the format evolves people will move back towards clan-based synergy decks.
Practice for Khans of Tarkir Limited:
Draft: (#1) (#2) (#3) (#4) (#5)
(I'm on on this site much anymore. If you want to get in touch it's probably best to email me: dom@heffalumps.org)
Forum Awards: Best Writer 2005, Best Limited Strategist 2005-2012
5CB PotM - June 2005, November 2005, February 2006, April 2008, May 2008, Feb 2009
MTGSalvation Articles: 1-20, plus guest appearance on MTGCast #86!
<Limited Clan>
IPA vs. 3ISD vs. 3CHK
To explain CHK, its due to a friend really loving Kamigawa's flavor and the fact that you can draft a close to combo deck in dampen thought. So I thought about asking the people who love limited to give me advice.
540 Peasant cube- Gold EditionSomething Spicy@5-color: Although I did draft 5CC yesterday and won with it, I don't think it's usually as good as most wedges or even 2-color combinations unless the stars align. In sealed, however, I anticipate that my average number of colors will be around 4.1 or some such.
540 Peasant cube- Gold EditionSomething Spicy(I'm on on this site much anymore. If you want to get in touch it's probably best to email me: dom@heffalumps.org)
Forum Awards: Best Writer 2005, Best Limited Strategist 2005-2012
5CB PotM - June 2005, November 2005, February 2006, April 2008, May 2008, Feb 2009
MTGSalvation Articles: 1-20, plus guest appearance on MTGCast #86!
<Limited Clan>
EDIT: Okay, apparently not. I'll post a decklist in a bit.
Anyway, drafted a Jeskai deck for the first time just now. Seems pretty sweet but I'm not sure if I'm striking the right balance between different elements. Jeskai decks particularly seem really unforgiving of not getting everything nicely proportionate, but I'm not at all sure what the ideal proportions are yet. I had several opportunities to pick up better mana fixing or some good morphs (a la Glacial Stalker) or a Goblinslide that I passed on for various reasons. So I'm curious if people's experience with Jeskai decks lines up with what I've put together here. Should I have been aiming for more/fewer creatures? More prowess guys like Bloodfire Expert/Jeskai Student? Better fixing to run more white?
EDIT:
5 Mountain
3 Plains
2 Swiftwater Cliffs
1 Tranquil Grove
1 Wind-Scarred Crag
1 Jeskai Elder
1 Leaping Master
1 Tormenting Voice
1 Quiet Contemplation
1 Arc Lightning
1 Bloodfire Expert
1 Dragon Grip
1 Hordeling Outburst
1 Winterflame
1 Jeskai Ascendancy
1 Jeskai Charm
1 Mantis Rider
1 Mistfire Weaver
1 Scaldkin
1 Weave Fate
1 Swift Kick
1 Mystic of the Hidden Way
1 Dragon-Style Twins
1 Warden of the Eye
1 Riverwheel Aerialists
Post-draft thoughts: I consistently wanted a lower curve in the deck and sided out the Aerialists and Twins for that reason. The games always seemed to be decided before they would come online and they wouldn't have made all that much difference in turning games around by that point anyway. I went 2-1, losing the second match to a guy playing 5-color with a bunch of Alabaster Kirins that I had a hard time dealing with. I already thought that card was pretty good, but I may have to start picking it quite highly.
EDIT AGAIN:
Okay, I'm at a little bit of a loss here, I think. This is what I am able to put together of the deck that won my pod:
2 Plains
3 Forest
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Mystic Monastery
1 Thornwood Falls
1 Polluted Delta
1 Blossoming Sands
1 Dismal Backwater
2 Abzan Guide
1 Archer's Parapet
2 Embodiment of Spring
2 Alabaster Kirin
1 Mystic of the Hidden Way
1 Highspire Mantis
1 Rattleclaw Mystic
1 Whirlwind Adept
2 Monastery Flock
1 Death Frenzy
1 Bring Low
1 Smite the Monstrous
1 Despise
1 Villainous Wealth
1 Mardu Charm
This deck makes NO sense to me. I think he must have been playing 19 lands or so because he had a fairly significant commitment to every color but red, even in his main curve. It isn't like he was just playing UG with a splash of every other color. He was playing an actual Sultai/Abzan hybrid deck with a red splash. And yet he was playing a *bunch* of basics. Am I imagining things, or was this deck actually demonstrative of the way the format is going to develop? I watched all his games, and despite the fact that he seemed to consistently get pretty lucky with his mana, he never really seemed to need any particular thing to go right in order to beat practically anything.
(I'm on on this site much anymore. If you want to get in touch it's probably best to email me: dom@heffalumps.org)
Forum Awards: Best Writer 2005, Best Limited Strategist 2005-2012
5CB PotM - June 2005, November 2005, February 2006, April 2008, May 2008, Feb 2009
MTGSalvation Articles: 1-20, plus guest appearance on MTGCast #86!
<Limited Clan>
This is a maddeningly complex limited format, and I think it's still too early (for me anyway) to comment on other decks with a high degree of confidence. I agree that deck looks bad but I'm personally having a hell of a time figuring out what's good in this format. I have a very strong suspicion that a lot of success in this format will boil down to two main things:
I feel like the vast majority of the matches I've lost (which has been a lot) have been mostly due to these two issues. Like any format mana screw/flood takes its fair share of games, but the problem is compounded in a heavily multicolor environment with lots of cipt lands. Triple Khans games I've won/lost that were decided by mana issues seem disproportionately large compared to other formats (so far).
