"Dragons of Tarkir Release Report" - 28 March, 2015

Hey everyone!

I'm fresh back from my first Dragons Dragons Fate draft, and I think I can safely say that red white aggro is a thing. My record ended up being 2-1, and that was better than I deserved, considering the pile that I drafted. Take a look!

I won my first two rounds fairly handily and then lost the finals to another red white deck which was just a little bit faster. I had pretty good luck with my draws, and I almost never had mana issues, even though I misbuilt my mana base. The deck as it was had a couple of spells costing double red, but more of my deck was white than red, and having double white would have allowed me to cast two spells per turn more reliably.

I ran 7/9 with an evolving wilds, and I should have been running straight 8/8.

There are a few cards I want to talk about specifically.

Volcanic Rush is a strictly better Trumpet Blast. I know it costs two more to cast, but as you usually want to use it as a finisher, the extra two mana doesn't matter all that much. It may not be as good for a rush deck, but anything closer to the midrange will be happy to have the trample on top.

Enduring Victory is a perfectly reasonable removal spell. I had it at the prerelease and it was good, but seeing it do work in draft was gratifying. There was only once that I got value off of the bolster 1, but spending five mana to kill Kolaghan felt just fine.

Gleam of Authority came to me fairly late in pack one and I decided to try it. I'm sure that it could work in some constructed format, but in limited I don't think it's worth running.

I had Gleam of Authority in my opening hand four times. I played it on turn two three times, and each time it was mediocre. I would have preferred to have a piker in my hand.

Maybe if there's a white control deck in the format, this could fit into it, but I wouldn't recommend drafting this over any efficient creature.

Volcanic Vision was my pack one pick one. I hadn't intended on running it even when I picked it up. Seven mana is just too much to spend on anything other than a finisher. I was skeptical when I put it in my deck. I dreaded having it in my opening hand, and I was glad that I never drew it before I had at least five lands down.

I cast it once to win a game, though a lava axe would have done as well.

I cast it once and lost because my opponent top decked a burn spell to finish me off. All in all with this too, I'd have preferred another creature.








The other strange thing about DDF was that the one pack of Fate Reforged comes at the end of the draft. Usually when you're drafting a mixed set, you start with the odd pack. Having it come at the end feels strange, but that will probably sort itself out as the format develops.

That's all for now. Prerelease starts on MTGO next Friday, so you'll all be able to learn how to draft Dragons of Tarkir right along with us. Until then.

Thanks for reading,


-Step.

Draft # 42 "Pot O Gold" - March 27, 2015

This week we bring you something a little different- triple Alara Reborn.

This set was part of MTGO's Pot of Gold, St.Patrick's Day draft. What makes this set interesting to draft is that it is entirely composed of gold cards, there isn’t a single mono-coloured card in the set.

We debated whether or not to draft this set for our channel seeing as neither of us have ever interacted with it before, save for the odd single card. In the past we have heard criticism about our drafting sets that we are unfamiliar with. People who do have experience have gotten frustrated when we take bad cards, miss bombs or fail to play the meta of the day.

While we can certainly understand that sentiment, we decided to try it anyway. We both love any opportunity to play magic, and as we are playing more and more magic outside of the current set, it's a great chance to see cards we haven't seen before.

That fact alone, was enough reason to give this a whirl but after drafting, I realized other strong reasons for playing older formats, ones that have an impact on our current limited play.

When we approach unknown sets we generally do a quick internet search, looking for the sets mechanics, checking for mana fixing so we know how many colours we can safely draft and we often take a peek at the sets deck archetypes. It's a lot of information to absorb in a few minutes and we generally get little more that a cursory understanding. We often say after the draft that next time, we'll spend more time doing research, set reviews and read articles, but the truth is, MTGO generally has these special events going for a very short span and we just can't find the time.

It occurred to me that this isn't unlike what happens at the beginning of a new set. As I write this, it's release day for Dragons of Tarkir and our first chance to draft the new format. Granted, I have spent much more time reviewing the cards for this event than I would have for Alara Reborn, but the experience will be quite similar.

We have a general idea of what COULD be a thing- Manifest Deck, Dash Deck, Warrior Deck, but it's mostly untested. The best we can do is draw on the things we already know about playing the game, make the best decisions we can, and pretty much play on the fly. There will be a ton of cards that we just have no idea how they will interact from our, and our opponents side of the board in a real game situation, just like when playing an older set that we don't really know.

Being able to make strong decisions becomes more about our core game playing skills than our memorized knowledge about card interactions and meta game, and a good place to strengthen these skills is to play sets we don't know.

