basic plan is to get delirium asap. i'm now a fan of the shard of broken glass. everything becomes a beater. mid game i can usually lock them down w/ the constables.
UB tempo
i was giving the black vessel a try... so shh. it just ended up getting sided out every game for gisas bidding (wish i had both main deck!). the ghostly wings are what made this deck viable. giving me an outlet for madness on their turn... bouncing a guy + stealing another or making 2 zombies was huge. jace showed up a few times to help out, but not as much as i'd like.
This deck was a total durdletron 5000. I was not very optimistic going into my matches and would not have been surprised to get a 1-2 finish, but the deck turned out better than I expected and I actually ended up winning every single game. Most games started off with me taking a good old fashioned face bashing and then stabilizing at around 5 or so life and winning by either flipping my Thing or burying my opponent with card advantage. I had a fewotherhorrors for extra Thing value, and my most spectacular finish saw me removing the last two counters with Catalog into Uncaged Fury on Thing to one-shot my opponent down from 14 life. Another fun trick I pulled was using Compelling Deterrence to bounce Vessel of Nascency, and later Vessel of Malignity, when my opponent only had a single G or B. It was a total tempo blowout, and I managed to get the zombie value both times. The only card I was disappointed with was Trail of Evidence, which turned out to usually be too durdly even for this deck. I figured if it could work anywhere, it would be here, but most of the time I drew it I just looted it away. It did manage to help me win a late game top-deck war once, but I sided it out for game two nearly every time. This deck was the most fun I've had so far with this format.
After the first booster, I was solidly in blue, with the 'mill them with Fleeting Memories' plan already taking shape. I could have gone into black after picking up the Tormentor, but then, black dried up and I got some late white goodies like Shepherd and Silverstrike. Ended up splashing both for Mysteries and Visions, as the nonbasics would allow me to run Visions whithout actually needing Mountains, and green could be convenient to get an activation off Ongoing Investigation as well. I ended up siding the Visions out against the RB madness player with Call the Bloodline, but also finished a game with with the enchantment delivering the missing 2 damage.
Won half my games by attacking with flyers (especially when Odric hit the board) and tapping down stuff, half with first generating a stack of clues, then landing Fleeting Memories and turning the clue-pile into a deadly assault on my opponent's library.
MVPs: Ongoing Investigation + Erdwal Illuminator = so many clues!
3-0'd with this deck (went 6-1 in games) having pretty garbage creatures, but an incredible removal suite, felt like a hardcore control deck which was strange for RB which generally seems aggressive, had huge synergy with discard and madness and even cute shenanigans with the Prophet and gorger letting me throw all my vampires into play and draw cards for free. No legitimate bombs unlike some decks I've had but this is the first one i've 3-0'd with since starting to play again. I found out where the bombs went during my second match when my opponent played Elusive TormentorMarkov Dreadknight and Nahiri, the Harbinger in various games but he somehow couldn't fight through my wall of removal.
I started the draft with two hondens, but got an abundance of good white aggro cards late in pack one and jumped ship when I opened Mother of Runes in P2P1. I got a playable card in about 90% of the picks until the end of the draft, including gettting a third-pick Siege-Gang Commander, but I had barely enough playables and had to play some mediocre cards.
Round 2 VS BG midrange: In game 1 my opponent Hymn to Tourach'd me, and I proceeded to flood and lose. In game 2 I managed to attack him to a low enough life total that Siege-Gang Commander+Firebolt got the job done. In game three he mulled to five and didn't do much of anything.
Round 3 VS RU tokens: In game 1 I created a good board advantage and time walked my opponent multiple times by firebolting an echoed Stingscourger. In the end he just couldn't keep up with my board advantage.
In game 2 I curved Raise the Alarm into Raise the Alarm into Flame-Kin Zealot into Siege-Gang Commander and rushed him down.
Went 3-0-1 in an SCG game night 9-person Swiss draft. The draw was round 4, I was the only undefeated player, so I had to play. I legitimately had the win on the board when he passed on turn 5 of extra turns. Blah. Anyway, the deck was fun and sort of surprised me in its efficacy.
MVP: Tenacity
Typically, I'm not a huge fan of this card, but there were at least 4 games where I alpha struck, turn two bad attacks into trades, gained 12-15 life and left up 2+ blockers. Usually also got in for at least 6-8 damage.
Vessel, Chaplain and Partisan all gave me a big boost when I wanted to use Tenacity. One game, I had Bygone Bishop, Pious Evangel and Duskwatch Recruiter in play...value town! Another game, I got to Expose Evil on my opponent's attack step to tap his fatty and my Silverfur Partisan, giving me a wolf. He then attacked with 2 Niblis of Dusk. I Aim High my Partisan, get a wolf and block a Niblis. A turn or two later was a backbreaking Tenacity.
Match 1 was against 3 color Mirrorwing Dragon + tricks: I got my removal spells to deal with his few relevant threats, and just grinded him out with fliers.
Match 2 was against an insane RB vampire deck with 2 Bloodhall Priest, 3 Olivia's Dragoon, Call the Bloodline, Stromkirk Condemned, and 2 Sanitarium Skeleton for the combos. Game 1 he got stuck on 3 lands and I just out tempoed him, game 2 I had a strong start but he just made 8 call the bloodline tokens and alphaed me for 3 turns. Game 3 was extremely close, and came down to me blocking with Grizzled Angler, milling and getting the flip, and eating his guy with the 4/5. Then proceeded to force him to attack with his board and wiped it. Turns out 4/5 is very difficult to deal with in this format.
Match 3 was against RW 5 drops, and I just overran him with Elder Deep-Fiend both games.
Overperformers: Sigardian Priest - Taps down most relevant threats in the format, and generally demands an answer. Wretched Gryff - Turns out 7 mana is a lot less than 8, and I frequently hardcasted this late game for value. It really isn't that bad to cast this midgame with the emerge if you have no other plays as the body is generally relevant, and the lategame mode of playing a 3/4 flier and drawing a card is extremely good. Enlightened Maniac - Vital for enabling value emerges. The 3/2 trades with everything up to 4 in the format, and the 0/2 is obviously insane with emerge.
