So something interesting happened last week; my group and I were cubing, as usual, and by the end of pack 2 I had a sweet W/b aggro deck, with easy splashes for Vindicate, but also some ambitious 3-drops such as Drana and Liliana, Heretical Healer. At this point, I knew that unless I picked up some fixing, I wouldn't be able to run those 3-drops. Opening pack 3, I saw a Fetid Heath, a Scrubland, and a Mox Ruby. It was a group of 6 people, and the pack was deep enough that I knew I could comfortably wheel Fetid Heath, but probably not the Scrubland, and certainly not both. The mox would be nice, but if I took it I knew I was forsaking my Drana and Lili to the sideboard pile. I decided to pass the mox, picking up the Scrubland, and managed to wheel the Fetid Heath and picked up a City of Brass along the way. I managed to go undefeated with my deck.
Question is, after the draft I couldn't help but wonder if passing the mox was the correct decision. Thoughts?
I have passed Moxen in the cube a lot of times. Sometimes there's a critical piece that your deck needs to function present in the pack that you just have to take. I don't think I've ever passed one for a fixing land, but that doesn't mean I never would. It depends on how greedy my mana demand has to be, and how much fixing I have up to that point in the draft.
BW is a pretty rough color combo mana wise and colorless mana wont help you much. The real question is why should you draft a deck where you need to pass moxen to pick up lands?
BW is a pretty rough color combo mana wise and colorless mana wont help you much. The real question is why should you draft a deck where you need to pass moxen to pick up lands?
Because it's the color pair that's open to you but you need the fixing in order to make it work correctly. Moxen are awesome but if a Scrubland or Fetid Heath makes your deck work and mox doesn't, then take the land. This is one of those situations where doing one thing is always the correct decision until it isn't, you know?
BW is a pretty rough color combo mana wise and colorless mana wont help you much. The real question is why should you draft a deck where you need to pass moxen to pick up lands?
Because it's the color pair that's open to you but you need the fixing in order to make it work correctly. Moxen are awesome but if a Scrubland or Fetid Heath makes your deck work and mox doesn't, then take the land. This is one of those situations where doing one thing is always the correct decision until it isn't, you know?
Totally agree. All the cubes i have made over the years BW is probably the toughest guild to make work. WotC likes to make the cheap creatures have WW or BB in their casting cost which makes curving out well without the duals very difficult. Too many of those colors good cards are designed with white weenie or Mono-black in mind which make BW color combo really rough. Red has cheap splash-able burn you could add to W or B decks, Green has the mana fixing to help mitigate Necros and Soltari Priest and Blue also has a good number of easy to splash cards that can work like Mana Leak. But together BW falls apart without a dual in your opener, hence why you need to pass otherwise very powerful cards for Godless Shrine
IMHO, you made the right call, and was what I would've done as well. Being able to play spells is more important than ramping into cards you can't play. People don't draft land highly enough, anyways.
Definitely true. I draft lands higher than many of my players. It makes my mana more consistent. Some of them have figured that out and are moving lands up in their draft calculus.
If it makes your deck work, you have to pass a mox. That being said, statistically what does one dual land add to the stability of a mana base? I'm thinking not much.
Mox Ruby was the easy pick considering there were 2 BW duals and that color combination is very rarely played. Also you can easily pick up other lands in the other packs. You still had 14 more picks. Mox just lead to sick draws that's why they are so strong.
It's a difficult choice, that's for sure. I personally prefer having the mox, because it gives you the chance to have an explosive opening hand, even if it's effectively colorless mana. That said, if the rest of your draft picks have been quite mana weighty, then I could easily understand grabbing the Scrubland and picking Heath on the wheel, and letting the next guy scoop the mox.
Mox Ruby was the easy pick considering there were 2 BW duals and that color combination is very rarely played. Also you can easily pick up other lands in the other packs. You still had 14 more picks. Mox just lead to sick draws that's why they are so strong.
Maybe for you. In my playgroup Junk and B/W are super popular color choices.
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Question is, after the draft I couldn't help but wonder if passing the mox was the correct decision. Thoughts?
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Because it's the color pair that's open to you but you need the fixing in order to make it work correctly. Moxen are awesome but if a Scrubland or Fetid Heath makes your deck work and mox doesn't, then take the land. This is one of those situations where doing one thing is always the correct decision until it isn't, you know?
Totally agree. All the cubes i have made over the years BW is probably the toughest guild to make work. WotC likes to make the cheap creatures have WW or BB in their casting cost which makes curving out well without the duals very difficult. Too many of those colors good cards are designed with white weenie or Mono-black in mind which make BW color combo really rough. Red has cheap splash-able burn you could add to W or B decks, Green has the mana fixing to help mitigate Necros and Soltari Priest and Blue also has a good number of easy to splash cards that can work like Mana Leak. But together BW falls apart without a dual in your opener, hence why you need to pass otherwise very powerful cards for Godless Shrine
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Definitely true. I draft lands higher than many of my players. It makes my mana more consistent. Some of them have figured that out and are moving lands up in their draft calculus.
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Maybe for you. In my playgroup Junk and B/W are super popular color choices.