“Let’s Play!” with Chris and A.J.: NMS Draft #3

~~~<3 Click 'play' below to watch our draft! ~~~<3

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Show Final/Random Thoughts »

(1) This video set featured Becky, A.J.’s wife as a random distraction. We’ve chatted around her about Magic for years, but she has never played nor inquired too much about the game until recently. What did you think of having a voice that wasn’t adding to the strategy but perhaps adding to the general mayhem and randomness?


(2) Our opening pack feature two blue cards of relatively similar power level. Would we have been better off taking the Death-Hood Cobra or Razor Swine (and is red a viable infect color)? The draft progressed moderately well after the decision during New Phyrexia, but Mirrodin Besieged felt like a train wreck. Luckily, Scars gave us some direction with a few more white cards to pair with the Blinding Souleater.


(3) Looking back on deck construction, we left two powerful, off-color cards in our sideboard (Fangren Marauder and Artillerize). Also, our mana was stressed too much by the inclusion of white. Should we have splashed one of these powerful cards, and if so, what should the new mana base look like and which card deserves to be included?


(4) We are heavily considering playing some Constructed for the next video that we do in the series. Standard looks like it might be interesting, and both of us are convinced that Legacy is so undefined that a ton of neat ideas are viable in the format.


(5) Due to an administrative error, we’ve lost all of the videos from our first NMS Draft (the one where we drafted a Blue-Black Infect deck and ended up losing 1-2 in the second match). If anyone has a copy of any of these videos, please email Chris at chris.mtgoacademy@gmail.com to let him know! We’d love to be able to repost them!

 
  1. I think a 3rd color is fine. I would put in Artillerize with 2 mountains and the sphere, but against non-infect I would frequently change for the Marauder.

    I don’t get why would it be strange to keep a hand with 2 lands, Cathedral Membrane and Spellskite. Sure, if you don’t draw any more lands you are doomed, but that’s true for most hands.

  2. Well milegyenanevem, it was actually a one-lander. (I’m not Kishaath, but I was the one at the controls at that point) Probably not a good keep, but we had a lot of action if it did work out. Definitely misplayed game one as well, failing to do the combat math on that final turn and we finished with a Maul Splicer and a Quicksilver Geyser in hand… in our defense I think we were both pretty beat though and not at the top of our game.

  3. I have a lot of love for him, since he’s basically a bomb at common, but I would have splashed Fangren Marauder in that deck, especially with a Sphere. Your deck has a lot of evasive damage and artifacts, meaning you can race non-infect decks extremely well with him. You can always board him out vs infect, although he’s still fine in that matchup.

    You had 2 cards that required white (3 if you count loxodon wayfarer which I would have cut for FM). you could have splashed 2 forests and played 9/6/2 or even 9/5/3 and given your deck a lot of power at little risk.

    I realize you discuss it in the video, but I’m pretty sure it is the wrong move not to play it. If you were playing heavy color commitment cards like Volition Reigns, I could see not wanting to dilute the mana pool, but you have the perfect deck to splash a marauder.

  4. You guys probably should have taken the demon and just splashed for the fangren or something, demon is just so0o0o0o0o good.

  5. “is this NMS?”
    “no, it’s scars”
    :|
    exceptional draft. I didn’t see any back-breaking play mistakes, and you drafted well, for having less than optimal packs. thanks for continually doing these.
    Becky was fine, and her role was appreciated though distracting. I’d prefer her during the games, rather than the drafting, where there’s less time constraints.
    I’ve never seen red infect played well, and as there are only 2 red creatures that benefit from the idea of a red infect deck, it sounds like a horrible idea. I want to see you either go gung-ho all the way for it, picking up everything and anything that fits in your bizarre strategy, or not trying it out at all.
    Marauder was worth splashing for (especially with the sphere) and I love watching Legacy videos.

  6. I don’t think I would first pick a Razor Swine, even with Spire and Splicer sending mixed signals. That said, I have had some success with red infect. Razor Swine is the only infect creature worth his salt, but all the burn (especially Volt Charge) pair well with the strategy. I record a video series entitled Draft Beer on generationd20.com and in episode 21 we drafted the patriotic Red, White, and Blue infect deck.

  7. The Core set is soooooo much better than nms. I gave up the silly random nms 2 months ago. I can’t wait for Release events. :)

  8. Great video and keep Becky around on your future vids. Adds a little to the entertainment factor? Or just imagine I said something good.

    I think you played well for what seemed to me like weak packs. I’m not exactly the best judge, though, as my card knowledge is limited (I just got back into MTG and I’m wrapped up in Standard). The quality decisions you guys make are way above my level.

    I learn a lot from your vids and would love if you jumped into some Constructed play. These teach me a lot about formats I know nothing about. My only desire for you two is to POST MORE VIDS :-)

  9. Thanks for the comments, everyone.

    I think you guys are being a bit more complimentary than you ought to be about these particular vids! I agree that we didn’t play badly, per se — and I agree that given the lower power level of our deck, maybe splashing Marauder would’ve been right prior to Round 3 — but, as Chris turned to me and said right after the recording stopped, “It felt like we barely played Magic tonight.” The games we won were won so easily due to mana screw, etc., and the games we lost felt like such back breaks that we didn’t make that many decisions. I guess we made one error not considering the possibility of Geths Verdict in Game 2 of Round 3, but there wasn’t much else worthy of note to really discuss.

    So sorry about that! And next time our vids will hopefully be better.