Monday, 17 July 2017

Rotisserie IV: Draft and Decklists

After a long period of mostly drafts and sealed we did another rotisserie draft with the usual suspects. Unpowered, five card sideboard and with a relatively extensive banned list with the aim of making the most balanced and open format. Although this is the best format for the use of power it does have a greater restrictive effect on the potential decks. It is also more contested with at least half the field needing to be doing broken stuff that needs key cards. It is harder for those with less experience of older cards, archetypes and power in general and with several newer players in the group still this is a great way to do it. Here is the banned list we used, it is by far my favourite thus far.

Legal sets Alpha -> Amonkhet (no unglued, unhinged)

Banned List 

All ante cards
Black Lotus
Sol Ring
Mox Jet/Emerald/Ruby/Pearl/Sapphire
Time Walk
Ancestral Recall
Mana Crypt
Mana Vault*
Grim Monolith*
Time Vault*
Fastbond
Strip Mine
Library of Alexandria
Mishra's Workshop
Tolarian Academy
Shelldock Isle*

*These are newly added to the banned list for this event.


The draft itself went pretty smoothly. People quickly chose their directions and their was little fighting. After the mostly blue draft we had last time we somehow went the polar opposite on this one with a mere two blue drafters. Sideshow Cob could have hurt people a lot more in the draft as he was the only one with many spare picks due to his high basic land count. He had a complete deck and board while I still had plenty of main deck cards still to pick. While I am not a huge fan of that kind of play in draft as it is quite a targetted thing it is still part of the game and should be made use of. Personally I think the best plan in these formats is to take away cards that hurt you rather than key cards for other people. Typically that means taking away sideboard cards from people such as my Gorilla Shaman pick. 



