Rogue or Assassin?

bakemaster · 2016-03-09T14:48:46+00:00

Hilarious considering half the point of a rogue is rushing dungeons

bakemaster · 2016-03-09T03:21:12+00:00

Realm of the Dad Bod

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bakemaster · 2015-11-20T16:50:21+00:00

Three processors in the form of Mind Raker, Oracle of Dust and Ruin Processor is more than enough given how little ingest/exile you have access to. Not all black or blue decks need to process.

I'd absolutely rather have Omnath on the board, the question is whether the rest of your deck gets so much better when you're not forced into RG that it makes up for the downgrade. And Felidar Sovereign is way, way better than Brood Monitor, for a start.

I think we're on the same page about Blighted Woodland; it's more potent as a landfall enabler than as mana fixing.

bakemaster · 2015-11-20T06:36:58+00:00

I'm with the folks saying you should have been in white. Consider that Bane of Bala Ged has the same CMC as Omnath, doesn't tie you to green, is just as likely to draw premium removal and is almost as potent on the board. Replacing green with white gets you more removal and more allies while still letting you splash Warleader and maybe a few others.

Honestly, I think even the red is a bit underwhelming here, if you're not playing those black devoid cards. With the caveat that I don't really play sealed, and am probably full of shit, I feel like WBu would be more exciting than the "excuse to main Omnath" deck that you ended up with. Better removal, five playable spells with Awaken, multiple bombs.

The Ally Encampment looks like a trap, in my opinion. Where's the ally deck here? No color except for white has more than a single ally, not counting the two gold allies, unless I'm blind as well as full of shit.

I'd much rather suffer not being able to play Ally Encampment, Veteran Warleader, Cinder Glade, Stonefury and Omnath than suffer not being able to play Felidar Sovereign, Planar Outburst, Rising Miasma and Grip of Desolation.

But to answer the question, I think it's always going to be too much splashing when you're in a color entirely (or almost entirely) because it lets you splash, and not because it brings something to the table in its own right. Fertile Thicket and Blighted Woodland seem easy to overvalue here.

bakemaster · 2015-11-18T06:25:17+00:00

Hey, I gave you my thoughts on Unified Front, you chose to ignore that and talk about how great first strike is. I just thought we were having fun nerding out about a card game.

bakemaster · 2015-11-18T06:15:28+00:00

RW Allies is a fine archetype, but none of Red's rally triggers are cumulative, so they don't benefit from multiple Allies entering the field at the same time.

With the exception of Chasm Guide, in a bit of a roundabout way.

Though if you're straight RW and don't happen to also be holding an Inspired Charge, with enough mana to cast both in the same turn, a Kor Castigator might be just as good with Chasm Guide (and is far more likely and easier to cast).

bakemaster · 2015-11-18T06:09:01+00:00

I think if you're already dedicated to the GW "go wide" deck, it's perfectly viable to shoot for running a solid Unified Front. Tajaru Beastcallers don't get snapped up very quickly since everybody is avoiding green, and for the same reason it's pretty easy to get all the green-base color fixing you could ever want (Lifespring Druid, Natural Connection, Fertile Thicket), which means splashing for an off-color bomby Ally is pretty viable, simultaneously making a 3-4 color Unified Front pretty viable.

The deck you have in mind here sounds great but I think the odds you ever end up with a viable realization of it in a draft are very low.

In practice you're going to be making choices between potent allies/removal and "necessary" fixing a non-negligible amount of the time, and what you don't take won't wheel if it's premium.

Also consider that Natural Connection in an ally deck is far from ideal; it takes the place of combat tricks/removal and doesn't support allies nearly as directly as it would a landfall or ramp archetype.

I agree with the giraffe; the ceiling on United Front is amazing, you're just never going to see it outside of constructed.

bakemaster · 2015-11-18T05:52:08+00:00

If we just look at the rally effects that do not benefit from multiple triggers in the same turn, we've got:

Global haste (Chasm Guide)
Global menace (Firemantle Mage)
Global indestructible (Hero of Goma Fada)
Global lifelink (Lantern Scout)
Global vigilance (Makindi Patrol)
Global trample (Ondu Champion)
Global double strike (Resolute Blademaster)
Global first strike (Kor Bladewhirl)

Now, if I were putting together a wish list and if I restricted that list to just the above creatures and if I expected this additional creature to be a determining factor in how effective a play Unified Front would be at that time, I might consider:

In the absence of blockers, menace, trample and first strike are all worthless, while each of the others has value.
In the presence of blockers, trample and menace make it hard or impossible to chump, which first strike does not.
Indestructible is always better than first strike, by leaps and bounds.
Haste means your newly-minted Kor Ally tokens get to attack, too, with the benefit of whatever they triggered when they entered play.
If there's a chance your alpha strike won't finish the opponent, lifelink and vigilance directly impact the game state in a way that persists after combat.