Underperformers: Subjugator Angel - Probably the weakest card by far given my deck. Looking back, I probably should have cut this for another Moorland Drifter or a Field Creeper. All of my threats were fliers, and I had plenty of late game threats to play over a lame 6 mana 4/3 flier. The one time this card is good is when I'm trying to push damage with a huge emerge creature, but at that point i'm probably already winning the game. I'm guessing this card is closer to a 3.0 in pick order than the 3.5 I originally rated it at, as you do not really want this card in any deck that isn't trying to win on the ground with high power/ low toughness minions. Advanced Skaab - You can't utilize the ability as well in a deck full of emerge creatures since you want to keep your lands, so most of the time this was just a 5 mana 3/4 flier. Which is still pretty good as the 4 toughness is incredibly relevant, but it's not amazing. Blessed Alliance - I never wanted to trade with most of my creatures, so my opponent generally had a bear that could attack into this. It was still pretty efficient just as a 2 mana kill their attacking bear or 3/2, but I never really got to blow anyone out with it.
Thoughts:
Tattered Haunter and Dawn Gryff make UW much better than it was in SoI. The existence of a 2 and 3 drop small set common 2 power creature does wonders for giving the archetype enough pressure to race your opponent.
Decks that have emerge guys have trouble getting value out of discard effects like Advanced Skaab, since you want to play all of your lands to hard cast the emerge creatures. I would rate cards like Advanced Stitchwing and Haunted Dead lower in pick order in your decks that have blue emerge creatures.
Decks with emerge really want a consistent 2-4 curve with expendable creatures to sac to emerge. This also means that emerge creatures tend to be better in weaker decks, since if your deck is very strong then you will not want to sac any of your strong creatures (say, Sigardian Priest) to an emerge creature.
Emerge is a very hard mechanic to play with optimally. Which creature do you sac? If you're at 6 lands with a Wretched Gryff in hand, do you emerge it out, or wait and hope to draw that land for the 7th land? Is it better to emerge the card now, or play something else and emerge some other time?
I managed to transform the Thing several times. Between that and Engulf and other bounce, the games became a tempo nightmare for opponents. I could often set up an Engulf that bounced my opponent's whole board but didn't touch Pyre Hound.
Because I rarely tapped out, the games became quite psychological. One opponent had Apothecary Geist while I had no flyers and was at 8 life, but he just refused to attack with it because I always had 5 mana up. This was game 1, so he hadn't even seen Stormrider Spirit yet, but the fear was real. In truth, I did have the Spirit, but I was actually holding 5 mana open for Confirm Suspicions. Either way, I was content stalling the game out. I probably held off on casting Spirit for 6 turns while he made no attacks with Geist or anything else. Eventually I used Confirm Suspicions on something. Finally I decide to cast another creature mainphase leaving only 4 mana open (for a bounce spell and/or clues), to make it look like I don't have the Spirit. Opponent finally attacked with Apothecary Geist, putting me down to 6. Next turn he attacks with it again and Stormrider eats it. Priceless. In game 2 I ate both his Geists with Spirits. He was not happy.
This was my EMN Release draft deck from last night. P1P1 was Cryptbreaker, which won every game where I played it on turn 1 (which was at least three of them). Thermo-alchemist was got me moving towards a red splash, and the card was solid all night, even without excessive instants and sorceries, providing a ticking clock on stalled boards. Savage Alliance was the other big payoff card for red; seemed to be a guaranteed 2-for-1 at a minimum. Sanitarium Skeleton put in good work here keeping my Cryptbreaker and Call the Bloodline engines running; I had a second in the board that I brought in for a couple of slower matches. A few more madness cards would really have pushed this one over the edge...
Also, got to meld into Chittering Host once! That was pretty cool.
First pack went Bruna -> Sigardian Priest -> Galvanic Bombardment -> Savage Alliance -> Smoldering Werewolf. Red and white were both extremely open in my table, so I settled on this deck.
Match 2: The RW mirror. My overall spell quality was higher, but his deck was running Mirrorwing Dragon and Sorin, Grim Nemesis. His deck was mono 3 mana x/3s, so I sided out all my 2/1s and sided in all my 3/2s to try and grind him out. Was able to go wide game 3 off the back of an unanswered Conduit of Storms ramping out a bunch of 2 drops, and casting Borrowed Hostility on his Mirrorwing Dragon to trumpet blast my team for exactsies.
Match 3: UB zombie grind. Was able to get him with Westvale Abbey one game, but got grinded out in the late game for the other two. I played way too greedily and threw the last game in particular since I mistaking put him on Borrowed Malevolence the whole time.
Overperformers: Courageous Outrider - The 4 mana 3/4 is a completely insane stat distribution in this format, and this one even draws you a relevant creature most of the time. Note that this trigger is a lot better than just drawing a card most of the time, since you're guaranteed to get a card that you can play. Very good with Sigardian Priest and Faithbearer Paladin in particular, as those cards are very strong plays. Conduit of Storms - Tends to snowball the game if you can back this card up with tricks, as the extra mana helps out a lot. The late game transform mode is also excellent if you need mana sinks. Sigardian Priest - It's just such a pain to deal with that it forces either a removal spell from your opponent, or locks down their best guy each turn. Also worth noting that this should be treated as a spell and not a creature for the purposes of deck construction I was worried about having too many spells which is why I chose to not include some other spells in the sideboard, and the priest for all intents and purposes is a spell as the body isn't relevant enough to contest the board. Savage Alliance - Really hard to not just 2 for 1 your opponent with this card every time. Almost always insane.
Underperformers: Desperate Sentry - I tried to be cute with the Field Creeper plan, but bleh. The problem with this card is that if you don't have delerium active, then your opponent can dictate when they want to give you a 3/2. This is really bad since if they are not trying to force through damage then this sucks up all your tempo by being a 3 mana 1/2, and even if they are trying to force through damage, they can simply hold back until it's profitable for them to attack you and force through more damage while you waste a turn chumping with this card. I'm now sold that you do not want this card unless you are specifically trying to be defensive delerium, or need to body to sac to an emerge creature. Field Creeper - I still maintain that 2 mana 2/1s don't get punished that badly in the format, but playing them can be scary against red decks. There are more 3 toughness guys than I originally thought, so the body may not be good enough in this format.
