Even with just what we know, there isn't alot of speed in the begining of games right now. Scars is a pretty slow format outside loltemperedsteel, but most of the good parts of that deck are rotating. She protects her self, not as well as jace, but just as well and she furthers your card advantage. The only thing she doesn't do is give you near perfect information which the rest of you kit can do. She is extremly powerful on turns 3 4 and 5 and when she would lose power she gets an ultimate or removal.
This card will see just as much play in fast deck. Jace is good in control, Lilliana is good versus those decks.
Edit: And if there is any advice you listen too in this thread from me, its go out and buy 4 birthing pods tomorrow before they jump to 15+ dollars.
Pro Tour soon! I actually feel more comfortable with the constructed portion than the limited portion, despite the fact that I've always primarily been a limited player. I'm just that bad at M12 draft.
Force the R/B Bloodthirst or UW Griffons deck when you can. That's my game plan this format lol.
Decided to play GB Deathcloud because it has pretty good match ups vs 12 post and zoo. Here's to hoping no super secret tech in a wide open format surfaces.
Honestly if I were to advise you to force anything, it would probably be green. Green and black are certainly going to be the least drafted colors. Hard to say though; at a PT, everyone else has this same information, and you might run into other people with the same plan, leaving red wide open.
The important thing to remember is that the format isn't quite as aggressive as it seemed at first. In early tournaments (US Nats for instance), most people drafted the set like it was M11, which led to a few other people getting stupidly aggressive decks with late pick goblins/bears/flyers. That gave the format the illusion of being faster than it actually is. Midrangey decks can do well as long as you have some cheap removal, and the 5-drop commons are all a lot better than they look, although Zombie Goliath is pretty loose.
Also, if your draft is going _really_ poorly, you can go all-in on creature enchantments. Every time my deck looks unsaveable I try to pick up a couple of random War Paints or Dark Favors and just get there. Bad in good decks, but great in bad decks.
On September 01 2011 14:20 Jaksiel wrote: Pro Tour soon! I actually feel more comfortable with the constructed portion than the limited portion, despite the fact that I've always primarily been a limited player. I'm just that bad at M12 draft.
What are you going to play? I'm really liking affinity right now. I'll play ravager whenever I get the chance.
So far after getting back into MTG, I really like the limited format. I played about 5-6 sealed M12 swiss tournaments to get back into it. As I got used to the new mechanics, I started doing 8 player M12 swiss drafts. So far it has been about 66% match winning point right now, depending on what cards I try. So far I like UB control, or Red and white decks. Green/anything is awkward and I never win any matches with it.
The new phantom tournaments should be fun. Two tickets for a fun event with a chance to swipe a few boosters.
I have tried Momir basic and that is a blast, I played with all of the older cards so it is fun to use those again.
I have read up on Innistrad and I have mixed emotions on the new mechanics, they seem a bit to complicated for what they are worth, but that is what MTGO is for!
On September 01 2011 14:20 Jaksiel wrote: Pro Tour soon! I actually feel more comfortable with the constructed portion than the limited portion, despite the fact that I've always primarily been a limited player. I'm just that bad at M12 draft.
What are you going to play? I'm really liking affinity right now. I'll play ravager whenever I get the chance.
The mono red version tested pretty well, but the deck was still too slow for zoo unless you got the nuts hand of like triple ravager + plating and the ripped gas the rest of the game.
Wow, my experiences have been completely different. A hand with 3 ravagers and a cranial plating is terrible hand. That is insanely slow. The nuts is something like opal, blinkmoth, 3 0 cc guys, frogmite and cranial plating. Really any hand with opal is insane since you get turn 2 attack with plating or turn 1 atog/ravager.
That was the only hand I won with in testing. Admittedly I never thought that affinity would be playable anyway, so we spent maybe a hour with the list. 12 post, zoo, and Kikicombo were the only thing we had actually religiously build and teched so I'm pretty confident there.
The melira combo deck can be scary too, just because its incredibly easy for them to pull off unless you have like 2 or 3 pyroclasms main deck. That or just lots of targeted removal.
I'm a little worried about these transforming cards. Even with opaque sleeves, plenty of the sleeves I've played with are a little bit see-through, and it wouldn't be difficult to tell when your opponent has a transform card in their hand. The DCI is going to have to more heavily regulate sleeves now.
