Well, back again and this time bearing four drafts of LLM for your consumption. The rust is defiantly showing with some of these drafts, both in the drafts and in my play.
There were a TON of problems in these drafts, but I don't have the will to do write ups on what went wrong. Suffice to say my game (what little I had) has been slipping as of late, but with regular drafting I hope to get back into fighting shape (and back to 1800).
I've been waiting so long for this! I'll edit this post when i'm done watching.
For your first draft; In the 3rd pack, latchkey faerie does not count merfolk, only faeries and rogues, which you had about 2 of so far. Pack's Disdain is much better for you. Also, coordinated barrage really isn't that good. Burrenton Bombardier is better, especially as a splash card. The late pack's disdain and veteran's armaments was ridiculous.
Edit: I just noticed that you didn't actually take the Armaments. This is just wrong. The card is amazing in a deck with no soldiers. I know it doesn't seem like it, but trust me, it's good.
For the second draft, everything looks really good (the deck was very solid), except that I think you may be underrating Greatbow Doyen. When you had that pack, you had 4 other archers in the form of changelings (I may have miscounted), and with only 1 other archer in play, it's amazing. By itself, it's a pretty large blocker (4 toughness is nothing to sneeze at), and it effectively has evasion in the form of guaranteed 2 damage to an opponent. It gets ridiculous with removal/pump.
For the deck, I'd say
-footbottom feast
-reins of the vinesteed
+kithkin mourncaller
+moonglove changeling
This may be wrong, as I tend to overrate creatures, but at least with all your elves, mourncaller is ridiculous, and changeling is always good anyway.
As for draft 3, that late cloudcrown was crazy! I don't know why you didn't pick it. Skirmisher is good, but you only have 2 other playable kithkin, hardly indicative of the archetype. Cloudcrown oak is one of the best green commons, and is even good in a g/w kithkin deck. Definitely the pick here imo. And then there was the leaf gilder vs huntmaster pick. Of course, huntmaster is much better in an elf deck in a non elf deck; However, it's still a hill giant that draws removal, whereas leaf gilder is a 2/1 for 2, whose ability is largely irrelevant in what your deck is shaping up to be. I'd say just take the huntmaster.
Lastly, coordinated barrage vs. swell of courage. I could just be biased, but I don't see this as close at all. Swell of courage is just amazing. From my experience, it's almost as good as overrun in kithkin, combined with extremely variable reinforce. It's an amazing combat trick, and can swing games. Coordinated barrage is a conditional, but cheaper version of neck snap. It's subpar in an aggressive deck such as this one, as it doesn't push through any extra damage.
In fact, I'd go so far as to say that you should take out coordinated barrage from the final build and replace it with broken ambitions, which from experience I have found to be amazing.
Draft one pack 1
I think I'd grab the douser over ring #2... cutting off blue at this point seems like a great idea.
You really like Surge of Thoughtweft... no consideration for Springleaf drum pick 6? If you're merfolk it's a great card especially with Schoolmaster around. It would help with a removal splash if you need it (turns out you do)
I don't know about cutting Fistful... wouldn't you prefer to cement your neighbour into green and keep them out of blue?
Pack 2:
First pick I think I'd go angler, you've gotten NO kithkin so far. The merfolk has been flowing, I'd keep going with it.. Then I'd grab Benthicore pack 2... a big finisher is always nice... if you'd taken the drum you wouldn't need that meadow so badly
Wings over Whelm?
Pack 3:
Violet Pall is expensive- it's also fantastic. I think it's still the pick here.
Man, no one wanted to draft green! What's with the 14th pick ambassador oak!? I don't think I could have predicted that.
I'm glad to see some more of these up. I always love to watch you draft, and I hope that you keep up the good work.
I was going to tell you about your picks that I disagreed with, but... I watched most of your latest batch at 3-4 in the morning, and I don't really remember too many picks that I strongly disagreed with. What I do want to tell you, though, is that there's no need for you to beat yourself up over that Sower pick in Draft #4. Sure, from a play standpoint, it was probably a mistake, but were the consequences really that dire? Your alternatives were, if memory serves, Woodland Changeling and Mulldrifter. One was on-color and decent, but hardly a bomb, while the other was an off-color, though easily splashable, powerhouse. Sower, meanwhile, is a card worth $5-10. So, not only did you pick up your draft winnings, but you also scored a sweet $5-10 on the deal. Each time you draft in an 8-4, 4-3-2-2, or whatever, I think that the first question that you should ask is: Is this card's value worth more than the possible gain of having the alternative in my deck? In this case, I think that the answer was no.
