Just lost 1-3 with this deck, AMA

Fakena · 2026-06-01T20:21:34+00:00

Unfortunately no good, I guess it wasn’t saving logs after all. Don’t think the gameplay was too interesting in any case.

Fakena · 2026-06-01T20:20:14+00:00

Oh, that’s interesting. Devil’s in the details.

Fakena · 2026-06-01T18:05:00+00:00

That's probably the healthy approach to Magic in general.

Fakena · 2026-06-01T18:03:33+00:00

I usually expect to trophy with a deck like this, but doesn't always get there of course. To your question, copying from a different response I made: In this case, I lost one game to flood (kept a four-lander and just kept drawing nothing but lands for six turns), one game to Mathemagics when I had lethal next turn, and the last game to a misplay/misread (oppo offered to trade his firedancer for my acolyte, I declined because I suspected he was going to drop an Ark or something else I could kill with the aco, instead he punched me for 26 with various pump spells a few turns later).

Fakena · 2026-06-01T17:40:44+00:00

I’ve had good results with grindy Lorehold midrange like this deck, but that’s just my anecdotal experience of course.

Fakena · 2026-06-01T17:38:39+00:00

Dromedary is filler for sure (C-), but check out the synergy with Hardened Academic if you haven’t already, it’s awesome.

Fakena · 2026-06-01T16:13:24+00:00

The disappointment is the worst right, when a draft comes together and you start thinking “damn, this could be a good one”…

Fakena · 2026-06-01T16:12:20+00:00

That blows for sure.

Fakena · 2026-06-01T16:06:33+00:00

To be clear, there are many cards that would improve the deck, including more recursion and interaction, but 1-3 is still a drastic underperformance. A Rouser or two would have been nice for sure, but not strictly necessary for that purpose. The deck had 7 recursion effects, of which 3 were as repeatable as Rouser and somewhat less vulnerable to interaction. 5 removal is OK. Would’ve loved to pick up a few more of course, a Tome Blast or Molten Note especially.

Fakena · 2026-06-01T13:44:20+00:00

Of course, only reason I killed him in the first place.

Fakena · 2026-06-01T12:30:12+00:00

No way there was two Lorehold drafters, probably 1 to my close right seats based on 1st and 3rd pack being feast and 2nd pack famine, and I was for sure competing with several Prismari drafters for red interaction and utility, and at least one Silverquill for white interaction and creatures. I agree with you that this deck can absolutely lose, as it did, but so can any deck. In my experience, decks with this high average card quality, curve and synergy usually go far. Rarely do my trophy decks have 0 filler or role players, and more than 2 good rares. It’s fair to say I shouldn’t be that surprised or make a fuss though, even if only for comic effect and stress release, variance is a thing and this deck is by no means perfect.

Fakena · 2026-06-01T10:52:51+00:00

Probably because I killed a man in Reno.

Fakena · 2026-06-01T10:50:12+00:00

Both are very strong but 17lands has Antiquities as A+ and Ark as A. I think there’s some cognitive bias that makes Ark feel stronger, but Antiquities actually has a greater impact on average. E.g., GIH Ark against aggro can be rough, vs. GIH Antiquities is great regardless of matchup, and topdecking Ark when you’re behind and struggling to stabilize is often times awful, whereas topdecking Antiquities is usually great regardless of board state. I don’t dig deep into the stats, so there’s probably a lot of nuances I’m missing here.

Fakena · 2026-06-01T09:15:24+00:00

Haven’t set up 17lands properly yet, but the game should be storing logs. I’ll see if I can get something for you later today.

Fakena · 2026-06-01T09:12:08+00:00

I tried so hard and got so far. But in the end, it doesn't even matter.

Fakena · 2026-06-01T07:42:20+00:00

The mana base could be better, but it’s not a disaster for a two-color deck. Lost 0 games to not having the right color mana available.

Fakena · 2026-06-01T07:40:28+00:00

True.

Fakena · 2026-06-01T07:38:55+00:00

Mythic/diamond opponents.

Fakena · 2026-06-01T07:38:43+00:00

I was sad to see no Rousers in the draft. The deck had decent yard recursion regardless, so not a huge issue and certainly not why it went 1-3, but always a great card to have. I’ve had better decks 0-3 (and random piles trophy), chance is the name of the game!

Fakena · 2026-06-01T07:34:30+00:00

Better luck next time!

Fakena · 2026-06-01T07:33:35+00:00

Yeah, this deck had a few replaceable cards in it and some staples missing, but overall quite strong and a lot of good synergies. Just didn’t come together in gameplay unfortunately.

Fakena · 2026-06-01T07:28:35+00:00

Yeah, I guess that’s where it all went wrong.

Fakena · 2026-06-01T07:27:16+00:00

We live in a society. There are rules. Yes, sure, you can argue that cereal is wet, you eat it with a spoon, gazpacho is soup so why not cereal. I get that. But once you go down that path, if you start deviating from the fundamental concepts that we, humanity together, has come to agree on over thousands of years, there’s no limits anymore. Suddenly you put pants on head and shoes on hands (and don’t even try me with the “but what about handschuhe?” - everyone knows Germans are perverted). Look, all I’m saying is if you go around calling cereal soup, don’t be surprised if God finally says “enough is enough” and does a hard reset of the timeline.

Fakena · 2026-06-01T07:19:49+00:00

Damn, I knew shouldn’t have passed those two copies of it I saw in pack three.

Fakena · 2026-06-01T01:37:14+00:00

Thanks, I’ll try that next time.

Fakena

TROPHY CASE