Wow, I'm still wrecking it with this deck. I placed in both events I played over the weekend. I've currently placed in 7 out of 8 events since I've started to pilot this deck. Let me know if you have any questions to particular matchups.
@Soulgix, Draek -- Yes, the original list doesn't have any mb removal. Over the weeks, I've altered the deck and now I mb 2 dspheres and 2 verdicts. My local meta has been rampant with g/w aggro/midrange so this change was needed.
But, the deck is still fine without running any mb removal. The deck is packed with so much value that you will most likely be ahead on board state or at least setting up to get there. I do agree that olivia is quite problematic but you should ALWAYS have your angel available to deal with her especially since CA is way more in your favor for this matchup. I think the jund/grixis matchup is only difficult because of slaughter games. That card can destroy this deck.
Yah, I completely agree that it is much more of a midrange deck. In my previous post, I was expressing how burial rites just adds much more value and resiliency to the deck but in the end, the deck hardcasts much more than it reanimates hence the need for 4 caverns. Also the reason why I now run 2 Mulch. Not to mention you run at least 6-8 ramp cards in the deck. Exactly why I love the deck, because of its versatility and lets not forget about the amazing sideboard options.
I've played the mirror with the angel shenanigans and it hurts my head. I bring in memory's journey and a dsphere to help break the loop. Shaman does a ton of work here also especially against the red rites. You may even consider 1 selesnya charm since it can be used in a variety of matchups including the mirror.
Feeling of dread sounds like an excellent idea. I'm going to try 2 in my sb tomorrow.
I'm also considering 1 mb verdict with the amount of aggro that I saw on monday and going to move 1 behemoth to mb and have one more in sb. There were several board states where if i had a behemoth the game would have just ended and the fact he can win you games out of nowhere. I think a 3-1 split with aos sounds like a good idea and just bring in the second for any matchups against thrag.
I placed again last night. I came in 4th with 40+ showing up. Unfortunately this LGS doesn't cut to top 8 which means to get placed for prizes, you need to either be 3-0 or 2-0-1. Only 3 rounds are played.
I made one slight change and went with 3 healers and 2 shamans mb instead of the other way around.
Round 1 vs Jund (aggro?/midrange?)
G1: He wheeled out a hellhole flailer into desecration demon. I had lingering souls to keep the demon at bay for a few turns. I then proceeded to do some thrag/resto shenanigans until I cleared the way with angel of serenity.
+2 Supreme Verdict
-2 Deathrite Shaman
G2: It was pretty much the same story except I ended the game quicker with reanimating AoS.
1-0
Round 2 vs Jund Aggro
G1: He mulled to 3 and I mulled to 5 which was also pretty bad. He was able to get 4 lands down but didn't have any threats. I played a resto and deathrite that eventually got there.
I didn't see much except grisly salvage so I assumed it was red frites.
G2: He had an extremely explosive start going t2 ash zealot, t3 flinthoof boar, t4 ash zealot. Clearly, it wasn't rites. I was able to hold off the zealots with a healer. I was at 10 but I felt I had to put another body on the board so I flashed rites for thrag even though I lost one life. This allowed me to stall out more turns to forbidden alchemy into AoS. It got dreadbore but I was able to dig for a second AoS to seal the game.
2-0
Finals vs GW Aggro
G1: He curves out into a few dorks while I play lingering souls to keep them at bay. I get a thrag on board while he continues to advance his board state dropping smiter and thalia. This guy is notorious for slow playing so it was very frustrating and I was tempted to call the judge but it was a monday night and I didn't want to give off bad vibes since it was only game 1.
He eventually drops a wolfir silverheart and also has that dude that makes creatures fight so I knew I was in a lot of trouble. My only out was AoS or a black source because I had rites in my hand with AoS in the gy. Actually I could've ended this game several turns ago but I couldn't draw a black source for my life or a mulch or a farseek :(.
I do have two tokens to stall out a turn with two restos in my hand. Instead of flashing back trackers instincts to dig, I wanted to play resto to get another body on the board but that was a mistake because I completely forgot about the dude that fights creatures. The next turn I dig and there was AoS but he had lethal next turn...I was very annoyed because I also knew we didn't have much time because of his slowplay.