Is it something you should do regularly? No. But in this case, I think that the Sower ended up being the right pick. So don't be so hard on yourself!
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Yeah, Yodafan's pretty much a EDH pro.
Yodafan: Official pro of one of Magic’s most casual formats.
Thanks for all the encouragement, the response (replies and hits wise) has been great for this batch of drafts, and defiantly expect to see more in the weeks ahead. I'm looking to add some constructed games to the show be making 2-3 decks I like a going into battle with them.
I do tend to beat myself up when I draft and play, but its mostly because I know people are watching... I make mistakes when I'm not doing commentary all the time and never fret too much about it. The good thing is that I can remember and change my mistakes when I'm more focused on what I do wrong. Hence the main reason for the show in the first place...
For instance, I think a major problem in these drafts was an imbalance of removal/creatures/tribe/tricks that is so important in this format. Like in the first draft there were a lot of picks that I made incorrectly in the final pack because I wasn't aware of my low creature count and lack of tribal unity - Barrage and Melody picks should of been creatures, even though the ones available were theoretically lower value overall. The elf deck problem with utility creatures, and I should of picked up one of the Lignifys as I only had Inversion and Scarblade as my removal at that point.
Am I crazy to think that Final Revels is ridiculously more powerful than Moonglove Extract? I did not see anyone else mention it, but maybe I am misjudging its power.
Another responder in another forum talked about it, and I think in the deck I ended up with it would of been better (although not by a tremendous amount). As a first pick, Extract has the benefit of always being good no matter what deck you end up with. Keeping your options open early is sometime worth losing a bit of power in this format.
I actually agree with you when you say that the huntmaster is better than the titan. I've often been underwhelmed by it, surprisingly. It always gets killed by oblivion ring/weed strangle/stuff like that. I'm probably overvaluing huntmaster, but oh well.
I forgot to mention, in LLM 04 - R1 Part 2, when you use primal command and search for a creature, I notice you take a leaf-crowned elder over Super Moose (game trail changeling). You have a ton of mana at this point, and also an obsidian battle-axe, (it just so happens that he has eyeblight's ending, but that's just a coincidence) so a 4/4 trampler I'd say would be extremely welcome, as it turns into a 6/5 hasty trampler that doesn't get killed by eyeblight's. The 3/5 with about a 1/5 chance at kinship really isn't worth it here imo.
The 3rd deck is a beast of a deck creaturewise, lack of removal is off-set by the fact that the draft all in all was removal light. You had more then a couple of good elfs and the Axe is a stronger card then Perfect and Paragon (evidently shown in your games) elfs are a weaker tribe in LLM this doesnt mean its one of the worst since merfolk, giants and treefolk have lost some power while merfolk, faeries and elemental has gained some to make it more fair amongst the tribes.
I wasnt surprised at all that you won that draft, the boosters where weak and your deck was probably the strongest deck around because of it.
Seems that blip.tv doesn't think that some jackass playing a game and talking about it constitutes a "Show", so they deleted my account without telling me.
I'm currently uploading my LLM content to www.gamerstube.com as a temporary (and possibly permanent) home. It supposed to be a site for gaming videos, but apparently half their content is videos of girls kissing each other... not that there's anything wrong with that
I might go somewhere else once I do some looking around, but for now this will do. Unfortunately they don't convert to flash video like Blip did, so the vids will take a bit longer to load and might not load at all if your aren't running the proper codex. On the plus side, the full screen mode looks amazing.
My Video Page on gamerstube...
Any suggestions on a place to host the videos is welcome... and I'll keep you guys up to date with the next batch of drafts.
Hey AverageDrafter. Just wanted to post this telling you that I have found your videos incredibly helpful in my own drafting and I simply can't wait to see more of them come out
I'm unsure if it's just me, but the quality looks better on the new site, perhaps biased memory? Unfortunately the videos, all videos on that site, seem to only load about 1/3-2/3 the way through then stop, and when they stop it won't let me watch any of it at all; undoubtedly something on my end somewhere. Oh well, I guess I get to find out what's wrong as it's not the only place doing it.
Anyhow, keep it up, I noticed your 5th match before it went down, good match. 2 wins in a row, aim for 3.
Thanks for the encouragement... I'll be posting 05 and if I get around to drafting again this week I'll do a 06. I also think I might do a post mortum video (with either clips or stills) on some of the drafts/games I've done and do some hindsite analysis on them.
