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Magic: the Gathering |OT4| Izzet Me; Izzet You? A Love Story

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I went to FNM draft at the big LGS in my University's town and I got my ass kicked(0-3) Screw everyone saying U/B is the best deck in Draft, Anything with Dash and impact tremors is. It's near impossible to counter/prevent if you aren't prepared.

Lost round 1 to a U/W control deck that got an Ojutai in his pack. It was weird to be on the other end of that. Got Mana flooded in game 1, mana starved in game 2.

Round 2 went against Mono Red dash. I managed to get my Gravepurge going twice, managing to bounce creatures to make my opponent discard cards. I like the card, damn it, and I still think it's under rated.

Game 3 was against Yet another Dash deck that was Grixis oddly for Zephyr scribe.

It's a bit weird because I tend to draft Green/White in 90% of my drafts pre DTK but in DTK I've been dragging Blue/Black a lot more to mixed results.
 

Joe Molotov

Member
I try to go into DTK drafts with an open mind, but every time I just end up grabbing as many Tail Slashes and Sprinting Warbrutes as I can, which is usually a lot.
 

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
For those who haven't seen it.
flJjrWA.png
 
I try to go into DTK drafts with an open mind, but every time I just end up grabbing as many Tail Slashes and Sprinting Warbrutes as I can, which is usually a lot.
Sprinting Warbrute is nasty to go against. I've almost never seen him hard cast because the"swing for 5' is insane.
 

Firemind

Member
I rather enjoy control mirrors to be honest, especially when I outplay them. Much more enjoyable than cascade lucksacking and play 5/6s for two mana.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
After getting mana-screwed in all but two rounds in two FNM's in a row. I'm on the verge of quitting MTG in its entirety. I feel like I need to move to a less absurdly chance based game like I don't know, chess. :/
The luck element is why a bad deck can sometimes win though.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
I simply cannot win with B/R Dash. It's cursed.
I played it yesterday and I had both an Ambuscade Shaman and a Warbringer. Dude just killed them instantly with Draconic Roar and Wild Slash. I had Zurgo too and he Wild Slashed that too.
 

y2dvd

Member
I simply cannot win with B/R Dash. It's cursed.
Madness. You've got the two best color. At a recent local sealed ptq,5 of the top 8 were BR with dash lol.

Esper Dragon gets silly hate because it was a staple deck that emerged early, so it's gonna cause more people to play it. There are so many viable decks you can run now.
 

Firemind

Member
I played it yesterday and I had both an Ambuscade Shaman and a Warbringer. Dude just killed them instantly with Draconic Roar and Wild Slash. I had Zurgo too and he Wild Slashed that too.
Either your dudes get outclassed by bigger creatures, or your creatures all die in the mirror, or you lose the attrition war to U/B. The funny thing is I have never picked up a Dragon Fodder once. Are they super high picks or something? The only time I've had success with anything B/R was when I splashed Dragonlord Kolaghan in my U/B deck. B/R is a trap.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Madness. You've got the two best color. At a recent local sealed ptq,5 of the top 8 were BR with dash lol.

Esper Dragon gets silly hate because it was a staple deck that emerged early, so it's gonna cause more people to play it. There are so many viable decks you can run now.

There's mono red and den protector grindy decks and...?
 
I dropped nighthowler into a sidisi/protector/whip package and it worked out fantastically. The three best bestow targets are sidisi, den protector, and drifting death. I made an esper dragons player scoop in turn 5 when he had no counter for my nighthowler bestowing sidisi. I also made mardu dragons get desperate enough to crux my board leaving his two dragons and my 17/17 nighthowler and whip.

I basically just took out the delve packages and nighthowler became a superstar. My only game loss was when I drew 0 copies of whip, protector, sidisi, nighthowler, or deathmist raptor for 2 straight games. And because we were running 4 rounds of magic with 31 players in the store, I never had a chance with my 1 loss. I'm done going to that store.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
[QUOTE="God's Beard!";163297906]Atarka Red
4CDC
GR Dragons
Abzan Aggro
Esper Dragons
Green Devotion

Only half of those decks are good though.

