Here's my second AVR draft. It wasn't quite as exciting as the first. I went 0-2 plus a win from a bye. I got sucked into white from my first two picks and never quite found what I wanted the deck to do. Got some of the cool human cards but I think the deck was just split trying to do two different things but wasn't good enough at either one. Definitely could use some help figuring out how to have done this better.
What's better? Lightning prowess or Guies of Fire?
Is Burn at the Stake playable? What about Angel of Jubilation? Defy Death?
I think this is a good example of how AVR can sometimes leave you very short on playables. Clearly there were many other W and/or R drafters at your table. Presumably B and maybe G were open, but it's so hard to tell sometimes. I think you definitely had a RW deck in there somewhere though.
ReplyDeleteAs opposed to color issues, I think you need to reevaluate how highly you rate creatures. There were a number of picks where you took random cards over creatures despite having a low creature count. Vigilante Justice, for example, is not really where you want to be unless you have the nut humans build around it. Yet you took it over Riot Ringleader and Moorland Inquisitor - both of whom are very solid pieces in your deck.
As you're drafting, keep looking at the picks you've already made. What are you missing? How many creatures do you have? Where is your curve lacking? The more you think about these, the better adapted your picks will be for your deck.
Additionally, you have some odd durdles in the main and some playable cards in the board. Mad Prophet #2, while not amazing, is still a hasty 2/2 that is certainly better than Vanguard's Shield and likely better than Midnight Duelist. Your Angelic Armaments are in the board, as is a Scroll, which while not great, can help you cycle to your bombs.
P1P1: I think this pick is fine though the Death Wind is a safer pick. You just need to be ready to abandon the Angel if White is not flowing.
ReplyDeleteP1P2: Nice - but don't count on White being open just because the person immidiately before you passes you a rare - there might have been a foil in the pack, or there might be white drafters further upstream.
P1P4: I think I like the Prophet or the Blow here, they're just more reliable. But I don't hate the Defy Death pick.
P1P5: I like the Sanctifier here.
P1P6: Yes, Black looks open. I'm not sure I'd move in here, you've passed some great Black already. Perhaps taking the Scroll is the right play?
P1P8: I think the Redeemer is the snap-pick here if you're serious about White.
P2P1 + P2P2: There are great Black cards in this pack - did you just pick up the Shade earlier for fun, or were you moving in?
P2P3: Ringleader is definitely better in my opinion.
P2P5: You really have to decide what deck you're playing here - Slow and White-heavy, or all-in Red-based humans aggro? It sounds like you've settled on aggro by now, so keep that in mind in future picks.
P2P12: What does the wall do for your aggressive deck?
P3P1: Returning a land is only a problem in decks that are not super-aggressive - Again, I think you're misevaluating your own deck's role. A 3/3 flier on turn 3 is exceptional, and worth the setback if most of your cards cost 3-4 or less any way. Pillar is okay, but Angel is - in my opinion - the far more aggressive card.
P3P7: Zealous Strike! Again, you're drafting an aggressive deck - it looks like - and Zealous Strike is great in those. Cloudshift and Gateguards are both pretty bad in your deck.
Deck Construction: I think your deck is trying two things at once; Being the slow angel deck and being the fast humans deck. Even if it - in the abstract - makes your cards weaker, you need to pick one direction and stay with it. For this pile, I'd go with the slow deck. That means cutting the Revolts, the Burn at the Stake and the Vigilante Justices. Also, get the Shield out of there, it's a bad card. Instead, you could bring in Prowess, Prophet, Armaments, Scroll and another land or something like that.