Once again, I drafted absolute garbage. Green, red and black were so wide open and blue and white were getting so cut. So what do I do? I pass obvious signals and pass good cards even in my colors and pick up durdly chaff.
------ BNG ------
Pack 1 pick 1:
Nyxborn Eidolon
Charging Badger
Pharagax Giant
Sphinx's Disciple
Ephara's Radiance
Setessan Starbreaker
--> Fall of the Hammer
Karametra's Favor
Oreskos Sun Guide
Stratus Walk
Gorgon's Head
Thassa's Rebuff
Lightning Volley
Fated Conflagration
Island
Pack 1 pick 2:
Revoke Existence
Scouring Sands
Charging Badger
Floodtide Serpent
Felhide Brawler
Ephara's Radiance
--> Sudden Storm
Kragma Butcher
Aspect of Hydra
Mortal's Resolve
Ashiok's Adept
Dawn to Dusk
Siren Song Lyre
Forest
Pack 1 pick 3:
Warchanter of Mogis
Forsaken Drifters
Revoke Existence
Nyxborn Wolf
Evanescent Intellect
Karametra's Favor
Stratus Walk
Nyxborn Shieldmate
Pheres-Band Tromper
Odunos River Trawler
Sunbond
--> Silent Sentinel
Mountain
Tromper or Wolf are probably better, but I've always wanted to try this card out.
Pack 1 pick 4:
Bolt of Keranos
Mortal's Ardor
Eye Gouge
Nyxborn Triton
Epiphany Storm
Crypsis (FOIL)
Grisly Transformation
Nyxborn Rollicker
--> Sudden Storm
Archetype of Aggression
Black Oak of Odunos
Forest
Archetype would be good to cut red. But good card is good.
Pack 2 pick 1:
Guardians of Meletis
Battlewise Valor
Loathsome Catoblepas
Yoked Ox
Voyaging Satyr
Wild Celebrants
Benthic Giant
Time to Feed
Setessan Griffin
Triton Shorethief
Akroan Hoplite
Ordeal of Purphoros
Satyr Piper
--> Reaper of the Wilds
Forest
I needed this to complete a redemption set, and good card is good. This pack is amazing for RG ramp or RW aggro though.
Pack 2 pick 2:
Nylea's Disciple
Lash of the Whip
Messenger's Speed
Lost in a Labyrinth
Pharika's Cure
Rage of Purphoros
Feral Invocation
Returned Centaur
Shredding Winds
Boulderfall
--> Horizon Scholar
Chronicler of Heroes
Firedrinker Satyr
Island
I think this was a misclick, I wanted the Unicorn.
Pack 3 pick 4:
Nylea's Disciple
Stymied Hopes
Vulpine Goliath
Yoked Ox
Annul
--> Wingsteed Rider
Opaline Unicorn
Ray of Dissolution
Peak Eruption
Dauntless Onslaught
Witches' Eye
Island
Pack 3 pick 5:
Battlewise Valor
Loathsome Catoblepas
Omenspeaker
Unknown Shores
Aqueous Form
Asphodel Wanderer
Two-Headed Cerberus
Boon of Erebos
--> Thassa's Emissary
Flamecast Wheel
Forest
Pack 3 pick 6:
March of the Returned
Fleshmad Steed
Agent of Horizons
Crackling Triton
Scourgemark
--> Vaporkin
Gainsay
Kragma Warcaller
Meletis Charlatan
Plains
Pack 3 pick 7:
--> Nimbus Naiad
Battlewise Valor
Blood-Toll Harpy
Breaching Hippocamp
Aqueous Form
Scholar of Athreos
Triton Shorethief
Akroan Hoplite
Plains
Maindeck wall, double Bronze Sable and enchantment recursion durdle FTW!
The matches:
Apparently card advantage in high-curve UW decks is good?
Round 1: RB
Don't remember much other than winning 2-0 on the back of flyers and card advantage. Game 1 I blew him out with double Sudden Storm while Thassa's Emissary and Sealock Serpent beat him down. Game 2 was pretty much a single-handed LOLsteed rider win while I held the fort on the ground.
2-0
Round 2: BG
Game 1 -- I flood hard and he kills me with Cavern Lampad+Scourgemark over 7 turns while I draw lands for days. 11 lands drawn I think.
