"Players can add any number of Guildgates to their decks after drafting.
I cut the broken rares so that decks would rely more on synergy and less on mashing a bunch of good cards into the same pile. I also cut the premium removal to make for a better limited environment.
The guild cards need to be versatile enough to go into multiple decks in order to allow for a variety of strategies for each guild. There are only a couple of exceptions to this in order to ensure each archetype has enough support.
Jeskai enchantments needs more support somehow in order to be competitive
Jund has a lot more sacrifice going on than Mardu, so I'm wondering if Mardu should be the Hellbent strategy instead (maybe with a minor lifegain theme)
We drafted it last night and had a blast. It was great to see two Jund players with completely different strategies (steal/sacrifice/dredge vs. +1/+1 counters).
I got a lot of feedback that there was too much removal, though, and I'd love to hear suggestions on what removal I should cut exactly. Thanks!
Thanks for all the thoughts on this. I agree that Awaken gets in the way of a ramp strategy, but in something like a blue/white tempo deck it works really well at the top of the curve.
Am I the only one worried that the format for the prerelease ("four Fate Reforged, one Khans of Tarkir, and one special clan booster") is going to be silly?
This is the reason we aren't drafting 2x Fate Reforged + 1x Khans of Tarkir, isn't it?
Burn Away's "exile the graveyard" effect is triggered, so it goes on the stack when the Phoenix dies, as does the reanimation trigger from the Phoenix. If it's your turn, you're the active player, and the trigger you control (from Burn Away) goes on the stack first, then the Phoenix trigger. The Phoenix trigger will resolve first, and the Phoenix gets returned to the battlefield face down. If you'd Burned the Phoenix on your opponent's turn, the ordering of the triggers would have been reversed, and the Phoenix would be exiled along with the rest of the opponent's graveyard.
I saw a couple copies of Whirlwind Adept in the decklists from the coverage of Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir. This kind of baffles me, though, as the card seems really really bad when it trades with morphs.
Is there a particular kind of deck that really wants Whirlwind Adept? Has anyone got any first-hand experience with or against this card? Thanks!
Even the absolute worst case where you find zero Delve cards in your top 15 cards, you're still fixing your draws in a big way for a long time. That's got to be as good as Divination, even then.
I disagree. At that point you're playing Index, which is opposite worth a card.
It feels like Abzan is flat-out the best clan to pick at the pre-release, the same way that Boros was the best option for Gatecrash.
I felt really frustrated for not picking Boros even though I didn't want to play those colours because it was just so much better than the other options. I'm wondering if anyone thinks it'll be the same situation with Azban for Khans?
"Players can add any number of Guildgates to their decks after drafting.
I cut the broken rares so that decks would rely more on synergy and less on mashing a bunch of good cards into the same pile. I also cut the premium removal to make for a better limited environment.
The guild cards need to be versatile enough to go into multiple decks in order to allow for a variety of strategies for each guild. There are only a couple of exceptions to this in order to ensure each archetype has enough support.
Supported Archetypes:
Auras (Bant)
Cipher (Esper)
Control (Grixis & Jeskai)
Hellbent (Jund)
Tokens (Naya)
Graveyard (Abzan)
+1/+1 Counters (Sultai)
Sacrifice (Mardu)
ETB (Temur)"
Issues that I'd like to resolve:
We drafted it last night and had a blast. It was great to see two Jund players with completely different strategies (steal/sacrifice/dredge vs. +1/+1 counters).
I got a lot of feedback that there was too much removal, though, and I'd love to hear suggestions on what removal I should cut exactly. Thanks!
What advice can you give for evaluating cards and archetypes in this format?
Thanks!
This is the reason we aren't drafting 2x Fate Reforged + 1x Khans of Tarkir, isn't it?
Most excellent. Thanks!
How come?
Is there a particular kind of deck that really wants Whirlwind Adept? Has anyone got any first-hand experience with or against this card? Thanks!
I disagree. At that point you're playing Index, which is opposite worth a card.
I felt really frustrated for not picking Boros even though I didn't want to play those colours because it was just so much better than the other options. I'm wondering if anyone thinks it'll be the same situation with Azban for Khans?
proto-Sultai: UBRG
proto-Abzan: WBRG
proto-Temur: WURG
proto-Jeskai: WUBG
proto-Mardu: WUBR