I feel like "counterspells = bad" is pretty much drilled into limited players' heads by much of the information we read, hear, and share. I myself don't usually play many counterspells ever. However, I have seen this one played a lot so far in the format and I take steps to play around it when I suspect it. If I'm on the draw going to turn three and my opponent has 2U up and an empty board next to my two-drop, I'm probably not playing anything good on that turn. I'll wait to play my good stuff until the coast is clear. To Puddle Jumper's point, I think it is an easy play-around. Unfortunately for blue, there aren't a ton of threatening two drops in the color to play on turn two and then just happily pass while holding up 2U on turn three to bait the opponent.
I don't think Spell Shrivel is very good, even if it is one of the most reliable ways, short of Benthic Infiltrator, to get some ingest going for your processors.
I agree with all of the positive vibes on here. This set makes me want to get on MTGO daily. The draft is deep and games are usually quite fun and exciting. It's fun to consider ways to counter each archtype you might encounter and to have tho think about matchups. Sideboards actually matter and it hasn't felt like they have for a while really.
Not as good as Windrider Patrol because of the gold commitment and the inconsistent vs. always awesome upside. But, being marginally worse than Windrider Patrol isn't really a bad place to be.
Side note: Does Windrider Patrol look like it's right out of Theros, or what?
So far in my experience, it is also a deep archetype and it sometimes supports more than one person at the table. Maybe this is an aberration, but I played a guy online in a R/G landfall mirror the other day and we both wound up going 2-1 with my only loss to him. Our decks were a bit diluted and there was probably a 3-0 deck in there if one of us did something else.
I agree that Murasa Ranger is good in this deck because it really does want some reach. It does come at you like a freight train out of the gate, but it can slow down pretty significantly. So, the Ranger, Shatterskull Recruit, and/or Territorial Baloth are important to have on the high end. The one problem is that by the time you get Baloth out, you're likely fizzling out on consistent land drops. R/G landfall kind of relies on two and three drops, so it may be hard to run Oran-Rief Invoker and Valakut Invoker, but I have run them and they can sometimes also be the reach you need.
Playing against W/X lifegain is a difficult matchup for this deck because in addition to Fortified Rampart (which you mentioned), the incidental lifegain off of little things like Courier Griffin and Tandem Tactics really adds up. It seems like sometimes a R/G landfall deck can be literally one or two turns away and then fizzle. The lifegain available in white can buy the opponent those one or two turns to stabilize. I have done exactly that against R/G landfall a couple times in Battle for Zendikar. I sided in the Rampart to high effect in that deck as well.
0/1 Scions is a huge play actually, so I completely agree with Wombat's point about Nettle Drone. I had that very same situation pop up yesterday where my opponent had left scions up to block the drone and nothing else. All of a sudden, they can't block it well at all.
It is also quite good against many of the set's key evasive commons. With Shadow Glider, Courier Griffin, and Eldrazi Skyspawner running around, halving the damage you take from them as you assemble the engine is very nice for U/R Eldrazi in particular as you often have ground butts like Kozilek's Sentinel that gum up the ground while Nettle Drones sit back and kill them. When the aerial threat is halved, you have a lot more time.
I haven't had this particular matchup yet, but it might also do good things against R/G landfall. I've noticed that if you can survive the initial onslaught, R/G landfall tends to peter out. White can deal with this through incidental lifegain, but I think a turn four Dampening Pulse could also do the job potentially. It is far easier to block 2/3 Snapping Gnarlids and 2/2 Makindi Sliderunners than their 3/x counterparts.
This would have been much better if it pretty much matched Jeskai Sage. In ways, I don't see why they didn't do that. A 1/1 for two that replaces itself either upon entering (Elvish Visionary) or dying (Jeskai Sage, Sultai Emissary) is pretty par for the course at two mana and, as with the sage, can have some upside attached. Looting is a significant downgrade from straight up draw.
Blisterpod is a much better one drop and as far as things go and even Sludge Crawler is better for a deck that wants to go all-in with ingest-process.
I think there's a lot more support for the synergistic decks in this set and I think there's less poaching. Every deck I've faced and played with so far has synergy in this format has synergy. Last night I was playing U/W Skies with a minor lifegain theme and minor awaken theme. First round was a win against U/B processor... and the deck had all the synergy with a balance of ingest/process. Second match was another narrow win against a solid R/G landfall with all sorts of neat synergies like 2x Blighted Woodland, Swell of Growth, and even Natural Connection did well for him. Then, I got wrecked by U/R 2x Nettle Drone where the guy had only two colored spells that I saw the entire time and he had all the other cool stuff like Kozilek's Sentinel and Benthic Infiltrators running around everywhere.
So far, I like playing in a format where lots of decks have real synergies built into them. Games have been very fun. There are very few cards that are just unplayable trash. And, marginal synergy cards actually find their ways into decks and do well. There's just a lot more wheat than chaff all the way around in this set Also, the Vancouver Mulligan is excellent. So far, this is my favorite format since Innistrad.