Game 2 -- He blows a combat trick to kill my turn 3 Nimbus Naiad and then tries the same Cavern Lampad shenanigans while I race with other flyers. I blow him out with Dawn to Dusk. I start playing more guys and he makes Scourge of the Scola Vale really freaking big after eating the 3/7. But I have enough to chump block on the ground and I think he forgets that I got Naiad back. I bestow it on Thassa's Emissary and swing FTW.
Game 3 -- He gets stuck on 2-3 lands but runs surprisingly well by dropping double Voyaging Satyr and Karametra's Favor. He gets Scourge out on turn 3 but is forced to keep it on defense as he jumps through hoops to try to stabilize his mana and cast stuff. I also play guys and Revoke his Baleful Eidolon with Favor on it for profit, taxing his mana. I drop Thassa's Emissary, Stratus Walk it, and go to town drawing cards while keeping the rest of my team on D. He plays a bunch of deathtouch on the ground, Pharika's Mender and bestows it with Cavern Lampad. He's really sold on the Cavern Lampad plan! I blow him out with Dawn to Dusk again. I drop Silent Sentinel and attack, recurring a Chosen by Heliod to draw a card (and then drawing another card off Thassa's Emissary). He can't generate enough offense to race back. He eats half his team, but Sealock Monster and Guardians of Meletis stop his tramping Scourge from doing much even when it grows to 13/13. Enchantment recursion and card draw and flyers FTW.
Round 3
Opponent agrees to split. I gladly accept as I drafted sheer and utter garbage. Heck, he was probably RG Monsters and I did not want to play that matchup!
2-0-1
6 packs
Undefeated in another 8-4 with chaff. Sweet!
I don't see this as the mediocre deck you're making it out to be. Sure you have some questionable inclusions, but Bronze Sables are fine as 2-drops (they're not ideal, but sometimes you need 2-drops) and you have some good Bestow creatures. In this format, Any Old Creature + good Bestows can win the game. So your early game is try to land something cheap and bestow it up, and if your opponent can deal with that, then you have some big end game creatures. It's not like WOW WHAT A DECK but I can easily see how it can win in a small sample size of 2 rounds. The only draw that really kills you is like 2 6-drops plus 2 Auras.
I wouldn't take too much away from this in terms of understanding the format, because again it was just 2 rounds. The best you can say is "Good cards are good, and you don't always need exactly 23 of them to win."
The deck is pretty amazing. You can win with decent decks and you can lose with amazing decks. Thats why magic is RNG. Ive drafted decks with phoenix and stormbreath and 5 lightning strikes and still lost round 1 due to mana floods. Things happen any deck can win unless you literally let it random pick for you for all 45 picks lol
I'm not sure how you two think this deck is even remotely good. It's a strange mixture of aggressive and defensive, has exactly no actual removal (or Griptides/bounce) and is running Opaline Unicorn, Guardians maindeck, Triton and Benthic Giant. Not to mention 6 total cards that aren't playable or shouldn't often be played without 6-7 mana. That's not okay in anything besides a rampy green deck, particularly with only 17 lands. It's even got cards that exist purely as heroic enablers with only one heroic creature. Are you thinking he's going to live some dream where he trades off guys with Chosen/Stratus and then bring them back for incredibly marginal value with Archon?
I'm not sure what, exactly, you guys think the deck does. Sure, he can win by mass bestowing something like a Vaporkin, but that's the case with almost every deck I've ever drafted (besides control decks). Having creatures and bestow is simply a characteristic of Theros decks, not necessarily a sign of a quality deck.
I'm not saying he's bad or that he drafted incorrectly, but the deck itself is clearly not good. You should give advice, not coddle him.
I'm not sure how you two think this deck is even remotely good. It's a strange mixture of aggressive and defensive, has exactly no actual removal (or Griptides/bounce) and is running Opaline Unicorn, Guardians maindeck, Triton and Benthic Giant. Not to mention 6 total cards that aren't playable or shouldn't often be played without 6-7 mana. That's not okay in anything besides a rampy green deck, particularly with only 17 lands. It's even got cards that exist purely as heroic enablers with only one heroic creature. Are you thinking he's going to live some dream where he trades off guys with Chosen/Stratus and then bring them back for incredibly marginal value with Archon?
