I've done three so far, with mediocre results. I don't think it would be informative to post any of those. But some things are starting to emerge.
There are at least three aggro color combinations: RW, RB, and RG. The green one is the slowest, but even so it may all effectively be over by turn three. I've just played a RB deck in which it was easy to attack for six on turn three, and 9 on four, with evasion thrown in (3/1 black menace two drop, 3/3 red haste three drop, 3/2 flying artifact haste four-drop). If you are just a little bit slow to get on board, that is game over.
Sky Skiff has been a disappointment. It's way too slow for aggressive builds, and awkwardly costed for control. But mostly just too small.
Prakhata Pillar-Bug is the key to a succesful control deck. I mean, in addition to whatever ridicoulous rare bomb made you consider control in the first place. It's a bit late to come to the table, since you don't want to trade it before turn four, but it does a great job stabilizing. I've met some good control decks, and that little buggy was the thing that made them recover from the early damage.
Sometimes, an unanswered turn two Longtusk Cub is all it takes. And it can be very frustrating, watching that thing grow from turn to turn, knowing it will kill you in the end. It's not like they don't have other threats in hand, after all.
Fabricate is even better than everybody gave it credit for. If you see a fabricator in your color, grab it, you probably won't see another one. Same goes for the good vehicles. Don't pass them.
Joined: Jan 08, 2014 Posts: 4662 Location: Depends on the Day
I've had a lot of fun. I've got a 2-0 deck right now that I expect to go 3-0 with and will post the results. Super fun U/G energy deck. This format is fun even when you're losing it seems.
I've been down some on Sky Skiff to, which is weird because i remember the games where it dealt all of like 18 damage in a game and was MVP.
I've done 1 draft online, so far i'm 1-0 in league P1-1 Fumigate, and thought i forced white until a P2-4 Ætherstorm roc still though i forced it and I have 0 removal spells. I'm leaning hard on Fumigate. and my 1st match was against a gentlemen with no removal either it's because his deck was either sweeet or a trainwreck, I counted every common and uncommon vehicle in his deck except the 6/1 haste, i think i seen 6 different vehicles, and even a pup and Æthersquall Ancient, and a Padeem which is gas with those 15 drop vehicles, but he shrewd negotiated with me for my 4/3 giving me and 8/6 menace which shut off his howling mine and later killed him with double built to last for lethals when he was at 12
I think i would of been salty if i lost, how can one have all the guys to do all that crewing.
Went 2-1 first draft (6 man pod) with a bad deck. Went 3-0 second draft (6-man) with a chandra and a highly active luck box. 3-0'd 8-man at LGS with 2 Longtusk Cub, 2 Thriving Rats, 2 Kujar Seedcrafter, 2 Cobras couple removal spells. Easy 3-0 although my opponents had some mana screw.
Most recent was a 1-2 where I was in the open colors of UR but there was no synergy to be had. I did punt 1 game and got fogg'd in another.
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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
Game 1: Nothing exceptional...turn two Handicraft into Rhino into Voyager with a counter is roadblocked briefly by Consulate Skygate but Handicraft gives me the easy win when I eventually pop its secondary ability. Game 2: Turn 4 Rashmi into Turn 5 Whale which finds Module is just too much. They remove Rashmi, but Module gives too much value in combo with heavy air superiority.
Match 2 vs. B/W Artifacts
Game 1: We race and I lose. They had nothing spectacular...but Whale gets Captured by the Consulate and then Malfunctioned and I lose the race. Game 2: They draw no swamps and I win with Handicraft and pressure. Game 3: We race and its pretty even...except I get 18 energy and then cast Renegade for the win.
Match 3 vs, R/W Vehicles
Game 1: We race and they get me to ten. They cast Stomper and I have nothing but 2 power creatures....haha, I draw Module and make Cobra 3/2...the hunt the weak and attack for the win. Game 2: Another race puts me at 9 with a dominant board presence and them at 11. They cast Stomper and I have no blockers and draw no outs. Yeah!
