3 heroic, 5 bestow, 8 potential auras, 5 removal, 2 mana of any color producers + 1 land dig
4 blue cards, all with 1 colored mana cost only, all cards you want to play mid-to-later in the game.
One of the few times I'd advocate splashing a third color.
I'm awful at doing this without having the physical cards in front of me to visualize and pile up, but here's a gander at 2 fun decks I see:
I think UG ramp is a trap. Kiora is so tempting, but you don't have the big green/blue fatties (other than colossus) to really close out the game or the early green mana fixers (Satyrs) to get there or the card-advantage inspired guys to exploit with Kiora's untapper. A few blue auras + green Heroic seems good. But just seems like something is lacking. Feels like that's not enough for a solid midrange deck.
Meanwhile, you have synergy for GR aggro. Cerebrus + pumps is strong. Staunch/Battlemaster + pumps/Time to Feed is strong. Cerebrus + Thunderous is LOL (4/2 double strike yes please). Decent 2-drops to curve out: 2 3/2s and 1 2/3. What I like most is the multiples, giving you a consistent base. Aggro thrives off consistency and curve. Only 1 Time to Feed main because 3-mana sorcery speed and because you don't have that much fat and will often "lose" the fight. I'd keep second in sideboard, test out swapping it in for one of the crappier creatures depending on the matchup. If not for the 2 copies of the 3/2 for 2 and the two Heroic guys, RW looks tempting with very nice 2-drops, removal and the best aggro Archetype.
Lands may need to be the other way around. I'm too lazy to visualize all the mana costs on a computer.
The other fun deck I'd be tempted to build is UB control. You have multiple sources of reach, some good removal, a few big butts to block, Mnemonic Walls for card advantage. But I'd want 1 or 2 more solid finishers. Feels like you'd need to splash green for Kiora or something to really fill out the deck.
You get a number of regenerators and defenders to hold the fort. You get removal, some deathtouch+regenerate shenanigans, and Mnemonic Wall+removal/divination shenanigans. You get reach through direct life drain, unblockable and flying. You have 2 things to enable EOT tap for profit and 3 inspired creatures that give you good profit for doing so. You can board in the two 1-mana removals against aggro if you are getting rushed out.
With green splash, I'd add Kiora + Snake of the Golden Grove + Staunch-Hearted Warrior, maybe board in Time to Feeds if I needed more removal in some matchups. Sadly there's no mana fixing in your pool
What did you end up building? How'd you do with it?
Your bigger problem though sounds like it was one of deck building. You say you played an aggro deck, but that it wasn't very consistent and you couldn't kill in the first few turns. That's not an aggro deck at all.
This. Aggro beats slow decks by swarming. If you don't have the pool to consistently swarm, maybe your pool is better as something other than aggro?
Aggro can also handle the fatty by pumping your own guy to smash through it on offense. Black has +2/+0 and Regenerate for B. Red has +2/+0 and first strike for 1R. Green has a couple flash Auras (+2/+2 and +3/+1 bestow). There's also tons of Bestow to grow your guys. With all that, a pump spell should let your attacker either 1-for-1 a fatty or scare the opponent from blocking at let you beat through for profit.
Red and Green were sold out at my store, I went blue and played red in 4 of my 5 rounds. The Sphinx never won me a game (and I had Heliod so it would never tap), but by the same token I saw a lot of the dragon and never lost a game to it.
Fair point. I found blue decks pretty good at keeping Dragon from attacking for profit. I may not have actually beat a blue deck with it directly, but often would swarm them with other dorks while they were preoccupied with repeatedly bouncing/Griptiding/removing it and double Giant. Overall, the result was profit. But I doubt Dragon+durdle.dec would win as much.
IMO the format, like most Limited, was more defined by commons and uncommons than the promos. I was just arguing the red dragon was better than the other durdly fatties. A fatty should at least threaten to win if you untap with it, otherwise seems underpowered.
Did anyone in blue have trouble with the green promo?
