(1) I think I like blue better than any color. You can combine it with almost any other color and BAM you have a limited control deck. As someone who just started drafting with ISD, it's awesome to play a draft format for the first time in my first year of playing where control is actually viable. This is possible most in thanks to:
Blue is by far my favorite color so far in M13. It let's you durdle until you hit your win condition which I enjoy. I also love the sigh and slumped shoulders you get from your opponent when you drop a Fog Bank and they realize they're going to have to waste removal on a wall. Basically blue let's you buy back or tutor your instants/sorceries (Archeomancer and Augor of Bolas) OR gives you evasive threats (Welkin Tern, Wind Drake, Talrand's Invocation, Harbor Bandit, Tricks of the Trade, etc) OR let's you durdle until you can draw into a slow win condition thanks to Fog Bank and Kraken Hatchling (Sands of Delirium, Volcanic Geyser, etc). Just make sure whatever you are doing that you try to have synergy with your other color(s) and draft to maximize that synergy.
(2) Are you drafting mono-green that often? It seems like you should be able to find removal in the other colors to pair with it. In addition, Prey Upon and Plummet are definitely playable. You should also consider stuff like Deadly Recluse to be a form of removal. If they don't find some way to First Strike or remove him, he is going to take a creature down with him.
Green just has super good efficient threats. Centaur Courser is great. Flinthoof Boar is a beast in RG. Garruk's Packleader is great and green has some great rares as well. It's not super fancy or splashy but I just think it's a very efficient color and the only one that has ramp/fixing unless you count Evolving Wilds. All of the very efficient creatures along with stuff like Farseek is what I draft highly in green. Centaur Courser is a card I would be happy to pick very highly in a pack.
(3) I'm not sure how to really explain this one in words, you almost just have to get a feel. I usually push myself to try and take the BEST card in a pack, even if I'm getting most of the way through pack 2 and it's not in my color. If I see a Searing Spear and I'm not even in red and there isn't anything amazing in my other colors, I'll go for it. Sometimes it's worth splashing into a 3rd color, or switching your 2nd color to something else or focusing on what you're already in and taking less optimal cards as long as they're playable in your colors. I think you just need experience and time to get a feel for this yourself. The format you're playing also matters.. M13 I think is slow enough compared to the ISD block that you can get away with going into 3 colors where in a more aggressive format you couldn't.
(4) I never do. Every time I think I have a good deck I go 1-2 and every time I think my deck sucks I go 3-0. It's so random.
(5) I always go 17. There might be niche situations where you're super aggressive with low drops and go 16 or have a real durdley deck and go 18 but I almost never do. 17 seems fine.
Thanks for your help, guys. I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. I've been playing Sealed or drafting every day for the month, between MTGO and irl. Here's my most recent results and some things I learned.
- Went 3-0 playing U/G. This was a weird deck, but it worked very well. I had 2 Arbor Elves, Talrand's Invocation, 3 Faerie Invaders, tons of fliers, Garruk Primal Hunter, Predatory Rampage. It was obscene.
- Went 1-2 playing U/B. I'm not sure what happened here. The big weakness of the deck was that I had no removal, including Essence Scatter. I'm surprised I won one match. Getting mana-flooded a few times didn't help either.
- Went 2-1 playing U/W. I had 3 Invocations, tons of fliers, plus removal. Sleep was game-breaking for me, as well. Half the time, I just won because I had more creatures.
- Went 2-1 playing U/R. This was a weird deck for me, only playing 15 creatures. I usually like to play 16-18, but I had tons of removal, including 2 Unsummons and 2 Switcheroos, one of which I had to cut. Courtly Provocateur won me a game.
I wasn't specifically forcing a different combination of colors to test out blue. It just happened to work out that way. I've found blue to be wide open a lot recently. People don't seem to like it. I've actually had trouble drafting black and green lately. If I don't see a Murder, it's hard for me to get into black, compared to red, which has tons of cheap removal at common/uncommon. I still don't like green, but I haven't seen it really open lately either. It just doesn't have anything exciting that I like.