Notes: Stomper gets a lot of hate on Channel Fireball...but it isn't BAD I don't think, it clearly wrecks against some decks. Rashmi is a friggin bomb...just awesome. That's good value. Handicraft is pretty good, not a high pick, but it does a lot of work in this format I think.
Joined: Jan 08, 2014 Posts: 4662 Location: Depends on the Day
Wow, went 3-0 with a deck I totally waffled on and did not expect to win with...to be fair though, I won all three matches because the opponent ran out of time
Game 1: Renegade Freighter on their end hits early, but I Select it to buy time. They cast a Riparian Tiger and I cast Gonti, netting an Arborback Stomper while putting a second Tiger on the bottom of their library. I take a hit going to ten knowing I'll cast Stomper next turn, then trade Stomper and a Thriving Rats for the Tiger. Daredevil comes down with Filigree in hand and the opponent's Longtusk Cub attacks while they have 9 Energy alongside Freighter. I draw and cast Freighter and then cast Filigree. I'm at 13 they're at 21. The have Ruinous Gremlin, Reckless Fireweaver, Aethertorch Renegade[/c], and Salivating Gremlins with 3 energy and 1 card in hand. They kill Freigther with Gremlins, then attack with Gremlins for 2. I draw Select and cast Serpent to stabilize. They cast Cowl Prowler. I go Daredevil, the cast Terror of the Fairgrounds. Dragster for me. (I've also had Saheeli in hand forever). They attack with Wurm and Terror, I block Terror with Filigree and Wurm with Dragster. They use Renegade to kill Dragster. I cast Aetherborn and Select the Wurm then attack with Serpent taking them to 19. They recast Wurm, then attack. I trade it for Serpent and a Servo. Thriving Grubs for them. I trade Aetherborn for Grubs. They cast Inventor's Apprentice. I hold Tidy Conclusion...next turn is Fortuitous Find getting Barge and Trafficker back (why not Gonti? Cause I'm dumb sometimes). Barge gets back Daredevil and I cast it. Board is stable for a while, but I draw Whale and win. Game 2: Trafficker steals energy from Renegade by sacing Puzzleknot and combos well with Virtuoso. Chandra, Torch of Defiance blasts my board, but I kill her next turn. Game is a race and I get whale and get them to two with a blocker for their only threat when they equip their Cowl Prowler with Giant Spectacle and Torch Gauntlet to murder me. There is 2:49 left on their clock. Game 3: Things don't look good for them since my opening hand has both Selects in it. Selects win it as they run out of time (although things were looking favorable for me since Drake was hitting for a few turns and Gonti stole Arborback again.)
Match 2 vs. U/G Panharmonicon
Game 1: Turn 2 Glint-Nest Crane getting Panharmonicon basically is rough! Every creature had a trigger...it was gross. Especially with Fabrication Module. None-the-less I got them to 7 and did some massive cuts to their board before they stabilized with a Hightide Hermit and Thriving Turtle before playing Smuggler's Copter. I had to select the Crane and it revealed they also had a second Panharmonicon! They had 27 energy at the end of the game! Still, I drew Serpent and won thanks to it's unblockablility. Game 2: Turn 2 Copter wins it for them. Funny enough, I got them to four and had lethal next turn till they got four servos from Cultivator of Blades...how many rares did they get? Game 3: They have 4:30 left on their clock (I have 10 minutes). They totally would have won this game...it was close, but Copter did too much work for them. They ran out of time though.
Match 3 vs...basically my deck...
