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Draft and Deckbuilding
Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format.M12 Draft, Round 1
Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format. Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format. Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format.
Marshall, I love how you completely overthink the end of the first round and don’t just play the Titanic Growth on the UNBLOCKABLE guy.
“And with Trample, I think we’ve got him.”
Or just use it on the Tormented Soul. He’s tapped out, and can’t block.
Not sure why you didn’t block his Wring Fleshed Greater Basilisk. It did zero combat damage, and so would not have killed your Acidic Slime if you had blocked with it.
What GZA and PDXOR (great name) said. I was terribly confused when you were counting to seven. Thanks for the draft!
The Greater Basilisk had protection from green at that point. What I don’t understand is why you went to the third color in the middle of the first pack, for a Stormfront Pegasus (over a Plummet!)
Also, I disagree with your picks. You could’ve cut black HARD, then gotten a double Archivist. That’s the route I would’ve taken. Well, finals nevertheless…
I really like that you stopped for a second to talk about Rites of Flourishing. Everyone can see that it is a BAD card, but it’s cool to stop for a sec and talk about, you’re being far more “teacher” in this draft than others. Nice job
@GZA and PDXOR and Jason – Ya I just missed it at the time :/ I have a leak in my game where if I get some play in my head early, I will perhaps keep an eye out for it a bit too much. In this case it was breaking the Cage with a Titanic Growth. When I drew it, my mind immediately went to that play and didn’t just simply re-evaluate the board for the easy win. Thankfully I had it in the bag anyway this time, lucky.
@Tokamak – What milegy said
@milegyenanevem I like to keep fairly open in pack one in M12 and I think Stormfront is a very strong card. Strong enough to have in my pile over the inevitable Plummet or 2 I will pick up during the draft. This approach has served me well overall for core sets.
@MonKei – Which picks did you disagree with? You have to be more specific to make it constructive for everyone. Also, citing the fact that I would have opened X later is hardly justification for earlier picks right?
@fiffo416 – Thanks, ya I was in a bit of a teacher mode for sure, I am never sure if it adds to the videos or if I should keep that stuff more for the podcast. Appreciate the feedback!
That was a really interesting draft. At the time I disagreed, but hedging your bets by picking up some playable white turned out to be good. I can’t criticize your picks much because I didn’t understand what you were doing. Nice job pulling that one together.
In the final match game 1, your opponent plays Call to the Grave, sitting on a Blood Ogre and Fireslinger. What do you think of this line, to prevent getting Zombie-locked out of the game– sacking the Tormented Soul on your upkeep, and attacking with both your Croc and your Spider. He eats your Croc with the Ogre and you Doomblade it. He then sacs his Fireslinger leaving just your Spider. Gets rid of Call to the Grave sooner and gives him less chance to rip a Zombie. One of the main reasons I’m thinking about that line is because your Doomblade has less value in games where he doesn’t Zombie-lock you out.
Hope that makes sense, thanks for the video!
Not sure if your assessment of Call to the Grave was correct. In his deck, it served as a form of manageable attrition, and he dropped it in positions where he was ahead on the board. It kept you from doing much, and this let his deck get in tons of extra damage. I know he “lost” card advantage, but he gained a _huge_ tempo advantage. If you’d have doom bladed the ogre, you would have got in for at least 5 more damage, and put him in the place where dumping his hand would not gain him much tempo.
Against his deck, you didn’t need to look for the 4-for-1, but rather for the x+1-for-x play. He seemed to be using Call as a means of gaining tempo and he got it. Sometimes your opponent is playing stupid cards, but I think that you might need to reevaluate that assumption if he’s made it to the finals.
Sorry. I meant doom blade the ogre, and then drop more guys. You could have put on a lot of pressure.
have loved watching your matches dude – you’re giving this new player the confidence to give M12 drafting a go.. i know i’ll get pwnd but it doesn’t matter right?
it strikes me as ironic that you do get time to make you’re decisions (due to ppl double drafting etc) without being whined at unlike the ‘new player’ room..
keep them coming dude, i’m learning a huge amount.
@Marshall Great draft as always. I feel like I always learn something from watching you draft and play. I personally love the ‘teacher’ mode, as it were. I’ve definitely improved my game from the drafts, the clan and the podcast. Thanks!
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Every Friday! Whoopee! I’m addicted to watching draft videos. You, Numot, and (if I am really desparate, because of the ads) Channel Fireball. I’m also loving the other draft videos on the site. Thank you MTGO Academy.
Also thank you for the Apple-friendly download option. That way I can watch on my I-Pad when traveling on planes.
Regarding your third round opponent, definitely take a look at what Brian posted above. Your opponent was accepting huge card disadvantage to get you to not play creatures for 4-5 turns while he carved down your life total with pingers. While I agree that this is a horrible strategy 99% of the time, he was packing at least shock, incinerate, fireball, the phoenix and sorin’s vengeance and could easily have been playing lava axe or whatever, which means getting you to 5-10 is all he needs. Call to grave was just a tempo spell acting as burn, all it took was him committing to “going to the dome.”
There’s actually a really interesting lesson in there about reevaluating cards to understand what they’re doing in the context of your pool that I think would’ve been nice for you to talk about. He looked at call to the grave in an interesting way and it actually paid off for him.
