I'm really not high on Feral Prowler, but that's probably 3x AKH and my "jund 'em out!" pools speaking. I see it as annoying when I'm playing aggro but I don't really want to have to play it myself, I'd still rather be proactive in this format... and maybe I'm just dead wrong.
Also I'm trying to build a "standard" cube (plus stuff like Nantuko Husk for the aristocrat archetype for example, as long as it fits the archetypes and power level), but damn if balancing the colours and archetypes isn't hard. I went up to 70 cards in Red just because it has a bunch of low-cost creatures, and ended up a bit stumped since I envisioned RG as ramp-oriented. There are targets (Neheb, Chaos Maw, Uncontested Alphas, etc.) but the pool of creatures is pretty shallow once you get away from aggro. Maybe I'd end up including Conduit of Storms as pseudo-ramp in R.
Also deciding which R removal spells to use (considering there isn't enough to go for a burn archetype), but going face still counts as reach for aggro and UR spells), splitting between instant and sorceries, various CMC, do you need/want to provide the exiling ones, etc.
On July 20 2017 06:22 Dandel Ion wrote: yea you have 7 decent or good creatures thats not a lot considering other than creatures green has exactly cartouche and thats it. that's what we call underwhelming in the business.
Which of the green creatures other than Sandwalla/Manglehorn do you not consider at least decent?
feral prowler and tenacious hunter the latter is a fine card usually, but the pool has trouble activating it outside of black, and b/g would be a horrendous deck
but if you think you can make a g/x deck that's better than ub, go right ahead, im listening
I really have issues with BG in general in this block. Sure sometimes it comes together and you get smashed (like my last write-up and how Hapatra + Lethal Sting won the game in a single play; or one of our drafts where a guy had 2x Exemplar of Strength, Soulstinger, 2x Nest of Scarabs, Cartouche and Splendid Agony), but it feels like there aren't that many payoffs, nor that many enablers, so it's hard to actually get something synergistic going rather than just a generic midrange pile. In HOU it's slightly worse because you have less payoffs (Tenacious Hunter turned on is legitimately ridiculous tho) and you lose good enablers in Cartouche and Splendid Agony. Lethal Sting is a bigger cost for you (especially if aggro is still on the menu so most of your targets are small creatures) and Torment of Venom should usually kill its target, which doesn't matter for Nest of Scarabs or Hapatra but does Banewhip Punisher, Hunter, etc.
Greatmaw never impressed me, Kudu was something it'd take a lot for me to pick over other green commons (granted Doomed Dissenter either aren't opened or never got far so the combo wasn't available in our last drafts)... and Crocodile / Ammit are strong enough by themselves that it doesn't matter which archetype you're in as long as they're on-colour.
Tenacious Hunter is a 4 mana 4/4 if you never activate it, that's a perfectly fine card.
On July 20 2017 10:49 Dandel Ion wrote: but if you think you can make a g/x deck that's better than ub, go right ahead, im listening
I don't think the G/x builds are better than UB but they're close enough to play in some number of games. For the majority of sealed pools if you're only playing 1 build you're not utilizing the pool to full effectiveness. Unless you got the nuts pool where all of your good cards are in 2 colors, most of the time you have 2 or more similarly good decks and the best one is not better by enough to outweigh the others being better in specific matchups. Once you have information about your opponent's deck game 1, you often should be playing a completely different deck game 2.
I don't think UB is the best game one deck because in sealed unless you got the literal nuts aggro deck with e.g. Gust Walkers and Hooded Brawlers, an aggro deck is not where you want to be (and a deck with all offensive 2 and 3 drops and that has its curve basically end at 4 *is* an aggro deck). You can side into it against a sufficiently slow opponent, but I would lean toward a more midrangey or control deck for game 1.
this is amonkhet, aggro is just fine even in sealed. ub has the synergies to make it work and i just dont think siding in and out of a largely generic midrange pile will make your overall score better. and even if you want to do that i'd rather lead g1 with the deck with plenty removal. if the opponent clearly is set up against that strat you can still board into, say, UG with literally all the 5s to 7s and try to overpower. in fact if you're set on full-boarding (and i dont agree that thats 'always' the correct thing but w/e) i'd rather start aggressive and make them respond by lowering their curve and putting in specific answers.
On July 20 2017 11:00 Alaric wrote: I really have issues with BG in general in this block. Sure sometimes it comes together and you get smashed (like my last write-up and how Hapatra + Lethal Sting won the game in a single play; or one of our drafts where a guy had 2x Exemplar of Strength, Soulstinger, 2x Nest of Scarabs, Cartouche and Splendid Agony), but it feels like there aren't that many payoffs, nor that many enablers, so it's hard to actually get something synergistic going rather than just a generic midrange pile. In HOU it's slightly worse because you have less payoffs (Tenacious Hunter turned on is legitimately ridiculous tho) and you lose good enablers in Cartouche and Splendid Agony. Lethal Sting is a bigger cost for you (especially if aggro is still on the menu so most of your targets are small creatures) and Torment of Venom should usually kill its target, which doesn't matter for Nest of Scarabs or Hapatra but does Banewhip Punisher, Hunter, etc.