In the two rounds I lost at the prerelease, the hydra came down 4/4 games. I opened Asphyxiate and Necrobite as the only way to kill it, and my black for my pool was:
It felt impossible to race in the air against green's efficient ground beaters. What are blue's ways of winning against this sort of thing? Efficient bounce spells that let you crowd the field without losing tempo? I opened 0 Helix, 0 Voyage's end, 0 Griptide. I guess I could have voltron'd something bigger than 6/6, but that never happened in any of my games.
Sigh!
In UR, whenever I saw it, I just bounced it, Sleeped it or swarmed through it. I always paid the tribute and didn't care. Vanilla fat is vanilla fat. In a more defensive blue deck, Refraction Trap and Griptide handle it very well. Luck is also an element. You may have answers but just never see them.
How you answer it depends on your deck. In general, UR tempo can race green easily. Any other U/x mix should probably be control or midrange. Thus, you don't race green aggro. You play defensive roadblocks (0/6 wall, 1/4s and 2/4s, fatties), bounce and hard removal. Then you don't have to match their damage output. You can't. You just play a controlling game and squeeze through a few flying/unblockable damage per turn.
That's in general. With your pool, you have a couple big butts to clog up the ground and you can grind with the 3/3 inspired+intimidate and the 2/2 flyer, with Grey Merchant for finishing reach. Meanwhile, double Necrobite or Asphyxiate makes quick work of the 12/12 vanilla and you can use blue stall until then. Did you have no bounce or countermagic or other deathtouch? What was the rest of your pool like? Was UB really the best option?
In UR I had harder times against +X/+X bestows (the black and white ones) since you can't 2-for-1 them and have to deal with essentially TWO fatties from one card. Stupid Bestow. But green and white have great options for artifacts/enchantments and blue has Annul.
Went 6-0-1 for 1st with R/U tempo, red seeded pack. Took home more than a box.
Opinions on Promo-Rares:
Red promo was definitely the best. Sphinx was overrated. People went:
TX: Sphinx
TX+1: attack for 5 or tap it some convoluted way
TX+2: brick on an instant or get a free land. attack for 5.
With Red dragon I consistently went:
TX: Dragon
TX+1: Win the game.
Might just be me, but I like winning more than durdling for free stuff.
3 out of the top 4 decks at our prerelease were red-based (Rw aggro and Rg midrange). Dragon was strong for all of them.
White and Black ones were the worst. Too expensive and abilities were way too conditional to be useful in games with adequate pressure. Green seemed decent overall but I never minded playing against it. I found tribute underwhelming in general. Like Browbeat, a smart opponent will always give you the worse of the two options... and the difference between the two can be pretty big. Every time opponent cast a spell with tribute, the choice I made basically nullified the card (e.g. paid tribute, untapped and killed it; or let the ability go off when it did nothing useful). In the right deck I could see the green promo being really strong, but without evasion or trample on its own my friends all found it pretty easy to play around.
Added the 18th land (41st card) after I lost a game in round 3 due to manascrew and realized I had enough scry and monstrous to not have to worry about land flooding.
Five 2-drops and six 3-drops curved out smoothly and consistently. Removal/tempo spells with scry helped get attacks through and really improved my draw quality. A little flying. Top of the curve (Stoneshock, Dragon, Sudden Storm, Nimbus Naiad) are all nice finishers that keep pushing attacks through when opponent starts playing fat. Didn't have any splashy bombs but just rode speed and consistency FTW. Sudden Storm was amazing, wow. Instant-speed Sleep with easier mana cost and scry!
MVPs were Two-Headed Cerebrus + Nimbus Naiad (6 power flying), Flamespeaker Adept + Stormcaller (1U: repeatable +2/+0+scry 1.. so broken), and Rise to the Challenge+everything. Honorable mention to Dragon. Every time I resolved it I won, either from its ability or from taking the opponent's best removal spell and winning with something else later.
