1) Phalanx Leader is my pick because it has the most impact on the board. Being able to put counters on many creatures at once has a huge board impact. Phalanx Leader is also a Human, which means Cavalry Pegasus can give him flying, also a W card.
2) Dauntless Onslaught is a good buff spell and can generate good blow outs as well as push through the final damage. I'm not keen on buff spells early because I would like to know what I'm casting them on first, rather than drafting a bunch of buffs with no creatures.
3) Purphoros's Emissary cost 7 to bestow and that is what I would like to be doing with it most of the time. A 3/3 for 4 that has to be blocked by 2 creatures is not going to be a 2 for 1 in most cases with the high toughness in Theros.
As with any strategy P1P1, you can get cut off based on what you are being passed. If you pick a card and are able to stay in the color, it doesn't matter what you passed down stream as you will cut off your color from those players. Even if the next two players somehow manage to stay in your color, you will cut them from 2 packs and they can only cut you on 1 pack.
I've been listening to Commander Cast for couple of years and the new management is starting to annoy me. It feels like the cast is circling the drain. Anyone have an recommendations on a Commander/EDH podcast? It needs to be on iTunes for convince.
- Devotion - typically B/x with Grey Merchant, but can be with the W 6 drop.
- Build a Beater - heroic and/or heavy use of bestow
- Draft a Beater - monstrous creatures and enough early spells or creatures to hold off a rush
- Minotaurs - self explanatory
- Weenie Rush - lots of low cost guys with heroic and combat tricks to get across the line before the opponent gets out their beef.
Cheap, instant speed, splashable removal, is currently not considered to be a good thing for limited. Removal has become more and more janky as the more recent sets have come out.
I generally look at rares using the following process:
1) Is it a card which is worth a fair amount of money?
2) Is it a bomb in a color I'm playing?
3) Is it a bomb in a color I can move in on easily?
4) Is it a bomb that I don't want to deal with if someone else gets it?
5) Is it a card that I want and there are no other cards in the pack which a significantly good for my deck?
6) Is it the best of what's in the pack?
- Build a bomb (mainly heroic creatures that get counters with some enchantments)
- Play a bomb (any monsterous creature)
- Heroic rush (GW, RW or RG)
- UG control (rest with bounce spells, remove enchantments and artifacts)
- Minatours
- Black devotion, maybe?
yep. not sure how you give black the worst removal, they already have the worst or near the worst creatures... i just dont get wtf this game is balanced around anymore
I think WotC is going or being pushed in the direction that the longer permanents remain on the table the more fun the game is. They also seem to want cards to take an equal amount of mana to remove them as it took to cast them.
Blue has had counterspells played with for years because WotC determined UU was too effective for a counterspell while the player base has determined 1UU is too costly. Counterspells also don't allow stuff to hit the table and people don't find it fun to have their critter countered, even though it may get blown up the following turn. Counters are the ultimate unfun mechanic for most players, particularly new players.
Black has an issue in that it has two unfun mechanics for the opposing player, discard and cheap creature removal. It appears that WotC has decided that just as with counterspells, they are going to mess with removal until they find a sweat spot. This has resulted in the removal being pretty poor in certain sets (Theros, AVR, M14 to some extent). Discard is also pretty hard to play, especially in limited.
WotC appears to be trying to find the nitch they want for black, while hampering it's removal. They added more bounce to blue, to make it more of a tempo color. It looks like life gain in general is going to be blacks new path. Black is becoming the grindy color, where it gains enough life to survive and uses evasion or direct damage to slowly grind down the opponent.
What is the best way to build a boros deck? Voltron, tokens, something else? I currently have a voltron build, but I'm not so sure that Boros wouldn't do better with a token build.
I think the card is very good. Deathtouch is not something to be taken lightly because it turns any crap creature into something an opponent will think twice about blocking. The counters will build up overtime to be useful and I would guess that there has to be some combo with recycling of cards. Sure 3 life and 2 damage to flyers are lack luster, but they not the key abilities I would be looking at for this item.
This format seems to be very much about building a monster. There is a fair amount of removal, yet it is typically sorcery speed and conditional. This means it is fairly easy to get the creatures out of removal range fairly quickly. Getting something to 5 toughness is fairly easy in this format, thus countering the majority of the removal.
I think this format is going to be about tricks and evasion. Direct damage and stat negative removal is best view as +X/+0 for a creature and if it removes something prior, good for it. Bounce is probably going to have the biggest chance to call a blow out.
Based on the pre-release it appears that their are 5 archetypes which are forming up for limited.