While seeing us stumble and miss obvious plays and cards can be frustrating for you, our viewers, we hope that you enjoy the draft for it's entertainment value, and also understand that for us, this channel has always been about learning, growing and becoming better magic players, and doing drafts like this helps us do those very things.

Thanks for watching,

~Tams

"Tams' Prerelease Report, Silumgar" - March 23, 2015

I have been looking forward to the Dragon's prerelease for a couple of reasons. First, I missed the last two prereleases due to ill timed sickness, and second, because Dragon's seems to be a really interesting set that will change the format.

When choosing which clan to play, I looked to black, one of my first loves, who is now paired with blue or red. My normal inclination would be to choose the generally more aggressive black/red combo over the more controly black/blue, but this time I decided to switch things up and go with Silumgar.

Dragonlord Silumgar is a nasty piece of work; a 3/5 flier with deathtouch for 4 blue black. That in and of itself is pretty sweet, but it also sports a cool ETB effect- 

“When Dragonlord Silumgar enters the battlefield, gain control of target creature or planeswalker for as long as you control Dragonlord Silumgar.”

Sign me up!

The core mechanic for the clan is a new one- exploit.

“Exploit (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice a creature.)”

And if you DO sacrifice a creature you get a reward.

What I liked about this mechanic at first blush was the 'may' clause in the text. So if you have something on the battlefield that you don't mind sacking like this:

You get a reward, like this:

On the other side of the fence, if you have nothing on the field or you don't want to loose a creature, you don't have to, and are left with the creature itself.

I was lucky with my pool, in that I was able to run the colour combo that I signed up for. Frequently, you can sign up for one pairing and windup without enough strength in your colours or a lot of strength in another that pulls you out of your clan.

I only opened one dragon that I could run.

I never had him on the field when I was in a position to exploit a creature, so basically it was just a 4/4 for six, not great, but playable.

I also pulled an Ugin, which I loved playing in my legue deck, but never hit the field in any of my games. That didn't bother me much. I've always viewed Ugin as a 23^rd card, something to top my curve, but not something to pin the hopes and dreams of my deck on, at least not in limited/sealed. If I draw him and can cast him, fantastic, if not, my deck needs to be able to stand on it's own.

I'd like to talk about the cards that exceeded my expectations.

“Palace Familiar”

This is just a solid card. In an exploit deck, it's even better. Not only can I generally get in for a few points of damage early on, I can then use it to block a bigger flier and it replaces itself, or sacrifice it to exploit and get the exploit reward as well as a card. Pretty darn sweet.

“Ukud Cobra”

I put this guy into my deck because I needed another creature. I knew it would be 'ok', but it not only holds down the ground, as deathtouch tends to do, it works really well as a mind game. Players see a large deathtouch creature and they seem loathe to attack into it, to excess at times.

“Gravepurge”

I've never been a graveyard mechanic player so it was odd for me to play this card, but I figured I'd give it a whirl, given the deck I was building. It was amazing. I could sacrifice my creatures to exploit or blocks and get the ones back that I wanted. The best part was the 'draw a card”. That meant I could gravepurge at the beginning of my turn and potentially drop that creature back on the field that turn.

“Butcher's Glee”

I must admit that I'm a sucker for a good combat trick so I thought I'd throw this in and see how it fared. Turns out it's pretty much removal with an upside. Giving your creature another 3 power AND regenerating it, means you should win most battles. The lifelink is just the juicy cherry on this fudge Sunday of awesome.

Sidisi- Undead Vizier

When I noted that I opened her I wasn't stoked. She isn't a Dragon, and let's face it- isn't that what we all went to the prerelease for- Dragons? Once I began building my deck however, I really looked at her. 4/6 deathtouch for 3 black black. That is amazing, no matter how you look at it. But wait- there is more. Her exploit is a tutor. This card was just straight up value.

On the whole I wasn't as blown away by the exploit mechanic as I had thought I might be, as often times, there just wasn't the opportunity to us it. I think if you draft with an eye to build around it, it can but super powerful. For me, it just turned out to be an occasional bonus, not a game bending thing.

I can't wait to try drafting the set, that's when well all get a better feel on how Dragon's of Tarkir will fare.

~Tams

"Dragons of Tarkir Pre-release Report" - March 23, 2015

Another Pre-release has come and gone, and boy did I have fun. I've been skeptical since I first heard about the change in block structure. The fact that Khans was going away and being replaced by this new set struck me as interesting, but with great potential for trouble. As of right now, I'm still on the fence, but at least I had a fun time with the new cards and mechanics.

