Me [2-0-1]
Rw [2-1]
Ah [2-1]
Ab [2-1]
Sf [1-1-1]
Mk [1-2]
Ss [1-2]
Cs [0-3]
Round 1
Me 1-1 Sf
Rw 2-0 Ah
Ab 2-0 Ss
Mk 2-0 Cs
Round 2
Ah 2-0 Sf
Me 2-1 Rw
Ss 2-0 Cs
Ab 2-0 Mk
Round 3
Ah 2-0 Ss
Rw 2-1 Mk
Sf 1-0 Cs
Me 2-1 Ab
My point of view:
Drafting // Thoughts on cards:
First picked
Warkite Marauder over
Spider Spawning, but this took a long time. I knew I wanted to try an aggresive deck, since I was worried about their performance.
Spider Spawning's deck ended up seemingly wide open, with it totally wheeling every time I saw it. I was actually to the right of Ah, who also ended up drafting WU. She stole all my
Feeling of Dreads, which apparently ended up doing great in her matches. I've picked
Seeker of the way and
Farm // Market over them. She, however, in pack two, passed both p1
Fumigate and p3
Dusk // Dawn to me. She apparently hesitated hard on whether to pick
Fumigate or the other card, and decided on the card that she doesn't remember. I was happy to get them, but only played the
Dusk // Dawn which did quite poorly, while the
Fumigate stayed in the sideboard. I had heard that sweepers were actually great in any limited decks, but I don't think this is the case in my cube. My deck felt more like a Tempo deck, that sometimes drew
Dusk Dawn and would die before it did a difference, than a midrange limited deck that could take advantage of it. Lesson learned. I also wondered if the two
Farm // Market did end up better than the two missed
Feeling of Dreads. 3 mana ended up being a ton. Also, Pack two was full of R and B cards, probably luck, with two packs that after 5 or so picks had no non-land, non Rakdos coloured cards.
Match 1 Me [1-1-1] Sf (WB Lifegain)
Game one took something like 35-40 minutes out of our 50 minute rounds. I mulled a "great" hand with two
Plains, where I'd only need an
Island, I know how this works. I look at the top card and its my
Island I end up keeping an ok 6. She turns two
Sun Droplet right before being hit down to 12 from 20. Between it,
Black Sun's Zenith,
Chastise,
Bloodbond Vampire,
Scourred Barrens, she ended up at 21 something like 6 turns later. From then, I'd try to get enough creatures to push momentum through, but the
Sun Droplet REALLY hindered it. Something about making a single 2/2 useless felt really bad once you've been sweeped and are trying to topdeck more creatures. She re-drew
Black Sun's Zenith and
Wall of Limbs while I tryed to survive as long as possible to find out if she had another sweeper. Ab finished his match early and came to watch the end of this game, and the rest of the round. Game two I boarded in
Increasing Devotion thinking of it and
Rally the Peasants being a strong combo. Never drew it, nor did I need it. She's a bit afraid of what my deck does, as I turn attacking two 2/2s into a 0/3 and a 3/3 into 5 life for me, and a wiped board for her, for two mana, so she starts letting me in through more often. She starts feeding cards to
Trading Post to gain 4 a turn, and I beat her in turns. We don't even start game three, knowing we'll just tie it, and accept the [1-1-1] score (maybe should hav been [1-1]?).
