I don't like sealed, so I waited to draft before I got anything Amonkhet. It was a great time, and a grindier format than I'd expected.
I thought I remembered a thread dedicated to this, but I didn't see it. In your drafts so far, what cards have overperformed, and which have underperformed? Here are some of my experiences from a blue/white deck with a red splash (splashing is easy in the format):
All of the cartouches are really solid. I saw each of them used to good effect except for the red one, which I expect is good as well.
Fan Bearer is a big deal, and is a cornerstone to slower white decks. There are a lot of big creatures in the format, and this effect is better than most for keeping you alive. With Cartouche of Ambition and Baleful Ammit in the format, I found myself facing down a lot of huge lifelinkers, and Fan Bearer can really keep you comfortable in that heat.
Oketra's Attendant is just as good as it looks, which is fabulous. Every version of this card is dripping with value.
Impeccable Timing is good in the format. There's a lot happening at instant speed in Amonkhet, so it's harder to know to play around this card, and it hits a lot of the weenie guys that make your life hard in the early game.
Drake Haven worked for me. I got it out of pack two, and built with it in mind, and it was a workhorse. It seemed to me like Faith of the Devoted was a lot worse, since it has absolutely no board impact.
Renewed Faith is good. I knew it was good, but my faith was renewed when it was proven. This card is good.
I was a little disapointed in Aven Initiate. The embalm cost is a little steep compared to most of the other cards with the ability. It's a decent card, but you don't want a lot of them, and it doesn't feel as good to discard as most embalmers.
Kefnet the Mindful wasn't that scary when my opponent played it. There was no way he was getting a full hand. However, this is a highly skill intensive card, so better players will be much more formidable with it than less experienced ones (not that I'm impugning my opponent's skill).
Festering Mummy is really annoying to face. There's not really a way to keep your opponent from getting value off this most of the time.
Deem Worthy is great, but you have to be willing to cast it for less value (without cycling it). A lot of big creatures need answers, and you don't need to be picking off their less dangerous creature to squeeze in extra value when you're down.
Ahn-Crop Crasher is a terrifying card. You don't know when your opponent could come out of nowhere and smash you for a ton of damage. Cartouche of Zeal also lends to the uneasiness when facing a red deck. It's wise to have multiple blockers when you can.
Bitterblade Warrior isn't as dangerous as I'd expected. I was never afraid of it.
Aven Wind Guide is the bee's bananas. This format is rife with board stalls, and this guy is super hard to deal with in those situations. Once you start giving your tokens abilities, it just gets bonkers. It's totally worth six mana to cast this guy again.
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun was pretty scary on my opponent's side. I dared not kill it, as it would come back more dangerous, then he eventually got tokens and sniped me to death. Embalm is common enough that this guy becomes truly beastly in the right build, and he's not bad on his own.
Board stalls are such a thing that wraths are a huge deal. Heaven // Earth is just flat awesome.
Oracle's Vault wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I'm still not sure it's worth playing, but it is pretty good in the late game.
Edifice of Authority is the number one breakout success from my deck. The only time that it didn't trash my opponent was when he destroyed it with a Dissenter's Deliverance that he boarded in specifically to deal with my Edifice. Take this over pretty much anything.
Approach of the Second Sun LSV likes this card, but I think it must have just seemed good to him because it was propped up by 39 better cards. I took it P1P2 to try it out last night and it was dead weight. The one game I resolved it in (casual post FNM game) it could have been an uncastable off color card and the outcome would have been the same since my good bomb Sandwurm Convergence (which is the absolute nuts) had me in an unbeatable position anyway. Gets an A for being fun and flavorful.
Vizier of Deferment Picked this up middle of the pack and the ceiling on it is astronomical. Its best outing was flickering my opponent's T2 Bloodrage Brawler, cracking in a few times, and trading in on a gang block.
Wander in Death looks like a 23rd playable based on previous sets, but I think black decks just want at least one copy because of cycling. I would play two in the right deck, and I think its presence makes Painful Lesson unplayable.
Trials plus Cartouches seem to be the premiere build arounds. I had the red and black trials and blue and red cartouches at the prerelease and they obliterated opposing board states.
Overperformers Trial of Ambition absolutely wrecks slower decks. With 2 or three cartouches it just gets out of hand. Edicts typically aren't great but repeatable edicts, turns out, are.
