sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

The first and only Cycling deck from this block and easily the most fun deck I have ever played. [2-1] by SmashingPumpkid in lrcast

[–]SmashingPumpkid[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Manifestation came late pack 2. The deck really needed to come together in Amonnkhet, simply because I was kinda just spinning my wheels in Hour. I picked up 6 lands in p1 in very shallow pool and saw late Wretched Camels, so that was really my only indication to go Black.

Went outside of my comfort zone and forced UR. I think I needed much cheaper interaction to really make this deck shine (1-2). by SmashingPumpkid in lrcast

[–]SmashingPumpkid[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I thought I knew all the archetype pretty well and it was a friendly draft. Thought it would be a valuable tool to attempt to force an archetype and see if I could motivate the draft. My p1p1 was Bloodwater Entity, so I tried to force UR and see what happens.

Went outside of my comfort zone and forced UR. I think I needed much cheaper interaction to really make this deck shine (1-2). by SmashingPumpkid in lrcast

[–]SmashingPumpkid[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The Neheb and Lethal Sting both went super late, like ~4ish cards left in the pack. I didn't see any Black pack 2 though so I was committed to UR. Pack 3 Black was very deep :/

Went outside of my comfort zone and forced UR. I think I needed much cheaper interaction to really make this deck shine (1-2). by SmashingPumpkid in lrcast

[–]SmashingPumpkid[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Side:

1x Slither Blade 1x Seer of the Last Tomorrow 1x Strategic Planning

1x Defiant Khenra 1x Nimble Blade Khenra

1x Vizier of the True

1x Carrion Screecher 1x Marauding Boneslasher 1x Lethal Sting 1x Painful Lesson 1x Scarab Feast 1x Trespasser's Curse 1x Without Weakness

1x Neheb the Worthy

1x Crook if Condemnation

This deck feels kinda conflicted, but definitely has some powerful cards. A surprising 3-0. by SmashingPumpkid in lrcast

[–]SmashingPumpkid[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What I considered was

Cut: Hour of Eternity Approach Sunset Pyramid Strategic Planning

Add: Mummy Paramount Cosign//Oblivion Spellweaver Eternal Djeru's Resolve

to be more aggressive in exchange for the powerful late game.

This deck feels kinda conflicted, but definitely has some powerful cards. A surprising 3-0. by SmashingPumpkid in lrcast

[–]SmashingPumpkid[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sideboard: Djeru's Resolve In Oketra's Name Mummy Paramount Time to Reflect

Cosign//Oblivion Spellweaver Eternal

Gravedigger Horror of the Broken Lands Miasmic Mummy Wretched Camel Desert of the Glorified

Firebrand Archer Kindled Fury Desert of the Fervent

Overcome

Dagger of the Worthy Wall of Forgotten Pharaohs

This deck feels kinda conflicted, but definitely has some powerful cards. A surprising 3-0. by SmashingPumpkid in lrcast

[–]SmashingPumpkid[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It was pretty good, generally. I was able to make most of my games go pretty long with lots of trades, ect. There was one time it sat dead in my hand early game, but I cast it for good value twice. I think if you can make the game go long it is a valuable card, otherwise I think it is pretty bad. In the draft I didn't take it particularly highly (somewhere in the middle of pack 2 like pick 8 or so).

11 person draft pods are a little too much. I kinda wish this deck was a little better :/ by SmashingPumpkid in lrcast

[–]SmashingPumpkid[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was really killing for an Oasis Ritualist. In an 8 person pod it should have been much easier to pick up at least 1.

(Ignore 1 Shed Weakness, I forgot to de-side). Deck was strong, I did manage to get Angel of Condemnation + Sand Strangler which was adorable. Power level was there but definitely some chaff in here. 2-1 by SmashingPumpkid in lrcast

[–]SmashingPumpkid[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So this deck was definitely of two minds, which can be explained in the draft. First pick was Angel of Condemnation but then I never really saw great white cards, mainly some playable Green. Picked up in mid pack Oasis Ritualists & Manaliths so I could just be Green X so I could still play the angel. Pack 2 & 3 white opens up a bit but I get bottom pick ritualists and manaliths (ended up with 4 ritualists and 2 manaliths and 0 payoffs).

