Drafted on modo today - insane, all bombs...out in the first round. Went to LGS afterwards and had a pretty sick 3-0 draft deck.
Been doing well lately. Had some decent finishes at GPs and ptqs but lately I've been on a pretty bad streak. I think that for the first time in a long time I misbuilt my sealed pool last weekend. I just hate the red cards so much in this format that I immediately dismissed red for being underpowered (which it was). What it did have, however, was a reasonable curve and a pseudo-bomb in ember swallower. It was like a bunch of mediocre cards but perhaps together they made a decent deck that I didn't see.
Otherwise, I've been doing pretty well. I have a very funny story from the Mexico City tournament that I'll throw out there at some point.
Today we mark the death of Jund's reign as lord of Modern. The loss of Deathrite it going to hit them hard and even now they have difficulty with fliers. How will they do when Bitterblossom Tokens are everywhere?
I think archetype of aggression is what you want here. Either it will go into an aggressive strategy, where three power for 3 mana is solid, or you'll end up in like a GR deck where the trample will be relevant. It's going to be good almost no matter what.
I don't like either of the removal options in this pack enough to take them over a pretty solid creature. It also doesn't hurt that red is considered to be a weaker color in general in theros - cutting red early sets up a pretty nice pack two and I don't think you're really going to miss any of these removal spells in your deck if you pass them.
I agree with you here. I'm not a fan of Voltron formats in general and making it hard to punish overcommitting just makes things worse. Plus, coming after MM and one of the best Core Set limited formats didn't help.
But anyway: in the opinions of everyone here, what was the most recent block where the second set improved the draft format?
I liked mirrodin besieged. It added a lot of cool things to the format.
Eh, I'm always skeptical, but I really was hoping for a shake-up here, not because I dislike Theros that much, but for the sake of freshness and innovation.
That's funny, because I was looking for a shakeup because I DO dislike theros that much
Well, it's not the worst, but I'm pretty sick of it. It probably doesn't help that I think I played 2 gps and 5 ptqs of the format in the span of two months.
In other news, I've been destroying the pauper queues because no one knows how to sideboard. Let's just say that mind rot effects are not good in a mirror match where all that matters is board presence.
I love this kind of thing! I have never been smart enough to work stuff like this out.
I don't know if you guys have ever played 4 Card Blind, but the local Legacy group ran some tournaments for it a little while ago on their website. The best I ever did was:
Yessss, this looks great, good luck! I've been playing a similar deck in Standard. Celestial Flare is my go-to for Blood Baron.
There is a GPT for GP Melbourne this weekend, both of which are Standard. I am still considering whether to go or not, as I don't even know if I'm going to the GP - and, if I do, I'll probably just play all the Eternal side-events.
GP Kuala Lumpur is next week. I wish I had prepared more, but I guess I know the format well enough. I'm going to draft a few times this weekend, maybe do a sealed if I can get enough people interested.
I think it's better to just assume you're either going to beat blood baron with brave the elements or just accept that it might beat you. It's not really the most widely played card and it's a sorcery speed five drop. I don't think you need to change your aggro deck with it specifically in mind. Every deck in standard is soft to something and if your deck's biggest weakness is a five drop, that's certainly acceptable -- they will be dead by then much of the time.
Am I the only one to be seriously impressed by the variety of decks being played in modern currently? I remember everyone saying that modern is just jund and affinity not so long ago, but the meta seems really healthy to me.
You're right - there is also jund without red and jund with white.
Was watching an M14 seminar on Youtube by Ben Stark and LSV. Stark said you should always play second even if you win the roll as it gives you an advantage throughout the game.
Wondering thoughts on this. He said basically unless you have lots of 1 and 2 drops that drawing is almost always better.
You might want to mention that they were talking specifically about sealed.
I used to draw in just about every draft format, but recently we've had a lot of formats with good, cheap aggressive creatures and without the solid early answers that let you reliably grind opponents out. I feel like I have to be on the play in Theros because there are few ways to recoup lost tempo, and the additional card isn't worth it when removal costs five mana. Scars of Mirrodin is the last block where I felt that drawing first was correct a majority of the time (close to 100% of the time, actually).
Sure, but I think core set sealed is a draw first environment which is what the video was really about.
Played against 5 Mistcutter decks out of 6 in Swiss matches today. With monoblue.
Reached the final.
Funny, the common complaint is for the Hydra to NEARLY go all the way, but the thing is it happens to often to simply be bad luck, right?
Well, I was the one who ended up with 42 packs. Not the extra bye for GP Paris though, ah well.
Yeah, I've been playing the deck for about a month or so now - mistcutter really isn't that good against it at all. I beat a guy at an SCG iq a couple of weeks ago whose board was double mistcutter double skylasher.
The real sideboard card we can't beat is anger of the gods. That card is just brutal to play against.
This is kind of true but misleading. A curve with two turn two plays is not ideal, but it's not necessarily an overwhelming problem in sealed, and it certainly doesn't mean you should definitely include cards like the two you mention, which will win you almost no free games ever. They do give you a better chance of surviving against an out-and-out aggro deck, but those decks are rare in sealed; better to sideboard than maindeck against them. The crucial thing is having plenty of stuff at three, because not doing anything before turn 4 is much more of a problem than nothing before turn 3.
It's also just untrue that six five-drops is inherently a big problem in a sealed deck. That's probably about the max you want at 5+ (and you definitely want 18 lands here), but it's not overwhelmingly top-heavy.
I agree. This is why you sideboard - if you play against a deck where a 1/3 would be good, you can always side it in. G1 in sealed a 1/3 is going to be irrelevant against almost everyone, though.
