Okay, so having a low-to-average card pool lacking any real bombs, I still did decent and went 3-2 for 18th before they cut to top 8. However, since it's been awhile since I've done a pre-release, I'd be interested to know if anyone thinks the deck could have been built better, or if a different deck altogether would have been a stronger choice.
Yeah, you see that right. I ham-fisted 41 cards just to play the Journal. I didn't really have any removal to speak of so I had to focus more on being aggressive and relying on combat tricks. I actuall pulled 3 Uncage Fury, which is an amazing card, but placed Masquerade in place of the 3rd since most red creatures seem to be glass cannons. Plus it added a little extra synergy with the Vampires I have in the deck.
My initial thoughts were that Naya colors were obviously where all my playables were. Especially since I had some good removal in White and liked a good chunk of the creatures. If I had mana fixing, I likely would have splashed into white. Overall though, I couldn't get a curve I was okay with using white and thought Red and Green held better synergies. Blue looked terrible to me, only having maybe 1-2 cards I would even want to play. I liked the removal in Black, but the creatures were lacking any true synergy and wasn't near the power level I would have been happy with. Artifacts all around were pretty meh, with the exception of Journal.
So, how would you rate this pool?
Do you think a better deck could have built or my deck could have been improved?
Answering these questions will, hopefully, help me in future limited games by bettering my thought processes.
Getting the obvious out of the way, Insolent Neonate is too low impact unless it has extreme synergy with the deck - which it doesn't in this case. Structural Distortion is not playable. Two Uncaged Fury, two Aim high is too many combat tricks for my liking, I would try to not play the Uncaged Furies.
I would have (sadly) played these 6 cards instead if I had to be R/G:
Looking at the pool, White and black both seem solid, with a couple of good removal spells each.
I think the best deck is likely BR, GW or RW depending on what has the most synergy and best curve. Red looks like the deepest colour, but lacks removal - good to pair with B or W. GW is good together because of the human and investigate synergies.
While I agree Neonate is pretty low-impact, I felt I was making the best of a bad situation. The 2 added 1 drops give more aggressiveness to the build. T1 on the play can put me 2 damage in the lead. Also, with many X/1 common creatures in the format, it usually trades up. Later in the game it can be used as a chump, fodder for Abbey or held on to in order to flip opposing Werewolves. There is some slight synergy with Masquerade, that only matters when the stars align though.
Distortion was added because of instances where my opponent was stretching themselves too far mana/color wise. It let's me punish them and potentially kill parts of their gameplay. It is a weak card constructed, but limited is a different story. Especially when I saw many 3 color decks.
Fury was actually an all-star all night and I never regretted drawing it, especially when I won a match with it off of a transformed Abbey for 20 in the air.
Aim high I do agree on. It's inclusion was a concession to fliers, to which, I'm weak against.
As I said in the OP, I did like the removal in W and B. I was very close to building a WG deck in fact. If felt too creature light though.
You should have played Devils' Playground. That card is pretty good in limited, plus has a real nice synergy with Westvale Abbey. I probably would have went B/W, and splash red simply because the removal you had was very solid.
I didn't feel the same about playground. Sure, it's nice with Abbey , but if the best I can do t6 while my opponent is dropping bombs is play 4 Goblin Arsonists than am I really winning or stalling?
While white and black had good removal, the creatures were *****. Especially in the black pool. I would have used them for a splash color but didn't trust the mana fixing I had in order to do it.
With absolutely no way to discard save the two neonates that are one time uses. Gorger ends up just being a 2/1. Unfortunately, this pool is quite low in quality creatures. So the two neonates would have to go, and we'll keep two power for 1 mana. To allow you to survive to where your deck gets to play win conditions,we'll add moldgraf scavenger, which is a great blocker at low cost, and can eventually be a 3/4. Structural distortion is not the type of cards that I would maindeck more than one. Especially in a grindy format like SoI. So I wouldn't play either unless my opponent's deck calls for it.
Also, there is a problem in the early game, in that you cannot block a 2 power creature without losing your blocker before drawing hermit of the Natterknolls or intrepid provisioner. So a 2/3 would help. Plus Stoic builder gives an extra target to the provisioner, which lacks them here. I removed hulking devil for it.
Red/black or green/black would have been possible as well.
Distortion was added because of instances where my opponent was stretching themselves too far mana/color wise. It let's me punish them and potentially kill parts of their gameplay. It is a weak card constructed, but limited is a different story. Especially when I saw many 3 color decks.
