Hedron Crabs and fetch lands are great ways to mill someone out quick. The new two mana Clone could make a nice follow up play to turn 1 Crab, though you would want some more creatures to make sure it isn't dead half the time. Jace Beleren is a good fit, since he makes sure hands are nice and full for the Archivist and will usually die before you want to cast Memory Adept (and if he doesn't die, you get to mill for the win!).
Another direction would be Shriekhorn, with ways to add/reset counters and Trinket Mages to find them. Phyrexian Metamorph could be Shriekhorns 5-8.
None of these strategies are likely to race an aggressive deck, though =(
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- BradWoj
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Black removal does not match up well against these decks at all. It's better against the G/x ramp decks, though still not game breaking. Generally you're only going to use monstrosity if you don't have any other plays or it's winning the game, so getting a mana advantage out of Sip of Hemlocking a Nessian Asp doesn't really matter. I don't think Sip or Lash of the Whip should be first picks in most packs, and in fact I try to actively avoid black.
If you aren't drafting heroic, you need Voyage's End, Griptide, Lightning Strike, or Magma Jet to have any shot at beating heroic. If you can take out their first heroic guy before he gets out of hand you can usually buy enough time to make a game out of it. Otherwise, you're stuck counting on the black Eidolon or the green Scorpion to try to trade up - and those guys get beat by Wingsteed Rider, Favored Hoplite + anything, first strike, etc.
If you are green or black, and not going for an aggressive heroic deck, you need to pair with either blue or red to have access to the good burn and bounce, or you don't really stand a chance.
I'm only about 10 drafts in so far, but that's my 2 cents.
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The white Emissary is a solid playable, but again, not very exciting. The bestow is too expensive to count on it in a heroic-based aggro deck, so most of the time you're looking at a Hill Giant with a decent ability. Meh.
I might be wrong about Marauder, but a sometimes-falter + 2 damage doesn't scream first pick to me. Meh.
I like Cavern Lampad a lot, I think the bestow guys that grant evasion are far better than those that don't, even if you have to a pay a little more for it. That said, I don't think it's better than the Hydra.
I'm excited to play with Read the Bones, and I suspect it might end up being the best card in this pack. Card advantage looks to be more important in this set than most. It's still just a Divination with a bonus, though. I don't have the cajones to take it over the big green monster.
The Centaur, Minotaur, Snarecaster, Unicorn, Scholar, and Seamonster are all varying degrees of playable, but not my pick.
The use of 'f' instead of 's' always confuses me.
Back on topic, Punifh the Enemy
35+ drafts in, and this is exactly my experience. I've lost to every guild just about equally, but the Boros nuts draw is more frustrating than the others. You just feel like you aren't playing Magic in those games, but more often than not, it's a result of your own decisions.
If you're a slow deck, you need to have a plan for the nuts Boros and Gruul decks when you're drafting, building, and making mulligan decisions. If you can kill (via removal or trading) the first few creatures these decks play, you are heavily favored to win. Playing Gutter Skulk and other normally sub-par cheap creatures over more powerful but clunkier cards like Syndicate Enforcer has gone a long way towards improving my win percentage in these games.
Also, getting greedy with your mana base is more likely to get you killed in this format, since stumbling on a color for a turn or two can be the difference between stabilizing and getting run over. If you're Esper control (my favorite archetype), you need to take fixing reasonably highly, and don't get too crazy with your double-colored spells.
I'll let Semantics' puns do the embarassing for me
My MODO usernames are M20021988 and BradWoj, I'm on most nights if anyone wants to chat/play.
I'm interesting in joining this clan, if you'll have me. I've been playing limited since Mercadian Masques, and the only thing I love more than drafting is talking about drafting.
I'm also friends with Semantics in real life, but please don't hold it against me.
Here's a nifty trick I just discovered: right now on MTGO, there's a bug where you can cipher onto Nightveil Specter and cast the ciphered spell at any time, as many times as you'd like. Get your infinite Hands of Bindings now, while supplies last.
Ooze Flux is deceptive because it is such a game breaker in some situations. The first two times I saw it in play it completely turned around games that it's controller had no business winning.
The problem is that situation doesn't come up often enough. How many evolve creatures do you need to run a four mana enchantment that doesn't effect the board until you spend two more mana, and then still is completely useless unless you have a couple guys with +1/+1 counters along with it? Is five enough? What if you only draw one or two of the five, and your opponent has removal?
Once we get to the 7-10 evolve creature territory, Ooze Flux starts getting good, but the best evolve guys get taken pretty highly by Gruul (Crocanura, Experiment One) and Dimir (Cloudfin Raptor, Simic Flux Mage).
Additionally, I've come to find that the best Simic decks don't need or want a ton of evolve. I'll take Frilled Oculus and Drakewing Krasis over Shambleshark every time, for example.
The likelihood of getting both Ooze Flux and enough guys to make it work is actually pretty low. I've drafted it three times, twice I cut it because I had less than 5 interactions, and once I played it and I got ran over by Boros in the first round. A small sample size, but observing how the format plays out, it seems representative of the card's limitations.
I'd certainly take the Knight here, but simply because it's the better card. Going back-to-back on removal is not only acceptable, but highly recommended.
This deck reminds me of the Alara days when people would curve out Wild Nacatl into Rip-Clan Crasher into Woolly Thoctar with no fixing, while my sturdy two-color deck would mulligan to five and still not hit it's second color. I'm surprised the mana held up for 5 rounds, but congrats
All that was to say that I think the Aberration is an excellent finisher in an Esper control deck, and I would take him over Gift.
My immediate reaction was to disagree - Suntail Hawks aren't traditionally the best limited cards ever. But now that I'm thinking about it, being able to load up an unblockable guy with a bunch of Bloodrush to close out a game, or just being able to stop a Daring Wojek from attacking for a couple turns might be just enough utility to make him worth it.
That said, I think saying never to cut him is a little strong.