G2: I had a verdict in my opening hand so I knew I was in the driver seat. He had a slower start with no dorks but curved out thalia into smiter into silverblade. My healer held them off until i dropped verdict and the expression on his face was priceless. It caught him off guard completely. He only had 3 land so I proceeded to bash his face in with thrag. I also had AoS in hand as backup. He was playing noticeably faster after the verdict, lol. Anyways, he scooped.
G3: Long story short, he had complete control of this game but we went to time with him representing lethal a turn to late, LOL. We draw and I have a big smile on my face. All I'm thinking is karma is a b****.
Anyways, g/w matchup isn't too bad. I should've had G1 if I had just a black source or if I didn't make the bonehead move of not digging for my angel.
I ended up 2-0-1 at 4th place so I can't complain.
@airgaps: The dispel does seem a bit interesting. I'd rather just answer their sphinx with my own. I run one in my sb. I am however considering one mb and having one more in the sb. I've also considered a dissipate in my sb. The double blue however is a bit awkward.
I wouldn't test any other non colored lands since I run 4 caverns which I think you should. But since you're short on the caverns, refuge seems interesting although its pretty useless G1. You could do some tricks but by that time, you'll have enough mana to hardcast everything, assuming you have a cavern, with no fear.
Greetings everyone. I wanted to chime on this deck as I have been piloting it for several weeks now and have had an enormous amount of success. I attend at least 4 live events per week between 2 LGS which on average get at least 30 players per event. It's extremely competitive so you go through a gauntlet of top tier decks to place.
With that being said, the list I run is slightly different as I made changes the more I played with it.
Lingering Souls: Value, value, value. This card is just too good not to play. It buys you extra turns against aggro decks.. They can also prove to be a threat if not dealt with. And obviously the flashback giving you the ability to play it from gy if it gets milled.
Mulch: I added this card because the deck plays a lot like a ramp deck so this card has been extremely good for me. It also allows you to dig for your cavern which can be critical in several matchups.
In my opinion, the deck isn't really a rites deck but more ramp with 7-8 ramp cards MD as well as Tracker's Instincts which forces you to take a creature card while getting the needed protection from caverns. I hardcast much more than I rites in a lot of the matches.
Unburial rites just give the deck extreme value, resiliency and the nuts.
The sideboard options are also ridiculous in the current meta giving you access to some of the strongest cards in the format like verdict, sphere and revelation.
I was never a big rites player and was much more control but this list really caught my attention because of it's versatility, Caverns and access to Blue for the cards mentioned above.
This deck completely blows out u/w flash and uwr midrange, with the exception of a wheeled out GoST which can be tough. It also has good matchups against midrange.
The harder matchups are humans, zombies and rdw. But these were already tough for the rites matchup, hence the inclusion of lingering souls. But hey, you get to board in 4 verdicts, which can be a complete blowout for your opponent.
The toughest matchup is any control deck running terminus but since that card has been on the decline, rites has been extremely strong right now. My buddy brewed a U/W miracle deck that I just couldn't beat. It was very hard but no one really plays that list so I'm ok with it.
If you have any questions, please post them. And anyone thinking of trying this deck, give it a test flight, you won't be disappointed.
@Gammy: It's extremely critical to run 4 Caverns. This deck relies on this card heavily for several matchups because you hardcast a lot and the fixing is just added bonus. The deck can sometimes be very slow so you want to make sure you land your threats late in the game especially against decks that run counterspells.
You forget to mention Doorkeeper which I actually prefer over the Weird to clog the ground because its much easier to cast, unless you are going straight UR which in my opinion isn't nearly good for tempo as UW.
I splash r simply for explosive impact most of the time unless you open up a dragon. I've won many games finishing with impact.
This is an incredible pool. I'd definitely build UWr. You have solid 2 drops to clog the ground with solid fliers and more than enough tempo. I'd splash red for Explosive Impact and Niv for finishing. I'm a huge fan of drafting this archetype.
I definitely wouldn't do Jund. Removal is only good if you have a very strong curve which this pool seriously lacks.
Pack Rat is the most broken card in limited. On the play, if it isn't dealt with, its an auto-win.
And referring to the question up top, you should never keep a 1 land hand regardless of what your holding including rats and if your on the draw. You need to rip two lands to get it going and even if you drop it on t2, it makes it that much more vulnerable if you don't get that 3rd land. It's a ridiculous bomb but don't get caught up in it. The one time I did hold onto a 1 hand land with rats and I got railed.
