Fantasy Set-isfaction

[Modin]

Graving a deeper form of satisfaction and the retail limited feel, me and my cousin set out to build our own fantasy set. Leaning onto the groundbreaking work of Chris: MTGO Academy we tried to give the set little bit of a personal touch.
Here is what it came down to:

• First of all: The Cubetutor List
• Booster setup: 5 c1, 3 c2, 4 u1, 1 u2, 1 rare, 1 land
• There are 51 different c1, 45 different c2, 80 u1, 60, u2, 60 rares, and 2 of each fetch/shock+20 random utility lands, which are combined to provide 60 boosters.
• We decided to add the land slot in order to solve the problem of fixing distribution, I am not convinced it is the best approach but testing will show.

As stated above we were greatly influenced by Chris and his work, which is also displayed in some of the archetypes(2 commons, 2 uncomomns, a rare):
WU Skies(with added Flicker-interactions)

UB Faeries

BR (Steal and) Sacrifice

RG Ferocious/Throw cards around

GW Tokens

WB Humans

BG Graveyard

GU Ramp

UR Spells(MiniStorm)

RW Doublestrike/Equipment

Build around

The set has only been drafted once, so things like format speed, archetype strenght and color balance are not clear to us yet. With archetypes like fearies we really tried to give them a broader application and work them into other archetypes(in this case UW and GB). We wanted removal to be available and applicable and give players quite an easy access to card advantage especially in green. From the one draft we did it looked like a rather wide variety of deck speeds were possible with GB Durdle on the one side and RW Blitz/Combo aggro on the other.
I would love you guys to look through the list and comment on things you notice, as tunnel vision is a real thing

EDIT: Ugh. I suck at formating posts posting on these formus.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

!!!

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

Do you have any sample decklists? Would love to see a faerie deck.

 

[Modin]

Thanks for the suggestion! I think the Goblin could easily replace Frenzied Goblin.

At our first draft, 3 out of 6 people wanted to go into faeries so I don't think the following list is showing the average faeries list, but here is what I drafted (from my recollection). I picked up my loss by going 1-2 against my cousin's Junk Whip deck with double Murderous Redcap

UBr Faeries Control 2-1

The good thing about faeries in this set is that you can quite easily fall back into a slower UB control deck as many of the Faeries are actually 2 for 1s and the interaction between Nameless Inversion and Faerie Harbinger is always sweet. Also the set is full of one toughness creatures so Peppersmoke will most likely find a target.

 

[Chriskool]

Wooo! Exciting

Just perusing the colors at each rarity, I notice a possible issue in green. While all other colors have a 5-5-creature-spell split (which seems correct +/- one card) in C1, green has 8 creatures and 2 spells. Since C1 cards are represented so much more frequently than other rarity slots, I think that this imbalance will pop up frequently with green decks always having enough creatures along its curve (even when passing creatures for spells earlier).

In general, I've had a hard time cutting creatures for spells (in both of my projects to date), but the draft experience feels more authentic as creature-spell ratio approaches 1:1 in pack composition. (I think conventional sets are around 45:55.)

What are your concerns at the moment: missed inclusions, color imbalances, archetype cohesion? Is there anywhere particular thoughts should be focused?

 

[Modin]

So we did our first draft with the complete set yesterday. We did 2 10-man drafts which took a lot of time and led to some funky decks. Sadly I didn't remember to write down the lists, so you have to settle for the winning list of the 2nd draft which I played and therefore still remember:

UR Control 3-0

The deck played pretty well, having two Mulldrifters was the nuts, apart from all the other stuff I shouldn't have been passed. Ludevic's Test Subject was under heavy discussion as it just killed people out of nowhere, what do you guys think of that card powerlevel wise? I felt that it couldn't be too strong as pumping 10 mana into a thing that doesn't do much, but apparently it blocks too well(there are almost no 3+ Power creatures at common levels.)

In general, I've had a hard time cutting creatures for spells (in both of my projects to date), but the draft experience feels more authentic as creature-spell ratio approaches 1:1 in pack composition. (I think conventional sets are around 45:55.)