As for the video problem, pause and try letting the video load up like half way before playing it. And don't open up any other gamerstube windows, as I think it limits the bandwidth to a single IP address. Let me know if anyone else is having problems... if so I might find another solution.
Also the new site is amazing, loads instantly and watching full-screen has such a high resolution it almost feels like I'm drafting myself
I would've played:
Brighthearth Banneret(picked over war-spike), Door of Destinies(picked over battle-axe), Sunflare Shaman(picked over Melody) Inner-flame Acolyte(played over Lunk Errant), Pestermite(played over Crush underfoot(no Blind-Spots so its often a Win-more card))
LLM is much more aggressive and since you don't have Blind-Spot Giants to race (either by forcing removal from your opponent or by putting him in the red zone) you need to stabilize to be able to win. I don't see that happening unless you draw at least 2 out of your 4 removals (I wouldn't play Crush underfoot and your deck cant cast it realistically until turn 5-6) in your first 3-4 turns.
Having 4 earlier drops instead of later drops would really have helped to stall the game somewhat so that you can cast your big giants and just win.
AverageDrafter Show Archive
There were a TON of problems in these drafts, but I don't have the will to do write ups on what went wrong. Suffice to say my game (what little I had) has been slipping as of late, but with regular drafting I hope to get back into fighting shape (and back to 1800).
For your first draft; In the 3rd pack, latchkey faerie does not count merfolk, only faeries and rogues, which you had about 2 of so far. Pack's Disdain is much better for you. Also, coordinated barrage really isn't that good. Burrenton Bombardier is better, especially as a splash card. The late pack's disdain and veteran's armaments was ridiculous.
Edit: I just noticed that you didn't actually take the Armaments. This is just wrong. The card is amazing in a deck with no soldiers. I know it doesn't seem like it, but trust me, it's good.
For the second draft, everything looks really good (the deck was very solid), except that I think you may be underrating Greatbow Doyen. When you had that pack, you had 4 other archers in the form of changelings (I may have miscounted), and with only 1 other archer in play, it's amazing. By itself, it's a pretty large blocker (4 toughness is nothing to sneeze at), and it effectively has evasion in the form of guaranteed 2 damage to an opponent. It gets ridiculous with removal/pump.
For the deck, I'd say
-footbottom feast
-reins of the vinesteed
+kithkin mourncaller
+moonglove changeling
This may be wrong, as I tend to overrate creatures, but at least with all your elves, mourncaller is ridiculous, and changeling is always good anyway.
As for draft 3, that late cloudcrown was crazy! I don't know why you didn't pick it. Skirmisher is good, but you only have 2 other playable kithkin, hardly indicative of the archetype. Cloudcrown oak is one of the best green commons, and is even good in a g/w kithkin deck. Definitely the pick here imo. And then there was the leaf gilder vs huntmaster pick. Of course, huntmaster is much better in an elf deck in a non elf deck; However, it's still a hill giant that draws removal, whereas leaf gilder is a 2/1 for 2, whose ability is largely irrelevant in what your deck is shaping up to be. I'd say just take the huntmaster.
Lastly, coordinated barrage vs. swell of courage. I could just be biased, but I don't see this as close at all. Swell of courage is just amazing. From my experience, it's almost as good as overrun in kithkin, combined with extremely variable reinforce. It's an amazing combat trick, and can swing games. Coordinated barrage is a conditional, but cheaper version of neck snap. It's subpar in an aggressive deck such as this one, as it doesn't push through any extra damage.
In fact, I'd go so far as to say that you should take out coordinated barrage from the final build and replace it with broken ambitions, which from experience I have found to be amazing.
MTGO account name: FSM
MTGO rating: 1795
Draft one pack 1
I think I'd grab the douser over ring #2... cutting off blue at this point seems like a great idea.
You really like Surge of Thoughtweft... no consideration for Springleaf drum pick 6? If you're merfolk it's a great card especially with Schoolmaster around. It would help with a removal splash if you need it (turns out you do)
I don't know about cutting Fistful... wouldn't you prefer to cement your neighbour into green and keep them out of blue?
Pack 2:
First pick I think I'd go angler, you've gotten NO kithkin so far. The merfolk has been flowing, I'd keep going with it.. Then I'd grab Benthicore pack 2... a big finisher is always nice... if you'd taken the drum you wouldn't need that meadow so badly
Wings over Whelm?