RtR boring? I think not. Format is ridiculously fun given the variety of archetypes you can build. I've won with everything from tempo, control, aggro and even milling. This set has brought serious life back to drafting after the horrid avacyn and m13 formats. Not to mention the amount of money you can open.
Rare drafting just adds another layer of challenge to the game in my opinion.
Rare-Drafting is completely broken. It can't work because like you mentioned, you have to force losers to stay the entirety of the event and who knows if ppl swap rares for crappier rares in their stash.
It's kind of weird that ppl are even annoyed about money-drafting. That's the best part of the set. anyways, it works both ways, ppl cripple themselves by money-drafting. And who says you can't still make a powerful deck without bombs, ie rakdos aggro...which I believe is the strongest archetype in drafting.
I was very excited for the first drafts after release especially after the ridiculous debacle of sealed with guild pacts. Thank god that's away and done with.
I'll post my decklists later if anyone wants to see them. I did relatively well, won FNM (3-0) (evolving wilds promo looks so dope!) and then went 2-1 on Saturday draft.
FNM had 25 people and it's a lot more casual than the normal place I go. And from what I heard, there were close to a 100 ppl for that other FNM. The exact reason why I skipped out on it for the first weekend.
I made a primer for the pre-release and if you remember that, I avidly proclaimed my infatuation with U/W tempo so that's the direction I went with the FNM draft except I went more with a Bant-Midrange/Control (U/W/G) deck with a few flyers, good tempo, and fat beats with sphinx and vitu.
General cards I had were a couple 3cmc fliers, the flying wall, songbirds for bodies, couple trostani's, tempo cards (charm, rescue), couple 5/4 beaters, token makers (courser's accord), 3 voidwielders and my bombs sphinx along with vitu ghazi. The general idea was to stall/control early game with my tempo cards and bodies until my bombs dropped then tempo out any flyers with my voidwielders/trostani's late game for the kill with sphinx or overwhelm with vitu.
I had 6 fixers which was vital since I wasn't splashing and going very heavy bant. 2 vines, 3 gates and 1 promenade. I wish I had one axebane to ramp for sphinx, but never saw one unfortunately. Needless to say, no issues at all with mana. I was able to cast everything without topdecking land which was sick for such a heavy tri-color deck with greedy creatures.
A significant moment I had was in p1p2 (p1p1 was sphinx), I had a decision to make between vitu ghazi and augur spree. The stronger card is the guildmage but also b/c it plays with sphinx. However, after the weekend of drafting, augur spree "may" have been the better choice to force rakdos which seems like a very strong plan especially since there was no signal really with both those cards available. Anyways, I fully committed to bant in p2 and midway through, it was clear rakdos was wide open passing a couple assassin's strikes, burn and more rakdos durdles.
Match 1 (2-0):
I played against a u/w tempo deck with no flyers and no splashing. He was a kid that was doing his 2nd live draft so I felt kind of bad.
G1, vitu hit the board on t4 and it was unanswered. The game was over once I got a token online.
G2, he really didn't do much except kept downsizing my attackers and stalling turns. I eventually got there.
I took a look at his deck and it was clear he didn't know what he was doing. He had zero flyers which is a major problem for this archeytpe because he had no way to reach me. Also no bombs and just tempo cards with no removal. I felt kind of bad so I helped him rebuild his deck but he drafted nothing of significance.
Match 2 (2-0):
I played against selesnya with black splash for vraska which I never saw. He was a judge so this time I knew it would be a different story.
G1, he curved out very well on the play with t2 brushstrider into t3 centaur. I was able to stall them out however with my flying wall (which was amazing the whole event) and eventually got to my sphinx. He also got stuck at 4 mana with vraska in hand. He would prob have taken G1 if vraska hit the field, thank god she didn't.
G2, he curved out well again with same play from G1 and he got me down to 7. I did stabilize and eventually landed my sphinx. He was able to remove it with trostani's but I got in two swings before to get him to 10. I dropped a tower drake and started pressuring again. He drew an answer, the 2/2 flying recursion creature that goes to top of deck. However, I had 2 voidwielders in hand with the faerie :). I tempo out his one blocker for several turns and sailed my drake to victory, the last several turns were awesome.
Match 3 (2-1):
In the finals, he had a midrange jund (B/G/r) with fantastic beats/bombs, desecrating demon and deadbridge goliath with explosive impact.
