like i said, best common in the set. i remember having a ridiculous gw enchantment deck that had literally zero answers for honor guard, and i ended up losing my first match against an unimpressive deck that still managed to drop a honor guard in every game.
most of the folks here are strictly modo players, and apparently eternal masters is going to be an unprofitable format over there. i was actually hoping for some impressions from other cockatrice drafters so we could paint a clearer picture of the format, but it doesn't look like there's much interest.
if you believe cockatrice drafts are a good litmus test of the upcoming format, here is a thread for discussing eternal masters. these are some of my thoughts:
• coalition honor guard is my pick for the best common in the set. there are entire archetypes that basically can't deal with this card. i've seen multiple games where a single honor guard stopped the entire opposing team and allowed its owner to take the win by dealing 2 damage per turn with mistral charger. basically, if you're not in black and your opponent drops this, you're gonna have a bad time.
• honden of infinite rage and prodigal sorcerer are very early picks. every deck will have some targets, and there will be games where a single honden will decimate an entire army.
• skulking ghost is not a mainboard card. while an idea of a 2-power flyer for 2 mana is tempting, there are just too many times your opponent will be able to kill it without spending a card.
• as the most obvious archetype in ema, i wouldn't expect bg elves to be open early on in the format very often. if you're drafting the right way and waiting until mid-pack to fully commit, you probably won't ever get to draft elves. someone on your table will see that lys alana huntmaster or elvish vanguard and start taking every elf they can get their hands on. i've ended up in this archetype exactly once so far, and my first round opponent played a 5-color shrine deck that used huntmasters and honden of life's web to set up an alpha strike with rally the peasants. if you really want to draft elves, i suspect your best chance is to just force them from the start.
• speaking of which, the 5-color shrine deck is very much a thing, but it's hard to find the right balance between fixing, shrines and removal. it's there, though, so...
well, that's it for now. if anyone else wants to share, this is a thread for you.
even in an average deck, this is a playable card. the creature quality is high enough, and a 3-for-1 should make the cut against most decks. if you have some creatures with etb triggers or ways to mill yourself, this goes up in value.
i don't think there is a ur tempo deck (or at least, it doesn't seem like something you'd actively pursue). the archetype plays much the same as in the original innistrad, you don't move into it unless you see a late-ish burning vengeance. pyromaster and dragonauts are only there as fail-safes, but can take over the game as well.
the spells are actually very strong. firebolt, carbonize, counterspell and departure are all at common and help you bide your time, and you have a bunch of draw spells + dream twist as another way to get to your flashback cards. if the rise from the tides deck had spells of this quality, it would have done far better.
the best ub decks have a reanimation package and try their best to cheat powerful creatures into play. the archetype relies on bombs to win anyway, and getting them earlier than expected is obviously a huge boon. in fact, if you get enough reanimation spells (4 at uncommon) and dream twists, you can even play powerful off-color creatures that can't be cast any other way.
ur also has young pyromancer as a payoff. with all the powerful spells in the format, he can provide a surprising amount of value.
other than raise the alarm, white also has rally the peasants at common and intangible virtue and field of souls at uncommon. those are all big clues pointing toward a "going wide" strategy.
black does have wakedancer, but the original innistrad has taught us that morbid is not actually that easy to turn on and usually involves trading or sacrificing your own creatures, which is one less guy to get pumped by the virtue or orcish oriflamme. sengir autocrat is the other token enabler, but i think the size of the tokens (0/1) indicates they are just sacrifice fodder.
in general, the br deck wants its creatures to die for a higher cause (food for carrion fodder, wake of vultures, tooth and claw) and the rw deck wants to amass an army and either make them bigger with pump spells or use them as enablers for a couple of battle squadrons. if you expect your token decks to go wide (the usual strategy), i don't think you can call br a token deck. it's just misleading.
it doesn't really make sense to label the br archetype as tokens when the rw archetype fits that strategy much better. i mean, intangible virtue itself is in white. sure, the br deck utilizes lots of tokens, but they're only there as the most convenient way of turning on morbid and feeding the sacrifice outlets.
other than that, he completely misses the gw enchantment theme and doesn't go into enough details on the exact strategies in ub, rg and wb decks.
the wb deck is kinda tricky. zealous persecution seems to point toward tokens, but black just doesn't have them at common.
i really think etb triggers is the right archetype for wb, there is a whole lot of creatures with those and i don't think they would have put whitemane lion at common without an archetype to support it. still, with only the lion and glimmerpoint stag at uncommon, there's probably more to the strategy. i think you combine those cards with graveyard recursion in black to get more value, but there is still not that much synergy there.
in other news, mother of runes is nigh unbeatable in this format.
there might be a 5-color shrine deck in there, too. the gw deck is a lot of fun, enchantments + creatures that care about them + protection like coalition honor guard or benevolent bodyguard.
