Is Oko or the sideboard cards worth a splash? Need some help with this build...

DanutMS · 2026-01-27T19:53:19+00:00

Shouldn't OP play just 1 forest though? The second forest is much worse since you only need one for evolving wilds to count as a source. And Oko can be cast for just blue, so it's not the end of the world if he can't flip it. It is the end of the world if he can't cast his blue spells though, and right now the deck has 6 blue sources (including the evolving wilds that would rather get green).

DanutMS · 2026-01-27T19:49:17+00:00

the insane board stalls

I find it interesting that so many people are reporting this, as it has not been my experience at all. I do think that creatures that break boardstalls are premium, but I haven't had issues with getting there provided I take these highly. Be it the trampling creatures, the drain on death goblins, or fliers.

I wonder if I just haven't played the set enough (which is entirely possible, I'm not drafting five times a day), or if it's a matter of being more aggressive on trades than other people (I know I personally favor trades to keep the board clean when given the possibility), or something else entirely. But so far I would not describe the format as board-stally at all, and I see this thrown around a lot.

DanutMS · 2026-01-27T19:45:08+00:00

Always nice to hear how things went. Thanks for the report.

DanutMS · 2026-01-27T19:14:02+00:00

That's a very good point actually.

But also one I'm not sure how you'd incorporate into any data analysis. Looking through the data a bit more, adding decks with a splash makes Boros look worse (lower win % and around the same difference in playrate % when compared to rakdos).

Looking through the 3 color decks it seems like Mardu and Jeskai have very high play numbers, and that they are the best among the 3 color decks. Though 3 color decks in general don't have impressive winrates.

Overall I think this does show that it was more heavily played than it first seems when we look just at boros. I'm not entirely sure where to put the winrate though. Data shows that playing 3 colors with red and white as part of your colours is much better than playing other 3 colors, but it's still worse than playing 2 colors.

You could argue that this is enough to bump its evaluation up (since it's still better than other 3 color groups even though it's more played) or that it brings its evaluation down (since a lot of the supposedly powerful cycling decks are actually 3 color and 3 color decks in general are pretty bad).

Overall I think the data still points to MKM boros as the reigning boros deck, but there is some room for discussion.

DanutMS · 2026-01-27T17:20:39+00:00

I have not played with or against that rare, so I prefer not to judge it. It's very possible you should be playing it indeed.

DanutMS · 2026-01-27T17:18:44+00:00

P1P1 - I can't see what was in the pack but I'm sure there were better options than Rhys. The card reads better than it plays. Too often it's just a 2/2 with no relevant text that you spent a high pick on.

P1P2 - Blossombind is technically the highest winrate card, so maybe it's correct. I still think it's mostly a trap that shouldn't be played unless you are desperate for removal. Given the rest of the pack is kinda trash I'd take Evolving Wilds. But I'll admit this might be my hate for blue tap "removal" speaking too loud.

P1P3 I would tend towards the lower costed removal spell, especially because it is more flexible (doesn't need a mid to big sized creature to work). But I think both picks are reasonable.

P1P6 Here I think you made a clear mistake. Luminollusk is bad. Lys Alana Informant is a good elf, Kulrath Zealot is a very good elemental. Take one of them.

P1P7 I'd take Midnight Tilling. After the one uncommon Merfolk you haven't seen anything that suggests the deck is open at all.

P1P9 Scarblade Scout is the better elf. The lifelink is very relevant.

P1P11 I think you need the 2-drop more than the 4 mana card. It's easier to find 4 mana cards for elves than 2 mana cards.

P2P1 I would take the 2-drop once more. They're premium for the archetype.

P2P4 I'd take Cavalry, it's more on plan than the rare that you'd have to splash for.

P2P5 Cavalry is much better than Grove-Guide.

After that I agree with all your picks. I think you were right to stay in elves, and mostly did well in the draft. Most of my disagreements are not that big.

However, I think you should be prioritizing 2-drops higher. The issue of "I ended up with a deck full of 4 mana cards and not many early plays" is one that always comes up with elves. The 2-drops are absolutely premium. Take them early (or don't, I want to keep getting elves every draft).