G1, I curve out very well with t2 vine, into t3 flyer on the play. I drop another flyer on t4 and he started out slow so I was really putting on the pressure. HOWEVER, on his t4, bam, he drops desecrating demon and my sudden awesome looking start doesn't look so awesome. Talk about a complete momentum shift. With no answers in hand, I was praying for an answer and it was m'fn answered. The TOPDECK of the NIGHT, I draw right into selesnya charm on my t5, kill the demon, and ride my flyers to victory. That was really an amazing first 5 turns with some insane momentum shifts so early. Lots of adrenaline pumping at this point.
G2, he curves out well with durdles but I was able to stall and stabilize without him getting in to much dmg. However, he dropped two of those lifelink bats that kept pecking at me for 4 point swings. I had no answers since I didn't draw any flyers and he eventually got me to 3. I did however land sphinx to stablize the air. I had a pretty substantial ground force with several centaur tokens and the 5/4 beater.
I did however make a crucial mistake. He had 3 flyers, the 2/2 recursion guy and 2 bats so I had to keep my sphinx back. I should've alpha striked that turn b/c he had lethal since I completely forgot about his rogue's passage. instead I just attacked enough to get him down to 9 giving me lethal next turn. I didn't calculate the dmg but I had a charm for trample in my hand and now that I look over it, I might have gotten there. Anyways, I learn from mistakes and won't ever forget about rogue's passage again, lol.
G3 was a bit underwhelming. He had a slow start and I curve out well with flyers with a very strong hand with a couple tempo cards and removal to back up my flyers. He couldn't draw any answers so I sailed them to victory for 1st place.
Wow, this summary went a lot longer than I expected. My 2nd draft was much more competitive since I went to the "hardcore" LGS. I'll get into that some other time as well as some general deckbuilding strategies.
On a side note, I treated myself on sunday and found a store with one korean rtr booster box. I bought that and a regular one. Good lord, my korean box was an absolute gold mine. Pulled Jace, 3 shocks, 2 detention spheres (1 foil), 2 supreme verdicts, angel of serenity, 2 rifts, 2 captains, 2 shamans, lotleth troll, abrupt decay, rakdos, trostani, isperia, jarad and thats just what I remember. ..the other box felt like crap after pulling all that.
Last night we had a RTR draft and I was drafting Selesnya, and I found out the guy to the left of me took Temple Garden and Armada Wurm. Someone else, who wasn't in GW, took Trostani. I'm just like, ugh. I could have done better than 2-1 if I got those cards. The people who rare drafted didn't do so well.
You're absolutely delusional if you think anyone will be passing shocklands, armada wurm or trostani. The guy that kept the wurm and garden just bought him into the next 2/3 drafts even if he did poorly. They're also used in standard decks. Don't expect anyone to pass those opportunties up.
And for the record, you and I both know you'd draft those money cards even if they aren't going in your deck.
Obviously bombs will still be first picks...but after that, anything can be possible...i think BREAD will be hard to follow. i see many cases where fixers will be higher picks than some of the crappy removal like avenging arrow and launch party as one example.
2-color drafting will be viable but with all the fixing and multicolored cards, 3-color just seems better and will probably be easier to draft. You also get to draft from a larger pool especially when p3 comes around.
@Soulgix, Draek -- Yes, the original list doesn't have any mb removal. Over the weeks, I've altered the deck and now I mb 2 dspheres and 2 verdicts. My local meta has been rampant with g/w aggro/midrange so this change was needed.
But, the deck is still fine without running any mb removal. The deck is packed with so much value that you will most likely be ahead on board state or at least setting up to get there. I do agree that olivia is quite problematic but you should ALWAYS have your angel available to deal with her especially since CA is way more in your favor for this matchup. I think the jund/grixis matchup is only difficult because of slaughter games. That card can destroy this deck.
I've played the mirror with the angel shenanigans and it hurts my head. I bring in memory's journey and a dsphere to help break the loop. Shaman does a ton of work here also especially against the red rites. You may even consider 1 selesnya charm since it can be used in a variety of matchups including the mirror.
Nice job on the 3-1.
I'm also considering 1 mb verdict with the amount of aggro that I saw on monday and going to move 1 behemoth to mb and have one more in sb. There were several board states where if i had a behemoth the game would have just ended and the fact he can win you games out of nowhere. I think a 3-1 split with aos sounds like a good idea and just bring in the second for any matchups against thrag.
Good luck with the daily.