The Draft:
Action DanSideshow CobOld Fava BeensThe PhyrexianMeFarloSwankerCopperline George
1Birds of Paradise→Lightning Bolt→Force of Will→Jace, Vryn's Prodigy →Mox Opal→Swords to Plowshares→Thoughtseize→Kalonian Tusker→
2←Gaea's Cradle←Chain Lightning←Snapcaster←Cryptic Command←Skullclamp←Path of Exile←Liliana of the Veil←Scavenging Ooze←
3→Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary→Sulphuric Vortex→Jace, the Mind Sculptor→Demonic Tutor→Arcbound Ravager→Balance→Inquisition of Kozilek→Kitchen Finks→
4←Garruk Wildspeaker←Monastry Swiftspear←Tundra←Underground Sea←Cranial Plating←Mox Diamond←Wasteland←Noble Hierarch←
5→Deathrite Shaman→Fiery Confluence→Celestial Colonnade→Collective Brutality→Stoneforge Mystic→Arid Mesa→Dark Confidant→nest invader→
6←Elvish Mystic←Arc Trail←Wing Shards←Brainstorm←Baleful Strix←Faithless Looting←Recurring Nightmare←harmonise←
7→Craterhoof Behemoth→Burst Lightning→Council's Judgement→Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver→Seat of the Synod→Taiga→Fatal Push→Savannah→
8←Evolving Wilds←Goblin Guide←Sensei's Divining Top←Arcane Denial←Vault of Whispers←Wooded Foothills←Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet←sunpetal grove←
9→Naya Panorama→Grim Lavamancer→Quicken→Polluted Delta→Smuggler's Copter→Temple Garden→Tireless Tracker→Armageddon→
10←Courser of Kruphix←Wheel of Fortune←Terminus←Scalding Tarn←Darksteel Citdael←Windswept Heath←Bayou←Winter Orb←
11→Lotus Cobra→Fireblast→Entreat the Angels→Toxic Deluge→Springleaf Drum→Land Tax→Verdant Catacombs→stirring wildwood→
12←Stomping Ground←collective defiance←Hallowed Fountain←Flooded Strand←Ancient Tomb←Scroll Rack←Overgrown Tomb←misty rainforest←
13→Bloodstained Mire→Firedrinker Satyr→Lat-Nam's Legacy→Spellskite→Ancient Den→Life from the Loam→Marsh Flats→Mother of Runes→
14←Primeval Titan←Abbot of Keral Keep←Opt←Dig Through Time←Mishra's Factory←Plateau←Thragtusk←Mana Tithe←
15→Woodfall Primus→Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh→Flood Plain→Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth→Great Furnace→Seismic Assualt→Vampiric Tutor→Fauna Shaman→
16←Rishkar's Expertise←Incinerate←Counterspell←Cyclonic Rift←Walking Ballista←Swans of Bryn Agol←Damnation←Eternal Witness←
17→Acidic Slime→Thermo Alchemist→Temple of Enlightenment→Emrakul, the Aeons Torn→Tangle Wire→Firelit Thicket→Grave TitanFyndhorn Elves→
18←Joraga Tree Speaker←Forked Bolt←Vendilion Clique←Show and Tell←Blinkmoth Nexus←Rugged Prairie←Pernicious Deed Llanowar Elves←
19→Arbor Elf→Soulscar Mage→Thing In The Ice→Wurmcoil Engine→Steel Overseer→Enlightened Tutor→Scrubland →Horizon Canopy→
20←wall of roots←Zurgo Bellclencher←Mystic Confluence←Griselbrand←City of Traitors←Lightning Helix ←Godless Shrine←Razorverge Thicket←
21→kessig wolf run→Harsh Mentor→Tamiyo, the Moon Sage→Frantic Search→Inkmoth Nexus→Cast Out →Abrupt Decay→Qasali pridemage→
22←Den Protector←Eidolon of the great revel←Preordain←Ponder←Bomat Courier←Tormenting Voice←Lingering Souls←Voice of Resurgence ←
23→Green Sun's Zenith→Ash Zealot→Impulse→Exhume→Ornithopter→Forgotten Cave→Sylvan Advocate→Thalia, Guardian of Thraben→
24←Dragonlord Atarka←Searing Blaze←Glen Elendra Archmage←Serum Visions←Phyrexian Revoker←Pyroblast←Nissa, Vital Force←Gaddock Teeg←
25→Priest of Titania→Lightning Berserker→Torrential Gearhulk→Corpse Dance→Signal Pest→Red Elemantal Blast→Seasons Past→Aether Vial→
26←Selvala, heart of the wilds←Incendiary Flow←Blue Elemental Blast←Sphinx of the Steel Wind←Chromatic Star←Secluded Steppe←Duress←Declaration in Stone←
27→Samut, Voice of Dissent→Firebolt→Hydroblast→Cabal Therapy→Memnite→Ajani, Vengeant→Relic of Progenitus→Leonin Arbiter→
28←Sylvan Library←Searing Spear←Spell Pierce←Animate Dead←Master of Etherium←Ancient Grudge←Explore←Containment Priest←
29→Worldspine Wurm→Young Pyromancer→Commit Memory→Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre→Etched Champion→Raging Ravine→Grim Flayer→Dryad Militant→
30←Champion of Rhonas←Figure of Destiny←Mystic Gate←Borborygmos Enraged←Tormod's Crypt←Treetop Village←Hissing Quagmire←Sylvan Safekeeper←
31→Natural Order→Rakdos Cackler→Myriad Landscape→Gitaxian Probe→Vault Skirge→Devastating Dreams→Shambling Vent→Loxodon Smiter→
32←Progenitus←Kargan Dragonlord←Adakar Wastes←High Market←Galvanic Blast←Gamble←Sinkhole←Grand Abolisher←
33→Glimpse of Nature→Stoke the Flames→Glacial Fortress→Devour Flesh→Arcbound Worker→Rest in Peace→Badlands→Ethersworn Canonist→
34←Creeper Hulk←Barbarian Ring←Supreme Verdict←Stifle←Disciple of the Vault←Tranquil Thicket←Blood Crypt←Beast Within←
35→Accelerated Mutation→Shrine of burning Rager→Righteous Confluence→Lim-Dûl's Vault→Tree of Tales→Blessed Alliance→Disfigure→Blade Splicer→
36←Verdurous Gearhulk←Pulverize←Prairie Stream←Careful Study←Thopter Foundry←Firestorm←Kolaghan's Command←Journey to Nowhere←
37→Cinder Glade→Smash to Smithereens→Wrath of God→Chrome Mox→Frogmite→Magma Vortex→Golgari Charm→Warmth→
38←Avacyn's Pilgrim←Goblin Rabblemaster←Remand←Enclave Cryptologist←Hope of Ghirapur←Khalni Gem ←Gonti, Lord of Luxury←Tsunami←
39→Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx→Blood Moon→Choke→Entomb→Gorrila Shaman→Kor Firewalker→Anguished Unmaking→Kataki, War's Wage→
40←Reclaimation Sage←lava dart←Rishandan Port←Watery Grave←Dispatch←Tithe←Dragon skull Summit←Stony Silence←
41→Xenagos, God of Revels→Dismember→Irrigated Farmland→Darkslick Shores→Time Twister→Krosan Reclaimation →Canyon Slough→Tarmogoyf→
42←Xenagos, the Reveler←Pillar of Flame←Archangel Avacyn←Flash Flood←Spire of Industry←Countryside Crusher ←Rakdos Charm←Restoration Angel←
43→Triumph of the Hordes→LIghtning Strike→Boil→Zuran Orb→Glimmervoid→Lightning Rift→Woodland Cemetery→Ohran Viper→
44←Living Wish←Skullcrack←Flash Fires←Underground River←Myr Retriever←Bow of Nylea←Scarab Feast←Sigarda, Host of Herons←
45→Vexing Shusher→Desert→Port Town→Drowned Catacomb→Scrapheap Scrounger→Magmatic Insight→Gifted Aetherborn→Knight of the Reliquary→
46←Mutagenic Growth←Mountain (Mad Blood?)←Talisman of Progress←Temple of Deceit←Mana Confluence←Nahiri, The Harbinger←Twilight Mire←Linvala, Keeper of Silence←
47→Seed Time→lightning strike→Temporal Mastery→Time Warp→Welding Jar→Leyline of Sanctity→Blooming Marsh→Grisly Bear→
48←Dryad Arbor←Chandra's Phoenix←Trinket Mage←Force Spike←Hangarback Walker←Day of Judgement ←Vindicate←Trained Armadon←
49→Oracle of Mul Daya→Pyrite Spellbomb→True-Name Nemesis→Talisman of Dominance→Terrarion→Shatter storm→Hymn to Tourach→Squire→
50←Chancellor of the Tangle←Tirefire←Elspeth, Sun's Champion←Negate←Glare of Heresy←Shattering Spree ←Night's Whisper←Craw Wurm←


The Decks;


Sideshow Cob - RDW

 
Monastry Swiftspear
Grim Lavamancer
Goblin Guide
Firedrinker Satyr
Soulscar Mage
Zurgo Bellclencher
Lightning Berserker
Figure of Destiny

