from watching channelfireball draft videos, i have discovered something i did not see before: that Support (something i had dismissed as probably not very "my kind of fun") might end up being very much my kind of fun. (i love synergies and decks that "put pieces together", pieces that individually seem on the weak side, but come together to make something either quirky or suprisingly stronger than had first appeared. eg Gatewatch's Extort ability, Kalestria Healer, etc.).
` i had entirely missed the idea of Supporting onto fliers and creatures with vigilance.
i love the feeling of being surprised like this! i love the feeling of discovering something enticing in what i had dismissed as humdrum or boring.
i am greatful for players smarter than i am for doing draft videos, so i could discover this; their education makes the game fun for me in this way.
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how much do you all relate or not relate to this?
do you find yourself re-evaluating the format as it continues? do you find yourself actually surprised or taken aback at times with your discoveries? how much does being inspired by other people (playing against other people, or hearing opinions here) help you re-evaluate things?
do you have any examples off the top of your head where you were surprised or where you re-evaluated a format?
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Goblins have poor impulse control. Don't click this link!!
some of my favourite flavour text:
Wayward Soul "no home no heart no hope"
—Stronghold graffito
Raging Goblin He raged at the world, at his family, at his life. But mostly he just raged.
Definitely on the same page there. My results in the format have been middling so far, definitely a step down from my BFZx3 performance...yet I'm having a blast anyway. That's not always the case when I lose in draft, sometimes I just feel helpless and frustrated. But in this case it feels like there is a lot to learn, a ton of places that I can reflect and see mistakes/strategies that I can try and correct the next time both in the games and in the drafting.
My latest "discovery" of sorts has been figuring out how great it is to move into blue if it is open in pack one. For starters it seems a little underdrafted at the moment, at least on MTGO. But the biggie is realizing that there is the potential for a major pack 3 payoff if it is open, as blue is just loaded with the goods in BFZ. So now if I see good blue stuff coming my way mid-late pack one I'm much more likely to jump ship and move in than I would have a week ago.
Yeah, my draft last night was like that. Started out Captain/Iso Zone/Cliffhaven Vamp/Envoy, so very solidly BW allies. Then I see a ton of blue at the end of the pack, including my P1P7 Roiling Waters. P2P2 I get passed Crush of Tentacles and end up seeing virtually no white, so by the end of the pack I'm looking more like Ux control than anything else. Then pack 3 I just get hooked up with a ton of blue, including a P7 Skyspawner. End up with a sweet Ubw deck that was on the controlling side, but could also apply a lot of pressure thanks to some cheap aggressive flyers (Skyspawner x 2, Dimensional Infiltrator, Emissary). Highlights:
Crush being absurd - In the finals I got to surge it out turn 5 in game one (Skyspawner turn 3, sac the token to play Masterwork+Crush on turn 5), then turn 6 in game 2. The topper was that I was playing against RG beats, the deck that is probably the softest to the quick 8/8 token, with no way to remove it. I almost felt bad for the opponent in that one.
Stoneforge Masterwork + Skyspawner = Awesome.
Dimensional Infiltrator has consistently been fantastic for me. In a previous draft I won a stalled out UB vs UW matchup by just milling the opponent out with it thanks to 4 activations a turn. In my first round this time I got a funny lucky moment where I was trying to save it in combat and whiffed...because I exiled the Linvala he was about to draw. Worth.
In OGW I play two-color decks (with colorless sometimes) and in 5 out of the last 6 drafts I have played blue just because it is obviously so open. Blue-white is one of the weaker combinations but I have played it in my last 3 drafts with good success, because I keep getting late Cyclone Sires etc. 5 out of 6 is a small sample size, though, and I certainly do not want to lean towards blue without seeing it open first.