Game 1: Seriously, they Gonti me for Freighter, I Gonti them for Padeem, Consul of Innovation, things go forever. They give me the game by a misplay of forgetting to equip their Gauntlet one turn, but then I give them the game (literally) because I didn't notice their Freighter had a +1/+1 counter on it and that one damage was lethal . Best move of the game: I Aether Tradewinds my Gonti and the Freighter of mine they control blanking their attack and immediately recasting Gonti for a Dhund Operative. Game 2: They run out of time.... They stole my Whale with their Gonti, but I had them at 7 with a Select in hand and was at 24 life with ten lands when they activated the Upheaval...so things were looking very good for me.
Notes: Gonti is just insane. Of note...you can cast the stolen card even if he leaves the battlefield. Bouncing him is just insane. Saheeli does some work if unanswered. She isnt a bomb in any sense of the word, but she smoothed out my draws while draining the opponent a few times. Her alt wasn't terribly scary in my deck, but it brings out some good things. She copied the Barge once which was the winning move. Copter is nuts...just bonkers. Way too good...but I did win a game with two on the opponents board with a different deck once!...athough they won the match.
Joined: Jan 08, 2014 Posts: 4662 Location: Depends on the Day
Yeah! My third trophy! I find it odd that I get so many 2-1s when I predict every pick on the Channel Fireball draft streams with about a 95% accuracy...then again, they often go 2-1 too. Maybe I should watch another channel
Game 1: They stumble on land and Infiltrator plus Freighter make it unlikely they'll come back...they conced. Game 2: I stumble on land and they get a turn four Panharmonicon. None-the-less, I nearly kill them. Two Cloudblazer trigger save them and two Glint-Sleeve Artisans give them enough tokens to win it. I'm not too worried since they had 10 card left in their deck and I had 25...if I came that close with their key card in play as early as possible...pretty sure I can pull this off. I side in Ruinous over Spark. Game 3: I get the nut...Pia into Snare into Infiltrator plus pump into Dragster.
Match 2 vs B/W artifacts
Game 1: We race with Prakhata Pillar-Bug and Fleetwheel Cruiser on their side vs. Infiltrator, two Servos, and Wonder on my side. At the end of the race, everything but my servos are in the grave, they're at 12 and I'm at 20, and I cast Freighter. They Fortuitous Find and cast a Foundry Screecher and Ninth Bridge Patrol but it's too late since they're at 4 now. Snare forces a board wipe on their end leaving them at 2 and I have Freighter, Servo, and Infiltrator on my side. Game 2: I keep an interesting hand I want to try Puzzleknot and Chief plus Refurbish. It works out well, they kill the Chief but Refurbish brings it back and Pia plus fliers kill.
Match 3 vs B/R Artifacts
Game 1: They have a bunch of Dhund Operatives but Pyrohelix shuts down their bonus and I race them to 16 thanks to Quicksmith looting. Spark to their Ovalchase Daredevil reveals Sparks (of course...this always happens to me) and I take them to 11 on the swing. Next turn I cast Gearhulk and they put Mountain, Dragster, and Wonder into my grave putting them at 2 life...NICE! Gearhulk has formerly been 3 lands and 2 lands plus a 1 CMC card the only other two times I cast it. They concede. Game 2: I start out behind, but Pyrohelix takes out their Maulfist Squad and Mastodon stabilizes the board. Next turn Freight plus Puzzleknot makes an 8/3 trampling Gremlins and they go to 6. They concede.
P1P10: Fireforger's Puzzleknot over Weldfast Monitor because I'm getting a bit nervous about my early game and removal?
It's pack 1 and Fireforgers Puzzleknot is bad.
Quote:
P2P3: Consul's Shieldguard over Thriving Ibex, Thriving Rhino, and Built to Smash because I think Consul may pair up well with Dragster and I don't realize my white is fairly disposable right now.
I think the pick here is Built to Smash?
Nice work. Your deck highlights why red can be tough to draft.. no 2 drops!
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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
P1P10: Fireforger's Puzzleknot over Weldfast Monitor because I'm getting a bit nervous about my early game and removal?
It's pack 1 and Fireforgers Puzzleknot is bad.