Lightning Bolt
Burst Lightning
Chain Lightning
Forked Bolt

2
Abbot of Keral Keep
Thermo Alchemist
Harsh Mentor
Eidolon of the great revel

Arc Trail
Incinerate
Searing Blaze

3
Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh

Sulphuric Vortex
Wheel of Fortune

4
Stoke the Flames
Fiery Confluence

6
Fireblast

Lands
Barbarian Ring
Mountains x 14

Sideboard
Pulverise
Smash to Smithereens
Dismember
Collective Defiance
Blood Moon





Action Dan (and his unholy alphabetical decklist....) - Gr Natural Order Ramp
//Main
1 Arbor Elf
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Champion of Rhonas
1 Chancellor of the Tangle
1 Cinder Glade
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Dragonlord Atarka
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Evolving Wilds
7 Forest
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Living Wish
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Natural Order
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Primeval Titan
1 Progenitus
1 Rishkar's Expertise
1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1 Samut, Voice of Dissent
1 Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
1 Stomping Ground
1 Sylvan Library
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Xenagos, God of Revels
1 Xenagos, the Reveler

//Sideboard
SB: 1 Den Protector
SB: 1 Priest of Titania
SB: 1 Reclamation Sage
SB: 1 Vexing Shusher
SB: 1 Worldspine Wurm
Me - Affinity
14 lands

Seat of the Synod
Ancient Den
Great Furnace
Vault of Whispers 

Tree of Tales
Darksteel Citadel
Blinkmoth Nexus
Inkmoth Nexus

Mishra's Factory
Spire of Industry
Glimmervoid
Mana Confluence

City of Traitors
Ancient Tomb

26 spells

Mox Opal
Memnite
Ornithopter

Springleaf Drum
Skullclamp
Vault Skirge
Signal Pest

Arcbound Worker
Chromatic Star
Bomat Courier
Galvanic Blast

Hope of Ghirapur

Arcbound Ravager
Steel Overseer
Cranial Plating
Hangarback Walker

Scrapheap Scrounger
Myr Retreiver
Stoneforge Mystic
Walking Ballista

Smuggler's Copter
Phyrexian Revoker

Etched Champion
Master of Etherium
Tanglewire

Frogmite


SB:

Dispatch
Disciple of the Vault
Tormod's Crypt
Time Twister
Welding Jar



Farlo - Seismic Loam Swans



4x Plains
3x Mountain
Secluded Steppe
Forgotten Cave
Tranquil Thicket
Arid Mesa
Plateau
Rugged Prairie
Firelit Thicket
Raging Ravine
Taiga
Wooded Foothills
Temple Garden 
Windswept Heath

Mox Diamond

Magma Vortex
Life from the Loam
Seismic Assualt

Gamble
Enlightened Tutor

Land Tax
Scroll Rack 
Tithe

Magmatic Insight
Faithless Looting

Firestorm
Devastating Dreams

Path of Exile
Swords to Plowshares
Balance
Cast Out

Ajani, Vengeant 
Nahiri, The Harbinger

Countryside Crusher
Swans of Bryn Agoll



SB

Pyroblast
Red Elemental Blast
Ancient Grudge
Kor Firewalker
Krosan Reclaimation





Swanker - four colour black control

Spells
Thoughtseize
Inquisition of Kozilek
Fatal Push
Vampiric Tutor

Sylvan Advocate
Grim Flayer
Gifted Aetherborn
Abrupt Decay
Sinkhole
Explore

Tireless Tracker
Liliana of the Veil
Lingering Souls
Pernicious Deed
Anguished Unmaking
Kolaghan’s Command

Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Damnation

Thragtusk
Nissa, Vital Force

Grave Titan
Seasons Past

Lands
Wasteland
Verdant Catacombs
Marsh Flats
Bayou
Overgrown Tomb
Hissing Quagmire
Woodland Cemetery
Twilight Mire
Blooming Marsh
Scrubland
Godless Shrine
Shambling Vent
Badlands
Blood Crypt
Dragonskull Summit
Canyon Slough
Swamp

Sideboard
Golgari Charm
Disfigure
Duress
Rakdos Charm
Scarab Feast



The Phyrexian - Reanimator
Scalding TarnChrome MoxBrainstormJace, Vryn's ProdigyFrantic SearchCryptic CommandDig Through TimeSIDEBOARD
Negate
Polluted DeltaCabal TherapyDemonic TutorToxic DelugeEmrakul, the Aeons TornZuran Orb
Flooded StrandStifleCollective BrutalityCorpse DanceGriselbrandAshiok, Nightmare Weaver
Gitaxian ProbeArcane DenialShow and TellUlamog, the Infinite GyreFlash Flood
Underground SeaEntombExhumeSphinx of the Steel WindSpellskite
Watery GraveCareful StudyShallow Grave
Enclave CryptologistLim-Dûl's Vault
Darkslick Shores
Temple of Deceit
Drowned Catacomb
Sunken Ruins
Underground River
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
High Market
3 Island




Old Fava Beens - UW miracle control

Sensei's Diving Top
Quicken
Preordain
Opt
Spell Pierce

Snapcaster Mage
Impulse
Thing in the Ice
Counterspell
Remand
Lat-Nam's Legacy

Council's Judgement
Wing Shards
Vendilion Clique

Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Commit // Memory

Force of Will
Tamiyo, the Moon  Sage
Mystic Confluence

Torrential Gearhulk
Terminus

Temporal Mastery

Entreat the Angels

17 Lands

Tundra
Celestial Colonnade
Hallowed Fountain
Flood Pains

Temple of Enlightenment
Mystic Gate
Myriad Landscape
Adarkar Wastes

Glacial Fortress
Prairie Stream
Port Town
Rishadan Port

Irrigated Farmland
4x Island

SB

Hydroblast
Blue  Elemental Blast
Glen Elendra Archmage
Wrath of God
Righteous Confluence


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Winners and Losers from Hour of Devastation (and Amonkhet)



Bone PickerTime to talk about what lived up to expectation and what didn't from out ancient Egyptian themed block. I am still testing a lot of cards out with over 40 cards in the cube from across the two sets. That is a lot of cards for me to still have in from a block. That might imply it was a powerful one which both is and isn't true. Certainly it is more powerful than older sets simply due to power creep. The average power is high but the range of power is pretty low. There are a lot of 6/10 cards, like baseline stuff and little to nothing in the 7+ range. I am doing these sets combined as I was slow to pickup the Amonkhet stuff and did less playing in that time. Back to business as usual now!