Regardless, I'm very pleased with my progress.
EDIT: BTW, the drafts were all Swiss. Had I played in 8-4s or single elimination, my records would have been 3-0, 1-1, 0-1, 0-1, and I would have had a much worse opinion of blue.
I've actually had trouble drafting black and green lately. If I don't see a Murder, it's hard for me to get into black, compared to red, which has tons of cheap removal at common/uncommon. I still don't like green, but I haven't seen it really open lately either.
There are several cards in black I will take before I see a murder. Couple weeks ago P1P1 I took a vampire nighthawk over rancor, then on the pack 3 what do I open? a rancor!!!! After I passed it(I think I took the rare) I waited and watched the guy to my lefts facial expression. lol. I went 3-1 - loosing to an insane white/green insane creature curve deck - got really screwed on my draws though. It was a R/B deck with like 4-6 black cards.
Some of the other notable black cards I had were a mark of the vampire, 2 dark favors, tormented soul.
red is fairly good in that even the 'sideboard' cards are great. That destroy land card I've almost main decked a few times - great at slowing down green decks or even blue decks since blue needs that instant drake token card to work.
I drafted Green a few weeks back. I opened that 2/7 spider that pings flyers, Then I got a couple big green creatures and decided to draft every green card. It worked. I had a crazy high mana curve though. I found out after that someone else was drafting green but had drafted all the small creatures first, then I snagged all the big ones. I went 3-1 as well, loosing only to a blue deck that basically had a great draw all 3 games, skysummoner with the drake spell, then kept unsomoning my Vigilance Spider for the win.
Anyway, the point of my post is that even a few cards like 4-6 of a color is enough for me to play it if those cards are good. They typically win you the game and prevent the player who is drafting the same color from getting all the great cards.
1) How do you draft blue? Drafting bluehas one simple thing. Archaeomancer. Draft it and everything that goes with it, like divination, unsummon.
2) How do you draft green? Again. Arbor Elf. Arbor Elf just makes your deck better than any other because you will get ahead so much thanks to it.
3) How do you draft your second color? I dont understand the question.
4) How do you know if you've drafted well? Good curve, reasonable game plan, bombs. In that order. 5) How do you decided how many lands to run? by looking at my manacosts and then putting somewhere between 15 to 19 lands in it. Think what happens if you miss a 3rd landdrop, 5th? 7th?
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Archeomancer
Fog Bank
Rewind, Essence Scatter and Negate
Blue is by far my favorite color so far in M13. It let's you durdle until you hit your win condition which I enjoy. I also love the sigh and slumped shoulders you get from your opponent when you drop a Fog Bank and they realize they're going to have to waste removal on a wall. Basically blue let's you buy back or tutor your instants/sorceries (Archeomancer and Augor of Bolas) OR gives you evasive threats (Welkin Tern, Wind Drake, Talrand's Invocation, Harbor Bandit, Tricks of the Trade, etc) OR let's you durdle until you can draw into a slow win condition thanks to Fog Bank and Kraken Hatchling (Sands of Delirium, Volcanic Geyser, etc). Just make sure whatever you are doing that you try to have synergy with your other color(s) and draft to maximize that synergy.
(2) Are you drafting mono-green that often? It seems like you should be able to find removal in the other colors to pair with it. In addition, Prey Upon and Plummet are definitely playable. You should also consider stuff like Deadly Recluse to be a form of removal. If they don't find some way to First Strike or remove him, he is going to take a creature down with him.
Green just has super good efficient threats. Centaur Courser is great. Flinthoof Boar is a beast in RG. Garruk's Packleader is great and green has some great rares as well. It's not super fancy or splashy but I just think it's a very efficient color and the only one that has ramp/fixing unless you count Evolving Wilds. All of the very efficient creatures along with stuff like Farseek is what I draft highly in green. Centaur Courser is a card I would be happy to pick very highly in a pack.
