Limited Resources: AVR Draft #4
Posted on June 29, 2012 by Limited Resources
Limited Resources Limited Resources podcast co-host Marshall Sutcliffe provides coverage on North American Magic events and writes for DailyMTG. He educates listeners about limited and heads the highest-prizing clan on MTGO.
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Some thoughts on the draft. It’s a lot of hair splitting but hey that’s what these comments are for, right?
Shieldmate: I think is basically unplayable. It’s one of those classic 23rd cards in this set. You sometimes have to run it, but I’m never happy about it. Hexproof just isn’t that good in this set. I’m surprised you even considered it.
Call to serve: I think its surprisingly playable. Its another 23rd card, but you never even considered it. It would’ve been better than that equipment you ended up having to run and at that point in the draft you were leaning towards white over blue anyways. Peel is an overrated card anyways. Its good, but I don’t really like running multiples unless I have Mist Raven.
At the end of pack 2 white was a much better than blue. It was not close even before you opened the Paladin. I think you over rate the drake. Not being able to block creatures on the ground is a pretty huge drawback in this set.
Havengul Vampire works with Thatcher Revolt and is probably better than the equipment but its close, as neither card is great in your deck. I just don’t see you winning many games in this format by spending two whole turns to make one threat.
Round 1: I think its a mistake to run your Paladin into a trick or Wolfir avenger. Its not that its likely he has something. (And who could’ve predicted the fog?) But the only way you lose that game is if he gets the paladin off the table.
Round 3: I think game 2 is a bad keep. You can really only afford to miss on the plains twice (3 times if you hit a mountain on your first draw) and even then its not like your hand just goes off. Your cloudshift is underwhelming if you can never afford to leave it open because you’re tight on mana and your Justicar is just a 4 mana 2/1 for the same reason.
Hi Marshall,
good videos, as always
R2G3: I think it was a mistake to pair Hanweir Lancer and Riot Ringleader. Without the first strike you would have had him/her dead on board. However, with first strike, you kill the Undead Executioner and he takes three damage (going to three life). Then he could get one more turn by shrinking the Restoration Angel to a 1/2 ang dropping to two life.
Cheers,
High_Gene
Nice way to listen to all the people last week telling you they would like to see an IPA draft, and instead do more AVR.
good draft, fun deck, well played games. as usual. and, as usual, a quip.
round 2 game 3, opponent is sending his 4/3 flyer into the red zone. he is already tapped out for the turn. you can cast the angel, blink the Hanweir Lancer to grant the angel first strike, block, kill the demon, so that way even if he survives next turn he cant do anything crazy to start getting back at the game. obviouslt it didn’t end up making a diffrence, anyway.
yea, in M2G3, to expande on what High_Gene was saying… pairing is actually a bad thing against the executioner, because it dies with first strike damage and puts the -2-2 ability on the stack before regular combat. in that scenario, if your opp blocks, you’re only getting in with the 3 damage from the angel. granted you did have cloudshift backup, but that would’ve only saved one creature and left you open to a barter next turn.
would’ve liked to see you play (with him tapped out), the midvast protector giving your ringleader pro black, then attack with just the angel and ringleader for the win. no need to get in any mess with that executioner.
@carrotus…. i think the taskmaster is a benefit for marshall in that game. it’s preventing his opp from gaining any kind of board state advantage, and he never once showed the homicidal seclusion.
not saying that your line of play was/wasn’t considered, but the taskmaster sac’ing ability was definitely a detriment to him in that match. i agree that the line of play should at least be considered, as a 4/3 flier is nothing to take lightly.
man- what is crazy is if that raging poltergeist was still on board, you would’ve won at the end of round 3 game 3. Raging. Poltergeist. What a card!
Yeah way to provide us with free content. Jerk.
/irony
@dasMetzger, even more pro would have been to play Protector giving the ringleader pro black, and then Cloudshifting it to give the Lancer protection too, before serving 9 unblockable
Of course it didn’t wind up mattering, and there were other ways of killing the guy …
Also note if he had blocked, Marshall would have had time to then think through the options and just possibly, on seeing the shrink-the-angel line from his opponent as a possibility, have Cloushifted the blocked creature to prevent that.
The game was pretty well won at that point
Maybe I’m missing something. M1G1, when you have the Pilgrim and Paladin vs. his Wolf, why not just cast Scalding Devils and ping the wolf before attacking?
@MMogg
I thought that at first, too – and was wondering why Marshall didn’t consider counting him when looking at the picks he has to get rid of small creatures – until I saw that the Scalding Devil ONLY deals damage to target player.
http://magiccards.info/avr/en/155.html
I think keep in round 3 was definitely correct. His deck was super slow and you would have rolled him if you hit a plains in 3 draws.
tokamak
If someone slaps you in the face, just because you aren’t paying for it doesn’t mean you can’t complain. No idea where the concept of the infallible free content provider ever came from.
But the thing is, why **wouldn’t** you want to play IPA and share your experiences with it?
@Maestro: herp derp, thanks. Those MTGO cards often cut off the text in the text box, not displaying all of it, so I guess I just assumed he was a typical pinger, like Spikeshot Goblin/Elder. Thanks for clarifying.
in m3g3, when you topdeck the havengul vampire… if you just swing with the lancer and deal 2 to him, let him swing with redeemer and flash in angel, blinking lancer, pair lancer to angel, block with angel, then shoot redeemer before or after first strike damage, you win the game in spite of entreat. his next card before entreat is bracers, which puts him basically dead on board, including your own miracle the turn after that.
I just wanted to say that I never saw more clearly the lameness of limited bombs than in the Entreat game ender. It was like watching two people doing awesome marshal arts and then one person just pulls out a gun. The entertainment value of strategy just gets blown away. Very anti-climactic.
R2(last turn) technically he wasn’t dead there even if you did put the guise on your angel. He block the lancer with his 2/2 and puts a -2/-2 till end of turn on the angel and still has 1.
I have no idea how or what he could have in hand/draw to deal that 4 extra damage he needed for the win, but with your cloudshift, he was beat either way. But he definitely could have survived that turn.
@MMogg: “It was like watching two people doing awesome marshal arts and then one person just pulls out a gun. ” You just summed up the AVR limited format in one sentence.
If Scalding Devil could target creatures, it would be the best non-miracle card in the set….and a mythic rare!
Marshall…your still my hero! Thanks as always for taking time out of your busy schedule to show us how to draft and play a very difficult format.
Re: martial arts vs. gun
Why not demo superior martial arts skills and dodge the bullet? You know, like when Neo does that slow-mo impossible lean back, now that’s entertainment! ;o)
I don’t get why people harp on the format for the miracles. That’s the definition of miracle (something improbable, nigh impossible happening), but facing an opponent who on depends them, well use your mad strategy skills to come up with an answer.
Could it be some sort of elitist attitude of, hey I only appreciate players who can create some complicated single win condition deck. Well, what if my win condition is “miracle an entreat”? If someone’s crazy enough to attempt the Hail Mary pass/shot, you don’t cheer when it connects?