     I chose Atarka for my dragon clan, and  that was mostly on a whim. I had to choose my clan pack before most of the set had been spoiled, and I figured since I'd started in Temur back in Khans, I might as well finish where I started. From what I saw during play, it didn't matter which clan you chose. All the clans are competitive, provided you could craft a deck.

     I managed to make a good use of my sealed pool. With great luck, a consistent deck, and all the skill I could muster, I managed to go undefeated at my pre-release. Let's get down to it and see just how I did it.

I didn't open a single dragon in my pool, and as well as that, the only multicoloured spell in my pool was my promo card, Atarka's Command. With only one pack of Fate Reforged, we also only had one shot for a gain land. Mine was unfortunately not one I could use. I did get one Evolving wilds in my pool, and that was enough to enable me to splash white for a couple of playables.




My deck ended up looking like this.

The real strength of my deck was in consistency. I had seven Megamorphs and three three drops, which meant that i always had a turn three play. In addition to that, the morphs I had were able to be unmorphed for much less than the expected seven mana, and most of them came with a serious up side.

 Atarka Efreet overperformed in several regards. First, being able to unmorph it for three meant being able to do so almost any time. Added to that was the fact that there are enough X/1's floating around so that I was able to get value from it dealing one damage. One time it was also enough to finish something off after attacking with my team into a single large blocker.

The real hidden power of the Atarka Efreet however, was the fact that it almost single handedly turned on Formidable. It wasn't a terribly important part of my deck, but having it smoothed out my attacks in several ways.





When the Glade Watcher came out on turn two and could start attacking by turn four, thanks to Formidable, I had the beat down well in hand. Between that and paying two mana for the Qal Sisma Behemoth (a 5/5 for 2R) to attack, I was glad that the rest of my deck had a low mana cost.

The Dragon-Scarred Bear was the other good use I had for Formidable. While I was using the rest of my team to swing, leaving it back as a blocker was well worth the two mana to regenerate, and with three power, it was difficult for my opponent to swing into anyway.



I didn't have much need for Mana ramping, but I did run a Whisperer of the Wilds, as well as the new Hardened Berserker. More than once it let me play out a morph and leave up activation mana for one of my other creatures.  The real problem I had was remembering the difference between Formidable and Ferocious. It sounds simple, but in the middle of a game, the fact that you have Formidable but not Ferocious may just elude you.

I ran Seventeen lands, including one Evolving Wilds, and only two Plains which was fine, since I didn't need white Mana until late in the game, and with seven morphs, any three lands meant that I was able to begin beating down faster than my opponents.





On the other side of the table, I didn't see near as many dragons as I expected. There were a few decks with more than one, but nothing I wasn't able to deal with. In the end, being just a hair faster than the other guy proved enough for me to bring my opponent from 20 life to 0, often with me still sitting around 20 myself. My final record was 5-0, and I only lost one game the whole day. I still don't really know how I did it, but I was happy to take home the big prize.

If I had had the opportunity to go to another prerelease, I would have, and I'm certainly looking forward for Dragons of Tarkir coming to MTGO. In the mean time, I hope you enjoyed your prereleases, and I'll be seeing you this Friday with a release Draft report.

Thanks for reading,


-Step.

Draft # 41 "Jund 'em out!" - March 20, 2015

Hey all you people out there in Draft land, we're finally back again, ready to  provide you with the entertainment you've been lacking these three long weeks.

We've been combating illness and computer issues, but it looks like we're finally out of the woods, and ready to get back to our weekly schedule, so without further adieu, let's get right to the draft!

Since we've missed a few weeks of drafting Fate Reforged, we're still a bit inexperienced with the format, but it seems to me that three colour decks are still quite strong, and thanks to there being one less pack of the wedge coloured cards, you might find yourself splashing into a shard more often than in triple Khans. Two colour decks are just as common, of course, but with all the lands still available, it doesn't feel to me like you're giving anything up to stay open to a splash. As a side note, I found out after drafting this deck that Jund is currently a thing in the Standard meta, which doesn't surprise me at all. Between having two of the best sources of removal, and two of the best sources for large creatures, as well as the ability to ramp up, B/R/G is a powerful colour combination.

With Dragons of Tarkir coming out this weekend, it'll be interesting to see how easy it is to make the shift back to two colour limited decks. We'll be going to a prerelease on Sunday, and you should look for our report Monday morning, which will be full of hints and tips for surviving your release day draft.

Thanks for watching, and we'll see you next time,


-Step.