In hindsight, I think I would have made -1 Field Creeper -1 Desperate Sentry, +1 Blessed Alliance, +1 Ironclad Slayer to my deck, as the delerium plan was just a little too cute to actually work.
I windmill slam the Distended Mindbender, take a Courageous Outrider, then a Borrowed Malevolence out of a weak pack. I then spec on a Foul Emissary pick 4, get a Ulvenwald Captive pick 5 out of a pack with nothing else in it, and green based delerium proceeds to be extremely open for the rest of the draft. I made the mistake of speculating on Mournwillow more than I should have, as the final deck could have used a Certain Death over a compulsion, and I didn't even end up playing either of the Mournwillows! First world problems, I suppose.
Games tended to just ended up me curving delerium guys into a delerium enabler, and suddenly having a huge board from the 3/4 Moldgraf Scavenger. Distended Mindbender on turns 4-6 was near unbeatable, as it just ate their only removal spell in hand and their biggest threat. Even when it whiffed in the late game, it wasn't too bad as a 5/5 is just big enough to be the largest creature on board most of the time. The blowouts with Foul Emissary -> Distended Mindbender or It of the Horrid Swarm were particularly brutal, and not as uncommon as you would think due to all of the ways this deck has to filter draws for creatures. Playing 16 lands was also interesting, and ended up being the right choice due to the low curve of the deck and Traverse the Ulvenwald functionally being a land.
Overperformers Moldgraf Scavenger - 3/4 is huge in this format, and if you can reliably enable delerium by turn 4, this card dominates the early/midgame Foul Emissary - The turn 3 this into turn 4 emerge guy is probably one of the strongest starts in the entire format, and it felt very hard to lose whenever you could pull that off. Even the below average case of this being a 1/1 that draws you a creature has typically worked out. Liliana's Elite - With the amount of self mill in this deck, this ended up being anywhere from a 4/4 to a 7/7 most of the time, which was incredibly strong as a 5/5 is extremely difficult to deal with, even in the late game. This goes up very high in the pick order as the amount of self mill in your deck increases. Ulvenwald Captive - Having your 2 drop become a late game monster is a pretty huge upside, and I was never unhappy to draw this in any of my games. Vessel of Nascency, Grapple with the Past - Essential for the dedicated delerium decks to function, as these are the only cards that almost single handedly enable delerium. It seems incredibly hard to build a delerium deck without these.
Underperformers Murderous Compulsion - 2 copies was a bit much given that this card does nothing on offense, and I had draws that could just tempo my opponents out. I don't think this was cuttable as my deck tended to be the defensive one, but I wish this would have been a Throttle or Certain Death instead.
4-0 in a 16-person pod at the LGS SCG Game Night. First pick was Cryptbreaker. Then I saw no relevant black cards, as the guy two to my right opened a Lily.
Jace's Scrutiny and Blessed Alliance were amazing with Ingenious Skaab. Blessed Alliance was a blowout with Stitcher's Graft. I did get to Startled Awake and immediately Not Forgotten for the old 26-mill in 2 turns. Also, Elder Deep-Fiend is really, really good.
Smoldering Werewolf - This card was great. Unless my opponent had no board, this almost always killed something on entering the battlefield. Savage Alliance - Great, efficient card. I usually cast it as 3 damage to one creature, one to all the others. Super easy to set up a 2 for 1 with, and still fine if you just need to pick off a 2 toughness creature. Combos amazingly with Lightning Weaver.
Meh cards:
Alchemist's Greeting - This card is really only great if you have a bunch of discard outlets. I needed a general purpose removal spell, and it did the trick, but it's very mediocre if you're not madnessing it out. Waxing Moon - This card was fine, but it plays a little awkwardly because you often want to cast it at sorcery speed. Ulvenwald Captive can't attack unless you play it pre-combat, and Smoldering Werewolf misses out on a shock if you play it as a combat trick. The card's fine, and the trample is relevant, but it doesn't seem great even in the werewolves deck: not something to prioritize.
General thoughts:
I liked the play on the deck much more than with SoI werewolves. There were more decision points, and monstrosity (which is basically what the Eldrazi werewolves mechanic is) plays very well in limited. My deck didn't care very much about wolves/werewolves in particular, but the deck seems more about powerful midrange cards than about synergy (Howlpack Resurgence still would've been great, though).
Once again, a number of solid interactions in this deck.
In round 3, I had to play against Liliana all three games. I got rolled game 1 by turn 3 Lily. So I sided out the Howlers, Cathar and Gnarlwood Dryad for 2 Swift Spinners, Clip Wings and Loam Dryad (he was on U/B control/fliers). He couldn't kill anything with Lily anymore (though he did play t3 Oath of Lily into t4 Lily), so I was able to lay out dude after dude and overwhelm him.
I want to highlight Olivia's Dragoon, as I'm increasingly becoming convinced that this card is just great. Zero cost, instant speed madness enablers are very strong, and this one is at common and comes on a perfectly reasonable body, with a small but relevant upside to the activation. This is creeping its way up my pick order, and I think it's a premium common for black. Skarsdig Supplicant also did good work, as it's a reasonable madness enabler and gives the deck some very welcome extra reach.
I'm really loving WB in this format - you can usually get 2+ Ironclad Slayers since no other archetype wants them and 1-2 Boon of Emrakul + Choking Restraints to go with them to form a nice backing for a control shell.
The draft got off to a very uncertain start: Distended Mindbender -> Thalia's Lancers -> Somberwald Stag (incidentally, I find myself starting out drafts by picking 3 different color cards pretty often in this format).
It wasn't until midway through pack 1 that I locked in on a deck: seeing Drownyard Behemoth 6th pick seemed like a signal, so I took it despite having no blue yet, and was immediately rewarded with a pakc containing Lashweed Lurker, Exhultant Cultist, and Foul Emissary (I took the emissary).
The deck was full of great cards, but I was particularly impressed with the consistency of the deck. Most of my early plays helps set up and smooth my later draws, allowing me to very reliably find the right combination of emerge creatures and enablers to take over the game.
Here's a 3-0 from last night (6-0 in games). Opening three bombs seems like a good way to win in this format, even if you have to switch colors pack 3 to accommodate them.