I'm not sure what, exactly, you guys think the deck does. Sure, he can win by mass bestowing something like a Vaporkin, but that's the case with almost every deck I've ever drafted (besides control decks). Having creatures and bestow is simply a characteristic of Theros decks, not necessarily a sign of a quality deck.
I'm not saying he's bad or that he drafted incorrectly, but the deck itself is clearly not good. You should give advice, not coddle him.
This. Thanks for keeping it real.
I tend to post my worst (or brewiest) drafts on here because I think they're more interesting for discussion and I figure I'll learn more analyzing my worst drafts than my best. I don't need coddling. The thread title is not self-pity but was intended as humor. I'm LOLing that I won with this, which is essentially a middle finger at conventional understanding of the format. This had no business winning (aside from variance), yet I didn't just win from random luck, which was pretty amusing. Advice is of course welcome and appreciated.
As I was drafting, by around mid pack 2 I quickly realized I was getting cut out of my colors and that red and green were wide open. I kept passing it thinking that it was just a swingy pack or two but after several in a row it was pretty bloody obvious I was in the wrong colors. This was frustrating as I passed some solid red in BNG and potentially could have had an amazing RW deck. Anyway, at this point I had 2 options: switch colors quickly or just make the best of what I had. Either way I'd have a shallow draft, and I may not be the only player who decided to switch midstream. I figured either way I had already punted the draft, so I decided I'd have some fun with a brew.
This is basically an attempt at traditional UW control. Flyers, defensive spells, card advantage. The presence of "aggressive" creatures is misleading. Although often used in aggressive decks, their role here is simply to defend on the ground or slowly punch some damage in the air. (Nyxborn shieldmate, for example, was rarely cast aggressively and often used to buff a ground blocker to dissuade attacks. Wingsteed Rider is actually here as Wind Drake with a possible upside, less as Heroic.dec.). I'm playing the "incremental card advantage" game in a format that usually revolves around "the big spell" or pure aggro. Game plan is to stall in the early game, get a card advantage engine online and win the lategame with flyers. Thassa's Emissary + flyers + ways to recur enchantments is no joke if you let me durdle long enough. That's the typical UW plan in other formats but doesn't really turn heads in Theros with all the possible flashy plays. That said, I think the strategy is not completely obsolete. It would have been a lot stronger with Griptides or Divine Verdicts, but alas, none available.
In order to fill out the 23 with such a shallow UW pool available, I had to run several normally unplayable cards to fill roles in the deck. Artifact creatures were great for this, making my early plays less dependent on which lands I had. Smoothing early game variance in a deck that needs to stall is not trivial. Chosen by Heliod and Stratus Walk are pretty weak cards. They weren't just run as Heroic enablers but mostly because I couldn't play with 38 cards and that was the closest way to play with 38 cards. They have corner case utility too. Chosen by Heliod on an early creature let me hold off early attackers for a few turns until my flyers or card advantage came online. I got to use Stratus Walk to disable an enemy deathtouch blocker so my unbestowed Thassa's Emissary could get through on the ground and draw me cards. So I got use out of them. Obviously this is worse utility than one would get out of good cards, but given that I didn't have good cards, my goal was to get the best utility out of what I had.
The card I wanted to abuse was Dawn to Dusk more than the Sentinel. Forcing an opponent to kill an Emissary or Nimbus Naiad FOUR times while killing their Voltron is pretty hilarious. The card is high variance, but it's more likely to generate favorable X-for-1s in a deck with lots of bestow and cantrip auras. I was lucky enough to always get great value out of it. I got value out of Silent Sentinel in one game, which was nice, but not really a big deal. If you're casting 7-drops and in a board position to be attacking with 4-power flyers, you're already winning.
I suspect what happened is people switched their drafting strategy after seeing all that RG go by and everyone's pools got diluted, creating a bunch of mediocre decks that were more susceptible to losing to incremental card advantage.
I'm not sure how you two think this deck is even remotely good.
If you read my post again, I never called it good. It has some good cards. Any deck with some good cards can win a sample size of 2 rounds if that deck draws well. (This is why splitting the Finals of an 8-4, while perfectly reasonable for the participants, really harms what we can learn from a draft.) In fact I even highlighted this by saying you don't always need 23 good cards to win.