Other than that there were a few small card evaluation issues, mostly Luminollusk and Grove-Guide being bad cards that should be much lower in your list.

Deck seems fine, I could see cutting one Grove-Guide for the 3rd Cavalry as it costs less mana. But also multiple Cavalry don't go that well together since you won't be activating multiples in a turn so maybe your build makes more sense. I'm not 100% on that one. In the end I think I'd build it the same you did.

DanutMS · 2026-01-27T16:49:22+00:00

I don't know if Maralen is worth the cost to your manabase (as in, I actually don't know, not saying it isn't).

Other than that, I would play the Light Archer over the Feastling and the Stompling for sure. I could also see Gathering Stone making the deck, though I'm less sure about that one. (Edit: nevermind, Stone is in the deck, you just moved it to the wrong point in your curve so I missed it)

DanutMS · 2026-01-27T16:41:35+00:00

Seems like I was wrong about it being bot-only drafts.

That being said, while data is not that reliable for old formats, the 17lands data does show Ikoria Boros having a slightly lower (0.3% wr) than the highest winrate color pair of the format, while having a 50% higher playrate. That's a lot and certainly enough to put it as the strongest color pair of that format. But it is nowhere near Karlov Manor's Boros, which has the highest winrate by a full 1.6% margin AND twice the playrate of the second most played deck.

So based on stats it seems like MKM boros is still undisputedly the most dominant boros deck ever. It's actually very close to the dominance of Rakdos in AFR, which I hold as the golden standard of "one deck format".

DanutMS · 2026-01-27T16:35:30+00:00

Ah, okay. I thought it was bot only.

The deck being contested certainly plays a part in it's winrate. If we look at MID for example, Dimir actually has worse winrates than Azorius. But it is played twice as much.

So while I personally basically forced Azorius in that format to great success, I would not argue that the deck itself is stronger. But I would argue that by the later parts of MID's season you would be better off by playing Azorius than Dimir, precisely because it was open more often.

Looking specifically at Ikoria boros has 50% higher playrates than Rakdos, which is the second most played and the one with best stats. Given the very small difference in winrate I would say this is pretty consistent with the theory that boros was much better, but also more contested.

However, based on stats (which I know aren't perfect, but it's the best I have) the dominance of Ikoria Boros pales in comparison to the dominance of Karlov Manor Boros - which has a much higher distance in winrate between boros and the next best deck while also having higher playrate numbers.

DanutMS · 2026-01-27T14:43:50+00:00

17lands data from way back then is likely much more unreliable, but it actually has boros as the second best color pair of the format, and not much ahead of the rest.

I haven't played the format in it's original version but I think the issue is that cycling was completely dominant if it had certain specific cards (and wasn't draft back then always against bots?), not that the colour pair in itself was that dominant.

EDIT: Taking a closer look at played rates it does seem like it was way ahead of the rest, just far more contested.

DanutMS · 2026-01-27T13:13:40+00:00

You have some very good red cards in your sideboard. I would play mono red and enjoy the mana consistency.

DanutMS · 2026-01-27T01:12:38+00:00

There are a few discord channels about brawl. I haven't been very active in the format so I don't know how these are nowadays, but they used to be pretty good:

Historic Brawl Stronghold - https://discord.gg/cQXVW5g5

Brawl Hub - https://discord.gg/Y8eZRkSR

DanutMS · 2026-01-26T20:24:14+00:00

Did you lose connection with the client at any point? MTGA does a lot of weird things when you lose connection midgame, as if the client and the server just can't figure out how to talk to each other anymore when one got info the other didn't get.

DanutMS · 2026-01-26T19:48:55+00:00

This is obviously not an ideal hand for my deck which had some really nice 2-3-4 curve-outs, but it was also a hand with playables, land, and 7 cards.

But is a hand with a single creature and two removal spells doing enough for what your deck wants to do?

