Are there any prizes for the draft or is it just a cards only draft tourney? Because 20 is a fair bit cheaper than most drafts I have seen, which seem to run 30-35, depending on the prize structure, etc.
I'd keep the Inaction Injunction; it's a spell that makes it harder for your opponent to block while drawing a card to replace itself. That's exactly what you want in a deck full of Nivix Cyclops and Fluxcharger. If you're looking for things to cut, Hands of Binding, Agoraphobia, and Totally Lost are probably the best options (in roughly that order). You could also cut the incursion specialist, but only if you're bringing in a couple creatures, because your creature count is low.
I'd definitely play Skinbrand Goblin... even if you don't want to swap it for a spell, I like it better than Incursion Specialist. I'd also want another evasive creature. You don't really have any EtB effects to exploit Faerie Impostor and Keymaster Rogue, but you do have lots of inexpensive creatures to mitigate the drawback. Since your curve is pretty low, I think playing the more powerful 4-drop is justified, giving you another win condition.
All told, I'd cut Incursion Specialist and either Hands of Binding or Agoraphobia for Skinbrand Goblin and Keymaster Rogue.
This is my first time drafting DGR, and almost all of my experience with the format has come through watching CFB videos.
My LGS is known for having players of mixed experience. Some are quite good, others really have very little idea of the basic game mechanics.
P1P1 was barren except for a Fluxcharger,which I took. I got passed a stream of very high quality Izzet cards after that, and since I wasn't really passing anything good I had no incentive to jump colors.
I ended up with WAY too many playable cards, and in hindsight I think I may have misbuilt by deck.
Here is the pool of reasonable cards I ended up with:
I definitely think I might have messed up deckbuilding.
In particular, I think I was too quick to dismiss some of my low-drop creatures.
Either way, I played this deck to a a 2-0-1 finish, sweeping my first two opponents and then IDing with my final opponent to guarantee us prize support.
Stax was always my favorite deck, and its the first one I picked up again after a long hiatus. I just finished a game that began on turn 1 with my opponent Show and Telling into Omniscience and ended on turn 35 with him conceding in the tripartite lock. The old joy is coming back
Two quick questions.
1. Is there a preferred current version of this deck? There seem to be a lot of new cards being utilized (Trading Post, Sundial of the Infinite) and I don't know if these are the new norm, or different variations on the old build.
2. Which version of Stax best optimizes the lockout plan? It seems like a lot of new versions are focusing on quick closes with Hero of Bladehold and the ilk. I'm trying to find the version that guarantees long games with them having no permanents in play. Any input would be much appreciated.
You can't feel out mtg foils, if people say they can it's in their head. Also even if you coild feel out foils, you wouldn't get a huge value from doing it. Most commons and un commons are worthless and you get one shot at a good rare per box and most rares are bulk as well.
Not only is it possible to feel out foils, but it is very easy to learn. With some practice, I've become accurate well over 95% of the time (the last 16 packs I've purchased have each contained a foil). If the method isn't foolproof, its damn near close. Here is a tutorial I made quite some time ago (so far as I know, it is the only one on the internet right now): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pR_1vM2nRU
Educate yourself. The more you know, the less likely you are to be fooled.
With that said, I've only ever pulled a few foil rares. The economic benefits are fairly modest, though foils of all rarities do make excellent trade fodder.
It's also worth noting that their are a number of players (I'll admit, myself included) who get a sick kick out of hosing aggro decks. A couple of months back I was playing UW Control (with multiple Day of Judgements and Condemn), and aggro was a pretty solid matchup.
Why? Because I like beating aggro. Vampires was the big deck back then, and being able to consistantly crush them was very satisfying (though to be fair, the Purges and Lightcasters would also come in vs. Grave Titan decks, so they weren't truly specific hate).
Wizards probably caters to this mentality on some level.
However, I stand by the fact that there's no truly broken counters. The closest things to broken counters in my book are Force, Misstep and Pact of Negation, and even those are only powerful, not broken.
Only Flusterstorm is truly a counter (semantics, I know). But that list pales in comparison to the number of cards that can stop every other card listed here.
As awesome as Yawg's will is, it can still be countered. On the other hand, I've never lost a game where I've cast a Mind's Desire for 10 storm or more.
Just redrafting the rares. Is it a fair deal?
This makes sense. I definitely underestimated the power level of Skinbrand Goblin.