If you go online, the lands stay in. I would say that's a pretty clear indication that they are supposed to stay with the pack. Perhaps with Zendikar paper drafts, taking whatever basic land you open would be a good idea to keep things fair. Every pack will have a basic land still, right?
I don't know. Puddle's first post seemed perfectly fine to me. I agree with the stuff that he said and I think it's helpful.
I also agree that Endless One always makes the cut. The only time you would essentially never want to play it is at X=1 (or 0 if you really want to be silly). At X= 2, it's reasonable. Anything past that and it is actively good.
Just make sure that you're ready to be able to part with the land though as well. It is still a land, but if you awaken something on turn 5 with Ondu Rising, it may come in with a large target attached to its back. I think that because of that, you might not want to run a bunch of Eldrazi alongside a lot of awaken cards, at least not while activating awaken a lot. I think that awaken cards are best thought of as curve toppers, and I think quite a few of them may do well in that role. In a way, getting an awaken dude killed (at least while the mana is still relevant) is some kind of virtual card disadvantage because you lose out on mana production.
All that said, I still think awaken seems very good. Caveats aside, there are going to be plenty of instances where you no longer need the land and it's fine to risk it getting blown up by removal. I don't think I'll want to awaken very often when I still need the land half of the card and don't want to risk the thing getting blown up.
I don't think it will be glacially slow. There are large outliers in the Eldrazi that are pushing that mean up quite a bit, but on the whole, I think you'll find that the speed will be relatively average. Allies looks very fast as does B/R devoid. The only fast deck KTK really had was Mardu warriors.
Battle for Zendikar has many quality two-drops, something it share in common with Origins. I could be wrong, but I think that when you take everything about the set into account, the overall speed will be normal. There are some fast builds available and some slow ones. It looks like a good format.
I don't think Spell Shrivel is very good, even if it is one of the most reliable ways, short of Benthic Infiltrator, to get some ingest going for your processors.
Side note: Does Windrider Patrol look like it's right out of Theros, or what?
I agree that Murasa Ranger is good in this deck because it really does want some reach. It does come at you like a freight train out of the gate, but it can slow down pretty significantly. So, the Ranger, Shatterskull Recruit, and/or Territorial Baloth are important to have on the high end. The one problem is that by the time you get Baloth out, you're likely fizzling out on consistent land drops. R/G landfall kind of relies on two and three drops, so it may be hard to run Oran-Rief Invoker and Valakut Invoker, but I have run them and they can sometimes also be the reach you need.
Playing against W/X lifegain is a difficult matchup for this deck because in addition to Fortified Rampart (which you mentioned), the incidental lifegain off of little things like Courier Griffin and Tandem Tactics really adds up. It seems like sometimes a R/G landfall deck can be literally one or two turns away and then fizzle. The lifegain available in white can buy the opponent those one or two turns to stabilize. I have done exactly that against R/G landfall a couple times in Battle for Zendikar. I sided in the Rampart to high effect in that deck as well.
It is also quite good against many of the set's key evasive commons. With Shadow Glider, Courier Griffin, and Eldrazi Skyspawner running around, halving the damage you take from them as you assemble the engine is very nice for U/R Eldrazi in particular as you often have ground butts like Kozilek's Sentinel that gum up the ground while Nettle Drones sit back and kill them. When the aerial threat is halved, you have a lot more time.
I haven't had this particular matchup yet, but it might also do good things against R/G landfall. I've noticed that if you can survive the initial onslaught, R/G landfall tends to peter out. White can deal with this through incidental lifegain, but I think a turn four Dampening Pulse could also do the job potentially. It is far easier to block 2/3 Snapping Gnarlids and 2/2 Makindi Sliderunners than their 3/x counterparts.
Blisterpod is a much better one drop and as far as things go and even Sludge Crawler is better for a deck that wants to go all-in with ingest-process.
So far, I like playing in a format where lots of decks have real synergies built into them. Games have been very fun. There are very few cards that are just unplayable trash. And, marginal synergy cards actually find their ways into decks and do well. There's just a lot more wheat than chaff all the way around in this set Also, the Vancouver Mulligan is excellent. So far, this is my favorite format since Innistrad.
Book Eating - U
Target player exiles the top four cards of his or her library.
That might have actually been reasonable for a dedicated processor deck.
I also agree that Endless One always makes the cut. The only time you would essentially never want to play it is at X=1 (or 0 if you really want to be silly). At X= 2, it's reasonable. Anything past that and it is actively good.
All that said, I still think awaken seems very good. Caveats aside, there are going to be plenty of instances where you no longer need the land and it's fine to risk it getting blown up by removal. I don't think I'll want to awaken very often when I still need the land half of the card and don't want to risk the thing getting blown up.
Battle for Zendikar has many quality two-drops, something it share in common with Origins. I could be wrong, but I think that when you take everything about the set into account, the overall speed will be normal. There are some fast builds available and some slow ones. It looks like a good format.