1) Monsters - Throw down enough removal, tempo plays and clutter to buy time until one can lay down some beef and then make it monstrous. Very little removal can hit anything over 4 toughness, even if it can, it also is mana intensive.
2) Voltron (build a monster) - Continually use cheap creatures with enchantments to build up a creature that keeps up pressure on your opponent. Use some evasion or removal to punch through the last bit of damage.
3) Heroic - Red and white creatures with heroic to kill the opponent before they can get out or assemble their monster. Enchantments or targeting abilities are used to activate heroic.
4) Scry - Cycle through the deck to find answers. Typically is going to have fair number of flyers.
5) Minotaurs - Draft all the Minotaurs and hope the opponent is dead before you run out of gas.
While this appears to be a good format because people will have viable deck alternatives, I think the format is ultimately going to come down to who gets the bomb. The heroic, scry and Minotaur cards are going to get split up with the build a monster and straight up monster decks, meaning it comes down to who has the biggest bomb or who can push damage though with evasion. Unlike RtR block, strategies are not forced by color selection and as such, you can end up with UW scry, heroic, monsters, which will cut off the RW heroic deck from some portion of it's cards. Therefore, I tend to agree the format will be boring.
I had 3 creatures who could become monstrous in my sealed pool and I literally just played stall until I could get enough mana to activate them and then killed my opponent in 2-3 turns. I went 3-2 with UR, loosing to Minotaurs and GW Heroic. I think both of those decks would be split up more in draft.
Biggest grown test for me in sealed
Turn 1 - Yoked Ox
Turn 2 - Ordeal of Heliod on Yoked Ox, swing for 1
Turn 3 - Bow of Nylea, swing for 2
Turn 4 - Counter on Ox, swing for 4 with a 4/8, anything I block with dies and he gains 10 life. Leaving me at 17, my opponent at 30, with one card 2 cards in my deck which can deal with the Ox.
Only thing worse would be Favored Hoplite (1/2, to 3/4, to 4/5 with +10 life)
The fundamental rule with signalling is that reading signals is more important than sending them. The simplest reason for this is that you get passed from a direction you can't influence in two packs (1 and 3), while you only get passed from the direction you can influence in one pack (2). I think it's generally accepted that you should only consider signals in the way that you outline in the OP if the power levels of the card are so close that you can't really separate them, and then you might use signalling as a tiebreaker. Also, another issue with trying to "force" a colour by sending a particular signal, is that people can be very sticky to a colour if they open a bomb in that colour so it's a risky strategy.
This man speaks the truth. I only care about what I am sending down stream for the purposes of seeing what wheels and later in the draft for cutting off a color when the picks are basically crap anyway. You should always care the most about what is being past to you in pack 1, what is wheeling and what your passing that is really good and likely to put a person in a color you may want to be in.
The problem with shifting quality removal to higher costs and higher rareites is that it really shafts black hard as a colour on its own. For instance, black was pretty much unplayable in M14 unless you pulled the 2xcorrupt, 2xdoom blade deck, which rarely happened, since the black creatures at common and uncommon were so weak compared to other colours. I have not drafted Theros yet obviously, but if the black creatures are again weak then the colour may take a back seat again. The main benefit to black as a colour in draft is premium cheap removal, and if you take that away then black just dies. It would be like giving green really bad creatures and blue no card draw/bounce.
I agree, though it looks like the are starting to print more lifelink and higher toughness creatures. We have seen 2/3 for 3 common creatures recently, which is basically unheard of for black. (1x M14, 1x Ice Age, 1x DMZ, 1x Theros, 1x RTR). They had 1 in all the sets prior to the most recent blocks and they have had 4 in the last 5 sets. Coincidence or have the decided with slower and less effective removal, black needs more toughness?
I think the current trend (more expensive, more limited) of removal is a bad thing. Here are the scenarios I see where it changes the game significantly:
1) Move from instant speed to sorcery speed. This makes enchantments easier to play but harder to remove. Trollhide is a prime example of a card that becomes much better with slower removal because it can be attached without fear of the creature getting nuked and then protects the creature from getting nuked later on. Red and Black are basically boned unless they can set the board up to get in multiple killing blows in one turn. Sorcery speed also means combat is much more straight forward, with combat tricks being the only worry.
2) Higher mana cost for kill everything removal lends to situations where control becomes less viable because the removal can't come online until your dead against fast decks. It also means that the removal is competing with high cost cards, meaning the game gets drawn out while removal is used one turn and the creature is cast the next turn. This also means that slower decks need to run sub-par creatures and said creatures have to be designed to encourage stall, rather than trading.
3) Add the two above together and you end up in more bomb rare blow outs because there is less ability to interact. It also sets up scenarios where the player wins consistently when his bomb hits the field and then looses terribly when the bomb doesn't show up, make the deck in total much more inconsistent.
