Picking Rootwalla over Blightcaster pick 2 after pick 1 nightmare is SO STUPIDDDD (this part is hindsight, but you will notice that you also passed an Ajani’s Chosen, multiple Auramancers, Blessing, Pacifism, Path of Bravery, and a few Favors…even an Accord if you wanted to be SUPER baller). I’ve never seen someone so set up to go B/W enchantments.

You were headstrong on mono-black WAY too early. You can play Nightmare, Corrupt, and Quag in a two color deck that’s heavy in black. You did get lucky in pack 3 with all the black cards, but before then, you had zilch, and they would have made it into your deck anyway.

Advantages to Blightcaster Pick 2
-Stay in black
-Still a 2/3 for 3B
-If you play at least one enchantment spell, it doubles as removal
-If you play at least one enchantment spell, it will be a magnet for opponent removal
-No one says you have to keep it in if you get no complimentary cards.

THE GAMES:

Your opponent match 1 was borderline retarded. So much terrible blue control and no creatures.

Match 2

Each of you got mana screwed a game. Against a deck with that much removal, I would have taken out Mark of the Vampire. But I would say that Izzet Control is your deck’s weakness.

The *only* reason to block then sack is to get extra value by preventing some damage. Sacking a turn earlier either prevents 5 damage by trading accursed spirit with maulhorn, which is *all* the damage you prevent by block/sacking, or draws out a removal spell (maybe the flames of the firebrand that finishes the game, though that’s a bit results-oriented). They only had 1 card in hand + 1 draw step to get that removal, too.

Finally, if you look at the possible draws, the most likely was land, which you use to cast corrupt (life total is now reasonably secure), or a 3 drop, which you have to choose between it and sacking corpse hauler. Heck, a 4 drop cockatrice would’ve forced the same choice, and I think you’d rather have that in play and maulhorn dead vs. a block/sack with the corpsehauler into the accursed spirit to trade with the maulhorn a turn later. In fact, the only time not sacking it makes sense is if you assume you’re drawing a 1,2,5 or 6 drop (and the latter of those two, you’re screwed anyways).

The lack of consideration for blightcaster early on is also a bit perplexing- m14 is very much enchantment heavy, and blightcaster quite often pulls its weight. Even if it removes only 1 creature it’s already a shock+2/2 body for 4, quite reasonable.

We are at 4 life with Corpse Hauler in play, 5 lands, with a hand of Quag Sickness, Corrupt, Nightmare, and Abomination. Our opponent has Maulhorn and Warden. You Sickness the Warden to clear the skies, which has merit. But if we Sickness the Maulhorn instead of Warden, we beat a Disperse or a Time Ebb (and maybe something else I’m forgetting) if we draw the sixth land, where we lose to both Disperse and Time Ebb immediately by removing the Warden. I can only think of auras beating us with that play, in addition to the spells which would beat us in either line. My line assumes we are 100% to Corrupt on land six.

The additional value of your line is that ignoring removal gives you the option to play things like Accursed Spirit off the top to trade with the ‘must attacker’, or some other card off the top- in essence giving you more outs in the games where our opponent is not holding or topdecking removal. It’s like a gamble for tempo, where you get to hold onto your Corrupt basically ensuring you victory if you dodge removal. In my line we can still lose after blowing the Corrupt and it’s going to be a nail-biter at 8 life and loss of tempo.

I’m not sure which line is better, but it’s very interesting to consider.

Thanks for the vids again Marshall!

I also disagree about the Blightcaster. I know you dislike auras more than most, but in this set three very playable removal spells – Quag Sickness, Sensory Dep and Pacifism – all generally 2-for-1 with Blightcaster. I agree that he is not a really high pick, but you were talking about heavy black at that point and Blightcaster was better than anything else in that pack for a heavy black deck.

Another question: why not take the Altar’s Reap late? You passed Pacifism, a couple Shocks and some Sensory Depredations, and had a Tenacious Dead. Isn’t the card draw worth considering? Sure, most of that stuff could be fed to the Blood Bairns, but sometimes the Blood Bairn is the creature with the Pacifism.

Finally, I have to +1 the comments on 18th land over the Minotaur. And the comments saying thanks for the videos.