Cryptic Serpent can be played a lot earlier than I gave it credit for. In dedicated spell decks it's not uncommon to cycle spells early game. In the two dedicated spell decks I've built I never cast him for more than 4 mana. Often by turn 5.
Supply Caravan performs a bit better than I thought. Not a lot but I pick him slightly higher in aggressive decks now.
Unburden is a great cycler. In RB Cycle or to a slightly lesser extent UB cycle, it's a high pick.
[card]
Bounty of the Luxa[/card] is a real card. It does everything you want it to. It draws you cards, then gives you mana to play more cards, then draws you cards, etc. If you are not very behind on board state, and they can't deal with it, you run away with the game.
Underperformers Greater Sandwurm is fine. He's a cycler and a 7/7 but it's harder to cast him than I thought so he's often just 2 mana draw a card unless you draw him late. Not bad, but not as good as I thought he'd be.
Honestly I don't see many underperformers that I wasn't already not hot on. I can agree a bit on Faith of the Devoted. There's better cycling payoffs in black.
I'm not trying to be seen playing the cerodon in the decks I've been playing, but Horror of the broken lands has been pretty good. Just in general I'm not trying to cast things that cost this much mana.
The white one is reasonable though.
The cards I've cooled the most on are Splendid agony and final reward. They both frequently trade down (and agony is real tough to trade up with outside of combat). They are both still fine, but Final reward just costs too much for what I've been seeing.
A card I've warmed to a lot is thresher lizard That man wears every cartouche like a champ. Also, he helps make miasmic mummy a sleeper reasonable card.
I'm not trying to be seen playing the cerodon in the decks I've been playing, but Horror of the broken lands has been pretty good. Just in general I'm not trying to cast things that cost this much mana.
The white one is reasonable though.
The cards I've cooled the most on are Splendid agony and final reward. They both frequently trade down (and agony is real tough to trade up with outside of combat). They are both still fine, but Final reward just costs too much for what I've been seeing.
A card I've warmed to a lot is thresher lizard That man wears every cartouche like a champ. Also, he helps make miasmic mummy a sleeper reasonable card.
Really? Cerodon just seems like a threat that's usually bigger than everything else and in the decks you really want him in (UR or BR) he's a one mana cycler for your cycling reward cards. I agree in RB the Horror is often better but not by that much.
Splendid Agony I've also cooled on. Its never "bad" but it's rarely very good. Final Reward has been for me though. Yes, sometimes you trade down but it's still unconditional instant speed exile. That has mattered for me.
I have a hard time believing splendid agony not being good. It can target more than one guy and is an instant. IOW, it makes combat maths incorrect and even if they have an response, its effect lasts.
The reason why I don't want cerodon in my most recent red decks is because my 3-0 red decks have been full-tilt aggro decks. Double red cartouche, double bloodlust inciter, with around 3 or so four drops.
I just don't expect to cast it, and in most games I want to spend all my mana on the board, if possible.
That isnt to say the card is bad. Once I step into midrange I'm happy to play the first copy at least.
/
Splendid agony is a three mana removal spell that can kill very very few important 4 drops or higher without getting into combat (and even then, conditions need to be met in order to not 2 for 1 yourself).
Over the course of the game, yeah you'll find a spot for it. But it isn't clean enough on its own.
/
There are definitely games where I could have used a final reward. Sometimes you really just need to have something die. But the opportunity cost is sorta high.
Again, it's not bad. I just am not first, second, or maybe third picking it.
I agree with Leelue on Splendid Agony. It usually just trades for a two or three drop in my experience, in which case it is just an overcosted, non-exiling Magma Spray. It doesn't help that Shed Weakness is a very commonly played trick that completely blows it out mid-combat.
Vizier of Tumbling Sands really impressed me in my last draft. It does so much, serving as a ramp creature, combat trick, and exert enabler. I usually used its cycling mode, but both modes are useful and I can see certain decks (particularly U/G) valuing the creature mode more highly.
One toughness creatures in general seem pretty poorly positioned in this format, and I consider Rhet-Crop Spearmaster to be a liability at this point. It's just to easy to kill them and get value with all the -1/-1 counters flying around. On that note, I've been impressed with Blazing Volley out of the board. It does a lot of work against aggro decks, particularly Boros. Trading a one mana spell for a two or three drop is great, and it's not too uncommon to get a two for one which is just incredible for R. It's still a sideboard card, of course, but it's a sideboard card I've brought in a lot more than I expected.
