P1P2 - This pick was tough. I think the upside of staying in color was worth it here and I pick the rare too, but I also haven't played with it yet. If it's not there, you're probably right take the incinerate over the dragon... but that's still pretty tough!
P1P4 - I probably take the Lawkeeper here. He's really good and you aren't committed to Black yet, but I can't really hate the Drake pick.
P1P7 - I guess I'm more nitty than most, because i take the Warhorse here. I doubt we're making it into white after we shipped the pacifism and HotP but at least we're cutting it from our friends downstream.
P1P10 - Wow, crazy!
P1P12 - well this was the pack with a lawkeeper and griffin sentinel. I think it's weird someone took the sentinel over the griffin... but what do I know?
P2P1 - Aren't you sad you didn't listen to me and pick up that lawkeeper? :)
P2P2 - If you're in Red and really far from blue (which they probably are because you cut it fairly successfully) then you take incinerate and outrage over the sphinx. You're lucky the sphinx is here so you don't have to decide about the child and wring flesh!
P2P9 - I feel like you still could end up white at this point if you open a serra angel. I mean, you want to play the Gravedigger and mage... but I wouldn't discount white as a second main color just yet.
P3P1 - I probably take the Mind Control here, I just think it's better.
P3P2 - The bear is probably a good pick here because it seems like you were light on creatures... but the Redirect is really sweet with your double dragons, especially if they try to turn one of their aura's into removal... DOINK throw it on a skywinder drake!
P3P4 - I would play this second Azure Mage and would probably pick it, but maybe you just need the Ice Cage?
P3P10 - Here you should take the redirect...
Deckbuilding: I'm not sure the power level of Onyx Mage and Gravedigger is worth disrupting your manabase over, especially over a Frost Breath and Chasm Drake. I would probably play a WU build main and then side in the Black if Grave digger or Onyx mage seemed especially powerful against that player or I felt I needed the power level and to run good in order to win.
P1P4 - The Lawkeeper is definitely a solid pick, I wouldn't blame anyone for picking it here, at all.
P1P7 - Really? I've found the Horse to be underwhelming in general.
P1P12 - That's hard to guess, but the Sentinel is pretty good in WR Bloodthirst (because it's a 3-drop enabling Minotaurs T4), as well as in GriffinRider.dek - where, arguably, they both do quite well.
P2P9 - Yes, I was a bit torn between the two splash colours. Perhaps picking one a bit earlier would have given a bit of consistency, but I lucked out with lands and looter, so it wasn't a problem.
P3P1 - Trust me, the pick was hard. I still like my choice, but would also understand the MC.
P3P2 - I actually had to ask an ORC; Redirect can't save a Phantasmal creature, I'm afraid. I still like the spell, but as you said, I needed some creatures...
P3P4 - Maybe that's right, I mean it is a Coral Merfolk+, and I picked one of those later on (even if I didn't end up playing it)...
P3P10 - Yeah, I probably should, despite the not-working-with-illusions trickiness.
Deckbuilding: The Drake is pretty slow, and I REALLY like the two black guys (plus, they are creatures!). I actually juggled them back and forth but I needed the bodies, too. Do you think my mana base is okay? It didn't give me any problems, even if the "suggested" one was 11 islands and only 2 plains, instead of 10-3 as I used...
I am new, so take my comments with a huge grain of salt.
P1P1 - I like blue and Azure mage too, but I slam the Warstorm here.
P1P3 - Sentinel. You've got the phantasmal image (already passing the Sorin's Thirst), and blue white is a great combo. I am worried about the mixed signals being sent after passing the thirst, and the Onyx Mage can be a real beating, but it's very situational.
P1P4 - Slam Gideon.
P1P6 - Horse (or Honor if you think White might be completely open, there has been a ton of it passed to you).
P1P7 - Horse again. Do not like taking another black card here. Black is not open, and you are mixing colors when you don't really need to at this stage.
P1P12 - After getting the very late dragon and an even later Assault Griffin with this pick, blue white is clearly what you you need to be concentrating on. Let everyone else fight over black, green and red.
P2P4 - More black? I realize Digger is a great card, but keep cutting Blue. Take the Unsummon.