I recently got some advice from a Pro Tour player about Theros sealed. He said "play your curve". Meaning if you have a Bronze Sable, or a Battle Priest, you play them because you always play whatever curve you have in your pool, in your colors. He said that if you do that, you'll win a free game or two in a long tournament, but more importantly if you don't do that, you WILL lose a few games in a tournament due to bad draws.
You've got six 5 drop creatures. In a 5-9 round event, that will become a big problem.
Take out some of the 5 drops, add some curve, and let your pool be awesome. Don't beat yourself, in other words.
EDIT:
ALSO, Cavern Lampad is a MUST include. In Sealed, the Lampad straight up wins games. Intimidate is hugely valuable in Sealed.
No one has ever won a free game with a stessan battle priest in recorded history. Bronze sable is actually fine. It's basically equivalent to a bear in the format that happens to be able to block cavern lampad which is good. Battle priest is just stone unplayable. Your friend can talk all he wants - no one is getting free wins with 1/3s.
Alright, I'll admit that I like Gift of Immortality more than I should. I just see a lot of opportunity for amusing maneuvers with it in this deck. On Baleful Eidolon it shuts down the ground on turn 3; on Cavalry Pegasus it shuts down everything without trample on turn 3; on Gray Merchant it shuts down the ground with style.
But, all told, I'll grant that being amusing does not make a card optimal for a given deck. I like it, but this is not the hill I will choose to die upon.
Anyway, now that I've jabbered on about how easy this is to build, I guess I should actually put down what I'd actually do with it so everyone can tell me if I'm full of crap.
^ 95% of this was completely obvious, but the parts I'm slightly unsure about are:
Nothing happens until turn three. As long as you stick a Wingsteed, that's perfectly fine, but is it worth throwing Setessan Battle Priest in there as a backup plan?
Include Pharika's Cure? It's a great card, but it's also an early-game card, and we really want WW on the field, not BB.
Cavern Lampad? I feel like we'd rather play a 3-mana card than play this as a creature, and we'd rather play a 5-mana card than Bestow this, so I left it out.
There are so many double-mana symbols on these cards that I think 2 Traveler's Amulets is the correct choice. Others may disagree.
There's a lot going on at 5 mana. I think the ability to consistently land fliers justifies including both Celestial Archons and both Sentry of the Underworlds in addition to both Gray Merchants. Others may prefer to drop a Sentry.
I don't think the amulets make any sense in this build. I would just play 17 lands and include the pharika's cure and the sip somehow. Stessan battle priest is not remotely playable in sealed.
That takes a little more setting up, because drawing too many makes you lose.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you would still win the game if you had lab maniac out and cast this - regardless of how many cards are in your library. Once you get down to zero cards in your library, the maniac's replacement effect would kick in and you would win the game instead of losing it.
Drafted on modo today - insane, all bombs...out in the first round. Went to LGS afterwards and had a pretty sick 3-0 draft deck.
Been doing well lately. Had some decent finishes at GPs and ptqs but lately I've been on a pretty bad streak. I think that for the first time in a long time I misbuilt my sealed pool last weekend. I just hate the red cards so much in this format that I immediately dismissed red for being underpowered (which it was). What it did have, however, was a reasonable curve and a pseudo-bomb in ember swallower. It was like a bunch of mediocre cards but perhaps together they made a decent deck that I didn't see.
Otherwise, I've been doing pretty well. I have a very funny story from the Mexico City tournament that I'll throw out there at some point.
Their deck will play four bitterblossoms.
I don't like either of the removal options in this pack enough to take them over a pretty solid creature. It also doesn't hurt that red is considered to be a weaker color in general in theros - cutting red early sets up a pretty nice pack two and I don't think you're really going to miss any of these removal spells in your deck if you pass them.
I liked mirrodin besieged. It added a lot of cool things to the format.
That's funny, because I was looking for a shakeup because I DO dislike theros that much
Well, it's not the worst, but I'm pretty sick of it. It probably doesn't help that I think I played 2 gps and 5 ptqs of the format in the span of two months.
In other news, I've been destroying the pauper queues because no one knows how to sideboard. Let's just say that mind rot effects are not good in a mirror match where all that matters is board presence.
I think it's better to just assume you're either going to beat blood baron with brave the elements or just accept that it might beat you. It's not really the most widely played card and it's a sorcery speed five drop. I don't think you need to change your aggro deck with it specifically in mind. Every deck in standard is soft to something and if your deck's biggest weakness is a five drop, that's certainly acceptable -- they will be dead by then much of the time.
You're right - there is also jund without red and jund with white.
You might want to mention that they were talking specifically about sealed.
Sure, but I think core set sealed is a draw first environment which is what the video was really about.
Yeah, I've been playing the deck for about a month or so now - mistcutter really isn't that good against it at all. I beat a guy at an SCG iq a couple of weeks ago whose board was double mistcutter double skylasher.
The real sideboard card we can't beat is anger of the gods. That card is just brutal to play against.
I agree. This is why you sideboard - if you play against a deck where a 1/3 would be good, you can always side it in. G1 in sealed a 1/3 is going to be irrelevant against almost everyone, though.
No one has ever won a free game with a stessan battle priest in recorded history. Bronze sable is actually fine. It's basically equivalent to a bear in the format that happens to be able to block cavern lampad which is good. Battle priest is just stone unplayable. Your friend can talk all he wants - no one is getting free wins with 1/3s.
I don't think the amulets make any sense in this build. I would just play 17 lands and include the pharika's cure and the sip somehow. Stessan battle priest is not remotely playable in sealed.
I meant that they don't fire - not that I don't win them when they do
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you would still win the game if you had lab maniac out and cast this - regardless of how many cards are in your library. Once you get down to zero cards in your library, the maniac's replacement effect would kick in and you would win the game instead of losing it.