I haven't had much time for drafting lately, but I did one this Sunday, and it turned out quite interesting and informative, at least for me. First off, the draft:
Pack 1 pick 2: Ephemeral Shields Gravedigger Miner's Bane Verdant Haven Oreskos Swiftclaw Fugitive Wizard Mind Rot Satyr Wayfinder Rotfeaster Maggot Back to Nature Seraph of the Masses --> Illusory Angel Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient Island
Pack 1 pick 3: Miner's Bane Kinsbaile Skirmisher Foundry Street Denizen Ranger's Guile Marked by Honor --> Welkin Tern Eternal Thirst Invasive Species Carrion Crow Shrapnel Blast Circle of Flame Shield of the Avatar Swamp
Pack 1 pick 14: Meditation Puzzle --> Staff of the Wild Magus
Pack 1 pick 15: --> Forest
------ M15 ------
Pack 2 pick 1: --> Lightning Strike Raise the Alarm Coral Barrier Wall of Fire Verdant Haven Marked by Honor Research Assistant Eternal Thirst Netcaster Spider Festergloom Staff of the Death Magus Constricting Sliver Quickling The Chain Veil Forest
Pack 2 pick 2: Raise the Alarm --> Nimbus of the Isles Hammerhand Oppressive Rays Undergrowth Scavenger Sign in Blood Necrobite Sanctified Charge Mind Sculpt Flesh to Dust Dauntless River Marshal Rogue's Gloves Yisan, the Wanderer Bard Swamp
Pack 2 pick 3: Invisibility Goblin Roughrider Divine Favor Statute of Denial Rotfeaster Maggot Hunter's Ambush Bronze Sable Negate --> Turn to Frog Staff of the Flame Magus Warden of the Beyond Yavimaya Coast Mountain
Pack 2 pick 4: Heliod's Pilgrim Amphin Pathmage --> Inferno Fist Vineweft Festergloom Negate Covenant of Blood Blastfire Bolt Hunter's Ambush Wall of Mulch Into the Void Mountain
Pack 2 pick 5: Tireless Missionaries Undergrowth Scavenger Witch's Familiar Will-Forged Golem Chronostutter Necrobite Restock --> Altac Bloodseeker Staff of the Sun Magus Caves of Koilos Forest
Pack 2 pick 6: Ephemeral Shields --> Glacial Crasher Miner's Bane Vineweft Festergloom Naturalize Bronze Sable Ajani's Pridemate In Garruk's Wake Island
Pack 2 pick 7: Hammerhand Mind Rot --> Torch Fiend Titanic Growth Ornithopter Mountain Shrapnel Blast Caustic Tar Swamp
Pack 2 pick 8: --> Borderland Marauder Titanic Growth Radiant Fountain Solemn Offering Carnivorous Moss-Beast Unmake the Graves Hot Soup Island
Pack 2 pick 9: --> Wall of Fire Verdant Haven Research Assistant Eternal Thirst Staff of the Death Magus The Chain Veil Forest
Some comments: p1p1: Well hello there, hot thing. Just a quick check to see what I'm passing, and I slam the Mythic lady. p1p2: And we have our colors. The rare is still there, and it's red, but a lady gets my vote again. I hope it's the Spirits missing from the pack, not a Lightning Strike. the rest of pack1: A Welkin Tern and a Peel from Reality fix my second color, and I get some playable red. I also speculate on some artifacts, but not much is forthcoming. I'm actively looking for aggro cards to supplement my first two picks. pack2: pick one was Lightning Strike over Quickling. I considered for a bit, but Strike is just so good, even more so in aggro. I got some early drops, a Turn to Frog, and an Inferno Fist out of this pack. pack 3: red is open, but not blue. I pass Triplicate Spirits both pick one and two, but quality red keeps coming, and I also get a pick 8 Military Intelligence and pick 14 Thundering Giant.
So, not bad, I have more than 30 cards to build my deck from. To maximize my best cards, I decided to lower my curve as far as possible, to try to kill them before the good cards they must have come online. Here is what I played:
I know some of you would do this differently, but let's look at the matches before I comment on the build.