IMO Phenax is by the far the most degenerate card in the format. 2/4 of my game losses were an opponent dropping turn 5 Phenax + 2 high-toughness blockers, stopping my attacks and putting me on a 2 turn clock: EOT mill for 8-10, EOT mill for 8-10, untap mill 8-10 again = game over. Not only is it broken in this format but it's also just an abysmal matchup for an aggressive deck. Made me wish I had white for Revoke Existence.
Another loss was against early Xenagos + RG beaters. Seemed strong too, but Phenax was scarier.
EDIT: I noticed someone on the last page also went 6-0 with UR tempo. IMO this is a very strong archetype in a format where too many people are trying to play durdly 3-color good stuff.
Abhorrent Overlord sucks. Good job not playing him.
But Aqueous Form + Heroic seems amazing...
Nyxborn Wolf gets a lot better when you can stick it on flyers or creatures with Aqueous Form...
Creatures: 16
1 Tormented Hero
1 Satyr Wayfinder
1 Leafcrown Dryad
1 Nyxborn Eidolon
2 Nyxborn Wolf
2 Blood-Toll Harpy
1 Thassa's Emissary
1 Setessan Starbreaker
1 Reaper of the Wilds
1 Staunch-Hearted Warrior
1 Perplexing Chimera
1 Centaur Battlemaster
1 Pharika's Mender
1 Keepsake Gorgon
2 Aqueous Form
1 Karametra's Favor
1 Nylea's Presence
1 Crypsis
1 Asphyxiate
1 Hero's Downfall
Lands: 17
3 Island
7 Forest
7 Swamp
Curve
1 css
2 cccsss
3 ccccss
4 cccc
5 cccc
3 heroic, 5 bestow, 8 potential auras, 5 removal, 2 mana of any color producers + 1 land dig
4 blue cards, all with 1 colored mana cost only, all cards you want to play mid-to-later in the game.
One of the few times I'd advocate splashing a third color.
I'm awful at doing this without having the physical cards in front of me to visualize and pile up, but here's a gander at 2 fun decks I see:
I think UG ramp is a trap. Kiora is so tempting, but you don't have the big green/blue fatties (other than colossus) to really close out the game or the early green mana fixers (Satyrs) to get there or the card-advantage inspired guys to exploit with Kiora's untapper. A few blue auras + green Heroic seems good. But just seems like something is lacking. Feels like that's not enough for a solid midrange deck.
Meanwhile, you have synergy for GR aggro. Cerebrus + pumps is strong. Staunch/Battlemaster + pumps/Time to Feed is strong. Cerebrus + Thunderous is LOL (4/2 double strike yes please). Decent 2-drops to curve out: 2 3/2s and 1 2/3. What I like most is the multiples, giving you a consistent base. Aggro thrives off consistency and curve. Only 1 Time to Feed main because 3-mana sorcery speed and because you don't have that much fat and will often "lose" the fight. I'd keep second in sideboard, test out swapping it in for one of the crappier creatures depending on the matchup. If not for the 2 copies of the 3/2 for 2 and the two Heroic guys, RW looks tempting with very nice 2-drops, removal and the best aggro Archetype.
creatures: 16
2 Bronze Sable
2 Swordwise Centaur
1 Deathbellow Raider
1 Minotaur Skullcleaver
1 Satyr Nyx-Smith
3 Two-Headed Cerebrus
1 Noble Quarry
1 Staunch-Hearted Warrior
1 Purphoros's Emissary
1 Centaur Battlemaster
1 Wild Celebrants
1 Thunder Brute
1 Coordinated Assault
1 Rise to the Challenge
1 Savage Surge
1 Fall of the Hammer
1 Thunderous Might
1 Time to Feed
1 Bolt of Keranos
9 Forest
8 Mountain
Curve:
1 s
2 cccccssss
3 ccccccss
4 cc
5 cc
6 c
Lands may need to be the other way around. I'm too lazy to visualize all the mana costs on a computer.