The discussion alot of player at the pro tour are having, is to just force players with transform cards to play the checklist cards that come in some of the packs in all slots of the transform cards. They obviously still have to have the cards in their deck box or whatever, but odds are this is going to be the route for most pro level play. While options are nice, the integrity of the game is more important in completive play.
Birthing Pod deck just got a plainswalker. -1 on darkside gives you a search for whatever you want. He's a morbid engine on a stick, and if the rest of the morbid ability creatures are of the same powerlevel as the rest he's gunna see play in 3s and 4 ofs in decks.
I play bant pod as my main deck. Even though I'd love a way to search for a creature I want, the problems I have with this Garruk are:
- It's 4 mana cost and its search ability might come into play only the second turn it comes into the game.
- For a PW with no +loyalty ability the turn it comes into the game, 3 loyalty is a liability because if I choose to play safe and just create a 2/2 chump blocker, then i can't flip it. If I burn a 1 power creature with it and flip it, a shock would kill it.
- I'd never want to see more than one in my opening hand, thus would probably never play more than 2 of it in my pod deck. Even then, Venser has better interaction with my pod deck, thus wins the PW spot.
In short, they should either cut its mana cost or up its starting loyalty imo.
However, I agree, it might have nice interaction with the morbid creatures of Innistrad and be of great value in the new decks.
I'm actually interested to see which color combo of pod will come out stronger once this set is released. BUG pod got alot of tools especially with the loss of Obstinate Baloth, adding the new morbid creature that auto gains 5 additional life (i think it ecked up to the 5 slot though). Not to mention the 6 drop morbid creature with terminate attached to it. I still think I'd rather get Grave Titan over him however.
@Ghazwan: Whats you're current list for Bant pod, and is there a reason you currently play it over the other possible color combos?
I agree. The loss of baloth will cripple pod decks big time against aggro unless we get a replacement.
Before I decided on bant pod, I playtested 3 pod decks. Rug pod, rug twin pod, and bant pod.
Rug pod - The deck is very explosive, as is the case with any deck that has lotus cobra and fetch lands in it, and has an amazing match-up against caw-blade. The problem I had with this deck was lotus cobra becomes a liability after sideboard, because everyone brings in one form of removal to get rid of it. And without lotus cobra, the deck loses most of its accelerators and its tempo. Honestly, the 3-4 drops of the deck aren't amazing either.
Another problem I had with this deck was, I play on MTGO, and Valakut is very popular online. This deck has a horrible match-up against valakut. No tectonic edges, not enuf acidic slimes. The only way to win against valakut is to get an opening hand with vengevines, lotus cobras and urabrask, so you can end the game by turn 4-5.
Rug pod twin - This was my second-favorite. I love decks with plan B. And, I love the possibility of just winning the game by turn 4 with the combo. But, in order to achieve this, I had to play at least 4 exarchs and 3 twins. That's 7 slots in the deck with almost no value unless I have them both in my hand. Finally, due to twin, either I had to thin creatures in the deck, which hurts pod decks; or, I had to thin removal. Not to mention, having an opening hand with more than one twin was horrible.
Bant pod - The reason I decided on this deck was first and foremost Sun titan+phantasmal image. They have such an amazing synergy. Imagine this scenario that happens quite often with bant pod: Acidic slime by turn 4. Phantasmal image by turn 5 to create another slime. Pod the image into sun titan to fetch the image back to create either another slime or another titan. By then, it usually is gg.
I don't use lotus cobra in my bant pod, thus have more consistent mana acceleration.
Elosh is a deadly 7-drop that makes wurmcoil playable in md (as you get value from saccing it).
Finally, I love venser Venser+dignitary, venser+sun titan, venser+morph, venser+baloth, venser+slime all double the value of my creatures. And, it makes the plan B of the deck, as the opp has to answer venser or concede in 4 turns after it comes into the game.
That's almost same exact list of bant pod I'm running. And ya, phantasmal + sun titan is reason alone to go white I think. So strong. I also think the new garruk will see play, especially if morbid is good. It's pretty rare for a 4cc planeswalker to not see play.