Round one against He didn't really impress me in game one. He did get to play two Heliod's Pilgrim into Oppresive Rays and Marked by Honor, but my Tern, wearing the Fist, kept attacking even Oppressed, and I had the Strike to answer the Marked when he finally decided to play it. He even played Meditation Puzzle, but I cleared the board and killed him. Game two was more of the same, until finally his game plan made sense: he played Avacyn, Guardian Angel. Even though it was his only creature, and I was ahead on life, I had no way to remove it, and the Fog ability allowed him to win the game. Game three, he tapped out on turn six to play Avacyn. I had lethal on board, so I attacked my four dorks into his three blockers. He panicked and blocked the Tern with the angel, which got turned to Frog. And he conceded.
Round two against Game one, I had a good draw, was able to get in some damage, and to answer his Coral Barrier with Chandra. He did get to Festergloom away two of my critters, but it was not enough as the Barrier never blocked. Game two, I kept a one-lander on the draw, and conceded on turn four after not drawing the second land. And game three, we traded two creatures early, and then my deck refused to give me another one. Chandra slowed him down, since most of his creatures had one toughness and they stayed in hand, but with no creatures of my own to protect her, Accursed Spirit won the game and match for him. I feel like I could have won this with a normal draw, but then, he probably had something better in his deck too.
Round three against I mostly saw Cathars, Dauntless River Marshal, and artifacts from this one. Game one went according to plan, game two was lost to a turn three Divine Favor on Sungrace Pegasus - I scooped in disgust after realizing I have no answer to that in my deck. Game three, he played Tyrant's Machine, Will-Forged Golem, and Juggernaut, but I drew three Torch Fiends, which allowed my air force to win the race.
So, the red "you can't block" deck actually works. Sure, Chandra fits the deck perfectly, and is very hard to answer, but the deck is very strong and consistent without her too. And everybody has bombs in M15.
As for deck construction: Meteorite was a mistake. It is simply too expensive for what I was trying to do, mana acceleration was irrelevant, and I didn't need the fixing. It would save me in the third game or round two, where I died with two Inferno Fists and a Peel From Reality in hand and a single Accursed Spirit on the other side of the table, but so would any of my dorks. I should have played a Peel instead of it maindeck.
The other card I kept sideboarding in was the Scrapyard Mongrel. I never missed the Nimbus of the Isles or the Glacial Crasher. I had the space for a single high-mana finisher, and Thundering Giant outright won two games with the haste. But the Mongrel came in handy against many decks. I left it out, since I didn't play the artifacts, but it may have been a mistake.
p3p2-->welkin tern not even close p3p7-->generator servant
Never pick a torch fiend over a welkin tern. And never play 16 land when you want to get to 5.
The "don't block" deck isn't too invested in removal, since you're just swinging and swinging and swinging. I would've wanted to play more hammerhands and maybe a shrapnel blast or a lava ax as a surprise finisher.
Based on your pool:
-1 Military Intelligence +1 Island (play 17)
-1 Meteorite +1 Scrapyard Mongrel
I really dislike crowd's favor here, but get that's how you can cast Illusory Angel. I really feel like there's a missed opportunity between tempo interactions and your deck... peel from reality + scrapyard mongrel can just blow an opponent out of the game sometimes, especially if you're packing multiple forge devil. I know that didn't come up in the draft.
Hammerhand is better than crowd's favor too--between frenzied goblin, chandra, and hammerhands you could've had a nuts unblockable deck. I wish you'd picked up that other tern.
On military intelligence... you have to remember the overall power of individual cards in your deck is very low. You would rather play consistently (hitting land drops). I get that it's cute with unblockable and such, but it's not like that was a constant guarantee since your evasion is for the most part incidental. I had someone play multiple military intelligences against me, and it was more of a win-more card than a blow out. Personal opinion, but I think a 17th land was called for there. You also could've played a research assistant and a rummaging goblin to loot--it's the same thing, but it comes with a body. That matters.