Flashback time to a pretty terrible triple-ZEN deck I drafted today. It certainly has a couple of the best uncommons in the format, but really no curve, multiple double-black cards with 8 Swamps, one of the worst splashes in the world because I just ran out of playables, etc. Somehow it managed to stagger into a 3-0, winning its last match with exactly lethal off of a top-decked mountain for a key point of power on Molten Ravager.
I'll add some more variety with a pair of Rise of the Eldrazi draft 3-0s since I've been frenetically playing the format since it came out, Battle-Rattle Shaman + Goblin Tunneler combo in full effect in deck 1 along with some nice removal and bombs, while deck 2 was just a solid deck that could curve out nicely while still having a dominant late game.
Got a couple of ROE 3-0s myself, one in the spirit(dancer) of the above (i.e. never should have been able to 1-0, let alone 3-0), the other basically perfect but for the Servitor I felt the need to run.
Match 1 BR vamps.
Game 1 Kept slow hand but the high toughness humans and eventually Bruna stopped my opponents beat down with me at 4.. then 1.
Game 2 I got off to a reasonable curve this time, I was able to use selfless spirit at instant speed to win a critical combat followed by a number of clues.
Match 2 Green black delririum
Game 1 Perfect curve out opponent got mana screwed dead to flyers.
Game 2 Opponent got a better draw but just couldn't handle Thalia's lancers into Bruna into Lancers again just over powered him.
Match 3 Jeskai Humans
Game 1 We got into a race, I was able to just keep hitting with my flyers. Eventually using sigardian preist to edge ahead.
Game 2 The best game of the night. Game started smilarly but it became clear my opponent was ahead in this race he forced me into uncomfortable trades by using equipment on Eldrazi 3/2s . I fought back with the lifelinking human and selfless spirit sacing to give the knight more turns of life. Then he returned to the lead able to flip neglected hierloom into avacynian missonaries.. taking rattlechains. I was able to set up choking restraints, exile, ironclad slayer, choking resitants, Exile the missonaries to return the rattlechains. I drew inspiring captain hit him to 2 with my fliers and had elder deep-fiend tapped him out before combat gg.
Went 3-0 with this at FNM. First pick was Bloodhall Priest out of an otherwise uninspiring pack, and the deck ended up being fairly open. I put in Prophetic Ravings because I had a bunch of madness cards but was short on discard outlets.
wb weenies
basic plan is to get delirium asap. i'm now a fan of the shard of broken glass. everything becomes a beater. mid game i can usually lock them down w/ the constables.
UB tempo
i was giving the black vessel a try... so shh. it just ended up getting sided out every game for gisas bidding (wish i had both main deck!). the ghostly wings are what made this deck viable. giving me an outlet for madness on their turn... bouncing a guy + stealing another or making 2 zombies was huge. jace showed up a few times to help out, but not as much as i'd like.
1 Erdwal Illuminator
1 Thing in the Ice
1 Niblis of Dusk
1 Reckless Scholar
1 Wicker Witch
1 Aberrant Researcher
1 Forgotten Creation
1 Mad Prophet
1 Lamplighter of Selhoff
1 Sage of Ancient Lore
1 Compelling Deterrence
3 Jace's Scrutiny
1 Nagging Thoughts
1 Catalog
1 Pieces of the Puzzle
1 Trail of Evidence
1 Broken Concentration
1 Uncaged Fury
1 Fiery Temper
1 Dance with Devils
1 Confirm Suspicions
9 Island
4 Mountain
2 Forest
1 Highland Lake
1 Woodland Stream
This deck was a total durdletron 5000. I was not very optimistic going into my matches and would not have been surprised to get a 1-2 finish, but the deck turned out better than I expected and I actually ended up winning every single game. Most games started off with me taking a good old fashioned face bashing and then stabilizing at around 5 or so life and winning by either flipping my Thing or burying my opponent with card advantage. I had a few other horrors for extra Thing value, and my most spectacular finish saw me removing the last two counters with Catalog into Uncaged Fury on Thing to one-shot my opponent down from 14 life. Another fun trick I pulled was using Compelling Deterrence to bounce Vessel of Nascency, and later Vessel of Malignity, when my opponent only had a single G or B. It was a total tempo blowout, and I managed to get the zombie value both times. The only card I was disappointed with was Trail of Evidence, which turned out to usually be too durdly even for this deck. I figured if it could work anywhere, it would be here, but most of the time I drew it I just looted it away. It did manage to help me win a late game top-deck war once, but I sided it out for game two nearly every time. This deck was the most fun I've had so far with this format.
2 Erdwal Illuminator
2 Stitched Mangler
1 Spectral Shepherd
1 Bygone Bishop
1 Odric, Lunarch Marshal
1 Silent Observer
1 Inquisitor's Ox
2 Drownyard Explorers
1 Lamplighter of Selhoff
1 Expose Evil
1 Just the Wind
1 Ongoing Investigation
1 Fevered Visions
1 Ulvenwald Mysteries
2 Fleeting Memories
1 Silverstrike
1 Gone Missing
1 Stone Quarry
2 Forest
7 Island
6 Plains
P1P1: Erdwal Illuminator
P2P1: Elusive Tormentor
P3P1: Ongoing Investigation
After the first booster, I was solidly in blue, with the 'mill them with Fleeting Memories' plan already taking shape. I could have gone into black after picking up the Tormentor, but then, black dried up and I got some late white goodies like Shepherd and Silverstrike. Ended up splashing both for Mysteries and Visions, as the nonbasics would allow me to run Visions whithout actually needing Mountains, and green could be convenient to get an activation off Ongoing Investigation as well. I ended up siding the Visions out against the RB madness player with Call the Bloodline, but also finished a game with with the enchantment delivering the missing 2 damage.
Won half my games by attacking with flyers (especially when Odric hit the board) and tapping down stuff, half with first generating a stack of clues, then landing Fleeting Memories and turning the clue-pile into a deadly assault on my opponent's library.
MVPs: Ongoing Investigation + Erdwal Illuminator = so many clues!
