Black is terrible and has no creatures which is a shame. I would avoid it since the removal / good stuff needs you to be heavy black (corrupt / sengir / quag / lethargy).
Red looks great on removal, but low on creatures.
White has no creatures outside of master but it has 2 pacifism for removal that you could splash for.
We would need to take out 1 card. It's either between.. time ebb, tidebinder mage, coral merfolk or plummet.
Basically magicmerl's deck.
There can be a case made for splashing white with the 2 pacifism and the verdant haven and darksteel ingot, but the numerous removal we have in blue and combat tricks in green, we don't need it. Also we don't have any card drawing to get the splash.
There are some strong synergies in BG, enough that I almost wanted to run BG as the main pairing, but I think on the whole your UB build is stronger. Surprised no one is suggesting Rod of Ruin as a playable, there are enough 1 toughness guys that being able to shoot things is pretty solid.
Aganst a deck with lots of flying, your BG is really good, as you mentioned. I think I'd run:
Options include swapping the Rod of Ruin out for Predatory Sliver, or moving in Naturalize if necessary.
I like this build but
-1 Rod of Ruin
-1 Windstorm
Rod of Ruin is sideboard material. Windstorm not only kills our creatures, we are good with removal on fliers with 2 plummets, giant spider , deathgaze cockatrice, sengir vampire and nightwing shade.
So +1 Predatory sliver (2/2 for 2 never bad) and +1 Mutavault (works well with predatory sliver and good with advocate of the beast (making a vault 3/3-4/4-5/5-6/6.. which can get out of hand).
Cards we have to choose from. Blue/black is just too shallow.
On first sight, Not playing base red is just a mistake. Dragon is dragon and even though triple red is heavy cost, it's still good. I dislike howl since it looks like we're going to be 3 colors since it looks like we have to splash for white for removal. Shivan's embrace is just ridiculously good. Yes there is a lot of removal and bounce, but they have to have it and making your own mini shivan dragon is just amazing.
Edit: Made the deck by accident. Hate playing lay of the land since it really doesn't do anything and we are pretty aggressive. Pacifism is good whenever we draw the plains and the fact that we have 4 white sources should be enough for our 4 white cards. A thing to be considered is that you could sacrifice removal/synergy in white for the red/green cards in the sideboard. Barrage + Molten Birth + Act is a thing. Also the 2 color deck makes howl of the night pack a better card.
On a sidenote, suntail hawk and gladecover scout are pretty much unplayable.
"This weekend the coverage will be text only with Brian David-Marshall and Mike Rosenberg manning their keyboards. There will be no video this weekend as it was a casualty of the holiday travel crunch"
It is until you realize that the most damage you will take from that point onward is 2 per turn because your opponent is afraid to attack into and "lose" their stab wound, then your crushed soul quickly rebounds.
And this is not the "best common" discussion, but since you brought it up, my vote goes to Frostburn Weird. That card trumps every other* 2 or 3 common drop in the format; it blocks every single one of them and can trade with them if desired or not at the owners' discretion. And it can come in for 4 any time you want it to.
* non evasive
"Frostburn Weird"
LOL No.
Frostburn Weird is only the best card in izzet. And it's really close with voidweilder.
I have dealt 20 with a single stab wound. No it is not overrated. Yes, sometimes it is just a simple sorcery removal for 3 mana, but other times it deals 4-10 damage and they just lose. It's great in golgari and great in rakdos (I think it's a bit better in rakdos, but it's a moot point).
Putting stab wound on a towering indrink or a pegasus is just so soul crushing for them.
Stab wound is the best common card and it's not really close. Then the next best commons are: augur spree, voidweilder, centaur herald, centaur healer, annihilating fire.
Vampires will be the deck to beat. There were so many strong vampires on the plane of Innistrad, and now vampire nocturnus and vampire nighthawk show up again. Perhaps not mono black, but the two types of vamps we'll see are Black nocturnus (with a minor red splash - minor so we keep nocturnus' buff up) and BR vamps with the Stromkirk Nobles...
No it won't.
You have to realize, there were A LOT more black vampires in zendikar block, the black cards that weren't vampires were good, and you had 8 shuffle effects in fetchlands that could really screw up combat / combat math.
I think this is a pretty poor deck for any mediocre player playing this on modo. If you're a solid player who's decent at this game, the deck is very good HOWEVER if you're a weak player, there are many games you can lose where you don't do one turn correctly.
Usually, I'd sort it by rarity first. See what bombs we have and try to play accordingly to those bombs.
It is unfortunate that 2 of our rares is lands. While Drownyard/Harbor are "okay" it's not exactly something worth pumping the fist over and much rather have bomb rares over (although better than chaff rares). Jar of Eyeballs is kinda meh and better in sealed than draft, however, it's not an auto-include.. I see we have increasing devotion, and that's a pretty good bomby rare. We also have divine reckoning which can be "okay" but definitely doesn't go with our synergy of increasing devotion (although it does go well if we have wreckoning + lumberknot + devotion) We have geralf's messanger, which is okay, but definitely a ton better the closer to monoblack we get, because most of the time we are casting messanger on turn 6-8.