That's definately something we'll have to look at, maybe through adding more combat tricks to green, or just some other mediocre spells(more on that later).

What are your concerns at the moment: missed inclusions, color imbalances, archetype cohesion? Is there anywhere particular thoughts should be focused?

After reflecting a little bit on how the draft and deckbuilding went, I felt that the inexperience of most of the players with the set led to more extreme decks(as the one posted above). I think that this will balance after a few drafts when people realise what the powerful cards are. Another thing that really hit me was hat there seem to be too many streamlined cards in the pool. Deckbuilding was extremely hard for me in both of the drafts as I just had too many good playables. I felt really overwhelmed and it took me a long time to cut my pool down to the final 23. Also people were frequently (like 2 out of 10) playing monocolored decks because the card pool was so deep. I noticed that this was a difference between drafting the cube and drafting the set because in cube you have much more narrow cards to support niche strategies and such and therefore people will end up with much more dreck. I'll try to fix this by adding more narrow/specific cards to the set at lower rarities. Also artifact and enchantment removal is much much needed.

I am also worried about color imbalances as I never felt drawn to drafting white(maybe because everybody else was) and I had the general feeling that most of the white decks were somewhat underwhelming. On the other hand red, blue and black seem to be the more dominant colors while green works together nicely with them. One of my favorite decks of the two drafts was a UG Tempo deck involving Cloudfin Raptor Atarka Beastbreaker and tempo plays.

Another thing that was noted, was that there were too many flyers in blue which preyed too heavily on the Gx durdle decks, making boardstalling not an option. I am not sure how I think about this, but it's possible that I should cut some of the flyers for more interesting and diverse cards. Faeries are still fun and strong, Dreamspoiler Witches did a great job sniping those x/1s. With the exception of Orzhov, all the color combinations saw play. There were 2-3 3 color decks of the 20 decks built, which isn't a ton but doesn't seem too bad.

 

[Modin]

Soo we did another 6-player draft today. We played out all five rounds and had pretty interesting decks come together.

4 color Goodstuff 5-0

I drafted this abomination, initially starting out as a Gu rampish deck and ended up being able to amass 8 non basics which led me down the Multicolor green route. Beside the obvious bombs, Harrow and Tinder Wall did a great job both enabling me to cast Kiki and getting out of the gates a little faster. Catch alls like Wickerbough Elder and Oblivion Ring also got to shine. The combination of a great manabase, a ton of removal and card draw as well as some pretty great bombs let to my record not dropping a single game in the process.

Wg Little Kid 3-2

This deck was a pretty straightforward WG aggro deck with some nice lategame options in Belfry Spirit, Obilisk and Gavony Township.

UR Spells 3-2

This deck was piloted by my cousin who built the set with me. It's got the ability to preassure the oppontent, kill them out of nowhere or spawn a ton of Goblins (usually between 6 and 8). It's kind of a weird mixture and looks a little bit like a pile but he managed to go 3-2 with it. The rebound spells did a very important job keeping it all together.

BR Sacrifice 2-3

This was the deck I had the hardest time playing against, going down to 6 and 2 in my games against it. The combination of effective board control and threaten effects led to pretty intense games. The dash creatures were pretty awesome against my 4c pile as they easily dodge sorcery speed removal. Blasting Station was nuts in this deck, combining with Reassembling Skeleton and Act of Treason for some nice board control and reach.

BG Pod of Erebos 1-4

The guy drafting this deck had no experience with playing or draft Pod so I believe he struggled a little bit in the first games. His deck is filled with engine cards and I expected it to do very well, but I think it could use some more creatures(especially at cmc4). That being said, the combination of Pod and Whip looks pretty disgusting.

Ubw Faeries 1-4

This deck also looked great. It drew tons of cards and probably had 1-2 draw spells too many(especially the double Military Intel sounds wrong) and would have liked a Nameless Inversion or two.

In general, decks looked much better than in the last draft and players are still adjusting to the format, so I expect great decks to come from future drafts.