P2P6 - If you had alread taken the Unsummon previous, Drake is an easy pick here. And having several 5 drops in a control deck is okay if not great.
P3P1 - Slam the Mind Control!! You already talked about having the high end of your creature drops full, and the mind control can be a complete game ender.
P3P2 - Tought choice, although I probably take redirect.
P3P4 - This is where I would have gotten the Mage that I would have passed P1P1. I am not a huge fan of ice cage, and I would have taken the mage even though you already had one. I mean the odds you are going to get both on the battlefield are low, and having two in your deck doubles the chance you will have on by turn 4.
P3P6 - A sixth pick land??? And one to splash black at that? You have an incredibly good UW deck going, and you could take the Griffin here or the Horse.
Final deck - I like what you put together, but I think it could have been a lot tighter with a better curve if you had stayed on color and not splashed the black.
I would have led off with Warstorm Surge and Incinerate, but I can't be too picky given how your deck turned out. With regard to deck-building, though, given you are trying to be the beatdown it's odd that you are bothering to splash black for non-removal spells. That just adds a tonne of inconsistency to your deck for what I see as not very clear rewards. Both of your black cards are trying to get you to be more controlling, yet with almost every pick in this draft (bar Sphinx and Djinn) you opted for the aggressive option over the controlling one. You may as well go all in at that point; I'd swap these and Timely Reinforcements for a Frost Breath and I'm not sure what else, probably Chasm Drake and Ice Cage. I also think it's hilarious that you picked an Ice Cage over Azure Mage and then didn't even play the Ice Cage!
Picks I disagree on: I'd take the Mind Control over the Djinn (the MC is just the card more suited to aggro strategies; it completely blows them out when they are trying to stabilise), the Azure Mage over the Ice Cage, the Celestial Purge over the Drowned Catacomb, and Redirect over Turn to Frog (I'm not big on Turn to Frog, and Redirect is a 2-for-1 and a huge tempo swing against any removal spell, I might not play it, but it's more likely making my deck than the second Turn to Frog).
Now... KC_Bandit; P1P3: Really, Sentinel this early? I didn't even consider it, it's not a very aggressive card, and even if it's an okay flier, Onyx Mage is just so much stronger. The Sentinel or the Stave Off are probably the cards I would consider if the Mage hadn't been there.
P1P4: A much more reasonable proposition. I like the Drake A LOT, but Lawkeeper is good too. In hindsight, this pack is probably a pretty clear signal to stay out of Black. It lacks a rare, an uncommon and a common and has no Black at all (what commons do you pick over Lawkeeper?). Remember, the Foil is still there.
P1P6-7: Horse, seriously? It's colour-intensive in a colour I haven't taken at all, and they're pretty mediocre cards to be honest. Ponder is definitely better in my book, and I don't regret picking the Aura either.
P1P12: I did begin considering White here after the Griffin this late (even if the pack had a lot of White). I do think your point about moving White would have been a good decision if I had made it early is valid.
P2P4: Really? Unsummon is a subpar combat trick and card disadvantage, whereas Gravedigger is card advantage and a body, too. I guess your point stands if I'm 100% dedicated to tempo blue...
P2P6: I already had one Drake and I honestly don't see myself playing two Drakes too often.
P3P1: As I said earlier, I can see the argument for both blue picks here. I might pick the MC next time and see how well it plays :)
P3P2: I didn't like having to be reactive (then what am I doing in Blue..?), so I usually don't pick Redirect this early.
P3P4: This is the pick I think was most a mistake on my part. Another Azure mage would've been fine!
P3P6: I might have been happy to take the Sentinel here but the land looked a lot better for my deck. I probably would make the same pick if I had the chance to redo it (but I'm not sure). I'd never pick the horse, though.
Final Deck: My manabase was pretty consistent, so I don't regret splashing Black...
@Penix: Incinerate is clearly the pick if you take the Surge, I think, but I don't have a very good impression of Surge, it just strikes me as too slow...
Also; I lost Match 2 to a Blue/Black deck with a tonload of removal. I think I made a (subtle) error that might've cost me game 3, in hindsight, but I'm not sure. He had SO MUCH removal.
