Limited Resources: Onslaught Draft and Bonus Modern Vids

In M1G1 of Modern, would you want to sit back and Cryptic the Past in Flames? It forces them to burn their rituals up front at least. As far as I know most of these decks kill with grapeshot over Empty, and it doesn’t seem especially likely that he can Grapeshot you to death with five cards in his hand.

“Is this set trolling me or something?”

lol. felt exactly the same the first time I drafted OLS block (from cube prize).

However, if you are already at the buisness of drafting non AVR, how about a sweet little SOM block draft? there are no -4 queues but it could still be nice to jump back into that format for a short visit. People just stopped playing it the moment ISD got released and that’s a shame, cause it had some cool things going for it.

pretty please?

Just my opinion here, I’m sure its in the minority, but here it is for feedback.

For those of us who are newer to MTG, these old sets and cube are unwatchable. Some people may enjoy watching videos where they have no idea whats going on, but I’m not one of them.

I’m sure, in a few years, I’ll enjoy watching some nostalgic Innistrad draft, but at that time, the newer players won’t.

In any case, thanks for the vids and I can’t wait for M13 to hit MODO.

@Macray: I think this is important feedback and often overlooked. I second this, even though I know what the cards do.

Onslaught any day? How is Onslaught better than AVR. That is just a ridiculous statement. The format has all the problems that AVR has, i.e. no archetypes, little removal, non-interactive bombs, but without any of the good stuff, like Soulbond, Thatcher Revolt, and so on.

Regardless, I think that watching older formats is educational and useful, since it helps you develop a better context for understanding different formats. You are learning the skill of drafting, and that applies to all kinds of formats. In fact, it is much more educational to watch a format you’ve never seen before, then to watch one that you’ve drafted a lot. You already know the archetypes in one, and the benefits you are going to get from watching the video are marginal at best. By watching an old format, you gain a lot more benefit by learning how to evaluate a new environment and see how things interact.

Cube is probably the most useful single draft event for developing your skills, but OLS is better than a lot of things.

In any case, I’ve said this on twitter, but I think that WotC put up OLS queues the past couple weeks to remind us how bad a draft format could really be, so that we stop complaining about AVR.

I just have to say that I love the extra Modern matches thrown in to replace rounds 2 and 3. I think this should become a standard practice with online draft videos: It mitigates the disappointment of seeing an early defeat, like a consolation prize just for watching.

@Bachster I stopped reading after “stopped watching.” Go dig a hole and sleep in it.

OLS wasn’t perfect, but it was actually a very interesting draft format. How can you say it had no removal with Daru Stinger and Sparksmith at common?

Criticism of OLS here is clearly coming from someone who read “Legions is all creatures” and knows only that one pieces of information about the format. If you’ve never played the format, don’t trash it.

@Jack

RE: No removal. – Daru Stinger and Sparksmith are both great removal spells, and it is true that there are several good removal spells in Onslaught. However, remember that is a large set, and OLS is a large set, small set, small set format. Because of this, cards in Onslaught show up very irregularly. On top of this, large sets were created with more cards in those days, which meant that the cards in them became even rarer by the time the whole block was drafted together. Onslaught also has a higher percentage of creatures than most sets, so that you end up with less efficient removal. Finally, while Scourge has several removal spells, most of these are terribly inefficient.

RE: clearly from someone who read “Legions is all creatures.” I’m going to have to say that you are just dead wrong on this count. I drafted OLS heavily when it was first released, and have drafted it a lot as it has come back periodically. I’ve also sat down and watched many matches of OLS for a series I write for PureMTGO. I am intimately familiar with the set, and it is just silly of you to make this kind of ad hominem argument.

why oh why did you take the green cycling land over the black!?
awesome videos, very entertaining, and I haven’t got to modern yet.