The other fun deck I'd be tempted to build is UB control. You have multiple sources of reach, some good removal, a few big butts to block, Mnemonic Walls for card advantage. But I'd want 1 or 2 more solid finishers. Feels like you'd need to splash green for Kiora or something to really fill out the deck.
Creatures: 15
1 Asphodel Wanderer
1 Baleful Eidolon
1 Servant of Tymaret
1 Nighthowler
1 Pillar of War
1 Siren of the Silent Song
1 Nyxborn Triton
1 Breaching Hippocamp
1 Thassa's Emissary
1 Chorus of the Tides
2 Mnemonic Wall
1 Keepsake Gorgon
1 Archetype of Imagination
1 Colossus of Akros
1 Aqueous Form
1 Witches' Eye
1 Claim of Erebos
1 Divination
1 Asphyxiate
1 Gild
1 Sip of Hemlock
Lands: 18
9 Island
9 Swamp
1 Eye Gouge
1 Viper's Kiss
1 Crypsis
1 Flamecast Wheel
1 Island
1 Swamp
Curve:
1 css
2 cs
3 cccccss
4 cccs
5 ccc
6 cs
8 c
You get a number of regenerators and defenders to hold the fort. You get removal, some deathtouch+regenerate shenanigans, and Mnemonic Wall+removal/divination shenanigans. You get reach through direct life drain, unblockable and flying. You have 2 things to enable EOT tap for profit and 3 inspired creatures that give you good profit for doing so. You can board in the two 1-mana removals against aggro if you are getting rushed out.
With green splash, I'd add Kiora + Snake of the Golden Grove + Staunch-Hearted Warrior, maybe board in Time to Feeds if I needed more removal in some matchups. Sadly there's no mana fixing in your pool
What did you end up building? How'd you do with it?
EDIT: Curve added as Magic Merl did
This. Aggro beats slow decks by swarming. If you don't have the pool to consistently swarm, maybe your pool is better as something other than aggro?
Aggro can also handle the fatty by pumping your own guy to smash through it on offense. Black has +2/+0 and Regenerate for B. Red has +2/+0 and first strike for 1R. Green has a couple flash Auras (+2/+2 and +3/+1 bestow). There's also tons of Bestow to grow your guys. With all that, a pump spell should let your attacker either 1-for-1 a fatty or scare the opponent from blocking at let you beat through for profit.
Fair point. I found blue decks pretty good at keeping Dragon from attacking for profit. I may not have actually beat a blue deck with it directly, but often would swarm them with other dorks while they were preoccupied with repeatedly bouncing/Griptiding/removing it and double Giant. Overall, the result was profit. But I doubt Dragon+durdle.dec would win as much.
IMO the format, like most Limited, was more defined by commons and uncommons than the promos. I was just arguing the red dragon was better than the other durdly fatties. A fatty should at least threaten to win if you untap with it, otherwise seems underpowered.
In UR, whenever I saw it, I just bounced it, Sleeped it or swarmed through it. I always paid the tribute and didn't care. Vanilla fat is vanilla fat. In a more defensive blue deck, Refraction Trap and Griptide handle it very well. Luck is also an element. You may have answers but just never see them.
How you answer it depends on your deck. In general, UR tempo can race green easily. Any other U/x mix should probably be control or midrange. Thus, you don't race green aggro. You play defensive roadblocks (0/6 wall, 1/4s and 2/4s, fatties), bounce and hard removal. Then you don't have to match their damage output. You can't. You just play a controlling game and squeeze through a few flying/unblockable damage per turn.
That's in general. With your pool, you have a couple big butts to clog up the ground and you can grind with the 3/3 inspired+intimidate and the 2/2 flyer, with Grey Merchant for finishing reach. Meanwhile, double Necrobite or Asphyxiate makes quick work of the 12/12 vanilla and you can use blue stall until then. Did you have no bounce or countermagic or other deathtouch? What was the rest of your pool like? Was UB really the best option?