I made one slight change and went with 3 healers and 2 shamans mb instead of the other way around.
Round 1 vs Jund (aggro?/midrange?)
G1: He wheeled out a hellhole flailer into desecration demon. I had lingering souls to keep the demon at bay for a few turns. I then proceeded to do some thrag/resto shenanigans until I cleared the way with angel of serenity.
+2 Supreme Verdict
-2 Deathrite Shaman
G2: It was pretty much the same story except I ended the game quicker with reanimating AoS.
1-0
Round 2 vs Jund Aggro
G1: He mulled to 3 and I mulled to 5 which was also pretty bad. He was able to get 4 lands down but didn't have any threats. I played a resto and deathrite that eventually got there.
I didn't see much except grisly salvage so I assumed it was red frites.
+2 Deathrite Shaman
+1 Memory's Journey
+1 Craterhoof
-1 Centaur Healer
-2 Mulch
-1 Restoration Angel
G2: He had an extremely explosive start going t2 ash zealot, t3 flinthoof boar, t4 ash zealot. Clearly, it wasn't rites. I was able to hold off the zealots with a healer. I was at 10 but I felt I had to put another body on the board so I flashed rites for thrag even though I lost one life. This allowed me to stall out more turns to forbidden alchemy into AoS. It got dreadbore but I was able to dig for a second AoS to seal the game.
2-0
Finals vs GW Aggro
G1: He curves out into a few dorks while I play lingering souls to keep them at bay. I get a thrag on board while he continues to advance his board state dropping smiter and thalia. This guy is notorious for slow playing so it was very frustrating and I was tempted to call the judge but it was a monday night and I didn't want to give off bad vibes since it was only game 1.
He eventually drops a wolfir silverheart and also has that dude that makes creatures fight so I knew I was in a lot of trouble. My only out was AoS or a black source because I had rites in my hand with AoS in the gy. Actually I could've ended this game several turns ago but I couldn't draw a black source for my life or a mulch or a farseek :(.
I do have two tokens to stall out a turn with two restos in my hand. Instead of flashing back trackers instincts to dig, I wanted to play resto to get another body on the board but that was a mistake because I completely forgot about the dude that fights creatures. The next turn I dig and there was AoS but he had lethal next turn...I was very annoyed because I also knew we didn't have much time because of his slowplay.
+4 Supreme Verdict
-2 Deathrite
-1 Restoration
-1 Tracker's Instincts
G2: I had a verdict in my opening hand so I knew I was in the driver seat. He had a slower start with no dorks but curved out thalia into smiter into silverblade. My healer held them off until i dropped verdict and the expression on his face was priceless. It caught him off guard completely. He only had 3 land so I proceeded to bash his face in with thrag. I also had AoS in hand as backup. He was playing noticeably faster after the verdict, lol. Anyways, he scooped.
G3: Long story short, he had complete control of this game but we went to time with him representing lethal a turn to late, LOL. We draw and I have a big smile on my face. All I'm thinking is karma is a b****.
Anyways, g/w matchup isn't too bad. I should've had G1 if I had just a black source or if I didn't make the bonehead move of not digging for my angel.
I ended up 2-0-1 at 4th place so I can't complain.
I wouldn't test any other non colored lands since I run 4 caverns which I think you should. But since you're short on the caverns, refuge seems interesting although its pretty useless G1. You could do some tricks but by that time, you'll have enough mana to hardcast everything, assuming you have a cavern, with no fear.
With that being said, the list I run is slightly different as I made changes the more I played with it.
-2 Centaur Healer
-1 Deathrite Shaman
-1 Tracker's Instincts
-1 Island
+2 Lingering Souls
+2 Mulch
+1 Overgrown Tomb
Sideboard:
2 Centaur Healer
1 Deathrite Shaman
2 Detention Sphere
1 Oblivion Ring
4 Supreme Verdict
1 Ray of Revelation
1 Memory's Journey
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Sigarda
Reasons to changes in MB:
Lingering Souls: Value, value, value. This card is just too good not to play. It buys you extra turns against aggro decks.. They can also prove to be a threat if not dealt with. And obviously the flashback giving you the ability to play it from gy if it gets milled.
Mulch: I added this card because the deck plays a lot like a ramp deck so this card has been extremely good for me. It also allows you to dig for your cavern which can be critical in several matchups.