Greatmaw never impressed me, Kudu was something it'd take a lot for me to pick over other green commons (granted Doomed Dissenter either aren't opened or never got far so the combo wasn't available in our last drafts)... and Crocodile / Ammit are strong enough by themselves that it doesn't matter which archetype you're in as long as they're on-colour.
i found bg good even without the hardcore synergies, it was my most drafted archetype probably.
I drafted half the archetypes once. Most drafted were BW zombies (stats are foggy because I drew twice, though for both considering the match-ups and B being overdrafted by people switching I'd still call it a very successful archetype) and BR aggro which has my best stats by far (pretty much only match I lost was to a "t3 drake haven while I draw 3 spells the whole game" combo twice in a row). BR's not as good because it needed more specific cards to get there, it relied a lot on R which people should fight you for, and I benefitted from people not respecting R cartouche (they learnt) or the 2/1 bat (they never did).
BG without the synergies is playing slightly bigger creatures than other people, but with little to no defense against flyers, and people in your colours will fight you for your best cards (both cartouches, Agony, Brawler) save Soulstinger that aggro won't touch. I find it hard to get good card quality in that context. I'm probably biased a bit since I never got to actually play G cartouche (had to salvage other areas by the time I finally opened or got passed one), and my BG draft that ended in a pile had a guy forcing hard to my left (BG -> UB -> jund splashing double-symbol cards -> BG, noone else at the table in B; he was cut both sides but from the last 3 drafts I remember him being there he always forced; it worked out for various reasons but if I see him again at the start of the format I'll prob have to take it into account).
I'm pretty sure going into HOU I'm going to want to play something tempo-oriented while prioritising bigger removal, what with HOU's creatures actually letting you block and ramp being more accessible, but I don't know yet how I'd rank the colours. I've seen people call for Red and White, profess UG as a tempo archetype combining Aerial Guide and afflict/bounce with G's big creatures, etc. and BW is still ridiculous if noone steals your 2-drops, but I don't know how much I actually like W outside of that.
On July 20 2017 18:23 Dandel Ion wrote: in fact if you're set on full-boarding (and i dont agree that thats 'always' the correct thing but w/e) i'd rather start aggressive and make them respond by lowering their curve and putting in specific answers.
I don't agree with that because I think the UB deck lines up poorly against the average sealed deck opponent, because the average sealed deck is just a bunch of 3s and 4s. You either want to be a little bit slower or a lot faster--and the UB deck is not a lot faster (you'd basically need like a draft-quality deck to be sufficiently fast for that). Being similarly midrangey as the average sealed deck (RG or UG + Bolas) with a better top end is the best place to be for game 1, not a mediocre aggro deck.
im not seeing how rg has a noticable (aka above average) top end to put midrange mirrors in your favor cerodon is an aggro creature with only two deserts, sharpshooters is fine ofc but bricked pretty easily (not desired in a build with little to break board stalls), hippo is fine but not exactly unblockable, the 4/4 for 4 is vanilla in this build so you basically have manticore as actual quality top end
furthermore ritualist has exactly one creature it can meaningfully ramp into people are going to have better cards and greedier builds and its not possible to punish that with this.
There's a massive Warhammer tournament in Las Vegas. I'd love, love to go. But the price for travel, accommodations, and then the event is just... it's money. But it's one of the biggest gaming conventions in the country, if not the world.
On July 21 2017 03:47 mordek wrote: Too bad, GoFest is in your backyard.
Is that official or just a fan thing?
It's the real deal. Niantic actually taking things seriously. Sponsored youtube personalities there, livestreaming, global rewards based on achievements completed by participants etc. First legendary raid too.
Basically you can now play the game without it feeling like Beta (for the most part...) but there's no reset so you'll just be a year behind all the players who stuck it out lol. still cool cuz gotta catch'em all
On July 21 2017 04:06 Requizen wrote: Is there any point in me going then if I haven't kept up? Like will I be able to even participate at all?
There hasn't been a point in time where its been easier for your to participate. You may still feel behind though. Also you had to buy tickets for GoFest within 5 min of them going on sale and I think you get some promo code to enter in your game to access what's going on but more generally if you enjoyed the game before but it was lacking its easier to get XP now and there's more to do. You just can't make up for months and months of not grinding XP as those people will always have the same things available to them as you do now.
On July 21 2017 03:47 mordek wrote: Too bad, GoFest is in your backyard.
Is that official or just a fan thing?
It's the real deal. Niantic actually taking things seriously. Sponsored youtube personalities there, livestreaming, global rewards based on achievements completed by participants etc. First legendary raid too.
Basically you can now play the game without it feeling like Beta (for the most part...) but there's no reset so you'll just be a year behind all the players who stuck it out lol. still cool cuz gotta catch'em all
To be fair, Gen2 was a massive disincentive for me when it came to playing. Not only were some mon not even meta anymore, by the massive changes to movesets made almost everything I had garbodor. Just a month of not playing because of how shit the winter was had me so super behind that I gave up.
EPT
