Hey everyone, AverageDrafter again with yet another batch of videos for you. You will notice I'm using a different video service now... it seems that blip.tv doesn't think that a guy drafting Magic constitutes a "show" so they deleted my account (and all my content) without warning.
So I've started a new home at www.gamerstube.com. I have all my old drafts (well the TPFs and LLLs) saved, and might upload them to the site at some point if I have the time, but for the time being I'm just going to start with LLM forward.
Some early visitors have had good things to say about the quality of the draft videos at the new site, so hopefully everyone has a similar experience. You will also notice that I'm not breaking down the videos into smaller chunks (unless the round goes REALLY long). This was done originally because blip had problems processing larger videos, and with the new site its not an issue. I'm also linking to a page listing all of the videos for a particular draft in one, because the user profile page is a bit unwieldy to navigate.
Summon the School and Judge, how I love thee... especially when you throw in Stonybrook Banneret. I played reasonably well except in round 3 when I did thinks like forget Stonybrook Banneret has Islandwalk... oh well, easy enough to ride the back of School to victory even when you aren't playing your best.
A shot of Bushmills later and I'm back to drafting Sunrise Sovereign again. A odd looking R/W Kithkin/Giant deck heavy on removal shakes out.
Overall a decent lot of drafts. The biggest lesson I learned (other than my concentration is really slipping as of late) is that I might start drafting in 8-4 exclusively. Win or lose, I think that I'm not progressing enough in my game in 4-3-2-2. Also, I think that I need to focus on lowering my curves in my decks more.
Well, enjoy and let me know how you like the new site, or if you have any problems with the videos. (I think the stupid sound sync issue might be back in some of the older ones, but I think I've got them licked going forward).
Seems like you may need to fix the audio a bit on draft 5 since it doesn't sync up with the video, and it's a bit hard to watch when you're talking about the next pack while still having the video be on the previous one.
Interesting draft number 6 with you essentially getting the bullhorn shout to the ear of "GIANTS ARE OPEN KTHXBAI". Though I think you were missing out on some quality black cards to use. For example pack 2, pick 1 I've really become a fan of the loggers since they're evasion, and removal in one card that would potentially be a target for fodder launch which has become an mvp for more then one draft (harbinger into launch is brutal). Also when you pass the witches for the sentinels mentioning you're probably playing blue you had only the drifter at that point with things like nameless inversion, fodder launch, and even the witches going late which seemed to me to be a signal that black was open to take. Also you had a choice between a moonglover, or a warspike, and at that time I believe you could have benefited not only from it being a giant, but also another thing for searblades, fodder launch, ect.
Aside from that it seems like it'd been absolutely hilarious to play, and good job on it.
Damn... looks like its just on LLM 05 - I'll replace those files asap. If you see any other sync issues let me know and I will try to get the fixed up.
Just saw round 1 of draft 6, and that was rough (garruk, cloudthresher, perfect, and that black removal that you sent around). Personally I think you should have taken a mulligan game one as even though you had burn you had no action, and technically 1 dead card at the start as the crush had no guy to use. Turn three I believe you should have used the tarfire on the winnowers as it allowed you to save the lash out for something larger (though seeing what came next sort of made that irrelevant ) Also the clash revealing stinkdrinker I think you should have bottomed it, as you already had one, and the second was most likely to be shattered away.
Game two there isn't I could say after that stream of bombs thrown into your face man. Not really much you could do against that sort of thing happening.
I'd like to comment on the sync issues too. I spent the other night on several computers and all your vids weren't syncing up correctly for some reason. But 6-7 (when I checked) worked fine. I'm going to watch the drafts again and make a comment list.
And then you hatepick a Blackguard in Morningtide instead of taking Pyroclast Consul in a Giant deck with allready 10 cards (if you run them all) that will win you the kinship..this can't be right oO
While I didn't agree with all of your picks, this was the one that just made me scratch my noggin. Ok, Blackguard is a good card. But have you ever played with an online Pyroclast Consul? It can be downright absurd, and it fits with your deck's secret shaman theme perfectly.