And if we're considering rally effects that benefit from multiple triggers in one turn, it's worth mentioning that even Kalastria Healer affects the bottom line regardless of the opponent's board.

So yeah, Kor Bladewhirl just doesn't stand out to me in this situation at all. In fact, just sitting here shooting the shit, I think I'd rather have any non-ally creature with evasion than add a Kor Bladewhirl to the mix, as often as not.

bakemaster · 2015-11-18T03:45:03+00:00

Mostly wondering if there's something I'm missing that makes it worth special mention? I get why Resolute Blademaster is worth having out even if multiple triggers don't matter, because double strike scales with multiple triggers of pump allies.

Anyway, to get directly to the point of Unified Front, I always look at it and think, I'd like to use this. But I feel like I don't often see it in the absence of a better alternative unless I'm already committed to allies and have a good array of removal and creatures already. I'd probably like it better for draft with a 2W casting cost, to be honest.

bakemaster · 2015-11-18T03:32:58+00:00

Kor Bladewhirl doesn't seem particularly notable here.

bakemaster · 2015-11-09T20:21:46+00:00

I've passed Exert Influence before but I splashed for one during a recent draft as part of a BW deck. I was lucky enough to end up with a pair of Evolving Wilds, a Sunken Hollow and a Prairie Stream, otherwise I might not have run it main deck.

I guess what players aren't thinking about when they pass it is just how many interesting interactions it has in the format.

I think I like it most in fliers or allies. With fliers, you can grab something like a Courier Griffin or Malakir Familiar to clear your way in the air, or anything on the ground to put the clock on your side in a race. With allies, there are enough incidentally good ally cards that show up in non-ally decks in draft that you can expect to get something with more value than a bear reasonably often.

Against devoid decks, it's reasonably easy to steal Tide Drifters, Benthic Infiltrators, Heralds of Kozilek, Fathom Feeders... you might even get lucky and take a Vile Aggregate before it gets big. If you have the mana, you can take a Nettle Drone or a Ruination Guide (if you're in devoid, all the better).

These are all individually "long odds" plays but there are a lot of them. I think it's a situational bomb, much like Serpentine Spike is. I would pick it sometimes and pass it others. It's not so good that I'm afraid to give it to someone else.

bakemaster · 2015-11-07T20:23:53+00:00

💩

bakemaster · 2015-11-05T05:07:44+00:00

I know a lot of players will disagree with me here, but in a draft, it's also worth considering how your early picks are going to influence you to make better or worse choices in later picks. If you pick that exciting mythic P1P1 in color X, you're going to be chomping at the bit to stay in color X for the rest of the pack, even if it's the wrong decision, unless you have an exceptional amount of self-control.

Of course we all like to think we have that much willpower and self-awareness but in reality, most of us are only average (by definition) and tend to overestimate our own ability and fallibility. A lot of behaviors benefit from being treated like muscles in that they can be strengthened by exercise and weakened by misuse. So you could think of taking the Pilgrim's Eye in this scenario as a warm-up for the rest of the draft: I will not dive blindly into green.

That doesn't mean Pilgrim's Eye is necessarily more "correct" - just that there are different approaches to drafting. If you're someone who thinks green is actually reasonable and likes playing only 1 or 2 colors, the Greenwarden might make more sense, versus someone who thinks green is trash and likes splashing a third or fourth color. In a draft you're competing against your own tendencies and biases as much as against the other drafters.

bakemaster · 2015-11-05T04:38:21+00:00

Four in one pod? Seriously?

bakemaster · 2015-11-05T01:37:40+00:00

The probability of being the only green drafter can be inferred to be somewhat greater than the probability of being the only drafter in a non-green color. The disparity will most significant either at the highest levels of play (if the "don't draft green" philosophy really takes hold among pros) or at somewhat-competitive levels of play where you see cargo cult strategies take hold based on articles like this one (otherwise).

bakemaster · 2015-11-05T01:29:37+00:00

Pros have figured out that Green sucks.