It's not a mediocre deck, it's a high variance deck. Draw the good half and you probably win. Draw the bad half and you definitely lose.
This all just circles back to the fact that we never play Limited decks enough to really identify the good from the bad based on wins and losses.
It's not coddling at all. He already identified the bad cards in his deck. He didn't need me to say LOL GUARDIANS NOOB. How is that helping? Instead I was trying to point out the difference between a high variance deck and a truly mediocre deck meaning one with all mediocre power level cards.
If you don't see it as mediocre (and clearly don't see it as bad), you're obviously implying it's a fine deck. Decks aren't judged on their quality and whether or not they are high variance independently. It's a mediocre deck partly because it's a high variance deck. Consistency is good. A mediocre deck isn't a deck that is literally just 23 mediocre cards. You can do BTT, go RW and get Brimaz, Stormbreath and Elspeth and still have a mediocre (or worse) deck if the other 20 cards are bad enough/lack enough focus. This deck has some powerful cards, but it has enough bad filler, a crappy enough curve, an overloaded enough topend, no removal and a muddled enough gameplan that it's definitely mediocre at best.
As for what I'd have done - I'd definitely have grabbed the Tromper p1p3 and the Bolt p1p4 (there's much more, better red going around than blue or white, even if it's a weaker color) and probably have been able to move right into RG and have it wide open. You'd even have been able to splash the Reaper if necessary (or desired because that card is almost unbeatable). Even if I had stuck to blue, by the time pack 3 rolled around you only had one thing even remotely drawing you into white (and big seven-cost fliers aren't anywhere near as good as they would be in other formats, particularly with an ability that's unlikely ever to matter) and no sign that white was open at all.
Once again, I drafted absolute garbage. Green, red and black were so wide open and blue and white were getting so cut. So what do I do? I pass obvious signals and pass good cards even in my colors and pick up durdly chaff.
------ BNG ------
Pack 1 pick 1:
Nyxborn Eidolon
Charging Badger
Pharagax Giant
Sphinx's Disciple
Ephara's Radiance
Setessan Starbreaker
--> Fall of the Hammer
Karametra's Favor
Oreskos Sun Guide
Stratus Walk
Gorgon's Head
Thassa's Rebuff
Lightning Volley
Fated Conflagration
Island
Pack 1 pick 2:
Revoke Existence
Scouring Sands
Charging Badger
Floodtide Serpent
Felhide Brawler
Ephara's Radiance
--> Sudden Storm
Kragma Butcher
Aspect of Hydra
Mortal's Resolve
Ashiok's Adept
Dawn to Dusk
Siren Song Lyre
Forest
Pack 1 pick 3:
Warchanter of Mogis
Forsaken Drifters
Revoke Existence
Nyxborn Wolf
Evanescent Intellect
Karametra's Favor
Stratus Walk
Nyxborn Shieldmate
Pheres-Band Tromper
Odunos River Trawler
Sunbond
--> Silent Sentinel
Mountain
Tromper or Wolf are probably better, but I've always wanted to try this card out.
Pack 1 pick 4:
Bolt of Keranos
Mortal's Ardor
Eye Gouge
Nyxborn Triton
Epiphany Storm
Crypsis (FOIL)
Grisly Transformation
Nyxborn Rollicker
--> Sudden Storm
Archetype of Aggression
Black Oak of Odunos
Forest
Archetype would be good to cut red. But good card is good.
Pack 1 pick 5:
Felhide Brawler
Griffin Dreamfinder
Eye Gouge
Evanescent Intellect
Elite Skirmisher
Mortal's Resolve
Reckless Reveler
Springleaf Drum
Noble Quarry
--> Acolyte's Reward
Plains
Pack 1 pick 6:
Hold at Bay
Marshmist Titan
Loyal Pegasus (FOIL)
Floodtide Serpent
Griffin Dreamfinder
Claim of Erebos
Deepwater Hypnotist
--> Nyxborn Shieldmate
Archetype of Aggression
Forest
Another Archetype? Red would be good...