That said, I don't know how much good it would have done. Your round one opponent's deck in draft #6 was among the most absurd piles of cardboard that I've ever seen.
Congrats on the two wins, though! And yeah, I think that 8-4s are the way to go. Now, take that with a grain of salt, as I've never played a game of Magic online in my life, but I've watched a number of draftcaps in both kinds of drafts, and I just don't think that the drafter or the viewer learns very much from a 4-3-2-2. So, gogo 8-4s!
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also listen to yodafan he knows whats hes talking about
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Yeah, Yodafan's pretty much a EDH pro.
Yodafan: Official pro of one of Magic’s most casual formats.
By reading this post, you hereby understand I am not a pro and I may not know what I’m talking about.
My pick list:
LLM 06
Pick 1: Personally, whenever I do a first pick, I aim for a pick that’s not tribal (Harbinger and Cenn) I may have tried the Pilferers, or Aethersnipe (Though, I’m not too fond of him personally) . So Pilferers would have been my pick. Cenn is a great card to risk for since kithkin are underdrafted (apparently someone to your right was drafting them though)
Pick 16: I know in LLM 07 you mentioned you didn’t like Inner-Fame Acolyte. While better in an elemental or goblin deck, you need a few creatures to fill in you 3-drop as giants are usually too expensive to rely on. Something to maintain the early game before you hit the late game. When really going mono or splashing in a second color, I find it better to ignore the vivid lands.
Pick 21: Again, I’d take to Acolyte.
Pick 22: I’d have taken the Runed stalactite to potentially pump up your sinkdrinkers, pump your thundercloud giants, and give any other non giants a potential buff with the sunrise giant.
Pick 23: Blades of Velis Vel, as I find the searblades too expensive since you have a lot of giants as is, and without elementals to back them up, they become mediocre.
Pick 24: Again, the Acolyte. I like them personally.
Pick 31: You committed a cardinal sin not picking the door of destinies. Buuut, the axe is a great pick too since most of your creatures are warriors. And the mana curve is pretty high as it stands.
Pick 38: I would have gone with the banneret since you have a number of warriors and elementals.
Overall, real nice deck that suffered a little from a high mana curve that didn’t rely on the stinkdrinker. Unfortunately, your first round opponent’s deck was just nuts with a Garruk, Mind Shatter, and Cloud Thrasher
(EDIT: Noticed some people talking about the Blackguard pick. While I agree that this was a little odd, I haven’t been a huge fan of the consul, but I believe they are right. I find it more useful to take anything, and I mean anything, that I may use or anything in my colors than D-drafting unless it’s an insane card (such as.. ohhh.. I dunno .. Garruk?)
LLM 07
Pick 1: The Soverign would be a bad first pick since it relies totally on having giants/changelings. The two best picks would be tarfire or the Avian Changeling since both work well on their own. I would have picked tarfire personally as its some removal.
Pick 16: I’d take the stalactite or the Acolyte.
Pick 42: I might have picked the Lunk Errant (even if you didn’t play it), Hostile Realm isn’t a great card; at least the lunk may be hate drafted.
Overall, I pretty much agreed with your picks here.
I completely agree with you about the Springjack Knight. I used to think he was pretty good, but in reality, not good at all. I also heard you mention that the goblin decks weren’t good; well, with the right cards, they can be with things like Prickly Boggart and the prowl boggarts. Have to be a little lucky for no one else to be playing them though.
You played two good games. I’m unsure what was going on with your first-game opponent though. Shame what happened with the hurly-burly thing, but least you learned from that play (As did I) I would also have weight of concioused his Pestermite much earlier, probably the turn after, though it seems silly, it’d force him to either whirlpool whelm himself, or severely kill his attack power.
I’m unsure if I overvalue the inner-flame acolyte. It does wonders sometimes. They make great turn 3 kills, but late game they do have problems.
Anyhow. Really enjoyed your drafts (as always) Can’t wait to see your next one. Risk some 8-4s sometimes maybe.