You could also play a troll deck like Chromantiflayer or Ug Devotion![/QUOTE]theres a huge number of decks you can play. Not a huge number of decks you can win with.
 
[QUOTE="God's Beard!";163303051]I understand that, but what are you dropping? Murderous Cut? Tasigur? Treasure Cruise? Is Nighthowler better than any of those cards? Pumping Den Protector is sweet, but I dunno man.[/QUOTE]

If you maintain your graveyard, yes. It is better than those cards. And since it counts both yards, it's even better against decks that are not tokens or control. sideboard is shaped for those two archetypes and I can transition to a minor control package against anyone trying to go bigger than me.
 
theres a huge number of decks you can play. Not a huge number of decks you can win with.

I mean, the last two opens were won by Sultai Reanimator and Bant Heroic, and Mardu made the finals of last week's GP Toronto. So it seems pretty open still. Abzan Aggro, Atarka Red and Esper Dragons might be the most popular decks, but they're not super oppressive.

If you maintain your graveyard, yes. It is better than those cards. And since it counts both yards, it's even better against decks that are not tokens or control. sideboard is shaped for those two archetypes and I can transition to a minor control package against anyone trying to go bigger than me.

We probably have different lists, but when I play Sultai it's an attrition deck. I don't see the point of having a big vanilla dude because my cards are going to eventually win the game by themselves through raw card advantage. And it's got Whip, so there isn't really a deck "going bigger" than me unless it's straight devotion. At which point yeah, I bring in the Crux of Fate.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
[QUOTE="God's Beard!";163304506]I mean, the last two opens were won by Sultai Reanimator and Bant Heroic, and Mardu made the finals of last week's GP Toronto. So it seems pretty open still. Abzan Aggro, Atarka Red and Esper Dragons might be the most popular decks, but they're not super oppressive.
[/QUOTE]

Bant Heroic isn't actually a good deck though, its just a deck that can fly under the radar if no one prepares for it and "Reanimator" is just a Den Protector grindy deck.

I'm just waiting for rotation I think. I don't have it in me to play 12 months of Abzan whatever.
 

Jhriad

Member
theres a huge number of decks you can play. Not a huge number of decks you can win with.

What number would be considered a realistically attainable "huge number of decks you can win with?" 5 of those decks have seen wins at high levels of play and all of them have seen multiple top 8s. Add in small percentage decks like Heroic, Jeskai Tokens/Ascendancy, and Sultai Whip and the pool seems fairly wide. Of course those decks are all dependent on what the current meta is as they each have their unfavorable matchups. The past two weeks have seen the meta shift toward Esper/Abzan Aggro/RDW but we'll see a shift to widen the pool in the next few weeks as people flesh out decks against Esper.

EDIT: Also, you're being pretty reductive in lumping together some pretty different decks like Reanimator in with other decks that are more focused on Den Protector like the recent Megamorph decks or Collected Company decks.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
What number would be considered a realistically attainable "huge number of decks you can win with?" 5 of those decks have seen wins at high levels of play and all of them have seen multiple top 8s. Add in small percentage decks like Heroic, Jeskai Tokens/Ascendancy, and Sultai Whip and the pool seems fairly wide. Of course those decks are all dependent on what the current meta is as they each have their unfavorable matchups. The past two weeks have seen the meta shift toward Esper/Abzan Aggro/RDW but we'll see a shift to widen the pool in the next few weeks as people flesh out decks against Esper.

EDIT: Also, you're being pretty reductive in lumping together some pretty different decks like Reanimator in with other decks that are more focused on Den Protector like the recent Megamorph decks or Collected Company decks.

Can you just let me think Standard sucks?
 

Jhriad

Member
Can you just let me think Standard sucks?