Quote:
P2P3: Consul's Shieldguard over Thriving Ibex, Thriving Rhino, and Built to Smash because I think Consul may pair up well with Dragster and I don't realize my white is fairly disposable right now.
I think the pick here is Built to Smash?
Nice work. Your deck highlights why red can be tough to draft.. no 2 drops!
P1P10: Totally agree. I was way off since Weldfast is pretty ok. I hadn't tried this particular puzzleknot but had seen it drafted in a few videos to moderate success and saw some neat decks abusing it as an artifact. Definitely nothing impressive though.
As for the other one...I'm not a huge fan of Smash, although I guess it goes just as well with Dragster. I don't like how it can only be used on the attack. I figured Consul was a body that gave energy and had a reasonable upside. Although I still don't know if Ibex would have just been better. Neither of them would have made the final deck...so I don't know.
Joined: Jan 08, 2014 Posts: 4662 Location: Depends on the Day
Ok, so I recorded my latest draft and uploaded it to Youtube...it was a garbage draft lol. I'm thinking the channel will be dedicated to terrible luck ;-)
So, we are now all well-versed in the format, and I have a question for all of you: it's game one of a draft match, you are going second. Which land you really don't want to see on the other side of the table? And which one makes you happy?
my choices
Swamp, and Island.
I think the best two draft decks in the format are GB and BW. They both have good early game, great mid game, and can gain a lot of value in the late game.
Didn't record my sideboard, sorry. I started with Red black aggro artifacts, so I got some of those two drops, but when I got 2 Aetherborn Mauraders pack three, I reevaluated my strategy.
Kicked everyone's butt. Can't block a 4/2 menace when I keep killing your creatures. And Rush of Vitality on my double blocked Maulfist Squad is beautiful.
Ambitious Aetherborn didn't have counters as often as I imagined. ! Maybe because I was playing aggressively and my creatures are fragile and traded. A 2/2 flying lifelink for 4 didn't feel too bad though; it finished off stabilized opponents while keeping me alive.
P.S. I made zero servos
P.S.S. since you are probably wondering what rares I drafted and did not put any of in my deck, P1P1 Cloudstone Curio, P2P1 Fleetwheel Cruiser, which I should have maybe ran instead of an Ambition Aetherborn, and P3P1 was some artifact creature that costs 20 mana or something I didn't take I dont remember the details.
So, we are now all well-versed in the format, and I have a question for all of you: it's game one of a draft match, you are going second. Which land you really don't want to see on the other side of the table? And which one makes you happy?
my choices
Swamp, and Island.
I think the best two draft decks in the format are GB and BW. They both have good early game, great mid game, and can gain a lot of value in the late game.
I can't help but agree, it would be Island 1st then swamp. I don't want to see Forest over there. At 1st I thought G/B was the best combo, with Armorcraft judge and Ætherborn Marauders, maybe even get Animation Module + durable handicraft. However the more i observed and played I think B/W ggrrriiinnnddd is the best deck. especially if you can get 1 bomb ETB creature. because the white will blink it and the black will re buy it. but i think Green is the best color due to the common creature curve. they are all slightly above the curve in value, and a couple come with versitale ETB effects commons 2 drop 2/3 3 drop 2/3 swings as a Brimaz 3/4 Thrino can swing through any other colors common 3 drop, not trade, or bounce but would eat. 4 drop 4/4 trample 5 drop 4/4 swings 6/6 trample
Personally I still am loving the format, maybe cause i'm yet to build Invent some of the combo's , or because online leagues or so convenient. I've done so many i can play along with LR when they do the "what card did you draft most" currently it's Prophetic Prism. This format will probably finish top 3 draft formats i've played
Yeah, T2 fretwork colony or longtusk cub is the worst to see. Followed by T2 Dhund Operative into Renegade Freighter.
Blue is clearly the color that guarantees you'll have time to do something, but I guess if you had a really mid-ranged deck it might get you sweating a little.