Seems that passing up the Doorway was a consensus pooch screw pick. Never having played with or against it I think my initial evaluation was off. It seemed to me to be a bit situational but powerful when it works. In light of these comments I've reconsidered that position. Plus I was kinda blinded by the awesome Axe, I should of realized that my warrior count was not going to be that high in the final deck.
I think I might of overlooked the Pyroclast guy because his value in a typical Elf/Shaman or Elemental deck is suspect. I wasn't thinking about the number shaman I have and the fact that practically all my guys survive his blast. All I saw was a high cc guy that wasn't a giant. Even if its just as a Sideboard card its a better pick than the d-draft Blackguard.
Going into my next drafts I'm going to focus in keeping my curve down, spending more time considering early picks, keeping myself more open (in the light of day, that first pick Sunrise was just numbskullery), and most importantly... focusing and thinking more during the games themselves.
Draft 6 is exactly the problem with 4-3-2-2s. Sure, you get a ridiculous deck, but someone else is very likely getting the same, and possibly better. That said I think you made some pretty questionable picks in the draft that didn't help, but there's not much many deck can do against t4 garruk t5 cloudthresher.
In draft 7 round 1 game 1, you weighted a weed-pruner poplar with you having a firebelly, war spike, meadowboon and a triggered zephyrnaut on the board. I would have attacked with all but the firebelly and then tapped zephyrnaut + firebelly to remove the poplar, you could have put him to very low life like that.
Apart from that it was nice
Yeah, I saw that too. AD was pretty tired though, but something to remember next time.
Draft 8 G2: You definitely should have killed the Zephyrnaut with that tarfire in your hand many turns earlier instead of letting it beat on you. Your opponent was tapping out enough for you to not worry about reinforce.
Draft 9 G1: The coordinated barrage could have taken out the cloudcrown oak after you played the Inkfathom Divers if he declares it to block your Sentinels. But you didn't attack with the sentinels, so we'll never know. It would have helped the race.
I disagree with the majority who say the door of destinies was the correct pick. The card is very good, but its not that good in your deck. Door is insane when you have a lot of cheap guys that allow you to stack up four counters on it and go to town. Your deck sets up winning the game on the back of one or two very large undercosted creatures.
I don't like hatedrafting either of the two lords in the third pack, though. Neither of the cards should ever really be a problem for you, as you have four ways to instantly kill them on turn two, and five ways on three or four. Similarly, the both encourage overextending, which you deck is pretty well equipped to punish with thundercloud shaman. I think you would actually rather your opponent have either of those cards.
I'm not a fan of Distant Melody, as once again its rarely going to be anything but merely ok for your deck, drawing you two cards. Sunflare Shaman, on the other hand is some absolutely essential early game that your deck needs.
wow, i feel so bad about the giants deck, i feel really really bad... dude, i gotta say
anyway... distant melody, i disagree, i think its a fine card to have, especially if your going white or red, typically, if you have white or red, your gonna speed out and run out of gas quick, distant melody refills it for 4 mana for playing your gas
melody is fine
Giant decks don't play their hands out early, they set up a board with early-game removal, defense, and mana acceleration, then end the game with one or two very large creatures. Melody is absolutely unnecessary in a game plan that involves so few creatures on the board. Melody is absolutely a win more card in giants, and should probably be replaced with something that helps the strategy I laid out above.
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So I've started a new home at www.gamerstube.com. I have all my old drafts (well the TPFs and LLLs) saved, and might upload them to the site at some point if I have the time, but for the time being I'm just going to start with LLM forward.
Some early visitors have had good things to say about the quality of the draft videos at the new site, so hopefully everyone has a similar experience. You will also notice that I'm not breaking down the videos into smaller chunks (unless the round goes REALLY long). This was done originally because blip had problems processing larger videos, and with the new site its not an issue. I'm also linking to a page listing all of the videos for a particular draft in one, because the user profile page is a bit unwieldy to navigate.
LLM 05
Summon the School and Judge, how I love thee... especially when you throw in Stonybrook Banneret. I played reasonably well except in round 3 when I did thinks like forget Stonybrook Banneret has Islandwalk... oh well, easy enough to ride the back of School to victory even when you aren't playing your best.
