Draft League N00B, HELP!
Standard Deck Help forum
Posted on July 22, 2017, 11:16 p.m. by SlyBlu7
Hey guys - just entered a draft league. They let us pick up 4 packs to start (2 ANK, 2 HOU) and build 30 card decks from there. I think I got the short end of the pulls. Especially when I look at the awesome (frustratingly so) pulls that my GF got, who is even more of a newbie to the game. Anyway, this is what I put together:
Creatures Frilled Sandwalla , Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons, Naga Vitalist, Dune Beetle , Wretched Camel, Ruin Rat, Bitterblade Warrior , Sidewinder Naga , Ornery Kudu , Giant Spider , Bitterbow Sharpshooters
Spells Compelling Argument, Gift of Strength , Synchronized Strike , Splendid Agony, Cartouche of Ambition, Torment of Venom
Artifacts Traveler's Amulet, Bontu's Monument, Oketra's Monument
Land Ipnu Rivulet, Desert of the Glorified, Desert of the Indomitable, Grasping Dunes,1Island, 4Forest, 2Swamp
The idea that I had was to go BG for tossing -1/-1 with Vizier, and having some creatures and pumps. Splashed U for milling.
What else did I pull? Garbage, I think. White was especially thin, which is sad because it's one of my favorite colors.
White Mighty Leap , Oketra's Avenger , Forsake the Worldly , Dauntless Aven , Sandblast
Blue Strategic Planning, Spellweaver Eternal, Labyrinth Guardian , Ancient Crab , Eternal of Harsh Truths, Tragic Lesson, Illusory Wrappings , Shimmerscale Drake , Striped Riverwinder, Open Into Wonder
Black Liliana's Defeat, Shadow of the Grave, Doomfall, Razaketh, the Foulblooded
Red Crash Through, Pathmaker Initiate, Nef-Crop Entangler , Blur of Blades, Open Fire, Pursue Glory , Manticore Eternal , Hazoret's Undying Fury, Desert Cerodon
Aftermath Onward / Victory
Land Sunscorched Desert, Shefet Dunes
Now, my list of cards is recorded at the store, so I can change the deck but obviously cannot add any cards from elsewhere. I'm wondering if I shouldn't have featured Red in the deck, maybe just cut my losses and went RG to keep it simple. Can anyone help me out? It's fairly casual, but I don't really want to get my head caved in for the next two months of MtG.Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!
I'm not sure if I have anything that would make Red/Blue particularly playable. Sure, I can draw a lot of cards and eventually work up to the X+UU unlockable creatures, but that's about all it does. Plus the curve is awful.
I also put together a G/R and splashed in some white. The idea is to try to bomb Onward / Victory around T6. The rest is just combat tricks, trample, and using Pathmaker Initiate to make creatures unblockable before pumping them. Crash Through for trample and card draw, plus a few of the creatures already have Trample, and Mighty Leap and a Dauntless Aven to get a bit of flying. The whole deck falls around the 3 CMC range, with only Pursue Glory and Bitterbow Sharpshooters hitting above 4CMC. The plan is to just stay on curve, get out fast and start pumping out damage.
July 23, 2017 5:19 a.m.
This is Standard Showdown, I think.
You're not drafting. It's a Sealed event.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
July 23, 2017 7:07 a.m.
No this is not standard showdown, this is rather another in store magic event called League, first starting at the release of Kaladesh.
My store is doing it also, but for whatever reason we only were starting with 3 packs (2 HOU and 1 AKH).
You are right in not calling it drafting however, since in this you just buy more packs (after 3 losses and or once every new week) to improve your 30 card deck and record your wins/losses and generally there's a prize offered such as additional booster packs.
July 23, 2017 9:41 a.m.
I'd strongly advise against what I call the shallow-pool trap. I've run into it a lot with shallow draft or sealed pools: the temptation to splash a 3rd color because no two colors are coming together exactly right, so you want to replace some of the weaker cards with strong splash cards. The key to limited is consistency. You should only splash when it is consistent (at least 3 ways to find your splash color or dual lands) and impactful (grade A removal or a certain kind of bomb--a la The Scorpion God, but not Archfiend of Ifnir).
So I think it comes down to R/G versus G/B. I prefer black because it's giving you options for mostly better removal (Splendid Agony is better than Blur of Blades and while Open Fire is situationally more useful than Torment of Venom bc it can hit face, with Hapatra and the ability to shrink down bomb rares I think it's better).
The two are very similar except G/B is defensive but synergistic, and G/R is aggressive. IF you have enough cards to put together just G/B without running the off color monuments (or at least not Bontu's), pick whichever style you're more comfortable playing. If you can't and will need to splash a 3rd color for playables, go G/B. That's my take :)
abby315 says... #2
This is an odd format, 30 card decks are super small, so my advice is mostly theoretical.
Red doesn't look better than your black, here. you'd suffer for creatures and you are getting only slightly better removal. I think B/G is the better build, but you should probably drop blue for +1 Doomfall, which is an alright removal piece--especially because these decks won't have tons of creatures. Milling is SLIGHTLY better since you only have 30 card decks, but 2 mill cards is a total waste of space. Just remember, if you don't mill their entire library, your mill did nothing at all (except maybe help them with Eternalize).
Plus, it'll make your mana easier.
Without the cards in front of me it's harder for me to visualize curve etc., but it might be worthwhile to lay out a blue/red deck. The synergies with your good low blue drops and Pathmaker Initiate + Eternal of Harsh Truths sounds strong enough to take over games in a format like this. But your red is a little sub-par with uncastable spells like Hazoret's Undying Fury, so I dunno.
July 23, 2017 12:20 a.m. Edited.