SoM Draft experiences so far

[Paul Hodgson]

So it's Scars drafting season, and already I'm far more interested in the format than M11. The sheer number of possible interactions is staggering, and there is a lot of depth to the format just waiting to be explored.

Couple of points from last night's draft :

Never pass shatter, this shouldn't wheel in a 9 man pod.

Bouncing scrapmelter is never a good idea.

Take Myr as early as possible, they're the cornerstone of almost every deck (exception possibly being the infect deck).

Only good 1 infect deck can really be supported unless the packs are very deep, and you need as many 2 drops as possible - if you're going down that route grab proliferate highly as well.

Equipment is awesome, strider harness is great, razor pinions are surprisingly useful (not a lot of evasion in the set) etc although echo circlet is terrible, don't take that.

Haven't got a pick order figured out yet, although something like:

Bombs > Removal (shatter, slice, scrapmelter etc) > Myr/Infect > Equipment > Dudes

[Dan Barrett]

I guess, Charlie - I missed a Shatter on an opponents turn 4 Myr after he missed two land drops, for instance.

But then it ended up not mattering at all.


That example was glaring and obvious, but then I probably made many much subtler mistakes, which I would not have been able to spot without a stronger opponent to perhaps capitalise on and illustrate some of these.

Also, supposing I go with your plan of "attempting to play optimally and then getting mad at myself for anything less" - is this not just playing against yourself?

[Gary Lynch]

I agree with Charlie. You can help yourself to get better by still playing optimaly against bad players. Try to make the right plays no matter who you face, treat the new player the same as you would lsv. Mistakes will cost you even against worse players.

To be honest unless you are 3-0 ing nearly every draft you do you still have lots to learn and if your opponents are all bad then there is no reason you shouldn't 3-0.

I know it sucks during the draft when people are making terrible picks and messing up your deck but at the same time they are probably messing up theirs too. Learning how to still make a good deck even when the draft goes wrong can be a valubale skill.

Dan Barrett said:

I guess, Charlie - I missed a Shatter on an opponents turn 4 Myr after he missed two land drops, for instance.

But then it ended up not mattering at all.


That example was glaring and obvious, but then I probably made many much subtler mistakes, which I would not have been able to spot without a stronger opponent to perhaps capitalise on and illustrate some of these.

Also, supposing I go with your plan of "attempting to play optimally and then getting mad at myself for anything less" - is this not just playing against yourself?

[Gary Lynch]

Also playing against stronger opponents doesn't mean you will spot the more subtle mistakes. Unless they point it out to you it will often feel like there was nothing you could do.

I'm actually getting better at spotting these mistakes and even though I am only someting like 11-7 in this format i can pretty much say 1 loss was to bad mana screw 2 were to better decks 1 was to opponent drawing mutiple bombs every game and the other 3 losses shouldn't have happend if I played better.

It is hard to spot your own mistakes sometimes and this is why we should help eachother and others to notice these things.
Just be careful how you point it out otherwise it just sounds like being a dick.

Dan Barrett said:

I guess, Charlie - I missed a Shatter on an opponents turn 4 Myr after he missed two land drops, for instance.

But then it ended up not mattering at all.


That example was glaring and obvious, but then I probably made many much subtler mistakes, which I would not have been able to spot without a stronger opponent to perhaps capitalise on and illustrate some of these.

Also, supposing I go with your plan of "attempting to play optimally and then getting mad at myself for anything less" - is this not just playing against yourself?

[Dan Barrett]

I think a part of my recent frustration is the games haven't been fun either.

Like, in the other pod, 2 of my friends get to play each other and enjoy it, while I play someone I don't know who barely talks to me, great.


Also, another thing to note is that even if you offer useful advice in a friendly manner, the person you're giving it to has to then take it on board and use it for that to benefit anyone. I see a few guys turn up week after week with crazybad standard decks (Mono-G "aggro" with Khalni Gems and Crystal Ball, Mono-W "control" with 2x Teetering Peaks and 0 red spells), which I have seen others offering advice/suggestions on in the past, which have just been ignored. You can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped.

[James Mills]

I've really enjoyed SOM so far. Both sealed and draft have been really fun to play.

I think this set does have a lower power level than others which I really like - people have to get used to making decks with a lot of medium level cards and thus need to play better to win in stead of relying on busted cards to win. I can see myself drafting this set more really enjoying this set!

I've only played 3 drafts and I picked 3 of the 2/2 green metal craft guy early and then just loaded my deck with artifacts (good and bad) and went on the make the final but sadly lost to sword of body and mind which was unfortunate but what can you do. I then went on to drink some beers so I felt like the real winner.

I have losses due to playing new cards wrong which I do every time a new set comes out. I even lost to a guy who was deceitful in a release event. At a PTQ I would have called a judge because he was cheating but this was a release event. I didn't care, my morality is not worth any event let alone an 8k release event

[Dan Barrett]

James Mills said:

I've really enjoyed SOM so far. Both sealed and draft have been really fun to play.

I think this set does have a lower power level than others which I really like - people have to get used to making decks with a lot of medium level cards and thus need to play better to win in stead of relying on busted cards to win. I can see myself drafting this set more really enjoying this set!

I've only played 3 drafts and I picked 3 of the 2/2 green metal craft guy early and then just loaded my deck with artifacts (good and bad) and went on the make the final but sadly lost to sword of body and mind which was unfortunate but what can you do. I then went on to drink some beers so I felt like the real winner.