It seems the consensus is that Keymaster Rogue is better than Faerie Imposter at what it does?
My LGS is known for having players of mixed experience. Some are quite good, others really have very little idea of the basic game mechanics.
P1P1 was barren except for a Fluxcharger,which I took. I got passed a stream of very high quality Izzet cards after that, and since I wasn't really passing anything good I had no incentive to jump colors.
I ended up with WAY too many playable cards, and in hindsight I think I may have misbuilt by deck.
Here is the pool of reasonable cards I ended up with:
1x Hypersonic Dragon
1x Fluxcharger
1x Annihilating Fire
1x Turn//Burn
1x Mugging
1x Thoughtflare
3x Nivix Cyclops
2x Goblin Electromancer
1x Hands of Binding
1x Blast of Genius
1x Inaction Injunction
1x Inspiration
1x Deathcult Rogue
2x Izzet Staticaster
1x Tower Drake
1x Incursion Specialist
1x Agoraphobia
1x Murmuring Phantasm
1x Skinbrand Goblin
1x Keymaster Rogue
1x Faerie Imposter
2x Totally Lost
1x Last Thoughts
1x Mizzium SKin
1x Nivmagus Elemental
And here is the deck I ended up building:
1x Mercurial Chemister
1x Hypersonic Dragon
1x Fluxcharger
3x Nivix Cyclops
2x Goblin Electromancer
2x Izzet Staticaster
1x Incursion Specialist
1x Tower Drake
1x Deathcult Rogue
1x Turn // Burn
1x Thoughtflare
1x Blast of Genius
1x Annihilating Fire
1x Mugging
1x Hands of Binding
1x Inaction Injunction
1x Inspiration
1x Totally Lost
1x Agoraphobia
Lands:
2x Izzet Guildgate
7x Mountain
8x Island
I definitely think I might have messed up deckbuilding.
In particular, I think I was too quick to dismiss some of my low-drop creatures.
Either way, I played this deck to a a 2-0-1 finish, sweeping my first two opponents and then IDing with my final opponent to guarantee us prize support.
How would you have built this deck?
Thanks for the quick response! What does a modern Geddon Stax list look like?
I'm currently running this:
4x Flagstones of Troikar
4x Mishra's Factory
4x Wasteland
4x Ancient Tomb
3x City of Traitors
6x Plains
4x Trinisphere
4x Chalice of the Void
4x Smokestack
4x Crucible of Worlds
4x Mox Diamond
4x Ghostly Prison
3x Oblivion Ring
Sorcery:
4x Armageddon
Creatures:
4x Magus of the Tabernacle
but it hasn't been updated in a long time.
Two quick questions.
1. Is there a preferred current version of this deck? There seem to be a lot of new cards being utilized (Trading Post, Sundial of the Infinite) and I don't know if these are the new norm, or different variations on the old build.
2. Which version of Stax best optimizes the lockout plan? It seems like a lot of new versions are focusing on quick closes with Hero of Bladehold and the ilk. I'm trying to find the version that guarantees long games with them having no permanents in play. Any input would be much appreciated.
Not only is it possible to feel out foils, but it is very easy to learn. With some practice, I've become accurate well over 95% of the time (the last 16 packs I've purchased have each contained a foil). If the method isn't foolproof, its damn near close. Here is a tutorial I made quite some time ago (so far as I know, it is the only one on the internet right now):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pR_1vM2nRU
Educate yourself. The more you know, the less likely you are to be fooled.
With that said, I've only ever pulled a few foil rares. The economic benefits are fairly modest, though foils of all rarities do make excellent trade fodder.
Want to see what my sideboard looked like?
4x Kor Firewalker
3x Leyline of Sanctity
3x Celestial Purge
3x Flashfreeze
2x Devout Lightcaster
Why? Because I like beating aggro. Vampires was the big deck back then, and being able to consistantly crush them was very satisfying (though to be fair, the Purges and Lightcasters would also come in vs. Grave Titan decks, so they weren't truly specific hate).
Wizards probably caters to this mentality on some level.
1) to attack OR
2) to destroy (in this case it is a synonym for dominate, decimate, annihlate, etc.)
Play a game of vintage and my guess is that your definition of 'broken' will change greatly.
Mana Drain begs to differ.
Only Flusterstorm is truly a counter (semantics, I know). But that list pales in comparison to the number of cards that can stop every other card listed here.