Then I would split up the number of playables of each color we have and see what works well together.
I notice we have 2 travel preparations, and imo, that is as good as a lot of rares if you're g/w. Red definitely has it's fair share of removal. Blue and black don't look too enticing for me (compared to the white/red/green), so I would cut those out and choose between g/w, w/r, or g/r.
As much as I love increasing devotion, I think I would be g/r because the creatures and removal in those 2 colors are pretty good compared to what white has to offer. The only "problem" I would have is our mana base, because I think I would want to splash some plains to flash back travel prep/burning oil and we have no evolving wild, caravan vigil, traveler's amulet.
I like this for creatures:
1cc
1 forge devil
2cc
1 Scorned Villager
3cc
2 riot devil
1 Pyreheart Wolf
1 Villagers of Estwald
Notable takeouts, bloodcrazed neonate, grave bramble. I am not a fan of neonate + we don't seem to be a fast beatdown deck. Grave bramble is "okay" but for now it is better left in the SB and only come in vs zombies.
Spells I definitely want to play:
1 Wrack with Madness
1 Burning Oil
1 Prey Upon
1 Wild Hunger
2 Travel Preparations (Although I think this might be debatable..)
1 Brimstone Volley
Burning oil, even if we never draw the plains will always be a removal spell. Travel prep is better with the plains although I am unsure if playing the 2 is better than playing 2 other spells.
Cards up for consideration for the last 1 slots (15 creatures, 7 spells already).
Nightbirds clutchs
Rolling temblor
fling
hunger of the howlpack
wolfhunter's quiver
Warden of the Wall
Harvest pyre.
I think i would pick warden of the wall for 2 reasons
1) Going from 3 mana to 5 mana is huge in our deck
2) We stop fliers cold w/o having to draw removal/recluse for them. (Plus if we keep a hand with 2 mountains, warden, 2x riot devil, etc, we can stop fliers if we are on mono mountains)..
(If we wanted to take out another creature for a spell, I'd play fling as our other spell).
Edit: I could be wrong and pyreheart wolf isn't good in our deck, but I dont know
Red looks great on removal, but low on creatures.
White has no creatures outside of master but it has 2 pacifism for removal that you could splash for.
So I guess blue/green would be your best bet.
We would need to take out 1 card. It's either between.. time ebb, tidebinder mage, coral merfolk or plummet.
Basically magicmerl's deck.
There can be a case made for splashing white with the 2 pacifism and the verdant haven and darksteel ingot, but the numerous removal we have in blue and combat tricks in green, we don't need it. Also we don't have any card drawing to get the splash.
My have/wants trade list.
My have/wants trade list.
I like this build but
-1 Rod of Ruin
-1 Windstorm
Rod of Ruin is sideboard material. Windstorm not only kills our creatures, we are good with removal on fliers with 2 plummets, giant spider , deathgaze cockatrice, sengir vampire and nightwing shade.
So +1 Predatory sliver (2/2 for 2 never bad) and +1 Mutavault (works well with predatory sliver and good with advocate of the beast (making a vault 3/3-4/4-5/5-6/6.. which can get out of hand).
My have/wants trade list.
1 Scourge of Valkas
1 Shiv's Embrace
1 Academy Raider
1 Dragon Hatchling
1 Young Pyromancer
1 Marauding Maulhorn
2 Regathan Firecat
1 Canyon Minotaur
1 Blur Sliver
Green
1 Megantic Sliver
1 Rootwalla
1 Predatory Sliver
1 Sporemound
1 Deadly Recluse
1 Voracious Wurm
1 Advocate of the Beast
1 Bonescythe Sliver
2 Pacifism
1 Hive Stirrings
Artifact:
1 Haunted Plate Mail
1 Darksteel Ingot
8 mountain
6 forest
3 plains
2 Lay of the land
1 Naturalize
1 Howl of the Night Pack
1 Act of Treason
3 Smelt
1 Lava Axe
1 Seismic Stomp
1 Wild Guess
1 Cyclops Tyrant
1 Demolish
1 Molten Birth
2 Barrage of Expendables
Cards we have to choose from. Blue/black is just too shallow.
On first sight, Not playing base red is just a mistake. Dragon is dragon and even though triple red is heavy cost, it's still good. I dislike howl since it looks like we're going to be 3 colors since it looks like we have to splash for white for removal. Shivan's embrace is just ridiculously good. Yes there is a lot of removal and bounce, but they have to have it and making your own mini shivan dragon is just amazing.
Edit: Made the deck by accident. Hate playing lay of the land since it really doesn't do anything and we are pretty aggressive. Pacifism is good whenever we draw the plains and the fact that we have 4 white sources should be enough for our 4 white cards. A thing to be considered is that you could sacrifice removal/synergy in white for the red/green cards in the sideboard. Barrage + Molten Birth + Act is a thing. Also the 2 color deck makes howl of the night pack a better card.