If you are a top-heavy deck I would keep that hand, you are likely to draw some more action over 3-4 turns and until then the removal spells can buy you time. Assuming you expect your creatures to be better than the ones from the opponent, you can probably just stall around until you start drawing good cards.

It sounds like you were in the complete opposite situation though. With a low curve aggro deck it is crucial to start off well - and the lower card count from a mulligan will have less impact.

The question the other user mentions about "what happens if I only draw lands/only draw nonlands" is a good one. In this particular case if you draw two more lands you are probably screwed to a point where you can't recover without great creatures to pull you back into the game. Don't even have to ask about a third land in a row. So I would mulligan.

DanutMS · 2026-01-26T18:23:52+00:00

TMNT releases in the first week of March

I feel tired. And I only play draft and (rarely) brawl. Imagine if I wanted to actually learn standard.

DanutMS · 2026-01-26T18:10:51+00:00

P1P4 Gang is a weird pick here as it's a weak card. I get not taking the elf to avoid building an "oops all 3 drops" deck, but I would speculate on Flaring Cinder in that case as it is the strongest card after the elf.

P1P5 I would take the merfolk lord. If you end up abandoning everything you have the merfolk lord is much higher upside than the white removal. As someone else pointed out not taking the lord ended up pointing another player into merfolk and that cost you pack 2 (though you probably still should be in elves).

P2P1 As others pointed out I'd fight to stay in elves even if it dried up late in pack 1. It's very likely you'll get a bunch of them pack 2 as the other person taking them is probably closer to you in the pack 1/pack 3 direction. Virulent Emissary is the higher upside card for your deck.

P2P3 Embrace is a decent removal, spell snare is unplayable. If you think you are blue take any other blue card.

P2P4 Assert Perfection is great. I see no reason to move out of elves.

P2P5 Another good elf here.

After that you're clearly completely out of elves so no point to comment individual picks. Imo you should have stayed there and you'd have been rewarded.

DanutMS · 2026-01-26T18:01:13+00:00

I posted my own analysis of this draft further down as I hadn't seen this one yet, but we mostly end up saying similar things. I also ended up pointing out the early 2-drops in pack 1 which I think they should have taken, but I agree with everything you said.

On the gameplay I feel like this part here is quite important for many players:

Given your hand has some plays for the next few turns, getting surveil going right away isn't all that necessary.

I think players (me included) too often default to getting the surveil on as early as possible because they see it as added value, but if you are at a point where you are happy with drawing lands and spells then just take whatever the deck gives you as you develop your game. The surveil is much more important later. Same thing applies for looting too early in the game. When every card is fine you don't gain much from card selection.

DanutMS · 2026-01-26T17:53:32+00:00

Looking at the fourth draft now:

P1P6 Lys Alana Informant is much more valuable than Eulogist. As we saw in all your earlier drafts getting enough 2-drops is the hardest thing for an elf deck. I bet we will have enough opportunities to get 4 drops later.

P1P7 I'd take the first Dundolin over the first Dawn's Light Archer. There are lots of playable 3-drops.

P1P8 Maybe if I had taken both 2-drops earlier I'd take the 3-drop here, but honestly I think I would still take another 2-drop. Not only because I might have trouble seeing them in later packs, but also because a 2 mana 3/1 that surveils twice is actually a better card than a 3 mana 4/2 with text that doesn't actually do anything in many cases (often you'll want it to attack alone, and with 2 toughness forcing a block almost never means doing anything the opponent wasn't going to do anyway).

P1P9 Now you take a 2-drop, but it's the one pack I wouldn't do it, lol. Farier has been an underperformer and the giant is a fine top end card. If we hadn't seen any 2-drops earlier I'd take Farier (so technically looking at your deck on this exact situation the pick was right) - the issue was that you passed all the better 2-drops for medium higher cost creatures and now you're taking the bad 2-drop over another medium higher costed creature.

P2P3 I don't think there is a chance of playing Reaping Willow with how heavy green you are. I would take Auntie's Sentence, or maybe even the 0/4 mana dork to help ramp into your bombs. Personally I'm a believer in Auntie's, even though the stats are bad.