You don't know this in game one however, so it's best left in the sideboard and you can bring it in if your opponent plays a greedy deck. Otherwise, the odds of it having no impact are too high for it to be worth maindecking., And with an already weak pool, you can't afford a "maybe" card. I have to agree with Gleng that it should be left out. I'm going to assume that the card did not help you much. But I agree with you that uncaged fury should stay. You're low on removal, so you have to rely on combat tricks. I'm keeping aim high as well, since it's hard to see it coming, and defense against flying is pretty important in this format.
I didn't feel the same about playground. Sure, it's nice with Abbey , but if the best I can do t6 while my opponent is dropping bombs is play 4 Goblin Arsonists than am I really winning or stalling?
I will have to side with Jonny D on that one. If your opponent is dropping bombs. Your deck has no turn 6 play that can stop it anyway. Devil's playground potentially can. And you only feel that it's weak when you've never been on the receiving end of it.
(Example, your opponent plays archangel avacyn End of turn, then attacks. You cast aim highon one of the tokens and there goes Avacyn. And all you lost is a token. Non flying bombs need 9 toughness to survive D's playground. And since there are no non flying creatures in the format with 9 toughness.....)
It gives you 8 damage with one card, that you can distribute however you want. If you have a 2 power creaure blocking. adding two devils lets you kill a 6/6. Then you still have two devils left. You can use one card to deal with multiple cards of your opponent, or send the extra damage to their face. That's what wins games. And it's about the only source of card advantage in your pool. A weak pool with access to it has to play it.
I agree with most of what you said. Also, I really appreciate your well thought out response. One thing I never mentioned is that I got to the store 15min late. Which means I had much less time than everyone else as far as construction goes. I actually shuffled it together once they called time. Had I more time, I likely would have splashed into W or B. The white would have added solid removal and some decent humans to help grow that theme. Black would have given me solid removal and would have been the easier splash(since I really didn't like anything else in those colors)
My immediate plan going in, once I saw my pool, was that I needed to be as aggressive as possible. This lead to some sub-par choices that added more synergy, like vampires for masquerade, in exchange for power. Probably not the best move. It is a weak pool though.
(Edit: I would like to add that Distortion wasn't in the deck during the first round. After the match was over I walked around and looked at people's lands that they had in play. About 70% splashed into a third color so I added it MD as a meta call. I can't remember what I replaced but everytime I drew it, it at least stalled the game. I did get a few wins off it(including one match defining game where I played it back to back, my opponent hated me.))
I agree with most of what you said. Also, I really appreciate your well thought out response. One thing I never mentioned is that I got to the store 15min late. Which means I had much less time than everyone else as far as construction goes. I actually shuffled it together once they called time. Had I more time, I likely would have splashed into W or B. The white would have added solid removal and some decent humans to help grow that theme. Black would have given me solid removal and would have been the easier splash(since I really didn't like anything else in those colors)
My immediate plan going in, once I saw my pool, was that I needed to be as aggressive as possible. This lead to some sub-par choices that added more synergy, like vampires for masquerade, in exchange for power. Probably not the best move. It is a weak pool though.
(Edit: I would like to add that Distortion wasn't in the deck during the first round. After the match was over I walked around and looked at people's lands that they had in play. About 70% splashed into a third color so I added it MD as a meta call. I can't remember what I replaced but everytime I drew it, it at least stalled the game. I did get a few wins off it(including one match defining game where I played it back to back, my opponent hated me.))
White isn't really worth running in my opinion. Angelic purge is the only removal. Since you have to sacrifice a permanent to play it. It's pretty rare that you can afford to cast it before turn 5-6, since you'll usually sacrifice a land. (Or harvest hand if you have it). Black offers you the option to be faster. Taking out , watcher in the web and adding heir of falkenrath and the 3 crows, tooth collector, grotesque mutation and to the slaughter. Risking it a bit, you could include uncaged fury as a splash, to close games quickly. But overall. Black has much better value than white.
Though your build wasn't bad considering it was done on short notice.
In white, all I would have added are the purges and probably a couple investigate creatures since you can also sac clues for the Purge.
No a good strategy. Thraben inspector is a horrible card. If you put it in your deck with the intention of sacrificing it to angelic purge and you don't draw angelic purge, it becomes a dead card. You may also fall into the trap of not blocking with it, as you're waiting to draw angelic purge, taking more damage than you should. But I wouldn't sacrifice a clue to A. purge. An extra card is too valuable compared to a 6th-7th land.
With 3 crows and heir of falkenrath. You'd be dealing damage much faster than your opponent. So having two more conditional removal (three if you count tooth collector would not matter. You'd have life advantage and would only worry about removing something with 4 or more power. And there aren't many. So black is still preferable.
