We've been thinking about how best to aggro in green and we came to a strange conclusion that I'd like to bounce off other people to see if anyone else thinks we're on to something.
The naive (without being derogatory) approach is to add last pick cards like Jungle Lions and Wolf-bitten Capitve. But, that is going to entice precisely no one in our experience.
So we thought of something different: what if we put in Burning-Tree Emissary, Gaddock Teeg, Flinthoof Boar, Lotleth Troll, Wild Nacatl, Kird Ape, etc. So you are forced to choose green and another color -- but you were almost certainly going two color anyway.
The downside is that no one goes into a color combination and some cards get last picked. Which is exactly the same thing that happens with the cards they're replacing (Jungle Lion et al). Only now there is a legitimate upside as opposed to a shoddy 1 drop at the end of the rainbow.
It would probably throw the guild system into havoc but we've never been too fond of rigidly adhering to that in the first place. It would also probably mean jumping through some classification hoops to maintain a semblance of numerical color balance. We don't think numerical color balance is the end all/be all but it needs to at least past the eyeball test. 35 cards in green and 45 cards in blue probably won't do, even if the justification is that "green has a bunch of two color aggro cards"
If anything, I think it might be worth bucking the mentality that gold cards have to be major draws into a guild to justify their inclusion. That might be true for the splashier cards, but its also undeniable that a two color aggro decks will be better with guild support as appropriate. In a way this mirrors the implicit Cube debate over power cards vs mana curve and tempo.
The naive (without being derogatory) approach is to add last pick cards like Jungle Lions and Wolf-bitten Capitve. But, that is going to entice precisely no one in our experience.
So we thought of something different: what if we put in Burning-Tree Emissary, Gaddock Teeg, Flinthoof Boar, Lotleth Troll, Wild Nacatl, Kird Ape, etc. So you are forced to choose green and another color -- but you were almost certainly going two color anyway.
The downside is that no one goes into a color combination and some cards get last picked. Which is exactly the same thing that happens with the cards they're replacing (Jungle Lion et al). Only now there is a legitimate upside as opposed to a shoddy 1 drop at the end of the rainbow.
It would probably throw the guild system into havoc but we've never been too fond of rigidly adhering to that in the first place. It would also probably mean jumping through some classification hoops to maintain a semblance of numerical color balance. We don't think numerical color balance is the end all/be all but it needs to at least past the eyeball test. 35 cards in green and 45 cards in blue probably won't do, even if the justification is that "green has a bunch of two color aggro cards"
If anything, I think it might be worth bucking the mentality that gold cards have to be major draws into a guild to justify their inclusion. That might be true for the splashier cards, but its also undeniable that a two color aggro decks will be better with guild support as appropriate. In a way this mirrors the implicit Cube debate over power cards vs mana curve and tempo.
It is also a good tech in mirror matches or against creature decks because of regeneration.