LLM 06
Ahh... that wonderful feeling of knowing the monster deck you just drafted will easily coast you into the finals. Enjoy the comeuppance.
LLM 07
A shot of Bushmills later and I'm back to drafting Sunrise Sovereign again. A odd looking R/W Kithkin/Giant deck heavy on removal shakes out.
Overall a decent lot of drafts. The biggest lesson I learned (other than my concentration is really slipping as of late) is that I might start drafting in 8-4 exclusively. Win or lose, I think that I'm not progressing enough in my game in 4-3-2-2. Also, I think that I need to focus on lowering my curves in my decks more.
Well, enjoy and let me know how you like the new site, or if you have any problems with the videos. (I think the stupid sound sync issue might be back in some of the older ones, but I think I've got them licked going forward).
Interesting draft number 6 with you essentially getting the bullhorn shout to the ear of "GIANTS ARE OPEN KTHXBAI". Though I think you were missing out on some quality black cards to use. For example pack 2, pick 1 I've really become a fan of the loggers since they're evasion, and removal in one card that would potentially be a target for fodder launch which has become an mvp for more then one draft (harbinger into launch is brutal). Also when you pass the witches for the sentinels mentioning you're probably playing blue you had only the drifter at that point with things like nameless inversion, fodder launch, and even the witches going late which seemed to me to be a signal that black was open to take. Also you had a choice between a moonglover, or a warspike, and at that time I believe you could have benefited not only from it being a giant, but also another thing for searblades, fodder launch, ect.
Aside from that it seems like it'd been absolutely hilarious to play, and good job on it.
Game two there isn't I could say after that stream of bombs thrown into your face man. Not really much you could do against that sort of thing happening.
I'd like to comment on the sync issues too. I spent the other night on several computers and all your vids weren't syncing up correctly for some reason. But 6-7 (when I checked) worked fine. I'm going to watch the drafts again and make a comment list.
(And ouchies on game 6 >.<)
While I didn't agree with all of your picks, this was the one that just made me scratch my noggin. Ok, Blackguard is a good card. But have you ever played with an online Pyroclast Consul? It can be downright absurd, and it fits with your deck's secret shaman theme perfectly.
That said, I don't know how much good it would have done. Your round one opponent's deck in draft #6 was among the most absurd piles of cardboard that I've ever seen.
Congrats on the two wins, though! And yeah, I think that 8-4s are the way to go. Now, take that with a grain of salt, as I've never played a game of Magic online in my life, but I've watched a number of draftcaps in both kinds of drafts, and I just don't think that the drafter or the viewer learns very much from a 4-3-2-2. So, gogo 8-4s!
Yodafan: Official pro of one of Magic’s most casual formats.
My pick list:
LLM 06
Pick 1: Personally, whenever I do a first pick, I aim for a pick that’s not tribal (Harbinger and Cenn) I may have tried the Pilferers, or Aethersnipe (Though, I’m not too fond of him personally) . So Pilferers would have been my pick. Cenn is a great card to risk for since kithkin are underdrafted (apparently someone to your right was drafting them though)
Pick 16: I know in LLM 07 you mentioned you didn’t like Inner-Fame Acolyte. While better in an elemental or goblin deck, you need a few creatures to fill in you 3-drop as giants are usually too expensive to rely on. Something to maintain the early game before you hit the late game. When really going mono or splashing in a second color, I find it better to ignore the vivid lands.
Pick 21: Again, I’d take to Acolyte.
Pick 22: I’d have taken the Runed stalactite to potentially pump up your sinkdrinkers, pump your thundercloud giants, and give any other non giants a potential buff with the sunrise giant.
Pick 23: Blades of Velis Vel, as I find the searblades too expensive since you have a lot of giants as is, and without elementals to back them up, they become mediocre.
Pick 24: Again, the Acolyte. I like them personally.
Pick 31: You committed a cardinal sin not picking the door of destinies. Buuut, the axe is a great pick too since most of your creatures are warriors. And the mana curve is pretty high as it stands.
Pick 38: I would have gone with the banneret since you have a number of warriors and elementals.