It's funny, I've actually found myself playing 2 colors plus a splash PLUS colorless pretty often, especially when my core colors are two of the Sultai mix. You'd think that would stretch you too thin, but between Settlement/Vestige/Shores, which you generally want in your colorless builds anyway, it is really easy for a splash to start looking virtually free by pack 3. That's especially true in green, where you get added color fixing options at common (good ol' Larva does great work in those decks). In terms of being educated/inspired that has definitely been one of those realizations for me, and it has caused me to pay a lot more attention to those possibilities earlier in the drafts. I don't wait til pack 3 to draft with a splash in mind, I draft with a potential splash in mind in pack 1 now IF it looks like I'm going to be in that Sultai-colorless space.
yeah the power level of a good Sultai colorless deck is through the roof. You get card advantage engines like Mindmelter, Prophet of Distortion, and Balth Null, great removal, great tempo cards, good finishers like Birthing Hulk. B/G/u/c or G/U/b/c are both excellent.
When the set first came out I drafted white every time because no one else had discovered that Ondu War Cleric into a 3-drop Ally into Spawnbinder was really really good. Now its never ever open but I always end up with a cool deck. last night I first picked Jori En and ended up with a great U/R/c Surge control deck.
yeah the power level of a good Sultai colorless deck is through the roof. You get card advantage engines like Mindmelter, Prophet of Distortion, and Balth Null, great removal, great tempo cards, good finishers like Birthing Hulk. B/G/u/c or G/U/b/c are both excellent.
When the set first came out I drafted white every time because no one else had discovered that Ondu War Cleric into a 3-drop Ally into Spawnbinder was really really good. Now its never ever open but I always end up with a cool deck. last night I first picked Jori En and ended up with a great U/R/c Surge control deck.
Nice. Yeah, my second draft in the format started with Jori En, which I took think it was the "fun" pick but maybe wrong. Well, turns out it was definitely the right pick, Jori is a bomb when you get to take it P1P1 and build around it. SO much easier to continuously trigger than I anticipated.
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` i had entirely missed the idea of Supporting onto fliers and creatures with vigilance.
i love the feeling of being surprised like this! i love the feeling of discovering something enticing in what i had dismissed as humdrum or boring.
i am greatful for players smarter than i am for doing draft videos, so i could discover this; their education makes the game fun for me in this way.
-----
how much do you all relate or not relate to this?
do you find yourself re-evaluating the format as it continues? do you find yourself actually surprised or taken aback at times with your discoveries? how much does being inspired by other people (playing against other people, or hearing opinions here) help you re-evaluate things?
do you have any examples off the top of your head where you were surprised or where you re-evaluated a format?
Goblins have poor impulse control. Don't click this link!!
some of my favourite flavour text:
Wayward Soul
"no home no heart no hope"
—Stronghold graffito
Raging Goblin
He raged at the world, at his family, at his life. But mostly he just raged.
My latest "discovery" of sorts has been figuring out how great it is to move into blue if it is open in pack one. For starters it seems a little underdrafted at the moment, at least on MTGO. But the biggie is realizing that there is the potential for a major pack 3 payoff if it is open, as blue is just loaded with the goods in BFZ. So now if I see good blue stuff coming my way mid-late pack one I'm much more likely to jump ship and move in than I would have a week ago.
Crush being absurd - In the finals I got to surge it out turn 5 in game one (Skyspawner turn 3, sac the token to play Masterwork+Crush on turn 5), then turn 6 in game 2. The topper was that I was playing against RG beats, the deck that is probably the softest to the quick 8/8 token, with no way to remove it. I almost felt bad for the opponent in that one.
Stoneforge Masterwork + Skyspawner = Awesome.
Dimensional Infiltrator has consistently been fantastic for me. In a previous draft I won a stalled out UB vs UW matchup by just milling the opponent out with it thanks to 4 activations a turn. In my first round this time I got a funny lucky moment where I was trying to save it in combat and whiffed...because I exiled the Linvala he was about to draw. Worth.
When the set first came out I drafted white every time because no one else had discovered that Ondu War Cleric into a 3-drop Ally into Spawnbinder was really really good. Now its never ever open but I always end up with a cool deck. last night I first picked Jori En and ended up with a great U/R/c Surge control deck.
Nice. Yeah, my second draft in the format started with Jori En, which I took think it was the "fun" pick but maybe wrong. Well, turns out it was definitely the right pick, Jori is a bomb when you get to take it P1P1 and build around it. SO much easier to continuously trigger than I anticipated.