The LiquidLegends Lounge - Page 1453

Here's the pool, get ready to flame me!
The first rares I opened were the U ones so obviously I was thinking I'd go there, and Gonti was the promo (yay! Looks like a fun card).
Let's be serious: all these rares are great. Eliminate Competition requires your build to produce bodies to comfortably get played, the dragon is "only" very good on his own, Electrostatic Pummeler is garbage outside specific builds/conditions, Gonti is value, and the other 3 straight up win the game on their own.
But with the exception of the (garbage) artifact and Eliminate, their costs are all double-coloured, you can't really splash them.

First thoughts are "W has no removal, feels bad" but after counting there's a bunch of decent creatures, a game-winning bomb, a big flyer/good blocker, the Warden as pseudo-removal...
U has two bombs, a big flyer, bounce, draws, a sleep paralysis... but doesn't start playing before turn 3 and lacks creatures. I really want to play the bombs though.
B has several very powerful removal, and a couple fabricate creatures to help make it better (along with the Designs) and some recursion. The creature base is far from the best but in sealed I really like having all this removal.
R has some good cards/removal ("wrath", sparks, etc.) but it doesn't have many cards and lack creatures. I'd rather splash the good ones (hey, they cost RR!).
G is the least "bomby" pool but also my most solid: my only artifact removal, rhinos/tiger as good creatures, a bit of removal, and a way to splash. Because I know I will want to splash, W has no removal and U doesn't have much, I feel like I'll use it.

At first I'm thinking about UG splashing either W or B, but it doesn't give me Unlicensed Disintegration and I really like it. Plus, I don't have the fabricate cards for Eliminate Competition.
BW as a bunch of removal, fabricate and synergies, but I can't splash U, and with the power of its cards...
So I'm settling on BG splashing R for Disintegration and U for the bombs, relying on early game artifacts to make me care less about mana.
Maybe there was a GW (light on removal and bombs) or a UW deck, though. Not so sure about UW, it feels light on creatures.

I started with only 2 islands and 7 forests, but I changed after round 2. I think I should have kept it as was, and added the island only post-sideboard in durdly/bomb-heavy match-ups.

Match 1 vs UG energy/aetherworks marvel
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1-0

Match 2 vs Naya... rares?
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2-0

Match 3 vs Abzan bombs to recur
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3-0
I got my objective here: going at least 50%, since we only get 5 rounds.

Match 4 vs BW... bombs?
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3-1 to mana variance

Match 5 vs BG midrange
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3-2, mana screw too strong

I end up 6th out of 24. Not bad, sure, but considering that out of the 5 games I dropped, 4 were purely to mana issues (the 5th one had mana issues too but not as glaring) and basically my last 2 matches were 100% decided by mana (match 4 win also had my opponent's slight flood so the whole match was kinda bland for both of us :/ ), well... let's just say I'm a bit grumpy. Not salty, but annoyed since I feel like I had a shot at doing better and it was taken without any opportunities for me.
I end up with 6 packs (2 of KLD, wotc didn't give enough stuff for all prizes to be KLD), 4-1 would have been 8 (4 KLD) or even 12 had I won the 4th match (secured a top 2 spot, winner had 14 packs but I doubt I'd go 5-0). Woulda paid for a draft too with a single game win more.

Mana hates me.

Ovalchase Daredevil is really, really good. I thought "meh, it dies easily" but since it does so much damage it can block well, and even if you attack and they chump with servos it's almost a card for them and when you bring it back they'll run out eventually. It's clearly a better BW/BG card since then fabricate helps getting it back but it gets work done when it comes to wearing people down.

G's creatures are pretty dumb, and R doesn't seem to be as fast/aggressive as I thought (clearly it can have very powerful starts but they aren't as common as I'd thought).
The format overall doesn't seem very fast, but it punishes you missing a land drop or an early creature hard. Think not finding something to trade with landfall creatures in BFZ (and assuming G isn't as terrible in draft).
The tempo from energy and stuff requiring setups and thriving creatures is very harsh.

It's hard to fit tricks, since removal is good and plentiful and usually cheap-ish, so even unless they're really good (think G hexproof one or subtle strike, or rush of vitality as protection) I wouldn't really play around it / pick it very high.

Energy is... weird, a bit. When you know what to expect from your opponent there's a sense of inevitability since you can't really get tapped out on energy, compared to mana, and if you know they have a good outlet (like the Marvels match 1, or the red pinger) in their deck, when they have the energy to use it asap you can feel pressured.
On the other hand it also depends on how they get their energy. But you actually gain it a lot easier than I thought, the G common, the Aether Theorist, thriving creatures on blocking/crewing duty, etc. can provide, and repeatable sources (or puzzleknot if you have enough synergy to justify running it) do work.

Splashing is hard as fuck. There's no lands at uncommon like in SOI, or they require energy, although it seems very easy for G. Give me a couple Attune with Aether in my sealed pool and it would have improved leaps and bounds in the games that don't get decided before I get to 5-6 mana.
But double costs are everywhere on good cards (save some U/G ones, and common removal) so the tax is real.

Gearseeker Serpent is as good as it looks. I've watched people stabilise the board, play it, and come back with a couple unblockable swings if the opponent didn't have removal available.

Flyers aren't as weak as ground creatures because of fabricate, so they're actually better than they look (and better than in SOI / non-rares EMN I think) since they can race decently and there aren't that many ways to block them. 2/3 flyers/reach are great as roadblocks.

The magic number for creatures and removal seems to be 4 toughness.

Format felt more bomb heavy than both SOI and EMN. I don't remember BFZ block so can't really talk about it (I don't remember BFZ being very bomb-driven).