( Feel free to assume most of the SB was "leftovers" - most of it, anyway... ) ~ Also, self preference for 45 cards to 40. Good? Bad?
Small tourney, I "made Top 4," that sorta thing. Anyway, I'm just wondering for any obvious bad picks or bad pulls, or maybe stuff I should have run instead, or perhaps if there's just like a recommended thought process on what to pretty much never even consider or take? Some stuff, I opted for as Heroic triggers, but then I kinda didn't feel like my Heroic triggers were very good in the end (though Ashiok's Adept -really- shined one game, where I bestowed four times somehow). I never used Evanescent Intellect for its mill, or any Inspired tricks (I actually passed a Servant of Tymaret, which I assume to have been a very bad idea; had to settle with the Asphodel Wanderer later on).
I could go on and on, but ultimately, I feel extremely comfortable in these colors no matter what, usually (BUG, or BGx, I guess). I'm just looking for general 'tips or advice' in the current draft setting, and or any adjustments to possibly consider making once it switches to JOU/BNG/THS. I remember when it was just triple Theros, and I could mono black it up due to Gray Merchant of Asphodel... I don't believe that's gonna return, though, lol.
Thanks in advance for any helpful replies or constructive criticism.
* I try to employ "B.R.E.A.D." at times, but today, it felt like I took waaaaaaay too much removal, and it didn't show for it. Am I wrong? Or was the removal wrong?
First of all, your deck is too large: you'll only make your deck better by cutting 3 spells and 2 lands. Sticking extra cards in just increasing the odds the you'll draw a really bad card (the ones you added in to get to 45) instead of one of your best spells.
Intellect is a pretty terrible card: I wouldn't really want to run it even in a deck with Phenax...and here it's just doing nothing.
Running 3 colors with no fixing is a recipe for lots of color screw, especially your blue: running 3 double blue spells off of 5 islands is just asking to have dead cards sitting in your hand. Voyaging Satyr is a great card, and should not be sitting in your board, especially with the demands you're placing on your mana base. An occasional splash is fine, but you should be looking to solidify in 2 colors for a more consistent deck. It's hard to day for sure without seeing the whole draft, but it look like you should've drafted a straight GB deck: Prognostic Sphinx is great, but your blue isn't doing much here but making it harder to cast your spells, and you're leaving a great card in the board (Nemesis of Mortals) to include it. Throw in Nemesis and Voyaging Satyr and take out the blue and you've already got a better deck.
Yeah, pretty much what Dorvan said. You have plenty of cards to just be Green-Black. The Returned Centaurs are playable (and actually help the Nemesis if you mill yourself and you can run the March of the Returned too if you need playables.
And yeah, running more than 40 cards is always always giving away value.
All of the "tap to do something cycle" in BNG is pretty bad, and Evanescent Intellect is probably the worst of them (the green color-fixing one is probably the best, and still kinda meh).
Alrighty, thanks for the feedback. Yeah, I was pretty confident about some of the aforementioned cards, but I suppose I forced myself into trying to make a blue splash happen for some reason (I don't know, habit of always going BUG). I had the same feelings last night, about just cutting it and sticking to Golgari colors, but I didn't trust my instincts. Oh, well, at least I know I'm not crazy -- and I really like Returned Centaur, too, it was probably the last thing I cut (after Warchanter of Mogis and, to my dismay it would seem, Voyaging Satyr -- d'oh). Sounds like it's time to break some bad habits -- appreciate it again.
Yea there's a good deal wrong with your building - but at least you drafted some strong cards, which is a good start.
An important philosophical point to remember is that you're building a deck that maximizes your chance of winning, and that's all. You're not necessarily trying to make a deck that has everything good that you drafted; nor the one with the coolest tricks and combos; nor even one that can handle facing any archetype. While obviously you have to know what is good and what isn't to maximize your chances of winning, just keep this in mind when you are trying to evaluate decisions like whether to play 40 or 45 cards. It's ALWAYS better to play 40, even if you "like" all your spells and want them all. Maximize win percentage, always.
So with that said, I concur with the above two responses, you should've gone G/B and played Voyaging Satyr and Nemesis of Mortals, and cut all your blue. A good rule of thumb that if you must play 3 colors in Theros, the third should only be a splash, as in you can play it with 3 or fewer basic lands of that color (although you can have more sources for that color, from fixers). Here, you're playing Nullify and Sphinx, both with double costing costs, with just 5 islands out of 20 lands! That's just asking to never be able to cast your spells.
The problem with building "adventurous" 3 color decks is that sometimes you will get all your colors immediately, and you'll win because your power level is higher than if you went 2 colors. However, there is much lower consistency, to the point where your overall chance of victory is lower than if you stayed in 2 colors. Your win percentage can roughly be calculated as follows:
percentages of win if your hands develop very well, average, or very poor
x
percentage of times your hands develop very well, average, or very poor.
With a 3 color deck vs. a 2 color deck, your win % if you develop very well will be somewhat higher, but your percentage chance of developing very well is much, much lower.
Just my 2 cents. I've drafted literally thousands of drafts in the last year, so I try to help out new drafters.