Overall, real nice deck that suffered a little from a high mana curve that didn’t rely on the stinkdrinker. Unfortunately, your first round opponent’s deck was just nuts with a Garruk, Mind Shatter, and Cloud Thrasher
(EDIT: Noticed some people talking about the Blackguard pick. While I agree that this was a little odd, I haven’t been a huge fan of the consul, but I believe they are right. I find it more useful to take anything, and I mean anything, that I may use or anything in my colors than D-drafting unless it’s an insane card (such as.. ohhh.. I dunno .. Garruk?)
LLM 07
Pick 1: The Soverign would be a bad first pick since it relies totally on having giants/changelings. The two best picks would be tarfire or the Avian Changeling since both work well on their own. I would have picked tarfire personally as its some removal.
Pick 16: I’d take the stalactite or the Acolyte.
Pick 42: I might have picked the Lunk Errant (even if you didn’t play it), Hostile Realm isn’t a great card; at least the lunk may be hate drafted.
Overall, I pretty much agreed with your picks here.
I completely agree with you about the Springjack Knight. I used to think he was pretty good, but in reality, not good at all. I also heard you mention that the goblin decks weren’t good; well, with the right cards, they can be with things like Prickly Boggart and the prowl boggarts. Have to be a little lucky for no one else to be playing them though.
You played two good games. I’m unsure what was going on with your first-game opponent though. Shame what happened with the hurly-burly thing, but least you learned from that play (As did I) I would also have weight of concioused his Pestermite much earlier, probably the turn after, though it seems silly, it’d force him to either whirlpool whelm himself, or severely kill his attack power.
I’m unsure if I overvalue the inner-flame acolyte. It does wonders sometimes. They make great turn 3 kills, but late game they do have problems.
Anyhow. Really enjoyed your drafts (as always) Can’t wait to see your next one. Risk some 8-4s sometimes maybe.
Seems that passing up the Doorway was a consensus pooch screw pick. Never having played with or against it I think my initial evaluation was off. It seemed to me to be a bit situational but powerful when it works. In light of these comments I've reconsidered that position. Plus I was kinda blinded by the awesome Axe, I should of realized that my warrior count was not going to be that high in the final deck.
I think I might of overlooked the Pyroclast guy because his value in a typical Elf/Shaman or Elemental deck is suspect. I wasn't thinking about the number shaman I have and the fact that practically all my guys survive his blast. All I saw was a high cc guy that wasn't a giant. Even if its just as a Sideboard card its a better pick than the d-draft Blackguard.
Going into my next drafts I'm going to focus in keeping my curve down, spending more time considering early picks, keeping myself more open (in the light of day, that first pick Sunrise was just numbskullery), and most importantly... focusing and thinking more during the games themselves.
Yeah, I saw that too. AD was pretty tired though, but something to remember next time.
Draft 9 G1: The coordinated barrage could have taken out the cloudcrown oak after you played the Inkfathom Divers if he declares it to block your Sentinels. But you didn't attack with the sentinels, so we'll never know. It would have helped the race.
I disagree with the majority who say the door of destinies was the correct pick. The card is very good, but its not that good in your deck. Door is insane when you have a lot of cheap guys that allow you to stack up four counters on it and go to town. Your deck sets up winning the game on the back of one or two very large undercosted creatures.
I don't like hatedrafting either of the two lords in the third pack, though. Neither of the cards should ever really be a problem for you, as you have four ways to instantly kill them on turn two, and five ways on three or four. Similarly, the both encourage overextending, which you deck is pretty well equipped to punish with thundercloud shaman. I think you would actually rather your opponent have either of those cards.
I'm not a fan of Distant Melody, as once again its rarely going to be anything but merely ok for your deck, drawing you two cards. Sunflare Shaman, on the other hand is some absolutely essential early game that your deck needs.
Giant decks don't play their hands out early, they set up a board with early-game removal, defense, and mana acceleration, then end the game with one or two very large creatures. Melody is absolutely unnecessary in a game plan that involves so few creatures on the board. Melody is absolutely a win more card in giants, and should probably be replaced with something that helps the strategy I laid out above.