In my opinion, the deck isn't really a rites deck but more ramp with 7-8 ramp cards MD as well as Tracker's Instincts which forces you to take a creature card while getting the needed protection from caverns. I hardcast much more than I rites in a lot of the matches.
Unburial rites just give the deck extreme value, resiliency and the nuts.
The sideboard options are also ridiculous in the current meta giving you access to some of the strongest cards in the format like verdict, sphere and revelation.
I was never a big rites player and was much more control but this list really caught my attention because of it's versatility, Caverns and access to Blue for the cards mentioned above.
This deck completely blows out u/w flash and uwr midrange, with the exception of a wheeled out GoST which can be tough. It also has good matchups against midrange.
The harder matchups are humans, zombies and rdw. But these were already tough for the rites matchup, hence the inclusion of lingering souls. But hey, you get to board in 4 verdicts, which can be a complete blowout for your opponent.
The toughest matchup is any control deck running terminus but since that card has been on the decline, rites has been extremely strong right now. My buddy brewed a U/W miracle deck that I just couldn't beat. It was very hard but no one really plays that list so I'm ok with it.
If you have any questions, please post them. And anyone thinking of trying this deck, give it a test flight, you won't be disappointed.
@Gammy: It's extremely critical to run 4 Caverns. This deck relies on this card heavily for several matchups because you hardcast a lot and the fixing is just added bonus. The deck can sometimes be very slow so you want to make sure you land your threats late in the game especially against decks that run counterspells.
You forget to mention Doorkeeper which I actually prefer over the Weird to clog the ground because its much easier to cast, unless you are going straight UR which in my opinion isn't nearly good for tempo as UW.
I splash r simply for explosive impact most of the time unless you open up a dragon. I've won many games finishing with impact.
I definitely wouldn't do Jund. Removal is only good if you have a very strong curve which this pool seriously lacks.
And referring to the question up top, you should never keep a 1 land hand regardless of what your holding including rats and if your on the draw. You need to rip two lands to get it going and even if you drop it on t2, it makes it that much more vulnerable if you don't get that 3rd land. It's a ridiculous bomb but don't get caught up in it. The one time I did hold onto a 1 hand land with rats and I got railed.
Rare-Drafting is completely broken. It can't work because like you mentioned, you have to force losers to stay the entirety of the event and who knows if ppl swap rares for crappier rares in their stash.
It's kind of weird that ppl are even annoyed about money-drafting. That's the best part of the set. anyways, it works both ways, ppl cripple themselves by money-drafting. And who says you can't still make a powerful deck without bombs, ie rakdos aggro...which I believe is the strongest archetype in drafting.
I'll post my decklists later if anyone wants to see them. I did relatively well, won FNM (3-0) (evolving wilds promo looks so dope!) and then went 2-1 on Saturday draft.
FNM had 25 people and it's a lot more casual than the normal place I go. And from what I heard, there were close to a 100 ppl for that other FNM. The exact reason why I skipped out on it for the first weekend.
I made a primer for the pre-release and if you remember that, I avidly proclaimed my infatuation with U/W tempo so that's the direction I went with the FNM draft except I went more with a Bant-Midrange/Control (U/W/G) deck with a few flyers, good tempo, and fat beats with sphinx and vitu.
General cards I had were a couple 3cmc fliers, the flying wall, songbirds for bodies, couple trostani's, tempo cards (charm, rescue), couple 5/4 beaters, token makers (courser's accord), 3 voidwielders and my bombs sphinx along with vitu ghazi. The general idea was to stall/control early game with my tempo cards and bodies until my bombs dropped then tempo out any flyers with my voidwielders/trostani's late game for the kill with sphinx or overwhelm with vitu.
I had 6 fixers which was vital since I wasn't splashing and going very heavy bant. 2 vines, 3 gates and 1 promenade. I wish I had one axebane to ramp for sphinx, but never saw one unfortunately. Needless to say, no issues at all with mana. I was able to cast everything without topdecking land which was sick for such a heavy tri-color deck with greedy creatures.
A significant moment I had was in p1p2 (p1p1 was sphinx), I had a decision to make between vitu ghazi and augur spree. The stronger card is the guildmage but also b/c it plays with sphinx. However, after the weekend of drafting, augur spree "may" have been the better choice to force rakdos which seems like a very strong plan especially since there was no signal really with both those cards available. Anyways, I fully committed to bant in p2 and midway through, it was clear rakdos was wide open passing a couple assassin's strikes, burn and more rakdos durdles.