Yeah, the warhorse is underwhelming... unless you have an honor of the pure then it's 4 toughness is really hard to deal with, that's why I suggested cutting it.
I didn't look at the fact that you only had 4 white sources, I would do at least 6 because the stormfront pegasus loses a lot of value when it isn't coming down early.
I don't take the griffin sentinel that highly, but I disagree with your evaluation of unsummon. Unsummon is cheap and can always get you great value, (sometimes countering a removal spell, or a pump spell or punishing them for auras at which point it isn't card disadvantage anymore but a 1 for 1 with severe tempo swings.
Well, like I said, take my comments with a grain of salt. And I am glad you are reconsidering your comments on unsummon. Maybe you will come around on the horse too. 3 toughness at the two drop position can be absolutely huge.
And Warstorm is slow, it costs 6 mana to cast. But if the match actually lasts that long, then it is a complete game changer. I guess if Warstorm is slow, then so are all of the Titans??
After considering all your comments and mine, I think I tend to be much more about control coupled with agression when possible, and you seem to be more about getting out as much pressure as soon as possible. I think that is just a preference issue. On the Sentinel, for example, you have an evasive flyer with vigilance that can't be killed by wring flesh, sorin's thirst or shock - all on turn three. Same thing goes with the horse. This format is so aggressive that if you can stop all of the bears from getting through early, I think it sets up the mid to late game much better - but again, that's all personal preference.
You sound like a Red Deck Wins or Tempered Steel kind of guy, while I am more UW Control.
I seriously dislike playing Red decks and haven't really tried Tempered Steel, I'm a Blue, grand-architect Johnny kind of deck builder :P
I guess I just haven't played these whites enough (why do I have all this other stuff to do when all I want to do is play MTG?!). I've started watching Kenji's draft vids on Youtube and he plays a Warhorse (though in main-white) to great effect in one of those...
P1P2 - This pick was tough. I think the upside of staying in color was worth it here and I pick the rare too, but I also haven't played with it yet. If it's not there, you're probably right take the incinerate over the dragon... but that's still pretty tough!
ReplyDeleteP1P4 - I probably take the Lawkeeper here. He's really good and you aren't committed to Black yet, but I can't really hate the Drake pick.
P1P7 - I guess I'm more nitty than most, because i take the Warhorse here. I doubt we're making it into white after we shipped the pacifism and HotP but at least we're cutting it from our friends downstream.
P1P10 - Wow, crazy!
P1P12 - well this was the pack with a lawkeeper and griffin sentinel. I think it's weird someone took the sentinel over the griffin... but what do I know?
P2P1 - Aren't you sad you didn't listen to me and pick up that lawkeeper? :)
P2P2 - If you're in Red and really far from blue (which they probably are because you cut it fairly successfully) then you take incinerate and outrage over the sphinx. You're lucky the sphinx is here so you don't have to decide about the child and wring flesh!
P2P9 - I feel like you still could end up white at this point if you open a serra angel. I mean, you want to play the Gravedigger and mage... but I wouldn't discount white as a second main color just yet.
P3P1 - I probably take the Mind Control here, I just think it's better.
P3P2 - The bear is probably a good pick here because it seems like you were light on creatures... but the Redirect is really sweet with your double dragons, especially if they try to turn one of their aura's into removal... DOINK throw it on a skywinder drake!
P3P4 - I would play this second Azure Mage and would probably pick it, but maybe you just need the Ice Cage?
P3P10 - Here you should take the redirect...
Deckbuilding: I'm not sure the power level of Onyx Mage and Gravedigger is worth disrupting your manabase over, especially over a Frost Breath and Chasm Drake. I would probably play a WU build main and then side in the Black if Grave digger or Onyx mage seemed especially powerful against that player or I felt I needed the power level and to run good in order to win.
P1P4 - The Lawkeeper is definitely a solid pick, I wouldn't blame anyone for picking it here, at all.
ReplyDeleteP1P7 - Really? I've found the Horse to be underwhelming in general.
P1P12 - That's hard to guess, but the Sentinel is pretty good in WR Bloodthirst (because it's a 3-drop enabling Minotaurs T4), as well as in GriffinRider.dek - where, arguably, they both do quite well.