(3) I'm not sure how to really explain this one in words, you almost just have to get a feel. I usually push myself to try and take the BEST card in a pack, even if I'm getting most of the way through pack 2 and it's not in my color. If I see a Searing Spear and I'm not even in red and there isn't anything amazing in my other colors, I'll go for it. Sometimes it's worth splashing into a 3rd color, or switching your 2nd color to something else or focusing on what you're already in and taking less optimal cards as long as they're playable in your colors. I think you just need experience and time to get a feel for this yourself. The format you're playing also matters.. M13 I think is slow enough compared to the ISD block that you can get away with going into 3 colors where in a more aggressive format you couldn't.
(4) I never do. Every time I think I have a good deck I go 1-2 and every time I think my deck sucks I go 3-0. It's so random.
(5) I always go 17. There might be niche situations where you're super aggressive with low drops and go 16 or have a real durdley deck and go 18 but I almost never do. 17 seems fine.
- Went 3-0 playing U/G. This was a weird deck, but it worked very well. I had 2 Arbor Elves, Talrand's Invocation, 3 Faerie Invaders, tons of fliers, Garruk Primal Hunter, Predatory Rampage. It was obscene.
- Went 1-2 playing U/B. I'm not sure what happened here. The big weakness of the deck was that I had no removal, including Essence Scatter. I'm surprised I won one match. Getting mana-flooded a few times didn't help either.
- Went 2-1 playing U/W. I had 3 Invocations, tons of fliers, plus removal. Sleep was game-breaking for me, as well. Half the time, I just won because I had more creatures.
- Went 2-1 playing U/R. This was a weird deck for me, only playing 15 creatures. I usually like to play 16-18, but I had tons of removal, including 2 Unsummons and 2 Switcheroos, one of which I had to cut. Courtly Provocateur won me a game.
I wasn't specifically forcing a different combination of colors to test out blue. It just happened to work out that way. I've found blue to be wide open a lot recently. People don't seem to like it. I've actually had trouble drafting black and green lately. If I don't see a Murder, it's hard for me to get into black, compared to red, which has tons of cheap removal at common/uncommon. I still don't like green, but I haven't seen it really open lately either. It just doesn't have anything exciting that I like.
Regardless, I'm very pleased with my progress.
EDIT: BTW, the drafts were all Swiss. Had I played in 8-4s or single elimination, my records would have been 3-0, 1-1, 0-1, 0-1, and I would have had a much worse opinion of blue.
There are several cards in black I will take before I see a murder. Couple weeks ago P1P1 I took a vampire nighthawk over rancor, then on the pack 3 what do I open? a rancor!!!! After I passed it(I think I took the rare) I waited and watched the guy to my lefts facial expression. lol. I went 3-1 - loosing to an insane white/green insane creature curve deck - got really screwed on my draws though. It was a R/B deck with like 4-6 black cards.
Some of the other notable black cards I had were a mark of the vampire, 2 dark favors, tormented soul.
red is fairly good in that even the 'sideboard' cards are great. That destroy land card I've almost main decked a few times - great at slowing down green decks or even blue decks since blue needs that instant drake token card to work.
I drafted Green a few weeks back. I opened that 2/7 spider that pings flyers, Then I got a couple big green creatures and decided to draft every green card. It worked. I had a crazy high mana curve though. I found out after that someone else was drafting green but had drafted all the small creatures first, then I snagged all the big ones. I went 3-1 as well, loosing only to a blue deck that basically had a great draw all 3 games, skysummoner with the drake spell, then kept unsomoning my Vigilance Spider for the win.
Anyway, the point of my post is that even a few cards like 4-6 of a color is enough for me to play it if those cards are good. They typically win you the game and prevent the player who is drafting the same color from getting all the great cards.
2) How do you draft green? Again. Arbor Elf. Arbor Elf just makes your deck better than any other because you will get ahead so much thanks to it.
3) How do you draft your second color? I dont understand the question.
4) How do you know if you've drafted well? Good curve, reasonable game plan, bombs. In that order.
5) How do you decided how many lands to run? by looking at my manacosts and then putting somewhere between 15 to 19 lands in it. Think what happens if you miss a 3rd landdrop, 5th? 7th?
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