Pack 3:
Violet Pall is expensive- it's also fantastic. I think it's still the pick here.
Man, no one wanted to draft green! What's with the 14th pick ambassador oak!? I don't think I could have predicted that.
I was going to tell you about your picks that I disagreed with, but... I watched most of your latest batch at 3-4 in the morning, and I don't really remember too many picks that I strongly disagreed with. What I do want to tell you, though, is that there's no need for you to beat yourself up over that Sower pick in Draft #4. Sure, from a play standpoint, it was probably a mistake, but were the consequences really that dire? Your alternatives were, if memory serves, Woodland Changeling and Mulldrifter. One was on-color and decent, but hardly a bomb, while the other was an off-color, though easily splashable, powerhouse. Sower, meanwhile, is a card worth $5-10. So, not only did you pick up your draft winnings, but you also scored a sweet $5-10 on the deal. Each time you draft in an 8-4, 4-3-2-2, or whatever, I think that the first question that you should ask is: Is this card's value worth more than the possible gain of having the alternative in my deck? In this case, I think that the answer was no.
Is it something you should do regularly? No. But in this case, I think that the Sower ended up being the right pick. So don't be so hard on yourself!
Yodafan: Official pro of one of Magic’s most casual formats.
I do tend to beat myself up when I draft and play, but its mostly because I know people are watching... I make mistakes when I'm not doing commentary all the time and never fret too much about it. The good thing is that I can remember and change my mistakes when I'm more focused on what I do wrong. Hence the main reason for the show in the first place...
For instance, I think a major problem in these drafts was an imbalance of removal/creatures/tribe/tricks that is so important in this format. Like in the first draft there were a lot of picks that I made incorrectly in the final pack because I wasn't aware of my low creature count and lack of tribal unity - Barrage and Melody picks should of been creatures, even though the ones available were theoretically lower value overall. The elf deck problem with utility creatures, and I should of picked up one of the Lignifys as I only had Inversion and Scarblade as my removal at that point.
MTGO account name: FSM
MTGO rating: 1795
MTGO account name: FSM
MTGO rating: 1795
I wasnt surprised at all that you won that draft, the boosters where weak and your deck was probably the strongest deck around because of it.
I'm currently uploading my LLM content to www.gamerstube.com as a temporary (and possibly permanent) home. It supposed to be a site for gaming videos, but apparently half their content is videos of girls kissing each other... not that there's anything wrong with that
I might go somewhere else once I do some looking around, but for now this will do. Unfortunately they don't convert to flash video like Blip did, so the vids will take a bit longer to load and might not load at all if your aren't running the proper codex. On the plus side, the full screen mode looks amazing.
My Video Page on gamerstube...
Any suggestions on a place to host the videos is welcome... and I'll keep you guys up to date with the next batch of drafts.
I'm unsure if it's just me, but the quality looks better on the new site, perhaps biased memory? Unfortunately the videos, all videos on that site, seem to only load about 1/3-2/3 the way through then stop, and when they stop it won't let me watch any of it at all; undoubtedly something on my end somewhere. Oh well, I guess I get to find out what's wrong as it's not the only place doing it.
Anyhow, keep it up, I noticed your 5th match before it went down, good match. 2 wins in a row, aim for 3.
As for the video problem, pause and try letting the video load up like half way before playing it. And don't open up any other gamerstube windows, as I think it limits the bandwidth to a single IP address. Let me know if anyone else is having problems... if so I might find another solution.
As it turns out, I simply needed to free up space on my computer, hah, so simple. With that resolved, I now fully support the new site!
Looking forward to the next drafts and/or hindsight games.
Also the new site is amazing, loads instantly and watching full-screen has such a high resolution it almost feels like I'm drafting myself
I would've played:
Brighthearth Banneret(picked over war-spike), Door of Destinies(picked over battle-axe), Sunflare Shaman(picked over Melody) Inner-flame Acolyte(played over Lunk Errant), Pestermite(played over Crush underfoot(no Blind-Spots so its often a Win-more card))
LLM is much more aggressive and since you don't have Blind-Spot Giants to race (either by forcing removal from your opponent or by putting him in the red zone) you need to stabilize to be able to win. I don't see that happening unless you draw at least 2 out of your 4 removals (I wouldn't play Crush underfoot and your deck cant cast it realistically until turn 5-6) in your first 3-4 turns.
Having 4 earlier drops instead of later drops would really have helped to stall the game somewhat so that you can cast your big giants and just win.