4) I also think putting so much emphasis on bombs and less on removal causes scenarios where people open off color rares and then change their drafting style because they now need to run said rare. This causes a chain reaction around the table, causing decks to start become more random and less playable. This seems to be much more common in M14 than it was in RtR block drafts.
5) Lastly, I think the overall publishing of more "janky" removal makes the transition to constructed formats much more steep. When your used to playing limited where enchantments and bombs win the game, your going to have a rude awaking when you transition to limited where removal is extremely common. Just as sweepers are fairly rare in limited, premium removal is becoming that way and the same "shock" can happen when the player starts in constructed and keep something on the board.
It appears to me the WotC has determined the low cost, instant speed removal is bad for the game in the same way counterspells are bad. They seem to take the stance that is unfun to have your creature nuked immediately after playing it, just like it is unfun to have your creature counterspelled. My guess is they want the player to be able to play fairly unmolested in limited, while still leaving enough instant speed tricks and removal to keep more experienced players content.
The Gods in Theros will cause a lot of people to get bent out of shape in limited which could be avoided with a reprint of Path to Exile, Condemn or Return to Dust.
2) Dauntless Onslaught is a good buff spell and can generate good blow outs as well as push through the final damage. I'm not keen on buff spells early because I would like to know what I'm casting them on first, rather than drafting a bunch of buffs with no creatures.
3) Purphoros's Emissary cost 7 to bestow and that is what I would like to be doing with it most of the time. A 3/3 for 4 that has to be blocked by 2 creatures is not going to be a 2 for 1 in most cases with the high toughness in Theros.
As with any strategy P1P1, you can get cut off based on what you are being passed. If you pick a card and are able to stay in the color, it doesn't matter what you passed down stream as you will cut off your color from those players. Even if the next two players somehow manage to stay in your color, you will cut them from 2 packs and they can only cut you on 1 pack.
- Devotion - typically B/x with Grey Merchant, but can be with the W 6 drop.
- Build a Beater - heroic and/or heavy use of bestow
- Draft a Beater - monstrous creatures and enough early spells or creatures to hold off a rush
- Minotaurs - self explanatory
- Weenie Rush - lots of low cost guys with heroic and combat tricks to get across the line before the opponent gets out their beef.
1) Is it a card which is worth a fair amount of money?
2) Is it a bomb in a color I'm playing?
3) Is it a bomb in a color I can move in on easily?
4) Is it a bomb that I don't want to deal with if someone else gets it?
5) Is it a card that I want and there are no other cards in the pack which a significantly good for my deck?
6) Is it the best of what's in the pack?
- Build a bomb (mainly heroic creatures that get counters with some enchantments)
- Play a bomb (any monsterous creature)
- Heroic rush (GW, RW or RG)
- UG control (rest with bounce spells, remove enchantments and artifacts)
- Minatours
- Black devotion, maybe?
Blue has had counterspells played with for years because WotC determined UU was too effective for a counterspell while the player base has determined 1UU is too costly. Counterspells also don't allow stuff to hit the table and people don't find it fun to have their critter countered, even though it may get blown up the following turn. Counters are the ultimate unfun mechanic for most players, particularly new players.
Black has an issue in that it has two unfun mechanics for the opposing player, discard and cheap creature removal. It appears that WotC has decided that just as with counterspells, they are going to mess with removal until they find a sweat spot. This has resulted in the removal being pretty poor in certain sets (Theros, AVR, M14 to some extent). Discard is also pretty hard to play, especially in limited.
WotC appears to be trying to find the nitch they want for black, while hampering it's removal. They added more bounce to blue, to make it more of a tempo color. It looks like life gain in general is going to be blacks new path. Black is becoming the grindy color, where it gains enough life to survive and uses evasion or direct damage to slowly grind down the opponent.
I think this format is going to be about tricks and evasion. Direct damage and stat negative removal is best view as +X/+0 for a creature and if it removes something prior, good for it. Bounce is probably going to have the biggest chance to call a blow out.
- Ember Swallower - Best rare in my pool for limited
- Firedrinker Satyr - Complete and utter crap for limited
- Meletis Charlatan - Doesn't work well in limited, used once all day
- Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx - Doesn't work well in limited, especially when play UR with a fair number of instants and sorceries.
- Psychic Intrusion - Off color and not all that good in limited
- Sylvan Caryatid - Off color
Two cards worth some money and only two cards I can run in my deck.1) Monsters - Throw down enough removal, tempo plays and clutter to buy time until one can lay down some beef and then make it monstrous. Very little removal can hit anything over 4 toughness, even if it can, it also is mana intensive.