P2P9 - Yes, I was a bit torn between the two splash colours. Perhaps picking one a bit earlier would have given a bit of consistency, but I lucked out with lands and looter, so it wasn't a problem.
P3P1 - Trust me, the pick was hard. I still like my choice, but would also understand the MC.
P3P2 - I actually had to ask an ORC; Redirect can't save a Phantasmal creature, I'm afraid. I still like the spell, but as you said, I needed some creatures...
P3P4 - Maybe that's right, I mean it is a Coral Merfolk+, and I picked one of those later on (even if I didn't end up playing it)...
P3P10 - Yeah, I probably should, despite the not-working-with-illusions trickiness.
Deckbuilding: The Drake is pretty slow, and I REALLY like the two black guys (plus, they are creatures!). I actually juggled them back and forth but I needed the bodies, too. Do you think my mana base is okay? It didn't give me any problems, even if the "suggested" one was 11 islands and only 2 plains, instead of 10-3 as I used...
I am new, so take my comments with a huge grain of salt.
ReplyDeleteP1P1 - I like blue and Azure mage too, but I slam the Warstorm here.
P1P3 - Sentinel. You've got the phantasmal image (already passing the Sorin's Thirst), and blue white is a great combo. I am worried about the mixed signals being sent after passing the thirst, and the Onyx Mage can be a real beating, but it's very situational.
P1P4 - Slam Gideon.
P1P6 - Horse (or Honor if you think White might be completely open, there has been a ton of it passed to you).
P1P7 - Horse again. Do not like taking another black card here. Black is not open, and you are mixing colors when you don't really need to at this stage.
P1P12 - After getting the very late dragon and an even later Assault Griffin with this pick, blue white is clearly what you you need to be concentrating on. Let everyone else fight over black, green and red.
P2P4 - More black? I realize Digger is a great card, but keep cutting Blue. Take the Unsummon.
P2P6 - If you had alread taken the Unsummon previous, Drake is an easy pick here. And having several 5 drops in a control deck is okay if not great.
P3P1 - Slam the Mind Control!! You already talked about having the high end of your creature drops full, and the mind control can be a complete game ender.
P3P2 - Tought choice, although I probably take redirect.
P3P4 - This is where I would have gotten the Mage that I would have passed P1P1. I am not a huge fan of ice cage, and I would have taken the mage even though you already had one. I mean the odds you are going to get both on the battlefield are low, and having two in your deck doubles the chance you will have on by turn 4.
P3P6 - A sixth pick land??? And one to splash black at that? You have an incredibly good UW deck going, and you could take the Griffin here or the Horse.
Final deck - I like what you put together, but I think it could have been a lot tighter with a better curve if you had stayed on color and not splashed the black.
I hope you did well!!
I would have led off with Warstorm Surge and Incinerate, but I can't be too picky given how your deck turned out. With regard to deck-building, though, given you are trying to be the beatdown it's odd that you are bothering to splash black for non-removal spells. That just adds a tonne of inconsistency to your deck for what I see as not very clear rewards. Both of your black cards are trying to get you to be more controlling, yet with almost every pick in this draft (bar Sphinx and Djinn) you opted for the aggressive option over the controlling one. You may as well go all in at that point; I'd swap these and Timely Reinforcements for a Frost Breath and I'm not sure what else, probably Chasm Drake and Ice Cage. I also think it's hilarious that you picked an Ice Cage over Azure Mage and then didn't even play the Ice Cage!
ReplyDeletePicks I disagree on: I'd take the Mind Control over the Djinn (the MC is just the card more suited to aggro strategies; it completely blows them out when they are trying to stabilise), the Azure Mage over the Ice Cage, the Celestial Purge over the Drowned Catacomb, and Redirect over Turn to Frog (I'm not big on Turn to Frog, and Redirect is a 2-for-1 and a huge tempo swing against any removal spell, I might not play it, but it's more likely making my deck than the second Turn to Frog).
First of all, thanks for the wonderful feedback!
