After winning an 8-4 with a pretty mediocre deck that just casted Trump the Domains for the win in any and all board positions, I can safely say that there is only one thing you need to build a domain deck.
On his turn he plays Recurring Nightmare saccing gloom surgeon for sheoldred.
Turn 5:
On my upkeep, I sacrifice the jackal. Then I topdeck Time Walk like a champ. I level up dragonlord another 3 times. Swings for 4 in the air (14), then casts time walk.
On my second upkeep, I activate mishra's factory and sacrifice it. Topdeck like a champ again with Goblin Guide. Level up dragonlord 2 more times and swings for 8 (6). Then casts goblin guide and Mana Crypt which I use to cast Winter Orb.
On his turn he could only untap one land, and even though sheoldred reanimates wurmcoil it is far too late.
Turn 6:
I sacrifice goblin guide and swing for the win.
If you are a rakdos deck executing its basic gameplan, you should have no problem hitting people for damage and playing horror as a reasonable beater. People like to be confused about "win-more" and "useless when you are absolutely behind". The two concepts are not the same and only the former tends to make a card unplayable.
Cryptborn horror is a fine card as long as you have only one or two to complement your chainwalkers, splatter thugs, and revelers.
I don't exactly understand people who have never seen this card played - when grizzly bears have been perfectly playable in every limited format since the original Ravnica.
Do they just always somehow open a disproportionate amount of playables for all 8 players in their pods, or are their playgroups stuck in early 2000s card evaluation?
My vote is for Tavern Swindler. Why do they keep making terrible flip cards??? Who's thinking to themselves I wish I had a grizzly bear who could potentially gain me 3 life a turn but I have to keep losing life every time I mess up. Sure the effect seems black but it's just unplayable. Black wants to pay life like it was mana not crappy lifegain effects.
I like the card alot.... it is always playable, and has a fairly skill-testing ability which you should theoretically use whenever you feel you need the life and are behind enough to justify the inconsistency.
My vote (after obligatory Pack Rat) goes to Desecration Demon. Turn 4 is too early for many decks to deal with something like that, and suddenly you are dead.
If you compare the original ravnica to RTR you'll notice something: in City of the Guilds not only was the fixing twice as good, but at the same time, a lot of the best cards were mono colored especially in the lower rarities (even the guildmages could be played in just one of their colors). What this meant was you could conceivably play any color combination.
In RTR almost all the goods cards are multicolored, locking you into playing at least one of the guilds, and probably only one given the quality of the fixing. The difference in diversity is huge.
If you don't believe me just look over the twospoilers and the distinction will immediately jump out. Notice how in RTR so many of the mono colored commons are filler and almost every multicolored card is good and undercosted
@smellyrebel I also started drafting at the time of triple Ravnica, and nevermind what I recall about the format at the time but I can say with certainty that even months later people were not doing it correctly, especially given the lack of propagation of limited knowledge at the time. But as we return to the format now generally 3+ color decks is what you'll expect to see.
Also fixing is too atrocious to reliably play more than 2 colors main in a supposedly multicolor set. I understand that the original Ravnica format devolved too often into "5 color best stuff.dec" especially when not everyone at the table understood the awesomeness of bouncelands and signets, but seriously with five main color combinations RTR has less archetypes than some supposedly monocolor sets. (eg ROE)
No one was talking about splashing except you. If the standard decks in RTR are all main guild with a possible splash then my point stands that this is far less than the expected standards of fixing from past multicolor sets.
What? I have yet to draft anything less than three-color in this set. If the fixing here is better than the fixing was in m13 and I was playing 3 color in m13 just fine, how on Earth can the argument be made that fixing is atrocious?
I think you just need to work on your picks/mana base.
If you were playing a lot of 3 color in m13 then clearly we have different levels of expectation for the speed and consistency of our decks.
I have to agree that the set doesn't have half the depth of the great sets of yore, on account of the linear strategies and decks mostly drafting themselves past pick 8 (if even).
Also fixing is too atrocious to reliably play more than 2 colors main in a supposedly multicolor set. I understand that the original Ravnica format devolved too often into "5 color best stuff.dec" especially when not everyone at the table understood the awesomeness of bouncelands and signets, but seriously with five main color combinations RTR has less archetypes than some supposedly monocolor sets. (eg ROE)
TSP was a format where you either had a top end deck or you knew you were not going to win a game, let alone a match. Usually in TSP there was one deck heads and shoulders above all the rest, one a distant second, and then the 6 pacer decks.
