The LiquidLegends Lounge - Page 1768

At least your not an american at worlds

We opened very weirdly and variance definitely shat on me in my games, but there are still takeaways I think.
I went UB pirates because R/W were clearly cut and G wasn't good cards (mostly bears and ramp).
Sadly, I only got a lot of treasures in pack 3, so I didn't think about picking any good card to start splashing them until late (picked the BR gold card).
My deck was 17+ creatures, all but 1 were pirates, P2P1 was Vanquisher's Banner over Charging Monstrosaur which made me sad. On my left was UG despite me not passing much good in these colours pack 1 and he only lost in the finals because he had a bad start into mana flood that didn't let him play. Looks like he got a lot of his goodies pack 2, and he cut most of the blue from me which hurt a lot.
In pack 3, I passed the Compass that flips into Maze to get Prosperous Pirates since I figured I needed more big bodies to block, and some treasures. Then the next 2 packs also had them as pretty much the only playable for me (along with 2-drops but I already had 7 of them).

There were 3 of us in black (one was mostly red tho), but it looks like I had our only Vanquish the Weak, there also were only one Walk the Plank and one Contract Killing. Maybe 2 Skulduggeries opened too.
0 Watertrap Weavers, I think we only opened one Pirate's Cutlass.
On the other hand 3x Skinshifters (one foil), 2 Charging Montrosaurs, 3 Kitesail Freebooters, 2 Dire Fleet Captains, 4 (!) Conquistadores, 4+ Dire Fleet Hoarders too.

My deck was pretty much 2x Mark of the Vampire, Boneyard Parley, Vanquish the Weak, Vanquisher's Banner, 2x Prosperous Pirates, the UB unco, an evasive package with the 1/2 raid 2-drop, Freebooter, merfolk Spire Monitor and Storm Sculptor, then a fuckton of 2-drops: Captain (that makes tokens), 2x the one that makes treasure, BR one, Castaways (one in the board), etc. for 7-8 total.
So I knew the deck was bad, its creatures were too small and either died too easily even backed by skulduggery, or would get double-blocked if I put the Mark on them, and I didn't have enough evasion to apply pressure. I should have picked the Tishana that I saw in pack 2 and splashed her. Just draw 5, suit her up with Mark, and try to run the opponent out of blockers.

Match 1 vs Vampires:
I died when he had a Deacon + Skyblade and just hit me for 3 per turn in the air. Yay for no interaction in tonight's pool. Then I killed with flyers outfitted with Marks and playing around his cards (got lucky, game 2 I had 5/5 so he sided in Legion's Judgement but in game 3 I suited up the Freebooter so it was dead in his hand, unbeknownst to me).

Match 2 vs BRg dinos:
Game 1 Freebooter shows me that he's got bigger creatures than mine but lacks mana, tho he's got the Compass that I passed pack 3. I figure he needs to topdeck 2 lands or play then activate the compass over 2 turns, so I take the removal instead. He topdecks the land and activates the compass once and plays his stuff so I'm limited to attacking in the air with 1/2s. Then he flips the compass and in the 10 turns I'd need to finish him ('cause a Marked flyer gets the maze treatment and prevents his attacks every turn) he finds a Lightning Strike, kills Freebooter, uses the removal he gets back on the other flyer, and starts attacking. Punished, I guess (Mark on Freebooter would have avoided that but I couldn't know he had two lightning strikes in his deck and I didn't want to get blown out by losing the Mark if he found a removal for it). Of course I topdeck another flyer the turn after, but it's too late now since he's got the maze.
Game 2 ends with me at 41 life because I go Sailor of Means -> Mark -> Fathom Fleet Cutthroat to remove his big butt blocker, then Banner, and he can't deal with the 4/7 lifelinker without losing a ton of resources.
Game 3 I keep a 2-lander on the draw because I have multiple 2-drops, Sailor of Means, Banner and another creature. By the time I draw a 3rd land he's taken Banner with Freebooter and casted sideboard Demolish on my 2nd land.
Out of 6 games I've only played a creature on turn 2 twice, already looks like the UR drafts I had at the end of HOU that just spat on me. This deck had Contract Killing, 2x Lightning Strike, 2x Pounce, Charging Montrosaur, so really there wasn't much I could do since he had more removal than I had threats, and he red dinosaurs I'd need to double block.