5x Forest
5x Island
10x Swamp
Creatures (17)
1x Ashiok's Adept
1x Asphodel Wanderer
2x Baleful Eidolon
1x Blood-Toll Harpy
1x Cavern Lampad
1x Odunos River Trawler
1x Leafcrown Dryad
1x Nyxborn Wolf
1x Pheres-Band Tromper
1x Prognostic Sphinx
1x Sedge Scorpion
1x Sphinx's Disciple
1x Spiteful Returned
1x Staunch-Hearted Warrior
1x Tormented Hero
1x Wavecrash Triton
3x Asphyxiate
1x Evanescent Intellect
1x Fade into Antiquity
1x Hero's Downfall
1x Nullify
1x Pharika's Cure
1x Boulderfall
1x Deathbellow Raider
1x Dragon Mantle
1x Epiphany Storm
1x Loathsome Catoblepas
1x Lost in a Labyrinth
1x March of the Returned
1x Nemesis of Mortals
2x Returned Centaur
1x Returned Phalanx
1x Satyr Hedonist
1x Scholar of Athreos
1x Scourgemark
1x Voyaging Satyr
2x Warchanter of Mogis
( Feel free to assume most of the SB was "leftovers" - most of it, anyway... ) ~ Also, self preference for 45 cards to 40. Good? Bad?
Small tourney, I "made Top 4," that sorta thing. Anyway, I'm just wondering for any obvious bad picks or bad pulls, or maybe stuff I should have run instead, or perhaps if there's just like a recommended thought process on what to pretty much never even consider or take? Some stuff, I opted for as Heroic triggers, but then I kinda didn't feel like my Heroic triggers were very good in the end (though Ashiok's Adept -really- shined one game, where I bestowed four times somehow). I never used Evanescent Intellect for its mill, or any Inspired tricks (I actually passed a Servant of Tymaret, which I assume to have been a very bad idea; had to settle with the Asphodel Wanderer later on).
I could go on and on, but ultimately, I feel extremely comfortable in these colors no matter what, usually (BUG, or BGx, I guess). I'm just looking for general 'tips or advice' in the current draft setting, and or any adjustments to possibly consider making once it switches to JOU/BNG/THS. I remember when it was just triple Theros, and I could mono black it up due to Gray Merchant of Asphodel... I don't believe that's gonna return, though, lol.
Thanks in advance for any helpful replies or constructive criticism.
* I try to employ "B.R.E.A.D." at times, but today, it felt like I took waaaaaaay too much removal, and it didn't show for it. Am I wrong? Or was the removal wrong?
Intellect is a pretty terrible card: I wouldn't really want to run it even in a deck with Phenax...and here it's just doing nothing.
Running 3 colors with no fixing is a recipe for lots of color screw, especially your blue: running 3 double blue spells off of 5 islands is just asking to have dead cards sitting in your hand. Voyaging Satyr is a great card, and should not be sitting in your board, especially with the demands you're placing on your mana base. An occasional splash is fine, but you should be looking to solidify in 2 colors for a more consistent deck. It's hard to day for sure without seeing the whole draft, but it look like you should've drafted a straight GB deck: Prognostic Sphinx is great, but your blue isn't doing much here but making it harder to cast your spells, and you're leaving a great card in the board (Nemesis of Mortals) to include it. Throw in Nemesis and Voyaging Satyr and take out the blue and you've already got a better deck.
And yeah, running more than 40 cards is always always giving away value.
All of the "tap to do something cycle" in BNG is pretty bad, and Evanescent Intellect is probably the worst of them (the green color-fixing one is probably the best, and still kinda meh).
An important philosophical point to remember is that you're building a deck that maximizes your chance of winning, and that's all. You're not necessarily trying to make a deck that has everything good that you drafted; nor the one with the coolest tricks and combos; nor even one that can handle facing any archetype. While obviously you have to know what is good and what isn't to maximize your chances of winning, just keep this in mind when you are trying to evaluate decisions like whether to play 40 or 45 cards. It's ALWAYS better to play 40, even if you "like" all your spells and want them all. Maximize win percentage, always.
So with that said, I concur with the above two responses, you should've gone G/B and played Voyaging Satyr and Nemesis of Mortals, and cut all your blue. A good rule of thumb that if you must play 3 colors in Theros, the third should only be a splash, as in you can play it with 3 or fewer basic lands of that color (although you can have more sources for that color, from fixers). Here, you're playing Nullify and Sphinx, both with double costing costs, with just 5 islands out of 20 lands! That's just asking to never be able to cast your spells.
The problem with building "adventurous" 3 color decks is that sometimes you will get all your colors immediately, and you'll win because your power level is higher than if you went 2 colors. However, there is much lower consistency, to the point where your overall chance of victory is lower than if you stayed in 2 colors. Your win percentage can roughly be calculated as follows:
percentages of win if your hands develop very well, average, or very poor
x
percentage of times your hands develop very well, average, or very poor.
With a 3 color deck vs. a 2 color deck, your win % if you develop very well will be somewhat higher, but your percentage chance of developing very well is much, much lower.
Just my 2 cents. I've drafted literally thousands of drafts in the last year, so I try to help out new drafters.