L1 Judge
2 Insolent Neonate
1 Falkenrath Gorger
1 Sinister Concoction
3 Murderous Compulsion
1 Ember-Eye Wolf
1 Gibbering Fiend
1 Senseless Rage
2 Tormenting Voice
1 Vampire Noble
1 Fiery Temper
1 Breakneck Rider
1 Convicted Killer
2 Gisa's Bidding
1 Mad Prophet
1 Inner Struggle
1 Dance With Devils
1 Twins of Maurer Estate
1 Gatstaf Arsonists
7 Swamp
9 Mountain
1 Geistblast
1 Inner Struggle
1 Rush of Adrenaline
1 Mother of Runes
2 Raise the Alarm
1 Borderland Marauder
2 Mistral Charger
1 Stingscourger
1 Mogg War Marshal
1 Keldon Marauders
1 Eight-and-a-Half-Tails
1 Whitemane Lion
1 Ballynock Cohort
1 Aven Riftwatcher
1 Kor Hookmaster
1 Wildfire Emissary
1 Flame-kin Zealot
1 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Reckless Charge
1 Pacifism
1 Undying Rage
1 Mishra's Factory
8 Plains
8 Mountain
I started the draft with two hondens, but got an abundance of good white aggro cards late in pack one and jumped ship when I opened Mother of Runes in P2P1. I got a playable card in about 90% of the picks until the end of the draft, including gettting a third-pick Siege-Gang Commander, but I had barely enough playables and had to play some mediocre cards.
Round 1 VS URw Burning Vengeance: Game 1 I mulled to five, couldn't keep up with his cards, and died to an unopposed Arcanis the Omnipotent. In game 2 I managed to keep a critical mass of tokens and win with Flame-kin Zealot. In game three, I had both Mother of Runes and Eight-and-a-Half-Tails on the battlefield, meaning that basically couldn't lose and have enough creatures to race Rorix Bladewing successfully.
Round 2 VS BG midrange: In game 1 my opponent Hymn to Tourach'd me, and I proceeded to flood and lose. In game 2 I managed to attack him to a low enough life total that Siege-Gang Commander+Firebolt got the job done. In game three he mulled to five and didn't do much of anything.
Round 3 VS RU tokens: In game 1 I created a good board advantage and time walked my opponent multiple times by firebolting an echoed Stingscourger. In the end he just couldn't keep up with my board advantage.
In game 2 I curved Raise the Alarm into Raise the Alarm into Flame-Kin Zealot into Siege-Gang Commander and rushed him down.
1 Thraben Inspector
1 Topplegeist
1 Town Gossipmonger
1 Devilthorn Fox
1 Lambholt Pacifist
1 Hinterland Logger
1 Duskwatch Recruiter
1 Pious Evangel
1 Silverfur Partisan
1 Bygone Bishop
1 Byway Courier
1 Inquisitor's Ox
1 Nearheath Chaplain
1 Reaper of Flight Moonsilver
1 Expose Evil
1 True-Faith Censor
1 Vessel of Ephemera
1 Puncturing Light
1 Aim High
1 Bound By Moonsilver
1 Crawling Sensation
1 Tenacity
MVP: Tenacity
Typically, I'm not a huge fan of this card, but there were at least 4 games where I alpha struck, turn two bad attacks into trades, gained 12-15 life and left up 2+ blockers. Usually also got in for at least 6-8 damage.
Vessel, Chaplain and Partisan all gave me a big boost when I wanted to use Tenacity. One game, I had Bygone Bishop, Pious Evangel and Duskwatch Recruiter in play...value town! Another game, I got to Expose Evil on my opponent's attack step to tap his fatty and my Silverfur Partisan, giving me a wolf. He then attacked with 2 Niblis of Dusk. I Aim High my Partisan, get a wolf and block a Niblis. A turn or two later was a backbreaking Tenacity.
1x Moorland Drifter
1x Guardian of Pilgrims
1x Sigardian Priest
2x Dawn Gryff
1x Geist of the Archives
1x Grizzled Angler
2x Enlightened Maniac
1x Apothecary Geist
1x Advanced Stitchwing
1x Subjugator Angel
1x Drogskol Cavalry
1x Wretched Gryff
1x Drownyard Behemoth
1x Elder Deep-Fiend
1x Bound By Moonsilver
1x Compelling Deterrence
I first pick a Bedlam Reveler hoping to draft a sweet spells deck, and then get passed Drownyard Behemoth -> Stitchwing Skaab -> Geist of the Archives -> Tattered Haunter. Didn't see a single good red card after pick 1, so I end up in mono blue, picking up a late Dawn Gryff, Guardian of Pilgrims, and Blessed Alliance. I open the Elder Deep-Fiend, and take an early Sigardian Priest to cement myself in white. I was partially debating whether or not to jump ship to black at some point, but P3P3 Bound By Moonsilver and P3P4 Drogskol Cavalry made quick work of that idea.
Match 1 was against 3 color Mirrorwing Dragon + tricks: I got my removal spells to deal with his few relevant threats, and just grinded him out with fliers.
Match 2 was against an insane RB vampire deck with 2 Bloodhall Priest, 3 Olivia's Dragoon, Call the Bloodline, Stromkirk Condemned, and 2 Sanitarium Skeleton for the combos. Game 1 he got stuck on 3 lands and I just out tempoed him, game 2 I had a strong start but he just made 8 call the bloodline tokens and alphaed me for 3 turns. Game 3 was extremely close, and came down to me blocking with Grizzled Angler, milling and getting the flip, and eating his guy with the 4/5. Then proceeded to force him to attack with his board and wiped it. Turns out 4/5 is very difficult to deal with in this format.
Match 3 was against RW 5 drops, and I just overran him with Elder Deep-Fiend both games.
Overperformers:
Sigardian Priest - Taps down most relevant threats in the format, and generally demands an answer.
Wretched Gryff - Turns out 7 mana is a lot less than 8, and I frequently hardcasted this late game for value. It really isn't that bad to cast this midgame with the emerge if you have no other plays as the body is generally relevant, and the lategame mode of playing a 3/4 flier and drawing a card is extremely good.
Enlightened Maniac - Vital for enabling value emerges. The 3/2 trades with everything up to 4 in the format, and the 0/2 is obviously insane with emerge.