Match 1 (2-0):
I played against a u/w tempo deck with no flyers and no splashing. He was a kid that was doing his 2nd live draft so I felt kind of bad.
G1, vitu hit the board on t4 and it was unanswered. The game was over once I got a token online.
G2, he really didn't do much except kept downsizing my attackers and stalling turns. I eventually got there.
I took a look at his deck and it was clear he didn't know what he was doing. He had zero flyers which is a major problem for this archeytpe because he had no way to reach me. Also no bombs and just tempo cards with no removal. I felt kind of bad so I helped him rebuild his deck but he drafted nothing of significance.
Match 2 (2-0):
I played against selesnya with black splash for vraska which I never saw. He was a judge so this time I knew it would be a different story.
G1, he curved out very well on the play with t2 brushstrider into t3 centaur. I was able to stall them out however with my flying wall (which was amazing the whole event) and eventually got to my sphinx. He also got stuck at 4 mana with vraska in hand. He would prob have taken G1 if vraska hit the field, thank god she didn't.
G2, he curved out well again with same play from G1 and he got me down to 7. I did stabilize and eventually landed my sphinx. He was able to remove it with trostani's but I got in two swings before to get him to 10. I dropped a tower drake and started pressuring again. He drew an answer, the 2/2 flying recursion creature that goes to top of deck. However, I had 2 voidwielders in hand with the faerie :). I tempo out his one blocker for several turns and sailed my drake to victory, the last several turns were awesome.
Match 3 (2-1):
In the finals, he had a midrange jund (B/G/r) with fantastic beats/bombs, desecrating demon and deadbridge goliath with explosive impact.
G1, I curve out very well with t2 vine, into t3 flyer on the play. I drop another flyer on t4 and he started out slow so I was really putting on the pressure. HOWEVER, on his t4, bam, he drops desecrating demon and my sudden awesome looking start doesn't look so awesome. Talk about a complete momentum shift. With no answers in hand, I was praying for an answer and it was m'fn answered. The TOPDECK of the NIGHT, I draw right into selesnya charm on my t5, kill the demon, and ride my flyers to victory. That was really an amazing first 5 turns with some insane momentum shifts so early. Lots of adrenaline pumping at this point.
G2, he curves out well with durdles but I was able to stall and stabilize without him getting in to much dmg. However, he dropped two of those lifelink bats that kept pecking at me for 4 point swings. I had no answers since I didn't draw any flyers and he eventually got me to 3. I did however land sphinx to stablize the air. I had a pretty substantial ground force with several centaur tokens and the 5/4 beater.
I did however make a crucial mistake. He had 3 flyers, the 2/2 recursion guy and 2 bats so I had to keep my sphinx back. I should've alpha striked that turn b/c he had lethal since I completely forgot about his rogue's passage. instead I just attacked enough to get him down to 9 giving me lethal next turn. I didn't calculate the dmg but I had a charm for trample in my hand and now that I look over it, I might have gotten there. Anyways, I learn from mistakes and won't ever forget about rogue's passage again, lol.
G3 was a bit underwhelming. He had a slow start and I curve out well with flyers with a very strong hand with a couple tempo cards and removal to back up my flyers. He couldn't draw any answers so I sailed them to victory for 1st place.
Wow, this summary went a lot longer than I expected. My 2nd draft was much more competitive since I went to the "hardcore" LGS. I'll get into that some other time as well as some general deckbuilding strategies.
On a side note, I treated myself on sunday and found a store with one korean rtr booster box. I bought that and a regular one. Good lord, my korean box was an absolute gold mine. Pulled Jace, 3 shocks, 2 detention spheres (1 foil), 2 supreme verdicts, angel of serenity, 2 rifts, 2 captains, 2 shamans, lotleth troll, abrupt decay, rakdos, trostani, isperia, jarad and thats just what I remember. ..the other box felt like crap after pulling all that.
You're absolutely delusional if you think anyone will be passing shocklands, armada wurm or trostani. The guy that kept the wurm and garden just bought him into the next 2/3 drafts even if he did poorly. They're also used in standard decks. Don't expect anyone to pass those opportunties up.
And for the record, you and I both know you'd draft those money cards even if they aren't going in your deck.
2-color drafting will be viable but with all the fixing and multicolored cards, 3-color just seems better and will probably be easier to draft. You also get to draft from a larger pool especially when p3 comes around.