Bone Picker - loser

While I am not yet ready to cut this it is wildly under performing my expectations. I did think this was Delver of Secrets levels of good so my expectations were not overly realistic! At best this is fine but a little inconvenient and fiddly. It might be a 1 mana 3/2 flier more easily and consistently than Delver but it is never a one drop and that is a huge part of why it is losing out.


Champion of RhonasChampion of Rhonas - winner

This was in the testing group so while doing well it has not yet fully earned its cube slot. It fits into a couple of decks quite well and is suitably dangerous that you kill it on sight when you can. While a 4 mana 3/3 is not the best removal bait it turns out it is fine. You force awkward plays and get to protect your actual threats.


Channeler Initiate - loser

Again, not enough to merit the chop yet but this is is less exciting than predicted. Turns out it is really slow and vulnerable. A 2 mana walking BoP is asking to eat ping and set you back loads. Late game waiting 3 turns for your 3/4 body isn't at all good either.


AbradeDissenter's Deliverance / Abrade - winners

By winners these are probably just around where I rated them due to my mild overrating of new stuff due to being all excited. Neither of these cards is great but they are something it turns out that you generally want if you are in those colours. They are both just the least costly way of packing some insurance against artifacts and thus not losing to Jitte and Shackles and random lame things like that. These are replacing cards like Torch Fiend and the various Manglehorn cards in magic. They are taking pressure of cards like Maelstrom Pulse and making the singular spot removal (Doom Blade etc) more playable. Neither of these cards is powerful but they have a much higher floor than any other options on artifact removal that isn't dead when there are no targets. They are not horrific 2 or more mana 2/1s when in their other mode.


Curator of MysteriesHieroglyphic Illumination / Curator of Mysteries - erm, kind of a card limbo so I guess losers

Both of these four mana cards with cycling for one have been impressively unimpressive. The Curator has been cast a couple of times at least but mostly these are just cycled. That is fine, that is sort of why you are playing these kinds of thing. It turns out however than you really wanted to be casting a spell a lot of the time for prowess and many other things like that. Just a Peek or Quicken has a lot more value than either of these cards in cheap mode. Given how very fair both four mana modes are on these cards it is hard to say how useful the option on that split card is and how worthwhile it is taking the mild hit on the far more common mode. If you are cycling nearly 100% of the time then surely it is all about Opt and the like. Although the Illumination feels more playable I think it will be getting cut much sooner as it is two modes on the same soft of thing, neither of which are powerful. At least with Curator you have two distinctly different modes and generally get a better return on your four mana mode in terms of power. Both are certainly what I would class as filler cards. Your Think Twice and the like.


Cast OutForsake the Worldly / Cast Out - winners

Much bigger winners than Abrade / Deliverance as well. Forsake is a bigger cost than Deliverance both when it isn't useful and when it is at a mana more in each mode. For this you get a bigger range (also enchantments) and a better effect (mmm, delicious exile). That is worth it. The kinds of cards you want to kill with this don't matter as much when you pay a little more to handle them as they are such game defining cards - Opposition, Wurmcoil Engine etc. Both these cards really round out whites removal options perfectly. I have already cut Disenchant, you just don't need a card that narrow any more. Cast Out is even more security. The combination of flash and cycling for one make it well worthy of being the only four mana spot removal card I have in cube. It already feels like these go in all white decks. Some might have all the good removal and not need them or be so tight as to end up not playing them but in general these are just what you want a bit of.


Soul-Scar MageSoulscar Mage / Firebrand Archer - winners

So I thought theses would be good and they are about as good as I thought as stand alones! What I didn't account for was the huge bonus theses would incur from various redundancies in synergy. Swiftspear, Themo-Alchemist and the like all trigger off the same sorts of things. With this depth of good benefectors it becomes a lot more valuable empowering them with things like Lava Dart. Both of these are significant boosts to red.


Samut, Voice of Dissent - winner

I still don't like this guy much and may well still cut her for being a big gold card. Few of the Dragonlords make my cube and they are insanely packed full of power. This dude is a beating and she is versatile. She empowers a lot yet is plenty brutal all on her own. Somewhere between a Thundermaw and Xenagos God form which is no bad place to be.


Commit // MemoryCommit // Memory - winner

Great card. Generally denying your opponent the option on what is bounced for a couple of turns and denying them a draw is worth a lot more than a 2/2 body. Venser may count himself power crept on. Commit is just a very nice rounded safety tool. It isn't really value or tempo, just effective stall and interaction which is what you want as a blue player. The Memory mode is what pushes this card. Despite not being used loads it has been cast much more than expected and generally in bargainous ways that really abuse it. When you get first go on the new spells you are getting the better part of the symmetrical effect. It is such a hugely powerful effect that the option on it is worth a lot. I unlocked a new achievement courtesy of this card - having all my lands in my deck in play!



