Ethersworn Shieldmage

[Thomas David Baker]

Is he nuts, or isn't he?

And if he is, why aren't you picking him higher?

[Ben Titmarsh]

ross miles said:

whether or not i choose to eat shit is irrelevant. go ahead and pass me tallon trooper and i wacth your flash and card advantage lose to my hoard of flying beasts. maybe they should print a card that says 'rob wins if he plays lots of tricky stuff that doesn't do much'.

Amidu said:

Ross eats shit :D

This guy is card advantage and has flash, Im glad you're thinking for yourself, but you're wronger than grovers hair colour

My experience of drafting ARB so far has shown you can normally end up tabling the trooper if both are in the same pack early. Assuming you've cut well are you are one of 2 people in these colours on the table, the strength of the ARB packs often means talon trooper goes reasonably late, where as shieldmage rarely pops up in the last half of the pack. I actually got a trooper last pick in a draft last week...!

I dont think we need to make a choice, just take the stronger card first then hope that ross isn't on your table and watch the trooper table.

[Thomas David Baker]

I've tabled Shieldmages many times which is really the reason I started this thread.

(I particularly enjoyed the draft where I had 4 along with double Scourglass.)

Actually, thinking about it, is Shieldmage the more likely tabler? Unless it gets hatedrafted it only goes in artifact-heavy deck? UW flier also happy in Bant? Not sure.

[Ben Titmarsh]

I'd want the shieldmage in bant anyway as on it's own it's removal for anything with 2 toughness or less. Although the flyer is definitely the stronger card in bant when you take exalted into consideration.

I guess they both table, but I see more troopers coming back than shieldmages.

[Daniel Royde]

Wouldn't you just say that they're for different decks: shieldmage for esper and trooper for UW aggro? If your deck lies somewhere between the two, then which you pick depends entirely on what you've drafted so far.

[Tom Reeve]

Ethersworn Shieldmage has flash.

Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir has flash.

COINCIDENCE???

[Amidu]

Tom said teferi, so im going to have to agree with everything he says

Tom Reeve said:

Ethersworn Shieldmage has flash.

Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir has flash.

COINCIDENCE???

[Gary Lynch]

Ok someone mentioned Teferi, now im getting wet :)

P.S Sheildmage is garbage, dont listen to anyone who says its good. Dont pick it and dont play it :P

[Thomas David Baker]

LSV weighs in (sorta):

Esper: Artifacts and removal spells are basically it. Even solid cards like Talon Trooper just don’t end up making the cut in my good Esper decks, because artifact synergies with cards like Faerie Mechanist, Sanctum Gargoyle, Arsenal Thresher, Ethersworn Shieldmage and others are just too powerful. I do like having a few non-artifact bodies in the sideboard in case your opponent has the double Nacatl Savage deck, but for the most part the only non-artifacts in my deck are spells and really good creatures like Wall of Denial or Zombie Outlander.

From: http://strategy.channelfireball.com/featured-articles/initial-techn...

[ross miles]

Faerie Mechanist, Sanctum Gargoyle, Arsenal Thresher - a deck ful of 4 drops will lose

Thomas David Baker said:

LSV weighs in (sorta):

Esper: Artifacts and removal spells are basically it. Even solid cards like Talon Trooper just don’t end up making the cut in my good Esper decks, because artifact synergies with cards like Faerie Mechanist, Sanctum Gargoyle, Arsenal Thresher, Ethersworn Shieldmage and others are just too powerful. I do like having a few non-artifact bodies in the sideboard in case your opponent has the double Nacatl Savage deck, but for the most part the only non-artifacts in my deck are spells and really good creatures like Wall of Denial or Zombie Outlander.

From: http://strategy.channelfireball.com/featured-articles/initial-techn...

[Mark Walker]

Tell that to the ridonk esper i drafted friday. Transmuter, sanctum, thresher, mechanist, wall of reverence. They were all 4 drops. (At one point I was bouncing a thresher because it was only a 5/5 and i had 5 artifacts in hand...). Oh, and luckily I never had to choose between crystallisation and shieldmage as my first 3 picks were crystal, shieldmage,shieldmage anyway. In every match I had one game where I had transmuter, sanctum, executioner's capsule. Good times.

[Thomas David Baker]

Sam Black on Star City Games today:

The draft before that I won with an aggressive U/W/b deck with a lot of fliers. These decks have been playing very well against me, and I was pretty happy with this one. I took Esper Shieldmages over Esper Stormblades early in pack 3 and I was happy with the result.

Woah.

[Gary Lynch]

Backed up by another pro. I must be really good at this game :)

Thomas David Baker said:

Sam Black on Star City Games today:

The draft before that I won with an aggressive U/W/b deck with a lot of fliers. These decks have been playing very well against me, and I was pretty happy with this one. I took Esper Shieldmages over Esper Stormblades early in pack 3 and I was happy with the result.

Woah.