Match 3 vs GWr dinosaurs:
Dire Fleet Captain -> another 2-drop -> 2-drop + shit a menace token, he goes 2/3 flyer that makes my stuff enter tapped, ramp that puts a counter on it, then 3/4 so he can stall me, and t6 Charging Monstrosaur off the splash. I topdeck the Banner and figure I have lethal, but miscalculated because his last play before that was the Daggertooth and he ends at 1 instead of -1, and kills me on the crackback, sigh. Had I paid more attention I'd have noticed that the Banner did nothing in that situation (I was at 5 and he had that much power in the air, so I had to kill him or force him to use a blocker while keeping enough stuff back myself which is impossible), and kept with my initial play of suiting something up with Mark of the Vampire on a menace creature, attacked with enough to force blocks, and then he wouldn't be able to kill me on the crackback thanks to the lifegain and blockers without a topdecked trick, which would have let me seal the deal on next turn thanks to the menace creatures and a very wide board.
Game 2 I just keep a land-heavy hand and I draw jack shit so I play a 2-drop then nothing until the Spire Monitor turn 5. I have Boneyard Parley in hand but I never even get the opportunity to cast it for somewhat decent value because I didn't draw creatures to force draws. I get Prosperous Pirates + Mark but he's gotten wide by then and I can't attack to gain life without throwing it away for a couple 2/3-drops. Then his Commune finds the unco dinolord so once he hits 7 lands it doesn't matter I've lost on principle (and I keep flooding), especially since he also topdecks the Monstrosaur to end it.

Could have gotten a land out of it, but nope, end 5, RIP. The "lower skill" table opens 2+ lands, Hostage Taker and Vraska so it's great for them tho (and that was only off 3 of them, I left after our draft without waiting on them since I'm kinda sick atm).

Takeaways:
- varianced fucked me over with both openings, getting 2-drops in less than half my games, and stuck on lands then flooding the next, so I gotta take results with a grain of salt
- UB looks like the inferior pirate archetype. Doesn't get red's speed and follow-ups (like FFF, Headstrong Brute) nor reach, and less tricks. I didn't have Lookouts or Cutlass so obviously it'll look bad regardless, but it looks like a slow archetype that can't end games without auras on a fatty (One) or a flyer (Mark). Plus everyone will fight over Black's cards since the good ones are usually generic, not tied to a tribe/archetype, and you've only got Skulduggery as a trick here.
- UB's road to success seems to be the "draft treasures, early interaction and all the bombs" (the successful UB deck I saw was splashing mythics and bombs from other tribes). So Monstrosaur, hexproof merfolk if you have the auras, single-pip removal, etc.
- speaking of Monstrosaur, if think if I had to draft again I'd have picked it over Banner. Mostly because changing my 1/2s into 2/3s and 2/1s into 3/2s doesn't let me attack anyway, and with my low curve whenever I drew it either my hand was empty of pirates, or I'd failed to draw said low curve drops so I'd want to stabilise the board before playing it anyway. I mean, it's still a bomb. But a 7/7 lifelink would end the game way faster and even win combat through triple blocks. The immediate impact seems more valuable.
- on the other hand, the Compass looks stronger in longer/stalled games since once flipped it becomes very hard to lose if you're not flooding like a mofo. I couldn't know I'd see 3x Prosperous Pirates in a row after not seeing a single one in packs 1-2 obv. (variance and all) but I should have identified I'd never win games fast and picked it up as a way to protect myself.
- there's tension between the above 2: "take Compass when your deck isn't aggro since it'll win long games" vs "take Monstrosaur over Banner because immediate impact and works better when you're topdecking." I think it's mostly about the speed of the format: if it ends up being aggro/tempo oriented, and bounce isn't played that much, Montrosaur clearly beats Banner, but if it's slower (doesn't look like it) Banner can get enough time to really get you some value. Compass is mostly for slower decks which looks to be UB, GW and maybe BG?
- Boneyard Parley didn't look unplayable at all, but it really needs you to be able to trade a bunch early on to give you choice regarding what to bring back. I used it in one game against vampire (to force me to give me a flyer that I'd then suit up), and the one lost to compass where I got a big pile (Freebooter, Spy, Pyromancer, Interloper, Prosperous, so I was certain to get good bodies or etbe effects or evasion). But in the one I didn't draw creatures it was awful because it'd be "pay 7, play 2 bears" and by the time I found creatures I'd stabilised so attacking would be throwing stuff away without trading, and my opponent didn't try to attack to push damage anymore.
- Black has good interaction but fuck, that colour can get you fucked over so hard with its small creatures if you don't pair it with the right one and/or the pod opens badly or everything goes through another of its drafters first, since merfolk tend to very easily wheel situational cards for example but everyone wants black's non-shit stuff.