Pack 1 pick 7:
Epiphany Storm
Great Hart
Satyr Wayfinder
Nyxborn Eidolon
Crypsis
Culling Mark
Kraken of the Straits
--> Acolyte's Reward
Mountain
This is way too aggressive on the Rewards without knowing if I have enough good white creatures. But pack is weak without going into a 4th color.
Pack 1 pick 8:
Nyxborn Eidolon
Pharagax Giant
Sphinx's Disciple
Ephara's Radiance
Setessan Starbreaker
--> Stratus Walk
Eternity Snare
Plains
Pack 1 pick 9:
Pharagax Giant
--> Sphinx's Disciple
Ephara's Radiance
Setessan Starbreaker
Karametra's Favor
Thassa's Rebuff
Island
Pack 1 pick 10:
Scouring Sands
Floodtide Serpent
Felhide Brawler
Ephara's Radiance
--> Dawn to Dusk
Forest
I'm smelling a brew coming up with this and Silent Sentinel...
Pack 1 pick 11:
Warchanter of Mogis
--> Revoke Existence
Evanescent Intellect
Sunbond
Mountain
Pack 1 pick 12:
--> Eye Gouge
Epiphany Storm
Grisly Transformation
Forest
Pack 1 pick 13:
--> Felhide Brawler
Evanescent Intellect
Plains
Pack 1 pick 14:
--> Claim of Erebos
Forest
Pack 1 pick 15:
--> Mountain
------ THS ------
Pack 2 pick 1:
Guardians of Meletis
Battlewise Valor
Loathsome Catoblepas
Yoked Ox
Voyaging Satyr
Wild Celebrants
Benthic Giant
Time to Feed
Setessan Griffin
Triton Shorethief
Akroan Hoplite
Ordeal of Purphoros
Satyr Piper
--> Reaper of the Wilds
Forest
I needed this to complete a redemption set, and good card is good. This pack is amazing for RG ramp or RW aggro though.
Pack 2 pick 2:
Nylea's Disciple
Lash of the Whip
Messenger's Speed
Lost in a Labyrinth
Pharika's Cure
Rage of Purphoros
Feral Invocation
Returned Centaur
Shredding Winds
Boulderfall
--> Horizon Scholar
Chronicler of Heroes
Firedrinker Satyr
Island
More good RG.
Pack 2 pick 3:
Stymied Hopes
Ill-Tempered Cyclops
Leafcrown Dryad
Pharika's Cure
Defend the Hearth
Leonin Snarecaster
Priest of Iroas
Read the Bones
Opaline Unicorn
Tormented Hero
Battlewise Hoplite
--> Thassa's Emissary
Mountain
More good RG. Come on, the packs have to even out soon.
Pack 2 pick 4:
Minotaur Skullcleaver
--> Battlewise Valor
Thassa's Bounty
Lost in a Labyrinth
Agent of Horizons
Fade into Antiquity
Satyr Rambler
Borderland Minotaur
Sedge Scorpion
Purphoros's Emissary
Spellheart Chimera
Plains
Nope, I guess they don't. MTGO draft, you really want me to switch to RG don't you?
Pack 2 pick 5:
Nessian Asp
Bronze Sable
Asphodel Wanderer
Voyaging Satyr
Titan's Strength
Benthic Giant
Ray of Dissolution
Dark Betrayal
--> Sealock Monster
Psychic Intrusion
Swamp
Voyaging Satyr AND Nessian Asp? No one wants RG? After the last few packs too? Did everyone open Black/White bombs or something?
Pack 2 pick 6:
Fleshmad Steed
--> Cavalry Pegasus
Nylea's Disciple
Baleful Eidolon
Two-Headed Cerberus
Silent Artisan
Cavern Lampad
Staunch-Hearted Warrior
Witches' Eye
Island
And more goodies for RG.
Pack 2 pick 7:
Bronze Sable
--> Ephara's Warden
Two-Headed Cerberus
Silent Artisan
Akroan Crusader
Savage Surge
Dark Betrayal
Satyr Piper
Swamp
And more.
Pack 2 pick 8:
--> Chosen by Heliod
Pheres-Band Centaurs
Nylea's Presence
Spearpoint Oread
Vulpine Goliath
Deathbellow Raider
Vanquish the Foul
Forest
Not drying up any time soon.