In UR I had harder times against +X/+X bestows (the black and white ones) since you can't 2-for-1 them and have to deal with essentially TWO fatties from one card. Stupid Bestow. But green and white have great options for artifacts/enchantments and blue has Annul.
Opinions on Promo-Rares:
Red promo was definitely the best. Sphinx was overrated. People went:
TX: Sphinx
TX+1: attack for 5 or tap it some convoluted way
TX+2: brick on an instant or get a free land. attack for 5.
With Red dragon I consistently went:
TX: Dragon
TX+1: Win the game.
Might just be me, but I like winning more than durdling for free stuff.
3 out of the top 4 decks at our prerelease were red-based (Rw aggro and Rg midrange). Dragon was strong for all of them.
White and Black ones were the worst. Too expensive and abilities were way too conditional to be useful in games with adequate pressure. Green seemed decent overall but I never minded playing against it. I found tribute underwhelming in general. Like Browbeat, a smart opponent will always give you the worse of the two options... and the difference between the two can be pretty big. Every time opponent cast a spell with tribute, the choice I made basically nullified the card (e.g. paid tribute, untapped and killed it; or let the ability go off when it did nothing useful). In the right deck I could see the green promo being really strong, but without evasion or trample on its own my friends all found it pretty easy to play around.
My deck
My seeded pack had Fated Conflagration. Loved it. But my other rares were: Astral Cornucopia, Temple of Enlightenment, Abhorrent Overlord, Temple of Triumph, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. Yes, four of my rares just tapped for mana. Wow.
Luckily, I had a pretty good pool of commons and was able to build this:
1 Portent of Betrayal
1 Fated Conflagration
1 Sudden Storm
1 Bolt of Keranos
2 Rise to the Challenge
1 Voyage's End
Creatures
1 Forgestoker Dragon
2 Stoneshock Giant
1 Borderland Minotaur
1 Ill-Tempered Cyclops
1 Two-Headed Cerebrus
1 Stormcaller of Keranos
1 Minotaur Skullcleaver
1 Flamespeaker Adept
2 Nimbus Naiad
1 Deathbellow Raider
1 Deepwater Hypnotist
1 Vaporkin
1 Reckless Reveler
1 Satyr Rambler
1 Temple of Triumph
1 Temple of Enlightenment
9 Mountain
7 Island
1 Gainsay
1 Benthic Titan
1 Scouring Sands
1 Annul
Added the 18th land (41st card) after I lost a game in round 3 due to manascrew and realized I had enough scry and monstrous to not have to worry about land flooding.
Five 2-drops and six 3-drops curved out smoothly and consistently. Removal/tempo spells with scry helped get attacks through and really improved my draw quality. A little flying. Top of the curve (Stoneshock, Dragon, Sudden Storm, Nimbus Naiad) are all nice finishers that keep pushing attacks through when opponent starts playing fat. Didn't have any splashy bombs but just rode speed and consistency FTW. Sudden Storm was amazing, wow. Instant-speed Sleep with easier mana cost and scry!
MVPs were Two-Headed Cerebrus + Nimbus Naiad (6 power flying), Flamespeaker Adept + Stormcaller (1U: repeatable +2/+0+scry 1.. so broken), and Rise to the Challenge+everything. Honorable mention to Dragon. Every time I resolved it I won, either from its ability or from taking the opponent's best removal spell and winning with something else later.
IMO Phenax is by the far the most degenerate card in the format. 2/4 of my game losses were an opponent dropping turn 5 Phenax + 2 high-toughness blockers, stopping my attacks and putting me on a 2 turn clock: EOT mill for 8-10, EOT mill for 8-10, untap mill 8-10 again = game over. Not only is it broken in this format but it's also just an abysmal matchup for an aggressive deck. Made me wish I had white for Revoke Existence.
Another loss was against early Xenagos + RG beaters. Seemed strong too, but Phenax was scarier.
EDIT: I noticed someone on the last page also went 6-0 with UR tempo. IMO this is a very strong archetype in a format where too many people are trying to play durdly 3-color good stuff.