Underperformers:
Subjugator Angel - Probably the weakest card by far given my deck. Looking back, I probably should have cut this for another Moorland Drifter or a Field Creeper. All of my threats were fliers, and I had plenty of late game threats to play over a lame 6 mana 4/3 flier. The one time this card is good is when I'm trying to push damage with a huge emerge creature, but at that point i'm probably already winning the game. I'm guessing this card is closer to a 3.0 in pick order than the 3.5 I originally rated it at, as you do not really want this card in any deck that isn't trying to win on the ground with high power/ low toughness minions.
Advanced Skaab - You can't utilize the ability as well in a deck full of emerge creatures since you want to keep your lands, so most of the time this was just a 5 mana 3/4 flier. Which is still pretty good as the 4 toughness is incredibly relevant, but it's not amazing.
Blessed Alliance - I never wanted to trade with most of my creatures, so my opponent generally had a bear that could attack into this. It was still pretty efficient just as a 2 mana kill their attacking bear or 3/2, but I never really got to blow anyone out with it.
Thoughts:
2 Sanguinary Mage
2 Furtive Homunculus
1 Thing in the Ice
2 Niblis of Dusk
1 Stitched Mangler
2 Pyre Hound
1 Drownyard Explorers
2 Stormrider Spirit
//Spells: 10
1 Just the Wind
1 Compelling Deterrence
2 Deny Existence
1 Catalog
1 Geistblast
1 Engulf the Shore
1 Confirm Suspicions
1 Gone Missing
1 Pore over the Pages
9 Island
8 Mountain
1 Ongoing Investigation
1 Warped Landscape
1 Pieces of the Puzzle
1 Trail of Evidence
1 Harness the Storm
1 Silent Observer
I managed to transform the Thing several times. Between that and Engulf and other bounce, the games became a tempo nightmare for opponents. I could often set up an Engulf that bounced my opponent's whole board but didn't touch Pyre Hound.
Because I rarely tapped out, the games became quite psychological. One opponent had Apothecary Geist while I had no flyers and was at 8 life, but he just refused to attack with it because I always had 5 mana up. This was game 1, so he hadn't even seen Stormrider Spirit yet, but the fear was real. In truth, I did have the Spirit, but I was actually holding 5 mana open for Confirm Suspicions. Either way, I was content stalling the game out. I probably held off on casting Spirit for 6 turns while he made no attacks with Geist or anything else. Eventually I used Confirm Suspicions on something. Finally I decide to cast another creature mainphase leaving only 4 mana open (for a bounce spell and/or clues), to make it look like I don't have the Spirit. Opponent finally attacked with Apothecary Geist, putting me down to 6. Next turn he attacks with it again and Stormrider eats it. Priceless. In game 2 I ate both his Geists with Spirits. He was not happy.
This was my EMN Release draft deck from last night. P1P1 was Cryptbreaker, which won every game where I played it on turn 1 (which was at least three of them). Thermo-alchemist was got me moving towards a red splash, and the card was solid all night, even without excessive instants and sorceries, providing a ticking clock on stalled boards. Savage Alliance was the other big payoff card for red; seemed to be a guaranteed 2-for-1 at a minimum. Sanitarium Skeleton put in good work here keeping my Cryptbreaker and Call the Bloodline engines running; I had a second in the board that I brought in for a couple of slower matches. A few more madness cards would really have pushed this one over the edge...
Also, got to meld into Chittering Host once! That was pretty cool.
2x Sigardian Priest
1x Gibbering Fiend
1x Guardian of Pilgrims
1x Desperate Sentry
1x Conduit of Storms
1x Geier Reach Bandit
1x Dauntless Cathar
1x Smoldering Werewolf
1x Voldaren Duelist
1x Courageous Outrider
1x Subjugator Angel
1x Bruna, the Fading Light
1x Savage Alliance
2x Galvanic Bombardment
1x Angelic Purge
1x Borrowed Hostility
1x Alchemist's Greeting
1x Westvale Abbey
1x Stone Quarry
8x Mountain
7x Plains
2x Ironclad Slayer
1x Blessed Alliance
1x Borrowed Grace
1x Alchemist's Greeting
1x Militant Inquisitor
1x Emissary of the Sleepless
First pack went Bruna -> Sigardian Priest -> Galvanic Bombardment -> Savage Alliance -> Smoldering Werewolf. Red and white were both extremely open in my table, so I settled on this deck.
Match 1: Against a player new to limited who had a GB deck that had a decent creature curve, but very few relevant spells. Smoldering Werewolf on Kessig Prowler and Crow of Dark Tidings was particularly brutal.
Match 2: The RW mirror. My overall spell quality was higher, but his deck was running Mirrorwing Dragon and Sorin, Grim Nemesis. His deck was mono 3 mana x/3s, so I sided out all my 2/1s and sided in all my 3/2s to try and grind him out. Was able to go wide game 3 off the back of an unanswered Conduit of Storms ramping out a bunch of 2 drops, and casting Borrowed Hostility on his Mirrorwing Dragon to trumpet blast my team for exactsies.
Match 3: UB zombie grind. Was able to get him with Westvale Abbey one game, but got grinded out in the late game for the other two. I played way too greedily and threw the last game in particular since I mistaking put him on Borrowed Malevolence the whole time.
Overperformers:
Courageous Outrider - The 4 mana 3/4 is a completely insane stat distribution in this format, and this one even draws you a relevant creature most of the time. Note that this trigger is a lot better than just drawing a card most of the time, since you're guaranteed to get a card that you can play. Very good with Sigardian Priest and Faithbearer Paladin in particular, as those cards are very strong plays.
Conduit of Storms - Tends to snowball the game if you can back this card up with tricks, as the extra mana helps out a lot. The late game transform mode is also excellent if you need mana sinks.
Sigardian Priest - It's just such a pain to deal with that it forces either a removal spell from your opponent, or locks down their best guy each turn. Also worth noting that this should be treated as a spell and not a creature for the purposes of deck construction I was worried about having too many spells which is why I chose to not include some other spells in the sideboard, and the priest for all intents and purposes is a spell as the body isn't relevant enough to contest the board.
Savage Alliance - Really hard to not just 2 for 1 your opponent with this card every time. Almost always insane.