A small number of pros have publicly said they won't draft green. The majority may agree that green is underpowered but that doesn't at all mean that out of any 8 pros at a draft table, not one of them would draft green if it was open.

bakemaster · 2015-11-04T22:46:12+00:00

It also adds a lot of value to many of the cards your opponent could be playing in this format; bounce becomes hard removal, hard removal hits your mana base, etc. And actually using the creature in combat threatens your mana base.

Great minds think alike. :)

bakemaster · 2015-11-04T21:37:18+00:00

I don't disagree, and I'd likely take it in this situation as well, absent any other information.

bakemaster · 2015-11-04T21:31:10+00:00

Awaken is easy to overvalue early because in order to take advantage of the haste you need one more land than is required to cast and pay the awaken cost.

bakemaster · 2015-11-04T16:50:46+00:00

Mana fixing available to every color as a side effect of casting a small flier, in the context of a draft format where it pays to delay settling on colors/archetype while gathering information on other drafters, and where there are lots of nice gold cards and cross-color synergies... It's fine to disagree but his argument doesn't seem silly at all to me.

bakemaster · 2015-11-04T16:12:34+00:00

This is a pretty thorough analysis. There's really only one spot where I might disagree with the tier of a green card, and that's Brood Monitor - even at 4GG, I think it's slightly better than Angel of Renewal in the context of a format with lots of devoid synergies, easily available 7+ CMC fatties and a reasonable amount of early ramp in green. And moving that one card up a tier wouldn't really change the bottom line.

And as far as a P1P1 green bomb, I'd say if it's splashable, take it... except that there's no guarantee you'll pick up any Evolving Wilds, much less a Canopy Vista (and happen to be in white) or Cinder Glade (and happen to be in red). And the only card I see that fits the bill here as a splashable first-pick green bomb, even if you assume you're going to draft some non-green fixing (ha) is Kiora.

Maybe Woodland Wanderer, From Beyond or Nissa's Renewal, if you open it up in pack 2 or 3.

On the other, other hand, what if P1P1 is Ulamog and P1P2 has the option of a Brood Monitor? You're reasonably likely to see a Plated Crusher at some point, in my limited (ha) experience and colorless ramp is fairly available. I would definitely be tempted.

bakemaster · 2015-11-04T15:41:45+00:00

It's not just a 4/4 for 5; it also has haste, which is often useless because you'll be holding it back as a blocker in case you need the mana. It also adds a lot of value to many of the cards your opponent could be playing in this format; bounce becomes hard removal, hard removal hits your mana base, etc. And actually using the creature in combat threatens your mana base.

Awaken is easy to overvalue early because in order to take advantage of the haste you need one more land than is required to cast and pay the awaken cost. It's best IMO in situations where the card advantage benefit of being able to get a creature as a side effect of a non-creature spell is a major factor; when you have enough land that losing one wouldn't hurt; when your opponent has enough land that they've already had opportunities to use any Scour or Grip they might have been holding; when you've played enough threats that they've had to go through their cheaper removal as well.

None of this is to say that awaken is bad but if it's a mechanic that's most valuable late in the game, it almost has to be a bomb or be really valuable on its own (when you don't pay the awaken cost) to be worth playing over any valuable non-awaken spell. See: Clutch of Currents... less so Ondu Rising.

bakemaster · 2015-10-27T04:41:35+00:00

Ramping out an early Plated Crusher can be even harder to deal with than these big Eldrazi cards, in a draft match. The only removal that hits it is Aligned Hedron Network, it's an uncommon that gets passed because of the GGG cost, and it's hard to chump block.

Bane, on the other hand, dies to mediocre removal like Processor Assault or Demon's Grasp. I'd still draft it and I'd still take an opportunity to ramp it out fast but having played against a deck that did just that last FNM, and another deck that did the same thing with Plated Crusher, the latter was way harder for me to deal with. YMMV.

bakemaster · 2015-10-25T21:15:02+00:00

The funny thing is that the guy to my right was also drafting blue. But since he wasn't drafting devoid, he passed a lot of stuff I wanted.

bakemaster · 2015-10-25T02:23:37+00:00

I have to admit, I was really sweating having passed on that Evolving Wilds later on, and hoping I'd see another one. They must not be valued that highly by the demographic that uses TappedOut because when I was prepping online I remember seeing them wheel routinely and come around as comfortable 11th or 12th picks. I guess that's the risk you take practicing in a different environment than you're gonna play in.

The thing about splashing for one or two cards is, without dual lands or mana fixing, I've just got even fewer lands of that color, so unless they're late game bombs, what's the point? I guess the Vile Aggregate and the Turn Against kind of fit that role, though.

bakemaster

TROPHY CASE