On a sidenote, suntail hawk and gladecover scout are pretty much unplayable.
My have/wants trade list.
So why would they hold a GP then?
My have/wants trade list.
My have/wants trade list.
"Frostburn Weird"
LOL No.
Frostburn Weird is only the best card in izzet. And it's really close with voidweilder.
My have/wants trade list.
Putting stab wound on a towering indrink or a pegasus is just so soul crushing for them.
Stab wound is the best common card and it's not really close. Then the next best commons are: augur spree, voidweilder, centaur herald, centaur healer, annihilating fire.
My have/wants trade list.
No it won't.
You have to realize, there were A LOT more black vampires in zendikar block, the black cards that weren't vampires were good, and you had 8 shuffle effects in fetchlands that could really screw up combat / combat math.
My have/wants trade list.
http://www.channelfireball.com/home/channel-lsv-zendikar-draft-10-drafting-zendikar-part-1-of-2/
http://www.channelfireball.com/home/channel-lsv-zendikar-draft-10-drafting-zendikar-part-2-of-2/
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/li/60
http://draft.bestiaire.org/index.php
http://magicgameplan.com/blog/category/zendikar-draft/
http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/initial-technology-rebooting-my-draft-strategy/
http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/utter-beatings-zendikar-limited-potpourri/
http://community.wizards.com/magiconline/go/thread/view/76117/20951293/Community_Cup_Zendikar_Draft_Strategy_Thread_-_No_WotC_Team_Members!
My have/wants trade list.
My have/wants trade list.
My have/wants trade list.
it's like invisible stalker for blue. that you can't equip. or enchant. or pump. or block with.
furor of the bitten can have it's merits, but it's not so good as well.
Also, yes. r/w is pretty bad. Look at all your creatures. Most of them are 2/2 and smaller. Only 4 creatures are bigger than a 2/2
My have/wants trade list.
My have/wants trade list.
It is unfortunate that 2 of our rares is lands. While Drownyard/Harbor are "okay" it's not exactly something worth pumping the fist over and much rather have bomb rares over (although better than chaff rares). Jar of Eyeballs is kinda meh and better in sealed than draft, however, it's not an auto-include.. I see we have increasing devotion, and that's a pretty good bomby rare. We also have divine reckoning which can be "okay" but definitely doesn't go with our synergy of increasing devotion (although it does go well if we have wreckoning + lumberknot + devotion) We have geralf's messanger, which is okay, but definitely a ton better the closer to monoblack we get, because most of the time we are casting messanger on turn 6-8.
Then I would split up the number of playables of each color we have and see what works well together.
I notice we have 2 travel preparations, and imo, that is as good as a lot of rares if you're g/w. Red definitely has it's fair share of removal. Blue and black don't look too enticing for me (compared to the white/red/green), so I would cut those out and choose between g/w, w/r, or g/r.
As much as I love increasing devotion, I think I would be g/r because the creatures and removal in those 2 colors are pretty good compared to what white has to offer. The only "problem" I would have is our mana base, because I think I would want to splash some plains to flash back travel prep/burning oil and we have no evolving wild, caravan vigil, traveler's amulet.
I like this for creatures:
1cc
1 forge devil
2cc
1 Scorned Villager
3cc
2 riot devil
1 Pyreheart Wolf
1 Villagers of Estwald
4cc
1 Kessig Recluse
2 Russet wolf
1 Tormented Pariah
1 Lumberknot
5cc
1 pitchburn devils
1 Nearheath Stalker
1 Hollowhenge Beast
6cc
1 Geistcatcher's Rig
Notable takeouts, bloodcrazed neonate, grave bramble. I am not a fan of neonate + we don't seem to be a fast beatdown deck. Grave bramble is "okay" but for now it is better left in the SB and only come in vs zombies.
Spells I definitely want to play:
1 Wrack with Madness
1 Burning Oil
1 Prey Upon
1 Wild Hunger
2 Travel Preparations (Although I think this might be debatable..)
1 Brimstone Volley
Burning oil, even if we never draw the plains will always be a removal spell. Travel prep is better with the plains although I am unsure if playing the 2 is better than playing 2 other spells.
Cards up for consideration for the last 1 slots (15 creatures, 7 spells already).
Nightbirds clutchs
Rolling temblor
fling
hunger of the howlpack
wolfhunter's quiver
Warden of the Wall
Harvest pyre.
I think i would pick warden of the wall for 2 reasons
1) Going from 3 mana to 5 mana is huge in our deck
2) We stop fliers cold w/o having to draw removal/recluse for them. (Plus if we keep a hand with 2 mountains, warden, 2x riot devil, etc, we can stop fliers if we are on mono mountains)..
(If we wanted to take out another creature for a spell, I'd play fling as our other spell).
Edit: I could be wrong and pyreheart wolf isn't good in our deck, but I dont know
My have/wants trade list.