Underperformers:
Desperate Sentry - I tried to be cute with the Field Creeper plan, but bleh. The problem with this card is that if you don't have delerium active, then your opponent can dictate when they want to give you a 3/2. This is really bad since if they are not trying to force through damage then this sucks up all your tempo by being a 3 mana 1/2, and even if they are trying to force through damage, they can simply hold back until it's profitable for them to attack you and force through more damage while you waste a turn chumping with this card. I'm now sold that you do not want this card unless you are specifically trying to be defensive delerium, or need to body to sac to an emerge creature.
Field Creeper - I still maintain that 2 mana 2/1s don't get punished that badly in the format, but playing them can be scary against red decks. There are more 3 toughness guys than I originally thought, so the body may not be good enough in this format.
In hindsight, I think I would have made -1 Field Creeper -1 Desperate Sentry, +1 Blessed Alliance, +1 Ironclad Slayer to my deck, as the delerium plan was just a little too cute to actually work.
1x Ulvenwald Captive
1x Noose Constrictor
2x Moldgraf Scavenger
1x Foul Emissary
1x Thraben Foulbloods
1x Bloodbriar
1x Byway Courier
1x Emrakul's Evangel
1x Liliana's Elite
1x Geist-Fueled Scarecrow
1x It of the Horrid Swarm
2x Murderous Compulsion
1x Rabid Bite
1x Terarrion
2x Vessel of Nascency
1x Grapple with the Past
1x Traverse the Ulvenwald
1x Borrowed Malevolence
1x Boon of Emrakul
8x Forest
8x Swamp
2x Mournwillow
1x Woodcutter's Grit
1x Mockery of Nature
1x Macabre Waltz
1x Wolfkin Bond
1x Primal Druid
1x Watcher in the Web
I windmill slam the Distended Mindbender, take a Courageous Outrider, then a Borrowed Malevolence out of a weak pack. I then spec on a Foul Emissary pick 4, get a Ulvenwald Captive pick 5 out of a pack with nothing else in it, and green based delerium proceeds to be extremely open for the rest of the draft. I made the mistake of speculating on Mournwillow more than I should have, as the final deck could have used a Certain Death over a compulsion, and I didn't even end up playing either of the Mournwillows! First world problems, I suppose.
Games tended to just ended up me curving delerium guys into a delerium enabler, and suddenly having a huge board from the 3/4 Moldgraf Scavenger. Distended Mindbender on turns 4-6 was near unbeatable, as it just ate their only removal spell in hand and their biggest threat. Even when it whiffed in the late game, it wasn't too bad as a 5/5 is just big enough to be the largest creature on board most of the time. The blowouts with Foul Emissary -> Distended Mindbender or It of the Horrid Swarm were particularly brutal, and not as uncommon as you would think due to all of the ways this deck has to filter draws for creatures. Playing 16 lands was also interesting, and ended up being the right choice due to the low curve of the deck and Traverse the Ulvenwald functionally being a land.
Overperformers
Moldgraf Scavenger - 3/4 is huge in this format, and if you can reliably enable delerium by turn 4, this card dominates the early/midgame
Foul Emissary - The turn 3 this into turn 4 emerge guy is probably one of the strongest starts in the entire format, and it felt very hard to lose whenever you could pull that off. Even the below average case of this being a 1/1 that draws you a creature has typically worked out.
Liliana's Elite - With the amount of self mill in this deck, this ended up being anywhere from a 4/4 to a 7/7 most of the time, which was incredibly strong as a 5/5 is extremely difficult to deal with, even in the late game. This goes up very high in the pick order as the amount of self mill in your deck increases.
Ulvenwald Captive - Having your 2 drop become a late game monster is a pretty huge upside, and I was never unhappy to draw this in any of my games.
Vessel of Nascency, Grapple with the Past - Essential for the dedicated delerium decks to function, as these are the only cards that almost single handedly enable delerium. It seems incredibly hard to build a delerium deck without these.
Underperformers
Murderous Compulsion - 2 copies was a bit much given that this card does nothing on offense, and I had draws that could just tempo my opponents out. I don't think this was cuttable as my deck tended to be the defensive one, but I wish this would have been a Throttle or Certain Death instead.
1 Thraben Inspector
1 Lone Rider
1 Steadfast Cathar
1 Fogwalker
1 Tattered Haunter
1 Moorland Drifter
2 Ingenious Skaab
1 Niblis of Dusk
1 Bygone Bishop
1 Dawn Gryff
1 Advanced Stitchwing
1 Elder Deep-Fiend
1 Stitcher's Graft
2 Jace's Scrutiny
1 Not Forgotten
1 Puncturing Light
1 Convolute
1 Chilling Grasp
1 Spectral Reserves
1 Startled Awake
1 Blessed Alliance
Jace's Scrutiny and Blessed Alliance were amazing with Ingenious Skaab. Blessed Alliance was a blowout with Stitcher's Graft. I did get to Startled Awake and immediately Not Forgotten for the old 26-mill in 2 turns. Also, Elder Deep-Fiend is really, really good.
Draft Viewer - http://www.empirimancy.net/draft/9952960#
Early Picks:
P1P1 - Smoldering Werewolf
P1P2 - Smoldering Werewolf
P2P1 - Ulvenwald Captive
P3P1 - Solitary Hunter
Standout cards:
Smoldering Werewolf - This card was great. Unless my opponent had no board, this almost always killed something on entering the battlefield.
Savage Alliance - Great, efficient card. I usually cast it as 3 damage to one creature, one to all the others. Super easy to set up a 2 for 1 with, and still fine if you just need to pick off a 2 toughness creature. Combos amazingly with Lightning Weaver.
Meh cards:
Alchemist's Greeting - This card is really only great if you have a bunch of discard outlets. I needed a general purpose removal spell, and it did the trick, but it's very mediocre if you're not madnessing it out.
Waxing Moon - This card was fine, but it plays a little awkwardly because you often want to cast it at sorcery speed. Ulvenwald Captive can't attack unless you play it pre-combat, and Smoldering Werewolf misses out on a shock if you play it as a combat trick. The card's fine, and the trample is relevant, but it doesn't seem great even in the werewolves deck: not something to prioritize.
General thoughts:
I liked the play on the deck much more than with SoI werewolves. There were more decision points, and monstrosity (which is basically what the Eldrazi werewolves mechanic is) plays very well in limited. My deck didn't care very much about wolves/werewolves in particular, but the deck seems more about powerful midrange cards than about synergy (Howlpack Resurgence still would've been great, though).