Match 2 Me [2-1] Rw (Naya Value)
In game one, I mulligan to 6, and keep a hand with a
Plains and
Temple of Silence, hoping the two scries will help me find a blue source. On turn 5 or so I draw
Temple of Epiphany and that does not end up being enough. He overruns me with
Overgrown Battlement,
Wall of Blossom, two
Vent Sentinels,
Bygone Bishop,
Fleetfoot Panther, and
Aven Riftwatcher. Some say he's stick cracking clues to this day. I think he ended up playing a
Blessed Alliance against me each game. Game two I mull to 6, and decide I'm more likely to win off the ~20% chance of getting the lands I need than by a mull to 5, which my opponent says is suicide in this format. I miss my third land drop, but not the next two. Ab finishes his match early and comes watch my match. He tells me to come meet him in the finals, he 2-0'd both his opponents. I tell him not a chance, with how my games have been going. He says damn, his deck can beat me this time. My opponent doesn't get green mana (after inattentively
Ash Barrensing for a 2nd
Mountain.) and I run him over. Now that Ab is watching, and knowing he's gotten information about my deck before in round 1, and knowing I'll face him in the finals if I win, I start trying to play attention to which cards I cast this game, I end up winning the game off two
Silent Departures, but let the game take a couple more turns to hide my
Rally the Peasants from Ab. I also bluff a
Force Spike, which Rw totally falls for, but which doesn't end up making a huge difference. Ab calls me the final boss.
Match 3 Me [2-1] Ab (Jund Value) Boss Fight
Game one he turns one
Rakdos Cackler and I assume he's super aggresive. I then drop the slightly less aggresive
Elusive Spellfist to save the
Warkite Maraunder. Turns out I'm overthinking things. He doesn't get a 2nd land, and I turn 3
Mentor of the Meek and turn 4 and 5
Warkite+ draw. On turn 5 he gets his third land, which was an
Evolving Wilds. He's at 21, and I swing with my entire team, making
Rakdos Cackler a super 0/1, with a +1/+1 counter. He doesn't block, and I
Rally the Peasants + flashback for 25. Game two he
Stomrbinds my board of
Stonecloaker,
Seeker of the Way and
Mentor of the Meek. I Market (
Farm // Market)
Dusk // Dawn to the bin, to get two guys back, and I've seen no targets for it, and slow rolling it vs Rw before just let him develop his board and the longer the game goes the less favoured I am. His
Stormbind just does work. He then
Mindwrack Demons and
Azra Oddsmaker and I just die. I board out
Dusk // Dawn and
Stonecloaker which no longer feel like they should be in my deck, and board in
Bonesplitter and
Mardu Woe-Reaper. Game three was close. He gets down an early
Wall of Blossoms, but lets an attack through, cause who knows what my deck does. I then drop a
Warkite Marauder, and he gets a
Flesh Carver. I get him down to 13 a bit fast, and he deals a bit to me. I kill the
Flesh Carver with a combat trick, and his 4/4 Token ends up being a pain. I think it ends up trading and he
Biting Rains when I'm tapped out, and I lose a big board, I think including
Mentor of the Meek. My board is now a single
Spellweaver Eternal with a
Rally the Peasants in hand. He
Mindwrack Demons and keeps a black up. I guess
Ulcerate. He whiffs on the mill and ends up with only creatures and sorceries.
Necropolis Fiend,
Spider Spawning,
Resilient Khenra, and
Bloodghast are in his yard. I worry and play a creature. He goes to 9 from the
Mindwrack Demon, swings me down to 8, and then
Sever the Bloodlines it. I swing with the
Spellweaver Eternal and the rando creature. He
Ulcerates it (6) and blocks
Spellweaver Eternal taking 2 (4) and killing it. He eternalizes
Resilient Khenra and I cast
Aven Wind Mage. He swings me down to 4 and casts a creature. I swing over with
Aven Wind Mage and cast
Rally the Peasants. Game Over.
The decks:
[2-0-1] Me:
WU Prowess
[2-1] Rw:
Naya Value
[2-1] Ah
WU Golems
[2-1] Ab
Jund Midrange
[1-1-1] Sf
WB Lifegain
[1-2] Mk
UG Midrange Value
[1-2] Ss (60 Card deck)
Grixis Anti Mill
[0-3] Cs
Cool things I heard about:
Sf got the
Sanguine Bond,
Heroes Remembered insta-kill off vs Cs. Rw beat Ah with a
Suspicious Bookcase sneaking in a
Havenwood Wurm +
Heart-Piercer Manticore the turn before she would win. Sf turn 1
Heroes Remembered and turn 5
Sanguined Bonded, right before dying to Ah.