Nimble ObstructionistNimble Obstructionist / Champion of Wits - losers

Both still great cards and cube staples but just not quite as good as I had hoped. The Obstructionist has great options and a good high ceiling but the average case of you making it is a fairly low powered play. Ultimately it is less potent than a Clique although perhaps still more playable just for being a single blue. The Champion is also a little calmer than I anticipated. It often feels like you want to loot it just so you can make it in 7 mana mode rather than have to wait for it to die as a 2/1! I think the incredibly average nature of Hour of Devastation made these two cards stand out more than they should have. With no bombs to compare these to in the set they looked like the bombs where as in fact they are just both above average cards but still fair ones.


Harsh Mentor - winner

Every bit as filthy as expected. Perhaps more so. This just turns off so much and the damage adds up so fast. This quickly cuts off your various options. Probably the best red two drop for any aggressive list.


CensorCensor - winner

Loads better than Miscalculation. Good when you need it to be and wonderfully never dead. This has been hitting shockingly late in the game. I think people haven't yet readjusted to how playable a Force Spike now is. Both the Spike, Mana Tithe and Daze are so much riskier inclusions that they see a lot less play than Censor is now getting. Censor is probably out performing Mana Leak thus far in cube which is pretty impressive.


Glory-Bound Initiate / Ahn-Crop Crasher - winners

It turns out exert is a really potent combat tool. Both these cards are nasty to race against and make blocking really hard. They both add a new dynamic to combat. I was shocked to see how poorly a power house road block tool like Kitchen Finks fails against these exert beaters. I will be trying out Gust Walker and perhaps some other exert cards as a result of these doing so well.


Mirage MirrorMirage Mirror - winner

A little bit mana intense. Generally you play this as filler, it doesn't seem to be something you actively want. That all being said, when you do have this out and can use it you get a lot back from it. It is exactly the sort of Spellskite / Vedalken Shackles tedium style card that is a pain to play around. It offers lots of options and is widely playable. It also suffers few of the issues Clone cards typically do.


Glorybringer - winner

Unsurprising really. This card is performing super well in other formats and just clearly has an awful lot of power going on. This kills things, it kills people, it gives options, it solves problems and it is both value and tempo all at once. It is more midrange than a red normally likes but the power is just high enough that you are OK with your mildly slower pace bomb. This has the feel of Archangel Avacyn more than any other card and that is a really good place to be.


Djeru's RenunciationDjeru's Renunciation - winner

I just threw this in to try it out and it has been played 100% of the time so far. Mostly it is the aggro decks that want this but it is not exclusive to them. It is just a highly versatile card with a high floor and ceiling. Great for planeswalker control and alpha strikes or otherwise winning races.


As Foretold - winner

As ForetoldI saved some of the biggest winners till last! This thing seemed a bit Brain in the Jar build around to be much good but it was too fun looking not to give it a whirl. Suffice it to say it wildly outpefromed expectation. It ate a Vindicate over a Jace. Vryn's Prodigy I made the turn before! Pretty sure it was the right play as well. This thing is bats, it is just so much mana so quickly. You don't need Ancestral Vision abuses to make it good, you don't even really need one drops. Just get this to two counters and it is like you are attacking with a Primeval Titan every turn! It allows for stupid swingy plays like Eternal Witness Mystic Confluence locks from unreasonably early in the game. I did a Time Warp and a Memory on the same turn, that was also nice! The casual 11 mana play with six lands... You do want flash and instant cards to abuse with it. You also want a lot of draw mostly because you are just able to do so much! An age old strategy in magic is lots of cards and lots of mana. It doesn't matter what else you do, with enough of those things you are just winning! Typically it was done with artifact abuse in blue but it seems like if you are able to be a little more patient you can do it with just one neatly contained card and not have to have an inconsistent deck. Any deck with decent refill and a decent number of instants will be able to run this very effectively indeed. Highly powerful and dangerous card that is also rather fun! I think the best way to think of this is as a three mana suspend 2 Gilded Lotus. That untaps at the end of your turn. And carries on providing more and more mana. And helps cheat in other suspend cards. And that is basically pretty broken and not nearly as narrow as it probably should have been!


Reason // BelieveReason // Believe - winner?

This is only really a winner in my mind... Every single person thinks this totally sucks except me. I have manage to bring a couple of them to accepting this is OK. For me that is a win! Ultimately I will be cutting this as it is a gold card. Despite that it performed really well for me and I still really like it. I like playing with it and I like the card design and I still don't think it is a weak card. I think it holds its own in cube and is mostly let down by being a narrower gold card. If this was all the same colour I would expect it to last in the cube. I didn't even get any big hits with it on the Believe, it was just good as a split card with the back end being a 5 mana sorcery speed draw a card. Sounds bad but so does the flashback on Firebolt so there is that. The scry 3 was great. It gave me massive control and setup potential. It turned loads of muligans into keepers. When you have to have a deck than can either handle the card disadvantage (usually with tonnes of draw and mana), abuse the Believe consistently, or expects to have huge excess mana late game then the card is really pretty decent. It turns out that unsupported scry 3 is just the best one mana card in magic for setting up your early game. It is marginal over a lot of them and it is still worse than others when they come with any support but support is hard to come by and marginal is pretty big on one mana spells. Turns out you can play Believe and other aftermath cards with As Fortold which is a little bonus! Not a bomb by any means, not even always good but certainly not close to as bad as most people seem to have it down as being.