ReplyDeleteNow... KC_Bandit; P1P3: Really, Sentinel this early? I didn't even consider it, it's not a very aggressive card, and even if it's an okay flier, Onyx Mage is just so much stronger. The Sentinel or the Stave Off are probably the cards I would consider if the Mage hadn't been there.
P1P4: A much more reasonable proposition. I like the Drake A LOT, but Lawkeeper is good too. In hindsight, this pack is probably a pretty clear signal to stay out of Black. It lacks a rare, an uncommon and a common and has no Black at all (what commons do you pick over Lawkeeper?). Remember, the Foil is still there.
P1P6-7: Horse, seriously? It's colour-intensive in a colour I haven't taken at all, and they're pretty mediocre cards to be honest. Ponder is definitely better in my book, and I don't regret picking the Aura either.
P1P12: I did begin considering White here after the Griffin this late (even if the pack had a lot of White). I do think your point about moving White would have been a good decision if I had made it early is valid.
P2P4: Really? Unsummon is a subpar combat trick and card disadvantage, whereas Gravedigger is card advantage and a body, too. I guess your point stands if I'm 100% dedicated to tempo blue...
P2P6: I already had one Drake and I honestly don't see myself playing two Drakes too often.
P3P1: As I said earlier, I can see the argument for both blue picks here. I might pick the MC next time and see how well it plays :)
P3P2: I didn't like having to be reactive (then what am I doing in Blue..?), so I usually don't pick Redirect this early.
P3P4: This is the pick I think was most a mistake on my part. Another Azure mage would've been fine!
P3P6: I might have been happy to take the Sentinel here but the land looked a lot better for my deck. I probably would make the same pick if I had the chance to redo it (but I'm not sure). I'd never pick the horse, though.
Final Deck: My manabase was pretty consistent, so I don't regret splashing Black...
@Penix: Incinerate is clearly the pick if you take the Surge, I think, but I don't have a very good impression of Surge, it just strikes me as too slow...
Also; I lost Match 2 to a Blue/Black deck with a tonload of removal. I think I made a (subtle) error that might've cost me game 3, in hindsight, but I'm not sure. He had SO MUCH removal.
Yeah, the warhorse is underwhelming... unless you have an honor of the pure then it's 4 toughness is really hard to deal with, that's why I suggested cutting it.
ReplyDeleteI didn't look at the fact that you only had 4 white sources, I would do at least 6 because the stormfront pegasus loses a lot of value when it isn't coming down early.
I don't take the griffin sentinel that highly, but I disagree with your evaluation of unsummon. Unsummon is cheap and can always get you great value, (sometimes countering a removal spell, or a pump spell or punishing them for auras at which point it isn't card disadvantage anymore but a 1 for 1 with severe tempo swings.
I might have been a bit harsh on Unsummon here, but I still don't see myself taking it over Gravedigger if I can play the Gravedigger.
ReplyDeleteWell, like I said, take my comments with a grain of salt. And I am glad you are reconsidering your comments on unsummon. Maybe you will come around on the horse too. 3 toughness at the two drop position can be absolutely huge.
ReplyDeleteAnd Warstorm is slow, it costs 6 mana to cast. But if the match actually lasts that long, then it is a complete game changer. I guess if Warstorm is slow, then so are all of the Titans??
After considering all your comments and mine, I think I tend to be much more about control coupled with agression when possible, and you seem to be more about getting out as much pressure as soon as possible. I think that is just a preference issue. On the Sentinel, for example, you have an evasive flyer with vigilance that can't be killed by wring flesh, sorin's thirst or shock - all on turn three. Same thing goes with the horse. This format is so aggressive that if you can stop all of the bears from getting through early, I think it sets up the mid to late game much better - but again, that's all personal preference.
You sound like a Red Deck Wins or Tempered Steel kind of guy, while I am more UW Control.
Glad your deck worked out!!
I seriously dislike playing Red decks and haven't really tried Tempered Steel, I'm a Blue, grand-architect Johnny kind of deck builder :P
ReplyDeleteI guess I just haven't played these whites enough (why do I have all this other stuff to do when all I want to do is play MTG?!). I've started watching Kenji's draft vids on Youtube and he plays a Warhorse (though in main-white) to great effect in one of those...