2) Voltron (build a monster) - Continually use cheap creatures with enchantments to build up a creature that keeps up pressure on your opponent. Use some evasion or removal to punch through the last bit of damage.
3) Heroic - Red and white creatures with heroic to kill the opponent before they can get out or assemble their monster. Enchantments or targeting abilities are used to activate heroic.
4) Scry - Cycle through the deck to find answers. Typically is going to have fair number of flyers.
5) Minotaurs - Draft all the Minotaurs and hope the opponent is dead before you run out of gas.
While this appears to be a good format because people will have viable deck alternatives, I think the format is ultimately going to come down to who gets the bomb. The heroic, scry and Minotaur cards are going to get split up with the build a monster and straight up monster decks, meaning it comes down to who has the biggest bomb or who can push damage though with evasion. Unlike RtR block, strategies are not forced by color selection and as such, you can end up with UW scry, heroic, monsters, which will cut off the RW heroic deck from some portion of it's cards. Therefore, I tend to agree the format will be boring.
I had 3 creatures who could become monstrous in my sealed pool and I literally just played stall until I could get enough mana to activate them and then killed my opponent in 2-3 turns. I went 3-2 with UR, loosing to Minotaurs and GW Heroic. I think both of those decks would be split up more in draft.
Biggest grown test for me in sealed
Turn 1 - Yoked Ox
Turn 2 - Ordeal of Heliod on Yoked Ox, swing for 1
Turn 3 - Bow of Nylea, swing for 2
Turn 4 - Counter on Ox, swing for 4 with a 4/8, anything I block with dies and he gains 10 life. Leaving me at 17, my opponent at 30, with one card 2 cards in my deck which can deal with the Ox.
Only thing worse would be Favored Hoplite (1/2, to 3/4, to 4/5 with +10 life)
This man speaks the truth. I only care about what I am sending down stream for the purposes of seeing what wheels and later in the draft for cutting off a color when the picks are basically crap anyway. You should always care the most about what is being past to you in pack 1, what is wheeling and what your passing that is really good and likely to put a person in a color you may want to be in.
I agree, though it looks like the are starting to print more lifelink and higher toughness creatures. We have seen 2/3 for 3 common creatures recently, which is basically unheard of for black. (1x M14, 1x Ice Age, 1x DMZ, 1x Theros, 1x RTR). They had 1 in all the sets prior to the most recent blocks and they have had 4 in the last 5 sets. Coincidence or have the decided with slower and less effective removal, black needs more toughness?
1) Move from instant speed to sorcery speed. This makes enchantments easier to play but harder to remove. Trollhide is a prime example of a card that becomes much better with slower removal because it can be attached without fear of the creature getting nuked and then protects the creature from getting nuked later on. Red and Black are basically boned unless they can set the board up to get in multiple killing blows in one turn. Sorcery speed also means combat is much more straight forward, with combat tricks being the only worry.
2) Higher mana cost for kill everything removal lends to situations where control becomes less viable because the removal can't come online until your dead against fast decks. It also means that the removal is competing with high cost cards, meaning the game gets drawn out while removal is used one turn and the creature is cast the next turn. This also means that slower decks need to run sub-par creatures and said creatures have to be designed to encourage stall, rather than trading.
3) Add the two above together and you end up in more bomb rare blow outs because there is less ability to interact. It also sets up scenarios where the player wins consistently when his bomb hits the field and then looses terribly when the bomb doesn't show up, make the deck in total much more inconsistent.
4) I also think putting so much emphasis on bombs and less on removal causes scenarios where people open off color rares and then change their drafting style because they now need to run said rare. This causes a chain reaction around the table, causing decks to start become more random and less playable. This seems to be much more common in M14 than it was in RtR block drafts.
5) Lastly, I think the overall publishing of more "janky" removal makes the transition to constructed formats much more steep. When your used to playing limited where enchantments and bombs win the game, your going to have a rude awaking when you transition to limited where removal is extremely common. Just as sweepers are fairly rare in limited, premium removal is becoming that way and the same "shock" can happen when the player starts in constructed and keep something on the board.
It appears to me the WotC has determined the low cost, instant speed removal is bad for the game in the same way counterspells are bad. They seem to take the stance that is unfun to have your creature nuked immediately after playing it, just like it is unfun to have your creature counterspelled. My guess is they want the player to be able to play fairly unmolested in limited, while still leaving enough instant speed tricks and removal to keep more experienced players content.
The Gods in Theros will cause a lot of people to get bent out of shape in limited which could be avoided with a reprint of Path to Exile, Condemn or Return to Dust.