General Revisiting "Squadroning"

[Onderzeeboot]

I feel squadroning should be done on any card that you want, by design, a player to end up with two of. Usually because the card lays the foundation for an archetype or because having two players pick one will end up in neither being played, whereas both would get played in a single deck.

By that token I might have to revise my original list. I'm pretty sure I want to squadron at least the following four cards:



Possible other candidates:


How do we feel about breaking singleton for Brainstorm and squadroning it at the same time?

 

[Jason Waddell]

Brainstorms are so good individually that it'd be criminal to give multiples away for free. I ran 6 Brainstorms in my last draft and they were taken by 4 different drafters.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Brainstorms are so good individually that it'd be criminal to give multiples away for free. I ran 6 Brainstorms in my last draft and they were taken by 4 different drafters.

To be fair, I don't run 20+ fetches But, point taken.
There is still a Serum Visions in my cube that could potentially be a Brainstorm, but I like mixing up the spells a little bit.

 

[CML]

I don't get the whole Grim Guardian thing

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

Stromkirk noble, gravecrawler and harness by force all seem powerful enough on their own.

If you have to squadron champion of the parish, young pyromancer, or carrion feeder their might be issues with the way your environment is supporting those cards.

 

[Jonas]

I've been really surprised by the number of drafts where multiple people go for pods and people still run 1-pod decks because they have ways to get value out of it.

Or, you know, forget three drops.

 

[Diakonov]

Squadroning has been a success over here. I did overdo it a bit at first, though. A few of them are to condense aggro picks and the rest are cards that really need at least two copies to build around. Here are my double-picks currently:



Quad-picks:



I also do this weird thing where if you pick a certain card, you can get copies of other cards. People seem to enjoy it.

comes with

comes with

comes with

comes with

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

I like the idea of maybe squadroning goblin welder

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I contemplated it, because Welder is also in my cube, but man, that card can do really, really nasty things. I think it's good enough on its own?

Haha, in hindsight it seems a bit silly to not squadron Welder because of power concerns, but have no problems with squadroning Birthing Pod or Blood Artist. Maybe I should squadron Goblin Welder

 

[CML]

I contemplated it, because Welder is also in my cube, but man, that card can do really, really nasty things. I think it's good enough on its own?

Haha, in hindsight it seems a bit silly to not squadron Welder because of power concerns, but have no problems with squadroning Birthing Pod or Blood Artist. Maybe I should squadron Goblin Welder

I HAVE PROBLEMS WITH SQUADRONING THOSE ILL HAVE YOU KNOW

(and you should too)

 

[Laz]

I HAVE PROBLEMS WITH SQUADRONING THOSE ILL HAVE YOU KNOW

(and you should too)

I have had Birthing Pod decks come together that simply haven't lost a game after resolving a Pod. Squadroning that seems pretty intense. Likewise, Blood Artist does a lot of work... I mean, if you have no token/sacrifice/gravecrawler themes, it might be ok, but Artist is pretty insane.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Kidding, kidding guys Pod and Artist were in my original hypothetical squadroning lineup, but not anymore.

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

How do you feel about squadroning "weaker" cards like firedrinker satyr?

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Firedrinker Satyr is a good card in mono red aggro, but it's not a card that makes the deck interesting or able to have cross-synergies with other themes. It's not a card that I would squadron quickly. Stromkirk Noble is more interesting in my mind, because it's roughly the same power level, but intersects with both a +1/+1 counter theme and a human theme I run in my cube. (Incidentally, Stromkirk Noble is protection done right!)

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

I suppose the question "is it worth duplicating my stormkirl or champion of the parish" depends on whether you support their themes with depth. I'm probably going to end up with a +1/+1 counter theme and human theme as well so I'd rather duplicate those. I think I could double pack cloudfin raptor, if people feel like they want more of that card and I dont have the space for blue creatures that support it.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Blue aggro is kind of at odds with the color's philosophy. The building blocks are there, but it takes so much space away from traditional control strategies that I also want to support. Cloudfin Raptor is the most interesting of the blue one-drops for me (took me a while to realize this) because it plays well with the +1/+1 counter theme, is a decent support card for aggro-tempo decks (it's easily a 2/3 flyer after a few turns, which is a good rate for aggro), and it doesn't require you to jump through as many hoops as Delver of Secrets, which is better, but much harder to set up in limited.

 

[Diakonov]

Firedrinker Satyr is a good card in mono red aggro, but it's not a card that makes the deck interesting or able to have cross-synergies with other themes. It's not a card that I would squadron quickly. Stromkirk Noble is more interesting in my mind, because it's roughly the same power level, but intersects with both a +1/+1 counter theme and a human theme I run in my cube. (Incidentally, Stromkirk Noble is protection done right!)

That's exactly the reason why I DO squadron Satyr. It's a somewhat narrow card and would frequently be a 14th pick otherwise. I would also argue that he doesn't have to be mono-red. I think he fits into most 2-color super-fast aggro builds, though I still consider that to be somewhat narrow.

I use the same logic for Phantasmal Bear as a double and Cloudfin as a single. More decks could make use of the single Cloudfin, so it doesn't really need the extra copy incentive.

EDIT: oh I forgot to include


btw squadroning Life from the Loam does seem like a neat idea

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Yeah, I can see that. I might change my mind over time. It does make the Firedrinker a higher pick, precisely because you get two cards for the price of one.

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

Maybe this could be done very per-cube specific? Take some fata on lsst oicks and see if squadroning will make them more valuable picks.

 

[FlowerSunRain]

Diaknov: I know I saw your Bogbrew Witch Squadron, but the idea never really clicked with me until now. How is that working out? It seems like a hilarious "Black Sac Outlet", but it also seems like it takes up too much deck space.

 

[Jason Waddell]

fata on lsst oicks

Data on last picks?

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

Haha, wow. Writing on the phone is quite something! Yes, if you look at what cards are getting picked last, or get passed to often, maybe those cards could be made more tempting by making them easier to build a deck around. I'm just speculating though, it could just as well be so that your players just arent interested in those cards period because they're out of place in the cube.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Ok, I'm testing the following five and will do a first evaluation after next weekend's draft.



@CML: I expect Grim Guardian to be a pretty decent card in my cube. I push an enchantment theme in , with minor support from the other two colors. It's a zombie to boot!

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

Although this is probably not a likely way to turn this into something your players are going to like if they're already skeptical; what if we toyed with the idea of squadroning a card like welder or blood artist, but when you draft it you reveal it and skip out on your next pick? This adds some kind of balance to it, although it might be to much of a drawback.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

That's probably a bit more hassle than I like. Who gets the 15th card for example, and how are we going to remember which booster it was in? I'll test out the above five first and will go from there