Pack 2 pick 9:
--> Guardians of Meletis
Loathsome Catoblepas
Yoked Ox
Wild Celebrants
Setessan Griffin
Satyr Piper
Forest
Alright, RG is finally tapering off. I don't feel SO bad now. Someone figured it out.
Guardians fits what my stupid brew wants to do.
Pack 2 pick 10:
Messenger's Speed
Lost in a Labyrinth
--> Returned Centaur
Shredding Winds
Boulderfall
Island
Should have hated Shredding Wings.
Pack 2 pick 11:
Ill-Tempered Cyclops
Defend the Hearth
Priest of Iroas
--> Opaline Unicorn
Mountain
Speaking of that RG.
Pack 2 pick 12:
--> Minotaur Skullcleaver
Satyr Rambler
Borderland Minotaur
Plains
Guess no one got the signal.
Pack 2 pick 13:
--> Bronze Sable
Titan's Strength
Swamp
Pack 2 pick 14:
--> Silent Artisan
Island
Pack 2 pick 15:
--> Swamp
------ THS ------
Pack 3 pick 1:
Mnemonic Wall
Cavalry Pegasus
Loathsome Catoblepas
Agent of Horizons
Fade into Antiquity
Satyr Rambler
--> Observant Alseid
Scourgemark
Felhide Minotaur
Shredding Winds
Ordeal of Purphoros
Tormented Hero
Triton Tactics
Temple of Triumph
Forest
Still strong red, more RW aggro though. My favorite archetype!
Pack 3 pick 2:
Sip of Hemlock
--> Bronze Sable
Messenger's Speed
Wild Celebrants
Silent Artisan
Blood-Toll Harpy
Breaching Hippocamp
Akroan Crusader
Cavern Lampad
Hunt the Hunter
Keepsake Gorgon
Shipwreck Singer
Pyxis of Pandemonium
Mountain
Wow, good UB control pack.
Pack 3 pick 3:
Nylea's Presence
Fleetfeather Sandals
Demolish
Benthic Giant
Annul
Traveling Philosopher
Wild Celebrants
Silent Artisan
Opaline Unicorn
Horizon Scholar
--> Sentry of the Underworld
Cutthroat Maneuver
Plains
I think this was a misclick, I wanted the Unicorn.
Pack 3 pick 4:
Nylea's Disciple
Stymied Hopes
Vulpine Goliath
Yoked Ox
Annul
--> Wingsteed Rider
Opaline Unicorn
Ray of Dissolution
Peak Eruption
Dauntless Onslaught
Witches' Eye
Island
Pack 3 pick 5:
Battlewise Valor
Loathsome Catoblepas
Omenspeaker
Unknown Shores
Aqueous Form
Asphodel Wanderer
Two-Headed Cerberus
Boon of Erebos
--> Thassa's Emissary
Flamecast Wheel
Forest
Pack 3 pick 6:
March of the Returned
Fleshmad Steed
Agent of Horizons
Crackling Triton
Scourgemark
--> Vaporkin
Gainsay
Kragma Warcaller
Meletis Charlatan
Plains
Pack 3 pick 7:
--> Nimbus Naiad
Battlewise Valor
Blood-Toll Harpy
Breaching Hippocamp
Aqueous Form
Scholar of Athreos
Triton Shorethief
Akroan Hoplite
Plains
No one is in RW? Bad archetype is bad?
Pack 3 pick 8:
Sip of Hemlock
Bronze Sable
Messenger's Speed
Vulpine Goliath
Asphodel Wanderer
Setessan Griffin
--> Flamespeaker Adept
Mountain
Pack 3 pick 9:
Mnemonic Wall
Loathsome Catoblepas
--> Agent of Horizons
Fade into Antiquity
Satyr Rambler
Felhide Minotaur
Forest
Pack 3 pick 10:
Sip of Hemlock
Messenger's Speed
Wild Celebrants
Silent Artisan
--> Blood-Toll Harpy
Mountain
Pack 3 pick 11:
Demolish
--> Benthic Giant
Wild Celebrants
Silent Artisan
Plains
Pack 3 pick 12:
--> Yoked Ox
Peak Eruption
Witches' Eye
Island
Pack 3 pick 13:
Loathsome Catoblepas
Unknown Shores
--> Forest
Pack 3 pick 14:
--> Crackling Triton
Plains
Pack 3 pick 15:
--> Plains
Alright, so that already doesn't look promising for a draft, right?