The other major factor is the extreme multitude of decisions that need to be made each turn. Just figuring out how to spend your mana pratically requires a spreadsheet at times. Do you play that morph, or spend all your mana to unmorph something already in play, or cast a third non-morph creature straight up, or activate outlast, or leave mana up for your trick/removal? What about his morphs? What does he have mana for, what could they be? Should you attack into them or keep your guys back to block? With the amount of mana available to him what tricks and/or unmorphs can he be representing? The decisions are just endless and I know I've lost quite a few matches simply to being outplayed (or out-guessed).
My initial experience with Khans limited has gone something like this:
How is that for extremes?
All that being said, the format is a ton of fun and I hope to draft a bunch of it. I'll pass on the sealed format, but draft is sweet. Here is my 3-0 Temur (splash black) deck, it played very well. I've listed most of the morphs at the cmc 3 slot:
1 Leaping Master
1 Horde Ambusher
1 Rattleclaw Mystic
1 Temur Charger
1 Mistfire Weaver
1 Mystic of the Hidden Way
1 Sagu Archer
1 Abomination of Gudul
1 Wooly Loxodon
1 Savage Knuclkeblade
1 Bear's Companion
1 Riverwheel Aerialists
1 Thousand Winds
1 Singing Bell Strike
1 Trail of Mystery
1 Arc Lightning
1 Temur Charm
1 Burn Away
1 Become Immense
1 Treasure Cruise
2 Dismal Backwater
1 Jungle Hollow
2 Rugged Highlands
1 Thornwood Falls
4 Mountain
4 Forest
4 Island
Trail of Mystery + 9 morphs was pretty epic. I even passed a Wooded Foothills in favor of the Bear's Companion!
Proud bearer of the Sigil of Distinction, bestowed by the Limited clan.
Proud bearer of the Sigil of Distinction, bestowed by the Limited clan.
I do think they've made a better job of the morphs this time round. They're still pretty good, but far fewer games seem to be decided by a single wrongly guessed morph.
(I'm on on this site much anymore. If you want to get in touch it's probably best to email me: dom@heffalumps.org)
Forum Awards: Best Writer 2005, Best Limited Strategist 2005-2012
5CB PotM - June 2005, November 2005, February 2006, April 2008, May 2008, Feb 2009
MTGSalvation Articles: 1-20, plus guest appearance on MTGCast #86!
<Limited Clan>
In between there's also a Limited GP coming up, so I'm also drafting a bit. I still have much to learn in this format though. I really need to restrain myself from drafting 5cc every draft, because I want to learn to draft other archetypes as well. But it's really hard to imagine what a nonblue deck looks like.
My personal results remain at both extremes. Other than one Swiss draft where I went 1-2, all of my events have either been winless or undefeated.
Proud bearer of the Sigil of Distinction, bestowed by the Limited clan.
I agree with this. I'm still enjoying the draft format, but I'm really hating Sealed.
Practice for Khans of Tarkir Limited:
Draft: (#1) (#2) (#3) (#4) (#5)
Anyway, did a draft last night, fully intending to NOT draft the control deck. Obviously the gods of Magic conspired against me, as my first pack contained End Hostilities AND Goblinslide, which is clearly a setup. So this beauty happened:
Whirlwind Adept has quietly moved from "I guess this works if I find nothing better" to "this card is crucial for the archetype and I want as many as I can".
Edit: deck tag broken
So is this just because the aggro decks mess with your blockers so much that Hexproof is the only way to keep a viable blocker?
Regarding non-Blue decks: W/B would be the obvious choice here if it wasn't overdrafted. But possibly at a GP people will be good enough drafters that they won't force it quite as much as people seem to on MtGO?
(I'm on on this site much anymore. If you want to get in touch it's probably best to email me: dom@heffalumps.org)
Forum Awards: Best Writer 2005, Best Limited Strategist 2005-2012
5CB PotM - June 2005, November 2005, February 2006, April 2008, May 2008, Feb 2009
MTGSalvation Articles: 1-20, plus guest appearance on MTGCast #86!
<Limited Clan>
That's normal, the card isn't particularly good. It just works in this deck, which nobody drafts.
No, it's because I want to put every possible removal spell or card draw spell in my deck, which leaves very few slots for kill conditions. The hexproof means it's a pretty safe kill condition, and it's the only common that works for this. The reason I've liked having multiples is that, if I have them early, I can simply play one and trade for a creature without having to worry about getting stuck without kill conditions. So having extras essentially gives me more flexible use of them.
I'd expect WB to be overdrafted at a GP as well. Don't overestimate the play level at a GP; also, if people have to 3-0 they might be more willing to go for the best archetype.
Anyway, it's entirely possible that I'll go into the GP intending to force this deck.
A player has caught on camera in the top 8 stacking his opponent's deck. I think the thing that was most shocking to me is that the judges there watching the match never seemed to notice or care that he could clearly see his opponent's cards while he was shuffling. I know I don't always watch my opponent when they are shuffling, but at least once I've had to ask an opponent to change their grip on my deck because I was afraid they could see my cards. I was also surprised to see how easy this trick is to learn. I watched a video and tried the mechanics. I would need to practice, but I'm sure I could make it pretty smooth with time. (Note: I do not intend on learning this and cheating. I simply wanted to learn more about how it worked.)
But the key here is that he had to be able to see the cards to do this correctly, and apparently he has been doing this for years. That is the crazy thing for me, that he had the stones to do this so many times, and frankly in what should have been an obvious way.
Also, changing the subject, drafting Khans is really hard. My current win percentage is 50% (whereas for the year my drafting win percentage is 62%).