M-Origins Grid #2

Chriskool · Oct 21, 2016

Grid Drafting!

Added these cards to the forum MTGO account! Grab a denizen and let me know how the games/decks turned out!

Nonblue M-Origins Grid

Pack 1

Row 1:
1 Sengir Autocrat
1 Llanowar Empath
1 Savage Alliance

Row 2:
1 Sentinel Spider
1 Gift of Orzhova
1 Gaze of Granite

Row 3:
1 Tormenting Voice
1 Devouring Swarm
1 Devouring Swarm

Column 1:
1 Sengir Autocrat
1 Sentinel Spider
1 Tormenting Voice

Column 2:
1 Llanowar Empath
1 Gift of Orzhova
1 Devouring Swarm

Column 3:
1 Savage Alliance
1 Gaze of Granite
1 Devouring Swarm

Pack 2

Row 1:
1 Torch Fiend
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Sengir Autocrat

Row 2:
1 Traitorous Instinct
1 Savage Twister
1 Wild Beastmaster

Row 3:
1 Hammerhand
1 Boon of Erebos
1 Temple of Plenty

Column 1:
1 Torch Fiend
1 Traitorous Instinct
1 Hammerhand

Column 2:
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Savage Twister
1 Boon of Erebos

Column 3:
1 Sengir Autocrat
1 Wild Beastmaster
1 Temple of Plenty

Pack 3

Row 1:
1 Temple of Triumph
1 Seraph of Dawn
1 Epic Proportions

Row 2:
1 Borrowed Grace
1 Predatory Nightstalker
1 Harmonize

Row 3:
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Galvanic Arc

Column 1:
1 Temple of Triumph
1 Borrowed Grace
1 Phyrexian Revoker

Column 2:
1 Seraph of Dawn
1 Predatory Nightstalker
1 Evolving Wilds

Column 3:
1 Epic Proportions
1 Harmonize
1 Galvanic Arc

Pack 4

Row 1:
1 Skywhaler's Shot
1 Dragon Engine
1 Shambling Ghoul

Row 2:
1 Corpse Hauler
1 Greel's Caress
1 Dynacharge

Row 3:
1 Goblin Heelcutter
1 Cultivate
1 Phyrexian Gargantua

Column 1:
1 Skywhaler's Shot
1 Corpse Hauler
1 Goblin Heelcutter

Column 2:
1 Dragon Engine
1 Greel's Caress
1 Cultivate

Column 3:
1 Shambling Ghoul
1 Dynacharge
1 Phyrexian Gargantua

Pack 5

Row 1:
1 Perilous Shadow
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Knightly Valor

Row 2:
1 Magma Giant
1 Security Blockade
1 Goblin Heelcutter

Row 3:
1 Thornweald Archer
1 Volcanic Dragon
1 Judge Unworthy

Column 1:
1 Perilous Shadow
1 Magma Giant
1 Thornweald Archer

Column 2:
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Security Blockade
1 Volcanic Dragon

Column 3:
1 Knightly Valor
1 Goblin Heelcutter
1 Judge Unworthy

Pack 6

Row 1:
1 Life's Legacy
1 Sengir Autocrat
1 Auratouched Mage

Row 2:
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Corpse Hauler
1 Reclamation Sage

Row 3:
1 Nomad Mythmaker
1 Hammerhand
1 Three Dreams

Column 1:
1 Life's Legacy
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Nomad Mythmaker

Column 2:
1 Sengir Autocrat
1 Corpse Hauler
1 Hammerhand

Column 3:
1 Auratouched Mage
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Three Dreams

Pack 7

Row 1:
1 Graveblade Marauder
1 Holy Mantle
1 Prison Term

Row 2:
1 Thran Golem
1 Brood Keeper
1 Magma Jet

Row 3:
1 Restock
1 Selesnya Guildmage
1 Righteous Confluence

Column 1:
1 Graveblade Marauder
1 Thran Golem
1 Restock

Column 2:
1 Holy Mantle
1 Brood Keeper
1 Selesnya Guildmage

Column 3:
1 Prison Term
1 Magma Jet
1 Righteous Confluence

Pack 8

Row 1:
1 Angelic Page
1 Kruin Striker
1 Indomitable Will

Row 2:
1 Carven Caryatid
1 Unmake the Graves
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder

Row 3:
1 Orzhov Basilica
1 Siege Wurm
1 Siege Wurm

Column 1:
1 Angelic Page
1 Carven Caryatid
1 Orzhov Basilica

Column 2:
1 Kruin Striker
1 Unmake the Graves
1 Siege Wurm

Column 3:
1 Indomitable Will
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Siege Wurm

Pack 9

Row 1:
1 Covenant of Blood
1 Orcish Bloodpainter
1 Faith Unbroken

Row 2:
1 Blossoming Defense
1 Raise the Alarm
1 Stonecloaker

Row 3:
1 Temple of Abandon
1 Briarpack Alpha
1 Maw of the Obzedat

Column 1:
1 Covenant of Blood
1 Blossoming Defense
1 Temple of Abandon

Column 2:
1 Orcish Bloodpainter
1 Raise the Alarm
1 Briarpack Alpha

Column 3:
1 Faith Unbroken
1 Stonecloaker
1 Maw of the Obzedat

Pack 10

Row 1:
1 Rakdos Carnarium
1 Tattermunge Witch
1 Skywhaler's Shot

Row 2:
1 Raise the Alarm
1 Galvanic Arc
1 Magma Phoenix

Row 3:
1 Blossoming Defense
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Gods Willing

Column 1:
1 Rakdos Carnarium
1 Raise the Alarm
1 Blossoming Defense

Column 2:
1 Tattermunge Witch
1 Galvanic Arc
1 Evolving Wilds

Column 3:
1 Skywhaler's Shot
1 Magma Phoenix
1 Gods Willing

Pack 11

Row 1:
1 Civic Wayfinder
1 Epic Confrontation
1 Mentor of the Meek

Row 2:
1 Boros Garrison
1 Phantom General
1 Temple of Malice

Row 3:
1 Grisly Spectacle
1 Graceblade Artisan
1 War Priest of Thune

Column 1:
1 Civic Wayfinder
1 Boros Garrison
1 Grisly Spectacle

Column 2:
1 Epic Confrontation
1 Phantom General
1 Graceblade Artisan

Column 3:
1 Mentor of the Meek
1 Temple of Malice
1 War Priest of Thune

Pack 12

Row 1:
1 Dragon Engine
1 Rotfeaster Maggot
1 Epic Confrontation

Row 2:
1 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
1 Wild Beastmaster
1 Raise the Alarm

Row 3:
1 Flamekin Spitfire
1 Seraph of Dawn
1 Flaring Flame-Kin

Column 1:
1 Dragon Engine
1 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
1 Flamekin Spitfire