Insult // InjuryInsult // Injury - winner

I have left the biggest winner for last. This is just a total beating in every way. It ends games out of nowhere. It is loads of value and a good amount of utility. While it may look situational as a red card when are you not trying to do damage? The card pretty much reads, give all your dorks doublestrike and Fork any spells you cast for the rest of the turn. That is the first mode and usually that is all you see because it ends games. Just attacking with a pair of 2/2s and firing off a Lightning Bolt represents seven damage from one card and that is a fairly tame example of an Insult. Things like Fireblast, Stoke the Flames, Chandra, Thermo-Alchemist, Seal of Fire, Stoke the Flames all contribute to making Insult utterly nuts. This utterly breaks any stalemate wide open. You can fall pretty far behind on the board and enact a full swing into a recovery with Insult. This then lets you use Injury too which is a lot better than a Firebolt for a flashback. Pay two less for twice as much! There is also those occasions when you do get to six mana and then this is just a total beating. A four damage Searing Blaze and double damage on everything else gets a lot of work done. You can also just discard this for pretty good value but that is probably silly as then you don't get to Insult people to death. I think this card might well be modern or legacy playable. You can pull off some very easy turn three kills with Injury. This, a Kiln Fiend and a Mutagenic Growth will do 18 and that is just a small sample of some of the abusive cards than you can pair this with in constructed. Insult is the star of the show and that should say quite a lot when this is one of the most cost effective flashback modes in magic.

As you can see. Mostly winners thus from the land of hieroglyphs and pyramids. Still many more cards I have yet to get a feel for and I suspect far fewer of the rest will be winners. On the plus side I have only cut a couple of the test cards so far, usually they fall a lot quicker. While I feel like I was off on quite a lot of cards this time round I feel I was off by a much smaller margin than normal. All these winners and losers for the most part won't ammount to more than a 0.5 shift in rating. Most of the things that seemed playable are indeed playable. A couple of those that didn't are also giving a little more game than expected and may last in the cube some time.














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Sunday, 9 July 2017

Top 8 Dragons


Shivan Dragon
I promised this list a while back and have been a long time in the delivering. This list is hard even by the standards of angels and demons both of which struggle to reach significant numbers of cube mainstays. While there are a lot of dragons I have used, either back in the pre-Titan days or as part of some combo, there are incredibly few that still get used. Only the top 3 dragons on this list are actually in my drafting cube at present. I considered including honorary dragons such as Sarkhan Dragonspeaker and Kargan Dragonlord simply to increase the number of good dragons in the list. I decided against it with them being more awkward comparisons to the other dragons.

This list is just the most playable dragons in the present day cube that do what you expect a dragon to do rather than something else entirely. Draco for example has seen loads of play in magic history with my cube being no exception. He just doesn't do Dragon things, you never cast him, just abuse his casting cost. Runehorn Hellkite is similarly a niche card you are not playing for the dragon part of the card. At least with Runehorn you do play it now and against as a big flying creature is always nice and six isn't unobtainable amounts of mana. Worldgorger Dragon is another which has had some mild uses as part of combos. Even Eternal Dragon likely belongs in this group as it is mostly used as a (very very) slow Lanx Tax / Life from the Loam / Thawing Glacier type thing. When you are slow compared to Thawing Glaciers then things are pretty extreme. These cards are all a bit narrow to be good in drafting cubes but they are at least all still playable which made me consider them for it.

Broodmate DragonLastly before getting into the real list I have a group of dragons that have all been big names in the past. Things that have actually seen a lot of play in total and would be on the list if that was my only criteria. Sadly all these cards have now been outclassed, often significantly and more than once! Rorix Bladewing for example was one of the best top of curve finishers. He was exactly the sort of thing you wanted and was a huge amount of it all in one (just about) affordable card. Covertous Dragon was another hyper efficient old creature. In cube it was very easy to keep an artifact in play and as such an over statted flier with no effective drawback got a lot of work done. Boggarden Hellkite used to see play both as a top end control card and a Reanimate target. It offered a decent enough threat and gave great board control along with it. Broodmate Dragon lived a short time in the spotlight. There was less than two years between Broodmate getting printed and M11 and the Titans which rendered her rather below par and all sorts of clumsy at three colours. Broodmate was terrifying when she was good and made a decent name for herself in her short reign as a premium six drop. She has seen basically no play since M11, a dark day for dragons! Broodmate was in fact the new bar set high above the previous ten 3 colour dragons from Time Spiral and Invasion.

Yosei, the Morning StarThe other big dragon names in magic history are the Kamigawa legends, notably the Esper colour ones. Yosie was incredibly close to making this list as it happens. She has aged the best out of all of them and I think still has a decently high power level with a near Time Walk effect should she die.. Much as she is playable she has not seen any in longer than I can recall and so I couldn't bring myself to add her in. Kokusho has aged the worst somehow. Kaiga is still OK but none of them really cut it. There are more powerful, rounded, immediately impactful things at six mana on offer to all colours in the cube and a lot of decks don't even want to bother with that level of top end. The cube is faster than it used to be as well as more consistent. There is more redundancy in the cheaper cards and all this edges out the more expensive stuff which tends to include the dragons. There are a couple of cute four mana dragons (Avaricious and Moltensteel) which somewhat evaded this top end tightening. While they see a tiny bit of play it is as a supporting role only. You don't just play four mana 4/4s fliers in cube, they need to do a good amount more. These do a bit more but only in the right place do either of them become close to worth it. Hellkite Overlord can be used as a cheat in target, it is OK in that role. I see Niv-Mizzet a lot in cubes, he is far too narrow, slow and quirky to really deserve his slot. I appreciate he might be fun but if your cube is mostly good stuff Niv will be under performing. The other two dragons I still see a bit that didn't make my list are Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon and Steel Hellkite. The former is very potent stand alone but clunky and awkward and all round rather slow. It is that fact he has generally negative synergy with your other things that makes him bad rather than being nominally bad. If he was an 8/4 with wither or something I would be all over it! Steel Hellkite is the most playable and best of the bunch. I can see why a lot of people run it in their cubes. It ticks a lot of boxes. Big threat, problem solver, Tinkerable, Weldable, easy to just ramp into and all round quite playable. This card will win a bunch of games but I think it is very much one of those cards that has been squeezed out of the top end by power level rises below it and alongside it. It is super easy to kill a Hellkite and then it does nothing. It is small for the cost and unreliable at doing its various jobs. Basically, for a top end box tick card you need it to tick that box about as well as it can be, even if ticking several. You need your top end to be better if you are going to rely on it to win you games or save your life! Get your Steel Hellkite killed with even a three mana removal spell and you are super sad about it.