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1 Falkenrath Gorger
2 Insolent Neonate
1 Ember-Eye Wolf
1 Gibbering Fiend
1 Ulrich's Kindered
1 Convicted Killer
1 Voldaren Duelist
1 Hulking Devil
1 Gatstaf Arsonists
1 Hermit of the Natterknolls
1 Tireless Tracker
2 Intrepid Provisioner
1 Watcher in the Web
1 Stensia Masquerade
2 Structural Distortion
2 Uncaged Fury
2 Aim High
1 Moonlight Hunt
1 Tamiyo's Journal
Lands(17)
1 Westvale Abbey
1 Warped Landscape
6 Forest
9 Mountain
Yeah, you see that right. I ham-fisted 41 cards just to play the Journal. I didn't really have any removal to speak of so I had to focus more on being aggressive and relying on combat tricks. I actuall pulled 3 Uncage Fury, which is an amazing card, but placed Masquerade in place of the 3rd since most red creatures seem to be glass cannons. Plus it added a little extra synergy with the Vampires I have in the deck.
1 Bloodmad Vampire
1 Harness the Storm
1 Devils' Playground
1 Uncaged Fury
Green
1 Moldgraf Scavenger
1 Stoic Builder
1 Thornhide Wolves
1 Vessel of Nascency
1 Crawling Sensation
White
1 Town Gossipmonger
1 Thraben Inspector
1 Moorland Drifter
1 Devilthorn Fox
1 Cathar's Companion
1 Spectral Shepherd
1 Emissary of the Sleepless
1 Vessel of Ephemera
1 Hope Against Hope
2 Angelic Purge
1 Ethereal Guidance
1 Expose Evil
2 Survive the Night
1 Humble the Brute
1 Furtive Homunculus
1 Seagraf Skaab
1 Erdwal Illuminator
1 Niblis of Dusk
2 Stiched Mangler
1 Vessel of Paramnesia
1 Gone Missing
1 Rise from the Tides
1 Invasive Surgery
1 Essence Flux
1 Jace's Scrutiny
1 Compelling Deterrence
1 Just the Wind
Black
1 Heir of Falkenrath
1 Tooth Collector
3 Crow of Dark Tidings
1 Twins of Maurer Estate
2 Hound of the Farbogs
1 Ghoulsteed
1 Vessel of Malignity
1 Murderous Compulsion
1 Behold the Beyond
1 Grotesque Mutation
1 To the Slaughter
1 Merciless Resolve
1 Harvest Hand
2 Haunted Cloak
Land
1 Foul Orchard
My initial thoughts were that Naya colors were obviously where all my playables were. Especially since I had some good removal in White and liked a good chunk of the creatures. If I had mana fixing, I likely would have splashed into white. Overall though, I couldn't get a curve I was okay with using white and thought Red and Green held better synergies. Blue looked terrible to me, only having maybe 1-2 cards I would even want to play. I liked the removal in Black, but the creatures were lacking any true synergy and wasn't near the power level I would have been happy with. Artifacts all around were pretty meh, with the exception of Journal.
So, how would you rate this pool?
Do you think a better deck could have built or my deck could have been improved?
Answering these questions will, hopefully, help me in future limited games by bettering my thought processes.
I would have (sadly) played these 6 cards instead if I had to be R/G:
1 Bloodmad Vampire
1 Thornhide Wolves
1 Vessel of Nascency
1 Devils' Playground
1 Uncaged Fury
Looking at the pool, White and black both seem solid, with a couple of good removal spells each.
I think the best deck is likely BR, GW or RW depending on what has the most synergy and best curve. Red looks like the deepest colour, but lacks removal - good to pair with B or W. GW is good together because of the human and investigate synergies.
Distortion was added because of instances where my opponent was stretching themselves too far mana/color wise. It let's me punish them and potentially kill parts of their gameplay. It is a weak card constructed, but limited is a different story. Especially when I saw many 3 color decks.
Fury was actually an all-star all night and I never regretted drawing it, especially when I won a match with it off of a transformed Abbey for 20 in the air.
Aim high I do agree on. It's inclusion was a concession to fliers, to which, I'm weak against.
As I said in the OP, I did like the removal in W and B. I was very close to building a WG deck in fact. If felt too creature light though.
While white and black had good removal, the creatures were *****. Especially in the black pool. I would have used them for a splash color but didn't trust the mana fixing I had in order to do it.