Haha, sure. :)

If you're not enjoying it, then you're not enjoying it. Doesn't need to be any more complicated than that. That said, I hope you find something to enjoy in Standard before/after Theros rotates. I learn a lot from the more experienced folks in the thread and I'd hate to see any of you posting less because you aren't enjoying Standard.

For those who haven't seen it.
flJjrWA.png

This makes me hopeful that when prices of a lot of the rares are 50% of their current values I can spend the money I would have on a box on some singles. Of course, I don't know why anyone would actually pay MSRP (or more) for a box with that breakdown unless you just REALLY want to draft MM2.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Haha, sure. :)

If you're not enjoying it, then you're not enjoying it. Doesn't need to be any more complicated than that. That said, I hope you find something to enjoy in Standard before/after Theros rotates. I learn a lot from the more experienced folks in the thread and I'd hate to see any of you posting less because you aren't enjoying Standard.



This makes me hopeful that when prices of a lot of the rares are 50% of their current values I can spend the money I would have on a box on some singles. Of course, I don't know why anyone would actually pay MSRP (or more) for a box with that breakdown unless you just REALLY want to draft MM2.

Playing Modern a lot more now. I could probably buy into Twin for not that much since I have a lot of Cryptic Commands and Cliques on MTGO, but meh. I seem to win a reasonable amount for playing such a crummy deck.

As for your second question, the answer is simple: Tarmogoyf lottery.
 

duxstar

Member
A couple friends and I decided to split a box 4 ways just so we could draft the set a couple of times, so we get to keep the cards we draft and actually draft the set a couple of times, I doubt anyone at my lgs will draft the set more than once at $50 a pop
 
I'm just waiting for rotation I think. I don't have it in me to play 12 months of Abzan whatever.

Man think back to Alara or Scars block standard and remember when we had some really oppressive dominant decks. :p

Like I get not being into a Standard format just because you don't like some of the decks, but right now we've got a format with aggro, midrange, and control decks (and we even had a couple random combo decks a few months ago), where every color is majorly played in at least one serious deck, and that has lots of skill-based matchups. I actually can't even think of what else I'd want out of a Standard environment.
 
Owen Turtenwald quote of the day: "Oh no! Don't concede! I almost got my combo of having all mythic rares against someone who's mana screwed!"

By the way, his draft deck was mono-white :3
 

ultron87

Member
Sorry, Scry. Got just bumped off the list by the two Sunburst cards. Just couldn't make it in. You're so complex after all.

Grrrr.
 

kirblar

Member
From Reddit- Perfection-
This was obviously a set made for new players and they didn't want to confuse them. If scry had been there with all of these other mechanics, how could newer players have handled the limited format?

annhilator, phyrexian mana, convoke, artifacts matter, metalcraft, changeling, soulshift, hybrid mana, arcane, evoke, graft, proliferate, affinity, tribal, bloodthirst, wither, persist, kicker, multikicker, basic land cycling, domain, shroud, exalted, cycling, fear, sunburst, living weapon

Scry would have made it way too confusing.
 

Firemind

Member
That's it. I've had it with Dragons. Last three drafts U/B hasn't been open and I lost to G/W bolster of all things. Bring on MM2 I guess.
 
MM2 draft is gonna be hella fun for the 4 days between when it launches and when the last packs that aren't being hoarded by collectors get cracked.
 

ultron87

Member
Also, unless I missed one, Finkel is the only card with Fear in the set so this whole reason is nonsense.

(They'll probably say "it used to be evergreen so it doesn't count").
 

kirblar

Member
MM2 draft is gonna be hella fun for the 4 days between when it launches and when the last packs that aren't being hoarded by collectors get cracked.
I suspect dealers aren't going to be cracking much of this set- better to sit on the boxes for a bit.
 
Do people really make money playing constructed on MODO? Keeping up with Standard seems pretty expensive. My Sultai deck looks like it'd probably run me like 250 bucks.
 
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