1 Gnarlwood Dryad
1 Sigardian Priest
1 Noose Constrictor
1 Hamlet Captain
1 Steadfast Cathar
2 Shrill Howler
3 Woodland Patrol
1 Byway Courier
2 Solitary Hunter
1 Intrepid Provisioner
1 Backwoods Survivalist
1 Faithbearer Paladin
1 Neglected Heirloom
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Grapple With the Past
1 Vessel of Ephemera
1 Woodcutter's Grit
1 Collective Effort
1 Clear Shot
1 Primal Druid
1 Crawling Sensation
1 Vessel of Nascency
1 Loam Dryad
2 Swift Spinner
1 Clip Wings
2 Confront the Unknown
1 Watcher in the Web
1 Inquisitor's Ox
1 Mournwillow
1 Boon of Emrakul
1 Wailing Ghoul
1 Graf Harvest
1 Weirded Vampire
Once again, a number of solid interactions in this deck.
In round 3, I had to play against Liliana all three games. I got rolled game 1 by turn 3 Lily. So I sided out the Howlers, Cathar and Gnarlwood Dryad for 2 Swift Spinners, Clip Wings and Loam Dryad (he was on U/B control/fliers). He couldn't kill anything with Lily anymore (though he did play t3 Oath of Lily into t4 Lily), so I was able to lay out dude after dude and overwhelm him.
Draft Viewer - http://www.empirimancy.net/draft/9956341
Early Picks:
P1P1 - Savage Alliance
P2P1 - Bloodhall Priest
P3P1 - Sin Prodder
Notable Cards:
I want to highlight Olivia's Dragoon, as I'm increasingly becoming convinced that this card is just great. Zero cost, instant speed madness enablers are very strong, and this one is at common and comes on a perfectly reasonable body, with a small but relevant upside to the activation. This is creeping its way up my pick order, and I think it's a premium common for black. Skarsdig Supplicant also did good work, as it's a reasonable madness enabler and gives the deck some very welcome extra reach.
http://www.top8draft.com/draft/79106/Dorvan/
The draft got off to a very uncertain start: Distended Mindbender -> Thalia's Lancers -> Somberwald Stag (incidentally, I find myself starting out drafts by picking 3 different color cards pretty often in this format).
It wasn't until midway through pack 1 that I locked in on a deck: seeing Drownyard Behemoth 6th pick seemed like a signal, so I took it despite having no blue yet, and was immediately rewarded with a pakc containing Lashweed Lurker, Exhultant Cultist, and Foul Emissary (I took the emissary).
The deck was full of great cards, but I was particularly impressed with the consistency of the deck. Most of my early plays helps set up and smooth my later draws, allowing me to very reliably find the right combination of emerge creatures and enablers to take over the game.
1 Forsaken Sanctuary
9 Mountain
7 Plains
1 Swamp
Spells:
1 Puncturing Light
1 Borrowed Grace
1 Cathar's Companion
1 Apothecary Geist
1 Inquisitor's Ox
1 Archangel Avacyn
1 Certain Death
1 Dark Salvation
1 Borrowed Hostility
1 Galvanic Bombardment
1 Ember-Eye Wolf
1 Incendiary Flow
1 Kessig Forgemaster
1 Thermo-Alchemist
1 Abandon Reason
1 Conduit of Storms
1 Nahiri's Wrath
1 Mad Prophet
1 Vildin-Pack Outcast
1 Field Creeper
1 True-Faith Censer
1 Runaway Carriage
1 Borrowed Grace
1 Ironwright's Cleansing
1 Jace's Scrutiny
1 Nagging Thoughts
1 Vessel of Volatility
1 Crossroads Consecrator
1 Loam Dryad
3 Grapple with the Past
1 Primal Druid
1 Bloodbriar
1 Woodcutter's Grit
1 Woodland Patrol
1 Backwoods Survivalists
2 Swift Spinner
1 Emrakul's Influence
1 Lashweed Lurker
1 Nephalia Academy
1 Thraben Inspector
2 Tattered haunter
2 Sigardian priest
1 Selfless spirit
1 Rattlechains
2 Dawn Gryff
1 Ironclad slayer
1 Nibilis of Dusk
1 Inspiring Captain
1 Courageous outrider
1 Faithbearer paladin
1 Thalia's lancers
1 Bruna, the fading light
1 Wretched Gryff
1 Elder deep-fiend
1 Puncturing light
2 Choking restraits
1 Drag under
1 sleep paralysis
lands
10 plains
7 islands
1 Jace's scrutiny
1 Erdwald illuminator
1 Giest of the lonely vigil
1 Enlightend maniac
1 Emissary of the sleepless
1 Subjugator Angel
Game 1 Kept slow hand but the high toughness humans and eventually Bruna stopped my opponents beat down with me at 4.. then 1.
Game 2 I got off to a reasonable curve this time, I was able to use selfless spirit at instant speed to win a critical combat followed by a number of clues.
Match 2 Green black delririum
Game 1 Perfect curve out opponent got mana screwed dead to flyers.
Game 2 Opponent got a better draw but just couldn't handle Thalia's lancers into Bruna into Lancers again just over powered him.
Match 3 Jeskai Humans
Game 1 We got into a race, I was able to just keep hitting with my flyers. Eventually using sigardian preist to edge ahead.
Game 2 The best game of the night. Game started smilarly but it became clear my opponent was ahead in this race he forced me into uncomfortable trades by using equipment on Eldrazi 3/2s . I fought back with the lifelinking human and selfless spirit sacing to give the knight more turns of life. Then he returned to the lead able to flip neglected hierloom into avacynian missonaries.. taking rattlechains. I was able to set up choking restraints, exile, ironclad slayer, choking resitants, Exile the missonaries to return the rattlechains. I drew inspiring captain hit him to 2 with my fliers and had elder deep-fiend tapped him out before combat gg.
I opend Giesla in the prize packs Ha
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
Went 3-0 with this at FNM. First pick was Bloodhall Priest out of an otherwise uninspiring pack, and the deck ended up being fairly open. I put in Prophetic Ravings because I had a bunch of madness cards but was short on discard outlets.