Column 2:
1 Rotfeaster Maggot
1 Wild Beastmaster
1 Seraph of Dawn

Column 3:
1 Epic Confrontation
1 Raise the Alarm
1 Flaring Flame-Kin

Pack 13

Row 1:
1 Shambling Ghoul
1 Pacifism
1 Gnawing Zombie

Row 2:
1 Tormenting Voice
1 Kruin Striker
1 Read the Bones

Row 3:
1 Lust for War
1 Harsh Scrutiny
1 Woodland Bellower

Column 1:
1 Shambling Ghoul
1 Tormenting Voice
1 Lust for War

Column 2:
1 Pacifism
1 Kruin Striker
1 Harsh Scrutiny

Column 3:
1 Gnawing Zombie
1 Read the Bones
1 Woodland Bellower

Pack 14

Row 1:
1 Precinct Captain
1 Temple of Malady
1 Kruin Striker

Row 2:
1 Strands of Undeath
1 Glory of Warfare
1 Judge Unworthy

Row 3:
1 Desecrator Hag
1 Fill with Fright
1 Feral Incarnation

Column 1:
1 Precinct Captain
1 Strands of Undeath
1 Desecrator Hag

Column 2:
1 Temple of Malady
1 Glory of Warfare
1 Fill with Fright

Column 3:
1 Kruin Striker
1 Judge Unworthy
1 Feral Incarnation

Pack 15

Row 1:
1 Dragon Mantle
1 Dragon Engine
1 Blazing Specter

Row 2:
1 Indomitable Will
1 Phantom General
1 Harsh Scrutiny

Row 3:
1 Delraich
1 Fill with Fright
1 Overgrown Battlement

Column 1:
1 Dragon Mantle
1 Indomitable Will
1 Delraich

Column 2:
1 Dragon Engine
1 Phantom General
1 Fill with Fright

Column 3:
1 Blazing Specter
1 Harsh Scrutiny
1 Overgrown Battlement

Pack 16

Row 1:
1 Flamespeaker Adept
1 Thornweald Archer
1 Last Gasp

Row 2:
1 Totem-Guide Hartebeest
1 Greel's Caress
1 Evolving Wilds

Row 3:
1 Last Gasp
1 Burn Away
1 Boon of Erebos

Column 1:
1 Flamespeaker Adept
1 Totem-Guide Hartebeest
1 Last Gasp

Column 2:
1 Thornweald Archer
1 Greel's Caress
1 Burn Away

Column 3:
1 Last Gasp
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Boon of Erebos

Kirblinx · Nov 6, 2016

So I got to play a new grid that I am not used to and had a ball like usual. First pack was interesting, as it had a double devouring swarm that was seriously tempting me, but I ended up taking the top row as it had just more generically good cards. I shafted green early and tried to shift into some sort of combination of RWB tokens, but ended up with way too much removal and no fixing, so decided to go control:

I recorded all the games and have posted them up like usual:

Match 1:

Match 2:

For those who don't want to watch here is a quick little summary.
M1G1 was a bit of a non-game. Chris mulliganed to 5 cards. I curve out a Kruin Striker into a Raise the Alarm and just remove everything he plays (the Auratouched Mage + Holy Mantle was a tad scary though) and win with just those three creatures on board.

M1G2 is a good one to watch. I do nothing for a while, and a Briarback Alpha + Gift of Orzhova beat me down until I can Burn Away. I then Faith's Unbroken (removing Precinct Captain) on my Seraph of Dawn to try and get some life back. It gets only one swing in before Skywhaler's Shot takes it down

I then get to drop Magma Phoenix to help me potentially sweep the board. We then hit a board stall as Chris doesn't want his team to die, until I hit Knightly Valor on the Phoenix to start putting some pressure on. I then misplay trying to kill a Wild Beastmaster with Savage Alliance before combat and a Epic Proportions is cast and I take a beating, but the phoenix still lives. I then rip a Righteous Confluence and sandbag it for a turn to remove a Holy Mantle that is in Chris's hand and manage to grind out the win from there with the phoenix.

M2G1 I curve a Flaring Flame-Kin into a Galvanic Arc and get some sweet damage in until Reclamation Sage + Epic Confrontation takes it down. Then just keep the pressure on with Kruin Striker and Phyrexian Revoker which he needs to trade with. Then drop a Seraph of Dawn with Faith Unbroken in hand and Chris on 4. He taps out for a Woodland Bellower and I know I have the game wrapped up.

M2G2 I keep a two-plains hand and don't hit my third land drop and by about turn 6 I have 4 plains in play. I did what I could with Prison Term, Judge Unworthy and Pacifism, but a Bellower comes with a Rec Sage to ruin my day with not a red source in sight.

M2G3 was sort of more of the same, expect I mulliganed to a hand of 5 land a Prison Term. Kept drawing way too many lands and when I almost looked like I was ahead a Gaze of Granite came and destroyed all of my board. Although I must say that Flamekin Spitfire did a lot of work in this game, I guess because of the flooding :\

My deck was fun if not a tad creature light. It was also strange that we kept fighting over the Sengir Autocrat's in the draft yet neither one of us decided to play black in the end. It felt weird having this much removal in one of your grid drafts, I always thought you had minimal amounts.

