I've been playing around with some deck ideas for standard and a lot of them have an average cmc between 3.2 and 3.5. To me, that suggests that the deck doesn't have a lot of early game or that the deck is slow. I haven't really been paying attention to standard recently so I don't know if a deck that really picks up speed on turn three is viable or if the lack of T1 and T2 action is a weakness. Can anyone help me out here?
For a reference, one of the decks I've created is here
Average CMC isn't a magic number you can look at and say a deck is bad/good or slow/fast. I mean, for one, your deck has 8 ramp spells, so you basically have to have more expensive, more powerful cards to justify playing creatures like Elvish Mystic that are otherwise weak. Your curve might be a little high, but it doesn't look super slow to me. In the current standard format, you can get away with being a little slower than last standard because decks like Abzan and Sultai aren't going to run you over in 5 turns for the most part.
Other factors to consider when looking at your average cmc include: Are you on the play or draw? Do you have cheap removal, life gain, or early blockers to help you get to those expensive spells? How is your distribution of cmcs--do you have 15 3-drops or do you have cards at each point on the curve so you are always utilizing your mana? How many colors are you playing and will you have fixing problems early on?
I mean, everyone has different ideas and the true test is what happens when you play it, but your curve doesn't look way off to me. If you're concerned, I'd consider maybe running Surrak in your sideboard and maybe pull one Sagu Mauler and one land to move the Heir of the Wilds to the mainboard. Brian Kibler has posted some good lists and a few videos that might give you some ideas of how different aggressive Temur builds play, then just tune the theme to how you like to play or the cards you prefer. You may also want to look at Shivan Reef and Yavimaya Coast because 12 taplands is a lot in a deck that is clearly supposed to be proactive and hit your opponent fast and forcefully. Also, it's worth mentioning that decks with mana ramp and 4 power creatures really, really love a couple of copies of Crater's Claws.
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I've been playing around with some deck ideas for standard and a lot of them have an average cmc between 3.2 and 3.5. To me, that suggests that the deck doesn't have a lot of early game or that the deck is slow. I haven't really been paying attention to standard recently so I don't know if a deck that really picks up speed on turn three is viable or if the lack of T1 and T2 action is a weakness. Can anyone help me out here?
For a reference, one of the decks I've created is here
Other factors to consider when looking at your average cmc include: Are you on the play or draw? Do you have cheap removal, life gain, or early blockers to help you get to those expensive spells? How is your distribution of cmcs--do you have 15 3-drops or do you have cards at each point on the curve so you are always utilizing your mana? How many colors are you playing and will you have fixing problems early on?
I mean, everyone has different ideas and the true test is what happens when you play it, but your curve doesn't look way off to me. If you're concerned, I'd consider maybe running Surrak in your sideboard and maybe pull one Sagu Mauler and one land to move the Heir of the Wilds to the mainboard. Brian Kibler has posted some good lists and a few videos that might give you some ideas of how different aggressive Temur builds play, then just tune the theme to how you like to play or the cards you prefer. You may also want to look at Shivan Reef and Yavimaya Coast because 12 taplands is a lot in a deck that is clearly supposed to be proactive and hit your opponent fast and forcefully. Also, it's worth mentioning that decks with mana ramp and 4 power creatures really, really love a couple of copies of Crater's Claws.