Plummet is an amzing sideboard card. I definitely wouldn’t put more than one in the main, but the more, the better in the sideboard. I don’t have time to rewatch now how many you picked up late, but surely you undervalue it.
Just wanted to say I’m a big fan of these drafts Marshall.
While not always making perfect picks & plays you definitely put a lot of thought and time into explaining what you’re doing and how you view things.
Another thing I really like is that while you occasionally critique your opponents plays, you don’t go overboard with it to the point where it comes across as offensive trash-talk.
Definitely an open-minded, level-headed player.
Round 3 of this particular event was very interesting; I think your opponents Call to the Grave was deceptively good and did exactly what he wanted it to while you seemed to underestimate it and call his entire play into question. If I were you there I don’t think I would have been as sparing with my creatures or removal, but instead opted to expedite the Call to Grave process and get it done with. You’d have been much better off going 1-for-1 with him sooner than later considering the texture of his deck; he was just aiming to grind you down to a manageable life total where he would then draw the inevitable string of burn to put you away. It’s the kind of deck I wouldn’t have been surprised to see a Lava Axe from. Although I suppose, as they say, hindsight is 20/20.
Good videos!
Round 2 Game 3 he cannot activate Alabaster Mage on itself since it has protection from creatures, just to let you know you missed that!
Good draft, I think you mispicked in my eyes quite a lot of time, Archivist should have been a snap pick up, especially with the previous pick. Such a broken bomb, at worst it nets you a card a turn if you’re both hellbent, at best you unsummon a guy and gain 4 cards over your opponent.
@DZY obviously missed the part where he said at the end of the game that it couldn’t target itself…
@Disco – In pack 1 I will often try to take reasonably powerful spells in different colors so that by pack 2 I am not fully committed. If there are strong on-color picks I will just take them though. You don’t want to go too far with it, but if I can pick up a Pegasus while only passing a Plummet, I am going to do that. Opening bombs in M12 matters a lot too and being able to play them can make a difference. The key is not taking this too far, which I have done before. I would have to go back to see the part you were talking about on the video, but locking him out and getting the Call to the Grave gone asap might have been correct.
@Brian – I feel like him dropping Call to the Grave while being ahead on the board is a mistake. Why not just press his advantage? He put himself in a position where he needed to draw a bunch of burn or a Sorin’s Vengeance. If he doesn’t draw that way, he is at a huge disadvantage.
@xabu – Awesome, thanks for taking the time to say something, I appreciate the positive feedback
Now get in there and win some packs!
@aktcjellis – Thanks a lot, these type of comments are why I do this stuff
Appreciate you saying so!
@anonymous – I am excited too, I have been doing so much drafting lately, it makes some sense to just record a few more of them!
@John – I can’t help but think there is some ROTtiness creeping into the discussion here. I think it’s pretty wrong to say that “getting me to 5-10 is all he needs”. I mean if he has a good board state, then drops Call to the Grave, and rips any combo of lands or non-Haste creatures, I can stabilize and take over the game. If he rips multiple burn spells or Sorin’s Vengeance, he wins. It’s hard to say without seeing his decklist, but there is no way he had THAT much burn to just be able to topdeck multiple burn spells in a row right? Seems unlikely to me at least.
@milegy – I love Plummet and value it fairly highly. But I know I can get 1-2 in the draft most of the time, and Stormfront Pegasus is much much more powerful.
@Mortox – First thanks a lot, I think you described my goals as a video maker perfectly. I am not a pro player and I do make mistakes all the time, but I try to think stuff through to the best of my ability and to use my communication skills to relay that process.
About the Call to the Grave play: I think the key sentence is the “Inevitable string of burn spells” part. Now, I haven’t seen his list, but I am assuming that he doesn’t have so much burn that he can just reliably hit 10 damage off the top of his deck. I think that is why I am questioning his play. I mean if he bricks on Vengeance things look pretty bad for him for example.
@dsy and @ Joey – Ya he might have just not gotten to that part of the video yet.
Thanks again guys for the discussion and feedback, it is all appreciated!
I agree with Monkei, BU would have been a much better deck for you.
P1P2 Gravedigger is a solid card and helps cut black after opening Doom Blade (as opposed to slooow Druidic Satchel)
P1P3 Sorin’s Thirst is better than Acidic Slime since it kills creatures and doesn’t cost 5 mana (which is the kiss of death for non-bomb creatures in this format)
P1P4 Jaces Archivist is hands down the most powerful card in the pack. Giant Spider is average.
P1P5 Sidewinder Drake is the best card. As opposed to Warpath Ghoul
P1P7 There is an in-colour Duskhunter Bat available, and you decide to venture out into white for Stormfront Pegasus?
P1P8 I think that Zombie Goliath and Mighty Leap are both filler, but I am far more attached to black than white to this point.
You then miss out on Azure Mage and Call to the Grave at the start of P2. From there it’s hard to tell because your previously made picks mean that you see different picks than you would probably see if you had drafted more black cards. The white and green cards you drafted are just so incredibly average.
In M1G1, I like how you started rooting for the other guy. “Hey, that’s not so bad for him!”