Off to a good start!
The deck:
Bring on the durdle
1 Nyxborn Shieldmate
2 Bronze Sable
1 Vaporkin
1 Wingsteed Rider
1 Observant Alseid
1 Nimbus Naiad
1 Guardians of Meletis
1 Opaline Unicorn
1 Crackling Triton
2 Thassa's Emissary
1 Sealock Monster
1 Horizon Scholar
1 Benthic Giant
1 Silent Sentinel
1 Stratus Walk
1 Chosen by Heliod
1 Revoke Existence
1 Battlewise Valor
1 Dawn to Dusk
2 Sudden Storm
//Lands: 17
9 Plains
8 Island
Maindeck wall, double Bronze Sable and enchantment recursion durdle FTW!
The matches:
Apparently card advantage in high-curve UW decks is good?
Round 1: RB
Don't remember much other than winning 2-0 on the back of flyers and card advantage. Game 1 I blew him out with double Sudden Storm while Thassa's Emissary and Sealock Serpent beat him down. Game 2 was pretty much a single-handed LOLsteed rider win while I held the fort on the ground.
2-0
Round 2: BG
Game 1 -- I flood hard and he kills me with Cavern Lampad+Scourgemark over 7 turns while I draw lands for days. 11 lands drawn I think.
Game 2 -- He blows a combat trick to kill my turn 3 Nimbus Naiad and then tries the same Cavern Lampad shenanigans while I race with other flyers. I blow him out with Dawn to Dusk. I start playing more guys and he makes Scourge of the Scola Vale really freaking big after eating the 3/7. But I have enough to chump block on the ground and I think he forgets that I got Naiad back. I bestow it on Thassa's Emissary and swing FTW.
Game 3 -- He gets stuck on 2-3 lands but runs surprisingly well by dropping double Voyaging Satyr and Karametra's Favor. He gets Scourge out on turn 3 but is forced to keep it on defense as he jumps through hoops to try to stabilize his mana and cast stuff. I also play guys and Revoke his Baleful Eidolon with Favor on it for profit, taxing his mana. I drop Thassa's Emissary, Stratus Walk it, and go to town drawing cards while keeping the rest of my team on D. He plays a bunch of deathtouch on the ground, Pharika's Mender and bestows it with Cavern Lampad. He's really sold on the Cavern Lampad plan! I blow him out with Dawn to Dusk again. I drop Silent Sentinel and attack, recurring a Chosen by Heliod to draw a card (and then drawing another card off Thassa's Emissary). He can't generate enough offense to race back. He eats half his team, but Sealock Monster and Guardians of Meletis stop his tramping Scourge from doing much even when it grows to 13/13. Enchantment recursion and card draw and flyers FTW.
Round 3
Opponent agrees to split. I gladly accept as I drafted sheer and utter garbage. Heck, he was probably RG Monsters and I did not want to play that matchup!
2-0-1
6 packs
Undefeated in another 8-4 with chaff. Sweet!
I wouldn't take too much away from this in terms of understanding the format, because again it was just 2 rounds. The best you can say is "Good cards are good, and you don't always need exactly 23 of them to win."
I'm not sure what, exactly, you guys think the deck does. Sure, he can win by mass bestowing something like a Vaporkin, but that's the case with almost every deck I've ever drafted (besides control decks). Having creatures and bestow is simply a characteristic of Theros decks, not necessarily a sign of a quality deck.
I'm not saying he's bad or that he drafted incorrectly, but the deck itself is clearly not good. You should give advice, not coddle him.
This. Thanks for keeping it real.
I tend to post my worst (or brewiest) drafts on here because I think they're more interesting for discussion and I figure I'll learn more analyzing my worst drafts than my best. I don't need coddling. The thread title is not self-pity but was intended as humor. I'm LOLing that I won with this, which is essentially a middle finger at conventional understanding of the format. This had no business winning (aside from variance), yet I didn't just win from random luck, which was pretty amusing. Advice is of course welcome and appreciated.