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"In all fairness that probably is a sight that would make you stop and reevaluate your life choices." ~ Garren_Windspear
Joined: Jun 04, 2014 Posts: 15603 Location: Freedom
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don't keep 1-land hands, even on the draw. you only have two draws to hit your land, with your land count you're gonna miss that about 30% of the time. and even if you hit the second land you have too much going on at 3 and 4 to risk missing those drops.
Sounds like your Match 1 opponent was newer to the game, and kept trying to force white/red Avacyn. Also, some people seem to think pure lifegain is good, when your report shows exactly why that's not the case.
It's a shame that things didn't go better Match 2. But, as you noted, it's entirely possible your opponent had all the answers anyways. Like razor said, never keep a one land hand unless you absolutely HAVE to. Sometimes you even need to mulligan 2-land hands. The trick is to make sure you have a plan, even if you miss land draws, or get land-flooded. Mulligan down to 5 if you have to. Mulligans are powerful tools.
I'm constantly impressed by Divine Favor in this format. Not a heck of a lot deals with 4 or 5 toughness outside combo-Ulcerate, combo-Turn to Frog, or straight-up Flesh to Dust/big Heat Ray. Considering it boosts even the most mediocre creature to a hefty blocker, its effects shouldn't be understated. I two weeks ago a kitty holding off a red/blue army just because the cat had the favor on it.
"can't block" decks + evasion are a real deck! The early pressure is super-important though, and you need a method of reach to pull the game off (which you had). Meteorite was definitely not a good choice for the deck, but the Scrapyard Mongrel definitely should have been in there. That trample and +2/+0 is very relevant, even on an only 3-toughness body.
Good luck in the next draft!
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"If you refuse to use rock, you will never beat scissors." — Galef, Dakka Dakka Forums
Joined: Sep 23, 2013 Posts: 6317 Location: New York
Well, without the meteorite the mongrel will always be a 3/3. Still playable, but hence why the deck needs bronze sabel and will-forged golem.
It's the pegasus that's bonkers, bc a pegasus enchanted with any of the white auras becomes an impossible threat for all but blue and black decks. Early format reviews joked it was a "build-a-baneslayer" card. It's just really weak to two of the more powerful decks in the format.
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"In all fairness that probably is a sight that would make you stop and reevaluate your life choices." ~ Garren_Windspear
What I would have done differently without hindsight:
P3P2: I would have taken the Welkin Tern for sure here.
P3P3: I take the Goblin Roughrider. I see why you went with the Forge Devil, but with already having two Crowd's Favor I would have wanted the better board presence.
My only comment was that meteorite was bad (Generator servant... although no 5 drops anyway). If you needed an artifact I would try the shield. And I think you have to play 17 lands as rstme said - but you could cut the nimbus and play 16.
Not sure about military intelligence.... but peel might be bad if you are tight on mana (because you are playing 16 lands!). I also wouldn't hate playing rummaging goblin.
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"Everything looks good when your opponent passes 4 turns in a row" -- rstnme "Something that does not look good when your opponent does nothing is not a thing" -- me
I can only blush about that Tern. I really can't say what happened there, I probably went blind for a bit. I was really happy whenever I could play it on turn two.
16 lands - I never missed mana, except for that one-lander I should have mulliganed. But statistically, this doesn't mean a thing. I was usually at four mana by turn five, and that was all I needed. True, I played a five-drop, or two if you count the Angel, but it worked out. All that statistics should take more account of mulligans
Forge Devil is a great card. It takes care of so many things, and when you're red aggro, anything can trade with your creatures if it's allowed to block. Devil removes blockers and leaves a body behind, all for one mana.
Inteligence was a win-more. I only played it once, it drew me two cards, but if this deck attacks with two or more for two turns, it's quite close to winning. Probably true for most decks.
the stats do take into account muligans - you should read those links I posted a few days ago. I think the thread is "before there was Frank Karsten"...
I never thought of military intelligence as strictly win more. It can break parity in a race. It can draw you the answer to your opponents answer if you are winning. It is dead if you are behind though. But most 1-2 drops are (including most common removal).
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"Everything looks good when your opponent passes 4 turns in a row" -- rstnme "Something that does not look good when your opponent does nothing is not a thing" -- me
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