I have a hard time believing splendid agony not being good. It can target more than one guy and is an instant. IOW, it makes combat maths incorrect and even if they have an response, its effect lasts.
This.
I have often gotten 2-for-1s off it. It gives you enough flexibility that you can screw up combat, it can take out 2 tokens, and it synergizes with all the "-1/-1 counters matter" cards. I think this card is stronger if you consider it a combat trick (like Common Bond) instead of a removal spell.
There are definitely games where I could have used a final reward. Sometimes you really just need to have something die. But the opportunity cost is sorta high.
Almost every time I have cast Final Reward (which has been a lot), it has hit an indestructible God, an Embalm flying creature (effectively killing 2 creatures), a hasty Glorybringer before it can attack, Pitiless Vizier after opponent cycles, or a big creature in response to Cartouche of Strength or with some other trick on the stack (2-for-1).
It might be bad in some decks where it is your only removal. 5 mana to kill a bear is bad. But if your deck can already handle small creatures then it seems very strong. It's the only clean answer to a lot of powerful stuff that can happen in the format. I agree this card would be much less good if it was a sorcery.
The reason why I don't want cerodon in my most recent red decks is because my 3-0 red decks have been full-tilt aggro decks. Double red cartouche, double bloodlust inciter, with around 3 or so four drops.
I just don't expect to cast it, and in most games I want to spend all my mana on the board, if possible.
That isnt to say the card is bad. Once I step into midrange I'm happy to play the first copy at least.
/
Splendid agony is a three mana removal spell that can kill very very few important 4 drops or higher without getting into combat (and even then, conditions need to be met in order to not 2 for 1 yourself).
Over the course of the game, yeah you'll find a spot for it. But it isn't clean enough on its own.
/
There are definitely games where I could have used a final reward. Sometimes you really just need to have something die. But the opportunity cost is sorta high. Again, it's not bad. I just am not first, second, or maybe third picking it.
It's against your favorite full-tilt aggro decks where Splendid Agony truly shines. It 1-for-1s a healthy chunk of R and W's 1-4 drops and punishes them severely if they're caught with too many X/1's in their pool. Getting your X/1s caught in a 2-for-1 Agony kill is a very real possibility, so this not only shows the power that this card has, but also the liability of having 1-toughness in this set.
My overachiever is Emberhorn Minotaur. A 5/4 menace is difficult to trade with favorably in this set, and it's just nerve wracking just to try to mess with this guy when it swings in with mana open.
I've been really impressed with Quarry Hauler. The body is solid and at least trades with almost everything in the format, and you can almost always find something useful to do with the ETB trigger with all of the -1/-1 counters flying around.
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465 card Unpowered cube thread. Draft it here and I'll be happy to return the favor.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
I just 3-0'd an MTGO draft where Rhonas's Monument did some major work for me. I had previously dismissed the card as nearly unplayable but I decided to give it a shot after hearing other people were having success with it. I'm not sure how representative my experiences were with it but I cast it in at least three or four games and it was good every time. The best it did was allow me to cast Samut, Voice of Dissent when I was stuck on 4 mana and subsequently pump her up to a 7/8 double-striking, trampling monster, but it was also quite good just allowing my Bitterblade Warriors and other dorks to attack well above their pay grade.
Rhonas' monument is sick in green aggro, Oketra's is a ton of board presence. Bontu's can be playable in a creature heavy deck as reach, especially zombies with its drain life Lord. The other two suck.
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The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
I just lost to Throne of the God-Pharaoh. Although it doesn't affect the board, it gives Rx aggro some inevitability and reach after Exerting. It means your Gust Walker is now dealing 2.5 damage per turn instead of 1.5 damage per turn in a board stall, which gives you less time to find an answer. It triggers when anything is tapped, which works for activated abilities like Pathmaker Initiate, Bloodlust Inciter and Fan Bearer. I'm now respecting it as a legitimate win condition in the very fast Rx aggro decks.
Mouth//Feed was the difference between my deck going 3-0 and 1-2 at FNM last night. 3/3 for 3 is a good speed bump and can really gum up the ground if you have a cartouche of strength to put on it (I had multiple games where the hippo got two of them). Feed always drew me 3+ cards and led to a game win when I was stable enough to resolve it.