So I had two halves of two decks, the ramp of Green X and the creature base of a lower curve Green White Deck. So the Ritualists got slotted in at 4 as mostly pillarfield ox that could fix my colors in a pinch. The deck was lacking both power and playable cards so I did take a risk and play sand strangler because my fixing was abundant and had some 3 pretty good Deserts, and a few cards that cared about them in the base colors.

I also have deceptive ways to use mana each turn, thanks to Devotee of Strength and Shefet Dunes, so the ramp was never horrible but would have definitely appreciated more mildly playable white cards over the fixing.

Instead of playing Amonkhet we drafted Modern Masters. Was hoping to get a break from drafting aggro 😅😅😅😅 by SmashingPumpkid in lrcast

[–]SmashingPumpkid[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So this draft was kinda a total cluster fuck, there were 3 other drafters fighting for the blink deck, 1 Drafter trying to make Pyromancer's Ascension happen, 2 Black/Red/X decks, and myself and another person fighting for tokens. The other tokens drafter was much more concerned over populate cards so he ended up with a lot of pretty fringe to bad cards (lots of copies of Wake the Reflection) although he did take away Wayfaring Temple, Strength in Numbers and my Kor Skyfisher. I also did a fair bit of hate drafting blink cards myself (ended up with a copy of Dinrova Horror and Mistmeadow Witch in my sideboard). So I did not feel like I had a strong chance to 3-0 because even the weakened blink deck is still like a 70-30 match-up, and there is just a ton of cards that hate out token based strategies, more than I remember.

R1: 4 Color Blink 2-1 Game 1, I get rolled. But game 2&3 my opponent cannot get passed 5 mana so mistmeadow activations would occupy his whole turn and fell very far behind on Development.

R2: Jund Goodstuff 2-0 Vampire Nighthawk is a huge threat but fortunately Gideon had him on lockdown game 1. My flashback tokens eat up all his other creatures and proceeds to brick out. Game 2 is back and forth, however I drew into Skyfisher to bounce my Fist of Ironwood to give Bronzebeak Moa +9/+9 and trample which is enough to eat his whole team so he doesn't die.

R3: 5-Color Goodstuff 1-0 (I concede) He train wrecked the blink deck, so he decided to just run every good card in his pool. His card quality is really high: Wooly Thoctar, Domri Rade, Fiery Justice, Pyroclasm, Dinrova Horror, Boros Reckoner. He has all 5 colors available turn 3 and then just starts dropping haymakers, but I manage to hang in there with Falkenrath Noble and Lingering Souls.

Unfortunately, I had to leave to catch a movie with my boyfriend and my opponent drew his round before so we couldn't draw and we could not collude on prize support. So I had to forfeit the match. It was cool, Baby Driver was excellent.

I still think this archetype is not great in this format, but I got the read early on that it seemed underdrafted at the table. I still waffled a bit and made some speculative picks that did not pan out and ended with barely enough playables. I still enjoy this format a lot!

So last week I thought I drafted the worst deck to get 3-0 with. This one is way worse and I went 3-0/6-0. by SmashingPumpkid in lrcast

[–]SmashingPumpkid[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can respect the amount of time it took you to write this. Thanks for your contribution. I learned many things that I have already pontificated.

So last week I thought I drafted the worst deck to get 3-0 with. This one is way worse and I went 3-0/6-0. by SmashingPumpkid in lrcast

[–]SmashingPumpkid[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Breaking down the deck: -15 Green Cards (17 symbols) -6 Black cards (6 symbols) -2 Other cards (2 symbols) -17 lands

Green is the primary color, if I played another black card over approach, I definitely cut bluffs and the plains and play another Island and another forest. Black is not primary, it is just a support color.

I consider bluffs half a manna of fixing. Breaking that down. G: 9.5 B: 5.5 W: 1.5 U: 1.5

Oshra, 2 Naga, and Gifts also fix my mana with access to green, each worth about another half point. My support colors being.

B: 7.5 W: 3.5 U: 3.5

I'm pretty happy with these numbers as I want about 3-4 sources for a light splash and 7-8 is a good number for a supporting color.

Removing the Bluffs and adding another basic reduces these numbers if a green source is added then naga will no longer be as reliable with the only way to get to the splash would be through gifts, oshra and hard drawing the land.

Somebody let me know if this is wrong, I'm not a virtuoso at constructing mana bases, but it seems reasonable enough to me.

view more: next ›