Icefall Regent8.   Icefall Regent

So this is a very unassuming little dragon to steal the last spot. It is midway between a Dungeon Giest and a Frost Titan. Certainly the Frost Titan is more powerful but it isn't much more effective or playable if at all. Frost Titan is a little more resilient with his higher toughness but only really against red. Where the Titan falls down is how often it is unable to attack and which point it is just a 6/6 wall. Icefall will usually be able to attack and offer great planeswalker control or pressurize life totals. Even if it can't it will still apply its lock down effect. On the flip side, the Giest is a more cost effective way of getting what Regent offers. The issue with the Giest is that it is so weak to spot removal specifically in tempo terms. Most one or two mana removal will deal with Giests and so when that happens you fall behind. Icefall Regent however commands at least 3 mana to kill, often four and sometimes the full five! When it takes them their whole turn to deal with Icefall Regent it has bought you time and been a positive tempo play for you. When they can't kill it then it is a huge tempo play! It is to Tamiyo, the Moon Sage what Glorybringer is to Sarkhan the Dragonspeaker. Less utility for more immediate impact and safety against being attacked to death! Iecfall Regent is very well suited to its role. It does what you want a card like that to do more reliably and effectively than the alternatives. It is not as bomb like power level as most cube five drops but it is much better and more playable than given credit for.


Dragonlord Ojutai7.   Dragonlord Ojutai

This is a great card that only isn't in my cube due to being a relatively high CMC gold card. So as to up draft consistency and stop the three colour midrange decks dominating cards like this all had to go. This caveat applies to most other gold cards on this list. Ojutai is a well rounded and high power level card. It is very well statted considering it is a flying hexproof when you make it. You can lay it into the threat of a lot of potential removal without risk of getting blown out as you do with so many high cost cards with no immediate impact or value. Ojutai will be a decent blocker if you need or a great source of value and damage. As a threat I much prefer it to Consecrated Sphinx. It is also somewhat safer at getting draw triggers. The Sphinx relies a lot on 6 toughness which is far less helpful than hexproof and 4 toughness, not to mention coming down a turn sooner! This is slightly slower more conservative draw than Sphinx but it is great selection allowing you to have the answers you need. Well rounded and high power. Arguably better than the various white and blue cards that compete with it such as Baneslayer Angel, the previously mentioned Consecrated Sphinx, Torrential Gearhulk and potentially even Archangel Avacyn. The latter two are both probably more powerful, flash goes a really long way in blue! But still, Ojutai keeps good company. It is at least less linear than these other big dorks.



Dragonlord Dromoka6.   Dragonlord Dromoka

I thought this card was pretty laughable until I played against it. I gained a whole new respect for it after facing it a couple of times. The subtle combination of stats and abilities actually make Dromoka an all round beating. First up, she destroys aggressive decks without good spot removal. Seven toughness is huge to get through, very few aggressive fatties get past Dromoka and most die trying to the five power. You can't go wide versus Dromoka due to the lifelink nor can you hope to burn them out after the first combat. Dromoka handles aggression super well in all the many forms it takes. Against control and midrange Dromoka is a must kill threat. Uncounterable taxes the options many control players have and will lead to some more desperate plays. Should they not have the answer to hand you can devastate them without fear of tricks or countermagic. You probably don't want to over extend with more creatures but planeswalkers backing up Dromoka or something tasty like an Armageddon is game. Another lovely perk of Dromoka is you can pseudo Time Walk players leaning on countermagic. If they pass the turn holding removal and countermagic aiming to negate your turn they will either have to blow the removal in response to Dromoka on something else (and then potentially have no answer for Dromoka) or just waste all their mana and tap down in their turn to kill her thus giving you a potential window to play things past the countermagic. Dromoka is immensely big. She is like three burn spells to take down. She is killed by little in combat and kills most things foolish enough to tangle with her. She is like the Baneslayer that is also good against control decks. Even being a six drop matters less as in green she is normally coming out just as quick as a Baneslayer courtesy of ramp. What makes Dromoka good is how deceptively well rounded she is and effective at dealing with the cube meta. Only combo decks don't care about her on the whole.