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I thought I remembered a thread dedicated to this, but I didn't see it. In your drafts so far, what cards have overperformed, and which have underperformed? Here are some of my experiences from a blue/white deck with a red splash (splashing is easy in the format):
All of the cartouches are really solid. I saw each of them used to good effect except for the red one, which I expect is good as well.
Fan Bearer is a big deal, and is a cornerstone to slower white decks. There are a lot of big creatures in the format, and this effect is better than most for keeping you alive. With Cartouche of Ambition and Baleful Ammit in the format, I found myself facing down a lot of huge lifelinkers, and Fan Bearer can really keep you comfortable in that heat.
Oketra's Attendant is just as good as it looks, which is fabulous. Every version of this card is dripping with value.
Impeccable Timing is good in the format. There's a lot happening at instant speed in Amonkhet, so it's harder to know to play around this card, and it hits a lot of the weenie guys that make your life hard in the early game.
Drake Haven worked for me. I got it out of pack two, and built with it in mind, and it was a workhorse. It seemed to me like Faith of the Devoted was a lot worse, since it has absolutely no board impact.
Renewed Faith is good. I knew it was good, but my faith was renewed when it was proven. This card is good.
I was a little disapointed in Aven Initiate. The embalm cost is a little steep compared to most of the other cards with the ability. It's a decent card, but you don't want a lot of them, and it doesn't feel as good to discard as most embalmers.
Kefnet the Mindful wasn't that scary when my opponent played it. There was no way he was getting a full hand. However, this is a highly skill intensive card, so better players will be much more formidable with it than less experienced ones (not that I'm impugning my opponent's skill).
Festering Mummy is really annoying to face. There's not really a way to keep your opponent from getting value off this most of the time.
Deem Worthy is great, but you have to be willing to cast it for less value (without cycling it). A lot of big creatures need answers, and you don't need to be picking off their less dangerous creature to squeeze in extra value when you're down.
Desert Cerodon is good. Play it.
Ahn-Crop Crasher is a terrifying card. You don't know when your opponent could come out of nowhere and smash you for a ton of damage. Cartouche of Zeal also lends to the uneasiness when facing a red deck. It's wise to have multiple blockers when you can.
Bitterblade Warrior isn't as dangerous as I'd expected. I was never afraid of it.
Aven Wind Guide is the bee's bananas. This format is rife with board stalls, and this guy is super hard to deal with in those situations. Once you start giving your tokens abilities, it just gets bonkers. It's totally worth six mana to cast this guy again.
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun was pretty scary on my opponent's side. I dared not kill it, as it would come back more dangerous, then he eventually got tokens and sniped me to death. Embalm is common enough that this guy becomes truly beastly in the right build, and he's not bad on his own.
Board stalls are such a thing that wraths are a huge deal. Heaven // Earth is just flat awesome.
Don't play monuments. Maybe Oketra's Monument.
Oracle's Vault wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I'm still not sure it's worth playing, but it is pretty good in the late game.
Edifice of Authority is the number one breakout success from my deck. The only time that it didn't trash my opponent was when he destroyed it with a Dissenter's Deliverance that he boarded in specifically to deal with my Edifice. Take this over pretty much anything.
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
Vizier of Deferment Picked this up middle of the pack and the ceiling on it is astronomical. Its best outing was flickering my opponent's T2 Bloodrage Brawler, cracking in a few times, and trading in on a gang block.
Wander in Death looks like a 23rd playable based on previous sets, but I think black decks just want at least one copy because of cycling. I would play two in the right deck, and I think its presence makes Painful Lesson unplayable.
Trials plus Cartouches seem to be the premiere build arounds. I had the red and black trials and blue and red cartouches at the prerelease and they obliterated opposing board states.
Pauper: Burn
Modern: Burn
Legacy: Burn
EDH: Marath, Will of the Wild - Ramp/Combo | Anafenza the Foremost - French | Uril, the Miststalker - Voltron | Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury - Goodstuff
Ghost Council of Orzhov - Tokens | Lazav, Dimir Mastermind - Control | Isamaru, Hound of Konda - Tiny Leaders
I knew it would be good, but I didn't think it would be "multiple concedes on turn 5" good.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Trial of Ambition absolutely wrecks slower decks. With 2 or three cartouches it just gets out of hand. Edicts typically aren't great but repeatable edicts, turns out, are.
Cryptic Serpent can be played a lot earlier than I gave it credit for. In dedicated spell decks it's not uncommon to cycle spells early game. In the two dedicated spell decks I've built I never cast him for more than 4 mana. Often by turn 5.
