This week of bonus prizes on Magic Online has spurred me to go a little overboard...but with 2 more 3-0s to show for it! One with an aggressive WB deck, one with a more midrange/Zombie focused WB deck.
Yeah, what this block's limited format really needed was another bomby uncommon that heavily penalized blocking and ended games early. Maybe in the fall set, they can just only print creatures that can't block. God forbid a control deck is possible in limited.
Two 3-0 decks from today's hot streak, one controlling and one aggressive. Aggressive deck is probably the 2nd best deck I've drafted this format, second only to a RG aggressive deck with Glorybringer.
I did 3 drafts today when Amonkhet got released online and was fortunate enough to 3-0 2 of them (the other one was a catastrophic 0-2-drop). The decks could not be more different either - the first was an aggressive, punishing R/G exert deck, while the latter was a bit of a trainwreck draft that I salvaged by turning it into a 3-color green ramp deck and playing multiple Gift of Paradise to win either with accelerated Colossapede and River Serpent or Sandwurm Convergence (of the 6 games I won, the Sandwurm Convergence was responsible for 3 of them - in game 3 of the finals I waited about 6 turns with it in my hand because my opponent was telegraphing multiple counterspells, until they played their second copy of Cancel and I immediately jammed it the next turn)
My opponent and me are in a ground stall, where I have a 7/7 but can't profitably attack with it, when they play Nissa, Steward of Elements. They take it to 12 loyalty over a couple of turns, while playing another 2 fliers. Finally, they use her ult and attack with the fliers as well...and I Heaven//Earth to kill all their fliers, including the lands, then aftermath it on my turn to kill everything but my 7/7, which I use to finish off Nissa.
So far my problem in the format is that I think I tend to draft midrangey decks that beat other midrange decks, and stomp aggressive decks, but lose to the more dedicated control decks with strong win conditions.
Today I finally broke my 2-1 streak and went 3-0 with a RB sacrifice aggro deck though!
The author of that article doesn't know anything..."failing to make headway among casual and hardcore players" - basically every hardcore player uses MTGO!
Well, a lot of the reason for that can be traced to Sue Ann Harkey, who came on as the art director during Alliances and lasted to Weatherlight. She really shook up a lot of things in the company, too, and was hated for it. The old guard of artists didn't like her because she brought in a lot of new blood, and she was put in the unenviable position of ending royalty payments for the artists. R&D didn't like her because she would pair art with cards that made sense artistically but not necessarily in a game-mechanic sense. Mark Rosewater in particular had it out for her; recall his disgruntlement at changing the effect of Waiting in the Weeds because of the art she chose for the card.
I remember this. Ironic how one of the pieces she pulled from an artist trade show was the "forest spirit" that would end up as the art for Maro, the original of which Mark Rosewater now proudly owns. She may not have been the best fit for the position but she wasn't afraid to make what turned out to be some vital, enduring decisions.
I don't think it's accurate to say Mark Rosewater "had it out" for Sue Ann - most of the times I've seen him talk about her, it was very positive. He just brings up the Waiting in the Weeds story because it's a funny story and he likes squirrels and likes talking about their history.
My least favorite kind of card - an obnoxious limited bomb that loses you games no other card could, while not being good enough in constructed to justify its existence.
Gruul deck from this week's Gatecrash flashbacks - it could kill a slow deck extremely quickly with the +5 power Bloodrush creatures, but it had enough dumb blockers and removal to stall against a more aggressive deck. Clan Defiance was obviously an absurd MVP.
Continuing the flashback decks, here's an Azorius deck that both had the early game defense to survive Rakdos and multiple ways to grind out a long game or kill with fliers while Voidwielders block on the ground.
I don't know if I'd call the forced aggression "unfair" - it's almost more fair in a way since the aggressive decks made up of primarily commons can kill you before you have a chance to draw your bomb mythic rares.
I'm not loving Kaladesh all that much, but luckily triple Innistrad is back this week!
Kind of a trainwreck draft as I realized red was open a little too late to make it work and ended up playing all 23 of the remotely playable cards in my colors, but it worked, especially thanks to the fact that this deck could suddenly go from stalling to killing you with fliers very quickly with the help of the two power-boosting equipment.
Faced GW aggro round 1 with 4x Travel Preparations, WB midrange round 2, and UGB Spider Spawning in the finals.
Deck #2 is a pretty solid UB Zombies deck with a lot of ways to get value from recurring creatures, fliers to evade, and then Liliana for 64 tickets worth of value.
Today I finally broke my 2-1 streak and went 3-0 with a RB sacrifice aggro deck though!
I don't think it's accurate to say Mark Rosewater "had it out" for Sue Ann - most of the times I've seen him talk about her, it was very positive. He just brings up the Waiting in the Weeds story because it's a funny story and he likes squirrels and likes talking about their history.
Kind of a trainwreck draft as I realized red was open a little too late to make it work and ended up playing all 23 of the remotely playable cards in my colors, but it worked, especially thanks to the fact that this deck could suddenly go from stalling to killing you with fliers very quickly with the help of the two power-boosting equipment.
Faced GW aggro round 1 with 4x Travel Preparations, WB midrange round 2, and UGB Spider Spawning in the finals.
Deck #2 is a pretty solid UB Zombies deck with a lot of ways to get value from recurring creatures, fliers to evade, and then Liliana for 64 tickets worth of value.
UBRG
4/4
Trample
Whenever it hits a player, spells you cast have cascade this turn?