Number of decks in each colors:
W 4
U 5
B 3
R 3
G 4
Glade Watcher ->
Qarsi Archers
Glade Watcher worried me a bit with its 3/3 body. I felt like it would be too good vs aggresive decks. I figured that I'd want defenders to fit in two major groups. Low power, High toughness defenders are good vs early aggression decks, but don't stifle them completely, as they don't lose their creatures. On the opposite spectrum, high power, low toughness walls can trade way above their cost, but don't do well vs cheap aggro swarms. Two 3/3 wall completely wreck two 2/2s and a 2/3, where as two 5/1 walls or two 1/5 allow for better gameplay imo. This lets the walls slow down, without killing aggro, and lets agro chose if they want to risk losing their best creature, or if they want to slow down.
Qarsi Archers fits well imo, even if its bad.
Carven Caryatid ->
Wall of Omens
As above,
Carven Caryatid seemed to stifle agro a bit too much.
Wall of Omens might be a better card, but can be played around much more.
Jeskai Student ->
Seeker of the Way #3
Jeskai Student seemed too weak, and didn't promote aggression, which is something white is missing (too many anti-tempo card, like the ones that bounce on EtB).
Seeker of the Way just seems to be the best prowess card available to white at that CMC. Having a third copy feels a bit bad, I'm heading towards constructed, but I also didn't like that I was thinking of "number of cards" as something to considered. So decided to add a third copy, so "Two cards max" doesn't end up being the new singleton for me.
Monastery Mentor ->
Pegasus Courser
Speaking of Prowess,
Monastery Mentor didn't really felt like it fit. It seems like it promises to be too strong while also underperforming. It isn't only used by prowess, these prowess decks don't have the same density of spells as constructed ones, so it ends up being a slightly more expensive
Seeker of the Way that makes a 1/1. My ideal prowess creature in white would be a 2/3 for 2W or something.
Pegasus Courser I've wanted to add for a bit and didn't fint a slot yet.
Dragscape Zombie ->
Blood Artist #2
Dragscape Zombie never saw play, and some wanted
Blood Artist back. Easy.
Augury Owl ->
Elusive Spellfist
The recent push towards aggressive made me realise the
Augury Owl did way less in virtually any deck. A slow deck doesn't care about the scry as much as the 1/3 body in this case, and the 1/1 flying body is deceptively bad.
Elusive Spellfist was tried out and I'm happy with it. It is maybe slightly worse in Ninjas, which isn't really a full deck, but better in everything else. I believe.
Frontier Mastodon ->
Resilient Khenra #2
See a few posts above. No one played the
Frontier Mastodon, and the
Resilient Khenra was well liked.
Renegade Krasis ->
Mouth // Feed #2
Renegade Krasis was often a trap, and I've never seen it do well.
Mouth // Feed has a good body, and the aftermath works well with quite a few things.
Bludgeon Brawl ->
Sarkhan's Unsealing
Bludgeon Brawl was cool and all. However
Sarkhan's Unsealing is really cool, keys off power and with the
Glade Watcher ->
Qarsi Archers change, every RG defender that has low toughness triggers it. I think this could be really cool. Also, only golems trigger the 7+ trigger. Fun fact.
Cloudblazer->
Feeling of Dread
There is already enough value.
Feeling of Dread helps decks that worry about tempo, I like this.
Condemn ->
Heroes Remembered
Placeholder.
Condemn I'm getting rid of, but my
Ramosian Rally is in the mail.
EDIT:
Uhh and
Evacuation ->
Unsubstatiate #2
Evacuation did nothing that you'd want it to. The format is too creature centric for it to herm your opponent more than you, and there are some decent EtB effects. Blue is now even more aggressive/tempo oriented. I'm starting to wonder if I'm being lazy in the amount of duplication. Might need a fix.