You guys can follow the pros blindly but if you do there is no point discussing these topics on the forum.
i don't think i would have the guts to take mad prophet over arlinn either, but he makes his points very clear – a great card you're likely to play is going to be better than a bomb you probably won't put in your deck. and the prophet is going to be great in every red deck, that kind of card filtering is an incredibly valuable effect even without any madness/delirium synergies.
• coalition honor guard is my pick for the best common in the set. there are entire archetypes that basically can't deal with this card. i've seen multiple games where a single honor guard stopped the entire opposing team and allowed its owner to take the win by dealing 2 damage per turn with mistral charger. basically, if you're not in black and your opponent drops this, you're gonna have a bad time.
• my picks for best commons in other colors: firebolt, man-o'-war, eyeblight's ending and elephant guide.
• honden of infinite rage and prodigal sorcerer are very early picks. every deck will have some targets, and there will be games where a single honden will decimate an entire army.
• skulking ghost is not a mainboard card. while an idea of a 2-power flyer for 2 mana is tempting, there are just too many times your opponent will be able to kill it without spending a card.
• as the most obvious archetype in ema, i wouldn't expect bg elves to be open early on in the format very often. if you're drafting the right way and waiting until mid-pack to fully commit, you probably won't ever get to draft elves. someone on your table will see that lys alana huntmaster or elvish vanguard and start taking every elf they can get their hands on. i've ended up in this archetype exactly once so far, and my first round opponent played a 5-color shrine deck that used huntmasters and honden of life's web to set up an alpha strike with rally the peasants. if you really want to draft elves, i suspect your best chance is to just force them from the start.
• speaking of which, the 5-color shrine deck is very much a thing, but it's hard to find the right balance between fixing, shrines and removal. it's there, though, so...
well, that's it for now. if anyone else wants to share, this is a thread for you.
the spells are actually very strong. firebolt, carbonize, counterspell and departure are all at common and help you bide your time, and you have a bunch of draw spells + dream twist as another way to get to your flashback cards. if the rise from the tides deck had spells of this quality, it would have done far better.
ur also has young pyromancer as a payoff. with all the powerful spells in the format, he can provide a surprising amount of value.
black does have wakedancer, but the original innistrad has taught us that morbid is not actually that easy to turn on and usually involves trading or sacrificing your own creatures, which is one less guy to get pumped by the virtue or orcish oriflamme. sengir autocrat is the other token enabler, but i think the size of the tokens (0/1) indicates they are just sacrifice fodder.
in general, the br deck wants its creatures to die for a higher cause (food for carrion fodder, wake of vultures, tooth and claw) and the rw deck wants to amass an army and either make them bigger with pump spells or use them as enablers for a couple of battle squadrons. if you expect your token decks to go wide (the usual strategy), i don't think you can call br a token deck. it's just misleading.
other than that, he completely misses the gw enchantment theme and doesn't go into enough details on the exact strategies in ub, rg and wb decks.
i really think etb triggers is the right archetype for wb, there is a whole lot of creatures with those and i don't think they would have put whitemane lion at common without an archetype to support it. still, with only the lion and glimmerpoint stag at uncommon, there's probably more to the strategy. i think you combine those cards with graveyard recursion in black to get more value, but there is still not that much synergy there.
in other news, mother of runes is nigh unbeatable in this format.
gw - enchantments
rw - tokens / wide
wb - etb triggers
wu - skies
gu - threshold
bg - elves
br - sacrifice / morbid
ub - reanimatior
rg - aggro
ur - spells
there might be a 5-color shrine deck in there, too. the gw deck is a lot of fun, enchantments + creatures that care about them + protection like coalition honor guard or benevolent bodyguard.
i don't think i would have the guts to take mad prophet over arlinn either, but he makes his points very clear – a great card you're likely to play is going to be better than a bomb you probably won't put in your deck. and the prophet is going to be great in every red deck, that kind of card filtering is an incredibly valuable effect even without any madness/delirium synergies.
on a related note, here is pvddr's new article:
http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/the-4-reasons-you-wont-3-0-your-next-draft/
point #3 should be of particular interest, pvddr would actually take mad prophet over arlinn kord p1p1 solely because he's more likely to play it.