As I was drafting, by around mid pack 2 I quickly realized I was getting cut out of my colors and that red and green were wide open. I kept passing it thinking that it was just a swingy pack or two but after several in a row it was pretty bloody obvious I was in the wrong colors. This was frustrating as I passed some solid red in BNG and potentially could have had an amazing RW deck. Anyway, at this point I had 2 options: switch colors quickly or just make the best of what I had. Either way I'd have a shallow draft, and I may not be the only player who decided to switch midstream. I figured either way I had already punted the draft, so I decided I'd have some fun with a brew.
This is basically an attempt at traditional UW control. Flyers, defensive spells, card advantage. The presence of "aggressive" creatures is misleading. Although often used in aggressive decks, their role here is simply to defend on the ground or slowly punch some damage in the air. (Nyxborn shieldmate, for example, was rarely cast aggressively and often used to buff a ground blocker to dissuade attacks. Wingsteed Rider is actually here as Wind Drake with a possible upside, less as Heroic.dec.). I'm playing the "incremental card advantage" game in a format that usually revolves around "the big spell" or pure aggro. Game plan is to stall in the early game, get a card advantage engine online and win the lategame with flyers. Thassa's Emissary + flyers + ways to recur enchantments is no joke if you let me durdle long enough. That's the typical UW plan in other formats but doesn't really turn heads in Theros with all the possible flashy plays. That said, I think the strategy is not completely obsolete. It would have been a lot stronger with Griptides or Divine Verdicts, but alas, none available.
In order to fill out the 23 with such a shallow UW pool available, I had to run several normally unplayable cards to fill roles in the deck. Artifact creatures were great for this, making my early plays less dependent on which lands I had. Smoothing early game variance in a deck that needs to stall is not trivial. Chosen by Heliod and Stratus Walk are pretty weak cards. They weren't just run as Heroic enablers but mostly because I couldn't play with 38 cards and that was the closest way to play with 38 cards. They have corner case utility too. Chosen by Heliod on an early creature let me hold off early attackers for a few turns until my flyers or card advantage came online. I got to use Stratus Walk to disable an enemy deathtouch blocker so my unbestowed Thassa's Emissary could get through on the ground and draw me cards. So I got use out of them. Obviously this is worse utility than one would get out of good cards, but given that I didn't have good cards, my goal was to get the best utility out of what I had.
The card I wanted to abuse was Dawn to Dusk more than the Sentinel. Forcing an opponent to kill an Emissary or Nimbus Naiad FOUR times while killing their Voltron is pretty hilarious. The card is high variance, but it's more likely to generate favorable X-for-1s in a deck with lots of bestow and cantrip auras. I was lucky enough to always get great value out of it. I got value out of Silent Sentinel in one game, which was nice, but not really a big deal. If you're casting 7-drops and in a board position to be attacking with 4-power flyers, you're already winning.
I suspect what happened is people switched their drafting strategy after seeing all that RG go by and everyone's pools got diluted, creating a bunch of mediocre decks that were more susceptible to losing to incremental card advantage.
What would you have done?
If you read my post again, I never called it good. It has some good cards. Any deck with some good cards can win a sample size of 2 rounds if that deck draws well. (This is why splitting the Finals of an 8-4, while perfectly reasonable for the participants, really harms what we can learn from a draft.) In fact I even highlighted this by saying you don't always need 23 good cards to win.
It's not a mediocre deck, it's a high variance deck. Draw the good half and you probably win. Draw the bad half and you definitely lose.
This all just circles back to the fact that we never play Limited decks enough to really identify the good from the bad based on wins and losses.
It's not coddling at all. He already identified the bad cards in his deck. He didn't need me to say LOL GUARDIANS NOOB. How is that helping? Instead I was trying to point out the difference between a high variance deck and a truly mediocre deck meaning one with all mediocre power level cards.
As for what I'd have done - I'd definitely have grabbed the Tromper p1p3 and the Bolt p1p4 (there's much more, better red going around than blue or white, even if it's a weaker color) and probably have been able to move right into RG and have it wide open. You'd even have been able to splash the Reaper if necessary (or desired because that card is almost unbeatable). Even if I had stuck to blue, by the time pack 3 rolled around you only had one thing even remotely drawing you into white (and big seven-cost fliers aren't anywhere near as good as they would be in other formats, particularly with an ability that's unlikely ever to matter) and no sign that white was open at all.