Dragonlord Silumgar5.   Draonlord Silumgar

Another deceptively good card with quite the brutal ceiling. The ideal with Silumgar is to take a planeswalker who has just reached their ultimate loyalty count. Steal a walker, get the ultimate and put it in the bin with a 3/5 flying deathtouch in the mix as well. Very hard to lose from that kind of a swing but very rare that kind of thing will happen. Wise players won't even let it happen if they suspect this card is a possibility. Perhaps I should stick it back in my cube for a bit just to rip some people off who are not up to speed on the subtle ongoing tweaks! While this at first glance just seems like an over cost Sower of Temptation your extra mana goes a long way even if you are just stealing a medium dork as is often done with the faeries. Being black and having five toughness compared to blue with two is huge. Silumgar is immune to so much spot removal in cube. Burn is always a two for one and most black things miss all together. You have to be white or blue to deal with Silumgar effectively, often green and black can't at all. If you can't deal with it then it is super super bad. The value of stealing even a two drop is huge. They get a free 2 mana card and you lose a 2 mana card meaning on top of that two for one they also get a 2 mana 3/5 flying deathtouch. Value and tempo in swathes! Much as this is fantastic power it is also polar and that isn't great design. It hoses black and green while being a high risk card in other places. Certainly powerful enough for cubes but not a card I miss having at all.


Stormbreath Dragon
4.   Stormbreath Dragon

A four power flying haste for five is a good starting point. It is a useful and efficient body. It is initially like direct damage and then threatens ongoing damage should in not finish the job on the spot. These kinds of cards often pan out like Sulphuric Vortex damage. Stormbreath is only two red and has four toughness unlike many other four power flying haste dorks on offer. Stormbreath also gets some free bonus attributes which do wind up being relevant. Protection from white is a good thing to be with so much premium spot removal in the colour. It isn't as oppressive as protection from red or green either as those colours struggle far more against protection effects. White is just restricted a bit rather than entirely owned by a decent pro white card. The monstrous ability is also a thing. Despite being very expensive and coming at a stage where you don't expect them to have many cards in hand it does get used and it is a threat. I have never seen the ability hit for more than three but that still means it gets in six extra damage that turn on top of the four it was going to do anyway and the four it presumably did the previous turn. This can do 14 over two turns and can be hard to prevent from doing so. A 7/7 flier is a serious thing. It outclasses some of the things you see cheated into play! A very robust card that is well rounded and high power. Only really edged out of the cube by more rounded cards that are very comparable. If red were a little more midrange Stormbreath would rise in power level somewhat.


Glorybringer3.   Glorybringer

The new Stormbreath Dragon! This thing trades narrow pro white and late game monstrous silliness for a far more useful option on exerting to Flame Slash things. This option gives you far more initial tempo and control. It is a better problem solver, a better racing tool, a better source of value and it gets all these things without becoming that much less of a threat. If they just made a Sublime Archangel I would absolutely rather have a Glorybringer than the pro white of Stormbreath. Power wise this new dragon feels like it packs the most on this list relative to cost. The only reason it sits at three rather than the top is that it is yet to fully find its ideal setting. Due to the control, value and cost the card is more suited to midrange lists yet not many midrange red decks exist. Glorybringer is so potent you are happy enough running it in aggro or control but it is a little clunkier and awkward in them compared to what it can be. As more midrange decks emerge I anticipate this rising in the ranks. Flametongue Kavu is weak for two reasons, a 4/2 body is pretty low value and you have to have things to kill else it is a dead card. Glorybringer has none of these issues, it is basically a Stormbreath Dragon when there is nothing to kill.


Dragonlord Atarka2.   Dragonlord Atarka

The biggest and baddest of the Dragonlords of Tarkir. Also the reason Bogardan Hellkite is no longer seen in the cube. Atarka ticks the boxes you want from your top end very well. He is a massive threat that is hard to stop and ends games fast. He also has a fantastic EtB which gives great survivability, an immediate tempo swing and solves many problems. Atarka is so good it is one of those few cards you see both cheated into play with various cards and also hard cast. It is the 2nd best reason to splash red into green ramp decks after Kessig Wolf Run. A seven mana 8/8 flying trample is already bigger than most things. Throw in two and a half Forked Bolts and you have a very streamlined above curve card. It is more immediate impact and control than any Titan and while it doesn't gain value when attacking the fact it is such a big flying trample means you don't much care as he is just directly winning you the game instead.



Thundermaw Hellkite1.   Thundermaw Hellkite

No big surprise here. I can't seem to shut up about this card, it is the bench mark for so many things. Despite being outclassed now in power terms by other five drops, probably even other five drops on this list the Hellkite just seems to keep outperforming the competition. Everything the Hellkite does in on theme, it doesn't waste an ounce of its power of which it has lots. While the EtB trigger is often irrelevant it greatly increases the value of the card. You cannot stop this hitting you at least once if you are planning on using flying blockers. That means if you can't afford to take five and they have five mana you have to hold instant removal or countermagic up else it will get you. Hellkite is about as reliable at dealing damage as a Lava Axe, it costs the same and yet it leaves you with a 5/5 flier. It sometimes even kills all their Lingering Souls, a random BoP or annoying Baleful Strix. It is reach, tempo and value all in a package any red deck can get behind. Mostly it comes down to the stats, this is just an example of a dork that is good enough at just key words, cost and stats. Stormbreath would be a much better card if you traded the monstrous and the pro white for a mere +1/+1 but it still wouldn't be quite the Thundermaw!
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Friday, 7 July 2017

Podcast - (Hour of Devastation Preview - Cards going in the Cube)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BynbVRCUs2vMVEo0aXJ0WFJQd2s/view?usp=sharing

This one is around the 40 minute mark and is specifically the highlights of the set rather than the broader approach we went for last time. The niche cards, near misses and trap cards will be the focus of the next Hour of Devastation podcast we do (hopefully).
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