All the One Mana Cyclers. Especially Desert Cerodon, Horror of the Broken Lands, and Winged Shepherd. They are all C+ or higher in the right deck. Pick them often, Play them always.
Minotaur Sureshot and Pathmaker Initiate are a common combo I've lost to.
Supply Caravan performs a bit better than I thought. Not a lot but I pick him slightly higher in aggressive decks now.
Unburden is a great cycler. In RB Cycle or to a slightly lesser extent UB cycle, it's a high pick.
[card]
Bounty of the Luxa[/card] is a real card. It does everything you want it to. It draws you cards, then gives you mana to play more cards, then draws you cards, etc. If you are not very behind on board state, and they can't deal with it, you run away with the game.
Underperformers
Greater Sandwurm is fine. He's a cycler and a 7/7 but it's harder to cast him than I thought so he's often just 2 mana draw a card unless you draw him late. Not bad, but not as good as I thought he'd be.
Honestly I don't see many underperformers that I wasn't already not hot on. I can agree a bit on Faith of the Devoted. There's better cycling payoffs in black.
CUBE: http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/73964;jsessionid=2DE1F5FF41A24820A137448A2FD5CF8F
I LIKE DRAGONS!
The white one is reasonable though.
The cards I've cooled the most on are Splendid agony and final reward. They both frequently trade down (and agony is real tough to trade up with outside of combat). They are both still fine, but Final reward just costs too much for what I've been seeing.
A card I've warmed to a lot is thresher lizard That man wears every cartouche like a champ. Also, he helps make miasmic mummy a sleeper reasonable card.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Splendid Agony I've also cooled on. Its never "bad" but it's rarely very good. Final Reward has been for me though. Yes, sometimes you trade down but it's still unconditional instant speed exile. That has mattered for me.
CUBE: http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/73964;jsessionid=2DE1F5FF41A24820A137448A2FD5CF8F
I LIKE DRAGONS!
I just don't expect to cast it, and in most games I want to spend all my mana on the board, if possible.
That isnt to say the card is bad. Once I step into midrange I'm happy to play the first copy at least.
/
Splendid agony is a three mana removal spell that can kill very very few important 4 drops or higher without getting into combat (and even then, conditions need to be met in order to not 2 for 1 yourself).
Over the course of the game, yeah you'll find a spot for it. But it isn't clean enough on its own.
/
There are definitely games where I could have used a final reward. Sometimes you really just need to have something die. But the opportunity cost is sorta high.
Again, it's not bad. I just am not first, second, or maybe third picking it.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Vizier of Tumbling Sands really impressed me in my last draft. It does so much, serving as a ramp creature, combat trick, and exert enabler. I usually used its cycling mode, but both modes are useful and I can see certain decks (particularly U/G) valuing the creature mode more highly.
One toughness creatures in general seem pretty poorly positioned in this format, and I consider Rhet-Crop Spearmaster to be a liability at this point. It's just to easy to kill them and get value with all the -1/-1 counters flying around. On that note, I've been impressed with Blazing Volley out of the board. It does a lot of work against aggro decks, particularly Boros. Trading a one mana spell for a two or three drop is great, and it's not too uncommon to get a two for one which is just incredible for R. It's still a sideboard card, of course, but it's a sideboard card I've brought in a lot more than I expected.
This.
I have often gotten 2-for-1s off it. It gives you enough flexibility that you can screw up combat, it can take out 2 tokens, and it synergizes with all the "-1/-1 counters matter" cards. I think this card is stronger if you consider it a combat trick (like Common Bond) instead of a removal spell.
Almost every time I have cast Final Reward (which has been a lot), it has hit an indestructible God, an Embalm flying creature (effectively killing 2 creatures), a hasty Glorybringer before it can attack, Pitiless Vizier after opponent cycles, or a big creature in response to Cartouche of Strength or with some other trick on the stack (2-for-1).
It might be bad in some decks where it is your only removal. 5 mana to kill a bear is bad. But if your deck can already handle small creatures then it seems very strong. It's the only clean answer to a lot of powerful stuff that can happen in the format. I agree this card would be much less good if it was a sorcery.
My overachiever is Emberhorn Minotaur. A 5/4 menace is difficult to trade with favorably in this set, and it's just nerve wracking just to try to mess with this guy when it swings in with mana open.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!