Availability and price issues aside, I was thinking that it would be really interesting to draft a Mythic Edition box. Then I looked at the planeswalker list and said to myself "Well, wait, I can just grab these cards that I already own, sleeve them backwards, shuffle, and deal them out with the first pack of GRN. Problem solved." Then I looked at the list again and said to myself "Wait, some of these choices suck. What's going on here? I certainly wouldn't want to be the Bolas player stuck between Ral and Tezz. Half of these have black in them. Only one has green. What were they thinking?"
I basically have two questions for the assemblage:
1) Which walkers push towards which archetypes?
2) What's a more balanced list?
I'll take a stab at answering them myself; although the whole point is to get group input I think that it'll help if you know where I'm coming from.
1)
Elspeth is probably going to end up the cornerstone of a Boros/Selesnya deck. Both guilds like her a lot.
Liliana pulls Golgari. There aren't a ton of Zombies (five that aren't at rare or higher) and most have green. I can see a blue splash, but overall she points to BG.
Daretti ... looking at the list, I think that I go Boros splash black, just on the off chance that I can start cranking out Constructs and casting Putrefy for free every other turn.
Nicol Bolas is the capstone of an Izzet or Dimir deck - probably wants to be Dimir splashing red, but could be the other way around.
Ral is Izzet. He works well with the guild mechanics. He's a good fit and an obvious arrow.
Teferi ... is questionable. He's a powerful card, but Azorius isn't there. Selesnya splashing blue, maybe? I'd say Dimir splash white, but there's going to be a lot of competition for black and I don't think that Teferi wants to add to that.
Tezzeret I think is a trap. I don't see him actually making the cut in my final 40. I pass him in favor of a better bomb, hopefully not in black.
Vraska is clearly Golgari. She doesn't have as much synergy with the guild mechanic as Ral does with his, but at the very least she's an Abrupt Decay, and that's always useful.
I don't think that there's any guild that has fewer than two walkers looking to get into it, so I'm not seeing a wide-open lane for Tezz (which was kind of my hope after I wrote all this down).
2) I think I've talked myself into taking a gamble on Daretti - or, at least, that he's not unplayable in this environment - so I swap Tezz for Ajani. Probably Mentor of Heroes, because Selesnya loves "+1: draw a creature card". If I were going to swap out Daretti, I'd probably trade him for Ajani Vengeant. And I'd probably also swap Vraska for either Relic Seeker or The Unseen.
Those are my thoughts. What are your thoughts?
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My buddy suggested doing the PWs pack 3 so as not to warp the draft as much. It does open up new thoughts about how to set yourself up for a good PW, but you probably won't see the specific PW you are hoping for.
I thought Pack 2 PWs would be better, as it could let you pivot and play whatever PW you get, but at the possible cost of some of your first pack.
To me, both of these options look better than PWs pack 1.
My buddy suggested doing the PWs pack 3 so as not to warp the draft as much.
I think that the whole point is to warp the draft around the planeswalkers. Otherwise, why not just do Triple-GRN?
Because the WHOLE point is to sell product, and the guise of "draft these" is some weird twist that isn't supported by the selection of walkers. Having 5 players starting off in B and only 1 starting off in G is going to lead to a weird (and I think bad) draft experience. I'd be happy to hear otherwise from someone who does the draft!
I'd be happy to hear otherwise from someone who does the draft!
Draft is scheduled for first weekend in November. I'll keep you posted.
Basically, I want to try to poke holes in their "this is a good draft" supposition. If no holes appear, great. If holes appear, well, we'll know for next time.
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So, I actually drafted this on Saturday. It went ... about as expected, honestly.
Elspeth went Naya Aggro. She was a complete house when she dropped.
Liliana showed up in a Golgari shell. Whenever she came down she won the game on her own - no other zombies required.
Daretti went Boros Aggro and ended up winning the whole thing. The pilot didn't even splash for Daretti.
Nicol Bolas went Izzet splashing black, and never got cast.
Ral went full Izzet and never got cast.
I ended up with Teferi, and wow, what a trap. I tried to splash him and a couple big sphinxes into my Selesnya deck, and I never drew both Islands and blue cards in the same game, so I often ended up just color-screwed or with dead cards in my hand.
Tezzeret tried to make Dimir work, but with so much competition it just didn't. He 0-3ed.
Vraska went Golgari, and managed to come down once and win a game.
So I would say that fully half of the planeswalkers were, at best, neutral includes. Tezzeret and Teferi were stones around our necks - I would definitely have done better to play pure Selesnya instead of trying to go Bant. There is NO support for UG nor for WU, but my other option was Izzet-Boros and Teferi isn't what that deck wants to be doing. The Tezzeret player was lamenting the lack of artifacts the whole time. Bolas could maybe have gotten there, and the winner didn't even play his planeswalker. Ral and Vraska are of course in the set, and Elspeth and Lili are monocolored which was a huge flexibility.
Having played it, I can now confidently declare this to be a garbage draft format.