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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
Did any of you lose to decking? I did, and it was a bad feeling. That Minister is just so dang fast. It's hard to attack profitably into a 2/5 Turtle. I'm sure I' don't know how to build that deck, but it went 3-0 in the league.
Joined: Feb 05, 2014 Posts: 1347 Location: Berk
Identity: Dragon
Managed to draft my favorite kind of deck: Midrange value grindfest. More specifically BW artifacts.
Went 2-0-1 and that definitely would have been 3-0 if game 2 of match 2 hadn't gone forever, but such is life.
MVP was definitely my 2 copies of Ovalchase Daredevil. Card is busted in limited. Pack 1 Pick 1 was Panharmonicon, and I the cards I just kept getting fed were BW etb triggers so off I went. =D
I looked through my sideboard a little, but I never actually swapped out any cards between games in a match. The deck just did its thing and if my opponent couldn't deal with my relentless recursion of Ovalchase Daredevils then I ground them out. The plan seemed to work fine for me and I never saw anything that made me want anything in my sideboard over anything that I already had in the deck.
I think this may end up being one of the limited decks I keep together. The synergy in this deck is just such a thing of beauty. One weird thing I did notice though. I put Diabolic Tutor in the deck explicitly to fetch Panharmonicon, but I whenever I cast the tutor I never went for that card (and I did cast the tutor several times over the course of the night). But I was also never sad to see the tutor because it let me find whatever card was right in the situation. Oftentimes this would be an artifact or fabricate card to get back one or both of my Daredevils back to my hand. It was really weird, but my deck was just grindy enough that I either inevitably got a window in which I could take off my turn from doing anything that affected the board to cast the tutor or the game had gone so long that I could cast the tutor plus whatever I tutored for in the same turn.
That said I did get panharmonicon down twice (or was it three times...don't remember) tonight. Things I double triggered: fairgrounds warden weaponcraft enthusiast restoration gearsmith metalspinner's puzzleknot
The most sickeningly value riddled play I made was gearsmith, grabbing puzzleknot and enthusiast, casting both of those, drawing two cards, losing 2 life, making 4 servos and grabbing both copies of ovalchase daredevil out of my graveyard. Sadly I was at 3 life when all this was said and done and my opponent managed to retrieve his Multiform Wonder from under my fairgrounds warden and kill me. I may have died, but I died happy given that turn.
Why didn't you run Fortunious Find or Bombat Bazaar Barge ??!! They seem 10/10 in this kind of deck ! First one gives you guaranteed 2 for 1, cause you won't draw lands, and also gives you LOTS of choices to get. Second one is sweet artifact to recur with Gearsmith, and a sweet Panharmonicon combo, aside from being generally solid. Cutting Sky Skiff, cause it s...s, and Snare Thopter, cause it is not of this deck. Or leave Thopter, cause it's an artifact, and remove Foundry Screecher instead, cause similarly to Thopter it is not for this deck. Or get rid of a land - you don't have a single card after CMC 4.
This deck is remarkably low on win conditions. You're just waiting on your opponent to run out of cards. Which may or may not happen. You also don't have a lot of card draw, just Puzzleknot and Maneuver, so you can't count on getting your combos online reliably.
Two cards that should definitely be in the deck are the Barge and Subtle Strike. Barge is just great value, with or without Panharmonicon, and one of your few ways to deal with large threats. And Strike is probably the best combat trick in the set, which is saying a lot as Kaladesh has a ton of great ones. Keep the flyers, as evasion is one of the ways to win with a grind deck. I'd just swap the Tutor for the Barge, and play Strike over a land. I'm also not a big fan of Impeccable Timing. Some combat tricks can make you really regret you're playing with that, especially if you decide to use it to kill an unblocked attacker. Depending on what your opponents were playing, Inventor's Goggles might have been a better choice.
But deck looks like a lot of fun, at least for you
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