I would say closer to 1/5 but to each his own....

This week CatOwner's question of the week asks: Which card have you been most impressed with from Journey into Nyx? Which have you been most disappointed with? Why?

Discuss...

Considering I have done literally three JOU drafts, my experience is a tad limited. But I was surprised by the power of Doomwake Giant whenever I saw it.

At common, Oakheart Dryad and Bloodcrazed Hoplite have both been exceptional for me when I have played them.
On the disappointing side, I have to say Armament Of Nyx is really quite poor

Most impressed: Golden Hind (as expected) and Ravenous Leucocrota.

Most disappointed: Akroan Hoplite

Yesterday, I picked up a couple of Pin to the Earth in UW fliers. It worked very well, until I got to the finals and had to face Bassara Tower Archers and Nessian Asps. I wished for some other kind of removal then, since making walls that still keep your attackers back is not really stellar.

Crypsis is very good every time I play it. It just does so much.

Cloaked Siren and War-wing Siren are both excellent. I think that, when going blue, you should pick creatures high in JINX, and get tricks later.

Akroan Hoplite seems to be doing badly. I haven't seen a good heroic deck in a while, and this little guy has underperformed whenever I saw it played. The loss of enchantrips really hurts. And the Ravenous Leucocrota just shuts it down. That card is performing way better than I expected.

This week, Catowner's Question of the Week asks: If you had to pick a color combination to play in Theros block limited which would you pick and why? Please be detailed in your explanation as others may learn from your insight.

Discuss...

I think I would pick Red/White. There aren't as many awesome white cards but the better Red in JOU/BNG supplements it. You don't have to be heroic, just aggro. White doesn't seem to be horrifically overdrafted as it was in 3xTheros.

Definitely .

It fits my style of play. It can stop most heroic decks before they get out of hand, it has the best long game, it gives me most satisfaction when I play it. The two-color uncommons are very good, bounce still rules, there is even hard removal in Time to feed.

That said, it is never open

Whichever one is open.

Green Blue is probably my favorite.

to all that.

Plus there's the possibility of playing Prophet of Kruphix; that guy pretty much single-handedly put me into first place at the JOU Prerelease. The card is bonkers in Limited.

Could you guys post a 3-0 UG deck? Because mine are terrible, despite it being so open I was essentially forced into it.

Mine was a prerelease sealed deck, not a 3-0 draft deck; I made a thread in this forum called "JOU Prerelease" about it, it may even still be on the first page.

I still haven't managed to draft it, but here is the next best thing. This tells you all you really need to know about : draft Golden Hind and Sigiled Starfish, some two- and three-drops, some tricks, some finishers. In that case, it's the five-drop green heroes, and those end the game fast. Which is very important; sometimes you just surprise-kill them from 15.

Clearly the ramp is the key - and the one time I had ramp I somehow ended up with nothing to ramp into. I suspect this was my bad UG heroes deck -- but maybe that was bad because I tried all those crappy +1/+1 counter triggers from JOU, instead instants that kill things in combat.

It seems very tricky to balance ramp, bounce, heroes, and triggers - "mulligan aggressively?"

You need a few things to make a really good deck (or Hour of Need)

Assuming you don't open up hour of need (or some idiot passes it to you) then tends, in my opinion to be very aggressive often curving out at 4 with a couple of 5 drops. Leaving aside rares/mythics you want something like:

18 creatures
1 1-drop (who doesn't love a scorpion)
5 2-drops (Golden Hind probably being the best, I wouldn't play Scryfish in this type of deck)
4/5 3-drops (less if you have Golden Hind/Satyr/Kiora's Follower)
4/5 4-drops (the opposite of the 3 drops)
3 5-drops

5/6 spells

You want cheap bounce spells so Voyages End and Retraction Helix (both ahead of Griptide) are where it is at. There is no real need for pump but a mortal's resolve is useful (Crypsis at a pinch). I would play 1 divination but no more (I basically want to spend every turn playing creatures). Artisan's Sorrow/Unravel the Aether are superb. Both the Ordeal's are an auto-include. Time to feed is, obviously, insane,

16/17 land (16 if you have at least 2 of Satyr/Follower/Golden Hind).

All the GP pros talk up UG so I guess it's just me.