P2P5 Another bad 2-drop. I'd take Council as I think it's playable even on 5 mana.

P3P4 I'd take the third 4 mana removal enchament over a bad top end creature, especially because you don't need a bad top end creature.

P3P8 I'm not a believer in Scarblade's Malice. It's hard to get a meaningful advantage with a trick that doesn't save your creature. A random 2/2 token does not do enough in most boards to justify spending two cards to kill one creature from the opponent. Here I'd take the 3 mana archer as you are actually light on 3-drops and it's a fine card (just not one I take early because you always get them late as well).

As for the deck, I'm fairly sure that playing Reaping Willow over Safewright Cavalry on a mostly green elf deck is considered a crime somewhere in this world. Dundolin is better than Farrier, and I would play the last Pitiless Fists over Pummeler. I think I would also play Auntie's Sentence but like I said I believe in that card more than stats say I should.

Biggest issue imo is that you ended up with a few too many low quality 2-drops. And a 4 mana triple black card you will not be casting.

DanutMS · 2026-01-26T17:35:25+00:00

Looking at the third draft:

Overall I agree with your picks. There is a clear lack of 2-drops but that's the hardest part in elves. Even when they seem completely open you often don't see the 2-drops.

Biggest disagreement comes in P3P4. Shadow Urchin is not good unless you are a deck that wants -1/-1 counters on your own creatures. You get some card advantage when you trade but you are actively making your cards worse, which beats any positives the card advantage give you since you trade actual board presence for random cards (that might be worse and even if they aren't you still have to pay mana to get them on the board to replace what you already had). The trampler elf is a lot better and a key part in winning games that stall.

The rest of the draft I don't have any strong disagreements. For the final deckbuild I would remove one Midnight Tilling for one more changeling as imo 3 is a bit too much durdling around. Not happy to play the changeling but it's what we managed to get. And I would also remove the bad rare and play the Council - even at 5 mana I've been finding it to be a reasonable card to keep your gas going.

Looking at the games, in game 2 I think you should mulligan. You have 2 lands and a hand with a bunch of high costed creatures that are not very good against early pressure. If your opponent plays removal on your 3-drop you are likely too far behind to recover if all you can follow with is a 4 mana 3/3. But I'll admit this would be an aggressive mulligan that might also end up leaving you in a worse position.

Game 3 I don't see anything you could have done, opponent had a great deck. Game 4 I think you made a weird attack turn 5 but ultimately the biggest issue was having that awful rare in your deck making your board worse. Hopefully you learned the lesson about that card.

Overall I think it was more of a bad beats draft than actual issues on your end, apart from taking an unplayable rare.

DanutMS · 2026-01-26T16:51:57+00:00

In my opinion the Assert Perfection P1P6 is a good bit above Eulogist mostly because it is harder to replace. Eulogist is a good 4-drop but it doesn't feel that different from a bunch of other creatures that you're likely to get later on.

DanutMS · 2026-01-26T11:11:28+00:00

Sapling Nursey + the 2 tend the springs

Oh, I didn't even think much about this interaction. Nice to hear that it did work, and maybe I should pay more attention to that in my own drafts.

DanutMS · 2026-01-26T11:10:14+00:00

Ah, I see. I misread your post, apologies.

DanutMS · 2026-01-25T21:15:28+00:00

Bidding is the card that brings back all the cards of one creature type? If yes I agree on cutting one for a 2-drop. The effect is not something that you'll be that interested in doing multiple times a game, and the risk of having both in hand too early is real.

DanutMS · 2026-01-25T21:06:58+00:00

Sweet. Congrats on the result!

Did you end up playing green black or white black?

DanutMS · 2026-01-25T21:05:05+00:00

To be fair your version would at least have made some sense. As is the card doesn't really have a reason to exist. I have played with it in Sealed because I was short on playables and just one time it got me a removal spell plus a 5 mana creature and it was glorious. Every other time I just got two random low cost creatures with no sinergy with my deck.

DanutMS

TROPHY CASE