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We've got another Mythic Edition coming, and while there are more options for deckbuilding this time (three monocolored walkers, one at colorless, and two that work with guilds in the set), I'm not thinking that this will be much better. Dack is pretty obviously a pass, and while Ajani could be okay he's in completely unsupported colors so after my experience with Teferi I'd argue that he's also a hard pass. Kaya, while a card that is actually in the set already, doesn't seem too overwhelming to me - she won't affect the board much, and there doesn't seem to be a ton of graveyard shenanigans in RNA for her to disrupt. I'd probably take her anyway because she represents a swing of 6-10 life, but she's not a windmill-slam first-pick.
I'm deeply disappointed that Daretti and Ajani weren't switched. That seems like a no-brainer.
Domri will be a house, Karn is a card drawing engine, and Sorin and Tamiyo are removal on a stick. Jaya is decent, but not unbeatable.
I hope to have the opportunity to draft this Mythic Edition as well, but after the last one I'm significantly less excited about it. Anyone else thinking about drafting this?
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I basically have two questions for the assemblage:
1) Which walkers push towards which archetypes?
2) What's a more balanced list?
I'll take a stab at answering them myself; although the whole point is to get group input I think that it'll help if you know where I'm coming from.
1)
Elspeth is probably going to end up the cornerstone of a Boros/Selesnya deck. Both guilds like her a lot.
Liliana pulls Golgari. There aren't a ton of Zombies (five that aren't at rare or higher) and most have green. I can see a blue splash, but overall she points to BG.
Daretti ... looking at the list, I think that I go Boros splash black, just on the off chance that I can start cranking out Constructs and casting Putrefy for free every other turn.
Nicol Bolas is the capstone of an Izzet or Dimir deck - probably wants to be Dimir splashing red, but could be the other way around.
Ral is Izzet. He works well with the guild mechanics. He's a good fit and an obvious arrow.
Teferi ... is questionable. He's a powerful card, but Azorius isn't there. Selesnya splashing blue, maybe? I'd say Dimir splash white, but there's going to be a lot of competition for black and I don't think that Teferi wants to add to that.
Tezzeret I think is a trap. I don't see him actually making the cut in my final 40. I pass him in favor of a better bomb, hopefully not in black.
Vraska is clearly Golgari. She doesn't have as much synergy with the guild mechanic as Ral does with his, but at the very least she's an Abrupt Decay, and that's always useful.
I don't think that there's any guild that has fewer than two walkers looking to get into it, so I'm not seeing a wide-open lane for Tezz (which was kind of my hope after I wrote all this down).
2) I think I've talked myself into taking a gamble on Daretti - or, at least, that he's not unplayable in this environment - so I swap Tezz for Ajani. Probably Mentor of Heroes, because Selesnya loves "+1: draw a creature card". If I were going to swap out Daretti, I'd probably trade him for Ajani Vengeant. And I'd probably also swap Vraska for either Relic Seeker or The Unseen.
Those are my thoughts. What are your thoughts?
I thought Pack 2 PWs would be better, as it could let you pivot and play whatever PW you get, but at the possible cost of some of your first pack.
To me, both of these options look better than PWs pack 1.
I think that the whole point is to warp the draft around the planeswalkers. Otherwise, why not just do Triple-GRN?
Because the WHOLE point is to sell product, and the guise of "draft these" is some weird twist that isn't supported by the selection of walkers. Having 5 players starting off in B and only 1 starting off in G is going to lead to a weird (and I think bad) draft experience. I'd be happy to hear otherwise from someone who does the draft!
Basically, I want to try to poke holes in their "this is a good draft" supposition. If no holes appear, great. If holes appear, well, we'll know for next time.
Elspeth went Naya Aggro. She was a complete house when she dropped.
Liliana showed up in a Golgari shell. Whenever she came down she won the game on her own - no other zombies required.
Daretti went Boros Aggro and ended up winning the whole thing. The pilot didn't even splash for Daretti.
Nicol Bolas went Izzet splashing black, and never got cast.
Ral went full Izzet and never got cast.
I ended up with Teferi, and wow, what a trap. I tried to splash him and a couple big sphinxes into my Selesnya deck, and I never drew both Islands and blue cards in the same game, so I often ended up just color-screwed or with dead cards in my hand.
Tezzeret tried to make Dimir work, but with so much competition it just didn't. He 0-3ed.
Vraska went Golgari, and managed to come down once and win a game.
So I would say that fully half of the planeswalkers were, at best, neutral includes. Tezzeret and Teferi were stones around our necks - I would definitely have done better to play pure Selesnya instead of trying to go Bant. There is NO support for UG nor for WU, but my other option was Izzet-Boros and Teferi isn't what that deck wants to be doing. The Tezzeret player was lamenting the lack of artifacts the whole time. Bolas could maybe have gotten there, and the winner didn't even play his planeswalker. Ral and Vraska are of course in the set, and Elspeth and Lili are monocolored which was a huge flexibility.
Having played it, I can now confidently declare this to be a garbage draft format.
I'm deeply disappointed that Daretti and Ajani weren't switched. That seems like a no-brainer.
Domri will be a house, Karn is a card drawing engine, and Sorin and Tamiyo are removal on a stick. Jaya is decent, but not unbeatable.
I hope to have the opportunity to draft this Mythic Edition as well, but after the last one I'm significantly less excited about it. Anyone else thinking about drafting this?