Have to say this is an astonishingly accurate and succinct description of the format, but its still awesome to play for me, and the top deck is not always the same - sometimes aggro-tempo suspend, sometimes controllish green with three sprout swarms, occasionally a five color sliver abomination.
Just played a different sort of "defender deck" with 5 axebane guardians and 2 gatecreeper vines. I was pretty constantly chaining double rhinos from turn 5 on.
Had I known I was getting 5 of them I would have taken expensive bombs from every color, but as fun as it was I don't think with the average draft pool its viable.
I've quit playing the format halfway into the release week on MTGO. I am saving all my tickets to spend at once for the next time cube comes. And if the payout for that turns out to be AVR packs, I'll just be selling them.
How will it do?
It is game 3 of the finals of a holiday cube. I'm playing RDW splashing for blue power. My opponent is mono black reanimate. I am on the play.
Turn 1:
I play Mountain into Tattermunge Maniac
He plays Library of Alexandria
Turn 2:
I play Scalding Tarn, crack to fetch Volcanic Island. Cast Ancestral Recall on myself, drawing 3 crappy lands. Attack with maniac (18). He activates library at my EOT.
He plays Swamp, Gloom Surgeon
Turn 3:
I play Mountain. Kargan Dragonlord, Jackal Pup. maniac suicides into surgeon milling 2 lands.
He activates library, then discards Sheoldred, Whispering One at EOT.
Turn 4:
I play Mishra's Factory. Levels up dragonlord 3 times, and passes. He plays Entomb at my EOT for Wurmcoil Engine
On his turn he plays Recurring Nightmare saccing gloom surgeon for sheoldred.
Turn 5:
On my upkeep, I sacrifice the jackal. Then I topdeck Time Walk like a champ. I level up dragonlord another 3 times. Swings for 4 in the air (14), then casts time walk.
On my second upkeep, I activate mishra's factory and sacrifice it. Topdeck like a champ again with Goblin Guide. Level up dragonlord 2 more times and swings for 8 (6). Then casts goblin guide and Mana Crypt which I use to cast Winter Orb.
On his turn he could only untap one land, and even though sheoldred reanimates wurmcoil it is far too late.
Turn 6:
I sacrifice goblin guide and swing for the win.
tl dr: dragonlord beats T1 library T2 unkillable 2/1 T4 sheoldred T5 wurmcoil
Cryptborn horror is a fine card as long as you have only one or two to complement your chainwalkers, splatter thugs, and revelers.
Do they just always somehow open a disproportionate amount of playables for all 8 players in their pods, or are their playgroups stuck in early 2000s card evaluation?
So who's avoiding it?
I like the card alot.... it is always playable, and has a fairly skill-testing ability which you should theoretically use whenever you feel you need the life and are behind enough to justify the inconsistency.
In RTR almost all the goods cards are multicolored, locking you into playing at least one of the guilds, and probably only one given the quality of the fixing. The difference in diversity is huge.
If you don't believe me just look over the two spoilers and the distinction will immediately jump out. Notice how in RTR so many of the mono colored commons are filler and almost every multicolored card is good and undercosted
@smellyrebel I also started drafting at the time of triple Ravnica, and nevermind what I recall about the format at the time but I can say with certainty that even months later people were not doing it correctly, especially given the lack of propagation of limited knowledge at the time. But as we return to the format now generally 3+ color decks is what you'll expect to see.
No one was talking about splashing except you. If the standard decks in RTR are all main guild with a possible splash then my point stands that this is far less than the expected standards of fixing from past multicolor sets.
If you were playing a lot of 3 color in m13 then clearly we have different levels of expectation for the speed and consistency of our decks.
Also fixing is too atrocious to reliably play more than 2 colors main in a supposedly multicolor set. I understand that the original Ravnica format devolved too often into "5 color best stuff.dec" especially when not everyone at the table understood the awesomeness of bouncelands and signets, but seriously with five main color combinations RTR has less archetypes than some supposedly monocolor sets. (eg ROE)
Have to say this is an astonishingly accurate and succinct description of the format, but its still awesome to play for me, and the top deck is not always the same - sometimes aggro-tempo suspend, sometimes controllish green with three sprout swarms, occasionally a five color sliver abomination.
Had I known I was getting 5 of them I would have taken expensive bombs from every color, but as fun as it was I don't think with the average draft pool its viable.