calling all NOBS

[ross miles]

gatecrash is out next week

 

who wants to draft>

 

1.ross

2.kieran

3. ben

4. nathan

5. levi

6. simon

7. baker

8. steve

[Levi Hinz]

Whoop whoop, there's my one win of the season ;)  Sorry Kieran for taking your spot of first winner.

Someone confirm these results?

1. Levi 9

2. Nathan 6

3. Tom 6

4. Mark 6

5. Ross 3

6. Ben 3

7. Steve 3

8. Kieran 0

[Levi Hinz]

Also, Nathan's deck was way better than mine in the final. He had good orzhov early guys and then bombs to go with it. He also had a lot of really cool tricks with "1, sac a guy: mill until land" turning on his "B/W: make a spirit" which then mills more for his "-X/-X for graveyard guys" and stuff like that.

I only won by a) turning reaaaally large guys sideways, b) him getting flooded, and c) my sideboard naturalize killing his "tap a creature" enchant land.

I was RGu, splashing for Simic Charm, X/X flyer, Pongify, and then sometimes the 2U 2/3 and the 3U +2/+2 enchantment (these got sideboarded out a lot for random matchup dependant cards).   Deck was really quite bad, I was between  RGw and UGr drafters.  I had just enough sizeable guys + pumps and just enough opponents getting flooded/screwed to get there.  Bomb was the 1RRR/1GGG 3/3 guy that gets bigger on attack.  Tricks were 1RR burn spell, +2/+4 guy, +5/+4 guy, Simic Charm, Pongify, Burst of Strength.  Extra burst in SB.  Maybe something else?  Man my deck was bad.

[Levi Hinz]

ps Mid sized guys seem really good/relevant in this format.  4/3's for 4, 4/5's for 5, 3/4's for 5, 4/4's for 5 etc. 

[Kieran Symington]

Though I lost every match, I definitely learned how not to draft Simic. Turns out almost all the evolve creatures are terrible because they don't have the right stats to boost each other a lot of the time, and they make horrific top-decks in the late game. Most times when I had an evolve creature, I'd have preferred a Disciple of the Old Ways or Metropolis Sprite. Those two in particular are also awesome targets for the counters you can get via various other effects, which the evolve creatures usually aren't. Equally, having one or less power seems pretty terrible in this format and pretty much all of the Simic creatures are like that!

[Thomas David Baker]

Simic doesn't even seem to be a deck to me.  You give up the (fairly plentiful) removal floating around in white, red and (especially) black in order to get what?  Creatures that are only worth the mana you paid for them once you have resolved at least one more creature with specific power/toughness afterwards?  Ben played Gyre Sage against me (Evolve rare!) on turn 2.  He then proceeded to make a keyrune (no evolve) and a Hydroform (no evolve).

Maybe if you have the -5/-0 aura and the Pongify functional reprint your deck gets better?

For me last night was remarkable mainly for me falling for the same onboard "trick" a second time in the format.  Rust Scarab (4/5 for 4G) DOES have rules text ... ignore it at your peril.

Still think the 2/2 haste guy for 2R is unplayably bad.  In Sealed at least, surely.

[Glenn Goldsworthy]

the plan for the 2/2 is get him in for 2 then mug him the next turn

Thomas David Baker said:

Simic doesn't even seem to be a deck to me.  You give up the (fairly plentiful) removal floating around in white, red and (especially) black in order to get what?  Creatures that are only worth the mana you paid for them once you have resolved at least one more creature with specific power/toughness afterwards?  Ben played Gyre Sage against me (Evolve rare!) on turn 2.  He then proceeded to make a keyrune (no evolve) and a Hydroform (no evolve).

Maybe if you have the -5/-0 aura and the Pongify functional reprint your deck gets better?

For me last night was remarkable mainly for me falling for the same onboard "trick" a second time in the format.  Rust Scarab (4/5 for 4G) DOES have rules text ... ignore it at your peril.

Still think the 2/2 haste guy for 2R is unplayably bad.  In Sealed at least, surely.

[Mark Walker]

i would add black/white is amazing for removal suite, (-x/-x enchantment, edict, smite etc) but exhort is a hard mechanic to play right. i was constantly having to evaluate cost/benefit of holding back spells for exhort. I don't think i've ever had to think as hard in a game of tuesday night magic. 

[Levi Hinz]

I think it depends on your deck, and on the deck you play against.  It was hooooorrible for me against Nathan (I played 2/2 and him, and he played a 2/3, and I didn't have a Bloodrush card), but I've had it be great against other decks.  Often it becomes "deal 5 damage, trade with their guy."  Both Gruul (pump) and Boros (was attacking anyway) can use him well. 

Thomas David Baker said:

Still think the 2/2 haste guy for 2R is unplayably bad.  In Sealed at least, surely.

[Levi Hinz]

Yeah it's tough to evaluate, I think most of the time though you're going to play out a guy rather than wait.  If you have a choice of a 3 drop with 2 extorts, or a 4 drop with 1 extort, I'd probably go the 3 drop, but it's always going to depend on board position.  But  yeah I love it as a mechanic :)

Mark Walker said:

i would add black/white is amazing for removal suite, (-x/-x enchantment, edict, smite etc) but exhort is a hard mechanic to play right. i was constantly having to evaluate cost/benefit of holding back spells for exhort. I don't think i've ever had to think as hard in a game of tuesday night magic. 

[Levi Hinz]

Yeah you probably need to take removal even higher on account of having less access, and a weak guild.  I'm not sure Pit Fight is any good in Simic either.  Martel I think said it needs to be splashing Gruul? 

I'd like to think that playing 2x 0/1 flyers and then playing out with 3 drops is a pretty big deal, but apart from one game I played a the prerelease I've never seen this happen.  Also Hydroform is pretty bad in a Simic deck :P

Thomas David Baker said:

Simic doesn't even seem to be a deck to me.  You give up the (fairly plentiful) removal floating around in white, red and (especially) black in order to get what?  Creatures that are only worth the mana you paid for them once you have resolved at least one more creature with specific power/toughness afterwards?  Ben played Gyre Sage against me (Evolve rare!) on turn 2.  He then proceeded to make a keyrune (no evolve) and a Hydroform (no evolve).

Maybe if you have the -5/-0 aura and the Pongify functional reprint your deck gets better?