1 moldgraf scavenger
1 Ember-Eye Wolf
1 Gibbering Fiend
1 Ulrich's Kindred
1 Harvest hand
1 Convicted Killer
1 Voldaren Duelist
1 Stoic builder
1 Gatstaf Arsonists
1 Hermit of the Natterknolls
1 Tireless Tracker
2 Intrepid Provisioner
1 Watcher in the Web
1 Stensia Masquerade
2 Uncaged Fury
2 Aim High
1 Moonlight Hunt
1 Tamiyo's Journal
1 Devil's playground
Lands(17)
1 Westvale Abbey
1 Warped Landscape
6 Forest
9 Mountain
With absolutely no way to discard save the two neonates that are one time uses. Gorger ends up just being a 2/1. Unfortunately, this pool is quite low in quality creatures. So the two neonates would have to go, and we'll keep two power for 1 mana. To allow you to survive to where your deck gets to play win conditions,we'll add moldgraf scavenger, which is a great blocker at low cost, and can eventually be a 3/4. Structural distortion is not the type of cards that I would maindeck more than one. Especially in a grindy format like SoI. So I wouldn't play either unless my opponent's deck calls for it.
Also, there is a problem in the early game, in that you cannot block a 2 power creature without losing your blocker before drawing hermit of the Natterknolls or intrepid provisioner. So a 2/3 would help. Plus Stoic builder gives an extra target to the provisioner, which lacks them here. I removed hulking devil for it.
Red/black or green/black would have been possible as well.
You don't know this in game one however, so it's best left in the sideboard and you can bring it in if your opponent plays a greedy deck. Otherwise, the odds of it having no impact are too high for it to be worth maindecking., And with an already weak pool, you can't afford a "maybe" card. I have to agree with Gleng that it should be left out. I'm going to assume that the card did not help you much. But I agree with you that uncaged fury should stay. You're low on removal, so you have to rely on combat tricks. I'm keeping aim high as well, since it's hard to see it coming, and defense against flying is pretty important in this format.
I will have to side with Jonny D on that one. If your opponent is dropping bombs. Your deck has no turn 6 play that can stop it anyway. Devil's playground potentially can. And you only feel that it's weak when you've never been on the receiving end of it.
(Example, your opponent plays archangel avacyn End of turn, then attacks. You cast aim highon one of the tokens and there goes Avacyn. And all you lost is a token. Non flying bombs need 9 toughness to survive D's playground. And since there are no non flying creatures in the format with 9 toughness.....)
It gives you 8 damage with one card, that you can distribute however you want. If you have a 2 power creaure blocking. adding two devils lets you kill a 6/6. Then you still have two devils left. You can use one card to deal with multiple cards of your opponent, or send the extra damage to their face. That's what wins games. And it's about the only source of card advantage in your pool. A weak pool with access to it has to play it.
Hope this helps.
My immediate plan going in, once I saw my pool, was that I needed to be as aggressive as possible. This lead to some sub-par choices that added more synergy, like vampires for masquerade, in exchange for power. Probably not the best move. It is a weak pool though.
(Edit: I would like to add that Distortion wasn't in the deck during the first round. After the match was over I walked around and looked at people's lands that they had in play. About 70% splashed into a third color so I added it MD as a meta call. I can't remember what I replaced but everytime I drew it, it at least stalled the game. I did get a few wins off it(including one match defining game where I played it back to back, my opponent hated me.))
White isn't really worth running in my opinion. Angelic purge is the only removal. Since you have to sacrifice a permanent to play it. It's pretty rare that you can afford to cast it before turn 5-6, since you'll usually sacrifice a land. (Or harvest hand if you have it). Black offers you the option to be faster. Taking out , watcher in the web and adding heir of falkenrath and the 3 crows, tooth collector, grotesque mutation and to the slaughter. Risking it a bit, you could include uncaged fury as a splash, to close games quickly. But overall. Black has much better value than white.
Though your build wasn't bad considering it was done on short notice.
No a good strategy. Thraben inspector is a horrible card. If you put it in your deck with the intention of sacrificing it to angelic purge and you don't draw angelic purge, it becomes a dead card. You may also fall into the trap of not blocking with it, as you're waiting to draw angelic purge, taking more damage than you should. But I wouldn't sacrifice a clue to A. purge. An extra card is too valuable compared to a 6th-7th land.
With 3 crows and heir of falkenrath. You'd be dealing damage much faster than your opponent. So having two more conditional removal (three if you count tooth collector would not matter. You'd have life advantage and would only worry about removing something with 4 or more power. And there aren't many. So black is still preferable.