I have losses due to playing new cards wrong which I do every time a new set comes out. I even lost to a guy who was deceitful in a release event. At a PTQ I would have called a judge because he was cheating but this was a release event. I didn't care, my morality is not worth any event let alone an 8k release event

Was that the guy playing the Engulfing Slagwurm wrong?

Yea I thought that was pretty low for a release event.

[Gary Lynch]

What did he do?

Dan Barrett said:

James Mills said:

I've really enjoyed SOM so far. Both sealed and draft have been really fun to play.

I think this set does have a lower power level than others which I really like - people have to get used to making decks with a lot of medium level cards and thus need to play better to win in stead of relying on busted cards to win. I can see myself drafting this set more really enjoying this set!

I've only played 3 drafts and I picked 3 of the 2/2 green metal craft guy early and then just loaded my deck with artifacts (good and bad) and went on the make the final but sadly lost to sword of body and mind which was unfortunate but what can you do. I then went on to drink some beers so I felt like the real winner.

I have losses due to playing new cards wrong which I do every time a new set comes out. I even lost to a guy who was deceitful in a release event. At a PTQ I would have called a judge because he was cheating but this was a release event. I didn't care, my morality is not worth any event let alone an 8k release event

Was that the guy playing the Engulfing Slagwurm wrong?

Yea I thought that was pretty low for a release event.

[Tom Reeve]

James Mills said:

I have losses due to playing new cards wrong which I do every time a new set comes out. I even lost to a guy who was deceitful in a release event. At a PTQ I would have called a judge because he was cheating but this was a release event. I didn't care, my morality is not worth any event let alone an 8k release event

I'm sure all the noobs he cheated who didn't notice will thank you.

[Dan Barrett]

If this is the right guy/thing:

He had Engulfing Slagwurm in play, James had the 1/1 infect making artifact and some other stuff.

For a few turns James was using the 1/1 tokens to attack into it, and his opponent was taking the damage in combat and putting -1/-1 counters on the slagwurm.

Then, when James drew and played Liege of the Tangle (when I looked over), when he attacked with it (into the now much smaller wurm, and nothing else), his opponent SNAP blocked and said "destroy it".

Essentially, he'd ignored the mandatory ability for a few turns in a row, then used it in a split second, which seems cheaty.

I think I said something like "then how did it get those minus counters" at this point, the opponent said "oh well I remembered it now", and James got quite frustrated and put the Liege in the bin.

There was also something abou Contagion Engine only putting 1 counter on things as well.


Is that about right, Mills?

[Tom Reeve]

Dan Barrett said:

If this is the right guy/thing:

He had Engulfing Slagwurm in play, James had the 1/1 infect making artifact and some other stuff.

For a few turns James was using the 1/1 tokens to attack into it, and his opponent was taking the damage in combat and putting -1/-1 counters on the slagwurm.

Then, when James drew and played Liege of the Tangle (when I looked over), when he attacked with it (into the now much smaller wurm, and nothing else), his opponent SNAP blocked and said "destroy it".

Essentially, he'd ignored the mandatory ability for a few turns in a row, then used it in a split second, which seems cheaty.

I think I said something like "then how did it get those minus counters" at this point, the opponent said "oh well I remembered it now", and James got quite frustrated and put the Liege in the bin.

There was also something abou Contagion Engine only putting 1 counter on things as well.


Is that about right, Mills?

If that's accurate, the correct series of events is 'kick in the balls, disqualify'.

[Gary Lynch]

James is an idiot. He should have done something about it. People that cheat at that sort of event are douchebags.

Dan Barrett said:

If this is the right guy/thing:

He had Engulfing Slagwurm in play, James had the 1/1 infect making artifact and some other stuff.

For a few turns James was using the 1/1 tokens to attack into it, and his opponent was taking the damage in combat and putting -1/-1 counters on the slagwurm.

Then, when James drew and played Liege of the Tangle (when I looked over), when he attacked with it (into the now much smaller wurm, and nothing else), his opponent SNAP blocked and said "destroy it".

Essentially, he'd ignored the mandatory ability for a few turns in a row, then used it in a split second, which seems cheaty.

I think I said something like "then how did it get those minus counters" at this point, the opponent said "oh well I remembered it now", and James got quite frustrated and put the Liege in the bin.

There was also something abou Contagion Engine only putting 1 counter on things as well.


Is that about right, Mills?

[James Mills]

Yeah that's correct - it's ok, I learnt a lesson and that guy is a douche so no big deal.

and I forgot to proliferate again with contagion engine which was dumb of me in the first place. RTFC I guess. :s



Dan Barrett said:

If this is the right guy/thing:

He had Engulfing Slagwurm in play, James had the 1/1 infect making artifact and some other stuff.

For a few turns James was using the 1/1 tokens to attack into it, and his opponent was taking the damage in combat and putting -1/-1 counters on the slagwurm.

Then, when James drew and played Liege of the Tangle (when I looked over), when he attacked with it (into the now much smaller wurm, and nothing else), his opponent SNAP blocked and said "destroy it".

Essentially, he'd ignored the mandatory ability for a few turns in a row, then used it in a split second, which seems cheaty.

I think I said something like "then how did it get those minus counters" at this point, the opponent said "oh well I remembered it now", and James got quite frustrated and put the Liege in the bin.

There was also something abou Contagion Engine only putting 1 counter on things as well.


Is that about right, Mills?