Card Comments:

Righteous Confluence seems really swingy. Got to love bombs in a format, but it still seems a bit too bomby compared to the rest of the cards in the cube.
What is the point of Torch Fiend in this cube? I wanted another two drop but it seemed mediocre and it's ability never had any targets, so I just left it in the board.
Magma Phoenix is great and induced some great lines of play around it. Will pick highly next time.
Felt I wanted to splash white and have black as my other main, due to my abundance of 2 drops, but all the white cards I wanted to play were WW. Was this a design decision to make splashing bombs from other colours harder, because that is some next-level thinking if true.
Woodland Bellower seems like it has a home here. Seemed like your best card throughout all our games. Reclamation Sage also gave me nightmares.
Savage Alliance seems strong on a format dictated around tokens.
Faith Unbroken is a great card. Very swingy in risk/reward and makes the game change when it is played. A great low-powered card.
Flaring Flame-kin was a card I didn't even know existed. I wanted another one, then it might have been worth running the Hammerhand's I had hoarded.

Cheers for the games Chris. Until next time (there will always be a next time).

Chriskool · Nov 6, 2016

I drafted a solid green base, but didn't pay attention to my secondary color until it was too late...

I initially tried a tokens/ramp build, with miscellaneous splashes, and never settled on a build with which I felt really comfortable. As Kirb alluded, I tried a variation with the Gaze of Granite in the final match (and cut white to a splash). I didn't prioritize removal correctly during the draft process (or maybe the white removal mostly just showed up when Kirb was picking first), so my deck was pretty vulnerable to Kirb's big auras.

Side note: Grid has felt pretty punishing if there is a skill disparity or a hasty (bad) pick. The "first pick nature" of the format makes filler hurt. This has been a real pain point in building/editing the populations: cards need to have non-fringe application to be worth considering as a pick. (And the process of identifying these bad apple cards has been slow/iterative.)

Some single card comments:

The Three Dreams was lackluster without removal or aura payoff in the deck. I had it in a few games but ultimately decided it wasn't impactful enough to remain in this build. This aura situation also made Auratouched Mage and Totem-Guide Hartebeest much weaker than I had hoped.
Epic Confrontation was better than I anticipated. I didn't play much Dragons draft and didn't know what to expect, but it seemed quite serviceable as removal in green.
As Kirb correctly identified, Woodland Bellower was my all-star. Although, it didn't always come with the tools to stabilize my game (as it couldn't get Thornweald Archer in my deck).
The transition from tokens into large creatures seemed to devalue the twin Wild Beastmasters, as I didn't feel like I was accumulating an impressive army to buff. Perhaps, I should've looked at playing the Tattermunge Witch, Goblin Heelcutter and Brood Keeper over Auratouched Mage, Sentinel Spider and Cultivate to focus more on attacking, although, the red cards could be hard to support after cutting manafixing. (This is probably another drafting failure on my part.)
Perhaps Savage Alliance should be something like Fault Line, Chain Reaction, Anger of the Gods, Homing Lightning or the like. The one-sided and splashable nature of the card are possibly too much for what this grid wants.
I'll monitor Righteous Confluence, but I hoped to include a 4-5 cmc, noncreature, token top-end with WW in its mana cost that also could could have a role in ramp decks. I guess there is an argument for Triplicate Spirits.

I definitely want to make some edits as detailed in the cube blog (in hopes of removing the last of the dregs and keeping the archetypes present and viable. This session has given me some more edits to consider as well.

@Kirblinx,

I'm glad you happened upon the CC mana cost observation! It was a conscious attempt to keep premium cards to decks playing their color as a primary. I had some nice top-end red in my board that my mana wouldn't support (which seems healthy). Unfortunately, the existing Magic cardpool doesn't always align so that inclusions can be made on color weight, but this knob seems really interesting in all faux-limited design spaces (and especially in grid or fantasy limited sets).

Red and/or may have be a little too heavy on removal. I also question if I cut one too many black removal spells in my quest to neuter the color; the second Grisly Spectacle may have a place yet!

What did you think of Stonecloaker?

Thanks for the games, as always, and your more substantial coverage of them!

M-Origins Grid #2

Chriskool

Kirblinx

Developer

Chriskool